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SILVER question, MONETARY policy, GOLD coins, INTERNATIONAL relations, CONSTITUTIONS, EQUALITY, CIVIL rights, and ECONOMIC policy

In this article, the author examines the implications of the Silver Question before the U.S. Congress of 1886 to the history of monetary policy in the U.S. The Sections of the Act of February 28, 1878, calling a Monetary Conference, made the U.S. the champion and advocate in the community of nations of the restoration of civil order in dealing with money. Concurrent regulation of metallic money by a competent majority of nations, and on the basis of equality of legal right between the two metals, became by this Act a fixed object of the foreign policy. As for the time consumed and to be consumed in passing from this turning point of history to the success of the policy, it is well to mark that it is not uncommon for men to wait a long time for the attainment of a great end. The United Colonies suffered under the Confederation for many years before they adopted the Constitution. The restoration of greenbacks to par with gold was a struggle of many years. The diplomatic successes of this country have usually required a long time for their attainment; and in the rare instances when Americans had a foreign policy in the specific sense, when there was some important object to be gained through the action of several foreign powers, the lack of a continuing, organized, high-grade civil service has naturally unfitted Americans from advancing a meritorious cause with the maximum of speed.

BANK deposit laws, MONEY, PUBLIC opinion, and LEGAL tender

The article presents a discussion related to the consideration of deposits as currency in the U.S. In the discussions upon the various phases of the currency question during the last twenty years, the popular dread of contraction and its consequences has seldom been appealed to in vain. The U.S. Congress has been a good index of public opinion in this respect, and in the Congress there has steadily been an element which seemed to have grasped the idea of a connection between contraction and falling prices, as the one and sufficient key to the practical questions which were to be settled. To this fact were due the weak legislation of 1874, to go back no further, and the necessity in 1875 of so framing the Resumption Act as to leave its meaning open to opposite constructions and its operation uncertain. Nothing else than a deep conviction in Congress that the people would not stand contraction can explain the fact that the act of May 31, 1878, to forbid the further retirement of legal tender notes, was carried through the House of Representatives.

TARIFF laws, CONFERENCES & conventions, COMMERCIAL treaties, FREE trade, and LEGISLATIVE bills

The article focuses on proposed tariff legislation since 1883 in the U.S. During the last two U.S. congresses, several attempts have been made to secure modification and reduction of the customs duties as they were left by the act of 1883. The first session of the Forty-eighth Congress lasted from December 3, 1888 to July 7, 1884. The Democrats were in a decided majority in the House, having 198 members, against 126 Republicans and Independents. On March 21, a conference of "free trade" Democratic leaders was held, at which it was decided to call a general party caucus to decide what action should be taken on the bill. On April 15, the motion to go into Committee of the Whole, for the consideration of the tariff bill, was carried without division. At the same session of the Congress, three attempts at special tariff legislation are worthy of notice: the Converse wool bill, to restore the duties of 1867 on raw wool; Amendment to the shipping bill; A bill on reducing the duty on works of art from 20 to 10 per cent.

COMMITTEES, TRUSTS & trustees, UNITED States manufacturing industries, COMPETITION, RESTRAINT of trade, COMMERCIAL policy, and INTERNATIONAL competition

The article reports that the U.S. House of Representatives of the Fiftieth Congress passed a resolution directing its Committee on Manufactures to inquire about associations, trusts or others like titles, alleged to exist in the country for purpose of controlling or curtailing production or supply of various products on January 25, 1888. Authority was given the committee to sit during sessions of the House, to compel the presence of persons and papers, and to swear and examine witnesses. A number of litigations involving the nature and doings of trusts, monopolies, and the like, have recently come to judgment in the courts; and the findings upon them are now of record. Profits may also be distributed as a particular means of maintaining the combination intact. It is every wise extremely confusing to class all the above-named enterprises as trusts. They have in common only the single feature of excluding more or less perfectly old-fashioned individualism of management. It will be noticed that the industries surest to have such an evolution are precisely those among which international competition now prevails. The interest hitherto centered in the tariff question will then go over to that of trusts.

TAX laws, DIRECT taxation, INDIRECT taxation, WEALTH tax, and TAX accounting

This article presents information on the Direct Tax of 1861, an act passed by the U.S. Congress on August 5, 1861. The direct tax laid by the act of Congress of August 5, 1861, was the fifth levy which has been made under the provisions of the Constitution, requiring that representation and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States, according to their respective numbers. There would be little risk in predicting that this will also be the last resort to a method of taxation which the framers of the Constitution thought important enough to hold a place in one of the difficult compromises embodied in that instrument. The distinction between direct and indirect taxation, resting upon the supposed method of incidence upon a single class of persons, is fully developed. It was a necessary result of their reasoning, became familiar in all the discussions of the school in France, and, was carried to the knowledge of readers in political science in other countries, during the short-lived pre-eminence of the physiocrats.

