Volks- und Seewirthschaft: Reden und Aufsätze. By DR. ERNST VON HALLE. Berlin Ernest Siegfried Mittler & Sohn, 1902. 8vo, 2 vols., pp. 219 and 251. : THIS book is a collection of essays and addresses delivered and published between the years 1897 and 1900. The several pieces which go to make up the volumes, numbering between them upward of 500 pages, have no organic unity, yet they have a certain similarity of subject and of tone. They are chiefly statistical and historical. The first volume deals with various phases of German policy, and presents a statistical picture of German economic activity and commercial interests abroad. In Vol. II the essays relate chiefly to questions of world-politics. They deal with the economic development of various colonial domains and with the military strength of certain powers. In all there are twelve essays in the two volumes. It might be expected that a helter-skelter collection of articles and speeches united by no bond, save a common authorship and consequent similarity in subjects of discussion and methods of treatment, would show varying degrees of workmanship. This expectation is fulfilled in the present collection. In fact, it is very difficult to see why some of the essays have been republished, and it would almost seem as if egotism of a high type were the only force that could have led to such publication by their author. It is seldom true that the preparation of addresses like these takes place under conditions that afford opportunity for scholarship, and it is unavoidable that discussions prepared for presentation to specially selected audiences should be characterized by a bias in favor of the ideas and prejudices of the particular organization or group of readers they were originally designed to reach. Accordingly, we find these essays wanting in style, deficient in content, and defective in arrangement. To this it should be added that, almost without exception, they are aggressively dull. In spite of their lack of interest and the total absence of literary quality or of satisfactory content, these essays will, however, have a value. That value arises largely from the anomalous position occupied by their author, and from the consequent fact that they may be regarded as indicating a certain drift of official opinion. Dr. von Halle, in fact, is well known as the mouthpiece of certain powerful administrative influences in Germany, and his utterances may usually be regarded as the result of dictation from an inner circle. This lends interest to the tone, if not to the content, of what he has to say, particularly on questions of foreign policy. Naturally, the tone referred. to can be understood much better from the reading of a series of articles than from any single discussion, however elaborate. In this instance the tone of the essays is intensely "nationalistic." Coupled with extreme, even ludicrous, confidence in German methods and achievements, there stands an outspoken attitude of contempt for foreign countries, a feeling of hatred for foreign success or advancement, and of egotistical confidence in military and naval power as the means of ultimately turning the scale of international competition. In a word, the book is dominated by a crude and extreme mercantilism. It thinks of the prosperity of foreigners as a source of suffering to the country of the writer, and it regards trade as a sort of struggle in which the advantage is altogether on one side. Of this collection, two essays will perhaps interest the American reader as much as any. 66 These are the first, on German Economic Theory at the Close of the Nineteenth Century," and the tenth, on "The Meaning of North American Imperialism." Of German economic theory Dr. von Halle thinks that International trade and international commercial interests mean, for the nations, not a complete transformation into similar conditions of life, or a complete unification. Over against the growing importance of international trade there arises with even greater speed an inner commerce, distinct from it and lately making much more rapid progress. This tendency is resulting in an individualization which demands the growth of separate economic systems. The historical point of view has given new life to economic ideas; it has shown how economics is destined to pass from the old and outworn notions to a newly constructed "neo-mercantilism" based on the industrial order of the modern world. And to whom has this "transformation" been attributed? Not to the old fogies Wagner and Philippovich, not to the crude and elementary Bücher, but to Professor Schmoller, Dr. von Halle's some time chief at the University of Berlin, whose faithful disciple he has always been and for whom he has accomplished many a less pleasant job than the building up of a fictitious claim to credit. Professor Schmoller's book, in fact, he regards as the first step toward "a complete, theoretically fundamental work from the historical standpoint," and with true historical egotism he discredits the work of other German economists. For the socialists, of course, he has little but contempt. By the side of this extreme, self-sufficient, dogmatic way of regarding economic theory may be placed the essay in national policy to which reference has already been made. American imperialism Dr. von Halle regards with curiously mixed feeling. It might be expected that he would laud it as the precise policy inculcated by his own school of writers. That, however, is not quite his point of view. His first effort is to convict this nation of hypocrisy in its past claims to a non-military and peaceful character, and to fasten upon it the charge of dissimulation and selfishness in its South American policy. The recent efforts at expansion, and the steps that are being taken to build up a large army and navy, are regarded as quite what ought to have been expected in the natural course of events. The only wonder is that Americans have been such fools as not to take these steps earlier. Now that they have been taken, Dr. von Halle can only gnash his teeth, recognizing the great industrial power of this country, and call upon the Germans to stand together for resistance to what he considers pestilent ideals and views of life. Imperialism is good only when pursued by Germany. There is little that can be said in favor of Dr. von Halle's book. The national policy it urges is coldly selfish, the economic theory it sets forth unsound, the mercantilist views it advocates merely an instance of the tendency toward mediævalism which seems to be gaining so rank and poisonous a growth. The moralist and the statesman as well as the economist must take issue with the "Hallesche" idea. The only redeeming virtue of the volume is a certain humorous quality due to the atmosphere of obtuse German egotism in which its discussions move, and the ridiculous and cumbrous language in which it is sought to hide glaring fallacies beneath a cloud of pedantry and mock learning. H. P. W. Contribution à l'étude de la législation impériale allemande sur les assurances ouvrières, et specialement sur l'assurance des invalides. By ANDRÉ KORN. Dijon: Librairie L. Vendt, 1901. 