Books in Review

ELDRIDGE, SEIA

Books in Review The People Make Politics Work Review by SEIA ELDRIDGE (Professor of Sociology at the Vnivertity of Kansas) GOVERNMENT Or THE PEOPLE. New Edition: By D. W. Brogan. Harper and Brut...

...The Public Adminiatration Clearing House in Its 1936 Directory described 646 unofficial national organizations operating in the field of public administration, and listed 79 regional organizations and 1,220 organizations of the same category...
...Dorsha Hayes has had th* piquant idea • tenting this plot upside down...
...Ten years later—in the "new" edition—a more favorable view is taken...
...415 page...
...He is interesting and often felicitous in his account of his German grandfather, Frans Huning, who came to America in 1848 and took the Sante Fe Trail to tha west, and of hia southern-gentleman grandfather, who was ruined by his devotion to the Confederacy and left little but pride of family and a community culture to his son, who, like so many other ruined southerners went to the Southwest to build s new fortune...
...Local citizens' organisations have been a power in many communities...
...2.75...
...Harper and Bro...
...For all its depth and briallance, Brogan's exposition of our constitutional system proceeds along conventional "political science" ttnes...
...One cannot apprehend music as a language without soma knowledge of its technical devices, just as one must understand syntax and grammar in order to completely appreciate a literary sentence...
...2) folkslore of capitalism to the contrary, the public services of tha country—federal, state, local—probably average as high in "efficiency" as private enterprises, an even higher in point of ordinary honesty snd fair play...
...Two things.should be set against any auch interpretation: (1) During the period covered by Brogan's survey the United States became the richest, most powerful nation on earth...
...Haggin tries zealously to avoid the use of commonly accepted musical terminology...
...In reality, such effort compares in importance with party activity itself and, like the latter, forms a basic part of our political system...
...Knopf...
...129 pages...
...These do often provide the initial stimulation to intensified listening to music by tha musically uneducated...
...THIS is a hot and, in the end, swift-paced melodrama, compounded in about equal parts of college inno-tense, working-class idealism, trade union crookedness and professional racketeer-ktg...
...One such movement—in an earlier day—established the principle of tax-supported schools, now ranking as one of half a dozen major social institutions...
...Hardly any field of human interest is untouched by this type of effort...
...Harper and Brut hot, New York...
...Th* ¦*•* onion manager is the villem...
...We have had a lot of trade union fiction and Actionized trade unionism...
...And the two heroines are both .'eT"mf, paid-up union members...
...The only basic constitutional tradition that has been destroyed is limitation of a President to two terms...
...The boss, of course, is the ?Bbnln...
...The Language of Music Uvhw by HILDA NNSOH MUSIC TOR THE MAN WHO ENJOYS "HAMLET...
...but many represent public interests and, a smaller number, consumer interests...
...Except for soma hopeful features— growth of independent voting, the comparatively high caliber of the Senate, able Presidential leadership when for-tune favors—the picture presented is depressing...
...Her further progress will be worth watching...
...In this, tha second of her novels, Dorsha Hayes gives proof of rapidly mounting mastery of the story teller's art...
...If the aame person, endowed as he is with imsgination and emotions, derives no pleasure from the similarly exalted speech of music, it is probably because the medium of music is foreign to him and because-he does not have the same familiarity with the logic, structure and inner laws of musical organization as he does with the language of words...
...What has Brogan left out of account 7 Despite casual references it is clear that he does not understand the role of social movements in the American system...
...ALTHOUGH th* only new thing about this edition is a preface of twenty-five pages discussing the momentous events of the decade 1983-43, the author "felt justified L in consenting to a reprint," becauae, he says, "American politics are still done ]*rfely in the same old way and entirely at the old stand...
...Duell, Sloane and I'earce...
...Tbe separation of powers, principle of the judicial veto, rise of political parties, growth of tha Presidency, the work of ftsajins emergence of the spoils system, slow development of the civil service, anatomy of th* political machine, Ike manipulation of primaries, conventions, and election campaigns are all duly set forth...
