BOOKS

ByWarren H. Wilson. The Pilgrim Press. 221 pp. Price $1.25; by mail ofThe Survey$1.35.

Because Dr. Wilson has made a clear and pointed statement of fundamental conditions, the student of rural sociology is grateful for this book, even though much of what it contains is obvious to him. Throughout, the writer shows his belief that the rural population can be improved by a socially actuated church. Although he believes that a country church should be inspirational he makes clear the fact that the church cannot succeed unless it enters into the whole life of the farm, economic and otherwise. For instance, Dr. Wilson very properly insists that if a farmer is producing but sixty bushels of potatoes on an acre of land which should yield three hundred bushels he is guilty of a wrong that should be denounced just as stridently as the doctrinal sins which have so long occupied the attention of rural pastors. In the co-operation of these activities rather than in actual union the writer sees promise of a solution of many of the problems of the country church. He shows clearly that people cannot be united in religion until they are united in their social economy.

“The business of the church is to organize co-operative enterprises, economic, social and educational, and ... to educate them in the advantages of life together. Co-operation must become a gospel.”

This definition of the business of the church may seem rather heterodox, coming from the head of a Presbyterian department, but the department of which Dr. Wilson is the head has reached its widely recognized effectiveness because it has been actuated by such aggressive common sense as this.

That the volume is dedicated to Anna B. Taft, who has contributed so largely to the success of the movement to reanimate country churches, is indeed pleasant. Dr. Wilson adds to the value of the volume by giving many definite instances of definite achievement in the redirection of country life through the church’s activity.

The book is well named; it does present in an orderly fashion the development of the country community. Dr. Wilson follows Professor Ross of Purdue in his definition of the four types of farmers—the pioneer, the land farmer, the exploiter, and the husbandman. The writer very happily shows that in many communities the evolution has proceeded so irregularly that all the four types of farmers are now living side by side, and that their four sides may be contending for mastery. That the pastor and the church ministering to the farmer of each type are determined by that type is a clearly stated lesson that social workers outside of rural communities might very well take to heart.

Some communities, Dr. Wilson recognizes, are exceptional. He apparently agrees with Prof. T. N. Carver of Harvard that the best farmers in the country are the Mormons, the Scotch Presbyterians, and the Pennsylvania Germans. Each one of these peoples—for they are no less—has come to agricultural prosperity because this agriculture has been built around the church. The organization of the Mormons, for instance, is not only efficient, but it revolves around the church. Dr. Wilson might very well have gone further in this connection and called attention to the fact that the leaders of the Latter Day Saints have made their people happy, here and now, by realizing that all their wants—social, economic, religious, political—were so closely interrelated that they must all be taken care of by collective action.

As a clear and well-proportioned statement, characterized by ample knowledge, careful statement and good temper, the book is valuable.

Warren Dunham Foster.

ByJohn M. Gillette. introduction by George E. Vincent, president of the University of Minnesota. New York, Sturgis & Walton. 301 pp. Price $1.60; by mail ofThe Survey$1.75.

There can be no doubt that this work is constructive if we remember that adequate information is the beginning of all sound construction. The book is packed with information on all phases of rural life. Whether it is sociology or not depends upon one’s point of view and one’s bringing up. It may be economics. Among the eighteen chapters there are included such topics as Rural and Urban Increase (IV), Improvement of Agricultural Production (VII), Improving the Business Side of Farming (VIII), and Rural and Social Institutions and Their Improvement (XV and XVI). There are numerous tables and illustrations, including an interesting map of a rural Methodist parish.

One of the most interesting chapters is entitled Social Aspects of Land and Labor in the United States, though in the first paragraph the reader is confronted with the statement that “The nation’s population is ultimately determined by the amount of its arable land.” This is doubtless a casual statement and ought not to be allowed to mar what is otherwise an excellent chapter. Of course it is only the nation’s rural population which is ultimately determined by its arable land. So long as foreign markets hold out, there is no limit to the urban population short of lack of building room. Or onemight say that the population of a nation which aims to be self-contained, or physically self-supporting as distinct from commercially self-supporting, is limited by its arable land. The reviewer does not remember to have seen so good a discussion of the problem of agricultural labor as is found in this chapter.

Probably the most valuable chapter is the one on Rural Health and Sanitation. The author outlines the problem and presents in systematic order the dangers to rural health and the methods of safeguarding against them. Under such heads as Water, Garbage and Sewage, Insects and Animals, Foods, and Transmissible Diseases, he sets forth the chief problems of farm sanitation, and emphasizes the need of co-operation in neighborhood sanitation.

The book is a substantial contribution to the growing problem of rural life and rural adjustment. The author shows a first hand knowledge of the subject which he treats, and a wide familiarity with statistical and other documentary sources of information. All sincere students owe him a debt of gratitude.

T. N. Carver.

ByAlfred W. McCann. F. M. Barton. 270 pp. Price $1.50; by mail ofThe Survey$1.61.

