Evening star. [volume], February 27, 1937, Page B-2, Image 18

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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COURT ISSUE IS MADE CLEAR
• _ _
David Lawrence’s Book Treats Subject With Dispassionate
and Informative Spirit—Correspondent Gives
Story of Experiences—Napoleon Fiction
By Mary-Carter Roberts.
SUPREME COURT OR POLITICAL
puppets? By David Lawrence.
New York: D. Appleton - Cen
tury Co.
IN THIS temperate, well-reasoned
book. Mr. Lawrence has set down
his opinions on the presently im
portant question of whether or
not the United States Supreme Court
shall be reorganized in accordance
with President Roosevelt's wishes.
Those familiar with Mr. Lawrence's
past writings will not need to be in
formed that he opposes that reor
ganization. His present book, how
ever, may commend itself to any one,
of any view on the question, as ex
pressing dispassionate and informa
tive argument.
It Is a brief work, being only 60
pages long, but it is a fairly full
statement of the case as the ordinary
citizen is apt to see it, without an
accompanying burden of legal prece
dents and technicalities.
The question, as Mr. Lawrence sees
it. is "not the fact that the Con
stitution should or should not be
changed, but by what method it shall
be changed.” That method, he asks
us to remember, has been specified
in the Constitution itself, and has
never been questioned until the Roose
velt administration. It is the method
of amendment, already employed now
21 times. Mr. Roosevelt, by Mr.
Lawrence's inference, would override
the amendment provision, and with
the help of a compliant Congress,
substitute his own method.
"To the extent.” he says, "that the
President and Congress have partici
pated in a combination of political
power to transcend the Constitution,
these two agencies of Government—
executive anti legislative—are ac
accused of violating the spirit and
letter of the Constitution.”
Without displaying bitterness and
with no gratuitous indulgence in per
sonalities, Mr. Lawrence centers his
book about this aspect of the situation.
He is keenly conscious of the three
fold character of the American Gov
ernment, in its division into execu
tive, legislative and judicial branches.
The interworking of these branches,
as prescribed by the Constitution, is
the guarantee of the liberty assured
us by that document. If one or two
of the divisions takes power at the
expense of the other two or one, the
whole system of our democracy is
thrown out of balance and our consti
tutional guarantee of a democratic
rule is menaced. The President or his
adherents have at times declared that
the Supreme Court was thus attempt
ing to increase its sphere of action at
the expense of the power of Congress.
The shoe, says Mr. Lawrence, is on
the other foot. The court has done
no more than its plainly prescribed
duty and the executive and legislative
branches are—now openly—attempt
ing to curb its constitutionally vested
authority in order to add to their own.
-Y|R. ROOSEVELT'S hostility to the
present membership of the
Supreme Court." says Mr. Lawrence,
“became known when, on the day
after the N. R. A. was declared un
constitutional by a unanimous vote
of all nine justices, liberal and con
servative alike, he exhibited a surpris
ing pique. This, it was insisted by
his supporters during the recent cam
paign, was abandoned because public
opinion voiced Nation-wide disap
proval. Millions of conservatives in
the Democratic party voted for Mr.
Roosevelt on that supposition
"Not a word did Mr. Roosevelt say
during the last campaign about his
plans to change the number of jus
tices on the Supreme Court. He re
fused to answer the challenge of the
opposing candidate who wanted to
know if the court would be ‘packed.’
But because about 28.000.000 persons
voted for him. Mr. Roosevelt evidently
concluded that they gave him a blan
ket indorsement to do what he pleased.
Including all those things which he
had not mentioned in his speeches.”
Proceeding from this diagnosis of
the origin of the issue, Mr. Lawrence
analyzes the President’s message on
the subject to Congress, and finds
It to contain many inconsistencies.
The message says, for example, that
the work of the court is congested.
Since it is the established practice
for the entire court to participate in
rendering decisions, Mr. Lawrence
asks how a mere increase in numbers
Is to accelerate procedure.
He points out also that, under the
President’s proposed bill, Mr. Roose
velt "can appoint a man 69 years old
and not until that justice serves ten
years and reaches the age of 79, can
another justice be appointed to match
him if he declines to retire.”
Furthermore, the President’s mes
sage complains that very few private
litigants are granted review by the
court under its present form. This,
t says Mr. Lawrence, is not the case.
Sixty-four per cent of the private
petitioners last year were granted re
views, as were 65 per cent of the
Government's cases.
He continues at some length to
point out flaws in the presidential
case, implying by so doing that the
real motive back of the proposed
change is not a public-spirited wish
to improve the judiciary, but a de
termination to remove the power or
disposition of the present court to
Invalidate cherished pieces of legis
lation.