SILVER coins, TREASURY bills, GOVERNMENT securities, GOLD standard, CURRENCY question, and BANK deposits

This article focuses on the silver situation in the United States. The laws of the United States authorize the U.S. Treasury Department to receive deposits of standard silver dollars and to issue certificates therefore in denominations of one dollar and upwards, and to receive gold coin and to issue certificates therefore in denominations of twenty dollars and upwards. The premium on gold or the discount on silver may be arrested, if it comes, by fresh legislation. The people who have silver dollars, silver certificates, greenbacks, and national bank-notes in their pockets or on deposit in bank, for which they have paid, in labor or property, one hundred cents per dollar gold value, may demand of Congress that their money be restored to that value. If they do so demand, in some way it will be done. The banks cannot hold the immense mass of deposits and clearings at the gold standard, when the government's legal tender notes are redeemed only in silver. The premium on their gold will be the property of their shareholders, and may be applied to an extra dividend or added to their surplus.

TOBACCO taxes, TAX laws, INTERNAL revenue law, and CIVIL war

This article focuses on taxation of tobacco in 1891. New systems of taxation and the extension of old ones are the invariable accompaniments of great wars. By the Civil War in the U.S. an enormous strain was put on a fiscal system that for nearly half a century had been on a peace footing. The tariff was quickly increased, but a disturbed foreign trade proved to be a poor source from which to draw the sinews of war. Early in 1862, the U.S. Congress entered upon the subject of laying internal taxes, but found itself in dangerous and unknown fields. Such taxes had always been unpopular. Thus there were no guides to the problem, what taxes were best adapted to American conditions of scattered population and aversion to restrictions, or what were most likely to meet public favor. The internal revenue act of July 1, 1862, was distinctly a war measure, drafted under the pressure of needs almost overwhelming. In European governments, tobacco was already among the chief sources of revenue, being taxed both in the leaf and in the manufactured forms.

PUBLICATIONS, BOOKS, PERIODICALS, MONETARY policy, and FINANCIAL management

The article presents a lists of books and periodicals on different topics of economics. Some of the books listed here are "On the Principle of Wealth Creation: Its Nature, Origin, Evolution, and Corollaries"; "Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices"; and "Dictionary of Political Economy." Some other publications are "Economic Causes of Moral Progress"; "Methods of Industrial Peace"; "Capital and Labor: Their relative Strength"; "General Booth's Social Work"; "Taxation and Work: A Series of Treatises on the Tariff and the Currency"; "The Tariff: What it Is, and What it Does"; "The Economy of High Wages. An Inquiry into the Comparative Methods and Cost of Production of Competing Industries in the United States and Europe"; "The Case against Bimetallism"; "The Monetary Question in 1892"; "The World's Exchanges of Standard Metals"; "A New Standard of Value"; "Fancy Monetary Standards"; "Influence on Business of the Independent Treasury" and "History of Banking Under the Continental Congress and Federal Constitution."

WOOL textiles, TARIFF, COMMERCIAL policy, EXPORT subsidies, and IMPORTERS

The article discusses the effects of the policy related to duties on wool and woolens in the U.S. followed during the last twenty-five years and the probable effects of the policy which is to come. In the quarter of a century which has now elapsed since the passage of the wool and woolens tariff act of 1867, the system of duties then established, and since maintained in its essential features, has gradually come to be the crucial part of the protective policy. The bill presented in 1877-1878 session proposed to put wool on the free list and to reduce correspondingly the duties on woolens. Whatever uncertainty there may be as to the disposition of other parts of the protective system at the hands of the present Congress, it may be assumed as settled that the wool duty will go, and that the system of 1867 will be replaced by a fundamentally different regime. The questions to be asked in considering the effects of a given duty are as to the domestic production and the imports, and the relative importance of these two sources of supply.

BIMETALLISM, COINAGE, COMMITTEES, and WORKS councils

The article focuses on the bimetallist committee of Boston, Massachusetts and New England. The Committee is formed for the purpose of promoting the establishment of international bimetallism upon the general plan of the Latin Union, but with a broader basis. Those concerned in the movement, while earnestly opposed to the free coinage or to any increased use of sliver by this country independently of international action and agreement. A number of associate members have been admitted from other portions of the country, and it is likely that co-operating committees will be created in several cities. The Committee does not propose to make use of any political agency, or to attempt to influence, otherwise than through public opinion, the action of the administration or of Congress. Its work is to be educational. It will endeavor to instruct the community in what it considers the only sound theory of hard money, that of international bimetallism, preparing the public sentiment of the country for the adoption of this so soon as Great Britain's concurrence can be secured. For this the committee does not think that the United States ought to sue.

CIVIL war, REVENUE, TAXATION, LEGISLATIVE bills, DIRECT taxation, and INTERNAL revenue law

The article examines the impact of the Civil War on financial legislation in the U.S. There were measures which the boldest innovator would hardly have dared propose in time of peace; but under the stress of war they were enacted, sometimes with little opposition and little discussion. The income tax was the first of these innovations to be adopted and was among the first to disappear. Such taxes, however, were familiar enough in England and other European countries; and it is not strange that Congress should have thought of taxing incomes at a period when its policy was to tax everything taxable. The House Committee of Ways and Means followed out the recommendations of the Secretary. They prepared two bills, one of which dealt with the proposed tariff changes, imposing duties on tea, coffee and sugar. The other was the internal revenue measure. It imposed license taxes and taxes on whiskey, beer, porter, carriages, promissory notes, and bank bills. But Congress could not take it for granted that the States would all assume the tax; and, where they did not, it was to be collected by federal machinery and assessed on real estate.

