like faith in the value of the phrase " (page 34). The state, therefore, not only should impose by law upon the city sound methods of administration but also should directly supervise and control the local authorities with respect to loans, civil service, public investigations, the regulation of public service companies, and the management of municipal business enterprises.

The type of organization which in the author's mind meets the requirements of his principles is the responsible executive type" as distinguished from the "commission" and the " city council committee" types. The latter is found un-American in origin and unsuited to our conditions. The commission form is not preferred because it divides responsibility; nevertheless its value as an improvement over the council type is recognized, and the draft charter is accompanied by suggestions for modifications (pages 164-174) to adapt it to this popular form. Enthusiasts for the city-manager plan will regret that their pet project is dismissed in a brief footnote as merely a development of the commission form. The draft plan provides for an elected mayor who appoints all administrative officers and takes entire responsibility for the conduct of administration subject to checks by certain state boards in matters legitimately within the sphere of state influence and, in all other matters, by a small unicameral council elected at large for long terms, part retiring after shorter periods. The budget is to be prepared in the mayor's office and submitted to the council, which may not increase the items nor add to them.

As to franchise grants the indeterminable form is advocated, since on the author's showing any other form is adverse to the public interests. Franchises are to be granted by state legislatures subject to assent by local councils in such matters as location on particular streets. Regulation of rates and service is to be entrusted to a state board. The chapter on management of municipal commercial enterprises is startling in some of its assertions, e. g., "There are probably not more than two or three municipal gas or electric light plants in the country which would not be shown, upon a proper analysis of their financial management, to be operated at a loss, or by means of loans increasing faster than the value of the works" (page 83). But this is no condemnation of the policy; proper accounting will, in the view of the author, reveal the reasons for loss and point the way to improvements whose accomplishment is a comparatively easy task.

Little is found to praise in many of the newer instruments of democracy. The direct primary is out of place in city government because there is no need for political parties in cities, and non-partisan

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elections require no previous elections to determine candidates, for they may qualify by merely filing nomination papers." Even if this should result in the election of minority candidates the author hesitates to recommend preferential voting. The initiative and recall are condemned, as is also the referendum, except for deciding certain questions of finance, municipal ownership, and so on.

Throughout the work runs a current of distrust of the tendency to imitate foreign institutions. So far as this attitude does not result in sheer provincialism it may be commended; it is at least a welcome relief from the chorus of adulation which American observers of foreign municipal institutions have been raising.

LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY.

VICTOR J. WEST.

Progressive Democracy. By HERBERT CROLY. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1914.-438 pp.

In this volume the author of The Promise of American Life has contributed another thoughtful study of the American political system. Mr. Croly has the unusual advantage of being a student-spectator of the phenomena which he describes; and for this reason his work is characterized by fairness, poise, keenness of observation and sympathy with progressive ideas.

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In the author's view, the great problem of the present is to find some way of altering the political physiognomy of the American people, who, weary and heavy-laden with the legalism of the eighteenth century, are seeking to break the "power of the word," as he calls the federal constitution. Mr. Croly has no quarrel with the past. He warmly admires the monarchy of the Constitution" for having instructed the American people during their "collective childhood" and for having established a government which was at once authoritative, national and educational. But he becomes impatient with the present upholders of the past who, for selfish reasons, wish to perpetuate an alliance between an overgrown business system with a superannuated political system." Since the Civil War, a great deal of uneasiness began to manifest itself among large sections of the American people because of the growing influence of corporate capital on the political life of the nation. Radicalism was at first sporadic and morally indignant at this or that "abuse" which it wished to abolish in order to restore the pristine purity of the Fathers. It finally began to dawn on the minds of the more thoughtful that perhaps all was not well with the political structure established by the Constitution, so long praised as the mirror of polit

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ical perfection; and this "pervasive progressivism, which began by being dangerously indignant, ended by being far more dangerously inquisitive." The fundamental principles of the American political system -checks and balances, judicial supremacy and laissez faire—which had been accepted unquestioningly by all classes of the people, were suddenly subjected to a most searching and destructive criticism. And the end is not yet in sight.

Mr. Croly is a believer in direct government as a form of escape from the network of constitutional checks and traditional legalism. In his view, direct government, which was once impossible in large communities, has now become feasible owing to the multiplication of agencies to organize and instruct public opinion, like the public schools, popular newspapers, public forums and reform organizations. A timely chapter for New Yorkers is the one on the " Visions of a New State," wherein the author advocates the idea that the governor should be the corner stone of the new state; political responsibility is to be concentrated in his hands, for he has become primarily a law giver, not merely an administrator.

