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In this article, the author examines the implications of the Silver Question before the U.S. Congress of 1886 to the history of monetary policy in the U.S. The Sections of the Act of February 28, 1878, calling a Monetary Conference, made the U.S. the champion and advocate in the community of nations of the restoration of civil order in dealing with money. Concurrent regulation of metallic money by a competent majority of nations, and on the basis of equality of legal right between the two metals, became by this Act a fixed object of the foreign policy. As for the time consumed and to be consumed in passing from this turning point of history to the success of the policy, it is well to mark that it is not uncommon for men to wait a long time for the attainment of a great end. The United Colonies suffered under the Confederation for many years before they adopted the Constitution. The restoration of greenbacks to par with gold was a struggle of many years. The diplomatic successes of this country have usually required a long time for their attainment; and in the rare instances when Americans had a foreign policy in the specific sense, when there was some important object to be gained through the action of several foreign powers, the lack of a continuing, organized, high-grade civil service has naturally unfitted Americans from advancing a meritorious cause with the maximum of speed.

This article presents information on several papers and memorandums related to economic conditions in various countries. The Parliamentary documents for 1886 will contain a good deal of evidence of the increasing uneasiness as to the condition and prospects of the foreign trade of England. A Blue Book has been issued, giving the rates of duty levied on imports by the different European countries and the United States; and a second is to give the duties levied by the British colonies, these returns being on the plan of the similar documents published in 1882. The Commission on the Depression of Trade have also collected and published reports from the English consuls, showing the impediments to British trade in the different countries. Another snippet reports that the opening of fertile wheat lands in the United States, and the cheap transportation of grain to Europe have had an influence not only on England and Ireland, but on France, Germany, and Russia. French and German legislation has been invoked to protect the farmer. But now an interesting movement is in progress among the Russian peasants, by which the former serfs are becoming separated from the land. At the time of the emancipation of the serfs, Russia controlled the wheat markets of Western Europe; while the prices of agricultural products were high, and even rising.

The article presents an insight into the history of the Noble Order of Knights of Labor of America, an organization that attempted to organize labor in the U.S. on the idea that ignores vocation, and seeks to harmonize all individual or separate interests in the interest of the whole. This organization was born on the Thanksgiving Day in 1869, in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was the result of the efforts of garment-cutter Uriah S. Stephens, as the leader, and six garment-cutter associates. For several years previous to this date, the garment-cutters of Philadelphia had been organized as a trades-union, but had failed to maintain a satisfactory rate of wages in their trade. A feeling of dissatisfaction prevailed, which resulted, in the fall of 1869, in a vote to disband the union. Stephens brought into the ritual of the new Order many of the features of speculative Masonry, especially in the forms and ceremonies observed. The obligations were in the nature of oaths, taken with all solemnity upon the Bible. The members were sworn to the strictest secrecy.

This article presents information related to political economic events that took place in different countries. A large number of professors in Paris, of various economic schools, but having strong professional sympathies, have now established the journal "Revue d'Economie Politique," as an independent medium, the organ of no person or school, but to be open to all opinions, if treated in the scientific spirit and with comity towards others. On January 19,1887, the Permanent Commission of the Italian government published a report for the abolition of forced currency. The report notifies that at the date of resumption in 1883, the notes in circulation for which the government was responsible amounted to 940,000,000 francs. Of these, on June, 30, 1886, 476,000,000 had been redeemed, so that the amount outstanding was a trifle short of 464,000,000. A thin quarto was issued last year, by the Register of the Treasury, entitled "A Statement of the Public Debt of the United States From 1789 to 1885, and Receipts and Expenditures From 1855 to 1885."

The article presents a discussion related to the consideration of deposits as currency in the U.S. In the discussions upon the various phases of the currency question during the last twenty years, the popular dread of contraction and its consequences has seldom been appealed to in vain. The U.S. Congress has been a good index of public opinion in this respect, and in the Congress there has steadily been an element which seemed to have grasped the idea of a connection between contraction and falling prices, as the one and sufficient key to the practical questions which were to be settled. To this fact were due the weak legislation of 1874, to go back no further, and the necessity in 1875 of so framing the Resumption Act as to leave its meaning open to opposite constructions and its operation uncertain. Nothing else than a deep conviction in Congress that the people would not stand contraction can explain the fact that the act of May 31, 1878, to forbid the further retirement of legal tender notes, was carried through the House of Representatives.

