For the Record (review)

126QUAKER HISTORY Former students have provided ample testimony concerning the effectiveness of Jesse Holmes's classroom performance. He was always probing, raising troublesome questions and often espousing shocking ideas. He was an enthusiastic participant in the Honors Program, but he was not inclined to research and writing. His many interests precluded a scholarly life, even if he had desired to pursue one. He was a dedicated agitator for social justice, a person whose honeymoon trip included a temperance lecture. Because he was such a brilliant speaker he was much in demand by various groups whose concerns overlapped his. A major figure in Hicksite circles, he spoke to hundreds of Quaker gatherings expressing concerns for economic justice, racial equality, a more dynamic peace witness, civil liberties and other social issues. He was a co-founder of the AFSC and a traveling commissioner in Europe for the Friends Reconstruction Unit. In later life he became a newspaper columnist. He also spent fourteen summers on the Chautauqua circuit, and ran ior Congress and for governor of Pennsylvania on the Socialist ticket. Each of these activities brought a new audience and untold numbers were influenced and inspired by Jesse Holmes's words and deeds. Albert Wahl's biography reveals all one needs to know about Jesse Holmes, his wife "Rebe" (Rebecca Webb Holmes) and more. The book is well-researched, but the author has included so many details about every aspect of his subject's life, except his Democratic Socialism which gets minimum attention, that it is difficult to separate the trees from the forest. A partly chronological and partly topical organization becomes confusing at times. There is no index, and the footnotes are only available in separate mimeographed form. Nevertheless, this biography should help keep alive the contributions of its remarkable subject and serve to inspire others into paths of social service. Those seeking a shorter and livelier introduction to Jesse Holmes's life will find it in the author's summary article, "Swarthmore 's Renaissance Man 'Ducky' Holmes" in the February 1980 issue of the Swarthmore College Bulletin. Wilmington CollegeLarry Gara For the Record. By Felix Morley. South Bend, Indiana: Regnery/Gateway , Inc., 1979. 472 pages. $15.00. Few American Friends, withdrawn as most of them are from public life, can report such a variety of experiences in the world of politics, national and international, as Felix Morley. Born on the Haverford campus in 1894 of an English Quaker father and an Anglican mother, he has witnessed more than eighty of the most fateful years of western civilization: witnessed , reported, commented upon and criticized. He even wept over it, for near the end of his long life, Felix Morley almost despairs of the world whose disintegration he has witnessed. But he has not quite given up, for a cascading energy such as his, the deep grounding in classical political philosophy which he received at Oxford, and perhaps his religious associations give him some hope for mankind. Felix Morley's Quakerism lay somewhat lightly upon him. His professor fadier was mathematician first and Quaker second, as I recall from a story diat Christopher Morley told at their fadier's memorial service at Haver- BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES127 ford. Professor Morley, having been called to Johns Hopkins after ten years at Haverford, was disciplined by the elders of Baltimore Meeting for suddenly bursting forth with an ejaculation of pleasure at the mathematical thought or theorem which was running through his head during the course of a quiet First-day meeting. Felix tells the story on himself (p. 347) of a visit in 1940 by his old philosophy professor, Rufus Jones, who urged him, "to return to Haverford (by accepting an offer to become president) 'not because thee is a good Quaker but because some further exposure to Quakerism will do thee good.' " Morley goes on to say, "I was indeed already aware that my life was deficient in spiritual values and that I had need of them." Whether his years as Haverford's president gave him those spiritual values which he hoped for, I cannot say. Certainly they were difficult and exacting years, as all of us who were there can attest, for a...