GENERAL KNOWLEDGE.*
THE first instalment of "The Nation's Library" promises well. :We have six volumes, written by authors who know their subjects well, of about two hundred and fifty pages and handy size—six and three-quarter by four and a quarter inches —and carefully completed as to indices, bibliographies, Sze. Two of them which will perhaps arouse the most general interest at the moment are upon Socialism and Trade Unionism, by writers bolding very different views. Beginning :with the less valuable volume, we find Mr. Snowden on Socialism (1) keeping a sober restraint upon his own origin- ality, which is disappointing in one of the cleverest of evolutionary Socialists. There is nothing novel in his book. 'There is the usual juggling with such words as "monopoly," "capitalism," " workers," and so on, e.g.," The Old-Age Pensions Act has proved that, with very few exceptions, the workers who pass the age of seventy are without means of support, laving been unable by a busy life of useful labour to save enough to keep them in the bare necessaries of life when no longer able to work." Of course, he would not count among his exceptions such septuagenarians as Lord Morley, Mr. Carnegie, or the late Lord Avebury. Such men, whether aich or poor in early life, however hard they work, are not " workers " as soon as they cease to be weekly wage-earners, the class which Mr. Snowden insults, as it appears to us. His reading of history is faulty. He puts tribal communism as a later development of civilization than slave-holding. He -does not attribute the dissolution of the Guilds to their pro- tectionist and socialistic tendencies, which condemned them. Nor does he understand that land nationalisation would be a -reversion to those conditions of the terra regis from which • (1) Socialism and Syndicalism. By P. Snowden, 31.P.—(2) Sane Trade 'Unionism. By W. V. Osborne.—(3) Modern Views on Education. By Thiselton Mark. --(4) Eugenics. By Edgar Schuster. — (5) Small Holdings. By James Long.—(6) Industrial Gsrmaay. By W. H. Dawson. "The Nation's Library." Loadon: Collins's Clear Type Press. [1e each net.]
we have been steadily advancing for centuries towards freer exchange in land. He makes much of class distinctions, not seeing that individualism and free contract break down these barriers. Most of the book is the usual praise of official management of everything, which would reduce the popula- tion to two classes, officials and the rest. The chapters on Syndicalism are interesting as showing the desperate desire of Socialists that this fundamental heresy should not weaken the ranks of the Socialist Party.
It is a relief to turn to Mr. Osborne (2), who has written a work which justifies its title, for he puts forward in moderate and manly language the ideals which have made trade unionism a valuable force in the country, and should be retained if it is to continue to be a sound institution, or, as some would say, if it is to regain its sanity. His reasonable sketch of a century's history reveals the advance of a maligned, thwarted, and misunderstood movement to success and power. Following this progress has been the great and disastrous change from industrial and social aims to political intrigue. The main functions of the unions were to help workmen to be more prosperous and independent citizens, an 1 to make collective bargaining possible, . thus avoiding strikes, and to promote good feeling between employers and employed. They also helped to raise the standards of workmanship as well as of wages. These aims are now overshadowed, if not destroyed, by the pre- dominant desire to uphold the powers in control of the union, and to promote ill-feeling between classes. The majority of officials are- political leaders, no longer the servants but the masters of the members, and any individualist spirit among these members must be crushed more ruthlessly than any employer could or would have stamped out independence. How this tyrannical authority has been gained and used by an unrepresentative minority is a pitiable tale of exploitation which Mr. Osborne sets out clearly. In spite of the modesty which has eliminated from the text the name of a protagonist in the struggle for liberty, our author's undisputed knowledge of trade-union law is hardly equalled in any lawyer. It is too detailed a subject to enter here, but we urge all to study the legal history if they have not closely followed recent legisla- tion and the cases decided in the courts. Both the good and the bad effects are clearly explained. The tyranny which extracts money and votes from men for purposes of which their consciences and opinions disapprove is almost incredible, but there it is upon a grand scale. Even a member of the Gladstone League, if he realized what goes on, might be stirred to act up to some of his professions. There is an instructive chapter on the dangers of Syndicalism, national or inter- national, and another of a general nature on Liberty. The love of liberty has been Mr. Osborne's moving passion as a trade union official and as an opponent of the Socialist exploitation of the unions. "If," lie says,_" by the abrogation of liberty the worker was assured of an increase of wages, the price would be too high, but there can be no such assurance : he is selling his birthright, liberty, for an uncertain mess of pottage." We trust that many a trade unionist will read thia book and realize his position : then, perhaps, he will raise a plea for a return to sane unionism, and insist upon it.
