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"Labour and Capital after the War." Edited by Professor S. J. Chapman. London John Murray. Pp. 280. 6s. net. This volume, to which the Right Hon. J. H. Whitley, M.P., contri- butes an introduction is described by the editor as a frank discussion of what is present to the thoughts of representative men and women with regard to the future relations of employers and employed. Almost every phase of the labour problem has been touched upon to a greater or less extent by the dozen writers who participate in the symposium, and the volume can be recommended for perusal by all students of industrial reconstruc- tion. In the list of contributors appear the names of such well-known and representative persons as Lord Leverhulme, Sir Hugh Bell, Mr. Seebohm Rowntree, the Bishop of Birmingham, Mr. J. R. Clynes, Mr. R. H. Tawney, and Miss Susan Lawrence, Miss A. M. Anderson, M.A., Mr. Dudley Docker, and Mr. F. S. Button. "Problems of Reconstruction: A Symposium." London: Fisher Unwin. Pp. 315. 8s. 6d. net. This volume reproduces a series of lectures and addresses delivered at a Conference at the Hampstead Garden Suburb in August, 1917. The Marquess of Crewe contributes an introduction, and papers are con- tributed by such well-known people as Canons Masterman and Lyttleton, Professors Muirhead, John Adams, Selwyn Image, Miss Maude Royden, Mrs. Barnett, Mr. Sidney Webb, Mr. A. D. Hall, F.R.S., and others, the total number of contributors being twenty-seven. The subjects are classified under four heads. The First Principles of Reconstruction, Reconstruction in Education, Social and Industrial Reconstruction, and Arts and Crafts in Relation to Reconstruction. The book is full of good things, interspersed with much that is of indifferent quality. It is a volume, however, which no students of reconstruction questions can afford to miss. "Britain after the Peace. Revolution or Re- construction." Brougham Villiers. London: Fisher Unwin. Pp. 263. 8s. 6d. net. Mr. Brougham Villiers, like many other students of public affairs, is of the opinion that at the end of the War Britain will be face to face with an industrial crisis such as has never been known in history, and this book is an attempt to show on what lines statesmanship should proceed in order to avert national disaster. When the Kaiser declared war, Mr .Villiers says, he began not a war but a revolution. On that day society, as we have known it, committed suicide. The problem of reconstruction after the War is essentially a revolutionary one in the sense that it implies the making of fundamental changes in a rapid manner instead of by the slower methods of reform, and the purpose of this work is to show how the revolution can be carried out without violence. It consists of a series of eight chapters which discuss such problems as those of demobilisation, taxation, industrial control. land and development, and suggests the establishment of a National Works Department. Present day agricul- tural policy and landlordism come in for a good deal of criticism, and public land ownership is advocated, with the development of co-opera- tion, afforestation, the reclamation of land, road and railway construction, and other reforms which are already familiar to most students of applied economics. The book provides interesting reading, and is useful as a statement of problems. The discussion of the problems, however, is very inadequate, very few original proposals are made, and the difficulties in the way of the adoption of the measures suggested are not really faced. "A New Way of Housekeeping." Clementina Black. London Collins. Pp. 132. 3s. 6d. net. Considerable interest is now being taken by women in questions of house planning and the re-organisation of housekeeping methods, and the present volume is a useful contribution to the literature of the subject. Miss Black discusses the disadvantages of the present wasteful method of domestic organisation, and advocates the adoption of a co-operative system. She suggests that groups of families, say fifty, should organise themselves into federations for the purpose of having all domestic work done by a common staff of servants, all food purchased, co-operatively and cooked, and served at the federation centre." Each federation is to elect its own housekeeping committee who will employ a well-paid manager and a staff of trained servants. The system is intended to apply under existing housing arrangements, but the authoress hopes that as the federation idea gets better known specially designed dwellings will be erected around a well-planned communal centre. Miss Black's criticisms of present-day house plans are very illuminating. Economic Problems of Peace after War." Pro- fessor W. R. Scott. Cambridge University Press, 2 vols., 1st series. Pp. viii., 122. 4s. 6d. net. 2nd series. Pp. vii., 139. 6s. net. These two volumes reproduce the W. Stanley Jevons Lectures delivered by Dr. Scott at the University College, London, in 1917 and 1918. In the first series an attempt is made to indicate some of the chief general principles which should guide us in contemplating the economic future, and in the second series these principles are applied to the consideration of two particular groups of after-War problems, those connected with the project of the League of Nations and those connected with Finance. The author himself warns us that economic prophecy is difficult and speculative, but however uncertain may be the results there can be no doubt that to give no consideration to future problems at all would be sheer insanity. Dr. Scott's treatment of highly complicated questions is extremely lucid and careful, and the volumes should be closely studied by all who desire intelligently to anticipate the economic conditions of European nations after the restoration of peace. The discussion of financial problems in the second volume is of special value. While emphasising the need for economy by the Government spending departments, the author takes the optimistic view that the nation has ample financial reserves to last out the War if these reserves are wisely used. The financial result of the financial investigation," he says, shows that, if the system be used judiciously, there are no grounds to fear interruption of a vigorous conduct of the War through failure of adequate resources. Still less is there reason to expect that the burden of taxation which the War will leave behind it-heavy as this must be-will prove intolerable. It appears as clear as any thing can be during the uncer- tainties of a state of war that, given prudence in the use of our financial resources, those who predict either financial exhaustion during the war or financial collapse after it are ill-informed in their despondency." Past and Future," by Jason." Chatto & Windus. 3s. 6d. net. These essays, chiefly collected from Land and Water, are marked by a refreshing optimism. For Jason the experience which we have gained has removed the word impossible from the language of politics. It has brought a new faith in human power, a new sense of the freedom and range of human will. It is like the breaking of a long frost." He analyses the part which the State has taken in the control and stimula- tion of our industries, the benefits which have accrued from such experi- ments as the Cotton and Woollen Control Boards, and the hostility to State interference which has resulted from government mishandling of labour. Out of these conflicting influences one tendency of inestimable promise has arisen, the movements towards co-operation between the employer and the workman, and the coalition of both against State intervention. Exactly what form this movement is to take Jason does not attempt to define. His essays have the fault as well as the merits of current journalism. Their freshness and enthusiasm spring from their author's close contact with contemporary events and passions, but the same element begets a certain superficiality. He dallies with the idea of guild socialism, but does not seem to have made up his mind as to its feasibility. In the same way he seems to point at the possibility of some continuance of State influence by means of a retention of control over the supply of raw materials, but he does not succeed in relating this possibility to the growing prejudice against State control. This fluidity of thought however represents truly enough the actual condition of industrial politics to-day. The Whitley Council," which is the first definite product of the new spirit, still stands on the threshold. It may develop into an organ of State control or it may be a new manifest- ation of our British spirit of individualistic democracy. In his heart Jason seems to believe (as most of us would like to do) in the latter course of development, and if he does not state his position quite as clearly as one could wish, one can none the less be grateful for the faith and enthusiasm which animate him. C.T.