as the printed word. It ranges from the ponderous treatises of
professed economists, wherein “economic laws” are printed in italics,
to the sophisticated novels of the self-elect, in which economic
opinion is a by-product of clever conversation. Not only can one find
economic opinion to his taste, but he can have it in any form he likes.
Perhaps the most human and reasonable application of the philosophy
of laissez-faire to the problems of industrial society is to be found
in the pages of W. G. Sumner. Of particular interest are the essays
contained in the volumes entitled “Earth Hunger,” “The Challenge of
Facts,” and “The Forgotten Man.” The most subtle and articulate account
of the economic order as an automatic, self-regulating mechanism
is J. B. Clark, “The Distribution of Wealth.” An able and readable
treatise, characterized alike by a modified classical approach and
by a recognition of the facts of modern industrial society, is F. W.
Taussig, “The Principles of Economics.” The “case for capitalism”
has never been set forth as an articulate whole. The theoretical
framework of the defence is to be found in any of the older treatises
upon economic theory. A formal _apologia_ is to be found in the last
chapter of almost every text upon economics under some such title
as “A Critique of the Existing Order,” “Wealth and Welfare,” or
“Economic Progress.” A defence of “what is,” whatever it may chance
to be, characterized alike by brilliancy and ignorance, is P. E.
More’s “Aristocracy and Justice.” Contemporary opinion favourable to
capitalism may be found, in any requisite quantity and detail, in
_The Wall Street Journal_, _The Commercial and Financial Chronicle_,
and the publications of the National Association of Manufacturers.
_The Congressional Record_, a veritable treasure house of economic
fallacy, presents fervent pleas both for an unqualified capitalism
and for capitalism with endless modifications. The literature of the
economics of “control” is beginning to be large. The essay by H. C.
Adams, “The Relation of the State to Industrial Activity,” elaborating
the thesis that the function of the state is to regulate “the plane of
competition,” has become a classic. The best account of the economic
opinion of organized labour is to be found in R. F. Hoxie, “Trade
Unionism in the United States.” Typical examples of excellent work done
by men who do not profess to be economists are W. Lippmann, “Drift and
Mastery,” the opinions (often dissenting) delivered by Mr. Justice
Holmes and Mr. Justice Brandeis, of the United States Supreme Court,
and the articles frequently contributed to periodicals by T. R. Powell
upon the constitutional aspects of economic questions. The appearance
of such studies as the brief for the shorter working day in the case
of _Bunting v. Oregon_, prepared by F. Frankfurter and J. Goldmark,
and of the “Report on the Steel Strike of 1919,” by the Commission
of Inquiry of the Interchurch World Movement indicates that we are
beginning to base our opinions and our policies upon “the facts.” Among
significant contributions are the articles appearing regularly in
such periodicals as _The New Republic_ and _The Nation_. At last the
newer economics of the schools is beginning to assume the form of an
articulate body of doctrine. The books of T. B. Veblen, particularly
“The Theory of Business Enterprise,” and “The Instinct of Workmanship,”
contain valuable pioneer studies. In “Personal Competition” and in the
chapters upon “Valuation” in “Social Process,” C. H. Cooley has shown
how economic institutions are to be treated. The newer economics,
however, begins with the publication in 1913 of W. C. Mitchell,
“Business Cycles.” This substitutes an economics of process for one of
statics and successfully merges theoretical and statistical inquiry. It
marks the beginning of a new era in the study of economics. The work
in general economic theory has followed the leads blazed by Veblen,
Cooley, and Mitchell. W. H. Hamilton, in “Current Economic Problems,”
elaborates a theory of the control of industrial development,
interspersed with readings from many authors. L. C. Marshal, in
“Readings in Industrial Society,” attempts, through selections drawn
from many sources, an appraisal of the institutions which together make
up the economic order. D. Friday, in “Profits, Wages, and Prices,”
shows how much meaning a few handfuls of figures contain and how much
violence they can do to established principles. The National Bureau
of Economic Research is soon to publish the results of a careful
and thorough statistical inquiry into the division of income in the
United States. Upon particular subjects such as trusts, tariffs,
railroads, labour unions, etc., the literature is far too large to be
catalogued here. There is no satisfactory history of economic opinion
in the United States. T. B. Veblen’s “The Place of Science in Modern
Civilization” contains a series of essays which constitute the most
convincing attack upon the classical system and which point the way to
an institutional economics. Many articles dealing with the development
of economic doctrines are to be found in the files of _The Quarterly
Journal of Economics_ and of _The Journal of Political Economy_.
