ABSTRACT
New York had a vigorous press, able critical journals, thriving publishing houses. It had wealth and power with which to influence or control opinion so far as opinion could be reached through urban agencies. To the most powerful nation on the globe, unravaged by war and anything but disheartened by circumstance, the spokesmen of New York found nothing better to offer than a gospel of impotence and defeat. Since New York is the main channel of communication between America and Europe, it was the New York account of the estate of the hinterland that went abroad. The black reputation of America in Europe, though brought about in part by political and economic causes, has clearly been motivated and sustained by damaging evidence furnished from New York. From one point of view, such reporting looks almost like a betrayal of the country from which New York draws its wealth, its power, its life.
