Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/707

 REVIEWS. 691

But this is not nearly enough. Millions of liters of milk are brought in from the open countty, some of it from a great distance, principally by the railways.

Then follows a detailed description of the facilities which the rail- ways have provided for bringing in milk, such as low rates, fast trains, convenient train schedules, reductions for sending back empties, etc. ; and from these facts the conclusion is drawn that in this manner the public as well as the railways receive their just dues. Yet all this Professor Meyer omits, although he certainly must have read this article. He would have his readers believe that all Berlin is dependent on the milk produced in Bolle's dairies. It is his purpose to give a very striking illustration of the backward- ness of Prussian freight rates. Having this in mind, it does not suit his convenience that just in this matter the Prussian railways have performed splendid service; and since the evidence does not support his line of argument, he suppresses the* facts which do not suit him. As a matter of fact, of the 250,000,000 liters of milk which were consumed in Berlin in the year 1902, 44,700,000 were produced in Berlin, 25,400,000 were brought into the city on wagons, and 180,000,000 were brought in by rail. (Statistical Y ear-Book of the City of Berlin, 1903, p. 314.) We are also enabled to state more exactly the figures representing the number of dairy cows than the source from which Professor Meyer quotes. According to a special census, there were in 1902 in Berlin, Char- lottenburg, Schoneberg, and Rixdorf together (not in Berlin alone) only 11,431 (not 14,000) milch cows, which produced the above mentioned 44,700,000 liters. The milk that came by rail originated at 216 stations, of which 198 are in the province of Brandenburg, n in the province of Saxony, etc. Further details Professor Meyer may read in the official statistics of the city of Berlin, Vol. I, 1903. According to these statistics, he has turned the facts upside down, deliberately, in order to cause hilarity among his readers, if he has read the article; or he read only the first sentence of his reference. In either case this is a method of pro- cedure which one has a right not to expect in a scientific book.

I can pass over more lightly the following chapters. The French tariffs are faulty, according to Professor Meyer, because they make energetic competition against the waterways impossible. He claims that it is the duty of the railways of Austria-Hungary and of the regions of the lower Danube to transport agricultural