Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 June 1946 — Page 6

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THE FIRST READER . .

A Regular Wednesday Feature of The Times

. By Harry Hansen:

Farmer Bromfield Looks

At America, Decides We Have

Wasted Heritage, Unless—

"A FEW BRASS TACKS." By Louis Bromfield. New York, Harper. Cai in 's Novel

$2.75.

THE NIGHTS are long during the Ohio winter and Farmer Louis: Bromfield, like other tillers of the soil, can sit by the fire and settle his |

year's accounts.

The ledger shows that he is prosperous; the dollars he earned entertaining American women with stories of city life are multiplying as

he converts them into farm produce, and takes that produce to market

“It is a sweet life, but Farmer Bromfield is not contented No, indeed, Farmer Bromfield takes a cynical view of the human race and especially of Americans, for they have stupidly wasted their heritage and, with the finest of industrial. processes at work, are on the way to the poor house, unless . . . Unless Farmer Bromfield says, in “A Few Brass Tacks,” they get an intelligent understanding of what they are up against, forswear such hypocritical motions as the Atlantic charter and the United Nations organization, quit thinking a rise in wages means prosperity so long as prices rise, too, and stop

us for our processed goods. This is not defeatist, pessimistic or cynical, says he; it is only a “proper weighing of values.” ” ~ » LET US see where Farmer Bromfield's hard thinking last January and February leads us. We are in an Age of Irritation, he says. We want easy solutions of | our troubles, But we need courage, hard thinking, persistence and’ intelligence. The U. N. organization is not realistic, and cannot enforce world peace. Only a few persons actually see what is going on, says Farmer Bromfield, so he will share it with us. The fundamentals of the world situation are these: Russia and the United States are enormous selfsustaining empires, with a common interest, as opposed to those of “old-fashioned, scattered, banking, processing, exploiting empires such as Great Britain, Belgium and Holland.” But culturally and ideologically the United States has close bonds with Britain, Belgium and Holland. While Soviet Russia stands alone, the western bloc is dictated by necessity of survival. Britain, Bel-| gium, Holland and to some extent

lending money to nations that will pay it back to,

Britain and the United States, if they are not to become poorer and weaker, must adopt the same system and practice “first a close economic co-operation within their respective zones of influence and finally a plan of absorption and federation alike of colonies, dominions and smaller nations within their zone of influences.” It would be difficult but in the end there would be two great federations — one Russo-Asiatic-Euro-pean, the other dominated by the Anglo-Saxon nations. The next step, far in the future, would be {the United States of the world.

~ td ~ LET ME see, didn't Walter Lipp{mann have a nuclear theory a few years ago? Something about the Atlantic Community and its association in a nuclear alliance for the peace of the world. Said Mr. Lippmann: “No spheres of influence can be defined that do not overlap, which would not therefore bring the great powers into conflict.” His only solution was a world alliance. Getting back to individuals, Farmér Bromfield says: “If I wished to find a well-developed, intelligent, balanced, civilized specimen of mankind in our times, see | I should have to seek him among the good farmers . . . not among the industrialists and bankers of our great cities, nor among labor leaders. , . .” At this point we must sign off and rush for home, hoping some of the products of Farmer Bromfleld's farm have reached our kitchen, alas! .

Holt Plans New

Language Series

The Holt spoken language series, already in print with “Spoken Ger"man,” “Spoken “Chinese,” “Collo-

‘ France are moving into the havenot position occupied by Germany and Japan. »

LJ ”

THE SOLUTION, Farmer Brom- |first four texts are expected by|competition,

Natalie Shipman's

New‘Novel Ready

NHN | Sr \- .”1 | A new romdnce by Natalie Ship-

man, “No Secret Can Be "old,

will be published by Prentice-Hall

next Monday.

Miss Shipman is. the author of two other novels, “The Long Road” |- both

and “Call Pack Yesterday,” Prentice-Hall publications.

“No Secret Can Be told” is de“a light phychological novel dealing with modern mar-

scribed as

tage! - .

PAST ALL I ALL DISHONOR’

Has Zip, Lacks Originality

"PAST ALL DISHONOR." A novel, By James M. Cain. New York, Knopf. $2,

THE POSTMAN rings twice and leaves a package containing James M. Cain's latest thriller, “Past All Dishonor,” and I forget lunch to read right through from page 1 is page 233, which is finis. I get up a little cramped from

sitting so long in one chair and try to assemble the broken pieces of my moral judgments. For an hour or two I have been following at top speed the pur{suit of Morina, a mining camp harlot who liked fine clothes and jewels, by Roger Duval, a selfstyled Confederate spy who forgot all about the Civil war the mement he got a whiff of Morina's face powder, I've been yelling, figuratively, “Go it Roger!” Only to find that I'm cheering a saloon brawler and train robber.

