YOUNGER GENERATION IS PLEASANTLY CHIDED

Nothing, it seems to me, can characterize Professor Stuart P. Sherman's latest collection of essays better than the motto he has chosen to put on the title page.

"Keep the young generations in hail, And bequeath them no tumbled house."

"The Genius of America" is a series of "studies in behalf of the younger generation, especially that younger generation which claims as father and mother the heroes and heroines of Mr. Sinclair Lewis's novels. Composed for the most part of lectures delivered at the University of Chicago or articles previously printed in magazines, the book treats of various subjects in an attempt to discover where "the genius of America resides, in what institutions, in what customs and traditional beliefs, in what elements of popular culture."

Having thus informed us in an introduction of the scope and purpose of his work, Professor Sherman begins with the essay which gives the book its title. As a jumping-off point, he describes a "boosters dinner" which has been thrown into consternation by the representative of the arts who refuses to have anything to do with the apostles of "pep and progress". The dinner incident past, we have the author's own point of view. Firmly yet gently, he would lead the talent of America from the footsteps of W. L. George, Theodore Dresier and Mr. Spingarn. Instead he would have them turn to Emerson and Whitman and Thoreau. Produce literature which "socializes the spiritual wealth of the country"! Your true artist is but the sounding board for this vast and half-articulate land" which has for its genius a great "moral idealism" gained from the Puritans.

"What is a Puritan?" With great emphasis we are told that the Puritan is "an iconoclast, an image-breaker". "Puritanism is an urgent exploring and creative spirit." It seems that Professor Sherman struck a snag somewhere. Would not his definition cover the men whose work he finds harmful to the formation of a real American literature? Cannot these writers insist that their "vision of the good life" is as adequate as that advance by Emerson and Whitman?

So goes Professor Sherman in examining "The Shifting Centre of Morality", "The Superior Class", "Education By The People" and "Literature and the Government of Men." The younger generation must be started right, and the right start is found in American "moral idealism." We are never quite sure what "moral idealism" is. In some mysterious way, Professor Sherman shifts his point of view. Reading these later essays, we discover that all the time he has been trying to reconcile the apostles of "pep and progress" and the young people who look for a means of "self-expression." He would have the former realize that literature is a great force in the nation, that it has a place in the State University along with the science of making a hundred bushels of wheat grow where ten grew before. Then turning to the other camp, he would have them produce this literature which is to be the force. They should appreciate the work that our pioneers have done. "For the 'bore' of 1850, the plow and hammer; for his sons, the pursuit of happiness." It is they who have laid the foundations for the present generation. Be sure, O present generation, that you do not stray too far from the "moral idealism" or these sturdy forebears who did not suffer from complexes and an overdoes of foreign literature!

At time Professor Sherman is distinctly irritating. He has adopted that paternal attitude which allows of no contradiction, because it sidesteps it. All of this revolution against Puritanism is a good thing, he observes, because it shows that at heart these young people are essentially good. All they need is guidance. And it is guidance that Professor Sherman will give them, willy-nilly. With all his talk about "moral idealism," he bases his advice on strictly utilitarian principles. Here are these existing conditions; make the best of them. Make your efforts at "self-expression", your attempts to "live a fuller life" "do the greatest good to the greatest number."

For the Babbitt, Jrs. "The Genius Of America" will, perhaps, be of great value and interest. For others, it deals too much in platitudes. Professor Sherman's logic is that of the Chamber of Commerce mixed in with the bright sweetness of Pollyanna's elder brother. But, according to the publisher "This book is written by one intensely conscious of the situation". "For all its basic seriousness, it makes bright and lively reading."