BOOK REVIEWS
Johnny Appleseed Source Book. By Robert C. Harris. (Old Fort
News, Vol. IX, Nos. 1-2,
The Allen County-Fort Wayne
Historical Society, Fort Wayne, Ind.,
March-June, 1945.
31p.)
Secretary of the Johnny Appleseed
Memorial Commission
of Fort Wayne, vice-president of the
Allen County Historical
Society, principal of the James H. Smart
School, author, inventor,
and civic leader, Robert C. Harris of
Fort Wayne has for nearly
fifteen years been doing a major service
to Middle Western folk-
lore by gathering and publishing the
facts which put historical
reality under the popular myth of Johnny
Appleseed. The fifteen
exhibits in the present pamphlet make
available much that has
been accessible earlier only in the
primary sources.
After a brief preface by Dr. Louis A.
Warren, director of the
Lincoln Memorial Library in Fort Wayne,
and an introductory
note by Mr. Harris, the following are
printed: a biographical
sketch of John Chapman by John W. Dawson
from the Fort
Wayne Sentinel of October 21 and 23, 1871;
Simonds and Chap-
man family data from Leominster,
Massachusetts; records of land
owned, claimed, or leased by John
Chapman; contemporary refer-
ences to him in Swedenborgian
publications; extant copies of his
personal orders for apple trees; record
of his purchasing a pocket
knife in Fort Wayne on Washington's
Birthday, 1840; notice of
his death from the Fort Wayne Sentinel
of March 22, 1845; twen-
ty-six of the forty-two estate papers to
be found in the Allen
County Courthouse, and a summary of
recent memorial plans and
organizations in Fort Wayne. Mr. Harris
is personally respon-
sible for bringing a large portion of
these papers to light in recent
years.
Except for the Chapman-Simonds family
data, which should
be checked with Leominster,
Massachusetts, Vital Records, the
68
BOOK REVIEWS 69
editing appears judicious and exact, so
that this source book may
be used freely for authentic reference.
Otterbein
College ROBERT PRICE.
General Education in a Free Society. Report of the Harvard
Committee, with an Introduction by James
Bryan Conant.
(Cambridge, Harvard University Press,
1945. xx + 267p.
$2.00.)
The Committee which made the
investigations and compiled
this report was composed of the
following educators: Paul H.
Buck, native of Columbus, Ohio, Harvard
dean of the Faculty
of Arts and Sciences as well as
professor of history at Harvard,
and just recently appointed provost of
the same university, chair-
man; John H. Finley, Jr., Harvard
professor of Greek; Raphael
Demos, Harvard professor of philosophy;
Leigh Hoadley, Har-
vard professor of zoology and associate
dean; Byron S. Hol-
linshead, president of Scranton Keystone
Junior College and
research fellow in education at Harvard;
Wilbur K. Jordan, presi-
dent of Radcliffe College; Ivor A.
Richards, the Basic English
man; Philip J. Rulon, Harvard professor
of education and acting
dean of the Graduate School of
Education; Arthur M. Schles-
inger, Harvard professor of history;
Robert Ulich, Harvard pro-
fessor of education and former Minister
of Education in Saxony,
Germany; George Wald, Harvard associate
professor of biology;
and Benjamin F. Wright, Harvard
professor of government. A
number of persons outside Harvard
University helped on the
study, a few from other parts of the
country, but mostly indi-
viduals from the seaboard states.
The volume is divided into six sections:
I. Education in the
United States; II. Theory of General
Education; III. Problems
of Diversity; IV. Areas of General Education;
the Secondary
Schools; V. General Education in Harvard
College; and VI.
General Education in the Community.
It is not easy reading even for the
erudite, yet its subject
and the treatment is so important that
it warrants wading through
the rather complicated and polysyllabic
style. The age-old prob-
70 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
lem of education for the masses versus
education for the more
gifted is thrashed out
and examined from its many angles. The
lack of a common
philosophy and a positive approach is felt and
expressed though no
solution is supplied. Perhaps the
whole
difficulty facing
modern educators is expressed in the closing para-
graph of the first
chapter where the writers suggest that there
must be
some, over-all logic,
some strong, not easily broken frame within which both
college and school may
fulfill their at once diversifying and uniting tasks.
This logic must be
wide enough to embrace the actual richness and variega-
tion of modern life--a
richness partly, if not wholly, reflected in the com-
plexity of our present
educational system. It must also be strong enough to
give goal and
direction to this system--something much less clear at present.