'AS TO the right of the people to
*"*■ decree that the court shall be
changed from its present form there
Is no question, says Mr. Lawrence.
There is, however, this point to be
considered, in his opinion: That if
the people (even by the duly author
ized process of amendment) should
order that the court’s power be curbed
and that it be denied the right to in
vaidate any law passed by Congress,
then we have no body anywhere
charged with the duty of interpreting
the Constitution, and the acts of our
elected legislators alone will be our
•upreme law of the land.
If this comes to pass, says Mr.
Lawrence, our American form of a
government of checks and balances
will be fundamentally thrown out of
harmony, and we shall be obliged to
adopt the compensating measure used
by foreign democracies: that is. we
shall not elect our Congress or Presi
dent for a stated term, but for only
as long as they have our confidence.
Should a Congress lose public con
fidence, or should the Chief Executive
forfeit the people's political esteem,
tliere should be, he says, a prompt
recall, and the mechanism for such
recall would need to be set up here,
a* it is in England.
SThe Supreme Court, he points out,
or its power to Invalidate uncon
sBtutional acts of Congress, has, until
nv, made such a mechanism un
necessary. It has been the non
i
political branch of the Government,
the one division which has been in
dependent of transitory pressures and
election fears. If it Is to be deprived
of its power to declare acts of Congress
unconstitutional, then Congress (and
the President) must needs be made to
answer to the will of the people di
rectly, and that more often than every
four years. It should be possible to
recall them on fairly short notice.
This seems a neat point. Unhappily
it is based more on the theory of gov
ernment than its practice, for the
reader will hardly be able to visual
ize a President and Congress, having
deprived the court of its constitutional
authority, proceeding to limit their
own, merely for the sales of good logic.
On the exact contrary, says Mr.
Lawrence, there is much more danger
of unbridled power to be discerned in
the executive branch of the Govern
ment than in the judiciary
President," he points out,
■ may veto an act passed by a
majority of Congress. Mr. Cleveland
vetoed 100 acts of Congress in one
day.
"The President may have signed an
act of Congress and yet when a total
membership of one less than two
thirds of both Houses come to the
conclusion subsequently that they
desire it repealed, the erasure from the
statute books cannot thus be attained
without his consent.
"It is possible within nine months
to amend the constitution . . . but
we cannot rid ourselves of an un
popular President until he has served
four years.
“Likewise the President may refuse
to call Congress into session even
though there may be desirable reasons
for an extra session. Neither house
can bring about such a legislative
session of its own initiative.
The present Congress, as Mr. Law
rence sees it, has “abdicated its func
tion” by its abject submission to the
President's wishes.
As for the court, it has merely per
formed its duty, and that this per
formance should call for courage he
attributes to a "campaign to under
mine the third branch of the Gov
ernment” which, he says, "has been
gathering momentum for several
months. It is the inevitable result
of a quest by the Executive for ab
solute power.”
Hard words, perhaps. Hut the gen
eral temper of this book is such that
one feels that it can and should be
read by every person interested in the
present struggle to alter the established
forms of the American Government.
FRONT LINE AND DEADLINE. By
Granville Fortescue. New York:
G. P. Putnam's Sons.
'T'HIS book is a worthy addition to
i the now considerable procession of
j memoirs written by correspondents,
men who, having had front row seats
at the most spectacular and signifi
cant events of our troubled times,
now seem, one and all, to feel an
irresistible inclination to make a co
herent narrative of their witnessings.
Generally, their memoirs fall into
two kinds—those that moralize, ana
lyze and prophesy, and those that
merely relate, leaving the heavy sig
nificance of the material Itself to make
its own impression on the reader. The
reviewer finds the latter variety in
finitely the better, and it is to that
group that Mr. Fortescue's story be
longs.
He has not done any interpreting,
nor has he assumed the prophet's
robe. He has not even attempted to
extend his news-gathering memoirs to
make a complete autobiography, in
which, for the delectatidh of breathless
, readers, the story of his personal de
i velopment is obligingly related to his
i professional career. He has, indeed,
! been tempted by no irrelevance, but
writes a straight, spirited account of
the adventures he has had since he
! went as a very young newsman (dis
guised as a soldier) to that pre-war
war called the Spanish-American.