BOOKS, ECONOMICS, and LABOR

The article presents a list of recently published books on economics. Some such books are: "Contributions of the United States Government to Social Science," by C.D. Wright; "Political Economy for High Schools and Beginners," by R.E. Thompson; "Buckle and his Critics: A Study in Sociology," by J.M Robertson; "Practical Christian Sociology," by W.F. Crafts; "Our Industrial Utopia and its Unhappy Citizens," by D.H. Wheller; "The Social Question in the Catholic Congresses," by J.G. Brooks; "The General Election, and the Prospects of Social Legislation," by W. Cunningham; "The Referendum and Initiative: Their Relation to the Interests of Labor in Switzerland and in America," by A.L. Lowell; "The Present Position of Adult Male Labor in New Zealand," by E. Reeves; "The Evolution of Agricultural Science," by R.M. Garnier; "The Probability of a Cessation of the Growth of Population in England and Wales During the Next Century," by E. Cannan; "Decrease in Interstate Migration," by W.F. Willcox; "An Interoceanic Canal in the Light of Precedent," by T.D. Woolsey; and so on.

ECONOMICS, COST, TAXATION, BUSINESS insurance, and DIRECT taxation

The article focuses on various topics related to economics such as industrial costs, taxation, business insurance etc. The word "cost," as is well known, has at least four different senses: expense, waste, pain, and loss of opportunity. Wealth may be regarded either in its public or private aspect. In the former it is an aggregate of things, goods, or services. In the latter it consists of titles or rights to some of those things. Furthermore, wealth, whether public or private, may be measured in two ways--as a flow or as a fund. In the one case it takes the form of a rate, and is measured as income: in the other case it takes the form of a quantity, and is measured as capital. The payment of the direct tax in 1861 was effected in California under unusual conditions and by an irregular and curious process; and some account of the episode may be of interest to students of financial history. It will be remembered that Congress had allowed any State to assume its quota of the direct tax, and that California, like almost all the loyal States, took advantage of this option; though, unlike other States, which satisfied their quotas by an offset of their claims against the United States, California levied and collected her tax, and paid it in cash to the federal treasury.

TARIFF laws, MCKINLEY tariff, PROTECTIONISM, TARIFF on cotton, TARIFF on textiles, and UNITED States economy

The article discusses the Tariff Act which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1897. The reasons for the enactment of the law have been highlighted. The Act was against the protectionist policies which saw a great reversal in the U.S. presidential election of 1896. The efforts of U.S. President William McKinley were instrumental in devising the Act. The provisions of the Act entailed revised rates on wool, cotton and textiles. The free admission of wool and the remodeling of the duties on woolen goods were resultants of the Act. The effects of the Act on the U.S. economy are also discussed.

UNITED States economic policy, LEGISLATIVE bodies, PUBLIC administration, FEDERAL government, ECONOMIC policy, and ECONOMICS

The article reports on the establishment of a commission, under an act of Congress, for the purpose of studying problems relating to industry with a view to formulating remedial legislation. The federal government has undertaken to follow the example of England, France, and Belgium. The commission consists of five members each from the Senate and House of Representatives, and nine other persons, who shall fairly represent the different industries and employments, appointed by the President. The five sub-commission that have been created are enumerated, including the Agriculture and Agricultural Labor with Andrew Harris as chairman.

UNITED States politics & government, 1897-1901, UNITED States railroad law, MUNICIPAL reports, CITIES & towns, MUNICIPAL government, LEGISLATIVE bills, and CENSUS

The article presents information on the activities of the United States government. New railway legislation has been enacted in Kansas, that eradicates the Board of Railroad Commissioners substituting it with a Court of Visitation consisting three judges. The U.S. Department of Labor has been authorized by the Fifty fifth U.S. Congress to prepare an annual report of the official statistics of all the cities of the U.S. Previous attempt on municipal statistic in the U.S. encircled wealth, debt, taxation, and social statistic of cities.

INHERITANCE & transfer tax, PROPERTY, and EXPORTS

Examines the constitutionality of the inheritance tax in the U.S. Grounds for denying the constitutionality of the law; Lack of Congress of power to levy any tax on the transmission of property upon the death of the owner; Prohibition of tax on exports.

LEGAL tender, AMERICAN Civil War, 1861-1865, and ECONOMICS

Focuses on the supposed necessity of the issue of legal tender notes during the U.S. civil war of 1861-1865. Views of member of Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. Samuel Hooper on the issue of legal tender notes; Passage of the Legal Tender Act in the U.S. Congress in February 1862; Arguments in favor of Legal Tender Act over the plan offered by the minority of the U.S. Ways and Means ommittee.

MONEY laws, MONEY supply, SUPPLY & demand, ELASTICITY (Economics), BANK notes, GOVERNMENT securities, and LEGISLATIVE bills

The article provides an outlook for currency legislation in the United States as of 1903. Money-changers made some demands and proposals regarding current legislation including the introduction of the factor elasticity into the currency to expand volume and respond to the varying demands of trade, for the government to give some form of security for bank note issue other than the government bonds and for the receipts from customs to be deposited with the national banks to prevent periodical contractions. Based on these proposals, nine currency bills have been introduced in the House and two others in the Senate which all aimed to secure an expansion of the bank-note currency.

