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up the second part of the book constitute a distinct advance over the accounts hitherto available of the history, character, and policies of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. A brief chronicle of the rise of the constituent organizations and their amalgamation in 1876 is followed by a discussion of the objects which appealed most strongly to the membership and the internal weaknesses which handicapped the Association severely in its contests with employers. The account of the decisive struggle at Homestead in 1892 is prefaced by an examination of the status of unionism in the several steel mills of the Pittsburgh District and the trials of strength between the employers and the workmen prior to 1892 which makes it easier to grasp the causes and significance of that famous conflict.

Of the chapters in Part III dealing with changes in working conditions since 1892, that on hours of labor is by far the most definite. The author makes an enlightening analysis of the number of hours per day and the amount of Sunday work normally required of the men in the various departments, and gives his views as to the feasibility of reducing the length of the working week. He has not been able to support his discussion of wage changes and "speeding up" by an equally valuable marshalling of facts. The last four chapters are not of the same rank as those which precede; the writer is not dealing with tangible working conditions, and these chapters include much that is based on personal appraisements. In the first two of these chapters, which are included in Part III, he describes the policies which he believes the employers have adopted for the purpose of discouraging, and even repressing, all efforts toward collective action for better terms of employment on the part of the workers. The final chapters are given over to impressions of the prevailing social and political conditions in the mill towns as these are affected by the labor conditions and the policies of the employers, including the pressure the largest employer is stated to exert in political affairs. There is considerable repetition in these chapters of matter presented earlier in the volume.

The strongly subjective tone of the book and the unevenness of the evidence presented in support of its conclusions prevent its acceptance as an authoritative work on the matters of which it treats. Yet the volume is interesting and suggestive, and contains many valuable facts as to the history of labor and present condi

tions of employment in the steel industry in its most important

center.

Princeton University.

D. A. MCCABE.

A Year in a Coal Mine. By JOSEPH HUSBAND. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1911. Pp. 171.)

Mr. Husband presents a direct and uncolored record of his personal experiences and observations as an unskilled miner. The experiences recorded are undertaken neither as an economic investigation nor as a journalistic adventure. The writer tells his story so apparently oblivious to the economic problems suggested as to forbid suspicion of bias, either sentimental or doctrinal.

The opening paragraph adequately explains the motives of the author in sentencing himself to a year's hard labor underground; and likewise evidences the representative character of his field of observation:

"Ten days after my graduation from Harvard I took my place as an unskilled workman in one of the largest of the great soft-coal mines that lie in the Middle West. It was with no thought of writing my experiences that I chose my occupation, but with the intention of learning by actual work the 'operating end' of the great industry, in the hope that such practical knowledge as I should acquire would fit me to follow the business successfully. That this mine was operated in direct opposition to the local organization of union labor and had won considerable notoriety by successfully mining coal in spite of the most active hostility, gave an added interest to the work. The physical conditions of the mine were the most perfect that modern engineering has devised: the 'workings' were entirely electrified; the latest inventions in coal-mining machinery were everywhere employed, and every precaution for the safety of the men was followed beyond the letter of the law."

Such publications add a highly desirable element to the literature of inductive economics; and Mr. Husband has rendered a signal service in thus characterizing the extraordinary industrial hazards and contingent social liabilities of coal production under the most favorable conditions.

University of Wisconsin.

RALPH H. HESS.

Législation Ouvrière. By E. COHENDY and M. GRIGAUT. (Paris: Ch. Delagrave. 1910. Pp. 170. 2.50 fr.)

Here is a most business-like statement, without prologue or epi

logue, of French legislation touching the welfare of wage-workers. The directness and brevity, and yet withal the comprehensiveness of the volume, are doubtless due to the apparent joint qualifications of the authors for the task. One is a professor on the faculty of law at Lyon, the other is a professor in l'Ecole d'Arts et Métiers at Chalons-sur-Marne.

The volume is entirely occupied with the present statute law of France on the subject of labor. Space does not permit a description of the contents beyond the statement that the book covers concisely every feature of the labor law and is almost entirely descriptive rather than historical or controversial. It is essentially a handbook of the same type as Stimson's, except that this volume—as would be far less necessary under the continental system-contains nothing of the judicial construction of the law. It is a book that will be indispensable to the student of labor legislation.

Dartmouth College.

NEW BOOKS

ARTHUR S. FIELD.

AYGURANDE, C. D'. Accidents du travail. Compétences et procédures d'après la loi du 9 avril 1898 modifiée par les lois ultérieures. (Paris: A. Pedone. 1911. 8 fr.)

BITTMAN. Arbeitsverhältnisse der den §§ 135-139a der Gewerbeordnung unterstellten minderjährigen Arbeiter. (Jena: Fischer. 1910. 50 pf.)

Author, in charge of factory inspection in Baden, deals with child labor.

BRAY, R. A. Boy labour and apprenticeship. (London: Constable. 1911. 5s.)

CAHEN, G. Les fonctionnaires. Leur action corporative. (Paris: A. Colin. 1911. Pp. vii, 394.)

