Review of Periodicals

been much greater; nowhere have land values fallen. Wages have generally increased." Progress. "Some Obstacles to Progress." By R. Gunn Davis. Westminster Review, v. 172, p. 638 (June). "Let us, for a little, look at the attitude of the middle-classes towards culture, and social improvement, and progress. . . . When we find people who have mostly solved the seri ous question of bread and butter, and who are favorably situated as regards opportuni ties for the acquirement of the higher tastes, treating education merely as a means of securing comfortable positions in life, and prostituting culture by using it, not to inspire and elevate, but simply to give them a veneer of the dilettantism which they are satisfied to call superiority, it is impossible to regard them as other than hopeless reactionaries. The middle classes have pressed culture into the same services as their tailors and dress makers, and they are too dull in perception to observe that they are committing a serious wrong against mankind at large, too selfish to see that they are monopolizing what might be agreeable and advantageous to others, as well as themselves. All this the middle classes have done, and are doing on the ethical side. But this is not all. They are responsible for the greatest barriers to progress on the material side. Modern industry and modern commerce, and modern town condi tions are largely the results of a century of the free exercise of middle class activities." Railroads. "Railway Nationalization." By George B. Lissenden. Westminster Review, v. 172, p. 611 (June). "Salvation lies not in nationalization, be cause that is a retrograde step, and one which involves grave financial risks, but in the inten sive and extensive co-operation of both trader and carrier. And that is the end which must be hastened with all speed." This new road, built in three years, the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Puget Sound Rail way, "shortens the railroad distance between Chicago and Puget Sound, and it has easier grades. The latter point is of the utmost importance in operation." San Francisco Graft Prosecution. "The Story of a Reformer's Wife." By Mrs. Fremont Older. McClure's, v. 33, p. 277 (July). "Members of the prosecution were not bidden to entertainments. Where people of fashion gathered, old friends fell away; an indictment opened doors of exclusive houses. Men in the clubs and judges of the higher courts fraternized with the corruptors of the city's government; women reserved their sweetest smiles for the candidates for state's prison." Standard Time. "Daylight Saving in the United States." By Commodore W. H. Beehler, U. S. N. Comment on the fore

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going article, by William F. Allen. Century, v. 78, pp. 441, 443 (July). At least sixty millions of people would save the use of artificial light one hour every day in the year, says Commodore Beehler, if the time of the 75th meridian should be used throughout the United States. The promoter of the present standard time, commenting on this proposal, declares that numerous state laws and city ordinances would have to be repealed or amended, and it would be hopeless to achieve the result de sired by simultaneous action. If confusion may arise in the transmission of naval orders— A simple remedy would be to provide that the name of the standard used should always accompany the time mentioned. If a single standard is necessary, Greenwich time, which is kept by every chronometer on shipboard, could be used by the navy in all parts of the world. . . . "A common-sense expedient is employed by the people to adjust the working hours to standard time at points where the latter differs as much as half an hour from mean solar time, as at Detroit. When central time was adopted there, one merchant says, 'We changed our closing from 6 sun time to 5.30 standard time. In every shop that I have heard of, this was done, if the men wanted it.' Another states that 'the factories have their noon-hour from 11.30 to 12.30 o'clock.' Ex perience has shown that the extent to which this adjustment can be made without incon venience is about thirty minutes." Taft's Administration. "Taft—So Far." By "K." American Magazine, v. 68, p. 309 (July). "Mr. Taft is very much the type of the civil lawyer. This instinct of the legal mind com?orts, moreover, with the inclinations of Mr. aft's large, easy peace-loving nature. . . . He will give no comfort to insurgents, he will not oppose Speaker Cannon, he will work on terms of harmony with Senator Aldrich. . . . "A civil lawyer placates as far as he can and then fights doggedly. He does not like to fight, but, forced to it, he fights hard. . . . "Another characteristic of the civil lawyer is his dislike for publicity. He wants every thing carried forward quietly, according to the rules of the court; he dislikes emotional appeals to the jury. . . . "I have now said enough, perhaps, to show that a very different sort of legal mind is in control at Washington than that which coruscated during the seven years previous to the fourth of March. It is the traditional legal mind, dealing with property and empha sizing the rights of property; it is the placating, order-loving mind which finds it far easier under pressure to say 'Yes' than 'No.' It shrinks from publicity, and if it glances for ward, it also takes long looks backward. It longs to have, and will have, all things rea sonably set down in books and finallydecided."