which the editor seeks to establish between the labor movement and land reform. That Evans, the able leader of the workingmen, advocated the freedom of the public lands for actual settlers, and that Greeley and the Industrial Congress endorsed the idea, does not constitute a sufficient proof that the homestead laws were the fruit of the labor movement of this period.

The selections dealing with the hours of labor, which was the first subject of labor legislation, and with labor organizations, seem more carefully chosen and arranged than the earlier sections of these volumes. Especially striking is the slowness of the early labor organizations to get down to business, to adopt a "class-conscious" attitude, and to confine their activities to improving the condition of their members. Again and again the workers were diverted by some ambitious scheme of social reform, or side-tracked by experiments with coöperation or other panacea. Not until 1853 did the modern trade-union, of a "pure and simple" type, emerge from the theorizing and experimentation of this period, and usher in the modern labor movement, with the definite purpose of a minimum wage and the closed shop, enforced by means of the strike.

For the student of social history these volumes contain invaluable material, which is moreover illuminated by the brilliant generalizations and telling phrases of Professor Commons's introductions. It is, however, unfortunate that no introduction should have been supplied to the section on land reform, as this topic especially needs elucidation. Brilliant as it is, too, an article on "Horace Greeley and the Working Class Origins of the Republican Party," scarcely seems an adequate introduction to these two important volumes. The selections end with 1854 (not 1860), and do not touch upon a number of topics that one usually associates with the labor movement of this period, but these defects will doubtless be made good in the concluding vol

umes.

University of Illinois.

ERNEST L. BOGART.

The National Land System; 1785-1820. By PAYSON JACKSON TREAT, Ph. D. (New York: E. B. Treat and Company. 1910. Pp. xii, 426.)

Notwithstanding the great importance of the public land policy of the United States, both as an economic system and as a basis

for political discussion and for sectional rivalries, it has till now been rather avoided by the close students of American administration. Donaldson's Public Domain, published nearly thirty years ago, was crude, unscientific and imperfect; Sato's monograph in the Johns Hopkins Studies, lacks perspective; Emerick's study, the Credit System; Haskins' Yazoo Land Companies; Knight's Land Grants for Education; and Woodward's Surveys, deal only with portions of the subject. Professor Treat has. therefore had a clear field for monographic treatment of the whole public land policy.

This volume deals with the subject only down to 1820, but should be accepted as a first instalment, for in plan and execution it goes far toward clearing up the first period of this complicated and difficult question. After briefly-perhaps too briefly-sketching the colonial methods of granting and defining land, and summarizing the state land cessions of the Revolutionary period, he follows through the whole course of legislation from the vote of Congress in October 10, 1780, down through the relief and reform act of April 24, 1820. Professor Treat has taken unusual pains to discover whatever he may of the motives of the legislators; of the play of section against section; of the contrast between the rival finance policy and settlement policy, as reflected in the successive debates. Patiently and illuminatingly he compares each successive important measure with the preceding system, and traces the springs of legislation.

This systematic and consecutive study is supplemented by a series of chapters on surveys; titles derived from English, French and Spanish grants; military land grants; educational land grants; reserve lands; and special grants; all replete with information, sensible and direct. The written text is enlarged by some tables and a few maps. The proof reading of the volume seems careful; the substitution of the name of Monroe for Madison on page 302 is the most pardonable of small errors.

To quarrel with a book which contains so much that is to the point and that has never been grouped together before would be ungrateful. Allowing that Professor Treat will continue his study in the same scholarly spirit, there are several things that he can do to make his additional volumes more serviceable. He has avoided a tabulation of the amounts of land received and disposed of by the federal government, and the relative grants for various purposes. He may have used, but certainly

does not refer to, the works of public men to show the general condition of public sentiment throughout the controversy over the land. There is no attempt at the admittedly large task of describing the parallel state system, which even more than the national system ignored any advantage to the public from a proper disposition of the land. Above all, the book is written. from the administrative side downward; there is nothing from the settler's point of view, no narrative of the incidents, the difficulties and the joys of buying Congress land, no clear statement why the Hoosier lady advised her husband to "git plenty while you're a-gittin!" After all the public land system was not merely an administrative device, it was a means to the wealth and happiness of communities. We want more of the mud of the Wabash bottoms, and the smell of the fresh turned prairie soil, yet not less of the painstaking, and intelligent study of sources which makes Professor Treat's book an indispensable tool for every student of the development of the West.

Harvard University.

ALBERT Bushnell Hart.

Die naturlichen Grundlagen für die Eisenindustrie in Deutschland und in den Vereinigten Staaten. By WERNER NEUMEISTER. (Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot. 1910. Pp. 87. 2 m.)

