SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
!AVM. in this Mama does not aeetaarity pseuds subsequent resins.] Ties QUAIITEILLIF3.—The Edinburgh for January opens with suggestive article on "Profit Sharing in Agriculture." "Therein limit to wages—the productive capacity of the man on the soil— and the best way of persuading the workmen not to attempt to force wages over that limit is to make them partners in the business." The unnamed author maintains that farmers can readily adopt profit-sharing if they choose—though the scheme involves exact bookkeeping "—and that they will be wise to forestall an inevitable demand for in larger share of their profits by a concession which will retain for them the goodwill of the labourers. Mr. W. M. Acworth in a vigorous article on " Trans- port Reconstruction" dismisses canals and light railways as of little value compared with the motor-'bus or lorry on the road. It is unfortunate that the light railway which he seloota 83 typical failure should be the Mid-Suffolk line, as that railway is still unfinished and loses much traffic for want of a connexion with the Yarmouth main line. Professor Cobb has an important article on "Coal Conservation," criticizing the scheme for vast electric-power stations on the ground that gas is a better and cheaper source of pewee as well as of light. M. Emile Caninmerts writes on "The Frontiers of Belgium," claiming all that was taken from Belgium in 1839; and Mr. William Bates= discusses " Science and Nationality," urging that the advance of science must or should make for extra-national progress, as it reveals both the power and the weakness of man.— The Quarterly opens with an interesting filial tribute by Mr. John Murray to his father, the third head of the famous publish- ing firm. Mr. A. D. McLaren has a remarkable article on " German Banks and Peaceful Penetration,' " illustrated in part from the private records f the Dresdner Bank's London branch, which show that the bank systematically collected information about our industry and commerce, and transmitted it to Germany. Lord Phillimore and M. Gauvain, of the Journal des nitrate, write on "The League of Nations," and agree in urging that the scheme should be as simple as possible. Lord Phillimore says that the " moratorium "—the compulsory delay before declaring war—is " the essence of the whole matter." He would have a Treaty to affirm " only the two broad prin- ciples (1) that there shall not be war, and (2) that there shall be provision for settling differences." H. Gauvain would begin with a League of Allies, joined by neutrals ; the French public, he says, is not prepared for " a great international political organization," but desires a general limitation of armaments. Professor Lindsay Rogers, of Virginia University, discusses" Presi- dential Dictatorship in the United States," with special reference toMr. Wilson, who "has made his decisions according to what his information, his judgment, and his conscience have told him will ultimately be approved." " Public opinion now sanctions presidential dictatorship in the United States ; and that makes the fact not the less true but simply the less alarming." Mr. E. Strachan Morgan's well-informed and practical article on " The Proapecta of Anglo-Italian Trade " deserves notice. In discussing the possibility of (ending fruit from Italy to London, he em- phasizes the fact that a Channel train-ferry is actually at work. Probably this could be maintained for commercial purposes when the War Office has ceased to need it. If fruit could be sent direct (rein Italy in an Italian truck to Charing Creels, it could be sold here cheaply ; as it is, the port charges on both sides of the Channel add greatly to the cost; and the fruit suffers by the handling and the delay.
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