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HE Life and Letters of Walter H. Page" is a book of great distinction. As a document of democas the unfolding of a career constituting a complete and inspiring definition of Americanism, this book must appeal to thoughtful people all over the world, and as a colorful, graphic picture of men, atmosphere, events, and social conditions in the two great English-speaking democracies under the strain of war it is an invaluable contribution to history. Mr. Hendrick has wisely let Walter Page tell the story in his glowing, pungent letters and memoranda; but he has done the work of compilation and comment with skill and restraint, combined with a certain ardor in the portrayal of his subject that stirs the sympathy and interest of the reader. This is not a book that one skips about in or dips into here and there. If you begin it, you finish it with a rush of pride in the story, with the sensation of having met an unforgetable man, with a gasp of sympathy for the sheer courage and tragedy of his career.

My qualifications for reviewing this notable work rest upon an acquaintance and an association with Walter Page of forty-three years. We were born in the same old Southern State of North Carolina and in essentially the same era, though he was my senior by six years. Our section was struggling on under the paralysis of war and seeking grimly and bravely to find its place in modern industrial democracy. There was everywhere then in the homes of good people in the South an atmosphere of seriousness and unselfishness. Most of us felt, even in the full tide of buoyant youth, that we must make ourselves fit to be helpful in the rebuilding so plainly before us and that we must stay where we were and use our fitness in bettering conditions right at our doors. This feeling was an obsession with Page, and, though he actually spent only a few years in his home State, and those turbulent and unsatisfactory, his heart and his dreams were always there. He became a cosmopolitan in the highest sense-a true citizen of the world; but his day dreams forever played about the sand-hills of North Carolina and the prosperity of the South. Indeed, perhaps the most poignant scene set forth in these volumes is the scene of the wasted, broken man on the Scottish moors planning to return "home," fancying that health would come back to him

1 The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page. Edited by Burton Hendrick. 2 vols. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. $10.

in that old air, smiling wistfully at his son a few days before his death as he was lifted from the train at Pinehurst, and exclaiming: "Well, Frank, I did get here after all, didn't I?"

I saw Walter Page for the first time forty-two years ago. He was then a young man twenty-four years of age, and I a lad at college. He was standing on a platform at the summer session of the University of North Carolina, talking to a group of teachers with fierce eagerness and a kind of defiant intellectual confidence about the value to them to be got out of studying the Greek language and literature. It did not strike me as a very live thesis at the time, but he was putting life into it, and to spare. I recall that I rejoiced in the fact that he seemed to be flouting the oratorical pomposities current at the time in all American, and especially Southern, speaking. He wore no black frock coat, and did not even thrust his right hand into the lapels of the coat which he did wear, which was of rough tweed. His hands were in his pockets, in fact, and, though he "bawled out" his company every now and then, his gestures were few and his manner conversational. saw him for the last time in October, 1914, standing in the doorway of the old American Embassy, on Victoria Street in London, bidding me good-by on my homeward voyage. He was then preparing to move the Embassy to worthier quarters in Grosvenor. Place, but the staff was still there. In many ways he was the same man who was urging Greek discipline upon the Carolina teachers a generation before, with the same unconventionality (he was shouting gentle insults at me for remaining in London so long after the beginning of the war instead of going "on home"), the same vigor and charm. Marks of care and toil were plainly upon him, but also evidences of high pride and purpose, as he undertook the duties of a mission destined to mark a new era in the story of Anglo-American understanding.

The record of Walter Page's life and achievements during the thirty-five years between these two memories is fully and faithfully set forth in Mr. Hendrick's book, and constitutes a splendid proof of what talents and purposes and labor can bring forth in American life, even if the Ambassadorship to Great Britain during a World War had not fallen to his lot. Walter Hines Page was born in the little village of Cary, near Raleigh, North Carolina, August 15, 1855. His racial stock was pure English, with a

Huguenot strain. His parents were vigorous, forceful people of pioneer breed. He was well educated in the best schools of his region, and came to manhood just in time to be captivated by the fame of the great scholars Daniel C. Gilman had called around him at Johns Hopkins University. I have never understood why he fell upon Greek as his mistress there unless it was the dominating personality and style of Gildersleeve that caught his fancy. He was happy enough in the task of interpreting Eschylus and the comedies of Aristophanes, but he balked at philological grinding in the deep marshes of Greek syntax and Byzantine writers, "fulminated against the grammarians" and fought toward his life's job of studying social conditions, describing the scene of life as he saw it, discovering excellence, shouting at shams, and fighting like a trooper for the things that seemed to him good and durable. The cloister tugged hard at Page. He even considered the ministry as a calling in his youth, his mind doubtless dwelling upon its obvious opportunities for expression, but the world rather than the cloister, won for the world's good. "I am sure that I have mistaken my life-work, if I consider Greek my life-work. In truth, at times I am tempted to throw the whole thing away. . . . But without a home feeling in Greek literature no man can lay claim to high culture." So he would keep at it for three or four years and "then leave it as a man's work." Despite these despairing words, Page acquired a living knowledge of Greek that was one of his choicest possessions through life. That he made a greater success than his self-depreciation would imply is evident from the fact that his fellowship was renewed for the next year.