TREATIES and ECONOMIC development

Focuses on history associated with the disturbed Dominican Republic and the role played by U.S. in providing financial readjustment, economic regeneration and political stability to the island republic. Social and political factors contributing to the indebtedness of the republic; Factors that led to the drafting and ratification of a convention between the U.S. and the republic by the U.S. Senate on February 25, 1907.

TARIFF laws, COMMERCIAL policy, ADMINISTRATIVE acts, and TARIFF

In the course of inquiries on the legislative history of the Tariff Act of 1909, the author has encountered some episodes characteristic of the tariff-making methods which have long been followed in the U.S. The changes in duty which resulted are not of great consequence. Most of them affect articles that are petty in comparison with the important and much debated articles. But the cases are typical and instructive. Concrete examples show better than any general statement what has been the practice in the past, and what are the reasons for substituting a procedure more open, more deliberate, more closely scanned. The House committee, which had much more time for preparation, was almost swamped by its hearings. The Senate committee, which of necessity had less time, naturally felt that it would be swamped once for all. But this situation, perhaps making star chamber procedure inevitable gives opportunity for covert changes, for concealed pressure from private interests, for irresponsible legislation. Hence the demand for some permanent body, equipped to make investigation, and to make a judicial report as to the significance of proposed changes. Such cases as have been considered in the preceding pages show how tariffs should not be made.

CONFERENCES & conventions, PRESIDENTS of the United States, and PUBLIC health

The article presents information related to economics that appeared in the 1911 issue of the journal "American Economic Review." An explanation of the change in type on the cover page of the current issue is due to the readers of the journal. The general title of the publications of the Associations is "Bulletin of the American Economic Association," and the Bulletin will carry a serial number. The Bulletin includes the journal, which appears four times a year, the papers read at the annual meeting, and the Handbook. As the Bulletin is the inclusive title of all the publications, it must, in accordance with postal regulations, appear in a type appropriate to such preeminence. The International Congress of Hygiene and Demography had been invited by the Congress of the United States to hold its Fifteenth Session in this country and will convene at Washington under the honorary presidency of U.S. President William Howard Taft September 28, 1912. More than a score of foreign countries have already accepted the invitation of the United States to be represented at the Congress. The Congress will be divided into nine sections, among which are to be noted the sections on industrial and Occupational Hygiene, Hygiene of Traffic and Transportation, and Demography. In connection with the Congress there will be an exhibition of state, municipal and volunteer work in public health and vital statistics. This exhibition will be under the charge of Dr. J.W. Schereschewsky of the United States Public Health Service.

COMMERCE, FEDERAL regulation, FEDERAL government, CORPORATION law, VALUATION, and ECONOMIC sanctions

The energetic activities of the Roosevelt administration inspired deep research of the authorities side precedents involving the ultimate powers of the federal government. While each side of the controversy thus precipitated claims a measure of satisfaction in the results, the country has benefited by the flood of light thus turned upon these problems so vital to the success or failure of institutions. The volume under consideration deals with the federal power to regulate commerce delegated to Congress by the Constitution. It is an historical argument for a broad interpretation of the grant of power, and employs with telling effect examples of the exercise of that power. The non-importation and embargo and of the early years of the Constitution, the construction of high ways of interstate commerce, the laying of protective duties and the incorporation of the United States bank axe fully developed as functions of the commercial power. The author argues that the compelling force which brought about the Constitution was the fear of anarchy and the destruction of property values on the part of the great proprietors and capitalistic leaders of that time.

MEMBERSHIP in associations, institutions, etc., BOARDS of trade, CONFERENCES & conventions, and RECIPROCITY (Commerce)

The total membership of American Economic Association is 2,160 as of July 20, 1911. The Chamber of Commerce of New York has appointed a special committee on commercial education. One of the members of this committee is Mr. George Brett, President of the Macmillan Company. The Sixth Dry Farming Congress will be held at Colorado Springs, Colorado from October 6-20, 1911. A conference on Canadian reciprocity was held by the Western Economic Society on June 3, 1911. The American Academy of Political and Social Science announces the publication of the following volumes, "Risks in Modern Industry," in July and "Stock and Produce Exchanges," in September. The Macmillan Company will shortly publish a work on insurance, by Dr. W.F. Gephart of the Ohio State University. The volume will treat of the theory, principles, and practices of insurance, including the actuarial, economic, and social aspects of the subject. It will be comprehensive in scope, including treatment of life, industrial, accident, and health insurance, as well as employers' liability.

TAX laws, CORPORATE taxes, CORPORATE finance, and INCOME

This article discusses the origin of the U.S. federal corporation tax. The act imposes a tax of one per cent upon the entire net income over and above $5,000, received by it each of the several corporations subject to the tax from all sources during each year, exclusive of amounts received as dividends from other corporations. The tax is thus imposed upon the net corporate income. If Congress had not attempted to define net income, an opportunity would have been presented calling for the determination in an authoritative way of the scientific meaning of this controverted term. But the framers of the bill and those responsible for its phraseology during its consideration by Congress had ideas of their own upon this subject, and as a result the Federal Congress attempted to lay down for the business world hard and fast definitions of the terms used. The act states that net income shall be ascertained by taking from the gross amount of the income received during the year. Accountants asserted that the bill's provisions violated all the principles of sound accounting, and stated that in their opinion the proper deductions should be expenses actually incurred, losses actually ascertained, and interest actually accrued.

