"moraliser les affaires" - the Catholic Banks of the R. P. de Besse. Mr. Wolff has carefully studied both these schemes and his work is consequently valuable in the literature on this subject. While he vaunts the "generally accepted superiority of the Raiffeisen system" in conclusions into which we cannot follow him, yet he deserves only praise for his recognition of the leadership the Italians have taken in the conduct of these "poor man's banks." In Lombardy history finds the origin of the modern business methods of the world, and there to-day has been perfected a system of banking, racy of the soil, of inestimable value to a usury ridden people, and in its triumph asserted to be "la réalization de l'idéal coopératif." But, it may be said, as there is nothing ideal about it, so is there nothing coöperative. FAIRFAX HARRISON. Profit-Sharing and the Labor Question. By T. W. BUSHILL. London, Methuen & Co.; New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1893. — 12m0, 262 pp. Mr. T. W. Bushill is a manufacturing stationer of Coventry, England, whose firm employs some two hundred work-people, with whom it has for five years practised a system of profit-sharing. This volume is a contribution of extreme value to the literature of its subject because of its very practical character. Mr. N. O. Nelson of St. Louis is the only other English-speaking profit-sharer who has hitherto made known to the public with any fullness his method, its operation and the results of the system. Mr. Bushill has given us here a much fuller treatment of the general matter, and a far more detailed statement of the practical workings of the system in use in his establishment. The book originated in the testimony given before the royal commission on labor. The substance of this testimony is given in the first chapter in a condensed form; in chapter ii follows the cross-examination; four annual addresses to the employees and extracts from correspondence close the first division of the book. Mr. Bushill then proceeds to discuss the profit-sharing system as a whole, its principle, its present standing (including a list of seventyfive English firms giving a bonus to the workmen) and its relation to other systems. The estimate of profit-sharing, on page 146, is moderate but confident: I do not regard it as an “end,” but as the "next thing." It is the best immediate means known to me for elevating the lot of the workers . . . As compared with schemes for municipalising labour and so on, it is modest and commonplace, but it has the advantage of being immediately practicable. This judgment is confirmed by the work-people themselves in the "ballot opinions" which were given by Mr. Bushill's employees, every precaution being taken to secure the independence of the replies to the three questions submitted to them. These "ballot opinions" are of extreme interest, giving as they do a kind of testimony from the workman's side which has hitherto been lacking. In several additional chapters Mr. Bushill expresses in reference to various labor questions the sagacious views of a philanthropic employer who has the great advantage of knowing his own business thoroughly and of sympathizing with the desire of the workman to "get on" in the world. An appendix contains the rules of the firm and much other matter of use to the employer contemplating the introduction of the system. Mr. Bushill has provided an invaluable supplement to the works of previous writers on profit-sharing, and has greatly strengthened the argument for its extension by this practical, judicious and comprehensive little volume. NICHOLAS P. GILMAN. The Repudiation of State Debts. A Study in the Financial New This book consists of three parts. The first chapter treats of the constitutional and legal aspects of repudiation. It is, in the main, a brief review of the leading judicial decisions on the constitutional right of the states, under the eleventh amendment, to refuse to answer to a civil suit in the federal courts. In addition, the author shows that, with four or five possible exceptions, the states have not provided any other tribunal before which the justice of claims against their treasuries may be tried. Then follow five chapters descriptive of the cases of repudiation since 1841 in the twelve states named in the title. Under the term repudiation, the author includes "cases of the 'scaling' of debts and of refusal to pay bonds which are not valid obligations of the states, either from a moral or legal standpoint." This definition he construes broadly enough to cover cases of refunding, as, for example, that of Alabama in 1876. Only a part of this act, that which left certain state indorsements unprovided for, can fairly be called repudiation. The author, moreover, omits mention of some acts by which certain of the most flagrant cases of repudiation were mitigated; for example, the consolidation of Louisiana's debt in 1884, at four per cent, an act which removed a great deal of the odium of the repudiating act of 1879, in accordance with which that rate of interest would not have been reached until 1900. The third part of the book is on the causes of repudiation and the remedies therefor. These chapters are of the most general interest. Dr. Scott does not go back of 1837 in his search for causes. But the influences tending toward repudiation were observed at an earlier date than that. Alexander Trotter, writing in England three years before the first case occurred, was able to prophesy that many states would rather repudiate than burden themselves with taxes, and that this would be more likely to occur in the Southern states (as it did) than in the Northern. Mr. Scott finds five causes of repudiation: (1) Illegality, alleged or real, in the issue of the bonds; (2) the heavy pressure of debts on the repudiating states; (3) the corruption of state officials; (4) the financial crisis of 1837; (5) the Civil War. These, however, are the pretexts or occasions, rather than the causes, in a scientific sense. The fact that the general movement was foreseen should have shown the author that its real causes were more remote than those alleged. These cases of repudiation are cases where the states