Evening Star Newspaper, August 4, 1929, Page 32

REVIEWS OF SUMMER BOOKS A New Novel of the Civil War—World War History by Win- ston Churchill, M. P.—Adventure Stories for Warm IDA GILBERT MYERS. THE WAVE. By Evelyn Scott, author of “The Narrow House," etc. New York: Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith. IT is beginning to look as if, after all, it is the novelist, the poet, the dram- atist, who will give to peoples the only true vision of the greatest and most significant event in national life—war. War has, time out of mind, been the preoccupation of kings and politicians, sometimes called statesmen, the latter. Its ultimate purpose has been the ex- change of one ruler for another, the enlargement of subject territory on the one hand, its shrinkage on the other. Its instrument, armies. Its procedure, campaign and battle. Natural enough, maybe, that the historian should visual- ize such martial ambiticns as the whole of history. Natural or not, this is what he has done. History is in the main a record of wars—armies, generals, strate- gles, fighting, defeat or victory—with a final shuffing this way or that to the n{c}!‘? of ene ruler and the shame of the other, Then one day some one woke to the armies—to the men, to the mafl. Woke up to the millions of men and women ‘back home, to the individual agony of waz, regardless of position in the world or in the lines, regardful only of the human trying to feel and act like & fight:ng beast. ‘The Red Badge of Courage” sses that man, that humble soldier man. So doez James Boyd in “Marching Men.” So does Stephen Benet in “John Brown's | Body"—and so does Evelyn Scott _in her great Civil War story e Wave.” Truly a great story—of isn't it a story? Some will say not, perhaps, Never mind. If it is the function of a novel to deliver life itself over into the life of the reader—why, here is the truest truth of a novel. The Civil War. greatest and most significant event of this country. Touching every home, | every family within the limits of the | land. And so, Evelyn Scott moves here d there, North and South, stopping th the seeming leisure of the careful | artist to set down a few men, or women { or children, all reacting to the tremen- ‘dous thing going on, over there, out yonder. And so close does it come that With each of these groups there is the | very essence of human feeling and be- | havior toward it. Birth, way of life, superstition, traditio session of the people at hand in a real- | ism that no one can deny, for it is its own reality acting out through these various localities fired and furrowed by 8 Civil War. It is by this means that he story grows, moving here and there from one center of action to another, stopping beside the plain soldier, in camp or on the march, or on the firing line—and 1n each point of pause prob- ing with subtle touch and divining heart right into the soul of the soldier in the field as well as into the soul of | the waiting ones at home. No one hero to carry this ematter forward, no grand man on horseback to make the | great and supposedly inspir ge“sture —after you, my dear Alphonse” the actual content of that gesture. No, no l‘ single hero here. Instead every one is heroic—the lad at the front, the woman waiting for the end, the children in need. the sick folks taking’second place in the great excitment. Every line is of heroic . measure. Every individual 15 significant. It is all war material— | all war, Beside her clear gift of bring- | ing this monstrous national movement 10 the inclusion of the lowliest and the most uhhappy. Evelyn Scott is a t— and she needs to be. Patiently she builds in a seeming leisure—this lo- cality and that one. The very texture of the local atmosphere comes out here, the very scent of the particular fields, the song of this bird that belongs in that place and no other. She is not | loitering. She's not lagging. Instead, | she is sifting into your heart and mind | 2l the dearnesses that these people. on | ‘hoth sides, feel slipping away and leav- | . ing thet stark and miserable. A poet— Wwithout doubt. Then from illuminating detail this woman moves into the| ‘breadth and depth of the Civil Wa picturing mightily where'a momcnt fere she was sketching in little loves and joys. Oh, a great story—a great story of our greatest moment in history. A tale with a thousand heroes—fighting Jads, women, children—none others in the beginnings'of any war, only the helpless ones, the followers of hund‘, leaders. | * ok k% THE AFTERMATH: 1918-1928. By The Right Hon. Winston Churchill, | C. H, M. P. New York: Charles Ser'tner’s Sons. | “THEv AFTERMATH" stands as se- quence and climax to the three other volumes of war history by Win- ston &. Churchill. Th> precading | studles covered “The World Crisis” | from 1911 to 1918, examined from the standpoint of this man of wide and im- | mediate experienee in military matters and in the political conferences of Eng- Jand and the Continent. “The After-| math” covers in a widely radiating range the world matters which have engaged the bulk of human interest | since the close of the World War. One meets here a procession of war states- ‘men, each set out in the measure of his service under the testing years that have followed the war. Familiar names, a shade dimmed maybe by the friction of time and changed outlook—Wilson, Lloyd George, Clemenceau, Venizelos and others. Gheat events march here | 2ls0. One comes upon the revolution in | Russia, the murder of its Tsar and his | family, the new order springing up after s0 criminal an act—an order not yet proved, though it has been tried by civil war and great individual hardships. Yeu to be tried further, and yet tried. Greece, Ireland, Turkey—each moment- ous in its alm, effort and outcome— march in this pageant of striving