lesson, unfortunately, that the trade-unionist who tries to subordinate his society to a party, is always most unwilling to learn. CO-OPERATIVE Societies are doing something towards the common ownership, if not exactly nationalisation, of the land. We read in the October number of the Economic Review that the Desborough Cooperative Society, near Kettering in Northampton, owns an estate of 408 acres, together with a church and the right of presentation. From the modest little leaflet called Comradeship, or the Journal of the Royal Arsenal Cooperative Society at Woolwich, we discover that the Woolwich Society have also an estate, at present devoted to farming, but likely soon to provide allotments and homes for members. We cannot have too much of this kind of "Socialism." THE United States Department of Labour has instituted an investigation into the economic conditions of industrial combinations. Commissioner Wright is being assisted by Professor J. W. Jenks, whose article on the subject of Trusts in the ECONOMIC JOURNAL for 1892 will be remembered. The wages, prices, number of middlemen employed, and other circumstances before and after the formation of the combination will be ascertained. DR. THOMAS NIXON CARVER has been appointed Professor of Economics and Sociology at Oberlin College, U.S.A. Dr. Carver is the author of "The Ohio Tax Inquisitor Law," Economic Studies, 1898, of an article on "The Shifting of Taxes" in the Yale Review for November, 1896, and other acute articles in other well-known journals. DR. MAX VON HECKEL has been appointed "ordinary" professor of political economy at the Academy of Münster. He is the editor of the series of monographs founded by the late Dr. Frankenstein. Among his numerous contributions to periodical literature we may notice "Der Boycott," Conrad's Jahrbuecher, third series (Folge), vol. x. PROFESSOR KARL DIEHL has been transferred from the chair of political economy at Rostock to that at Könisberg; and the place made vacant at Rostock has been filled by Dr. Richard. RECENT PERIODICALS AND NEW BOOKS Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. September, 1899. Life Tables. T. E. HAYWARD, M.B. A highly technical, though not severely mathematical, exposition of (a) the method of constructing an "extended" Life-table proposed by the writer, (b) a certain modification of Dr. Farr's "short" method, and (c) the practical uses of such constructions. The Flag and Trade: a Summary Review of the Trade of the chief Colonial Empires. Prof. A. FLUX. The topics are (a) the relative importance of the trade of each of the chief colony-owning countries with its colonies and with other countries; and (b) the relative importance in the trade of the colonies of that section of the trade which is carried on with the Sovereign State, and the remaining section. It appears (a) that both the imports from possessions relatively to total imports, and the exports to possessions relatively to total exports, are greatest for the United Kingdom as compared with some half dozen other colony-owning countries; (b) the trade of the Empire with the United Kingdom shows a slight increase in 1892-96 as compared with 1867-71 both in the imports from Britain relatively to total imports, and the exports to Britain relatively to total exports, especially in the case of the self-governing colonies. The analogous comparison for France and Holland is neither so clear nor so favourable. The Representation of Statistics by Mathematical Formula (concluded). Prof. F. Y. EDGEWORTH. The Statistics of Wages in the United Kingdom during the last Hundred Years (Part IV.). Agricultural Wages (concluded). A. L. BowLEY. The Journal of the Statistical Society of Ireland contains a paper read by Mr. Joseph Pim, which presents, along with a useful compilation of figures, many interesting reflections, e.g., "What has hit Ireland so severely in recent years has been the improved means of ocean transport, which has enabled countries thousands of miles away to compete with Ireland in the supply to England of these perishable commodities out of which the farmers in Ireland had for a generation, up to the end of the seventies, been taking their best profit." "The marriage rate, that is to say the number of marriages per annum per nousand of the population, is lower in Ireland than in any country in Europe, and the birth rate is lower than in any country save France. "It seems to me that the passenger rates in Ireland have not been put down to the level of the capacity of the people, and that consequently the railways have not fully served their public purpose. The rates in Ireland have been struck in correspondence with the rates in England, the richest country in the world, and the comparative poverty of Ireland is used as an argument in favour of high fares, which seems to me contrary to reason. experience of European countries seems to reverse this argument, for the fares are lower in the less prosperous, less industrial, and less thickly inhabited countries. The following tables show the passenger fares per mile in various countries, and the relative cost of journeys in the same countries." The If the productive power of Ireland can be increased she will be producing the articles which Englishmen and Scotchmen are most in need of as consumers, and if Ireland can be made more prosperous her prosperity will react beneficially on the prosperity of Great Britain, for