Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/577

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LITERARY NOTICES.
561

by the statistics. Then the devices of cooperation for giving the laborers a share in the profits of capital and the wages of superintendence, either in the form of distributive or productive co-operation, industrial partnerships, and people's banks, are described, and also the effect of peasant proprietorships on small owners of land in giving them a share of the "unearned increment."

Mr. Mill's chapter on protection was almost out of date; moreover, his own views on protection to infant industries had been more fully expressed in a letter which was inserted by the editor. The arguments concerning wages and the tariff, diversity of industries, and the effect of a tariff on prices, have been added at this place.

The illustrations have been modified so as to apply directly to the United States as in case of the exchanges, international trade, etc. A marked feature of this edition is the striking use made of illustrative diagrams. The twenty-four maps or charts which bear especially on American conditions have been inserted in order the better to apply principles to the state of things directly about us. This method is of great importance. As many kinds of graphic representation as possible have been introduced. No other text-book on political economy exists which makes use of charts in this way. It both interests the pupil and makes statistics alive, and it stimulates a reader to a study of facts and to the verification of economic principles. The single chart No V is in itself an exposure of the folly of supposing that our railways are grasping monopolies; and chart No. X tells the whole story of the fluctuating value of silver at a glance. As a device in teaching, many small diagrams are used here and there, to show the abstract in the form of the concrete. For example, three concentric circles illustrate the relation between wealth, capital, and money. A good teacher will make others of his own.

Perhaps the most pressing practical difficulty to honest inquirers is a knowledge of books in this age of much publishing. An evident effort has been made throughout the whole work to meet this want by bibliographies. The editor seems to have been animated with an earnest purpose to unlock the results of study upon this subject to every reader, and to give him the knowledge of books which only a very laborious student in a large library could acquire. This was done first by supplying to the new edition the story of the growth of economic ideas and the existing body of laws, attended by the title and date of the books of each writer who figures in this story, so that not only past but living writers are classed in schools and their books given in that connection. Thus, any reader is able to select his additional reading with a clear idea of its tendency and position in regard to other systems. Then a brief list of the most important books in political economy, which would form a small but well-selected library for any teacher or student, has been given under the head of "Books for Consultation" (pp. 43-46). This list will be useful also while the reader is mastering his Mill.

But, after he has finished Mill's volume, bibliographies on various questions of the day are given, in order to furnish readers with the "tools for further and special study. For example, in Book IV, Chapter V, p. 6, a list of books treating of industrial partnership is given; and, in Appendix I, bibliographies on our tariff history, bimetalism, and American shipping are given in more detail. Moreover, throughout the work the reader is put in the way of finding publications devoted to other or opposing views from those given in the text. This, it is believed, is a feature not found in any other text-book, and teaches men to compare views for the sake of truth—in short, to think, and not merely to absorb an authority.

In Appendix II, examination-questions will aid both student and teacher in estimating the extent of knowledge necessary to good work. These have been taken from Harvard papers or those set in English universities.

It will thus be seen that this new edition of Mill's work is a contribution to more thorough methods of teaching political economy, and aims at a breadth and liberality of treatment which are now imperatively demanded in the pursuit of this comprehensive and important science. The purpose of the book is to insure a mastery of the subject. The reader who follows all the references