ties, because his study of distribution begins with the bargaining process which goes on in actual life between buyer and seller. Competition does not in such a case fix the price of commodities, but only the limits below which the seller will not go and above which the buyer will not go. Between these two limits the actual price is determined by the superior bargaining power of a single buyer or seller. This leads to an element of forced gain that accrues to that side of buyers or sellers which possesses the shrewdest bargainer. In addition to this, there is a differential gain shared in by all buyers and sellers whose subjective valuations lie beyond the limits within which the price is fixed. In a static state, such as is described by Professor Clark, no element of forced gain could appear. Each party to the bargain in fixing a price would secure the full measure of its productivity. Applied to the case of the factors of production, free competition tends "to give labor what it creates, to capital what it creates, and to entrepreneurs what the coordinating function creates." In both theories, the element of differential gain still remains. If, for example, on a given amount of land a number of units of labor of equal productivity be applied unit by unit, the productivity of the labor will diminish after a certain point has been reached. As the units of labor are supposedly equal, the product of the final unit will fix the wages of each and every other unit, and a rent will accrue to land as a result of the surplus created by the application of the earlier units. This is rent in the Ricardian sense, a differential gain secured by land as a result of the diminishing productivity of labor upon the land. But we may have the same thing in the case of capital. The application of successive units of labor to a fixed amount of capital will result in differential gains which accrue in this instance to capital. Reversing the process and applying units of capital to a given amount of labor, we find capital subject to the same law of diminishing returns, and labor in this case secures a surplus, rent. This extension of rent by Professor Clark to all the factors of production is exactly paralleled in the discussion by Mr. Hobson. Corresponding to the forced gain in the sale of commodities, there may be a marginal rent in the sale of the factors of production which is not the same as the differential rent explained by Ricardo as accruing to land and by Professor Clark as due to all the factors of production. We have already stated that Professor Clark does not find this forced gain or marginal rent existing in a static society. What we here wish to emphasize is that both writers agree in extending the conception of differential rents to labor and capital as well as to land. Mr. Hobson holds that we cannot speak of a margin of employment for land any more than we can for capital and labor. If we can say that the worst land in cultivation bears no rent, we can just as well say that the worst placed capital gets no interest and the worst employed labor receives no wage. If this theory be true that a differential

gain may under certain circumstances accrue to labor, it is clear that we cannot speak of an expropriation of the product of labor by capitalists and land-owners. The distribution of the surplus will depend upon the relative supply of the three factors of production. If labor is scarce as compared to capital and land, the surplus will go to labor, and we might with equal fairness speak of the exploitation of capital by the laborer. There is no exploitation involved in giving to any factor the share which the final unit produces.

The recent interest in trusts has brought forward numerous books, pamphlets, and magazine articles dealing with that interesting and perplexing prob lem. Among the discussions of this topic most favorably received have been the recent books by Professor Jenks and Mr. Collier, which must here be dealt with more briefly than they deserve. Both works are written for the general reader rather than for the advanced student in economics, and with few exceptions they contain little that has not been made available to the student by earlier and more complete investigations. The scope of the inquiry is practically the same in each of the volumes, and the two authors agree in the main in their conclusions. Both writers admit that the chief cause of the growth of industrial combinations in the past quarter century has been intense and often wasteful competition. Both authors also agree in the statement that special privileges such as patents, tariff legislation, and railway discriminations, have often aided in this growth. Professor Jenks is, however, more logical in his attitude toward these privileges than is Mr. Collier. For the latter, having admitted that competition is the chief and sufficient cause of trusts, maintains that the abolition of these special privileges would cause the disappearance of the majority of the trusts. It should also be noted that Professor Jenks views with more concern the disappearance of competition as a force which controls prices, than does Mr. Collier. Both authors, however, regard potential competition as in the main a sufficient safeguard for the consumer of trust-made commodities in cases where neither legal nor natural monopolies exist. A study of the prices charged by some of the great industrial combinations such as the sugar, whiskey, kerosene, tinplate, and wire and steel trusts, made by Professor Jenks for the United States Industrial Commission, leads him to the conclusion that while prices have fallen since the establishment of these combinations the general level of prices is somewhat higher than would have probably prevailed had competition had full play in these industries. The statements often made by trust managers that industrial combinations have made the market for their products more steady seems to have little justification. The temptation to raise prices, or to maintain them at a high level, is so strong that when once a monopoly has been established few trust managers have been able to resist the desire for high profits. This in the

case of capitalistic monopolies has inevitably resulted in the bringing into the field of new capital to compete with the trust, and before the latter could regain its former supremacy it has been obliged to buy up or coerce these competing establishments.