Having related nis experience in
that dated struggle (he took part in
the charge up San Juan Hill and
stopped a bullet with his ankle) he
skips over the years to 1909, when he
again covered a war, this time the
Riffian trouble in Morocco. From
that he moves on to the World War,
and his narrative of his activities on
the various fronts in that conflict
fills the greater part of his book. He
was in Belgium when the trouble be
gan and actually was the first cor
respondent to send out the news of
the violation of that country’s neu
trality. From that time on he man
aged to be in at most of the great
scenes. With Richard Harding Davis
and Ashmead-Bartlett, he slipped
through the lines in violation of the
regulations by which correspondents
were supposed to be governed, and
covered the shelling of Rheims, sub
quently doing eight days in a French
prison for his enterprise. And he
witnessed not only the fighting on
the western front, but also that on
the eastern and In Turkey. To read
his book, indeed, is to become im
mersed in the thrilling old war period,
brought to a surprising liveUness after
the years which have intervened.
The book closes with some chapters
on the present war in Spain, wherein,
for the first time in his story, Mr.
Fortescue permits himself to do a
little personal speculation. He feels
that the Spanish struggle will be the
first of a series of world conflicts, a
series of conflicts which will grow out
of a gigantic struggle between fascism
and communism: but he adds that
there are other “conflicts of interest
in Europe that may • • • threw the
whole present adjustment out of bal
ance.
"When,” he asks, “will the next
world war start? A year hence, two,
five years? It would be rash to pre
dict.”
And, he adds, “If and when the
next war comes, it will be carried
right into the homes of the civilian
population * *
The book in the main is given over
to episodes—humorous or grim—to
those photographic memories which
fix themselves in the minds of all
writers never to be rooted out. It is
written in a lively style, entertaining
for those who want entertainment and
sufficiently thoughtful for those who,
for one reason or another, happen to
want to think.
FORTY CENTURIES LOOK DOWN.
By F. Britten Austin. New York!
Frederick A. Stokes Co.
'J'HIS is another book about Na
poleon. It happens to be a novel.
It is devoted to the Egyptian cam
paign, and the ambitions, sufferings
and achievements of the Little Cor
poral on that famous jaunt. It is
work of obviously great research, and
displays a most comprehensive knowl
edge of the time of which It treat*.
«
So much can certainly be claimed
for 1t.
As for the entertainment value of
the book, since the author has avoided
not only idealizing or anathematizing,
but also the use of irony, there is
little to be said for It. For Napoleon's
character calls for ironical treatment
—that of the brilliant vulgarian, the
man who turned a superb genius to
the most childish of ends, the man
who esteemed himself above the world
and yet who longed to conquer the
world, a man. in short, who had
superhumanly keen eyesight and who
spent his life in darkness. That calls
for irony. But Mr. F. Britten Austin
has taken the line of merely narrating,
and when he does write of his hero’s
FRANK MEADE, TERESA HYDE PHILLIPS,
Author of "Ten Decisive Bat- Author of "The Prodigal Nurse."
ties of Christianity.’' (Lippincott.)
IN THE CURRENT MAGAZINES
March Issues Turn Theoretical With Capitalism, International War,
Recovery, Organized Labor, Strikes and "The Vanish
ing American Male” as Themes.
By M.’C. R.
THE dullness of theoretical ques
tions seems to have settled over
the March magazines, and in
the welter of earnestly ad
vanced platitudes which makes them
up a reviewer is discouraged as to how
to make a choice. In Harpers’, for ex
ample, there is a long article by Alice
Beal Parsons devoted to the theme
that the intellectuals of the world
have failed to keep pace with events.
She calls it “Our Backward Thinkers."
The world is faced with some serious
Issues, she tells us—which is news, of
course. They are <ln her opinion) the
crisis in the capitalist system, the
threat of international war and the
The nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court. ^Harris-Ewing Photo
--- ♦ ----<•
MAX WHITE.
Author of “Anna Becker"
(Stack-pole Sons.)
j soul, he troubles us with no more
! complicated information than that
j Napoleon was ambitious, sensitive,
j logical and ardent. Somehow this
does not add much yeast to the very
substantial loaf of his long novel.
The book must stand therefore as
the work of a student of history. Its
qualities as fiction are negligible.
DAY OF ESCAPE. By Louise Braden.
New York: Farrar & Rhinehart.
'T'HIS novel, which starts out excel
lently, is a story of psychological
cruelty subtly administered. It is
the story of one Oliver Preston,, in
heritor of bad blood and warped men
tally to a condition where he needs
overwhelmingly to possess and govern
his associates. He is a quiet man; he
does not dominate openly; his malady
is such that he requires rather a
subterranean but exquisitely cruel
form of control. He has mastered the
technique of inflicting thus, and his
victims are his young half-sister and
his wife. The novel is the story of
their resistance, according to their
abilities, and their eventual escape.
