great deal of useful information even for those who may never be called upon to act in the capacity of nurse. The book as a whole is well written and finely printed and owing to the importance of the subjects it so ably discusses it should have a wide circulation.

The Prison Question. By Charles H. Reeve. 8vo. 194 pages. Published by the author, Plymouth, Ind.

Mr. Reeve is a clear thinker and a sound reasoner and is well known as an able writer on prison reform and kindred subjects, having taken part in several meetings of the National Prison Congress. He is not a sentimentalist, influenced by any false sympathy for the wrongdoer, but looks at the subject he is considering in a sensible, businesslike way; and while he makes all due allowance for the weakness and wickedness of the criminal and other defective classes, he never forgets that protection to society is the paramount question to be solved.

He does not share in the opinion held by many penologists, that a large portion of our prison population is susceptible to a genuine reform even under the most favorable conditions that we have been able as yet to obtain. He says that some can be reformed, many partially reformed, and perhaps a majority materially benefited. Like temporary relief from pain by use of an opiate, even the worst may be so improved as to give a temporary lull to the evil impulses inherent in them, or until stimulated into action by the social forces that must environ them.

He, in common with all whose opinions on the subject are worthy of consideration, holds that the convict should be regarded as a patient with a constitutional disease, and the first efforts toward reform must be to enlarge his understanding and give him right views of society and its relations to government. He has no faith in the fear of punishment as a menace to evil doers, and argues very conclusively that instead of having any tendency toward reforming, punishment closes the door against reformation. He well says: "The subject of prisons in the thought of the legislative mind has been on the same plane with the idea of punishment by the state by means of

fixed penalties: confined at hard labor for the period of years; there to have the head shaved, a zebra suit of coarse clothes, a narrow cell with hard bed, silence, and mere animal existence with hard labor."

One of the serious hindrances to reformation, as seen by Mr. Reeve, is the unfavorable environment in which most convicts are likely to find themselves when released from the prison. He says:

"Can you find an industrial keyboard with fixed tones, and a metronome to beat time, and written notes that will respond to human effort, and bring forth food and raiment? Yet, without this there is no practical and permanent reform. Reform does not consist simply in persuading a convict to be moral, but in showing him how to be also practical. A moral man must live. Want, starvation, the sense of an unequal struggle among his fellows with a sense of injustice, would soon bring demoralization, and he would cease to be a moral man."

He condemns as false economy and false philanthropy the legislation that appropriates twelve hundred dollars and in some cases as high as four thousand dollars a room to build a hospital for a thousand insane people, and furnishes money without limit to care for the patients when no systematic labor can be done by the inmates, and pinches down to the lowest cent in providing for a thousand convicts, who are all to labor and be treated for insanity more dangerous and needing greater care and skill. He maintains that a moral obliquity exists in one case as well as in the other, and that the crime class occupies a relation far more important to the state than do the insane.

The book contends that reformers have been dealing too much with results and too little with causes and the author is particularly forcible and eloquent in describing the sources that supply the larger part of our criminal, insane, and otherwise defective population and the proper methods of dealing with them. In his own language:

"It is absurd to tax people to build and maintain prisons and reformatories, and then enact laws that permit of the certain procreation of more people that will keep them full. Yet that is exactly what the legislation now in force accomplishes. In the first place, no restraint or limitations are provided in relation to marriage among those who are totally unfit for that relation. Both church and state take part in uniting people in marriage without inquiry, and the officials in both know that the issue in many cases must be of a vicious character,

either pauper or criminal or incurably diseased. The results are a constant procession of criminals and sinners starting at the cradles and moving into the public institutions, leaving more or less evil influence along the way. The resources of the state are heavily taxed to support, and in fruitless efforts to reform, what it has aided to deform, and the church is calling for aid on all hands to support it while it seeks to make Christians out of those it has aided in making sinners."

This book is interesting and profitable reading and we heartily commend it especially to ministers, lawyers, legislators, physicians, and those interested in prison and charity work.

All He Knew. By John Habberton. ville, Pa.: Flood & Vincent.

12mo. 197 pp.

Mead

This is a story-a mixture of about equal parts of love, depravity, and religion. It opens by describing a convict who had served his time and was on his way back to his depraved wife and children. While in the penitentiary he was rather miraculously converted and, after his return, he persisted in living an honest life. Though ignorant, and weak-minded besides, he wielded so great an influence by refusing to follow his former profession of stealing that nearly the whole village was converted, including some that had been converted before.

