Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

 

The Newspaper -- Its Making and Its Meaning. By members of

the Staff of the New York Times.    (New York, Charles

Scribner's Sons, 1945. 207p. $2.00.)

During the spring of 1945 twelve members of the New York

Times staff contributed to a series of lectures which was given to

a group of selected New York public school teachers under the

auspices of the Board of Education of New York City. Staff

members participating were selected on the basis of their field of

specialization and capability, and together they presented a com-

prehensive picture of the mechanics and philosophy of writing,

editing, and publishing a newspaper such as the New York Times.

It was hoped, as a direct result of these lectures, that teachers

throughout New York would realize more fully the value of the

newspaper as a school text. The New York Times, in an effort

to reach even more schools, published the twelve lectures as twelve

chapters in The Newspaper -- Its Making and Its Meaning.

Educational leaders have been slow to appreciate the real

importance of the newspaper as source material in the classroom.

They have encouraged, to a degree, the use of the newspaper as a

record of current events -- but it is much more than that, and

much more exciting than that. It furnishes a graphic biography of

past generations, is rich ground for students of science, geography,

sociology, art, home economics, and many other subject areas. It's

been cried often that the teaching of history needs revamping.

It needs spirit and color, for the people in history books have been

too long dead. One way to revitalize that teaching, suggest the

editors of the New York Times, is to bring yesterday back to

today by introducing old newspapers into the classroom.

Hanson Baldwin, military editor of the Times, says: "Yester-

day's newspaper is not dead, if it is a newspaper which has done

its job properly. . . . Yesterday's newspaper, if it accurately

reflected yesterday's civilization, is vibrantly alive. Historians

have found it so. Read Dixon Wecter -- 'When Johnny Comes

Marching Home'; read 'Reveille in Washington'; read any of

scores of books which mirror the age of which the authors wrote.

 

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Newspapers are prime source material for the historian . . . .

Therefore, there is nothing as alive as yesterday's newspaper...."

Current newspapers, too, have their place in the classroom.

They record history as well as yesterday's newspapers. Young

historians may be apt students of formal, recorded history, but be

entirely at sea with history in the making. Our complex 1946

civilization and whirlpooling events will easily enough result in an

enigmatic, unteachable past when tomorrow comes. Today's news-

papers, if written well and studied analytically, can help save the

day. They can bridge the gap, and, as educators are so fond of

saying, they can "broaden our horizons." The best newspapers

can serve powerfully to carry the student beyond the geographical

limits of his town, adding meridians and parallels to his world,

and breadth and vision to his social thinking.

The book's chapters give the reader an inside story on the

workings of the New York Times. He learns how a newspaper

is built, who makes it from the time the tree is cut until the first

edition hits the streets. Such capable newsmen as Arthur Krock,

chief Washington correspondent, Foster Hailey, editorial writer,

and Hanson Baldwin describe their peculiar assignments. A

newspaper man's business is words and the art of using them, and

here newsmen have combined this art with a philosophy. They

realize full well that freedom of the press can work for good or

ill, that they are seriously responsible for molding that atomic

something known as public opinion. The reader feels strongly,

after reading this little book, that the authors take this charge

religiously, that men like these can be bearers of good tidings to

the general reading public. They stand forth clearly for a loftier

standard of news reporting and presentation.

The Newspaper -- Its Making and Its Meaning is required

reading for teachers on the secondary and college level, and an

illuminating book for any journalist. Its style is vibrant and bril-

liant, making it easy and important general reading.

R. C. W.

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BOOK REVIEWS                     299

 

Ohio Wesleyan's First Hundred Years. By Henry Clyde Hub-

bart. (Delaware, Ohio, Ohio Wesleyan University, 1943.

Illus.)

Western Reserve University: The Hudson Era. A History of

Western Reserve College and Academy at Hudson, Ohio,

from 1826 to 1882. By Frederick Clayton Waite. (Cleve-

land, Western Reserve University Press, 1943.)

Ohio is a land of colleges and universities. The 48 in opera-

tion at the present time represent but a few of the total number of

institutions of higher learning which have existed at one time or

another in this State. Notable among those pioneer institutions

which have stood the test of time are the schools whose histories

are here under consideration: the Ohio Wesleyan University,

opened in 1841 as a preparatory school, and the Western Reserve

University, organized at Hudson in 1826.

