general. A general uniformity in the inner life, especially in the feelings and desires, of all men may be assumed. There is an unbounded variety of desires and they enter into innumerable combinations; but they may be classified according to their content, time and place relations being considered. This is the starting point for the detennination of welfare in general. In the moderation and mediation of these desires is found the principle of the basis of human welfare. II. Intelligence and self-control. This mediation is impossible without intelligence and self control; for we are concerned with a standard correctly adjusted to circumstances and not with an arithmetical medium. Only a desire for a goal in the future can act as a motive. This future happiness enters into the present conception. But within that future the nearer the point of realization seems to lie, the stronger becomes the desire. Under desire negative desire is here included. Fear and hope alone excite the human heart. Thus, a proximate inferior good often attracts more powerfully than a distant, greater one. It is the function of education to strengthen the conceptions of more distant pain and pleasure. Self-command is present when a proximate desire is avoided in order to escape a greater future discomfort or enjoy a greater future pleasure. Knowledge of the causal relations of the joy and sorrow of the future alone bring about self-control. Self-command can be brought about only through this insight into the causal relations of all occurrences. Mere insight is impotent, unless the feelings are aroused which set the will in operation. Without self-control, perceptions themselves do not endure. Self-command adjusts the acts to the end; but the end must be known, or the actions become capricious. The source of both intelligence and self-command is experience, which first accidentally discovers the causal relations. The greater hope one has to reach an end, the more will objective difficulties spur him on; the smaller his hopes, the more will the uncertainty depress him. The influence of an ideal upon the will therefore depends not upon its objective possibility or impossibility, but upon the subjective hope or belief that it may be reached. Knowledge also has value in measuring the intensity of joys and pains, and the duration of the desires and disinclinations. Too-frequent enjoyment is stupefying; too-seldom enjoyment is unsatisfying. The most distant future cannot guide us, because we know too little about it. The realization of a nearly unknown end is impossible. One cares only so far as he can reckon the future; but the future will not be the same to every individual. Foresight is the mother of wisdom, if she does not go astray with the most distant future to bear human foolishness instead of divine wisdom.—Dr. Von Schubert-Soldern, in Zeitschrift für die Gesammte Staatswissenschaft, January 1896. Tubingen: H. Laupp'schen Buchhandlung.
The Present State of Cooperative Industrial Associations (in Germany).—Sixty-seven pages of condensed report upon character, history, present legal standing, financial condition and accomplished results of these organizations. A remarkably complete exhibit in compact form. (Hans Crüger in Jahrbücher für National ökonomie und Statistik, December 1895. Fischer, Jena.)
German Associations for Obtaining Credit.—Desire to enjoy like advantages for obtaining credit at low rates of interest, with those which the better situated industrial classes command, has given birth to associations for conducting banks and making loans to members. These associations have flourished under a system developed by Schulze-Delitzsch. 2700 of these organizations now exist. Statistics of 1047 of these report a membership of 509,723. Members in 974 societies were, landowners 31.5 per cent., artisans 26 per cent., etc. These societies are specially significant for their composition from all social classes. In 1894 these 1047 societies furnished credits and renewals to the amount of $387,503,155, on a capital of $30,128,116, and a reserve of $8,792,057, and deposits and loans from banks of $114,433,632. On moneys borrowed by the societies for loan to members an average rate of 3.47 per cent, was paid. The rates on loans to members varied from 4 to 7 per cent., the last only in exceptional cases. Members received a dividend from the business, which further diminished the rate. Thirty-one organizations went out of business in 1894–5. Of them twenty-three were attempts to do business upon unsound methods.
Another system, called the Raiffeisen Loan Offices, has 3800 establishments, but
