income received by working men with the amount families must spend. The last chapter summarizes the whole problem of meeting expenses with the income which a workingman can obtain. The appendix contains some individual family budgets. One or two brave assumptions are made regarding the applicability of the statistics to others than those specifically dealt with. On the whole, however, the volume is a readable review of certain statistical sources (to which ample reference is made). In addition, it contains masses of facts which, however mute, are in their way far more powerful arguments than are the adjectives and paraded facts of Social Adjustment and Social Religion.

The recent agitation of the land question in England has led Sir Thomas P. Whittaker, M. P., to undertake a comprehensive investigation of the whole problem under the title of The Ownership, Tenure and Taxation of Land (London, Macmillan and Company, 1914; XXX, 574 pp.). As the author says in the preface, the book is not intended as a work of original research, but is simply an endeavor to bring together such statistical and historical information as is available, and to discuss it in a common-sense way. He takes up, in particular, problems of the origin of private property in land, the history of land tenure and of enclosures, and the taxation of land values. As might be expected, he is fundamentally opposed to most of the extreme propositions of which we hear so much nowadays, but he shows his fairness by suggesting a limited additional rate on land values for local purposes. While his arguments are not always convincing, many of his discussions are apt and valuable, and the book can be read with profit by all those who are interested in the practical aspects of land reform and land taxation.

The Land and the Commonwealth (London, P. S. King and Son, 1913; xiii, 314 pp.), by T. E. Marks, deals with the problem which for some years has been vexing the British mind. Americans have heard much of late of the land policies of Mr. Lloyd George. As Mr. J. Hugh Edwards, M. P., who wrote the introduction to this book, puts it, "The problem has alternately scared and baffled successive generations of British statesmen." Further, he says, "Great as is Mr. Lloyd George's record in the domain of legislative and administrative achievements, it is not too much to say that in no direction has his genius for constructive statesmanship displayed such radiance as in his recent campaign over the land question." But the author does not hold a brief for Mr. George and his policies. He treats his subject from no narrow viewpoint. His book "concerns the foundations " of the land question.

It locates the vulnerable spots in the ramparts of the system of land tenure. It delves down into the economic basis of the whole question, and, with a resourcefulness of statistical and argumentative force, shatters the ramparts which have so long sheltered monopoly and oppression. Mr. Marks brings to his task an opulence of information and a mastery of detail which are reflected on every page. The work may be justly described as one that is absolutely indispensable to any politician or reformer-be his politics what they may—who desires to master in all its intricacies a question which is now becoming the dominant issue in British politics.

Thus writes Mr. Edwards in his introduction, and this statement is fully justified. A careful reading shows that the writer has been fair to all sides, brilliant in his presentation, full in his details, and judicial in his interpretation of facts. So far as England is concerned, the book is timely; for the American student and legislator, it has many valuable lessons to teach.

A Pilgrimage of British Farming (New York, E. P. Dutton and Company, 1913; xiii, 452 pp.) by A. D. Hall, is an account of a journey undertaken by the former director of the Rothamstead Experimental Station, finally occupying three summers (1910-12), with the purpose of seeing what is the actual state of British agriculture at present. It gives a detailed statement of the crops grown and the methods used over the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, touching upon such problems as small holdings, systems of tenure, coöperation, and the like.

Mr. R. H. Rew, who is an assistant secretary to the board of agriculture, has collected in a volume entitled A Agricultural Faggot (London P.S. King and Son, 1913; xi, 187 pp.) ten essays published at various times during the past twenty-five years. There are excellent historical chapters, and the book contains not a little discussion of problems of current interest-migration of agricultural laborers, combination and cooperation, and Britain's dependence on foreign food.

Those who are interested in knowing about the trade conditions of Latin America will find South and Central American Trade Conditions of To-day (New York, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1914; xiv, 255 pp.) by A. Hyatt Verrill, a very serviceable handbook. The first half of the volume gives a brief account of the Latin-American trade conditions and the customs of the business world there, shows the weaknesses of the system hitherto used by the United States to secure a share in this trade, and points out the means to be employed in the development of our Latin-American commerce. The latter half contains statistics of both the import and export trade of each of the republics, with an indication of the articles of trade and the valuation of the same for the

latest year for which figures are available, together with the railway mileage, information regarding ocean transportation from the United States ports, and other useful data. There are included a series of diagrams representing the division of the trade of each of the LatinAmerican countries among the nations of the world. The book is useful for the general student as well as for the merchant and exporter.

Mr. B. Olney Hough, in Ocean Traffic and Trade (Chicago, LaSalle Extension University, 1914; vi, 432 pp. with map) describes existing ocean traffic in all its phases. He discusses carriers, ports and terminal facilities in the United States, routes, methods of shipping, insurance, combinations in ocean traffic, methods of getting foreign business and dozens of other topics. The book is illustrated and contains reproductions of large numbers of shipping documents. While it does not deal at all in theory, it will be found useful by anyone who wants a knowledge of how traffic and trade by water is actually carried on.

