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 98 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOG\

Utopias." The wage system is permanent, and the wisest friends of workingmen will seek to amend its operations, rather than invent some totally new method.

We shall not advance suddenly from egoism to altruism, from antagonism to solidarity, from wages system to cooperation, from capi- talism to collectivism, from misery to happiness. Progress is slow. The dreams of Fourier in 1803 were not realized, and the dreams of socialists will fail. Yet there will be important changes and improve- ments. The general direction of the near future is indicated by what we see before us : an enlargement of industry, an extension of mar- kets, a higher standard of living, urban congestion, a larger proportion of the population living upon wages and salaries, a wider field for the negroes in industries, a restriction of immigration, probably further rise in wages, an improved type of workingmen, increased and dan- gerous interference with industry by government as workingmen gain political control, more power for trade unions. Trusts will compete with trusts and be regulated by law, and each decade will present new problems.

It will be seen that the standpoint of the author is that of an econo- mist who inclines to liberalism and individualism, rather than to socialism. He is a friendly critic of American character and methods. He has taken great pains to secure correct and adequate data from the best sources. The style is clear and interesting, and the matter of supreme importance. On some of the most critical points the statis- tical material is too scant and doubtful for absolute conclusions, and men will continue to interpret the tables by "estimates" in order to attain to peace of mind or vantage ground for controversy. This large and serious effort to reach a satisfactory view of the actual condition and prospects of American workmen leads us to a new appeal to the government to secure and furnish more reliable information. The book is an argument in favor of a permanent and richly equipped census bureau in the United States, and adequate labor bureaus in the various states. C. R. Henderson.

France. By John Edward Courtenay Bodley. The Macmillan

Co., 1898. Two volumes. Pp. vi + 346 and vi-l-504. S4.

The author is in love with his subject, he has had remarkable

facilities for knowing it, he writes with combined dignity and raciness,

he interests the reader from the first word of the preface, and does not