It is evidently to be
looked for in the character of American society, a
society not wholly of
the new world since it came from the old, not wholly
given to innovation
since it acknowledges certain fixed beliefs, not even
wholly a law unto
itself since there are principles above the state. This
logic must further
embody certain intangibles of the American spirit, in
particular, perhaps,
the ideal of cooperation on the level of action irrespec-
tive of agreement on
ultimates--which is to say, belief in the worth and
meaning of the human
spirit, however one may understand it. Such a
belief rests on that
hard but very great thing, tolerance not from absence
of standards but
through possession of them.
The above involved
explanation is only another way of say-
ing that education
must find a way to teach not only knowledge
itself but knowledge
as a tool to implement our way of life among
all mankind.
The book is not all
analysis and weighing and measuring,
for there are some
criticisms and suggestions. For example, the
authors feel that
school systems which expose pupils to American
history three, four,
or even five and six times result in neither
mastery of nor
interest in American history. They,
therefore,
recommend one year of
high school to be fixed for instruction
in American history.
The reviewer would like to suggest that the
study of local history
might be substituted in the elementary grades
for that of general
American history, with emphasis on a study of
the community, the
town and the state.
The writers criticize
the colleges and universities who have
planned their courses
not for prospective secondary school teach-
BOOK REVIEWS 71
ers but for prospective college teachers
or research scholars, where
a faculty member becomes "so
fascinated with the internal con-
sistency and the scholarly problems of
his specialty that he loses
all sight of its relationship to general
education."
The book also condemns the restraints
put upon teachers by
outside persons or groups in the
community and makes a plea not
only for academic freedom but for the
freedom to enjoy the privi-
leges of citizenship outside the
classroom.
The section on "General Education
at Harvard College" is not
so pertinent for the general reader
except that it is of interest to
know just what has been and is proposed
to be done on this sub-
ject in an educational institution as
outstanding as Harvard. In
the concluding chapter are reiterated
the four characteristics or
abilities which should be sought in
education, namely--"to think
effectively, to communicate thought, to
discern relevance, and to
discriminate among values." To this
the reviewer would like to
add a fifth--"to live amicably with
one's fellowmen." Much has
already been done by educators the world
over to advance civiliza-
tion scientifically but when it comes to
the difficult art of living
socially we are still relatively in the
cave-man stage. Something
must be done and done promptly to speed up on this alarming
lag between natural science and social
science or this globe of ours
will indeed end up with only insects as
its dominant inhabitants.
General Education in a Free Society is a thought-provoking
volume not only for what it says but
also for its implications.
B. J.
Captain from Castile. By Samuel Shellabarger. (Boston, Little,
Brown and Co., 1945. 632p. $3.00.)
It is a bit late at this date to sing
paeons of praise for an
already well-established best-seller
which is undoubtedly the best
adventure-story since Anthony Adverse
and has the sparkle of
Dumas plus the glamour of the age of
Cortes all liberally flavored
with the tortures of the Inquisition and
the gold of Montezuma.
Yet, it may not be amiss to jot down for
the record a few comments
on this popular novel.
72 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The headmaster of the Columbus School
for Girls is most
adept in the art of story-telling. There
is little let-up on the
exciting adventures of his hero, the
action is brilliant, the charac-
terizations colorful, and the philosophy
wholesome, if a bit on
the story-book side.
His presentation of Pedro, the book's
hero, is exceptionally
well-done and the gradual development of
Pedro's character and
his learning about the weakness of De
Caravajal and his daughter;
his first-hand experience with the
wickedness of the Inquisitor;
his realization of the injustice of the
auto-de-fe; and his later
comparison of the burnings by Christians
and by Indians are
among the best parts of the book.
Father Olmeda is excellent but not
enough is made of him.
Catana is very vivid and real and
Louisa's weaknesses are humanly
portrayed. Garcia, Cortes and Coatl are
well-drawn and de Lora
and de Silva are as genuinely villainous
as any dime-novel rascals.
There is a sensational unrealness about
the whole story that
becomes apparent only after one has
finished its pages. Pedro's
difficulties and successes follow in
breathtaking succession. With
the exception of the hero and his
family, the author draws all
his wealthy folk as wicked or weak while
practically all the poor
(even the robbers) are intrinsically
good. There is no indication
of there being a bit of bad in the best
of us or a bit of good in
the worst. Shellabarger's characters
are, for the most part, simple
folk without complexes or personality
complications. But then
the book is not intended as a
sociological study but is a novel of
much action and fine entertainment. Its
language is sprightly, its
descriptions spirited and it has action
piled upon action. Readers
will look forward to other products from
Shellabarger's pen.
