Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Notes: Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original. Some typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected. A complete list follows the text.

Words surrounded by _underscores_ are in italics in the original. Ellipses match the original. A row of asterisks represents a thought break.

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| The Twentieth |
| Century American |
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| Being |
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| A Comparative Study of the Peoples of |
| the Two Great Anglo-Saxon Nations |
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| BY |
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| H. PERRY ROBINSON |
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| AUTHOR OF "MEN BORN EQUAL," "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY |
| OF A BLACK BEAR," ETC. |
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| The Chautauqua Press |
| CHAUTAUQUA, NEW YORK |
| MCMXI |
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COPYRIGHT, 1908

BY

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

TO

THOSE READERS,

WHETHER ENGLISH OR AMERICAN,

WHO

AGREE WITH WHATEVER IS SAID IN THE

FOLLOWING PAGES IN LAUDATION OF

THEIR OWN COUNTRY

THIS BOOK

IS INSCRIBED IN THE HOPE

THAT THEY WILL BE EQUALLY READY TO ACCEPT

WHATEVER THEY FIND IN PRAISE

OF

THE OTHER.

A Comparison (see Chapter IV.)]

PREFATORY NOTE

There are already many books about America; but the majority of these have been written by Englishmen after so brief an acquaintance with the country that it is doubtful whether they contribute much to English knowledge of the subject.

My reason for adding another volume to the list is the hope of being able to do something to promote a better understanding between the peoples, having as an excuse the fact that I have lived in the United States for nearly twenty years, under conditions which have given rather exceptional opportunities of intimacy with the people of various parts of the country socially, in business, and in politics. Wherever my judgment is wrong it is not from lack of abundant chance to learn the truth.

Except in one instance--very early in the book--I have avoided the use of statistics, in spite of frequent temptation to refer to them to fortify arguments which must without them appear to be merely the expression of an individual opinion.

H. P. R.

February, 1908.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

AN ANGLO-AMERICAN ALLIANCE 5

The Avoidance of Entangling Alliances--What the Injunction
Meant--What it Cannot Mean To-day--The Interests of the United
States, no less than those of England, Demand an Alliance--But
Larger Interests than those of the Two Peoples are
Involved--American Responsiveness to Ideals--The Greatest
Ideal of All, Universal Peace: the Practicability of its
Attainment--America's Responsibility--Misconceptions of the
British Empire--Germany's Position--American Susceptibilities.

CHAPTER II

THE DIFFERENCE IN POINT OF VIEW 35

The Anglo-Saxon Family Likeness--How Frenchmen and Germans
View it--Englishmen, Americans, and "Foreigners"--An Echo of
the War of 1812--An Anglo-American Conflict Unthinkable--
American Feeling for England--The Venezuelan Incident--The
Pilgrims and Some Secret History--Why Americans still Hate
England--Great Britain's Nearness to the United States
Geographically--Commercially--Historically--England's Foreign
Ill-wishers in America.

CHAPTER III

TWO SIDES OF THE AMERICAN CHARACTER 60

Europe's Undervaluation of America's Fighting Power--The
Americans as Sailors--The Nation's Greatest Asset--Self-reliance
of the People--The Making of a Doctor--And of a Surveyor--
Society in the Rough--New York and the Country--An Anglo-Saxon
Trait--America's Unpreparedness--American Consuls and Diplomats--
A Homogeneous People--The Value of a Common Speech--America
more Anglo-Saxon than Britain--Mr. Wells and the Future in
America.

CHAPTER IV

MUTUAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS 94

America's Bigness--A New Atlantis--The Effect of Expansion on
a People--A Family Estranged--Parsnips--An American Woman in
England--An Englishman in America--International Caricatures--
Shibboleths: dropped H's and a "twang"--Matthew Arnold's
Clothes--The Honourable S---- B----.

CHAPTER V

THE AMERICAN ATTITUDE TOWARDS WOMEN 111

The Isolation of the United States--American Ignorance of the
World--Sensitiveness to Criticism--Exaggeration of their Own
Virtues--The Myth of American Chivalrousness--Whence it
Originated--The Climatic Myth--International Marriages--English
Manners and American--The View of Womanhood in Youth--
Co-education of the Sexes--Conjugal Morality--The Artistic
Sense in American Women--Two Stenographers--An Incident of
Camp-Life--"Molly-be-damned"--A Nice Way of Travelling--How do
they do it?--Women in Public Life--The Conditions which
Co-operate--The Anglo-Saxon Spirit again.

CHAPTER VI

ENGLISH HUMOUR AND AMERICAN ART 145

American Insularity--A Conkling Story--English Humour and
American Critics--American Literature and English Critics--The
American Novel in England--And American Art--Wanted, an
American Exhibition--The Revolution in the American Point of
View--"Raining in London"--Domestic and Imported Goods.

