Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/716

 696 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

When we consider the anxiety, the terror, with which the average thoughtful wage-earner regards the possibilities of accident, sickness, and infirmity of age, and when we take into account the grave social unrest which springs from this solicitude about the future, we may well give a large place in our social studies to the modern inventions for distributing the burdens of provision for the emergencies of the work- man's life. The essential elements of these inventions may be found in this valuable volume. C. R. H.

The Principles of the Law of Public Corporatiom. By Charles B. Elliott, Ph.D., LL.D. Chicago: Callaghan & Co., 1898. Pp. lxxx + 364.

The lively interest manifested of late years in city government and the question of its betterment insures a hearty welcome to a book dealing with any phase of the subject. The present volume is from the pen of a district judge of Minnesota, and is an attempt to state the law of public corporations in a manner suited to the needs of students. The attempt is fairly successful. In a volume of less than 400 pages the chief topics of the law are discussed and its salient features made plain. In classification and arrangement the author does not depart radically from the great work of Judge Dillon on Municipal Corporations. After an introduction devoted to definition, classification, and history, Bk. I discusses the creation and control of public corporations, Bk. II takes up the powers of public corpora- tions, Bk. Ill describes the mode and agencies of corporate action, and Bk. IV treats of the liabilities of public corporations. The dis- cussion is logical and clear, and the citation of authorities is ample. The volume is provided with an analytical table of contents, a table of cases, and a copious index. All in all it makes a very serviceable text-book. The publishers are to be criticised for not providing a label which corresponds more nearly with the title page.

Carl Evans Boyd.

The City Wildcrfiess. Edited by Robert A. Woods. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1898. Pp. 319.

The social settlements have borne no better fruit than this remark- able study of urban conditions in a crowded part of South End, Boston. In twelve chapters, written by competent, and trained