Chapter 101

20–7137

Mystery, magic and an element of indefinable horror enter into this story by the author of the Fu Manchu tales. Gaston Max, a famous Parisian detective, Inspector Dunbar of Scotland Yard, and Dr Keppel Stuart, an obscure London practitioner with an unusual knowledge of poisons, are all concerned in the case of the golden scorpion. For a time no one of them knows who or what the scorpion may be, altho this symbol is known in some way to be associated with a series of mysterious deaths in both London and Paris. Dr Stuart is drawn into the case when the beautiful and alluring Mlle Dorian comes to him as a patient. As in the author’s other stories there is a strong tinge of the oriental.

“A good mystery story.”

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

Reviewed by Joseph Mosher

“It is a relief to have mystery and magic mixed up with good detective work after so great a glut of German espionage, and the reader will find the golden scorpion in a pleasing variety of unusual and unexpected situations.”

ROHMER, SAX, pseud. (ARTHUR SARSFIELD WARD).[2]Green eyes of Bast. *$2 (2½c) McBride

20–18256

This story is of the unreal, and presupposes the existence of hybrid beings, half woman and half cat, born in Egypt in the month sacred to the goddess Bast. The fate of the individual or family upon which the enmity of such a being rests, may be imagined. The Coverly family in England is so marked, and one by one its members meet their deaths in various ghastly manners. To the police, who are naturally not in possession of the secret of the cat-woman, it is very mysterious. Altho they make many discoveries, what finally clears it all up is the confession of the Eurasian, Dr Damar Greefe, who had brought up the hybrid monstrosity in the interests of science. Though they are in league together, she finally masters him and the final tragedy is his death, for she eventually adds his murder to the already long list of fatalities of the story.

“Persons of experience know that, in shockers as in life, it is not the goal but the road there that matters, and their gratitude to the author will suffer no diminution because the villain’s explanatory discourse reveals some weak points in the construction of the story.”

“Mr Rohmer devotes himself to the production of atmosphere with his old skill.”

ROLLAND, ROMAIN.Liluli. il *$2 Boni & Liveright 842

20–11590

“In ‘Liluli’ Romain Rolland has given to the world one of the most daring satires that have ever been written. Liluli is illusion, the ideal, the chimera, the eternal vamp of history. The time and place of the drama are fanciful. The stage is a ravine spanned by a footbridge. The human race is on the march—toward a mirage. There are peasants and intellectuals, diplomatists and socialists, satyrs and mountebanks, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, Truth and Opinion, the Gallipoulets and the Hurluberloches (who are at war), shopkeepers, peddlers and fettered brains. And Polichinello. He is the laughing brain. He is the eternal mocker. He believes in nothing and smiles at all things. He is the wisdom of folly. In the general crash on the bridge of the world, when the human race goes into the abyss, Polichinello goes with it. Everything collapses on him—the fighting people, furniture, crockery, poultry, stones, earth and the grand chorus of idealists. On top of the mess sits Liluli, her legs crossed, smiling and showing the tip of her tongue, her fore-finger to her nose.”—N Y Times

“The play is a farce and a savage satire all in one. It is Aristophanic in its conception and working out, now bitter, now blatant, now indecent, and at times blasphemous. It would have been entirely possible to satirize hypocrisy and venality as playing potent parts in the stirring up of war without insulting religion and its God.”

“It is a strange and powerful book, this monstrous comedy of world-wide calamity. The logical necessity of the catastrophe, the inevitableness with which not only the vices, but even the virtues of her victims play into the hands of Liluli, make them susceptible to her lure, and hasten their doom, gives this weird farce the impressiveness of a Greek tragedy.” H. M. Evers

“It is a pity that M. Rolland has chosen the now dominant symbolical forms for the embodiment of his fable. Never so much as today did art need to speak directly. ‘Liluli’ is beautiful and memorable. But its literary sophistication stands in the way of its broader effectiveness.” Ludwig Lewisohn

“Probably Rolland had in mind to write somewhat after the manner of Aristophanes. Certainly he has the necessary verve and gusto and satiric sting. But the Greek stuck to themes that could be represented on the stage. The Frenchman has tried to sweep all humanity into the scene, and the result is that you, the reader, have to create a brain theater for the work in order to realize its true values. It would have been far more effective for most people in some other form.”