At the age of twenty-three Page grappled with life in earnest, and for the next twenty years he may be seen roving from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Boston, Massachusetts, in ever-increasing posts of difficulty, but with perfect unity of purpose, striving to comprehend the currents of American life, to interpret them to various sections, and to express them vividly and fairly. He was in turn teacher, lecturer, reporter, editor, student of sociological problems, from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Utah, and finally found himself in the managership of the "Forum," a moribund magazine which he quickly restored to vigor and prosperity. At forty Page achieved the top of his profession by becoming editor of the "Atlantic Monthly." His final progress to the partnership of Doubleday, Page & Co. and the founding of the "World's Work," with which his name will always be associated, followed naturally out of the talents displayed in this field and out of his desire for independ ence economically and spiritually.

I first came into intimate contact with

him in 1897, when I sat on the platform of the State Normal College at Greensboro and heard his famous address "The Forgotten Man," wherein he formulated a great programme of educational development for the Southern States. Five years before Charles D. McIver and I, with the daring of youth and the enthusiasm of ignorance, had set ourselves the task of proving to the people of North Carolina that it was the privilege and duty of a democratic State, through the instrument of taxation, to educate all of its children, high and low, rich and poor, black and white, from the primary school to the university. This was then a new doctrine in the South, and those who fought for it had need of faith and will. It is an old and accepted doctrine now, and nowhere more completely than in North Carolina, but then its friends were not in authority. It

was, however, one of those things that just had to be done. Page, ever on the alert for a stiff fight in a good cause, smelled the battle from afar and came into it with a bound. That speech, with its appealing title, was a piece of heavy artillery in the contest, and its reverberations are still to be heard. I do not think that anything held Page's interest more closely until the outbreak of the World War than the educational struggle in the South and in the Nation to put the life of the common man and his child upon a sound, hopeful educational and economic basis. This programme meant to him, not only more schools, but sensible schools, farming as an intelligent business, care of the public health, and the promotion of all agencies looking to the elevation of standards of living. He found-all of us in this battle found-in the Southern Education Board, and later in the General Education Board, great, far-seeing, wisely controlled agencies for advancing those ends. His magazine and his business delighted him and gave him pleasure in these fruitful days of his life, but his chiefest satisfaction lay in co-operation. with the men at work in these construc

tive fields. He somehow envisaged it all as a great victorious battle. There lies before me as I write an old copy of his book "The Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths," sent to me at New Orleans, where I then lived and directed the work of promoting public education in that region. It is inscribed in his scriptlike hand-writing

ΤΟ

Brigadier-General Alderman
Commanding the Division
of the Southwest,
W. H. P.
April, 1902.

Page thoroughly believed that the only true measure of any civilization was the extent to which it improved the condition of the common citizen and offered him "equality of opportunity." To this end his hearty co-operation with these Boards was directed and his maga

zine was made to play its part in the interpretation of American life and to set forth in a vital, picturesque, but accurate way the progress the county was making in democracy, education, agriculture, industry, social life, and politics. For nearly a decade a group of men associated with educational activities were accustomed to assemble at the home of Mr. George Foster Peabody on Lake George each summer to discuss

WALTER H. PAGE

and plan for the promotion of such interests. Page was always there, vital, soaring, argumentative, optimistic, ready to discuss anything-especially the futility and emptiness of most of the writing that came to his desk-abounding in humor, bluff heartiness, and generally happy over the discovery of some new man somewhere who was doing some concrete thing better than anybody else. I recall his delight in Seaman Knapp and Wyckliffe Rose. I remember his greeting me at Nashville with the remark, "Come on, I want to show you a man who has more sense than you and I put together," and he carried me off to meet David Lubin, the founder of the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome. There also stands out in my memory the passion that rang in his voice in a speech at Montgomery, when he recited his creed of democracy to the great throng assembled to discuss the educational needs of the South:

I believe in the free public training of both the hands and the mind of every child born of woman.

I believe that by the right training of men we add to the wealth of the world. All wealth is the creation of man, and he creates it only in proportion to the trained uses of the community; and the more men we train, the more wealth every one may create.

I believe in the perpetual regeneration of society, and in the immortality of democracy and in growth everlasting.

