The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1954-07-02
DANIELS
Continued from Page One)

especially Roosevelt, were the
creation of that revolution.
Now, finally, and belatedly, ]
come to what should have been
said much earlier. Jonathan
Daniels, one of the tours sons OF
Josephus Daniels, has written a
book. 1t is a good one, easily the
best of all his writings-"The
End of Innocence" 1t is candid,
honest story of his father, put to-
gether out of the diaries and let
tiers left by him. And also, OF
course, it is written out Of rich
personal experience, because Jo-
sephus Daniels gave lot of time
to his boys, and saw to it that
they knew his own thoughts and
faith. And, quite inevitably
since it is the story of his father
it is also the story of Bryan, Of
Wilson and of a brash, cocky
egotistical young man named
Franklin Roosevelt, who was
slowly but surely shaped ano
nodded both in character and ir
disciplined intelligence by his
years of association with the
North Carolinian whose story
the book is.
The book is also a study of the
peculiar idealism which has been
always naive Cat times almost
childishly SOY, but at the same
time ever on the right track. We
always are panied, surprised and
often angry when idealism
doesn't work out as expected
when nations and individuals do
not seem to appreciate our ideal
ism.
But, the crux of it has been
that when confronted with sur
prise, complexity and crises, ou1
Innocence" or idealism has
somehow been sustained by
leaders who believe in that
idealism and in the meaning
bound up in the now shop.
worn, distorted, tempest-tossec
phrase-so often found on the
lips of even the Minute Women
and the Texas millionaires who
so admire Joe McCarthy-"The
American Way of Life" These
are dark days when it seems that
Joe Mccarthy has murdered
idealism and has made so many
American hate, fear and suspect
one another that we are indeed
lost and wandering on the
treacherous sands of history
where civilizations and nations
sink to disaster to be dug up Gen.
turtles later by the spades Of
those who seek antiques. This
book will restore faith. Idealism
may be innocence, but it is also
strength.
1t is fascinating to read. The
author, fortunate to see so much
of history and to be his fathers
son,has written great and NOV
ing panorama of history. He was
in the gallery when Wilson asked
the congress to declare war. He
brings us there with picture OF
the agony this move brought to
Wilson and to the elder Daniels
Bryan had been so moved by il
he resigned from the Cabinet. II
was an inevitable thing, since the
world had grown so big, and yet
so small.
The author does our thinking
a favor by pointing out that JEFF
ferson's wide ocean" was in fact
never there. The jet plane did
not remove it. 1t was during JEFF
ferson's life-time-never since
that America actually was invad-
ed, the capital city occupied, the
capitol itself burned.
When Jonathan Daniels went
to Washington with his father,
who was the new secretary of the
Navy, the nation was young
enough to have living in its cap
ital a general who had served
in the Powder River campaign
against the Sioux, and also old
Henry Adams (author of THE
Education of Henry Adams")
riding in a one horse carriage
about the city on the Potomac.
This same Jonathan served as
one of Franklin Roosevelt's Sec
retaries and worked with Harry
Truman. ] doubt if there is
anywhere man better equipped
to write of the era covered by
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