na- tions and peoples. Then, happily and promisingly, the march turns toward peace conferences, toward the accom- modations of ussion and compdro- mise, in the interests of a world ly eox;;igu; that war has r-e\;'er yf‘:” i an; for its permanent wel 3 ‘Tremendous scope, amazing achieve- ment—nothing less. To marshal these forces—so vast, so varied, so vitally sig- nificant—to Tound them into narrative that is continuous and coherent, that moves along a constantly ascending plane toward the supreme height of the world itself in a happy and productive 50 marshal these great forces to whom succeeding historians will be deep in debt, as will also the student and reader of world events. . * % k% .PINES OF JAALAM. By Daniel Chase, author of “Hardy Rye.” Indianapolis: | ‘The Bobbs-Merrill Company. Weather Days. roundabaut. So say the more or less self- ish relatives, fearful of a decision that may add to their own obligations. They need have had no anxiety, for the girl is g to stick by, to carry on. Something ep in her, that not uncommon New England “something,” respends to the austere beauty of those dreary fields, of those black marching pines planted by her father in a mood of faint prevision. And this is the_story of courage, of standing by, of reaching down into the true loveliness of the heart of this bar- ren exterior. Plain, vernacular, unro- mantic, shy of sentiment, dressed in roughness, unacquainted with the fem- inine prettiness ;of popular romance, this tale takes a straight course by way of its essential verity into the appreci- stive acceptance of those readers who put a personal premium on the true drama and the true artistry of Daniel Chase, novelist of New England. The humor of this locality has become the stock-in-trade of certain writers. But humor alone cannot sustain either life or literature. In the work of Mr. Chase there is the proper blend of this char- acteristic with many others belonging to the people of this locality. There- fore, his work is truer work. THE SECRET OF SEA-DREAM HOUSE. By Albert Payson Terhune, | author of “The Luck of the Laird,” ete. New York: Harper & Bros. A ROMANCE of perfect Summer | weight—light, airy, changeful, con- stant only In swift turn and sudden THE WOMAN WHO COMMANDED 500.000,000 MEN. By Charles Pettit. Translated from the French by Una, Lady Troubridge. New York: Hor- ace Liveright. CHILDREN OF DARKNESS; An Orig- inal, Tragi-Comedy. By Edwin Jus- tus Mayer, author of “The Fire- brand.” New York: Horace Live-| right. g | BUCCANEER'S LOG. By C. M.| ‘Bennett. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. | THE STORY OF PIERRE PONS. By Francis de Miomandre. Translated bv Edwin Gile Rich. Illustrated by Paul Guignebault. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. | GOOD FAERY TALES:; Irish Ones. By Jo McMahon. Tlustiated by the au- thor. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.. Inc. THE MOST TR’ ~IC STRUGGLE OF | THE CENTURIES: The Italian| Risorgimento, Culmifating in the | Fall of the Temporal Power of the | Popes. By Luigi Carnovale. Pub- | lished by the author. CLIPPER SHIPS: Done in Cork Models. By Peter Adams, author of “Cork Ships and How to Make Them.” II- lustrated by Madelaine Kroll. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. THE MENTAL SIDE OF GOLF. By Charles W. Moore, with a foreword by Gene Sarazen. New Lork: Horace | Liveright. ' SKY LARKING: The Romantic Adven- | ture of Plying. By Bruce Gould. Tllustrated by Cosmo Clark. = New York: Horace Liveright. DETECTIVE DUFF UNRAVELS IT By Harvey O'T 'ggins. New York: Horace Liveright. JOAN KENNEDY. By Henry Channon. | New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. THE INTELLIGENT MAN'S GUIDE TO MARRIAGE AND CELIBACY. Indianapolis: | A | | i By Juanita Tanner. . The Bobbs-Merrill Co. z A HUMBLE LEAR. By Lorna Doone | Beers, author of “Prairie Pires,” etc. | New York: E. P. Duiton & Co.,"Inc. INSURANCE IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. By Luke Flanagan. member of the bar of New York State. New York: Published by the author. | | JACK-KNIFE COOKERY. By James Austin Wilder. Illustrated by the author. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. ; GONE NATIVE. By A. C. G. Hastings. New York: The Macaulay Co. | THE_OFFICIAT. HISTORY OF AUS-| TRALIA IN THE WAR OF 1914-18 —THE AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCE IN FRANCE. By C. E. W. Bean. With 475 illustrations and maps. Volume III. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, Ltd. THE BELOVED PRODIGAL: A Wheat- land Romance. By James French Dorrance, New York: The Macau-| lay Co. THE LITERARY BIBLE OF THOMAS JEFPERSON; His Commonplace | Book of Philosophers and Poets. | With an |introduction by Gilbert | Chinard. | Baltimore:. The Johns | Hopkins Press. STONE BLUNTS SCISSORS. By Ger- | :d Fairlie. Boston: Little, Brown | ALGER: ‘A Biography Without a Hero. By Herbert R. Mayes. New York. » Macy-Masius. THE INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF | ELECTRICAL COMMUNICATIONS IN THE PACIFIC AREA. By Leslie Bennett Tribolet, Ph. D. Baltimore: ‘The Johns Hopkins Press. THE BACCARAT CLUB. By Jessie Louisa Rickard. New York: Horace Liveright. SCHOOLGIRL: By Carman Barnes. New York: Horace Liveright. GODS WHO DANCE. By Ted Shawn. