Evening star., 1935-03-24
Bv Sarah B0werman.

w. w. Norton S Co.
THOSE who look upon revolution
as a cure for social injustice
and the Inauguration of new
L era of peace and plenty for
all have not learned the les
sens of history and will also not be
pleased with Mr. Martins book
He Is realiSt and reasons from past
to present, not a romanticist carried
away by emotion, such as the hatred
of whole class and fanatical devo-
ton to unavoidable slogans. His first
chapter discusses the nature of rev.
olution and arrives at the deflni-
tions: "a revolution occurs when a
faction in the community without
sanction of law resorts to armed hos
tllities in the attempt to constitute
Itself the governing force in society,""
"a revolution Is a social earthquake"
"A revolution is barbarian invasion
and conquest" Revolution is the
supreme exhibition of mob behavior"
Proponents of revolution will not like
these definitions. Present-day rev.
olution, Mr.. Martin says, "is crowd
movement against liberal democracy.
It openly avowS itself as such and
in this respect both Communist and
Fascist are the same"
Tracing the course of revolutions
through the three cycles of revolu-
tionary activity In history the first
ending in the despotism of the
Caesars, the second with the Treaty
of Westphalia in 1648, and the third
beginning in England in 1912 and ex-
tending to the present time, Mr..
Martin seems to indicate that all his
tory is just one revolution after an
other. Certainly no revolution has
ever settled anything permanently.
1t is the thesis of his book that I'VE
are at the present time at the close
of major cycle of revolutionary ac-
tivity.'' The proof which he adduces
to show that the twentieth century
has thus far been in a revolutionary
zone is hardly necessary in order to
convince most of us; we could wish
that his proof that the period of fare
well has been reached were more con-
elusive.
Mr.. Martin deduces certain char
acteristics of revolutions from his
survey of history. They are usually
based on false dilemmaS, because peo-
pie have stopped thinking, as the de-
lusion during the Reformation period
that community must be either all
Catholic or all Protestant. They ordi-
narily begin with lofty ideals and end
quite differently; the aim of the
emancipation of humanity is COM
mon beginning, reaction or dictator
ship common ending. The Russian,
Italian and German revolutions of
the present century Illustrate this.
Ironically revolution of the twentieth
century has risen to destroy nineteenth
century liberalism All that is now left
for revolution is the repudiation of
centuries of liberalism and a return
to a paternalistic regimentation of
the masses naturalization as
requirement of modern industrialism.
The masses Of people who bring about
modern revolution thus become the
slaves of the industrial dictatorship
which it establishes. Mr.. Martins last
two chapters are on 'the futility of
revolution" and revolution VS.. liber-
alism." in which he defends philos-
osphy of real human freedom, based
on intelligence, education and the
ability and liberty of people to do
their own thinking
THE HILL OF LIES. BY Heinrich
Mann. New York: E. P. Dutton
g. Co.
THE seaside village of Warmsdorf.
on the Baltic. was a pleasant
enough place though it was always
in danger of losing some of its
struggling cottages to the encroach-
ing waves, and some of its fisher
folk from time to time never came
back when they went to sea. The
Lehning family is the center of
this story by Heinrich Mann, brother
of Thomas Mann. Father Lehning
was farm laborer and Mother Lehn-
ing also worked on the land, but they
thatched cabin close to the sea, where !
the promenade stopped and the stone
embankment also ended. One day the !
Lehning cabin was washed away and |
Father Lehning was drowned Marie,
whose story this is, child of the soil |
and the sea. who loved the stormy |
waves, the black pine woods, the fiat |
farm lands stretching to the horizon
and the Legenberg, or Hill of Lies,
rising behind her fathers cottage, was
sent away to town to be apprenticed
to dressmaking establishment. The
uprooting nearly wrecked her life, but
not quite, for the story has happy
ending as far as Marie is concerned,
though it is bad enough for some Of
the others. Some of her childhood
playmates came into her city life, two
for i'll, one for love- It was a murder
which finally brought her back to
Warmsdorf. The story is about sim
pie people and their troubles and the
force of Mr. Mann's style is the force
of simplicity.
A VAGABOND IN SOVIETLAND. BY
Harry A. Franck. New York: Fred
erick A. Stokes Co.
THE veteran vagabond of the Andes,
Central America and China turned
tourist when he went to the U. S. S.
r., not only tourist but third-class
tourist, or special category" as the
Russians call it-this not only on ac-
count of the depression and his old
fashioned number of children. but also
in order that he might "reconnoiter
for more timid souls" He apologies
for writing book about Russia after
being there only thirty days. but says
that Will Durant. Carveth Wells, Alex
ander Woollcott and Will Rogers have
done it, so why shouldn't he? He
might have added many other names
Of authors whose period of incubation
for their books was brief and also have
commented on the fact that many
European writers discourse at length