nomic theory in Germany today and that the average university student receives from his lectures on economics little but ethical and political suggestions. That there is much truth in this can scarcely be denied. The book reminds us surprisingly of Cairnes's The Character and Logical Method of Political Economy, written over a generation ago, with the exception that while Cairnes was opposing the introduction of the new ideas, Pohle is championing a return to the old. Germany is at the present time undoubtedly less fortunate than other countries in that there is a virtual monopoly of economic research by a single school.

A somewhat less violent, and on the whole less able, work is Die historische Schule der Wirtschaftswissenschaft (Bern, von Stampfli et Cie., 1914; iv, 291 pp.) by Dr. Lifschitz, privatdozent at Bonn. Dr. Lifschitz deals with the subject historically and takes up in turn List, Roscher, Hildebrand, Knies, and Schmoller. He finds Knies the ablest of the historical economists but complains that they are self-contradictory and that they confuse teleology and natural law on the one hand and economic politics with economic theory on the other. Dr. Lifschitz shares the general views of Menger in his famous controversy with Schmoller, and demands a return to philosophy as the only solid foundation for the economics of the future.

In an exceedingly lucid and well written monograph Dr. P. Katzenelsohn makes an interesting contribution to the little-known fiscal history of Russia under the title of Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Finanzen Russlands, 1560-1796, (Berlin, Ebering, 1913; 125 pp.). The present instalment deals with the period from the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century and attempts to give only a broad survey of the general development. We shall look forward with interest to the succeeding instalments of what promises to be a valuable work.

The well known book of M. Tougan-Baranowsky on the historical evolution of modern socialism, which appeared in German a few years ago, has now been translated into French by Mr. Schapiro under the title of L'Evolution historique du socialisme moderne (Paris, Marcel Rivière et Cie., 1913; 247 pp.). Tougan's contribution is most interesting because it shows how one can virtually abandon all the scientific tenets of Marxism and still remain a socialist, even though he be one of the sentimental socialists upon whom Marx poured out the vials of his contempt. As the author tells us at the end of his book, socialism is bound to come because, independently of any scientific basis, socialism has its profound roots in the hearts of those who suffer and it is for them an ideal and a matter of faith. Accordingly the largest part of the book is devoted to the sketch of the ideal socialistic organization

of society. Tougan has thus gone through the phase of scientific socialism to which the American party still seems to be addicted. His book will be all the more interesting as showing that socialism may survive even without science.

Professor Vandervelde, the well known Belgian socialist leader, discusses a much controverted topic in his new book entitled La coopération neutre et la coopération socialiste (Paris, Félix Alcan, 1913; 227 pp.). He takes up in successive chapters the history of the relations of coöperation and socialism and the present-day facts, and he then addresses himself to the problem as to whether the coöperation of the future is to be carried on by socialists or non-socialists. His solution is to be expected. Real coöperation is to be founded not on the principle of class collaboration but on the principle of class war, and the real coöperation which seems to him desirable is the coöperation of workers in their inevitable struggle against the capitalist. So far as coöperation remains neutral today, M. Vandervelde thinks it is only a tactical neutrality which must ultimately disappear.

Mr. Emil Davies, whose name has become familiar both as the author of several books on railway nationalization and as the writer of the money-market articles in The New Statesman, has collected a great mass of interesting and less familiar examples of government enterprises in The Collectivist State in the Making (London, G. Bell, 1914; 267 pp.). Mr. Davies takes no pains to conceal his sympathy with what he considers a world movement, and he does not refrain from rather broad generalizations; but the value of his book consists in the surprisingly large number of practical examples of so-called collectivism which he has been able to marshal from the uttermost ends of the earth.

A more restricted field is covered by George Herbert Perris in The Industrial History of Modern England (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1914; 603 pp.). Beginning with the industrial revolution. the author travels over more or less well-known fields; but he breaks comparatively new ground in the last half of his work, and especially in the chapters entitled The Liberal State, The Awakening, and The New Age. The book is well written and accurate. It contains seven appendices, largely statistical in character, and a good bibliography. It will prove to be a convenient manual for courses in modern economic history.

It has often been asserted that the proponents of "socialism" and of “individualism" respectively, in the senses in which those terms are commonly employed, would ultimately so modify their several systems that all would finally occupy common ground. In an interesting and

suggestive booklet, The Social Commonwealth (New York, Lincoln Publishing Corporation, 1914; 189 pp.) Mr. Bernard Rosenblatt outlines a socio-economic organization of society which combines the competitive and the socialistic systems. As a solution of the labor problem he suggests a voluntary coöperative community to which the individual might turn and obtain a minimum wage fixed by public authority. As a substitute for the single tax, which, with its program of virtual confiscation could hardly be acceptable to one trained in the law, Mr. Rosenblatt offers a plan of expropriation with compensation. Such expropriation should not, he believes, he extended to include agricultural lands. The monopoly problem, Mr. Rosenblatt believes, could be successfully handled by public competition through the agency of such governmental bodies as were most advantageously situated for such competition. Natural monopolies would of course be completely taken over by the public. Incidental elements in Mr. Rosenblatt's program are full and free education, a public medical service and public trial lawyers for the defence as well as for the prosecution. blatt discusses his proposals in some detail and with commendable enthusiasm. He would probably be the last one to maintain that his several suggestions are beyond attack. It is enough to say that with splendid idealism he has tried to find a solution for the vexing economic problems of the day. There is hope for the society that can command such helpful service.

