Evening star., 1932-03-15
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. G.. NJ.

CLlol VI RduUOW COuNLTleS OF Gen.
trail America" etc. New York: z. P.
Dutton & Co.
Not so long ago read little book
terse and brutal composition An
Economic Value of War" Its point,
part answer to the overpopulation anx-
ieties of old Nautilus. Not an advocacy
OF war. but counting of war instead,
as an element in the Malthusian theory
of keeping populations down to the
earth'S capacity for sustaining them.
Kill off the surplus! Or as much Of it
as our wars, increasing in frequency
and scope, can be made to do. I'm
thinkable, and hardly worth mention.
However, it must be conceded that the
world has done considerable best along
that very line. The greatest internecine
triumph Of all the latest one-l9l4.
Yet there are signs, faint and flicker
ing, to be sure, but signs, nevertheless,
of a turning away from old measures of
adjustment that have so signally failed.
OF turning toward new remedies for
the relief of human ailments What
are some of these obvious world sick
nesses? Poverty and need in the midst
of plenty. That Is one Another is idle
ness where work is clamoring to be done
by an earth packed with working stuff,
raw material. Tyranny is one, too. In
dustrial, social, spiritual tyranny, where
the blatant and inSincere boast is that
of liberty, free chance for every one"
So far the great agencies of civiliza-
tion have been war and political theo-
ries. Some Of these holy wars, for re-
ligion itself is militant. But that is
something else. Secular wars and poll
tics, Sedulously pursued, have left the
ct off atf
War, openly and ardently declared to
be an evil, still goes on. Politics, made
concrete in party rivalries whose prime
discernible objective is individual con-
tinuance in legislative Office, is under
scrutiny. But, even yet, the most OBJ
lucrative criticism of our President is
that he is mo politician" "just an econ
omist instead"
And that Is his great glory. His fore
sight and hi secure appraisal OF the
world today. For the world IS great
economic institution. To turn the
teeming earth into a workshop for the
making of things that people need. For
the making of things in greater bulk
and variety. For the adequate and etti-
cient distribution of these commodities
the earth over To arrange laws upon
this foundation. To create financial
systems upon this basis. Such the
great objective of the new order OF
practitioners in daily human life.
1t Is from the advantage point OF an
economic basis of government and ma
tional growth that Wallace Thompson
offers his study of Latin America.
History plays no dominant part In this
consideration. Yet, enough of pointed
and pertinent record is projected to ac-
in the stable advance Of Latin America.
Enough to give direction and impetus,
also, to its future.
Nor does geography, in either the
sense of place locations and travel
guide, take on formal scope and atten-
ton here. The objective Is other than
these are able to reach, singly or In
combination.
Just enough Of the past to show the
prime motive of explorer and con-
quistador in the South to be that OF
rapine, of plundering the New World
for the enrichment of Spain. That
remarkable ancient civilization lay be-
fore them on the Andean slopes, one
which today archeologists are ardently
pursuing, this meant nothing, except
such Of its rich portables as could be
included in the general loot. A stripped,
COuilIly tCcIlAlC0 w IAAO o~o
farings of Spain out into the West.
Under the Monroe Doctrine, promul-
gated by the United States and accepted
resentfully, by the South
ern continent, South America was saved
from the colonizing activities Of Europe,
to which already Asia and Africa had
become outposts. And so, protected in
spite of themselves, the countries of
this region experimental in local revo-
lutions and new rulers, in liberatorS
and fresh tyrants. And so on. and so
on.
A strong point in Mr.. Thompson's
study Is that Of Latin America as an
economic unit, as yet untouched, as yet
not clearly OWNED in the full scope OF
It's potentialities. Here a new geo.
graphic picture is projected. An ime-
mense area, running the gamut of cli-
matte zones and the full scale of nat
ural resources. Opportunity almost in
for Latin America itself is
the keynote Of the whole. The long
mountain range, rich in minerals, all
Of whose elements and uses are not yet
even known. The vast nitrate deposits.
Eastward a limitless stretch of soil,
in its industrial signifi-
canoe. Forests. Long water ways.
Inexhaustible water power. On the
Atlantic side, a fringe of European
population. colorful. interesting How
ever, in the present outlook and inter-
probation, not of the highest moment.
This is Latin America from the mod
ern outlook of an economic world, a
place wherein rich mines are still
sleeping, where waterpower is running
away, where industrialism as a whole
has not yet entered. But the delay is
practically over. So much of value to
a world Of action along practical lines
is certain of a great destiny.
Beyond comprehensive and deeply
informed analysis of Latin America
from the modern outlook, Mr.. Thomp-
sons study turns in a measure toward
argument whose basic proposition is
that the United States is from every
point Of view the logical co-operator
with the great countries to the south
toward an economic rehabilitation. The
United States Is not a colonizer. It
wants no other land possessions than
It's own, than those it now has. The
United States Is ''next-door neighbor"
to Latin America. Routes from one to
the other are direct and of every kind.
Waterways, air paths, motor roads,
lead straight to and from. The radio
even air currents themselves unite the
two regions in prompt and unhindered
The United States Is a phenomenon
Of industrial purpose and progress. The
quality OF its first settlers, has played
q large part in the issue as it now
stands, as 1t promises to become even
more pronounced. Hardy Nordics. in
lred to climatic rigors, to hard labor,
TO tough resistances in many ways,
those Pilgrim Fathers brought to this
country even more than the pious will
10 worship God in their own fashion.
A thin soil met them. Long Winters
greeted them and short Summers. Hos
tile Indians responded in kind to their
own suspicious and harshness. Thrift
became a religion almost. Invention
IN q hundred nameless ways made
wooden nutmegs" grow. made many