“‘Liluli’ is a memorable book. It demolishes with great Rabelaisian and Aristophanic guffaws the ridiculous and anarchistic societies that we live in. The book is a bridge to a new world—still nebulous, not even yet a mirage.” B: de Casseres

“‘Liluli’ is written in behalf of what is, or was or should be, a noble cause; it is written with an art and grace which should have fitted it to charm and to serve; yet its spirit and methods are such as to dispel that charm and to annul that service.”

“Perhaps Romain Rolland is scarcely of the race and lineage of the master satirists, and his ‘Liluli’ may not be the ideal satire for this crazy age; but Rolland shows many of their great traits, and ‘Liluli’ is so far the one outstanding satire of its time.”

“Here are all the arguments and experiences with which the pacifist is familiar incisively personified—not without a certain strong tang of a former literary age.”

ROLT-WHEELER, FRANCIS WILLIAM.Boy with the U.S. trappers. (U.S. service ser.) il *$1.50 (2c) Lothrop 639

19–17885

This unusually well illustrated volume follows the plan of the other books of the series in combining information with narrative. In telling the story of young Gavin Keary, from the time he is left alone to shift for himself till he is engaged as a trapper by the U.S. biological survey, the author manages to impart a great deal of information about the work of this branch of the government service, the conditions of modern trapping and the ways of wild animals.

“The average reader will find it interesting and boys will find it even thrilling.”

“It avoids the insipidity that goes with most boys’ books and is packed full of information about ranch life.”

ROOF, KATHARINE METCALF.[2]Great demonstration. *$2 (3c) Appleton

20–19435

Roger Lessing and Terry Endicott are both in love with Lucretia Dale. She is in love with neither until on the eve of Terry’s departure for the war, she realizes that he has her heart. But report comes that he is dead, and half against her own will, she consents to marry though she cannot love Roger. Roger has always been a disciple of New thought, believing “What I desire, will come to me,” but even his desire for Lucretia’s love cannot bring it to him. Then Terry is miraculously returned to life from a German prison; and Roger’s desire for Lucretia’s love is intensified. From the creed of New thought he advances into more dangerous forms of eastern mysticism to gain his end until finally the power that he sought to use masters him, and he meets his death in his last effort to control Lucretia’s mind and love.

“It cannot be said that the psychic element in this novel is either interesting or convincing. On the other hand, the sketches of daily existence in the ‘studio’ are amusing and the general atmosphere of the story is pleasing.”

ROOSEVELT, KERMIT.Happy hunting-grounds. *$1.75 Scribner 799

20–19277

“In the opening chapter, the author gives an intimate picture of his father, as he remembers him in the rôle of companion during numerous hunting expeditions. There are numerous personal incidents and reminiscences. Other chapters have to do with hunting in America, including trips into Mexico. ‘Book collecting in South America’ recalls another purpose of a trip into a foreign land. At the end of the volume a sketch is given of Seth Bullock, his father’s friend, sometimes called the ‘last of the frontiersmen,’ a type celebrated and adored by Roosevelt.”—Springf’d Republican

“The volume is interesting and well written throughout—Kermit Roosevelt has inherited his father’s knack of clear description and vigorous English.”

“Will be welcomed by the many admirers of the former president, those who admired him as a man, and not only as a political leader.”

ROPER, WILLIAM W.Winning football. il *$2 (4½c) Dodd 797

20–17071

The author distinguishes between an old and a new way of playing football. The old way “was first and last a trial of speed and strength and weight and courage” in which cleverness was at a discount and mere pounds and inches at a premium. The new way is “thinking football,” for which the author claims every manly virtue and that it is “a splendid preparatory school for life.” Of this game the book proposes to set forth the underlying principles. Contents: Modern football a battle of wits; The spirit behind the team; The routine of early season practise; Every man in every play; A real quarter-back must have brains; Running the team; The kicking game; The schedule; The day of the big game; Illustrations.

“A readable unusually valuable book for any one who is coaching football.”

“It is not only informational, but inspirational. The attitude throughout is that of the highminded amateur sportsman of the best type. For this reason, if for no other, it is a book that most men and all boys should read.”

ROSE, JOSHUA.Complete practical machinist. il $3 Baird 621.9

20–2274

In the twentieth, greatly enlarged edition of this work, the reader is introduced “to the machine tools in which the cutting tools are used, whereas in the earlier editions the cutting tools only were treated upon.” (Preface) The present edition has 432 illustrations. The work originally appeared in 1894.

