Evening star., 1934-02-11
10y SARAH @. BOWERMAN
The Making Of an american Famib-Lord
RiddeH's Diary and ''7he Victorian
Atte,matA'- '-Eary Spring Fiction.


Wingfield- -Stratford, D. Sc, M. A. New
York: William Morrow & Co.
IN this third volume of his study of the sig
! nificance Of Victorianism, Esme Wingfed
Stratford covers the Edwardian era, the after
math" of the long Victorian age. 1t begins
with Marcia Funebre," the funeral of Queen
Victoria. 1t ends with the crash, whose be-
ginning was the pistol shot at Serajevo and
whose end may yet be the collapse OF our
civilization" The volume closes with the words
of King George to our American Ambassador
in London: My God, Mr.. Page, what else
could we do?' The tale has often been told,
but perhaps by no one else with such knowledge
of the details which make the atmosphere of
the period and with such consciousness of the
underlying meaning 'whitherness" is the right
Word-og events Through this volume and the
two previous ones, Those Earnest Victorians'
and THE Victorian Sunset" Esme Wingfeld-
Stratford has deserved acceptance as an au-
thority the Victorian age, one of the most
varied and important in the history of the
Anglo-Saxon race.
The four parts of THE Victorian Aftermath"
are called Years of Disillusion,' The Edward
ian Spirit" Liberalism on Trial" and Pre-
War" After Queen Victoria's death England
entered age of nerves; hectic stimulation
was demanded by the public. Tory supremacy
was to be explained by the general craving for
safety, while society was left free to sin at will.
Edward VII "only gained In popularity from
his reputation as a man of pleasure" Then
came the Tory decline, the seeds of German
ophoba began to sprout Imperialism was
eclipSed and the Entente Cordiae was formed.
In the maturity of the brief Edwardian period
orthodoxy became bankrupt, science lopsided.
psychology fctionized thought iournalized, art
commercialized and Mammon triumphant. Just
before the World War there speeding up
of everything, and intranSigeanCe in politics,
class and sex grew more and more evident
Then England went lover the edge"
KEMNAERER ON MONEY. An elementary
discussion of the important facts and under
lying principles Of the money problems now
confronting the American people. BY Edwin
Walter Kemmerer. Philadelphia: The John
C. Winston Co.
\ low professor of international finance at
Y Princeton University DR.. Kemmerer has
had q large share of the experience which is
necessary either to back theories or often to
change them He has been currency expert to
the Philippine government and president OF
the American commission of financial advisers
to Colombia Chile, Ecuador Bolivia, Peru, Po-
land and China This book of his on money
Is dedicated to Grover Cleveland, a fearless
and valiant champion of sound money" OF
course, the many authorities on the money
question differ widely in theories and the
methods advocated, but all agree that the
money question is not yet settled. Because
of this, and because never before has there
been such widespread interest on the part Of
the gentle reader and the clamorous citizen
in what is happening to money the world over,
books by students of currency complexities II
written in generally understandable language,
are in great demand.
DR.. Kemmerer first explains the gold stand
ard, which he says is the best standard known,
in spite Of its imperfections THE urgent
monetary problem of the immediate future s
not a national problem of creating substitute
for the gold standard, but rather interna-
tional problem of making the gold standard
q better standard" Chapters follow on Our
Present Paper Standard" "The Gold Pur-
chase Plan" Imitation, Defation, Relation"
"The Greenbacks," "Germany's Initiation"
"The Silver Question" "The Silver Purchase
Plan" The Commodity Dollar Debtor and
Creditor and "The Way Back to Gold" Space
does not permit the summarizing of DR.. Kem-
merer's facts and arguments. Some of the aspects
of the currency question which he discusses
are the experiences of other countries with in
f1ation, politics and managed currency, the
silver question political rather than an
economic problem, the necessity for public
confidence in a national currency and radical
monetary laws obstacle to economic
recovery.
CANNLDAL <ROEOI by IOIuOn OulCidH NcW
York: Farrar & Rinehart
IN THE past, when cannibals were more album
! dant in certain parts of the world, sailors and
travellers avoided cannibal islands and prayed
that in of shipwreck they might not be
cast away on one of them. Robinson Crusoe
thought with terror of cannibal atrocities when
he the footprint in the sand, and in the
recently published Man Against the Sea-" by
Nordhoff and Hall, we are told that after one
bitter experience on the Island of Tofoa Capt.
BIgh steered away from islands whose inhabi.