As has been said, the book starts
excellently. The vile situation is made
horridly clear, yet horrid as it is, it
is not treated to lurid lighting, but
stands as perfectly plausible. Indeed,
it is plausible. But, as the book de
velops, the emphasis shifts to the
wife's private interests, notably her
love affair with an artist who in turn
is loved by the sister, and the straight
forwardness of the story suffers. It
ceases to be an account of Oliver's
vice and the two women's reactions,
and becomes a somewhat incoherent
rendering of the wife's thoughts on
life in general.
It is too bad, because the writer
has wit and power. Even so, one will
look for her future work with Interest.
APRIL. By Vardis Fisher. Garden
City: Doubleday Doran & Co.
nr HE ponderous-penned Prof. Var
1 dis Fisher, who, with his more or
less famous tetralogy of novels on (one
fears) a man's "search for his soul,”
recently accomplished a long-time
high in solemn triteness, has written
here, to the reviewer’s mortal astonish
ment, a simple little love story, rather
delicate and nice. It is hard to be
lieve it, but it is so. Mr. Fisher has
written a love story in which there
are no frustrated souls, no teeth
ground together in agony, -no lists
clenched frenziedly (also in agony),
no awful poetry and positively no five
chapter long disquisitions on the Im
portance of Having Sex. Hooray for
Prof. Fisher! He is looking up.
Nothing, of course, could make him
light, and so, having thrown over
psychology, he must needs take on a
cargo of sentiment, but he sails much
more gracefully under this kind of
weight than he ever has before. His
present almost plotless story of a
young country girl adjusting herself
to womanhood is obviously meant to
ba whimsically tender. The re
i
Brief Reviews of Books
Non-Fiction.
THE HUMAN MACHINE. By John
Yerbery Dent. New York: Alfred A
Knopf.
An account of human life In relation
to stimulation, sleep, hypnosis, sugges
tion and psychoanalysis.
j TEN DECISIVE BATTLES OF CHIS
TIANITY. By Frank S. Mead. In
] dianapolis: Bobbs Merril Co.
Ten times when the Christian
church has taken a momentous deci
sion.
AN ATLAS OF EMPIRE By J. P.
Horrabin. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf.
A small atlas of colonies, as they
exist at present in relation to their
| various mother countries.
THE STORY OF THE BIBLE. By Sir
Frederic Kenyon. New York: E. P.
Dutton Co.
The full story of the writing and
publishing of the Bible, from earliest
times to the present.
PERRY ON TENNIS. By Fred Perry.
Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co.
The international champion of 1934
5-6 writes on how to improve your
game.
CHRONICLES OF INTERDICT NO.
7807. By Anne Kirk. Boston:
Meador Publishing Co.
The story of a woman who was
committed to an insane asylum while
of sound mind and who undertook to
gather all possible material on con
ditions governing the care of the men
tally ill. Interesting.
ALL WHITE AMERICA. By T. T.
McKinney. Boston: Meador Pub
lishing Co.
An argument for race equality.
THE BABY EPICURE. By Elena Gil
dersleeve. New York: E. P. Dutton
Co.
Recipes for dishes for the Infant.
Rather nice.
FEEDING OUR CHILDREN. By
Frank Howard Richardson. New
York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
Child nutrition by a specialist in
child diseases.
WAYS TO SUCCESSFUL MATRI
MONY FOR WOMEN. By Thomas
H. Troxel. Oneida, Tenn.: The
Cumberland Publishing Co.
Unintentionally one of the funniest
books of this year. How to haxe sex
appeal and still be very, very nice. It
will slay you.
MY ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By Guy
Richardson. Boston: The Baker St
Taylor Co,
Radio talks delivered by the author,
now in book form.
A CONTINENT LOST, A CIVILIZA
TION WON. By J. P. McKinney.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni
versity Press.
The history of Indian land tenure.
DECENCY IN MOTION PICTURES.
By Martin Quigley. New York:
The Macmillan Co.
The moral and social influence of the
cinema upon a mass audience. By an
originator of the present production
code.
STRANGE INSECTS AND THEIR
STORIES. By A. Hyatt Verrill.
Boston: L. C. Page It Co.
A highly readable nature book.
viewer found it over-tender at times,
and a bit inclined to go all rosy, but
that is a common error into which
the most accomplished of middle
aged male novelists frequently fall,
when they describe reluctant feet
standing where the brook and river
meet—and the gentle like. Even
James Stephens has sinned In this
respect. Prof. Fisher has lightened
his heroine's story with humor, and
he has a genuine feeling for the va
garies of a young girl's mind. His
book is really sweet—one means, you
know, It really Is!
