SUNDAY; AY- 35, 1668 ----r- ......... r. .. 4IERALD-AND-NEWS. KLAMATH FALLS. OREGON
KAUE 13 u
Herald and News Book Reviews
A New Challenge
THE UNFINISHED STORY OF
ALGER HISS. By Fred J. Cook.
Morrow. $3.50.
A bad penny always turns up,
they say, and so does the Hiss
case the case of the man
whose very name was against
him, the sissy Alger and the im
plausible Hiss like some spy
story concoction, as against the
resounding, romantic Whittaker
Chambers, who pinned on him the
accusation of Communist and
made it stick with Congress,
courts and public.
The book is published by a con
servative house of which the pres
ident is Thayer Hobson, whose di
vorced wife Priscilla became Mrs.
Hiss. It is written by a newsman
who has specialized in crime-and-politics
stories for his paper,
the New York World-Telegram and
Sun. It looks like a set-up not
lor finishing the Hiss story but for
finishing off Hiss. Well, it isn t.
Dispassionately but emphatically.
Cook challenges the verdict of
guilty. "
There is little new in this book
except Cook. He asks which
specific arguments proved Hiss
guilty in the eyes of his judges.
and whether they are valid. He
bases these questions principally
on the House un-American Activ
ities Committee probe, the two
trials, the important pretrial
hearing. Hiss' own book, and
Chambers' incidentally, Chamb
ers two weeks ago reappeared
the publishing field as translator
of a cheap German novel about
sexual abnormality, originally "The
Scorpion and now in the paper
back reprint called "Of Love For
bidden."
At bottom, Cook maintains, is
Cracks In
. By W. G. ROGERS
THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY. By
John Kenneth Galbraith. Hough
ton Mifflin. $5.
We live rich, we think poor. It's
this contrariety for which Gal
braith chides us wisely and wittily
in his new book.
The classical economists theor
ized from the disadvantage point
of a world of want. God gave mor
tal creatures a rich land, but they
naughtily multiplied too fast to
subsist on its products, or too few
grabbed too big a share. Then all
nf .-i Ml,ln ,;h an .nnoh.il rush
capitalistic United States devel-
oped into a land of milk and hon-
ev. of plenty. There is some pov-
erty but it has been cut down per
haps more, than ever before. There
are some rich but we have per
suaded ourselves that their wealth
is not disproportionate; since we
don't do badly ourselves, we don't
begrudge them their gravy. In
short, we have learned to produce
all we want, to want all we pro
duce, and to confine our wants
pretty much to what is available.
Here is Galhraith's point. At last
we do have a real land of plenty,
but we mistake quantity for qual
ity. Our notions about production
have led us astray; the goods we
have only serve to make us feel
and look rich, without giving us
the substance and the security we
blindly count on. Our ideal, he
charges, our goal is to keep the
wheels turning no matter what
they turn out.
He had his book finished just be
fore the first Sputnik was
launched. That may have taught
us laymen a sobering lesson but
Galbraith was prepared to teach
it without Russian nagging: Great
accomplishments are possible
without a background of great
production. Could it even be that
great production interferes? This
is the trouble, he maintains: Our
production provided too many non
essentials; it did not equip us to
concentrate on essentials in a cri
sis, and fostered in us such soft
habits that we balked at sacrific
ing the nonessentials when danger
threatened. He says that during
World War 11 we even increased
the matter of credibility As the
government once incautiously ad
mitted it had no case it Chamb
ers was not to be beiieved, so
Cook in fact doubts he is to be
believed, and cites glaring instan
ces of Chambers self-centradic-
tions: Stating on eight occasions
that he quit the Communist par
ty in 1937 but then changing it
to 1938, thus allowing for an April
1938 date in the Pumpki'i Papers,
or saying that Hiss was not en
gaged in espionage and tnen
charging he was.
Piece by piece, line by line.
word by word. Cook tackles such
onetime headline topics as the
collection of CP dues, the pro
thonotary warbler, the rug, the
rent or gift of the apariment,
the sale or gift of the old Ford,
and above all the Woodstock type
writer No. 230,099, and liiss' tar
dy charge of "forgery by type
writer. It was a forpery ex
pert at the Fogg Art Museum
who inadvertently tipped off Hiss'
investigators to the possibility 'hat
the very typewriter introduced as
Hiss' was itself a kind of base
forgery.
Cook asks solemnly whether
there was a political conspiracy
to frame Hiss. Does it sound ut
terly preposterous? Does he dare
suggest we could have a Dreyfus,
or could this ever be "J'accuse?"
Yet the appalling doubts which
trouble this conscientious author,
and presumably the cloak-and-
dagger implications, too though
they reach into high government
circles, are impressively indorsed
in some jacket quotes; and in
truth no book yet, including Hiss'
own, has asked the old disturbing
questions so cogently.
