sure, neither author denies the existence of evils in stock speculation; yet neither author discusses these evils at length or indicates that any considerable reforms are called for.

On the descriptive side of the subject both books are good-better, or at least more up-to-date, than their predecessors. But Meeker's work is more than good, it is admirable. His daily presence on the scene of action has enabled him to write a description both more graphic and more detailed than could well be written by an outsider. Even the student who is fairly familiar with the workings of the market will repeatedly run across some interesting piece of information in Meeker's book that is not to be found elsewhere. The chapters on "The Floor Trader and the Specialist" and on "The Odd-Lot Business" are examples of this wealth of interesting detail. On the theory of stock speculation Huebner's chapters simply elaborate his well-known earlier writings on the subject. I think it fair to say that his defense is uncritical. He states the familiar arguments in support of speculation, but he pays almost no attention to opposing considerations. Much, for example, is said of the function of speculation as a price-stabilizer, but nothing is said of the extent to which prices may be unstabilized by ignorant and panicky speculation. Short-selling is given a clean bill of health without notice being taken of the objections urged against it by Mr. Samuel Untermyer and other critics. Puts and calls are upheld as a legitimate form of speculation without any discussion of the effect of these transactions on stock prices.

Meeker's defensive chapters, being a frankly ex parte argument, can hardly be judged by the same critical standards that must be applied to Professor Huebner's book. Of course, the general line of reasoning is the same. Two aspects of the subject, however, receive more detailed attention by Meeker than they have received heretofore the function of the Exchange in widening the distribution of corporate issues, and the service of the Exchange in making an international market for securities. Both of these functions are highly important, and Meeker has done well to stress them.

It is clear that the chief contribution of these two books is on the descriptive rather than on the critical side of the subject. Indeed, one may question seriously whether there is anything to be gained from further refinements of the merely "literary" discussion of the pros and cons of speculation. In its very nature the problem is a quantitative one, involving a balancing of amounts of good and evil; the test, therefore, can be made, if at all, only by careful

quantitative studies, especially by statistical studies of price fluctuations under the influence of varying types and degrees of speculative activity. Perhaps some light will be thrown on the subject by the increasingly numerous and careful researches on the business cycle and the business barometer. Meanwhile opinions, to be scientific, must be cautious.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

JAMES C. BONBRIGHT

Nationalization of the Mines. By FRANK HODGES. New York, Thomas Seltzer, Inc., 1920.-xii, 120+ 68 pp.

This little book is good to read because Frank Hodges wrote it, because it deals realistically with a vital problem, and because it is brief.

First, to most of its readers the value of the book will lie in its authorship. Mr. Frank Hodges is a "type"-if a single individual of his kind can be a type"-of a new, or at least a different labor leader. He has come up from the "ranks", is a graduate of a "labor college", was a conspicuous member of the commission appointed by the British government to inquire into the coal industry, has been both secretary and president of the Miners' Federation, and is still in his twenties. On the coal commission he embarrassed owners and employers by asking them many distressing questions about capitalization, depreciation, and the function of profits. Unfortunately he is known as an "intellectual" in the labor movement. Yet it is his ability to leave erudition out, to free his mind from a traditional statement of his problem, and to see the issues with which he is concerned realistically which gives him his distinct power. And these qualities of mind, possessed by so few with academic or business experience, are nowhere more noticeable in his work than in the writing of this book.

Second, to an increasing number of readers the book will be valued because of its unromantic concern with a significant problem in national economy. By the use of a single case it presents the question of the form of organization for an industry in relation to the welfare of the community. Great Britain is a typical industrial country and coal is its most important industry. For more than a century (though coal mining is very much older) the industry has been organized under a scheme of arrangements which make up what is roughly called "private enterprise". This century of coal mining and of private enterprise has produced certain definite and tangible results. These can be appraised by standards of minimum

expectations from the prevailing form of organization. The author sets up a decent living to its workers and a regular and economical supply of coal to the community as ends which the industry should serve. He appraises the prevailing organization of the industry and nationalization as alternative schemes for realizing these ends. The inquiry addresses itself immediately and persistently to the essential question of the instrumental character of the industry and to the form of organization under which it can best perform its function to the community.

Third, the book is of interest as a wonderful example of a brief but complete exposition. The reader who has expectation of living far beyond the traditional three score years and ten will prefer to go to Mr. Frank Hodges' source, which is the "Reports and Minutes of Evidence of the Inquiry" conducted in 1919 by the British "Coal Industry Commission". The significant facts about wastes in production and consumption, antiquated equipment and obsolete method, accidents and low wages, economies which only unification can make possible, and a peculiar scheme of nationalization free from over-centralization and bureaucracy, are all set forth at length in the three volumes of testimony and statistics which were "humbly" presented for the consideration of His Majesty. But the reader who desires an easier road than that offered to royalty will prefer Mr. Frank Hodges' 18,000 words to the record of 2,500,000 words of dialectic wherein commissioners of a like mind with Mr. Hodges tried to wring unacceptable conclusions from unwilling and ignorant witnesses.

