States, No. 87, Dec., 1887; Ernest Seyd, Bimetallism in 1886, London, 1886; R. Giffen, Essays in Finance, 1880, and other dates; Some Bimetallic Fallacies, in Journal Institute of Bankers, June, 1886: Prof. Emile de Laveleye, The Economic Crisis and Its Causes, in Contemporary Review. May, 1886; Samuel Smith, The Bimetallic Question, London, 1887; Rt. Hon. G. J. Goschen, On the Profitable Results of an Increase in the Purchasing Power of Gold; Lawrence J. Laughlin, History of Bimetallism in the United States, 1885; F. A. Walker, International Bimetallism, 1896; M. S. Wildman, Money Inflation in the United States, in Journal of Political Economy, March, 1906; A. P. Andrew, The Bimetallic System of Currency, in Political Science Quarterly, Sept., 1900.

BIOLOGY AND SOCIAL REFORM: The connection between biology and social reform is one which tends to be brought into greater prominence with the advance of knowledge. It is not long ago since the whole class of phenomena which human society presents was regarded apart in itself and as having little or no connection with those to be observed elsewhere in the history of life. The first consistent attempt on an extended scale to connect together through the principle of development and continuity both classes of phenomena was made by Mr. Herbert Spencer. "Social Statics," which in many respects may be regarded as the starting-point of the synthetic philosophy, dates. back to 1850. One of the leading ideas in this system of philosophy-in which First Principles, Principles of Biology, Principles of Psychology, Principles of Sociology, and Principles of Ethics have been steps in an ascending series has been to trace this principle of development up to and into human society. Toward the elucidation of the laws at work in this society, all the work of science in lower fields has been regarded as preliminary. It was, however, with the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species" in November, 1859, that the greatest impetus was given to the study of human society from the biological standpoint. The full effect of this impetus is not yet felt in many departments of knowledge which are almost certainly destined to be eventually profoundly altered by it. For many years after the publication of this epoch-marking book the effect of the fructifying ideas which it contained was necessarily limited to a few departments of knowledge. Gradually, however, the circle of their influence has extended, until one after another of lower sciences, and particularly those connected with life, have been reconstructed and transformed. The principle of the continuity of development, structural and functional, is now well established; but in the long uphill battle which has had to be fought before the ideas con

Breadth of the Subject

nected with it obtained general acceptance, it has necessarily happened that the sciences connected with man in society have been the last to be influenced. But that they are now beginning to feel the effect of the revolution is evident. What we are coming to see is that in human society we have only the last and most complex chapter in the history of life. The historian, the political philosopher, the economist, and the student of ethical phenomena are all dealing with just the same problems, altho in different form, that science has been concerned with at earlier stages, and even to a large extent throughout the history of life. It is in the proposed solutions to problems connected with the distribution of wealth that we have at the present day the dividing lines which separate most of the various political parties into

which our modern society is split up.

Birmingham

It is with

these problems, too, that the economist is largely concerned. Yet such problems in themselves constitute only an aspect of the highest and most complex phase of that struggle and rivalry of existence with which the biologist has already dealt on a lower plane. Some of the older economists, indeed, at times saw this more or less clearly. "Only through the principle of competition has political economy any pretension to the character of a science" was a dictum of John Stuart Mill. The point at which the social sciences tend to be most significantly influenced by biology may be indicated. What is becoming more clearly recognized is that, as biology would lead us to expect, the conditions affecting the distribution of wealth, which the evolutionary forces at work in human society are ever tending to develop, are not necessarily those that parties or classes desire for themselves, but rather those which are continually tending to produce the highest efficiency of the whole social organization. The old utilitarian ideal of the greatest happiness of the greatest number is not, therefore, always, or even often, the same as the ideal of the greatest utility. Thus in a sense the whole of the problem before modern socialism can be stated in biological terms: Is it a movement which is tending to produce the highest standard of social efficiency, or is it one the effect of which will be to produce the maximum of ease and comfort to the largest number of individuals? The lesson of biological science for society would appear to be that, so far as it produces the latter to the exclusion of the former, to that extent it must fail of ultimate success (but see EVOLUTION). BENJAMIN KIDD.