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. ALL CUIET ON THE WESTERN PR T Erich Maria Remarque. b\ lated from the German by A. zcowheen. Boston: Little, Brown THE BALKAN PIVOT; Yugoslavia. ‘A Study in Government and Adminis- tration. By Charles A. Beard, for- mer director of the New York Bu- reau of Municipal Research, and George Radin cf the New York bar. New York: The Macmillan Co. ERRAND; A Novel. By Norah C. James. New York: Wil- liam »”orrow & Co. THE USEFUL ART OF ECONOMICS. By George Souie. New York: The Macmillan Co. ¢ THE _FRA’ CRUSIS: An attemp! Harmon! the Spirit of the Writings of Those Who Are Known to Rosicrusians and a the Statements of Those as Authorities. With an extensive Swinburne Clymer. ‘The Philosophical YEARS OF EDUCATION POR JOURNALISM; A History of the School of Journalism of the Coritribution to_ Civil- Edward B. Vedder, ‘The E. W. MEDICINE; Its’ jzation. By | credibility and acceptance. | suspicion Co. | Lichtervelde, Louis e 3 , completely {Raging, | The ot of u;e.ntuu Lh?. ninsula of Florida, stretching Im: finger of harborage to the pirates and smug- glers of early days, to the pirates and smugglers of modern persuasion. Dodg-. ing the late land boomer, Mr. Terhune takes retreat in the. neglected interior of slow streams and dense wths, of hermit birds and anchored alligators. Away back there he discovers a house —a mansion mouldy and moss-grown, but quite splendid withal in its clear reminder of other days and other places. Merely the dream of an old pirate come true. Such is the starting point around which Mr. Terhune's “'secret” grows. This bit of old-world grandeur, built of many successful maraudings, becomes the stronghold of various law-breakers, ranging from the simon-pure pirate of Black-Beard’s day to the familiar bootlegger of the mo- ment. For good measure in this racing to-do, remnants of the powerful Semi- noles play a part, both considerable and picturesque. These elements of ad- venture ares resolved into order and action by the agency of the hero*of the business as a whole. The hero is a man-and-a-dog. A young man, seek- ing seclusion for the great novel he is going to write. “Sea-Dream House” looked like seclusion distilled to the very essence of isolation. But—well, the young man didn’t know about that house even & part of what I have told you about-it. But in no time at all ihings began to happen. Such a va- riety of« stress and adventure as can hardly be imagined. Read about it for yourself. You will get into the thick of things at once—and they certainly are “thick” A likable young man and a quite captivating collie—of course, the collie is what one expects, and gets. There is nothing at all the matter either with the old serving man Gedge. And there is a full job for all three. Yes, a girl. Yes, a love story. Yes, an uncommonly good story teller, be- sides. Just the thing for a Summer afternoon.’ surprise, terrain * ok k¥ THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA. By Elizabeth Jordan, author of “Red Riding Hood,” etc. New York: The Century Co. L WEVE all been there, more than once—"between the devil and the deep sea.” Nevertheless, this ne el pre- sents a strangé corner of that familiar domain of disquietude. The last will and testament of Catherine Chandler, spinster ana a very unpredictable one at that, set a probation for her waiting relatives betore they could inherit from her fortune. Nothing less, this trial than that the whole kit-and-caboodle of them should live together in her house. Enough to satisfy even the vindictive of old maids, don’t you think? Enough to work the complete undoing of every single legatee, don’t you think? Looks that way to me. But in the meantime there goes on in that old house of sueh mixed population the most exciting incidents imaginable— such as Elizabeth Jordan can handle with a gusto and an edged wit, with an ingenuity and a clear flair for the un- expected that, rich as they are, still manage to stand within the limits of A hectic six months! Within it there are many | revelations—some concerning the new oceupants of the hose, one dealing with the fact that Miss Chandler did not, after all, die as a fact in nature, but rather as a taking off at the ha of another. This last dread disclosure comes to the fore in a very simple way, but a very startling one. Following it | is the development of a perfect orgy of in that divided household. Everybody in it has his clear notion of the guilty one. All are pointing in secret in different directions. Then, one by one, the various theories fall away. Pinally, there is the necessity for combination and co-operation among these relatives in order that the facts| of the case may come to the surface. An agile writer, an adept romancer, is required to carry through along this novel line. Here she is. You have found that out from about ten novels| already sent out by Elizabeth ‘Jordan. So go along with this new story, for a spirited ana absorbing pursuit df the way by which Catherifie Chandler, spinsteny moved out from this world into the next one. * kR THE CASE WITH NINE SOLUTIONS. By J. J. Connington, author of “Mystery ‘at Lynden Sands,” ete. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. A\ MOGT complicated case of murder, as the title implies. However, the reader hac at hand a helpfui master of the criminal mind, since here and there at stated points he rounds up the evidence for his immediate subordinate, an ambitious young fellow who thinks he can legrn something from his su- perior. bit doubtful at first about the ‘curious -complexity of this double murder—or was it suicide? or, ibly accident? These three possibilities set up a very devil’s dance of mystification under the severe logic drawn to support the wildest of their meetings and partings. Gradually, however, the com- binations show signs of shrinkage— now only seven probabilities, and now but five—till at last there remains, not probability, but a fair certainty standing alone. Those of precise and calculating minds will enjoy this turn to Mr. Connington's lastest mystery. ‘Those, however, who want to rush for- ward toward pursuit and apprehension will not find themselves measurably hindered by these accountings of the experts, And. by and by, a very un- likely criminal steps out, under com- pulsion—though if one had not been 50 hot in pursuit of two other suspects he might have gathered a suspicion toward the really guilty man, The writer of the mysiery tale has a fairly easy job. because his reading public is 50 big and, as a rule, so uncritical. They want the deep thrill of vicarious crime—devil take sequences and plausi- bilities and such. But the more exact- ing reader will grant that Connington, certainly, is not falling down on his job, is not turning ouf the trick of a lloglm at writing. Gdod story through= ou R St 1k, e ary a of recomm read- ing will -p& in this column each Sunday. ~ Biography. Faris, J. T. The Romance of Forgotten Men. E-9F224r. & How D.. ed. La'cr Years of the jay Club, 1870-1920. 