Chapter 44

20–26587

John A. Fitch in his introduction to the book speaks of the overwhelming power of the steel trust and says: “The story of the most extensive and most courageous fight yet made to break this power and to set free the half million men of the steel mills is told within the pages of this book by one who was himself a leader in the fight. It is a story that is worth the telling, for it has been told before only in fragmentary bits and without the authority that comes from the pen of one of the chief actors in the struggle.” Contents: The present situation; A generation of defeat; The giant labor awakes; Flank attacks; Breaking into Pittsburgh; Storm clouds gather; The storm breaks; Garyism rampant; Efforts at settlement; The course of the strike; National and racial elements; The commissariat—the strike cost; Past mistakes and future problems; In conclusion.

“This book, in spite of its lurid rhetoric, extreme statements, and partisan viewpoint, throws a good deal of light on labor conditions in the steel industry.” G: M. Janes

“Too frankly partisan to be history, and with too few facts to give it the weight of a scientific survey, this authentic picture of the labor machine in operation has the force of valuable evidence from the inside.”

“It is seldom that the public is afforded such a frank statement from official sources so soon after the event and in this case it is especially useful since most of the news furnished during the course of the strike came from the representatives of the employers.” G. P. W.

“His book is worth a dozen abstract discussions of the labor movement, for it is an example, one of the best examples that has ever arisen, of labor doing its own thinking, making its own detailed and disinterested analysis. For its clarity, cogency, and significance, it is better worth reading than nine-tenths of the volumes written about public affairs.” G: Soule

“Mr Foster’s book is an exceedingly valuable contribution to our scant body of authentic documents on the labor movement.” R. W. B.

“Mr Foster draws a vivid picture of events, all of which he saw and a large part of which he was. His judgment is cool and dispassionate; he sees the faults in the labor movement, but he imparts to his readers a tremendous admiration for the men who could conduct so long a campaign against such terrific obstacles.”

FOWLER, WILLIAM WARDE.Roman essays and interpretations. *$5.65 Oxford 937

(Eng ed 20–11698)

“The contents fall into four parts: Roman religion; Roman history; parallels from the life of other races; and finally a group of literary studies devoted to Virgil and Horace, appreciations of Niebuhr and Mommsen, and a discussion of the tragic element in Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar.’ About half the material is reprinted from articles which had appeared in periodicals, chiefly the Classical Review and the Journal of Roman Studies; these, however, bear everywhere the traces of careful revision and are to be taken as embodying Dr Warde Fowler’s reconsidered judgments of today.”—Class J

“In these pages we are conscious not only of having laid before us the fruits of the highest quality of scholarship but of enjoying the guidance and companionship of a rare personality.” A. W. Van Buren

“There are a number of interesting suggestions scattered through the shorter papers, not all, of course, equally convincing.” H. S. J.

“When Dr Warde Fowler speaks of Roman religion the rest of us have nothing to do but to listen and learn.”

“A volume without a dull page in it, and ranging over a very wide and varied field. It contains the gleanings of long studies, pursued into the ripeness of age with the ardency of youth.”

FOX, DAVID.Man who convicted himself. *$1.90 (2c) McBride

20–18253

“The Shadowers, Inc.” is a unique detective society composed of six ex-criminals who have decided to use their exceptional talents in an honest way rather than decidedly otherwise as heretofore. There is a handwriting expert, a jewel and art connoisseur, a toxicologist, “the greatest safe-cracker of the age,” and a smooth villain who has dealt in various forms of fraud, from oil stock to psychical phenomena. At the head of this band is Rex Powell, whose brain conceived the scheme. Their aim is restitution, not prosecution, and they work privately and discreetly. Their first case is one of robbery in an exclusive Riverside Drive home, but as it progresses it provides scope for the activities of each one of The Shadowers. That they are successful in apprehending the robber almost goes without saying but their greatest success lies in the fact that they actually force the man to convict himself.

“‘The man who convicted himself,’ despite its novelty, strikes the reader as plausible.”

“The story has the appeal of the popular melodrama and ‘dime novel’ without descending to crude and amateurish methods of telling.”