INDUSTRIAL laws & legislation, STEEL industry, LABOR, STRIKES & lockouts, and LABOR unions

The article provides information on labor issues and conditions in industries in the U.S. Shortly before the adjournment of Congress authority was given for the publication of the first part of the report of the Federal Bureau of Labor on labor conditions in the iron and steel industry in the U.S. The Hearings on H. B. 179, Authorising Committee on Labor to Investigate Conditions Existing in Westmoreland Coal Fields of Pennsylvania, held May 31, 1911, by the House Rules Committee have been printed in pamphlet form. In the Tenth Annual Report of the Commission of Labor of New York is an interesting chart, showing the relation of the several branches of administrative activity in this department. Recent development is in the collection of accident statistics, which has now been extended to the building and engineering trades. In the Seventh Biennial Report of the Indiana Labor Commission, 1909-1910 considerable space is given to the strike on the Great Lakes in 1909. An interesting development of this dispute was the effort of labor commissions in six states to secure settlement through joint action. The Board of Trade (London) has recently issued a report on rules and expenditures of trade unions in respect of unemployed benefits.

CONFERENCES & conventions, INDUSTRIAL laws & legislation, INDUSTRIAL hygiene, OCCUPATIONAL diseases, and SOCIAL legislation

The article presents notes and information on several conventions. The annual meeting of the American Economic Association will be held in Washington from December 27 to 30, 1911. The headquarters of the association will be at the Hotel Raleigh. Among the subjects on the program are: Economic investigation as a basis for tariff legislation; The selection of population by migration; Rural conditions in the South; The decline of the rural population; The federal budget. A conference of economists and publicists met at the Bern Conference in August 1911 by invitation of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The conference at Bern was called to carry out the work of the second division, which is charged with making a scientific investigation of the causes and effects of war. It was not a Peace Congress, in the ordinary sense, and its members were selected with little or no reference to their view as to the broad question of peace and war. The function entrusted to them was one of research, and their immediate work was the determining of the lines in which the research, during a period of two or more years, shall be carried on under their direction. On September 15 and 16, 1911 the American Association for Labor Legislation held, in Chicago, Illinois a conference on methods of accident prevention, the administration of labor laws by commissions, and the uniform reporting of industrial accidents and occupational diseases. The conference was notable from the fact that more than fifty of the two hundred persons in attendance were officials connected with state commissions or departments of labor in the U.S. and Canada. The annual meeting of the Massachusetts Association for Labor Legislation was held on October 26. The Association voted that the executive committee be empowered to promote legislation for the more effective enforcement of existing labor legislation.

WOOL textiles, COMMERCIAL policy, INDIRECT taxation, and TARIFF

This article focuses on the Tariff Board Report on Wool and Woolens which fills four volumes, 1200 pages in all. In the report on wool, as in all of the inquiries of the Tariff Board, costs of production in the United States and in foreign countries figure largely. The theory on which the Board was set to work has been that "scientific" tariff revision should rest upon ascertained differences between cost in the United States and in foreign countries. The matter of the report divides itself into two parts, one on wool, the other on the manufactures of wool. The former of these is distinctly more satisfactory than the latter. The passages on wool are well arranged, well put together, well indexed, well summarized. Those on woolens have much more the appearance of being thrown together with some haste, and it is not easy to make out what the results finally come to. The less satisfactory character of the report as regards woolens is probably due to haste in preparation. It was long obvious that the Administration desired to present to Congress a specimen of the kind of work which the Tariff Board was doing. There was pressure to have at least one important report ready early in the session of Congress, and the Tariff Board doubtless was called upon to show its hand before it was ready.

ARCHIVES, LEGISLATION, CORPORATIONS, IRRIGATION laws, and CONFERENCES & conventions

This article focuses on various documents, reports and legislation related to industries and commerce in the U.S. The Official Proceedings of the Nineteenth National Irrigation Congress, held at Chicago, from December 5 to 9, 1911, includes the addresses delivered at the convention. Among the topics discussed were "The Uses of the Great Lakes;" and "Principles Underlying Water Rights." The "Crop Reporter" for April, 1912, contains an article on High Prices and Crop Production in which from statistical data it is shown that the production of staple food products in the past few years has increased more rapidly than population. According to the "Report of the Governor of the District of Alaska for 1911," Alaska is not likely to develop until there is a more liberal policy in behalf of capitalized interests. The Library of Congress has added to its list of useful bibliographies a compilation of references on "Parcels Post." Books and articles in periodicals extending from 1859 to 1911 are listed. The Bureau of Corporations has issued Part II of The Steel Industry: Cost of Production, Preliminary Report. The report is based on the actual records of companies producing two thirds of the products from 1902-1906 as well as more restricted returns for later years.

