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a limited number of phenomena at a time." This theme is developed, for the most part, in the first two chapters. The first gives its title to the work. The second discusses Some Questions of Methodology.

But scientific attainment must find its impulse in some goal of human achievement. This, in the economic field, because of the very materials with which the social scientist deals, speedily shapes itself as an ideal of social advancement. A social view of economic process is, however, by no means a simple one. It calls for repeated illustration. Professor Farnam works out this aspect of his task in the later chapters by drawing on his rich experience in the field of labor legislation and experimentation. Among the chapters developing this idea in a significant way are these: Economic Progress and Labor Legislation, Fundamental Distinctions in Labor Legislation, Purposes of Labor Legislation, Practical Methods in Labor Legislation, Acatallactic Factors in Distribution, and Signs of a Better Social Vision.

The main theme of the work in both its theoretical and illustrative phases is worked out with faithfulness of purpose and unusual delicacy of literary touch.

ROSWELL C. MCCREA.

University of Pennsylvania.

The Mac

The Influence of Monarchs. Steps in a New Science of History. By FREDERICK ADAMS Woods. (New York: millan Company. 1913. Pp. xii, 422. $2.00.) In Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty, published in 1906, Dr. Woods opened up an important line of investigation which is here worked out on a somewhat more ambitious scale. He proposes to employ the method of exact measurement in treating historical materials. To this method he applies the name "historiometry" and its leading principle he calls "quantitative valuation." Leaving aside the elements of psychic phenomena, like religion, literature, and science, he proceeds to weigh economic and political facts, and, by means of a simple marking system, to estimate the period of a monarch's reign as plus, plus-minus, or minus, according as the condition was one of progress, indifference, or decline. Measuring the monarch by a similar standard, he compares the two sets of markings in order to determine the degree of correlation between monarch and period. In medieval and modern times, superior rulers are found associated with

superior or indifferent periods in some 70 per cent of cases, and the reverse in 10 per cent of cases. The conclusion reached is that the monarch has influenced his age more than the age has influenced the monarch. That this relation is not accidental is proved by the fact that a change of conditions has often followed a change of rulers and also that a royal minority or an interregnum has generally reacted perceptibly on the period.

On the question of causation Dr. Woods reiterates the conclusion reached in Heredity in Royalty, that modern royalty has been decidedly superior in capacity to the average European, and it must be conceded that, so far as nominal achievement goes, he has made out a fairly good case. This superiority he attributes to superior heredity; indeed, "heredity is the master key of history"; and he proposes to substitute "the gametic interpretation of history" for whatever other theories now hold the field. In a certain sense, therefore, royalty vindicates its own existence and is its own justification; for, inasmuch as history has been a process of natural selection, "in the long struggle for wealth and power, royalty is merely a name applied to those interrelated. families that have succeeded in getting and keeping what most men want" (p. 273).

The most obvious objection to Dr. Woods' plan is not, as he seems to imply, the matter of the credibility of historical sources, but the fact that his method of measurement is of necessity too crude for accurate results. But it is not on the matter of method that the most serious question arises, for a method producing even loosely approximate results is better than mere generalization. Several of his conclusions will hardly commend themselves to those of his readers who take the sociological point of view. For instance, to attribute the character of a period to forces, whether individual or social, wholly within the period itself is to neglect the fact that all ages with a distinct character either of progress or decline have been fashioned largely by the antecedent period. Further, it is always a debatable question whether the exceptional individual is not himself largely formed by the influences of his time. In purposely neglecting the cultural factors, also, Dr. Woods commits himself to an extreme form of the materialistic interpretation of history in which he will find few followers, for those factors are often the most potent ones in their influence both on economic and political conditions and on those very exceptional individuals to whom he attributes pre

dominating importance. Again, the controversy about the relative influence of heredity and environment is not settled quite so decisively as Dr. Woods implies. If instead of environment we read "opportunity," as the late Lester F. Ward so ably interpreted the term, the issue is clearer. Those who hold with Dr. Ward will hardly agree that the nominal achievements of rulers, and particularly of hereditary rulers, necessarily prove superior inherent talent rather than a more favorable theater for that talent.

But despite all objections to his conclusions, which after all do not of necessity invalidate his method, it must be conceded that Dr. Woods has performed a notable achievement in his experiment of introducing the methods of the exact sciences into the study of social phenomena. Whether or not his present results are accepted, it is certain that his method may be used in many branches of the social sciences and that it is one to which economists, sociologists, and historians must give increasing attention.

Indiana University.

ULYSSES G. WEATHERLY.

