extraordinary profit, just as he bears his proportionate part of the loss in case his unusual effort produces no more than the ordinary more than the ordinary returns. So far as the laborer is by any industrial system deprived of his due, to that degree is the system wrong; so far as by any industrial system the workman is given what is justly his, to that degree is the system right. That profit sharing is an improvement upon the simple wages system, in so far that it is more equitable, seems incontestable.

It remains to consider some of the objections that may be urged against profit sharing as a system. That it is an innovation is no grounds for rejection; that it is to so large an extent looked upon by the workingmen with suspicion is no argument against it, though that feeling justifies careful investigation as to its cause. It is easy to say, but hard to prove, that any plan brought forward by the master would be hesitatingly accepted by the men, yet it is doubtless true enough. Perhaps the hesitancy of the men to adopt profit sharing is not lessened by the very frank declarations of the employer, that he desires profit sharing because it increases his profits and results in a peace that is very desirable to him. The laborer who has learned to consider his employer's and his own interests antagonistic, at once asks, "If this plan is so good for the employer, can it be equally good for me?" Unselfishness and philanthropy have not yet become the ruling motives of men's lives. Not yet does a plan recommend itself to the mind of the shrewd business man, or secure his approval, if it only proposes a more generous allotment of profits to the workmen in his employ. An appreciaAn appreciation of this truth, more or less vague, inclines the workman to hold aloof from this newfangled notion. If the men, as the employers say, work much better, more carefully and rapidly, and thus of course accomplish more under this system, may not profit sharing be after all a new invention, like the labor-saving machines, to get more from the men, to employ fewer laborers, and thus throw upon the already overstocked market a yet larger force of unoccupied laborers who would gladly barter their services for starvation wages? It would appear that this objection does not lie deeper than the surface. Profit sharing would not fit perfectly in the present order of things; it is not intended to do so. It rather aims to establish a new system than to add to the old. It invites the laborer to increased effort, but also to increased share in the product. It

could not, in the nature of things, well be proposed by the laboring class. They lack the breadth of view and the wise considerateness to make the proposal of equal weight when coming from them. Is it expecting too much if we hope that these very qualities which the workmen as a class lack may come to them as a part of the education in economy, foresight, independence, and manliness, which must come along with a general recognition of their partnership rights in the profits accruing in part from their labor?

Another objection, which is more serious perhaps, though still not inherent in the plan, is found in the very general method of limiting the "participation," as it is called, to a portion of the employees of the establishment. The qualification varies; the fact of limitation is almost universal. The most common condition is in the term of service. In the Pillsbury Mills a man must have been in the employ of the firm five years, to be a participator; in the N. O. Nelson Manufacturing Co., of St. Louis, six months is the required period of service. In many other cases only those who are chosen by the company for especial reasons are admitted to participation. An instance of this sort is that of Messrs. Rand, McNally & Co., of Chicago, who employ, according to Mr. Gilman, six hundred persons, but admit to a share of the profits only fortyseven. These forty-seven are paid, according to Mr. Gilman, "some $20,000 a year, which is equal to ten per cent increase on their salaries." Many of these employees are in “very comfortable circumstances." One would think they might be. they might be. If $20,000 is a ten per cent increase, the original salaries of these fortyseven men must be $200,000, or an average annual salary of $4,255, without the additional ten per cent. We doubt if any establishment in the country employing six hundred men has on its pay-roll fifty men each of whom receives $4,200 per annum as wages. The report of this house makes one a little suspicious of some other figures given in the book of Mr. Gilman-though its main facts cannot be doubted.

The most radical objection to profit sharing is that it is exceedingly hard to make the workman a co-partner to any extent without giving him the partnership right to examine the books and accounts, and publish to the world, if he so please, the status of the business. This difficulty is not insuperable. It demands a separate discussion, however. The

alacrity often in inverse ratio to the worth of their remarks. Fortunately there were among those early upon the ground a number of men of marked ability, exceptionally well qualified for the work of investigation. To their untiring zeal are we indebted for nearly all of the good and reliable contributions to the rich literature about Japan. Many, however, as are the books on the various subjects included under the general head, the really valuable ones are comparatively few. Among them must be ranked the two volumes in which Prof. J. J. Rein has recorded the results of his researches. In conformity with a commission from the Prussian Minister of Commerce, he spent the years 1874 and 1875 in Japan, "for the purpose of studying and giving an account both of the trade of Japan and of the special branches of industry there carried to so high a degree of perfection." Six years after his after his return the volume of "Travels and Researches" was published in Germany; and an English edition was issued in 1884. The work contained the best accounts extant of the geology, physical geography, topography, climate, flora and fauna of Japan, and valuable chapters on the history, ethnography, and religions of the Japanese people. Now, after a further interval of five years, the second volume is given to the public. In it we have the results of Prof. Rein's study of the "Industries of Japan." How carefully this book has been prepared is indicated by the author, who states that since his return from Dai Nippon, fourteen years ago, he has devoted to the task of working up the material which he had collected, "the greater part of the time and strength left him by the duties of his profession."

