industrial groups, and are holding important positions in industry in various sections of the United States from California to Massachusetts. Ten students are now registered for seminaries and courses preparing directly for personnel administration. These courses, as do others in the Carola Woerishoffer department, lead to the degrees of A.M. and of Ph.D. In the five years during which the department has existed at Bryn Mawr College, two women have received the degree of doctor of philosophy, four have completed the work in residence for the degree, and three are now pursuing courses leading to the degree.

UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

A course of twenty lectures on sociology and modern social problems is being given by Professor John E. Oster at the Mount Morris Baptist Church.

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

Dr. Frances Sage Bradley has been assigned by the Children's Bureau to work out some special projects and plans for the study and care of children in rural communities in connection with the School of Public Welfare of the University of North Carolina. She will begin these plans on January 3, and will work in conjunction with the faculty of the university and with the students who are doing field work.

Miss Evelyn Buchan has accepted a position in the School of Public Welfare of the University of North Carolina as Supervisor of Field Work, and will go from the University of Chicago after January 1 to her work in Carolina. The new work to which she goes will offer unusual opportunity for making definite contributions to practical laboratory and field work in field districts.

The University of North Carolina, through its School of Public Welfare, has been holding a series of district conferences on public welfare. Each conference is planned to include approximately ten counties. The state commissioner, Mr. R. F. Beasley, members of the American Red Cross, and other volunteer agencies have joined in these conferences, the purpose of which is to co-ordinate all social work being done in the counties. Conferences have been held so far at Salisbury, Fayetteville, and New Bern.

SMITH COLLEGE

The Century Company announces the publication of a book Field Work and Social Research by Dr. F. Stuart Chapin. With the increasing interest in social research among sociologists and social workers, this volume is certain to secure immediate attention and use.

REVIEWS

Labor's Challenge to the Social Order. By JOHN GRAHAM BROOKS. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1920. Pp. 441. $2.75

Once more we are indebted to this pioneer sociologist for a sane and wonderfully clear-eyed analysis of our present perplexing industrial confusion. It is a rich and ripe product, somewhat autobiographical, which might be entitled (to borrow from the great dean of American sociologists), "Glimpses of the Industrial Cosmos." Its chief object is "if possible to throw some light on democracy as its own educator with the promise this holds out to us." The author, although recognizing the general world-wide drift toward some form of socialism, at the same time preserves a balanced attitude of justice to both sides and both principles involved. "As a principle, individualism is as persisting a reality as socialism. As the former tends to anarchy, the latter tends to communism, and we shall stand out against the excesses of both." A further hint of his judicial-mindedness is his frank confession of facts that he does not like, but to which he gives proper publicity in order, as he says, "to avoid all pleasant lying." For example, in the chapters on "Government Ownership," "the Employer's Case Against the Union," and "Syndicalism," both sides of the case are stated with admirable fairness and real critical judgment. He recognizes frankly that both employers and employees have used tactics of violence, that both have sometimes played crooked games, that both are avid of power. However, he believes that labor learned tactics of violence from its masters and also that the legislative corruption and the use of spies by employers are grosser evils than anything labor has yet perpetrated. He is strongly against the use of force, for example in the settlement of strikes, whether by government or by private employers; and he is very positive on the analogy between international war and the civil war of industrial armed conflict. On the other hand, he recognizes the dangers of weak concessions made by employers out of ignorance or sentimentality. Incidentally he does not include welfare-work in this category but pays it a respectful tribute as "capital on its good behavior."

Out of all the turmoil two facts emerge. First, the union-smashing attitude of the employers as a class. Second, labor's challenge to industrial domination. On the analogy of war and peace between nations

and the apparent inevitability of some form of international organization for peace, the author argues that the only way to eliminate militancy in the industrial situation is through co-operation and education. We have recognized in him an able student of the co-operative movement, but never before has he come out so strongly on this point. He now looks upon industrial co-operation as industrial democracy at its best, largely because it tends to spread "the ache of responsibility," and because responsibility always tends toward stability and real conservatism. On the other hand, he recognizes in the trades-union constitution-building and administration a much misunderstood but very real and vital education in industrial citizenship. While the employer's case against the union is stated with the utmost frankness and without condonation, and while it is admitted that labor wears no saint's halo and needs housecleaning just like medicine, law, and capitalism, and while the attitude of employers does not excuse but simply explains labor's sins, yet the way out is not through suppression, deportation, or bludgeoning, but through encouragement to any labor organization willing and able to discipline itself.