An excellent statement of the present situation in economics is an
unpublished essay by W. C. Mitchell, “The Promise of Economic Science.”
W. H. H.
RADICALISM
For exposition of the leading radical theories the reader is urged to
go, not to second-hand authorities, but to their foremost advocates.
“Capital” by Karl Marx (Charles H. Kerr) is of course the chief basis
of Socialism. There is nothing better on Anarchism than the article in
the “Encyclopedia Britannica” by Prince Kropotkin. For revolutionary
industrial unionism it is important to know “Speeches and Editorials”
by Daniel de Leon (New York Labor News Co.). De Leon was one of
the founders of the I.W.W., and his ideas not only influenced the
separatist labour movements in the United States but the shop-steward
movement in England and the Soviets of Russia. “Guild Socialism” by
G. D. H. Cole is the best statement of this recent theory, while “The
State and Revolution” by Nikolai Lenin (George Allen and Unwin)
explains the principles and tactics of modern Communism. To these
should be added another classic, “Progress and Poverty” by Henry George
(Doubleday Page).
On the origins of the American government it is important to
read “Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy” and “Economic
Interpretation of the Constitution” by Charles A. Beard (Macmillan).
The “History of Trade Unionism” by Sidney and Beatrice Webb (Longmans,
Green), is an invaluable account of the growth of the British labour
movement, which has many similarities to our own. “Industrial
Democracy” by the same authors, issued by the same publisher, is the
best statement of the theories of trade unionism. The “History of Labor
in the United States” by John R. Commons and associates (Macmillan), is
a scholarly work, while “Trade Unionism in the United States” by Robert
F. Hoxie (Appleton), is a more analytical treatment. “The I. W. W.” by
Paul F. Brissenden (Longmans, Green), is a full documentary history.
Significant recent tendencies are recorded in “The New Unionism in
the Clothing Industry” by Budish and Soule (Harcourt, Brace). The
last chapters of “The Great Steel Strike” by William Z. Foster (B. W.
Huebsch), expound his interesting interpretation of the trade unions.
For a statement of the functional attitude toward public problems one
should read “Authority, Liberty and Function” by Ramiro de Maeztu (Geo.
Allen and Unwin). For a brief and readable application of this attitude
to economics, “The Acquisitive Society” by R. H. Tawney (Harcourt,
Brace), is to be recommended.
“Modern Social Movements” by Savel Zimand (H. W. Wilson), is an
authoritative guidebook to present radical movements throughout the
world, and contains an excellent bibliography. And we must not forget
the voluminous Report of the New York State Legislative Committee on
Radicalism (the Lusk Committee), which not only collects a wealth of
current radical literature, but offers an entertaining and instructive
example of the current American attitude toward such matters.
G. S.
THE SMALL TOWN
Bibliography: “A Hoosier Holiday,” by Theodore Dreiser. “Winesburg,
Ohio,” by Sherwood Anderson. “Main Street,” by Sinclair Lewis.