BUSMAN’S HONEYMOON. By Dor
othy L. Sayers. New York: Har
court Brace St Co.
'T'HE airy Miss Sayers has been
x hailed with resounding outcries
a.
ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM OF
WAR. By Clyde Eagleton. New
York: The Ronald Press.
Survey of the situation. By the pro
fessor of government, New York Uni
versity.
SUGAR. By John E Dalton. New
York: The Macmillan Co.
Study of the sugar Industry. By a
former chief of the Sugar Section of
the A. A. A.
EXERCISE AND HEALTH. By Jesse
Geiring Williams. New York: Funk
Sc Wagnalls.
One of the National Health Council
series.
HOW TO SLEEP AND REST BET
TER. By Donald A. Laird. New
York: Funk & Wagnalls.
One of the National Health Council
series.
TAKING CARE OF YOUR HEART
By T. Stuart Hart. New York:
Funk & Wagnalls.
One of the National Health Council
series.
THE COMMON COLD By W O.
Smillie. New York: Funk & Wag
nalls.
One of the National Health Council
series.
VENEkREAL DISEASES. By William
F. Snow. New York: Funk & Wag
nalls.
One of the National Health Council
aeries.
Fiction.
THESE WHITE HANDS. By War
wick Deeping. New York: Robert
M. McBride Sc Co.
The new Deeping. Eighteenth cen
tury setting, it seems.
THE FOUR MARYS. By Fannie
Heaslip Lea. New York: Dodd
Mead & Co.
The new Lea. Women thinking
about love and marriage. Very do
mestic.
THE PRODIGAL NURSE. By The
resa Hyde Phillips. Philadelphia:
J. B. Lippincott Co.
Love.
Mysteries.
LAST TRUMP. By Lee Thayer. New
York: Dodd Mead & Co.
A Peter Clancy mystery. Murder on
board ship.
THE MAN WHO DIDN'T EXIST. By
Geoffrey Holmes. New York: Wil
liam Morrow Sc Co.
Reporter solves crime.
THE LONG DEATH. By George Dyer.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
A Catalyst Club mystery.
DEAD MEN ARE DANGEROUS. By
Oarnett Weston. New York: Fred
erick A. Stokes Co.
Murder at the hacienda.
Juveniles.
HANDBOOK OF FARMING FOR
BOYS AND GIRLS. By R. A.
Power and V. E. Kivlin. Milwau
kee: E. M. Hale Sc Co.
Practical instruction in plant and
animal raising. Might be helpful for
the amateur adult, too.
Poetry.
MAGNOLIA STATE BLOSSOMS. By
A. M. Fleming. Boston: Meador
Publishing Co.
Verse of a popular character, serious
and light.
I put new life into the hackneyed mys
! tery novel. Miss Sayers, say the
critics, has done this by addinc to
her mystery plot the elements of
character development. Reading one
of her books (say the critics) you
get npt only a sordid crime nicely
solved but also well-rounded men
and women who bear evidence of hav
ing led normal lives for years and
years before they stumbled on the
body. And that is true. Reading
one of Miss Sayers’ books you get
exactly that. But does it improve a
mystery novel?
The reviewer, after reading "Bus
man’s Honeymoon,” came to the con
clusion that it does not. It is a
novel of almost 400 pages, and not
more than a third of it is concerned
with the ertma tdisoovwrsd an pact
n
impending world struggle between
fascism and communism. That's news,
too.
After nine pages of very blocky
prose, very earnest, indeed. Mrs. Par
sons sums up. "The task for intel
lectual radicals in democratic coun
tries.” she says, “seems to me to keep
the essential objectives clear.” Well,
well. Why not to feed the goldfish
regularly and put out the cat? Those
words at least mean something.
jy^ORE about depression and recov
ery (the reviewer apologizes) Is
to be found in this magazine and also
in the Atlantic Monthly. In an ar
ticle by George Soule called “This Re
covery—What Brought It? And Will
It Last?" Harpers' undertakes to ex
amine our present status of pros
perity.
Mr. Soule bases his findings on a
bulletin by Dr. Wesley C. Mitchell and
Dr. Arthur F. Burns published by the
National Bureau of Economic Research
and called "Production During the
American Business Cycle of 1927 to
1933 “
According to this document, re
109). Yet there is no action apart
from the crime. The other two
thirds of the story are given over to
telling us about the love between
the detective. Lord Peter Wimsey (of
“Gaudy Night” fame), and his new
wed wife, Harriet Vane. It is a very
beautiful love and Lord Peter and his
bride are extremely nice people. All
the more reason then for letting them
lead their private life privately.