1927. ve, M. Saturd: E-9H833 1. . Knox, E. A, Bisiop of Manchester. John Bun: in Relation to His Times. E-] 3 2 LT e S Lunn, A, H. 'M. John Wesley. de, Comte. E-W51 lu. of th P4655-L61 . Mansfield, Katherine. volumes. E-M3176a. Porge. Francois. Charles Baudelaire. most | ference, held in the Summer of 1927, {This disparity in cruiser strength must nds { not be overlooked in an effort to achieve lglh.l. . Sand, Geor , The Intimate Journal 'o% me Sand. E-SaSl B4E v Philip | Sellers, C. C.” Lorenzo Dow. E-D7569s. Gardening. By KEliza- | MacMilln Co. IRELAND—A OATSPAW. 5 . New York: The Slide Lines BY BRUCE BARTON. HIS is the business record of “John 8mith, who is there he pieced out by -selling real estat ferred into the bond busi- and sold insurance en the a poor job that he has to carry samples of flo and a pat- ent attachment f order to keep goi * X X honest and hard work- int about the which the busi- i od a friend of mine to make an in- It revealed the fol- lowing facts: One of the men who started on the newspaper with John Smitheis now own: paper and has an. income of more than $25,000 a Year. than John, are new very well- to-do. * ¥ k Both the and the bond busine in John's old town, fortable homes for several men who were formerly his col- leagues. * , | myself ng with the > As for wall happened to be (Continued From First Pag construction of five treaty cruisers be- cause of the pressure of the admiralty, but that it had no intention of mlkl.:lg this an annual policy. The Birkenhs program, he declared, was t| ning of “new’war preparations, and is not merely & replacement program at all. * ¢ * There is no known danger facing us that justifies ‘this program.” Following the ill-fated Geneva con- the British government dropped three of the eight-inch-gun cruisers from its | five-year program. _ Nevertheless. by | June, 1929, the British government had completed the construction of 10 eight- inch-gun cruisers and had authorized the construction of eight more—a total of 18. In addition, there were in the British navy four cruisers of the Haw- kins class of a tonnage averaging about 9,750 and carrying 7.5-inch guns, and 40 small cruisers carrying 6-inch A Most of these latter cruisers are of less than 5,000 tons. Thus, the cruiser strength of the British navy is much greater than the present strength of the American Navy. naval parity as well as reduction. ‘While the British naval strength con- sists of 64 cruisers, built and building, it was not the intention even of the Baldwin government to maintain this number of cruisers indefinitely. Thirty of the British cruisers will become o lete between 1935 and 1940. If the British government waited until the actual ye of maturity before begin- ning replacement, the financial burden upon the budget for that year would be excessive. Consequently it was the policy of the last government to antici- pate these maturity dates by laying down three new cruisers a year, 30 that by 1940 the ships laid down over this period would approximately equal the number becoming obsolete. According to a statement of Mr. Bridgeman, first lord of the admiralty, in the House of Commons on March 14, 1929, there would be only 50 cruisers under 20 years of age in the British navy in 1940. In view of the large treaty cruisers already under eohstruc- tion, at least 18 of these vessels would nhave been eight-inch-gun vessels, and the remainder presumably would have been smaller six-inch-gun vessels. Anumh': that each of these smaller vessels ha » displacement of 6,500 tons, the total tonnage of the British fleet in 1940 under this program would ke 384.000 tons, or nearly 80,000 tons more than American cruiser tonnage, assuming the construction of the 15 cruisers au- thorized in 1920. (If none of these eruis- ers is constructed, British superiority would be about 230,000 tons.) On the other hand, the United States would have five more treaty cruisers And it now. seems to be admitted b; gov. ernments that a large eight-inch-gun cruiser is worth perhaps two small six- inch-gun cruisers, although the differ- ence in tonnage may be only a few thousand ‘tons. Moreover, the United States also has a superiority over the British in _destroyers and submarines of nearly 98,000 tons. Because of this superiority in large cruisers, destroyers and submarines, the equale of navy as mnumfuud Inihe replace- ment program of the last British gov- ‘American Plants for American Gar- PFine Flowers. RIS-W( . Wiison, E. H., end R. T. Lily Pools and Rock Gardens. RISE-W60. " Psychology. ] COE, G. A. The Motives of Men. BI Dots:;h(nl A., Hows and Whys of Hu. , G. A Hows . man BehaVior. BJ-D728h. ‘hology and . The Psy le. BJ-M822. % e Inferiority Feeling. , A. E. oring Your Mlnd National Administration. Eberling, E. J’Vfl— Investi- mfia“-’mli F. Old Post Bags. JVP- Harrl.g, E. P. Representation , Raymond. - Polities and Crimi- nai Prosecution. JV83J-M73. he begin- | D sales manager of a wall paper company a fow days after hear- a poor busi anybedy ever make a really good thing out of it?” is the best answer to that. worked for us as a salesman for 20 years. M tervitery his wi The other day he re- family out to Californ! * % ¥ 8o it seems that each of the businesses which John Smith every night because he made $5 a week by an orchest * kX There are men who have made fortunes by runmning bootblack by buying junk from automobile factories, and even By contracting with a city to collect its garbage. Almost any business seems to be a good butingss if a man gives it all he's got. But the side line is the slide line. (Copyright. 