This is an adulterating age. The organized exploitation of the primary wants of civilized mankind, the demand for products prepared for immediate consumption, the stimulation of new desires by unprecedented advertising campaigns, the conspicuous consumption of the rich and the unreasoning imitation of the richer by the poorer, the ever lengthening cycle of production from raw material to finished product, the fierce competition among manufacturers and dispensers of goods, the rising cost of living, and more than all, the amazing carelessness of the purchasing public, especially with regard to articles of food and clothing, have caused the adulterators to multiply and flourish and have developed adulteration to a fine art.

The exposure of various forms of food impurities and adulterants, harmless or criminal, is neither new nor unpublished. Few men in our country are better known than Harvey Wiley, and Wiley in the popular mind stands as the champion of pure food and the implacable foe of fraudulent food distributors. No person who reads or listens but knows something of Wiley and something of impure food supplies.

Mr. McCann, whose book under the sensational title of Starving America has recently appeared, is no less valiant than Wiley in his promulgation of pure-food propaganda. Almost unknown, unsupported by the scientific training and the official standing which Wiley possesses, this dark champion girds on his armor and heroically enters the lists, shouting, “I’ll tell the truth if I die for it.” Of course there’s no danger of his dying for it. Speaking logically, the conclusion seems to be that the rest of us will die of starvation if we refuse to heed his speaking.

In general the book supports two theses:

First, that the mineral constituents of foods are much more important in body building than food chemists and dietitians are aware; in fact, that we are either literally starving ourselves and our children by eliminating the ash from our bread, meat, potatoes, rice and other foods, or we are rendering our bodies susceptible to disease—such as tuberculosis—through failure to supply certain mineral defenses to the tissues. The essential ashes, always present in food stuffs—vegetable or animal—in their original raw state, are removed in the manufacture or in the cooking. Wholesome nutritious whole wheat bread and unpolished rice are set over against the insidious, emasculated, mineral-denuded white bread and polished rice—real whited sepulchers, beautiful but deadly.

In the development of this thesis Mr. McCann presents some facts already published and fully accepted, and an array of startling statements. Most of his reasoning is, of course, deductive, because scientists have little authentic data to offer on the effect of the various mineral elements or the lack of them, much less on the most desirable methods of introducing them into the human system. Though neither a university man, nor a graduate chemist, it appears that the author has had exceptional opportunities to study biochemistry as an amateur; and formerly, as advertising agent of a large food industry he spent much time in the food laboratory of the concern. Notwithstanding these qualifications, which he fully sets forth in his preface, some of his conclusions, for example the vital importance of ash in the system and the dire results of our ordinary dietary, though analogically sound, fail to convince the student and perhaps the layman.

On his second proposition, that an astonishing variety and an appalling quantity of our foods are poisonously adulterated both legally and criminally, the author stands on sure ground. Candies, ice-cream, extracts, patent medicines, preservatives, coloring materials are handled without reserve. The argument is supported almost wholly by old material, rather familiar to the magazine reading public; but the cumulative evidence, followed by a dissertation on the appalling and preventable infant death rate gives strength and conviction to the presentation.

The author is not merely destructive. He urges a campaign of education through the public press and pleads for courses and demonstrations of pure food stuffs and their effects in our schools and colleges. He has formulated a practical dietary, a daily menu for a week, of simple, wholesome food, based on the principles he has worked out, for children three years of age and over. His own children have thrived wonderfully on it. He describes in one of the most satisfactory chapters in the book an ideal restaurant that appeals both to one’s common sense and to his appetite.

On the whole the book is timely and deserves a wide reading. In the endeavor to catch the public ear by the presentation of a lurid array of facts under a sensational title I fear the author has overshot the mark. Thoughtful readers are likely to discount much that apparently has a reasonable basis of scientific study merelybecause of the overstraining after startling statement. The author’s style is not altogether pleasing, nor does it always carry conviction nor inspire confidence in the author. It is not a great book nor an epoch-making one, but it bears the stamp of sincerity, provided one reads to the end, and calls attention to a number of awful truths that should give us pause. The keynote of progress is “light and enlightenment,” rather than repression.

Alexander E. Cance.

ByNellie M. Smith. Dodd, Mead & Co. 138 pp. Price $.50; by mail ofThe Survey$.56

The market is flooded with publications on education with reference to sex, and most of them are the product of superficial or one-sided knowledge and a ready pen. The emphasis is unduly put on disease because most writers are so impressed by the results of ignorance that they find it impossible to take the attitude of the normal, healthy individual whom they are trying to reach.

Among this mass of material, there have been two or three books which could be put into the hands of young girls, but even these should be used with care. The large demand for a good book and our failure to meet it has been a source of anxiety to all who have appreciated the dire need which it voiced. Then came The Three Gifts of Life, which answers the appeal for knowledge concerning the mysteries of reproduction, showing the origin of life in plants, animals and human beings—not detached as physiological fact but interwoven in ordinary experience.

