s
part in the World War.

Brand Whitlock is so much more than an author that it is with an effort
that we turn to consider his literary work. His first book, _The
Thirteenth District_, published in 1902, was a novel of American
politics; it contains a capital description of a convention, and shows
the strategy of political leaders as seen by a keen observer. In _Her
Infinite Variety_ he dealt with the suffrage movement as it was in
1904, with determined women seeking the ballot, and equally determined
women working just as hard to keep it away from them. _The Happy
Average_ was a story of an every-day American couple: they were not
rich, nor famous, nor divorced,--yet the author thinks their story is
typical of most American lives. _The Turn of the Balance_ is a novel
that grew out of his legal experiences: it deals with the underworld of
crime, and often in a depressing way. It reflects the author's belief
that the present organization of society, and our methods of
administering justice, are the cause of much of the misery in the world.
Following these novels came two volumes of short stories, _The Gold
Brick_ and _The Fall Guy_: both deal with various aspects of American
life of to-day. In 1914 he published an autobiography under the title
_Forty Years of It_. This is interesting as a picture of political life
of the period in Ohio. His latest book, _Memories of Belgium under the
German Occupation_, tells the story of four eventful years. In all that
trying time, each night, no matter how weary he was, he forced himself
to set down the events of the day. From these records he wrote a book
that by virtue of its first-hand information and its literary art ranks
among the most important of the books called forth by the Great War.

THE TRAVELING SALESMAN

_The traveling salesman is a characteristic American type. We laugh at
his stories, or we criticise him for his "nerve," but we do not always
make allowance for the fact that his life is not an easy one, and that
his occupation develops "nerve" just as an athlete's work develops
muscle. The best presentation of the traveling salesman in fiction is
found in the stories of Edna Ferber. And the fact that her "salesman" is
a woman only adds to the interest of the stories. When ex-President
Roosevelt read Miss Ferber's book, he wrote her an enthusiastic letter
telling her how much he admired Emma McChesney. We meet her in the first
words of this story_.

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