The best detective stories—those
which have endured—have never gone
in for "rounding" their characters.
The successful technique has been to
fix a few sharp, superficial eccentrici
ty* on the sleuth, just for pictures
queness, and then set him seriously to
sleuthing. Sherlock Holmes had his
pipe and his cocaine, as we all remem
ber. The private life of Baker Street,
however, has never been divulged. The
world took Mr. Holmes to its bosom
as a detective, not as poet, lover, hus
band and sensitive soul. Miss Sayers,
however, asks us to make all those
places for her Lord Peter.
It is not legitimate. A detective
story Is a literary chess game. It is
played with figures. If you take the
pieces from the board, dress them in
clothes, tell yourself stories about
what they do while shut up in the
box. you may have used your imagi
nation, but you still have not im
proved your chess. You can. of course,
write a perfectly acceptable novel
about a lord and his bride honey
mooning in an Elizabethan farm
house and discovering the full of their
mutual passion, but if you do that you
hardly need the corpse of a murdered
farmer in the cellar. You really
should do one thing or the other.
Miss Sayers does both. As a result
the reader is apt to end caring very
little about either.
ANNA BECKER. ’ By Max White.
New York: Stackpole Sons.
'T'HIS preposterously bad novel has
obviously been written with earn
est Intent and, with equal obvious
ness, springs from a conviction on
the author's part that he has dis
covered something of importance
which must be bruited forth as a
Message. In Justice, one can allow
him the motivation of missionary
seal.
The meesage In question, however,
Is not one to surprise anybody or to
Interest any person less naive than
Mr. White. It Is simply that Sex Is
Important and that a woman who
has a lover Is apt to be happier than
one who grows old loveless. Shades
of Mr. Sherwood Anderson back In
his dear old “Wlnesburg, Ohio,” days!
That is the spirit of Mr. White's book.
And shades of Theodore Dreiser at his
most pedestrian. That is the manner.
Aa for Mr. White’s grammar, that sim
ply cannot be described. One can only
say of it that It is the only original
thing In the book.
The story Is set in a New Hampshire
college town and centers about the
affair of a seeblngly unapproachable
spinster with a lusty quarry man. it
cannot be called sordid, for It leeks
1
covery began In March, 1933, after
making two unsuccessful attempts to
get under way In the last Summer of
Mr. Hoover’s administration. The N.
R. A. hindered recovery, instead of
helping it, by its combined practices
of raising wages and restricting pro
duction. The Public Works Adminis
tration did little to relieve the unem
ployment in the heavy industries for
the aid of which it was designed. The ;
future looks fairly hopeful—and there
will be no inflation. So that is that.
Very concise, if you accept the find
ings of Drs. Burns and Mitchell.
'THE Atlantic takes up the month's
A investigation of economics In a
piece by George E. Sokolsky called
’’The Industrial Front.” In this Mr.
Sokolsky asks why. in industrial ques
tions, we hear only of employer and
organized labor. There are. he points
out, quite a number of other "inter- ,
ested parties" concerned. They are. as
he lists them, "investors, management, j
supervisory forces, white-collar work- \
ers, skilled workers, common labor and
the consumer.” But when news breaks
on the labor front, these, despite their
interested status, are ignominiously j
relegated to positions of bystanders.
Mr. Sokolsky takes as example of |
the egotism of organized labor a num
ber of recent disturbances in which
the C. I. O. and the lime-lighted John
Lewis have taken part. Mr. Lewis, he
says, belongs to a group which is more
"interested in union membership than
in improving the condition of the
worker." Under his leadership, he re
marks, labor is rapidly being divided
against itself—the unskilled man
against the skilled—and such a con
flict as this at this particular time is
above all things destructive.
"Productivity” says Mr. Sokolsky, [
"is increasing . . . pay rolls are filling
up . . . wages have been raised, and . . .
there is a chance to restore business |
not only to what in 1929 was called
normal, but even to greater heights.
Why should men strike at such a
time? To whose advantage is it?”
He answers his questions at some
length, but his finding is pretty well
summed up in his last paragraph, as
follows:
"Here. then, is the crux of America's
industrial problem: Who is to man
age industry—the management of in
dividual plants or John Lewis of the
C. I. O.? And, if it is to be John
Lewis, how can he carry through a
program of high wages for unskilled
labor and at the same time keep prices
down? Obviously, to management, the
Lewis movement presents a destructive
force which is heading industry and
the country back into depression con
ditions.”
