Evening star., 1932-07-05
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
NJ
I. C. NJ.

Summer schools are now opening.
June. blooming garden OF gradua-
tions. countrywide, closed the official
school year. But a day or so after,
under the pleasing name OF Oppor-
tunitv. classes of various purpose and
pattern were set up These in the main
though not altogether, to retrieve
academic shortage in the regular work
year itself.
once in four years very special
Summer school opens and carries on
from Juiv to November. This is the
national political school Of presiden-
zial campaign. Its term extends from
convention to election. And this is its
year. The convention, as such, is a
curious spectacle. At some urban point
Of assumed value. geographic, strategic
or whatnot, officially designated repre-
sentatiVes of the party in action as
semble. Trailing these are hordes of
free American voters" on their own
duty or will or pleasure bent The
convention itself is a ceremonial of
weird effect. almost barbaric effect.
Noise, confusion, braying music, rau-
cous calls and pandemoniac diScords of
sound make astounding worldwide dis
closure by way of the radio. A revela-
ton. General hysteria appears to sup
plant completely any semblance of ra-
tionaI thought. 1t is the job of just
one steady man to pull working re-
suit from this milling and mulling
mass And, this, by some surprising
legerdemain, he does. A President-elect
emerges. The shouting and the tumult
die. The crowds disperse. The cam
paign is on and the new Summer
school opens.
A school of oral instruction mainly.
Every street corner a class room. Every
man a self-conStituted instructor.
There are. to be sure, head masters
and academic halls. But, primarily,
in politics every man knows it all Yet
it is doubtful if in any other field is
ignorance so common and prejudice so
widespread and deep as in this vital
business of government for the people
and by the people.
Times are hard. Millions are out of
work. Failures threaten. Yet, harder
times are in the nearby. Who has done
all this? Why, the President, Of course!
Who else! We need change. What
line ought this change to take? Any
line at all, provided only it run another
way. So the instruction goes. Baseless,
senseless, uninformed on the simplest
of essential matters pertaining to the
wellbeing to the safety, even, Of their
own country.
And is this particular Summer school
one of oral instruction alone? Has it
no text books for the use of students?
Not that books are vital in themselves.
Print does not serve to sanctify the un-
authentic, the untrustworthy. But the
book does provide individual study in
seclusion away from the distractions of
political persuasion, appeal personal
cajolery in favor of the orators chief"
1t does permit study of measures and
a getting away from the man, from the
two men, who through this Summers
schooling are to be the targets of every
conceivable sort of praise here, of con-
tumely there.
Among a handful Of books for indi-
vidual study why not take this one? It's
plan is helpful. 1t is conservative in
general view. 1t deals with a vital
dependable. A fortnight man besides.
Why not take:
A BASIS FOR STABILITY. BY Sam
uel Crowther. Boston: Little,
Brown g. Co.
book built on the commission plan.
And very good plan that Is. Indeed,
almost a necessary plan in these in
tr1cately involved matters of national
concern. No one man, not even Presi-
dent of the United States, can know it
all. So, the only statesmanly recourse
OF the wise political leader is to call in
the experts, even If by so doing he is
accused of trying to unbalance the
trinity OF power so carefully established
BY. the Constitution. But, that is an
n cff afr fr IL
commission appointed by Samuel
Crowther for an investigation of the
economic situation of America, and in
cidentally of the world itself, at the
hands of men experienced and wayWise
in different areas of the industrial field.
The common point Of the deliberation
to approach the causes of the general
instability, If not to determine these.
The high value Of the book to a stu
dent in this particular Summer school
OF presidential campaign is that it
deals with subjects that constitute the
interviewer fabric of the common life.
With food and work, with money and
savings, with the machine threat to
hand work, with the mine troubles of
OIL ana coal, with the railroads and
What Is happening to them through
good roads and spinning automobiles,
d
In word, there is no topic of discus
sion here that does not touch every
American intimately at more than one
point in his daily life.
among the experts engaged here.
Sclentlrc, political, economic, are John
Hays Hammond, Senator James j
DAVIS, Frank o. Lowden, Henry Ford.
Samuel Crowther himself and MANY
another, not one Of whom, however. is
the economic theorist destitute of prac-
tical experience in one or more indus
trial fields. All are Of business vision.
All sense, properly, the relation of
business to political purpose and
action. Since so much is being said
about the sad state of the farmer. and
since the food industry is so clearly
a basic one, even the average reader
should not miss The Farm As 1t Is"
by Frank o. Lowden, Ex-Governor of
Illinois. This is bound to be literally
burning topic of this Summers
school in the presidential course of
study. Still, to select this one theme
and its treatment is not enough. ven
ture to say that you will not come
upon a more solid body of pertinent
and vital matter, carefully thought out
or drawn of from wide and successful
personal experience, than has come to-
gether here for the plain instruction of
plain Americans in their particular
business of fair understanding of the
common daily concerns of the country.
Samuel Crowther has done his Sum
mer job with distinction, with practical
vision Pack this school book in your
kit. Walk out of the tumult with it.
Sit down to find out few basic things
that are needed for the end of this
Summer schooling.
X X
Did you hear David Lawrence Sunday
night from Chicago in his radio
analysis of the Democratic convention
just concluded? I hope you did. A
clear, historic survey, an analysis of
the political significance of the cere-
mony, summary of the political
philosophy of this institution, a fore
cast of its fate.
What a common-school instrument
tality the radio is!