Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/292

 278 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The Elements of Public Finance, including the Monetary System of the United States. By W. M. DANIELS, Professor of Political Economy in Princeton University. New York : Henry Holt & Co., 1899.

THE scope of this elementary manual for college classes is indi- cated by the leading topics : government outlay, theories of public expenditure ; government income, problems of taxation, and various systems of taxation by general and local governments ; treasury man- agement, public credit, and budgetary legislation.

The style of the work is clear, interesting, and attractive. The criticism of the general property tax is timely and just. For the pres- ent contradictory and confused methods of assessment and taxation the author would substitute a clearly denned system under which federal resources would be drawn from duties and internal revenue ; state taxes would be levied on the property of corporations, with such addi- tional levies on local treasuries as might be required, but without assessments by state machinery ; while counties and cities would tax real estate, which should be exempt from other burdens. There is no discussion of taxation of tangible personal property for local purposes.

C. R. H.

Recollections of a Lifetime. By GENERAL ROCLIFF BRINKERHOFF. Cincinnati: The Robert Clark Co., 1900. Pp. 448. $2.

THIS autobiography is a monument of several important social movements of our age and land. General Brinkerhoff has rendered service to the country as an officer in the Civil War, as an advocate of the abolition of slavery and tariff reform, and especially as an active agent of the ideas represented by the National Prison Association and the National Conference of Charities and Corrections. He is a fine type of the citizen of public spirit, who holds himself ready to give time, energy, and money to a good cause. As one of the Board of Charities for Ohio he has assisted in the establishment of the famous model hospital for the insane at Toledo, of the institutions for epilep- tics and the feeble-minded, and of the county boards of visitors. The literature of philanthropy is enriched by the addition of this volume.

C. R. HENDERSON.