Higher education in the Middle West was encouraged and

supported in the main by religious denominations. The Presby-

terians, who demanded an educated ministry, dominated Ohio's

collegiate education in the early days. Even the state universities

of Miami and Ohio were controlled by the Presbyterians. Western

Reserve, too, was one of the schools which had Presbyterian

origin and direction. Early in the century the Presbyterians and

Congregationalists had joined forces under a Plan of Union for

interchange of ministers and the support of various projects,

including education. This cooperation extended itself to the crea-

tion and maintenance of the school at Hudson.

Mr. Waite's story of Western Reserve University is a well-

documented study of the Hudson years. It is not only a chrono-

logical narrative of the development of the institution, but also

an analysis of its administrations, curricular changes, and student

life and activities, including the literary societies and fraternities.

The author has made a real effort to relate innovations and devel-

opments at Western Reserve to the general movements in educa-

tion throughout Ohio and elsewhere. The early portions of the

volume are a history of the early years of the Connecticut Western

Reserve and the rise of cultural interests within that area.

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Mr. Waite's claim that Western Reserve is the oldest university

north of the Ohio River may be a bit of an exaggeration. Its

organization and departmental set up was very similar to that of

other and earlier Ohio schools. Also Yale College was the model

of other schools besides Western Reserve, and the appellation,

"The Yale of the West," was claimed by more than one Ohio

college.

A more readable and better integrated story is Dr. Hubbart's

history of Ohio Wesleyan. This is a Methodist school, established

in the midst of the educational renaissance of that church in the

Middle West. It was established to satisfy a need for higher

educational facilities in central Ohio. Although Dr. Hubbart

doesn't say much about it, there was a feeling among the Metho-

dists that the Presbyterian domination of Ohio and Miami uni-

versities was a threat of contamination to young Methodist boys.

Dr. Hubbart has achieved a popular style. His narrative is

lively with anecdotes and stories of interesting persons who stand

out in the college's history. There is Sallie, the "barmaid, cook,

rifle-woman, pioneer Diana, doer of deeds"; Lucy Webb, with

whom the students "played catch ball or grace hoops"; Mary

Monnett; and the several presidents and professors. The story

follows the general pattern of subjects considered, i.e., the origins,

buildings, the administrations and instructors, the curricula, stu-

dent life and activities, and the influence of world movements,

such as war, upon the college. Dr. Hubbart, however, has woven

the general topics and details into a well-integrated pattern.

These volumes are good histories and necessary for a study

of higher education in Ohio.

J. H. R.

 

Western Reserve University: Centennial History of the School

of Medicine. By Frederick Clayton Waite. (Cleveland,

Western Reserve University Press, 1946. xiii+588p. $6.00.)

This centennial history of the School of Medicine of West-

ern Reserve University, although published two years after the

actual celebration of the event, offers the first scientific treatment

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BOOK REVIEWS                     301

 

of the development of medical education in the Western Reserve.

The volume, although primarily the history of one institution, is

to some extent a history of institutional medical education in the

city of Cleveland during the last one hundred years.

The narrative history of the institution is arranged in four

books. The first section, consisting of four chapters, constitutes

what the author labels a prologue and is devoted to a discussion

of pioneer medical education, medical instruction in the eighteenth

century, the rise of independent medical colleges, the establish-

ment of Willoughby University of Lake Erie (1834), its removal

to Columbus and its amalgamation with Starling Medical College

in 1848. Book Two, consisting of five chapters, includes a detailed

discussion of the founding of Western Reserve University (1827),

the opening of the Medical School (1843), a biographical chap-

ter devoted to the founders, and three chapters treating of insti-

tutional growth (1843-61), reverses, and the evolution of new

ideals in medical education including the expansion of the cur-

riculum, the increase in clinical facilities, the inauguration of lab-

oratory instruction, and the establishment of a dental department.

Book Three, consisting of five chapters, presents pertinent

information related to institutional growth and a discussion of

other medical colleges in Cleveland, Ohio, which, of course, is

ancillary to the main theme. The final section, entitled the "Sec-

ond Half Century," is devoted for the most part to the changes

effected in the organization and administration of the School of

Medicine between the years 1893 and 1943. During the period

a consolidation was effected between Western Reserve University

School of Medicine and the Medical Department maintained by

Ohio Wesleyan, the teaching staff was enlarged, research projects

were encouraged, publications increased, new departments and

laboratories were established, entrance requirements were raised,

the administration was improved, the curriculum was expanded,

the physical plant was enlarged, and endowments and gifts were

received.

One of the great values of the book lies in the fact that the

author concerns himself with the progress made in medical science,

surgery, the prevention of disease, and in explaining the transition

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302   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

in educational methods which resulted in the thorough training

of medical students. In the first part of the volume it is shown

that under the preceptorial system the student read medicine

"with a doctor," rode "with a doctor," and, after a period, re-

ceived a certificate entitling him to independent practice. The

advance in medical teaching is evidenced by the fact that a student

in the  1840's received a total of 480 hours of instruction as

compared with 5,000 hours in 1943.