Turgot occupies the enviable distinction of being not only the greatest economist but in some important respects the greatest statesman that France has produced. Students of his economic writings have had to depend upon the two-volume edition of Daire, published over half a century ago, and the somewhat longer edition that was issued by Dupont de Nemours in 1808. In the interval many additional sources of information have become available. M. Gustave Schelle, who is well known by some earlier brief books on Turgot, has had the fortune to be able to utilize all the family papers of Turgot preserved in the castle of Lantheuil, and has also secured from Senator Dupont of Maryland the entire correspondence that Turgot carried on with his ancestor, Dupont de Nemours. These, together with a number of other finds. were so numerous, and the documents published in the earlier editions were so inaccurate, that M. Schelle conceived the idea of publishing a complete edition of Turgot's works with notes. The first two volumes. of this edition have appeared under the title of Oeuvres de Turgot et Documents le concernant (Paris, Félix Alcan, 1913, 1914; two volumes, ii, 682, 719 pp.). The first volume deals with the period up to 1761, the second volume with part of his governorship of Limoges from 1761 to 1767. The third volume is to deal with the remainder of the Limoges period, the fourth and fifth volumes are to deal with his ministry. M. Schelle has done his work with great care and has utilized the convenient device of marking with a double asterisk all new material and with a single asterisk the old material which was more or less inaccurately presented by preceding editors. The publication of the correspondence would alone have warranted a new edition; but much

of the subject material, especially on the problem of the single tax, is of the greatest interest. M. Schelle is to be congratulated upon furnishing what may well be declared to be the authoritative edition of the great Frenchman's works.

The lectures delivered by Professor Ashley at the Kolonial Institut at Hamburg in 1912 have been published in book form under the title of The Economic Organisation of England (London, Longmans, Green and Company, 1914; viii, 213 pp.) They give in succinct form and with Professor Ashley's customary literary skill a survey of English economic history on very broad outlines. Among the striking passages of the work are the following:

By capital the business world has always meant-whatever the economists may have tried to mean-wealth which is owned and employed for the purpose of gain [page 69] . . . The industrial organisation of the future will probably emerge, as did that of the later Middle Ages, from a union of state regulation from above with spontaneous combination from below [page 172]. . . Society is feeling its way, with painful steps, toward a corporate organisation of industry on the side alike of employers and of employedwith the state. . . . alert and intelligent in the background to protect the interests of the community. The world has never yet had complete individualism; it will never, I believe, have complete socialism. It has to create a working compromise suited for each age [page 190].

The fiscal agitation in France has again centered about the problems of local as well as of state finance. In local finance the principal question has been the assessment of real estate. M. Arthur Girault, professor at the University of Poitiers, happened to be the mayor of a rural commune of seven hundred people and succeeded in obtaining the funds necessary for a new survey of real estate. His experiences led him to write a book entitled La réfection du cadastre (Paris, Librairie de la Société du Recueil Sirey, 1913; 213 pp.) which he dedicates to the mayors of all rural communities. As the French realestate tax is still levied on the net produce of the land, the survey and valuation form a much more complicated matter than where the assessments are made, as in the United States, on the basis of selling value. The original survey according to the law of 1807 took almost fifty years to complete and a new survey was arranged for by the law of 1898, although the funds for the purpose are only grudgingly voted from year to year. Professor Girault considers the law of 1907 which provides for a valuation without a survey as essentially bad and in his interesting book shows in detail the necessity of equalization through a

He has, however, not much hope of a speedy ac

proper survey. complishment of the task.

This will

The other side of fiscal reform is presented in a book entitled La crise des finances publiques en France, en Angleterre, en Allemagne. (Paris, Felix Alcan, 1914; 264 pp.) The authors are M. Landry, well known to students of economic theory and now a deputy, and Professor Nogaro of the law faculty of Caen. They point out that what is needed in France is not only a refashioning of the entire revenue system but also a reform of the budgetary system very much on the lines that are being made familiar in the United States by the bureaus of municipal research and the movement for efficiency and economy. come somewhat as a surprise to those who have always upheld French budgetary methods as more or less ideal. It shows that the movement for budgetary reform is coming to be a world movement. So far as revenue reform is concerned, the authors point out that the 800,000,000 additional francs needed to balance the budget are to come in almost equal proportions on the one hand from an income and a property tax, and on the other hand from indirect taxes on drinks as well as from new fiscal monopolies. As the book was written before the present war, it is more than probable that the figures will have to be completely revised in order to meet the burdens which will ensue.

In a supplementary number of the Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft Dr. Friedrich Harzendorf gives a survey of the history of the English income tax under the title Die Einkommensteuer in England (Tübingen, H. Laupp'schen Buchhandlung, 1914; vi, 202 pp.). For the earlier period he bases himself almost entirely upon the investigations of Mannes and for the later period he contents himself with the official reports and the parliamentary debates. His account of the development, while accurate, lacks the atmosphere that would have been given by a discussion of the contemporary literature. He seems to be entirely unacquainted with the most recent English and American writings on the subject.

The reaction against the present-day tendencies in economic thought in Germany is in full swing. Professor Ludwig Pohle of Frankfort takes up the subject in a vigorous polemic entitled Die gegenwärtige Krisis in der deutschen Volkswirthschaftslehre (Leipzig, A. Deichert, 1911; xiv, 136 pp.). Professor Pohle finds that ever since the formation of the Verein für Sozialpolitik the German economists have confused science with politics or rather have subordinated economic science to social policy, and his book is an energetic plea for a return to what he calls scientific ground. He deplores the fact that there is virtually no eco