Evening star., 1937-06-26
FRIENDS WRITE OF LAWRENCE
Short Essays Hero of Arabian Adventure Done by 80 Men and
Women Who Knew Hm-Wells BestSeller Deserves to Be-
DR.. Forman Writes Courageously of Our Democracy.

ly interesting suggestion It Is that
| voters voluntarily and publicly regis
ter their preference in an Opinion
Box'-a quite unof1icial institution
| this Is to be-before actual ofYicial
votes are taken on public questions.
He feels that this would do away with
purely political suasion and would re-
suit In the politicians taking direction
from public desires. instead of at
tempting to mold those desires to their
own ends. This seems a very interes-
ing idea, and one that would certainly
bring about increased public concern
for political issues.
The book ought to be welcome read
Ing to citizens who feel that progress
for America is still possible without
q vast upheaval and overthrowing of
our established institutions, and per-
haps may also be read with profit by
those who have come to regard our po-
lltlcal situation as too complex for fur
ther practical use. For that there is a
difference between political situations
and governmental systems Dr. Forman
makes abundantly clear He does not
believe that it is necessary to burn the
house down in order to clean it. His
book is recommended as a wholesome
and courageous thing.
CHINA HAND. BY James Lafayette
Hutchinson. New York: Lothrop,
Lee & Shepard Co.
THIS very interesting book has been
waiting on the reviewers shelves
for criminal length of time. 1t is
more than six months old in fact.
Nothing but the pressure OF numbers
has been responsible for this; books
have been coming in at approximately
the rate Of Is day. Some, obviously,
have to 60 unreviewed for a while,
and among these there are bound to
be a few good ones. China Hand"
is one of those But it deserved bet
ter treatment than the reviewer has
been able to give it,
1t is the story-almost the day-by-
day story-of the experiences OF an
American business man in China in
ySoAo OSeHSSll 4o1l anu ISOO. MI.
Hutchinson went out to the Orient as
a salesman for the American Tobacco
Co. when he was 20, just after finish
ing college. He stayed until 1917,
when he returned to the United States
for period Of IL years. In 1929 he
went back to China and put in four
more years. still working for the to-
bacco company He has now made a
book about his memories. 1t is
book Of close-range pictures of Chi
nese life, quite without literary swank,
simple, graphic and somehow in
tensely interesting 1t is recommend
ed as entertaining first of all. 1t also
gives, OF course, a history of political
change in China and describes what
that change has meant to the for
eigner and what the author feels it
has meant to the Chinese themselves.
AS he sees it. the Western foreigner,
in his opening" of China to trade
and in his development of Chinese
markets, simply cleared the way for
the japanese. who, he feels, are I'M
alterably bent on imperialistic pur-
poses in their neighbor country. The
old China, he thinks, is gone forever
conservative business man. who
prospered on the basis of kindly re-
lations with native merchants, he re-
grets and even laments the passing.
But there 1t is. He can only point to it.
The life of the pre-revolutionary
Celestial Kingdom, he says, was a good
one. was the life of all the peoples
OF the world before the machine mur-
dered handicrafts and when men
worked as individuals instead Of slav-
ing in the mass; it was a life close
to nature that, in spite of extreme
poverty and B. c. comforts, bred a
serenity and repose, spiritual and
mental poiSe, q deep, unconscious
feeling OF being a part of nature itself.
nature in the sense of the cosmic, that
expressed the creative instinct. innate
in every human being, through the
use of the hands and developed the
artistic sense as naturally as q baby
develops its faculties.
In the breasts of the Chinese dvelt
q spirit of timelessness," Hutchinson
says. "of oneness with nature, the
highest plane of happiness man can
achieve, in rhythm with the unhur-
ried, even flow of the cosmic order
that is really the soul of man.
L know this is true-from all I
saw and felt living in their midst"
But it is also past, he adds SORROW
fully, saying, Farewell to Eastern
culture! Hail to Western jazz" This
Is his prognostication of the future.
The book, however, is very largely
made up Of anecdotes remembered
from the life of business man, and
they are for the most part good ones.
Some are grim, some are rollicking
and some are just stories, but all are
readable. The book is rich. close to
the life Of the streets and market
places, aware Of the f1neness of the
old school Chinese aristocracy and
constantly demonstrative OF the plain,
patient practically of the Chinese
common people. The reviewer hopes |
that this belated notice will serve some |
readers to bring them in possession OF
q good, though (by herr badly treated
book.
A MAVERICK AMERICAN. BY
Maury Maverick. New York: Co
vici Friede.
pROBABLY the brightest thing that
Mr.. Maverick ever did in the
course Of q demonstrably bright career
was to get himself named as he is.
For certainly his combined Christian
and surnames could not be improved
upon for the position in life to which
it has pleased the electorate to call
him. II Sinclair Lewis in his some
what breezer days had set out to
write novel about typical Ameri-
can Congressman, he could not have
done better in choosing q name for