Mr. Rosen

In a compact volume bearing the title Where and Why Public Ownership has Failed (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1914; xiii, 459 pp.) M. Yves Guyot has set about the task of showing" the vanity and 'bluff' of Socialist programs," to use his own phrase. He has carefully raked over the figures of municipal and state enterprises in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Switzerland, Russia and the United States for evidences of failure and loss. He has found plenty of "horrible examples " as well as minor lapses, and these he brings together without discrimination or scientific evaluation. Any stray newspaper account or ex parte statement that suits his purpose, he uses as if it were a wholly authoritative analysis by someone competent to make it. The idea that the state should be a model employer is odious to M. Guyot, for it is simply "a robbery of the whole body of taxpayers for the sake of the minority who will profit by it." Hygiene, sanitation, conservation, are only new forms of the old cry salus populi, "" which has served to justify all the tyrannies of the ages." Anyone who has labored over the three bulky volumes of the report of the National Civic Federation on municipal ownership in Great Britain in a vain

endeavor to discover the truth about public operation in that somewhat narrow field will appreciate the value of M. Guyot's attempt to dispose of state and local enterprises all over the world in a summary fashion, particularly in view of the avowed spirit in which the task is undertaken. Except to the partisan who cares nothing about accuracy and self-respect and to the optimistic socialist who thinks anything the state does is necessarily good, the book is useless.

In the days when Pepys buried his savings in his garden, investment in the modern sense was virtually unknown. In the interim, however, times have changed. Today the investment field is so broad, the possibilities of profit-and of loss-are so numerous that the uninitiated investor needs the services of a professional guide if he is not to pay too dearly for his experience. In some directions, however, investment has become a science, and certain general principles have been worked out which have enabled the novice, in gauging an investment, to understand and to apply tests of his own. Two books have recently appeared which undertake to expound these principles for the investor, and which aim at the same time to supply him with as broad a view as possible of all the factors that affect the promise and security of the different investment possibilities. One of these books is Professor E. S. Mead's The Careful Investor (Philadelphia and London, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1914; 290 pp.). The other is Franklin Escher's Practical Investing (New York, Bankers Publishing Company, 1914; 177 pp.). Professor Mead's book has twenty-four chapters as against fourteen in Mr. Escher's. Both authors of necessity treat certain common topics, like the influence of the gold supply, the movement of prices, the nature and character of different investment securities etc. While Mr. Escher always feels himself in the capacity of one leading and helping a given individual, Professor Mead discusses the situation in general, leaving each individual to observe and select according to his own judgment and conclusions. Both books will prove instructive and helpful for those who, for practical purposes, need the kind of instruction that the books contain. The student to whom investment is simply a socio-economic phenomenon, however, may not find so much of value.

Bender's War Revenue Law (Albany, Mathew Bender and Company, 1914; xxviii, 181) is a treatise prepared by the publisher's editorial staff" dealing with the federal act passed in October, 1914, to meet the anticipated deficiency in tariff collections. The text of the act is printed in full and each group of sections dealing with a particular phase of the law is followed by historical notes and references to decisions. Nearly

one-fourth of the volume is taken up with indexes, tables of cases and bibliographical lists, which add materially to the usefulness of the book.

Taxation in Massachusetts (Boston, The Financial Publishing Company, 1913; xiv, 826 pp.) by Philip Nichols is a book of reference equally valuable to the lawyer and layman. To the lawyer it affords a compendium of practically all the law on the subject. In each section the present statutory provisions relating to the subject considered are given in full, together with references to former provisions. Some twelve hundred decisions of the courts of the state and of the United States are cited, many of them more than once. An especially valuable feature of the book are the author's brief abstracts of the majority of the cases cited, thus showing at a glance which cases are pertinent to the particular question under investigation. Another feature of not a little value to the lawyer working on a problem in the law of taxation is the rather full consideration given to the history and development of the tax laws of the state; for not only does it frequently become necessary to know just what the law was at a given time in the past, but such knowledge is often essential to an intelligent comprehension of the present law. A large number of forms are given in the appendix, each of which has a reference to the particular section of the text to which it relates. The volume is not only a satisfactory book for the practitioner, but it will serve as well as an excellent handbook for city and county assessors and collectors. Its use by the layman is facilitated by its avoidance of unnecessary and technical legal terminology. Even the lawyer may welcome a book written in simple terms.

In Le Crédit industriel et commercial (Paris, H. Dunod and E. Pinat, 1914; 313 pp.) Professor Adolphe Landry discusses in the main the shortcomings of the French credit system and the proposals that have been advanced to meet them. These shortcomings fall largely in the field of credit facilities for the small business man and of the facilities available for the longer-time borrower. Professor Landry's discussion is illuminating, however, in other directions as well.

M. Étienne Martin, who is known in France by several books on the the whiskey monopoly, and on English taxation, has now attempted to cover the broader field of English fiscal and economic history in his Histoire Financière et Économique de l'Angleterre (1066-1902) (Paris, Félix Alcan, 1912; two volumes, xii, 512, 642 pp.). The book is a straightforward account of the English development, based largely upon a few current English reports and the customary secondary material. Almost no attempt has been made to break fresh ground and almost no