In the volume devoted to Education (3) Mr. Mark abstains from putting forward novel views of his own, but calls for a broad " ladder " from the elementary school to the University. He has little sympathy, apparently, with classical learning, though he occasionally affirms a decorous respect for Latin and Greek authors, and he scarcely touches religious teaching. The greater part of the book deals with elementary schools, and insists upon " education " in the true sense opposed to repressive discipline and cramming. His knowledge of schools is wide and usefully applied. His American comparisons are interesting, and be is one of Dr. Montessori's admirers. He hopes to see successful teachers become inspectors, but we venture to think that they should not desert the branch in which they are doing good work for a very different one in which their good qualities might be wasted. The bare statement on p. 76, "Full-time attendance is rightly required by law of all children up to twelve years of age," will mislead those who do not know that to leave before fourteen years is the excep- tion, not the rule. Another volume deals also with national progress in the specialized -sphere of Eugenics (4). Mr. Schuster has worked with Sir F. Galton and Professor Karl Pearson; be can therefore be accepted as one having authority,
'He has compressed into his book a brief history of the study of this question, and an account of the results obtained, with details of the methods now practised. The chapters explaining these methods are necessarily complicated, and the general reader will probably not trouble to work out co-efficients of correlation by trigonometry. But for him Mr. Schuster provides useful summaries that give the gist of each chapter. He is admirably cautious in his final recommendations for carrying out the lessons taught by his science. There ie no logical halting-place between the first authoritative artifieial interference with natural selection and the regulation of procreation on the lines of a stud farm. Rightly, therefore, he advocates at present only the dissemination of knowledge es a positive guide to individuals, and negatively, at any rate, to Governments, which often legislate so as to favour the unfit at the expense of the fit. Mr. Schuster writes attractively, with an occasional piquancy-recalling Mr. Whetham's writings -on the same subject. Small-holdings (5) are the subject -entrusted to Mr. James Long, who is an expert of wide experience far beyond Newdigate, where his own particular colony was founded. There is some unnecessary repetition, and we regret that the writer does not insist even more forcibly on the need for co-operation if small-holders are per- manently to prosper. But the book is full of valuable practical instruction, help, and warning for the numerous people who have taken land for the purpose or are attracted to give up other work with a small-holding in view. We hope it will fall into their hands.
Lastly, we are taken abroad to Germany (6). Mr. Dawson shows intimate knowledge of the present conditions of German industry. The pages are full of the growth of trade and development of resources, which have come late as compared with Britain, but are rapidly advancing. Invention and free trade gave us an unnatural lead, which cannot remain per- manently out of due proportion to resources. Mr. Dawson plainly admires the enterprise of imperial and local authorities in trade, and gives no hint of the many complaints which German traders, especially the growing body of believers in free exchange, are heard to make. We regret in England the decrease of friendly feeling between employers and employed, -but in Germany the antagonism of the carefully organized associations on either side is far more acute. The growth of syndicates and kartels and the centralization of industry is very marked, and apparently the Socialists realize that these would make nationalization simpler. The close fellowship between Socialism and Protection, imperial or municipal, is a lesson to be learnt from nearly every page. No light is thrown here, as we hoped it might be, on German industrial insurance, of which we have heard so much lately, and another omission is a map for reference as to the water-courses, coal and iron -fields, &c.
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