ROSEBORO, VIOLA.Storms of youth. *$1.75 (2½c) Scribner

20–8273

Just before Perry Grantley left college, a faculty incident revealed to him in a flash what “a sporty thing” it would be to be a man. It clinched his decision to stay in the old home town and fight the political graft that had crept into the local government there. In the story we follow Perry’s crusade against the insidious corruption of the town and his personal vicissitudes in matters of the heart—how his unguarded marriage to a flower-like girl with an unborn soul resulted in early widowerhood and his final union with the playmate of his youth whom he had always loved. Incidentally a picture of small town life, its outstanding figures, with their normal, their sub- and super-normal qualities, unfolds itself, leaving the reader with the impression that life with its successes, its failures and its sorrows is all a part of “the beauty and wonder.”

“There is a very vivid picture of the life of the town from the beginning of the book. One must admire the author’s skill in visualizing these varied elements.”

“The characters are well realized, the situations are poignant, and the method of narration becomes progressively more coherent and telling.”

“The book would be a better one if the end were reached a little sooner. The novel contains a good many characters, but the author keeps firm hold on each one of them, and their variety helps to give verisimilitude to this tale of love and politics in a small American town.”

“My feeling about the whole book is that it is too elaborate a mechanism, with a weakness at its vitals. Finally, we are reluctantly aware of the style as artful in its polish and saliency. We feel that the writer has labored well, but we feel that she has labored.” H. W. Boynton

ROSENFELD, PAUL.Musical portraits. *$2.50 (3c) Harcourt 780

20–8863

In these “interpretations of twenty modern composers” (Sub-title) the author characterizes the music of each and shows how each composer reflected the age in which he lived either in its entirety or in certain phases and according to the musician’s temperament. The composers are: Wagner; Strauss; Moussorgsky; Liszt; Berlioz; Franck; Debussy; Ravel; Borodin; Rimsky-Korsakoff; Rachmaninoff; Scriabine; Strawinsky; Mahler; Reger; Schoenberg; Sibelius; Loeffler; Ornstein; Bloch. The appendix consists of short biographical notes of each composer.

“Mr Rosenfeld knows how to write. This fact alone would make him of the minority among those who write at and about music. His style is nervous, clear, ironical if not humorous, and he uses words with precision. A well-written, interesting, sincere, exasperating book. In other words, a book worth reading.” Deems Taylor

“Each is a sort of snapshot of the essential personality of a musician, and all taken together make up a gallery of modern composers so penetrating, vivid and trenchant that no reader is likely to forget them. The method used is the impressionist. Inevitably, the special pitfall of a method like Mr Rosenfeld’s is over-subjectivity and sentimentalism, with its resultant turgidity and tendency to ‘fine writing.’ Mr Rosenfeld’s first book of essays at once establishes him as one of the few writers on music able really to illuminate their subject.” D. G. Mason

“Many of the fundamental ideas set forth have been voiced at one time or another by the more penetrating of European critics. Yet Mr Rosenfeld has displayed a marked faculty for reinvesting these ideas in fresh and striking habiliments, embroidering them with such originality and skill that they take a new aspect. The whole book, in fact, is an astounding exhibition of virtuoso writing.” Henrietta Straus

“For its many good qualities, this book is deserving of unstinted praise. For one thing, it is, I believe, the first noteworthy attempt to take an accurate and full-size measurement of the music makers of our day, and for another, the critical yard stick is applied by a hand equally as artistic as it is dexterous. The only annoyance I experienced in reading the book was due to a feeling that, in parts, many of the pages were overwritten.” Max Endicoff

“Mr Rosenfeld delights in vivid colors. At moments, to be sure, one sees a tendency to overdo this eloquence; to pass too suddenly from rhapsody to invective, and from praise to blame. But even with such faults—perhaps because of them—these ‘Twenty portraits’ are in their own field unique.” C: H: Meltzer

“There is an abundance of subtlety, of ‘style,’ of smart theories that are more preoccupied with themselves and their inner consistency than with their subject-matter.”

ROSS, EDWARD ALSWORTH.Principles of sociology. (Century social science ser.) *$4 Century 301

20–9364

“This is not merely another textbook in sociology but the exposition of a system of sociology which is the result of seventeen years of work. The work begins with a brief treatment of social population. In a limited but strong treatment of Social forces, Ross contends that social laws are not physical but psychical, following Ward in the theory that the social forces are human desires. Part III, on Social processes, contains the bulk of the book—480 pages. This is subdivided into thirty-eight chapters, including such subjects as association, domination, exploitation, opposition, stimulation, personal competition, adaptation, cooperation, stratification, gradation, commercialization, expansion, ossification, estrangement, individualization, liberation, and transformation. Under Social products are treated uniformities, standards, groups and institutions. The book closes with four chapters on sociological principles—anticipation, simulation, individualization and balance.”—Survey