Woodrow Wilson, therefore, when he selected Page for the English post was not choosing, as many people imagined. a brilliant literary man with a genius for editorship alone. He was naming for a task of unimagined complexity a sincere philosophical democrat who had thought out and talked out that high hope until the conception thrilled and exalted and stimulated him as religion used to guide its devotees in the age of faith. He was setting apart for enduring international service a man of courage with a talent for co-operation but little stomach for compromise. He was sending to England a man of imagination, of intellectual resource, and an artist in the use of language. Page was not a politician, but forever, as I have said, on the lookout for excellence. He beheld in Woodrow Wilson a man of strong intellect, dignity of character and purpose, and he quickly rallied to his leadership. I have always believed that in his secret heart he would have preferred the Secretaryship of Agriculture in the President's Cabinet to any other office, though he would have scorned to seek it or to obtrude himself into any problem. He was not a "dirt farmer" in any just sense, but I believe he would have rendered notable service in that office, for no man in America had at heart more genuinely the welfare of the farmer or believed more intensely that agriculture must be made a business and given every opportunity to apply science to the production and distribution of the products of the soil. He worked loyally for the election of Mr. Wilson, and immediately upon his election was at him with carefully prepared briefs suggesting lines of policy in the interests of agriculture and education and urging that he gather around him strong, capable men. His letters to me during the interval between the election and inauguration show an interest almost amounting to excitement in the character and purposes of the unusual, lonely man upon whom had fallen this "monstrous job." The two had known each other since their student days at Johns Hopkins.

They were intellectually and morally akin, because of their common possession of style in writing, taste in literature, hatred of the secondrate thing or man, and faith in democгасу.

Page's place in American history, in the minds of most of his countrymen, will rest upon his services in England during the World War. He sailed for England on the Baltic in May, 1913. He was not a rich man, and had debated the wisdom of undertaking the Ambassadorship from many angles, but he loved adventure of the mind and the great task called to him. He departed absorbed wholly, as was his chief, in domestic affairs, but with his eyes open and his brain racing like a trip-hammer. His plastic, inquisitive mind got to work at once upon his new and strange existence. He began a study of England and the English that soon expressed itself

DEALER has waited several weeks for a shipment ordered by wire. His customer is patient but insists that the delay is proving costly.

The goods finally arrive-in badly damaged condition. More delays and disappointments.

A claim can be filed against the railroad, but arguments and damage claims are poor substitutes for goods sorely needed.

HE mere monetary loss in

Trolved in a freight claim is

but one chapter in the story of damaged freight. That priceless adjunct of a growing business, the good will of the dealer and his customer, is impaired.

That is why broad-visioned executives in all lines of business are investigating the subject of better packing. They are looking to their shipping departments as one means of reducing the percentage of customer turnover. Using safe packing as a new selling tool, as another aid in outstripping competition, and as a creator of good will.

Frequently, crates that appear sound to the casual observer, fail in action because certain hazards of transportation have been overlooked or disregarded in the crate design.

The drawing above shows the bottom of a standard crate used by a manufacturer in shipping an article weighing several hundred pounds. Heavy packages of this character are seldom lifted. They are usually dragged or skidded in the direction of the long dimension. The bottom of this crate is such that the crate cannot be dragged across the floor without danger of tearing loose some of the frame members with possible consequent damage to the contents.

Chance for damage from this particular hazard has been eliminated in the redesigned crate shown below. Note that two bottom members extend the full length of the crate and provide a surface on which the crate may be skidded without danger of loosened nails or frame members.

use of a lighter species of lumber and a new design, he has reduced the shipping weight of one item sufficiently to effect an annual saving of $10,000 in freight charges alone.

Every day Weyerhaeuser crating engineers are on the job showing shippers how to prevent shipping losses, and in many cases pointing out large savings that can be made in their packing practices.

W

WITHOUT obligation or cost to you, a Weyerhaeuser practical crating engineer will come to your plant, and with the co-operation of your shipping department, redesign your shipping containers to fit the product to be packed.

Lumber is the standard material for shipping containers. For this purpose, this organization offers to factory and industrial buyers, from its fifteen distributing points, ten different kinds of lumber of uniform quality and in quantities adequate to any shipper's needs. A booklet, "Better Crating," which outlines the principles of crate construction and explains the personal service of the Weyerhaeuser engineers, will be sent on request to any manufacturer who uses crating lumber.

Weyerhaeuser Forest Products are distributed through the established trade channels by the Weyerhaeuser Sales Company, Spokane, Washington, with branch offices at 208 South La Salle Street, Chicago; 220 Broadway, New York; Lexington Building, Baltimore; and 4th and Robert Streets, St. Paul; and with representatives throughout the country.