CHAPTER VII

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN EDUCATION 166

The Rhodes Scholarships--"Pullulating Colleges"--Are American
Colleges Superior to Oxford or Cambridge?--Other Educational
Forces--The Postal Laws--Ten-cent Magazines and Cheap Books--
Pigs in Chicago--The Press of England and America Compared--
Mixed Society--Educated Women--Generals as Booksellers--And as
Farmhands--The Value of War to a People.

CHAPTER VIII

A COMPARISON IN CULTURE 191

The Advantage of Youth--Japanese Eclecticism and American--The
Craving for the Best--_Cyrano de Bergerac_--Verestschagin--
Culture by Paroxysms--Mr. Gladstone and the Japanese--Anglo-Saxon
Crichtons--Americans as Linguists--England's Past and America's
Future--Americanisms in Speech--Why They are Disappearing in
America--And Appearing in England--The Press and the Copyright
Laws--A Look into the Future.

CHAPTER IX

POLITICS AND POLITICIANS 226

The "English-American" Vote--The Best People in Politics--What
Politics Means in America--Where Corruption Creeps in--The
Danger in England--A Presidential Nomination for Sale--Buying
Legislation--Could it Occur in England?--A Delectable Alderman--
Taxation while you Wait--Perils that England Escapes--The
Morality of Congress--Political Corruption of the Irish--
Democrat and Republican.

CHAPTER X

AMERICAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND 260

The System of Parties--Interdependence of National and Local
Organisations--The Federal Government and Sovereign States--
The Boss of Warwickshire--The Unit System--Prime Minister
Crooks--Lanark and the Nation--New York and Tammany Hall--
America's Superior Opportunities for Wickedness--How England
Is Catching up--Campaign Reminiscences--The "Hell-box"--Politics
in a Gravel-pit--Mr. Hearst and Mr. Bryan.

CHAPTER XI

SOME QUESTIONS OF THE MOMENT 285

Sovereign States and the Federal Government--California and
the Senate--The Constitutional Powers of Congress and the
President--Government by Interpretation--President Roosevelt
as an Inspiration to the People--A New Conception of the
Presidential Office--"Teddy" and the "fraid strap"--Mr.
Roosevelt and the Corporations--As a Politician--His
Imperiousness--The Negro Problem--The Americanism of the South.

CHAPTER XII

COMMERCIAL MORALITY 308

Are Americans more Honest than Englishmen?--An American
Peerage--Senators and other Aristocrats--Trade and the British
Upper Classes--Two Views of a Business Career--America's Wild
Oats--The Packing House Scandals--"American Methods" in
Business--A Countryman and Some Eggs--A New Dog--The Morals of
British Peers--A Contract of Mutual Confidence--Embalmed Beef,
Re-mounts, and War Stores--The Yellow Press and Mr. Hearst--
American View of the House of Lords.

CHAPTER XIII

THE GROWTH OF HONESTY 347

The Superiority of the Anglo-Saxon--America's Resemblance to
Japan--A German View--Can Americans Lie?--Honesty as the Best
Policy--Religious Sentiment--Moral and Immoral Railway
Managers--A Struggle for Self-preservation--Gentlemen in
Business--Peculation among Railway Servants--How the Old
Order Changes, Yielding Place to New--The Strain on British
Machinery--Americans as Story-Tellers--The Incredibility of
the Actual.

CHAPTER XIV

A CONTRAST IN PRINCIPLES 371

The Commercial Power of the United States--British Workmanship--
Tin-tacks and Conservatism--A Prophetic Frenchman--Imperialism
in Trade--The Anglo-Saxon Spirit--About Chaperons--"Insist upon
Thyself"--English and American Banks--Dealing in Futures--Dog
Eat Dog--Two Letters--Commercial Octopods--Trusts in America
and England--The Standard Oil Company--And Solicitors--Legal
Chaperons--The Sanctity of Stamped Paper--Conclusions--Do
"Honest" Traders Exist?

CHAPTER XV

THE PEOPLES AT PLAY 408

American Sport Twenty-five Years Ago--The Power of Golf--A
Look Ahead--Britain, Mother of Sports--Buffalo in New York--
And Pheasants on Clapham Common--Shooting Foxes and the
"Sport" of Wild-fowling--The Amateur in American Sport--At
Henley--And at Large--Teutonic Poppycock.

CHAPTER XVI

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 429

A New Way of Making Friends--The Desirability of an Alliance--
For the Sake of Both Peoples--And of all the World--The Family
Resemblance--Mutual Misunderstandings--American Conception of
the British Character--English Misapprehension of Americans--
Foreign Influences in the United States--Why Politicians
Hesitate--An Appeal to the People--And to Caesar.