a punished man. In this volume certain important facts and suggestions are found, especially those relating to diet, cleanliness, industries, and educational agencies, and the hopeful words relating to Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth. The criticisms of Elmira Reformatory and of the Bertillon system of identification are not supported by evidence, and the prison structure of Sing Sing has been improved since this description was written. C. R. H.

Monsieur, Madame et . . . . l'autre! Histoire d'un scandale. BY VICTOR CHARBONNEL et la rédaction de la Raison. Paris: Société Parisienne d'édition, 1904. Pp. 333. Fr. 3.50.

We shall only mention this volume as a sociological document. It relates real and interesting facts which paint vividly certain customs of the political and journalistic worlds of France. It may be that these facts, being related by one of the parties concerned, are a little overdrawn, be it consciously or not; but, such as they are, they have their importance for the thinker, the sociologist, and the moralist. A. AND H. H.

Intoxicants and Opium in All Lands and Times. By DR. AND MRS. WILBUR F. CRAFTS, AND MISSES MARY AND MARGARET W. LEITCH. Revised edition. Washington, D. C.: The International Reform Bureau, 1904.

While this compilation is frankly a vigorous and partisan plea for prohibition of the liquor traffic everywhere and always, it is more particularly an impassioned protest against toleration of the sale of intoxicants and opium by the "Christian nations" to the inferior races in Africa and elsewhere. The volume is chiefly a collection of testimonies from missionaries in all parts of the world.

C. R. H.

The New Labor Party in England. - Within the last three or four years a factor has begun to make itself felt in English politics, the significance of which few Englishmen, and, as is to be expected, still fewer foreigners, appreciate. The new Labor party is a result of the trade-union movement. The British and Irish trade unions have now held for a long time an annual congress, which chooses a parliamentary committee " to represent their political interests.

Careful observers of the situation have felt for some time that a successful socialistic or labor party could be organized only through these trade unions, with their strong foothold in the centralized industries and their very great financial resources. In the year 1899 the Trades-Union Congress passed a resolution directing its parliamentary committee to call a congress of trade unions and socialistic societies to organize the political representation of workingmen.

The result was that in February, 1900, there met in London a gathering composed of delegates from sixty-seven trade unions having a membership of 545,316, and three socialistic societies, namely, the Independent Labor Party (the "I. L. P.," so called), the Social-Democratic Federation, and the Fabian Society. These three societies had an aggregate membership of 22,861. At this convention a Labor Representation Committee was chosen from among the delegates of the constituent bodies just mentioned.

The principal question at this first congress and also later was the position of the new organization relative to the existing political parties. The formation of an independent party seemed a difficult and expensive undertaking; but, on the other hand, a Conservative minority among the trade-unionists made it impossible to swing the full strength of the new movement to the side of the Liberals. In view of these difficulties a policy was finally agreed upon, by which labor members of Parliament were to hold together on all questions relating to labor, but were free otherwise to ally themselves with either of the old parties.

This arrangement continued in force for two or three years, during which time the movement was rapidly gaining ground, both in point of numbers, and in the winning of several notable victories by Labor Representation Committee candidates. In February, 1903, however, a change occurred. It was decided that henceforth labor candidates should refrain from identifying themselves with either of the parties, and should use only the word Labor " as their party name. The new party has organized itself along the lines laid down by the English trade unions. The delegates to the annual convention have one vote for every 1,000 members of the trade union, trade council, or socialistic society which they repreThe growth of the party is remarkable; from a membership of 353,070 in 1900-1901, it has increased to 956,025 for the year 1903-4. In general the great majority of the English trade-unionists have given their allegiance to the new movement, with the notable exception, however, of some 450,000 miners, who, with their six representatives in Parliament, hold fast to the Liberal party.

sent.

The Labor party has as yet no official program; its own organization has, up to the present, formed its principal aim. Beyond the nationalization of the railroads, and the reform of trade-union legislation, nothing to which it has lent its support has proceeded farther than the usual Liberal program.

The relation of the new party to socialism is a complicated one. The positive ideas of the socialists are constantly winning more and more ground among the trade-unionists, who seem to feel little or no hostility to socialism. If the earnest and capable socialist leaders are able to wait, and not press forward too rapidly, the future of the Labor party is undoubtedly in their hands.

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So far as the next parliamentary elections are concerned, the new party may count with considerable certainty upon having twenty, perhaps thirty, and possibly even forty, representatives elected.- EDWARD R. PEASE, 'Die neue Arbeiterpartei in England," Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, Vol. XIX (1904), P. 3. E. B. W.

Fashion. - Two opposing tendencies are ever manifested in human life; one sets in the direction of socialistic uniformity, of conformity to type, of passive acquiescence; the other makes for change and innovation, for the restlessness of individual initiative struggling to pass beyond the bounds of social convention. The former tendency is generally maintained by the psychological principle of imitation.

