Evening star., 1928-10-28
Our Far Eastern Pilot
in

| him away from studying and from in
| terpreting the Far East.
Like magical bucket, he Is eternally
| dipping into that bottomlesS well, re-
turning full and emptying, yet never
| empty.
He dips into advising about the Far
| East, into writing about the Far East,
| into teaching and lecturing about the
Far East, into policymaking about the
Far East
He comes to Washington for the Tar
| If Commission and goes back across
the Pacific and studies some more, and
| ne comes back to Washington to be
| listened to in the State Department,
and he goes away and studies some
more and comes back and is called to
lecture at Harvard-7and somehow he
finds time to write books.
Scholars Praise His Books.
Not merely books, but real books
! Books that get the enthusiastic COM
ments of fellow scholars. One might be
diverted into an essay on the comments
| of scholars on the work of scholars.
Scholars opinions upon fellow scholars
are as safeguarded and pruned Of en-
| thuSiaSm of expression as are their most
scientific treatiseS. Not so Hornbeck's;
perhaps the least scholarly thing about
| him as q scholar. But let that go.
| What is interesting is that, in spite
| of the fact that his books are scholars
books, specialists books, they manage
to be interesting to people who are
neither scholars nor specialists.
In them he displays gift as rare as
| it is pleasant. He takes into his head
| a million pieces of information, but
when he comes to writing he can,
when he likes, skim the cream of the
| facts and serve it up neatly for the
| hurried reader. He writes a detailed
narrative like Contemporary Politics in
| the Far East" which places him at
| once in the front rank of American
authorities on the Far East. He writes
about his own particular pet subject of
| them all, 1.-The Most-Favored-Nati
| Clause in Commercial Treaties" a gen.
uine analysis of most important inter-
national question.
He writes the less ponderous, more
generally. appealing China Today:
| Political" which, although entertain
ing, elicits from the dean among Ameri-
can authorities on China the state
| ment, THE book is exactly the material
which should like to put in the hands
of students as text for developing the
| political complex today" and from the
Chinese head of Chinese college the
statement, II have determined to adopt
the booklet as text for my pupils"
1t shows a delightful gift of sum-
mary, that book. 1t is all need for
| library on China.
Yet he can when he chooses indulge
| terrifically in detail This he shows In
his book about oxford.
| His capacity for detail finds express
sion frequently in his choosing, as a
collector. of beautiful objects. His
apartment in Washington is not only
| filled with thousands of books; it con-
tains also objects of Chinese art, well
chosen rugs, bronZes and pictures.
A mind such as this, turned to such
a subject as China, might have resulted
in just another laborious appendix to
genuine thought Not SO Hornbecks.
For he, one of the few among the So
called experts" on the Far East, has
scope in thinking, philosophy of poll
tics, sense Of political proportion.
Therefore he does not so much say We
must try to solve the Chinese question
or the problem of Japan as that we
must try to understand China and un-
derstand Japan.
We need to know what other people
' eat, what they wear, what kind Of
Continued on Fifth Page.)