DISTRICT courts, GOVERNMENT ownership of railroads, PRESIDENTS of the United States, and LEGISLATIVE bills

The question whether the Commerce Court shall be retained as a part of the federal machinery for regulating railways was left unsettled by Congress at its last session. Provisions for abolishing it and transferring its duties to the various United States district courts were passed as a "rider" to the Legislative, Judicial and Executive Appropriation bill. U.S. President William Howard vetoed the bill in this form. As finally enacted it provided funds for the maintenance of the court, but only until March 4, 1913. Doubtless, in determining whether funds shall be provided for it beyond that date Congress will settle whether it is to be retained as a part of the judicial machinery. The question presented is important. But it has not heretofore been discussed and dealt with on its merits. But when President recommended the creation of a "United States Court of Commerce" in a message on January 7, 1910, the plan aroused much opposition in Congress. It was vigorously attacked by its foes, and but lukewarmly defended by its friends, in that body. Its adoption was almost entirety due to the persevering support of the President and his administration.

TARIFF laws, TARIFF on wool, LEGISLATIVE bills, and WOOLEN & worsted manufacture

During the second session of the Sixty-second U.S. Congress no less than six different bills were offered in the Senate and House as revisions of the tariff schedule levying duties on wool and manufactures of wool. All of these bills, although differing widely from each other, were claimed by their framers to be based upon, or at least not at variance with, the findings of the Tariff Board in its report on Schedule K. Public men and economists have not sufficiently appreciated the services of the Tariff Board. These services were obscured by political animosities, aggravated by attacks made upon the board for personal and party reasons. He who wishes to pick flaws in the Tariff Board's report on Schedule K can do so with ease. Viewing its work constructively, however, it may be fairly said that the board did more for an honest, scientific revision than all the committee hearings and investigations which preceded it. However unsatisfactory its work may be in the eyes of some of its critics, the fact remains that its work is infinitely more satisfactory to the impartial observer than the work of the committees of Congress. Its faults are chiefly those of omission.

INDUSTRIAL laws & legislation, INDUSTRIAL policy, CORPORATION reports, CONFERENCES & conventions, DRY farming, and WATER power

Of the eleven volumes of reports of the thirteenth census, vol. 9, dealing with manufactures by states and cities, is the first to be published. This is simply a combination of the several state bulletins already published. Special emphasis is laid in the Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1912, on the need of a definite and comprehensive water-power policy. This document also contains a review of the decade of national irrigation work under the Newlands act of 1902. The Report of the Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Dry Farming, held at Lethbridge, Alberta, October 91-25, 1912, may be had upon application to Mr. John T. Burns, executive secretary-treasurer, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Circular No. 163, issued by the Agricultural Experiment Station of Illinois, is devoted to a brief statistical study of the relation of the United States to the world's beef supply. A pamphlet on Bolivia, prepared by the Bolivian Legation, may be bad of the Pan American Union. The International Institute of Agriculture (Rome) has published its first year book, Annuaire Nationale der Statistique Agricole, 1910.

WORKERS' compensation -- Law & legislation, COMPENSATION (Law), LABOR laws, and EMPLOYMENT

The workmen's compensation law affecting certain employees of the United States government has been in operation for several years, but despite the great public interest in the general subject very little attention has been directed toward it. The Opinions of the Solicitor for the Department of Commerce and Labor dealing with Workmen's Compensation will be of great assistance to those engaged in administering similar acts in the various states. The volume also contains the opinions of the Attorney General and the decisions of the Comptroller of the Treasury. The report covers a period of four years ending August first, 1912. The laws now in force in many states are all more liberal than the Act of Congress, but many questions similar to those which will arise under them have been considered by the Solicitor in construing the United States law. The limits of this review will allow us to consider only one feature of the law. The United States law covers all injuries received "in the course of" the employment The Solicitor points out that the United States law is broader than the English law and covers injuries received while at work though they may not be due to the prosecution of that work.

INCOME tax, TAX laws, TAX collection, DOUBLE taxation, and TARIFF

The article focuses on the flow of income tax during the year 1913 in the U.S. Among the notable events of the year 1913, one of the most important in its influence upon the national finances and constitutional development of the United States is the adoption of an amendment to the Federal Constitution giving Congress the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states and without regard to any census or enumeration. This program included the reduction of protective tariff duties and the direct taxation of incomes. The law provides that incomes shall be subject to a tax of one per cent on the amount by which they exceed the prescribed minimum limit of exemption. It is perhaps a question whether under these conditions income, which consists of dividends should be considered as subject to the normal tax or as exempt. In the levy of the normal income tax there is to be a limited application of the method of assessment and collection at the source of the income. Regarding the assessment of the additional tax not much need be said in the way of explanation.

BOUNTIES (Subsidies), COMMERCIAL policy, INDUSTRIAL laws & legislation, RAILROADS, and SERICULTURE

The article focuses on the industrial bounties of the American states. The infant Industry, have been constantly presented before the U.S. Congress and also before our state legislative bodies, but with results which have received too little comprehensive attention from the student of public affairs. From earliest colonial times until late in the last century, attempts were made to introduce silk culture in the U.S. The Connecticut bounty had little effect except in the vicinity of Mansfield, where considerable sewing silk was produced. Connecticut responded in 1832, with an act, which offered bounties of fifty cents a pound on reeled silk and one dollar for every hundred mulberry trees. This act was repealed in 1839. The decade of the thirties is remembered as a period of excessive speculation in lands and in railroads, and it was only natural that the widespread movement for the introduction of silk culture should have attracted those who cared for nothing except immediate profits. While silk was the favorite subject for encouragement by means of bounties, other textile materials were also aided in this manner.

