Evening star., 1931-12-08
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM

I. G.. M.

&. u. M.
ONLY YESTERDAY. Illustrated. BY
Frederick Lewis Allen. New York:
Harper & Bros.
A long yesterday" stretching from
the Armistice clear up to the doorstep
of 1881. An Informal History of the
Nineteen Twenties" gives specific name
ana suggests IN general character the
enterprise itself.
A period Of tumult this decade. whose
only approach yet must be this authors
approach. sort Of catch-as-catch-can
cut OF the vast bewilderment, out of the
national chaos, the world chaos, left by
the Great War. Executive adnainistra-
tons at Washington serve, roughly, as
guide to indicate point of time and
seeming cause for this or that of ma
tional and individual behavior, out
standing signs and waymark of sig
nificant drifts, movements, rebellions,
OF outbreakings countless and confus-
ing.
This history cites, as its beginning,
the disappointment, the failure In his
high dream, the death of Woodrow Will
son. And around that tragic figure
gathers the whirl of unabated excite
ment of wartime itself, reflected in the
financial condition of the country, in its
economic straits It's political recoil, In
its social releases, in its tremendous
clamor Of coming and going for means
OF diversion and general playtime. Here
youth Is definitively cut loose from the
former inhibitory routine-home, church,
school.
The country itself Is a riot. "Reds"
and Its tribes and clans, seeking passion
ately to overthrow the substance of gov
eminent for its shadow. Charlatans,
cranks, quacks, along with some honest
folk, all bearing specifics of world heal
ing, all clamorous for their own restor-
ing nostrums. A riot social, too, with
youth bent upon living its own life"
and age disporting itself in the gay in
consequence of youth Families fall
apart, children go their separate ways
A high playtime is seemingly the goal
in this era of intoxication. "Intoxica-
ton suggests the crusade of prohibi-
ton, gruesome story of national con-
tent whose climax is not yet, whose
finale seems fashioning for some super
mystery tale And other intolerances
belong to the new Puritanism, the old
Puritan come to life Dictations as to
religion are not infrequent. Indeed. it
appears that the blue laws" are alive
to take issue with the no-law activities
Of the day
Harding's administration brings the
Washington Conference" and q new
world outlook, with an international
ideal as the goal of statesman and
economist. The outlook obscured al
most at once by scandals at home In
high places, business run wild under
the consenting nod Of faithless officials
and prosperity. Not an exact sequence.
yet the one greatly influential In pro-
ducing the other.
And the radio keeps on grooming.
The airships cleave the skies, calling
for heroes-Lindbergh and Byrd and a
growing host-explorers, adventurerg
builders all. BY way Of them the uni
verse itself swinging into the narrow
ing time-space. North Pole and South,
aloof and exclusive are losing these
qualities, are taking on partnerships
definite and contributory, with the rest
of the world. Space within this period
has narrowed unbelievably, turning ma
tions into neighborhood, easily within
gossiping reach of the worlds title
tattle.
And every minute, night and day, sci
ence, the true necromancer, Is at work
grinding out new truths, rather undis-
covered truths, setting. over into every-
day life a thousand miracles of inven-
tion and application; making new
world, in effect, right under our unsee-
ing eyes. Science is in large part the
cause OF our current revolution-a rev.
olution OF which we are in the main
unaware, but with which we are soon
to deal, despite ourselves, face to face.
To science belongs the motor car. a
prime agency in overturning the world,
the business world, the social world,
But why try even to name the ways In
which science is overturning old ways.
old institutions? These ways crowd all
about us in a confusion of forms and
activities. This is the point at which
only Yesterday" does us so capable
service. 1t untangles the maze. Sets
of the vital from the ephemeral.
Traces developments, big ones, in the
courses they have taken, in the ones
they are likely in logic to follow.
A seizure OF the saliencies of the dec
ade in question is the finely helpful
work of Frederick Lewis Allen here. as
sociate editor Of Harpers Magazine. A
Way-Wise man with print and the good
substance OF ideas lying behind It.
The Book League OF America has
made "Only Yesterday" its December
choice. an assurance to readers who
must have good guidance out of the
mountains Of literature into SOME open
place where interesting books really Of
Ter invitations OF good substance and
true charm to readers.
~
AMERICAS TOMORROW: An In
formal Excursion into the Era of the
TWo-Hour Working Day e. e
Furnas, Ph. D., New York. Funk
& Wagnalls Co.
No, @. G. Furnas, Phi. D., is not an
agent for labor. He Is, instead.
scholar in chemical engineering at Yale
University. just theorist? In a way,
yes. But with theories 30 backed by
substantial findings both In material
stuff and In the logic of economies that
one, at once, hands him perfect conf
dence and complete absorption in the
story he has drawn off from the world
as 1t now moves
His position is, the place where he
stands is, in that of completely in
dustrialized, completely mechanical
world. Nobody is going to dispute that
ground with him. Only fairly intelli-
gent look around, and then one short
glance into the past, shows the direction
and momentum of this mechanism that
science is making OF the planet upon
which we have, for the minute, paused
Granting the basic fact, as 1t must be
granted, then what? Well, this book is
SO amazing, so overturning that I can
not possibly concede it merely my own
small measure Of analysis and appraisal.
So. for the time. am simply going to
quote this astonishing, and convincing
man at points that will lead you, too,
to his study. So here we Co. almost
toward the end Of the story: "The fate
OF practical extinction awaits the small
farmer. -. He will gradually pass
through the process Of consolidation.
AT present he is sitting down and
wing hic Yaclitiaiasan L..ala laeft .