The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-11-01
|MR MURPHY'S NEW BOOK
ENGLISH THINKERS GIVE TT HIGH
 PRAISE.
"The Basis of Asce ndency" Has Made Deep Impression on English
 and Scotch Reviewers
 Specimen Opinions.


 (Communfcated.)
 The Advertiser has already reprinted a number of the American reviews com corning The Basis of Ascendancy." the new volume by Mfr. Edgar Gardner Murphy of this city. Much of 1t was written here, and part of it was read. while In manuscript. to Montgomery friends. Many will be glad to know of It's American success. and that the book has also gained early recognition abroad. The following extracts are taken from extended notices in The London Daily Mail. The London Times. The London Morning Post, The Glasgow Herald. The Edinburg Herald, The Post of Birmingham. England. The Edin- burgh Scotsman and The London Daily News-the official organ of the now dominant Liberal party. These reviews are not mere estimates or impressions of the volume but are. for the most part. carefully considered interpreta- tions of Mir. Murphy's argument. They show much appreciation of conditions in the South. One of the ablest Is tne following from The, Daily Htr1d. of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Scotland.
 The Glasgow Herald.
 'The racial difficulty which confronts the Southern States of the American Union. with all the political, social and
  one. of the most perplexing subjects that encounters the student of modern social and political history. To whom Is he to listen If he would arrive at the truth--the white man or the black. the Northern doctrinaire or the southern fanatic. the American himself or the candid friend from another continent. sober sociological student like MT. Bryce, or a rapid impressionist like Mr. Archer? It is his duty, no doubt to look at the matter in all It's varying as- poets and to listen to any one who Is able to make any of these aspects clear CT than before.
 But if he wishes guidance through the confusing maze of opinion towards conclusions which are neither vague nor biased. and the outline of a policy that gives some promise of an ultimate adjustment between the white and black races. and some hope of the dawning of a better day for both, we should recommend him to read and ponder this book by Mir. Murphy. Mir. Murphy has already established his right to be regarded as an authority on the general subject by his Problems of the Present South" and his new work Is really a more systematic expo sition of the sociological principles which, that volume of brilliant essays was designed to illustrate.
 Mir. Murphy strikes us at once by his combination of the two contrasted qualifications of Intimacy and attach ment--he understands the situation in the South as only one could do who had been reared in the midst of 1t and breathed its atmosphere, and yet he has acquired the power of standing apart and looking at 1t from the point of view of the larger life of the nation as whole or the still larger life of modern civilization.
 The Scotsman. of Edinbugh. refers to the volume as "a thoughtful, we'll reasoned study of political first princi- ples" and dwells at length upon the conditions with which it deals. The London Daily Mall gives full column to the book. beginning its review with these words. The great problem of American life is the future of the ne- gro. The great problem Of Europe Is the re-emergence of Africa. The two. problems are inextricably connected. Of that this eloquent and scholarly writer is assured and in this assurance lies to 4 great extent the value of' his essay" The London Times. referring to the volume as Fin many ways so earnest and so powerful" devotes also a full column to the discussions of it's theme. 'e
 The London Times.
 The London Times says in part:
 There are few aspects of the prob- lem of the government of subject races with which we English are not famil- far; but nowhere in the British Empire mot in India. Australasia, or, as yet. in South Africa--have the difficulties presented themselves in form so com plicated as that with which the South ern States of America have to deal. The American negro was slave. or sudden. when he had developed no more capacity for government than he had brought with him from Africa. when he had no greater initiative than Is like ly to be bred In slaves, he not only had freedom thrust upon him. but, at one lift, he was put on plane of political equality with his late masters. And by the necessities of the situation at the close of the civil war the individual equality of the negroes meant their aggregate political supremacy. It Is doubtful if any civilized and cultivated people was ever subjected to such hu- initiation, or was ever burdened with so gross a travesty of administration, as the people Of the South were forced