Deoembee 24, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



617 



wages and piece-wages (p. 161) should clear up a 

 great many fallacies fondly cherished by some 

 writers on the industrial situation. On the money 

 ■question Mr. Bowker is explicit, but not as em- 

 phatic as we could wish in pointing out the evils 

 attendant upon the continuance of the present 

 silver-coinage policy of the United States. Per- 

 haps, however, he did not feel justified in introdu- 

 ■cing too much polemical matter into an expository 

 treatise. On p. 236 the author touches on a i)oint 

 which we believe to be of great importance, because 

 it is an illusion which is very generally cherished ; 

 that is, the mistaking unproductive consumption 

 for productive consumption. Nine persons out of 

 ten seem to think that the people in general are 

 benefited when a millionnaire spends large sums 

 ■of money in flowers, laces, and so forth, arguing 

 that in such ways more money is put in circula- 

 tion. Mr. Bowker says truly that " the wealth 

 thus wasted would, more wisely used, furnish 

 capital to many more people in creating more 

 wealth." But he should have fully illustrated this 

 point, using examples similar to those of Mill and 

 Fawcett in treating this same topic. A chapter on 

 this head would not have been out of place ; and 

 then a large supply of marked copies of the book 

 anight have been ' productively consumed ' by 

 mailing them to our national and state legislators, 

 and to a select list of popular orators on economic 

 .subjects. We like particularly the final chapter 

 in this book, entitled ' The end of the whole mat- 

 ter,' in which the author makes plain the truths 

 that wealth is not an end in itself, and that eco- 

 nomics is subordinate to ethics. The following 

 passage, too, is very clear, and puts the question 

 as to the limits of state interference on what we 

 conceive to be the proper basis : " When the 

 social machinery grinds out injustice, abuses men, 

 makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, the 

 community practically will not accept the ex- 

 treme laissez faire theory ; it will not let ill 

 enough alone, but will apply factory acts to right 

 wrongs. The evils that society has done, society 

 must undo. On the other hand, the common 

 ^ense also rejects not only the impossible com- 

 munism which would reduce the industrious and 

 the idle to a common level, but also the socialism 

 which would put the greater portion of the social 

 work under control of the state, instead of leaving 

 it to individuals. Between the two lies the ac- 

 tual working social system, varying among differ- 

 ent peoples and at different times, but persistently 

 in accord with the underlying economic laws, and 

 never for any considerable time, in any stable 

 state, against them. This is controlled always 

 by public opinion, the aggregate of individual in- 

 telligences, in its turn directed by education and 



by the mastery of leadership. And thus the pro- 

 motion of economic progress resolves itself into 

 the work of political education " (pp. 263, 263). 



It is well that Mr. Bowker has put in his sub- 

 title, ' for use in business ; ' for it is a peculiar yet 

 true fact that most business-men, though they 

 use the terms 'capital,' 'price,' ' value," ' money,' 

 ' rent,' profits,' and so on, every hour of their 

 working lives, have very confused ideas as to 

 what they mean and imply. 



A plain inan's talk on the labor question. By SmON NEW- 

 COMB. New York, Harper, 1886. 16°. 



Professor Newcomb's recently published talks 

 also come under the head of economics for the 

 people, though the subject treated is but one of 

 the many touched on by Mr. Bowker. We should 

 say that the chief fault to be found with this book 

 is that the style is almost too conversational and 

 too familiar for dignity. The talks were originally 

 published in the Independent, and from their sim- 

 plicity and directness attracted much attention. 

 Advanced political economists and erudite writers 

 on society and its phases may sneer at Professor 

 Newcomb's bluntness and homely illustrations, 

 but the ordinary reader will see their force. The 

 illustration, for example, on pp. 44, 45, would be 

 possibly unpleasant though profitable reading for 

 ' walking delegates.' Chapter x v., entitled 'An- 

 other talk to a knight of labor,' is excellent, and 

 can be safely recommended not only to members 

 of that secret organization, but to others who 

 find much to admire and little to criticise in its 

 platform of principles. On p. 180 and the follow- 

 ing pages Professor Nevvcomb disposes very neat- 

 ly of the fallacy that waste creates wealth ; but 

 whether Mr. Powderly will break any fewer 

 ginger-ale bottles in consequence of his perusal of 

 it, remains to be seen. 



CREMONA'S PROJECTIVE GEOMETRY. 



Professor Cremona's new work on j)rojective 

 geometry makes an attractive appearance in its 

 English dress. The characteristically English 

 additions of the translator, together with the fact 

 that the author himself has striven to imitate the 

 English models, for which he professes great ad- 

 miration, have had the effect to make the book 

 quite indistinguishable, were it not for the title- 

 page, from a book of purely English origin. 



The volume before us has the common defect 

 of not throwing sufficient illumination upon 

 the great central points of the theory which it 

 constructs, and of giving too much space (and too 

 large type) to unimportant details. Another de- 



The elements of projective geometry. By LuiGi Cremona. 

 Tr. by Cbarles Leudesdorf. Oxford, Clarendon pr., 

 1885. 8°. 