1929 ernment, and would probgbly have ex- ceeded it in gun power because of its additional five 10,000-ton cruisers. ‘This is why, Chairman Fred Britten, chairman of the House committee on , in a significant statement ed the magazine of the New York Herald Tribune of February 21, 1929, declared that the completion of the 15 American crulsers authorized in 1929 “will, unless Great Britain or Japan expand their naval pi ams, place the United States on a is somewhere near equality with any other anLtl force it might be called upon to meet.” Naval Treaty Suggested. In view of this substantial equality the simplest method of arriving at a naval agreement would be for both the British and American governments to make a treaty allowing each country to carry out its existing programs. Such & treaty should clearly define these pro- &lms and should Emhlbu any addi- nal construction. Under such a treaty the United States would be superior to the British Empire in large cruisers, destroyers and submarinss, but the BritisH Empire would be superior to the United States in small cruisers and in total cruiser tonmage. If such arf” agreement is concluded both the British and American govern- ments will have to modify the positions taken at the Geneva conference of 1927. At this conference the tish Empire insisted not only upon ' maintaining & fleet of 70 cruisers of all kinds, but also upon limiting the number of trealy crulsers to 12 each for the United States and the British Empire, Under this roposal the United States would have obliged to construct many more small cruisers than it desired. The United States, on the other hand, insisted at Geneva in measuring naval parity in terms of lonnage alone and not also in terms of gun-power. It de- clined to admit at that conference that an eight-inch-gun cruiser was worth two smaller cruisers. and it did ‘not suggest the system of fluctuating ton- nages, under which a power wishing to concentrate upon cruisers might deduct destroyer tonnage for this purpose. Already there are evidences that both governments have receded from positions maintained at Geneva. the Baldwin government quietly reduced iis objective from 70 to Apparent]; 1s willing 50 isers. | y the MacDanald m:gmm 1 of the Interstate Commerce Commission to mccord the United States | are prepared to seek it out and to teach Larger U. S. Liquor Force May Be Created or Local En- forcement Policy Abandoned as Wickersham Lifts Curtain on New Drama. BY WILLIAM HARD.. R.;Ircxn.?uwl m’;"' incement on prohil mzdnu:‘n tpmhi:fla:: i a o pol tics. That drama, consisting of all the monologues and dialogues and mob scenes and precinct primaries and political births and deaths which will accompany ,the restoration of local responsibility in liquor control, was bound to be enacted anyway. Mr. By iven It e cartaie vine & fow yeurs ply given [ a few years ahead of schedule. iy 7 ‘The fallacy inherent in most of the general disct that has followed Mr. Wickersham's pronouncement is that it has taken that pronouncement primarily as a proposal. Mr. Wickersham, it is noted, said fn & letter which was read to the National Conference of State Governors at New London, Conn., that there might passi- bly properly be a partition of authority between the Federal Government and’ the State governments in the matter of the enforcement of the eighteenth amendment. The Federal Government, for instance, would combat the rum- runner on the high se: The State governments, for instance, would com- bat the speakeasy at the street corner. The detached phraseology of Mr. ‘Wickersham’'s leiter cannot profitably be stressed. Time spent in analyzing the adjectives and the commas of that phraseology is time ‘wasted. The letter was not intended to be a formal state document. Indeed, there is some reason to suspect that the letter was really intended only for private perusal and not for any publication whatsoever. Its detalls of wording are, therefore, wholly secondary and transitory and cannot be taken as in any way expressing any precisely considered or any authorita- tively drafted legislative policy either of the administration or of the Law Enforcement Commission or of Mr. Wickersham himself. ‘What Mr. Wickersham essentially did was merely in-a fast stroke and rough- hewn way to state the idea of a division of toil between Federal authorities and State authorities in the carrying of the load of the efghteenth amendment. That idea, as thus stated by him, has thereupon been generally discussed as if it were a break with the past and as | if it werd a proposal taking us into a | totally new future. Caraway and Borah. On that basis of interpretation, Sena- | tor Borah of Idaho and Senator Cara- way of Arkansas, for instance, have summoned Mr. Wickersham to instant | condemnation at the bar of their high and dry political judgment. They ap- parently conceive Mr. Wickersham to be suggesting something which does not in any notable degree now exist. They are thus completely missing the whole revo- lutionary significance of the Wicker- sham New London incident. Mr. Wickersham, before sending to | Gov. Roosevelt of New York the letter | that was read by Gov. Roosevelt to his assembled fellow governors at New | London, had listened attentively and protractedly to the actual administra- tive