Fashion combines and satisfies in an especial manner both of these contrasted and yet complementary tendencies; for the essential of fashion is a specialized sort of conformity, which is nevertheless not without a certain individuality. Fashion signifies uniformity within a certain limited group, whose members are complacent in the assurance that they are conspicuously marked off and differentiated from all outside of the group.

Clothing, social conduct, amusements, constitute the specific field of fashion; for here no dependence is placed on really vital motives of human action; no objective justification is necessary, and these fields are accordingly relinquished to a rule which becomes unendurable in the matter of religious faith or scientific interests.

The savage

Fashion increases in mutability with the growth of civilization. has a deep-rooted distrust of what is new and unfamiliar, but the civilized man has risen superior to this feeling of insecurity in the presence of the novel. He has, moreover, neither the deep-seated hostility which suffices to maintain group demarkations among the uncivilized, nor the mental stimulus of new and vivid impressions which satisfies the need of change among primitive men.

As was hinted at above, fashion makes possible a kind of social obedience which at the same time has elements of individual initiative. The dude, for example, who practices a variation from the prevailing style upon the quantitative side in that he goes to the last extreme in his use of the fashion, is both, in a sense, a leader and a follower. In this connection we may find a parallel in democracy, which leads persons to seek the dignity and sensation of command, but tends to a confusion and ambiguity of sensations and a failure to distinguish between ruling the mass and being ruled by it.

It is curious to note that the very negation of the dicta of fashion becomes at times fashionable, just as atheism has been made into a religion and freedom has grown intolerant and arbitrary.

In regard to woman, if one may venture to generalize, greater similarity among the different members of her sex, together with the weakness of her social position, at least until very recently, goes to explain her regard for custom, for what is generally accepted, and, at the same time, her anxiety for all the relative individualization and personal conspicuousness that remain. And these are elements which compensate in a certain sense for her lack of position in a class based on a calling or profession.

By a strict conformity to all outward social requirements, sensitive and delicate natures often throw a veil over their personal feelings and tastes, fearing lest a peculiarity in externals may betray a peculiarity of their innermost soul. The trivialities and commonplaces of conversation are but a mask which prevents one from looking into the depths of the individual soul. Thus by relinquishing to conventionality the externals of life, we save for ourselves, independent and intact, the citadel of our innermost experiences.

The feeling of shame results from the isolation of the individual; hence it happens that as soon as he feels the sanction of fashion, that is, of concerted action, he loses the sense of embarrassment and modesty. Indeed, many fashions tolerate breaches of modesty which, if suggested to the individual alone, would be angrily repudiated.- GEORG SIMMEL, International Quarterly, October, 1904.

E. B. W.

Suicide in Cities. In spite of the difficulties in the way of accurate statistics of suicide, such as, for example, uncertainty in regard to the number by drowning, there is nevertheless valuable statistical material accessible, as in the reports issued by the city of Munich, which extend to sixty-one cities of Germany, and present very interesting results in regard to the influence of the city and of the inclinations of its inhabitants upon suicide.

It has long been known that suicides are more frequent in cities than in the country indeed, according to Rehfisch, from two to three times as frequent. This is not surprising when it is considered that in the cities the struggle for existence is carried on with the greatest keenness, and that there nervous tension reaches its highest pitch. The increasing differentiation of economic and social life in the city, the necessity of labor on the part of several members of the family in order to provide support, the inroads of alcoholism under these circumstances, and the deficient physique transmitted to children by overworked or debauched parents all of these factors are significant in their influence upon suicide.

In an examination of the frequency of suicides in cities, there are two points which it is necessary to keep in view. One is the relation between the percentage of suicides in the given city, and that in the district in which the city lies. Where the average of the district is high, there the suicides in cities will be still a little higher; and where it is low, as in the Rhineland, the figures for suicides in the cities of the district will show a perceptible rise.

A second important factor is the effect of an increase in the population of cities upon the percentage of suicides. Not less than twenty-six of the sixty-one cities in the Munich report show a perhaps unexpected decrease in suicides along with a remarkable increase in population; in a number more the proportion between population and suicides does not change; while in the remaining cities there has been an insignificant increase in the number of suicides.

In view, however, of the short period covered by the statistics, it is not to be hastily concluded that the increase of city populations has in reality no effect upon the prevalence of suicide among the inhabitants.

