BOOKS

By Sir Oliver Lodge. George H. Doran Co. 348 pp. Price $2.00; by mail ofThe Survey$2.13.

Sir Oliver Lodge is a scientist with a worldwide reputation, whose opinions on the structure of atoms, on X-rays or on Hertzian waves command instant attention. But when he expounds such remote and multifarious subjects as “free will and determinism,” “Bergson’s philosophy,” “universal arbitration,” “the production and sale of drink,” “the functions of money,” “charity organization” and a score of others, he rouses the suspicions of the wary. “Nobody could possibly be as wise as Daniel Webster looked,” and nobody could possibly be as wise as an authoritative knowledge of these topics implies.

Yet the learned knight has acquitted himself creditably. The essays are random papers, addresses at commencement exercises and the like, as good as such occasions warranted, though hardly, in some cases, worth the dignity of permanent print.

Sir Oliver Lodge, despite his rise to the presidency of Birmingham University, has escaped the commonest of British diseases—snobbery. His eyes are not blinded, by fatty layers of prosperity, to the misery that stalks about the country. He is not elated at the sight of those piles of iron and slag, those miles of furnaces and factories, those leagues of rabbit-hutch cottages, which stretch, northwest of Birmingham, a “Black Country” that even Satan might disown, the heart of manufacturing England, a blasted region where no blade of grass is green and no life can be clean and elevated.

The author is saturated with the feeling and teaching of Ruskin, in whom these blighted acres, and other fair districts which Mammom had despoiled, raised such righteous tempests of wrath. It is refreshing to find in high places the gospel of Ruskin, that half-forgotten prophet of social righteousness, re-stated with conviction and re-applied to fresh problems.

Sir Oliver is grateful to the organized charity workers who “immerse themselves in this mass of misery and incipient or threatening degradation, in hope that they may raise individuals out of it”; but, with more pleasure, he pleads for that statesmanship which will root out the causes of wretchedness. He must be a whole-hearted supporter of Lloyd-George’s schemes of social insurance, old-age pensions, taxation of land values and better education. With tax-payers’ associations he is surely unpopular, for he actually denounces thrift in government and advocates spending more and ever more on public undertakings. He laments that a surplus in the national revenue is made the excuse for lowering taxes, while there are a thousand good objects on which the surplus could be spent. Perhaps that argument is the easier because, like the great majority, he owns not a foot of soil in what is euphemistically styled “his” country. Were he in America he would appear before boards of estimate and the like and plead for more money for schools, playgrounds, hospitals, and health work.

Sometimes his economics are disputable, as when he asserts that “human labor is the ultimate standard of value, and coins might instructively be inscribed in terms of labor.” Even the Marxian Socialists are shy today about defending their prophet’s theory of labor value. But slips like that are inevitable where so wide a range of topics is attacked. Altogether the volume can be recommended to those numerous casual readers who like a little of everything and not much of anything.

John Martin.

By Charles F. Dole. B. W. Huebsch. 124 pp. Price $.50; by mail ofThe Survey$.55.

By Chauncey B. Brewster. Thomas Whittaker, Inc. 143 pp. Price $.80; by mail ofThe Survey$.87.

By Allen Hoben. University of Chicago Press. 171 pp. Price $1.00; by mail ofThe Survey$1.10.

By George Walter Fiske. Young Men’s Christian Association Press. 310 pp. Price $1.00; by mail ofThe Survey$1.06.

By J. S. Kirtley. Geo. H. Doran Co. 256 pp. Price $1.00; by mail ofThe Survey$1.10.

By Charles Franklin Thwing and Carrie F. Thwing. Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Co. 258 pp. Price $1.60; by mail ofThe Survey$1.75.

The distinctive notes in Dr. Charles F. Dole’s The Burden of Poverty are two—the new consciousness of the spiritual nature of man whereby poverty becomes a problem and the spiritual urgency to meet it due to the mighty idealism of religion. Whether conscious of a religious motive or not, or even in conscious reaction from something repellent in some religious concept, all to whom poverty is a problem and who are urged thereby to sacrifice for others are said to be moved at both points by a religious motive.

