New-York tribune., 1920-02-18
Books

"Why," writes John Chandler, ado
you print only such letters as defend
'Jurgen' and other immoral books? Do
you want us to believe that you receive
no letters of protest against those fell
lows who wallow in the slime Of their
own imagination? You may be inter-
ested to know, for instance, that l have
read The Rainbow of D. H. Lawrence
so highly praised in your columns by
Gilbert Cannan, and that l found in it
not once but many times the following
lewd words'---
Mr.. Chandler is correct in assuming
that we receive some protesting letters
against "Jurgen" and other books which
our correspondents find immoral, and
we would like to publish q certain
number in the interests of fair play
The only difficulty is that almost in
variably the letters which bring the
accusations Of indecency are much too
filthy to be printed with propriety.
John Maynard Keynes in "The Eco
nomic Consequences of the Peace"
proves himself a mastery worker in
the art of Characterization, and in
the light Of the most recent interna-
tional developments he makes out a
good case for himself as a prophet as
we'll.
If only the President had not been
so conscientious" he writes; ''if only
he had not concealed from himself
what he had been doing, even at the
last moment he was in a position to
have recovered lost ground and to have
achieved some very considerable sue
cesses. But the President was set
His arms and legs had been spliced by
the surgeons to certain posture, and
they must be broken again before thew
could be altered. To his horror, Mr..
Lloyd George, desiring at the last mo-
ment all the moderation he dared, dis
covered that he could not in five days
persuade the President of error in
what it had taken five months to prove
to him to be just and right After all,
1t was harder to debamboozle this old
Presbyterian than it had been to BAN
boozle. him; for the former involved
his belief in and his respect for him
self
"Thus in the last act the President
stood for stubbornness and a refusal
Of conciliations.'
Perhaps Mr. Keynes's estimate Of
Wilson is neither fair nor lust. but it's
piauslbllity is extraordinarily persua-
sive. None Of the Presidents critics
IN this country has ever hit him half
SO hard. But Mr.. Keynes does not
necessarily vindicate or support the
conventional American attacks on the
personality Of the President. The re-
proach OF longest standing which has
been brought against Mr. Wilson bv
his fellow citizens is that he is "the
scholar In politics." And Mr.. KEYNES
finds his lack of scholarship one of his
chief defciencies
The first glance at the President"
ne writes, Suggested not only that,
whatever else he might be, his tenn
permanent was not primarily that of the
student or scholar, but that he had not
much even Of that culture Of the world
which marks M. Clemenceau and Mr..
balfour as exquisitely cultivated gen.
tlemen of their class and generation"
Much Of the criticism leveled against
the President in this country took the
ground that he was an autocratic ideal
ISL who prevented poor Mr.. George and
M. Clemenceau from visiting proper
punishment upon Germany. Keynes.
on the contrary, finds that he was a
Don Quixote dealing with men much
wiser than himself.
10 see the British Prime Minister" !"