WOOD, SIR H. T. England in the middle of the eighteenth century. (London: J. Murray. 1910. 5s.) The history of each of the great industries is traced. Author is secretary of the Royal Society of Arts. Agriculture, Mining, Forestry, and Fisheries NEW BOOKS BROOMHALL, G. J. S. Annual review of the grain trade. (Liverpool: Northern Publishing Co. 1910. Pp. iii, 102.) Discusses the statistics of production, imports, and exports of cereals by the chief grain-producing and grain-consuming countries for the years 1903 to 1910, inclusive. CURTIS, C. E., AND GORDON, R. A. A practical handbook upon agricultural tenancies. (London: Crosby, Lockwood & Son. 1910. Pp. xii, 328.) Contains a clear statement regarding agricultural leases and tenancies in Great Britain compiled from the legal point of view, together with the texts of the English and Scottish Agricultural Holdings Acts 1908, and the Small Holdings and Allotments Acts 1908. The object is to render plain to landlord and tenant their respective obligations and duties in view of recent legislation. EINAUDI, L. The International Institute of Agriculture: its labors in behalf of economic betterment. (Rome: Internat. Inst. of Agr. 1910. Pp. 11.) An account of the economic service the Institute is expected to perform in determining the world supply of crops and of its accomplished work in this direction, by publishing the returns of wheat production in 1910 for 20 of the principal wheat producing countries. ERTL, M. AND HENNET, L. Die landwirtschaftlichen Berufsgenossenschaften (syndicats agricoles) in Frankreich. (Manz. 1910. Pp. vii, 421. 5.20 m.) FORBES, A. C. The development of British forestry. (New York: The author, Chief Forestry Inspector to the Department of Agriculture for Ireland, endeavors to show the relative position of the British Isles among the countries of Northern and Central Europe in matters of forestry and timber consumption, the extent to which a forward movement in the former respect is required, and the economic and sociological agencies by which it is limited. LORENZONI, G. et al. Bulletin du Bureau des Institutions Économiques et Sociales. (Rome: Internat. Inst. Agriculture. 1910. Pp. xv, 442). Contains a history of the agricultural coöperative movement and complete statistical returns on agricultural coöperation, insurance, credit, and legislation in Germany, Austria, Italy, Denmark, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, together with bibliographies covering the sources of information. PARKER, SIR GILBERT. The land, the people and the state: A case for small ownership and a handbook. (London: Small Ownership Committee, 28 Maiden Lane, W. C. 1910. 1s.) Presents the policy of the conservative party on this question. SERING, M. Das Moselland und die westdeutsche Eisenindustrie. I. By Max Sering and others: II. By Hermann Schumacher. (Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot. 1910. Pp. 204, 153. 4 and 3 m.) SMITH, M. Agricultural graphics, United States and world crops and live stock. (Washington: Department of Agriculture. Oct., 1910. Pp. 67.) A series of small but useful charts from which comparisons can easily be made of products in different states and important countries. Manufacturing Industries Die deutsche Schiffbauindustrie. By JOSEF NEUMANN. In the series Technisch-volkswirtschaftliche Monographien, edited by Prof. Dr. Sinzheimer. (Leipzig: Klinkhardt. 1910. Pp. vii, 194.) (Leipzig: The inspiration of this book is to be found in the official monograph of Schwarz and von Halle on "Shipbuilding in Germany and Foreign Countries," published in 1900. This, the result of an exhaustive study of the history and present status of shipbuilding in Germany, England, and America, was written after the authors had been over the entire field as official representatives of the German Government. A monumental report, it is still the standard work for students of shipbuilding in the three principal shipbuilding countries. But their report was written with an unsurpassed disregard of the reader; the plan of the book is confusing and the style wooden. Moreover, their statistics have become obsolete. Neumann, a practical engineer, modernizes these statistics, scales down the tables to the necessary minimum and presents a book that is attractive reading. He confines himself to German conditions, omits most historical matter, and deals primarily with the economic and social effects of the technical developments in shipbuilding. He is acquainted with the workman's side of the case, and all through the book runs a strong sympathy with the needs and aims of the employee and the trade union. The book falls into three parts. Part I deals with the change in the technique of production and the product; Part II, with the effect of this development on the extent and organization of the shipbuilding industry. The change from wood to iron shifted the center of shipbuilding from Dantzig and Stettin on the Baltic to Hamburg and Bremen on the North Sea, near the iron industry of Rheinland-Westphalia and near the machine shops of industrial West Germany, whence shipbuilders are recruited. A great increase has taken place in the size of the individual yard; the private or partnership yard has given place to the stock company; the organisation has become more complicated: from an overgrown carpenter shop it has grown into a combined engine and boiler factory, machine shop and bridge construction works. It is impracticable for the yards to extend their operations to the production of their own raw materials, but combinations of yards with rolling mills already existent are advantageous, as when Krupp bought the Germania yard at Kiel. Combinations with steamship lines are successful; the North German Lloyd and the Stettin Vulkan have a number of directors in common. The author recommends a trust