Intelligence and Politics. By James T. Shotwell. (New York :
The Century Company.)—In this thoughtful pamphlet Professor Shotwell of Columbia pleads for the study of applied social science as a safeguard for democracy, which is confronted by innumerable problems that it ignores at its peril. He rejects the Socialist ideal of a highly efficient bureaucracy solving all these problems for the docile citizens. He would prefer to see the political parties organizing research bureaus, which would work up the facts about current questions and place them before the electors, not merely at election time, but continuously. Professor Shotwell adduces the example of our Labour Party with its " Labour Research Department." He over-estimates the value of the productions of that institution, which show much class-prejudice and very little research, but his argument is none the less worth considering. More knowledge and more intelligence are sorely needed in the political world of to-day.
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