The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1941-07-14

we're winning the Argentinos into
some sort Of collaboration with US,
we ought to succeed in winning the
rest of the New World Latins by
landslide.
Not long ago DR.. FREDERICK Pin
edo made speech IN New York.
He's a member OF the Argentine
legislature, former finance minis
ter and presumably knows exactly
what he's talking about.
The doctor gave it as his opinion
that his countrymen for years
made a bad mistake in accepting
Europe as their pattern in social,
economic and political matters, but
the present war, he said, is con-
vincins EN- that the closest rela-
tions with the United States" are
going to be necessary hencefor-
ward. Official Washington fairly
screeched with JOY at this utter
ance. -
The fact is that DR.. Pinedo did
our neighbors a decided injustice in
blaming THEM for the mistake he
referred to. The mistake principal
ly was OURS, in being so slow to
get acquainted with 'em and adapt
ourselves accordingly, instead Of
demanding that they do all the
adapting, to our own standards.
Naturally their standards are more
Europeaniy Latin than our Anglo
Saxon ones are. II was up to us to
do part of the conforming, and we
didn't so much as attempt 1t until
recently. Yet it was Latinly char
acteristic Of DR.. Pinedo to blame
his own folk rather than US, for
the Latins are polite and we're not
so very,
Sc Overbearing g..
Not only were we insuficiently
affable; we quite generally were
downright disagreeable, for mat
ter Of generations. We figured that
we were behaving in big brother
ly" fashion, but big enough big
brother can be pretty overbearing.
President Wilson tas late as his
day, when I was living in South
America) was as rough with our
nearby Latins as a nutmeg crater.
He wanted to give an appearance
Of Pan-American solidarity to Un-
Gle Sans war effort and most of
the southern republics acquiesced,
but one or two of 'em preferred to
maintain neutrality and he violat-
ed it ad libitum. I was there and
saw it. The victims couldn't do
anything, but 1t made 'em sore as
blazes.
Presidents Harding and Coolidge
weren't any worse, but neither
were they any better President
Hoover had the right idea. but no
command Of the palavery sort Of
conversation that the Latin taste
requires.
President Roosevelt. with his
my Friends" dope, has precisely
the correct article. Nevertheless, he
had long history of his predeces-
sors' crassnesses to Offset before
. beginning to make an impression.
AT last he's starting to score. I'd
judge from that speech Of Or.
Pinedos.
/ didn't actually hear the docs
speech. I read it in a newspaper
The account Of twas friendly to
the doc. but it spoke Of him as an
"Argentinian." That's a habit that
our press ought to get over A citi-
zen of the Argentine Republic is an
Argentine or an Argentine, If you
want to be Spanish about it. or an
Argentina, If it's a lady Calling
one Of EN- an "Argentinian" is
comparable to calling one Of us an
"Amerikinian."
Babson's Threat
The same newspaper that pub
Hshed DR.. Pinedo's speech also pub
lished an article entitled Wars and
Geography" by a distinguished
columnist-Roger w. Babson.
He was discussing the western
hemisphere.
Some day" he said. 1.-The United
States and Canada may be obliged
to take over Mexico. the West In
dies and the Latin-American coun-
tries bordering the Caribbean,
whether or not the United States
and Canada will be in a position to
dictate 10 the Argentine Republic.