The most serious menace to the public from the trusts is probably to be found in the methods by which these combinations are being organized and manipulated. The principal sufferer is not the consumer but the investor. The great success of certain of these combinations has brought into the field of corporation finance within recent years a class of persons known as promoters, whose business consists in the efforts to form combinations among industrial establishments which have hitherto been subject to the control of competition. In this way industrial consolidation has been brought about in many cases where it would not have taken place, at least for some time to come, had natural forces alone controlled. The promoter is usually paid for his efforts by common stock issued beyond the capitalized valuation of the property of the consolidated companies. In addition to receiving preferred stock, whose par value equals the total capitalized value of their property, the owners of the establishments thus consolidated usually receive a bonus in the shape of large amounts of common stock. There is furthermore the underwriter, usually a banker, who undertakes the sale of the stock. He also receives his pay in common stock. It is not difficult to see that in this way trusts are capitalized far beyond the limits which a prudent financial administration would warrant. One of the most prominent of our present industrial combinations has in this way been capitalized at $50,000,000, while the total selling value of the properties consolidated was only $18,000,000. Excessive capitalization means stock and bank speculation, losses to investors, dangers to consumers from an attempt to raise prices so as to pay dividends on the stock thus issued, instability to business, and perhaps a panic brought about by the collapse of these undertakings.

Of the remedies proposed, the one most insisted upon by both the above writers is publicity in regard to the finances and the methods employed by these combinations. Publicity alone would probably cause the disappearance of some of the chief evils connected with trust organization and management, and until we have this publicity, as Professor Jenks well says, we cannot proceed wisely in the application of further remedies. Both writers apparently admit that the trust has brought much good and that it has come to stay. Prohibition has everywhere proved a failure, and is not recommended by either writer. The abolition of the special privileges which have aided in the growth of trust formation, and the prevention of overcapitalization, are of course advocated wherever the removal of these special privileges would not cause a serious derangement of industry. Mr. Collier would add to these remedies by making directors

of these great corporations responsible to the full amount of their property instead of giving to them the limited liability conceded to other stockholders. In case these remedies proved insufficient, he would have acts of monopoly declared a crime, leaving to the courts the difficult task of deciding whether or not monopoly really existed.

Professor Edward D. Jones, of the University of Wisconsin, is responsible for a well-written little volume on "Economic Crises." This is the first systematic treatment of this subject in its entirety that we have had in English. Professor Jones does not undertake to discuss at any length particular crises and their causes. His work is chiefly a review of the theories of crises which have been brought forward by other writers, and a critical examination of these theories in the light of our present economic knowledge. The treatment is somewhat fragmentary in character, and the author is perhaps a little too dogmatic in his own statement of opinions, but on the whole the discussion of the various theories is made in an impartial manner, and the conclusions seem to be the result of sound reasoning. There is an able chapter on the periodicity of crises in which the author, while not denying the existence of periodicity, claims that the proof of such regularity in the appearance of crises is not yet sufficient, and that no explanation for such periodicity has been offered which is at all adequate. Professor Jones lays great stress on the abuse of credit as the cause of crises, but points out that there is a danger in attributing crises to a single kind of credit abuse such as banking speculation. In the final chapter on the "Psychology of Crises," the author studies the individualistic motives underlying crises. These industrial disturbances he declares to be due in large degree to a tendency toward speculation, and to undue optimism in regard to the outcome of business projects. The chief preventives the author finds in the subordination of economic interests to other motives and in such an increase of information concerning the facts of the modern industrial world as is to be gained through commercial education. These remedies, however, furnish only a partial solution. "The final extinguishment of crises will come through the progress of general economic evolution rather than as the result of the application of specific remedies."

