The Washington times., 1902-03-30
AUTHOROF "BY BREAD ALONE''
REVIEWS HIS LATEST WORK

leader to control large mass of men,
each with an opinion and will of his
own. Some day there will come n man
great enough to unite all these different
interests and concentrate the force of the
unions on some particular thing. But no
one theory can settle 1t. 1t must all be
part of great evolution
The hero of by Bread Alone" Is n
young man born OF wealthy parents. who
relinquishes his inheritance and opposes
the wishes of his father in order to be-
come la5orer in a rolling mill and live
among the people whom he desires %
benefit. The result of his experiment is
apparent failure.
Mr.. Friedman explained the teaching
of his book to be. In a general way. that
little good could be done by one mans
stepping out of his natural environment
and attempting by the force of his single
individuality to settle problems which
can only be settled by the slow course of
natural evolution. He did not believe that
any man could do good by leaving lis
natural place in the world.
Discusses President Roosevelt
How about man like President
Roosevelt? Hasn't his experience with all
sorts OF men been Il good thing?"
MIR. Friedman thought moment. not as
if he were at a loss what to say, but as
if he were wondering what would be the
best way to say it.
Mr.. Roosevelt never did leave his own
place in the world he said HE has
mingled. of course, with all sorts Of men,
but he has not been a laborcr among the
labore-s. He has gained by all these ex-
pcriences of his, as the individual always
must, but that sort of thing wasn't what
| meant. 1t does, of course, benefit the
individual to see as much OF life as he
can. But that is different from the case
of my hero
A tentative question as to Mr.. Fried
mans Impressions of the President, with
whom he dined some days ago, resulted
in sort of impromptu character sketch
OF Mr.. Roosevelt.
President Wonderful Man.
He is wonderful man," said the
young author, earnestly. HE seems to
have read everything don't know where
he gets the time. AS TO the labor ques-
tion 1 am certain that he will deal with
it in spirit of justice, and he is a man
who wishes to be fair, and to know all
that he possibly can of the conditions in
order to be fair. think that it win
come to be generally recognized that he
is the greatest President since Lincoln.
do not think he has any class spirit, or
any prejudice of any sort. He does Lot
show sign of anything OF the kind"
In regard to his futuI work. Mr.. Fried
man simply .aid that he hoped to help
in the solution of some of the problems
of the day by recording some of their
phases in black and white, but that he
did not believe in being didactic. His
literary experience has been gained part
ly in newspaper work in Chicago, which
is the scene of all of his books thus far.
A Russian Jew by Birth.
He is by birth a Russian Jew, but has
not. thus far, dealt especially with his
own race in fiction. Unlike Abraham
Cahan or Israel Zangwill, he has dis
his nationality from his work.
and writes simply as an observer of hu- .
man nature, and not as belonging to any
particular race. class. or tradition. 1t
would be hard TO say from his books
alone whether the author were rich or |
poor, or what sort of d life he had lived, |
except that he evidently knows all about
he people CT whom he writes.