The article investigates the nature of the Eleventh Census of the United States as well as its cost, scope, barriers, methodology and the success of the previous census. The Tenth Census drew a lot of criticism because it was considered costly, this was because the U.S. Census Office understated the cost of the census although the population of the country had gone up by around 30 percent. However, the magnitude of conducting a nationwide census is beyond the scope of understanding of those who have not actively participated in the effort. The article also states that the foundation of census is the need for statistics to keep both the people and the administration properly informed and to make planning more expedient.

The article presents several miscellaneous information related to political economy. The sixth volume of book "Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science" will include a collection of papers on the history of cooperation in the U.S. A report on bimetallic legislation in Europe has been submitted to the U.S. State Department by the U.S. Senate. A finance report from the U.S. Secretary of Treasury informs about the use of surplus in the purchase of government bonds. The French government has released the measures by which it has effected conversion of the French Franc.

The article discusses various issues related to immigrants in the United States. There have been calls by politicians for laws restricting immigration and one politician credited the superior labor conditions in the cotton mills of the United States as the motivating factor for skilled labor immigration from the Old World. However, figures collected by the U.S. Bureau of Statistics from the period of 1877 to 1886 show that almost 73% of immigrants were either unskilled or low-wage workers. The article states that a majority of mill workers were unskilled in their home countries. It also dispels the misconception that immigrants are the pick of European labor, they are rather excess labor.

The article investigates the tariff policy between 1832 and 1860 in the U.S. The changes in the rates of duty and the fluctuations in industrial history have often been thought to be closely connected. In 1833, the Compromise Tariff Act was passed, and remained in force until 1842. In the farming States, the enthusiasm for the home market idea had cooled perceptibly; and in the manufacturing States the agitation came rather from the producers directly interested than from the public at large. Notwithstanding the impending reductions of duty under the Compromise Act, large investments were made in the business in the earlier part of the period. No doubt, the growth of manufacturing industries has been greatly stimulated by the high duties which have been maintained since the civil war, and in some cases stimulated beyond the point at which they could maintain themselves without some degree of protection. But experience under the more moderate duties of the earlier period indicates that a steady growth would have taken place in any event. Some branches of manufactures may be dependent on the present high duties, but the bulk of them probably would have reached something like their present position under a much more moderate system.

The article examines various attempts in the Tenth Census of the U.S. to get at the wages of labor, and to point out the progressive improvements in method, which these attempts show. The statistics of wages can determine no law of distribution in the technical economic sense. The primary object of statistics of wages is to determine the ordinary income of that portion of the population represented by the wage receivers, and what that income is worth in procuring a comfortable subsistence. The technical operations involved are the collection of accurate data, and the presentation of them in such a form as to show the condition of the mass of wage receivers as to income and what income will buy. The effort to get wage statistics should confine itself to the large industries, where the wages system is fully established, and where large bodies of men are engaged in labor under the same conditions. Wages must be carefully distinguished as to industries, occupations, and the sex and age of the persons employed.

The article presents author's comments on the paper "Essay on the Distribution of Products," by Frederick B. Hawley. It attempts to measure the probable annual product of the U.S., the average proportion to each person occupied for gain, and the probable savings or additions to capital in a normal year. The total commercial product is estimated from the census returns, as in those returns many values are counted twice or more. The point on which Hawley differs with the author is in the assignment of only ten percent as the addition to the capital of the nation. He also shows that he has not read the essay or taken cognizance of author's figures. He substitutes a computation of his own to the income of the capitalist class. They distribute a large part of their income among other wage earners. He observes that in the list of occupations of the people of the U.S., there are something over 4,000,000 persons employed in professional and personal service, the value of whose labor does not appear in the value of any material product whatever.

The article discusses the system of public finance as established under Alexander Hamilton, former head of the U.S. Department of Treasury. It discusses the qualification of Hamilton and the huge work that was put forward. It discusses how he went about formulating a plan for a financial system based on experience of earlier financial systems, mainly the English financial system. Features of Hamilton's system of finance which are similar to those of the English system are his scheme for funding domestic debts, his plan for a sinking fund and the charter of the first Bank of the United States.

The article offers news briefs including one on the annual meeting of the Verein für Socialpolitik that was to take place at Frankfurt on September 28-29, 1888 where prominent professors would present papers on usury in agricultural districts. The volume of cotton produced in the U.S. for the year 1887-1888 exceeded 7,000,000 bales, the largest ever produced in the U.S. Professor Lujo Brentano assumed the chair of political economy at the University of Vienna.

