Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-02-23
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY SARAH G. BOWERMAN.


Doubleday, Doran & Co.
Liberia, always regarded as q
moral protectorate of the United
States" was chosen by Harvey Fire
stone for the development Of an indie
pendent source of rubber which woulc
give American industry protection
from foreign monopoly. Mr.. Young
describes Africa as it was hundred
years ago, then the settlement O.
! Liberia by freed American slaves an:
their efforts to establish q communit,
Of their own on the edge of the jungle
Liberia was brought out of its OBJ
scurity, perhaps a comfortable OBJ
security, by the Firestone expedition o.
1924, when Donald "A. Ross went there
to examine rubber possibilities. since
then thousands of acres of Jungle
have been cleared for rubber planta.
lions, good roads have been made
sanitation has been established, hos.
pitfalls and stores have been built anC
q radio station links Africa with
America. This all came about be.
| cause the British Government anc
Far Eastern rubber growers combined
to raise the price of rubber in 1922
Now Liberia has become important
has become, in fact, one of the minor
! trouble spots" of the world. The
reason for this, why Great Britain
and France and the League of Nations
are disturbed about Liberian affairs
is explained in Mr.. Young's very in.
teresting book, which is we'll docu.
mented and illustrated from photo.
graphs.
WE SAGEBRUSH FOLKS. BY Annie
! Pike Greenwood. New York: D
Appleton Century Co.
Soon after Annie Pike and Charles
Greenwood were married they left a
| settled, more or less conventional life
| IN kansas and went to live in the
sagebrush desert of Southern Idaho
on the new Minidoka irrigation
project. In this autobiography Mrs
Greenwood tells a story of thwarted
i effort and futile but unavoidable
hardships which escapes being COM
pletely gloomy only because of her
own alert reactions to all the life
which she experienced and all the
people who formed a part of it. The
recurrent crises of child-bearirg, fol-
herself and her neighbors land the
interest of each crisis was shared by
alb, broke the monotony Of sagebrusi,
days, but each time added to the bur-
dens. The niceties Of more gracious
life were given UP one by one. The
velvet carpets gave place to linoleum
curtains wore out and were not re.
placed; only mortgages were abun.
! dant. Her daily bath Mrs. Greenwood
refused to relinquiSh, and all the years
Of her farm life she bootlegged it ir
! the kitchen. Her description of he,
electric daShes from kitchen to bee
room when the men inevitably CANT
! to the kitchen for drinks of waite.
during her bath reveals another
reason why she was able TO endur,
the Sagebrush life, her incurable sens,
of humor. In spite of the long. hare
road and the ultimate loss of theil
| farm, the Greenwoods Jared better
than most of their neighbors, prob
ably because of superior intelligence
| and background Mr. Greenwood
went to the Idaho State Legislator,
and Mrs. Greenwood wrote some ar.
ticles for the Atlantic Monthly which
put some of the Idaho politicians il
anything but a favorable light. So
not farming, but politics and writing
brought a measure of success. This
| account of IS years of the life of ar
American farm woman on one of the
| last of the frontiers makes very H.
teresting reading, but 1t will hardly
tempt any one to go and do likewise
THE FOGHORN AND OTHER
STORIES. BY Gertrude Ather.
ton. Boston: Houghton Milf.
fin Co.
Mrs. Atherton might have followed
the suggestion of Bernard Shaw:
title of plays Pleasant and I'm.
pleasant" for this collection of stories
with italics for the unpleasant" The
longest of the stories, THE Eterna
Now" permits a possibility of pleas.
antness in the split life of Simon
de Brienne. wealthy owner of a Long
Island estate, who at times vanishei
mentally from his present surround.
ingS and lives In the medieval past
Of his ancestors, In the France Of
Jeanne de Valois and the invasions
of the Black Prince. The story end,
,, with a hint that Simon's solution
! may be found in the identification
of twentieth century Anne Clyde with
fourteenth century Jeanne de Valois
The title story, The Foghorn," is q
tale of horror equal to anything OF
Poes, of young and beautiful woman
on the point of going away with the
married man whom she loves, an
accident in boat in San Francisco
Bay. then a blank of years, and
final awakening in hospital bed Just
''The Sacrificial Altar" relates the
murder of the beautiful and wealthy
Berthe Dupont by Louis Bac, novelist
of crime, who is impelled to the
deed by his avidity for real expert
ence in crime. The stories are not
representative of Gertrude Ather-
tons best work, but show her usual
ingenuity of plot and sophisticated
facility of style.
\ 4
THE SCIENCE OF ECONOMY. BY
Ludwig Kotany. New York: G. P
Putnam's Sons.
DR.. Kotany. Austrian by birth, be.
came an American citizen and wa,
both a financier and broker and q
writer for the Quarterly Journal Of
Economics and other economic period
icals. He died while preparing the
manuscript of this book for the press
He believed that the classical econo-
mists, Adam Smith. Nautilus, Ricardo
and their followers. whose theories hi
analyses in some detail, were toe
largely influenced by Roman, Canon
and English law and consequently
I looked at economic problems from the
legalistic point of view, instead of that
of human experience in production
distribution and financing. Modern
science has also changed economic