Evening star., 1938-10-09
FRANKLIN BIOGRAPHY REVIEWED
Life History American Hero Is Finest Thing of Its Kind Be
Published This Year-Colecion of Churchills
Political Speeches Recommended for Wit.

what the practical obstacles have been
to the acceptance of his ideas 1t Is
impossible to say. Few of them have
been accepted, however. and Mr..
Churchill is in splendid position to
say told you So" But it should be
remembered that the attacker Of poll
cies has always an easier job than the
administrator. Mr.. Churchill can con-
vince one that he would have done
better-he can and does. But his pud-
ding, of course, has never been eaten.
That may enhance its goodness con-
siderably,
OLD HAVEN. BY David Cornell De
Jong Boston: Houghton, Mifilin Co.
This is a novel of life In Northern
Holland village in the years preceding
and following the World War. What
it seems to tell us is that life in such
village is no different in essentials
from life in any small community any
where-that the Dutch villagers have
a great assurance that their customs
are the best in the world, and q great
suspicion of any one who derives his
own habits of behavior from another
locality. Or in other words, Mr.. De
Jong has written us a Dutch Main
Street" But Dutch main street diff
fers so widely in externas from SINH
larlyminded thoroughfares in our own
country that novel about such a for
eign one is without the monotony COM
mon to'our native Small-town school
of fiction. The plot is familiar, but the
scenes and settings are not.
The story concerns the family Mel
lena, the aristocrats Of their tiny
town. They are ruled by delightful
old matriarch, they number in their
clan four naughty spinster aunts, a
patient, enlightened son; his wild
eldest son, his good second son, his
pestiferous daughter, his elfln-tem-
pered youngest son and a collection
of wives and sweethearts. They are
like monarchs in their little town,
privileged but obliged to please.
The action centers chiefly about the
second son, in whom the family char
acteristics are most marked, so that
llS 40 SAAooSAl w AlAllSll ~ UllC 1Ol Julie
and carry on the business. He mar
ries girl from another part of Hol-
land, however, and her conduct brings
down upon her head the anathemas
of the villagers, for, though innocent,
it is not in accordance with their own
mores. Ostracized and unhappy, she
is on the brink of love affair with
her young brother-in-law. The mat
ter is solved by her husbands decision
to emigrate to America.
Passages in the work have great
charm. In the main, however, it is
over written. The reiteration of the
family standards goes on to a quite
unnecessary length. The book is, how
ever, one to command respect. 1t is
sincere and shows unmistakable
though not extraordinary talent. 1t
is, incidentally, one of Houghton
Mif1in's Fellowship novels. The level
Of these works has been throughout
one of competence without great
distinction
POWER. BY Bertrand Russell. New
York: w. w. Norton & Co.
This is lucid and somewhat ele-
mentary analysis of power, as power
is exerted over the impotent OF hu-
manity by the potent. 1t would seem
to have been designed to serve as a
college text; that is, it is learned, basic
and obvious.
1t takes up the various sources and
kinds OF power and discusses their at
trlbutes-priestly power, kingly power,
naked or tyrannical power, revolution,
ary power. economic power, and so on.
Chapter by chapter. A freshman in
political history could make cracker
jack OF an outline of it. After that
it discusses how we may tame power:
this chapter, by the way. is the lead
ing article in the October Atlantic
Monthly. The conclusion there is that
power may be tanned by certain re-
forms in politics, economics, propa-
ganda and education. After which a
reader may pardonably say, We'll!
Well"
The reviewer fears that she will be
taken to task for dealing lightly with
an eminent Serious Thinker. Her jus-
tiflcation is that when Serious Think
ers apply their minds to the realm of
political justice. they do no better
than the rest of us. That is a field
in which common sense can do just as
well as great learning. We all know
the remedies, If we think for only "A
little while. No one yet, however, has
belled that particular cat.
A PEOPLES HISTORY OF ENG
LAND. BY A. L. Morton. New
York: Random House.
Readers will hardly need to be re-
minded, appropos OF this book, that
there has been a veritable outbreak of