Evening star., 1932-11-15
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
i. C. NJ.

4. y. M.
WILLIAM PENN: Quaker and Pho
neer. BY Bonamy Dobree. Illus
trated. Boston: Houghton Mifiin
| Co.
THE LIFE OF ANDREW CARNEGIE.
BY Burton K. Hendrick. New YORK:
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
Two and a half centuries Of Ameri-
| can life stand in between these two.
A straight line of development, how
ever, marks the long period, with only
here and there points of danger, signs
Of breakage. Political disunion, war
| Of secession, industrial unrest, material
self-seeking, these greatest OF the
| threats against the new adventure OF
a free government on this side OF the
world. Freedom, individual freedom
| in religion, politics, business, social am
| bition, these united. mount high as
| opportunity to all These, too, bull
! wark against encroachments OF Old
| World institutions.
Outstanding among those early ad-
| venturerS in the new life Is William
Penn. Quaker founder Of the great
commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Under
him and others hke-minded and equally
| saRacious a great continental expan-
sion began, stretching, finally, from
| coast to coast, its boundaries the two
great oceans. With him began the pio-
neer life that, since him, has expanded,
/ largely through a development Of the
/ natural resources of the earth into a
vast industriaiism, upon one of whose
mountain tops appears Andrew Car
negie, another son of the British Isles,
another pioneer of American industrial
ism as Friend Penn was Of political
and religious freedom in Colonial
America.
Why another biography Of William
Penn? The man has already been
written and overwritten. A question
relevant to most of the great ones OF
the earth. We are coming to see, how
ever, that worth. eminence, greatness
/ in any field or line must accept the
penalty, or the glory, Of periodieSani S:n
| resurrections. A man who dies with
his time is left to q quiet and unmo--
Tested grave A man who lives beyond
his time must upon occasions Of de-
manding Importance come out from his
sleep in support Of that hour, or in
rebuttal of this movement. So 1t Is in
complete propriety that the truly great
ones emerge again and again into the
open of vital events calling for vision
and wisdom.
new biography differs in purpose from
the old. The earlier form was, IN the
main. a timepiece running from birth
to death, striking certain hours OF i'm
portance and summing in the full
round praise. or blame, Of the character
under consideration Eulogy on the one
hand, condemnation on the other
stamped these relatively self-contained
exhibits of individual life. Today the
subject is investigated from another
angle. Interpreting him in general
terms of his hour, or day. or year, or
period, this Is the business Of the new
biographer. Else the job is not worth
the undertaking. How much was this
man a part of his day, how clear was
his vision and influence In respect to
the future, the near future and the
far?
It is in such purpose and power that
Bonamy Dobree approaches the life OF
William Penn. Leaving praife or blame
to time, where they so clearly belong,
as this study demonstrates. the author
puts at least half of the study of Penn
upon the uneasy and dissatisfied Eng
land where Penn's youth was spent and
where his beginnings were laid in pro-
test and dissent. Government, religion,
class distinctions were receiving many
a jar in those years of English unrest.
These crosS-currents Of concealed un-
rest and open rebellion found express
sion in many fresh experiments toward
social loosenings, toward religious inde-
pendence, toward government expan
sions. It is the effect of this unsettled
daily iife around him, acting upon the
special character and temperament of
Penn, that the author builds plausibly,
consistently and temperately into his
later years of activity and leadership.
So, in the New World, William Penn
carries on as one has reason to expect
him to do, having followed his essential
life in its formative and most important
years. The building of the great State
according to his views of individual
freedom, his methods Of inviting set
tiers to 1t, the sincerity of his offers, the
honesty Of his practical purposes, these
come out as emanations Of the living
man himself rather than as repetitious
| gleanings Of other writings turned on
in the older fashion Of geographic ac-
count.
One steps out Of the book, not as
| from reading, but as from actual con-
tact, from an experience with human
wisdom, imperfect at points, but wis
dom. nevertheless. And from it he
looks around upon the most manifest
Of the work of William Penn in the
New World. An industrious people
sprang from his example and advice. A
| peace-loving people settled here and
there in modest groups throughout the
country. Outstanding folks, giving and
taking from honest and sturdy life,
while at the same time deprecating vio-
lence and war
Relying upon the documented facts
of Penn's life. already gathered, Mr..
Dobree expends himself upon the living
| character and continuing influence of
Penn along recognized and accepted
lines of human behavior under the
urgencieS of changing environment.
| A profoundly interesting book, either as
reading or as study. This, in part, by
virtue of its personality. In larger part
| by its fine appreciation of the tenure of
this mans life and by his concrete dem
onstration of such continuing existence.
| A fine contribution did Quaker Penn
/ and his followers make to the citizenry
/ of the United States. A matter of fact
to this day, and for days to come,
*
An enthusiastic biographer here turns
| Andrew Carnegie, ironmaster and steel
| king, into a spectacle, a pageant. And,
! following along, breathleSs, under the
| speed and complexity of the progression,
one does not wonder at the clear en-
| thuSiaSm of Mr. Hendrick under so
imeplling theme. Four volumes would
have been as easy as two, or so it seems,
under the imeptuous headway of this
amazing Scots man through iron into
steel, and on into great riches, great
| foundations and countless minor phi
lanthropies. One of the SURPRISING ad-
ventures, that of accommodating stores of
gold for the sake of scattering it, of set
ting it of upon new errands.
But, instead of the possible four VOL
umeS, here are two packed to their
uttermost with Andrew Carnegie, with
the history of steel in the United States,
with the impact of this man upon the