experiences of Dr. James M. Doran, head of the Federal Government's Bureau of Prohibition. Doran. It heard him. condition of Federal prohibition en- forcement, not as perhaps Mr. Borah and Mr. Caraway politically, legislg- tively, take it to be, but as it adminis- | tratively, actually and factually is. Does the Federal Government at this moment enforce the whole of the eighteenth amendment everywhere throughout the United States? even attempt so to enforce it? It does not. Not if the word “enforce” is to be taken as meaning what it would mean, and what it does mean, in con- | nection with, for instance, the law against counterfeiting. Activities Eisewhere. Let the counterfeiter start counter- feiting, in the smallest way, anywhere, and the Secret Service of the Treasury | of the United "States is ready instan- taneously to pursue him. Or let a railroad locomotive in the - | farthest wooded wilds of Oregon think it can go without its proper periodic inspection by its owners, and the agents superiority in large cruisers in return | it better without the aid or consent of for British superiority in small cruf Thus in his address to the House of Commons on July 24, Mr. declared that Ambassador Dawes and he had agreed “that without in any way_ departing from the conditions of perity, a measure' of elasticity can be alloy 't the requirements In his speech last April before the League Preparatory Commission, Am- bassador Hugh Gibson set forth the coricessions which the United States ing posal whereby within a certain pe: limit one governthent could utilize a portion of its destroyer tonnage for cruiser ~construction, ~ Such -is the “yardstick” formula. | Serapping of Ships Doubfed. I6 should be emphasized that any t based on quo, as outlined above, assumes that the United States will construct the 15 treaty eruisers authorized in the 1929 law. It may be true that the present adminis- does not to construct these 5 H bsg Hi ] i ] E ¥ : i E:s B i ! g : § { § £ 4 % i Hi i 23 g5 3 B 3k ] H 3 E : : & g g 5 i fii- of i i 11 ; %E ! | | ; 3 . ) 1 & : I . £ g 5 § i i g d i 585 b i H i i i ] 2 % ; 1 i i i i £ 3 il i i H £ i i E | i i il i j f & Ea The ‘sovernment { isers. . any local governor, mayor or sheriff. These feats can be readily accom- MacDonald | plished. Everybody is against counter- | ¥" feiting and the counterfeiter knows that however. agreed to suspend for the time being the construction of the last 3 of the 18 treaty cruisers now listed in the British Navy. The keels of the first two of these vessels, the Surrey and the Northumberland, were laid cown only last year, while the keel of the third such cruiser, authorized in the 1920 program, seems not yet to have been laid. Apparently this action means that the British government is willin to reduce permanently the number o large 10,000-ton cruisers in the British Navy from 18 to 15, provided the United States makes a similar reduction in its building program. « In other words, the United States will Tiot be obliged, in order to attain parity with Great PBritain, to build 3 of the 15 cruisers whose construction was authorized by Congress this Winter. If both governments reduce the number of their treaty cruisers by three the rela- tive strength of each fleet remains as it was before. Construction a Burden. But if the United States wishes to achleve parity with Great Britain it seems that the construction of the re- maining 12 cruisers will be necessary. The construction of these cruisers will impose a heavy burden upon the Ameri- can people, Nevertheless, the United States cannot demand parity from the British Empire and expect Britain to reduce its fleet to a level which will make it unnecessary for the United States to take on the burden of new naval construction. ‘The British government has already Teduced its cruiser strength to less tHan half of what it was before the World War. The MacDoneld government indicated its willingness to reduce the Auuty m’ulanerl1 from ‘lfll lo‘ L&e a The merican people should not - ted if Prime Minister MacDonald ; il j Mr. Wicker- | sham's Law Enforcement Commission | had naturally been eager to hear Dr.| It learned the | y he 4s doing wrong and would know it even if there were no statute telling him so. Everybody is in favor of locomo- tive boller inspection and the railroad official who fails to inspect his loco- motives would know that he was guilty of wrongdoing even if no statute on the subject had ever been passed by the Congress l%llflled by the President. Such statu do not invent crimes. ‘They declare them and punish them. ‘The Federal Government thereupon, in spite of all the outcry against its “inefficlency,” can and does, in general and drastie effect, enforce them. | the last fiscal year for the Secret Serv- ice of the. Treasury were not much more than half a million dollars and they were quite ,sufficlent to suppress any general open plague of counterfeiting. For the locomotive boiler inspection sérvice of the Interstate Commerce Commission the total Federal appro- priations in the last fiscal year were a bit less than half a million dollars and they were quite sufficient to prevent any crime wave of boiler explosions. ‘What Would Be Cost? ‘What, however, would be the cost of a similarly local and detailed Federal enforcement of the eighteenth smend- ment? Dr. Doran has told us. ‘That wity and red-headed little man, with his curiously protruding, pugna- cious underlip, and with his odd, jerky way of looking abstractedly out of win- dows to deliver himself of profound rolnt‘ of practical administrative phi- losophy to, as it were, all outdoors, knows more about prohibition enforce- ment, both with his heart and ‘with his head, than anybody else. Derived from a Methodist environment, and imbibing from that environment both