Insults to the United States

The Star has never believed that the hoodlumism which has found its expression in the burning of British flags in New York sity was representative of an even appreciable proportion of real American sentiment. It is encouraging to note that three of the most representative of New York newspapers--the Times, the Tribune and the World--agree with this belief.

Canadian and Canadian newspapers will naturally find it difficult not to resent keenly the action of this gutter element among our nearest neighbors at the expense of an emblem which means a good deal to us. But we should realize that the insult is less to the British flag than to the United States itself.

For the same hands that are now so busy tearing down and defiling the national emblem of America's greatest ally and would-be warmest friend were the busiest in their endeavors to frustrate America's own efforts in the Great War. The same spirit tramples the Union Jack in a New York gutter that stoned American soldiers on their way to fight for America's safety beyond the seas.

The simian impulse to make trouble, to substitute hatred and ill-feeling for common interest, cooperation and mutual esteem between the two great English-speaking nations, reacts not against Britain, British dominions or British interests, but against the United States itself, whose authority is flouted and whose reputation for the maintenance of the common decencies of national conduct are thus set at naught. The truth of this must inevitably dawn upon our neighbors sooner-or later. From the Montreal Star.