“No one preparing to be a professional social scientist, whatever his particular division of labor, can afford to be ignorant of this book, or even only superficially acquainted with it. Henceforth the student of social science who has not assimilated it is undertrained. It is a luminous revelation of realities of the common life.” A. W. Small

“Mr Ross’s cardinal fault is lack of historical-mindedness. He accepts as absolute the standards found or conceived in his own social environment and seems generally incapable of a Kantian critique of their validity. Yet with all its defects ‘The principles of sociology’ remains a work of real utility. Though the author’s resolute determination not to think anything through may deter the philosophical student, the vast scope of the book with its wealth of illustrative material may commend it to the teacher of sociology.” R. H. Lowie

“The tone of this book is generous and whole-souled and the reader is thereby predisposed from the outset. The style goes with the tone. It is generously expansive to the verge of breeziness. By reason of its qualities of tone, style, and the rest this book ought to be of use in colleges and to the general reader.” A. G. Keller

“Few writers have the ability to present a subject in as interesting a manner as Ross. His style is pungent, clear and clean-cut.”

“It is not only the most important sociological work of the past few months but without question the most important since the appearance of Todd’s ‘Theories of social progress,’ and possibly since Ward’s ‘Pure sociology.’ The book is not only a masterpiece as a scientific work but it is intensely interesting.” G. S. Dow

ROSS, SIR RONALD.[2]Revels of Orsera. *$2.50 (2c) Dutton

21–665

This medieval romance purports to be based on some historical facts and on a manuscript by one Johannes Murinus, found in the library of the University at Bâle. The story is illustrative of the mystical conception that good and evil flow from the same source and are interchangeable and the result is a novel interpretation of dual personality. A proud mother of twins—one of whom is a deformed dwarf, albeit with a beautiful poetic spirit—thinks that by murdering him his spirit will enter into a corporeally beautiful demon, who obtrudes himself upon her in a dream, and thus make spirit and body one in beauty. She is correct in her first surmise but to her dismay, the body of the son also lives on with the spirit of the demon she has ousted. A second time she attempts to kill him in his new guise but only effects another exchange.

“It is written with a swash-buckling air, which reproduces with curious effectiveness the mediæval period in which it is laid.”

“Always the reader feels that the volume is the result of a fullness of rare knowledge which enables its author to pick and choose as he lists, with the calm certainty that whatever he writes will bear the stamp not only of literary artistry, but of absolute originality.”

“The author’s invention remains at a high level throughout the story, and it is not till near the end that the practised novel reader begins to suspect his secret, but his vocabulary every now and then becomes too modern for the atmosphere such a story imperatively demands.”

“‘The revels of Orsera’ would claim admiration on its merits quite apart from the antecedents of the author. When they are taken into account it moves the critic to something like amazement. Regarded merely as a story, ‘The revels of Orsera’ is continuously exciting, prodigal of surprises and often genuinely if grotesquely humorous.”

“It is an extraordinary story, in which most of the principal characters come to a bad end, for which the reader cannot honestly be very sorry. But there is one thing that he will have noticed by that time, which is that the descriptions of Alpine scenery and atmosphere, which can only be due to personal observation, stand out with a far brighter vividness then all the medieval fineries.”

ROSS, VICTOR.Evolution of the oil industry. il *$1.50 (5c) Doubleday 665

20–19271

Beginning with the first mention of “oil out of the flinty rock” in Deuteronomy and the ancients’ acquaintance with it in the earliest historical records, the book shows that petroleum is a comparatively new agent for the service of mankind and the latest of earth’s riches man has learned to adapt to his needs. The development of the industry is described from the boring of the first well in 1859 to the present time. The book is illustrated and the contents are: Petroleum in history and legend; What is petroleum? Dawn of America’s petroleum industry; Founder of the petroleum industry; Petroleum as a world industry; Locating the oil well; Drilling the oil well; Collecting and transporting crude: the pipe line; Refining and manufacturing petroleum products; Petroleum and other industries; Petroleum on the seven seas; Petroleum in the great war; America’s investment in petroleum; Petroleum in the future.