~ ~ » THAT'S the trouble with Jim Cain's story-telling: He puts so much zip and go into his narrative that you lose your moral bearings. It stands to reason that any leading man with the brand of Cain on him is tough, ruthless, and quick .on- the draw. Cain doesn't judge him; neither do you. But whatever the bHrovocation, there is a settlement of accounts that still makes it possible to conclude that the wages of sin is death. = = » THIS MAY be Jim Cain's “first historical novel,” but the history doesn’t interfere with the novel If Roger Duval is working for the Confederates he isn't earning his pay. He gets sucked under the paddle wheels of a Sacramento

ECONOMIC PLANNING— Reality Casts Shadow Over

Bowles' Book

"TOMORROW WITHOUT . FEAR." By Chester Bowles. New York, Simon & Schuster, $1. (In cloth. and boards, $2.59) is

By HENRY BUTLER Times Book Reporter OPTIMISM and rational planning: seem strangely remote today. When you read “Tomorrow With-. out Fear,” you want to say “Hallelujah!” to many of Chester Bowles’ sensible suggestions. I But dismal reality clouds the | bright, hopeful picture. len The* whole subject of rational | planning, like Mr. Bowles’ OPA it-| self, is controversial-—not because either rational planning or OPA is a bad thing, but because people are controversial. Americans are simply not docile and intelligent, as

recently reported fist-fights in meat-lines and hair-pullings in nylon-lines indicate.

» ” » IF, IN place of selfishness, we had enlightened self-interest, if we could forego immediate gratifica- | tions for the sake of ultimate good, [then the prospect might not be so disheartening. But look around you and see how |few - people will be content with beef stew rather than T-bones. Listen to the griping about the| government's none - too - successful | efforts to feed starving millions] elsewhere. Mr. Bowles is, IT would say, justi about right in most of his ideas. His scheme of values is in terms of | human beings as potential cus-| tomers—an exceedingly fine insight, | and one which could be made! hugely profitable for all of us. u ” n | WELL-FED, well-paid people buy more. Prosperity, well distributed, builds itself, as organic cells build tissue. Not to seem flippant, the teachings of Christ are not mere misty idealism. As many thinkers have pointed out, those teachings could be made to pay incredible dividends | to everybody. In other words, if people could learn to treat each other as well as they have learned to treat livestock, a lot of political and economic problems would automatically solve themselves. What Mr. Bowles and other optimists either forget or dismiss is that we are a sick society. » =

river steamboat while swimming and Morina drags him on board She is accused of stealing a pas-| senger’s purse, for good reason, and | Roger helps her fo escape. After | a brief idyll in a cabin he learns]

quial Dutch” and “Spoken Dutch,” is getting under way with a’ new schedule.

Sets of records to accompany the

the truth; Morina is a high-priced fancy dame, and he is broke. Scene changes to Virginia Ciuy and it's Roger Duval against tough including George

field says, is absorption of weaker |the middle of this month, and by Brewer, a man so rich that he can

states by the stronger.

Russid is|Sept. 1 books and records for 13|buy up Madam Biloxi’s establish-

engaged in the “little-understood | additional courses, including Japa- ment just to have Morina all to policy of political and economic nese and Russian, will be ready for|himself.

absorption,” which, “at the cost of a certain amount of oppression and violence . . . appears to work.” (But it is becoming better understood every day, Farmer Bromfield.) The evolution of the federated states of Europe is possible, he continues,~and maybe western democracy will develop there.

“ins

Give Booksfor FATHER'S DAY

posure ree

distribution, according to the publishers.

td IF THIS ever gets into techni-

Each complete course, consisting [color it will rival the flaming opu-

who comes to Henry Holt & Co.

cut. |

Macmillan Will |

Release New Book

“Through the Stratosphere,” by | Maxine Davis, which Macmillan will | release next Tuesday, is the story of aviation medicine, Miss Davis, according to the pile] lishers, describes the book as “al reporter's record of the evolutio

Rera—« grew. “a few “of * the many books, for gift giving, on display at tewart's, Twe New Golf Books

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LAST CHAPTER ~Ernie Pyle * To obtain any book reviewed on this page, write or phone

and use of “a vast number of devices evolved by the air forces for keeping fliers healthy, happy and in the air.”