BIRMINGHAM: City of Warwickshire, England; one of the chief industrial centers of England, and the leading hardware city of the world; population (1905) 542,959. It was an Anglo-Saxon town, and became an important industrial city even in the Middle Ages. Its great importance, however, dates from the seventeenth century, in the manufacture of swords and guns. As early as 1727 its hardware manufacturers are said to have employed 50.000 persons. By the end of the century it was known throughout the world. In the industrial revolution of the era of the eighteenth century it became a Liberal center, and in the nineteenth century a leader in reform and chartism. Evils, however, developed, and by 1873 Birmingham's municipal government was considered one of the worst in England.

In 1873 came a change. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain was elected mayor, and commenced an era of municipal activity. The sum of £2,000,ooo was paid for the plant of two gas companies, a large price; yet the profits the first year were £34,000, and they have since doubled. The price, too, since 1875 has been reduced from 3s. to about 2s. per 1,000 feet. Since 1889 the employees have had the eight-hour day. In 1874 the city paid £1,350,000 for the existing water-works of a private company, and since then the works have been extended, the daily supply doubled, and the cost to consumers much reduced. In 1875 Mr. Chamberlain laid before the council an Improvement Scheme, which has since been adopted, and whereby the city took forty-five acres of the most crowded and most unwholesome portions of the city, covered by 1,368 houses, condemned the whole district, and has opened in its place the

Birth-Rates

finest public thoroughfare of the city, "Corporation Street," lined by fine business blocks. These buildings have not been sold, but leased for seventy-five years. The gross outlay April, 1904, was £1.730,

Improvement

Scheme 303, but the yearly cost is lessening

and the rentals are growing. In fifty years from the time of the investment the debt will all have been paid, and the city will own these structures in clear title. Mr. Chamberlain believes that Birmingham will be the richest municipal corporation in the kingdom. The investment already pays, since the death-rate of this district has been lowered, from 60 to 20 or 25 per 1,000. The city has developed a fine sewerage system and a large sewage farm, a wholesome and agreeable tract of land under high cultivation and with rich crops. Birmingham was the first city in England to establish municipal baths. The first was opened in 1851, at a cost of £24,000, and there are now four, besides swimming-baths, Turkish baths, etc. The city has laid and owns several lines of tramway, within the city limits, but leases them to private companies on favorable terms. It is calculated that in twenty-one years this will pay for the whole investment. As the city can borrow at 3 per cent, it is a profitable investment. The companies have to pay all bills for maintenance and repairs, and are minutely supervised as to the furnishing and lighting of the cars. The city owns her own markets, having bought them of the manorial lord in 1824, and they now yield some £10,000 a year profits. The city owns more than ten parks, for its population of 500,ooo. Its debt, which before Mr. Chamberlain became mayor was small, is now some £15,000,ooo, but it has assets of £16,000,000, and the rates are almost exactly what they were in 1873.

by the council for six years. The city has a lord mayor who is elected annually by the council. Birmingham is now often spoken of as "the best governed city in the world.'

REFERENCES: History of the Corporation of Birmingham, by Bunce, 1885; Municipal Government in Great Britain, by Albert Shaw, 1895; article in Harper's Monthly, lxxxi, 99, by Julian Ralph.

BIRNEY, JAMES G: Abolitionist; Presidential candidate of the Liberty Party (1840 and 1844): born in Danville, Ky., 1792. Originally a slaveholder, and at one time agent for a colonization society, in 1834 he freed his slaves and established an abolition newspaper. Fear of violence compelled him to leave Danville, and subsequently Cincinnati whither he had moved. He came to New York, where he was Secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1842 he moved to Michigan, and a fall from his horse disabled him from further political activity. He died in 1857.

