756 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 518. 



progress in Russia for the space of one hun- 

 dred and fifty years. The author deals intel- 

 ligently with Russia's relation to Asia. It is 

 the trend of this part of imperial policy which, 

 in his view, shackled economic progress in 

 European Russia. 



In the light of the increasing national debt, 

 Russian finances are analyzed and the effect 

 shown of the debt upon the industrial develop- 

 ment of the country. Numerous foreign loans 

 have made it necessary to export more largely 

 than ever in order to pay the interest on public 

 obligations. Lack of private initiative has 

 made it necessary for the government to en- 

 large its economic functions by absorbing its 

 industries, transportation facilities and such 

 mercantile pursuits as the liquor trafilc. The 

 extensive borrowing from abroad has brought 

 into the industrial life of Russia a large num- 

 ber of captains of industry of foreign origin. 

 These industries are, therefore, grafted upon 

 from outside, rather than an organic growth 

 from within the nation; hence they are of an 

 unsatisfactory character from the standpoint 

 of profits. Not only has industry suffered 

 severe relapse, but agriculture, still the essen- 

 tial feature of Russian enterprise, finds nearly 

 every one of its economic features exhausted. 

 The peasant population as well as the land- 

 lords are without the surplus return necessary 

 to keep up the land, the soil of the black belt 

 is decreasingly remunerative and peasant 

 wages average ten cents per diem — an index 

 to growing poverty. 



The decay of the nobility has left rural life 

 without its earlier leadership. Absenteeism 

 is a curse here, as formerly in Ireland. The 

 chiirch is no longer the vitalizing force in 

 the life of the people and their morals it might 

 be reasonably expected to be. Much is antici- 

 pated from the growth of a middle class. The 

 government finds itself between the nether 

 millstone of internal strife and the upper mill- 

 stone of endeavor to Russify the foreign popu- 

 lation. The cotirse of progress is checkered by 

 the ruling classes aiming to get control of the 

 bureaucratic system, each to carry out a dif- 

 ferent program. 



The chief reforms needed, according to this 

 analysis, are the abolishment of the Mir, en- 



largement of the powers of provincial cham- 

 bers and greater local autonomy. 



This book is strikingly similar in narrative 

 and incident, to the excellent volume of von 

 der Briiggen entitled ' Das Heritige Russland,' 

 published a few years ago in Germany. Prob- 

 ably the main criticism of the book is that 

 the author has used his observation admirably, 

 but has not equally well cultivated the art of 

 appreciative insight. 



In the classification of our libraries there is 

 a rapidly increasing output of books on the 

 subject of the world's politics. The center of 

 interest in this sphere of international activity 

 is invariably found in the subject of markets. 

 Industrially equipped as national society is 

 now, each of the leading industrial powers is 

 interested in enlarging its foreign markets. 

 If in ten months the industrial equipment of 

 such a nation can supply enough for home 

 needs in any particular commodity, this par- 

 ticular industry has before it the alternative 

 of two months of idleness or of finding markets 

 capable of absorbing the surplus. The former 

 alternative spells industrial depression; the 

 latter, commercial expansion. This is the 

 argument as applied to the United States, 

 which pervades von Sehierbrand's recent vol- 

 ume on ' America, Asia and the Pacific' His 

 thesis is by no means novel — ' that the Pacific 

 during this century is bound to become what 

 the Atlantic was during the eighteenth and 

 nineteenth and the Mediterranean during the 

 twenty-five centuries preceding.' For the role 

 of leadership the competition lies among Great 

 Britain, Russia, Japan and the United States. 

 " The United States is the nation best equipped 

 for the coming race in the Pacific. American 

 expansion in the Pacific is something abso- 

 lutely necessary to safeguard our further 

 national development, and to preserve us from 

 the curse of the ill-balanced production and 

 all its attendant evils." The peg on which 

 the author hangs so many arguments in the 

 grouping of his facts is the Panama Canal. 



It is useless to talk about our commercial 

 supremacy in the Pacific, which is the author's 

 major theme, with the insignificant ocean- 

 going tonnage now afloat under the American 

 flag. There is no economic justification for 



