Monday. Feb. 22. 1960 University Daily Kansan
Page 3
A CENTURY OF DARWIN; edited by S. A. Barnett, Harvard University Press, $5.75.
HEREDITY AND EVOLUTION IN HUMAN POPULATIONS, by L. C. Dunn. Harvard University Press, $3.50.
These two volumes will provide the non-specialist with an excellent introduction to some major biological problems: evolution genetics, animal psychology, population variation, etc. They appeared during the centenary of Darwin and at a time when the biological sciences are entering upon what may well be their golden age.
Barnett has brought together essays by fifteen experts of the high caliber of Waddington, Dobzhansky, Hammond, Romer, inter alios. This panel examines the historical role of Darwin's seminal thought in diverse divisions of the life sciences and social sciences. The careful reader will thus obtain a glimpse of the history of biology as well as a view of the front wave of speculation and contemporary experiment.
Dunn's volume is the first in a projected series of Harvard Books in Biology. It simplifies complex scientific problems without the usual vulgarization. It presents a clear picture of the current relation between evolutionary theory and genetic science. Some of the most recent discoveries in this field point to the long awaited links between the historical sciences and biology. Human evolution is a continuing process. Human intervention in this process has already begun.
There is an obvious connection between some of Dunn's statements and current political controversy in such widely separated fields as race relations and nuclear fall-out. With reference to the latter, this expert writes:
"There is no safe lower limit to the effect of increased radiation; any increase in radiation increases the probability of mutation. Since most mutations are deleterious, the counsel of wisdom would be not to permit increases in the risk known to accompany increased radiation until the extent of the risk can be determined."
Since the proponents of bigger and better nuclear blasts take an ignorant public for granted. Dunn's work might well provide an argument for those who feel that the welfare of future generations is at stake.
Certainly, the biologist and the geneticist, long familiar with the radiation problem, deserve as much careful attention from the prospective victims of radiation injury as the wizards who pioneered the manufacture of weapons of genocidal properties. No mutation without consultation might well become the rallying cry of an educated populace.
***
By Calder M. Pickett Associate Professor of Journalism THE AMBASSADORS, by Henry James, Signet C
THE AMBASSADORS, by Henry James. Signet Classics, 50 cents
Journeying through the labyrinthine ways of the latter Henry James, as many a reader knows, is no easy task. The words themselves are not forbidding, nor, after some examination, are the concepts. But the language possesses special nuances; the sentences are as intricate as a maze. There is none of the comparative simplicity of "The American" or the pace of "The Turn of the Screw."
Newly published in Signet Classics, with an afterword by R. W. Stallman of the University of Manchester, is James' "The Ambassadors," one of the great three of the author's later life (the others are "The Wings of the Dove" and "The Golden Bowl"). Professor Stallman deals at some length with the symbolism of "The Ambassadors," but offers little to help the reader who might hope to understand this tricky novelist.
Newsome is in Paris, where his family fears he has fallen victim to the wiles of a European, Mme. de Vionnet. True, Chad is in love with the lady, but pretty much by his own choice. He has made his covenant with the way of life in Europe, and he intends to stay in Europe. Strether, through urging of Chad's mother, wishes Chad to return to America. And when Strether himself succumbs to the other hemisphere (as James himself of course did), another ambassador arrives, Chad's sister.
Stallman's point is that the overpowering theme of "The Ambassadors" is time, and the proper use of time. The hero is Lambert Strether, a middle-aged businessman from Wollett, Mass. — and incidentally a manufacturer of clocks. It is the clock which has imprisoned Strether and many of his fellow Americans, but one of them. Chad Newsome, has escaped the prison.
Chad does stay in Paris, and Strether returns. But Strether has learned much, or what he has always known has been developed into a philosophy of life through his tenure in Europe.
That philosophy constitutes what James would call the "germ" of the novel, for the great stylist always carefully built his novels and short stories around a theme already arrived at. That philosophy is "Live all you can; it's a mistake not to." James himself observed that this was what "The Ambassadors" was about.
"The Ambassadors" compares interestingly with James' other novels dealing with the "international theme." Where in his other novels Christopher Newman, Isabel Archer and Milly Theale are ingenuous victims to the sinister forces and people of Europe, Lambert Strether and Chad Newsome are never caught in such webs. These Europeans are not the evil figures of "The Portrait of a Lady" or "The Wings of the Dove"—practical, cunning, scheming, entrapping the open and honest Americans. These are perhaps the kind of Europeans that Henry James had found, that kept him in Europe, that eventually made him a British subject.
Here is a great novel, but one that requires work. Signet Classics presents it in an attractive format, and it should find many readers. But they must be prepared to weave in and out of the intricate James tapestry. Their efforts will prove rewarding.
SAN FRANCISCO — (UPI)
Members of the California Legislature indicated today that convict-author Caryl Chessman will face heavy odds in his efforts to escape the gas chamber for the ninth time.
California Legislature Says Chessman Still Faces Fight
The 38-year-old robber-rapist was granted a reprieve by Gov. Edmund G. Brown early Friday, just 10 hours before Chessman's eighth scheduled execution at San Quentin Prison.
Brown said he granted the 60-day reprieve to allow the people of California through the Legislature to decide whether capital punishment should be abolished.
The Governor said his action was partly motivated by a U.S. State Department message concerning the possible effect of Chessman's execution on President Eisenhower's goodwill trip to South America.
Both reasons touched off immediate controversies.
The Legislature has defeated eight bills to ban the death penalty in the past 27 years—the latest in 1959.
A survey conducted by United
Summer Projects Outlined to Students
Kenneth A. Kirkpatrick, director of the college program of the American Friends Service Committee, visited KU Friday to discuss work camps and other summer projects with students.
Programs are open for young people of all religions, races, and nationalities, including co-operative living in American or overseas work camps, community service, hospital service and summer "peace caravans," which tour various cities to lead public discussions of world affairs.
Let us dream. We begin with dreams, we end with dreams; and when dreams are no more we shall be animals again—Will Durant
Press International during the weekend showed that the Legislature again would vote down any attempt to abolish capital punishment. A majority of the members also was overwhelmingly against clemency for Chessman.
The UPI survey, with 85 per cent of the state's 118 legislators polled, showed:
- Abolishing capital punishment:
Senate (40 members) — 21 against,
9 for and 7 no stand. Assembly (78
members and 2 vacancies) — 37
against, 20 for and 7 no stand.
- Clemency for Chessman: Senate
  - 20 against, 6 for and 11 no stand.
Assembly — 46 against, 10 for and
8 no stand.
Brown's move also brought a threat of his impeachment and started an investigation into how the state department became involved in the case.
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