L. R. R.
HISTORY
The late Henry Adams had much in common with Samuel Butler, that other
seeker after an education. He knew that he had written a very good
book (his studies on American history were quite as excellent in their
way as “Erewhon” was in a somewhat different genre) and he was equally
aware of the sad fact that his work was not being read. In view of
the general public indifference towards history it is surprising how
much excellent work has been done. Three names suggest themselves when
history in America is mentioned, Robinson, Beard, and Breasted. Their
works for the elementary schools have not been surpassed in any country
and their histories (covering the entire period from ancient Egypt down
to the present time) will undoubtedly help to overcome the old and
firmly established prejudice that “history is dull” and will help to
create a new generation which shall prefer a good biography or history
to the literature of our current periodicals.
The group of essays published last year by Professor Robinson--the
pioneer of our modern historical world--under the title of “The New
History” contains several papers of a pleasantly suggestive nature and
we especially recommend “History for the Common Man” for those who want
to investigate the subject in greater detail, and “The New Allies of
History” for those who want to get an idea of the struggle that goes on
between the New and the Old Movements in our contemporary historical
world.
But it is impossible to suggest a three- four- or five-foot bookshelf
for those who desire to understand the issues of the battle that is
taking place. The warfare between the forces of the official School
and University History and those who have a vision of something quite
different is merely a part of the great social and economic and
spiritual struggle that has been going on ever since the days of the
Encyclopedists. The scene is changing constantly. The leaders hardly
know what is happening. The soldiers who do the actual fighting are too
busy with the work at hand to waste time upon academic discussions of
the Higher Strategy. And the public will have to do what the public did
during the great war--study the reports from all sides (the relevant
and the irrelevant--the news from Helsingfors-by-way-of-Geneva and from
Copenhagen-by-way-of Constantinople) and use its own judgment as to the
probable outcome of the conflict.
H. W. V. L.
SEX
As might be supposed, there has been little writing on sex in this
country--such discussion, more or less superficial, of the social
aspects as may be found in books on the family, on marriage or
prostitution, some quasi-medical treatises and of late a few books
along the lines of Freudian psychology, that is all. Among all the
organizations of the country there is no society corresponding to
the British Society for the Study of Sex. I doubt if such a society
or its publications would be tolerated, since even novelists who,
like Dreiser, express an interest in sex comparatively directly, run
afoul of public opinion, and a book such as “Women in Love” by D. H.
Lawrence, its publisher felt called upon to print without his name.
It is not surprising, therefore, that in English the most adequate
discussions of sex have been made by an Englishman, Havelock
Ellis--“Studies in the Psychology of Sex.” Among less well known
writing on the subject by Ellis I would note in particular an
illuminating page or two in his essay on Casanova (“Affirmations”).
Discussion of the theories of distinguishing between mating and
parenthood and of crisis psychology may be found in articles by the
writer in the _International Journal of Ethics_, July, 1915, January,
1916, October, 1917, and in _The American Anthropologist_, March, 1916,
and _The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods_,
March, 1918.
“The Behaviour of Crowds” by E. D. Martin, and “French Ways and
Their Meaning” by Edith Wharton are recent books that the reader of
a comparative turn of mind will find of interest, and if he is not
already familiar with the writings of the Early Christian Fathers I
commend to him some browsing in the “Ante-Nicene Christian Library” and
the “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.”
E. C. P.
THE FAMILY
For statistical facts which have a bearing on the tendencies of the
family in the United States, the following group of sources has been
consulted:
“Abstract of the Census, 1910;” the preliminary sheets of the “Census
of 1920;” Report on “Marriage and Divorce in 1916,” published by
the Bureau of the Census; Bulletin of the Woman’s Bureau, U. S.
Department of Labour on “What Became of Women Who Went Into War
Industries;” Bulletin of the U. S. Department of Agriculture on “The
Farm Woman;” Bulletin of the U. S. Children’s Bureau on “Standards
of Child Welfare.” Economic aspects of the family and income data
were acquired from “Conditions of Labour in American Industries,” by
Edgar Sydenstricker, and “The Wealth and Income of the People of the
United States,” by Willford I. King. For facts concerning longevity,
the aid of the Census was supplemented by “The Trend of Longevity in
the United States,” by C. H. Forsyth, in the _Journal of the American
Statistical Association_, Vol. 128. For the long biological perspective
to counteract the near-sighted view of the Census, “The New Stone Age
in Northern Europe,” by John M. Tyler may be commended. Psychological
aspects of family relationships are discussed in a scientific and
stimulating way in the published “Proceedings of the International
Women Physicians’ Conference, 1919.”