The Three Gifts are the three attributes by which the different forms of life progress: i.e., dependence, as illustrated by plants; instinct, plus dependence, as shown by animals; choice, plus dependence and instinct, which are given to every human being.

Throughout the interesting account of plant and animal reproduction, Miss Smith is working through the law of progress to the girls’ responsibility in the life of the race, showing how the reproductive instinct can be made into a race instinct by means of the gift of choice. The one adverse criticism I should make is calling any gift of the flowers “poor” even in comparison. When the marvels of plant and animal life are being so wonderfully revealed, there is a singular opportunity to communicate the thrill and zest which come from close contact with Nature: there is nothing poor in the “scheme of things.”

The book does not warn girls against men’s companionship; it does not describe the horrors of venereal diseases; it does not frighten them into a fear of all mankind by giving the details of prostitution. It does not prophesy changes which take place during the adolescent period, so that attention will be concentrated on a whole new set of feelings which may or may not appear. On the contrary, it is all positive and sane, and is by far the best book we have for educational work with girls.

Marion E. Dodd.

ByLucille Baldwin van Slyke. Fred’k A. Stokes. 275 pp. Price $1.00; by mail ofThe Survey$1.10.

Mrs. Van Slyke has chosen as her special field of interest the Syrian quarter of Brooklyn, and the result of her observations she has given us in a short dozen of stories, grouped under the title, Eve’s Other Children. With considerable skill and great charm, through the medium of little Nazileh, she permits us to see into the mind of the Oriental “within our gates.” Each tale illustrates some Syrian custom or legend or characteristic, picturesquely trying to maintain itself in this matter-of-fact “land of Brooklyn.”

Those looking for diversion will find it in these tales; those looking for something deeper will find that also. While the association of the Oriental with other immigrants is rather casually treated, the relation between the Syrian population and the Americans with whom they come in contact has been a matter of careful observation and thought on the part of the writer. Between the lines, one feels her protest against the current attitude toward this peculiarly sensitive alien. Teacher and social worker, as well as the Tommy O’Brien’s and Geraldine Schmidt’s of the neighborhood, constantly offend the little Syrians by referring to them as “dagos.” Throughout these stories, like a plaintive refrain, runs the explanation of little Nazileh: “Oxcuse—me, I ees not a dago—I Syreean!”

To deal rightly with these children it is not enough to study only the outward type. Not to blunder one must know the unique workings of their minds, their superstitions, their strong racial traits. To illustrate:

Baby Antar has a new tooth, to Nazileh a most important event. A certain native dish must be prepared to do the occasion justice. But she is so poor and her mother works so hard! Suddenly Nazileh remembers that “Teacher” has admired her Mashallah beads; she will give fifty cents for them. Without them, the child is defenseless before the “evil eye,” but a Syrian custom is at stake; she must not falter. The teacher buys them gaily, without suspicion that she has taken from the frightened child her most valued and valuable possession.

Nor is the philanthropist always understanding:

Nazileh’s most striking trait is her passionate love for her baby brother. Two ladies stop her ramshackle perambulator in the street. Antar has prickly heat. The ladies discuss ways and means; they talk of “district tickets” and “transfer stubs.” Then the awful word “Freshairfund” escapes them, and in a second two flying legs and four wobbly wheels are all that are seen of Nazileh and her precious burden. “That Freshairfun,” she gasps from a safe distance, “eet steal sweet little babees from their homes. I weesh”—she stopped in delight at the American oath she was about to utter—“I weesh a gosh on eet!”

It is a great pity to deal clumsily with the Oriental, for no one can lay down this book withoutfeeling that there are exquisite qualities lurking in the Syrian quarter, qualities that we as a people need. Nazileh, gay, sad, loving, poetic, mischievous little girl, always courteous, never shrewd, seems to represent the best type of Syrian child. We need her filial devotion, her deference to old age, her fine hold on tradition in this rough and ready civilization of ours. Evidently the high tide of immigration that washes in so many problems, brings treasure also. How can we capture it?

With much that is beautiful and picturesque, the book leaves on our minds also the impression of great hardship, of overwork and underpay, of little children driven indoors out of the sunlight to ply a wearisome trade; of young girls fighting for existence in the misery of the sweat-shop.

But the author’s sympathetic understanding and charming interpretation of Oriental ideas, scenes, and customs mitigate the somberness even of the final tale, which gives the title to the book. The story is told by Nazileh’s sad young mother arrayed in bright Oriental garb for the Syrian Christmas, when the camel comes with gifts,—“And when Eve saw God coming, she hid all her unsightly children in a dark cave and only her pretty children were washed and dressed for God to see....” The lame, the halt, the blind, and those pursued of poverty,—these are “Eve’s Other Children.”

Mary Bannister Willard.

Back to Index Next