LITERARY NOTICES. 



561 



everywhere, from the green slime on the 

 north side of old fences and the trunks 

 of trees, to the higher or flowering plants. 

 Each one of these examples is studied close- 

 ly and critically in all its parts. Explicit 

 directions are given, but the student is 

 warned against depending on the manual 

 rather than working out results of his own. 

 By this thorough study of a few examples, 

 the main features of plant-anatomy are 

 made familiar, at the same time that habits 

 of independent observation and judgment 

 are being established. Every school where 

 botany is studied should have provision for 

 getting such a first-hand knowledge of 

 plant-anatomy as is contemplated in this 

 excellent manual. The necessary outfit for 

 such a course of study is carefully stated, 

 but we find no reference to its probable 

 cost a very practical question, that will 

 doubtless arise in the minds of many per- 

 sons who are interested in educational prog- 

 ress. 



Protection or Free Trade. An Examina- 

 tion of the Tariff Question, with Espe- 

 cial Regard to the Interests of Labor. 

 By Henry George. New York : Henry 

 George & Co. 1886. Pp. 356. Price, 

 81.50. 



This is a discussion of the tariff ques- 

 tion from Mr. George's well-known point 

 of view, that nothing short of the abolition 

 of private property in land can greatly ben- 

 efit the laboring classes. The author trav- 

 erses the ground usually gone over in eco- 

 nomic works in the consideration of this 

 subject, but by his fresh and vigorous treat- 

 ment he lends an interest to it not usually 

 found in such discussions. He arrives at 

 the same conclusions in regard to the futil- 

 ity of tariffs to benefit industry as does every 

 competent economist who has investigated 

 the question, but, unlike most advocates of 

 free trade, in current discussions, does not 

 believe in the step-by-step process of reach- 

 ing the end in view. 



" Tariff for revenue onlv," he contends, 

 is about the most cumbrous and costly 

 method of raising a revenue and is inde- 

 fensible on economical as well as political 

 grounds. He therefore advocates immediate 

 and unqualified free trade, and in doing so 

 feels assured that the change would not 

 involve the country in any great industrial 

 vol. xxix. 36 



convulsion. Even if it should, he holds that 

 it is far better for the laboring classes that 

 this should be short and sharp, than that 

 it should extend over a long period, in which 

 there would be time to shift almost if not 

 the whole burden upon their shoulders. 



Mr. George does not rest his discussion 

 with the presentation of the generally ac- 

 cepted free-trade arguments, and from his 

 point of view he could not logically stop 

 short of the length to which he has carried 

 it. Protection to the wage-earning class is 

 the professed object of the tariff, and that 

 given to the employer is only a means to 

 this end. It was therefore incumbent upon 

 Mr. George to consider the extent to which 

 free trade can benefit the working-man un- 

 der present industrial conditions, and to 

 show further what the conditions of indus- 

 try must be which would give it the great- 

 est value for him. In taking up this portion 

 of his subject he considers the cause of the 

 hold protection still retains upon the indus- 

 trial nations of the world after fifty years 

 of discussion, and finds it in the belief that 

 protection " makes work," and that this is 

 just what the laboring man wants. Under 

 the changed industrial conditions he pro- 

 poses he believes the distribution of wealth 

 would be so changed in favor of the labor- 

 ing classes that the problem of getting 

 work would cease to be of serious import, 

 and the working-man would then see clearly 

 the essential viciousness of trade restric- 

 tions. He closes the volume with an appeal 

 to the working-classes to push the free- 

 trade issue into politics, and sees in its tri- 

 umph the entering wedge which shall pave 

 the way for his special reform. 



First Annual Report of the Commissioner 

 of Labor. By Carroll D. Wright. 

 Industrial Depressions. Washington : 

 Government Printing-Office. Pp. 485. 



The Bureau of Labor was established 

 by act of Congress of June 27, 1884, and 

 the Commissioner was appointed in Jan- 

 uary, 1885. The Commissioner projected 

 for the first year's work of the Bureau the 

 collection of information relative to indus- 

 trial depressions, by means of investigations 

 which should comprehend a study of the 

 character and alleged causes of the present 

 crisis, whether the causes were contempo- 



