Evening star., 1937-01-30
WIT ENLIVENS HISTORY OF PAST 100 YEARS
OLD EVENTS GIVEN FRESHTOUCH
Philip Guedaa Writes Students Wish Historians Would Do
More Often-The "Grand Tour" Revived-A Chinese
Poetess of Ten Centrues Ago.

Ago.
about it which. unless they are
watched closely, may undo all that has
been done.
Capital Is abundant and cheap. The
burden Of private Indebtedness is very
low. There is a better balance be-
tween industry and agriculture. Labor
is better paid, while prices have ad-
vanced little-a very significant de-
velopment and basic in the Brook
ings theory of recovery. Banks are
sounder. Prospects Of foreign trade
are better with the elimination Of un-
economic barriers. There Is q crying
need for new goods-new houses, new
automobiles, new everything. The
world is pretty shabby after the de-
preston. The uncertainty over New
Deal policies, which may have acted
as a brake on business expansion in
some lines, has been greatly reduced.
Such are the favorable elements
making for continuation Of re-
covery back to the 1929 levels and
beyond.
There Is another side to the picture.
Public debts, both Of nation and of
local governments, are heavy. Budgets
have been thrown out of balance
everywhere. Labor relations are more
unsettled than before. and the Brook
ings experts have little patience with
the theory that shorter hours at un-
reduced wages. unrelated to efficiency,
will provide purchasing power to bal
ance the necessary higher prices. But
the worst cloud is that good deal
Of the recovery in the world at large,
upon which American recovery is in
some degree dependent, has not been
upon a sound economic basis, but be.
cause of the expansion of military pro-
grams.
The book lists some Of the essen
tials for continued recovery bal
anced Federal budget as soon as pos
sible. fixed price for gold, extension
OF reciprocal trade agreements, the
preservation of q favorable ratio be-
tween prices and wages, maintenance
OF prevailing hours Of labor, no more
restriction Of production in industry
and less emphasis on restriction In
agriculture.
This is likely to be one Of the
really significant books Of its time in
the effects 1t may have on economic
policies.-T. r. H.
GRAND TOUR. A Pilgrimage to- Eu-
ropes Shrines of Culture. The Aris-
tocratic Journey Of the 17th and
18th Centuries. Edited by r. 8.
Lambert. Illustrated. New York:
E. P. Dutton Co.
z EADERs Of this page may have no
ticed in weeks east that the re-
viewer Is not overpartial to books Of
travel. Readers, indeed, have some
times commented on this fact in let
tiers addressed to the reviewer. And,
in SO far as they have individually
commented on the attitude, they have
been individually assured that the re-
viewer has no objection to the travel
book as such, but rather to the unin-
spire6 manner in which most works Of
travel are set down. For the most
part. her experience has shown her
that the current travellers Journal falls
into one Of two categories-it Is bub-
blingly delightful with everything
that is to be found in the new
country or 1t is grimly researchful
Of 'folk" or racial" origins. In other
words, these books are not urbanely
written. They are the product Of too
great zeal, on the one hand for sight,
seeing and on the other for facts.
The truly good travel work, however,
Is a compound Of sights, facts and the
writer's individuality. The last-named
factor is today an almost invariably
missing ingredient, while the first two
are very seldom to be found In combi.
nation. But all three are necessary.
It is with unadulterated pleasure,
therefore, that the reviewer announces
a book Of travel which is quite outside
the above-decried classiflcations-the
present book, Grand Tour" 1t has
been delight to read 1t. It ought to
be satisfaction to own it. It Is a
book to add to ones private library.
It is q remaking Of the old grand
tour" Of Europe. the journey which
was considered part of every we'll
educated young English gentleman's
schooling in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, and which fol-
lowed on his completion Of his uni
versity course. It has been remade
especially for the writing Of this book
by group Of literary couriers," each
Of whom has taken one part Of the
tour and contributed q chapter de-
scriptive Of the route today, in contrast
to its condition as recorded in the
journals Of earlier pilgrims. 1t Is well
done, full Of delightful curiosities and
felicitously illustrated with reproduc-
tions Of old travel prints and sketches.
Not the least of its merits Is its
preface by Mona Wilson, giving the
history Of the "tour'' as an educa-
tional institution.
As Miss Wilson describes 1t: I'm the
eighteenth century the ordinary grand
tour meant the circuit Of France,
Switzerland, Italy, Germany and the
low countries" This is the route COW
cred by the present writer's, being
divided into six stages-from London
to Paris, from Paris to Geneva,
through Switzerland and the Alps,
around italy, the cities Of Venice,
Florence. Rome and Naples, Germany
and the Rhineland, Cologne and the
journey to the coast.
THIS tour, says Miss Wilson, was
originated by Queen Elizabeth,
who devised it as a method Of training