Mencken's Autopsy on Roosevelt ---- - WHY SHOULD I READ THE SUN? Because The Sun is New York's finest ,evening newspaper. Because it presents the complete and unbiased news of current OUTSTANDING MEN WHO happenings,written in the dis­ tinct'ive Sun style for which WRITE FOR THE SUN this newspaper is famous. GEORGE VAN SLYKE S~n's Politics Because of The provoca­ tive editorials, itS" interesting BOB DAVIS features, liv~ly spgrts stories, Travel dependable financial news and CARLETON A. SHIVELY its thorough coverage of sub,­ Finance jects that, appeal to mett and FRANK GRAHAM women of in,telligence.' Sports DAVID LAWRENCE If you are not already· a Sun Politics reader, why not try this New York ,newspaper? You'll like H. I. PHILLIPS Hunlor its balance', its completeness and the stories, articles and col­ RICHARD LOCKRIDGE umns of its many distinguisht:d Theater writers. GEORGE TREVOR Sports WILLIAM J. HENDERSON Music The Newspaper 0/ Disti,lclion ;n;ts Readers, ;1$ News atld its Advertising WARD MOREHOUSE N'EW YORK Broadway THE AMERICAN MERCURY This Box • Contained · .. Napoleonic "most eXCItingf ur tIme· "'· discovery 0 0 - -cealment for fear of libel, of bons the book as one of the Best Napoleon's odd, gay behavior Books published during 1935­ when only 1,000 of the Old Guard that hundreds are discovering it returned to Paris, of 600,000 who as the one great collateral-narra­ tive, of complete accuracy, to Tolstoy's WAR AND PEACE? DON'T MISS THIS TREAT !-biog­ Critics - scholars -librarians ­ raphy, memoirs, history, mystery and thousands of individual read­ all in one great book that belongs ers are discovering this Trans­ in every tastefully selected per­ Century Flash as history's "exclu­ sonal library. A rich volume of sive interview" with its most· in­ 448 pages-illustrated-bound in teresting Dictator. red cloth-stamped in gold. See the book at your favorite Book­ NOT "JUST ANOTHER seller's TODAY-order from him NAPOLEON" -or use the convenient coupon below. $4.00 the copy. for though some may have as­ sumed it was "just another book on Napoleon,"Generalde Caulain· court's sensational contemporary NAPOLEON IN memoirs, WITH NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA RUSSIA, was first chosen as Book­ of·the·Month, then became a Na­ tional Best Seller, and instantly BY GENERAL DE CAULAINCOURT moved discerning critics to say- "The only book on Napoleon I ever really· enjoyed!" - May marched forth; of the invasion of Lamberton Becker the Kremlin, where Alexander's "I read every word-engrossed, clocks still ticked; of how, on a absorbed, excited!" -Dorothy hill like a polished sheet of ice, Canfield the Grand Army sat down and "One of the most incredible hu· slid, Napoleon too; of starving man documents in the world." wretches who tore out the livers -A. G. Macdonnell of dying horses without stopping SUPERB READING to kill the animals first; of thir­ teen days' private conversation And de Caulaincourt had plenty with Napoleon, of which no word to write home about-the whole orecho has ever been heardbefore. first-hand story-thrilling, skepti­ cal, informed-of Napoleon's ENTHUSIASTICALLY EN­ headlong plunge into the Russian DORSED-A WORLD trap-his victory, over an empty DOCUMENT Moscow-the horrors of the fa,­ Do you wonder that the N. Y. mous Retreat-his own and the TIMES calls WITH NAPOLEON IN Emperor's secretflight in a rickety RUSSIA "a masterpiece"-that Her­ sleigh across hostile Europe to schel Brickell says it is "a front Paris. seat at one of the supreme mo­ Read, in these rich pages, just ments in human history;" that released after a century of con- THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY hlue.rib- This Coupon William Morrow & Co., Inc. 386 Fourth Ave., N. Y. C. Gentlemen:Pleas€'maiI meat once0 copies of de Caulaincourt's WITH NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA at $4 each. I enclose $ .... (plus20c percopypostage)~..send C.O.D. Name _ Address published by Morrow City State i THE AMERICAN MERCURY The first popular edition of the world's greatest encyclopedia ~. of sex • • STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX by 'J1avelock Ellis Formerly $28.00-now complete and unahridged in a beautiful four volume set for $15.00 heautiful new' edition of a great classic ··. the life-work ofthe foremost authority on the subject.A Originally published in seven volumes and sold only by private subscription to doctors, psychologists, etc., the new Random House 4­ volume edition contains every word of the origi­ nal work. In addition it includes a new introduc­ tion by the author, .and·'a complete new index., Boxed -in wood, $15. Send for free prospectus. A new hook by the daring young author of The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze. It contains over seventy stories and sketches-the cream of this indefatigable and important writer's output for the past year. $2.50• • BROADWAY HlrSI-These plays are now available in book form: DEAD END, by Sidney Kingsley; FIRST LADY, by Katharine Dayton and George S. Kaufman; BOY lvIEETS GIRL, by Sam and Bella Spewack; PARADISE LOST, by Clifford 'Odets; END OF SUMMER by S. N. Behrman. Each vowme, $2.00. RANDOM HOUSE · .20E. 57th St.' • N. Ye ii The AMERICAN MERCURY ~~1)!