Ireland is the best customer that England and Scotland have for their productions." "Let Socialists are exhorted to live up to their high ethical ideal. us not be too ready to bring Socialism down to the average sensual man." 46 Let us be sure that our aims are as genuinely humanitarian" as those of the older liberals. Pioneers in Housing. LETTICE ILBERT. The steps by which the Liverpool Corporation have remedied the insanitary conditions prevalent in the forties are described in instructive detail. Land has been bought and cleared on a large scale for the erection of dwellings for workmen, many of them managed by the municipality. "The weekly rents of rooms in Gildart's Dwellings . . . average less than 1s. 3. per room, yet not only do they cost the ratepayers nothing, but they are paying a fair percentage on their expenses of erection." Economics in Russia. S. RAPOPORT. Three schools are characterised. The Licensing Commission. Rev. Dr. T. C. FRY. Socialism in West Ham. Rev. HUGH LEGGE. The new Liverpool Bye-laws regulating Street Trading. H. CHALONER DOWDALL. Juvenile street trading is specially referred to. In a note on the great Lockout in Denmark, Prof. Westergaard describes as an important result "the growing understanding among the working classes of the value of Christian social work." The Fortnightly Review. October, 1899. The Problem of the Aged Poor. GEOFFREY DRAGE, M.P. Contemporary Review. September, 1899. The Sea the only Road for Trade. THOS. G. BOWLES. Statistics are compiled showing that in 1896 for the ten principal nations the value of exports plus imports by sea was about 69 per cent. of the total trade by land and sea; and that these percentages have in many cases greatly increased since 1884. An Experiment in Public-house Management. CHARLES BOOTH. The report of an experiment of which the conditions were: (1) that the manager's wages should be fixed independently of the quantity of alcoholic liquors sold; (2) that he should have an inducement to increase the sale of food and of alcoholic drinks; (3) that order should be maintained and all articles sold should be genuine. A year's experience shows some, but not a great, effect, the percentages for the five houses experimented on being altered as follows: "People do not drink to please the publican." "It appears more and more difficult to affect the consumption as one descends the social ladder." October, 1899. The Workhouse from the Inside. EDITH M. SHAW. A reply to Mrs. Crawford's article in the June number, by an official. National Review. Compulsory Arbitration at Work. HoN. J. MACGREGOR. The system of arbitration in New Zealand [as to which see ECONOMIC JOURNAL, vii., p. 651] has not realised its founder's hope. Disputes are manufactured by trade union leaders, and not being settled by the Boards of Conciliation "--which are largely composed of extremistsare carried up to the "Court of Arbitration," which consists of three members, one a Judge of the Supreme Court, mostly devoid of expert knowledge. Out of thirty-one disputes twenty-three have been carried to the Court, which has in every case exercised the discretion left to it by making its award binding, the employer breaking it being thus rendered liable to imprisonment. The Amending Act passed last session has indeed removed this anomaly, but it extends compulsion in the direction of preventing the employer, by pecuniary penalties, from closing his business rather than accept the decision of the court. 'No man having a due sense of responsibility could on the strength of our experience in New Zealand recommend the adoption of a similar system by any other country." Quarterly Journal of Economics (Boston). The Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, 1660-1760. PROF. ASHLEY. The action of England was not so pernicious as historians, Bancroft and even Lecky, represent. The navigation laws stimulated shipbuilding in New England. The enumerated" articles which it was forbidden to import into the continent of Europe were for the most part not staples. Besides, as Brougham said, "The restrictive policy only secured, by a superfluous and harmless anxiety, that arrangement which would of itself have taken place if things had been left in their natural course." Nor was the legislation respecting manufactures very hurtful to the colonies. Franklin and Adam Smith are quoted in proof. The Molasses Act forms an exception; it was passed, however, not for the benefit of the mother-country, but of the West Indies. The English commercial legislation did the colonies no harm prior to 1760; and the English connection did them much good." Productive Co-operation in France. CHARLES GIDE. After an historical retrospect, Professor Gide describes four species of French productive co-operation; self-supporting, corporate, semipatronal, and a new form of association called "intégrale," the peculiarity of which is the employment of outside capital, whether in the form of loans, or by actions not obligations, with a share in the direction. The productive associations are not in France, as in England, closely related to distributive associations. University Settlements. R. A. WOOD. The Gas Supply of Boston. W. J. H. GRAY. Political Science Quarterly (New York). Government Loans to Farmers. C. F. EMERICH. The disastrous failure of the sale of public lands on credit at the beginning of this century is brought up against the proposal of |