The article reports that the U.S. House of Representatives of the Fiftieth Congress passed a resolution directing its Committee on Manufactures to inquire about associations, trusts or others like titles, alleged to exist in the country for purpose of controlling or curtailing production or supply of various products on January 25, 1888. Authority was given the committee to sit during sessions of the House, to compel the presence of persons and papers, and to swear and examine witnesses. A number of litigations involving the nature and doings of trusts, monopolies, and the like, have recently come to judgment in the courts; and the findings upon them are now of record. Profits may also be distributed as a particular means of maintaining the combination intact. It is every wise extremely confusing to class all the above-named enterprises as trusts. They have in common only the single feature of excluding more or less perfectly old-fashioned individualism of management. It will be noticed that the industries surest to have such an evolution are precisely those among which international competition now prevails. The interest hitherto centered in the tariff question will then go over to that of trusts.

The article focuses on the effects of protective trade policies on agricultural production in the U.S. The agricultural industry that was under the protective policies saw its development but not at large. Flax fibre had been raised since the colonial period. In 1828, duties were imposed which remained unchanged during the Civil War and it increased after 1870. The production of flax was done by rotting, scutching and hackling the plant. The silk manufacture as the household industry started in Connecticut since the Civil War. There was a striking growth of silk industry in the decade between 1950 and 1960.

This article presents information on the Direct Tax of 1861, an act passed by the U.S. Congress on August 5, 1861. The direct tax laid by the act of Congress of August 5, 1861, was the fifth levy which has been made under the provisions of the Constitution, requiring that representation and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States, according to their respective numbers. There would be little risk in predicting that this will also be the last resort to a method of taxation which the framers of the Constitution thought important enough to hold a place in one of the difficult compromises embodied in that instrument. The distinction between direct and indirect taxation, resting upon the supposed method of incidence upon a single class of persons, is fully developed. It was a necessary result of their reasoning, became familiar in all the discussions of the school in France, and, was carried to the knowledge of readers in political science in other countries, during the short-lived pre-eminence of the physiocrats.

This article discusses the book "Looking Backward," by Edward Bellamy, tracing the spirit of nationalism in the U.S. Bellamy, a novelist by profession, is the recognized father of the Nationalist Clubs which have been formed in various parts of the United States within the last twelve months. The American press received the book, from its first appearance, with much favor as a literary performance. Its great cleverness and ingenuity, its contagious earnestness of sympathy with the unsuccessful in the social struggle of to-day, the very vehemence of its denunciation of the existing order, and its assured pictures of the superlative ease and happiness of the year 2000 A.D. won for it particular attention in the city which was its scene. Bellamy's blind adherence to the European type of socialism, regardless of any peculiarity, however important, in the American situation, is seen in the complete annihilation to which he consigns the American State; that is, Massachusetts or California. In his Utopia, the central government, the national power, is everything, certain functions being delegated by it to the municipalities.

This article focuses on the problems that were encountered in city planning and development in the U.S. There are now at least 350 cities, with a total population of nearly sixteen millions, in the country. Since 1790, the population of the U.S. has increased sixteen times; while the cities have increased in number sixty times, and the urban population nearly a hundred and sixty times. The aim of the article is threefold: to analyze the causes that have determined the sites and distribution of U.S. cities; to analyze what has been the growth of their population; and to explore the most noticeable thing about the status and social condition of people in cities. Before noticing the rate of growth of particular cities, it is desirable to consider what causes have planted and nourished our chief centers of population. The reasons which can be given for the site of most ancient and mediaeval cities are here singularly inapplicable. A colonized and colonizing country, no cities have been built up by distinct, elaborate schemes of colonization.

The article focuses on the role of the government in protecting small industries in the United States. Protection does not necessarily seek the development or the sustentation of manufactures, although this object has been so far prominent in the history of American protection as to cause the idea of manufacturing development to be closely connected with the word in the public mind. No case either of protectionism or of socialism is established so long as government does not transcend what is genuinely regarded as necessary to the care of the public peace, to the maintenance of private rights, and to the defense of the government itself against insurgency or invasion, actual or threatened. After the extreme necessities of the public revenue had fairly passed, a movement began, which for a long time had a high degree of public approbation, for the extension of the free list. Of course, it makes a vast difference in the application of the policy of undiscriminating and universal protection what is the variety of conditions, as to soil and natural resources, of the country which is to be the subject of this policy. With absolute freedom from commercial restrictions within the U.S. borders, with the high degree of mobility characterizing the people and with the acuteness and alertness with which every possible economic advantage is followed out, the mischief which the most unreasonable system of protection could inflict is greatly restricted.

