Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/583

 REVIEWS 569

It seems difficult to understand how, not only with falling interest, but falling rent and profits, there could be the great concentration of wealth which the author admits and regards as on the whole bene- ficial to the community, saying (p. 455) :

The institution of millionaires in the modern community works some- what like the institution of slavery in former times. It is a method by which all members of the community are, to a certain extent, compelled to save and economize and lay up capital. Until human nature is such that we can safely trust all individuals to show some forethought for the future, such com- pulsory saving probably safeguards the welfare of the whole communi y in the long run.

The principal basis for the author's final conclusion that rent has fallen is the decline of agricultural rents in England. The fact of a great increase in other English land values is not brought out, neither are statistics presented showing the enormous increase of land values in the United States and other countries. He says under the heading of "Reflective Analysis" (p. 348) :

In regard to rent, it would seem from the experience of England that in modern times at least it represents very largely interest on capital invested. In fact, it may well be questioned whether the present ground rents of agri- cultural land represent more than a fair return for improvements made. So too in regard to the unearned increment, it appears that there are numerous losses as well as gains, so that it is doubtful whether, on the average and in the long run, land property is any more advantageous in form than any other kind of property. The old English economists looked upon rents as a constantly increasing quantity, and it seemed to John Stuart Mill that it would be advantageous for the community to reserve for itself any increase in future rents not due to the labor or the capital of the landowner. In view of the heavy reductions in rents since 1879, t* 16 uselessness of the preceding becomes manifest.

That the author understands the cause of the decline in English agricultural rents appears from the succeeding sentence : " It may well be doubted, in view of the increased cheapness of transportation, whether rents will ever attain their former height in England."

In this chapter on rent, interest, and profits, of which the fore- going is the lame conclusion regarding rent, no note is taken or data furnished of the enormous increase in land values in our centers of trade and population, or the great increase in the value of franchises having for their basis the control of land. The author says (p. 333) :

As already said, it is impossible by statistics to get anything except gross rent, i. e., the sum actually paid for the use of land, whether it is due to the