Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/575

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REVIEWS 561

kept in view by the employer, but there can be no question but that in many cases the improvement of conditions of labor actually brings ample return to the employer for its cost.

Dr. Tolman deserves the gratitude of all students of modern industrial and social conditions for bringing these facts together. The book makes, therefore, an invaluable reference work in any public or private library on social and economic problems.

Charles A. Ellwood

The University of Missouri

Civics and Health. By William H. Allen. With an Intro- duction by William T. Sedgwick. Pp. vii-}-403. Illustrated. Ginn & Co.

Readers of Mr. Allen's EMcient Democracy will welcome another book from his pen, for they well know how keen an instrument it is. They will not be disappointed in their expectation of new pricks and thrusts at the imperfections of charity organization, statistical prac- tice, and the public-school system, for the darts fly on nearly every page. Civics and Health will appeal to a far wider circle of readers than the earlier book, however, for the reason that it is far more constructive, and in its detail of analysis and exposition intensely concrete. The more widely such a book can be read the better, for the putting into practice of a tithe of the projects and ideals for the securing of health which it proposes would reduce by an incalculable amount the economic waste of defective physical vitality and sick- ness.

While it will be a long time before society will begin to think practical many of the proposals of Mr. Allen, the book is neverthe- less not only a very live discussion of the need of health as a civic asset but a valuable compendium of the methods and efficiency now being perfected, of dealing with disease and of securing wholesome physical cleanliness.

The contents are divided into four parts. Part I introduces us to health as a civic obligation, asks us what health rights are not enforced in our own communities (most of us cannot answer), in- forms us that the best index to community health is the physical welfare of school children, and gives us the "seven health motives and catchwords." These are: instinct, display, commerce, anti- nuisance, anti-slum, pro-slum, and rights — in an ascending scale of ethical unselfishness.