...For reader interest, it ia vie* that gets the votes...
...By means of annlyais of a number of musical masterpieces, ranging from late Beethoven and Schubert piano sonatas through examples of symphonic and chamber music to the fields of opera and program music, Haggin attempts to open up the world of music to intelligent laymen...
...An important omission from the original edition is still more evident today...
...Moreover, the achievements of the CIO Political Action Committees, launched after Brogan prepared his new preface, may portend a change of phase in party organization itself—one that synthesizes political activity in the ordinary senss and the promotion of specific policies on current public issues...
...Of Albuquerque itself he writes, "Like all Western towns seen from a distance, it looks small and insignificant, completely dominated by a landscape that lends itself but grudgingly to human use...
...The system had scarcely been altered, but the sheer accident of great leadership had disclosed unsuspected possibilities...
...These things can hardly be reconciled with the cumbersome, clanking machinery of politics and government depicted in Brogan's pages...
...A natty college girl, brimming with health and modern ideas, plays opposite Often enough she ia the boss's daughter—and that gats us all set for a ¦as finish...
...Many of these are farm, labor, business, and professional groups engaged in promoting their own special interests...
...A generation of agitation for social insurance prepared the way for the Social Security Act of 1935...
...In youth he alternated between dangerous and' exciting trips into Indian country and long months of leisurely study...
...From that slight eminence on a clear day you can see a great deal of country...
...The dilemma of how to teach a layman how to understand music without teaching him music still remains, and Haggin, I am afraid, has not brought us much closer to solving it...
...Each branch of art, affirms Haggin, must be apprehended in Its own terms snd not in terms of another art...
...Hs was one of the rare men who studied and observed for experience and to know, without thought of cashing in on his knowledge...
...Furthermore, the author may have been ¦too optimistic in serving to the inexperienced listener a musical bill of- fare which comprises aom* of tha most hard-to-digost works in all musical literature...
...A. B. P...
...A century of agitation and experimentation has at leaat readied the country for a real attack on the housing problem...
...All his life he kept both the faults and the graces of those cotton field autocrats...
...Whan he resorts, however, to such fancy expressions as "shift in tha tonal region" for modulation, or "vibrating bass" for tremolo, it is doubtful thst he has contributed to greater simplicity and clarity...
...His reactions reveal musical sensitivity and discrimination snd his intentions are indeed laudable...
...A y»*rd boy—believe it or imV-is the ¦sro...
...and there is considerable discussion of sectional differences and rural-urban conflicts, together with brief allusions to the roles of the press, the public and th* special-interest lobby in the process of government The national government claims tha major share of attention, and no attention at all is given to autonomous special districts and au-thoritiee, despite their importance in our governmental system...
...Each item of his experience, each twist of hia dialect, each impulse of his volcanic and dominating nature is so carefully sketched that in the end he lures our sympathy and almost turns into a hero before our eyes—until, in the end, the ghastly downfall of this eastsids Napoleon fairly leaves us shattered...
...2.50...
...It has to be admitted," Brogan says, "that the picture of Amer-ean politics painted in the preceding pages la not very nattering...
...A BOUT a mile from the center of Z\ Albuquerque," Hsrvey Fergus-son begins this engaging memoir, "the Rio Grande swings sgainst low hills, that hem the valley, cutting an earthen bluff perhaps a hundred feet high, crowned by dunes of pure, shifting sand...
...Memories of New Mexico HOME IN THE WEST...
...Ferguison's contrast of this German immigrant with hia southern-gentleman father is particularly interesting...
...1945...
...But at this point the suthor enters into self-analysis and tries to tall all about himself...
...He, the villain, is the biggest thing and the most real thing in this story...
...Yet one cannot lay down this book without some reservstions and doubts...
...His recreation of Franz Huning's character, made possible by the lucky find of a diary, is skillful snd imaginative...
