l'accélération du mouvement des naissances est moindre. La loi d'airain du salaire a été, par là même, écartée définitivement. To offset these fundamental facts we have the following statements : Le pouvoir de consommer n'a pas été reduit par la dépression des prix pour tous les revenus; les revenus fixes ont acquis un pouvoir supérieur de consommer. . . . Les plus redoutables atteintes dans le pouvoir de consommer ont été subies par la classe des travailleurs dans les variations brusques des salaires, et dans les périodes de chômage qui se sont succédé, contractant son revenu total et développant une véritable armée de réserve du travail. [p. 384.] If these last two statements are equivalent in importance to the first two, the results reached are wholly contradictory. But it is pertinent to ask how many "revenus fixes" there are, when rent, profits and interest have all fallen, new investments have ceased and bankruptcies multiplied. And how has it been possible for labor to raise its standard of life subject to the competition of this "véritable armée de réserve du travail?" Has not M. Denis read old phrases of Rodbertus and Marx into his interpretation of social phenomena ? No one will deny that the depression of the last twenty years has produced a dislocation of economic relations that has been the source of much undeserved suffering. Bimetallism has been invoked for the purpose of relieving the suffering debtor by restoring prices; and socialism, for the purpose of protecting the laborer from exploitation by the capitalist. But if, in an era of business depression and falling prices, of powerful monopolies and cut-throat competition, the laboring class has been able, not only to hold its own, but to improve its standard of life and increase its relative share of the product, the most urgent reason for invoking the aid of either of these remedies seems to disappear. It is perhaps too harsh to call M. Denis a socialist in the ordinary sense of the word; but he seems to overlook the importance of the above facts when he invokes for the future an increase in the regulating action of society to reconcile the contradictions between the interests of the individual and the ends of society. It is not on the basis of these facts that we can foresee the droit économique nouveau, national et international, qui s'élabore, et qui, empreint de solidarité, est destiné à mettre graduellement un terme à la dissociation du travail, du capital, de la propriété et à nous élever vers l'égalité des conditions. [p. 405.] RICHMOND MAYO-SMITH. Heures de Travail et Salaires : Étude sur l'Amélioration Directe de la Condition des Ouvriers Industriels. Par M. ANSIAUX. Paris, Félix Alcan, 1896.300 pp. Although written with special reference to industrial conditions now existing in Belgium and the reforms there practicable, this book is an excellent review of the crucial points in the labor question. After a brief but well-framed sketch of the industrial development of the century, and of the leading movements for the alleviation of the laborers' condition, comes a careful consideration of the immediate parliamentary aims of the socialist of to-day — the eight-hour day and the minimum wage. Without presenting anything especially novel, this sketch embodies a comprehensive criticism of the belief that it is possible to increase general welfare by decreasing general productivity. M. Ansiaux decides against an eight-hour law in Belgium under existing conditions of industrial efficiency and international competition. Then follows the author's positive program. He advocates the legislative limitation of the working day in Belgium to eleven hours, and of the week's work to six days. In some industries, however, eleven hours are too many to secure the greatest productivity: the number should therefore be reduced in each occupation as its circumstances permit. M. Ansiaux reviews the results in different countries of reducing the hours of different branches of industrytransportation, mining, large industry, small industry, domestic work and seasonal trades. Everywhere hours should be reduced gradually as national, local or trade conditions allow, and in some cases even though there be temporarily a slight net loss of productivity. Increased wages are to be made possible by improved methods of remuneration, or by progress in the organization of industry and in industrial efficiency. Under the former heading, after a review, based upon Schloss, of the merits and demerits of the different methods of industrial remuneration, M. Ansiaux declares, with only slight reservations, in favor of profit-sharing. Industrial efficiency will be increased by technical improvements and by better living of workingmen, due to rise in wages. In his consideration of the methods by which these changes shall be accomplished, he does not advocate any one exclusively; but, rejecting laissez faire and the extreme of state regulation, he accepts as helpful organization of laborers and of employers, legislation and arbitration. He emphasizes, however, the voluntary giving up by the employer of part of his profits for the benefit of his men. M. Ansiaux seems to expect more from a benevolent attitude of employers than from the robust self-help of the men, although the tendency of thought is certainly the other way. The work reveals