Evening star., 1933-07-16
10y SARAH @, BOWERMAN
I'm Humble Autobiography From France.
IN EngAshman W11tes Of His Amer1can
Friends.

never at loss for a new recipe. "They have
Cnly to add glass of Madeira or some chop
ped parsley to a we-known dish to call it
Queen Victoris'.' Famous chefs not in
this respect more inventive than cooks in some
American boarding houses, who are able on
different days of the week to transform plain
bread pudding into cabinet pudding" queens
pudding" fruit pudding" and puddings OF
other names calculated to arouse hope in the
uninitiated M Hamp leaves his autobiography
in midair but he calls it a prelude" so per-
haps he contemplates an addition Wearled
and disgusted with the odors and grease OF
cookery. preferring the grease Of machines
preferrirg still more books. having become a
Socialist he abandoned his trade and the good
income it was bringing him, to live on his saw
ingS for time and to face probable poverty.
Here his prelude ends. But afterward he went
back to Paris and secured an education, earn
ing his way. Then he obtained employment as
assistant station-master in small town OF
Northern France and began to write. Since
1908 he has published IS or l6 volumes novels
and essays advocating social justice for the
workers Of the world. His novels have been
compared to those of zola. His real name is
Pierre BourillOn.
MY AMERICAN FRIENDS. BY L. P. Jacks.
New York: The Macmillan Co.
h lEXT to the English, DR. Jacks, former prin-
cipal of Manchester College, Oxford, likes
the Americans. That does not mean that he
likes his American friends hundred per cent,
but he did not find the hundred per cent Amer
ican man he was looking for, though he tells
a long story with much dialogue, about hun
dred per cent American girl he found in Ari-
Zona. The story is rather tresome and the
girl not like any one most of us have ever
met though DR.. Jacks says There are many
Susies in America. I see them in the womens
nO1la all 41,o 1o,,I - Uyn oy,I
wish when DR. Jacks again comes to the United
States the college girls would not "gush" over
him. The opening sentence of his book is:
America is the proben.-hunter's Paradise
From our own experience We might add that
it is also the foreign lecturers and critics
Paradise. And some Americans pay large sums
to go to lectures and hear themselves criticized
by visiting foreigners between landing and SAIL
ing dates week apart Criticism is good Tor
character and perhaps We are unreasonable to
wish that some Of the criticism might be backed
by longer observation of us and our qualities
and habits. After all. a taste for ice water in
Summer and central heating in Winter is no
more ridiculous than the invariable demand for
tea in the late afternoon and the drive-to-the-
left rule on the road But Dr. Jacks is gentle
in his criticisms and not parsmonious with
his praise. He lays down three rules to be
observed in judging the United States:
Avoid generalizatons. All generahzations
about America-except this cne-are likely to
be false. Judge nothing in America by the
point at which it has arrived. Judge all things
by the direction in which they are moving.
Whenever the observer is struck by a feature
which seems to him peculiarly good or Pc
cuarly evil. let him at once look out for
its contrary During hs different visits to the
United States. DR.. Jacks has been especially in
terested in education and has spoken on phases
of the subject. He is actively identified with
the adult education movement in England.
INSECURITY. A challenge to America. A
Study Of Social Insurance in the United
States and Abroad BY Abraham Epstein.
Introduction by Frances Perkins, United
States and Abroad BY Abraham Epstein.
States Secretary of Labor. New York:
Harrison Smith & Robert Haas.
If man is not a loafer, has in him good
] working stuff is ambitious not merely to
get ahead financially. but to contribute
something of value to his generation, then
security stabilizes him and makes him not only
happier but more efficient Nothing IS more
demoralizing, more shattering to brain and
nervous system, more disastrous TO the power
Of good work. than insecurity. The central
aim of France is national security and all her
efforts are directed toward that end, but the
other nations have not felt it their duty or
their interest to guarantee that security. Every
individual deeply desires security.
Should a nation assume the duty OF guar
anteeing that security to its own citizens? Mr..
Epstein executive secretary Of the American
Association for Old Age Security, Inc. be-
leves that society does owe such security to
the individual that is, the individual who
needs help through no fault Of his own. He
has studied the question exhauStively in many
parts of the world and is convinced that the
only sound method of handling the security of
human beings is through social insurance.
Secretary Perkins summarizes his views when
she says: Unemployment, sickness, accident,
death and old age manifest themselves in ter
rible individual experiences and create social
conditions which call for immediate solution.
Our social responsibility is great
"The benefits of insurance extended to the
oher Of wit he