NOTES AND ABSTRA CTS I 5 1
dumb, blind, idiotic, insane, pauper or criminal. The necessity for this is now gener- ally conceded, and to a considerable extent such provisions are enforced. The ques- tion today is of protecting the American rate of wages, the American standard of living, and the quality of American citizenship from degradation through the tumul- tuous access of vast throngs of ignorant and brutalized peasantry from the countries of Eastern and Southern Europe. The principle of population is intensely sensitive of social and economic changes. Social classes have resulted from immigration. The general growth of luxury among certain classes has been a result. Americans refuse to perform certain kinds of labor because of immigration, rather than, as popularly supposed, immigration resulting from demand for such a grade of laborers. Certain general changes demand a change of attitude towards the immigration question. These are (i) the exhaustion of free public lands; (2) fall of agricultural prices; (3) the existence of a labor problem. Our highest duty to charity and to humanity is to make this great experiment here, of free laws and educated labor, the most trium- phant success that can possibly be attained. In this way we shall do far more for Europe than by allowing its city slums and its vast reservoirs of degraded peasantry to be drained off upon our soil. FRANCIS A. WALLER, in The Atlantic Monthly for July 1896.
The Cooperation Movement in France. The editor seeks state help but is willing to accept any socialized effort which promises relief. A beginning of coop- eration was made in 1848. The idea was to build up "productive" enterprises. Almost all disappeared. Under the Second Empire a new attempt was made, about 1863. The war of 1870-1 checked the movement. In 1876-7 the workmen's congresses of Paris and Lyons started anew. Resolutions favorable to cooperation were passed, but little was done. In 1879, under the leadership of Jules Guesde, a follower of Karl Marx, the collectivists gained control and a resolution was passed at the congress of Marseilles which said: " Whereas the societies of production and consumption, being unable to ameliorate the lot of any but a small number of privileged persons, cannot assuredly be considered as sufficiently powerful means to attain the emancipation of the proletariat, etc." Socialism triumphed. In 1885, however, a new start was made. There were in 1895, 1197 societies for "consumption" in all parts of France. They belong to the Rochdale type ; sell at retail price, for cash, and distribute a bonus according to the amount of purchase. There are only about 8l societies of " production " 40 of which are in Paris. The article gives statistics of German, Belgian, English and Italian cooperation movements. The difficulties of securing organization are the opposition of small shopkeepers who fear the coopera- tive stores, the feebleness of social cohesion, the tendency to expect everything from the state, and the antagonism between the rural protectionists and the urban free- traders. La Revue Socialist, April 1896, p. 407.
Economics of Improved Housing. Of 160,000 people in London who live in real model tenements, less than 25 per cent, reside in premises owned by philan- thropic associations. In America, out of avowedly commercial enterprises engaged in furnishing improved housing facilities, but one paid less than 5 per cent. Two semi- philanthropic housing corporations found in America paid 4 per cent. In Europe but 3 out of 29 commercial housing corporations failed to earn at least 4 per cent., while 19 earned 5 per cent, or more. Of the European .semi philanthropic associations, 10 out of 14 earned 4 per cent, or more. Of them all 88 per cent, were successful, 6 per cent, earned a saving-bank rate of interest, and the others earned less. This success has been achieved under favorable sanitary arrangements. The Peabody Trust in London houses 20,OOO people, and earns 3 percent, on property which cost $533 per room and rents for 52 cents per room per week. The < iuinness Trust earns the same rate on a weekly rental of 45 cents per room. The analysis shows that 5 per cent, and a safe reserve can be earned on model tenements anywhere at the customary when the cost per room does not exceed $500. Improvement in rapid transit facilities. especially if fares are reduced, has an important influence on this problem. It is not
i Me to make this class of buildings too attractive, for with moderate results par-
