AMERICA AND EUROPE [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—At a moment when some discussion of reprisals against the American menace is going on in Europe, the following extract from a letter recently received from the United States may be of interest. I have my correspondent's permission to make extracts ; he only asks you to remember that lie was writing a letter to a friend in slippered after-dinner ease. Nevertheless, underlying his flippant good humour is a serious point of view.
" What do the Americans think of Europe ? " Answer : They don't think of it. Reason : This country is too busy with billion dollar mergers, which gobble up whole industries. Too interested in the Stock Market. Only mildly interested in the tariff, and, although a beautifully organized lobby opposition to increased tariffs is being staged, it seems to be a foregone conclusion that general revision is not to be expected. As for European trade wars cutting off our European markets ! As a nation, this country doesn't give much of a whoop for all its European trade. They could stop selling over there to- morrow, and by increasing their sales in other foreign markets, or merely by adding about four per cent. to domestic sales, that would be fixed up all right, all right. Anyway, a Bureau of the Department of Agriculture is trying to get farmers to reduce their export surpluses to little or nothing so that the domestic price level may be unaffected by the foreign. Oil production control, of course, is coming more and more, and so forth and so forth.
But our greatest achievement of the past few years is in Prohibition. After passing the Amendment to the Constitu- tion, we recently passed a law concerning the transport of liquor, which hits the small retail bootlegger very hard. It has resulted in driving him more and more out of business. The big business concerns now dominate the field, and thanks to their large capital reserves are able to go on a mass pro- duction and distribution basis, which permits a standardized product at a low price. We produce Maryland Rye, New Jersey Apple Cider, New York Straight Alcohol. Soon these products may appear on the world markets, constituting another American menace.' I may bring back a bottle or two."—I am, Sir, &c.,
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