Evening star., 1936-06-27
By MAry.Carter Roberts.

CluNJIllDcs NtlSIdH bIltlSll COT-
respondent, is at once beauti-
fully written, rich in materials
anc conventional IN treatment. AS a
newspaper man, Mr.. Slocombe went
wherever great events were happening
As his own biographer, he deals with
those events not as news, but as mile
stones in history, now to be turned
into literature. The sharpness Of
reality, therefore. is lost from the
event itself, and the work avoids
introspection as to what the successive
episodes connoted for the author. So
the book becomes a smooth but not
particularly significant account of an
interesting career AS such it takes
its place among the largest one variety
Of photographed writing.
Mr.. Slocombe tells of the war, of
the peace negotiations. of what he saw
of the beginnings of Fascism, Of the
diplomacy which has influenced world
movements in recent years-Locarno,
Genoa, Lausanne, Geneva, The Hague.
He also tells of literary personalities
whom he knew-Anatole France, SIN
clair Lewis, Katherine Mansfield,
James Joyce. James Stephens, Yeats
and so on. He devotes a chapter, in
fact, to the Paris expatriates of the
arts.
He visited Russia and writes an in
conclusive chapter about it. 81 re-
fected on the tragedy of all revolu-
tions." he SAYS. The iconoclastS Of
yesterday become the high priests of
, tomorrow; their children devour each
other" He analyzes the fall of Primo
de Rivera in Spain. He devotes several
chapters to his time in India, where
he interview the imprisoned Gandhi
and heard him define civil disobedi-
ence. He records that after an inter
view with Der Fuhrer in 1881 he wrote
in his diary. France will do well to
beware OF Hitler; he found the Ger
man leader obSessed with the thought
of revenge He visited Dollfuss and
writes Of him, He had neither the
intolerance of Hitler nor the cyni-
cism of Mussolini" he became the
first martyr Of Austrian liberty"
Here somewhat abruptly his mar
rattve ends. Il close the tale" writes
this veteran observer, without pessi-
lnism. 1t is, in the main, a record of
the diverse manifestations of the
heroic spirit in man. The heroes Of
many countries and of several genera
tions are herein described; not as they
, may appear in the disparaging eye of
a valet, or in the roSeate vision Of
partisan, but as brutally, as vividly,
as confused or crystal-clear as an eye
witness can see them in the passion
less terms of posterity. There is, in
retrospect, common touch Of frus-
trated nobility in them all, Of genius,
of fanaticism, Of vanity, Of cruelty,
Of intolerance, Of hope, of courage. of
sublimity 81. they are like no other
men who have gone beore them or
who may come hereafter. They belong
TO our own time. They rise to its
grandeur; they stoop to its depths.
They have their own vivid, brightly
colored or stark and somber page in
history"
=n This closing observation is as deep
as Mr.. sloconfbe penetrates in the
Interpretation of the times about
which he writes. His work is essen
= tally the work of an onlooker. an
eyewitness" as he puts it. Its ac-
curacy and its complete lack of preiu-
= dice will make it a valuable addition
TO the history of our era. One could
wish, reading the brief summing up
given above, that the author had lin
gered more often as he went along to
comment and interpret.
ROOSEVELT RIDDLES. By Russell
Moore. Garden City: Doubleday
Dora7 & Co.
IN THIS book Mr.. Moore does
sorsething that readers of books
about the New Deal must have been
expecting for a long time. That is,
he deals with the incredibly funny
aspects Of the working brain trust.
Like the blithe senselessness of a
Gilbert and Sullivan operetta are
many Of the hard facts brought for
ward in this book; the publisher
makes the remark on the jacket, and
for once the reviewer finds a blurb
pet. The radiant, carefree, joyous
1diocy which this book describes really
ought TO be set TO music.
1t is told in the form of questions
and anSwers-embarrassing questions,
the publisher remarks, once more
truthfully. Could an American citi-
Zes be sent to jail for raising over
five bushels Of potatoes without a
permit if Secretary Wallace had had
his way? Yes. he could. Did the
W. P. A. allot s5O0,0oO Of the tax
payers money to rls1 a school for
housemaids? Yes, it did Did the
same organization spend other tax
payers money TO find a pattern for
female boomers, size So? Yes, it did.
Does w. P. A. build shower baths for
dogs? Yes, it does, in Memphis, in
o pound that is being constructed at
cost Of 5000. Did the A. A. A.
send benefit checks to others than
farmers? 1t sent them to corpora
tions and TO a lady living in Chevy
Chase who had no more la:Gd than a
front lawn. Who received the largest
A. A. A. benefit payment for not
raising cotton? A British controlled
frm operating in Mississippi, Are We
increasing the markets for our farm
ers? Wheat importations increased
100000 per cent from 1893 TO 1885.
Are the T. V. A power plants TO be
paid for by the people who will use
the power? No. They will be paid
for out Of Federal funds collected from
al taxpayers. Are persons affiliated
with Soviet Russia on the New Deal
pay rolf Katherine Kellock, field
supervisor Of 1900 W. P. A. workers,
Is wife Of the publicity director of
the Soviet Embassy in Washington.
And so on.
Mr.. Moore takes up in turn the
New Deal attitude toward business,
the Constitution, farming, finance,
labor. methods. relief and taxes. CIV
ing also chapter to policy and one
to miscellaneous absurdities It Is
hilarious reading. 1t would seem TO