Prof. Rein entered upon the discharge of his duties in Japan in the painstaking and methodical way characteristic of the German scientist. Considering the wide range over which his observations were extended, the fulness and accuracy of his report, comprising, as it does, a multitude of details in regard to almost every topic touched upon, is very remarkable. That it is not equally ample in all directions, is true; but of this he appears to be fully conscious, and it could hardly be otherwise. The faults are chiefly omissions, not errors. Taken together, for although published with separate titles the two volumes really constitute a single book, we have in them a treasury of well-arranged information, much of which cannot be found elsewhere. More than half of the volume is devoted to Agriculture and For

estry, and Agricultural Industries. It is by far the most valuable portion of the book, most of the data having been derived from the author's personal observation. Japanese Agriculture in general, Food Plants, Plants of Commerce, Cattle Raising and Stock Growing, Forestry, the nature and use of the more important Forest Trees and other useful Japanese woods, and Gardening, are all considered in turn, and are followed by a chapter on the Acclimatization and Extension of Japanese Ornamental and Useful Plants in Europe. Contrary to the generally prevailing impression, Prof. Rein does not find that the soil of Japan is unusually fertile. Vegetation depends more upon climate than upon the nature of the soil; and thus it is that although less than twelve per cent of the entire surface of the Empire is used for the cultivation of field products, the food supply is ample for the population of 37,000,000. Compared with Germany, the area of cultivated arable land is to population as 11.5 to 47.2. This remarkable showing is attributed to the method of farming, and to the frequency and certainty of the rainfall, and the long uninterrupted summer heat. Although the Japanese peasant neither understands nor applies the principle of rotation, by most careful tillage, including subsoil working and repeated fertilization of the growing crops, the annual yield is kept from diminishing and the land from becoming exhausted. And yet Japanese agriculture is far less scientific than the methods followed in Europe and America.

How largely the transportation question enters into the profitable cultivation of land is land is strikingly demonstrated by the fact cited by Prof. Rein that the cost of carrying rice, which is the highest priced agricultural product of Japan, amounts to the market price of the grain itself by the time it has been carried only twenty miles, and on the poorer highways it does not bear a transportation of five miles. To a similar state of things may be attributed the preservation of the forests, which cover about forty-one per cent of the entire area of Japan; and in estimating the probable effect of the introduction of railways and other modern facilities for building up commerce and despoiling nature of her beauty, this should not be overlooked. Eighteen per cent of the whole, or nearly one-half of this woodland area, is under cultivation, principally to supply the necessary building material, the mountain forests being too difficult of access on account of the lack of good roads, though other

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conditions of traffic have their influence also. It is significant that the bare ridges of hill country and mountain side classed as desert land amount to more than a third of the total area. These, too, it is thought, were covered with forests; but having been denuded of them, the heavy rains had free course, and robbed them of their compost matter, so that neither natural nor cultivated forests are likely to cover them again. With these facts in view, Prof. Rein does not hesitate to say that he considers the protection and cultivation of the forests of the utmost importance to the welfare of the Japanese nation.

The chapter on Silk-growing is among the most valuable in the volume; but it is beyond the scope of this review to follow the author in the consideration of the many topics with which he deals. The second section of the book is devoted to a brief account of the Mining industries, which are much less important than might appear from the fanciful statements of early travellers. In the third section, which treats of the "Art Industry and Related Occupations," Prof. Rein ventures on ground much better explored than that which is the subject of the first part of the volume. Many of the topics have been more extensively and adequately treated by other writers. Of this fact he is not unaware, and therefore confines his observations principally to the scientific side, and to the description of the technical and manipulatory processes. There is a preliminary chapter on Japanese Art Industry in general, in which occurs the following:

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In all surface decoration the use of arabesques and other ideal curved ornamentation falls far behind the conventionalizing of straight lines." The German edition of the book is not at hand for comparison, but it is fair to presume that this novel use of a much-abused word is chargeable to the translator. Even Walter Crane or Lewis F. Day would probably "fall backward with surprise "if asked to conventionalize a straight line.

The first five months of Prof. Rein's stay in Japan were spent principally in the study of lacquer work, and the forty pages which he devotes to this industry are especially valuable, and contain much information that is new. Having set up a chemical laboratory at Tokio, he engaged the services of two experienced lacquerers, arranged a workshop under their direction, and kept a journal giving an account of all the work, in which he took an active part himself, for the purpose of gaining a

practical knowledge of the various processes. This incident is mentioned to show the thoroughness with which his investigations were prosecuted. At the same time all the materials used were carefully examined and analyzed, and afterward during his travels in the interior considerable time was given to observing the methods used in cultivating the lac tree and gathering the raw product. As a result of this patient care we have a treatise which is more complete than the best previous account-the Parliamentary Blue-book by Consul Quin. Of the four pages devoted to historical facts concerning the Japanese lacquer industry, it may be stated that this branch of the subject and also the artistic qualities of the work have been much more fully treated by other writers.