FOX, DIXON RYAN.Decline of aristocracy in the politics of New York. (Columbia university studies in history, economics and public law) il *$4 Longmans 329

19–16519

“Under this title, Dr Fox, assistant professor of history in Columbia university, has given us an account of the decline of federalism in the state of New York and its eventual transformation into the whiggism of the forties. His narrative is a continuous panorama of party activities and beliefs and of the careers and influence of party leaders during forty years of New York’s history. It runs from the days of John Jay, Elisha Williams, Stephen Van Rensselaer, and others of those who represented the property rights and aristocratic privileges of the eighteenth century, to Thurlow Weed, the anti-renters of 1837, and the Tippecanoe clubs, log cabins, and hard cider of the Harrison and Tyler campaign. Thus, as far as it goes, it illustrates the influence of industrial development and geographical expansion upon party standards and standard bearers during a very important period of American history.”—Nation

“The book is a noteworthy contribution to all the social sciences.” A. C. Ford

“Dr Fox employs usually a lucid and vivacious style which engages the attention. There are, however, a few lapses into discomforting awkwardness and ambiguity of expression. There are discernible in places, likewise, certain failures in nicety of historical discrimination. These minor deficiencies, however, detract little from the general high excellence of the work.” W: Trimble

“The work has great merits, principally those resulting from diligence in collecting materials and skill in arranging them.” H: J. Ford

“As an analysis of the conditions under which the centre of political gravity was shifted from the old party of lawyers, bank presidents, merchants, and land-holding aristocrats to the ‘people,’ vested by the revised constitution of 1821 with the right to vote, this essay is both suggestive and informing.”

“An interesting and illuminating history.”

FOX, EARLY LEE.American colonization society, 1817–1840. (Johns Hopkins university studies in historical and political science) $2.25 Johns Hopkins 326

20–506

“In this volume the author represents the colonization movement as essentially a moderate, conservative, border-state movement which had an appeal to men in every walk of life, from every political and religious creed, and from every section of the union. He divides the history of the American colonization society into two distinct divisions: the first, to which this volume is devoted, begins with the organization of the society in 1817 and extends to 1840; the second covers the period since 1840. This volume ends with the reorganization of the society in 1839, after which date the society, under the influence of the North and the East, was more aggressively anti-slavery in its programme and activities. In the first chapter, the author discusses at considerable length the status of the free negro and his relation to the slave and to the white population; in the second, the organization, purpose, and early history of the society; in the third, fourth, and last chapters, the relation of colonization to Garrisonian abolition, to emancipation and to the African slave-trade respectively.”—Am Hist R

“While the book contains much that is new and interesting the material is very poorly arranged and there is much repetition in the numerous quotations.” A. E. Martin

“While he does justice to the South, he does rather less than justice to the abolitionists. But he has made a very useful contribution to the history of the question of slavery, for one of the best ways of understanding its difficulties and complexities is to study it from the middle point of view of the ‘colonizationist.’” E. A. B.

FOX, JOHN, Jr.Erskine Dale, pioneer. il *$2 Scribner

20–16857

“For the scene and period of his last romance, Mr Fox goes far back through nearly a hundred and fifty years. His hero, at the opening of the story a boy and at the close a young man, has been captured by the Indians, is brought up among them, and is as skilled in their ways of life and knowledge of woodcraft as if he had their blood in his veins. He is, however, the heir to a great Virginian estate, and the reader follows his exploits as he goes back and forth between the primitive scenes of the forests and the sophisticated life of the Virginian towns. At one moment he is with the pioneers resisting an attack from the Indians, at another in the very camps of the Indians themselves, and at a third gazing into the eyes of his beautiful cousin in the midst of the social entertainment of his prosperous relatives. More than once he faces death, but he emerges unscathed both from the attempts of the Indians to take his life and from the enmity of a jealous rival in love.”—Boston Transcript

“In ‘Erskine Dale—pioneer,’ Mr Fox has portrayed with exceptional skill the spirit of those days when the national spirit of the British colonists was beginning to make itself felt. It is not merely the story of one boy’s adventures. It is a tale of the birth of the American power and influence as expressed in more than one picturesque region.” E. F. E.

