NEWBOLD MORRIS in collaboration with ANA LEE THOMAS. Let the Chips Fall: My Battle Against Corruption. Pp. xiii, 308. New York: Appleton-Century- Crofts, 1955. $4.00

• Author: Wallace S. Sayre
• Published date: 01 July 1955
• Date: 01 July 1955
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271625530000134
• Subject Matter: Articles

143

the

National

Archives,

the

Papers

of

Colo-

nel

House,

and

the

Oswald

Garrison

Villard

Papers,

to

mention

only

a

few

of

them.

The

result

of

the

author’s

failure

to

re-

search

widely

enough

is

a

book

that

re-

cords

the

events

of

the

Red

scare

com-

petently

but

lacks

depth

and

such

under-

standing

as

the

scholar

can

obtain

only

from

private

sources,

and

in

its

coverage

does

not

go

much

beyond

the

work

of

Zechariah

Chafee,

Jr.,

Frederick

L.

Paxson,

Frederick

Lewis

Allen,

Mark

Sullivan,

and

other

men

who

have

written

on

the

same

subject.

ARTHUR

S.

LINK

Institute

for

Advanced

Study

NEWBOLD

MORRIS

in

collaboration

with

ANA

LEE

THOMAS.

Let

the

Chips

Fall:

My

Battle

Against

Corruption.

Pp.

xiii,

308.

New

York:

Appleton-Century-

Crofts,

1955.

$4.00.

This

autobiography

of

an

important

New

York

City

reformer

and

political

leader,

prepared

in

collaboration

with

a

profes-

sional

writer,

centers

upon

the

era

of

the

La

Guardia

administration

in

which

New-

bold

Morris

had

a

leading

part.

The

story

traces

his

career

from

his

youth

as a

mem-

ber

of

one

of

New

York

City’s

patrician

families,

through

Groton,

Yale,

the

Yale

Law

School,

into

his

father’s

law

firm,

and

his

father’s

place

on

the

Republican

party

committee

in

the

upper

East

Side

&dquo;surtax&dquo;

district,

then

into

the

Board

of

Alderman,

and

then

city-wide

election

as

president

of

the

City

Council.

His

1945

and

1949

can-

didacies

for

mayor,

and

his

brief

experi-

ence

as

a

special

investigator

for

President

Truman

in

1952,

are

largely

anticlimactical.

Of

special

interest

is

a

chapter

on

the

New

York

City

Center

of

Music

and

Drama,

which

may

well

prove

to

be

Newbold

Mor-

ris’

most

enduring

contribution

to

the

life

of

his

city.

The

approach

and

tone

of

the

volume

are

indicated

by

its

subtitle:

My

Battles

Again,vt

Corruption.

From

this

reform

perspective

the

story

is

told

with

sincerity

and

integrity,

and

with

impressive

faith

in

the

reformers’

diagnosis

and

remedies

for

governmental

shortcomings.

But

it

must

be

noted

with

regret

that

the

autobiography

does

not

probe

very

deeply

nor

produce

new

insights

into

the

political

and

governmental

life

of

New

York

City.

The

volume

suffers

from

its

dependence

upon

secondary

materials

and

twice-told

stories,

and

from

its

lack

of

new

and

intimate

information.

There

is

sur-

prisingly

little

of

the

kind

of

significant

firsthand

information

and

the

revelation

of

personality

which

marked,

for

example,

the

autobiographies

of

Theodore

Roosevelt

and

Robert

M.

LaFollette.

This

failure

may

be

illustrated

by

the

fact

that

the

two

cen-

tral

figures

in

the

author’s

political

life-

Kenneth

Simpson,

the

Republican

leader

who

first

sponsored

Morris,

and

Fiorello

La

Guardia,

who

gave

him

greater

promi-

nence-do

not emerge

from

Morris’

ac-

count

with

any

new

dimensions;

instead,

they

remain

stock

figures

in

a

conventional

reform

drama.

There

is,

too,

an

absence

of

reflective

detachment

and

self-criticism,

demonstrated

most

clearly

perhaps

by

the

failure

of

the

narrator

to

see

any

contra-

diction

between

his

long

battle

for

indi-

vidual

rights

and

dignities,

and

his

plan

to

subject

all

federal

employees

in

1952

to

a

questionnaire

and

a

prospective

inquisition

which

was

an

affront

to

their

self-respect.

WALLACE

S.

SAYRE

Columbia

University

CARL

CARMER.

The

Susquehanna.

Pp.

493.

New

York:

Rinehart

and

Com-

pany,

1955.

$5.00.

When,

in

1937,

the

late

Constance

Lind-

say

Skinner

planned

the

Rivers

o

f America

series,

she

was

inaugurating

not

only

a

se-

ries

but

a

trend.

Since

then

we

have

had

series

devoted

to

mountains,

trails,

lakes,

regions,

and

cities.

The

appetite

of

the

American

reading

public

for

books

dealing

with

folk

history

seems

never

to

be

sati-

ated.

In

this

original

series

alone

we

now

have,

counting

the

present

volume,

forty-

eight

books.

The

present

author,

whose

earlier

volume

on

the

Hudson

was

widely

acclaimed,

is

now

general

editor

of

the

series.

Flowing

out

of

Otsego

Lake,

in

south-

central

New

York,

the

Susquehanna

drifts