New-York tribune., 1916-02-12
CRITICISM
AND BOOK NEWS
Colonel Roosevelt on the Nations Problems
and Pohcies-Practical First Aid for
the Playwrigh Tchekof.

able one for expressing something quite
different from neutrality. There arc
too many curves and ligzags instead OF
straight lines. too many irregular poly
eons instead Of squares. Wherefore
IL is refreshing 70 meet with the direct
ness and positiyeness which these pages
display.
Timeliness Is another engaging quail
ity. Most of the contents OF this
volume were written first for a maya
zine and were first published in its
pages Naturally. they were on current
themes Blu; they were themes which
did not die on the day after publica-
tion On the contrary, they are just
"a timely to-day as they were one,
three or six months ago; which as no
small thing in their favor. They were
good magazine stuff" and they are
also good book stuff" for volume
which demands and viii have instant
vogue and yet viii also, we are as
sured, have a permanent place OF no
slight significance amid the literature
of publcism.
For here are some Of the most vital
topics of the day, every one Of them
also involving permanent interests OF
paramount Importance, aggrossivcly
discussed by man Of singular alert
ness and penetration, who IN most
cases wiclds the authority OF him who
can say ct QltOrltm mama p0rs ma.
There is indeed scarcely q subject IN
the book which was not up for prac-
tical action during Colonel Roosevelt's
terms Of service IN public life, and with
which he did not then practically deal;
while Of those which were not thus in
the arena there is not one concerning
his treatment Of which, had it come be
fore him, there is room for @ shadow
o. doubt.
Naturally, then. the personal note is
strong. The author speaks In the first
person, singular In some men that
would be sheer egotism; in some.
simple courage Of their convictions
and eageyness 10 bear the RESPONSE
bility thereof. In the present case the
latter is the major condition. There L.
no offence IN saying that Colonel Roose-
welt does not shunt personal publicity.
That he seeks IL for its own sake Is
not indicated in these pages. il is the
cause which he is pleading, and not
himself, which he puts forward. But
he 40 completely identifies his own
personality with it that he sometimes
undeservcdly incurs from the super
fetal observer the reproach of self-eX-
ploitat.on, when. in fact, that may have
been the last thing In his mind. Some
men axe like the engines OF steam
ship, which do their work hidden far
from the general view. Others are Ike
the railroad engine, which is more con-
spicuous than any or all the cars Of
the train; though the engine is there
and making itself conspicuous, not
90 exhibit itself, but in order 20 move
the train.
Neutrality pacinsm and militarism.
and preparedness which is neither of
those two, the hyphen IN American Citi-
zenship, dual allegiance, Mexico. Japan,
the Panama treaty -"blackmail treaty
Colonel Roosevelt calls it-with Co
lombia, Belgium, the Lusitania. Ar
mcnia and other allied topics are dis
cussed with the frankness Of face
to-face talk and in words which an
sWer 20 the description vas
cular; If you cut them they bleed. Yet
with all the nervous expedition and
headlong momentum of these utter
anccs there is q surprising scarcity OF
words which one would rather have
left unsaid." That IS doubtless partly
because Colonel Roosevelt IS so tre-
mendously in earnest that he in
stinctivcly says just what he means
and just what he wants 70 say. i is
also in part, because generally, and es-
pecially in his most strenuous pas
saces. he employs chiefly simple, mono
syllable Anglo-Saxon words, with which
there is always less danger Of blunder-