of German shipyards to reduce overhead expenses and facilitate specialization. Part III, dealing with changes affecting labor in the shipbuilding industry, is the most interesting. The versatile carpenter has given way to a long list of specialists in the clerical, designing and constructing departments. Profit-sharing schemes are not successful: the different portions of the yard are so remote from each other that mutual exhortation to work and mutual control among the men is not easy. The average contribution of German shipyards to various forms of workmen's insurance is 50 marks per man. In 1906 the average yearly wage paid by the Stettiner Vulkan to its laborers was 1190 marks; by the Flensburg Shipbuilding Co., 1221 marks. The Imperial Navy Yard at Kiel pays its machinists, smiths and carpenters an average daily wage of 4.99 marks or $1.18 ($354 per year). It is small wonder that the Germans can build merchant vessels 25 per cent cheaper than we and that the same amount of money in their naval budget goes considerably further than in ours. The normal working day is 92 hours, one hour less on Saturdays, so that the working week is 55-57 hours as against 53-54 hours in England and America. Finally, Neumann gives the result of an inquiry regarding the status of a large number of shipbuilding engineers, university (Hochschule) graduates. He finds that the yearly demand for such men, in private and government yards, is 30; the supply from the universities is 60. The result is that half of these engineers must accept work and wages that bring them in no adequate return on the time and money spent on their education. Graduates of the secondary technical schools advance nearly as fast and occupy as many of the leading positions. The average engineer with a university degree begins at the age of 251⁄4 years to earn 100 marks per month ($23.80). Of all such men of all ages employed in 1908 only 3 per cent were receiving more than 3600 marks per year ($850). Every investigation into German salaries seems to disclose the same distressing existence of an "intellectual proletariat". A good companion for Neuman's book is Dr. Foerster: Die Technik der Weltschiffahrt (Berlin. 1909. Pp. 167). Foerster deals more with the technical problems involved than with the economic, his book is well illustrated and free of too much technical jabber, and he has, like Neumann, the happy faculty of being thorough and yet comprehensible and helpful to the general reader. Yale University. EDWIN J. CLAPP. Transportation and Communication Government Ownership of Railways. By ANTHONY VAN WAGENEN. (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1910. Pp. v, 256. $1.25.) American Railway Problems in the Light of European Experience, or Government Regulation vs. Government Operation of Railways. By CARL S. VROOMAN. (London: Henry Frowde. 1910. Pp. viii, 376. $2.) Mr. Van Wagenen's plea for the nationalization of the railways of the United States is conspicuous neither for insight nor knowledge of the facts. Vehemence and extremeness of assertion are its distinguishing characteristics. Railway influence is made responsible for everything that is vicious in public life. The part played by the railways in reducing cost of production is of no moment, for every economy simply leads to further ex travagance in living. There is no system whatever in the present railway, outside the necessary uniformity of gauge and coupling facilities-"a glance at any freight train will make this point plain." "Government railways are universally profitable." "The per ton () rate of freight charge in Europe is slightly above that of this country"-it must be at least fifty per cent greater. To lend emphasis to the many errors of fact and judgment, the canons of good English are frequently violated. The book can make no possible appeal to the informed student. A more serious attempt to discuss the results of governmental railway management is found in Mr. Vrooman's book: according to its very respectable publishers, it is to be regarded as an important contribution. Mr. Vrooman has certainly written in an entertaining sort of way, and, because of this, we can almost forgive his occasional lapses into rhetorical declamation. His argument, however, though based upon careful investigation, carries with it too much of an expression of the defence of a thesis, and, unfortunately for the thesis, the defence is far from being as strong as one might have anticipated from consideration of the writer's opportunities. Frequently, the presentation of the facts is lacking in adequacy, and his interpretation of their meaning, in penetration. Excessive space is given to the repetition of familiar information and arguments, while really critical analysis is neglected. Thus, no attempt is made to set forth the present state of efficiency of the French railway companies, nor the real significance of the purchase of the Western Railway, and the author's exposition of the financial record of the State system is altogether incomplete. The technical efficiency of the Prussian state railways is deemed to be established by two pages of extracts, mainly from articles by two young American students who would hardly be considered expert witnesses. Similarly, with the Italian state railways, two and a half pages of extracts from Consul Dunning's report of 1907 is all that is adduced in the shape of evidence. The same defects mark Mr. Vrooman's treatment of European rates. His discussion of Prussian freight rates is absolutely unenlightening. Most of the heavy and bulky freight materials, are carried by water in Prussia, while in America they are generally carried by rail. If the Statistische Jahrbuch had been consulted, it would have been obvious that the great bulk of Prussian rail-tonnage consists of such commodities, and our author could |