The article focuses on the legislation requiring the Secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury to purchase silver bullion to use for the creation of silver dollars in the United States. The act of February 28,1878, requires the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase every month not less than two million dollars' worth nor more than four million dollars' worth of silver bullion, and to coin this bullion into silver dollars, which are legal tender without limit. When the act of 1878 was passed, it seems to have been expected that the actual silver dollar would go into circulation without difficulty. Finally, beginning in the latter part of 1886, the volume of the silver currency expands, and gains rapidly on the total coinage, causing a steady decline in the amount of the dead silver. Even in 1885 when the general movement was strongly towards a reduction in its volume, there was an increase in the closing months of the year. The Treasury has made every effort to get them out of its hands, going so far as to pay the cost of transporting them from the sub-treasuries to any point where they may be wanted. The premium so offered to persons who have occasion to use money in small denominations, and especially to large employers of labor, causes considerable quantities of them to be sent for and used but the great bulk of them return to the Treasury almost at once.

Presents letters to the editor referencing articles published in the previous issues. Discussion of professor and writer, Franklin H. Giddings' paper on the theory of capital; Statement that the imperfection of the U.S. laboring powers is the reason why there is always only a " limited supply " of capital in the nation; Overview of problems of interest on capital; Criticism of Giddings' concepts related to abnormal cost of an extraordinary shortening of a process of production, and the ordinary cost of a circuitous production.

This article focuses on the silver situation in the United States. The laws of the United States authorize the U.S. Treasury Department to receive deposits of standard silver dollars and to issue certificates therefore in denominations of one dollar and upwards, and to receive gold coin and to issue certificates therefore in denominations of twenty dollars and upwards. The premium on gold or the discount on silver may be arrested, if it comes, by fresh legislation. The people who have silver dollars, silver certificates, greenbacks, and national bank-notes in their pockets or on deposit in bank, for which they have paid, in labor or property, one hundred cents per dollar gold value, may demand of Congress that their money be restored to that value. If they do so demand, in some way it will be done. The banks cannot hold the immense mass of deposits and clearings at the gold standard, when the government's legal tender notes are redeemed only in silver. The premium on their gold will be the property of their shareholders, and may be applied to an extra dividend or added to their surplus.

The article focuses on the problem of unemployment and measures taken to resolve it. Applicants of assistance to charity organization societies in England and the U.S. prefer occupation rather than relief. Charitable provision of work provided to the unemployed includes, transitory provision of work, education to the unemployed for regular self retaining existence, and the isolation of the poor class from the competitive industries of the time. Ommerschans and Veenhuizen are largest of the beggar colonies established in 1820.

The article focuses on the importance of the U.S. patent law that was enacted on April 10, 1790. The law features promotion and progress of science and useful arts and allows patentee the sole and exclusive right over the invention or discovery for fourteen years. The amendment of the law on February 15, 1819 rendered changes into the administrative mode. The U.S. Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Attorney-General have been authorized to take decisions pertaining to the patent issues.

The article presents information on the U.S. Southern Railway & Steamship Association and features the competition in the modern railway operation. The competition of the modern railway operation became obvious with the consolidation of independent railroads in 1860. Competition and alliances that came together aroused disputes, which hampered the development of the railroads in the Southern U.S. Albert Fink, General Commissioner of the Southern Railway, set up an association that has aimed to reduce the excessive competition.

This article focuses on the relationship between trade unions and apprentices in the U.S. As one of the chief causes of opposition to trade unions is their supposed influence in limiting the number of apprentices, it is important to investigate the question as to the extent of this influence. The whole tendency of modern business methods towards the destruction of the entire apprenticeship system is proving too strong to be resisted. Trades become more and more subdivided. It becomes unprofitable for an employer to teach all parts of a business to a workman. While the latter, in view of the frequent changes in machinery and in business methods, stands more in need of general intelligence and manual dexterity than of a minute knowledge of each of the fifty or more subdivisions of an industry. It is in the gradually lessening number of trades, where apprenticeship is still practicable and necessary for good workmanship unless trade schools can accomplish the same end, that some of the American trade unions demand a thorough apprenticeship. Of the 11 local Typographical Unions in New York State, investigated in 1886 by the New York Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 reported some restriction of apprentices.

