Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/149

This page needs to be proofread.

REVIEWS 135

made by sociologists. A paragraph from Chalmers expresses the dif- ference between ethics and social science : " It is not by the mere categories of ethical science that such a question [of labor and its combinations] ought to be determined. Such a law as would suit the republic of Plato, or some similar Utopia, might be the whole fruit of one's studious excogitations at home. But it is only by a survey abroad, and over the domain of business and familiar life, that he learns to modify, when needful, the generalizations of abstract thought, by the demands of a felt and urgent expediency." (Works of T. Chalmers, Vol. XV., p. 349.) C. R. HENDERSON.

Labor in its Relations to Law. By F. J. STIMSON. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. ?? J 45-

THIS little book presents four lectures delivered at the Plymouth School of Ethics, July 1895. The author has in press a Hand-book to the Labor Law of the United States which will give a fuller treatment of the same subjects. One lecture is devoted to the " History of the Law of Labor," a second to the " Employment Contract," a third to " Strikes and Boycotts," and the fourth to a " Forecast of the Future."

The " true path of progress," the author believes, lies in the direc- tion of association and collective bargaining.

The author's conclusion in respect to " government by injunction " is of special interest. " We all want order maintained throughout the country ; and most of us, doubtless, commended Mr. Cleveland for his prompt and forcible action in the Chicago strike ; but if such action had been expressly based upon the ground that the transportation of the mails was being interfered with, that riots and crimes were being committed which made, practically, a state of insurrection, so that the republican form of government in certain localities was being threatened, rather than upon the ground so much less impressive to the public mind that certain equity processes of Federal courts were not being executed ; and then if all the offenders, whether arrested by troops or by deputy-marshals, had been brought before the Federal grand jury, indicted and tried by a jury in the ordinary way, I cannot but think that the lesson to the people would have been better given, and certain great dangers in the future avoided ; for the government, and especially the judicial branch of the government, must not ever appear to take sides in this labor question."