The extent and causes of poverty are accounted for in largest part by industrial conditions, the economic burdens of land, rent and interest, immigration, drink and war. But to whatever factors the problem is due it can be met only as man becomes more religious, which the author makes equivalent to being more human and more civilized. Socialism rises above its “difficulties”, if at all, only as it becomes so human as to be “a form of the religion of pity and sympathy.” It fails most “in not understanding the spiritual implication of democracy, because a materialistic democracy is impossible.”

Keeping well “this side of socialism” and claiming something better than it, Dr. Dole presents a platform for social progress which he thinksappeals to a larger consensus of judgment and synthesis of action. It summons all to end war, intemperance, tuberculosis, and occupational and vice diseases; to educate for responsibility and efficiency; to redress industrial injury and injustice; to abolish special privileges, double standards and discriminations against sex or class.

Aside from general dependence upon moral and religious forces to bring these things about, the specific means of so doing are suggested under the title, The Control of the Land—A Dream. By the public possession or control of the land and by taxing out of existence all inheritance above $500,000, the way is open for the dream of the endowment of every one at the age of majority with inalienable possession free from tax and rent, the assurance of employment and provision for old age. But all depends, at last as at first, upon our anchor to the “new” question, “Can you convert brains to go in the way of religion?” This is said to be the biggest problem of religion, as it is the newest, for “it is only lately that man has been able even to formulate the true significance of religion in terms at once rational for the intellect and practical for the conduct of the daily life.”

“People will be happy as fast as they learn to face these questions and to sayyesto them. Only men of good will really know what they want in this world; can meet and make and control conditions in life; can handle successfully the new and tremendous powers of nature and science. Only they can establish thorough democracy. Only their ideas can preserve the nations from the worst of all poverty—starvation of the soul, from the worst of all tyranny—the fear of man.”

In his Kingdom of God and American Life Bishop Brewster seeks to adjust the Christian ideal and ethic with the earlier idealism and standards of American democracy. He identifies them at the very points at which both are at a crisis—liberty, justice, opportunity, loyalty, law, civic courage, the value of human life and the sanctity of the family. Differentiating between “the kingdom of God” which consists in part of such values, and the church whose witness to these ideals is needed alike by religion and democracy, he denies that Christianity is either individualistic or socialistic. “The social character it is impossible to overestimate, because there the social never gets away from the personal.” From this vantage he repudiates individualism since “Christianity while never individualistic is always personal”; and he disputes socialism since “in nature and purpose that scheme is economic” and “the church is spiritual and personal”, socialism “aims at the economic transformation of environment” and “the church’s aim is the spiritual transformation of the persons that make up society”, “socialism aims at reconstruction through revolution” and “the church at progressive reform through evolution.”

While the author’s readiness to stand for the consequences of democracy leads him to claim that “this diversity in aim and operation does not necessitate antagonism in spirit”, yet his work would have been more positively and practically effective if it had been less of an argumentative special pleading against socialism and more constructively aimed to build up American democratic institutions. Pointing his emphasis upon the essential value of democracy with the most concrete arguments from our industrial and civic life, his reasoning rings true to this fundamental keynote of Christianity all the way through from preface to conclusion.

“If it be true that Christianity in principle means not individualism but solidarity; if Christianity, while not ignoring personality, yet has, as its ideal, personality fulfilled in social relations; then, in a time like this, of transition, from individualistic principles and ideals, the church of Christ has plainly before it a task in the world. It is no time to yield to that old besetting temptation to hold aloof from contact with the world. The sociological trend of thought and life today is a realization of essential characteristics of Christianity and makes rightful demands upon Christians. Certainly the church is to refrain from seeking to allay the restlessness and fever of social discontent by administering any anodynes that superinduce social lethargy. Its plain task is to heal, tone up and invigorate the social system, to quicken and guide those social promptings and aspirations, and make men know assuredly that Democracy means the wider opportunity and the larger obligation with respect to social service. It should be evident beyond question that the church is bringing the spirit of Jesus Christ to the ferment of social discontent and strife. That would require that it be itself thoroughly possessed by that spirit. The problem that immediately confronts the church is not to Christianize socialism, but first to socialize Christians, until their ideal principles shall be real and ruling principles, until they obey the rule of principle and not contentedly rest in sentiment.”

