poses. Accordingly unions of workmen were declared to be highly illegal and were swept out of existence along with the undemocratic institutions of privilege. All this has a pertinent bearing upon certain live issues involving trade-union action and policy today, when among writers who deal with labor problems the disposition is so greatly in evidence to see in the organization of wage-earners for control over the conditions of their employment simply an extension of democratic principles into the field of industry. The trend of the labor movement is said to be toward industrial democracy. Its animus is reaction from industrial autocracy, which is conceived to be altogether anachronistic and inconsistent with our political and social organization. The struggle of the labor union for recognition and power has its political analogy in the struggle of the commoners of England against the royal prerogatives and divine rights of the crown; it is an effort to create a modified "constitutional" hierarchy, in which wage agreements or compacts, entered into between the accredited representatives of the two great estates of labor and capital, shall serve as instruments of government, defining prerogatives and mutual cessions. of power and privilege in the direction and performance of labor. Thus the old régime of industrial absolutism is passing away and the period of limited or constitutional government is begun. The history of this movement is just beginning to be written and M. de Seilhac's account shows that in France the trade union has had to fight that very spirit of democracy which is now appealed to so generally in its behalf. The policy of suppression, begun in the name of liberty, equality, and fraternity, continued in one or another form of legislative restriction throughout the greater portion of the century- though the spirit of the letter changed-until brought gradually into discredit and finally abandoned in the early eighties. During the last two decades, since the important legislation of 1884, the legal right of wage-earners to organize has been fully conceded. What is of still more significance, however, than the mere remission of legislative restrictions is the fact that wage-earners have been practically protected in the exercise of privileges guaranteed them by statute. It has not infrequently occurred in the past that the law has been defied and successfully nullified. This disregard and breaking down of legal privileges has constituted a great grievance among unionists, and it is pretty generally conceded a just one. M. de Seilhac's chapters descriptive of the organization of labor in France at the present time are particularly noteworthy. Here the great local and national unions and the "mixed" associations of laborers and employers for mutual aid are taken up one by one. These chapters are followed by accounts of the more influential tradesunion federations and labor bourses. That portion of the volume devoted to labor congresses ought also to be mentioned. M. de Seilhac's work is a contribution of great value to the literature of the labor movement. J. C. American Municipal Progress: Chapters in Municipal Sociology. By CHARLES ZUEBLIN. (The Citizens' Library.) New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902. 12mo, pp. 380. A POPULAR university-extension lecturer has an advantage not only in the habit of clear presentation of ideas, but also in first-hand knowledge of the cities in which he has lectured. Professor Zueblin has made the most of his exceptional opportunities for gathering information about American cities, supplementing his personal observations and the municipal statistics of the Department of Labor by a schedule of inquiries sent to officials of cities of more than 30,000 inhabitants. The result is a work of almost encyclopædic completeness within its somewhat restricted scope. Its object is to tell what American cities are actually doing toward the satisfaction of urban needs; mere forms of municipal organization are referred to only incidentally or not at all. Especially valuable are the chapters on public schools, public libraries, parks and boulevards, and public recreation-subjects which have been slighted by previous writers on American cities, but which afford an encouraging record of progress. There are also chapters on transportation, public works, sanitation, and public buildings, and a final chapter on "Public Control, Ownership and Operation." There are several appendices giving in detail statistical comparisons between leading cities, the cost of track elevation in Chicago, school accommodations in Philadelphia and Chicago, the organization of a "school city," the New York laws providing for illustrated lectures under the auspices of the school authorities, an abridged summary of state laws relating to compulsory education and child labor, a statement of the sanitary condition of the public schools of the District of Columbia, a list of questions asked in an investigation of the Chicago schools, and the rules and regulations of the Milwaukee public natatoriums. Finally, there is a brief but very serviceable index. Dealing less than is usual with organization and finances, and more than other writers with methods, Professor Zueblin discusses such matters as the architecture and grouping