Evening star., 1912-07-13
BOOK REVIEWS.

THE SUPER RACE, An American
Problem. BY Scott Nearing. Phi. D.,
author Of Social Adjustment etc.
The Art Of Life Series. Edited by
Edward Howard Griggs New York:
B. w. Huebsch.
- UPERMAN. It appears, is no long
er confined to the shadowland OF
myth and tradition. He has
moved out into science. In this
field he has become not only
living possibility, but a demonstrable fact
as we'll So general Of achievement and
so certain Of quality may he become as
TO stand in logical assurance of an ulti-
mate super race of men. Mr.. Scott Near
ing hero reduces to clear and plausible
exposition the scientific processes py
which this overman is to be made. Be
sides, he points America as the natural
garden spot for the culture of this over
race. The first and most important step
in the process-as it is. by all odds. the
most difficult one-is that OF selective
breeding. through an established and con-
trolling system Of eugenics. AS essential
supplement to this system there must be
q social environment. exactly fitted to en-
produced by scientific breeding. Compile
menting these two factors stands edu-
cation. whose function it is to draw out,
Z, emphasize, to make exceedingly pro-
6uctive the special individual gifts
wrought by this combination OF sucn
heredity and such environment. Eight
good reasons unite here In proof OF Amer
Tea as the most fertile field the logical
spot. for this stupendous experiment In
race building. In the ardor Of good opti-
mism Mr.. Nearing swerves. now and
then, toward prophecy. Perhaps bet
ter statement is that he runs ahead of
actual achievement into vision. 1t must
be granted. however. that in this for
ward leap he does not leave the track
of scientific law. The whole is direct
and most readable discussion OF sig
AHacant and potential matter.
RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION. 1854
1912. BY Paul Leland Haworth,
Phi D., author of THE Hayes-Tfl-
hen Election etc. New York: Henry
Holt & Co.
BY projecting tho record into tomorrow
instead of having closed it up yesterday.
by prejudicing a case whose full evidence
is not yet in, this author starts suspi-
cion against the whole Of what, upon its
general surface. appears to be an admir-
able study. Setting out with the recon-
struction period Mr.. Haworth follows the
trunk lines of our subsequent political
development down to the present.
from 1885 to the eve OF the national
of this history are conspicuous. 1t is a
model OF condensation, a mere outline of
essentials that. to a quite uncommon de-
gree. retains both vitality and personality.
II Is an example. also. in the treatment
OF facts. These are carved clean to their
origins. their essences, their effects, their
logical groupings. 1t is a markedly frank
estimate Of notable men, each set in the
circumstances Of his political service.
1t II fresh in tone and spirit. The last
chapter, 1.-THE Revolt Against Plutocracy."
contains such a palpable bias, such a
prematurity OF judgment that one, fnvol-
UNFAIRLY. goes back. scaling off from the
other estimates made in this study-from
this authors opinions about Grant and
Cleveland, Garfield and Mckinley, about
Greeley, Conkling, Blaine, Hanns and a
host Of others. To the sincere student
nothing Is more disconcerting than
scholarly man Of no more than Indifferent
THD BOY AND HIS GANG. BY ].
Adams Puffer. director of Beacon
Vacation Bureau, Boston. Boston:
Houghton Miffiin Company.
Everybody who lives with boys in any
sort Of influential attitude toward them
should ponder this book. 1t leads to an
understanding of one Of the boys most
important and fruitful phases. This is
the gang phase Of the boys life. One
hears teachers. and sometimes parents,
whisper blamefully, HE belongs to
gang" OF course he does. Every boy
have the parts. to an imaginary one If
he be weak or lacking in these. The
gang possesses high qualities. Here are
ingenuity and readiness of plan, courage
Sr nfs str41 Cnrtfn
kind of honor rigidly observed. the
mergence of one into the strength and
safety, Of the whole-all qualities for
whose nurture institutions are set up and
national wealth expended. 1t Is obviously
our business. the business OF teachers
and parents. to learn how to use the
qualities of the gang, to learn how to
turn them into forward-looking aims of
welibeing, instead of permitting them to
revert to the rude and primitive activities
ignorant, less lazy. We must set up q
rivalry of objective with our ancestry
and define for these boys some fascinat-
ing but worthy goal. in whose attainment
the high qualities Of the gang shall have
vigorous play. Mr.. Puffer's study is a
stimulating one. A thousand details of
the gang in operation. keen feeling for
the sources of its existence, for the
character Of its action. for the possibil-
tiles Of its powers. are set down here
upon q background OF experience and
scholarship and reflection. The stamp
that one likes best of all here comes
from the fact that the author is. un-
doubtedly, human being who remembers
a great deal about having himself been
a boy.
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOv. A
Novel In Four Parts and m Epi-
Iogue. BY Fyodor Dostoevsky.
From the Russian by Constance
Garnett. New York: The Macmillan
Company.
This is the last Of Dostoevslv's novels.
1t IL perhaps the one most completely
Characteristic Of both his life and his 1T
erary art An unfinished work. this.
whose 500 pages stand as an introduction
only to what would have been Dostoev-
sky's most important novel had he lived
to finish II. One breads to think what
this full book Of gloomy poignant Rus
sian realism would have been. This is