This article presents information on social and economic legislation passed by the legislatures of various states in the United States in 1891. During the first nine months of 1891 legislative sessions were held in thirty-seven States of the Union, and in two of the Territories. That legislatures no longer hesitate to abridge the freedom of private contract is made evident by the increasing number of laws regulating the manner of wages payments. The important coal-mining interests of several of the interior and Western States were more or less affected by the passage of anti-screen laws, in the interest, whether real or supposed, of the operatives. In the mining of coal in these States it had always been the prevailing custom to adjust the miner's wages upon the weight of his carload of lump coal after it had passed over a screen. This large coal is the most valuable part of the product; but the miners asserted that the fine coal which was dropped through the screen was also merchantable, and that it was a common practice on the part of the operators of mines to sell this portion, as well as the lump coal, although the original purpose of the screen was to separate the slack and dirt from the coal.

This article presents a lists several books and papers on various topics of economics. Some of the books are--"Municipal Ownership of Gas in the United States," by E.W. Bemis; "Freeland: A Social Anticipation," by T. Hertzka; Municipal Ownership of Gas in the United States," by E.W. Remis; "The Coal Question," by F. Brown; "The Evolution of the Socialist Programme in Germany," by G. Adler; "A National Pension Fund," by E. Cooper; Wanted, a department of Labor," by R. Donald; and "Economic and Industrial Delusions: A Discussion of the Case for Protection," by A.B. Farquhar and H. Farquhar.

The article discusses the continued existence of bank-notes as a part of United States currency and the question of rights of their issue in the 1890s. According to the author, for several years past the majority of the Americans and their political representatives have observed with great equanimity the gradual disappearance of national bank-notes, and the approach to the point where the trifling profits upon circulation and the extinction of the national bonded debt would leave no paper in use except the notes and coin certificates of the United States. A sudden change of ground like this, involving a proposed revolution in the system of paper currency and in much besides, may betoken a decisive and durable alteration in the lines on which the bank-note question is to be discussed hereafter, or it may only be one more instance of the facility with which large numbers of Amercians are ready for a brief space to seize upon the last new idea, especially in matters of finance. The author remarks that, so far as the legislation of the several states still retains its provisions for the issue of notes, there is the same variety which existed before the Civil War.

The article focuses on various aspects of legislation on tariffs that were enacted in the colonial period of the United States. According to the author, there is enough material to show that almost every colony levied imposts, a few of which developed into what may be called tariff systems. The charters of most colonies were quite similar, and permitted much freedom. That of Virginia may be taken as a type of all. It laid a duty of two-and-a-half per cent on all goods imported by British subjects and five per cent on all imported by foreigners. Food, clothing, arms, implements, and other necessaries might be sent from Britain to Virginia free for seven years. The proceeds from the duties were to be applied to the support of the colony for twenty-one years, and were then to revert to the king. The colony was given the privilege of imposing other duties if it thought best to do so. The author confines his discussion to the imposts which were assessed by and with the consent of the free colonists.

The article presents information on the publication of various reports and research papers related to economics and finances in the United States. Some light is thrown upon the question as to the rate at which the subdivision of landed property has gone on in France of late years by M. de Foville, in an article published in the September 1892 issue of the journal "Economiste Français." In the current issue of the journal "Vierteljahrschrit fü Volkswirthschaft," writer Theodor Buck gives an account of the striking accumulations of specie, or its equivalent, made by the Russian government in recent years. The volume of notes outstanding remained stationary until the autumn of 1891, when the expenses called for by the crop failure and general distress led to an additional issue of seventy-five millions. The first part of the Report of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, designed to throw light on the effects of tariff legislation, has been issued, and contains an examination of the course of money wages and of retail prices in the twenty-eight months from June 1889, to September 1891.

The article discusses issues related to trade relations between the U.S. and South America. This may seem strange after all we have read and heard about the South American market in the last two years; but it is, nevertheless, true. As the article attempts no explanation of the point, except to state that the bulk of agricultural exports goes to Europe, some further discussion on the subject may be useful. South America is, commercially speaking, a battle-ground between the U.S. and Europe, with the latter holding the position of advantage. Until the U.S. offers rarer opportunities for new or increased business than now, our manufacturers will spend little time in getting up special styles of goods for the markets of Buenos Ayres or Baranquilla.

The article presents notes and memoranda on various economic activities in the U.S. The annual report of the Connecticut Bureau of Labor Statistics for 1891 is a valuable contribution to the study of self-help organization and workingmen's insurance. The two bulky volumes of this report, which for some reason did not appear till the end of 1892, are almost entirely devoted to a description of the Fraternal Mutual Benefit Societies of Connecticut and an analysis of their work for the five years from 1887 to 1891. In other developments, in an article on co-operative insurance and endowment schemes, it was said that, unless the endowment organizations died a natural death, much legislation and many judicial decisions would be necessary to give them clear legal standing. The natural death has come already in Massachusetts. Fifty-six orders had been organized before the passage, in 1890, of the law forbidding the issue of new charters. Fifty-six orders had been organized before the passage, in 1890, of the law forbidding the issue of new charters. The insurance commissioner in his Annual Report for 1893 publishes what he calls Brief Endowment Obituaries for forty-eight of them.

