Reriew of Reviews, l/lS/06. 



The Revleivs Reviewed, 



595 



tlie c>ducatioiial advantages of America over all other 

 nations. Ho notes that '"the American looks ahead 

 all the time — the Euglisliman is perfectly content and 

 satistied with present levrl." He laments tlie intem- 

 perance and love of gamhling prevalent in England, 

 more so than in America. In America, too, every 

 man. whether son of a railway director or son of a 

 labourer, beg.ins at the bottom and works upward. 

 He sums up by saying that, so long as the present 

 social condition^; in England make it impossible for 

 the woiking man to r.iise liiniself to a higher level 

 socially, so long will England be hand capped in com- 

 petition with America. 



OTHER ARTICLES. 

 There are vivid descriptions of indu.stries as, varied 

 as the o.strieh farm in Africa, scent-making as a 

 hobby, minting money in London, and cigar-making 

 in Holland. The importance of floating docks and 

 their superiority to the ordinary dry dock ashore is 

 enforced by F. A. Talbot. A floating dock to lift the 

 new Cunarders of 45,000 tons could be built for 

 £170,000. Mr. F. T. Jane describes our newest battle- 

 ships, comparing them with the " Dreadnought." As 

 ;^ background to all these varied developments of 

 human energy may be put the paper by Mr. F. A. 

 Ogg, on the vast undeveloped regions awaiting the 

 multitudinous presence of man. Canada can, he says, 

 provide with the greatest ease for 100 millions more 

 people. Argentina can accommodate as large an in- 

 crement of liuman life. Western Australia eoukl find 

 room for an agricultural population of 10 millions. He 

 concludes that there is room enough for industry and 

 prosperity for thousands of generations. 



THE CONTEMt'ORARY REVIEW. 



The October number is characteristically Cunfein- 

 pnianj. Four articles have claimed separate mention 

 elsewhere. 



■' ACCESS TO THE LAND." 

 Erik Givskov, in a second paper on " Home Indus- 

 try in Belgium,'' brings to light the striking fact that 

 wherever there are extensive communal possessions 

 the wages aio higher than elsewhere in Belgium, even 

 though this public land is mostly found in the less 

 fertile dLstricts. The well-being of tlie common people 

 is superior on poorer land to which they have access, 

 than on richer land to which they have not. On these 

 facts is based the following plea and prophecy: — 



Tax land values and the land will be available for all who 

 desire land, not as an investment, bnt as a means to produce 

 for themselves and their fellow men all the commodities of 

 life whioli their e.\clU3ion from the land has made artifici- 

 all.v scarce. Then co-operation will be an ideal form of pro- 

 duction, for the peasant will be permitted to retain all its 

 beneflts. no longer being robbed of them by increasing land 

 values, Throusli co-operation and electric motive power the 

 well-to-do peasants will have at their cnnnnand all the ad- 

 vantages which till now have been the monopoly of the great 

 manufacturer and of the great fa'mer. Tlien the large towns 

 will disappear, and the whole country become one great (war- 

 den City. There will be no slums, but a healtliy life for all. 



"ItiNORIXG THE COLOUR LINE.' 



•'Long Views and Sliort on White and Black" is 

 the title under which Mr. Sydney Olivier discusses the 

 colour problem. He contrasts the West Indies and 

 its policy of eciual rights, with the Southern States 

 and ils policy of race distinction. For their results 

 he qiiotes Professor Roycc of Harvard, who points to 

 Jamaica, where he says ''the negro race question 

 seems to be substantially solved." Mr. Olivier says 

 of the West Indies; — 



The signiticant fact, then, is that owing to whatever favour- 

 ing circumstances the long view has been taken in tliese 

 communities, the attitude of ignoring the colour-line; and 

 it has produced a situation in which, at any rate, the night- 

 mare of racial antagonism does not oppress the small min- 

 oiity of white who, in virtue of their capacity, lead and con- 

 trol them. The long view— the religious as contrasted with 

 the secular— the view of the idealist as contrasted with that 

 of the practical man. has justified itself here in practice. 



THE LOGIC OP MUNICIPAL TRADING. 



Mr. H. Morgan-Browne supplies an effective re- 

 .ioinder to Mr. Schooling's indictment of local finance. 

 He adds ; — ■ 



On what logical grounds objection can be taken to this 

 particular form of human activity it is difficult to see. Pub- 

 lic bodies can borrow at 3 per cent.; in other words, they 

 can command cheap capital. Private companies, as a rule, 

 cannot. What, tlien. can be more resonahle than that self- 

 contained communities, such as towns, should avail them- 

 selves of the cheap capital which their corporate t^espor.si- 

 I)ility enables them to obtain, in order to carr.v on for the 

 good of their members certain services of general utilit.v. 

 for which otherwise they would have to pay at a higher rate 

 or for a smaller return to a private compan.v. 



OTHER ARTICLES. 

 Ml-. Edward Farrer writes somewhat discursively on 

 Canada and the L^nited States. He says that the 

 triumph of Free Trade at the polls in the United 

 Kingdom does not mean that Canadians will throw 

 themselves into the arms of the Americans. The 

 tendency is the other way. He ui-ges that the Govern- 

 ment should give Canadians a larger voice in the 

 settlement of disputes with Americans. Mr. G. G. 

 ('iniltoii is roused by the ideal pictures of religious 

 education before the- Reformation to produce evidence 

 of the shocking illiteracy of the priests and monks, to 

 say nothing of the common people. Mr. W. S. 

 Palmer gives a subtle version of the resurrection of 

 tho body. He emphatically denies that the corpse 

 after death is still the man's body. The organic unity 

 of life which is the man will, he says, carry on from 

 the molecules it built up into a body all the meaning 

 they have ever had. Dr. Dillon yiehls to the tempta- 

 tion of anti-Germanism. He recalls the times when 

 Germany was only held back from aggressive war on 

 France b.v other Powers, and states that Wihen Great 

 Britain was fighting the Boers, Germany made an 

 offer to the Tsar which involved an expedition against 

 British possessions in the East. He insists tliat Ger- 

 man policy, which is constant, necessitates the mutual 

 antagonism of Prance and England. 



THE PAU MALL MAGAZINE. 



Tlie October number is an adniiralilc iiirnliination 

 nl interesting articles dealing with the most varied 

 topics. A bi'antifully-illust rated sketch of Crewe House 

 is given by Mix-; Emmie Avery Keddcll. Conunander 

 Currcy. R.N., adds to the description of the " Dread- 

 nought " a vivid portraiture of this new monster of the 

 deep. As he remarks, it is scarcely credible that the 

 f(n'emost seamen on the active list of the Royal Navy 

 at the present day. like Admiral Sir .Tuhn l'"isher and 

 Vice-.\dmiral Ijoril Chark's Heresford, were actually 

 brought up in three-<lecked wooden line-of-battle- 

 ships, with smooth-bore guns, A picturesque Nature 

 study is contributed by F. U, Kirkman, of Walney 

 Island, Morecambe Hay, one of the great breeding 

 grounds of the blacklieiided gull, whence it migrates, 

 ainiuig other jilaces, to the London bridges, to be fed 

 by the admiring Cockney. The hunting story is told 

 by G, Denholine .\rnionr of " .\ Duffer's First .Stag." 



