Evening star., 1924-11-04
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
'YOU TAKES YOUR CHOICE" Clin-
ton w. Gilbert. q. +. Putnam's


And you takes il now. BY the
clock, on this very special Novem-
her 4. you takes your choice right
now in fact. and not in some vague
and uncertain future. Indeed, by the
clock. you are pretty sure to have
taken it already. The present hour
Is one Of waiting and suspense for
the entire Nation. An hour in which
every citizen possessed OF the right
tc vote and quick in his conscience
toward this right is holding to him
self the prideful thought that he has
To-Day exercised the Warwickian
power of president making. Only
twenty-five mill3onth part, or there
ABOUT, of the sum total of this power
10 De sure, but precious and deeply
cherished potency, nevertheless, And
now 1t is all over. The shouting and
the tumult will in few hours come
to an end The temporary madness
OF presidential campaign will sink
PACK again into the minor lunacies
or everyday existence Moments of
quiet and leisure will again appear
as they used to do in the calmer days
prior TO election and its immediate
ana equally mad predecessor, base
ball Maybe tomorrow or next week
or next month you will take I'D a
book again. And. just maybe, you
Will come upon an hours diversion
by way of You Takes Your Choice"
volume clearly intended for pre-
election days, but one that, with
slight change in the angle Of ap-
proach and in the method of han
dling, serves post-election uses with
the good entertainment of a special
point of View coupled with a fine
economy of words set together in
living objectivity.
Any time after today, November 4,
the practical and vital interest in
Clinton Gilbert's "You Takes Your
Choice will be confined to just one
third OF its contents. Oh, yes, there
Will be plenty of interest in the re-
naming two-thirds. but this will
be of the academic sort, or personal
to the writer himself as an observer
OF training and experience as a jour
nalist of easy and interesting habit
This authors approach to you Takes
Your Choice and The Mirrors of
Washington" is the same-a .charsc-
teristic approach, one takes. it. Both
volumes are based largely upon
consideration of men prominent in
political life. Each approaches its
subject from the standpoint of lin
ltations, from the inherent inability
of each personality to fiji the BILL
to round the program. TO come up
to the standard requirement. An at
titude, 4 point OF view, calculated
TO emphasize inadequacieS even fu-
tilitiesr in texture of common human
nature. The SAVIOR Of both books is
| therefore, a little bitter to the
tongue. A considered turning away
on the authors part, no doubt, from
the familior overpraise of rampant
enthusiasms- This attitude makes
both studies fine for sauce, not quite
so good for nourishment. Fair
enough, this writer, since he hits all
of his subjects with an equal hand
fiat hand, whose fingers sting a lit
tie. He expresses his detachment
and unbias about the whole matter
by saying that he doesn't give two
pins" for any Of them in the way OF
personal liking-save for one ex-
ception, which he names.
= x = 4
Tomorrow we shall know which OF
the three. pairs set down here will
command our first attention. viii it
be Coolidge and Dawes? Or Davis
and Eryah? Or La Toilette and
Wheeler? No one can hope to say
anything new about any one of the
six. 1t must at the moment be
chiefly a new arrangement Of words,
fresh ALLEGATION of phrases. Let's
see. Starting off with our President,
Mr.. Coolidge, We meet again the man
of silence" and luck the good"
man walking humhly." the man Of
faith, faith in our institutions. faith
in democracy. Wait a minute-here
we are past the overfamiliar phrases
We come to the Presidents first mes
sage to Congress. He becomes in
teresting. He was willing to take
sides. He wasn't trying TO get peo-
pie of all shades of opinion to vote
for him. At one stroke he made his
party definitely conservative. The i'm
portant thing is that he has been
consistent. He has given the coun-
try, so far as a President can, an
! instrument for the carrying out Of
one we'll defined view Of public poll
icy. The country hasn't had one for
% years He made party out of moth
ing, for nothing but a political panic
existed when the presidency descended
TO him." And more in this strain along
with a few of the purely personal
thrusts so much in use in these days of
political .dementia expressing itself in
bad manners and general brutality.
Gen. Charles Dawes? A perfectly
regular man, who obeys all the con-
ventions with such dash and aban-
don that he seems a bIithe, free
spirit, and SO he is the darling of the
herd"-but regular, mind you. He is
regular Republican. He was regu-
lar on the war Regular on bolshev-
ism. He has the regular philanthro-
pies" HE is a conformist with such
Zest that he seems to be following
his own sweet will
We must be getting on. There are
men born to feel that they are cap
tains of their soul. And Mr.. Davis is
one. He is one of life's fair-haired
boys. He has never had reason to
be afraid" And John Davis, too, is
q conformist, not from weakness or
timidity, but because he is so sane,
SO reasonable safe man. Can he
make a party? For that is his job.
as it was Mr. Cooldge's job. quite
successfully achieved. We shall see.
Charles w. Bryan-'He believes in
William ]. as William ]. believes in
Genesis. All the rest of it is manual
confidence. If necessary, he would
produce men not descended from
monkeys to prove that William J.
was right In Nebraska they call
him the rainmaker, for whatever hap
pens, he did it,
i x Y x
Robert NJ. La Follette-"a man Of
the purest personal and political
haracter"-"always at odds with
the world"-just shade too heroic
for the rest of us. An interesting
and spectacular and useful career
whose original bent was toward
, the stage. A significant fact. this,
accounting in no small measure for
the dramatic cast OF Mr.. La Follettes
political course. In defining La Fol-
lette'S progressivism Mr. Gilbert gives