Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-08-07
Bv Mary.Cayter Roberts,

Thompson. New YORK: Nahooa
House.
I'm THIS book Miss Thompson
considers the case Of the refugee
populations OF the world and asks
L that humanitarians everywhere
do likewise For. as she sees 1t, these
refugees constitute grave problem to
society and a challenge to those who
profess the democratic ideal. Her
book Is not a large one; 1t Is only an
elaboration of an article which she
published in the April Foreign Affairs
But. as President Roosevelt has re-
Gently invited some 80 governments
to consider the refugee problem, her
brief, authoritative discussion may
have q broad interest.
She describes then the various Or
carnations which exist and have ex-
listed to look after refugee groups and
offers some plans for the future con-
duct of the matter The organizations
in the past have either been within the
League of Nations or inspired by 1t,
and, says Miss Thompson, they have
In general accomplished little. They
accomplished little, she tells us. when
Neey were at their best Now they have
g1own still more impotent. and at the
same time the refugee situation has
grown worse. Therefore, she con-
cludes. civilized governments will have
to make new moves to cope with the
whole matter
The old organizations grew up. she
writes, after the World War, when the
refugees were limited to Russians,
Armenians and Greeks who had been
dispossessed by that struggle. More
recently there have been added to the
worlds homeless the refugees from
Man Germany and the new Nazl Aus
tria; there also are many Italians and
Spaniards In all she estimates that
there are about 100000 exiles in the
world today And she declares that
the situation of these people Is ap-
palling.
Her plans for taking care of them
seem to the reviewer noble rather than
practical They rest on commissions
and international companies and the
like. which types of organizations at
present must be admitted to have the
stigma of impotence on them. As
she says herself. whatever kind OF
body is set up, the great problem In
resettling these people will be finance
and it is plain that they must be
financed by others, for themselves
they cannot save.
CONTAMINATION
of war debts" to this end, her scheme
being that we should credit to our
debtor nations any sums which they
advance for the financing of colonies
of refugees in their territories Just
what the logic of this is, or how we
are responsible for these hapless peo-
pie. is within her kind heart. She
simply declares that. as democrats. we
owe the dispossessed of Europe this
aid and seems satisfied with the state
ment.
This reviewer, however, would argue
that you cannot make world safe
for democracy against its wishes, and
that as long as Europe practices me-
dieval barbarism toward its minorities
so long at least should America de-
cline to do the bag holding. A hard
word. and one which would shock Miss
Thompson, no doubt. But, with all
her fine, lucid description Of the
plight of these people she still has
not made it clear how they become
our problem. In view of the fact
however. that our Government does
seem to be disposed to involve itself
in the mess, it is to be hoped that
this book gets wide reading. for it
contains much factual information
which should help voters make up
their minds.
$4,000 DAYS IN TEXAS. BY Sam
Acheson. New York: The Macmil-
Ian Co.
THIS is the history Of the Dallas,
Tex, Morning News, of which the
motto seems to be, THE story of the
News is the story of Texas" And, that
being the case, this book becomes a
pretty close history of Texas, too. The
News was founded in 1912, while Texas
was still an independent republic, and
the present work deals with the sue
cessive crises and issues in the States
history from that time down to the
present. 1t is solid reading, but the
author has presented it in a lively
manner and it surprises the reader
with its consistent quality of interest
The News, though now Dallas pa
per, began in Galveston. It's first
editor of prominence was Willard
Richardson, under whose guidance it
assumed the policy which it still holds
that OF freedom from political affil-
iations and the right to take its edi-
torial opinions as its directors see fit
1t early demonstrated this independ-
ence. for it began its career by oppos-
, ing the popular idol, Sam Houston
Throughout its history it fought many
battles against majority opinion in the
same way. its most notable one, as
far as general interest goes, being per-
haps its defiance of the Ku Klux Khan
during the 1920s. These struggles
some Of them national in scope and
some limited to State issues, are de-
scribed here. one after another
through the years of the papers life
with generous quotations from its COL
umns. At the same time the successive
changes in mana cement and editorial
direction are outlined, as are the i'm
provements in equipment and the
growth of the News influence
The feature of the history which is
likely to impress reader most, how
ever, is the surprising modernity OF
the papers attitude from the time OF
its founding. We find it advocating
so years ago that something be done
to help the farmers. though warning
against the creation of political
agricultural bloc. 1t also favored the
restriction of trusts, but tempered its
attitude with adnonitions against in
terfering too arbitrarily with natural
economic growth. 1t advocated q
planned" system of transportation
within Texas borders when the rail-
road was still in its infancy. 1t cam