hard-won culture. The elimination in one or even a few spots of the earth of property greed and envy will not remove these difficulties nor silence the economist who must face them. In another sense, however, this book is one that every special student of society ought to read; for the special student is dealing with the inconceivably intricate adjustments of the institutional order, attempting to grasp some of the refinements of the social process, always with a view to rebuilding the social edifice on an improved pattern, or at least preventing wholesale deterioration. He may feel that no modification can be successful that is not built into the existing structure, so that no vital part is ever dislocated; he may even go farther to the conviction that when any large portion of the edifice is thrown down it cannot be reconstructed except on the plan of the only order of which we have any detailed knowledge, namely our own; but with all this he needs to have constantly floating before his eyes a vision, shadowy, unsubstantial, utterly impractical as a substitute for the blueprint builder's plan, of the ideal for the completed structure. In this sense Proposed Roads to Freedom deserves the study of every economist because its author is not an economist but a mystic. He is a man with a vision. His description of the great subversive isms is not critical but inspired. He sees underneath the fallen leaves of fanatical verbiage the rich loam of human aspiration which has nourished all the religions of revolt. His human instincts are very keen and his emotions very wholesome when he comes to take the reckoning of the social order. What men want is not mere physical comfort-freedom from poverty as such-it is a decent life, the chance to do something and be something. And his vision of a world of free men is the vision of a poet: The world that we seek is a world in which the creative spirit is alive, in which life is an adventure full of joy and hope, based rather upon the impulse to construct than upon the desire to retain what we possess or to seize what is possessed by others. It must be a world in which affection has free play, in which love is purged of the instinct for domination, in which cruelty and envy have been dispelled by happiness and the unfettered development of all the instincts that build up life and fill it with mental delights. Such a world is possible; it waits only for men to wish to create it. Bertrand Russell does not present the economist with full specifications and blueprints attached for the complete construction of such a world. He has seen truth and beauty with the eyes of a saint rather than of an economist. Yet perhaps even saints should come into the calculations of the economist. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO C. E. AYRES Unified Accounting Methods for Industrials. By CLINTON E. WOODS. New York: The Ronald Press, 1917. 8vo. pp. xvi+484. $5.00. Mr. Woods's book is hampered somewhat by the fact that it is intended for "three classes of individuals: the executive, the engineer, and the accountant," and must attempt, in consequence, to be neither too elementary nor too technical. The field which it covers is broad, and there is nowhere a clean-cut statement of its central purpose. In the main it is an effort to demonstrate the value of unified accounting "as a controlling medium in connection with finances, inventories, investments, etc." (p. 25), when the operations of the business have been so systematized as to be properly co-ordinate with some accounting system. In general the material is grouped into two main headings: organization, or systematization, and accounting proper. A limitation of both types of discussion is the fact that the author is evidently accustomed to very large plants manufacturing under a departmental system where the lot sizes are large and where the control is not very intensive— industries which are interrupted rather than continuous. Coupled with this is a neglect to recognize that very different types of industry exist, requiring very different control plans. For example, the "tracing" system advocated (pp. 170-72) does not permit a full control of materials between operations. Under complex conditions of jobshop departmental manufacturing, the method (if we understand the somewhat involved explanation) of determining available material (pp. 75-78) does not provide for immediate reservation of stores against accepted orders. Proper control of materials in transit and prompt facilitation of the movement of these materials is not provided for. The "central control" of equipment advocated (p. 234) is also loose. "Labor control" is of the same character (pp. 178-83). Only one method of collecting costs is mentioned-a production-order method; and only one basis for distributing costs is given a direct labor pro rata. This limitation of the discussion to a particular type of industry would not be a defect if it were made more frankly, if the author seemed to recognize the existence of different types, with different problems to be solved. Perhaps the most serious criticism of the industrial sections of the book should be made in connection with the labor relations. The open advocacy of a "pace-making department" to determine among other things "ultimate capacity" (p. 117); the cutting down of expenditure for labor (p. 118); the advocacy of time study with no adequate warning concerning necessary preliminary standardization (p. 145); the inadequate statement of the relation of the training of men to labor turnover (pp. 19, 23, 146); the incomplete statement of rate-making (pp. 148-202) -all these give the book an unfortunate flavor on the human side, which might lead to misunderstanding of the position of the best thinkers in the field of industrial engineering. Although he