Books: Ballot Barons

THE PRESIDENT MAKERS—Matthew Josephson—Harcourt, Brace ($3.75).

With the implacable serenity of a man with a thesis who does not at all mind being a bore, Matthew Josephson continues to tell Americans that their administrators and respectable citizens are a bunch of crooks. He does not always use epithet. In a really crushing mood he just calls them politicians and businessmen. In The Politicos (1938) he exposed the politicians; the capitalists caught it in The Robber Barons (1934). This being election year, Historian Josephson explores the devious ways by which the electorate is hoodwinked while...