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THE GIST OF IT ALL

The nation has had a Postal Savings Bank since January, 1911. Every other savings bank in the world makes at least a pretense of serving the interest of depositors, getting for them the largest possible returns consistent with safety and availability.

The Postal Savings Bank has been shackled by the opposite rule, attempting to get from depositors as much money as possible for the least possible interest, paying them only 2 per cent per annum, on money left in the bank at least one year. In practice this return is less than 1 per cent. Furthermore, the law permits the funds in the Postal Savings Bank to be loaned to commercial banks at 24 per cent, the banks loaning it to the Government, and to the people, at anywhere from two to four and five times that rate, and yet at no time has the market price for money on the solidest security been less than 3% to 4 per cent, and today is 62 to 8 and 9 per cent. It is now proposed:

First-The Postal Savings Bank shall be open and accessible to all without limit as to amounts that may be deposited, and interest thereon paid for any period of time, as is customary with commercial banks.

Second-These deposits shall be loaned at the market price for money on security that is good beyond question. This should make, in these times, the net income for deposits at least 6 per cent, gradually diminishing to 5 or less as world prosperity returns.

Third-Four per cent semi-annual compound interest will go directly to depositors.

To Men of Business

To men of business, "big" and "little." To all who toil.

To stimulate "thrift and saving" among the millions who labor -such as the world has never before seen.

To stabilize business, build confidence, pour the oil of peace and prosperity on the troubled waters of unrest.

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To get for YOU who are now thrifty 4 per cent, compounded semiannually, on your daily balance of every surplus dollar you possess-even the dollars in your pocket, cash drawer and safe.

To get for YOU whenever you want to "borrow" money, all you want and can adequately secure, for "long time or short time," at the " ket price for money.

Without an iota of "fiat" fallacy, without an atom of "inflation." Without a shadow of "injustice "interest." To do all this:

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or of "favoritism to any class

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Unfetter the existing Postal Savings Bank, now "shackled hamstrung"-by cunning, short-sighted, selfish greed.

Three Billion Dollars

"REAL MONEY"-INTEREST FREE. No "bluff " about it, no "magic," no "fiat" fallacy, no "inflation."

One hundred and twenty million dollars or more in taxes, yearly, saved right in your pocket and mine!

All available by a little "practical sense" and JUSTICE-see the book for details.

Fourth-The balance of the profits shall be paid twice a year into the United States Treasury, thus making possible the reduction of taxes and thereby benefiting the whole citizenship, including, of course, the depositors. This, it is estimated, should bring into the U. S. Treasury, without taxing anybody one cent, an annual income of at least $120,000,000, to possibly $300,000,000 or more.

Fifth-Every banking institution in the United States in good standing may become an agent for the Postal Savings Bank, both to receive deposits and to make loans, receiving a small commission on both deposits and loans.

The Postal Savings Bank will thus become the greatest and strongest bank in the world, one vast national reservoir of the people's savings, available for loans to all who furnish proper security. There will be no favoritism to any class or interests-practically no limitation to loans except the limitation of good security and use in harmony with public good.

Sixth-The present gold standard is not affected and will be permanently maintained, yet gold is made no longer either a fetish or a scarecrow.

Seventh-The Postal Savings Bank will be placed beyond the power of domination by any interest or class. It will have no power of either inflation or contraction, these powers being left in the exclusive possession of the existing Federal Reserve Banks.

Eight-It will quickly mobilize and put into ordinary bank channels over three billion dollars ($3,000,000,000) of money not now in any bank-the identical kind of money that is now the foundation resource of all banks.

Ninth-With this bill in operation there will be scores of millions of depositors, instead of half a million as at present, with deposits exceeding thirty billions, possibly soon nearer one hundred billions, instead of one hundred and fifty-five million deposits as when this is written.

Bankers with Brains, Vision,

Conscience and Patriotism (plenty of all four cordially recog nized) will see, not antagonism, but co-operation in an unshackled Postal Savings Bank.

Bank prosperity goes naturally with industrial prosperity which the freed Postal Bank will enormously stimulate.

PATRIOTISM-the freed Postal will absorb the entire National debt and provide resource practically unlimited for National emergencies, at low interest, without perceptibly trenching on commercial funds.

CONSCIENCE-it is not believable that honorable bankers approve of the way Uncle Sam has been "used" to get the money of Postal Bank depositors at one-third to one-fifth of the "market price for money"-95 per cent of it going to bankers' use.

PROFIT-legitimate, honorable, in return for economic service, will go to bankers in commissions on both deposits and loans of the Postal Bank-profits 100 times greater than had in the past from "skinned" depositors in Postal.