Evening star., 1934-06-09
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY SARAH C. BOWERMAN.
THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA.
A Study in International Rela-
tions. By Harry F. Guggenheim.
rIrn- Il

THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA.
A Study in International Rela-
tions. BY Harry F. Guggenheim.
New York: The Macmillan Co.
Long sought national independence,
when attained, does not usually bring
the millennium hoped for by idealists.
| There Is often Joker in the in
dependence and the idealists are also
human. subject to the same tempta-
tions, when opportunity offers, as the
| most ''hard-boiled" of opportunists.
The "joker" In the case Of Cuba was
the Platt amendment and the human
! weakness of Cuban nationalists has
been open to general knowledge
through many front-page stories. MIR.
Guggenheim, United States Ambassa-
dor to Cuba, 1e29-1e33, has no criti-
cism to offer in connection with the
relations Of the United States and
| Cuba, because he was too intimately
connected with the events of those
four turbulent years in Cuba's re-
publican history and because his ac-
quaintance with Cuba, begun in 1907
and continued through service on in
ternational commissions in connection
with aeronautics, "deepened into an
enduring affection" Without criti-
cism, then, he here makes a careful
| and well informed study of the rela-
tions which began with the purchase
OF the Floridas by the United States
in 1919. He prefaces the study by
the statement: II have never had
any business interest, directly or in
| directly, in Cuba"
| Part I of Mr.. Guggenheim's study
Is preliminary and deals with United
States relations with colonial Cuba.
The remainder of the book concerns
relations since the formation of treaty
relationship following the Spanish
American War. That this relation
ship has evolved unsatisfactory will
probably be disputed by few, if any,
persons who haye information on the
subject. Senator Platt predicted that
"the Platt amendment would settle
| the Cuban problem. It did not do so.
Similarly, modification of it will not
| settle all Cuban difficulties. but it
will, in my opinion. remove the most
serious obstacle to better relations be-
tween Cuba and the United States"
The Platt amendment, now annulled
by the recent treaty, provided for
United States supervision over Cuban
independence through a check on the
treaty-making and raising
powers of the Cuban government.
through a provision for Intervention
under certain circumstances, and
through provisions for carrying on
and extending the sanitation already
begun by the United States. Mr.
/ GIInoarhaipn'S hnnk &c
superficial work 1t is a serviceable
addition to the study of Cuban eco
nomic history Of the immediate past
and OF current economic problems. be-
tween the United States and Cuba.
| + + 4
THREE ESSAYS ON AMERICA. By
Van Wyck Brooks. New York:
E. P. Dutton d Co.
| In republishing these three essays,
Van Wyck Brooks protests against
their being judged as representative
of his mature mind, but believes that
certain of the ideas expressed in them
still have life and truth. Americas
Coming g-of-Age" was first published in
1915, Letters and Leadership" in 1918
and Literary Life in America" in
| 1921. Mr.. Brooks never hesitates to
say exactly what he thinks and some
critical readers many find hints in his
essays which will throw light on their
own feeling that the United States
has not in the twentieth century pro-
duced many, if any, writers Of imag
inative literature who can be COM
pared with those of England and the
Scandinavian countries. Innocent
Old America" has passed and there is
now an absence from our literature
of that deep, moving. shaking impact
Of personality. which would have
brought it into more permanent touch
with American life"
One of the most hopeful American
qualities. Mr.. Brooks finds. is humility,
and by that we may be saved. This
opinion causes reflection, for We are
accustomed to hearing ourselves
called egotistical He partly explains
by saying that nobody in the world
more carefully, more steadily land
more unjustly) takes down our pre-
tensions than the educated Ameri-
can" Unjustly or otherwise. he him.
self joins most vehemently in the TAX
ing down of pretensions. when he in
vestigates the lack of leadership in
American letters. Too many of the
best minds of our own younger gen.
Grafton have already, owing to the
aridity Of our cultural SOIL fallen VIC
Tins to the creeping paralysis of the
mechanistic view Of life. Too many,
more POLITICALLY endowed, have lost
themselves in a confused and feeble
anarchism." Only when the founda-
tions of American life are recon-
structed on basis of experience shall
We cease to be "a blind. selfish. dis
orderly people" Van Wyck Brooks
has come to be adjudged one of our
most searching literary critics, and
perhaps his surgical knife is more
salutary than gentler remedies.
n
THE LIFE OF OUR LORD. BY
Charles Dickens. New York: Simon
Il Schuster.
The bringing to publication Of a
previously unpublished manuscript of
Charles Dickens ga years after his
death is an event worthy of the
heralding which it has received. 1t
does not follow. however, that his Life
of Jesus written for his own children,
is especially remarkable or better than
many more recent children's books
which follow the New Testament story
as closely and have a more modern
turn of style, such as, for example.
Gillie's STORY of Stories" 1t is not
the best Life of Jesus for children any
more than Dickens "Child's History
of England" is the best in its field.
Yet it has much charm, the charm
that is inescapable In any reverent
re-telling of the Gospel story, with
the added charm of Victorian senti-
ment. which Dickens SO we'll knew how
to use. 1t was written in the period
which produced his greatest novel,
David Copperfield," and shows none
Of the rich imagination and exuberant
style which mark that book, but Dick
ems would have felt that imagination
was entirely unsuitable to his religious
subject. The moral tone of the book
| iS nf nhvin u