The title of Dr. Fairchild's book, "Rural Wealth and Welfare," the experience of its author who for thirty-five years has been connected with agricultural colleges, and the place of the treatise in "The Rural Science Series," all would lead one to expect that the book was a treatise on agricultural economics, for which there is at present a genuine need. It is extremely disappointing, therefore, to find that Dr. Fairchild's book is only another treatise on elementary economics, differing in no way from the average text-book on that subject, except that perhaps the majority of the illustrations are

taken from farm life. The author has prepared some interesting and valuable charts intended to show that conditions of demand and supply are the controlling factors in the making of prices of agricultural commodities, and that speculative movements have exerted but little influence. He is wise in his insistence on the value of accurate crop statistics to the agricultural class, and points out that such information would "do more to destroy the demoralizing force of mere speculation than any possible legal enactment." There are some sensible chapters on banking, insurance, and the tariff, and here and elsewhere there are good suggestions as to methods by which farmers may make use of division of labor, credit associations, and other means by which modern business has attained to successful organization and results. The value of these suggestions leads one to wish that this part of the work had been more fully worked out, leaving to other treatises the statement of elementary principles common to the whole field of economics. Dr. Fairchild takes an optimistic view of the drift of the farming population into the cities. He considers this merely a means of readjusting industrial arrangements, and one which is made possible and necessary by the wide use of agricultural machinery which has enabled three men to do the work that fourteen did forty years ago. Even the abandonment of New England farms he does not consider a great social loss, though it may have injured individuals. "These lands will find a profitable use in the wood lots throughout the East and in grazing ranches through the West, with slight permanent loss. They are not signs of poverty but of a developing trait, just as the abandoned country woolen mills tell the story of immense growth in factory methods."

Mr. Carnegie's book, "The Gospel of Wealth," consists of a group of essays, all of which have appeared in English or American magazines or periodicals. They cover a wide range of subjects biographical, economic, social, and political, but may perhaps be conveniently divided into three groups. The first five essays deal with social and industrial questions, the next two with the recent political tendencies in this country, while the last four deal with English political problems and tendencies. Mr. Carnegie's well-known views concerning the use to be made of large accumulations of wealth are set forth in the essay which gives the title to the book. Mr. Carnegie's natural attitude as a man who has accumulated an immense fortune, toward the accumulation of wealth, leads him to attach great importance in the social and industrial sphere to individual leadership. He is inclined even at this late day to agree with Adam Smith that enterprises undertaken by joint stock companies are likely to prove failures unless they are controlled by a few able men. For the same reason he does not place much confidence in coöperative enterprises as a means of solving the labor problem. He takes a sympathetic attitude toward Trade

Unions, and is a firm believer in the justice of the sliding scale. Mr. Carnegie deplores strikes, but calls upon employers to observe patience when strikes occur, and he recognizes the equity of the striking man's commandment, "Thou shalt not take thy neighbor's job." Mr. Carnegie's attitude on the question of Imperialism is well-known, and scarcely requires comment. He deals fairly with his opponents, and gives them credit for sincerity. His views concerning British administration in India, and the administration of tropical countries in general, are doubtless equally sincere, but they are opposed, it should be said, to the opinions of men who have observed less superficially and have studied the question more profoundly. Mr. Carnegie opposes the imperial federation of Britain and her colonies, a scheme which he regards as impracticable as well as undesirable, but he dreams of an Anglo-Saxon alliance in which all Englishspeaking nations shall share. Nothing, however, has done so much to hasten the realization of such a project as the recent coöperation of the two great English-speaking nations in the far East, a movement which could not have taken place had it not been for our acquisition of Eastern possessions which Mr. Carnegie has so strenuously and vigorously opposed.

"War and Labour" is another of the numerous attempts made by political philosophers to promote universal peace. The author, M. Anitchkow, is, however, scarcely an idealist. He does not think that this peace can be made a never-ending one. "War," he says, "is the lot of mankind and the inevitable destiny of nations." In the first part of his treatise, the author reviews and criticises the various proposals which have been made by other writers to secure the same end. He decides that neither the increase of armaments, the greater destructiveness of modern artillery, the efforts of peace societies, nor international agreements and courts of arbitration, will suffice to prevent the outbreak of war; and he supports his statements with an abundance of historical evidence to show that the above mentioned methods have in the past failed to achieve this end. In Chapter I. of Book II. the author strikes the keynote of his argument. It is his claim that the prime cause of war in modern times is no longer religious or ethnographic differences, but trade rivalry, which has led to modern tariffs, these imposts being the chief cause of international irritation. The administration of tariffs, the author endeavors to show, differs in no material respect from the preliminaries to war. With the improvement in means of communication this administration becomes more difficult and more warlike in character. The chief use of troops in some countries even now, is to protect customs administration. The abolition of tariff restrictions would remove the chief cause of modern international hostility. The author in his hostility to tariff legislation would not even allow of fiscal tariffs, preferring to resort to direct taxation. He is much