The article discusses the effects of the policy related to duties on wool and woolens in the U.S. followed during the last twenty-five years and the probable effects of the policy which is to come. In the quarter of a century which has now elapsed since the passage of the wool and woolens tariff act of 1867, the system of duties then established, and since maintained in its essential features, has gradually come to be the crucial part of the protective policy. The bill presented in 1877-1878 session proposed to put wool on the free list and to reduce correspondingly the duties on woolens. Whatever uncertainty there may be as to the disposition of other parts of the protective system at the hands of the present Congress, it may be assumed as settled that the wool duty will go, and that the system of 1867 will be replaced by a fundamentally different regime. The questions to be asked in considering the effects of a given duty are as to the domestic production and the imports, and the relative importance of these two sources of supply.

This article analyzes the phenomena of the financial panic in the United States in 1893. Panics in business communities may be divided into two classes, commercial and financial. The results of elaborate investigation into banking statistics from 1811 to 1892, covering eight panic periods, showing sharp checks in the growth of deposits coincident with continued free expansions of loans just prior to financial crises, must be regarded as not entirely trustworthy indications. While loans were expanding regularly, the like was true of deposits, with one exception, which was not enough to warrant belief in impending business disaster, when viewed in contrast with the more rapid rate at which deposits increased when compared with loans and discounts between March 1891, and October 1892. The years 1885 and 1886, following the comparatively restricted financial disturbance of 1884, comprised a period of enforced economy and recuperation. During this period of financial panic about $13,500,000 in gold was reported in transit for the United States, some of which was stated to have been purchased at from 1 to 2 per cent.

The article examines the status of unemployment in various cities in the United States as of January 1894. The data which are presented in this article are mainly derived from some three hundred replies received to a circular of inquiry sent to public officials and other citizens of all cities of over twenty thousand inhabitants, and of many smaller places in the U.S. The public agencies of relief, the various charitable societies, benevolent orders, churches, and labor unions have been unusually active in rendering assistance to unemployed in their special ways, and several mushroom and disconnected schemes of assistance have been put into operation from among the many that have been proposed. In Worcester the highway, sewer, and water departments have been doing much work that would ordinarily have been postponed. Many cities have adopted the alternative plan of giving assistance instead of employment. It is stated that several Connecticut towns are undertaking public works with a view of giving employment.

The article focuses on the bimetallist committee of Boston, Massachusetts and New England. The Committee is formed for the purpose of promoting the establishment of international bimetallism upon the general plan of the Latin Union, but with a broader basis. Those concerned in the movement, while earnestly opposed to the free coinage or to any increased use of sliver by this country independently of international action and agreement. A number of associate members have been admitted from other portions of the country, and it is likely that co-operating committees will be created in several cities. The Committee does not propose to make use of any political agency, or to attempt to influence, otherwise than through public opinion, the action of the administration or of Congress. Its work is to be educational. It will endeavor to instruct the community in what it considers the only sound theory of hard money, that of international bimetallism, preparing the public sentiment of the country for the adoption of this so soon as Great Britain's concurrence can be secured. For this the committee does not think that the United States ought to sue.

The article focuses of the U.S. tariff act of 1894. The most striking defect in the financial system of the United States is the want of some easy adjustment of the receipts of the government. For five years, beginning with 1895, a tax of 2 per cent, becomes due on the first day of July in each year on gains, profits, and incomes, in excess of $4,000, enjoyed in 1894 by any citizen of the United States or any person resident therein, whether derived from property, rents, interest, dividends, or salaries, or from any profession, trade or employment. The taxable income is to be subject to the usual deductions for taxes paid and losses incurred, but is to include all personal property acquired by gift or inheritance. The first point which invites attention in the general scheme of the new law is the singular provision for including in the annual gains, profits, and income to be taxed the value of personal property received by gift or inheritance. The difficulty of making a sound distinction between income and growth of capital has always been recognized.

