By Gordan Sinclair
The United States dollar took another pounding on German,
French and British exchanges this morning,
hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany.
It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and
this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the
Americans as the most generous and possibly
the least-appreciated people in all the earth.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to
read newspapers,
I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtze.
Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans
did.
They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon,
the Ganges and the Niger.
Today, the rich bottom land of the Misssissippi is
under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and
Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war
by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars
and forgave other billions in debts.
None of those countries is today paying even the interest
on its remaining debts to the United States.
When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956,
it was the Americans who propped it up
and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on
the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the
United States that hurries into help...
Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples.
So far this spring, 59 American communities have been
flattened by tornadoes.
Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan .. the Truman Policy .. all pumped
billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged
countries.
Now, newspapers in those countries are writing
about the decadent war-mongering Americans.
I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating
over the erosion of the United States dollar build
its own airplanes.
Come on... let's hear it! Does any other country in
the world have
a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed
Tristar or the Douglas 107?
If so, why don't they fly them?
Why do all international lines except Russia fly American
planes?
Why does no other land on earth even consider putting
a man or women 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 everyone to look at. Even
the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded.
They are here on our streets, most of them ... unless
they are breaking Canadian laws ..
are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home
to spend here.
When the Americans get out of this bind ... as they
will...
who could blame them if they said 'the hell with the
rest of the world'.
Let someone else buy the Israel bonds,
Let someone else build or repair foreign dams or
design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in
earthquakes.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were
breaking down
through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them.
When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central
went
broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are
still broke.
I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced
to the help of other people in trouble.
Can you name me even one time when someone else raced
to the Americans in trouble?
I don't think there was outside help even during the
San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian
who is damned
tired of hearing them kicked around.
They will 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 these. But there are many
smug,
self-righteous Canadians. And finally, the American
Red Cross
was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans
this morning
that it was broke. This year's disasters .. with the
year less than half-over
… has taken it all and nobody...but nobody... has
helped.
ORIGINAL SCRIPT AND AUDIO
COURTESY STANDARD BROADCASTING CORPORATION LTD.
(c) 1973 BY GORDON SINCLAIR PUBLISHED BY STAR
QUALITY MUSIC (SOCAN)
A DIVISION OF UNIDISC MUSIC INC.
578 HYMUS BOULEVARD POINTE-CLAIRE, QUEBEC, CANADA, H9R 4T2
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