502 



The Review of Reviews, 



THE WORLD'S WORK. 



Wii.i, Li.ovd-George Drop Home Rule? 



An " Indiscreet Unionist" indulges in a character 

 sketch of Mr. Lloyd-George, whom he describes as a 

 scoundrel — a scoundrel meaning one who uses 

 language by which others are shocked. Mr. Lloyd- 

 George is declared to be brave, independent, 

 resourceful, impatient and inconsistent. The 

 Unionist has the courage to predict that Mr. Lloyd- 

 George will not wreck his prospective Premiership 

 by " riding the Irish horse to the precipice " : — 



Mr. Lloyd-George will not allow (he Irish to drag the 

 Liberals inlo ruin. He will prefer the loss of office, the 

 temporary rule of a niinorily, and the sure hope that his own 

 qualities will soon win for him what Mr. Balfour's defects gave 

 <o Sir Henry CampbellBannerman in January 1906. 

 THE FRENCHMAN RICH IN IDEAS. 



Mr. J. H. Collins telLs how the Frenchman does 

 business, and declares that the first word is Ideas, and 

 the second is Certaintie.';. It is a charming paper. 

 His contention is ; — 



. France is a land of exquisite handicraft and unerring taste. 

 The Frenchman Is not always practical in his products and does 

 notlove factory production. His ideal is to make a few highly 

 individual things for a few discriminating customers. Anyone 

 of them might be the b.asis of an industry in another country, 

 but when it is suggested that he could make money turning them 

 out cheaply in quantities, he says, " Oh, let the Germans do 

 that ! " and goes on to create something else. 



WHY NOT A STATE GARDEN CITY? 



Mr. Percy B. Tanner suggests that a huge depart- 

 ment of the General Post Office, the savings bank, 

 should be transferred to a garden city site some fifty 

 .miles out. The staff, now numbering 3,300, would 

 give the new city a population of at least 10,000 at 

 the outset. He expects that there would be a 

 magnificent surplus to the State after the cost of 

 town planning had been borne, and a generous 

 reserve of public parkland. 



WANTED — A NATIONAL POULTRY INSTITUTE. 



" Home Counties " describes the increasing im- 

 portance of the hen, with a characteristic profusion of 

 facts and figures. He says that in seven years the 

 import of eggs from British possessions has dropped 

 from eight and a quarter millions to not quite a 

 quarter of a million. From other countries in seven 

 years the import has dropped from 2,300 millions 

 to 2,200 millions. He supports the proposal of Mr. 

 Edward Brown, secretary of the National Poultry 

 Organisation Society, that the Treasury should give 

 ^8,500 towards the establishment and equipment 

 of a National Institute for eggs and poultry, and 

 that j{['2,ooo a year for maintenance should come from 

 the Development Fund. 



O'lIIKk ARTICI-ES. 



\ portrait is given, along with a review of a novel 

 by .Alfred Tennyson, grandson and namesake of the 

 last great Laureate, who was christened with a poem 

 from his pen, and is now a stepson of Mr. Birrell. 

 Mr. .Arthur James points out tliat Germany, the 

 iiiuigry soldier, the malcontent, is the uncertain 

 luantity on whose decision depends peace and war. 



THE ENGLISHWOMAN. 



The most important article in the EngUslmwnian 

 is that by Mrs. Beer on the question of " Sick 

 Insurance for Women." The writer says that sick 

 insurance for women is not at all new; it can be 

 proved to have been well known in 1797, when at 

 least seventeen societies for woinen only existed. 

 The 1905 report of the Chief Registrar of Friendly 

 Societies gave the number of women registered as 

 600,000, nearly all of them being in general friendly 

 societies, and not in the 312 societies composed 

 exclusively of women. The I.O.O.F. (Manchester 

 Unity) has admitted women since 1900, and has 

 now 7,352 women members, who must forii. 

 separate lodges. The Foresters have mote than 

 11,000 women members, as compared with more than 

 702,000 men, and these two great societies are not 

 the only ones admitting women to sick benefit. The 

 secretaries of the Friendly Societies seemed surprised 

 that any distinction should Ije drawn between married 

 and unmarried women. All but one agreed in stating 

 that their exj erience had shown that married women 

 were not a greater burden on a Society than un- 

 married. The writer argues, therefore, that the 

 experience of Friendly Societies goes to prove that 

 there is no insuperable difficulty in admitting married 

 as well as unmarried women into a sick insurance 

 scheme. 



THE ROTHSCHILD TENEMENT HOUSES. 



Mrs. Austin writes interestingly upon some tene- 

 ment houses in Paris, built by the Rothschilds with 

 a capital of ^40,000, on which interest is expected 

 to be paid at the rate of 3! or 4 per cent. The 

 Rothschild tenement houses are in a densely crowded 

 district. The building contains three hundred and 

 twenty-one flats, at rentals of from ^^7 to ;^2 2 a 

 year, according to accommodation. Each flat is 

 very light and gets plenty of sunshine. Each has 

 a good kitchen and sitting-room combined, and from 

 one to four bedrooms, with gas, water, electricity, 

 and every convenience. One wing of the building 

 is entirely given up to working women ; two-room 

 and one-room fiats, all with water and electricity. 

 There is a large kitchen attached to the flats, where 

 good food can be bought cheaply by women who 

 have little time to cook for themselves. There is a 

 wash-house, and in the basement are the bathrooms. 

 A creche has even been provided for the small 

 children, as well as rooms for medical and surgical 

 consultations. Rents are collected weekly, fortnightly, 

 or monthly, according to the profession of the bread- 

 winner, and not quarterly, as is the custom in France. 

 This the writer thinks much better, since the tenants 

 arc much more likely to be able to meet their rent 

 when rent day comes frequently. 



.An article on " Life in British East .Africa " gives 

 an account of the colony which is, on the whole, 

 pleasant and attractive. 



