Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/873

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 859

trustees ; and of the limited business field, preventing the utilization of the advan- tages of the market in purchasing supplies. A forthcoming report of this board recommends the substitution of a board of control for the present supervisory board.

In Wisconsin the state board has passed through the various stages of adminis- trative control, and since 1891 the board has had the management of all the charitable and correctional institutions belonging to the state. It is charged with the mainte- nance, government, and direct management of these institutions. It must preserve and care for, and make annually a full and complete inventory and appraisal of, the prop- erty of each institution. The members must make monthly visits to each institution, and provide all needful regulations for the officers and employe's, courses of study, tuition, and maintenance of pupils. The board has given nominating power to the superintendents and wardens, and holds them responsible for efficient assistants. The board has assumed full responsibility for the purchase of staple supplies, and has introduced into this public business the efficiency and economy of private business. These supplies are sometimes purchased from firms outside the state.

In Wisconsin the board of control not only directs the administration of the state institutions, but also has been given a large control over the affairs of the locality in certain phases of its activity. The fist step in the development of this central con- trol lies in the power of the board to condemn jails, poorhouses, prisons, and lockups on sanitary grounds. The second step applies to the care of the chronic insane. The board selects county asylums for the care of these persons securing to the patients larger freedom and more homelike surroundings, to the state, economy, elasticity, and effective control. However, the most important advantage of the system is the strong control exercised by the board over the county asylums and poorhouses without destroying the responsibility of the county authorities in the management of their institutions. It establishes this control by advancing to each county institution one- half of the support of the chronic patients, and thereby fixing a certain standard of efficiency before the county hospital will be selected for such purposes. SAMUEL E. SPARLING, " State Boards of Control," in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January, 1901. T. J. R.

The Industrial Development of Germany. On comparing the industrial census of Germany for 1882 with that for 1895, two facts become evident: first, there has been great industrial growth ; second, the period is marked by the extraordinary development of large industrial establishments. Both facts stand together. Indeed, the first is accounted for by the second. The number of establishments has increased but 1.3 per cent., while the number of persons engaged in trade and industry has increased 39.9 per cent. Hence the largest part of this increment to the working force has been absorbed in the growth of the great industries. Defining small indus- tries as those employing not more than five persons, middle industries as those employing ,from six to fifty people, and great industries as those with over fifty employes, we find that the small establishments have grown 1.8 per cent., while the middle and great classes have increased respectively 69.7 per cent, and 90 per cent. The effect of this centralization has been increased production, which is due largely to the economic utilization of motive power in the great establishments. In 1895 at least three-fourths of the industrial production of Germany came from these great factories.

The social significance of such development may be seriously questioned as pointing to recession of the independent middle class. But the loss of industrial self- sufficiency does not bring a loss of social and legal status. It is true that the ratio of entrepreneurs to the entire industrial population has diminished. But, on the other hand, the class of managers, clerks, and overseers has increased almost twice as fast as that of artisans. Moreover, the conditions of work are better, and the means of enforcing labor regulations are more secure under the great factory system. Such development does not tend, therefore, to the degradation of labor. Nor can the social- ists claim that there is a tendency toward state control of industry, for the statistics show that the number of public employe's has increased less rapidly than that of those who work for private concerns. There is a tendency to combination, however, and the employe's of such companies have grown most rapidly in number. The type of com- bination is the joint-stock company, rather than the industry under the control of a single capitalist. So that there is a certain division of authority and responsibility.