Evening star., 1932-10-23
% IDA GILBERT MYERZ
The Life and Public Ser0ices ofWilliam
HozVard 7aft-Story of Rockefeller and
Hy7Imes- 7HeLatedAutumnFIrtion.

business group in Cleveland thought they'd bet
ter send some one over Erie way and rounda-
bout to size up that tremendous oil excitement.
those hard-headed men, one, picked young
Rockefeller to spy out the land' for them.
That the beginning of John Rockefeller's
expert housekeeping in the confused and dis
orderly business world of America.
Yet, digging into this richest man in the
world" for sources of such hidden power for
the true Midas touch turning every contact into
gold one does not come upon the markedly
avaricous man. Rather, upon the man OF sys-
tenn, or organization, of order and precision
Order in business, in production, If 1t meant
anything at all in those days, meant comblna-
ton, making one out of many, adjusting means
precisely to definite ends. One is not getting
ready to say that Rockefeller did not, does not
care for money. He does and did, VINO does
not In this case, however. money was the
natural product Of genius, revolutionary genus
in the field of industry. So striking and speedy
was the mans success that in practically no
time at all the country went mad with fright
over the menace of monopoly, of corporation
of strangling trusts. Free competition" became
an idyl of reminiscent song by Sentimentallsts
reformers Utopians and the like. Abuses? Oh
yes. And the muckrakers came into being, wal
lowing in these abuses, fattening upon them
as they made specious adventures in political
reform, progressive craftsmanship, and wide
field work among the voters
Here We have John Flynns story of this
pious, modern genius of finance. Mr.. Flynn
merely tells the Gale, gathering from it
tain obvious implications and straight opinions.
Here is no aim toward reform, air of warm
ing. Not analyst, Mr.. Flynn. A gorgeous
raconteur instead Neither accuser nor apol-
ogist, his business is to arrange the facts of
one mans life to produce the rich pattern
which that life contains and implies And
here, surely, is the good artist. And here is
Mr.. Rockefeller, alive in his amazing powers
and achievements The subtleties of personal
psychology Mr.. Flynn leaves to others But the
book contains enough to keep that tribe digging
into and prying under and guessing about the
subject for an average lifetime. Not because
Mr.. Rockefeller is son of Satan but in
straight line from some very astute Solomon
instead.
Interesting to read about the excited re-
formers. Their abuse in open oratory and pri-
vate political solicitude over the dangerous
trusts and over this arch enemy Of honest man
kind. Meanwhile a quiet. and very lkeablc
man, growing older but even more determined
to set business in order, to keep the business
house as it should be kept, circumvented courts
and upset their decisions in q determination
that industry should not fall back into i'm
potency and ultimate irremediable disaster.
Mr. Flynn deals with the ultimate grand
benefactions of Mr., Rockefeller as he does with
the rest OF this mans life With frankness that
Is wholly reasonable and sane He tells the
story as he has been able, in great and arduous
research, to find it. He gives opinions here and
there, but these are not unfailingly cOndemna-
tory. They depend. He admits the puzzle that
Is John Rockefeller and leaves him, possessed,
not of devil, as ripe -and-ready judges affirm,
but possessed instead of a passion, a genius Of
revolutionary effect. one of which he himself
was only in part aware.
When Gods Gold" gets hold of you simply
give up-give up business or pleasure or any
other outside pressure, for you will not come
upon 50 demanding q document as John T.
Flynn presents to you by way of it.
RIP TIDE; Novel in Verse BY William Rose
Benet, author Of THE Falconer of God"
etc. New York: Dufheld & Green.
REVIEWED BY CHARLES DEGGES.
Mr.. BENErs titular explanation "A Novel
W. in Verse; fails to do justice to this work.
which, for the most part is sheer poetry. OF
course, there's story in RIP Tide" but in its
telling the author is an artist who paints deli
cate shades Of beauty, fragility, power and
sympathy that scon his sighting description.
The theme, Mr.. Benet's publishers frankly in
form, is not new to literature. 1t treats of the
tragic consequences of the love of a man and
woman that is not consummated until after
her marriage to another. The marital union Is
childless but the woman bears a son of her
lover in their tardy reunion which her husband
believes is his. Poignancy in introduced in the
subsequent romance of this son and girl who
is revealed as the daughter of the youths ia
ther through a later marriage.
Despite the apparent sordidness of such
"story," there is nothing in Mr. Benet's treat
ment of it but feeling which trembles through
notes of beauty and delicacy and which draws
the reader into sympathy for the five persons
involved. The poem, for such it is, is divided
into three phases The first, entitled "Shela,"
sings of the wife of her love for q bOy in their