A LITERARY CORNER

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11657, 23 October 1923, Page 8

A LITERARY CORNER

(R.A.L.) “MY LIFE AND WORK" Henry Ford. (Angus and Robertson, Sydney.; Mr Ford is a great advertiser ■ therefore one must be careful in reading bis story. But bis story is a great story, lit is a romance of business that arrests attention and stimulates thought. Every possible discount being allowed tor the advertising proclivities of its teller. the thinking cannot help going deep, wide, qnd far. A farm toy with a mechanical turn who trained himself to mechanics before getting expert teaching, who, designing and building motor-cars, created a great business, and when he got the help of capital iby floating a company, acquired a commanding share interest and dominated the shareholders intent on good profits, and then by sheer shrewdness, enlightened views, and moderate desire, raised his business to a sale limit of 1,250,000 oars in a single year, a level sustained by the ownership of coal mines, railways, and controlled 1 by a genius in many countries —these are the main features of the great story. From illie first ono realises that the basis of this business was service, that the force which kept it going is tho determination to stimulate demand by cheapening tho cost of the product without diminishing its quality ; that treated a slump in prices as a challenge of the management of the manufacturers; that steadily refusing to cut wages increased them tho minimum wage to '24 dollars a day of eight hours, and found employment at not less than that wage for the blind, the halt, tho lame, and the unsound, t'he class consigned usually to the cold of the workhouse ot the misery of inadequate pay. Arrangement follows this realisation, add the details of the prodigious increases of machine and human efficiency carry the arrangement to the white heat of astounded admiration. It is a story full of lessons for capital and labour. To the general reader it is a revelation. To the economist it reads like a perfect solution in the department of production of the great problem of the reconcilement of labour and capital on lines running towards the perpetual peace of good understanding. At every point Mr Ford declares that he secs no reason why every department of industry should not profit as his lias profited under his hands, declaring his guiding principles to be applicable to all. Many will find' in tho book evidence of exceptional talent and determination early seen. But all will realise that if this great captain of industry is right in bis generalisation, and if the industrial world can be persuaded to accept this teaching of his example, the coming of the now earth so much discussed in these days and so vehemently wished for, is but a matter of a short time.. To that end the book is more convincing than all the hooks in the Socialist library put together. That its interest is fascinating every reader will readily agree.

“THE WiTCH FINDER” May Wynne. (Jarrold’s, .London.) The “Witch Delusion” has a torriblo place in the history of Salem (Massachusetts), and tbi6, being a story of that delusion, is a terrible story. May Wynne has put her pen to such pleasant use, that wo regret she has used it to make this book. But the power of her is great, and so is the charm. Alter all, this story of the murder of innocent, people under tho “Witch Delusiou'’ is history, ami the historical novel is good in May Wynne's hands.

FROM HODDER AND STOUGHTON, London. “Angels 7 Shoes,” by 31. Pickthnll. 3l*rjorio I’iokthall’s novel, “The Bridge, 7 '' gave her a recognised plow

among the better novelists. The 23 short stories in this book maintain that place for her. The stories are dramatic, often weird find reminiscent of Conrad at his darkest, powerful and interesting. “The Tyranny of Power,” by D. T. Curtin. “The story of a man’s supreme effort to live down the stigma of an undeserved criminal record, and to carry out the spirit of the brotherhood of man.” This is the author’s sketch of. his objective. He puts in the lights and shadows in his book with a strong pen. The man who makes the effort stands out above all the others with definite, consistent force: a real man, who makes the reader wish there were more like him in this world. Sea life town life, factory life, political life, ali of them American, give him his theatre, and all the scenes are well set. The moral is great.

FROM “THE BODLEY HEAD,” London. “The Strange Attraction,” by Jane Mander. A New Zealand novel by a New Zealander, and no} the first* by the same writer, will attract attention among us. There are many readers who are familiar with her books, and these will get this one of course. The scene is Dargaville and the Kaipara basin, with excursions on the Wairoa and Otemata rivers. The incidental sketches of the scenery--river, hush, sea beach, towns and villages—are very good. These are Mias .Wander's strong point. There is an election episode, evidently modelled at the 1911 General Election, in whieh the swing from Ward to Massey i s graphically described with enthusiastic approval of the result. The scene on S filing night in the office of the local argaville paper is very bright and vivid, but why Datgaville should be treated as the headquarters of the Waitomata candidate, and the successful member hailed as the elected member for 3\ aitemata, seems mysterious. Mr Coates was on that occasion th© elected member for Kaipara, of which Dargavillo is tile headquarters point, and Mr Harris wan the elected of Waitemata. In Disraeli s novels, political and social passages are introduced with small camouflage, and largely recognisable by ah who moved in those circles. In this case let us hasten to say that in Miss 31 under’s bluff and hearty successful candidate for the ‘•Waitemata” of her story there is resemblance of neither 31r Coates or to 3lr Harris And as it is well to avoid misunderstandings let un realise that there does not appear any suggestion as to who is really who in any of the other characters of the story. They are all. with one excep lion, it is right to snv. creatures of a fertile imagination. The execution is the hero, a very brilliant .journalist, wins has the entry into all Australian newspapeta, including of (oiirse tho “Bulletin,” and likewise into the moat prominent journals of the Dominion. Til his literary achievements. dcscrilied but not sampled by tho author, this hero might he a suggestion of Frank 31orton, but in character and personality he is quite differently modelled. The heroine ia a wild creature, who protests systematically against convention, Is rather more mad on tho subject than Miss Slander's* characters usually are—in this respect she (the heroine) may rank as a steady development—and tiie mildest spoken critic must consider her as decidedly naughty, but not attiactively, and this is the stroke of art which brings her into respectable society. 3Ve suppose this character is drawn to point a moral, but the doing is crude and clumsy, making tho poor champion of the unconventional do tho same very silly things, Tf the characterisation were equal to the scenery and tho descriptive power show'll in the election, her novel would take a high place. There is. by the way. a fine description of daily newspaper work, and then a bit of psychoanalysis fairly well done. The diameter if the hero, a man subject to fits of gloom, is very well done and his capacity for sacrifice is to his credit,

though a little morbid. NerertiheleM, the drawing of that character is a fin* performance. “The Mysterious Affair at Styles,’* Agatha Christie. A good detective story, with th* author’s creation, the detective Poirot, once again to the fore. Very mysterious, very clever, very readable.