18 DECEMBER 1926, Page 26

OF MANY THINGS. By Otto H. Kahn. (Jonathan Cape. 18s.

net.)—Great financiers seldom give definite expression to their views on politics and trade, and still more rarely have anything to say about the arts. Mr. Kahn is an exception to the rule. He writes freely and well about all matters that interest a cultivated man, and his volume of collected papers and addresses is well worth reading. He deals with international problems from the best American standpoint, with British-American relations—" It is the qualities of her people that have made for England the position which she occupies in the world "—and with the domestic affairs of his country. But he also has much to say about American art and drama and about the New Yorke opera, of which he has been a generous supporter. Always he is moderate, reasonable and hopeful. The best of all the chapters is the long and admirable study of his old friend, the late Edward Henry Harriman, " the last • figure of an epoch " in American railway history. There was something heroic in Harriman, though his methods did not always commend themselves to a suspicious democracy. We do not forget the way in which Mr. Kahn rose to meet the difficulties of his position during the War.