“It is a good book to give to the American boy, for it abounds in stirring adventures, and at the same time gives a good insight into the everyday life of the pioneers.”

“The dialog is full of ‘go’ and the book will appeal immensely to intermediates.”

“The book has plenty of color and of movement, and gives an interesting picture of the period with which it deals.”

“Perhaps the very best of his many romances. The flow of the story is clear and strong; it has atmosphere, movement, and distinction.”

“It is full of color and charm and thrill.” Joseph Mosher

“Mr Fox vividly recreates the atmosphere and social environment of the time.”

FOXWELL, HERBERT SOMERTON.Papers on current finance. *$3.50 Macmillan 336.42

19–12740

“This volume brings together with little alteration seven articles and addresses spread over the period 1909–1917, but relating either to problems raised directly by the war or to questions to which the war has brought a new and urgent interest. An appendix reproduces a paper of 1888, ‘The growth of monopoly, and its bearing on the functions of the state’; also a letter dated February, 1918 advocating ‘fixed exchange within the empire.’ The first paper, ‘British war finance,’ deals critically with the crisis of 1914 and the financial emergency measures that it evoked. The next two papers are concerned with the problem of financing trade and industry, particularly after the war. ‘The financing of industry and trade’ (4) stresses the desirability of a closer touch between the financial, as distinguished from the banking institutions and British industries. ‘The banking reserve’ (5) deals with the inadequacy of the English position and proposes the establishment of a system of triple reserve. The burden of ‘Inflation: in what sense it exists: how far it can be controlled’ (7) an address delivered in 1917, is that the foreign exchanges do not prove currency depreciation, that gold depreciation was scarcely more marked in England than in the United States, that high prices resulted from the enormous expenditure of the government and could be checked only by cutting away from the gold standard.”—Am Econ R

Reviewed by C. A. Phillips

“It is the papers on finance and banking which show Professor Foxwell at his best, and make his volumes a valuable handbook for students.”

“Professor Foxwell’s book suffers from the defect inherent in its form, which is that of lectures delivered at different times during the past ten years, of not co-ordinating the treatment of these problems. The contents are valuable and the author’s grasp of his subjects complete enough to make us regret that he did not recast the lectures into book form and develop his logical sequence.”

FRANCE, ANATOLE, pseud. (JACQUES-ANATOLE THIBAULT).[2]Bride of Corinth, and other poems and plays; a translation by Wilfrid Jackson and Emilie Jackson. *$2.50 Lane 842

20–19383

A volume of poems and plays. Contents: The bride of Corinth; Verses; Crainquebille; The comedy of a man who married a dumb wife; Come what may.

FRANCE, ANATOLE, pseud. (JACQUES-ANATOLE THIBAULT).[2]Little Pierre; tr. by J. Lewis May. *$2.50 (3½c) Lane

20–22476

“Little Pierre” is the story of a boy from his birth to his tenth year. It is told in the first person and the actual memories of childhood begin with his second year. He is the son of a Paris physician and is born “in the days when the reign of King Louis Philippe was drawing to a close.”

‘Mr May and his colleague have done well, uncommonly well with their work, have indeed lost very little in the transition from French to English, and kept all the charm of ‘Little Pierre.’” G. M. H.

FRANCE, ANATOLE, pseud. (JACQUES-ANATOLE THIBAULT).[2]Seven wives of Bluebeard, and other marvellous tales; a tr. by D. B. Stewart. *$2.50 (5c) Lane

20–22333

Four fairy tales, not written for children. In the first Bluebeard is pictured as a shy, modest man, the victim of the extravagance and unfaithfulness of his seven successive wives. The other stories are: The miracle of the great St Nicholas, a satiric treatment of an old legend; The story of the Duchess of Cicogne and of Monsieur de Boulingrin, a version of The sleeping Beauty; and The shirt, the story of the king who was told to find the shirt of a happy man.

“This pleasant and apparently accurate rendering gives us one of the most delightful works of an author who loses relatively little through the process of translation, partly because of the Doric simplicity of his style and partly because of the importance which he attaches to the plot and the intellectual gist.”

