Mellow Essays

IT is a property of complex situations that studies of them usually result in a confirmation of the prejudices of the observer. Only the trained experimentalist can keep from selecting those features of the situation which prove his point and neglect the other pertinent but obscure factors. Edward J. O'Brien is not a trained social experimentalist. In "Dance of the Machines' 'he does succeed in focussing a brilliant spot-light upon many of the deadening influences of the machine upon the American mind, but he is far from successful in proving that the machine and its concimmitants give rise to all the deplorable aspects of the American scene.

Built on a unique plan, the book starts with a discussion of the machine and an enumeration of some thirty of its essential features. This is followed by an identical analysis of the modern army, which along with the modern short story discussed in the next chapter, reproduces almost exactly the essential features of the machine. Such remarkable uniformity in such widely separated fields puts an obvious strain on the most compliant credulity. No doubt such analogies are entertaining and serve to make certain vague concepts more easily memorable, but they can hardly serve as a basis for serious study.

A proper criticism of Mr. O'Brien's social theories would take one beyond the scope of this review and would in fact necessitate the employment of most of modern economics and sociology. He is particularly exercised over the increasing standardization of American production and even goes so far as to deplore President Hoover's campaign to reduce varieties of pipe fitting from 17,000 to 610. Perhaps this reviewer is biased, but an intimate acquaintance with a summer water supply dependent upon the cooperation of a Michigan-made pump and the usual New Hampshire assortment of pipe fittings makes him side definitely with the administration on this point.

A much better case is made against standardization as applied to the American short story, perhaps because this is more closely allied to the author's usual sphere of influence. The implications of his economic theories cannot well help being too much for the treatment afforded by the hundred or so pages allowed this section of the book, and, after all, who is to tell whether mankind is more happy working eight hours a day on a production line or tolling sixteen on the hereditary farm? True it is, as Mr. O'Brien points out, that machines are becoming the masters of their operatives, but are these men worse off than their ancestors who maintained life only at the pleasure of seven-year-locusts or the various vagaries of the weather?

But if "Dance of the Machines" fails to settle most of the questions which it raises, it does serve as a racy presentation of problems which demand the attention of intelligent modern men. The author's racy style cuts sharply into one's mind and the very incisiveness with which his opinions are expressed cannot help stimulating reaction of some sort on the part of his readers. As stated in the preface, that is the real purpose of the book, and throughout its pages are scattered exhortations to the reader to disagree if he likes but to do some sort of thinking anyway. But there is little to disagree with in the criticism of the American short story with which the book ends. Mr. O'Brien is on familiar ground here and he succeeds in making a pretty concise exposition of what is wrong with those tales which so innocuously while away so many Thursday nights