To be reviewed.

FINANCE, I. Les syndicats professionnels devant les tribunaux et le parlement depuis 1884. (Paris: Berger-Levrault et Cie. Pp. xvii, 480. 6 fr.)

GOINEAU, A. Les retraites ouvrières et paysannes. Loi du 5 avril 1910 avec les calculs des pensions, annotée et commentée suivie des décrets d'administration publique des 24 et 25 mars 1911. (Paris: Rivière. 1 fr.)

GREENWOOD, A. Juvenile labour exchanges and after-care. Intro

duction by SYDNEY WEBB. (London: P. S. King. 1911. Pp. xi,
112. 1s.)

GREENWOOD, J. H. The law relating to trade unions. (London:
Stevens & Sons. 1911. Pp. xv, 302. 10s.)

GREENWOOD, J. H. The theory and practice of trade unionism. Pref-
ace by SYDNEY WEBB. No. 9, The Fabian Socialist Series. (Lon-
don: Fifield. 1911. Pp. 70. 6d.)

LACOSTE, G. DE. Le travail de nuit des enfants. (Paris: E. Cornély et Cie. 1911. 0.50 fr.)

LANGE, G. Les retraites ouvrières et paysannes. (Paris: Larose. 1910. Pp. 112.)

LANOIR, P. Etude sociale. La mise en grève des chemins de fer; le but, les moyens, les résultats. (Paris: Gustav Ficker.)

VLESI

LESIGNE, E. Les droits du travail. L'homme ne veut plus du salariat. (Paris: Rivière. 1911. Pp. xx, 242. 3 fr.)

A statement from the socialist point of view of the present economic condition of the working classes in France and other countries.

LOUBAT. Les accidents du travail en droit international. (Paris:
F. Pichon et Durand Auzias. 1911. 5.50 fr.)

OSBORNE, W. V. and JUDGE, M. H. Trade unions and the law. (Lon-
don: P. S. King. 1911. 6d.)

PAWLOWSKI, A. Les syndicats jaunes. (Paris: Alcan. 1911. Pp. 176. 2.50 fr.)

SALAUN, G. Les retraites ouvrières et paysannes. Commentaire de la loi du 5 avril 1910, suivi des règlements d'administration publique. (Paris: Berger-Levrault et Cie. 6 fr.)

SCHLOESSER, H. H. and CLARK, W. S. Legal position of trade unions. (London: King. 1911. 7s. 6d.)

Includes examination of the recent Osborne decision and the legal consequence of it, together with the leading cases on trade union law, and an appendix of statutes.

TOUZET, A. Emplois industriels des métaux précieux. (Paris: Giard et Brière. 1911. Pp. xxix, 696.)

Work honored by gold medal by the Faculty of Law of University of Bordeaux.

WEBB, S. and B. The history of trade unionism. New edition. (New
York: Longmans. 1911. $2.60.)

This edition has a new introductory chapter.

WYGODZINSKI, W. Das Genossenschaftswesen in Deutschland. (Leip-
zig: Teubner. 1911. Pp. vi, 287. 6 m.)

ZEVAES, A. Le syndicalisme contemporain. (Paris: Michel. 1911.
Pp. 360. 3 fr.)

To be reviewed.

Money, Prices, Credit, and Banking

The Purchasing Power of Money: Its Determination and Relation to Credit, Interest and Crises. By IRVING FISHER, assisted by HARRY G. BROWN. (New York: The Macmillan Company. 1911. Pp. xxii, 505.

The author aims to set forth the principles that determine the purchasing power of money, and to defend the thesis that the purchasing power is directly proportional to the quantity. After giving certain primary definitions, some of which are open to objection, he proceeds to explain the relation between money and prices by elucidating "the equation of exchange." The main part of the book is devoted to the statement and elaboration of this equation, which is formulated thus:

MV +M'V'=PT

M is the quantity of money and V the velocity of circulation; M' is bank deposits subject to check, V' their velocity of circulation, P the price level, and T the volume of trade. The author proceeds to show that M' bears a definite relation to M, and that the volume of trade and the velocity of circulation both of money and deposits, are independent of the quantity of money. Thus he reaches the conclusion that a change in the quantity of money will normally change deposits subject to check in the same ratio, will not affect the velocity of circulation, and must cause a proportional change in the price level. While the equation of exchange itself asserts no causal relations between quantity of money and purchasing power, a consideration of other conditions leads to the conclusion that the causal force is the money volume.

The equation of exchange and the proportionality of prices and the quantity of money being determined, the argument passes to a discussion of the necessity of an index of purchasing power. This is followed by a "statistical verification," based upon a general historical review of price movements through several centuries. Gresham's law, bimetallism, and other subjects usually discussed in such connection, are interestingly presented.

Most critics of the quantity theory admit that the quantity of money is a determinant of the price level. Some deny that it is the only cause, or perhaps the most important under some conditions. The author seems so impressed with the importance of showing that changes in the quantity of money are the most potent causes of changes in the price level that he over-emphasizes this

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