CONFERENCES & conventions, UNITED States economy, TAXATION, CORPORATE finance, and FORESTS & forestry

The article presents information about several congresses and conferences as well as associations related to the economic conditions of the U.S. The twenty-sixth annual meeting of the American Economic Association will be held at Minneapolis, from December 27-30,1913. The executive committee meeting will be held on December 27 followed by a business meeting of the association with reports of committees, etc. The first session of the association will be held on December 27, 1913. The subject for discussion will be on the Control of Public Service Corporations. The Seventh National Conference on State and Local Taxation was held under the auspices of the National Tax Association at Buffalo, New York State, on October 23-25. 245 delegates were representing 18 colleges and universities including 33 states, Canada, and Porto Rico. For the most part, the discussions followed those of last year, the chief topics being centralization of administration, classification of property, and the taxation of corporations, forests, and mines.

LEGISLATION, ANTITRUST law, COMMERCIAL law, TRADE regulation, COMMERCIAL trusts, INTERSTATE commerce, INTERNATIONAL trade, and ECONOMICS

The article presents the provisions of the anti-trust act and the trade-commission act adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1914. These acts are tagged as administration measures. Both are limited to fields over which the federal government has jurisdiction. Except for certain provisions on national banks, these laws deal exclusively with interstate and foreign commerce. And three main points are presented in which the new prohibitions and definitions of unlawful practices in the two acts are classified.

PRICING, PURCHASING power, QUANTITY theory of money, REAL wages, COST of living, and CONFERENCES & conventions

The author defends his economic plan for controlling the price level on standardizing the purchasing power of monetary units titled "The Purchasing Power of Money," presented before the International Congress of Chambers of Commerce on September 1912 in Boston, Massachusetts. The details were also published in the February issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Critics asserts that the author have assumed the truth of the quantity theory of money. The author says that the impression that the plan is dependent on the truth of the quantity theory of money is presumably due to the fact that he have defended that theory in a modified form in his plan. Moreover, there is nothing whatever in the plan itself which could not be accepted by those who reject the quantity theory altogether. On the contrary, the plan will seem simpler, to those who believe a direct relationship exists between the purchasing power of the dollar and the bullion from which it is made without any intermediation of the quantity of money-than it will seem to quantity theorists.

INTERSTATE commerce laws, EXECUTIVE advisory bodies, LEGISLATIVE bills, and PRESIDENTS of the United States

The article focuses on the trust legislation passed by the U.S. Congress on January 20, 1914. The drafts of five tentative bills designed to effect the reforms suggested by the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson were made public almost immediately afterwards. These bills provides for the creation of an Interstate Trade Commission of five members with investigatory powers into the organization and operation of corporations engaged in interstate commerce, excepting carriers. The commission was also empowered to act as an advisory board to the Attorney General, in terminating by agreement or by suit unlawful conduct or conditions and to the courts, when these at discretion referred to it any aspect of litigation or any proposed decree. The addition it was given the function of assisting the government in preventing violations of the Sherman act by submitting information in regard thereto to the Attorney General and for the prohibition of interlocking directorates in interstate corporations, railroads and banks and trust companies which are members of a reserve bank.

CONFERENCES & conventions, STOCK exchanges, and MANUAL training

The article presents information on various congresses and other related developments. The twenty-seventh annual meeting of the American Economic Association will be held at Princeton, New Jersey, December 28-81, 1914. At the opening session on Monday evening there will be a joint meeting with the American Statistical Association and the American Sociological Society at which presidential addresses will be delivered. At the second session, Tuesday, the subject of the discussion will be "Speculation on Stock Exchanges and Public Regulation of the Exchanges." The discussion will he introduced by papers from Samuel Untermeyer of New York and H.C. Emery of Yale University. At the third session, Tuesday, papers will be read on "Market Distribution," by Royal Meeker, U.S. Commissioner of Labor, and L.P.H. Weld of the University of Minnesota. The eighth annual convention of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education will be held at Richmond, Virginia, December 9-12. The sixth convention of the Southern Commercial Congress has been postponed and will be held at Muskogee, Oklahoma, April 26-30, 1915. In addition to that, the article presents information on various other developments.

LABOR unions, EMPLOYERS' associations, ANTITRUST law, LABOR laws, STRIKES & lockouts, and COURTS

The article focuses on the contest in the U.S. Congress between organized labor and organized business. It also discusses the significance of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act as a landmark in the struggle for the control of the Congress. The position of organized labor was made more insecure by the passage of the Sherman Act in 1890. The powerful trade unions had reacted in the formation of employers' associations. Among the employers' associations, most important was the National Association of Manufacturers. Functions of the association are also discussed. Its aggressive campaign against organized labor dates from 1903. The hostility of the recently elected president of the association David M. Parry, was directed against the closed shop, the boycott, and the strike, and against all legislative efforts to exclude labor unions from the operation of the Sherman law and from liability to injunction by the courts. Contents of the labor bills introduced in the Congresses have also been given.

