Page:Anglo-American relations during the Spanish-American war (IA abz5883.0001.001.umich.edu).pdf/26

10 generations of aristocratic training resented keenly the kind but crude courtesy which prompted the railway conductor to call her "Grandma" as he gave her the most gracious assistance possible.

As better traveling facilities developed and wealth increased, large numbers of Americans flocked to England. Many of them were socially untrained people who had recently acquired financial independence and were in no way representative of American culture. British magazines and newspapers ridiculed these people in cartoon and description. British critics constantly revealed the superiority which they felt; they denied a common civilization, yet resented whatever In America differed from that in Great Britain. Thus a common language had its objection for it enabled the people of the two countries to learn al! the petty comments made by the other. All this anti-British criticism found its way to the American educational system. Particularly was this true in the study of history where writers have too often seen fit both to interpret unfairly from the American point of view and to magnify all American accomplishments in order to instill lessons of national pride and patriotism, "Writers of school histories have thought it necessary to provide strong food for little minds. Entirely out of focus are the trifling details that the colonists were English; that they had the freest self. government then known to mankind; that at least a third of the people in the colonies were opposed to independence; that no taxes were ever laid on the colonies for the support of the government or military authorities outside of America; and that a strong