There are many good things in the book illustrating the different ideas of religious duty, but there is some doubt as to whether its effect on the whole will help the cause it assumes to aid. It may perhaps be well enough in dealing with the ignorant and depraved to use their style of speech, but, unfortunately, it is not the ignorant who are likely to read this book, and the effect of some of the expressions will shock rather than elevate the religious mind. It is said to be but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous and the author in many places, it seems to us, has taken this step and made a bad combination.

The story well illustrates the difficulties that surround the man who attempts to live an honest life when surrounded by ignorant and vicious relatives and companions.

Economic and Industrial Delusions. By Arthur B. Farquhar. Svo. 424 pages. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

The writer of this book presents the anomaly of a manufac

turer the largest perhaps in the United States, of agricultural implements-arguing against a protective tariff. He was led in the opposite direction for the greater part of his life and never cast a vote for a Democratic presidential candidate until 1888. He accounts for his change of base by quoting the words of Gladstone when accused of changing front on the Irish question: "I am older and wiser."

He objects to having Protection called the American system of Protection, for he says it is but an imitation of that which Spain has long been practicing-the natural resource of half-civilized countries and the same system followed by Great Britain until she learned better. He has come to the conclusion after reading the New York Tribune a lifetime, and having sandwiched it with Carey, Greeley, Thompson, and Denslow that the Protectionists' side of the case is made up of five parts, as follows: "Conclusions insufficiently supported-and overthrown by sufficient data, empty pretenses often degenerating into plain lying, quibbles and juggles, appeals to shortsightedness, appeals to blind sentiment."

He thinks the frenzy of Protectionists against England should be mitigated by the remembrance that they owe to her the Protective system-called the American system to flatter simpletons that while they refuse to wear England's new uniform they delight in strutting around in her cast-off rags.

War and the war spirit are condemned in vigorous terms, and Mr. Farquhar declares that Protectionism is as closely identified with the war spirit as Christianity is with the spirit of peace and good will.

The question as to whether the nation should increase the profits of special industries by taxation does not depend for its answer, in Mr. Farquhar's opinion, upon anything that statistical tables can show. One answer means paternalism, prescription-the other liberty. He says:

"Even if my researches had brought out only those apparent proofs of greater material prosperity under Protection, my decision would still be unshaken: for along with the sleek pelt and air of good feeding, I should have discovered, like the fabled wolf, the mark of a master's collar, and hence should have voted those blessings too dearly bought.

I am happy to be able to show, however, that the alternative is of no such character-that a thorough study of the figures and facts clearly proves the right policy to be the best even for our material well-being. Liberty deserves some sacrifice to obtain it and all the better if we can attain it without sacrifice."

It has often been charged and almost as frequently denied that American manufacturers send goods to other countries and sell them cheaper than they do in the home market. Mr. Farquhar settles this question, so far as he is individually concerned, by frankly admitting that he sells about half of his machinery in Mexico, South America, and Africa, and from five to ten per cent lower than in the United States. He says that he cannot get as good prices abroad as at home for the reason that he is there obliged to compete with other countries that have all the advantages of free raw material in manufacturing and better shipping facilities. He declares that any manufacturer who is able to export goods can have no use for Protection except to enable him to extort more money from home purchasers than he is able to get from those abroad.

Among the claims of the Protectionist, which Mr. Farquhar attacks both front and rear, are that a high tariff causes high wages; that the duty is paid by the foreigner; that Free Trade would injure us with cheap goods; that Protection gives employment to labor; that Free Trade would cause an unfavorable balance of trade; that the tariff causes a necessary diversity of industries; that it is the source of our industrial progress; that Free Trade would equalize wages in different countries. His discussion of these topics is ingenious and able, and to those inclined to tariff reform would be convincing. He is of the opinion that a direct tax for the expenses of the government would be the fairest and least expensive way of raising the revenues for governmental expenses, but owing to constitutional difficulties which would have to be removed in order to adopt this plan, he concludes that for years to come revenues must be raised by a tariff. He declares a protective tariff, however, as entirely unsuited to this purpose, since perfect Protection would keep out all goods and hence bring no revenue.

He declares in favor of the single gold standard, believing that