576

T h e Nation

[Vol. 130, No. 3384

~
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21

I1

T h e Inward Vision
By Helen
Keller.
Doubleday,
Doran
and
Com-

0 her two autobiographlcalworks,TheStory

Tariff Bill
of

of us.

is

us.

to make
a

is

of

of

will
a
exposition of the
in
great book

or

O n e Dollar

Bound

13

New

of M y
LifeandTheWorld
LiveIn,HelenKellerhas
now added Midstream. It was, of course,impossible
to expect that this volume would have the extraordinarily movingquality
of thefirstrevelation
of thisremarkablespirit.
It was not possible
add much to the thrilling story
of her
conquest of theapparentlyinsurmountable
obstacles placed
herway by an unkind nature. But through this volume, too,
there shines the unconquerable spirit, and t h e unquenchable determination to enjoy life and to utilize i t as much as any normal
person. Indeed, she has achieved far more than .probably would
have been her fate had
she not been handicapped
Keller
Pechapsthe best thingaboutitallisthat
has come throughtomiddleage
a liberal in spirit. W i t h the
beauty of theoutwardworlddiniedtoher,she
is notonly
free from bitterness and melancholy, but is most eager that the
lot of allotherhuman
beings, advantagedordisadvantaged,
should be moreandmorefreedfromtherestraints
of narrow
conventionality and the heavy chains of our industrial civilization. T h e injustices of our society weigh heavily uponher.
Where others in her situation might well feel free t o think only
of themselves, MissKeller is ready by word and purseto
serve at all times, tobearwitness
thebreadthandthe
wisdom of that inward vision of a better world than the
she has faced with such superb courage.
I n this volume she is
generoustothemany
who have consciously and unconsciously
been able t o help her. But the best part is the renewed revelation of the completeness withwhich she has risen above self
her
when every aspect of her situation might so easily have
t o center all her
thinking
herself and her own immediate
of thevictory
of the
interests.Amongthe
books thattell
humanspiritover
incredible oddsthisvolumewill
have its
place.

Books in

travel

From Leningrad

and

picturesqueVolga
to the
CrimeaandUkraine.Witness,

at

of Communism
itiaeraries.
Write
N

powerful

trial.

or

&
ili

111.

Man. By Silas
Bent.
Farrar
Rinehart. $3.
Nowhere outside The World Almanac,has a more numeraggregation of facts on a wider variety of subjects directly
and indirectly connected with the machine been brought together
under one tentthan Mr. Benthas assembledinthis
book. A
good many of these facts, the reader will
note, are so, though
his confidence inthedependability
of thatvastnumberabout
which he knows nothing
is likely to be a trifle shaken ondiscovering within seven pages of each other the fact that Walter
R. IngaPs is now recognizedas the best authority on wealth
andincomein the United States (a superlative distinction that
Mr. Ingallswouldcertainlybetoomodesttoclaim)andthe
factthatNicaragua
is an-island(thelatterstatement
being
doubtless a pure
inadvertence).
When
he finds Senator
Frear of Wisconsin hobnobbing with President Hoovers
tionalBureau of Economic Research,however, anddiscovers
on thesame page thatthereasonwe
oant computenational
income accuratelyfromincome-taxreturns
is because huge
are invested in tax-exempt securities (rather than
because
only one-tenth of our income receiversarerequiredunderthe
law to report)he
is too likely
begin wonderingwhether
evenomniscienceitself
maynotsometimes
be liabletoerror.
What t,he fiacts, whatever they may be, mean, he will get