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Voluntary listing on several counts appears impracticable as a means of permanently securing a complete return of personalty for taxation. First, there is the difficulty for the person of average intelligence of recording accurate answers to a long list of printed questions; then, the effort of subscribing to an oath before an official; third, the inconvenience of delivering in person or sending by mail within a specified time the sworn return to the county auditor. Further, there is the inequity and the injustice invariably resulting from wide variations in the judgment and conscience of men when estimating the value of taxable property. Finally, experience in other states has shown that it is impossible by any plan yet devised to secure a complete return of intangible personal property to be taxed at a uniform rate with all other property which amounts usually to taking from 20 to 50 per cent of the income of this property. However, the 1917 returns of personal property to the tax commission from 51 counties are favorable to the new law in this respect. Thus, these counties under the Parrett-Whittemore law in 1916 returned personalty to the commission to the amount of $751,539,318, while under the new scheme of listing the personalty valuation in 1917 amounts to $879,587,408, showing a gain of $128,048,085. Only one of the counties shows a loss in personalty valuation as compared with the preceding year, the amount being $68,454. The same counties in 1916 showed a gain in personalty returns over 1915 of $31,789,457. These figures indicate apparently that a considerable part of the increased returns of this year must be due not merely to normal growth nor to a higher level of prices nor to any greater prosperity in 1917 than prevailed in 1916, but to the plan of voluntary listing. It will be of interest to observe the complete record of the returns for this year and succeeding years with the voluntary plan in operation.

Ohio Wesleyan University.

F. E. WOLFE.

The Minority Report of Senator La Follette of the Committee on Finance relating to revenues to defray war expenses has been issued as Senate Report 103, Part 2 (65 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 99). It contains tables showing the application of the income and war-profit taxes to the net income of a large number of corporations.

Bulletin No. 3 of the Rhode Island Tax Officials' Association is especially devoted to the Valuation of Automobiles (Providence, Sept. 1, 1917, pp. 21).

The Irving National Bank has issued a pamphlet entitled Practical Questions and Answers on the federal tax law affecting individuals,

partnerships, and corporations, prepared and copyrighted by Breed, Abbott, and Morgan (October, 1917, pp. 78).

Summaries or reprints of the recent federal war revenue act of October 3, 1917, have been prepared by: A. B. Leach & Co., 62 Cedar St., New York (pp. 38); Guaranty Trust Company, 140 Broadway, New York (pp. 132); National Shawmut Bank, 40 Water St., Boston (pp. 16); and The American Exchange National Bank, New York City (pp. 78).

Insurance

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE ON SOCIAL INSURANCE, 1916. The plan of holding the meeting of the International Congress on Social Insurance in Washington in 1914 or 1915 had to be given up because of the war. In its place the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, under the inspiration of commissioner Royal Meeker of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, proposed an American Conference on Social Insurance at Washington. The date was finally arranged for December 5 to 9, 1916, and the volume containing the text of the papers presented and the stenographic record of the discussions from the floor is now at hand in the form of a Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Whole Number 212 (Proceedings of the Conference on Social Insurance, 1917, pp. 935). The conference covered the field of workmen's compensation, health insurance, invalidity and old-age insurance, maternity benefits and mothers' pensions, and, finally, unemployment, and savings bank insurance.

The papers and discussions on workmen's compensation are characterized by a general acceptance of the principle of compensation; not one speaker refers to the possibility of a return to the old liability system. All of the papers are devoted to questions of administration, forms of policy, methods of awards, charges, medical service, needed changes in the laws, etc. Perhaps the most energetic debate on compensation centered on the advantages of state insurance funds as competitors of private companies compared with the advantages of giving the state fund the monopoly of compensation insurance. The account of the difficulties experienced by one state fund in very active competition with private companies was, to say the least, vivid and illuminating. The important and hitherto somewhat neglected subject of medical service, medical and hospital fees under workmen's compensation, is discussed by a number of officials of compensation boards. Dr. F. D. Donoghue, of the Massachusetts board, emphasized

strongly the need of development in this aspect of American laws. The discussion of the question of physical examination of employees brought out the strong opposition of the trade-union representatives to this plan of selecting the employees of an establishment; a good case in favor of the plan was made by a number of physicians in charge of such work. The discussions on workmen's compensation were concluded by a paper of Professor W. C. Fisher on the defects and the needed changes in American compensation laws.