enjoyed credit based on an erroneous judgment as to their willingness and ability to meet their obligations. To find the causes of this we must ask, first, how that credit came into existence; then, why the creditors' confidence was misplaced. The creditor forms his estimate of the ability of the state to pay chiefly on the supposed value of the existing or the anticipated revenues. An inquiry as to the relation. of the debt to the revenues reveals most of the fundamental characteristics of the debt. According to Mr. Scott's own showing in the presentation of the several cases, repudiation followed upon the failure of some specific revenue appropriated to the payment of the debt charges. For the payment of the interest the states generally relied on the returns of the productive investment which they had made of the borrowed money. Some of the states had revenues from the sale of public land; few possessed any adequate system of taxation. Since the states were dependent for future prosperity on the increase of their population, it was wholly contrary to their interests to introduce taxes which might repel immigration. A failure, therefore, of the enterprises in which their borrowed money was invested, left the states without means. Mr. Scott has stated the reasons for the confidence of creditors, especially of European creditors, in the success of these enterprises, but he fails to grasp the full significance of this fact. Over-confidence of others in the resources of the states led to over-confidence of the states themselves in those resources. The states took their credit as the actual measure of what they might safely borrow. Their debts contained within themselves the power of reproduction. Interest charges were met by new loans. No plan for repayment was undertaken before 1840. In the first period of repudiation, then, an incorrect estimate by the creditors of the resources of the states must be taken in connection with the subordinate influences mentioned by Mr. Scott, to make an adequate explanation of the causes. In the second period, i.e., since 1870, as Mr. Scott correctly points out, repudiation was chiefly due to the misgovernment of the Reconstruction period. But the chapter on the "Remedies for Repudiation" contains the most matter for criticism. Mr. Scott passes over with a few words the remedy which has been applied by the practical wisdom of the people, namely, constitutional limitation of the debt-making power. Should any purpose like forest-culture, irrigation or control of natural monopolies, make it desirable for the states again to incur large debts, the author proposes to insure the creditor in his right by the old common law remedy for the wrong. Believing that the repeal of the eleventh amendment is impossible,. Dr. Scott proposes that each state shall, by constitutional or other enactment, vest in its courts or in some special tribunal the power to execute judgment against the state in one of the two ways now applicable to delinquent municipalities, i..., either seizure of the property of any individual inhabitant, or compulsory taxation by writ of mandamus. When we recall that in many cases repudiation was effected by constitutional enactment, and that such a method is always open to the people, the value of the proposed remedy shrinks materially. Moreover, the treatment of bankrupt municipalities by the courts has not been such as to inspire much confidence in these measures. Mr. Scott has failed to grasp the importance and real significance of the constitutional limitations now in force. Nor does he understand the weakness and lack of permanence in state constitutional law. The people do not intend that these constitutional limitations shall prohibit debt-making for objects which meet with general approval. The whole drift of this constitutional law-making shows that they do intend to establish a healthy relation between the debt and the revenues of the state. They have made these restrictions so sweeping because they believe in lessening the functions of the state governments. They do not intend that these governments shall handle large revenues unless under direct popular supervision, and hence the debts must be correspondingly small. Without a repeal of the eleventh amendment, the only safeguard against repudiation lies in the sound principle of financiering, which refuses to allow the debt charges to exceed the means of the state, and in a healthy and honorable popular sentiment in regard to the debt. CARL C. PLehn. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Systèmes Généraux d'Impôts. Par RENÉ STOURM, Ancien Inspecteur des Finances. Paris, Guillaumin et Cie, 1893.-415 pp. M. Stourm has long been favorably known as the author of an excellent work on the budget, as well as of the classic study on the Finances of the Old Régime and the Revolution. It was natural, therefore, to expect that this new book on General Systems of Taxation would be an important contribution to science. As a matter of fact, the work proves to be quite insignificant. As in all the writings of M. Stourm, the reader will find, indeed, a simplicity and clearness that leave nothing to be desired. But the simplicity is in this case largely due to superficiality. To the student who knows anything of the complexities of many of the problems, the sang-froid with which whole classes of arguments are either absolutely ignored or coolly brushed aside is almost appalling. That M. Stourm should be a conservative of the conservatives, is perhaps not surprising; but that he should treat the arguments of his opponents so cavalierly, is disheartening. The chief defect of the work, however, is its extreme insularity. Although the book abounds with references to French works, but a single foreign author on finance is mentioned later than John Stuart Mill, and that one, an American, in a wrong connection and with an absurdly mutilated title. Not a word as to the immense contributions to theory made by the German, the Italian, the Dutch and others during the past ten or twenty years. And even as to the practical discussions, with a few minor exceptions we find little that has not already been printed in other French |