BIRTH-RATES: In nearly every civilized country, the numbers of births and deaths are matters of careful record. Unfortunately, however, this is not true of the United States as a whole. The U. S. census calls "registration areas districts where there are adequate official returns; and the only states whose records were accepted as accurate by the census of 1900 were Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, in addition to certain counties and cities of New York and New Jersey. Europe, however, registration has been in the main complete, beginning with England in 1838. The following tables, except where otherwise indicated, are taken from reports of the RegistrarGeneral of England:

In

In 1899 the electric plant was also municipalized. In 1896 a municipal technical school was erected at a cost of £100,000; it has some The city has other Government 3.000 pupils. schools, colleges, art school, galleries, etc. Queen's College is connected with the London University. The municipal government is conducted by fifty-four councilors and eighteen aldermen. The councilors are elected once for three years, one third going out of office each year. The aldermen are elected

This table and the following indicate a slowly but steadily decreasing birth-rate. The United States had a birth-rate of 31.5 in the census year of 1880, tho all census birth-rates are admittedly too low. For 1890 it was 26.68. The birth-rate for 1900 was 27.2. Few of the states publish

records of births. The birth-rate for Connecticut averaged 23.6 for 1850-60; 22.7, 1861-70; 24.6. 1871-80; 23.0, 1881-90; 24.1, 1891-1900, and 22.4 for 1901-2. In Rhode Island, owing probably to immigration, the birth-rate has somewhat

Concerning the cause of the decreasing birthrate, the position of MALTHUS is well known. Tho attacked by GODWIN it became universally accepted. Herbert SPENCER agreed with Malthus, but held that the very fact that population tends to increase beyond the means of subsistence is the cause of human progress. He argues that the progress of civilization, produced by the never-ceasing pressure of population on the means of subsistence, leads to a diminishing birth-rate. More modern discussions of the subject have been led by Dr. George Hansen in Germany; M. Levasseur, M. Leroy-Beaulieu, and M. Dumont in France; Dr. George Blundell Longstaff and Dr. J. Milner Fothergill in England; Dr. John S. Billings, Dr. Cyrus M. Edson, and others in the United States.

Levasseur1 argues that inequalities of production are the cause of changes in the increase of population. M. Dumont argues that, tho on the surface the decrease of population is an economic question, at bottom it is intellectual, political, and esthetic; that as the desire to rise in the industrial, intellectual, political, or esthetic world increases, the birth-rate diminishes. Dr. Hansen, Dr. Longstaff, and Dr. Fothergill,5 show especially the evil influences of city life upon the population, both in weakening the vi

1 Levasseur, La Population Française, iii., pp. 27, 218-20,

"23 Dumont, Dépopulation et Civilisation, pp. 97, 356.

Hansen, Die Drei Bevölkerungstufen.
Longstaff, Studies in Statistics.
Fothergill, The Town Dweller.

Birth-Rates

M. Levasseur and M. Dumont hold the same opinion. Says the former:

"By prevision we understand the human will restraining or directing the reproductive instinct, with a view to bringing children into the world only at such times and in such numbers that the father can hope to support them and to educate them for a position equal to his own. Prevision is the characteristic of the man who

Voluntary Prevention

reflects, and who, conscious of his responsibili ties, does not leave his destiny to chance. This virtue is the palladium of human liberty. The philosopher and the economist who believe in that liberty ought, if they are logical, to recommend such prevision, recognizing that if it is useful in the great mass of actions, it is nowhere more opportune than in the grave question of the growth of the family and the education of the child. It is enough to lay down as a general rule that reason should control instinct." M. Dumont says: "The real cause of the decrease of our birth-rate is the wish to have few or no children, and that wish is determined by a combination of intellectual, moral, and esthetic tendencies peculiar to our people."

Dr. Cyrus M. Edson' agrees with Dr. Billings that "the voluntary avoidance and prevention of child-bearing is steadily increasing," but thinks that the principal cause is the physical and nervous deterioration of the women of the United States; and this, he asserts, is largely due to the severe strain of modern life and education. In fact, any one who is at all familiar with the statistical and medical literature of the subject is aware that the voluntary prevention of conception is the explanation of the diminishing birth-rate that is generally accepted by physicians and statisticians.