It is this clear, brief and realistic treatment of an important problem which constitutes Mr. Hodges' contribution. There is nothing in his book which does not appear in the source from which it was taken. There is nothing in his statement of the problem which is not just now "in the air". Clear, dispassionate and factual as his treatment is, it falls short of conviction. The author is convinced because he sees clearly the inefficiencies of the prevailing system and visualizes the blessings of nationalization. Others will fall short of conviction as they see clearly or dimly the facts of the present organization of the industry in comparison with the speculative merits and defects of a scheme of nationalization. But the book is of inestimable value in stating a problem. It dismisses nationalization as a general issue, raises specifically the question of the form of organization of an industry to the welfare of a community, and insists that the question is to be settled upon the basis

of specific accomplishments of alternative systems judged by established standards. All of this an industry as a unit, its instrumental character, its judgment by standards, its form of organization as an object of judgment-is still beyond the pale of conventional economic theory. But it has already found expression in a considerable body of literature. The merit of the Coal Commission Inquiry is that it has stated this problem more specifically and more realistically than it has been stated before. The merit of Mr. Hodges' book is that it has made this statement available for the general reader. WALTON H. HAMILTON

AMHERST COLLEGE

Histoire du Canada. Par FRANÇOIS-XAVIER GARNEAU. Cinquième édition, révue, annotée et publiée avec une introduction et des appendices par son petit-fils, Hector Garneau. Préface de M. Gabriel Hanotaux, de l'Académie française. Tome II. Paris, Librairie Félix Alcan, 1920.-xii, 748 pp.

Garneau's history has long been recognized as one of the most valuable French-Canadian contributions to the historical literature of Canada. Its broad treatment of general political and social history contrasts with the narrower scope of the comparable works of such ecclesiastical historians as Faillon and Ferland. Yet Garneau, while a layman of liberal ideas, was a loyal Catholic and a true French-Canadian in his patriotism. This patriotism it was which prompted him to his real life task. When still a young clerk in a law office in Quebec, he was taunted one day by his British fellowclerks as belonging to a race so insignificant that it did not even have any history. "What!" he replied energetically, "we have no history! Very well; to confute you I will tell it myself." To the task which he then set himself his devotion was life-long. For a quarter of a century, says his grandson, he concentrated an almost constant labor upon his history. First published in the 'forties, it passed before his death through three editions, the third in 1859. An English translation by Andrew Bell saw three editions in the 'sixties. In 1882-3 a fourth French edition, which included a study of his life, was brought out under the editorship of his son. This remained the standard until recently; but now comes the grandson to keep bright the family tradition. He gave a first volume to the public in 1913; the appearance of the second was delayed by the war. M. Hector Garneau has earned our gratitude by the scholarly devotion here displayed. He is unnecessarily modest about his own

contribution. He tells of his embarrassment before a book more than half a century old, a feeling which made him loath to alter the text, practically that left by his grandfather, as his father's emendations had been limited almost entirely to formal changes. In order, therefore, that the reader may still distinguish the original from the accretions the editor makes it a rule to insert textual additions and revisions in brackets. Many details, especially such as names and exact dates and numbers, are furnished in this manner. The grandfather's instinct, apparently, was to omit such matter where he felt that it might possibly clog the free movement of the narrative. However well such practice was adapted to the general reader, the student will be grateful for the more specific data now supplied. In addition to revisions and insertions in the text, further relevant details are given in footnotes and appendices. Still more of a boon to the scholar is the equipment of the work for the first time with thorough documentation, which makes it truly what M. Hanotaux calls it, "une véritable encyclopédie de l'histoire du Canada". The range of material laid under tribute in this documentation is, indeed, vastly wider than that which was available in the middle of the last century. Yet very little essential change has been necessary in the story as the first Garneau told it, so little as to speak highly for his workmanship and for the integrity of his historical imagination. The competent editing of the volume in hand proves the grandson his spiritual heir. One wishes that the latter would some day supplement the history as it stands by continuing the story, as he well could, from 1841 to our own day.

As yet the new edition has no index, but it is promised that the lack will soon be supplied. The fifth edition of volume one having been exhausted, a sixth will shortly be published, including an index to cover the complete work as comprised by that volume and the present. When the editor's task has been so admirably performed it is perhaps ungracious to regret the entire absence of maps and plans, but may it not be hoped that in some future edition these also will be included? Previous editions were published in Canada, but this one comes from Paris under the auspices of Le Comité FranceAmérique, an organization founded some years before the war and devoted to the promotion of understanding and sympathy between France and the nations of the Americas. Among the latter it may be valuable also as a worthy reminder of the important share which les Canadiens-français have borne in the history of North America. REGINALD G. TROTTER

STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA