THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.
READERS of the current number of the Edinburgh Review will perhaps turn first to Mr. Steed's article on "The Programme for Peace." They will find that he takes a stern attitude, reasonably based upon past European history. He would not stop at refusal to trade direct with Germany after the war, but would have prepared now blaok lists of pro-German firms in ne:xtral countries, and so minimize trade even at second hand. It is not clear how Germany is to pay indemnities except
by work;ng for those whom she has wronged ; i.e., by trade. Mr. Steed's intimate knowledge of Balkan affairs gives importance to his programme for the settlement of thorny Adriatic questions. He desires the creation pf United Jugo-Slav States with Fiume as their principal port, while italy should administer the free port of Trieste and keep Pola, Lissa, and Valona as the bases of naval control. He also deals with Poland, and supports our view that no one must try to prevent Russia from ruling at Constantinople. A curious point, indicating how an ingenious mind credits others with a like ingenuity, is Mr. Steed's warning that Germany may sham weakness and appeal for pity before peace is made by engineering bogus internal revolutions.—The editor's article upon
• ' Industrial Reconstruction" at home is in part a plea for a more human co-operation between employers and workpeople, improving upon the desirable " cash-nexus " of the wage system : and he discusses the Report of Sir G. Newman's Committee upon Industrial Fatigue. Mr. Cox, as usual, works out practical details 'as well as principles with admirable lucidity and apt illustrations. His desire to make up for lost time leads him to hope that increased production will be effected by running machinery continuously, while the human producers work in three shifts.—Mr. Havelock Ellis traces "The Psychology of the English" back to the selected strains of adventurous peoples that have landed on these islands. He bends some of his" typical" Englishmen, especially poets, to bring them into conformity, but he is more convincing as to movements. His psychology is encouraging as an introduction to the next article, upon "Systematic Colonisation," in which Mr. Wyatt Tilby begs us to be ready to send out large colonies of soldiers and their families to Canada, Australia, and Rhodesia. He hopes that companies will be formed, and that the settlement will be done by private enterprise before the State has made up its mind how to begin.—The kindred question of small-holding colonies at home is dealt with by Mr. Orwin. Here again we agree in theory with his condemnation of State interference. "Why should the State guarantee the debts of the small farmer and not those of the small butcher or baker 7" &c. But the war makes opportunists of us all in some degree, and victims of the tiresome formula, "Something must be done." Mr. Orwin seems to us to approach the subject, which he calls a craze, in a somewhat carping spirit. We have always held that small-holders cannot compete with large farmers at home and abroad without co-operation, and Mr. Orwin, ignoring several successful experi- ments, does not think much of co-operation in-selling produce. A number of his criticisms are quite unfair.—The futures of two hitherto neutral countries have their exponents. In "The Danger for Holland" Mr. Gribble, who stayed there on his way back from Ruhleben, expounds his belief that the Dutch have no misunderstanding of German intentions to absorb them by fair means or by foul if needful. The Court and .higher commercial circles are pro-German, but the people as a mass are not. Their future danger lies in more peaceful penetration, when the spheres open to Germany will be fewer and her commercial efforts more concentrated.—Mr. Porritt, writing before the latest strains were tugging at American and German relations, discusses the coming Presidential campaign. Dr. Wilson will have the unanimous nomination of the Democrats. Tariffs and Mexico will be subordinate issues, and he will have to justify his peace policy, or whatever may be his position by the autumn. The Republicans and Progressives have come closer together, and may support one candidate, but not if the Republican nominee is Mr. Root. He probably will be Mr. Root unless the Republi- cans take Mr. Roosevelt back to their bosoms, though Mr. Hughea would be an acceptable candidate if he reconsidered his refusal to stand. —Fiscal matters are dealt with in a dialogue between a Free Trader and a Tariff Reformer, followed by comments from supporters. The showman friend of both parties, Janus Bifrons, seems to have a strabismus converging upon Protection, and the Free Trader who comments rightly calls the first disputant weak-kneed.' He agrees with his adver- sary upon the need for "intensive national economy." The means of reaching this end are doubtful. Where will the Government find money for subsidizing the production of necessaries as suggested! But we shall have to face a tariff for revenue, and a popular demand for preferential favours to our Colonies and Allies.—Mr. W. Foster impresses on us "The Decline of Parliaments," saying that the Parlia- mentary system is "looked upon in the United States with indifference, in France with distrust, and in Great Britain with disgust." We will not dispute his views, but he offers us no substantial alternative.— Another article reviews the Report of the Commission upon Venereal Diseases in a spirit that differs in no important way from the views we recently expressed.
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