The article focuses on social and economic legislation in the U.S. made in 1894. The Massachusetts "act regulating employment of labor" embodies nearly all the important legislation of that State directly concerned with the relations between employers and employed. The employer who, by contract with his employees, requires the latter to forfeit a penalty for quitting his service without notice, is himself made liable to a like forfeiture in case he discharges the employee without notice. There are special provisions against intimidation and against the conditioning of employment on agreements not to join labor organizations. There are very specific and definite regulations applying to the employment of minors and women in manufacturing establishments. The supervision of children in factories is carried farther in Massachusetts than almost anywhere else in the U.S. The exceptional cases in which children under sixteen may be employed are explicitly defined and provision is made for a system of "employment tickets" and age and schooling certificates.

The article presents a description of sections of the U.S. Tariff Act of 1894. The act requires that in estimating the gains, profits, and income of any person, there shall be included all income derived from interest upon notes, bonds, and other securities, except such bonds of the U.S. the principal and interest of which are by the law of their issuance exempt from all federal taxation. It is obvious that the draughtsman of 1894 copied easily and with the minimum of change from the act of 1867 then before him,--so easily indeed that he probably did not stop to inquire what the " premium" in the last line could refer to. In the act of 1867 the premium on gold and coupons measured the difference between gold and the depreciated paper in which the income was reckoned, but that premium passed away fifteen years ago. The winding up of the Barings liquidation has closed one of the most remarkable episodes in the history of the Bank of England. The total amount of assets to be disposed of, when the Bank undertook for itself and its associates to meet the obligations of the firm in 1890, was nearly pounds 25,000,000.

This article reports on industrial arbitration legislation passed in the United States in 1886. The years 1886 and 1887 marked an important departure in arbitration legislation in the United States. Up to that time five States besides Massachusetts and New York had passed laws providing statutory machinery for the voluntary settlement of disputes between employers and employees, New Jersey in 1880 and 1886, Pennsylvania in 1883, Ohio in 1885, Kansas and Iowa in 1886. Ordinarily, these laws simply provided for the creation of local boards of arbitration in each county, usually upon joint petition to the Court of Common Pleas of a specified number of employers and employees. Whether the legal formalities were greater or less, however, seems to have made no perceptible difference in the results. Diligent inquiry failed to reveal that the laws were of any real use. Even in States like Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Jersey, where resort to private arbitration facilitated by sliding scales and by standing committees representing labor organizations or boards of trade was found to be increasing, employers and employees evinced a decided aversion for the statutory machinery, and a preference for doing the business of arbitration in a way that best suited the exigencies of the occasion and the traditions of the trade concerned.

The article focuses on tenancy in the U.S. With regard to home-ownership, tenants can find areas in any limited size that is wanted, whether in the town or in the suburbs or in the rural regions. The average value of a home occupied by an owner, under encumbrance, in the U.S., is $3,250; in cities of 8,000 to 100,000 population, $3,447; in cities of more than 100,000 population, $5,555; and, in the country outside of cities and towns of 8,000 people and over, $2,244. But the poor tenant need not approach values as high as the average one, either for farms or for homes. Of the encumbered homes occupied by owners, 23.31 per cent are worth less than $1,000; and, of the farms, 16.47 per cent. The number of occupying owners of farms and homes is nearly large enough to stand for the number of landowners. To make their number complete, there must be added the land-owners living in tenant families and the land-owners living in the families owning farms and homes, in addition to the owners of these farms and homes.

The article focuses on some social and economic legislation that was promulgated in various states of the United States in 1895. Of the various laws affecting the relations between employers and their employees which were passed by the forty legislatures in session during 1895, comparatively few embodied principles new to the country at large. In some of the laws the prohibition is so sweeping as apparently to deny to the employer the right of making a simple statement as to the inefficiency of a discharged employee, on the ground that such a statement would be prejudicial to the man's success in getting other employment of the same kind. The legislation seems to have been based on the assumption that the service rendered by an employee must in every instance have been efficient, or else that the action of the employer in discharging an inefficient employee bars that employer from revealing the cause of the discharge. Of a somewhat different sort are the laws which continue to promote the welfare of the laborers who work under disadvantageous conditions. A number of laws relating to convict labor were enacted.

This article focuses on the ideology of new sectionalism in the political environment of the U.S. as of 1896. The new sectionalism represents a cleavage among the states, which divides the older and wealthier states of the East from the younger, less populous, and less wealthy states of the West and South. A line drawn from the source of the Mississippi to its junction with the Ohio, thence up the Ohio to the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, and along the southern boundary of Pennsylvania and of Maryland to the Atlantic, marks in a general way the boundary between the sections. Size teen states, with a population of 32 millions, comprise the East, and twenty-eight states, with a population of 30 millions, the West and South--an almost equal division of the people between the sections. The chief characteristics of this new sectionalism have been: hostility to railways; belief in an irredeemable paper money issued by the federal government; demand for the free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1; hostility to banks of all kinds; opposition to the issue of bonds; and demand for an income tax to force the holders of great wealth to contribute, according to theft ability, to the needs of the government.