Recently the question of the reëducation of the worker permanently disabled by accident has become prominent, and it is a matter of regret that only one paper of the proceedings was devoted to this topic; a number of constructive suggestions by the author however, make the paper of special value.

The topic of health (sickness) insurance was introduced by papers on group insurance, existing agencies in the United States, trade-union insurance, establishment funds of the large corporations, mutual benefit funds, the University of California system of students' health insurance, and joint-stock company insurance. With this introduction, a debate showing wide divergence of opinion began. Dr. J. B. Andrews, of the American Association for Labor Legislation, outlined the general features of the bill advocated by that organization. A representative of the American Federation of Labor and a representative of the National Association of Manufacturers followed by stating the grounds of their opposition to the proposal. A comprehensive study of the existing information on the needs of women wage-earners, by Miss Mary Van Kleeck, formed one of the outstanding contributions of the conference. The remarks of Mr. F. L. Hoffman in opposition to the proposed health insurance bill covered fully the objections to the plan. The discussion on the plan amply justified the calling of the conference in the presentation of the different views of the employers, wage-earners, physicians, and students of the question.

The special value of the publication, aside from the vast amount of authoritative information it contains, is the picture it gives of the state of opinion on social insurance at the present time. The careful editorial work of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is evident throughout the volume. HENRY J. HARRIS.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics in Bulletin No. 210 presents the Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, held at Columbus, Ohio, April 25-28, 1916 (Washington, May, 1917, pp. 254).

The Industrial Commission of New York has made a reprint of the

Workmen's Compensation Law of that state with amendments to July 1, 1917 (Albany, pp. 79).

The State Department of Labor of Nebraska has made a report upon the operation of the Workmen's Compensation Law for 1915 (pp. 164).

The Report of the State Compensation Commissioner of West Vir ginia reviews the administration of the workmen's compensation law to June 30, 1916 (Charleston, pp. 187).

The Insurance Society of New York has printed the following addresses: Estimates on Building Values and Building Losses, by William J. Moore (pp. 14); Concealment, Misrepresentation, Fraud or False Swearing, by Frank Sowers (pp. 27); and Waiver and Estoppel, by Waldemar J. Nichols (pp. 35).

PERIODICALS

The REVIEW is indebted to Robert F. Foerster for abstracts of articles in Italian periodicals, and to R. S. Saby for abstracts of articles in Danish and Swedish periodicals.

Theory

(Abstracts by A. N. Young)

BONAFONS, A. Le mouvement sociologique américain. Rev. Intern. Soc., MayJune, 1917. Pp. 6.

A sympathetic summary of the development of social science in the United States, a movement which in the writer's opinion shows much promise.

CARLI, F. Le leggi della popolazione ed il problema della pace. Riv. Ital. di Soc., Jan.-Feb., 1917. Pp. 43.

Historical sociology reveals certain laws of the growth and survival of states. It is incumbent upon statesmen to understand these laws, of which usually (so in part in Germany) they have been ignorant. CAUBOUE, P. L'économie politique liberale et la guerre. Rev. Econ. Pol., Mar.Apr., 1917. Pp. 16.

Considerations of nationalism in economic policy will become more prominent after the war.

CLARK, J. M. The basis of war-time collectivism. Am. Econ. Rev., Dec., 1917. Pp. 19.

DEWING, A. S.
Pp. 17.

The law of balanced return. Am. Econ. Rev., Dec., 1917.

McGoUN, A. F. The nature of interest and the causes of its fluctuations. Quart. Journ. Econ., Aug., 1917. Pp. 25.

"The rate of interest tends to vary directly with the aggregate consumption of society, and with the amount of leisure which people allow themselves, and inversely with the general efficiency of labor." SENSINI, G. La sociologia generale di Vilfredo Pareto. Riv. Ital. di Soc., March-June, 1917. Pp. 57.

SOLARI, G. Mario Pagano e la politica annonaria. Rif. Soc., July-Sept., 1917. Pp. 31.

The important writings of Pagano have been ignored by most historians of theory.

TAUSSIG, F. W. Kleene's "Profit and Wages." Quart. Journ. Econ., Aug., 1917. Pp. 5.

A favorable review.

USHER, A. P. The content of the value concept. Quart. Journ. Econ., Aug., 1917. Pp. 7.

The most significant meaning of value is what a thing is "really worth." But the value concept is too rich to be limited to any single precise meaning.

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