DIETZE, M. Der wirtschaftliche Imperialismus und die Trusts. (Charlottenburg: Soziologischer Verlag. 1913. Pp. 52. 1.60 M.) FLECHTER, W. M. Corporation forms and precedents, annotated. (Chicago: Callaghan & Co. 1913. Pp. xli, 2122. $10.) GARIEL, G. La centralisation économique en Suisse: les chemins de fer fédéraux. (Paris: A. Rousseau. 1913. 5 fr.) KAUTZSCH. Der internationale Tabaktrust, eine nationale Gefahr. (Charlottenburg: Soziologischer Verlag. 1913. 0.50 M.) KORTHAUS, W. Die volkswirtschaftliche Bedeutung eines deutschen Reichspetroleummonopoles. (Karlsruhe: Braun. 1913. Pp. vii, 112. 2 M.) MANSFELD, R. Kapitalkonzentration im Brauereigewerbe. (Berlin: Parey. 4 M.) MCINTIRE, S. A. Washington corporations. (Portland, Oregon: G. A. Bateson & Co. 1913. Pp. ix, 636. $5.) OLLY, E. N. Kings of wealth versus the American people; a treatise on political-economic conditions as they exist in the United States today; with a remedy for improving them. (New York: Ogilvie. 1913. Pp. 185. $1.) SPIES, G. Zwei Denkschriften zum Petroleum-Monopol. (Berlin: In the two documents, prepared for the imperial government, and printed together in this volume, Herr Spies presents a forceful argument in favor of the establishment of a monopoly for the import and sale of kerosene in Germany. The first one, dated September, 1910, is an attempt to prove that the proposed corporation would be assured of a sufficient supply of oil from sources independent of the Standard Oil Company. The author brings forward an imposing collection of statistics, but his argument fails to carry conviction because his estimates are based on the amount of kerosene which European producers ought to be able to export, if the entire crude oil output were refined, rather than on the actual exports. The second document, a criticism of the bill accepted by the Bundesrat in the fall of 1912, and submitted to the Reichstag during the following winter, discusses a number of minor and purely technical points. At the end it calls attention to the danger involved in allowing the monopoly to be controlled, as it would be under the government's plan, by the Deutsche Bank, which has large interests in petroleum fields from which the new company would buy much of its oil. DANA G. MUNRO. THORNTON, W. W. A treatise on the Sherman anti-trust act. (Cincinnati: W. H. Anderson Co. 1913. Pp. lxiii, 928.) WHERRY, W. M. Four public utilities laws analyzed; Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, 1913. (Walton, N. Y.: Reporter Co. 1918. Pp. 28. 25c.) WHITE, F. and GOLDMARK, G. White and Goldmark on non-stock corporations. (New York: Baker, Voorhis. 1913. Pp. vii, 725. $5.50.) Digest of the general corporation laws of the state of Delaware, 1913. (Wilmington: Corporation Co. of Delaware. 1918. Pp. 35.) Illinois public utility commission law and municipal ownership law. (Chicago: W. J. Norton. 1913. Pp. 200. $2.) Labor and Labor Organizations The Government of American Trade Unions. By THEODORE W. The Amalgamated Wood Workers' International Union of America. By FREDERICK SHIPP DEIBLER. (Madison, Wis.: The University of Wisconsin. 1912. Pp. 211. $.40.) These three volumes are studies in industrial democracy. They will prove helpful to the student of labor problems primarily because the authors have looked upon trade unions as experiments in government. A study of trade union methods and policies may throw considerable light upon present-day political problems; for, whenever conditions are similar, the trade union is likely to set in motion machinery which resembles that in operation in the state. The most important sources of information have been the valuable collections of trade union publications at the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Wisconsin. Each author has also consulted documentary material at the administrative offices of the trade unions. A clearer understanding of present industrial conditions has been gained by many personal conferences with union officials in the various cities. The Government of American Trade Unions is the result of several years' thoughtful research. The material has been wisely selected and is satisfactorily arranged. Starting with a description of the shop meeting, the original unit of government, Dr. Glocker shows how other units of government-the local union, the district, the state, national and international associations— have gradually supplanted the original unit until today the shop is a comparatively unimportant factor in shaping the policy of the union. Among some unions the shop meetings are being dis continued altogether. Three conditions have been instrumental in centralizing power in the hands of the national union. First, the movement of workingmen from city to city; second, the competition between manufacturers in different places; and, third, the need of a strong central treasury. The opposition to this centralization of power has been partly, if not entirely, overcome by the support which the local unions have received from their national officials and the central fund. Adequate relief for members on a strike has not only increased international control of strikes, but has developed a desire on the part of the local unions to pay their assessments promptly, and strictly to obey the rules to be eligible to various benefits when needed. One ideal ever in the minds of trade unionists is to unite the workers of the world into vast international unions. While this is still a dream of the future, steps in this direction have already been taken by a few prominent unions, notably the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. To many social workers the question, What becomes of the trade-union leader when he is defeated for re-election, is of special significance. Sometimes, but not often, he resumes his trade. Sometimes he opens a saloon and, depending upon the large number of acquaintances and friends whom he has made as a union official, meets