extended reading in the recent literature of the labor question, especially that originating in England; contains a large mass of facts bearing upon the effects of duration of work and increased wages and efficiency; and is always honest and impartial in tone. HERBERT ELMER MILLS. VASSAR COLLEGE. BOOK NOTES. THE checks upon democratic government developed or proposed in the United States form the subject of two recent treatises. Dr. A. S. Hershey, fellow of Harvard University, publishes Die Kontrolle über die Gesetzgebung in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-Amerika (Heidelberg, J. Hörnig, 1894)—a pamphlet which the writer tells us is the result of work done at Heidelberg in the seminar of Prof. Jellinek; and Sig. Francesco Racioppi gives us a book, Nuovi Limiti e Freni nelle Istituzione Politiche Americane (Milan, U. Hoepli, 1894). Both authors discuss the restraint imposed upon our legislatures by executive veto, by judicial interpretation of our written constitutions and by the referendum; and both recognize that the practice of submitting draft constitutions and special constitutional amendments to popular vote, coupled with the tendency to put all sorts of law into the constitutions, is bringing us rapidly to direct popular legislation in the Swiss sense. Both treat "local option " as a part of the general movement towards direct legislation, and both notice the numerous and minute restrictions imposed by our state Constitutions upon the activity of our legislatures - Dr. Hershey very briefly, Sig. Racioppi at some length. Neither of these writers insists sufficiently upon the point that all the newer checks are imposed upon the commonwealth legislatures, and that no tendency is discernible to restrict the powers of Congress. Sig. Racioppi's field, as the title of his book indicates, is wider than Dr. Hershey's: he considers not merely the checks imposed upon the legislatures, but those imposed by the people upon the politicians and even upon themselves-for example, legislation regarding primaries, nominations, methods of voting and the representation of minorities; and he devotes separate chapters to discussing the development and tendencies of the executive and of the judicial departments of government. There are few pending problems of a constitutional character that are not discussed, and the discussion is uniformly based upon accurate knowledge and characterized by sound political judgment. To the European reader such a book must be almost invaluable. To the American student it is extremely suggestive, because it forces him to regard many familiar problems from a fresh point of view; and very encouraging, for with a clear view of the political evils under which we are suffering the author unites a firm belief that we are discovering or will discover the needed remedies. S. R. Moffett, in Suggestions on Government (Rand, McNally & Co.), does much more than make some suggestions on government. He proposes an entirely new system of government, the characteristic feature of which is what he calls a "precinct assembly." These assemblies, confessedly devised in imitation of the town-meeting, are directly or indirectly and singly or by groups to elect all officers, whose terms are not to be fixed, but subject to termination at any time by the precinct assemblies through whose action the offices were originally filled. The scheme is very ingenious and is apparently complete in all its details; but like all schemes of a similar character, it must be regarded rather as an ideal indicating general lines of advance than as a means of practical reform for the immediate future. Apart from this somewhat chimerical scheme, the author makes some very valuable suggestions. His remarks upon the referendum or direct legislation, which is an essential part of the scheme, are interesting; and he pleads wisely and well for a more concentrated form of governmental organization, in order to insure a concentrated responsibility, for a more complete separation of legislative from administrative powers, and for a greater realm of local autonomy. The criticisms of the various plans of proportional representation show how confused and undigested that concrete plan of reform is at the present time. In Die Beziehungen zwischen dem Staat und der Zeitungspresse im Deutschen Reich (Berlin, Mayer & Müller, 1895), Dr. E. P. Oberholtzer, member of the editorial staff of the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph and sometime fellow of the Wharton School, gives in rather clumsy but quite intelligible German a résumé of the laws affecting the editing and publishing of newspapers in Germany and of the construction placed upon these laws by the supreme court of the empire. The introduction to the pamphlet and a few closing remarks are devoted to the "science" of journalism. This, on examination, reduces itself to the more or less obvious statements that the prime function of a newspaper always has been and still is to give the news; and that the character of newspapers is determined by the financial interest of the proprietors, the taste of the public, the intellectual outfit of the editors, reporters and correspondents, and, negatively at least, by the restraints of the law. There is a plea for the special academic training of journalists and for the institution of |