FRANCK, HARRY ALVERSON.Roaming through the West Indies. il *$5 (2c) Century 917.29

20–17981

The author says: “The following pages do not pretend to ‘cover’ the West Indies. They are made up of the random pickings of an eight-months’ tour of the Antilles, during which every island of importance was visited, but they are put together rather for the entertainment of the armchair traveler than for the information of the traveler in the flesh.” He also states that he wishes it distinctly understood that this is not the record of a walking trip. As a protest to those friends who ever since his vagabond journey around the world have expected him to travel always on foot he planned a trip on which walking would be difficult if not impossible. The book is in three parts: The American West Indies; The British West Indies; and The French West Indies and others. There are many illustrations and a map.

“Altogether this latest volume is another witness to its author’s talent for description, his sense for the dramatic, and his eye for the picturesque, which combine to make his accumulating works a boon to the travel-thirsty reader.” L. M. R.

“If the average American wants to know just what he would see and how he would feel in the West Indies, let him read Mr Franck’s book. On occasion Mr Franck reminds one of Herodotus, in the marked distinction between the credibility of what he reports as of his own experiences and the dubious quality of what he has got through hearsay.” A. J.

“What all other writers aim at, Mr Franck accomplishes with consummate ease. The easy flowing style of ‘Zone policeman 88’ and ‘Vagabonding down the Andes’ is here manifested in its highest perfection.” W: McFee

“His pages are thickly sprinkled with character sketches of bizarre personalities, rarely poetic descriptive passages, and narratives as tense as their back-grounds are colorful. As in Mr Franck’s earlier books, the distinguishing characteristic of his writing is his ability to make his readers ‘see the sights’ through his eyes, which are so alert to catch any happening of human interest.”

“‘Roaming through the West Indies’ is easily the best ‘regular’ travel book on the islands south and east of Florida we have seen.” R. S. Lynd

Reviewed by E. L. Pearson

FRANCK, HARRY ALVERSON.Vagabonding through changing Germany. il *$4 (4c) Harper 914.3

20–11658

The author went into Germany with the American army of occupation, and later, released from duty, he traveled throughout the country. He followed his usual custom of mixing with the people, talking with them and living their life as far as possible and his book sets down in detail his observations. Among the chapters are: On to the Rhine; Germany under the American heel; Thou shalt not ... fraternize; Knocking about the occupied area; Getting neutralized; The heart of the hungry empire; “Give us food!” Family life in Mechlenburg; On the road in Bavaria; Music still has charms. There are many illustrations from the author’s photographs.

“The ‘vagabond’ tells his experiences in a rapid, brilliant manner, as if he were never for a moment tired, and had no difficulty at all in telling his story. The pictures tell the story of the Germany of today fully as well as does the author in his brilliant chat: and both together form a book well worth reading.”

“A thoroughly entertaining and at times instructive volume. The reader is grateful for the care with which Mr Franck has handled his facts. At no point does he attempt to be picturesque, sentimental or theatrically effective.” L. M. R.

“Franck’s book is eminently readable, his possession of comparisons from other visits to Germany, his keen knowledge of German and his great fund of information upon all the countries of the world going to make it unique in character and filled with worthwhile incident. It lacks sympathy even with the wretched populace of the fatherland.” F: O’Brien

“He gives no statistics, but the evident desire to avoid exaggeration and the studied fairness with which he reproduces opinions compel confidence in the accuracy of his report on economic and political conditions.” C: Seymour

FRANCK, TENNEY.[2]Economic history of Rome to the end of the republic. $2.50 Johns Hopkins 937

20–11380

“In contrast to the practices of certain contemporary historians who have analyzed Roman economic conditions, Professor Frank has wisely laid down the principal that ‘a priori methods of interpreting historical development by means of generally accepted economic and psychological maxims must be applied to Roman history only with great reserve.’ He therefore follows closely the evidence furnished by the inscriptions, by archaeology, and by literature. Under Etruscan domination industry and commerce developed in Latium to some extent. The treaties with Carthage and the history of Roman coinage show that trade declined after the explusion of the Etruscans, and that the Romans turned again to their farms. The deforestation of the Volscian mountains and the gradual exhaustion of the soil made it impossible for the dense population of Latium to win a livelihood from their own land, and the pressure was relieved by territorial expansion. If relief had not come in this way manufacturing, commerce and the arts might have gained a better foot in Rome. The two chapters on industry constitute one of the most valuable contributions which the author has made to our knowledge of Roman economic conditions.”—Am Hist R