When we turn from the comparison of suicide in a district as a whole, and in its cities, and give our attention to a comparison of the statistics of suicide in various cities of the empire, all uniformity vanishes. Large cities of nearly equal populations vary widely in their statistics of suicide, and the same is true of the smaller cities. The industrial character of a city throws as little light upon the matter, for the highly industrial cities of the Rhineland and Westphalia with their thousands of working-people stand very low in their percentages of suicides. Indeed, we do not arrive at a tenable ground of explanation for the wide variations, reaching from 0.70 to 3.72 suicides per 10,000 inhabitants in the sixty-one cities studied, until we take up the matter of the religious complexion of the districts and cities in the list. An examination of the cities in question reveals the fact that in general the cities having low figures for suicides are those of the Catholic districts, such as the Rhine country, while the cities with the highest figures for suicide are those where a Protestant population is predominant. For example, in the three purely Catholic districts of Aachen, Münster, and Oppeln, during the years 1892-96, there were 5.4, 7.0, and 8.4 suicides respectively, per 100,000 inhabitants, while in the three purely Protestant districts of Potsdam, Magdeburg, and Liegnitz the figures rose to 32.9, 33.5, and 39.4 respectively. In Bavaria the suicides among Protestants were two and a half times as numerous as among Catholics in the district. These facts seem to indicate an undeniable religious factor in the frequency of suicides.- DR. HANS ROST, Der Selbstmord in den Städten," Allgemeines statistisches Archiv, Vol. VI (1904), p. 2.

E. B. W.

English Prisons and Their Methods. The British public has had it frequently borne in upon them, especially by headlines in the press, that the inmates of our prisons are coddled criminals." This charge of coddling seems to have been accepted by at least a section of the public as the only criticism applicable to a system which its advocates regard as hardly capable of improvement.

Having had personal, though enforced, experience of English prison adminis

tration, I have naturally formed opinions and come to conclusions with regard thereto. I have no intention of making an attack upon English prison officials as a body. Many of them, I feel sure, are most excellent men, performing highly distasteful, though necessary, duties. At the same time many of them are devotees of the system as it exists and either cannot see or, if they see, will not admit that it is capable of improvement. The result is that prison officials become more or less a caste and regard the prisoner from that standpoint.

In regard to the "coddling," I may say at once, as one who has been subjected to what has been called by that name, that it does not in fact exist. It may astonish some persons to learn that the convict is far worse off today than he was when transportation was in vogue, and in almost every respect his lot compares unfavorably with that of a convict in any other civilized country.

Prisons exist for the purpose of punishment, and this should be kept prominently in view. In regard to the jail-bird class, English prisons somewhat fail in this purpose, by not making them feel their punishment sufficiently. For every person is treated alike, and accordingly everyone feels his punishment not alike, but quite differently. To one man it is a living death, to another it is merely a temporary inconvenience. The curse of the present English prison system is that it is not reformatory. It manufactures criminals, and it never succeeds in leading back the professional criminal to the paths of virtue, and does not even attempt it. At the present time the public expends £650,000 annually in maintaining a few thousand prisoners, who are employed in unremunerative labor and are discharged from prison in every way unfitted to lead an honest life. Those who are charged with the administration of the English prison system know that it is a distasteful and degrading punishment. They desire that it shall remain so because, as I think, they fail to see that a prison should aim at being something other, or rather something more, than a vindictive or retributive institution. The primary object of such a place should be the emendation of the culprit, and until such object is recognized, and not only recognized but given practical effect, English prisons will remain, as I believe in my soul they are today, forcing-houses for criminals, paupers, and lunatics.- H. J. B. MONTGOMERY, International Journal of Ethics, October, 1904. E. B. W.

Note on Funerary Ornaments from Rubiana and a Coffin from Sta. Anna, Solomon Islands.-Specimens illustrated on an accompanying plate in the article were obtained from graves of Rubiana, Solomon Islands, by Rear-Admiral (the captain) Davis during the punitive expedition of 1901. They are, it is believed, the first specimens of this character to reach this country. These specimens are studied in connection with a miniature basket-work, but containing a skull, probably that of a chief, brought back by Admiral Davis in 1894. These specimens are sticks ornamented with tridacna shell secured by rattan lashings. Inside the skull-house were found massive rings, also of tridacna shell. When these rings are compared with similar objects still in use, it seems highly probable that some at least were rough copies, made for funerary purposes, of rings worn by the deceased as breast ornaments.

Of these funerary objects the most striking by far is the large tridacna slab carved in a fretwork design, and measuring 27 cm. in height. This was doubtless originally the "door" of a mortuary hut, similar to the hut brought back in 1894. The design on this slab becomes interesting when viewed in connection with one of the smaller pieces. In the slab the design consists of a double row of small anthropomorphic figures dancing with arms akimbo. The design is represented in the solid portion. Now, it is quite a comprehensible phase in the history of artistic evolution that the artist copying a design in pierced work should pay more attention to the open spaces than the solid portion. Becoming conventionalized, the arms akimbo are seen as unmeaning curls, and in the small plaque the bodies of the figures disappear.

A wooden figure of a fish containing a human skull was also obtained at about the same time on the island of Sta. Anna. Sometimes a corpse is kept this way for years, the natives waiting for a great funeral feast. The inhabitants of the Rubiana lagoon had made themselves notorious for their murders both of white