"ALL I knows is what I sees in the papers" is the prefatory remark to the penetrating political comments of many hot' stove league observer. If you are willing to admit that in the past year of amazing activity along so many different lines, you don't even know what you have seen in the papers, Lindley's book will be an admirable introduction, review, or reference book on the New Deal. If you want scientific comment on economic or administrative phases of the Roosevelt regime, if you are looking for primer like explanations of the fundamentals of Tugwellian economics or for predictions of future development, this book doesn't fill the bill. It tries to get at recovery philosophy and to talk of "The Next Phase," but all it succeeds in doing is giving the news.

As news it is good. It takes up the story begun by Mr. Lindley in his campaign biography of Roosevelt. A balanced readable account of the campaign moves naturally into the exciting story of the "Interregnum" and the "Crisis." Then the wave of public opinion for inflation, the London conference, the N. R. A. the "Official Family," and the inevitable "Brains Trust" get their chapters. Each is handled with a careful accuracy in detail and mild enthusiasm which shows the Rhodes Scholar Lindley inhibiting the feature writer Lindley.

Light is thrown on numerous controversies which the undergraduates of today are and the Ph.D.'s of the 1950's will be wrangling about. The President is pictured as a strong, subtle, versatile genius, "the first American with any practical chance of reaching the Presidency to grasp the essentials of the distributing mechanism of capitalism." The encomiums are cautiously phrased yet the receiver is inclined to wonder if the general impression is not a little misleading. It is easy to agree with Mr. Lindley that Franklin Roosevelt had a liberal political philosophy before he met his brains trust but memories of the vacillating treatment of Tammany, the time required to make up his mind about issues like unemployment insurance, and other aspects of the Albany days make us realize that the quoted remark of Walter Lippmann about a pleasant gentleman who had no important qualifications for the Presidency was not completely wrong then. Presidential treatments of last June's compromise on veteran's cuts and of the abandonment of the tariff agreement bill, as well as the abdication of the vital tax issue on the recovery bill are all glossed over a bit, though not seriously.

An unusual, consideration for Barnard's brainy booster is shown in Lindley's discussion of the Hull-Moley controversy. Apparently Moley tried to be tactful in London but Hull's suspicions and force of circumstances would not let him. Eventually Hull's anger and the need of keeping Southern political support forced Roosevelt to sacrifice his professor publicly. Recent signs that Moley is still in the President's private favor bear out this analysis.

Lindley realizes vaguely but does not quite phrase one of the fundamental criticisms of the Roosevelt administration which is sharply illumined by the Hull Moley duel. Mr. Roosevelt has shown us respect for the principles of hierarchical distribution of power and immediate responsibility of higher officers. Putting the nationalist Moley under the internationalist Hull was an open invitation to trouble. In other departments, the President's desire for centralization through the personal listening posts has led to difficulty as Lindley remarks.

Throughout the volume, the bankers are in for the castigation which one would expect of an administration sympathizer. An amazing comparison, of the investigation of the House of Morgan with an investigation of Tammany enlivens the book. Similar characteristics are observed in the following pairs; J. P. Morgan and John F. Curry (simple honest belief in the "system"), George W. Whitney and James J. Walker (plausibility and simple thought), Thomas W. Lamont and John W. Delaney (astuteness), Otto H. Kahn and John H. McGooey (affable admission of error).

All in all, this is a valuable book. If you haven't followed the papers closely and want to know what is going on in the home of the brave, it's the best guide so far