workman, as witnessed in the three great schemes already adopted for insurance against accident, sickness and old age. Now there is substantial agreement in Germany in favor of the first of these; there is fairly strong support, both practical and academic, of the second; while as yet there is no unanimity of opinion in regard to the third. Nevertheless, even this last experiment is making converts, so that it is no wonder that insurance is regarded by some as the universal solvent for industrial ills. Such a remedy for the evil of non-employment is being seriously discussed on the Continent, and has been the more approved by many because of the apparent success of the out-of-work benefit in trades-unions. Outside of the experience of these organizations, there is little material for study save the results of a few isolated and on the whole unsatisfactory schemes recently tried in three or four Swiss cities, as in Berne and Basle. Such experience as there is, however, in the way of insurance for non-employment, Dr. Schanz has diligently studied. His inquiry covers particularly the experience of trades-unions in England, and of the Gewerkvereine and Gewerkschaften in Germany; and the statistical exhibits bearing upon this branch of their work are complete and satisfactory. As yet the out-of-work benefit has been but little developed in Germany; and, for that matter, benefits of any sort have found but little place in workingmen's organizations in that country. The total amount expended in benefits in 1894 by eighteen Gewerkvereine having 67,058 members was but 73,050 marks, or about thirty cents per member; and of this less than onehalf was strictly Arbeitslosen-Unterstützung. For the Gewerkschaften no more can be said.

The question of the practicability and expediency of generally instituting such insurance applicable to all classes of the working population is first considered, and is answered by Dr. Schanz in the negative. From the technical standpoint fundamental objections arise; for in non-employment we do not have to deal with a succession of industrial phenomena of sufficient uniformity in character and regularity of sequence to admit of framing definite provision for the future. This is a point which needs to be more carefully kept in mind in all the loose discussion that is now going on in regard to insurance. For successful insurance projects it is necessary that the losses insured against should have a regularity sufficient for prediction; and experience shows that there is such regularity in the occurrence of deaths, fires, accidents, and even of sickness. This has not yet been discovered in the recurrence of

cases of non-employment as a whole, although it may be found in a few occupations of a certain fixed type. In another respect insurance against non-employment differs radically from insurance against death, sickness or accident. In these latter cases we are dealing with risks constantly diminishing; in the former we are dealing with a risk apparently growing more and more serious. Society constantly produces new conditions making for non-employment which not even the acutest student of industrial life can foretell. Changes in international trade relations, to say nothing of domestic fluctuations, make an everlasting industrial flux. Again, it is a cardinal principle in insurance that a benefit should not accrue to one who is intentionally responsible for the loss. In case of non-employment, it would be well-nigh impossible to determine the amount of the workman's responsibility or his good faith in endeavoring to seek new employment. Trades-unions recognize this element of fraud and are obliged to guard against it by most stringent rules. This danger would, however, be much greater in unorganized departments of industry, where the pride and esprit de corps of members has not been developed to deter workingmen from dishonorable acts which would burden their associates. Moreover, what is to be regarded as a proper explanation for non-employment? Suppose that the workman is unable to keep employment on account of bad industrial training!

In Dr. Schanz's discussions he takes up technical considerations which would not arise in a country where there is already a complicated system of insurance machinery. Among such considerations are the difficulties connected with the insurance of rural workmen, the insurance of women, the character of the administration, etc. Many minor difficulties arise here, but all of them may be passed by; the main difficulty is that of determining the worthiness or unworthiness of the applicant for insurance.

A consideration of the various objections leads the author to frame an independent plan which he terms "compulsory saving." The gist of this is that every employer should pay into the bank already established, the Krankenkasse, a certain specified sum, not less than thirty pfennigs a week, for each person employed by him. For artisans of the building trades dependent upon the seasons, the payment shall be on a different basis-say ten per cent of their wages. Of this amount the employer will pay some definite proportion, but the larger part is to be deducted from the wages of the workmen. After the end of the first year a low rate of interest may

be paid on the amounts thus compulsorily deposited; and if more than 100 marks have accumulated, the surplus above that amount may be freely drawn out by each workman on his bank book. One hundred marks, however, are reserved against the time of nonemployment. Thus the workman has an interest to save that specified sum; after that he is free to do as he will with all his earnings. Such a plan would also provide an incentive for the workman to make special deposits. In case of non-employment, the reserve fund, if less than 70 m., may be drawn upon for 5 m. weekly; if from 70 to 100 m., for 7 m. weekly. The cost of the administration is to be borne by the state and the commune.

The advantages of this system of insurance are described in detail; and special emphasis is placed upon the enlistment of the workmen's interest, the avoidance of entanglement in case of strikes, and the freedom left to the workman in choosing a new position. Such a plan, moreover, would not burden those who are seldom without employment, or the more diligent and alert. Individualism is conserved. Nor is the success of this plan absolutely dependent, as in case of insurance projects, upon statistical data.

