[This article is not the oulcoi.ie of any hatred and contempt for America. These painful facts are being brought before the eyes of the readers to show that the attitude of considering America a° our source of light and guidance, as our model, is a folly. This also does not mean that we con’t find any good points in the American way of life…And above all, it is not meant to make us— the Muslims—feel self-complascent and forget the wretchedness of our own social life or justify it by the defects of others—Editor.]

It is poured in our ears, in sea­son and out of season, that Ame­rica is the bulwark of democracy It is the last bastion of peace. It’s president believes in moral values above everything else. The fairy of honesty dwells m this valley of liberty and fraternity. The moral standard of its people are enviable and their character re­flect a “sea-green incorruptibil­ity”. The American way of Life is the only way one should emu­late. By its adoption alone can one become civilized for their nation alone is the living emboidement of “progress and civil­ized morality”. But do these rhetoric quibbling contain any grain of truth? Facts tell an altogether different tale.

Among the modern nations, particularly the greater and stsonger ones, America is per­haps most remarkably “enviable” as regards the hollowness of character and mounting corrup­tion in the public life. A legion of authentic works is available which tears asunder the beauti­ful curtains of propaganda and takes the lid off this Brave New World of fraud and corruption. “The Great Game of Politics,” “Political Be haviour,” Corrup­tion in American Politics and “Life”, Popular misgovernment in the United States,” Previlege in and Democracy in America,” “Washington Confidential” and “Horrowing tales of American Fortunes—to quote a few at random—reveal the American life in its true colours. In this brief study we shall give a few instances of corruption in the political life only so that the reader may see the other, the darker side of the picture.

Grand Rackets

National resources at the dis­posal of the federal and state governments have proved to be a grazing-ground for frauds and rackets. More than – 66% of 1,300,000,000 acres of ‘ land which accomodate rich forests and contain in its bounds trea­sure, oil and mineral has been squandered in fraudulent ven­tures. Corruption graft and nepotism has been rampant and even Benjamin Hibbars in his famous “History of the Public Land and Policies” has to admit that:

“Throughout the history of the public domain fraud, has been prevalent”.

Another writer on the grant of land to the railroad corporations says, “The universe swamp land grants were secured largely by fraud, for the advantage of pri­vate individuals having political influence” (Ise in “The United States Forests Policy.”,)

These grand rackets and gig­antic frauds were perpetrated by men who steer America’s destiny and sit at the helm of public life. Many senators too have involved in this “Pious Game.” And the Teapot Dome and Elk Hills oil deals, which were characterised before the United States Supreme Court as having “Consumed by means of conspiracy fraud and bribery took the thread of the tale to the very door of the White House (encyelopeadia of Social Sciences Vol. IV.) In every walk of govern­mental life the same sordid story is being repeated. Prof. Petu H. Odgard of Ohio State Univer­sity of America very pathetically remarks that:

“Favouritism and discrimina­tion in the use of taxing power, misuse of funds, contract frauds and job patronage and common evils attendant upon the adminis­trative wilderness which is America.”

It hardly needs any further word of comment. It hardly behoves the American-ridden progressives to continue chanting hymns in praise of the “sea green incorruptibility ” of American life.

Corruption in Police

The guardian of the public morals have themselves fell a prey to the charm of corruption. The department for the regula­tion of public conduct is one of the most immoral and corrupt ones. Police is involved in innumerable scandalss—nay, it regularly patronises frauds and scandals and prostitution flour­ishes under its own nose. The startling revelations of the Vice Commission of Chicago, the re­port of the sub committee of the Senate Commission on Judiciary, the harrowing tales told by the Former Mayor Dever of Chicago and the latest works viz., “Wash­ington Cofidential” and its com­panions, the “Sexual Behaviour of the Teen-Agers” and the ‘Crime Statistics” made one stand spell-bound. They tell that “60 per cent of the Chicago police were engaged directly or indirectly in the liquor business.” that in Philadelphia “policeman detectives were becoming blufaously rich from the business of ‘selling protection’ “, that in that city “police and enforce­ment officers ” collected about $2,003,000 annually from boot­leggers and their allies”, that in Chicago more than 20% of the total income from “prostitution went to the police”. This is a very sad commentry on the “honesty” and “incorruptibility” of the guardians of law and order.

Malady is Deep-Seated

Election frauds are also so common and so frequent that now they are regarded as “a matter of routine”. They stir no indignation in the masses. They have become a part and parcel of the American way of life. The toll of corruption has mounted so high that thinking minds are batlled at their 4amazing “pro­gress”. They look upon this ever-increasing social malady, with calenlated disgust and openly say that they are fed up with this hum-drum. .Many modern American thinkers are feeling that the malady is very deep-seated. The wrong lies in the very American way of life, in the spirit of American culture, in the worship of Mammon, in  the disregard for religion and morals. The following words of Prof. Peter H. Odegard are abnndantly eye-opening for those who have become and teach others to become “the most obe­dient imitates of America”.

There is the general a cultural mileu which has made corruption and rack­eteering an integral part of American Society. Cor­ruption is in a sense a pro­duct of the way of life of an acquisitive society, where “money talks”, where that which “works” is justified, and where peole are judged by what they have rather than what they are. The growth and consolidation of American business into ever larger units have increased the pressures of private interests upon public servants. But even more im­portant is the fact that they have created a society in which pecuniary values are dominant. In such a society prestige is measured in terms of wealth. Successful grafters and corruptionists become respected, and a million dollar covers a multitude of sins.”