K. A.
RACIAL MINORITIES
No author or group of authors has yet attempted to treat in any
systematic and comprehensive way the position and the problem of the
several racial minorities in the United States. A perfect bibliography
of existing materials on the subject would be most helpful, but it
could not make good the existing shortage of fact, and of thoughtful
interpretation.
The anthropological phase of the subject is discussed with authority
by Franz Boas in “The Mind of Primitive Man” (Macmillan, 1913), and
by Robert H. Lowie in “Culture and Ethnology” (McMurtrie, 1917). Some
information on racial inter-marriage is to be found in Drachsler’s
“Democracy and Assimilation--The Blending of Immigrant Heritages in
America” (Macmillan, 1920). Among recent reports of psychological
tests of race-difference, the following are of special interest: “A
Study of Race Differences in New York City,” by Katherine Murdock,
(_School and Society_, vol. XI, no. 266, p. 147, 31 January, 1920);
“Racial Differences in Mental Fatigue,” by Thomas R. Garth (_Journal
of Applied Psychology_, vol. IV, nos. 2 and 3, p. 235, June-Sept.
1920); “A Comparative Study in the Intelligence of White and Colored
Children,” by R. A. Schwegler and Edith Winn (_Journal of Educational
Research_, vol. II, no. 5, p. 838, December, 1920); “The Intelligence
of Negro Recruits,” by M. R. Trabue (_Natural History_, vol. XIX, no.
6, p. 680, 1919); “The Intelligence of Negroes at Camp Lee, Virginia,”
by George Oscar Ferguson, Jr. (_School and Society_, vol. IX, no. 233,
p. 721, 14 June, 1919); and the Government’s official report of all the
psychological tests given in the cantonments (“Memoirs of the National
Academy of Science,” vol. XV, Washington, Government Printing Office,
1921).
The most important single source of information on the present status
of the coloured race in the United States is “The Negro Year Book,”
edited by Monroe N. Work (Negro Year Book Pub. Co., Tuskegee Institute,
Alabama); the edition for 1918–19 contains an extensive bibliography.
Brawley’s “Short History of the American Negro” (Macmillan, rev. ed.,
1919) presents in text-book form a general narrative, together with
supplementary chapters on such topics as religion and education among
the Negroes. The Government report on “Negro Population, 1790–1915”
(Washington, Bureau of the Census, Government Printing Office, 1918),
is invaluable. Important recent developments are treated in “Negro
Migration in 1916–17” and “The Negro at Work During the World War and
During Reconstruction” (Washington, Dep’t of Labour, 1919 and 1920
respectively). Some notion of the various manifestations of prejudice
against the Negro may be gathered from the following sources: “Negro
Education” (_U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin_, 1916, nos. 38 and
39); “The White and the Colored Schools of Virginia as Measured by the
Ayres Index,” by George Oscar Ferguson, Jr. (_School and Society_, vol.
XII, no. 297, p. 170, 4 Sept., 1920); “Thirty Years of Lynching in the
United States, 1889–1918,” and “Disfranchisement of Colored Americans
in the Presidential Election of 1920” (New York, National Association
for the Advancement of Coloured People, 1919 and 1921 respectively).
A few representative expressions from the Negroes themselves are: “Up
from Slavery, an Autobiography,” by Booker T. Washington (Doubleday,
1901); “Darkwater,” by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois (Harcourt, 1920); _The
Messenger_ (a Negro Socialist-syndicalist magazine, 2305 Seventh
Avenue, New York); and the “Universal Negro Catechism” (Universal Negro
Improvement Association, 56 West 135th Street, New York).