The present and prospective relations of Germany and the United States as competitors in the world market for iron ore form the basis of this inquiry. The exultant self-sufficiency of America a decade ago is illustrated by a quotation from Mr. Vanderlip's "Invasion of Europe," while the present serious condition, arising from approaching exhaustion of mineral deposits, is proved by the conservation movement and some imports of iron ore made by Atlantic coast furnaces. Five chapters are given to a condensed description of the coal fields and iron deposits of Germany and the United States and other countries. The probable life of the supplies of the two countries chiefly involved is contrasted. This is entertainingly done, with reference to coal, by figuring the life of the German deposits on the basis of present output without increase, while American expectations are stated on the basis of indefinite continuation of present rates of increase. By means of this effective statistical device the author is able on one page to speak of 1700 to 1800 years' pro

duction from the Upper Silesia deposit, while on the next page American resources are set down as worth 250 to 300 years.

The folly of estimates based on assumed rates of consumption, extending over hundreds of years, may be realized if we set a couple of current estimates side by side. One based upon the assumption that the American coal consumption doubles every ten years makes our supplies last 105 years; another based on present consumption without increase gives us a life of 2870 years!

The conclusions with reference to the future movements of the iron industry of the United States are that it will pass south as Connellsville coke is exhausted, thus cutting off what may be left of the Superior ores, which will not be able to make the long rail journey south of Lake Erie, or pass east over the inadequate Erie Canal of St. Lawrence, nor south by way of the "wilde Strome," the Ohio and the Mississippi.

The future of the industry in Germany appears to be that the great Silesian coal deposits will receive Swedish ores by way of a canalized Oder river, and will enjoy natural protection, from their inland position, in a central European market. The western coal deposits will work up imported ores and freely export iron products, falling back eventually upon large home supplies of ore, the export of which, as ore, the government will prohibit. EDWARD D. JONES.

University of Michigan.

NEW BOOKS

ALLEN, N. B. Industrial Studies, United States. (Boston: Ginn. 1910. Pp. xii, 325. 65c.)

An elementary book for schools, in which different processes of industry are described.

BRACQ, JEAN CHARLEMAGNE.

France under the Republic.

York: Scribner. 1910. Pp. vii, 376.)

(New

Chapter III treats of the development of commerce and wealth. CHAMBERS, J. The Mississippi River and its wonderful valley, etc. American Waterways Series. (New York: Putnam. 1910. Pp. xvi, 308. $3.50.)

D'AUTREMER, J. The Japanese empire and its economic condition. (New York: Scribner, imported. 1910. Pp. 311. $3.)

To be reviewed.

DECHARME, P. Le comptoir d'un marchand au xvii siécle, d'aprés

une correspondance inédite, avec une introduction sur la ville et les gens de Honfleur. (Paris: Hachette. 1910. Pp. lxxviii, 245.) To be reviewed.

HILL, R. T. The public domain and democracy. Columbia University Studies. (New York: Longmans. 1910. Pp. 240. $2.) To be reviewed.

KEITH, T. Commerical relations of England and Scotland, 1603-1707. Girton College Studies. (London: Cambridge University Press. 1910. 2s.)

LUMSDEN, H., editor. The Records of the Trades House of Glasgow, A. D. 1605-1678. (Glasgow: Printed for the Trades House at Glasgow. 1910. Pp. xxvii, 574.)

Though containing much routine matter, it throws light on commercial and industrial development.

MARTIN, G. Conférences sur l'évolution économique des grandes nations aux xix® et xx° siècles. (Paris: A. Rousseau. 1910. 10 fr.) MOLLWO, C. Die wirtschaftliche Entwickelung der Industrie im Osten und ihre Einwirkung auf das Bevölkerungsproblem. (Leipzig: C. L. Hirschfeld. 1910. Pp. 31. 1 m.)

NIEHUUS, H. Geschichte der englischen Bodenreformtheorien. (Leipzig: C. L. Hirschfeld. 1910. Pp. viii, 222. 4.50 m.)

PICARD, R. Les cahiers de 1789 et les classes ouvrières. (Paris: M. Rivière. 1910. 6 fr.)

ROBINSON, E. Van D. Commercial geography. (Chicago: Rand and McNally. Pp. xlviii, 455.)

To be reviewed.

ROOSEBOOM, M. P. The Scottish staple in the Netherlands. (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. 15s.)

To be reviewed.

SCHULTZE, E. Streifzüge durch das nordamerikanische Wirtschaftsleben. (Halle: 1910. Pp. 228. 5 m.)

SMART, W. Economic annals of the nineteenth century, 1801-1821. (London: Macmillan. 1910. Pp. xxxv, 778. $6.50.)

To be reviewed.

WALKER, HERBERT S. The sugar industry in the Island of Negros. (Manila: Phillipine Journal of Science. 1910. Pp. 140; 22 illust. $1.25.)

Presents a statement of the present methods of sugar production in the chief producing island of the Archipelago; information as to the costs of production and of cultivation; and estimates of the cost and location of possible central factories. The island is considered by sugar-producing districts; the area of cultivation and the production per hectare is given, and the possibility for future expansion discussed.