“Among the best features of Professor Frank’s[sp?] book, which is characterized throughout by knowledge, precision of statement, and acuteness of observation, as well as by vigor of style and vitality of thought, is the skill with which he has utilized the archaeological sources of information.” W. S. Ferguson

“As a study of the economic development of the city of Rome, the governing centre of the civilized world, it stands alone in its completeness, in the thorough use which the author has made of available evidence, in the sound judgment which he has shown, and in the clear, convincing way in which he has set forth his conclusions.” F. F. Abbott

FRANK, WALDO DAVID.Dark mother. *$2.50 Boni & Liveright

20–19046

“Mr Frank’s is one of those long novels of the type which Theodore Dreiser has popularized, with a minute description of the adventures of one or two young men, coming to New York from the West, giving especial emphasis to their amatory experiences, and reflecting sarcastically upon the evils of capitalism. In this book it is the Spanish war which enters incidentally into the story.”—Review

Reviewed by Paul Rosenfeld

“He has chosen a highly impressionistic method of conveying his perceptions and observations. There are few or no connectives. Sentences and paragraphs stand alone and unfriended. Individually they are pitched in an extremely high key. The result is both nerve-racking and, in the end, without true effectiveness.”

− + |Nation111:480 O 27 ’20 320w

“The quality of this novel seems courageous in a small way but chiefly wilful; sincere but not important. He seems to have intensity without much perception. But one thing Mr Frank does do: he brings home to us anew in this book the very valuable reminder that there are vast areas of life that our literature has not yet known how to include. In that sense this novel in places may be called a creditable experiment in material.” Stark Young

“‘The dark mother’ is a lost cause, so far as the medium goes. For it is transitional, it is neither the novel, nor something distinct from the novel. Judged as a novel, it does not satisfy; and there is nothing else to judge it by. In any case, Waldo Frank is en route for something or other.” Kenneth Burke

“Of all kinds of sophistry the most insidious is that coming from an eloquent writer who is the unconscious victim of unsound thinking. Mr Frank is perhaps unduly preoccupied with the world and the flesh, but it would take a psycho-analyst to gauge his intention in dwelling upon them. To give the author his due, it must be said that he impresses the reader rather as a man groping for ethical convictions. Mr Frank’s powers of characterization deserve high praise.”

“Short sentences, in the manner of the late Horace Traubel, make ‘The dark mother’ rather jerky and monotonous. How is it that so many young writers do not understand that just at present books about sex have become a little tiresome?” E. L. Pearson

FRANK, WALDO DAVID.Our America. *$2 (3c) Boni & Liveright 917.3

19–16552

For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.

“To say that it is without interest would be to say what is not true; to say that it is thoughtlessly written would be a hasty comment on an author whose work everywhere evidences the pale cast of thought. It is, indeed, an interesting, thoughtful book, written in an easy, somewhat emotional style. But it is nothing if not pessimistic in its historical backward glancing and in its view of the present. And it is often lacking in a sense of perspective and proportion.”

“Mr Frank does not write with the sustained and rolling cadence of Hebrew poetry. His sentences are swift and staccato like the flash of a whip, sudden and shrill like newspaper headlines. And yet Mr Frank is of the school of the prophets of his race. Other witnesses have arisen against us, W. T. Stead, M. Paul Bourget, Mr H. G. Wells, Mr Arnold Bennett. These, however, have spoken in their separation from us, and, excepting the first, with the tolerant cynicism of detachment. What gives force to Mr Frank’s prophecy is that he is of us, as Jeremiah was of Jerusalem.” R. M. Lovett

“We should like to be appreciative toward a great deal in this book if its author were less rasping, less intent upon antagonizing and irritating at every turn. His tribute to the wistful beauty of the perished culture of our red men and his analysis of the industrial and spiritual genius of the Jew in America would evoke a readier response if the motivation were more disinterested.” Jacob Zeitlin

Reviewed by W. J. Ghent

“A striking interpretation of the American spirit.”