A Dream
our aggregate civilian consump
tion. And his lesson is made plainer
by the consequences of three dev
astating RAF raids on Hamburg:
bombs smashed the sites of unes
sential occupations and freed count
less men to work on wartime ma
teriel; in fact the city's martial
productivity may have increased
There are two kinds of produc
tion, Galbraith says, public and
private. We are too much for pri
vate, in his opinion, and he jibes
at us for thinking it's all right to
expand phone service but not pos-
.tal service, for paying for vac
ullms for " houses but not for
street cleaners, for imagining in
general that alcohol, comic books
and mouth wash, the fruit of pri
vate enterprise, are economically
more worthy than schools, judges
and municipal swimming pools
The man who "develops a new car
buretor, cleanser or depilatory for
which the public recognizes
need ... is one of the valued
members of our society. A politi
cian or a public servant who
dreams up a new public service is
a wastrel
Galbraith urges expanded public
services, and the expenditure of
more money for improving the hu
man elements in our society rather
than increasing the material. He
would slap on even stiffcr sales
taxes in order to check the con
sumption of unnecessary goods; he
would increase jobless pay in
times of real depression, but cut
it in time of prosperity.
"Not the total of resources but
their studied and rational use is
the key to achievement," he con
cludes. This is a challenging book by a
free-swinging author who now lets
the liberals have the back of his
hand, and now lets the conserva
tives. But liberals will be for him
conservatives will be for burning
him. Galbraith is always slipping
something over on his guileless
reader. While he makes passes at
your funny bone as a diversion, he
inches you over farther and far
ther, imperceptibly but irresistibly
into the unconscionably progrcs
sive positions you've shunned be
fore.
Pillage Of A
Birthplace
KING ARTHUR'S AVALON: The
Story of Glastonbury. By Geoffrey
Ashe. Dutton. $5.
King Arthur and King Cole, St.
Bridget and St. Patrick, Joseph
of Arunathea, the Holy Grail
what a fantastic assortment of
proper names to catch all in the
pages of a single book where, ab
sorbingly enough, Ashe makes!
them fit.
In 1525' Richard Whiting was
chosen abbot of Glastonbury. In
1939 King Henry made sure he was
the last: He was condemned to
death, dragged through town on a
hurdle, hanged, beheaded and
quartered. It was one of the spec
tacular, but by no means unique,
acts of the religious upheavel. ine
Abbey, which till then had been
more important even than West
minster, was pillaged. Except for
ruins, that ended centuries of dom
inance in English legend, history,
church and state. In Glastonbury,
superposed and overlapping, arc
significant traces of Celts, Ro
mans, Anglo-Saxons, early Catho
lics and Anglicans. "Here if any
where, symbolically at least, mod
ern Britain was born," Ashe
claims.
He has numerous modest dis
claimers: He may not be able tc
prove a statement, but nobody can
disprove it; or maybe nobody
ever told of this or that but lots of
things have gone unrecorded. Fact
and supposition, dates, names and
fairy tales are combined judicious
ly to end sorqe of our illusions,
and happily to preserve others. It's
a bit of quiet good reading.
Wholesome
Shmolsome
By W. G. ROGERS
SEIDMAN AND SON.
Elick
Moll. Putnam. $3.95.
Seidman leading his dog in Cen
tral Park introduces himseh to
another man on a bench, and to
us: Dressmaker, has wife, daugh
ter and son, dog named Samson
has been scratching itself raw
ever since the boy went off to
Korea.
The moment a dog appears in a
novel, you can be sure it s
tear jcrker, and this is it, and a
beaut, too, richly sentimental and
as wholesome shmolsome as corn
flakes, as Seidman would put it.
The boy comes home a blathering
idealist impatient to reform the
world, or at least Seventh Avenue
and the garment district. Remem
bering the poverty-stricken Kor
eans, he can't let his wealthy
father buy him a $100 suit; he
wants to write, he stands up for
the tenants against the dastardly
landlord; he leads the revolution
in his father's own shop, and even
involves in his starry-eyed dreams
the lovely model Marie, a Gen
tile but as you can bet a rich
one.
Lots of novels are about the
bad things in life, and there's
nothing wrong with that. Moll
writes about the good, and there s
nothing wrong with that. Indeed
in this particular case, lust about
everything is all right. You'll love
Scidman's zostful talk, and the
conferences and rendezvous and
family sessions that range from
poignant to hilarious: and the
warm fond telling of this story
will tickle schmickle you to
pieces.
LIBRARY
BOSTON UH George Washing
ton's private library 835 books
and pamphlets has reposed in
the Boston Athenaeum for the
past 110 years. In 1847 Henry
Stevens a bookseller, bought '.he
books from a grandnephew of the
first President, boon afterward
group of Boston businessmen
raised $3,800 and bought the li
brary for the Athenaeum.
Collyer Encourages
Study Of Economics
By JOHN LYON COLLYER
Chairman, The B. F. Goodrich Ct.
(Written for NEA Service)
AKRON, Ohio (NEA) One of
the biggest discussions in educa
tion history now is concerned with
the question of what should be
taught in our schools.
In one specific field of study
remarkable unanimity has been
demonstrated in recent weeks:
five major educational associations
representing thousands of educa
tors, from school administrators to
teachers, have combined to bring
to the attention of educators and
laymen the use of one particular
textbook for the teaching ot eco
nomics in high schools.
