LEGACY FOR OUR SONS
By
From the problem novel, to the novelized polemic, as the life story of Harrison Day provides a register of middle-class ambitions and reactions, and provokes a springboard for some rather nettled criticisms of current political practices and legislation. This follows Harrison's rise- as a railroader- with Median and Southern; his marriage to Helen Brice and attainment of the ""good life"" as they move into a more substantial home and sphere, anticipate college for their children- Barny and June. Controls hamper and harm them in their rental of a small cottage on their property; inflation devaluates the war bonds they have bought; the sale he makes of a small patent is taxed away to nothing; and Barny, his son, reflects the new attitudes of labor (even to the point of Communist influence and infiltration) and is involved in an act of sabotage against the railroad while Harrison, speaking his mind, loses his job as the government moves to take over the road... The not so still, small voice of reaction, and the medium here lends no particular conviction to the protest.