Books: Man v. Machine

MEN AND MACHINES—Stuart Chase— Macmillan— ($ 2.50).

Many an arm-chair philosopher considers modern man a slave of the machine. Not among them is Author Chase.

After briefly dissecting the anatomy of the machine, relating Egyptian, Greek, Roman and early European origins of the machine, and continuing mechanical history from James Watt, steam engine “inventor,” to Mr. Televox, Westinghouse machine man, Author Chase gets down to his business.

This business involves facts and figures embracing what the machine does to men. At the end Author Chase balances the machine’s effects good, bad and indifferent, and from the whole account concludes: “Engines have been enslaved by man.”

Worst danger: any time in the future, machines may escape man’s “poor discipline” in a two-hour mechanized warfare in which, according to Author Chase, all the cities of the world will wipe out one another.

“There is one good thing certainly to be said about the next war. . . . With lungs full of diphenyl chloroarsine (dropped from the invulnerable machines of the air) we shall not need to worry about anything ever again.”

Author Chase, now 41, looks more like 41 than his publisher’s photographs of him. His first book, The Tragedy of Waste, indicated civilization’s waste, pleaded for reform. His second, Your Money’s Worth, written in collaboration with F. J. Schlink, flayed 20th Century advertising methods (TIME, July 25, 1927).

Born in Somersworth, N. H., Author Chase, specializing in economics and statistics, took a Bachelor of Science degree cum laude from Harvard in 1910. A Certified Public Accountant in 1916, he next year joined the Federal Trade Commission, was sent to Chicago to investigate Armour & Co. Working with the U. S. Food Administration in 1918, he left it for another investigation: milk. He joined the staff of the Labor Bureau, Inc. in 1921, is now President.