ROTHERY, AGNES EDWARDS (MRS HARRY ROGERS PRATT) (AGNES EDWARDS, pseud.).Old coast road from Boston to Plymouth. il *$2.50 (6½c) Houghton 974.4

20–26574

Beginning with a description of old Boston, by the way of a foreword, the author invites the reader to accompany her on a trip along the earliest of the great roads in New England, the old coast road, connecting Boston with Plymouth. We are asked to travel comfortably “picking up what bits of quaint lore and half-forgotten history we most easily may.” The trip is charmingly reminiscent—a pleasure trip into history and old traditions, as the table of contents reveals: Dorchester Heights and the old coast road; Milton and the Blue hills; Shipbuilding at Quincy; The romance of Weymouth; Ecclesiastical Hingham; Cohasset ledges and marshes; The Scituate shore; Marshfield, the home of Daniel Webster; Duxbury homes; Kingston and its manuscripts; Plymouth. The illustrations and chapter vignettes are by Louis H. Ruyl.

Reviewed by W. A. Dyer

“A pleasant, friendly guide book. It is charmingly illustrated.”

“If one would journey down the old coast road from Boston to Plymouth, he will do well to choose Agnes Edwards for his guide. He will find each stage of his journey possessed of an individual charm.”

“The pen-and-ink illustrations are unusually attractive.”

ROUTZAHN, MRS MARY BRAYTON (SWAIN).[2]Traveling publicity campaigns. il *$1.50 Russell Sage foundation 374

20–12390

The book comes under the “Survey and exhibit series” edited by Shelby M. Harrison and gives a review of the educational activities carried on in recent years by means of modern transportation facilities, i.e. “the putting of exhibits, demonstrations, motion pictures and other campaigning equipment on railroad trains, trolley cars, and motor trucks so that they may tour a whole city, a country, or cross a continent.” (Editor’s preface) Contents: Purposes and advantages of traveling campaigns; How trains have been used in campaigning; Campaigning with motor vehicles; Advance publicity and organization; The message of the tour; Exhibit cars; The tour of the truck or train; Follow-up work; Appendix, bibliography, index and illustrations.

“Home economics workers who are touching the extension work field will find this volume indispensable.” B. R. Andrews

ROWLAND, HENRY COTTRELL.Duds. *$1.75 (2½c) Harper

20–1699

The story turns about the smuggling of war loot in the form of jewelry and antiques. The chief smuggler—a sufficiently bona fide dealer in the above articles, is ostensibly out to discover and expose the gang. He engages the wrong person to do his chief spying in Captain Phineas Plunkett, who finds out more than he is expected to. But Karakoff although the chief of the gang is not one of them and repudiates their methods. He has nothing to do with the gun play and clubbings and killings that go on in the story, throws the whole thing over when he realizes the dirty mess he has let himself in for and makes ample restitution for his loot. Of the two women of the story, Karakoff’s daughter Olga is a beautiful artless child, whose rescuer Phineas becomes on two occasions, and finally her lover. The other, a devil woman par excellence, looks like a fairy, wrestles like a pugilist, dares unspeakable things, poses as a secret service agent but is really a thief and a crook in league with the Apaches of Paris.

“Mr Rowland is no novice at story-writing and knows how to keep up an unflagging interest to the end. In Miss Melton he has introduced a singular character, and the situations are unusual and make exciting reading.”

“The tale is cheerfully improbable, swift-moving, and very entertaining.”

ROWLAND, HENRY COTTRELL.Peddler. il *$1.75 (2½c) Harper

20–15959

The somewhat erratic peddler of the title carried his miscellaneous stock of wares in and on an immense ex-army truck, so that his approach was invariably heralded by a clanging and banging of hardware. In this way he made his entry into the exclusive New England colony where the Kirkland family of four sons and a daughter was justly famous. To the same resort in less spectacular style came a small band of European crooks, who proceeded at once to work silently and effectively along their own original lines of robbery. Not until William Kirkland was accused of the thefts, did the peddler reveal the fact that he was there as a member of the secret police incognito. But when an attempt upon William’s life was made, the peddler was on hand to rescue him and to try to capture the criminals. Altho the result was not satisfactory to him, the others concerned seemed to be quite content, and the bonus which he claimed in the person of Diana Kirkland reconciled him to what he considered his failure. Some of the characters and some of the stolen jewelry figured previously in Mr Rowland’s novel “Duds.”

“Not much characterization, but brisk and interesting.”

“It is a rattling tale, full of new complications and exciting incidents. The interest does not flag, the characters are sharply differentiated human beings, and not automata. It is an admirable mystery story.”