Comparing the statistics of Europe for 1896 and the U. S. 1890, the countries with the highest birth-rates were Russia, Hungary, and Austria; and those with the lowest, France, Ireland, the U. S., and Sweden. Birth statistics are evidently affected by the extent to which prevention of births is practised in different countries, but generally speaking the more uncivilized the race, the higher the birth-rate. In India the birth-rate is said to be 48. In the U. S. in 1890, it was 26.35 for whites, 29.07 for colored, and 38.29 for whites with both parents foreign.

A large excess of the birth-rate over the deathrate, such as exists in England and in Germany, constitutes an undoubted element of national strength. In France the excess of births over

Billings, The Diminishing Birth-rate in the United States (The Forum, June, 1893).

7 Cyrus M. Edson, American Life and Physical Deterioration (North American Review, October, 1893).

Black List

deaths has been constantly diminishing, until in 1890 there was an excess of deaths over births. This condition is viewed with alarm by intelligent French writers, and is termed by M. Cheysson a "national peril." He states as among the causes of the low birth-rate of France, "the growth of large towns, debauchery, overcrowding in manufacturing centers, the French law of inheritance, and the 'moral restraint' of Malthus, practised not by the poorer class, who are prolific, but by the well-to-do classes, who are systematically sterile."

Birth-rates also undoubtedly vary with economic conditions. Von Meyr showed that births in Bavaria from 1835 to 1860 rose and fell diversely with the price of rye.

Mrs. L. K. Commander, in her recent book, "The American Idea" (1907), has collected a large amount of testimony in regard to the situation in the U. S., and thus sums it up:

(1) The size of the American family has diminished. (2) The decline is greatest among the rich and educated, but also exists to a marked extent among the middle class and the intelligent poor.

(3) Only the most ignorant and irresponsible make no effort to limit the number of their children.

(4) Not only has the large family disappeared, but it is no longer desired.

(5) The prevailing American ideal, among rich and poor, educated and uneducated, women and men, is two children. (6) Childlessness is no longer considered a disgrace, or even a misfortune, but is frequently desired and voluntarily sought. (7) Opposition to large families is so strong an American tendency that our immigrants are speedily influenced by it. (8) The large family is not only individually, but socially, disproved, the parents of numerous children meeting public

censure.

She says that of thirty-eight physicians in New York City replying to questions, thirty said "two children" was the ideal American family; six said "one child"; one said, “having a family is not an American ideal." President Eliot of Harvard University finds that of six classes more than twenty-five years out of college, the number of children surviving born to members of those classes averaged almost exactly two to a family; while twenty-eight per cent are unmarried. Professor Thorndike of Columbia University found that of the women college graduates of Vassar, Smith, and Wellesley, from 1880-84, 55 per cent were married (up to 1903), while of graduates from 1898 to 1899, only 5.5 per cent were married (up to 1903). He says that 45 per cent of all women college graduates marry, while of the general female population who reach the age of forty, 90 per cent marry (Popular Science Monthly, May, 1903).

The organ of the New York Church Federation (Federation) says that religious belief strongly affects the birth-rate. "The maximum (fam

1 Presented by Dr. J. Bertillon, International Statistical Institute, St. Petersburg, 1897.

ily in New York) is Hebrew; the minimum agnostic. The Roman Catholic average is higher than the Protestant; the positively Protestant than the indefinitely Protestant; the indefinitely Protestant than the definitely agnostic."

REFERENCES Essay on the Principles of Population, by R. T. Malthus, 1798; Enquiry Concerning Population, by W. Godwin, 1820; La Population Française, by Levasseur; The Diminishing Birth-Rate in the United States, by John S. Billings, in The Forum, June, 1893; articles by J. L. Brownell in the Annals of the American Academy, July, 1894. and in Popular Science Monthly, Sept., 1899; The American Idea, by L. K. Commander, 1907.