an enthu- siasm for moral reform and a perfect willingness to smite the ungodly who might resist it, he has had, most prop- erly, the full confidence and the earnest support of the Protestant -religious bodies which have been earnest friends of prohibition, Educated as a scientist, he has added a eapacity for truth to a capacity for uplift. Serving as a chemist in the In- ternal Revenue Bureau of the Treasury for 13 years before Federal prohibition was installed among us, he became thor- oughly an expert both in the pre-prohi- bition liquor traffic and in the possibili- ties and limitations of Federal adminis- trative efforts. Continuing to serve the Federal Government without intermis- sion throughout the whole cf its pres- ent prohibition era, and now for more than two years our Federal prohibition commissioner, he speaks today with an authority backed by an absolutely un- rivaled combination of character and of experience in the Federal prohibition enforcement field. “ His statement, famously delivered to a committee of the Congress, regarding the cost of a detailed local enforcement of the eighteenth amendment by the Federal Government, was to the effect that the cost in ouestion would be $300,- | 000,000 annually. Interrogated the other day as to this estimate, Dr. Doran replied that now he | would be inclined to revise it upward. Let us assume, however, that $300.- 000,000 worth would be enough, and let us contrast that sum with our present Federal prohibition expenditures. Let us eliminate from our calculations the moneys which we now expend upon | the prohibition activities of our Coast Guard and of our customs service. Those activities are, and must continue to be, by every process of reasoning. ex- clusively Federal and National. They cannot conceivably be delegated. even through remissness, to local govern- | mental energy. Our dealings with for- | eign countries are constitutionally ex- | clusively in the hands of the Govern- Does it | ment at Washington. The Coast Guard | and the customs service are, and must be, our sole line of defense between the | wetness of the foreign world apd the dryness of our potential Americad unin- toxicated Eden. Our Coast Guardsmen and our customs inspectors aim their vigilance at two of the five crimes speci- fied by the eighteenth amendment. They endeavor, in respect of intoxi- catin Tages, to prevent “improta- tion” and “exportation.” ‘Three of the eighteenth amendment’s specified crimes remain over. They are "m?nuhcture," “transportation” and anufacture” happens when, for in- stance, a farmer turns corn into whisky in a still in his wood lot in a swamp in Tidewater Virginia. ““Transportation” happens when, for instance, he walks across a public high- way with a jug of his product into the ard of a neighboring farmer. “Sale” happens when, for instance, he takes $2 for the jug in the rear of the neighboring farmer’s barn. To prevent each and every one of these three crimes in tidewater Vir- ginia and in every other locality in the United States the agency of the Federal Government is the Bureau of Pro- hibition in the Treasury Department; and the total appropriations this fiscai year for the Bureau of Prohibition come to $14,968,555! % It is to be noted. moreover, that not all of that $14,968,555 is for the en- forcement of legislation against intoxi- cating beverages. Some of it—$1.611.- 260—is for the enforcement of legisla- tion against narcotic drugs. Fewer Dollars for Dope. It will be observed that the dollal thus dedicated to 'the suppression of morphine and cocaine and heroin are amazingly fewer than the dollars ded! cated to the suppression by the Pro- hibition Bureau of wine and whisky and beer. Not many legislators would deny that heroin, for instance, is rather more deleterious ' than, for instance, beer. Heroin and cocaine and morphine, how- ever, except for medicinal purposes, are condemned by the common conscience of universal mankind, including what conscience is still possessed by the wretched addicts io them. Hence in enforcing our Federal legislation against narcotic drugs our Federal enforcers encounter physical resistance, indeed, but no true moral resistance; and much accordingly can be done and is done by them with a relatively small amount of money. Subtracting that amount of .money {rom_the total’ amount avnropriated to the Prohibition Bureau for this fiscal ‘has | year by the Congress, we arrive at the 24 figure of $13,357,205. ‘With $13,357,295 Dr. Doran is sup- posed to brandish the cat o' nine tails ‘of Federal dissuasive coercion over . |every act of “manufacture” and every act of “transportation” and every act of “sale” of every drop of any intoxi- cating beverage in every wood lot, on every farm and in every back -alley within every city in the whole United States. That is what he is supposed do. What does he, in fact, do? He, i. fact—right now—leaves the overwhelming bulk of all local suppress- of all merely local petty “manu- and “transportation” and “sale” of intoxicating beverages to the local State and county and city and town authorities. States Which Do Act. . Certain States do that suppressing fimuulz,vwm Among them may mentioned in a star class by them- selves South Carolina, Alabama, Utah and Oregon. Certain other States at the other ex- Wisconsin, Montana and Nevada. Subtracting them from the 48 States of the .Union, ‘it might be superficially said that at rate we have 43 States, including l:fl Carolina and S ndeatoring b ‘put The Pederal The total Federal appropriations in | eighteenth amendment into ite- effect within their m.