B. J.
Buckeye Boy. By Marjorie Medary. (New York, Longmans,
Green and Co., 1944. 265p. $2.25.)
This is the tale of Tom Kenyon, the
orphaned son of an
itinerant Ohio printer. Tom runs away
from his uncle's home at
BOOK REVIEWS 73
Windfield in Portage County, Ohio,
during the spring of 1854 and
tries his luck on the canal.
He starts to work just at the time when
the railroads are
giving the canal companies competition.
He has some rough and
tumble experiences and finally becomes a
newspaper apprentice.
There he plays a small part in Ohio
politics during the 1850's.
The characterizations in this book are
good. Though the story
is fiction the characters all seem quite
real. Historical data is
fairly accurate and the book may be
recommended for youngsters
of twelve years of age and older.
B.J.
Fighting Liberal: The Autobiography
of George W. Norris. (New
York, The Macmillan Co., 1945. 419p.
$3.50.)
The village of Clyde, in Sandusky
County, has produced three
notable men, Major-General James B.
McPherson, who succeeded
Sherman as commander of the Army of the
Tennessee, Sherwood
Anderson, the noted author, and Senator
Norris, who for forty
years was the outstanding public figure
in America's crusade for
economic democracy. General McPherson
left no autobiography;
Anderson and Norris wrote
autobiographies far inferior to the
contributions they made in their
respective areas of endeavor.
The book being reviewed is a casually
told, and somewhat
interesting story. But it should be read
considerately. It appar-
ently is not Norris' story, but an
account edited and reworded by a
newspaper man. It smacks of the
reportorial style; i.e., the sur-
face facts are given, but the meat of
incident, the underlying
forces, causes, and motives, is not
analyzed. The value of an
autobiography, especially of a political
figure, lies in its revelation
of details as yet undisclosed. The
Norris volume fails to meet
this criterion of good autobiography.
This reviewer resented the book's
complaint against Norris'
lack of advantages in his youth.
"His hard boyhood," as the
editor refers to it, was little
different from that of millions of
other young people reared on the
nation's farms in the latter half
of the nineteenth century. Life was not
especially difficult for the
74
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Norrises. Still the volume is singularly
lacking in the sense of
humor which was one of Norris' personal
assets. In many in-
stances it is self-centered and
self-sympathetic.
That Norris made a great contribution to
American democ-
racy cannot be denied. He led the fight
against Uncle Joe Cannon
which reduced the autocratic power of
the Speaker; he championed
the anti-injunction act which
invalidated the yellow dog contract;
he fought for the Civil Service system
in federal agencies such as
the TVA and REA; he presented the Lame
Duck Amendment to
the Constitution. For many years he
stood entirely independent
of the two major parties, struggling for
non-partisan administra-
tion of government in so far as it is
possible. In two fields of
legislation he made outstanding
contributions, agriculture and con-
servation. He sponsored bills for the
relief of the farmer, in-
cluding acts for soil conservation, parity
programs, and crop in-
surance. TVA and REA stand as great
memorials to the services
of Norris: TVA, the successful effort to
conserve soil and forests,
prevent floods, provide river
transportation, and produce low-cost
electrical power; and REA, the agency
erected to carry electricity
to farms off the paths of the utilities'
lines.
It has been disappointing to read such a
weak book by (?)
and about such a great man.
J. H. R.
America Is West. An Anthology of
Middlewestern Life and
Literature. Edited by John T.
Flanagan. (Minneapolis,
The University of Minnesota Press, 1945,
677p. $3.75.)
John T. Flanagan is professor of
American literature at the
University of Minnesota, a school and a
region which is fast claim-
ing its heritage in the field of arts
and letters. He has selected for
his background the twelve states which
approximately comprise
what Lincoln called the "Egypt of
the West," being the upper
Mississippi-Missouri and the Ohio River
valleys. Ohio forms
the eastern boundary and Kansas,
Missouri and the Dakotas com-
prise the western limits.
From these states Mr. Flanagan has
chosen native novelists,
BOOK REVIEWS 75
poets, historians, and biographers and
has each pause for a few
moments before the reader as he chats
upon his favorite subject.
Before us are paraded the legends and
explorations; the geo-
graphical and physical phases of this
mid-western region; together
with intimate glimpses of life on the
frontier; in the big woods;
along the rivers; in city and small
town; from the days of Henne-
pin to the present, as seen by the
imposing array of writers from
whom the material is drawn.
