Review of Periodicals majority, with its exceptionally efficient citizens, would be in its essentials a bargain of the same kind as that which such men virtually make to-day with the great mass of the community under a system of free exchange and competition." "The New Radicalism." Quarterly Review, no. 421, p. 617 (Oct.). "It will be for the people before long to determine whether they will follow the new path which leads ultimately to the bottomless pit of socialism, or the old way by adherence to which we have attained our present emi nence and may reach a still more glorious future." "Poverty an Ultimate Principle." By F. W. Orde Ward. Westminster Review, v. 172, p. 456 (Oct.). "Nature loves poverty, because it presents the line of least resistance for the purpose of propagation, and comes to her hand with materials most plastic and pliable, and in the extremity of its weakness gathers up an impregnable strength—the strength of useful adaptability. . . . "Poverty, with its collateral incidents and consequences, would appear to be the most congenial ground for the production of all the supreme virtues that enrich and enlarge our human lot. Without perpetual opposition, without the wear and tear of grinding troubles, without resistance to overwhelming odds, we should scarcely rise above the level of the higher animals." Suretyship. "Surety Companies not Legal Favorites: Modification of an Old Doctrine Necessitated by Modern Conditions." By Isaac Petersberger. 7 Law and Commerce 301 (Oct.). "In the development of the application of the principle that 'the surety is a favorite of the law,' the courts in the construction of contracts of suretyship originally firmly entrenched themselves behind said doctrine, when the surety was a private individual; . . . With the creation of corporate suretyship, . . . the courts in interpreting the same class of contracts made by corporations are taking the position that these contracts are to be strictly construed against the corporate surety and with favors, if any, toward the person for whose benefit the undertaking was executed." Tariff. "The Revision of the United States Tariff." Edinburgh Review, no. 430, p. 269 (Oct.). "About all that is good that can be said for the Tariff Act of 1909 is that it must con stitute a new starting-point for a measure that shall end the corruption of the protective system as this corruption was developed and became increasingly widespread between 1861 and 1909. With the uplift in federal politics that characterized Mr. Roosevelt's terms as President, Aldrichism and all that it means in American political life is obviously coming to an end."
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Taxation. "The Relations of State and Federal Finance." By Prof. Edwin R. A. Seligman. North} American Review, v. 190, p. 615 (Nov.). Professor j Seligman jhere considers the problem of' taxation now confronting the American people. His conclusions are sug gested not only by scientific principles, but by tendencies to be observed in public finance in all parts of the world. One of these tendencies, for example, is that limiting local taxation to the field of real estate. There is also a centralizing tendency which places the taxation of incomes and inheritances in the hands of the national government, because it is better able to administer such taxes than are separate states. The in equalities of flagrant under- taxation and of oppressive double taxation, which arise par ticularly in the case of the taxes on personal property, owing to the ease with which they are evaded, have found their natural correct ive in some foreign countries in their admin istration by the central government. The^ ideal system in the United States, consider-^ ing the question solely with reference to the considerations of administrative efficiency and suitability, would be for the corporation, in come and inheritance taxes to be collected by the federal government and the real estate taxes by the local governments, leaving no taxes at all for the state governments. But the subject has also to be considered from the point of view of adequacy of revenue. The state governments must be supplied. More over, the revenues of the national government from customs, duties and internal indirect taxes can readily be made to prove adequate for all requirements. How, then, are the states to be provided for? "Why is it not possible to secure all the ends of suitability by having the taxes ad ministered by the federal government under general federal laws, and why is it not possible to secure all the ends of adequacy by having the proceeds apportioned in whole or in part to the various states? This is my solution of the difficulty: let the national government assess the taxes and let the state governments profit by the taxes. This is by no means so new or revolutionary a suggestion as it may appear. It is found in Some form or other in many countries and in not a few of the American commonwealths. . . . "The question of the constitutionality of the scheme that I have suggested may be left to the lawyers. My own opinion, ex pressed with all diffidence, is that a constitu tional method can be devised. But my additional opinion, expressed without any diffidence, is that if constitutional methods cannot be devised, the sooner a constitutional amendment is procured the better it will be. I can see no other avenue of escape from the complications that are looming up on all sides. "Of the three great taxes about which the' controversy has now become so acute, the income tax ought to be levied by the federal
