Evening star., 1938-01-23

let Dad pay his bills. He finally de-
cides on the last-named course, ant
in confirmation of the decision mar
ries and begets son, all on hi
fathers money.
Fredk. VIM. then revolts himself ane
goes of to sit unhappily in a RIVERS
villa and wonder how tricks are bach
in Sachem Falls. After a few months
the young man is reported to be moth.
ing but drunk. and Fredk. VIM pack.
up and returns home. Arrived, he give.
the youth knockout punch on thu
chin and puts him to work. After that
Mr.. Lewis assures us, things are to b<
much better, but he leaves us there
for his book had grown to full move
length by that time anyhow.
1t is a story of common sense II
revolt against isms. And Mr.. Lewis
true to form. takes the isms which
have most recently occupied our va.
grant attention and which now seen
on the point of sliding toward thu
limbo that holds mah- -jong-commu
nlsm In this country. the leadership OF
youth Tor no reason than that youth
is young; belief in college education
for all kinds of mentalities, simply
because it is college education; belief
that everybody has living owed tc
him by some vague benefcent source
and that, if he does not receive it, he
should collect forcibly from whomever
happens to be handy; belief that the
plain citizen who has contrived te
maintain himself is a force of in.
trenched greed: belief that an ignor.
ance of art and foreign languages is
indication of complete unfitness in
human society. And so on.
Mr.. Lewis lines these favorite doc.
trlnes up and bowls them over fero-
clously. More than once his energy
in disposing of them seems incom-
patible with their manifest absurdity
More than once. as you will notice
from the quoted passage, he takes
some liberties with truth. Too. his
book bears evidence of hasty writing
is full of coynesses and Is generally
negligible as piece of literature. But
1t makes a case, and that obviously
has been his only reason for writing
it, anyway.
YET a detached onlooker at the
American scene over the past Is years
may we'll wonder to Just what extent
these bogies of the present Lewlsian
attack are themselves Lewisian crea-
tons. Did he not urge our middle
classes to cultivate an awe of the
arts and to enter incontinently upon
higher education? Did he not ridi-
cule their previous placid indifference
to culture and social justice? Did he
not announce IN fearfully loud tones
that they placed money above music
Oh. but he did. He practically ban
ished angel food cake from a one
time complacent national diet.
So now it would really. seem that
the boy from Sauk Center is at
last eating crow. Yet the significant
thing about his performance is that,
If his past record runs true to form,
the people themselves will be turning
on these assorted isms very shortly.
For, as said, Sinclair Lewis has been
an accurate taker of the public pulse
That his fine sense of timeliness has
failed him in this instance seems al.
together unlikely.
THE TYRANNY OF WORDS. BY
Stuart Chase. New York: Har-
court Brace g. Co.
Since Mr.. Stuart Chase has writ
ten another book, 1t becomes necessary
for the reviewer to think about him.
She has done so. and the sum of her
cogitation is this-that it is too bad
that Mr.. Chase was of that famous
class of 1910. Harvard, instead of
the one of 1880. This or That Theo-
logical Seminary. For what a
preacher Mr.. Chase would have made!
Just let your mind dwell on the vision,
if you will.
The jacket of his book informs us
that he lives in the country. feeling
that he can write better In the coun-
try, especially when he leaves his
desk often to go outdoors for exercise.
This exercise" continues the accom-
blurb, varies with the sea-
son. In spring and fall it Is likely
to be wood chopping. in winter skat-
ing and skiing, in summer swimming
and tennis. He won the tennis cham
pionship Of his town last season and
with it silver cocktail shaker that
holds a gallon, but is used mostly to
hold flowers" And the illustration, as
you can see for yourself, shows that
Mr.. Chase has fine. fighting, ideal
istic face, pugnacious to be sure, but
still full of the higher things of life.
Now, would this not have been a per-
feet set-up for a parson In the parson-
loving eighties?
The athlete, the out-of door man,
the fighter for the right. the lover of
simple things (such as flowers in
to cocktails, the brave,
good man, in short. How pious ladies
would have flocked around his stand
ard! And how perfectly right he
would have been about everything.
For that. in sum, is his business. He
Is a professional Right. The opposite
Is not Left" but Wrong"
He comes late In the day, alas, for
the pulpit. The fashionable field for
such correctors of public mistakes as
he Is no longer tie church, but has
become that of social and economic
reform" And social and economic
reform really offers small chance for
athletes in the pink Of training to
function by the direct use of per.
sonality. They may lecture some, to
be sure, but real paying success In
the business requires the practitioner
chiefly to write books. The disagree
able corollary to that is that the re-
formers immediate judges are not
enthusiastic parishioners, but those
jaundiced lack-luster creatures, the
book reviewers. Yet, for all that, no
one can say that MIR Chase has not
done pretty well for himself. He has
been getting out volumes pretty reRu-
larly since 1925, and, so well does he
keep In touch with popular feeling,