expressly states that accounting is to be regarded as an instrument of executive control, the author seems at times to entertain a curiously absolutistic point of view regarding it. There is frequently an insufficient distinction between principle and device. His summary on page 330 of what amounts to standard inventory practice is worthless as an arbitrary rule for all industries. In another place (p. 225) he says: "It must be borne in mind that the important and real purpose in connection with the ascertaining and distribution of overheads is to show their percentage or hourly basis relation to the amount of productive or direct labor employed." Such a comparison may have very great or very little significance. Absolutism of this sort is responsible for the arbitrary and ironclad cost systems which so often give a false sense of security to manufacturers. It is part of a general tendency to confuse principles with facts, or even, at times, with unsubstantiated industrial gossip. Perhaps the most striking feature of the book is the great number of accounting forms of various types. These are segregated (pp. 340–66), but are all carefully tied up with the text by means of a numerical index. Flexibility is in this way secured and the text is left agreeably free from interruption. The presentation of material within the chapters could be made more effective by a set of sectional headings more literally descriptive of the text and presenting a more logical appearance by a happier choice of type. The last chapter of the book might well be replaced by a summary in which the balance sheet is used as a device for rounding out the main argument of the book. The value of this book must be estimated in terms of the use to which it is to be put. It is dangerous for the student because of its absolutistic character. For the average manufacturer it would appear to be very difficult reading, most of the principles of accounting being taken for granted. The true field of the book would appear to be among financial accountants who desire a general introduction to cost accounting, and to students who already have a general grounding in cost accounting and financial accounting methods. There is great need for reliable and basic information on cost methods and principles, and Mr. Woods is in a position to give us much that is valuable. It is greatly to be hoped that he will give us a new edition in which the mechanical features may be arranged in such fashion that the central principles stand out clearly. F. M. S. the War. II Labor Administration in the Shipbuilding Industry during P. H. Douglas and F. E. Wolfe 362 A Price-Fixing Experiment-Financing the Railroads-Suspension of Book Reviews and Notices NICHOLSON'S War Finance (Alzada Comstock), 412.-PULSFORD's Commerce and the Empire, 1914 and After (George O. Virtue), 414.-WARNER'S American Charities (Rev. by Coolidge) (Stuart A. Queen), 415.-DOMINIAN's The Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe (Max Sylvius Handman), 417.KITSON'S A Fraudulent Standard. An Exposure of the Fraudulent Character of Our Monetary Standard with Suggestions for the Establishment of an Invariable Unit of Value (Lloyd V. Ballard), 419. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, LONDON AND EDINBURGH 412 The Journal of Political Economy is published monthly, except in August and September, by the University of Chicago at the University of Chicago Press, 5750 Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. ¶The subscription price is $3.00 per year; the price of single copies is 35 cents. Orders for service of less than a half-year will be charged at the single-copy rate. ¶ Postage is prepaid by the publishers on all orders from the United States, Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, Panama Canal Zone, Republic of Panama, Hawaiian Islands, › Philippine Islands, Guam, Samoan Islands, Shanghai. ¶ Postage is charged extra as follows: For Canada, 30 cents on annual subscriptions (total $3.30), on single copies 3 cents (total 38 cents); for all other countries in the Postal Union, 42 cents on annual subscriptions (total $3.42), on single copies 5 cents (total 40 cents). ¶ Patrons are requested to make all remittances payable to the University of Chicago Press in postal or express money orders or bank drafts. The following are authorized to quote the prices indicated: For the British Empire: The Cambridge University Press, Fetter Lane, London, E.C. 4, England. Yearly subscriptions, including postage, 14s. each; single copies, including postage, Is. 8d. each. For Japan and Korea: The Maruzen-Kabushiki-Kaisha, 11 to 16 Nihonbashi Tori Sanchome, Tokyo, Japan. Yearly subscriptions, including postage, Yen 6.85; single copies, including postage, Yen o.80. For China: The Mission Book Company, 18 Peking Road, Shanghai. Yearly subscriptions, $3.00; single copies, 35 cents, or their equivalents in Chinese money. Postage extra, if mailed direct outside of Shanghai, on yearly subscriptions 42 cents, on single copies 5 cents. Claims for missing numbers should be made within the month following the regular month of publication. The publishers expect to supply missing numbers free only when losses have been sustained in transit and when the reserve stock will permit. Deliveries are not guaranteed within the war zones of Europe, nor in other countries where transportation is disturbed by conditions incident to war. Business correspondence should be addressed to The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill. Communications for the editors and manuscripts should be addressed to the Editors of THE JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. Entered as second-class matter, January 16, 1893, at the Post-office at Chicago, Illinois, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 15, 1918. |