There is a considerable amount of statistical material gathered in this volume. There are also copious extracts from the rules of workmen's organizations concerning out-of-work and traveling benefits, and from the rules of employment bureaus. The criticism which Dr. Schanz has to make of the employment bureau as a method for alleviating the evils of non-employment, is very appropriate. Those who have followed the discussion of this question in Germany at all carefully are aware of the absurd emphasis that has been placed, during the past two or three years, upon the part that such bureaus are expected to play in constructive industrial reform in Germany. This has probably been due to the fact that they have not yet been experimented with so fully as in England and in this country, and that consequently their possibilities appear larger than they do to us. The employment bureau is a necessity, and is capable of doing much more than it does; but even in this country, it needs a thorough reorganization, and there are limitations, as Dr. Schanz clearly sees, to what it can finally do. Non-employment is not local. Adjustment of the labor supply must be made, if at all, over large areas; and here the employment bureau can play but a limited part. Finally, the employment bureau cannot meet the needs of those who are engaged in seasonal occupations. DAVIS R. DEWEY.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.

Organisme et Société.

Par RENÉ WORMS. Paris, V. Giard &

E. Brière, 1896.- 412 pp.

La Pathologie Sociale. Par PAUL DE LILIENFELD, avec une Préface de RENÉ WORMS. Paris, V. Giard & E. Brière, 1896. — xlvii, 335 PP.

Les Lois de l'Imitation; Étude Sociologique. Par G. TARDE. Seconde édition, revue et augmentée. Paris, Félix Alcan, 1895. – xxiv, 428 pp.

Les Règles de la Méthode Sociologique. Par ÉMILE Durkheim.

Paris, Félix Alcan, 1895. viii, 186 pp.

Psychologie des Foules.

Par GUSTAVE LE BON. Paris, Félix

Le Transformisme Social. Essai sur le Progrès et le Regrès des Sociétés. Par GUILLAUME DE GREEF. Paris, Félix Alcan, 1895.520 pp.

La Cité Moderne; Métaphysique de la Sociologie. Par JEAN IZOULET, Paris, Félix Alcan, 1894. ix, 691 pp.

Publiées

Les Sciences Sociales en Allemagne; les Méthodes Actuelles. Par C. BOUGLÉ. Paris, Félix Alcan, 1896.- 172 pp. Annales de l'Institut International de Sociologie. sous la Direction de René Worms, Secrétaire Général. vaux du Premier Congrès, Tenu à Paris en Octobre, 1894. Paris, V. Giard & E. Brière, 1895. — xxx, 388 pp.

I: Tra

That the influence of Comte is still vital and fruitful in the intellectual life of France is proved in many ways, but in none more conclusively than in the serious study of systematic sociology. In this department of knowledge Frenchmen and Belgians have in recent years accomplished more than the scholars of all other countries together, and of the total scientific activity of France a conspicuously large share has been given to sociology. That eleven such volumes as those named above should in less than three years come from the publishing center of a single country, is a phenomenon to challenge

attention. Each is an important production; more than one are works of unmistakable originality; at least one is destined to live, as a contribution of the highest value to the philosophy of the human mind.

In a review of sociological literature which was published in this journal in June, 1892, three different conceptions of the scientific explanation of society were examined. One was analytical and historical it was the view that social institutions, conventions, beliefs, sentiments and sanctions are the subject-matter of sociology, to be interpreted and justified by their utility. A second conception was ethnographic: it was the view that social phenomena may best be explained in terms of race differences and conflicts. A third conception was biological and psychological: it was the view that the ultimate explanation of society must go beyond the analysis of historical institutions and beyond race conflicts, back to psychological and biological facts.

In this third conception there lay the possibility of two distinct schools of sociological thought, which have since become plainly distinguishable. One is biological, accepting Mr. Spencer's idea that society is not merely analogous to an organism, but that it is an organism. The social biologist, for such rather than sociologist he should be called, takes his categories and his nomenclature directly from anatomy and physiology. The second school is psychological, conceiving of social relations as phenomena of feeling and thought, and for the most part using the familiar language of the moral sciences, somewhat enriched by terms drawn from recent psychology. In the volumes now under consideration both schools are strongly represented.

To M. René Worms must be accorded the credit of having worked out the biological conception of society more thoroughly and consistently than any other writer has ever done. His book consists of an Introduction and five Parts. In Part I the general theory of organic life and of society is presented. Objections to the biological interpretation are here considered in detail and with much ability. In a final chapter of this part M. Worms, in stating the true difference between a society and all lower organisms, emphasizes the psychological character of the bond that unites the social units, but he insists that the difference is merely one of degree. The cells of an animal organism may be supposed to have an incipient consciousness. Thus at this point, M. Worms, like Mr. Spencer, leaves on his reader's mind the impression that it is after all a question