OTTO

EDUARD

BISMARCK, LEOPOLD, PRINCE VON: First chancellor of the German Empire; born at Schönhausen, Prussian Saxony, 1815; studied law at Göttingen, Berlin, and Greifswald: elected to the Prussian Landtag (1847), as an ultra-royalist. In 1851 he was chosen a member of the Germanic Diet at Frankfort and continued as such till 1859, acquiring fame as an opponent of revolution, and as an advocate of a German empire under the lead of Prussia. In 1859 he was sent as minister to Prussia, and in 1862 to Paris. The same year, however, he was recalled to take the Prussian He closed the champortfolio of foreign affairs. bers, and for four years governed without them. Bismarck used the Sleswick-Holstein controversy, the defeat of Austria by Prussia at Königgrätz (Sadowa), and above all the FrancoPrussian War, which he is believed by many largely to have caused, to build up a feeling of national unity in Germany, with Prussia in the lead. King William was crowned emperor over a united Germany at Versailles on Jan. 17, 1871, and Bismarck was made a prince and a chancellor of the empire. He compelled France to cede Alsace-Lorraine and to pay an indemnity of $1,000,000,000, and then sought to develop the empire by a foreign policy of alliances against France, by building up a strong army and navy, by a high protective tariff, and by developing state monopoly. He thus became opposed both by the Liberals and by the Ultramontanes. In 1872 he expelled the Jesuits and began the socalled "kulturkampf" or contest with Rome. Against the growing power of the Socialists, he enacted strict repressive laws, at the same time fostering the paternal socialism which has had such large development in Germany.

From 1879 at least Bismarck was considered almost the leading spirit of paternal State socialism. This, however, was not to adopt a new policy in Prussia, but simply to carry out, or, rather, revert to the traditional policy of the Hohenzollerns. (See GERMANY.) It was the proud boast of Frederick the Great that he was le roi des gueux. Of all the governments of the seventeenth century, the Prussian was the first to seek the welfare of the whole community. The Prussian landrecht recognizes the State as the protector of the poorer classes, and one of its duties to supply sustenance and work for those lacking means and opportunity of earning a livelihood. It was upon these clauses that Bismarck relied when, on May 7, 1884, he declared to the Reichstag his recognition of the laborer's right to work. His drastic law against socialistic meetings and writings dates from 1878. In that year two attempts on the life of the emperor enabled Bismarck to carry through a drastic bill of repression which was rigidly enforced until its failure to be renewed upon its expiration by limitation of time.

State Socialism

Bismarck's State socialism thus seems to have come from mixed motives-partly to take the ground from under the real Socialists, partly, perhaps, from religious motives, mainly to serve and aggrandize the house with which he was so long identified. The religious flavor is not lacking. As early as 1847 he spoke and voted in the United Diet for a State loan to a private railway enterprise, and from that time forward, whether as private deputy or as minister, he never failed, when opportunity occurred, to promote the close connection

119

of the State and the railways, always keeping in view the ultimate end of a thoroughly nationalized system of railway communication. This he finally accomplished. (See RAILROADS.) He also established State monopolies in brandy and tobacco. When it was objected in the Reichstag in 1882 that his monopoly projects savored of socialism, he did not deny the imputation, but welcomed it, observing: "Many measures which we have adopted to the great blessing of the country are socialistic, and the State will have to accustom itself to a little more socialism yet. We must meet our needs in the domain of socialism by reformatory measures if we would display the wisdom shown in Prussia by the Stein-Hardenberg legislation respecting the emancipation of the peasantry. That was socialism, to take land from one person and give it to another a much stronger form of socialism than a monopoly. But I am glad that this socialism was adopted, for we have as a consequence secured a free and very well-to-do peasantry, and I hope that we shall in time do something of the sort for the laboring classes.'

Bismarck's return to the principles of protectionism, which movement he commenced in 1877, he also made largely for reasons of State socialism. In 1890, due to a divergence of view with the young emperor, Bismarck resigned his chancellorship and retired to his estates, tho still retaining some influence in the empire and in all Europe. He died in 1898.

REFERENCE: Bismarck and State Socialism, by W. H. Dawson.

