GIVE YOUR YOUNGSTERS AN cults; they talk about marriage, divorce, ADVENTURE LAND VACATION and domestic life in America; they speak of the stage, and have much to say about Jews. Their anti-Jewish sentiments are strong. They attack our international politics and make the most of every weak and injudicious utterance about our part in the war. They reach, perhaps, their heights of unconscious humor when they represent Ambassador Page as a sly Yankee who often succeeded in imposing upon that innocent and unsophisticated statesman, Sir Edward Grey. And, of course, they grow hilarious over the notion that this is the land of freedom. They pad their book with newspaper anecdotes and samples of American humor, some of which (with a condescension positively withering) they are kind enough to commend. But they omit reference to the enormous amount of self-criticism which is being written by Americans like Sinclair Lewis and others. This is not an immensely important book, nor one which will be read widely in either country. Three hundred pages of solid abuse would soon grow wearisome, even to old Tories like Sir William Hardman or the editors of the "Saturday Review" in its most vigorous days. Had any foreign writer the energy or the will, he could compile a similar book about Great Britain; he could discuss all its crimes, follies, and weaknesses, omit everything else, and paint that Kingdom as an ante-chamber to Gehenna. He could match eccentric religious cults in both countries, and shed crocodile tears of remorse about divorces and scandals in London society. He could point out that one of the newest and nastiest manifestations in American journalism-the tabloid newspaper-was imported direct from London. And so on. No American will be so childish as to do this. If he did, his work would find few readers except among the devotees of Hearst and a few of the old-fashioned and rantan NEW ORIENTAL LIMITED kerous Irish who still nurse their ani de luxe train-no extra fare A good way to find just what you want READ THE CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING SECTION All sorts of attractive offers, and an especially valuable directory for mosity to England. "The Raven on the Skyscraper" is, however, a literary and political curiosity, and as such has interested me. It is useful for Americans to know that such extreme hatred exists, while they hardly need to be told that it does not represent any important section of public opinion. Much of the book, in fact, is aimed at other Englishmen or at English institutions which have fallen under the authors' disapproval. That considerable majority of Englishmen who are not tyrannical or bigoted John Bulls, and of Americans who are not slippery Yankees. can read this book without becoming ruffled in their feelings. They will see in it the reincarnation of the Queen of In writing to the above advertisers please mention The Outlook Hearts in "Alice in Wonderland," forever growing red-faced, stamping, and shouting, "Off with their heads!" Fiction E. P. George A. Doran Company, New York. $2.50. Conflicting stories of post-war Germany will continue to be told. This narrative of the harvest of the alleged French occupation of German territory by Negro troops is, indeed, grim. There were no French Negro troops in German territory. The assumption that there were is, we suppose, part of the fiction. From this imaginary situation the author has developed a story, with the halfbreed son of a German mother and a Negro soldier as its main figures. Klaus Felde, the child, is brought to America, but later returns to his motherland, with the immense wealth of his foster-father and a high intelligence of his own, to become the avenger of Germany. History PIONEER DAYS IN THE EARLY SOUTHWEST. By Grant Foreman. The Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland. $6. It is the Near Southwest, with Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, as the center, that appears in this volume, and the period. treated is that from the Louisiana Purchase to the Mexican War. No other portion of the trans-Mississippi region is so scantily represented in historical writings. The author has thus had to delve deeply into unpublished records for the greater part of his material. An admirable job is the result, for he has opened up to the general reader a neglected section of the frontier and an era full of stirring and colorful incident. The stage is crowded with Indians, explorers, traders, and soldiers. Nuttall, the botanist, Washington Irving, John Howard Payne, the restless and eccentric Sam Houston, and a score of other notables come into the scene. There are slips here and there, as must needs be in a pioneer work. For instance, the identification of the "Nat Pryer" of the Glenn-Fowler journey to Santa Fé with Captain Nathaniel Pryor, though supported by the high authority of Coues and Judge Douglas, is an error. The former was a Kentucky boy who subsequently turned up with the Patties in Los Angeles and settled there. Then, too, the proof-reading is careless. But the work has merits of a high order, and it has the final virtue of being attractively printed. MEDITERRANEAN Senator Borah Hawaii -and Pineapples Nature's summer ambrosia . . salad of the gods! . . a dozen fruits in one, glorifying miles of breezy uplands. Guavas for the picking on highways; breadfruit and mangoes as yard trees; papaias, passion fruit. At breakfast whiff the Kona coffee that grew nearby. Ah! This is June and you're in Honolulu! Great trees flower in fiery red, yellow, pink, arching streets that lead mauka (toward the mountain) or makai (toward the sea). Rare night-blooming cereus . . cold, white, silver moons. . crisp northeast tradewinds! "Boy, another bed-cover." It's Always Cool Cool days for