Of the sit-down strike. Mr. Sokolsky
says: "It is a nasty form of sabotage.
The fact remains that a handful of
workers in a mass-production industry
—sometimes as few as 15 or 20—can
put a plant out of commission during
a ‘sit-down.’ in spite of the objections
of other workers who want to work.”
One wonders why they should be
able to do that. Have factories ceased
to have doors?
rPHIS brings one to the drears’ fact
A that Mr. Lewis does seem to oc
news, and not only the Atlantic but ;
the Forum and Century have given j
him space. A flamboyantly written
piece appears in the March issue of the
latter publication from the pen of
Louis Adamic. Mr. Adamic is more
than ecstatic over the greatness and
beauty of his hero: he positively, gets
down and w’allows in his joyful adula
tion.
"He has been likened to a steam
roller,” he sings, ’and described &~
thick and burly, but I think a trifle
carelessly." i By all means, let no one
be careless with Mr. John Lewis.)
“ ’Tough.’ ‘ruthless,' ‘domineering.’ |
even that distinction. It is merely
insectivorous.
Why should such a tasteless thing |
be published—indicative as it is of a >
vulgar, even though an earnest mind,
and invested with a degree of pompous
self - Importance that only escapes be
ing comic because it is pathetic? Why
indeed? One can only assume that
the publisher that day was accepting
all scripts which came wrapped in
brown paper. And that "Anna!
Becker” happened to be tied up in
that color.
THE SEA OF GRASS. By Conrad
Richter. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf.
TN MOOD and method this short
novel is reminiscent of Willa Ca- j
ther’s "A Lost Lady.” But where Miss j
Cather sublimated her setting and sit
uation to the lady. Mr. Richter empha- ;
sizes the plains of the Southwest and
the drama of their settlement by pio
neers and the straggling nesters who
came to share in the spoils after the
victory was won.
It is the story of Lutie. a gentle,
charming woman, who went West to
wed hard-riding Col. Jim Brewton. It
was inevitable that she should leave
him and equally inevitable that her
influence should continue to be felt
throughout the years until she finally
returned, cool and casual, at the cli
max of the most dramatic episode in
the book.
Violence flares along w’ith the tend
erer emotions but Mr. Richter writes
with equal restraint about both. His
style is pleasing if not particularly
distinguished. It is not strange that
Col. Brewton. who is closest to the
land, is his most believeable character.
E. T.
Z WALKED BY NIGHT. Edited by
Lillias Rider Haggard. New York:
E. P. Dutton & Co.
'J'HE author of this autobiography
is probably in his late 80s, and
his story was written at odd moments
on odd scraps of paper, to relieve his
own lonesomeness and to help him re
live his own youth. It is the story of
an outlaw, a man who spent his life
poaching other men’s game on other
men’s land.
There is no more plot to the book
than there is to the average humble
life. The author was the son of a
sanctimonious, hard working, unam
bitious father who had neither sym
pahty nor understanding for his
mischievous boy. He was cast out at
about 13 years, served a term in prison
for some childish prank and was ever
after watched and suspected as a
criminal. All this only served to
harden his decision, formed at the ad
vanced age of 9 years, to be an outlaw
and a poacher. His cleverness with
net, snare and rifle earned him the
title of "the king of the Norfolk
poachers." Yet his poaching was
spiced with intervals of legitimate
work. One of these, the happiest years
of his life, he served as game keeper
A «
pugnacious’ and ‘Napoleonic,’ r'v>
used in the daily press attempts to
characterize him, are better." then
concedes Mr. Adamic, cooing over Mr.
Lewis like a mother over a new-born
babe, ‘‘while to ‘solid,’ ‘dominating.’
‘formidable,’ ‘vital’ and ‘potent’ r.o
objection can be made ( who was mak
ing any—do you care? But this ques
tion is shortly answered >—not even.”
breathes Mr. Adamic, “by his adoring'
daughter and private secretary,
Kathryn Lewis, currently disturbed by
the other adjectives." (The tender
family touch, no doubt, this last.)
And so the piece throbs on—inform
ing us that below his nose Mr. lewis
is a fighter, but that above It he lx a
brooder; that his face can register
every important human emotion (nice
discriminating there. Mr. Adamic) in
the time It takes him to utter a long
sentence; that he is seldom human,
but that when he is human he Is
superb (which may mean something>,
and that he Is without doubt planning
to be our next President.
