Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-08-10

litical readjustments, or the business
man recasts the old business field into
/ new and fairer one,--4his man tAke4
up the fundamentals Of religion, and
ings Of the centuries, and sets them
fresh and powerful and ready for
their great part in the general new
day. This book may shock you. Per-
haps. you need to be shocked. Read y
anyway. If it is wrong that will not
hurt you-provided you are right.
Read it.
FROM FATHER TO SON. BY Mary s.
Watts. author OF Nathan Burke"
etc. New York: The Macmillan
Company.
Mrs. Watts envisioned a big story
here-but not too big. since she was
able to fill her field of vision with the
fully accomplished fact of the story
son. link up the civil war with the
great war of the present. Grand
father was plain profiteer in the
civil war. Profiteering laid the foun-
father-an appealingly honest man
not able to make restitution. built the
initial gain into a big business con-
spicuous for its integrity of aim and
method. Steven Rudd. the son and
central figure Of this story. Is a pure
idealist, logical descendant Of his own
fair-dealing and upright father. In
cidentally. the three generations IL
lustrate the change in standards for
business: life that has come about
plain robbery to technical honesty
and from this to the dawn Of an ac-
tual morality and idealism in BUSH
ness outlook and conduct. All this.
however. only by incidence and i'm,
plication. The story itself has to do
ent as these shape up in the circle
of which the Rudds form an inter-
esting and potential part. 1t may be
that Steve Rudd was a romantic TOOL
to leave home upon the discovery OF
what to him was a veritable family
skeleton. However, 1t served to test
the real metal of the fellow along
lines far different from those fol-
lowed by his forbears. The Rudds
and their neighbors-with Steven
continuously in the forefront-dra-
Matte the American attitude toward
the war. Skepticism.. pacifsm, fndif-
ference, suddenly change into the
right American stun under the word
call for succor-just as these oio
change as a matter of prideful fact
throughout the country itself. In an
interesting and believable web Of cir
cumstance and under the inspiration
of an uncommonly vital set OF per
sonalities Mrs. Watts presents this
is not a shred Of waste material IN
this invention. Competent from
start to finish, an artist all through,
this author has produced one OF the
genuinely satisfying novels OF the
day.
ANYMOON.s BY Horace ,Bleackley, au-
thor of "a Hundred Years Ago.,
etc. New York: John Lane Com
pany.
Out from the political -cure-alis
which, for the moment, are pressing
forward pell-mell to the succors of
what Is conceived to be very sick
world, Mr.. BIeackley selects that Of
socialism for the purposes Of this
strikingly instructive drama. The
novel projects the socialistic common
wealth of England as one of the by
products of the great war. oCftizens
of the new state-leaders in the prop
uganda Of socialism-hefe reduce to
practice the theories embodied in the
socialistic scheme. The state is para
mount. Wealth as personal possess
SION ceases to exist. In the magic name
of equality classes are leveled, from
above and below, to q middle sgroand
Of stodgy mediocrity. Industry lags
under the ban set upon initiative. The
quality Of its product falls on in the
hands of the constitutional Stacker and
the suppressed leader. Religion is
either negligible or in actual ldisrepute.
Old social sanctions are lost. Women
run wildly about in quest Of endless
freedom and nebulous rights. Marriage
becomes loose and easy association.
Children. haphazard consequences Of
casual matfngs, are turned over to
the great maid-of -all-work, the state.
Within this chaos of new politics GER
tain lifelike figures stand boldly out.
Anymoon - cynic, opportunist - the
president of the new commonwealth;
Thring. helpless farfstocrat, stripped to
the hide; Mrs. Rhyle, tchaste advocate
of outrageous social license; Cohen,
professional agitator, who with the
iproletarian mob at heel, incites to ever
further encroachments upon any SEM
blance Of law and order. But all the
time human nature, greater than any
individual. archAenemy of human
equality, Is steadily attending to its
own business The story approaches
its close by way Of the chaos that the
logic of the situation entails. It
reaches its climax with one Of his
torys endless repetitions-a repetition
eEemplifed by the restoration Of the
English monarchy after the downfall
of the Cromwellian commonwealth. The
logic of this political deduction is as
unassaflable as the drama itself is
vivid and convincing.
TUE CHOICE. BY Maurice weyl. New
York: Mitchell KennerIey.
II this book were a person-and in a