COTTON textile industry, FEDERAL legislation, FUTURES, and FEDERAL government

Confronted with the alternative of a prohibitive tax, the New York Cotton Exchange, after years of defiance, has reformed its future contract. Effective February 18, the exchange adopted a system of dealing in futures largely dictated by the terms of the United States Cotton Futures Act. This act, passed at the last session of the U.S. Congress, is in turn based largely on recommendations in the report of the Bureau of Corporations, made some years ago after an extended investigation. There is, however, this important exception, the Bureau of Corporations favored a reform of discredited methods by the exchange itself, whereas the Cotton Futures act subjects the exchange to constant and intimate regulation by the federal government through the Secretary of Agriculture. For this the exchange is chiefly indebted to those recalcitrant members who for years not only ignored the structures of the Bureau of Corporations but resisted the wishes of a large element of its own membership as well.

RAILROADS, VALUATION, INTERSTATE commerce laws, and INTERSTATE commerce

On March 81, 1918, the U.S. Congress enacted a law directing the Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate, ascertain, and report the value of all property owned or used by every common carrier subject to the provisions of the Interstate Commerce act. The Commission is required to report in detail as to each piece of property, the original cost to date, the cost of reproduction new, the cost of reproduction less depreciation, and an analysis of the methods by which these several costs are obtained, and the reasons for their differences, if any. The broad requirements of the act place a stupendous task on the commission and on the railroads. The necessity of concentration of effort and of cooperation between the government authorities and the carriers was manifest from the outset. The Interstate Commerce Commission promptly organized a department of valuation, which is being assisted by a general conference committee of railroad presidents, by engineering committees of the railroads, and, by the valuation departments of the individual companies. In connection with right-of-way and land valuation, the incidental costs are an important element requiring careful consideration. Land rights include riparian rights and rights over streets and highways; also mining rights under tracks, in addition to the so-called severance and other damages paid to adjoining property owners and to communities.

CENSUS, STATISTICS, and UNITED States politics & government

The American Economic Association and the American Statistical Association met in a joint session and in cooperation considered the topic of statistical work of the United States government. The attendance in an earlier meeting was large and representative, the sessions prolonged and animated, not to say stormy. The committees reached substantial agreement and the memorial then drafted exerted an appreciable influence upon the decision of Congress five years later to make the bureau permanent. A significant improvement in American census practice was made in 1800, with the purpose of testing the healthfulness and longevity of the American population. An age classification of the free whites into five periods was then introduced. The longest forward step ever taken by federal statistics was probably that between the censuses of 1840 and 1850. The changes then introduced were due in no slight degree to the egregious blunders in the census of 1840, to which students had called attention, and to petitions for an improved census emanating from the New York Historical Society, and the then youthful American Statistical Association.

FEDERAL government, STATISTICS, INDUSTRIAL efficiency, MANAGEMENT, ORGANIZATION, and UNITED States politics & government

The movement initiated by the appointment of these committees on the statistical work of the federal government of the United States, if it is to have practical results, ought to lead to the institution of a federal statistical commission established by act of Congress, and having authority to investigate the statistical activities carried on by the different government bureaus and to make recommendations with a view to the better organization and coordination of the work and the improvement of the product. The statistical work of the United States government has grown up in a more or less haphazard way. It is not improbable, therefore, that an undue amount of time and money is being expended on some statistical lines and not enough on others, and that some statistical inquiries might be curtailed and others expanded, or some dropped altogether and new ones initiated. It is not merely a question of whether each inquiry considered by itself is worth while, but of what is best worth while. It is the relative value of the different lines of work which must be considered. It is the question of efficiency, or of using to the best advantage the limited amount which the country is willing to expend on statistical work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIAL laws & legislation, CERAMIC industries, and BOOKS & reading

The article presents a list of books on manufacturing industries. Some of the books included are "Weinbau und Weinbehandlung," by A. Dern; "Rubber Industry. Being the Official Report of the Fourth International Rubber Congress Held in London, 1914," edited by J. Torrey and A.S. Manders; "Probable Effect of the War in Europe on the Ceramic Industries of the United States," by A.S. Watts; Beirtäge zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des schweizerischen," by W. Wick.

BOOKS & reading, GOVERNMENT ownership of railroads, INTERSTATE commerce, GOVERNMENT policy, and STATE taxation

The article presents information on several books on transportation and communication. The book "The Validity of Rate Regulations, State and Federal," by Robert P. Reeder, deals with the important subject of state control over interstate rates. The power of the U.S. Congress over interstate commerce is full and complete and if in its judgment any act of the state interferes with the free flow of commerce between the states, such act is unconstitutional. The state may enter into a contract with a railroad whereby, in consideration of franchises granted, the railroad surrenders to the state control over interstate rates. According to the author, the power to fix rates, even under the restraining influences of the fifth amendment of the U.S. constitution, is an tremendous power not only over railroad property but also over commerce and industry. A decision on fixing rates might deprive the owners of the railroads of a billion dollars of value without confiscating property within the prohibition of the constitution. It might determine the location of industry and build one city at the expense of the other.

LEGISLATIVE bills, VOCATIONAL education, FEDERAL aid to vocational education, EDUCATION, PUBLIC finance, INDUSTRIALIZATION, and PROGRESS

The article focuses on the legislation on federal aid and support given to vocational education in the U.S. Although, an attempt to set up bills for vocational education has been unsuccessful, it is much clearer now that the Congress will now give attention to this matter as the information about European practice has been spread of. It has been believed that the national prosperity will depend on the level of governmental intelligence and interest which is raised toward industrial conditions.