It leaves one less impressed with a
body of information about the ex
miner than stunned by the author s
lavished enthusiasm. All that nr.e
really knows is that Louis Adamic
finds in John Lewis a leader to his
liking. The facts remain as obscure
as facts generally are.
J7VEN the Mercury, alas, gives its
J pages to strikes and rumors of
strikes. Its opening piece in its Mar. h
issue is called ‘‘Case History of a
Strike” and tells of the recent trouble
in the Goodyear plant at Akron. The <
author is Gordon Carroll. This plant
voluntarily’ arranged for employe
representation shortly after war.
Then, says Mr. Carroll, the N. R A.
appeared, "bolstering the familiar
union doctrine that the Boss is always
wrong, the Worker always right. On
the heels of N. R. A., professional
union organizers poured into Akron,
dispensing the customary promises
and collecting the customary funds
A vote was taken and. out of 13 84fi
employes. 12,705 voted, with a ninety
one per cent rejection of strike. The
workers, in short, wanted peace. But
the unions wanted war. So war was
declared. The solid, domineering,
formidable, vital, potent John Lewis
took in the ensuing action a part
rather less that of a brooder than of
a plug-ugly fighter, according to Mr.
Carroll. Reading the Mercury's
article, one must conclude that, in the
Akron trouble, he was functioning
wholly from “below the nose.”
It is a disheartening and dis
illusioning piece of reading for any
one who cherishes the faith that
strikes always represent a righteous
spontaneous revolt of workers against
injustice, or that, when settled, they
always represent an improvement in
the workers’ lot. Perhaps at the
present moment, when it is impossible
to go to a theater and see a pleasant
motion picture without being afflicted
with newsreels of rioters, it might
even be recommended. As a liberal
(non-professional, since she makes no
money at it) the reviewer sees no
harm in knowing both sides. The
professional liberals—surely—have no
real objection?
T IKE Scribners', the Mercury seems
to be depressed over the impending
doom of the species once known as the
“he-man.” and under the title of “The
Vanishing American Male" it laments
his imminent-seeming passing. The
article might not be considered im
portant enough to mention, were It
not that its subject seems to be claim
ing increasing attention. And that—
significantly—those who write about
it are all men. One trusts that the
situation is not quite so black as the
boys paint it.
for one of the land owners in the
vicinity.
His very knowledge and experience
as poacher enabled him to act as the
very best game keeper in the district,
a fact which his employer realized and
respected. Various jobs in and near
cities helped him to formulate and
crystallize theories about labor and
labor unions that present the poor
man's side of the picture, as the
poor man sees it, not as interpreted
by his so-called leaders. His remin
iscences about dogs, the various breeds
he knew and trained, are of great in
terest to the doggy minded. His dis
cussions of various bits of antique lore,
of charms and remedies, of half
forgotten ballads and tales, are worth
the time of the lover of the quaint
and the old. *
The book is genuine. It is not pro
found. It is not a source book for a
student. But it assembles and pre
sents the various homely interests and
recollections of an old man in a way
to catch the imagination and hold the
interest of a younger reader.
The illustrations by Edward Seago
add to the charm of the book.
Many pen-and-ink sketches varying
in subject from a trail of hare tracks
to a study of the old man by his fire
side with his dog at his feet, all have
character and simple authenticity.
—R. R. T.
- ■ -•- <
Grade Crossings Pass.
'THE grade crossing, scene of *o
many fatal accidents, gradually
is giving way to the march of progress.
Since 1933. the number of these death
traps has been reduced by the hun
dreds. The Bureau of Public Roads
has advanced funds which have re
sulted in the elimination, or at least
the start, toward elimination of 3,123
grade crossings.
Standard safety signals have been
erected at nearly 2,000 more.
BEST SELLER FOR WEEK
ENDING FEBRUARY 20.
Fiction.
The Late George Aptey. Mar
quand. Little Brown.
Drums Along the Mohawk.
Edmunds. Little Brown. *
Sea of Grass. Richter. Knopf.
The Street of the Fishing Cat.
Foldes. Farrar * Rinehart.
Invasion. Van der Meersch.
Viking.
Gone With the Wind. Mitchell.
Macmillan. (
Non-Fiction.
How to Win Friends and In
fluence People. Carnegie. Simon
& Schuster.
The Hundred Years. Guedalla.
Doubleday Doran.
Nine Old Men. Pearson and
Allen. Doubleday Doran.
Return to Religion. Link
Macmillan.
The Nile. Ludwig. Viking.
American Doctor'! Odyssey.
Heiser. Norton.
K