PUBLICATIONS
"The Gospel in the Light of the GreatWar," by OZORA S. DAVIS '89 (University of Chicago Press).
"International Aspects of Christianity", by OZORA S. DAVIS '89, and GRACE T. DAVIS (Association Press).
These two books by one of Dartmouth's distinguished graduates, now president of Chicago Theological Seminary merit wider attention than the particular limits set by the author himself. The first was written for preachers and the second for study classes, but many more readers than these will seek their valuable messages. The style is the handy, paragraphed, busyman type but there is a spirit and go to it that soon makes the reader forget these mechanical devices.
"The Gospel in the Light of the GreatWar appeared as articles in the BIBLICALWORLD magazine concluding January, 1918 under the title "Preaching in a World atWar." The great interest aroused led the editor of that magazine to ask that the articles? .be given a 1 wider circulation in book form. In the book form there are very few changes. A few extra illustrations have been omitted, two chapters added and the title changed. The material however of the two new chapters is not all new.
The general character of the work is faithfully forecast by the author in these words: "The writer is a preacher. .. He now sends the book forth to his comrades with the earnest hope that it may help somewhat in making the old message of the gospel vibrant with new meaning and power to a confused and yearning age." Dr. Davis has succeeded admirably with his task. He speaks as man to man and in language easy to understand. Here are two typical sentences: "There is something bigger than chickens and parish favors lurking round the parsonages of the land." "The preacher sometimes knows the period of the Nicene Council better than he knows what has happened in Russia since the war began." That the book is modern these quotations alone would substantiate. The reader must not be misled by the perfectly orthodox chapter headings. In using such familiar ones as, sin and forgiveness, prayer, and the influence of the modern pulpit Dr. Davis has not used Nicene Council times treatment or phraseology.
The goal aimed at by the author constitutes the central value of the work. It is to face as a preacher the new conditions of the day and then assist his comrades in the church to measure up to their opportunities and duties. He sees clearly that the religious and moral leadership does not exist today wholly inside the ecclesiastical fold. "Ministers must wake up and get superbly alive now or they are lost." "Is a new theology determined by democracy to emerge from this war? May we look to the consensus of popular opinion instead of to the theologians, for our great ideas about God and the soul and the future life?" This latter is a quotation but is accepted as the author's conviction. If the modern preacher will heed the advice of this Head of a Theological Institution he may relieve the outsider from doing his work, but first he must awake to see the new moral meaning of war, the new relation of religion to industry, society and politics, the meaning of the new common experience and impulse, and the awakening sense of the need of international justice. Seeing these he will then realize that Christianity is not exhausted in the individual but is meant for industry, society and politics.
The modern method of biblical study is of course used, the functional view of religion is everywhere manifest and a fine spirit pervades the whole. A digest of a large modern bibliography adds much value.
The second book carries as co-author the name Grace T. Davis. It is a small book of 15 chapters arranged as studies with daily readings and aims to present the international aspects of the christian religion. Some of the chapter topics are: Prophet Patriots, Gospel of the Kingdom, War for Worldwide Salvation, and The Christianization of Democracy. The daily readings are selected from the Bible or from writings of religious value. The author finds much of value in John Hay.
The work is an excellent one for study classes of any sort and perhaps it will stimulate some to arrange for special study groups. It will also repay reading by anyone who wishes to be well informed on the very important subject of the international aspects of Christianity.
"The Shipbuilding Industry," by Roy WILLMARTH KELLY and FREDERICK J. ALLEN 89, with Introduction by CHARLES M. SCHWAB, Boston and Newi York, Houghton Mifflin Company,, 1918, Pp XX — 303.
At the time this volume was written twothirds of a million men were employed in American shipyards or in manufacturing the parts necessary for the construction of ships to say nothing of those employed in constructing the yards themselves. The recruiting and organization of this army and the setting in motion of the great streams of material necessary for carrying out the gigantic program proposed by the United States Shipping Board and the Emergency Fleet Corporation constituted an enormous task. After reading this volume one is surprised that criticism of those who early undertook to set in motion the machinery for bringing these plans to a practical issue was not more frequent and more violent and that such an almost superhuman task resulted in so successful accomplishment.
"It is the primary purpose of this book to describe and interpret our war-emergency shipping program and the task of the shipbuilders for the general public as well as for those employed in the shipyards" and it was hoped by the authors that it would help "thousands of men throughout the country whose experience and general qualifications especially fit them for such service" to decide for themselves as to their qualifications for undertaking any of the work described in this book.
In former times of peace the leisurely methods practiced in ship construction had made it possible to carry through the entire work with a small force of men—a policy which naturally resulted in limiting the number of those who were acquainted in the smallest degree with the organization or the mechanical processes of shipbuilding. The emergency construction, however, called for a very different program. The production of various parts must move at a uniform pace, and labor must be so mobilized as to bring specialists from totally unrelated trades on to the field of action in such way as to produce a maximum of ships with a minimum of disturbance in other essential lines.
The book deals briefly with the history of shipbuilding in this country on our sea coasts, on the Great Lakes and along the shores of our great rivers. It describes the various kinds of wood, steel and concrete ships and gives details of construction from plans to finished product in such way as to aid the reader to a preliminary estimate of his (or her) value to the shipbuilding industry whether as executive, clerk, or laborer. Future opportunities for employment in American shipbuilding for both men and women are discussed and supplemented by opinion from representative shipbuilders. Wage scales, a bibliography and a glossary are added together with such indexes as permit easy reference to any point of interest. Various steps in ship construction are illustrated by more than one hundred illustrations. The volume seems well adapted to the purpose for which it was written.
P.
"The Reformed Episcopal Church," by the Rev. Arthur Whipple Jenks '84, has been reprinted from the American ChurchMonthly for May, 1919.
The Memorial Day Address of John W. Gordon '83, delivered at Rutland, Vermont, May 30, 1919, has been printed in pamphlet form.
"Rational Sex Ethics, Further Investigations," by Dr. W. F. Robie '89, has been published by Richard G. Badger, Boston.
Professor Charles Downer Hazen '89 is the author of "Fifty Years of Europe 1870 to 1919." This book will be reviewed in a later issue of this magazine.
Fletcher Harper Swift '98 is the author of "Education in Ancient Israel from Earliest Times," published by the Open Court Company.
The July issue of Scribner's Magazine contains "Dead Men's Shoes," by Gordon Hall Gerould '99.
Perley R. Bugbee '90 is the author of a poem, "The Professor's Grave," in the July issue of the Granite Monthly. The Professor referred to in this poem is Professor Charles F. Richardson.
"The Standardization of Library Service," a paper read before the Massachusetts Library Club, February 13, 1919, by Henry N. Sanborn '02, appears in the June issue of the Library Journal.
"All the Brothers Were Valiant" by Ben Ames Williams '10, published serially in Everybody's Magazine, has just been issued in book form by the Macmillan Co.
Lewis H. Haney '03 is the author of "Price Fixing in the United States during the War," in the issues of the Political Science Quarterly for March and June.
Walter S. Adams '89 and Gustaf Stroemberg are the authors of "The Orbit of the Spectroscopic Binary Boss 46," published as Mount Wilson Solar Observatory contributions 149.
"Digestibility of some By-product Oils," by Arthur D. Holmes '06, has appeared as U. S.Department of Agriculture Bulletin 781.
"The Defect of Current Democracy" by Professor W. H. Sheldon appears in the issue of the Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods for July 3, 1919.