8vo, PP. 201. Das österreichische Arbeiter-krankenversicherungsgesetz und die Praxis. By Dr. KARL LAMP. Leipzig, 1901. (Staats- und socialwissenschaftliche Forschungen, Band XIX. Heft 6.) 8vo, pp. 161. Die Arbeiterversicherung im Auslande. By Dr. Zacher. Heft XV. Die Arbeiterversicherung in Spanien. Berlin: 1902. 8vo, pp. 63. ANY proposal to establish in the United States a system of government insurance of workingmen could hardly be taken seriously at the present time. Certainly the question of workingmen's insurance has not yet in this country entered into the field of practical politics. Workingmen may, and do, a considerable number of them, insure themselves voluntarily in miscellaneous associations or private companies; and certain large employers and corporations have established insurance funds in behalf of their employees; but these would certainly rebel against any system of government or compulsory insurance, as a violation of personal liberty and a pauperization of labor. It is, therefore, difficult for Americans to realize the extent to which such insurance has been provided in European countries since Bismarck outbid the socialists with his comprehensive scheme of legislation twenty years ago. Since that date other nations have been following more or less closely in Germany's lead. Even in France and England the movement is on foot and, we may say, in politics to stay. At one extreme stands Germany with her complete system of compulsory government insurance; at the other England, relying in this, as in other reform movements, upon individual initiative and the spirit of voluntary self-help, though the need of some provision against the extreme exigencies of accident, invalidcy, and old age has not been, and is too apparent to be, altogether ignored, and has, indeed, led to extremely radical proposals for paying old-age pensions out of public revenues. The three monographs cited above are evidence of the very general interest felt in the practical working of those systems of government insurance which have been developed during the last two decades in continental Europe. M. Korn in his study of German workingmen's old-age insurance urges the necessity of making some such provision by legislation in France, where the present condition of the aged poor is declared to be a national disgrace more particularly so, as M. Gide has maintained, "in a democratic republic where the word 'solidarity' is in everyone's mouth." Meanwhile, the bureaucratic monarchies and imperial governments of neighboring countries have developed their labor legislation to a remarkable degree. A democracy ought not certainly to have less regard for the welfare of her citizens. Dr. Karl Lamp's monograph upon insurance of workingmen against sickness in Austria is scholarly and exhaustive in its treatment. It is frankly admitted, however, that the period during which the experiment has been trying, a short decade, is too brief to determine what will be the practical working of the system in the long run. Already certain defects in the law are apparent, and the need of further legislation is beginning to be felt. The fifteenth number of a series of remarkable publications, edited by Dr. Zacher, is devoted to workingmen's insurance in Spain. Other numbers in this series treat of workingmen's insurance in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France, Great Britain, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, and Luxemburg. The author promises to follow these special studies with a comprehensive statistical and critical study based upon this wide survey of practical experience, and to present such conclusions as seem warranted, his object being to bring into sharper contrast the bright and dark sides of this new social-democratic movement undertaken in the interests of workingmen and of social peace. JOHN CUMMINGS. Syndicats ouvriers, fédérations, bourses du travail. By LÉON DE SEILHAC. Paris: Armand Colin, 1902. 12mo, pp. xii + 341. M. DE SEILHAC in his account of trades unions deals with the history and practical technique of labor organization in France, concerning himself chiefly with the course of legislation and with the historical development of the more powerful organizations from the period of the French Revolution down to the present time. The struggle of the labor unions for the right to exist, for recognition and power, is followed in detail throughout the century, and the economic conditions are indicated which have determined the character and extent of organization. Among wage-earners themselves, as M. Seilhac shows, there has been no singleness of purpose. Co-operative associations, friendly societies, and trades unions have from time to time conceived a jealous mistrust of one another which has tended to defeat their common interests, while the spirit of social democracy, which gained its absolute ascendency during the French Revolution, inspired the oppressive legislation directed during the earlier period against all forms of association among citizens. These were denounced as subversive of individual liberty, and as violations of the natural equality and brotherhood of man. The state would care for the general welfare and common interests of all. Other interests than common ones, as, for example, the special interests of any industrial group of wage-earners, were clearly anti-social, tending to create privileged or protected classes, and to hinder the state in the execution of its beneficent pur |