Partial news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator. What follows is the text of his trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record:
"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.
Germany, Japan, to a lesser extent Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by Americans who poured billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is paying even the interest on the remaining debts to the U.S. When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, their reward- to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there, I saw it.
When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the U.S. that hurries in to help. This spring 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes, nobody helped. The Marshall Plan and Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries write about the decadent, war-mongering Americans. I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the U.S. dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, Lockheed Tri-Star or Douglas 10? If so why don't they fly them? Why do all other International lines, except Russia, fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a person on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon - not once, but several times - and safely home again.
You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets and most of them are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here. When the railways of France, Germany, and India were breaking down from age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania railroad and New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.
I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to help other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? There was no outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake. Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They come out of this thing with their flag high and when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those.
Stand proud, Americans."
- Thanks to Scot Folensbee
Note: Paragraph breaks determined by me.
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