Dr. Waite's volume reveals evidence of industrious and pains-

taking investigation. He has searched through the records pre-

served by Western Reserve, Wooster, and Ohio Wesleyan uni-

versities. He did not, however, have access to the minute books

of the Western Reserve faculty for the years 1862 to 1868.

While the author must be credited with an original and pioneer-

ing piece of research, it is felt that a better synthesis of available

materials could have been made. Then, too, it is unfortunate that

the author failed to include a critical classified bibliography, and

that the footnote items are placed at the end of each chapter

instead of at the bottom of each page.

The volume is attractively bound, contains sixteen illustra-

tions, and an adequate index. A series of appendices, containing

sixty-three pages, lists the names of 521 teachers and professors

approved before November 1, 1943, presidents, secretaries, treas-

urers, and registrars of Western Reserve University and informa-

tion relative to attendance and degrees awarded for the academic

years 1843 to October, 1943.

The reviewer lays the book down with the feeling that Dr.

Waite has made a substantial contribution to the history of

American medicine.                                J. O. M.

 

Pioneer Sketches of the Upper Whitewater Valley, Quaker

Stronghold of the West. By Bernhard Knollenberg. Indiana

Historical Society, Publications, Vol. XV, No. 1. (Indian-

apolis, Indiana Historical Society, 1945. 171P. $0.75.)

Mr. Knollenberg wrote this book because he was born and

brought up in the Whitewater Valley and loves it. Generally a

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BOOK REVIEWS                     303

 

historian cannot afford to love his subject, for then the subject

tends to lose itself in the author's ego. In general, however,

Mr. Knollenberg has been able to view the pioneers of his valley

with some objectivity. Perhaps he loved those old Quakers and

Methodists for the sinners they were. Drawing upon contemporary

manuscripts and published memoirs, journals, and letters, the

author has not only produced a narrative of the beginnings of

settlement on the upper Whitewater, but has described to some

extent the social life and culture of the pioneers.

Settlement in the valley began about the turn of the eighteenth

century. About 1806 the first southern Quakers arrived in the

region. They had come from North Carolina into Ohio to get

away from slave territory. On a hunting trip they discovered the

upper Whitewater, and soon settled on or near the site of Rich-

mond. From that time to the mid-century, Quaker migration to

the Whitewater continued at a rapid pace, and Richmond became

the Orthodox Quaker center of the United States. Besides the

slavery factor, health and economic considerations were important

motives behind these migrations.

The organization of life in the Whitewater communities is

drawn from personal accounts of the pioneers. The trip westward

before the National Road was built and afterward, home building,

the marriage ceremony, the establishment of government, religious

worship, canal construction, and education are each considered.

The Quakers are not portrayed as having been a peace-loving and

progressive element of the population acting as a modifying influ-

ence on the turbulent frontier. Rather, they participated in the

political, social, and economic bickerings of the Middle West. They

fled from slavery, but many wanted neither freedom for the Negro

nor association with him. They divided over theological issues as

well as the support of abolitionism. In these respects they were no

different from the other sects on the frontier.

This is a good volume. It is sketchy as it was intended. The

author used many interesting and original sources which are listed

in his voluminous bibliography.                   J. H. R.

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The Fields. By Conrad Richter. (New York, Alfred A. Knopf,

1946. viii+288p. $2.50.)

Conrad Richter spent several days last year doing research

in the Library of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical

Society and the reviewer now has the unique experience of exam-

ining the fruit of that research and seeing how a skillful author

has managed to utilize raw bits and combine them with material

found elsewhere and finally weave the miscellany into a fine and

vigorous story. It is almost as if she assisted (in a limited

fashion) at the creation of a brain-child and it is with added

satisfaction that she now looks upon the progeny produced and

finds it a worthwhile composition.

In this novel, a continuation of the saga of an American

family in the Ohio wilderness, the story which began with The

Trees is here carried on through the period of tilling and planting,

of the building of a church and a school, and through the trans-

formation of the woods to a settled area where birds come flocking

and wild life disappears. It is the story of Sayward and her

lawyer husband, Portius Wheeler and their children and neighbors.

