Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-09

dramatically satisfactory climax. The
Dust of Conflict will go with a rush, be-
cause 1t Is a brisk, true picture of one Of
the mos. interesting phases of recent his
tory.
THE FEDERAL POWER OVER CAR
RIERS AND CORPORATIONS. By e.
Parma1ee Prentice. New York: The
Macmillan Company. Washington:
Woodward & Lothrop.
Mr. Prentice regards the tendency toward
Capitalization. of the federal power in this
country with a Jealous eye. holding it to be
contrary to the spirit Of the Constitution
and subversive of the vitality Of state gov
ernments. He reviews the course of decis-
ions by the Supreme Court to indicate that
the general trend Of the highest judicial
opinion has in the main supported his con-
tention that 1t was not the intention of the
trainers Of the Constitution to grant to
Congress and the executive branch jurisdic-
ton over the industries and transportation
facilities such as t. ~ claimed or assumed
in recent years by the advocates of ,ne fed
eral method of trust restriction. The Consti-
tuition, he urges should not be construed out
of sympathy with the sense of Its origin,
and he regards as dangerous the doctrine
that because modern conditions are radi-
cally different from those that obtained
when the fundamental law was written that
law must or may now be modified to suit
the present state of things. Only by formal
amendment are such notifications per-
missible. But the main force Of his argu-
ment is directed to the point of contending
that the regulation of commerce is more
safely to be left to the states, which can ex-
ercise a direct control and express the pop
ular will without the interposition of the
federal machinery.
The volume Is an important contribution
to a discussion which has proceeded of late
with an increasing vigor, especially since
1alfr rod hNyS
on this subject of Capitalization aroused the
champions of states rights.
RUNNING WATER. By A. E. w. Mason,
author of 1.-The Four Feathers" &C.
Illustrated by H. S. Potter. New York:
The Century Company.
1t is plain that the mountains have a mes
sage for Mr.. Mason, else he could not have
written so dramatically of the Alps and
the tragedies of the peaks. He starts and
ends this thrillingly interesting romance
In the Swiss land of glaciers, rock climbs,
avalanches, crevasses and other dangers,
utilizing the mountains first to bring to-
gether the man and the woman who later
love and marry, and then he returns, after
a sojourn in England, to complete his mar
rative with an account of hazardous and
all but fatal climb. The tale deals with
the plot of a London usurer to secure the
insurance which he has placed on the life
of one of his victims, weak youngster,
who meanwhile falls into the clutches of
gang of sharpers. The leader of this crew
is Garrett Skinner father of Sylvia, who
has been brought up on the continent by
her wandering, well-dressed mother. Sylvia
soon discovers that evil influences are at
work and undertakes to checkmate her
father, but the game is played too deeply
for her and but for the Intervention of her
lover, Captain Cheyne, the victim would
have been sacrificed. Skinner is an old
time Alpinist Of wide fame, but he has
changed his name and withdrawn from
public notice, owing to certain dark and
mysterious incidents in his career. He
takes young Hine up on Mount Blanc to end
his life, but he plays his part with certain
nobility of character strangely at variance
with his occupation, and in consequence OF
his sportsmanlike scoundrelism Cheyne Is
enabled to arrive In time to prevent the
of the crime. The culmina-
ton of the story is exciting and the descrip-
ton of the Alpine dangers is SO wildly real
istic as to give the sensitive readers shivers
of dread.
EAST OF SUEZ; Ceylon, India, China and
Japan. By Frederic CORTLAND Pen
field, author of "Present-Day Egypt"
&c. Illustrated. New York: The Gen.
fury Company.
traveller, Mr. Penfield avoids reciting the
True, he carries his reader to Bombay, Cal
cutta, Jeypore and Agra, in India. and to
Hong Kong, Canton and Macao, in China,
but wherever he touches he invests his SUBJ
ject with a distinct charm of personal IN
His chapters on Ceylon are
especially attractive, affording an instruc-
tive view Of the great pearl fisheries con-
Quoted by the British government in the
Gulf of Manar. Owing to the inaccessibility
of the pearl oyster beds and to the uncer-
tainty Of the date of a fishery" ordered
occasionally by the authorities, not to men
ton the overwhelming odors arising from
the oyster masses in the process of yielding
up their precious contents, few tourists
visit this region, though 1T Is the scene OF
one of the most profitable industries of the
east and. in truth, one of the most fasci-
mating lotteries in the world.
Throughout his volume Mr.. Penfleld takes
occasion to call attention to the absence of
the American flag in the great places Of
shipping concourse, and to teach lesson
in the way of the duty of the United States
to make haste to provide a merchant ma
rine and to organize a strong campaign to
capture the worlds markets. In his open
ing and closing chapters, the former on the
Suez canal, with parallel references to
Panama, and the latter on Japan's COM
mercial future, he notes the urgent neces-
sity of prompt action along ,lis line II the
the race for the worlds trade.
THE AMERICAN IDEA. By Lydia Kings
mill Commander. New York: A. S.
Barnes & Co.
The author-whether Mrs. or Miss Com
mander is not Immediately disclosed by the
book itself-undertakes to answer the
question, Does the national tendency to-
ward small family point to race suicide
or race Development" She dedicates her
volume to President Roosevelt, who first
aroused the nation to the danger of race
suicide and who has been the only Ameri
can President to recognize officially the
supreme importance of those questions that
directly concern the family and the home.''
The volume contains a large quantity of
interesting matter bearing upon the SUBJ
ject, the author throwing light on both sides
of the question. Her own conclusion Is
somewhat indefinite, being most clearly in
Dictated by the following paragraph:
when we readjust our Industrial system
so as to give to every man who wants to
work, occupation, with such income as
shall enable him to support generous
American standard of living and face with
out fear the responsibility of a family, we
shall have done much to encourage repro
duction among native Americans, When
we make such social arrangements that
women may have work without foregoing
motherhood, we may expect a birthrate as