Industrial and Commercial Geography. By J. RUSSELL SMITH. (New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1913. Pp. xii, 914. $4.00.)

The author's wealth of information, clear statement, attractive style, and keen appreciation of fundamental causes, raise this book to a very high excellence in its special field. He has got as far away as possible from the encyclopedic method that mars so many of the textbooks which claim to deal with commercial geography. It is at once valuable in its presentation of data and thoroughly excellent in it educational stimulus. There is a sense of movement, a pervading yet unobtrusive emphasis of cause and effect which gives the subject a dynamic quality in happy contrast to the purely static presentation of facts which has been so fatal to any real interest in the study of geography in this country. The author is nowhere content merely to state things he explains developments by reference to underlying causes. The place of the book among the numerous texts which have appeared under the titles of commercial geography, geography of commerce, etc., may perhaps best be indicated by stating that it covers approximately the same ground as part three of Gregory, Keller and Bishop's recent book.

The method of the book is also admirable. It consists of two parts, the first called "industrial," and the second "commercial" geography. Though the terms are nowhere defined, the author clearly means by industrial geography the study of the causes of the localization of industries, and by commercial geography the investigation of the conditions under which the regional interchange of commodities takes place.

In the first part, the old problem of treatment by industries or by countries is solved not by adopting a mixture of the two, as has so often been the case, but by frankly accepting the former. The discussion of an industry

as a unit brings causes and results together in their explanatory relation and makes the facts not only appeal to reason but also grip the memory. Such a conspectus of the world's industries, when properly illustrated by charts and diagrams, should give a sound knowledge of the trade activities of each country, without sacrificing the no less valuable knowledge of the industries themselves.

The discussion of the eighty or ninety industries treated is clear and convincing and the numerous charts, diagrams, tables, and maps (though the latter are not always so clear as might be desired) give the reader a real impression of the leading activities and possibilities of separate regions.

The second part, Commercial Geography, is by no means so convincing. One hesitates to criticise it because on the whole it is so thoroughly well done, yet the impression one gets is that it is not commercial geography at all in any broad sense, but rather, an interesting study of one phase of it, namely the study of trade routes. Of the sixteen chapters devoted to this part, no less than ten are given to a regional study of land and ocean highways. The remaining six chapters deal with such semidetached topics as The Law of Trade, The World Highway; The Trade Center, and The Balance of Trade. There seems to be lacking a clear purpose such as runs through the first part of the book. Instead of the discussion of the geographical bases of the regional movements of commodities, movements which are based on physiological, anthropological, economic, geographical, and many other factors, one is confronted with a discussion in which the chief emphasis is placed on the physical means of getting commodities from place to place. In a certain sense industrial geography concerns itself with problems of supply; commercial geography, with problems of demand in relation to supply; and it should go far beyond the question of the means

by which and the routes over which the equation of demand and supply is satisfied. The author apparently recognizes this in the first chapter of the second part, on the Law of Trade, but he does not carry it out adequately in the succeeding chapters.

Here is indicated a certain shortcoming of this book and all of its class. They have not yet gone far enough. If the aim is, as stated in the preface, "to interpret the earth in terms of its usefulness to humanity," more must be done than to investigate the problems of supply or "production" of goods. If we accept the term "production" in its economic sense, it includes not merely the physical "creation" or "extraction" of goods, but the carrying of them to the consumer as well; and there is no logical reason for calling the study of routes by a different name from that of the study of the distribution of industries. Both have to do with the supply of goods. The problem of demand is a different one, and it, like the problem of localization of industries, has broad geographical bases. Commerce or trade results from diversity of supply, it is true, but none the less does it also depend upon diversity of demand; and the geography of commerce goes only half way when it stops with an explanation of the geographical factors which determine supply. The complete geography of commerce, when it is written, will, like the book under consideration, logically consist of two parts; but one of these parts will cover the geography of supply and will include both the parts of the present book, and the second part will cover what may be called geography of demand, i.e., the explanation, in the light of the facts of man's environment, of diversity of demand for goods. To adopt the words of the present author it will aim "to interpret the earth in terms of the demands it makes upon humanity."

Even then it will fall far short of that study for which the term economic geography ought to be, but unfortunately often is not, reserved. Professor Smith, however, apparently recognizes this fact, for nowhere does he apply this broader term to his work. Economic geography, when it shall have shed all the light it can derive from geography on the problems of both supply and demand, will be in a position to render great service to economic investigation by lending new point to the discussion of the "exchange," the "distribution," and the "consumption," of wealth (using these terms in their economic sense).

In places, the author has permitted his facile pen to betray

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