REVIEWS 1 1 5
Salmon says, ' Few women when they assume the care of a household know the exact value of the household plant.' In this field of domestic service, for instance, how many housekeepers know, even after years of experience, what the actual cost of domestic service is beyond the mere weekly wages ? The cost of the food supply of the servants, the waste of the family food supply through the negligence of servants, the breakage of china, the maintenance of servants' quarters, the price of laundry supplies for their use are among the items whose cost is not known and is consequently ignored in estimating the expenditures of a proposed household.
" It is encouraging to note the increasing signs that opportunity will eventually be afforded in this country for the investigation of house- hold problems, and that the systematic, technical 'training for which Miss Salmon pleads is not long to be a mere dream. The courses offered at The University of Chicago and Leland Stanford Jr. Univer- sity are tending in the direction which Miss Salmon indicates. The sad commentary upon the present situation is that there are undoubt- edly more men than women in favor of systematic education in house- hold affairs, and it would not be surprising also if the value of Miss Salmon's book should be more generally recognized by men than by women." C. R. HENDERSON.
Problemes Sociaux Contemporains. Par ACHILLE LORIA. Paris : V. Giard et E. Briere, 1897. Pp- *74-
THE eminent economist, author of Ana lisi delta Propriftb Capitalista, publishes some lectures of a popular character on burning questions of the day: The Social Question, Liberty, Property, Population, Social- ism, Social Darwinism, Evolution, Revolution. The fundamental ideas of the writer are presented in a very fascinating literary form, but with- out the advantage of explanation and modification possible in his more severe works addressed to specialists. A brief abstract of the lectures is here attempted.
The social question is not a religious question. That has been solved by securing freedom of worship to all ; it is no longer in litiga- tion. The social question is not a political question ; all modern gov- ernments are really democratic, and the contest between prince and people is over. The social question is essentially economic. It has arisen because the actual economic state of the people is in flagrant