It is the story of transition from the wilderness to the town, the

in-between stage with much of the flavor of both. It is also an

excellent character study of a remarkable young woman as wife

and mother, a sturdy pioneer, strong in body, iron in spirit. We

often hear the virtues extolled about our pioneer fathers, but

Sayward's husband, Portius, is one who can quote great chunks

of the Bible and the Constitution, who can "spout" law and teach

school and make love to the young school teacher, but when it

comes to the drudgery and the practical hard tasks it is his wife

who "fills the bill." This refreshing aspect makes the story a real

epic, all the more unique since it is written by a man.

For Ohioans, the story is more than a delightful piece of

fiction, a good and interesting tale; it is an accurate portrayal of

the life of the period and brings in the early use of the plow, the

reap hook, the loom, and the axe as natural phenomena in the

evolution of Ohio's history. Along with the heroine the reader

will experience the difficulties through which she wrests from the

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BOOK REVIEWS                     305

 

forest her hundred and a half acres, her delight when sunlight

comes to the fields, her pleasure in the meeting house, what the

schoolhouse means to her children, etc., etc. The story is vivid

and real with exciting chapters-like that of the hunt for game, or

the year that was so cold that famine stalked the neighborhood

and the men went to Kentucky to get grain. There is no exaggera-

tion and no glorification. It is all there, unglossed and unvar-

nished, the superstitions and the hardships, the pleasures and the

problems of the early Ohio settlers. Its genuineness makes it a fine

book, worth reading.

B. E. J.

 

Wasteland. By Jo Sinclair [Ruth Seid]. (New York, Harper &

Bros., 1946. 322p.)

Wasteland, the Harper Prize Novel for 1946, is a psychiatric

excursion among the underprivileged. Someone once said that

there are two themes which never fail to evoke reader interest:

love and religion. Today a third has been added -- mental dis-

order.

Using the technique of the psychiatrist's consultation cham-

ber and, from time to time, even a smattering of scientific

terminology, the author, a young Cleveland woman, has skillfully

characterized her subject and woven his maladjustments into a

novel.

The story may be more autobiographical than the reader can

guess or the writer would care to admit. However that may be,

the tale is a frank and poignant portrayal of a far from pleasant

segment of life in America. In its revelations are the impossible

slum conditions of a big city (which could be Cleveland) and the

privations and sufferings of sensitive youngsters who grow up in

this difficult environment. The hero, Jake Brown, has to face not

only the hardships of urban poverty but the added complications

of a first generation child with immigrant parents. On top of all

this, comes the depression and Jake and his brother and sisters

are part of the so-called "lost generation" that grow up in a world

twisted by its self-made mistakes. Jake flounders about, though

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306   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

he is fortunate enough to retain his job as newspaper photog-

rapher, and there he is better off than the other members of his

family. Yet, he is unable to appreciate the wealth of his Old

World background and sees only ugliness and dirt and shame,

while he gropes unsuccessfully for satisfaction in unobtainable

values in the new. Thus he finds himself "twixt the devil and the

deep blue sea," or to use modern psychological "lingo," in a maze

of complexes, fears, hates and sublimations.

Through a succession of visits to a psychiatrist's office he is

gradually "straightened out" and, bolstered by the kindly encour-

agement of a remarkable younger sister (it is not difficult to guess

identity here), is brought back to normalcy and a proper perspec-

tive of himself and those about him.

The story is well written and there is a sincere attempt on

the part of the author to "understand" all the characters with

perhaps one exception -- the old grandmother remains a villainess

without a redeeming feature unless it be her going to Palestine to

die. Through the double medium of doctor and subject the writer

tries faithfully to see the other members of the family as they see

themselves. She succeeds least with the portrayal of the mother

who is vague and not nearly as alive as the others. The enlistment

denouement is a World War II version of the old-fashioned story-

book ending. It leaves the reader wondering whether Jake's new-

found peace of mind will survive camp conditions, military

training, ocean passage, bombings and strafings? One cannot say.

"Jake goes to war and all is well with Jake." That is a bit naive

and too easy a solution for a psychological tangle.

The fact that the hero is a Jew may give some readers an

erroneous impression. Jake Brown (nee Braunowitz) is not

typical of American Jewry any more than Jeeter Lester in Tobacco

Road or the Oakies in Grapes of Wrath were typical of the

American people as a whole. Rather, Jake and his family repre-

sent an unfortunate segment among Jews as well as a submerged

segment in the general American scene. They do belie, however.

the anti-Semitic conception that all Jews are prosperous. The

reader must close the volume, whether he be Jewish or Gentile,

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BOOK REVIEWS                     307

 

with the not-too-comfortable realization that "these too are my

people."

Wasteland can be called a psychological novel with a socio-

logical slant. It contains few rantings and railings against the

injustices of the social order, yet the implications are only too

plain. But, in addition, it leaves one valuable kernel of thought --

outside assistance (social workers, psychiatrists) is not enough.