of public buildings, the open-shelf system of public libraries, the progress of manual training in the public schools, etc. There is a description of the class excursions of the Washington schools, which must now, unhappily, be written in the past tense, or else perhaps in the future. The discussion of municipal franchises is very brief, and might well be expanded. The author's preference for the indeterminate franchise seems to be rather academic, and in practice inconsistent with his own statement that a franchise should not last longer than one generation; for the indeterminate franchises are practically perpetual. Professor Zueblin is in favor of municipal ownership and operation, which he believes promotes instead of hindering private initiative, by setting free the capital and energy otherwise involved in undertakings of a routine character. In spite of some evidence to the contrary, Professor Zueblin reaches the encouraging conclusion that there has been a most notable development during the past decade, not only in the extension of municipal functions, but also in their efficient performance. MAX WEST. La population. By ALFRED DES CILLEULS. Paris: Victor Le12mo, pp. vii + 207. coffre, 1902. 66 IT has been said of ideas that they come very slowly into being, and are also very slow to disappear." This is equally true of great masses of statistical data upon which certain social philosophers have come to depend. Writers cease to construct anew for themselves the statistical bases upon which their conclusions depend, and as their theorizing ramifies and develops the disposition to work at the foundation of their logic weakens. In this way some well-done statistical table which appears to lead incontrovertibly to a definite conclusion gets itself, as it were, fixed in the consciousness of economists and sociologists, and serves as a stop to first-hand examination of social conditions. Such a dead-locking and incumbering of social science with superannuated statistics has been particularly manifest in our efforts to come at some satisfactory understanding of population movements during the nineteenth century. The gathering of crude statistics has been voluminous, but to a very great extent, this mass is undigested, if not indigestible. Perhaps, therefore, in no field is the need greater for critical analysis and constructive recasting of statistical data than in that to which M. Cilleuls devotes his essay upon population-dedicated by the author, very properly to his father and mother, “qui, sans fortune, ont mis au monde neuf enfants!" When quality is regarded, our demographic statistics are sadly out of date, pitifully meager and common, while the problems of population are alive and pressing for intelligent handling. One cannot help feeling, however, that information of vital social consequence lies hidden away in the ponderous volumes of population statistics issuing every year from our official bureaus. It is the work of refinement and interpretation of this crude data that needs most to be done. Now, it can hardly be said that M. Cilleuls has achieved this arduous task. It does not appear that he has greatly advanced the science of population movements beyond the point to which it had been brought at the beginning of the last decade by such writers in France as Maurice Block and Emile Levasseur. In the handling of population data these past masters have few peers. The scope of M. Cilleuls' work is indicated in the following list of topics, each of which is taken up by the author at some length: the institution of the family; celibacy, marriage, and conjugal fertility; physical, moral, economic, and social causes tending respectively to accelerate or to retard the natural increase of population, including a discussion of the hierarchy of social classes and of the effect of social institutions; stature, vigor, and masculinity; mortality; emigration and immigration; density of population. There is a great deal of interesting information and comment in tables and text of M. Cilleuls' work, but one feels that had the author delayed publication for a few months he might have incorporated the population statistics of the last decade, which are now available, and so have performed the great service of bringing our knowledge of demographic phenomena up to date. J. C. THE JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY SEPTEMBER-1903 THE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF THE PRECIOUS METALS. II. SILVER. THE production of silver in the United States is calculated upon the same method as that of gold. The results, though closely approximating the actual production, are not as accurate, however, as the statistics of the gold production. Whereas in the latter case the variance between the two calculations for 1899-1901 did not exceed a fraction of 1 per cent., the discrepancy in the case of silver was, as a rule, much higher. The present practice of making two estimates of the production of silver in the United states has been followed since 1889, except in 1891 and 1892, when a different method was pursued. The variances between the two estimates are given in the following table: Year Percentage of Annual Output 'See JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, September, 1902. 503 2.3 0.4 2.7 2.3 3.1 |