ROYCE, JOSIAH.Lectures on modern idealism. *$3 Yale univ. press 141

20–7505

“The ground covered by the book is largely the same as the substance of Royce’s ‘Spirit of modern philosophy,’ but the treatment is wholly different, being as professedly technical as the earlier book was not. And, whether wisely or unwisely, the author has avoided repeating what is contained in the ordinary histories of philosophy by emphasizing the neglected aspects of the thinkers whose systems he expounds.”—Springf’d Republican

“Interesting as a pre-war study of German philosophy.”

Reviewed by Hartley Alexander

“Throughout, Royce’s accurate scholarship and gift of sympathetic interpretation are at their best, but nowhere more so than in the three lectures on Hegel’s ‘Phaenomenology of spirit.’” R. F. A. H.

“The initial presumption that we have a book here worthy of careful study is amply justified by the reading.”

RUSH, THOMAS EDWARD.Port of New York. il *$3.50 Doubleday 387

20–10357

The purpose of this book, by the surveyor of customs of the port of New York, is to make it easier for business men, officials, teachers and students, to understand New York harbor, and to estimate its importance for the city, the country, and the world. It tells its history from the very beginning and points out five agencies as responsible for its improvements: the cities within the port areas; New York and New Jersey state governments; the federal government; the projected bi-state unified port control; and extra governmental agencies voicing the public’s demands and needs. Many drawbacks and inefficiencies are pointed out and the fact emphasized that New York is “first and foremost a port.” Among the contents are: Birth, christening, and youth; Piracy and privateering abolished; Eternal vigilance against smugglers; Giant growth in commerce; Government far-sightedness and short-sightedness; The port awakening of New Jersey; Forts and fortifications; New York, the nation’s first air harbor; Advertising New York port’s nautical school; Immigration’s gateway to America; Bibliography and illustrations.

“The port of New York is deserving of a more comprehensive and more technical study of its processes than is provided by Thomas E. Rush. An adequate study of the port from the transportation or engineering point of view it emphatically is not.”

RUSSELL, BERTRAND ARTHUR WILLIAM.Bolshevism: practice and theory. *$2 Harcourt 335

20–20991

A book containing the articles which appeared in the Nation together with new material. Bertrand Russell writes as a communist who finds much to criticize in the bolshevist method of putting communism into practice. He says: “A fundamental economic reconstruction, bringing with it very far-reaching changes in ways of thinking and feeling, in philosophy and art and private relations, seems absolutely necessary if industrialism is to become the servant of man instead of his master. In all this, I am at one with the Bolsheviks; politically, I criticize them only when their methods seem to involve a departure from their own ideals.” (Preface) The book is the outcome of a brief visit to Russia. Part 1, The present condition of Russia, has chapters on: What is hoped for Bolshevism; General characteristics; Lenin, Trotsky, and Gorky; Art and education (written by Mr Russell’s secretary, Miss D. W. Black); Daily life in Moscow; etc. Part 2, Bolshevik theory, is a criticism of the materialistic conception of history and other accepted doctrines, with chapters on: Why Russian communist has failed; and Conditions for the success of communism.

“We have found the most interesting part of Mr Russell’s book to be, on the whole, his analysis of the theory of Bolshevism.” J. W. N. S.

“A clear and convincing critique of Bolshevism as a social theory.” E: E. Paramore, jr.

“No such remarkable book as his ‘Bolshevism: practice and theory,’ has been published on this subject. Small as the volume is, only 192 pages, it is amazing how much he says.”

“Bertrand Russell is not a clear thinker. The chief value of this book lies in the fact that it is a condemnation of the spirit of Bolshevism by one whose prejudices for its avowed principles would naturally make him its apologist if not its defender.”

“Mr Bertrand Russell’s book is likely to remain the most damning criticism of Bolshevism, whether that strange delusion be considered as a faith or as a political institution. Although Mr Russell seems to us to be no more practical than a Russian Bolshevik, he is beyond doubt a brilliant philosopher, and often one cannot help finding fineness in his thought, even when he seems to us least to understand the ways of the ordinary man. Among the most interesting things in the book are the accounts of Mr Russell’s meetings with Lenin and Trotsky.”

“Not the least interesting chapters are those on ‘Revolution and dictatorship’ and ‘Mechanism and the individual,’ in which Mr Russell reveals his own views as to the future industrial system which is to replace the present. Mr Russell himself is sanguine as to a new economic order emerging from the present chaos. But his grounds of faith are unconvincing.”

RUSSELL, CHARLES EDWARD.Story of the Nonpartisan league; a chapter in American evolution. il *$2 Harper 329

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