Evening star., 1934-12-09

Peterson. New York: The Mac |
milan Co.
THE opposite Of liquid assets is frozen |
L assets, and we are told that |
frozen assets are 3 cause, or effect, !
at any rate part Of the vicious circle
Of economic depression. Mr.. Berla. |
associate professor Of law at Coium-
bia University and q member Of the
department of economics there, shows
that nquidity, lone of the oldest phe- |
nomena in the economics Of human
DESIRE" Is subject Of great COM
plexity, not generally understood, and
full Of possibilities which the average
person would call dangerous. There
is no escape from the fact that the
truly liquid asset Is dead asset: as
it enters into production it becomes
less liquid; what has happened has
been the splitting of the atom of
property SO that he (the original
owner has the dead part and some
one else the living" This sounds
like an echo from Prof. Berle's earlier
and much larger book, written with
Gardiner C. Means, 1.-THE Modern
Corporation and Private Property"
and we are told that the present brief
and necessarily unfinished study Of
liquidity is an outgrowth Of that
book.
The two forms of liquidity. proceed
ing, respectively, from human need
for consumption and from q shifting
from one form to another, are diff
ferentiated. The underlying assets
of liquid claims, the relation of liquid
claims to national wealth. the mechan-
isms of artificial liquidity. legal as
poets Of liquidity, the hazards of
liquidity and the value or detriment
Of the liquidity element in property
are all discussed, with practical illus
tration and statistical evidence. If
there were space it would be desirable
to quote many Of the concisely ex-
pressed, almost maximlike conclu-
sions, such as: Property to be liquid
must owe nothing to its owner, and
its owner must owe nothing to It,
Personality or talent or any quality
of personality cannot pass readily
from hand to hand" This study was
prepared under the auspices Of the
Columbia University Council for Re-
search in the Social Sciences The
statistical work was done by Victoria
J. Peterson. student of economics
and financial theory and member
Of several statistical STATS.
A COMMON FAITH. BY John Dewey
New Haven: Yale University Press.
! As REGARDS religion, people are
today divided into two camps,
says John Dewey, eminent psycholo-
| gist and professor Of philosophy,
emeritus. in Columbia University.
There are many who hold that moth
ing worthy Of being called religious
is possible apart from the super
natural; those in this group range
from the accepters of the complete
dogma OF a church to 'the theist or
mild deist." The opposed group con-
sistS Of those who think the advance
of culture and science has completely
discredited the supernatural and with
it all religions that were allied with
belief in it." DR.. Dewey in this little
book, which is made up of three lee
lures delivered at Yale University. at
tempts to show that there Is a posi-
bility Of common ground Of belief
for all groups, of a faith which will
help in the business of living and in
the adjustment Of human relations.
His closely reasoned discussion has in
it nothing of dogma, attack or argu-
ment. 1t is philosophical, not theo-
logical, and emphasizes again many
Of the ideas which have long formed
a part of DR.. Dewey's philosophic
teaching.
THE WORLD AS I SEE 1T. BY Al
bert Einstein. New York: Covici-
Friede
THE essays in the five sections of
this book were originally pub
lished by the Querido Verlag in Am
sterdam and have been translated
with the authorization of Einstein.
The first section, Scientific" explains
his theory Of relativity and after
enough people have read it the num-
Der of the II lonely ones in the
world who are supposed to understand
it may be increased. The second and
third sections, Judaism" and Ger
many" are probably responsible for
|
many, announced in a recent news
item. The last two sections, Politics
and Pacifism" and THE World as
See 1t" give something of the political
and personal philosophy of the man
whose thought has so markedly in
fluenced the scientific world that the
popular world has become familiar
with his name and his personality
without comprehending his theories.
Politically Einstein Is an International
ist and militant pacifiSt. Personally,
he believes that any one who thinks
life meaningless is disqualified for life
and that "a knowledge of the existence
of something We cannot penetrate. our
perceptions Of the profoundest reason
and the most radiant beauty, which
our minds seem to reach only in their
most elementary forms-it is this
knowledge and this emotion that con-
stitute the truly religious attitude"
THE FORTY DAYS OF MUsA
| DAGH BY Franz Werfel New
! York: The Viking Press.
THE defense Of Musa Dagh. that
darkening ridge against the SUM-
set" in the Taurus Mountains, in
1915, is celebrated by Armenians as
a great anniversary in their history.
Franz Werfel, Viennese novelist, con-
ceived the idea for this book in 1929
while staying in Damascus. "The
miserable sight of some MANNED and
famished looking refugee children,
working in carpet factory, gave me
the final impulse to snatch from the
Hades of all that was this incom-
prehensible destiny of the Armenian
nation" The story is Of Gabriel Ba-
gradian, his wife Juliette, his son
Stephan, returning from years in
Paris to the land and village, Yog-
honolulu, of Gabriers birth, in 1915,
and Immediately being merged with
the "treacherous Armenian race" the
object Of Turkish prosecutions. A
reserve officer in the Turkish Army,
Gabriel holds himself in readiness for