The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-11
NEWS ITEMS OF NEW BOOKS
" Chester K the tahle Is more to be pted han eon-

"The Mansion of Mystery" by Chester K.
 Steele. Couples & Leon. New York)
 story rocking with adventure and mystery Sherlock Holmes, Arsene Lubin, and all the rest of the detectives-for-de- light only in their whole careers scarcely meet and conquer the mysteries and hair breadth escapes that Adam Adams sur mounts in these pages. Here is the book for the man who1oves to snatch his hero momently from the jaws of death, who loves to extricate the beautiful heroine from a net of accusations, and resuscitate her from effects of strange and subtle poisons. Here is the book for him who loves to leave all lovers happy at the end. "War or Peace," by Hiram M. Chittenden,
 U. S. A. GA. c. MeClung, Chicago), Si.
 With the question of war appropriations due to come up in Congress General Crit tenden's book is timely. It is compre- hensive and suggestive study of the sub ject. The author graduated from West Point in 1884 He served as chief engineer in the Fourth Army Corps during the Spanish-American war.
 General Crittenden opposes war on prac- tical as well as ethical grounds. Of the
 
 tions for war and in creating the imple- ments of war he writes: "A few years ago a fine battleship cost about 5000 600; now it requires $10,000000 to $15.000,000 to build one, and s1,00Oo00 to $1,050,00O year to operate and maintain it. It's total cost at the end of ten years will be $20OOO,0OO to s30.0O000O and then it may be con- signed to the scrap heap or have to be 'modernized" at heavy additional outlay. adu In in direction entails new collateral expendi- lures. The cost of increased size in bat tleships is not confined to the ships them selves. More collier capacity and larger | drydocks and even deeper ports and chan nels may be required. Finally there is the entirely new field of aviation in which the expenditure is bound to be large, and which may destroy the value of much of the expenditure already made in the old | fields" General Crittenden points out that if these immense amounts were di- verted to economically useful ends the worlds wealth would be increased and the welfare of the people be promoted for example: The great Assouan dam on the Nile is said to have cost about the price of a modern battleship and it is es- timated that it will add ten tiraes it's cost to the taxable wealth of Egypt. The bat tleship construction destroys no wealth. but 1t converts great deal into form economically useless, and 1t yields abso- lutely nothing in the future. The dam Is great productive agent which goes on paying for itself over and over in It's economic condition. This is the whole case in nutshell.'
 To bring the matter nearer home this: Tt will be conservative estimate to place the direct and indirect cost of armed peace and of actual war during a future period equal to that since the Franco German war at one hundred billion dol lars"
 Contrast the cost of works of economic usefulness: Assuming that the ultimate cost of the Panama canal will be $4OO, ,0O0- 000, it will represent only two-fifths of per cent of this enormous sum-"
 Again: "One-half of one percent of it would be as much as the sum widely ad- vocated in recent years for placing the inland waterways of the United States in hrst-class condition"
 Natures Help to Health.' by John War
 ren Achorn, M. D. (Moffat. Yard & Col
 booklet preaching work and exercise and self-control and dieting for the saliva ton of mankind in this world. An excel lent sermon against the flesh. How many, alas, do only overcome the world and the devil to find the flesh the encroaching conquerer-in obesity. Undue corpu- lence,' writes Dr. Achorn, Ifs coming to be regarded an evidence of lack of train ing and lack of self-contro. The man or woman who cannot find a few minutes each day for the slave labor necessary to preserve or restore the body to health and normal form, lost through physical neglect, or who hasn't self-restraint enough to keep from over-indulgence at