the work of different men, the books are somewhat uneven in quality. The general standard is, however, unusually high. Moreover, the books are beautifully bound and the typographical work is excellent. Professor Münsterberg's Business Psychology (Chicago, La Salle Extension University, 1915; xi, 296 pp.), which is the "feature" of the series, is truly a little volume of distinction. It provides a treatment of complicated and difficult material which is popular without being superficial. To Professor Münsterberg business psychology is psychology or it is nothing at all" and so his book is a systematic analysis, but one in which stress is laid upon those results of modern psychological thinking which are significant for the work of the business The author pays a tribute of disrespect to the "gingery talks about business. . . usually offered to business men" to which his readers will heartily subscribe. The last four chapters on "Vocational Fitness," "Individual Mental Traits," "Selection of Fit Individuals" and "Mental Tests" are of great interest and practical value.

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Another book of this series, Professor Maurice H. Robinson's Organizing a Business (Chicago, La Salle Extension University, 1915; vi, 269 pp.) performs a real service in gathering together in a single volume material which has hitherto been considerably scattered. After a preliminary chapter in which the author places the problem of organization in relation to other economic problems, he devotes nine chapters to an analysis of the individual proprietorship, the partnership and the corporation. His treatment of the mechanism of the corporation will doubtless replace that given in Conyngton's manual in many classes on business organization. It is less exact and specific but is more comprehensive and less repetitious. The last two chapters deal with "Business Combinations and Trusts" and with the "Comparative Efficiency of the Various Types of Business Organization." In an appendix are given some fifty pages of forms.

In his volume called Personal Efficiency, Applied Salesmanship and Sales Administration (Chicago, La Salle Extension University, 1915; ix, 315 pp.) Irving R. Allen comes dangerously near furnishing an example of what Professor Münsterberg calls "gingery talks." The arrangement of the book is that of the many-paragraphed advertisement, and the style is so excessively informal and intimate that the serious. student, after a hasty glance, is likely to despair of finding anything substantial in the volume. This is unfortunate, for much of the material, especially that dealing with hiring, controlling, training and paying salesmen, is worthy of serious consideration.

Short Talks on Retail Selling by S. Roland Hall (New York, Funk

and Wagnalls Company, 1915; xi, 170 pp.) is a book which will be most appreciated by the ambitious salesman. It is a selection of readable and interesting articles upon salesmanship culled from the little magazine called Selling Sense. It is not the intention of the author to be scientific and systematic but rather to be suggestive and stimulating, and in this he succeeds very well.

Productive Sales Methods (New York, Collin Armstrong, Inc., 1913; 68 pp.) is a little volume by Clarkson A. Collins, the vice-president of a New York advertising concern. It is very well worth the short time it takes to peruse it, dealing as it does with the various features of practical advertising. It has chapters dealing with the planning of sales campaigns, preparation and detail work of an advertising campaign, newspaper and magazine copy etc.

The Perpetual Inventory, by Agnes S. Addie (Chicago, The Inland Trade Press Company, 1914; i, 19 pp.), outlines in a brief compass the actual operation of a perpetual inventory and summarizes its advantages and results.

The Job, the Man, and the Boss (New York, Doubleday, Page and Company, 1914; xvii, 226 pp.) by Katherine M. H. Blackford and Arthur Newcomb, is the outgrowth of many years' experience in the practical work of advising men in regard to their vocations, counseling employers in the selection of employees and increasing the efficiency of the latter. The book is divided into some fifteen chapters. The first few of these discuss labor employment in general, and propose the application of scientific methods to the employment and discharge of men. This is followed by an analysis of the "job," with reference to the characteristics, physical and mental, which it requires. A chapter is then devoted to the securing and handling of applicants. The three succeeding chapters-vii, viii and ix-which make up over one-third of the volume, are given over to " analyzing the man." These are easily the most interesting and important chapters of the work. The authors distinguish nine fundamental physical variables, i. e., color, form, size, structure, texture, consistency, proportion, expression and condition. They endeavor to show the significance of each one of these factors in human beings, and from these nine factors they develop a theory as to the characteristics and possibilities of each individual. They then show how this may be practically applied in a business concern. The balance of the book discusses the functions of the employment supervisor and of the employment department, with brief chapters also on the art of handling men, the education of employees and vocational guidance.

Selling by Mail, by Frank L. McWade (Rochester, The Frank L. McWade Company, 1915; 140 pp.), is an interesting brief in favor of mail-order selling. It is largely anecdotal in character and is not likely to prove of much scientific value. At the same time it contains so many interesting arguments in favor of mail-order selling that it is a handy volume for one to have upon the shelves if he is interested in the marketing of commodities.

The Human Factor in Works Management (New York, McGrawHill Book Company, 1912; ix, 159 pp.), by James Hartness, is divided into three parts, the first dealing with the value of habit, the second with some non-technical phases of machine design, and the third with machine building for profit. As the title implies, the book discusses the applications of the principles of management to the labor force in the plant. The volume is interesting, suggestive and stimulating. At the same time, as is characteristic of many so-called discussions of scientific management, it lacks that concreteness which gives the greatest value to the work of men like Mr. Taylor. It frequently iterates and reiterates familiar truisms. It has value, but it is too general to be regarded as an especially important or significant contribution to the discussion of scientific management.