‘“ g ho:levzé, ve‘ oom: u] e s fact so pat- ent and so familiar that almost nobedy bothers to notice it, alt! it s a fact of crucial pertinence to the situa- tion. It is this: * Hardly any of our States have genuinely State machinery of any .n:{ portant weight or of any im) driving and cutting power for laying low the violators of State laws passed in support of the eighteenth amendment. !sute-wide police forces are far, indeed, rom common al us in large or efrective form. The enforcesent of | State legislation crime devolves !principally upon the cfficers of the coun- ties, the cities and the towns. Wet Spets in Dry States. It follows that some of the wettest ;p):)usln this country l:re in dry States. e States may pass laws in support of the eighteenth amendment and the | counties and cities and towns may them up. Intensely local self-govern- ment is the original tradition of this country, and its unsevered roots are stifi in our earth. States may decide to | swing within the orbit of the eighteenth | amendment and to prosecute and con- | vict and jail its violators as violators |also of a State statute. Sheriffs and | mayors and constables may disregard the State statute as lightly as they @is- regard the eighteenth amendment, and 1may allow the violators to flourish un- i_mleg and unconvicted and’ unprose- cuted. _Hence Dr. Doran getting “ce-opera- tion” from Florida cannot rest there. | He must get it also from Key West and does not. New York and Maryland and Wis- consin and Nevada by not having “State enforcement acts” in aid of the eight- eenth amendment are said to have “nullified” the Federal Oonstitution. Much more basic is the accompanying but generally overlooked fact that thou- ‘snnds of communities within States fully equipped with “State enforcement fets” are able in principle and are willing in | practice to bring those acts.themseives to_“nullification.” Dr. Doran_accordingly confronts a situation which for illustrative purpases we again may express in terms drawn from the duties of the Federal Secret | Service. Let us suppose that.in this | country there were at least 50,000.000 | people who thought that counterfeiting |was right. Let us suppose that st leas: 110,000,000 of them not only thought that counterfeiting was right but | thought also that counterfeiting was |a duty in order to protest against the aw against counterfeiting. Let us sup- | pose, finally, that thousands upon thou- | sands of sheriffis and deputy sheriffs |and mayors and chiefs of police and justices of the peace and constables | were friends of the counterfeiters and | foes of the Secret Service operatives. | In such circumstances the Seeret | Service would certainly regard $300,000.- 000 a year as a modest allowance the task of enforcing this law. Dr. Doran, with his $13,357,295 for prohibition enforcement, is short today | of that allowance by a ma; of $286.- 1642,705. With his $13,357,285 he is able to employ approximately 4,500 enforcers. With $286,642,705 more he could pre- sumably employ some 99,000 more en- forcers. He would then have a total of 103,500 enfor. s, and he seems to esti- mate bravely that with them he could do the work. 2 | Two Impeding Truths. | Then arise, however, two impeding | truths. The first is that the Cangress, | o matter how sincerely and how. en- thusiastically dry it may be, will never | give Dr. Doran an allowance of $300.- 1000,000 & vear and an army of 103.500 | prohibition enforcement policemen. The |second is that Dr. Doran 3 though he has been willing to estimate such a pay roll, would probably never request it. | He knows very well that it would | mean_something little short of a_eivil war between Federal aggressive and local resistive forces. e He accordingly exerts not the slight- est pressure upon Congress for vio- lently enlary wfi::fll'-b and within the appropriati which now has he centers himself upon the “whole- sale” aspects of the liquor traffic and leaves the “retail” aspects of it not en- tirely but most certainly . overwhelm- e ww(;u; mk:l wm Mr. Wickersham's proj of prohibition enforcement toil between our Federal authorities and our. loeal authorities is not, therefore, & mered proposal. The ice which lies back of it is that it is in effect an informed declaration of an .existing actuality. ‘What stretches before us now is the | politics of honest. recognition of that | actuality and the politics of legisiative readjustment to it. Ventures Surmises. | This writer ventures upon the fol- |ing _surmises: | ‘That Congress will be forced at some |time within a not extremely remote |future to make a cleat~-cut choice be- | tween advancing into the creation of & | Nation-wide prohibition constabulary |of at least 100,000 men, and on the |other hand retreating outrightly and utterly from all local petty prohibition | policing. The middle ground between these two positions is & ground of tur- moil and of slaughter. Oong:l will ultimately choose either the posi- tl’on or thel second. W::h the fi‘ouent |of & very large proportion of the drys themselves, it will one day choose the second. ‘The, drys themselves are suffering | today from the effects of their recent reliance upon Federal intervention in local liquor traffic problems. Their followers have tended to go to sleep |upon a largely imaginary Pederal pil- low. The old-time fervor in teach |th> evils of intemperance throu “Bands of - Hope” and other similar |agencies in many quarters has abated. | Collections for the cause on many plates i have declined. |,, Prohibition enforcement can regain its pristine vigor only through a revival of local responsibility. The- wets will |want that revival. The drys will want |1t too. Each side for its own reasons will want it, ani just exactly as in the parallel case of colored suffrage it will come with rapidity. NEW FICTION AND NON -FICTION Rented at - Small Fees The best in modern fiction and non-fiction at a rental fee you hardly notice. 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