The wasteland must be irrigated through the efforts of the indi-

vidual lost in its morass. The combined efforts of the sufferer

plus an understanding hand of an outsider will bring about a

metamorphosis.

Wasteland is not escape reading. It is depressing, despite its

rosy conclusion. It is thought-provoking and reading it is much

more than paying a casual visit at seeing how the other half lives.

It is life in the raw with all the sores and wounds exposed. It

makes one wince but at the same time conveys the conviction that

something can be done and that nothing is hopeless. The author

sums up her philosophy and her theme in a few sentences on

page 194 when she says, through the words of Debby, Jake's

sister: "I write about unfortunates, the people who have wandered

off into odd alleys. Physical, mental, or spiritual alleys, I mean.

The strange people, the ones who are despised, or condemned, or

lost."

Jo Sinclair shows great promise--a feminine mixture of

Farrell, Hemingway and Steinbeck, with a distinct style and flavor

all her own.

B.E.J.

 

Horn Papers: Early Westward Movement on the Monongahela

and Upper Ohio, 1765-1795. By W. F. Horn. (Waynesburg,

Pa., Greene County Historical Society, 1945. 3v. Cloth.

$30.00.)

This three-volume set of Papers is the result of many years

of research on the part of W. F. Horn, based upon the diaries

and papers of Jacob Horn, who was a justice of the Virginia

Court in northwest Augusta from 1772 to 1774. Jacob Horn died

in 1778.

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Volumes I and II contain 885 pages and numerous illustra-

tions. Volume III contains 80 maps, each 16x1₉ inches and also

a large historical folding map of southwestern Pennsylvania and

northwestern Virginia.

These diaries and papers were boxed and sealed and were

passed from generation to generation until they were finally re-

covered by Mr. Horn and presented to the Greene County His-

torical Society in 1936.

The first 141 pages of volume I are devoted to the reprinting

of the original manuscripts which constitute the principal source

material upon which the remainder of the publication is based.

The papers shed much new light on many events which are

important in the history of the Upper Ohio Valley.

New material is added concerning Hagerstown (Elizabeth

Hager's Town) and there are frequent references to Thomas

Cresap. In 1740 Jacob Horn went from Hagerstown to Snow

Creek, which is the north fork of the South Branch of the

Potomac, and here he made the acquaintance of Christopher Gist.

The Horn Papers reveal much hitherto unknown material about

Gist and his activities in the West.

Among the many interesting things in these volumes are the

Diary of Jacob Horn, 1735-1775; notes of Christopher Horn,

1772-1795; early court dockets; over 500 sketches of early set-

tlers, covering the period of 1763 to 1800; first organized efforts

to settle Kentucky; lists of Michael Cresap's company of rifle-

men, 1775; material concerning George Rogers Clark and his

conquest of the Northwest; information covering the Indian tribes

of the region; records of land surveys and much other informa-

tion desired by the historian.

The committee of the Greene County Historical Society of

Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, in collaboration with A. L. Moredock,

and J. L. Fulton who sponsored the publication, are to be com-

mended for making possible such a rich contribution of historical

material covering such an important time and place in the early

history of our nation.

H. L.

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BOOK REVIEWS                     309

 

Indiana Public Opinion and the World War, 1914-1917. By Cedric

C. Cummins. Indiana Historical Collections. Vol. XXVIII.

(Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Bureau, 1945. 254p. Illus.

$2.00.)

In this study the author, who is a professor at Indiana Uni-

versity Extension Center, Indianapolis, traces the pattern of the

changing attitudes of Indiana public opinion from the summer of

1914 to the declaration of war in 1917. Professor Cummins

points out that, at the outbreak of war in Europe, Hoosiers be-

lieved there was no likelihood of our national integrity or our

national honor becoming involved in the European war.

In two and a half years the people of Indiana were slow to

define America's exact relation to the war. Dr. Cummins' analysis

of public opinion during this period leads to the conclusion that

the citizens of Indiana were brought to support war through six

factors. These may be listed in the order of their importance as

follows: the failure of the war to remain a European conflict --

submarine controversy, sabotage, and the belief that a German

victory would place her in a position where she could move against

the Western Hemisphere; a positive nationalism; democratic

ideology; moral judgment; economic interests, and Allied propa-

ganda.

This study is well documented by footnotes and bibliography.

By means of the cartoons reproduced in this volume the author

illustrates and supports his analysis of the patterns of changing

public opinion in Indiana as the United States traveled the road

to war, 1914-1917.

M. J. M.

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