What the boy does for the minister is as well emphasized in Professor Hoben’s suggestive little volume The Minister and the Boy, as what the minister may do for the boy. Basing his whole discussion upon a frank acceptance of the biological order and psychological development of boy life, Professor Hoben in a scholarly, yet very practical way, turns our newest knowledge and experience in dealing with boys to the right and feasible use of the ministers and church workers. Not the least valuable parts of the book are those which account for some of the defects and defaults of the boy, characteristic of certain periods of his development, on grounds which reasonably explain them and suggest ways of counteracting and correcting them. Self-knowledge and control are shown as failing to keep pace with the sense impressions and unorganized experiences of adolescence. The psychological analogy between play and worship is another interesting and original point developed.The instincts rooted in the sense of solidarity are treated as the basis of training for the family and communal relationships and responsibilities.

“Self-centering the experience of the boy short-circuits the religious life.” “Sex instruction should anticipate sex consciousness.” “The normal boy will not deliberately choose to sponge upon the world. He intends to do the fair thing and to amount to something. He dreams of making his life an actual contribution to the welfare and glory of humanity. When it is put before him rightly he will scorn a selfish misappropriation of his life and will enter the crusade for the city that hath foundations whose builder and maker is God.”

These sentences indicate the author’s abiding faith in boyhood and his epigrammatic, suggestive style. At the end of each chapter that deals with the more fundamental principles their most practical applications are given. Whole chapters are devoted to practical suggestions on such topics as The Boy in Village and Country; The Modern City and the Normal Boy; The Ethical Value of Organized Play; The Boy’s Choice of a Vocation; Training for Citizenship; The Church Boys’ Club. References to readily accessible books also add to the value of the volume.

The best supplement to Professor Hoben’s book is the interesting and useful handbook entitled Boy Life and Self-Government, which Professor George Walter Fiske of Oberlin Theological Seminary prepared for the International Committee of Young Men’s Christian Associations, for the use of those in charge of their boys’ departments and other boys’ club workers. With these two small volumes in hand and in use, the work of every church and minister for the boys of their parish and community cannot fail to be more effective.

As a fresh, original and well-balanced study of the boy, inspired by unusual insight and large experience, Kirtley’s That Boy of Yours is valuable for teachers, social workers, and above all for parents, to whom by its title it is addressed.

Thwing’s The Family has been for a generation so exclusively the one book combining for the general reader historical and social data, scholarly and practical purpose, that this revised and enlarged edition renders a public service. Unlike the more technical manuals on the family it takes for granted no special acquaintanceship with the history and literature of the subject, though it is introductory to and interpretative of both. The additional material includes the statistical and bibliographical data appearing since the first edition was published, and a new concluding chapter, significantly bearing the title, The Family Under a Socialized Society.

Graham Taylor.

ByLewis M. Terman. Houghton, Mifflin Co. 136 pp. Price $.60; by mail ofThe Survey$.66.

“Teaching as a Dangerous Trade” might have been the title of this book. Eighty-four per cent of 159 teachers in Springfield, Mass., testified that in their opinion the teacher of average physical constitution suffers distinct impairment of health within five to ten years after beginning service. Between 1906 and 1909 over a quarter of the elementary teachers of Sweden were absent one year or more on account of illness.

But it is not as a matter of mere personal concern to the profession that the teacher’s health is here considered; rather as a factor in school efficiency. Medical inspection of schools is partial so long as it takes no notice of teachers, for “the health of the child is intricately related to that of its teacher.” There is a subtler way in which weak lungs and neurasthenia among the half million teachers who are molding the intellect and character of twenty million children in this country may affect the development of those children. As the editor’s introduction puts it: “If the teacher’s conscious pedagogical method transmits truth, it is the unconscious influence of his personality that gives it that bias of meaning which the fact will forever after have for the pupil.” And nowadays we are coming to know how much personality is shaped by physical and mental health.

Winthrop D. Lane.

ByJ. E. Wallace Wallin, Ph. D. Warwick and York, Inc., Baltimore. 155 pp. Price $1.25; by mail ofTheSurvey$1.32.

