[PC/SR]

Babbitt as a bearing material will handle anything that inserts will. Don't worry about compression ratio. The difference comes at over 4000 rpm when pressure oil is needed and no one that I know of is making babbitted rods set up for pressure oil at that speed. I have heard that pressure to the original babbitted A and B rods was done back in the day, and maybe Jim Brierley has some historical knowledge on that. Jim has run pressurized babbitt mains on his Bonneville car for many years and that is a pretty good testament for babbitt.
My suggestion to 1929 is save the money (put it into your pocket, or a good camshaft and counterbalanced crank depending on your use) and go with babbitt unless you plan to go over 4000 rpm in which case you need pressure oil and only inserted rods are available for that so far as I know.
That said I think inserts are probably the wave of the future just because more people are learning how to machine for inserts than are learning to do babbitt. Maybe the market will change that if there is enough demand. Babbitt is cheaper because the machining is not necessary. Either way, ask questions and get recommendations. A bad job on either will have the same result.