The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-09-19

Federation of Trade unions AS repre- serting France. he interviewed one of the republics most eminent statesmen and a prominent peace advocate, Gabriel Hanotaux, the scholar and publicist. Henri Bergson. the famous philosopher. Eugene Schneider, the Krupp of France, and Nerve, the socialist agtator. one of Great Britains foremost statesmen. Niscount Bryce, former amha ssador to the United States. Charles Trevelyan. NJ. P, Bernard Shaw. Sir Gilbert Parker and Lord Newton give expression to British war opinion
 MT. Beveridge went into the trenches and among batteries in action. He saw battles. He visited hospitals, prison camps and captured territories And this book tells what he saw there
 What Is Back of the War presents to Americans a new aspect of the war and gives them authentic data on which to base judgment to estimate resources ana to forecast the outcome.
 THE KEY TO THE LAND"
 By Frederick F. Rockwell Illustrated.
 Harper Brothers publishers. New York.
 The Key to the Land,'' by Frederick F. Rockell. is an entirely unique book. It recounts the making good of city man in the country. In moment of financial despair a New York business man opened with a golden key little box given his wife a wedding present with the instruction to wait until she was in need. Inside they find the deed to an old farm. With her encouragement, he determined to try his luck in the coun- try, on a capital of a few hundred doi- lars. He began. as he would any business. with definite plans Work was divided into different departments. under his wife, children. and the hired man. Lack of experience was made up for by intel- lgence, study, and consultation with a neighboring experimental station. In "The Key to the Land" the author has made story out of actual happenings and results achieved.
 From a "foreward" by the author the following Is of interest:
 'I have lived, and earned living, in both the city and the country. I believe In the country and in country living. l must emphasize my conviction, how ever that there has been much senti- mentality and some unpardonable ex- aggeraton in a good deal of the back to the-land literature which has been produced so generously during recent years One cannot fail in some instances to feel that what he reads is based upon imagination and secondhand knowl- edge rather than upon experience: the ear-marks of an easy-chair in a city room, good brand of tobacco, and the perusal of government bulletins and per-acre crop statistics are strong upon 1t. It is quite feasible to grow peanuts at the north pole at an excellent profit -on paper.
 "At bottom, however, the retuIp- to- the-sail movement has been the @rdse, not the ffct, of this activity on theSpart of literary agriculturists. That the present countryward movement will continue I am firmly persuaded; In fact. think that we are seeing only the beginning. My purpose in writing The Key to the Land has been not only to show the advantages of life on the soil, but also to demonstrate how cer- tain problems to be encountered may be overcome. I say this with cer- tain positiveness because every incl dent in this story is based upon actual experiences, either my own or those of which I have had first-hand knowl- edge"