Social Engineering. A Record of Things Done by American Industrialists Employing Upward of One and One-Half Million People. By WILLIAM H. TOLMAN, PH.D., Social Engineer. With an introduction by ANDREW CARNEGIE. New York: McGraw Publishing Co., 1909. Pp. viii+384. $2.00 net.

It is a comment upon the unsettled terminology of the applied social sciences that this work on industrial betterment should be entitled "Social Engineering;" and that Dr. Tolman, its author, should sign himself "Social Engineer." Had someone else written the book it might have been entitled "Social Economics" and the author have described himself as a "Social Economist." Words, however, matter little except from the standpoint of abstract science. The facts which the work deals with are what is of vital importance.

The work is a most interesting and encouraging one. As its subtitle announces, it is a record of things done by leaders in American industry who employ upwards of a million and a half of people. Our industrialism is frequently called anything but complimentary names. This book shows the other side of the picture. It shows what many employers scattered all over the territory of the United States are doing to improve the hygienic, economic, and social conditions under which their employees labor. One who has studied only the darker aspects of modern industrialism could scarcely believe that so much has already been accomplished. The book is valuable, therefore, as a record of work actually done toward transforming our industrial system from an inhuman machine into something like a humane organization. The things which have already been accomplished by employers and employees working in co-operation make one believe that the present system is capable of even higher things.

Moreover, as Dr. Tolman points out, all of this improvement in industrial conditions has its basis, not so much in philanthropy, as in what he terms "mutuality," that is, the benefiting of both employer and employee. The astounding results which have been secured in many cases through the betterment of the conditions of the employees in their increased efficiency and the increased output of their labor show conclusively that industrial betterment work, when carried on rightly, pays even financially. Of course, as Dr. Tolman insists, the financial end ought not to be the principal one

kept in view by the employer, but there can be no question but that in many cases the improvement of conditions of labor actually brings ample return to the employer for its cost.

Dr. Tolman deserves the gratitude of all students of modern industrial and social conditions for bringing these facts together. The book makes, therefore, an invaluable reference work in any public or private library on social and economic problems. CHARLES A. ELLWOOD

THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

Civics and Health. By WILLIAM H. ALLEN. With an Introduction by William T. Sedgwick. Pp. vii+403. Illustrated. Ginn & Co.

Readers of Mr. Allen's Efficient Democracy will welcome another book from his pen, for they well know how keen an instrument it is. They will not be disappointed in their expectation of new pricks and thrusts at the imperfections of charity organization, statistical practice, and the public-school system, for the darts fly on nearly every page. Civics and Health will appeal to a far wider circle of readers than the earlier book, however, for the reason that it is far more constructive, and in its detail of analysis and exposition intensely concrete. The more widely such a book can be read the better, for the putting into practice of a tithe of the projects and ideals for the securing of health which it proposes would reduce by an incalculable amount the economic waste of defective physical vitality and sick

ness.

While it will be a long time before society will begin to think practical many of the proposals of Mr. Allen, the book is nevertheless not only a very live discussion of the need of health as a civic asset but a valuable compendium of the methods and efficiency now being perfected, of dealing with disease and of securing wholesome physical cleanliness.

The contents are divided into four parts. Part I introduces us to health as a civic obligation, asks us what health rights are not enforced in our own communities (most of us cannot answer), informs us that the best index to community health is the physical welfare of school children, and gives us the "seven health motives and catchwords." These are: instinct, display, commerce, antinuisance, anti-slum, pro-slum, and rights-in an ascending scale of ethical unselfishness.

Part II, on the "Index to Health Rights," treats clearly and practically of mouth breathing, eye strain, ear trouble, dental sanitation, abnormally bright children, nervousness, and a number of other matters of special interest to every parent and teacher. "Is your school manufacturing physical defects?" is the pertinent subject of one chapter, and the author takes pains to give the reader a comprehensive schedule of questions by which he can arrive at an answer.

Part III treats of co-operation in meeting health obligations, with especial emphasis on the need of periodic physical examinations for all persons. Two of the best chapters are "The Last Days of Tuberculosis" and "The Fight for Clean Milk."

Parts IV and V, respectively, deal with official machinery for enforcing health rights and with the needed alliance between hygiene, patriotism, and religion. The book is copiously illustrated, perhaps a little too exclusively from New York City conditions, and contains a number of reproductions of schedules and charts in actual use.

A. B. WOLFE

Industrial Problems. By N. A. RICHARDSON. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr and Co., 1910. Pp. 229.

Mr. Richardson has repeated, in vivid style and with fresh illustrations, the traditional arraignment of the capitalistic system and the well-known promises of socialism. Criticism of the book would involve a treatise of the general subject.

C. R. HENDERSON

The American Newspaper. By JAMES EDWARD ROGERS. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909. London: T. Fisher Unwin. Pp. xiv+213.

The conclusion reached in Mr. Rogers' study of over 15,000 American newspapers is that the American press represents the nation. "My investigations have convinced me that if the American press is to be judged harshly, and if it has failed to attain its highest possibilities as an educative force in the community, this is due to the fact that it is a reflex of the nation rather than a leader of it" (p. xi). This is his conclusion in spite of the fact that he admits: "Herein lies the great power of the press, its power to suggest to a whole community what it should think and

do" (p. 112). His conclusion is based on the conviction that the sensational newspaper is the American type and that the characteristics of this paper are replicas of the American character. Mr. Rogers' study is popular and general, not exact nor scientific. It has many interesting facts concerning the conduct of the newspaper business, the attitudes of editors, etc. We are told that 15,000 papers were studied, but not how they were studied, nor are we given the exact results of the study, but merely generalizations from the results. It is true that we are told (p. 54): "Quantitatively, an examination of yellow and conservative papers shows that the former class of papers devote 20 per cent. of their space to reports of crime and vice, while the ordinary conservative newspaper gives but 5 per cent.," but the reader is given no definition of crime and vice and thus we do not know what newspaper matter Mr. Rogers includes under these heads. We do know from the rest of his treatment that he is considering crime and vice from the judicial and conventional, rather than from the social viewpoint, that he is not tracing out the whole circuit of activity, from the stimulus in the newspaper through to the social response. Mr. Rogers' conclusion, therefore, is not a constructive one. It falls into the fallacy which is so characteristic of dramatic critics and stage-managers when the moral effect of a play is in question. They say, "Improve the public and plays will improve." This fallacy errs in two directions: it ignores the fact that its reply is in answer to a protest on the part of that very public, and it fails to see that copies set by plays (and newspapers) are a very potent factor in keeping some of the public what it is.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

FRANCES FENTON

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