This article focuses on some books on money, published in the U.S. In the book "The Natural Law of Money: The Successive Steps in the Growth of Money Traced From the Days of Barter to the Introduction of the Modern Clearing House, and Monetary Principles Examined in Their Relation to Past and Present Legislation," by William Brough, there is defense of gold monometallism. Brough's informing thoughts are two--that the gold standard has come to prevail in the most advanced communities through natural evolution, and that men ought not to interfere with the natural laws of society. Neither of these propositions is new, and neither nowadays will meet with a very wide acceptance. In another book "Labor as Money: A Story With a Purpose," by John O. Yeiser, makes another attempt at the apparently impossible feat of putting a thorough discussion of a difficult economic problem into the form of a readable story. The story is certainly a failure, and the discussion is in conclusive. It was very long ago that common, unskilled labor was first suggested as the most stable of values; but it will be a long time yet before it will be found practicable to displace all metallic money with labor certificates.

Discusses various aspects of finance in city government in the United States. Reasons for the growth of municipal finance; Conclusions made on the political nature of municipal finance; Significance of good financial reports.

This article focuses on the relationship between silver prices and foreign exchange prices in the U.S. and other countries during the period 1851 to 1895. In this discussion the author considers mainly those larger aspects of the problem which connect themselves with the proposal for international bimetallism, and not direct the argument specifically to the questions raised by the demand for the free coinage of silver by the United States alone. The latter demand, it is admitted on all hands, must find in many ways a defence of its own; while the special difficulties and objections which it encounters are evaded, at Ieast in good degree, by the wider proposal. Many of the arguments advanced in favor of independent action by the United States are indeed the same as those urged for international bimetallism; but many arguments advanced against free coinage in this country alone cannot apply against the wider proposal. The subject, even when limited to this stronger form of the demand for the rehabilitation of silver, can receive no detailed treatment within the limits of a brief argument.

The article focuses on the legal tender notes of the United States. The legal tender notes of the United States present now, as they always have presented, an appearance of great simplicity. There are still but two such issues, the United States notes of the Civil War and the coin notes of 1890: their legal tender power has few exceptions, and the obligation for their redemption is to be read in a few lines. Take away the confusing element introduced by the silver agitation, which is quite extraneous to the original conception of the legal tender paper. But, simple as the notes themselves may appear, it is by no simple process that the conditions under which they are now issued have been arrived at. The legislation on this subject now covers a period of thirty-five years. During that time there has been a rapid succession of important legislative acts bearing upon the legal tender paper and some administrative acts of equally serious import. The system, that is present today is a product, not of any compact declaration by the law-making power, but of a singularly complex series of laws and executive orders.

The article focuses on the effects of appreciation or depreciation in the value of money on the economy. In recent issues of the Political Science Quarterly, J.B. Clark, an economist has advanced a new theory concerning the influence of changes in the value of money. It has been maintained that of the two variations, appreciating money has depressing effects upon industry and enterprise, while depreciating money, on the contrary, brings a stimulus. Now, it is admitted that a currency has these effects when it is beginning to appreciate or to depreciate, and hence that a fluctuating currency is apt to exert the one or the other of these influences. But the view is advanced by Clark that, when the appreciation or the depreciation is steady and constant, business soon adapts itself to either of these conditions, counteracting its effects by an adjustment of the rate of interest. This theory is offered as a contribution to the discussion about the monetary system in the U.S., in defense of the gold standard, which is admitted to be appreciating; and attention is drawn only to the case of appreciation.

The article presents a discussion on the taxation of sugar in the United States. The sugar tariff of the period before the civil war, like that of the present, was primarily for revenue, and incidentally or secondarily for protection. As a source of revenue, it was much less open to the charge of weighing heavily upon the poor; as a protective measure, it did less towards promoting or preserving great inequality in the distribution of wealth. It is the object of the article to show the nature of the use of the tax for revenue purposes, to point out the extent and probable effects of the protection which the tariff afforded, and, finally, to give an account of some of the curious administrative difficulties to which it gave rise. The production of sugar in the United States has always been confined almost wholly to the State of Louisiana, while refining has been carried on in the great seaboard cities, especially Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Protection was afforded to the sugar producers practically to the full extent of the duty on raw sugar.