~@~~1)!~@~!~~1)~.~@~~1)!~@~~ ~- ~ e~ VOLUME TABLE OF CONTENTS NUMBER ~~ ~ XXXVII 147 !~ ~ March, 1936 ~ ~ THREE YEARS OF DR. ROOSEVELT H. L. Mencken 257 N ~ A BOXER CALLED PANTHER. Verse . Reuel Denney 265 ~ If>~ ARE THE CAPITALrsTs ASLEEP? . Harold Lord Varney 266 ~ AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. JEFFERSON .. William M. Houghton 273 b) ~ THE MAN-GOD OF JAPAN. Sydney Greenbie 277 ..~ m THERE Is No COMFORT Now. Verse. V. James Chrasta 284 '5 ~ A PENNY A WORD. Anonymous 285 ~ l"~~ WINTER SONNET. Verse. Townsend Miller 292 ~.~ tJ SAD DEATH OF A HERO. Paul Y. Anderson 293 a ~n AMERICANA 302 ~".) 1f>,J. W. H. HUDSON . Ford Madox Ford 306 ~~ ~ Is PATRIOTISM NECESSARY? . Struthers Burt 318 ~ ~ DEAD MAN. A Story . James M. Cain 326 .~ m THE STATE OF THE UNION: ~ ~ The New Deal and Prohibition . Albert Jay Nock 333 ~ ~ CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE . Edwin Borchard 337 ~ ~ PORTLAND: ATHENS OF THE WEST. James Stevens 344 ~ ~ THESE CLOUDS. Verse . E. A. Richards 350 ~ ~ n THE FIRST MUNITIONS KING . Jack Rohan 351 ~~.) If>~ THIS SINGING BRANCH. Verse . Margaret Tynes Fairley 358 ~~ ~ THE CLINIC: ~ ~.~ The Senatorial Diplomats. Royden J. Dangerfield 359 ~ ~ What Is a Reasonable Legal Fee? Harry Hibschman 363 ~ (" ~~ THE LIBRARY: ~ ~ Report on Rugged Proletarianism Ernest Boyd 367 ~ This Business of War . John W. Thomason, Jr. 369 What Is Mussolini? . Lawrence Dennis 372 ~ The Brotherhood of Orpheus. William Rose Benet 375 b) ~ Bertrand Russell's Searchlight . George Santayana 377 ~ ~ The Masculine Era. Agnes Repplier 379 f:s: ~ Briefer Mention . 38 1 ~..dI r ~~ THE CONTRIBUTORS . 383 ~ ~ ~ CHECKLIST IV N ~ RECORDED MUSIC. Irving Kolodin XIV ~ Lawrence E. Spivak, Publisher Paul Palmer, Editor ~ @ Gordon Carroll, Managing Editor ';-':d! ~ Laurence Stallings, Literary Editor Louis Uritermeyer, Poetry Editor I~ ~iW~~~iW(¥~~~~~~j~~~~~~~~ THE AMERICAN MERCURY is published monthly at 50 Printed in the United States. Copyright, 1936, by The American cents a copy. Annual subscription, $5.00 in U. S. and Mercury, Inc. Entered as second class matter January 4. 1924, at Possessions, Mexico, Cuba, Spain and Colonies, and the the post office at Camden, N. J., under the Act of March 3, Republics of Central and South America. Canada, $5.50: 1879. PUblished monthly on the 25th of the month preceding other foreign subscriptions, $6.00; all rag edition. $10.00 the date. Five weeks' advance notice required for change of by the year. The American Mercury, Inc., publishers. subscribers' addresses. Indexed in 'l'he Readers' Guide to Publication Office, Federal and 19th streets. Camden. N. ;T. Periodical Literature. No reIJroduction of content allowed Editorial and general offices. 570 Lexington avenue, New York. without permission. 111 THE AMERICAN MERCURY IMPORTANT BOOKS OLD JULES By MARl SANDOZ The Atlantic $5,000 Prize Book "NothingoftheflavorofMari Sandoz's biography of her crusty pioneer father, 'Old Jules', has ever been published before."-John Chamberlain in New YorkTimes. Illus~rated. 80th thousand. PUBLIC AFFAIRS $3.00 OUR CONTEMPORARY CIVILIZATION. By Roscoe Lewis Ashley. Henry Holt $3.50 5% x 8%; 608 pp. New York Today, according to Mr. Ashley, we are pass­ ing through one of the secondary stages of a transformation from an agricultural civilization into something totally different. This trans­ formation, however, is being impeded by tra­ ditional drags, and as a result a complex di­ lemma arises. Organizations, institutions, and political systems lag behind the great advances in technology. Indeed, industrialism has grown so rapidly that further increase threatens to de­ stroy profitable production. To do away with this dilemma, says the author, we must break down the over-concentration of capital in a few great fortunes; we must distribute wealth more evenly as we create it, while taking care not to limit the amount of capital needed to continue in­ dustrial civilization. In short, the problem is more one of consumption than of production. "Over-production is an evil only to producers. Give society purchasing power and it disappears." Sooner or later, says the author, we must face this simple economic fact. Mr. Ashley, follow­ ing in the path of Herbert Agar and other clear-thinking economists, is interested in sav­ ing democracy by bringing it up to date with modern technology. Between the two evils of Socialism and Fascism, he points out a reason­ able middle way. There is a bibliography; also an index. THE SON DESERTS ON THE MARCH. OF MARIETTA By Paul B. Sears. University o/Oklahoma Press By JOHAN FABRICIUS $2.50 5~ x 8~; 210 pp. Norman "Here is unashamed J:1omance set in a real.