On the social side of American politics Mr. Croly has unfortunately little to say, but that little is very suggestive and interesting. His explanation of the evolution of the Republican party is one of the best things in the volume. In the author's opinion, the Republican party was the first American political organization that had a conception of the social functions of the state. It developed the idea of "economic nationalism" by using the power of the state, not only to protect property but to aid in its acquisition. For this reason, the Republicans passed homestead acts for the farmers, gave grants of land to the railroads and established a protective tariff for American industry. In practice, they revolutionized the American political system although the Constitution remained intact. Unfortunately the special interests got control of the party, and its original ideal of human welfare was lost in the service of corporate wealth. The Progressive party with its emphasis on social justice" is therefore the legitimate child of the Republican party. The author believes that the organization of an uncompromising Progressive party became necessary because the old parties took up reforms only to neutralize them; and in Mr. Croly's opinion the new party "has done more to make the progressive idea count at its proper value in American public opinion . . . than has any other agency of progressive expression.”

The author is greatly exercised over the philosophy of the Democratic party which he considers hopelessly eighteenth-century. He especially

singles out for criticism the individualistic views expressed by President Wilson in his book on The New Freedom. Mr. Croly forgets that American statesmen have developed an extraordinary capacity for keeping their philosophy and their practice in two idea-tight compartments. Mr. Wilson's philosophy has not prevented him from going serenely along the path of economic nationalism." The recent Trades Commission law, passed through his influence, together with the authority vested in Interstate Commerce Commission will in time subject all economic activities of the American people to public control. Both as governor and as president, Mr. Wilson has been an advocate of social legislation; and he is now reported to favor the nationalization of the telegraphs.

Mr. Croly has been a pioneer in the reconstruction of American political opinion. His books show originality as well as keen analysis. No man is better fitted to write the history of the Progressive party, and we sincerely hope that he will undertake the work.

COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEw York.

J. SALWYN SCHAPIRO.

Applied History. Edited by BENJAMIN F. SHAMBAUGH. State Historical Society, Iowa City, 1912. Volume I, xix, 638 pp.

A group of scholars associated with Professor Benjamin F. Shambaugh have set about applying the critical historical method to the study of the leading problems of Iowa politics, in the hope that they may use history" in working out a rational program of human progress in government and administration." The first fruits of their labors are now before us. Professor Shambaugh contributes a spirited introduction, justifying the use of history for practical purposes; and four collaborators present papers bearing specifically upon Iowa questions of public policy. Professor John E. Brindley of the Iowa State College writes on road legislation and tax administration; Professor E. H. Downey of the University of Wisconsin treats of the regulation of urban utilities and workmen's compensation; Professor Frank E. Horack of the Iowa State University deals with primary legislation; and Professor Henry J. Peterson of the Iowa Teachers' College covers the field of corrupt practices legislation.

Although all of the papers are included under the general head of "history," some of them are almost purely descriptive, for example, the essays on urban utilities and workmen's compensation; while others, such as the studies of tax administration, road legislation, and corrupt practices, rest upon broad historical foundations. Two or three of the

papers are comparative in character and draw upon the experience of other states and countries. The collection is not dominated, therefore, by a uniform plan; but despite their differences in methods all of the essays have a distinctly practical ring that will make them acceptable to the man of affairs as well as to the student. Moreover, all of them present positive conclusions for consideration. Mr. Brindley lays down certain fundamental principles of road legislation which his researches reveal to be essential to sound policy; Mr. Downey closes his study of public utilities with a chapter of suggestions for their effective regulation; Mr. Horack, seeing no signs of return from the direct primary to the convention, sketches an outline of primary legislation based on the revealed strength and weakness of the system now in effect; and Mr. Peterson concludes his discussion of corrupt practices legislation with a program of reform based upon the experience of Iowa and other states. The variety of the papers prevents any critical evaluation of them in a brief review, but it goes without saying that students of contemporary public policies will be grateful for these applications of "the new history." The historians, however, will doubtless complain that what we have here is not history, but politics and economics. The disposition of this abstract question may safely be left to the schoolmen. There will be enough contented with the results of the new method, whatever its name.

CHARLES A. BEARD.

Egypt in Transition. By SIDNEY Low. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1914.-xxiv, 316 pp.

This is Mr. Sidney Low at his liveliest and, in parts, at his best. The same faculty of keen observation and generalization, the same power of penetration beneath the superficial to the essential, and the same epigrammatic style which delighted and instructed all readers of the Governance of England are displayed in the letters from Egypt and the Sudan which have been incorporated into this volume. The author has in a marked degree what Bagehot called "an experiencing nature." When he walks along a street he knows what is on that street; when he travels all his senses are active; and when he writes he produces impressionist literature of high merit.

Inverting the order followed by most writers who have described the Nile Valley, Mr. Low begins with the Sudan and works down the river to the Delta. Since the late Mr. Thomas Cook discovered Egypt as a delightful winter resort to the pleasure seekers of Europe and America, the cohorts of his clients have made the lower Nile fairly well known