“Hostile and shallow critics will be tempted to run the gamut of the alphabet in search of verbal missiles to hurl at the author from anarchist and bolshevist down to zealot. Mr Frank is none of these, the more careful reader will decide, but merely an insurgent in letters, feeling the pulsing of a new age that sooner or later will be able to declare itself and dominate public opinion as Puritanism has dictated in the past.”

“While most people will take exception to some of Mr Frank’s statements, his reversal of the usual points of view cannot fail to stimulate thought.”

“The book has a genuinely interesting chapter on the Jew and much that is just and sympathetic in regard to the ‘buried culture’ of the Indian. But the unburied issues that cluster about the negro it notably fails to mention. And with the exception of an elaborate eulogy of Miss Amy Lowell, there is no intimation that the American population is not exclusively masculine.”

FRANKAU, GILBERT.Peter Jameson. *$2 (1½c) Knopf

20–3796

A story of the war—of the “great cleansing.” Peter Jameson at the outset of the story is a business man, of somewhat the American type. He is married to an admirable wife, father of two little daughters, and in every way successful and satisfied. At its beginning he is not greatly stirred by the war, but the end of three months finds him in it. The story thereafter follows his fortunes and scenes at the front alternate with homecomings to Patricia. He is twice wounded and is finally invalided home with shell shock, from which he is saved by Patricia’s care. A real love awakens between husband and wife and the story comes to a triumphant end on Armistice day, 1918.

“We find ourselves wishing that he had kept his talent in a napkin rather than put it to such uses.”

“The scenes of English country life in the last part are a pleasant offset to the earlier war pictures.”

“‘Peter Jameson’ is in keeping with the newest invention in novel-writing the thesis that four years of slaughter in France purifies all Englishmen.”

“Personally we were more interested in the tobacco business than in the shell shock, which is the real cause of the book, but that may have been because we knew less about it beforehand. Anyway Peter is very well worth knowing, as are a number of the lesser lights.”

“The vivid battle descriptions that are the best part of the book cannot atone for its essential narrowness and shallowness, for its manifold defects of thought and style, for its systematic glorification of hates and follies and prejudices that were scarcely excusable even in the heat of the conflict. ‘Peter Jameson’ is the product of a mind still inflamed by the fever of war.” W. H. C.

“‘Peter Jameson’ is a fine story. Though Mr Frankau’s style is unpleasantly spasmodic and though so many characters confuse the reader’s mind the book reads easily, and one feels that a certain phase of English life has been definitely interpreted.”

“There are splendid descriptions of fighting, descriptions that reveal the hand of a writer who knows well what he is writing about. Mr Frankau had a high goal in view when he conceived ‘Peter Jameson.’ It was no ordinary war book that he set out to write. The result has justified his courage. ‘Peter Jameson’ is not unworthy of the high purpose which its author set himself.”

“A fine story, with its wealth of well-drawn persons,—a record of England in war-time to be classed with ‘Mr Britling’ and ‘The tree of heaven,’ and more hopeful than these.” Katharine Perry

“The book is clever, veracious in spots; oh, so anxious to get at the truth about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and quite without creative vitality as a whole.” H. W. Boynton

“We admire the way in which the author has ripped up a pre-war story and transformed it into a lively criticism of our military authorities, and added a vivid impression of the Battle of Loos.”

“Romance, in the conventional sense, is not Mr Frankau’s strong point, and the real strength of the book is in the chapters on the war and its ‘realities’—a very useful antidote to the work of Sir Philip Gibbs. We confess to finding the earlier chapters wearisome, and even repellent.”

“The book has the essential quality that the author enjoys his own story and believes it to be true. ‘Peter Jameson’ is not a great novel, but it is certainly a good one.”

FRANKEL, LEE KAUFER, and FLEISHER, ALEXANDER.Human factor in industry; with the cooperation of Laura S. Seymour. *$3 Macmillan 658.7

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