Worrying Won't Win

Abe Potash and Morris Perlmutter turn wartime news into arguments shaped by office talk, business troubles and family comparisons. In Montague Glass's comic dialogues, the fall of the Czar becomes a discussion of credit ratings, competitors and bankruptcy. The partners weigh distant political events through the practical language of their own working lives, with misunderstandings and verbal sparring carrying the humour.

The collection also takes up financing the war, the sugar question, income tax, music and the theatre. One exchange finds Abe troubled by alarming newspaper headlines while Morris suggests helping local hospitals and orphanages. Their talk moves between anxiety about events overseas and doubts about the reliability of reporting. Readers interested in American responses to the war can find a record of public concerns, expressed through two argumentative voices and their habit of bringing large affairs down to familiar business terms.