with success. Sometimes he studies law, and more often he goes into politics. State bureaus of labor and statistics claim some ex-officials, while the federal government employs many more. On the whole, trade union leadership is a splendid preparation for political life, and this fact accounts for the large proportion of former trade unionists who are public office holders. Perhaps the most interesting and certainly the most important chapter, as bearing directly upon the present-day movement toward direct legislation, is the one devoted to the initiative and the referendum. Although the experience of American trade unions clearly reveals very serious defects in the initiative and referendum as a form of government-principally because the members lack judgment in balloting, or they fail to vote- -nevertheless, trade unions are continuing to use this system of direct legislation for any number of different purposes, and are ardent champions of the initiative and referendum in municipal and state affairs. Trade unionists, as a rule, mistrust representative gov ernment because "the professional representatives betray the interests of the laborers and become tools of the capitalist class." Jurisdictional Disputes is a brief, concise statement of conditions which oftentimes seriously cripple important trade unions. Structural differences in the unions, due to differences in the industries themselves, are responsible for most of these unfortunate conflicts. These disputes center about the industrial form of organization which brings into one union not only all sub-divisions of the trade, but all the trades identified with an industry. Thus, the brewery workers union, seeking to include in its membership all men working in or about the brewery, inevitably steps upon the toes of the unions representing the other trades, i.e., the engineers, the firemen, the teamsters, the painters, etc. Besides the costly battles which the United Brewery Workmen has had to fight in order to maintain its industrial union, many prolonged disputes, characterized in some cases by extreme bitterness, have troubled the Carpenters, the Wood Workers and the Furniture Workers, the United Mine Workers and the Coal Hoisting Engineers, the Typographical Union and the Machinists, the Longshoremen and the Seamen. It is interesting to note that with the one exception of the dispute between the Longshoremen and the Seamen-a singular example of two industrial unions fighting each other-the conflicts have all been between the industrial union on the one side and the trade union on the other. In view of the persistent recurrence of these disrupting conflicts, the important question in the minds of union officials and the leaders. of the American Federation of Labor is whether the trade union can be made flexible enough to harmonize the old and the new types; or "whether the industrial form will develop on the ruins of the craft union and the federation." There is an unmistakable movement toward the industrial form, accelerated, no doubt, by the growing socialist faction which is fond of denouncing trade autonomy as "the application to the labor movement of the outworn principle of individualism." It is to be hoped that the writer, having made a creditable beginning, will later give us a more intensive study of this important subject. The Amalgamated Wood Workers' International Union of America furnishes a good, practical illustration of many general principles which the other two monographs have developed. In the first place, we are permitted to see how this union, like so many other labor organizations, has gradually shifted the con trol and the responsibility from the shop meeting and the local group to the national union. In the second place, while the referendum has remained the favorite method of making laws and is held to be the nearest approach to a truly democratic government, we have the frank testimony of the secretary of the union, who is willing to say after fourteen years' experience that "democracy in unionism is a failure." "No fault can be found with the principles of the referendum," he adds, "because all men should have a right to a voice and a vote in the conduct and management of their organization." Finally, the Wood Workers' Union has for many years wasted its energies through internal strife and disputes with other unions. In fact, one of the most serious and bitterly fought conflicts in the history of American labor has been the jurisdictional dispute between the Carpenters and the Wood Workers. Dr. Deibler and Mr. Blum reach substantially the same conclusions by different routes: jurisdictional disputes have arisen from two fairly distinct causes-first, the overlapping of trade boundaries, and, second, the uncontrolled personal ambition of some labor leaders. Jurisdictional fights, moreover, have invariably weakened the contending unions, and, in the case of the Amalgamated Wood Workers at least, have proved disastrous. Except in a few scattered localities, the union today exercises little or no influence on the conditions of employment. The volume contains a bibliography which will serve as an excellent guide to the available material. University of Rochester. WILLIAM KIRK. The American Girl in the Stockyards District. By LOUISE MONTGOMERY. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1913. Pp. 70. $.25.) Women in Trade Unions in San Francisco. By LILLIAN R. MATTHEWS. (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1913. Pp. 100.) Artificial Flower Makers. By MARY VAN KLEECK. (New York: Survey Associates, Inc. 1913. Pp. xix, 261. $1.50.) These studies constitute a useful addition to the growing literature relating to women in industry. The report by Miss Montgomery, who is a resident of the University of Chicago Settlement, deals chiefly with the entrance into industrial life of the Americanized daughters of immigrants in the stockyards neighborhood. It is |