This is one of the educational psychology monographs edited by Guy Montrose Whipple. The book consists of the results of a series of tests made upon the epileptics at Skillman Village, N. J., by the Binet-Simon scale and by some other tests which are designed to supplement the Binet.

The Binet-Simon test is the nearest approach to a scientific and accurate scale for measuring intelligence that has yet been devised. It is now being used extensively in many parts of the world, particularly in the United States. The work of Dr. Wallin with the epileptics at Skillman is of value in several directions, not the least being its value in testing the Binet scale itself, which has been used repeatedly, at intervals of a year, upon the inmates of the Vineland school, with results which show remarkable accuracy.

It will be readily seen that an accurate test of feeble-mindedness which can be applied by a careful and intelligent observer who has not been specially trained in psychology would be of the greatest possible value. Realizing as we do the absolute necessity of segregating, or in some way controlling, the feeble-minded of every class, the question of how to tell who is feeble-minded is one that is continually recurring.

The scale has been tested quite widely both on normal and defective children, the most important test on normals being that of Goddardwho tried it on nearly 2,000 public school children.

Dr. Wallin found at Skillman that either the Binet scale was not accurate or else that the conditions surrounding epilepsy make the scale less applicable to that class than to normals or feeble-minded. This observation confirms similar facts disclosed at Vineland and elsewhere in connection with epilepsy and insanity; that is to say, both of these conditions produce eccentricities which the scale does not exactly meet.

While the Binet scale is an extremely useful device and one which will be more used, it is only reasonable to suppose that it will be modified, in the future, as it has been in the past, by Goddard and others. But no matter how carefully modified, it is not claimed to be, and will not be claimed to be, an all-sufficient test on such questions as sterilization, final segregation and other very important things. Physical tests of various kinds will also be used.

Dr. Wallin’s book concludes with a copy of the Binet scale with directions for its use, all of which are very valuable. On the whole the book is a distinct contribution to the literature of the subject and it is to be hoped that the author’s example in testing out large numbers of abnormals of different kinds and then publishing the results will be followed. We know qualitatively a great deal about the feeble-minded and epileptic, but our quantitative knowledge is still far from complete.

Alexander Johnson.

ByVictor Robinson. Medical Review of Reviews. 317 pp. Price $2.50; by mail ofThe Survey$2.67.

This book contains a series of papers most of which have already appeared in theMedical Review of Reviews, theMedical Record, and other magazines. It is dedicated to Ernst Haeckel. Dr. Abraham Jacobi wrote the preface.

The Pathfinders include famous men whose names are familiar to every one, such as Galen, Paracelsus, Servetus, Paré, Hunter, Jenner and Darwin, and also some who are only vaguely known to most of us. Among these are Aretaeus, Scheele, Laennec, Semmelweiss. We are not told what prompted the selection of these particular Pathfinders, or why such names as Boerhaave, Sydenham, Pasteur and Virchow were omitted, but one cannot demand that such a book be all-inclusive.

Mr. Robinson has lived with the characters of whom he writes until he has formed a vivid picture of the personality of each, a picture he manages to convey to his audience with great success. Naturally it is the earlier Pathfinders who are most interesting to the ordinary reader and the chapter on Galen holds many surprises for those who have been accustomed to think of the medical skill of the ancients very much as we think of Chinese medicine of today. Galen knew that consumption was communicable, and his disquisitions on dietetics and hygiene are almost incredibly modern.

The chapter on Paracelsus is especially vivid and delightful, while the description of Aretaeus, “the forgotten physician” gives us a picture of a man full of insight and sympathy. Of the later chapters the most interesting are the one on the many-sided Hunter and that which tells of the heroic and tragic struggle of Semmelweiss against the blind conservatism of his own profession.

In the course of one chapter Mr. Robinson remarks that “all writing is autobiographical” and that “prejudices ... will become apparent, ... where you least expect.” This is true of his own book. No one can read a chapter without discovering the author’s antipathy to the Christian religion, and the monarchical system of government. This prejudice against what he regards as superstition and sycophancy, leads him into some extreme statements and mars to a certain extent what would otherwise be delightful reading. If Calvin had been nothing more than the man Mr. Robinson describes, he could hardly have held sway over the minds of several generations as he did. Mr. Robinson will also find that the Bretons opposed the French Revolution not from blind devotion to monarchical tyrants, but because it meant the breakdown of a system of local self-government and common lands to which their Celtic natures clung.

