Riches & Power

The Review of Reviews craves subscribers. Like nearly all non-fiction magazines, it lures them with rich promises of premium,--i. e., some- thing presumably more attractive than the magazine itself. Through the mails citizens are receiving the latest lure.

The premiums offered with 18 months subscription to the Review are copies of Bruce Barton's The Man Nobody Knows* and The Book Nobody Knows. The Man is Jesus Christ; the Book is the Bible.

In advertising these books the premium circular preaches:

"Jesus ... a killjoy? He was the most popular dinner guest in Jerusalem.

"A failure? He picked up twelve . . . men and forged them into an organization that conquered the world.

"Every businessman will read it and send it to his partners and salesmen, for it will be the story of the founder of modern business.

"Jesus was a real executive . . . a great advertising man. The parables are the greatest advertisements of all time."

Scattered between these curious descriptives of the founder of Christianity are paragraphs extolling the benefits of a subscription to The Review of Reviews.

In a letter accompanying the circular was the following paragraph: ". . . Barton's two books interest and aid the rich and powerful; they help any cub salesman to get orders for shoe polish--and to work on principles that lead him toward riches and power."

Commented The Nation, intellectual weekly: "Riches and power--and orders for shoe polish. There was once a man who talked differently. 'Blessed are the meek,' he said. 'Why take ye thought for raiment?' 'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.' 'Go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor.' 'Verily I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.' 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.' And in one terrible passage: 'Woe unto ye, scribes and Pharisees. . . .'"

*Many biographies of Jesus have recently been published, treating the subject variously. One which is commanding attention is JESUS, --Shirley Jackson Case--University of Chicago Press ($3).