golf, tennis, motoringnever above 85° in Honolulu. Comfortable hotels on all larger islands. Volcanic wonders in Hawaii National Park. Surfing, mountain trekking, inter-island cruising. All in U. S. Territory. Plan to stay. You won't leave till you must. Yet you can acquire this unforgetable memory in just 3 or 4 weeks from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver or Victoria, B. C., including nearly a week each way on the blue Pacific. $300 to $400 covers every cost-round trip, hotels and sightseeing. For descriptive illustrated brochure 223 MCCANN BLDG., 451 MONTGOMERY ST., SAN FRANCISCO 352 FORT ST., HONOLULU, HAWAII, U. S. A. Take in the whole Pacific Coast this summer. Johnson present a large and comprehensive collection of the songs by which the Southern Negro both of slavery days and later decades has given expression to his feelings. Students of racial questions will prize this book, not only because of the many songs it contains, but because it is a story of racial progress in this country during the past sixty years. As the preface truly says, "There are lyrics of power and appeal, and there are verses crude and sordid. There are lines of elegance and inelegance. There are ballads of worth and disjointed, inconsequential lines of trash." The authors treat of the religious, social, and work songs of the Negro. There is also a chapter devoted to imagery, style, and poetic effort. The religious songs are the most interesting of them all, for in them we find the outpouring of the spirit of the Negro, held in a bondage from which deliverance could come only through divine mercy. In the words of Booker Washington, "In singing of a deliverance. which they believed would surely come, with bodies swaying, with enthusiasm born of a common experience and a common hope, they lost sight for the moment of the auction block, of the separation of mother and child, of sister and brother." Railroad service has a powerful appeal for the Negro mind, and many of his songs deal with fast trains, collisions, and the delights of travel. One of these songs which enjoyed a brief popularity a few years ago had for its refrain: That was what the dummy done, Left St. Louis at half-past one, Got into Natchez at settin' of the sun. Those who recall May Irwin's singing of "The New Bully," by the late Charles E. Trevathan, will note with interest among the social songs the original of this most popular ditty. It is a crude recital by a vainglorious Negro of his conquest of the town bully, whom he shoots at sight. Travel WEST OF THE PACIFIC. By Ellsworth Huntington. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $4.50. The author is perhaps the greatest living authority on the effects of environment-in especial, climate-in determining racial characters. That is his grand preposession; in that idea he lives. It is that prepossession which gives the color and flavor to this book, which is a record of observations made during a trip to Japan, China, Java, and Australia. The section on Japan is pleasant enough in an old-maidish way; that on China is perhaps a little superficial (the visit was a flying one); that on Java is fine; that on Australia is extremely fine. The discussion of the suitability of tropical Queensland for white colonization is WHAT you need is a holiday with mountains-glaciers-horsesreal people-real food and oceans of pep due to clear air, cold water, hard exercise and sky-high altitude. 9 Bungalow Camps for people who want to take these mountains without frills-or hotel prices. Some people take them in turn, some outfit with guides for long trips, some join the Trail Riders of the Rockies.... Why not try this holiday that has no hangover? Send for Bungalow Camp Booklet. For information and rates, mention B. C. 5. Canadian Pacific Hotel Department, Windsor Station, Montreal Or local Canadian Pacific Offices In writing to the above advertisers please mention The Outlook a gem of a scientific study; not merely illuminating, lucid, and of "typical" value, but charming also. It should be of immense influence on the discussion raging as to this matter throughout Australia. Politics and Government BEYOND HATRED. By Albert Léon Guérard. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $3. Professor Guérard contemplated a philosophic treatise on Democracy, using the comparative method. He has failed, and badly. The authentic philosophic tone is lacking, and, worse yet, there is no unifying thread of argument. The author starts from nowhere and arrives nowhere. He opens by defining Democracy as "the spirit which will not suffer hatred to live." May one expect a structure of genuine political philosophy on such a basis as that? That is not a definition, but the expression of a pious hope. Professor Guérard perceives that the world is out of joint, and with frequent wit and not without authentic irony (that rare quality) he indicates many of the diseases and defects of the existing order; but when it comes to proposing remedies, by reference to Democracy, historically or ideally considered, he is all abroad, he loses himself, he leaves the ground. He is, alas! a sentimentalist. Though a wit, he is not a humorist. It has to be added that no small part of the volume is vitiated by pseudo-paradox, if the word is permissible; than which nothing could be less tolerable. The important race question is handled without delicacy and (admittedly) without adequate knowledge. Much else could justly be said in dispraise. On the other hand, there are several chapters of great merit and charm; in especial, the chapter on bourgeois ascendency in France, the historical sketch of the French Presidency, and the chapter on Voltaire. Professor Guérard's forte is critical biography, in which field he has few living superiors. In this book he has