Alice Hamilton, M.D.

ByAnna A. Plass, Teacher of English to Foreigners. Rochester, N. Y. D. C. Heath & Company. 186 pp. Price $.50; by mail ofThe Survey$.57.

To meet the demand for a book of simple lessons for foreigners which, while aiding them to learn English, should at the same time give information concerning the principles of our government, has been the aim of the author. A very limited vocabulary has been used in presenting the subject. Topics have been limited for the most part to a single page, so that each subject may be treated in as concise a manner as possible. This also makes the book more adaptable for pupils whose attendance is likely to be irregular. The volume, which is well illustrated, gives the elementary facts about the different city departments and officials, about the state government and state law makers, the courts and the national government. Occasionally realistic and practical lessons are included such as a telephone call for the doctor and a petition for naturalization.

At the close of the book is a vocabulary in Italian, German, Swedish, Polish, French, Greek and Yiddish.

James P. Heaton.

For the year ending March 31, 1912. Wyman & Sons, 32 Abingdon St., S. W., London. Price 8d.

Partly because English prison and crime statistics are better and more centralized than ours the annual reports of the English Prison Commission are always well worth reading. In the year ending March 31, 1912, the proportion of persons committed to prisons in England was the lowest within statistical record, 439.2 per 100,000 of the population of England and Wales. The commitments for serious crimes particularly show a decrease. The bane of the English prisonsystem is still the short sentence for misdemeanants, 81 per cent of all prisoners having been sentenced for one month or less. Over 50 per cent of those committed to prison are sent in default of paying a fine. This is considered by the Prison Commission one of the most urgent social problems demanding the attention of Parliament.

The commission still regrets that the committing magistrates do not take advantage of the chance to classify prisoners when sentencing them. The Borstal Institution (the English Elmira) continues to satisfy; it has now a population of over 400. The Borstal Association, a released prisoner’s aid society for Borstal, has placed 250 out of 270 lads received. Of these about seventy-five out of one hundred cases turn out well. The “Borstal girl” from the girl’s reformatory has proved satisfactory in conduct after prison in twenty-nine out of fifty-four cases.

An interesting feature is the development of a modified Borstal (or reformatory) system in the local prisons for the younger prisoners, just as though in New York state we introduced into the county jails and penitentiaries a modified Elmira system. The problem of payment to prisoners is engaging the commission.

The Preventive Detention Prison on the Isle of Wight had been running but a few months when the report was prepared. Little can be said about it as yet. The idea is not novel, but “advanced.” Following the serving of a sentence for a specific crime, the more professional or habitual criminal may be sentenced to from five to ten years of subsequent preventive detention in a prison with privileges of limited association with other prisoners: in short, a custodial treatment of the criminal who is dangerous to society because of his profession or his nature. Many other interesting features are dealt with in this report of Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise and his colleagues; much that our American prison boards and wardens cannot afford to miss.

O. F. Lewis.

ByF. Wolfe, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins Press. 181 pp. $1.00 paper, $1.25 cloth; by mail ofThe Survey$1.08 and $1.33.

ByFrederick A. Ogg. The Macmillan Company. 384 pp. Price $1.50; by mail ofThe Survey$1.61.

Admission to American Trade Unions is a retrospective study brought up to the present of the methods by which American trade unions control the number and quality of their membership, through their regulations in regard to apprenticeship, competency, admission of women, aliens and Negroes, and the expulsion of members. The conclusions which the writer draws from his study are colorless, but the book presents a wealth of facts, particularly in the footnote references and quotations from primary sources.

Professor Ogg’s review of the movements, which almost within the memory of men now living have transformed the social aspect of Europe, is not profound nor original and does not undertake to interpret these movements. It is, however, a useful reference book of facts, the more so since the author supplements his short accounts of the various movements by bibliographies of the matter covered in each chapter. The subject matter, which is carried practically up-to-date, covers political and industrial changes, the condition of the agricultural population and of the wage-earner, labor organization and politics, and the efforts of governments to improve the condition of the lower classes.