A great body of valuable information on the Indians is collected in two
publications of the Government, the second of which contains a very
extensive bibliography; “Indian Population in the United States and
Alaska, 1910” (Washington, Bureau of the Census, Government Printing
Office, 1915), and the “Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico,”
edited by Frederick Webb Hodge (Washington, Bureau of Ethnology,
Government Printing Office, 1907–10, 2 vols.). An annual report
containing current data on the status of the Indian is published by
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Francis Ellington Leupp, who held
this title from 1905 to 1909, was the author of a volume which presents
in popular form the results of official experience (“The Indian and His
Problem,” Scribner, 1910).
The “American Jewish Year Book” (Philadelphia, Jewish Publication
Society of America) is an extremely useful volume, and particularly
so because one must refer to it for statistical information which in
the case of the other racial minorities is available in the reports
of the national census. In the _American Magazine_ for April, 1921,
Harry Schneiderman, the editor of the “Year Book,” assembles a great
many facts bearing upon the relation of the Jews to the economic,
social, political, and intellectual life of the country (“The Jews of
the United States,” p. 24). Of special interest to students of the
Semitic problem is Berkson’s “Theories of Americanization; a Critical
Study with Special Reference to the Jewish Group” (Teachers’ College,
Columbia University, 1920).
The standard works on the Oriental question are Coolidge’s “Chinese
Immigration” (Holt, 1909), and Millis’s “Japanese Problem in the United
States” (Macmillan, 1915). The Japanese problem in California is
treated statistically in a booklet prepared recently by the State Board
of Control (“California and the Oriental,” Sacramento, State Printing
Office, 1920), and in a symposium which appeared in _The Pacific
Review_ for December, 1920 (Seattle, University of Washington).
G. T. R.
ADVERTISING
Expect from me no recommendation of the “scientific” treatises on
advertising or of the professional psychological analyses of the
instincts. Books, books in tons, have been written about advertising,
and as far as I am concerned, every single one of them is right. Read
these, if you have the hardihood, and remain mute. Read them, I should
say, and be eternally damned. Read them and retire rapidly to a small
room comfortably padded and securely locked.
J. T. S.
BUSINESS
Within the limits of this space anything like an adequate reference
to the source books of fact and thought is impossible. All that
may be attempted is to suggest an arbitrary way through the whole
of the subject--a thoroughfare from which the reader may take off
where he will as his own interests develop. For the foundations of an
economic understanding one needs only to read “Principles of Political
Economy,” by Simon Newcomb, the American astronomer, who in a mood
of intellectual irritation inclined his mind to this mundane matter
and produced the finest book of its kind in the world. For the rough
physiognomy of American economic phenomena there is “A Century of
Population Growth,” Bureau of the Census, 1909, a splendid document
prepared under the direction of S. N. D. North. Katharine Coman’s
“Industrial History of the United States” is an important work in
itself and contains, besides, an excellent and full bibliography.
“Crises and Depressions” and “Corporations and the State,” by Theodore
E. Burton; “Forty Years of American Finance,” by Alexander D. Noyes;
“Railroad Transportation, Its History and Its Laws,” by A. T. Hadley;
“Trusts, Pools and Corporations,” by Wm. Z. Ripley; and “The Book of
Wheat,” by Peter Tracy Dondlinger, are books in which the separate
phases indicated by title are essentially treated. For dissertation,
interpretation, and universal thought every student will find himself
deeply indebted to “Trade Morals, Their Origin, Growth and Province,”
by Edward D. Page; “The Economic Interpretation of History,” by James
E. Thorold Rogers; “History of the New World Called America,” by E. J.
Payne; “Economic Studies,” by Walter Bagehot; “Essays in Finance,”
by R. Giffen; “Recent Economic Changes,” by David A. Wells, and “The
Challenge of Facts and Other Essays,” by William Graham Sumner.