too boldly rushed in where your Aristotles and de Tocquevilles have trod with utmost circumspection. Law LAW REFORM. Papers and Addresses by a Practising Lawyer. By Henry W. Taft. The Macmillan Company, New York. $3. Mr. Taft, as President of the Bar Association, has been active in advocating measures to restore confidence in justice and obedience to the law. Between the lines of his several addresses he reveals his belief that there is a great lack in the two respects mentioned that should be remedied in the common interest, but does not know how it is to be done. Financial Department Conducted by WILLIAM LEAVITT STODDARD The Financial Department is prepared to furnish information regarding standard investment securities, but cannot undertake to advise the purchase of any specific security. It will give to inquirers facts of record or information resulting from expert investigation, and a nominal charge of one dollar per inquiry will be made for this special service. The Financial Editor regrets that he cannot undertake the discussion of more than five issues of stocks or bonds in reply to any one inquirer. All letters should be addressed to THE OUTLOOK FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT, 120 East 16th Street, New York, N. Y. TH "... And a Dollar a Week' HE alarm is being sounded in Can YOU answer them? ties are springing to the defense of the money UPPOSE you have SUPP to invest. You know that good bonds are a desirable form of investment. But there are many practical questions concerning them which, sooner or later in your experience, will demand an answer. The most common of such questions and perhaps the most important-have been collected by us through years of contact with a good many thousands of investors, and published in booklet form, together with their answers. These are stated in a simple and nontechnical manner. In the latter part of the booklet you will find an explanation of financial terms commonly used in the description of bonds. This booklet, while written for the guidance of inexperienced investors, contains bond information of practical value to the experienced investor as well. Write to nearest office for Booklet OL-56 practice. A case against this growing practice is not difficult to make. The people are mortgaging their future earning power; they are buying things that they do not really require, or that they only imagine they need; manufacturing companies are increasing production to supply an overstimulated demand. Discounting and banking agencies are en joying unusual activity through the in flation of credit in this enormous orgy of spending and acquiring. Collectors are being elevated almost to the professional ranks. Various estimates place the known total volume of trade on the partial-payment plan at around the sum of $3,300,000,000. The chief commodities thus under purchase include automobiles, washingmachines, vacuum cleaners, phonographs, furniture, pianos, jewelry, and radio sets. In addition, countless articles of clothing, household equipment, and luxury are bought on virtually time-payment plans through the medium of credit accounts at the department-stores. Automobile tires and accessories retail in similar fashion. The polite phrase "deferred payments" has been coined. these and a multitude of other alleged sins against thrift and economy. to cover One statistically inclined might not be far from the truth to double the figure just given and say that the Nation is buying on time to the tune of some $6,000,000,000 a year. If to this we add a conservative $2,000,000,000 to represent money being put into homes through co-operative banks, savings banks, and building and loan associations (exact figures unascertainable), we can reasonably figure the grand total at $8,000,000,000 --and it would not, in our view, go far from the truth to call it around $10.000,000,000. Assume that the worst that has been said against installment buying is true, what is the best that can be said for it, and to what extent does this best offset that worst? Six years ago Uncle Sam counted about 25,000,000 families within his borders. If, as is probably not the case, all the dollar-down-and-dollar-a-week for life business is engaged in by families alone, and if the total is $10,000,000, 000, an even division would show an average of $400 per family. For some it is doubtless more; for others less. But in a case like this all we can look to is averages, and the average does not seem to us dangerously large. In fact, it is surprisingly low. Another item. What reports one can secure on losses reveal that installment buying is conducted with small losses to the seller. General Motors Acceptance Corporation, possibly a leader in its field, for 1925 had losses of .012 per cent. We believe that this is not far from an average. In the old days of sewing-machines time payments also flourished, and we do not know of any undue losses therefrom. No, the risk is small, and the smallness of the risk, doubtless carefully reckoned by those in the business, should be a reassuring fact, from whatever point of view. It is also another proof that our pocketbooks are not being overstrained. Now to the broad question of principle. What is installment buying in terms of finance? Is it essentially different from supplying capital for capital needs by means of a bond issue with sinking fund provisions? The parallel is suggestive. Picture a going business which requires more invested money for a certain time than it can put down out of surplus earnings at one clip or in one year. Intelligent practice calls for borrowing, and intelligent borrowing calls for provision in advance for the repayment of the debt. Many of our great buildings are financed In writing to the above advertiser please mention The Outlook |