Lincoln, Field, Sandburg, Cartwright,
Sarett, White, Lindsay,
Clemens, Lewis, Lardner, Anderson,
Darrow, Ferber, Ade, Riley,
Masters, and half a hundred others
appear, accompanied by brief
but invaluable biographical sketches by
the editor. As the reader
finally lays aside the book he looks
about him with a new under-
standing of his homeland and holds a new
sympathy for those
who have lived there.
Wellington, Ohio KARL O. TOWNSEND.
Lake Erie. By Harlan Hatcher. The American Lakes Series,
edited by Milo M. Quaife. (Indianapolis,
Bobbs-Merrill Co.,
1945. 416p. $3.50.)
It is a pleasure to review this volume
for it is a good book.
In the first place it is a combination
of solid history, interesting
description and accurate reporting. In
the second place it is a
definite contribution to the literature
on Ohio, as well as the states
of New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan,
the Province of On-
tario, and the Great Lakes as a whole.
In the third place it has
the value unique among technical studies
of being readable for
the layman as well as the scholar.
Dean Hatcher has written a general
history of Lake Erie. He
has also done a nice job of relating the
communities along its
borders to the lake itself. The
historical tour the author presents
includes the cities of Buffalo, Erie,
Conneaut, Ashtabula, Cleve-
land, Lorain, Sandusky, Toledo, and
Detroit, in the United States,
and Windsor, Amherstburg, Kingsville,
Port Talbot, Port Stan-
ley, Port Burwell, Port Dover,
Nanticoke, Port Maitland, and
76
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Port Colborne, on the Canadian side. The
historical visits to the
islands in the western part of the lake,
Kelleys, the Bass Islands,
and Pelee, are especially fascinating.
Lake Erie was the first formed of the
Great Lakes chain. It
is a relatively shallow body of water,
and therefore easily stirred
to storm proportions by roaring winds
from Upper Canada and
subtropical highs from the South. The
shoreline is constantly
changing. Mud from the cultivated lands
along the rivers on the
Ohio shore is washing into the lake so
rapidly that some types of
fish have been driven from its waters.
This lake was the transportation route
of the early settlers to
northern Ohio and Ontario. They came by
way of the Hudson
River and the Mohawk Valley to Buffalo.
After 1825, the Erie
Canal brought them to the lake where
they boarded sailing vessels
and steamers to various points along the
shores. The future pros-
pects of the lake region combined with
the rich fur trade were
basic causes of the 18th century rivalry
between the French and
British for the territory. Later, in the
Revolution, the Indian
Wars, and the War of 1812, the new
Americans struggled for this
section which they considered vital to
their expanding empire.
The development of commerce on the lake,
the improvement
of sailing vessels, the use of the
steamboat, and the evolution of
the great freight and ore boats of today
are important to the
story of the economy of the lake shore
and, to a large extent, the
rapid industrialization of the United
States. The discovery of
the Mesabi Range and the organization of
the iron-ore shipping
industry on the lakes preceded and
accompanied the rise of the
iron and steel centers of Ohio and
Pennsylvania. The importance
of Lake Erie and the Great Lakes chain
in the nation's economy
is reflected in the tonnage figures. In
the seven and one-half
months of navigation in 1944, the
freight carried on the lakes
totalled 184,155,384 tons. The full
significance of this figure is
realized when it is pointed out that it
is two and one-half times
greater than all war cargoes carried in
the same year by America's
merchant fleets in both the Atlantic and
Pacific. Approximately
half of the tonnage on the Great Lakes
was in iron ore.
BOOK REVIEWS 77
One can read the romance of shipping on
Lake Erie in
Mr. Hatcher's book. One can also read
about the grain-shipping
fleets, the huge elevators of Buffalo,
the shipbuilding yards at
Conneaut, Cleveland, and Lorain, the
rise of the lake cities, the
fishing industry, the culture of the
grape and the production of
wine along the shores and on the Wine
Islands, the tourist and
vacation industry of the gaudy Victorian
days and today. One
may also travel with Mr. Hatcher aboard
a large freighter from
the mud flats of the St. Clair to
Buffalo.
The book achieves its purpose. It is
difficult to see how the
condensation of Lake Erie's history into
one volume could escape
the aspect of a catalog in certain
spots. There are some pages
which approach mere listing. Furthermore, the volume is a
historical account and inventory. The
significance of the lake in
the national scene is left largely to
the reader's powers of deduc-
tion. Finally, there is considerable
emphasis on "Masters of
Capital" who gained their fortunes
through the lakes, while rela-
tively little attention is given to the
millions of people who have
turned Lake Erie to human benefit.
Mr. Hatcher's Lake Erie is
recommended to all readers,
young and old alike, who are interested
in Ohio and her history.
J. H. R.