Evening star., 1936-05-09
OF WEEKS BOOKS SURVEY VARIED HORIZONS
MIR. ROOSEVELT'S REMISSNESS
Has Been Such eersonan Democrat Writes That Party
Could Sue Him for Observation-Disclosures Looks American
Language With Greater Admir- tion-Other Reviews.

enjoyed making them. thev have little
quality. It Is not 80 much that one
would call them verbose-alas, no.
They are downright sabby. The crude
word expresses 1t most nearly. Little
more remains to be said.
THE DEVIL THEORY OF WAR. BY
Charles A. Beard. New York:
The Vanguard Press.
THIS book Is "an inquiry into the
nature Of history and the possi-
bility of keeping out of war" It's
eminent author has not only given 1t
an engaging title: he has departed
markedly from the theories advanced
by many pacifsts today as to the
matter involved in its scope.
His first departure Is In hxing the
guilt" for past wars. 1t has been the
fashion, as he notes, to assume that
the body Of the people always want
peace and that wars are foisted on us
by inhumanly greedy, but powerful.
men-sometimes politicians and some
times capitalists. Not at all. says DR..
Beard.
Neither politicians nor bankers"
he remarks, operate In q vacuum.
They do not intrude themselves upon
the people from some magic world
Of their own. The politician - re-
fleets the ideas ana wishes Of his con-
stitutents. TIL banker also lives right
down in the middle Of things ." He,
too doesn't play pinochle In an ivory
tower. He watches for chances to
speed up the business of making goods
and selling them at profit-this be-
ing the great peacetime pursuit Of the
nation at large"
In other words, implies Or. Beard,
if the majority of us did not stand
to gain something by war--or did not
think we did-our representatives
would not vote us into them. 1t would
be to unpopular.
From this point he goes on to ana
lyze the steps which brought us into
the last war, and then sums up with
three recommendations of his own for
keeping out of future conflicts. These
are further departures from conven-
tional pacifist reasoning. although one
has heard them family uttered before
The first is to abandon the idea that
neutral rights can be protected. They
cannot be, under present conditions
of warfare, says DR.. Beard. The Sec
ond is to give up our effort to be one
OF the imperialist nations, Showing
and pushing trade, sticking American
noses into every imperialist quarrel
and rafting the symbols Of American
greatness" everywhere. And the
third Is to give our energies to "tir-
ing our own garden"-that Is. to the
problem of using our surpluses at home
instead Of seeking for foreign markets
and thus avoid becoming dependent
on trade with nations which may, at
any time, be involved In war and car
ry us irresistibly with them.
It will be for economists to deter
mine the technical validity Of these
proposals. AS DR.. Beard puts them
down they seem to have a flavor Of
common sense. But the difference be-
tween any proposal on paper and the
action OF events Wnen SET moving, 10
a historical fact which, it Is to be
feared, nothing can disprove.
DAUGHTERS OF ALBION. BY Alec
Brown. Garden City: Doubleday
Doran 81 Co.
THIS novel the reviewer. in simple
innocence, took to be an ex-
position Of human weakness, as set
forth through the histories Of the
members of an English middle class
family. Father, mother and five
daughters-the family Is described
over three years in which crucial events
overtake all its members. Most OF
them fail to solve their troubles, or fall
by the wayside. One, the youngest