Evening star., 1936-07-04
BrMnry Carter Roberts.
WHOSE CONSTITUTION. BY Henry
A. Wallace. New York: Reynal
4, Hitchcock

learn something enllRHteninR
about the widely discussed problems of
agriculture For Secretary Wallace
writes rather to the end of voicing
new philosophy of Government. His
present work is an expression-highly
discreet-of this philosophy, as he
visualizes it. He calls it, temperately.
an inquiry into the general welfare
1t is, clearly and unquestionably.
an administration document. But 1t
Is not that In the sense that it is
devoted to election purposes. 1t is
doubtful that it will be of much
help in the coming political battle, the
results Of which Mr.. Wallace SEEM
ingly feels will be a certain Roosevelt
victory. Resting on this certainty,
therefore he has not concerned him.
self with arguments as to why the
New Deal ought to be retained He
has. on the contrary, set himself to
prepare the mind Of the citizen for
what time and events may bring.
In this he is admirably clever His
book makes use Of suggestion. 1t
persuades, it drops into colloQuialisms
In a homely (or Lincolnian) fashion,
it is clothed, too, at times in the
mystic verbiage Of the broad vision,"
il attacks nobody--it will give no
offense, it is mellow, kindly, evangeli-
cal and hypnotic. 1t puts one in mind
nf nothing so much as the genial
physician assuring the patient that
it is not going to hurt.
What change does the Secretary
foresee that needs the way prepared
.or 1t by a document so plausible?
The reader will be we'll along with
the book before he can answer the
question, although the question itself
will rise insistently in his mind in
she early stages of the argument
For Mr.. Wallace does not make clear
at first what he is driving at-and
to be the coming political program.
He fingers. pensively, instead over the
evils Of our time.
We are in a parlous state, says
Secretary Wallace. This statement is
run through an almost endless variety
Of repetitiOns, to be turned finally
to clever use. For, says the Secre-
tary, it is not the first time in our
history that we have been faced
with the necessity of scrapping sys-
tenn. Did not similar emergency
exist in 1887? Then, the founding
fathers (whom he most ingenuously
calls the young brain-trusters" Of
their day. threw overheard the
Articles of Confederation and set up
the Constitution. Any reader whose
mental refiexes work normally will
catch the implication. What better
70 do today than follow in the ex-
ample Of the statesmen whom We all
fevere?
The Secretary's book advocates
nothing 50 direct. 1t proceeds by a
maze Of suggestion. The Constitution,
1t AYERS, is broad enough to permit
Of solving our problems. II it is
allowed proper Interpretation, which
brings up, of course, the bad old bogey
Of the Supreme Court, although Mr..
Wallace is too polite to call it any
such names. On the contrary, he
Is very nice indeed about the court.
He admits a general affection c'senti-
mental" he says for that institution.
hut, after paying tribute to its virtues,
he strays into an exposition of its
inconsistencies, and comments inno-
Gently on its growing power. The
reader. carried along by his monoto-
nously cadenced sentences. Is apt to put
the book down, feeling that the court
is the menace rather than the pro-
lection of our liberties. Could such an
suppression be created accidentally?
What then. does Mr.. Wallace advo-
cate? In his own words, nothing
more potent than "a council for the
general welfare" to advise Congress
with respect to those of its enact
ments which have economic signifi-
canoe" But, in the closing pages Of
his book, in the words of another
man, az il he feared to say for him.
self what he foresees, he gives the
reader a fortnight picture Of what
To expect in coming years under cur
rent policies. Quoting the Irish poet,
George w. Russell CA. E.) he says:
"'' There will hardly be any
body 30 obscure, so isolated in his en-
ployment that he will not, by the
development of the organized state, be
turned around to face it and to
recognize 1t as the most potent factor
In his life In free democracies
- few concern themselves with the
character of the State. But when 1t
cfNfA ~
organizing and directing life and in
dustry, then the individual imagina-
ton must be directed to that collective
life and power. The coming
solidarity is the domination Of the
State"
Readers familiar with American his
tory may find this far cry from the
founding fathers, in spite Of the
Eecretarys buttonholing tactics in re-
ferring to their sometimes revered
names. Yet few readers will fail to
End In this passage the climax of
the whole argument, and the reason
for the honeyed persuasion of the
preceding chapters An "omnipresent
overload" directing not only industry,
but life-that Is plainly what Mr..
Wallace visualizes. 1t can be done,
he says. in an American way" The
reader will have to decide for him
self whether any overlordship, of any
kind, can be brought about with
compatibility to Americanism.
EUROPE AND EUROPEANS. BY
Count Carlo Sforza. Indianapolis:
Bobbs Merrill Co.
THIS thoughtful book can well be
- added to the growing list Of
works on Europe and what that con-
tinent faces. One thinks of I'm
side Europe" What Next in Europe?"
and Europe Under the Terror"
among others. Count sforsas book.
however, will offer the reader q
less popular form of information
than, these. He has not dealt
with spectacular surface conditions
prosecutions, liquidations and the