Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-24
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
I. C. M.

I. u. NJ.
CROWDED YEARS: The Reminis-
cences of william Gibbs McAdoo.
Boston: Houshton, Mifflin Co.
Politics is business. Business is poll
tics. Neither, exclusively this Both.
in major bulk. just that Any stable
situation of pubic concern indicates it.
Any crisis of national breadth and
depth demonstrates it.
Political science is, at bottom. eco
nomics Economics is that combination
of natural resources and applied science
from which derive industry. trade,
finance, each developing by the logic
OF its own inherencies to meet worlds
demand for the commodities of life.
The whole influenced and in meas
ure controlled. by legislative enactment.
In essence this is politics.
Materialism? Maybe. Certainly
far call from that older day when the
two great political parties sailed forth
in hostile armies, each to save "a
mighty and free people" from the false
and dangerous doctrines of the other.
Days of sentiment and sound, when.
roundabout election time, principles of
pure government" sound party poll
tics" sacred legacy of the fathers"
and so on, blszed out from the periodic
imbroglio of political campaigns.
Not entirely gone even yet, those
days of eloquence and oratory. 1t took
the World War, however, to identify
business with politics, to bring the lat
ter out of the skies for look around
upon a pressure so imminent, so NOM
strous, as to silence words, as to evoke
action. Then, suddenly, the business
man and the statesman became one in
action. as they are indutiably one in
general mission anG intent.
The Great War movement began
with the mobilization of business and
It's representatives. Industry, trade.
finance came hurrying to form an ac-
tive part of the Government, to become
avowedly for the time being, political
elements of the Government itself. Ar
rived, these nagnates of industrial and
financial success found the Presidents
cabinet already off1cered by business
men. Newton D. Baker, Secretary of
War; William McAdoo, Secretary of the
treasury, and 50 on down the line
Moving ahead Tor minute, the plan
was so successful, SO patiently the only
plan holding hope, that today the Presi-
dent OF the United States is primarily
a business man, as he should be. must.
be. The Secretary of the Treasury is a
business man, fnancier, as he so clearly
has to be.
x
Mr.. McAdoos "reminiscences" in
Vlte us back into the activities of war
tlme. Further back, also, since these
encompass his life, up to the time,
1919, when he left public service.
IN TINS survey two points are out
standing and impressive. The war
period OF course, paramount. Then
there is that other time, that time
when the Hudson River Tunnel moved
out OF this mans mind into a great
industrial reality. That is a fasci-
mating story, an exciting adventure in
the domain of actuality.
A clear refutation, that Hudson
River affair, of the common claim
mat the business man is uninag-
NATIVE, prosaic to the bone. In truth.
the great industrialiSt projecting this
or that OF high usefulness dam. a
orldge, or other such of utilitarian aim
ana ends essentially the poet, the
artist, merely ,embodying in material
substance that which, perfect and ccm-
plete, has lived in his own mind-the
pattern of dream. However, back to
the records, back to the rememberings
OF pressed and hurried business man.
An interesting book. Primarily, be-
cause the man himself is interesting.
A communicable man, with much of
worthwhile to say, to tell Aside from
this indubitable triumph of personality
SET 10 words and recordings, there is
here a deeply substantial quality. an
element OF permanence, a content of
practical usefulness. At close hand, in
a. spirit of partaking. Mr.. McAdoo re-
views the presidential campaign of
1917. The captious may point out that
there is TOO much of something like
gcssiping report right here-say, about
the McCcmb quarrel and other tempo
rary makeshifts of getting a President
elected. But the carper can always
skip or skim over the somewhat weak
spots in a really strong structure. So
ne can here move on to a first-hand,
authentic account of the trials and
vicissitudeS that waited upon the crea-
ton Of the Federal Reserve act, the
shipping bill, the administration of the
railroads and other vital measures
leading to a declaration of war by
the United States and to subsequent
activities with which this member of
the Wilson cabinet was in close touch,
with which he was, also, in an atti-
tude OF keenly intelligent analysis and
appraisal.
Personalities here? Plenty of them.
Quite human, as well, in substance and
slant. Nothing to name, however,
since here is an immediate, frank, sin
cere body OF fact pertaining to Amer
ica'S part in the World War. A con-
tribution that is bound to grow in
value when, the event moved back
into a longer past, original sources of
information will be in demand for
historic uses.
WASHINGTON AS A BUSINESS MAN.
BY Halsted L. Ritter. Illustrated.
New York: Sears Publishing Co.
George Washington, were he living
right now, would be business magnate
of the first rank. Ever since his own
day, records and rumors of the great
mans capacity for practical affairs have
persisted in more or less haphazard
fashion. At hand, however, is docu-
mented assurance that the rumors
we're founded upon fact--were drawn,
indeed, from the somewhat fragmentary,
floating truths that in time ever become
part of legend itself. Mr. Halsted Rit-
ter has done admirable service for read
erS generally in gathering up evidence,
in embodying such evidence, to an
available source of information. A most
interesting book.
But, you see, there was no such thing
as business" a century and a half ago
or thereabout. Not proper business, not
as this giant of modern day COMFORTS
himself. True, there was an inexhaust-
ible supply of land. And Washington
became great landholder. There was
no trade, not any much beyond the
bounds of mere barter. Each house
hold was a self-contained unit, a sort
of home-bound factory. Spinning its
cwn cotton and wool, weaving its own
cloth and dyeing it, cutting and sew
ing its own garments, Shoeing its own
horses, tinkering its own kitchen wares
and so on in an inflnite inOepIIifu i'm