Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-02
being human is the art of freedom and
of force"
OUR CHIEF MAGISTRATE AND HIS
POWERS. By William Howard
Taft. New York: Columbia Uni
varsity Press


POWERS. By William Howard
Taft New York: Columbia Uni
versity Press.
The six chapters of this volume were
given originally by Mr.. Taft as lee
lures at Columbia University, whose
press publishes this volume. Opening
the course with review of the dis
tribution of governmental powers. the
lectures move forward through dis
cussion of the veto power and certain
minor powers of the President. Mr..
Taft defines and amplifies, in concrete
manner the duty of the President to
see that the laws are executed. He
also describes his powers as command
erin chief of the military forces of
the country. Another address deals
with the power of the President in re-
lation to foreign countries. The clos
ing one has to do with the limitations
that have been set upon the power of
the executive. The significant and
freshly instructive part of this study
comes to the reader by way of Mr..
Taft'S comment on the various aspects
of the subject of executive power, and
lack of power. These comments sum
to critical survey of a subject whose
efficient bearing upon the execution of
government business and the material
ization of government policy were for
a certain period the substance of Mr..
of the United States. 1t is this fact
that gives to this wisely judicial and
broad-minded study its SURPRISING
value.
THE PRISONER. BY Alice Brown.
author of My Love and l." etc New
York: The Macmillan Company.
The man in prison is a problem, and
will be even under the best of prison
reforms. The man released from pris-
on is a greater one. His problem is
SCI. in part, by the attitude of the
world toward him when he returns to
freedom. and, in other part. by what the
prison life did to him as a human be-
ing. Alice Browns new story has for
it's chief person one of these released
prisoners. a young man who is as far
as may be from ones accepted motions
of the convict. Back in his staid and
well ordered New England town, look
ing for some means to readJuSt him
self to the accustomed things of his
former life, he is, by the good Offices
of this writer. surrounded and sup
ported by as interesting group of
men and women as one would be able
to find in many a moon of novel read
ing 1t is with these people that Alice
Brown here achieves her best. The
events that come along to make up
the action are of such ordinary cast
and color as the little town of Adding
ton would naturally supply. 1t is the
folks themselves who act and react
upon the various phases of Arlington
life in a manner to captivate the read
er. There are Anne and Lydia. Lydia
is a triumph. So is Nine. Beattie, in
triguing and avaricious old charmer
that she is. Miss Amable is perfect
in her way. Then there is Esther
Blake. the prisoners resistant wife.
This writer has at fingers end the
web of prepossessions and prejudices
that control the New England COM
munity. Upon this background she
weaves a substantial ard artistic de-
velopmept of character, as well as a
romance which, even at the close of
the story. is stll well below the hor-
lion of Arlington events. 1t is a ro-