...Not a few reforming movements have been concerned with governmental organization itself...
...They had taken as their pattern of social conduct the romantic conception of chivalry found in the novels of Sir Walter Scott Perhapa never before or since did a whole people ever so literally try to live by a literary ideal...
...By Donka I Hays...
...Whenever Fergusson writes of New Mexico he gives equally precise pictures...
...Harvey Fergusson lacks It I wish he'd go back to obaervlng Albuquerque...
...But tha young folks who do th* writing are all so well-mtentioned that I never could bring my-Hlf to taka them apart Usually an ath-"tie young strike loader serves as hero...
...Frans waa always "instinctively s scientist and writer first, a merchant incidentally...
...It leaves us, above all, only mildly interested in the good people who have beaten him down to save their union...
...He was almost middle-aged before h* settled down to the proper business of his time,' making a fortune as a merchant who undertook yearly expeditions along the Sante Fe trail...
...what at its inception was termed municipal research has been one of the most effective...
...All of them had great self-assurance because they were denied tha Intellectual luxii.y of doubt...
...4.00...
...By Harvey Ferguiion...
...By B. H. Hoggin...
...If the reader of Hamlet is stirred by the rich imagination and powerful expression of Shakespeare, it is becauae he understands the medium (of words conveying thought) snd because the thoughts conveyed srouse in him a sympathetic emotional response...
...His fortune acquired, he settled down again to study and think...
...247 page...
...Napoleon of the Clothing Workers Hivlew by WILLIAM E. fOHM .WHO WALK THE EARTH...
...Instead of tha factual incidents so necessary to tha understanding of character, ha indulges in the usual generalizations of laymen who have submitted to the ministrationa of psychoanalysis, or who manufacture their own substitute...
...A true talent for confession is rare...
...While sympathizing with his attitude towards absolute music, one may yet wonder if he has not been too austere in his unequivocal elimination of historical and literary associations...
...Carefully built up, fairly documented with trade union material, he towers over everyone else...
...The book is built around phonograph recordings...
...It presume* little or no knowledge of the art or science of music and not much sensory response...
...32.75...
...I have another reason fox thinking it timely to re-assess a book originally intro-jaced by H. J. I—ski with the comalent, "Brogan will, I think, be found to have written the nrbst illuminating treatise on American government aince the late Lord Bryce's illuminating volume of fifty years ago...
...I have often toyed with the idea of writing a place of satire on it...
...Ha "began compiling a dictionary of the Apache language and making a collection of Indian tools and weapons aa soon as he reached th* Indian country...
...New York...
...There is no psndering to vulgar emotional taste...
...it may compare favorably with the picture that could be drawn of politics in many or most other large countries, but that ia not | enough...
...In tha case of music, therefore, Haggin wall polnta out the inadequacy and inappropriatenees of words to paraphrsae the content of music, and stresses the fact that "we have no way of knowing or defining or conveying tha particular synthesis of experience and emotion that is embodied in each piece of music other than by the formal construction in sound that each man used for the purpose...
...the author has painstakingly commented on specific passages and thus the volume can be used easily and profitably in conjunction with active listening...
...HAGGIN'S volume is addressed to those people who understand and delight in Ana literature but who are lacking in a corresponding appreciation of music...
...The only way to overcome this strangeness is by repeated listening to musical masterpieces until the inner logic of musical language begins to become fsmiliar...
...The action goes dashingly forward in and about the headquarters of one of our New York I foresee that we shall have no end of controversy about Blots...
...f» Hero in seventy-nine pages is the opening statement for an Interesting drama, the development of Albuquerque with it* diverse strains...
...This type of effort explsins in large measure why such defective political and governmental machinery as Brogsn describes yields such magnificent reaults...
...Likewise, th* meticulous and methodical procedure which ha prescribe* for repeated listening may wall tax the patience and concentration of the novice...

Vol. 28 • April 1945 • No. 16


 
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