BLACK, JAMES: The first candidate of the Prohibition Party for President of the United States; born in Lewisburg, Pa., 1823. Removing with his parents to Lancaster, Pa., in 1836, he worked in a sawmill, until in 1841 he entered the Lewisburg Academy. In 1844 he began the study of law, and in 1846 was admitted to practise at the bar in Lancaster, where he resided all his life. In 1840 he joined the Washingtonians, the first temperance organization in his neighborhood. It was largely due to Mr. Black's personal efforts that the Maine law movement became popular in Lancaster County and resulted, in 1855, in the election of two of the five temperance legislative candidates. He was a Republican in politics until the formation, in 1869, of the National Prohibition Party. At the convention of that party in 1872 Mr. Black was nominated as its candidate for President of the United States, and received 5,608 votes. For the four years from 1876-80 he was Chairman of the National Committee of the Prohibition Party. He was on of the founders of the National Temperance Society and Publication House. Black was the author of: "Is there a Necessity for a Prohibition Party?" (1875): "Brief History of Prohibition" (1880); and "History of the Prohibition Party" (1885). He died in 1893.

BLACK DEATH, THE: The pestilence, or series of pestilences, known by this name took place in the middle of the fourteenth century, and was a partial, if not the chief cause, of vast economic changes in England. So far as can be ascertained, the disease first manifested itself in central China in 1333, and thence spread in a westward direction toward Europe, where its force was first felt in the southern countries. >

It appeared first in Italy, then crossed western Europe, and arrived at the English ports of Bristol and Southampton in the summer of 1348. Whole districts were depopulated by its frightful ravages, and altho the old chroniclers give grossly exaggerated estimates of the number of deaths, it is probable that it carried off at least one third of the population. The scenes of horror and desolation which it caused beggar all attempts at description.

Black List

One immediate result of the plague was a great scarcity in the number of available laborers, because, while all classes had suffered heavily, the poorest had yielded most rapidly to the dire disease. This scarcity of labor meant, of course, higher wages for the laborer. In the case of agricultural workers, this rise amounted to about 50 per cent, while in the case of skilled artizans, such as carpenters and masons, the same effect was felt, often more markedly. The nobles and landlords objected, and, without waiting to call Parliament together, the king issued a proclamation ordering all men to abide by the rates which had been customary before the Black Death, and neither to demand nor pay higher wages. He also forbade laborers to leave the land to which they were attached, and assigned heavy penalties for so doing. Parliament met in 1349 and made haste to ratify this proclamation by reducing it to the form of a statute-the famous "Statute of Laborers"; but such legislative measures were hopeless against the demand for workers, and the very men who passed these laws were obliged to break them to prevent their land from remaining untilled. The peasants went freely into those districts where workers were most scarce, and found ready shelter and good wages. Complaints were constantly made to Parliament, and the "Statute of Laborers" was again and again enacted with added penalties, but to no purpose.

In spite of the great rise in the price of labor the price of the laborer's food did not rise in proportion. Food did not require much manual labor in its production, and hence the rate of wages was not much felt in its price. What did rise was the price of all articles which required much labor in their production. The landlords were obliged to let their estates to tenants who worked them on their own account, paying rent to the lord, instead of, as formerly, compelling villeins to work them for the master's profit. Thus serfdom practically came to an end. The gain was not all on one side, however, as the peasants began at this time to lose those rights in the "commons and forests which until then they had enjoyed.

Another of the important effects of the Black Death was the spirit of independence which it helped to raise in the breasts of the peasants, who now began to feel their power. The new spirit led to the preaching of John BALL, the PEASANTS' REVOLT, and the Golden Age of "Merrie England." The revolt was put down, but the victory really lay with the vanquished; and from this time serfdom practically disappears from English history, and wages remain high till the robbery of the land by the landlords in the sixteenth century. REFERENCES: For a study of the economic effects of the Black Death, see J. E. T. Rogers's Work and Wages, and for a contrary view, see Wealth and Progress, by George Gunton.

BLACK LIST: A list published or prepared by any body of men of the names of those whom they consider faulty in any way. The term is specifically used of official lists of insolvents and defaulters. In industrial discussions it is used of lists of employees who for one reason or another-perhaps because of having led in labor agitation-employers will not employ. It is used also of lists of firms which are believed to treat their employees unfairly, and which, therefore, the preparers of the black list believe should not be patronized by the friends of fair treat