America: The Good Neighbor.

Widespread but only partial
news coverage was given recently
to a remarkable editorial
broadcast from Toronto by Gordon
Sinclair, Canadian television
commentator. What follows is the
full 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 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 these 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 earthquakes hit distant
cities, it is the United States
that hurries in to help. This
spring, 59 American communities
were flattened by tornadoes.
Nobody helped.

The Marshall Plan and the
Truman Policy pumped billions of
dollars into discouraged countries.
Now newspapers in those countries
are writing about the decadent,
warmongering Americans.

I'd like to see just one of those
countries that is gloating over the
erosion of the United States dollar
build its own airplane. Does any
other country in the world have a
plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet,
the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas
DC10? If so, why don't they fly them?
Why do all the International lines
except Russia fly American Planes?
Why does no other land on earth even
consider putting a man or woman 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,
unless they are breaking Canadian laws,
are getting American dollars from ma
and pa at home to spend here.

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 you 5000 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 neighbors have faced it alone,
and I'm one Canadian who is damned
tired of hearing them get kicked
around.