Evening star., 1933-05-28
THE PRIMER OF IMITATION What 1t is
and What it Means to You. BY Earl Spar
ling New York: The John Day Co.

facts as will take the time to read the DOCK.
Some of his conclusions may not be axloms
but he does not expect universal agreement
with them. He says, with great freedom from
dogmatism: do we have imitation now, or/oo
we not? If not are we going to get 1t, ana
how much imitation shall we get and when!
The answers are any mans guesses, and sus-
pect that the man who has never uoupieo
himself with economics heretofore has woe
advantage of wisdom. He will have SO httie
to unlearn that he may find the time to dis
cover few things for himself" In MIR. Spar
lng's opinion, imitation really began when mu-
inequalities allowed over year ago. 10
pay current expenses with scrip. Greshams
law which any one could have formulated from
observation, is that a poorer money always
drives better money into hiding-hence hoard
ing Historical examples of imitation are re-
called in order to make clear the present in
hationary situation in the whole world.
There are, according to Mr.. Sparkling, three
types of money-tampering which have arisen
since the World War-those of Germany,
France and England. The German experience
should be warning to every country. France
inflated her currency somewhat less than Ger
many, but French bond and mortgage holders
and those who received insurance money lost
as much German creditors of the same
kind The English theory of deliberate infa-
ton for the purpose of halting declining prices
and in the words of John Maynard Keynes,
for 1.-The restoration of economic equilibrium"
that is ''the setting into motion of natural
forces which are certain in the course of time
to undermine and eventually destroy the credi
tor position of the leading creditor gold coun-
tries is discussed at some length. Mr.. Spar
ling concludes that initiation in our own country
has explosive potentiaties in it for every soul
of us, from large manufacturer to small bus1-
ness man, to every single worker" The sub
ject of imitation is clearly and simply explained,
but many readers will wish that more concrete
applications could have been made, as, for
example, what initiation will do to wages, sal
aries, investments of different types, interna-
tional trade, domestic trade, the farmer. Also
it might have been debated whether imitation
Will promote or check buying, with income
Perhaps shrinking and prices increasing, and
whether people will be likely to pay bills or
refrain from paying.
LOOKING BACK, an Autobiographical Ex-
cursion BY Norman Douglas. New York:
Hare urt, Brace &. Co.
h IORMAN DOUGLAS is said to have divided
Y his own life into 12-year periods. The first
IL years he devoted to growing up the second
II to music, the third IL to the diplomatic
service in many countries the fourth II to the
study of the sciences of geology, zoology and
archaeology, and the fifth IL and thereafter to
writing Any one who is good at figures will
see that he is now over go. He is quoted as
saying, when he had completed about II years
of writing: Haven't made $500 by this damned
writing you talk so much about since I first
began it. :. But friends-that's another mat
ter Sometimes friends are kind, you know,
just as sometimes Gcd is not stupid" The
books of Norman Douglas which include Siren
Land" South Wind" Fountains in the Sand"
"Old Calabria' and Goodbye to Western
Culture" are not of a popular type and it is
not surprising that he has found them profitable
in other ways than financially. South Wind"
Is probably the one by which he is best known.
Goodbye to Western Culture" collection of
about 100 short essays which indict European
Especially Brtish) culture sh ws him at his
most saturnine best
Looking Back was evidently pleasant "ex-
cursion" for him. For reader it is a rapidly
moving panorama of bits of the life and thought
of an eccentric individualist who does not take
too seriously responsibilities to others or to
society. He has never found life entirely to his
satisfaction, yet he has enjoyed it, his earlier
years perhaps better than the later ones In
his Introductory note, in the form of letter to
his nephew, he says: I'VE of those days must
have had fairly concrete and positive view
of life. We lived with greater zest than the
present generation seems able to do. We had
more fun-of that I convinced. I often
look around and wonder what has come
over the youngsters of today Are they losing
the sense of reality?" This book of remi-
niscences is free from any handicap of outline
or chronological development Mr. Douglas
seems to have reached into the recesses of his
memory and brought forth detached persons
and events at random. At one time Capri
comes out, where he has lived and dug for
neolithic relics, and We join him at his favorite
high spot for the evening view Of the promon-
tory of Minerva, the Amalftan coast line and
the mountains of Basilicata Then without
any preparation fitting into the picture, d. H.
Lawrence emerges, whom he knew before his
xYt1;S
nine pages Of Lawrence, in which Mr.. Douglas
mentions that in "Aarons Rod" Lawrence sati-
rically criticized the Turin home of Douglas
where he had been Hospitality entertained Mrs