influenced by Henry George, and one of his best chapters is little more than a re-statement of Henry George's doctrine contained in "Protection and Free Trade." He is also much influenced by LeroyBeaulieu, but claims that the great French economist has not dared to go the whole way in his advocacy of a universal market and absolute freetrade. Freedom of trade and freedom of migration, says M. Anitchkow, would remove the only causes of contemporary antagonism. The safety of foreign investments would thus be guaranteed, for the cause of jealousy would be removed. The third part of the book seems to have little relation to what has gone before. It consists in the main of loosely constructed arguments for freedom in industry, technical education, industrial coöperation, government ownership of railways, etc. The author wanders in a dreamy sort of fashion from one ideal to another, believing them all to be resultants of his proposed reforms, without stopping to indicate how these reforms are to realized, or why they are to be considered inevitable. M. B. HAMMOND.

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.

Emperor Frederick's life and character.

Mr. Sidney Whitman's "Life of the Emperor Frederick " (Harper), edited from the German of Margaretha von Poschinger, appears simultaneously with the final instalment of the more voluminous original. Mr. Whitman has selected from Fraulein Poschinger's mass of material such portions as seemed most likely to interest English readers, and he has eliminated so far as possible all second-hand comment and appreciation. The volume is thus in the main composed of conversations, letters, and personalia of monarchs, soldiers, savants, statesmen, and men of letters, so arranged as to form an account of the public and private life of the Emperor told in the words of witnesses able in most cases to speak directly to the facts. The inherent defects, as well as merits, of biography made on this plan are obvious; and Mr. Whitman is at least to be credited with a very good piece of literary joinerwork, in which the materials are sound and wellchosen, and put together in a workmanlike way. It may be added that in many cases the documents so laboriously assembled by the pious care of Fraulein Poschinger have an interest of their own to which that which they owe to their bearing on the career or character of Emperor Frederick is secondary. The life of "Unser Fritz" was largely part and parcel of some of the most important phases of the history of his time; his character was such as to gild with a ray of splendor what future history will probably regard as the declining day of European royalty of the old type. It may perhaps be urged

that not absolutism but liberalism is heir to the lustre of his virtues; that in many things he was at heart a generous apostate from the tradition of his

race. It was a true instinct which led the people to regard him, not as a being of superior clay, but as Unser Fritz" our Fritz. An ardent champion of tolerance, he opposed every exercise of arbitrary power; a master of the military art, he abhorred war, and the laurels of victory turned to the cypress of mourning in his grasp. "I detest this butchery," he sadly remarked on the morrow of triumph; "I have never longed for war laurels, and would willingly have left such fame to others without envying them." At once the people's choice and the representative of the hereditary principle, he was indeed "every inch a king." His mantle has scarcely fallen upon his bustling and eccentric successor - who has, however, by no means fulfilled the unflattering expectations formed of him. Mr. Whitman's book is interesting and full of meat, and it is presentably got up.

An excellent bibliography

of the Cabots.

Mr. George Parker Winship's "Cabot Bibliography" (Dodd) is an exhaustive and scholarly piece of work. An introduction of some fifty pages gives a concise account of what is actually known about the Cabots. Mr. Winship has distinguished clearly between the historical value of strictly contemporary evidence and that of the later gossip of the historians, whose personal acquaintance with Sebastian Cabot has blinded us to the carelessness and indirectness of their testimony. Upon the same principle, he has relegated the legends of the so-called "Cabot map" to a position of secondary importance, no certain connection between the map and the navigator having been established. The bibliography proper consists of two parts, a list of early documents, books, and maps relating to the Cabots, and a list of the later books, articles, and addresses that have been printed about them, containing altogether nearly six hundred titles. The titles are supplemented by excellent explanatory and critical notes, which constitute the chief value of the work. We have but one fault to find with the bibliography, and that respects its arrangement in alphabetical order. In our opinion a chronological order would have much better served the purpose of the lists. It would have disclosed the original material in the order of historical sequence, and have distinguished more clearly its relative value. It would have grouped the later discussions around the successive storm centres of the Cabot controversy, and have developed naturally its origin and subsequent course. An index of names would then have rendered the whole easy of reference. As it is, the lists are somewhat bewildering and difficult to read. The order suggested would have made them easy and interesting extraordinary thing for a bibliography. Probably it will be said that the book is not intended to be read, but it is certainly a distinct advantage to make a book readable, if it can be done. Mr. Winship's knowledge of Cabot sources and literature is so extensive, and his judgment so sound, that it

an

would be a pity for him to rest with this work. Mr. Beazley gave us a good popular account of the Cabots, but a definitive statement still remains to be written -a book that shall be final as far as a book can be. Mr. Winship seems to have every qualification for writing such a book, and we trust that he has it in contemplation.