The Modern Business Course and Service of the Alexander Hamilton Institute is now offered to the "wide-awake business men" of Canada. A Canadian edition has been prepared, the first volume of which, entitled Applied Economics, is written by Professor James Mavor of the University of Toronto (New York, The Alexander Hamilton Institute, 1914; xxi, 487 pp.) The scope is that of the usual elementary text, particular emphasis being placed upon the practical economic problems, including those of taxation and finance. Canadian history and presentday conditions are liberally drawn upon for illustrative purposes. The book is readable and interesting and is admirably adapted to its purpose.

Mercantile Credits (New York, The Ronald Press Company, 1914; vi, 288 pp.) by M.M. Kallman and others consists of fourteen lectures delivered by various gentlemen in coöperation with the Los Angeles Y. M. C. A. Practically all of the lecturers were men engaged in business, and possibly it is in part due to this fact that the volume lacks breadth of view. It can scarcely be said to be comparable for instance to Hagerty's Mercantile Credit. At the same time some of the lectures are valuable by reason of the fact that they represent the discussion of particular phases of mercantile credit by men who have had actual experience in meeting its problems.

Harrison H. Brace's The Value of Organized Speculation (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913; xii, 290 pp.), which was awarded a second prize in Class A of the Hart, Schaffner and Marx contest, is, as the author states in his preface, an attempt" to consider in a spirit of fairness the much controverted question of the value of organized speculation." Regarding prices the author reaches the conclusion that "the natural tendency of the speculative markets is toward bullishness. ... The charge made against organized speculation that it depresses prices is utterly unfounded." In its indirect effects Mr. Brace believes

that the exchange market not only for commodities but also for securities "serves to knit together all business and gives a wide field to the principle of insurance." While admitting that speculation "does not give the moral discipline seen in other forms of trade" he declares that from a practical standpoint" there is no acceptable alternative" to it. Any law which attempts to abolish organized speculation, or to remove essential features, will be evaded, causing in all probability more injury than benefit. . Speculation so organized that the transactions will be legitimate and perform a service offers the only acceptable alternative to the system of organized speculation as it exists today.

The volume shows a considerable amount of careful thinking and in general the conclusions are clearly and convincingly presented. The comparative lack of footnote citations is to be deplored.

Money and Banking (New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1914; 439 pp.), by John Thom Holdsworth, is an excellently planned textbook for beginners. Comparatively little space-about one-fourth of of the book-is devoted to the principles and history of money, the greater portion being reserved for the discussion of banking. In general, Professor Holdsworth presents the monetary principles made familiar in Johnson's Money and Currency, while the historical and descriptive sections concerned with money deal almost exclusively with conditions in the United States. There are fifteen chapters dealing with banking which, while not giving a well-organized interpretation of banking as a part of the broad process of wealth production, do nevertheless contain a great many interesting and important descriptive details. They make available in concise form much of the information contained in the monumental Report of the National Monetary Commission, and they give one a pretty good idea of the present structure of the important European banking systems, as well as of our own. There is a good discussion of the Federal Reserve System, and even of the emergency measures that were taken at the outbreak of the European

war.

One of the books which has earned for itself the privilege of being kept strictly up-to-date is Professor Davis R. Dewey's standard work on the Financial History of the United States (New York, Longmans, Green and Company; 1915, xxvii, 550 pp.). A new edition just published now replaces the fourth edition issued in 1912. A half-dozen additional pages suffice to give an account of the recent occurrences in the field, including such important topics as the federal reserve system, the federal income tax and the Underwood tariff.

The Federal Reserve (New York, Doubleday, Page and Company, 1915; xiii, 342 pp.), by Henry Parker Willis, secretary of the Federal Reserve Board, commands instant and respectful attention by reason of the important part played by the author in the framing of the Federal Reserve Act, and his subsequent intimate knowledge of the operation of the new banking system. An introduction by Mr. Charles S. Hamlin, governor of the Federal Reserve Board, contains a statement which will be corroborated by every careful reader of the volume. “I feel confident," says Mr. Hamlin, "that this book, both as a history and a searching analysis of the Act will be an invaluable help to every student." The first two chapters give the background of the Federal Reserve Act. Here Dr. Willis again emphasizes the points made in his article in The American Economic Review last year, establishing that the Federal Reserve Act differs vitally from the Aldrich scheme. Subsequent chapters deal with the provisions of the Act itself, with the initiation of the system which the Act provided, and with its important advantages. The desirable lines of development are also indicated. The book is most readable and the author's presentation is as clear and incisive as could be desired. The only regret to be expressed is that the work is entirely too brief for a subject of such importance. It is to be hoped that Dr. Willis will find time in the future to write another book on the reserve system, going over the same ground covered in his present work, as well as new ground, and that then he will include all the interesting details in the history of the operation of the Act which no one else can supply so well as he.

Mr. Eliot Jones's The Anthracite Coal Combination in the United States (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1914; xiii, 261 pp.) which is volume xi of the Harvard Economic Studies, is another example of the extensive and painstaking research which has characterized every volume of that series to date. The first two chapters of the study deal with the history of the anthracite industry. The next two examine historically the various combinations. The fifth chapter is devoted to the production of coal, and the sixth and seventh to the