FRANK BUCHMAN'S SECRET

Peter Howard, a British journalist who worked closely with Dr. Frank Buchman for more than twenty years, has put together a rather loosely organized, apostolic tribute this initiator of Moral Re-Armament. For the unversed reader it will be disjointed going. Unravelled lumberingly are the facts of MRA: that it is ""a crack of the whip for Christians who have forgotten their mission"", that it ""offers a positive alternative to sincere Marxists"" by fighting economic absolutes with Christian teaching. A detailed picture of Buchman himself -- who he was, what he was, how he got that way -- seems always promised and never realized. There are sundry anecdotes on his influence upon Sun Yat-sen, Firestone, Edison, Ford -- many, many more of this century's most eminent and significant leaders -- but Howard's idol is canonized in limbo. There is no development, no growth, no real establishment of the devout sage -- or of his movement -- only chatty, spiritual stories. It will take a more objective reporter to produce a biography of substance.