DRAWBACKS OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM—SENSATIONAL HEADLINES; FEAR OF THE PRESS—CONTROVERSY ON PROHIBITION WITH LORD LEE—IMPRESSIONS OF U. S. SENATE
WE breakfasted at 5.30 a.m. the next morning and arrived at New York at ten that night, to be greeted by a room full of press men. When the female reporters begin by saying to me:
"What, Mrs. Asquith, do you think, with your close acquaintance with the many trends of the working of a woman's mind, of the modern probability etc., etc.," I am reminded of Sir Walter Raleigh's excellent phrase, "Stumbling upwards into vacuity."
One of these eager ladies, checking her more intelligent male companions, said:
"Tell me, Mrs. Asquith, is it not true that you are indifferent to the opinion of any living person and enjoy saying smart and daring things?" I replied:
"Indeed no! I leave that to you."
I told them about MacKenzie King, of whom they had never heard, and what Mr. Horton and I had observed in our travels of the abominable consequences of Prohibition. I said it was a measure of such exaggerated interference with private liberty that no truthful person could call America a free country.
On my arrival I found many letters from England on the political crisis; and if I can judge at such a distance, the Coalition seems doomed.
Believing as I always have in party government as the best solution for democracy, I think Sir George Younger deserves a Victoria Cross, and it will be interesting to see how many of the timid Conservatives will regain sufficient courage to follow him. The mischief that is being made between my husband and Lord Grey leaves me cold.