Mental health and disease.

The small volume by Dr. David F. Lincoln, entitled "Sanity of Mind" (Putnam), is one of those meritorious works which one is disposed to criticise rather harshly because it could so easily have been better. It contains good material, served rather indifferently well and with no executive skill. It has an important and a timely message, and along with other works of its class, will serve a good purpose in acquainting the interested public with the general nature of some of the influences that make for mental health and disease. It brings the reader within speaking distance of mental abnormalities, and shows him how modern views of physiological and psychological functions may be applied in wise precept as well as in specific advice. The lesson of the volume is essentially practical; its tone is educational and sociological. It considers the factors of heredity and environment in the production of abnormally tending influences, and points out where the optimistic reformer may most effectively apply his philanthropic energies, and where the educator must be most actively upon his guard. It does this with moderate success, but not nearly so effectively as must be done before this type of ideas becomes absorbed into the thinking of the educated public. One of the points most successfully emphasized is the value of activity in the cure and prevention of abnormal tendencies, not merely in extreme cases but in little ways. One is at once reminded of James's classic chapter on habit, when the author, in insisting upon the necessity that acquisition should leave a tangible deposit in action, says: "Probably the most insidious form of mental voluptuousness is the hearing of brilliant sermons and lectures." On the whole, one forms a more favorable impression of the author than of his book; and yet any one interested in the spread of the point of view which Dr. Lincoln advocates, and sympathetic with his sound and practical purposes, will be glad to recommend the work as a step in the right direction.

spilt the principle, namely, that every people, however small, which is fit for self-government, or is demonstrably well on the way to that fitness, "is and of right ought to be free and independent," and unpreyed upon by the commercial greed or territorial ambition of its stronger neighbors. In a volume of 328 pages, Mr. Edgar Sanderson tells in popular style the stories of leading "Hero-Patriots of the Nineteenth Century" (Crowell). Among the names inscribed on Mr. Sanderson's roll of honor are Diaz, Hofer, Bolivar, Bozzaris, Garibaldi, Kanaris, Abdel-Kader, Schamyl, Manin, Mazzini. Mr. Sanderson writes clearly and directly, avoiding the pitfalls of florid description and high-flown panegyric, and wisely letting the plain facts about his heroes speak for themselves. The narratives appear to be based on trustworthy sources of information, and the book is on the whole a good one for popular reading at a time when the popular mind needs a tonic that may serve to brace and fortify its sense of the claims and rights of aspiring nationalism. There are several portraits.

Latest investigations in

The traditional text-book of human physiology is a bulky volume illhuman physiology. adapted to the use of the student who desires a concise manual of the subject which will give a clear view of the entire field. The "Outlines of Human Physiology" (Holt), by Drs. Schenck and Gürber of the Physiological Institute at Würzburg, aims to lay stress on the undisputed facts of the science without extended discussion of conflicting hypotheses. The authors' names are a sufficient guarantee that the contents have been well selected, with due regard to the latest investigations in the field of human physiology. Little attention is paid to the mechanism of experimental work in the laboratory, emphasis being laid upon the results of such work rather than upon the means by which they may be obtained. Dr. Zoethout's translation makes this very admirable work available for English readers. In the preface to the American edition Professor Loeb calls attention to the extension of physiological research to the invertebrates in the now developing science of experimental morphology, and to the application of physical chemistry to physiological problems. The results of this work, though important in their bearing on the fundamental laws of life, have not as yet found their way into medical text-books.

A sketch of the Opera,

Mr. W. F. Apthorp has written for "The Music Lover's Library past and present. (Scribner) what he calls a "compendious sketch pendious sketch" of "The Opera, Past and Present." The work is brief, but it serves well its purpose, and the author has embodied in his not numerous pages the result of much historical research, besides the experience of a veteran professional critic. He states the gist of the whole matter of operatic history when he says that opera was started on the right artistic road three hundred