Considering its importance, the Textile industry receives far less than its proportionate share of attention, and the chapter on the subject appears to be mainly a compilation from other works. No mention is made of printed fabrics and the peculiar processes employed in their manufacture. Nor is anything said about the use of stencils, by means of which the Japanese contrive to produce very complicated effects, rivalling free brush-work. Information in regard to the manipulation of these, and also as to the method of mounting the loom for the production of intricate patterns for brocades and damasks, would have been very welcome. Embroidery may be said not to be considered at all, since it is dismissed in less than thirty lines. less than thirty lines. Wood and ivory carving also are but cursorily treated. In the artistic use of metals the Japanese have no superiors, and many interesting details are given concerning materials and processes. One of the most curious of these is an account of a peculiar decarburising process, by which the surface of a cast-iron kettle or pot receives a structure like that of soft iron or steel, and can then be worked upon with the hammer, chisel, and burin. Inlaid vases executed by this method, by Komai of Kioto, have been described by Audsley and other writers, who erroneously speak of them as made of wrought iron, believing inlaid work on cast iron to be an impossibility. Anything more than a mere outline of a subject so extensive was of course impossible in a single chapter; but there are some rather singular omissions. Much of the beauty of Japanese cast-iron ware is due to the fact that instead of multiplying the objects by the use of patterns formed to “ draw," wax models are employed as in bronze casting.

This is not mentioned, however; nor is any account given of the method termed kata-kiribori, by which the makers of iron sword-guards achieve such marvellous results. The chapter on Ceramics gives a general sketch of this widely-extended industry, and of some of the numerous processes employed. There is also a chapter on Cloisonné Enamel, and one containing miscellaneous information and statistics relating to trade and commerce.

The illustrations, which are executed by a number of different processes, are unusually good. A combination of heliotype with chromolithography is used in several plates with excellent effect. Especially noteworthy are the illustrations of lacquer work on which the full measure of realistic possibility in the representation is very nearly attained; but the very success achieved is only another proof that lacquer is incapable of satisfactory mechanical reproduction. A confusing mistake has been made in mounting plate V upside down, thereby reversing the relative positions of the illustrations of Tsugaru and Wakasa lacquer with regard to the marginal notation.

The work of translation is for the most part well done. There are a few minor slips, such as "consulate" for "consul." More serious is the neglect, in the directions for pronouncing the Japanese names according to the prevailing phonetic method, to give the English equivalents instead of the German. On the whole, however, the faults of the work are too slight to be weighed against its merits, and it must take a leading place as a work of reference on Japan. F. W. GOOKIN.

MAINE ON INTERNATIONAL USAGES.* This posthumous publication gives fresh occasion for lament at the untimely death of the late Sir Henry Sumner Maine. His Cambridge lectures, as Professor of International Law on the foundation of Dr. Whewell, delivered in 1887, are here collected, in an appreciative and sympathetic spirit, by two of his executors. That these lectures were in a sadly unfinished state, and in no wise fit for publication, according to the author's own standard, there is painfully frequent evidence upon their face. There are numerous instances of careless expressions, and several lapses from his own usual style, which Prof. Maine would

* INTERNATIONAL LAW: A series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge, 1887. By Henry Sumner Maine. New York: Henry Holt & Co.

have recognized and corrected. These defects emphasize the reader's sense of the loss which the world has sustained in the death of the eminent lecturer.

The substance of his work shows Maine, in this field, the gifted and observant commentator with whom we are already acquainted. He has the same broad oversight of the entire subject; the same faculty of historical retrospect; the same quick eye for points unobserved by others, and the same ready apprehension of their logical influence upon the development of principles; the same happy faculty of grouping events and successions of events, summarizing their relations, and explaining their status with reference to present results. Those familiar with his previous writings will recognize here the tones and inflections of his mental processes, as readily as they might his vocal tones. when reproduced by the phonograph.

Prof. Maine's lectures are a final review of the subject, embodying his own summary and conclusions. He supposes his hearers to have previously read, or to be presently studying, all the earlier writers and teachers upon International and General Jurisprudence. Under the injunction of Dr. Whewell, the work of this professorship was to be directed towards a mitigation of the harshness and cruelties of war, and their final extinction. Maine observed this limitation loyally, while expressing his despair of accomplishing anything in the direction indicated. Accordingly, about one-half of his lectures are devoted to illustrations of modern progress in eradicating the horrors attending ancient warfare, with some suggestions toward further mitigation; while the other lectures contain a general retrospect calculated to prepare the student for those illustrations and suggestions. It was the thought of the lecturer that Dr. Whewell was too optimistic in expecting this lectureship to be a practical agent for ameliorating the hardships of war. He points out how closely the Industrial Exposition of 1851, that triumph of Peace, was followed by a series of severe and bloody wars, so that Europe was "again full of bloodshed"; and how the vast, ponderous, and expensive armaments of the present day, surpassing all their predecessors, indicate an intrusion of war into peace," even more disappointing than the late wars themselves to the believers in the ultimate supremacy of peace. So it seems to the lecturer that something more powerful than a mere literary agency" is needed to reach the ends desired by Dr. Whewell.