special committee on social insurance. (Boston: Boston Chamber of Commerce. 1917. Pp. 14.)

The pension problem and the philosophy of contributions. Bureau of Municipal Research, New York City. (New York: Pension Pub. Co. 1917. Pp. 20.)

The standard fire insurance policy and loss adjustment lectures. (New York: Ins. Soc. of N. Y.)

Summary of report on workmen's compensation acts in the United States. The legal phase. (Boston: National Industrial Conference Board. 1917. Pp. 8.)

Pauperism and Charities

NEW BOOKS

BERCOVICI, K. Crimes of charity. (New York: A. A. Knopf. 1917. Pp. 271. $1.50.)

GUILD, F. H. State supervision and administration of charities. Indiana University studies. (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana Univ. 1917.)

Socialism and Co-operative Enterprises

Profit Sharing in the United States. By BORIS EMMET. Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Whole No. 208, December, 1916; Miscellaneous Series, No. 13. (Washington: Superintendent of Documents. 1917. Pp. 188. 20 cents.)

There has been abundant evidence in recent years of a revival of interest of employers in schemes of profit sharing, and there have been several attempts to bring together in one statement a description of the more notable existing schemes. There have also been numerous articles descriptive of particular schemes. The difficulty with this literature has been its partial and occasional character, its lack of perspective. Mr. Emmet's report covers somewhat the same ground as the report of the Civic Federation, but is more broadly managed. It claims to have "carefully examined and analyzed . . . all of the profit sharing plans known to be in operation in the United States at the present time" and, in addition, to have studied sundry other plans not accurately described as profit sharing. Besides thus throwing light upon the extent of profit sharing in the United States, it examines the character of the schemes with reference to the factors which determine what profits are to be distributed and to the conditions under which payments are made to employees. It studies the proportion of the working force who participate; the occupations

...

and types of employment of the participating workmen; the kind of benefits which accrue by virtue of participation; the cost of the plans to the employers, and, finally, the results secured. Apart from this comprehensive treatment there is a detailed examination. of several bonus plans which pass for profit sharing.

All of this constitutes a body of fact and exposition of much value. But here the utility of the study may be said to end. There is, indeed, a final section entitled "Extent to which objects sought by establishment of profit sharing plans have been realized," but the section runs to only three pages and is meager. Although it is hardly to be expected that a government study should attempt to enter into the philosophy of its subject, there is a good deal more that this bureau report might have accomplished. Its study of the results of profit sharing is based entirely upon reports from employers. It does not appear that the state of mind of employees has been directly taken into account. Less than three pages is given to a discussion of discontinued plans, yet these pages indicate that in one way or another collapse was due to discontent of the employees. Beyond question, one difficulty which in the past has limited the development of profit sharing has been the narrow tendency of employers to regard the workmen's interests as wholly incidental to their own. The present report does not improve upon this point of view. We must be grateful for so careful a compilation and analysis of the plans in existence in the United States, but we have still to hope for a study which will show us profit sharing from the inside, as it appears to the workers as well as to the managers of industry.

Harvard University.

NEW BOOKS

ROBERT F. FOERSTER.

BARNHILL, J. B. One hundred best anti-socialist books. (Washington: Anti-Socialist Bk. Co. 1917. Pp. 8. Gratis.)

CROSTHWAITE, H. R. Coöperation: comparative studies and the central provinces system. (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co., for the Central Provinces Federation of Coöperative Banks. 1916. Pp. 542. 6 Rs.) GHENT, W. J. Appeal socialist classics. (Girard, Kan.: Appeal to Reason. 1916. 25c.)

KAMMAN, W. F. Socialism in German American literature. (Philadelphia: Americana Germanica Press. 1917. Pp. 124.)

MUKHERJI, P. The coöperative movement in India. (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co. 1916. Pp. xx, 453.)

PERKY, C. W. Coöperation in the United States. (New York: The Intercollegiate Socialist. 1917. Pp. 31.)

THOMPSON, C. D. Municipal ownership. (New York: Huebsch. 1917. Pp. 114. $1.)