While the author holds that war has created the communistic revolution and while he appreciates the moral idealism of the communist movement, yet he holds that "in every progressive stage man has eventually got the better of it as he will in the present instance if labor be given a fair chance." As to socialism he concludes, "I have never seen good ground to doubt that though the socialistic function is certain to extend, the individualistic and voluntary forms will also extend." Of government ownership he is frankly critical and insists that both sides present their proofs and cease indulging themselves in a mere battle of feelings. To guild socialism he directs very serious attention, not because it is an attractive name, but because the rapid growth of shop committees, the Plumb Plan, and union concern over scientific production all evidence the trend toward it. As a remedy to all the welter of feelings, uninformed idealism, baseless dreams, self-seeking violence, bad faith, and ineptitudes on both sides of industrial conflict, the author demands that our legal house shall be cleaned of its present discriminations; that the safety valve of free speech and criticism be kept open; that we get away from the witch-baiting attitude which now marks much of the press and many employers; that employers particularly dare to stand up to new ideas, to face them squarely like one of the greatest modern English employers, Charles Booth; that we all learn to forsake force and to encourage self-discipline and self-education;

that we encourage experiment; that we avoid the one-track solution, and that we approach every problem in a large and liberal spirit.

In a brief review, it is impossible to hint even at the wealth of wide reading and rich personal experience which this book reveals. At the risk of appearing captious the reviewer offers the suggestion that in future editions some mention be made of the development of trade-union colleges and of the achievement of the Workers' Educational Associations as factors in workingmen's education.

The book is marked by humor aplenty, but at least in one place some unconscious humor has crept in, as, for example, page 388, where as a reference The Survey, "Act 4," is cited.

A note of solemn appeal weighted with fact closes the study. "War has left the dwelling places of men foul with vindictive passions, but it has also left there such hungers, as were never felt, for the ways of peace, and good will among men." The best augury we have for the appeasing of those hungers is such men as John Graham Brooks and his writings. ARTHUR J. TODD

Der Nationalismus Westeuropas. By WALDEMAR MITSCHERLICH [Professor in the University of Breslau]. Leipzig: Hirschfeld, 1920. Pp. 373. $8.50.

This book commands attention in a double way. It is the widest and most comprehensive attempt made hitherto at investigating nationalism, i. e., a phenomenon which, besides socialism and capitalism, most deeply stimulates and most enduringly dominates our social life. The book intends to trace nationalism back to its remotest connections and is based on a synthetic spirit. And the author has not only first conceived the problem but also the method of his research.

In his opinion, social life is not in a state of evolution: the present may not be called an "organic" development from the past. The author abandons the theory of evolution and puts in its place that of plurality. His theory regards every social phenomenon as something that is at rest and secluded in itself, something peculiar, living a life of its own on its special conditions. This theory of plurality is, perhaps, a most valuable gift to the whole domain of science, for it gives a chance to regard and investigate all human existence from an altogether new point of view, and it will thus afford quite new insights and prospects.

The book shows that the nationalistic idea had no chance of life in the Middle Ages, that it was then utterly foreign to the structure

and essence of society and state. In the stage of early nationalism the structure of society and state had undergone a fundamental change. The modern state, based on unity and on law, lays the foundation to nationalism; besides this, several causes in social life and culture help to bring it forth; a great influence may here also be conceded to individualism. They all create nationalism, which, however, does not gain importance as a creative idea until toward the end of the eighteenth century. In the nationalistic period the expansion, the essence, and the intensity of nationalism become visible, with their relations to state and economic life.

Of especial importance at the present hour may be considered the last section of the book, which deals with the currents of thought opposed to nationalism. Rival ideas are rising at its side, ideas which strive to go beyond its aims and to lay stronger claims on states and nations. Imperialism and state unionism may be mentioned here-the latter being a voluntary coalescence of sovereign states into one political structure, without, however, giving up their individuality and full independence.

These few words do not suffice to give an idea of the wealth of Professor Mitscherlich's book. Especially his theory of plurality lifts it above the level of a scientific publication of the day and gives it a personal note. The whole work abounds with valuable sociological insights. The calm, purely scientific tenor of it, standing above all party dispute, will be enjoyed by all those who desire an objective, clear view of this important and exciting subject.

UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA

E. SCHWIEDLAND

The Casual Laborer and Other Essays. By CARLETON H. PARKER. With Introduction (26 pages) by Cornelia Stratton Parker. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Howe, 1920. Pp. 199. (Published posthumously.) $1.75.

Carleton H. Parker plunged into first-hand studies of laboring conditions, especially at their worst. Unshackled by traditional economic theories and fired by dynamic humanitarian purposes, Parker in his relatively few years penetrated close to the heart of the conditions. which produce the casual laborer, the I.W.W., the economically defeated.

Parker's approach to industrial problems was through the avenues of behavioristic psychology and is subject to the criticisms which are befalling that type of psychological theory. The chief criticism of