Mary Brown Sumner.

Psychology and Industrial Efficiency.By Hugo Munsterberg. Houghton Mifflin Co. 320 pp. Price $1.50; by mail ofThe Survey$1.62.

Comrade Yetta.By Albert Edwards. The Macmillan Co. 448 pp. Price $1.35; by mail ofThe Survey$1.47.

The Moral Education of School Children.By Charles Keen Taylor, M.A. Charles K. Taylor, Publ. 77 pp. Price by mail ofThe Survey$.75.

The Old Law and the New Order.By George W. Alger. Houghton Mifflin Co. 295 pp. Price $1.25; by mail ofThe Survey$1.35.

The Economic Utilization of History.By Henry W. Farnum, M.A., R.P.D. Yale University Press. 220 pp. Price $1.25; by mail ofThe Survey$1.35.

The Children in the Shadow.By Ernest K. Coulter. McBride, Nast & Co. 277 pp. Price $1.50; by mail ofThe Survey$1.62.

A Catechism of Life.By Alice Mary Buckton. E. P. Dutton & Co. 67 pp. Price $.50; by mail ofTheSurvey$.54.

The Making of Modern England.By Gilbert Slater. Houghton Mifflin Co. 308 pp. Price $2.50; by mail ofThe Survey$2.64.

Bedrock: Education and Employment, the Foundation of the Republic.By Annie L. Diggs. The Social Center Publishing Co. 70 pp. Price $.25; by mail ofThe Survey$.30.

Smith and the Church.By Rev. Harry H. Beattys. Frederick A. Stokes. 118 pp. Price $.60; by mail ofThe Survey$.66.

The Eternal Maiden.By T. Everett Harré. Mitchell Kennerley. 279 pp. Price $1.20; by mail ofThe Survey$1.28.

A Guide to the Montessori Method.By Ellen Yale Stevens. Frederick A. Stokes. 240 pp. Price $1.00; by mail ofThe Survey$1.08.

The Upholstered Cage.By Josephine P. Knowles. Hodder and Stoughton. 420 pp. Price $1.50; by mail ofThe Survey$1.60.

The American Child.By Elizabeth McCracken. Houghton Mifflin Co. 191 pp. Price $1.25; by mail ofThe Survey$1.35.

Syndicalism and the General Strike.By Arthur D. Lewis. Small, Maynard & Co. 291 pp. Price $2.50; by mail ofThe Survey$2.70.

The Immigrant Invasion.By Frank Julian Warne, Ph.D. Dodd, Mead & Co. 336 pp. Price $2.50; by mail ofThe Survey$2.70.

American Syndicalism.The I. W. W. By John Graham Brooks. The Macmillan Co. 264 pp. Price $1.50; by mail ofThe Survey$1.60.

Swedish Song Games.By Valborg Kastman and Greta Köhler. Ginn and Co. 95 pp. Price $.75; by mail ofThe Survey$.83.

School Feeding—Its History and Practice at Home and Abroad.By Louise Stevens Bryant. J. B. Lippincott Co. 345 pp. Price $1.50; by mail ofThe Survey$1.62.

The Case of Oscar Slater.By A. Conan Doyle. Geo. H. Doran Co. 103 pp. Price $.50; by mail ofThe Survey$.57.

The Nature of Woman.By J. Lionel Taylor. E. P. Dutton & Co. 186 pp. Price $1.25; by mail ofThe Survey$1.32.

Essays in Taxation.By Edwin Seligman. Macmillan Co. 707 pp. Price $4.00; by mail ofThe Survey$4.23.

The Social Center.By Edw. J. Ward. D. Appleton & Co. 359 pp. Price $1.50; by mail ofThe Survey$1.64.

Handbook of Municipal Accounting.By Bureau of Municipal Research. D. Appleton & Co. 318 pp. Price $2.00; by mail ofThe Survey$2.14.

A New Logic.By Charles Mercier. Open Court Publishing Co. 422 pp. Price $3.00; by mail ofThe Survey$3.17.

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