Statistics and Its Methods

NEW BOOKS

TAYLOR, J. M. Ourselves. A personal and family history register for preserving records of a private and personal nature, of one married couple and their children, including an appendix on the development of children in mind, body, character, and personality. (Philadelphia: F. A. Davis Co. 1917. $5.)

The official year book of New South Wales, 1915. (Sydney: Bureau of Statistics. 1916. Pp. 990.)

Notes statistiques sur les céréales. (Rome: Inst. Intern. d'Agr. 1917.)

Industries and Commerce

SOME PUBLIC AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE LUMBER INDUSTRY. For four long years nearly 5,000,000 people of the United States have been painfully aware that something is radically wrong with the lumber industry. Countless writers and platform speakers have offered diagnoses, but the first careful, comprehensive analysis is to be found in a public document, popularly known as Report No. 114 and entitled Some Public and Economic Aspects of the Lumber Industry, Studies of the Lumber Industry, part I, by William B. Greeley, assistant forester (Washington, Superintendent of Documents, January 24, 1917, 25 cents). The document is one of a series and was prepared through the collaboration of the Forestry Service, the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, and the Federal Trade Commission, although for certain statements of fact and methods of presentation the latter body assumes neither credit nor responsibility.

While Mr. Greeley's survey includes the whole industry, certain salient features stand out clearly, among which may be mentioned: A public land policy under which great areas of standing timber were virtually given away on the same basis as common farming lands, thus paving the way for an eventual overstocking of the timber market; the buying of timber too freely by short-time investors; the overcapitalization of the lumber resources; the proneness of lumber manufacturers to spend their time and energy in timber speculations rather than in bringing the mill end of the business to a high point of efficiency; the growing competition of substitutes for lumber; and, lastly, the unstable nature of the lumber business.

The remedies proposed follow along three general lines: A separation of the investment and manufacturing phases of the industry; the adoption of more efficient methods of milling and marketing; and the extension of the National Forests to include many holdings which are now dead losses to their owners.

The study is very valuable because of the mass of data brought into compact form, because of the clarity and succinctness with which lumber activities are described, and because of the frankness used in depicting the illusions and pitfalls of the business. Every person contemplating purchasing timber lands, or building lumber mills, or investing in timber bonds, should first read this report.

The document, however, rests under a curse common to government reports. It was born too late to be of greatest service. The data

relate primarily to conditions up to 1914, and, if the report had been published three years ago, would have been of inestimable value. Today the situation, both from the material and psychological viewpoints, has changed. Hundreds and hundreds of mills have been swept out of existence, and thousands of investors ruined, yet, curiously enough, due to a set of unexpected circumstances, lumber prices are as high as they ever have been. This is explained by the general depletion of stocks in local yards and the inability of mills to supply this shortage due to lack of railroad cars, and to much sentimental talk of the vast amount of timber to be used in building emergency vessels during the present war. The victim, who by all the rules of the game, should have been dead and buried, is showing most astonishing signs of life. Perhaps these activities are but the proverbial rally which is to hasten his untimely demise, but timber dealers, shrewd in understanding human nature, are so busy preparing for heavy investments of Eastern capital that they have no time left to read of the ills of the industry. Thus, while Mr. Greeley's analysis will undoubtedly hold true over a period of years, its immediate importance is lost by a sudden reversal of conditions.

University of Oregon.

EDWIN CLYDE ROBBINS.

The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce of the federal Department of Commerce has recently issued the following publications: In the Special Agents Series:

No. 130, Wearing Apparel in Japan (pp. 184), by Stanhope Sams. No. 181, South American Markets for Fresh Fruits (pp. 168), by Walter Fischer.

No. 132, Markets for Paper, Paper Products and Printing Machinery in Cuba and Panama (pp. 44), by Robert S. Barrett. No. 133, Market for Boots and Shoes in Cuba (pp. 46), by Herman G.

Brock.

No. 135, Market for Boots and Shoes in Porto Rico (pp. 28), by Herman G. Brock.

No. 137, Textiles in Porto Rico and Jamaica (pp. 31), by W. A.

Tucker.

No. 138, Cotton Goods in British India, Part III, Burma (pp. 52), by Ralph M. Odell.

No. 139, Markets for Construction Materials and Machinery in Cuba (pp. 61), by W. W. Ewing.