Book by Rev. O'Brien

Printed in Portuguese

“The Power of Love,” a book by the Rev. Fr. John A. O'Brien, professor of religion at Notre Dame university, has been published in Portugese under the title “O Poder do Amor.” Copies of the Portuguese edition of Fr. O'Brien's book, which concerns the message of Jesus, have arrived in the United States,

Library in France To Be Restored

LI, 4571, »>

Mii Sie

Neighborhood ® 4217 College

Oren ® 3539 E. Wash. Evenings © 109 E. Wash, SR

Hard to forg

srest gendeman, this with incandescent

“Easy to read -

Ye org Record

um “Wricien by a great soldier and a very calm narrative glows

et”

Mups

8 Morina about doing the job for his Nidying compatriots of the South, but no good western ever ‘needed that sort .of justification, doesn't convince her.

of 22 to 25 double double-faced 12-|lence of the scarlet lady's Atlanta inch records, textbook or books and [house in Dave Selznick's production a little book of directions, will sell|0of “Gone With the Wind.” for $50. The program will be di-|the feuding, it’s as tough as anyrected by Frederick PF. Meuller,|thing west of the Pecos.

As for

Roger will shoot down anybody

from Pomfret school in Connecti- {who takes his girl, and because that

is one of the two things she prizes, he appeals to her,

The other is money. There is

{one way of getting money in west-

ern thrillers, and that is by stick-

{is the ethically monstrous fact that |

» THE MEASURE of our sickness in the past 30 years we have! reached maximum industrial pro-| duction and social efficiency only {in time of war. We can organize, we can “co-operate, we can achieve the impossible when we're at war, But, as Edgar Ansel Mower, | writing in the May 25 Saturday | Review of Literature, bitterly com- | ments, now that hostilities have | ceased we are criminally heedless | of the vast problems and responsibilities still facing us. I And so readers of Mr. Bowles’ calm, confident prophecies are apt to feel wistful at the contrast be- | tween what is and what could be. | 28 8 4 HIS ADMIRABLY clear graphs and animated charts showing how prosperity might pyramid will seem | incomplete. For any graphic representation of our economics needs not only the little cartoon-men illustrating the four out of five who have or have not—it needs also the imps and gremlins of human perversity and

#d highway robbery. The Duval-Morina combination works | up to a big act—the robbery of the

Duval mumbles something to

and it ¥ a Sx a THE TROUBLE with Jim Cain's latest is that he opens himselt up to comparison with the veterans who write good westerns. I think he overdoes the formula. He had his own line in “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” “Serenade,” “Mildred Pierce” and that amazing movie, “Double Indemnity.” But his new western lacks originality. It merely intensifies the killing, brawling and wenching. The best of it is in his narrative speed, but it's a storybook west that he reveals—H. H.

Chapter |

© The story of what America's most beloved correspondent saw in the Pacific theater from the time he left California watil his luck ran out I compleses permancatly the record begun is HemE 5 YOUR war and BRAVE MEN. With a sixteen page preture sectron. $2.50

Short Story Book

| Wells Fargo silver shipment by rail | out of Virginia City.

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The final book by

ERNIE PYLE

Istupidity.

Over Million Mark

The latest Pocket Book fo hit the million-copy mark in sales is “The Pocket Book of Modern American | Short Stories,” edited by Philip Van Doren Stern.

Two Brilliant New Mysteries!

The Corpse Is Indiguant

by Douglas Stapleton and Helen A. Carey. The beloved fraud, Judge Massie, stops his ree-laxin’ long enough 10 solve 3 murder without a corpse and a corpse without a murder.

Crime is of the Essence

Mr. Tinney, radio's human relations counseler, on the trail of a murderer. “Delightful” ~N. Y, Post. “A good bet” = Indianapolis Times

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THE ' INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Local Author Tries fo End Forever : Pernicious Legends Th af Libel Lincoln

LEGENDS “about reat men die

wanderer.

(to be misled by somé& of the earlier | biographies, don't know what excellent work has been done to clear up these errors.

legend. love his wife, then he must have persuaded her into a loveless mar-

bo § of ol ro =f

by Joe Csida. A strange, mystic perfume stares | S

hard. That's been Hue of Washington. It's. been true of Lincoln, as Montgomery S. Lewis, past president of ‘the Indianapolis Literary, club and an ardent Lincoln stu-| dent, has been discovering in the past five or six years of study and writing. Mr. Lewis has written a book with the provocative title, “Legends | That Libel Lincoln,” scheduléd for late October publica- | tion by Rinehart.

