American Economic Association

New BooksSource: The American Economic Review, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Jun., 1937), pp. 414-415Published by: American Economic AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/237 .

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414 Reviews and New Books [June

policy. The official stand of the Nazi regime against the "humanitarianism of the liberal epoch" (p. 305) should serve, perhaps, to make us alive to the fact that, as compared with fascism, capitalistic political democracies are at one with the U.S.S.R. in their adherence to a democratic utilitarian ethics -one which says that the hungry should be fed, the sick healed, and the dead decently buried.

LEO ROGIN

University of California

NEW BOOKS

BARTH, K. Das Bev6lkerungsproblem und seine Auswirkung in der neuen deutschen Steuerreform. (Leipzig: Hans Buske. 1936. Pp. 158. RM. 4.50.)

The thesis of this monograph is the necessity for increasing the German birth rate. The author points out that with no increase in the birth rate the population of Germany will decline by 1950, whereas the population of other countries, especially Italy and Poland, will continue to increase. He cites espe- cially the loss of men of military age. He notes, also, that the cost of a relatively large group of old people is a heavy burden on the workers, and points to the decline in the old-age benefit reserve since 1930 as a result of the increase in the group receiving benefits relative to the group making contributions.

The author believes that Germany is not at present overpopulated, and that East Prussia, particularly, will support a larger agricultural population. He emphasizes the lack of raw materials, however, and looks to population in- crease as a "peaceful weapon" toward territorial expansion.

The measures taken by the National Socialists to increase the birth rate are given, together with the resulting rise in the birth rate. The author emphasizes the special exemptions for children in the income, property, and inheritance taxes, and after discussing the merits of extending social insurance to benefits for large families concludes that tax exemption is the more effective means of stimulating population growth. He doubts the adequacy of present tax provisions (the birth rate is still too low), but he believes that they are in the right direction.

MABEL NEWCOMER

CLELAND, W. The population problem in Egypt: a study of population trends and conditions in modern Egypt. (Lancaster, Pa.: Science Press Printing Co. 1936. Pp. 146. $2.50.)

DUBLIN, L. I., editor. The American people: studies in population. Annals, vol. 188. (Philadelphia: Am. Acad. of Pol. and Soc. Science. 1936. Pp. 408. $2.)

GLASS, D. V. The struggle for population. (New York: Oxford Univ. Press. 1936. Pp. x, 148. $2.75.)

Mr. Glass's critical study of the birth- and marriage-promoting policies and devices which have recently been adopted in parts of Europe was financed by and carried out under the auspices of the British Eugenics Society, certain members of which look with apprehension upon the continued decline in British natality. One chapter is devoted to present demographic trends in England, the remaining chapters to the populationist policies of Germany and

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1937] Social Problems and Reforms 415

Italy and to the family allowance systems of France and Belgium. An appendix is devoted to family allowance systems in effect in other countries. The study is well annotated and contains an index; it is based upon statistical and docu- mentary materials and upon a half year's observation in Germany, France, and Belgium.

The author indicates that the populationist policies studied have been of doubtful efficacy. In Italy infant mortality has been reduced; yet the net re- placement rate of the population is falling steadily below the 1921 level. In 1950 Italy will contain about 46 millions and not Mussolini's anticipated 60 millions. In France and Belgium the family allowances have not augmented natality or checked its decline, in part because the allowances have been inadequate and not sufficiently adapted to geographical and class differences in family needs. The German measures have been in effect too short a period to permit a satisfactory appraisal. By 1934 natality shot up to a level adequate to maintain the population, only to decline subsequently. Whether this increase was attributable solely to the pro-populationist measures and, if so, whether such measures will continue to be effective, seems doubtful. On the whole it is probable that in each country studied the populationist measures have slack- ened the decline in natality. Mr. Glass seems to suggest that the small family has become a part of the modern cultural pattern, that the individual com- ponents of this pattern favor the small family, and that, therefore, an appre- ciable alteration of this cultural pattern must be effected if net reproduction is to increase. The increase, moreover, must come chiefly from the working class.

J. J. SPENGLER

SUTHERLAND, S. H. Population distribution in colonial America. (New York: Columbia Univ. Press. 1936. Pp. 385. $4.50.)

Birth, stillbirth, and infant mortality statistics for continental United States, Ter- ritory of Hawaii, Virgin Islands, 1934. 20th annual rep. (Washington: Census Bureau. 1936. Pp. 211. $1.75.)

Census of Puerto Rico, 1935: population. Bull. no. 1. Number and distribution of inhabitants. (San Juan, Porto Rico: Puerto Rico Reconstruction Admin. Washington: Supt. Docs. 1937. Pp. 10. 10c.)

Text in English and Spanish; tables in Spanish. World statistics of aliens: a comparative study of census returns, 1910-1920-

1930. Stud. and rep., ser. 0 (migration), no. 6. (Geneva: Internat. Labour Office. Washington: Internat. Labour Office. 1936. Pp. 251. $2.75.)

Social Problems and Reforms Public Administration and the Public Interest. By E. PENDLETON HERRING.

(New York: McGraw-Hill. 1936. Pp. xii, 416. $3.75.) This book is of interest to economists although it was written by a politi-

cal scientist as a study of administration. For years the author has been diligently surveying this special field, and after much further study he has brought together the results, assisted, as seems indispensable in these days, by grants from several research funds. The task undertaken was "an inquiry into the functioning of our federal administrative machinery." The book is primarily a factual study of experience with the chief federal

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