REVIEWS.
L'Ouvrier AttUricain. Par E. Levasseuk. Paris: L. Larose, 1898. 2 vols. Pp. 634, 516.
It is a great advantage to have our institutions and social condi- tions, as well as our literature, studied and presented to us by the French mind. Professor Levasseur must be heard with respect and attention. He has prepared himself for this investigation by valuable previous studies, by a large collection of documents and authorities, and by travel in this country. In these two volumes he has brought together a vast amount of information on a subject of transcendent importance.
The entire work is divided into three principal parts, which are designated: "The Workman at Work," "The Workman at Home," and "The Labor Questions." The method is to assemble significant data on each topic, and then to treat them critically, with a view to estimate the worth of various opinions, practical measures, and of legislation.
In the first part, "The Workman at Work," the author discusses, with ample fullness of details, the progress of American industry during the past fifty years, the productive force of machinery and labor, labor laws and the discipline of the factory, trade unions, wages of men, women, and children ; the sweating system, competition of immigrants, negroes, and prisoners ; strikes, boycotts, lockouts, black- lists, crises, and the causes which regulate nominal wages. In the second part, "The Workman at Home," we have discussions of the budgets of households, food, clothing, housing, building and loan associations, saving, and real wages. In the third part, "Labor Questions," there is a treatment of fortune-making and democracy in America, the protective system, public relief of the indigent, patronage and profit-sharing, workingmen's associations and cooperation, con- ciliation and arbitration, and socialism. Finally, the author presents his own point of view, and ventures on a modest prophecy of the next twenty or thirty years. It will be convenient to use the author's own summary of the argument which runs through the work.
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