SIR JOSIAH STAMP as an economist commands general respect because
he is always seeking truth rather than arguing a case, The essays in this volume deal with vexed questions, but are invariably dispassionate. In one of them the author discusses " The Economic Aspect of the Restriction of Rents " and shows that the idea that the wage-earner alone benefits " must be considerably modified." In another he examines the relation between profits and wages and finds, as the result of sample inquiries, that wages have gained at the expense of profits. In yet another. he shows how a shifting money standard aggravates the burden of taxation. A spirited essay on " The Contrast between . the Administration of Business and Public Affairs " deserves to be widely read ; it is meant as a defence of the Civil SerOce, but it helps one to understand why State management of trade must be a hope- less failure, as it has proved in Russia. The volume contains also four valuable papers—two of them reprinted from the SPectolor—on the project of a Capital Levy, which would, in the author's view, be very much a case of robbing Peter (Income and Super-tax) to pay Paul (Capital Levy), and Sir Josiah's well-known study of " The Wealth and Income of the Chief Powers in 1914."
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