AMERICAN FINANCE.
American Finance. Part I., "Domestic." By W. R. Lawson. (W. Blackwood and Sons. 6s. net.)—Though, as above indicated, we do not regard Mr. Lawson as a safe guide in matters economic, we gladly recognise that in this second volume he has selected an excellent subject in which he seems to be much more at home. The title again causes us some misgiving. Why domestic P The contents of the book deal largely with public finance, and in an
extremely interesting way. It begins, as all American financial history must begin, with the surprising personality and surprising opportunity of the groat Federalist, Alexauder Hamilton, and proceeds through the period of "wild-cat" and " greenback" finance to sound money and the modern nightmare of the Trust. This last he describes as "a grand combination" of "all the tariff-fattened manufacturers, the railroad rebaters, the franchise stealers, the competition killers, the Congress cor- rupters, and the crooked dealers generally." "Some." we are glad to hear, "are not so bad as others"; and his general con- clusion is optimist and, we believe, just. The combination above described battens on Protection and immoralities of all kinds, and "eighty-three millions of Americans, when thoroughly roused, will make short work of oil-kings and beef-barons who
presume to set themselves above the law There need be little fear as to the ultimate issue of these trust ' scandals. They are but passing clouds on American finance."
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