G. G.
ENGINEERING
Literature covering the function of the engineer in society, especially
in America, is very limited compared with books of information on
most subjects. Engineering activities such as are usually described
cover the technical achievements of the profession. Useful material,
however, will be found scattered throughout the technical literature
and engineering society proceedings especially among the addresses
and articles of leading engineers prepared for special occasions. A
comprehensive history of engineering has never been written, although
there are many treatises dealing with particular developments in this
field. Among these may be mentioned Bright’s “Engineering Science,
1837–1897”; Matschoss’s “Beiträge zur Geschichte der Technik und
Industrie” (“Jahrbuch des Vereines deutscher Ingenieure”); and Smiles’s
“Lives of the Engineers.” On engineering education, the “Proceedings of
the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education” and Bulletin
No. 11 of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching,
“A Study of Engineering Education,” by Charles R. Mann, offer useful
information. Concerning the status of the engineer in the economic
order, Taussig’s “Inventors and Money Makers,” Veblen’s “The Engineers
and the Price System,” together with Frank Watts’s “An Introduction to
the Psychological Factors of Industry,” will be found of value. On the
relation between labour and the engineer, much can be found in _The
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science_ for
September, 1920, on “Labor, Management and Production.”
O. S. B., JR.
NERVES
Complete works of Cotton Mather; also of Jonathan Edwards. Complete
works of Dr. George M. Beard, notably his “American Nervousness,”
Putnam, 1881. Medical publications of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. Dr. George
M. Parker: “The Discard Heap--Neurasthenia,” _N. Y. Medical Journal_,
October 22, 1910. Dr. William Browning: “Is there such a thing as
Neurasthenia?” _N. Y. State Medical Journal_, January, 1911. Dr. Morton
Prince: “The Unconscious,” Macmillan, 1914. Professor Edwin B. Holt:
“The Freudian Wish.” Dr. Edward J. Kempf: “The Autonomic Function and
the Personality.” Complete works of Professor Freud, in translation and
in the original.
Files of _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, to date. Files of
_Psychoanalytic Review_, to date. Files of _Imago_, to date. Files
of _Internationale Zeitschrift fuer Aerztliche Psychoanalyse_, to
date. Dr. A. A. Brill, “Psychoanalysis,” third edition. “Character
and Opinion in the United States,” by George Santayana. “Studies in
American Intolerance,” by Alfred B. Kuttner, _The Dial_, March 14 and
28, 1918.
A. B. K.
MEDICINE
No attempt is here made to give any exhaustive, or even suggestive,
bibliography. Only specific references in the text itself are here
given in full, so that the reader may find them for himself, if he so
desires. But on the general subject of “Professionalism,” although it
deals more with the profession of law than of medicine, some valuable
and stimulating observations can be found in the chapter of that name
in “Our Social Heritage,” by Graham Wallas (Yale University Press,
1921).
Bezzola: Quoted from “Preventive Medicine and Hygiene,” Rosenau, 1920,
p. 340.
Clouston: “The Hygiene of the Mind,” 1909.
Cole: “The University Department of Medicine,” Science, N. S., vol. LI,
No. 1318, p. 329.
Elderton and Pearson: “A First Study of the Influence of Parental
Alcoholism on the Physique and Ability of the Offspring,” Francis
Galton Eugenics Laboratory _Memoirs_, 1910, No. 10.
Pearl: “The Effect of Parental Alcoholism upon the Progeny in the
Domestic Fowl,” _Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci._, 1916, vol. II, p. 380.
Peterson: “Credulity and Cures,” _Jour. Amer. Med. Assn._, 1919, vol.
LXXIII, p. 1737.
Rosenau: “Preventive Medicine and Hygiene,” 1920.
Stockard: _Interstate Medical Jour._, 1916, vol. XXIII, No. 6.