LITERARY NOTICES. 



7°9 



colors of flowers shade off so imperceptibly 

 into one another, and are at the same time 

 so variegated and inconstant, that they are 

 likely to mislead even the trained observer. 



The book will do good, however, if it in- 

 cites to the study of a department of Xature 

 which more than any other is calculated to 

 stimulate the powers of observation. 



The Silver Situation in the United States. 

 By F. W. Taussig, Ph. D., Professor of 

 Political Economy in Harvard University. 

 New York and London : G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons, 1893. Pp. 133. Price, 15 cents. 



This work is divided into two parts. The 

 first discusses the history of the " silver legis- 

 lation " and the economic conditions which 

 have been brought about by the adoption of 

 a silver currency in 1878. The second por- 

 tion of the book considers the arguments in 

 favor of a silver standard. In the chapters 

 under the general title, The Economic Sit- 

 uation, Prof. Taussig closely analyzes the 

 movements of gold and silver during the 

 last fourteen years. He does not believe 

 that the gold reserve of $100,000,000, fixed 

 as the minim um by Congress, can very meas- 

 urably be increased, and he attributes the 

 decrease in the amount of gold held by the 

 Treasury — from $190,000,000 in 1890 to 

 $108,000,000 at the beginning of the present 

 year — to the fact that " the great sums due 

 the United States by foreign countries " are 

 not paid for by the return of gold, but by 

 "the transmission of American securities 

 held by foreign investors and sent by them 

 for sale in the United States." He claims 

 that the Treasury estimate of the stock of 

 gold in the United States is many millions 

 of dollars " in excess of the actual stock." 

 Having summarized the arguments in favor 

 of silver, quoting the very words of those 

 who present them, " as compared with com- 

 modities silver has been more steady in 

 value than gold," and that, " so far as the 

 attainment of the closest possible approach 

 to the ideal justice is concerned, a silver 

 standard would have served the purpose bet- 

 ter than a gold one " — the author offers as 

 a simple answer to them the facts he has 

 recited in his preceding pages, and says that 

 the silver men "have not made out their 

 case against the existing order of things. 

 There are no serious evils due to an insuffi- 



cient supply of money." These and other 

 negative reasons apply to the arguments of 

 those who favor international bimetallism 

 and of those who favor the independent use 

 of silver by the United States. When we 

 consider the importance not only of stability 

 in the medium of exchange, but of general 

 confidence in that stability, these and other 

 negative names which are mentioned ought 

 to suffice for rejecting the proposals of the 

 silver advocates. But there are positive 

 reasons in addition. The eventual effect of 

 a silver standard must be to cause a rise in 

 prices — not immediate, but certain. This, 

 while the present tendency to falling in 

 prices, with stationary or rising incomes, 

 work no hardships to debtors, would be 

 fraught with real and serious inconveniences 

 to creditors. Other positive reasons lie in 

 the conditions of the production and use of 

 silver at the present time, which are in- 

 creasing with extraordinary rapidity. An- 

 other objection to a change to a silver stand- 

 ard is the immorality of the disposition to 

 tamper with the currency as a remedy for 

 real or fancied evils. Gold, on the other 

 hand, performs the functions of a measure 

 of value and a standard of value with as 

 close an approach to perfection as there is 

 any reasonable ground for expecting from 

 any monetary system. For these reasons 

 the schemes proposed for a tabular or mul- 

 tiple standard of value do not seem called 

 for by any serious exigency not met by the 

 gold standard. The book contains some 

 useful comparative statistics and a compre- 

 hensive chart of fluctuations in gold and 

 silver. 



Telephone Lines and their Properties. By 

 Prof. W. J. Hopkins. Xew York : Long- 

 mans, Green & Co., 1893. Pp. 258. 

 Price, $1.50. 



This is a work which has for its object a 

 more complete account than has yet been 

 given of the telephone line, not only its me- 

 chanical construction, but its electrical prop- 

 erties, and the way telephonic transmission 

 is affected by telegraphic and other electric 

 currents. The range of subjects comprise a 

 brief account of overhead construction in 

 city lines, and a somewhat full one of under- 

 ground work, in which the relative advan- 

 tages and disadvantages of various kinds of 



