SNAP SHOTS
Middleton, George
Snap Shots By George Middleton CIVE PERSONS out of ten will say: "O yes, * he's the Fels-Naptha man;" the other five will say, "0 yes,, he was the Single Taxer." Neither group is even half right....
...1.00 net...
...And George Burnap, landscape architect for the nation's pleasure grounds in Washington, D. C, thoroughly believes that Beauty may be a part of the environment of every town dweller, as much or more as is the case with the ruralist, "Long rows of soft yellow lilies, a gold line on the water's edge beneath the willows," smile upon us from the River Drive in Potomac Park, Washington—only one of the many beautiful things that make this review of the world's glorious parks a thing of beauty in itself...
...The arch-priest of Beauty, the poet Keats, might not unwillingly lend us his immortal phrase for such exquisite scenes and effects as this of the River Drive, (Lippincott's) or Peter ^Pan in Kensington Gardens...
...One who, seeing clearly the possibilities inherent in life on this earth, longed to open them up to all of mankind...
...And it exhibits, as perhaps few other books have done, the origin and development of the social legislation of the last thirty years...
...This is the epic of the American business man, with his successes, his ideals, his mistakes, his aspirations that so greatly surpass any material accomplishment...
...will help to rehabilitate us with the nations that today look upon the...
...American merchant as one whose only god is the dollar even if the dollar be crimsoned with the blood of European millions...
...he fought monopoly and privilege with any weapon that came to his hand until, through experiments and failures he emerged to a consciousness of the fundamental importance of the taxation of land values...
...And, though ^he earned a fortune and then turned on the conditions that permitted him to acquire it while others remained poor and devoted his life to fighting those conditions, he was even more than that statement implies...
...Carlyle said: "There is no life of a man, faithfully recorded, but is a heroic poem of its sort...
...This is the story of the things and the people he dealt with, his business and hig personal life...
...It relates the parts played by the interesting personalities, drawn from all the intellectual sections of the community, who have made its reputation...
...Thus this book gives account of the heart and mind of a brave, true man whose own life was an eager quest after equal opportunity and the wise use of life for all of us...
...But as soon as he realized that there was something bigger than merely accumulating money and redistributing it planless) y, he made for the bigger thing...
...The story of the man is subordinated to that of the social, economic and political affairs to which he was related...
...The text of this book may be taken from the paragraph printed on its wrapper: "A simple story of one who had the true faith: of the brotherhood of man and the worth of men...
...So, for the rest of his life he devoted himself to carrying on the work of Henry George, applying to the Single Tax his business experience and knowledge of human psychology and he gave all of that seasoned, dynamic and efficient personality that was the product of a life-time of intense living...
...He experimented with farm colonies...
...and of the portraits of the leading members it may be said that while all are believed to be interesting, several have not been reproduced before...
...The book is a planned history, with a wealth of domestic detail and documentation...
...B. W. Huebsch, New York...
...He recognized opportunities, seized them and made the most of them...
...For he has ransacked parks* the world over, for illustrations of what to do or what not to do in making our own town one to be proud of...
...he sought to improve conditions by political means and he turned to charitable palliatives...
...Such a story (Joseph Fcls: His Life-Work, by Mary Fels...
...its gay, amusing style might be envied by a successful novelist...
...small holdings for working men...
...A THING of Beauty is a Joy Forever...
...Though a catalogue of his many benefactions is conspicuous by its absence the sympathy and genei'osity and child-heartedness that made him beloved of thousands who knew him is implicit throughout...
...The History of the Fabian Society by Edward R. Pease, (Dutton) is a full, candid, and authoritative account of the origin and activities of the Society during the thirty years of its career...
...TO MANY PEOPLE the Fabian Society is something of a puzzle: its name enigmatical, its methods mysterious, and its aims incomprehensible...
...But his friends will appreciate the book as a personal memoir while to the larger world it will come as a valuable document in the history of our time...
...It traces the Society's growth from the unheralded meetings of a handful of young, unknown, and mostly impecunious men and women in each other's private rooms, to its later position of widespread influence on the political life of England and the world...
...Joseph Fels was a shrewd and keen business man...
...One whose strivings accordingly were animated by vehement dislike and even horror of the cruel waste and loss consequent on present conditions...
...He was much more than a successful manufacturer and the apostle of a theory of social justice...
Vol. 8 • November 1916 • No. 11
