Evening star., 1914-07-18

esc- New York: Harper & Bros
OR twenty-five years and more
IL now the humoris.,- as well as
the moralist. has had the chance
of his life in the case of the
foreign market for American
actresses. Again and again the jest
no less than the sermon, has fallen down
IN ~ own cracks from sheer overwork
And many a time. If not every time. some
clever auip has set it on its feet again
for another run. Irving Bachelors
method of putting new life into the old
story is to turn the matter bodily over
into the capable hands of our old friend,
Socrates Potter. attorney-at-law of the
town of Pointview, Conn. Making no
attempt to avoid the issue. Socrates
bears the golden girl with her family
Istra:ght to the center of the interna-
fional market-place, where Italian counts
hand dukes swarm about her like bees
laround a honey-pot But being stanch
-American, it is not part of the plan of
Socrates to make concessions to these
noble "marryers." Rather is he bent
upon crcumventing them. So. for the
sake of practical contrasts. he induces
the occasional presence OF q nne. up
standing United States man.. Socrates
|in Rome is an unalloyed dehght,
lwhether he is busy with sightseeing and
society doings is definitely engaged IN
making dents in the matrimonial and
Sinancial hopes of the noble aspirants
that surround the girl
Under this clever comedy of breaking
A1p the matrimonial exchange of Europe
and the United States there runs a
ported by a sturdy plot sustained by sterl-
ing characters and most interesting ac-
ton Socrates Potter is worth any
mans creation, and Mr.. Bacheller Is
mits this droll compound of New Eng
Hand wit and wisdom to manage the mat
|&ers of which he is the mere chronicler
|THE CHANGING ORDER: Essays On
Government, Monopoly and Eduea- |
tion, Written during a Period of Re. |
sham. sometime Attorney General
of the United States. New York: q. |
p. Putnam's Sons.
Written when the author was Attorney |
General of the United States. these es-
says stand a clear and immediate sum
mary of the important problems of the
Taft administration These problems |
were vital and imperious ones. such as
wait upon the change of peoples and ma |
tionS from the old order to a new one. |
1t was at this time that the new concep- |
ton of the relation of government to in |
dustry took positive shape and re-
solved itself into program of definite |
action Great litigation between the gov
-ernment and the trusts was carried on at |
this time. Important decisions of the Su-
preme Court were handed down in con- |
nection with this. decisions that estab- |
1isned securely the supremacy of law over |
monopoly. Then. too. laws regulating
the operations of common carriers in in |
tesState commerce were radically amend |
ed calling for Supreme Court construc- !
ton and exposition on more than one far |
reaching question. The admissions of |
%nw Mexico and Arizona to the Union |
dp,fD ;Sfr ion 1oA to
of ncw views as to the character of state |
astitutiors in their relation to demo- |
G. ''je- government. These are some of the |
VS. questions with which the ESSAYS of |
= rolune have to do Because of the |
II - 1se importance of these questions /:
H"ohlems. as well as by reason of the
!. = and official standing of the author.
Npiume has a direct usefulness whose
3uH vaiUe cannot be overestimated.
OF r DISHONEST CONSTITUTION. By
Nllan j.. Benson. author Of 'The
T~uth about Socialism" etc. New
York: E. w. Huebsch.
Mr.. Benson is a picturesque writer
He handles facts as IL they were con-
crete thngs-much as If they were
bricks The persons of his summoning |
stand bodily before one. His imagery
is varied and telling. His sentences are |
often pounding out. short. sharp blows |
that ring with accusation and vituper-
alton Slang. and all the other yer
nacuiar means of carrying ideas straight |
across so that even the man who is on |
the run may read. jingles in his mind |
like handful of nickels in ones
literally pitches into the Constitution of
the United States and into those re-
sponsible for it, The document itself
is literally no good. It's makers were all |
preIne law Of the land that should pro-
tect them and other rich men. The !
wealth of the fathers is the first count /
against them. And it turns out that
in other respects they were no better
' than they should have been-a bad lot,
the whole caboodle Of them. Some were
of them were meager in mind. scant in
| JUDGMENT and utterly naked in morals
With them the national sin of capital
' ism began. BY name and circumstance |
malefactors. Washington was a tax
dodger. Hamilton was a social aristo- |
crat. a political monarchist. THAT we
still honor the name Of Hamilton is |
because to this day we know almost |
nothing of Hamilton" Having laid low |
the fathers and their supreme achieve |
create the right sort of constitution to |
be used in case We are still so besotted |
! with tradition as to desire useless |
an instrument Out of whole cloth he |
is congress that Is worth WHILE 1t |
is needless to say that 1t bears not the |
falnteSt resemblance TO the one with |
which We have managed to scrub along |
| through a century and a quarter Of !
pretty wonderful growth and develop
ment.
In this lit-or-miss diatribe the writer
pays his particular brand of respect
to one and another prominent figure in
those of the present he gives a lean
tribute to Mr. Henry Ford. a tribute |
that would have pumped out like a !
water-soaked oyster if only Mr.. Ford
had turned the whole of his profits in
stead of an unrighteous and miserly
n,illion of them. over to his workmen,
under the pressure Of the old half-truth |
that these workmen were the sole
Acreators of the wealth appropriated by
Mr. Ford.
Mr.. Benson is the pride Of his political
school. What he says drives. The thing
. that he does is called fearless But 1t
takes no courage nowadays to revile ex-
| listing institutions. 1t is very popular
thing to do. And Mr.. Benson is out for
| popularity. Some time. we hope, when
| this hurly- -burly of half baked reform
has subsided. there will come the real
popular education of the people In the
great questions Of industrial efficiency
I Of political wisdom and of the proper