TRAVELS IN TWO DEMOCRACIES

Twenty years ago a red-headed boy nurtured in the aristocratic Ivy Club walked out of the conservative halls of Princeton and after taking many paths landed in the left wing of Socialism. In this personally-conducted tour through the murky spots of these United States and the red highways of Russia, "Bunny" Wilson pulls black rabbits out of Uncle Sam's hat and pink rabbits out of the Muscovite bonnet. He reveals sidelights on the human traits of the Russian, his ambitions, frailties, idiosyncrasies and hunger for learning and for economic security. His overemphasis on the contrast between the Russian gaiety and Chicago's ugliness and smells makes his view of his native land too violently antagonistic. His pen cuts into the marrow of our social problems — although in the last analysis he suggests that the Russian way is not for us. There are sketches, too, on religion (the chapter on the Oxford Group Movement is a high spot), on bankers, on old houses, on Hull House, on a motley array of subjects to please — and displease every taste. Quite entertaining reading and unbalanced as it is — is an interesting revelation of contrasting life.