Evening star., 1933-06-24
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY SARAH C.. BOWERMAN.

DOran q Co.
An ocean voyage or lorg train jour
ney loses half it's possibilities for pleas
ure If the traveller lacks a sufficient
number of books or has had the baC
luck to take the wrong ones. Somerser
Vaughan is both a persistent travelleI
and a voracious reader and knows the
difficulties of making the right selec-
ton and of finding the requisite space
in ones baggage. So he had the idea O.
choosing the novels, stories, essays anc
poems which he found it hardest to SaI
good-by to when he started on journey
and publishing as many Of them a!
possible in one fat volume. Here the
are, with a delightful general introduc-
ton and long notes on the authors anC
the reasons why they were selected II
the first sentence of his introduction
Mr.. Vaughan humorously remarks
There are people who have no heao
for cards" They are the ones. it j.
implied. who are almost driven to reac
a book when the time must be wasted
in some way. The little essay Of 9
couple of pages on card-playing versus
conversation what is left of it in these
days. and other games invented to ado
horror to social intercourse" is as good
as any of those selected for reprinting
The complete novels included in tbs
volume are The Old Wives Tale" by
Arnold Bennett; "Nocturne," by Frank
Swinnerton; THE Happy Hypocrite,
by Max Beerbohm; Lady Into Fox Dy
David Garnett; "Trent's Last Case by
E. c. Bentley, and the novelette,
Youth" by Joseph Conrad. There are
also selections from about SO other
be cfn t,ry
Norah Hoult. Katherine Mansfield
Harold Nicolson Saki Oh. H. Munro)
E. NJ Forster. H. G. Wells; essays by
Robert Louis Stevenson. Max Beerbohm
Aldous Huxley, John Galsworthy, Vir-
ginia Woolf. Lytton Strachey. Julian
Huxley and J. B. S. Haldane; poems by
Siegfried Sassoon, Hilaire Belloc, John
Masefield, Robert Bridges. Alice Mey-
nell, Sacheverell Sitwell, Francis
Thompson. Rupert Brooks, Walter de la
Mare The compass of the volume is
packed but one could wish that Mr.
Vaughan had found room for few
more of his own notes. They are sc
discriminating For example, he finds
irony in Arnold Benefits writing his
last novel about a huge hotel. But tina;
Arnold should have spent the last OF
his energy and determination in the
description of a hotel seems to me &C
have a symbolic significance. For
feel that he was never quite at home In
the world. 1t was to him perhaps a
sumptuous hotel. with marble bath
rooms and a marvellous cuisine, in
which he was a transient guest.
THE NEW ART OF WRITING ANE
SPEAKING THE ENGLISH Lam
GUAGE Six volumes. BY Sherwir
Cody. New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons
This set of little books would dc
much for the person who desires mastery
of our language, but has passed the
days of schooling ora bare possibility
has found that in school he has not
learned all that he needs in order tc
speak and write correctly. The author
is director of the Sherwin Cody Schoo
of English. He has known how to con.
dense essentials and to eliminate the
merely academic in this practical boxet
library. each volume of which can easily
be slipped into coat pocket or hand
bag. The subjects of the volumes art
grammar, word study and punctuation
composition, story writing and jour-
nalism, how to do business by letter ane
dictionary of errors. The last volume
is especially interesting for dipping into
casually There we find lists of error:
in the use of words, in pronunciation
and in spelling. For example, capacity
means one thing. ability another
"aggravate" does not mean to annoy
"allusion" and Illusion are mental
worlds apart, and like" is not a con-
junction, SO it is incorrect to say "like
do" Even the most thoroughly
educated people must often consult the
dictionary for the pronunciation of some
tricky word in our tricky language. Mr.
Cody has listed number of words mos
often mispronounced, as abdomen,
coincidence" 'indisputab1e, "indiS-
soluble, ,""heinous, romance. salmon, "
"explicable," and dozens of others which
We can all recall Then there are the
proper names, always pitfalls. How dc
you pronounce Chicago" Concord,
Amherst" Los Angeles "Buenos
Aires?" In many cases, especially in
those of proper names, there is authority
for other pronunciations than these
given by Mr. Cody. One of the COM
pensations for the difficulty of the
English language is the kindliness OF
the dictionary makers, who often permit
two or three alternative pronunciations
lOI d WOIQ.
FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN CHINA
BY C. F. Remer. New York: The
Macmillan Co.
In 1881 the United States had invest
mentS in China totaling $500 million
To ascertain this fact and various other
related facts. such as the types of in
veStment, influence of tariffs, methods
of payment, balances, loans, geographic
cal distribution, d.. Remer, professor
of economics in the University of Michi-
gan. made study for our country, In
cooperation with number of other
economists making similar studies for
other countries. The funds for the
series of investigations were furnished
by the Social Science Research Council
of New York and the Faculty Research
Fund of the University of Michigan.
The collected material was brought to-
gether and from it this book has been
written. The whole economic situation
of China is involved in her foreign in
yestments, and her economic fortunes
will to a large extent determine her
future, so Dr. Remer'S book should be
of general interest. How and where
will China secure capital for her fur
ther economic growth? What will be
the security SHE VIII De dUle 10 OlleI
THE poverty of her people makes it
that she will be able to find
any large surplus at home. Her social
makes it difficult to secure
it abroad The kew to Chinas economic
relations may well be found in foreign
This is to place the risk
with the priv ate investor, but he is ac-
customed to risks at home and abroad.
The careful study of Dr. Remer and his
might well be consulted by all
investors in Chinese enterprises or in
American companies carrying on bust
ness in China. AS corollary, there is
much material concerning Japanese
business and economic conditions.
THE FEDERAL RESERVE ACT: ITS
ORIGIN AND PROBLEMS BY j.
Laurence Laughlin. New York: The
Macmillan Co
When the Federal Reserve act be-
came law there was much random talk
ing among people who knew very little
about the provisions Of the act, and
even among those who knew something
to the effect that the new Federal Re-
serve system would prevent future buSi-