This textbook is the first dis
cussion of the economics of the
American capitalistic system spe
cifically prepared for high schools.
I! represents the composite efforts
of some 200 educators, business
executives, trade union repre
sentatives, and economists. It has
been tested in high school class
rooms. Its title: "American Capitalism:
An Introduction for Young Citi
zens.
Why all this stress on econom
ics? . .
Educators, like businessmen,
.have long been painfully aware that
most young people are uneducated
economics; many leave high
school completely ignorant of the
way in which our economy or
any nation s economy functions.
According to a Brookings Insti
tution study, fewer than five per
cent of high school graduates have
had any course in economics. Only
two large metropolitan school
systems require students to study
it. And many schools do not reach
it at all, even as part of their
social study courses.
Yet when these young people
take jobs, when they spend their
wages, save for future needs, buy
homes, even vote in elections, they
are faced with economic and po
litical economic decisions. Eco
nomics play a vital part in the
day-to-day activities of every per
son. Spearheading educators' efforts
to firing sound economic instruc
tion to the high schools is the Coun
cil for the Advancement of Secon
dary Education. This organization
is as unique as the project it
sponsoring. .-
CASE was set up by the Nation
al Association of Secondary-School
Principals, a department of the
National Education Association,
whose nearly 20.000 members are
principals of junior and senior
schools, public and private.
Its sponsor then asked the Na
tional Better Business Bureau for
help from business in working out
programs to improve secondary
education. The result: 39 of the na
tion's leading corporations arc
sponsors of CASE; eight of its 21
trustees arc business, labor and
agriculture executives, while the
rest are prominent ceucators.
Economic education, educators
say, must lead students to learn
how lo think, not what to think.
And the place to provide this train
ing Is at high school level:
High school students are lust at
the age when an intense interest in
the future develops, Ihey are
young enough to learn eagerly, old
enough to work with complex ideas
and form sound judgments if the
facts are prcsenied in stimulating
form.
Some 80 per cent of our eight
million high school youths end
their formal instruction in high
school, so instruction in econom
ics must be given lo them there if
they ore to get it at all.
The CASE program is designed
to meet these two needs, and to
do so within the framework of
existing school study programs.
That it achieves these objectives
is shown by the voluntary support
it is receiving from five depart
ments of the National Education
Association.
Besides the National Association
of Secondary-School Principals,
they are the American Associa
tion of School Administrators, the
National Council for Social Studies,
the Association for Supervision of
Curriculum Development, and the
United Business Education Associ
ation. "American Capitalism" is but
the first in a series of books that
CASE plans to issue in its long
range program to give our schools
a new approach to economic edu
cation. It will be followed by oth
ers on related subjects.
Given the support of educators,
of business and labor leaders, of
all citizens who recognize the need
for training young people to face
economic problems intelligently,
the CASE Economic Literacy Scr
ies promises to make a major con
tribution to education in America.
Best Sellers
FICTION
ANATOMY OF A MURDER,
Traver.
THE WINTHROP WOMAN, Se-
ton.
ICE PALACE, Fcrber.
NORTH FROM ROME, Macln-
nes.
RALLY ROUND THE FLAG,
BOYS! Shulman.
NONFICTION
MASTERS OF DECEIT, Hoover.
PLEASE DON'T EAT THE
DAISIES, Kerr.
KIDS SAY THE DAItNDEST
THINGS, Linkletter.
INSIDE RUSSIA TODAY, Gun-
ther.
THE GREAT DEMOCRACIES.
Churchill..
A Salute To
Lasting Love
THE QUICK YEAR. By Jean
Ariss. Harper. $3.95.
"My . grandparents had been
married 27 years when I was nine,
and five of their sons were young
er than I."
With this sentence, which takes
a little getting used lo, the girl
Sharon, granddaughter of Joseph
and Sarah, begins Ihe fiery story
of the Baer clan. "This family,"
complains one of Joseph's daugh
ters. "It's like living in a zoo."
In fact it's a combination of zoo
and goldfish bowl, for many of
these people are most unconven
tionally uninhibited; and the grand
sire himself, goatish, ribald and
superbly intense, is followed from
the time he wins 14-ycar-old Sarah
till be becomes a great-grandfather.
This is a novel about a great
sprawling family life, and about
a sort of swashbuckling fireside
patriarch who rules his brood by
his invincible passions and stirs
up a surpassing affection and envy
in his descendents. Miss Arris'
frankness or rather, honest Shar
on'smay disturb some readers
It shoiildn t. This moving story
eloquently salutes the line full
everlasting love of the heart.
MAYOR'S PLATES
SYRACUSE, N. Y. Wl City
Hall officials had a busy time ex
plaining why Mayor Anthony Hen
ninger's official car still bore 1957
license plates several days after
the law required all vehicles to
show 1958 plates. They explained
the mayor's car was testing spe
cial all-weather plates issued In
1957 and the tests would not end
for several more months.