Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1940-12-25
SpengIer Still
Mixed, Even
In Synopsis
German Writer Is Part
Of a Befuddled Age
BY BENJAMIN DECASSERES

is the west uecllnlng! has
Europe had its day? Will Asia
and Russia at last absorb all of
Europe and America?
Osw d Spengler, German,
wrote a book some years ago
called THE Decline of the
West" 1t created a sensation.
Some laughed at if. Some hailed
Spengler. who died in 1886, as
the create of all political
prophets. His book is brilliant
and boresome by turns. 1t is
overweighted with erudition. He
knew so much that he became
befuddled.
Alfred Knopf has got out a
condensed version of Spengler's
book with special reference TO
its prophecies concerning events
that are now happening. Ii is
called To-day and Destiny" ar
ranged with commentary by
Edwin F. Dakin.
Now, II seems that Spengler
was something of a prophet
his book was written between
1914 and 1918.
He "foresaw" dictatorship
for Germany; the decline of par
liaments everywhere: political
parties becoming mere rubber
stamps; democracies acting too
late in crise Sithe rise OF
budgets from millions to bill
lions; the eventual collapse of
money as a medium of exchange
and a lot of ether things.
But to predict those things in
1918. il seems to me. did not
require much of the prophetic
afflatus after. all.
That we live in befuddled
age is the one thing l get out OF
Spengler-and his style OF think
ing and writing is a perfect mir
ror of that age. The West is not
declining. but the art of writing
may be.
THOSE of us who are going
Il native"-that is, going back
to America-should not miss
reading "Audubon's America"
(Houghton-Mifflin1 edited by
Donald Culross Peattie.
This is a magnificent volume
that contains parts of Audubon
diaries. He saw almost every
thing from 1903 to lS49 from
Florida TO Labrador. and. like
Adams. studied and classified the
flora and fauna-and even the
people-of the regions he COW
cred.
He lived among the Quakers,
the Creoles, the Indians. was a
pal of Daniel Boone and even Of
Dan Webster.
Here is the smell of the Amer
lean earth in every page, the
reek and rain of our land. the
tale of us by tramp-dude-who
was not an American. by the
way.
John James Audubon is buried
in Trinity Cemetery at Broad
way and One Hundred and
Fifty-fifth street. Over his grave
is a tall shaft. On many sunny
Spring day l have sat under that
shaft. for have liking for men
like Audubon. Thoreau and all
lovers of the good earth--especi-
ally ours.
A FTER reading many of the
~ books on the French debacle
which are pouring from the
presses, | have reluctantly come
to the conclusion that France
did everything possible TO lose
the war.
In fact. il seems to me. that
the Battle of France was the
first instance in all history of a
nation trying TO lose a battle.
Treason. incompetence, fatal
istic cynicism. ignorance, the
downright cowardice of officers.
corruption behind the lines-it
all seems deliberate to me. the
result of Nazi, Communistic and
peace propaganda begun years
ago in Paris.
Two of the best books on the
fall of France are Il Saw
France Fall" by Count Rene de
Chambrun orrow), and
Tragedy in France" by Andre
~Maurois Harpers). Both
authors are Frenchmen who
love their country profoundly.
They make out as good case
as they can for France, but be-
tween the lines one sees the
CHASTITY truth-a sell-out.
But the rank and file of
Frenchmen. the common soldier
and those who gave their lives
by the uncounted thousands on
these bloody fields-what of
them? They fought and died
with faith in their leaders.
They knew nothing of a back
: stabbing France, of incompetent
reasonable officers. They are,
as always, the real heroes-and
their voices call from the soil
of France for a reckoning
reckoning not with Germany
but with those French leaders
who traffcked with the enemy
and sent them to their death.
IS YEARS AGO TODAY
Dec 25. 1915