» EJ

CONCERNED chiefly with Lin-{

coln’s pre-White House years, Mr. Lewis’ book aims to dispel three of he most pernicious Lincoln leg-

nas first of these is the legend of the loveless marriage and the “hellcat” wife—a legend evidently based almost entirely on the prejudiced and unreliable views of William H. Herndon. The second is the Ann Rutledge legend, often repeated and even made the subject of poems, to the effect that Lincoln never loved any other woman after Ann Rutledge died.

” » .

which is|

AND THE third mischievous leg- | end describes Thomas Lincoln, Abe's father, as a shiftless, ne-er-do-well |

Lincoln students, says Mr. Lewis, |

have Mrown for many years that! |all these stories fostered by Hern-| |don’s inaccurate writings are either Ten, director: of the Lincoln Na- Eisenschiml, in “Why Was Lincoln {false or misleading.

“But I'm not writing for Lincoln | students,” Mr. Lewis says. “I'm | writing for ihe people who continue

and who apparently

» ~ ¥ “TAKE the Mary Todd Lincoln If Abraham Lincoln didn't

0000

Lt 8

*MR. LEWIS acknowledged his |

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 194 MYSTERY STUFF

Investigator : Investigated in

New Thriller

‘WEDNES . (Adve ATHLETE'S | - NOT HA ‘ IN ON If not pleased, drug store TE-O cide, contains 90°

TRATES. Reaches the. itch.

«TIGER BY THE TAIL" By Lawrence Goldman. Phila. dalphia, Pa., David McKay Ene I Co. $2.00 : _ HEARING "PL.GRIM'S RES." By Patricia [lil AUDIPHONE Wentworth. Hiilade’thia, Pa., ai on N, Pe uthorized “Wes

J. B. Lippincott. $2.00

By DONNA MIKELS INSURANCE Investigator Johnny Saturday looked back on marine battles of the Pacific a8 compar= atively quiet after a routine investi=

INDIANA

(gation of a claim got him mixed 115 E. Oblo St. 8 {up with murders and “Percentage ‘ EPIP | Peterson,” big gun in a California »% Spanish produce racket, gry Spanish Electri

, Saturday got off to a bad stars when he found the man his company had insured for $40,000 had | been killed. It didn’t get any better {when Saturday was found standing with a gun over the body—especially as the dead man had stolen his girl while he was overseas. » » » MORE disturbing still was the fact the beneficiary on the policy was the girl he had planned to (to the official opening of Lincoln's|marry before he, went overseas and | private papers, nowssealed in the| she found a new interest. | Library of Congress, in July, 1947.) The investigator keeps hoping to find the killer before police nail |either him or his former romantie interest for the murder, and at the same time gets mixed up in a | tional Life foundation of Ft. Wayne. Murdered?” (1937) have conjectured battle between two gang elements Dr. Warran’s research into the that those papers may contain sen- bent on controlling the produce Lincoln family's background in! sational evidence of a conspiracy by | market. The result is a :fast— Kentucky and later in what is now | members of Lincoln's cabinet. | Sometimes AMOR. 100 asie=HioVif

The story. Spencer county has established | papers have remained sealed under | pretty conclusively

that Thomas ihe terms of Robert Todd Lincoln's | Lincoln, despite educational lacks,’ will

was a good, kindly, honest, indus- | “That phase of Lincoln's career,|

trious man, “He was evidently a good average however, is out of my territory,” says Mr. Lewis. “My chief concern

Blasts Lincoln myths . . . Montgomery S. Lewis.

riage. I don't Believe that he was|years, he is looking forward eagerly

| that sort of man.’

| profound obligation te such Lin- | coln scholars as Dr. Louis A. War-|

» ~ writers,

SOME notably Otto

» » EJ FOR CONTRAST, the other “who-dun-it” offering this week is | the story of a curse that hovered lover an English country home. The curse was legendary, but when some deaths popped up to bear out the legend Scotland Yard was in and { murder was out.

pioneer,” says Mr. Lewis. Although Mr. Lewis disclaims ex-|has been to try to correct errors tensive knowledge of Lincoln's later | abouf the earlier years.”

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