for an explanation of rent and of the conditions of supply. Cobbett's herring was taken with relish by the audience, female as well as male. "Next year the Association goes to Australia." A CORRESPONDENT writes :-Recent economic and social tendencies in France have been responsible for the adoption by the French Government of a somewhat novel policy-the granting of assistance to large families. Among other causes the following have been mentioned as having contributed to bring about this result-the high cost of living, the lack of housing accommodation, the declining birth-rate, and the increase in the period of compulsory military service from two to three years. The law was approved on July 14th, 1913, and its provisions are fairly simple. In the first place, a child is defined as a boy or girl up to the age of thirteen. Every head of a family having to care for more than three children, legitimate or recognised, and being in straitened circumstances, shall be entitled to receive an annual grant in aid of not less than 60 nor more than 90 francs per annum for each additional child beyond the first three. If, however, the children are under the care of their mother by reason of the death or disappearance of the father, the relief shall be given for every child beyond the first. In the same way relief shall be granted for every child beyond the second if the mother has died or disappeared. Finally, children between the ages of thirteen and sixteen for whom either parent has signed a contract of apprenticeship are to be regarded as children under thirteen for purposes of the Act. The amount of the allowance is to be determined in each case by the municipal authority, subject to the approval of the Ministry of the Interior, and is to be paid monthly and in advance. The necessary funds will be contributed by the central government, the communes, and the departments. ALL this will mean more money for the needs of the State. The increased period of military service will only add to the burden. Consequently, while hitherto France has been one of the Great Powers whose system of taxation did not include income tax, a proposal has now been made to have recourse to this source of revenue. A Bill is at present before the Budget Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, and one or two of the details are interesting. Incomes to be taxed are such as are derived from land and buildings and from securities, callings, professions, or occu pations. Every taxpayer whose income is less than 20,000 francs will have the right of deducting from it 1,000 francs for each person dependent upon him, these being either aged parents or relatives over seventy who are without means of their own, or children under sixteen. Incomes under 5,000 francs will be tax free. Those over this amount will be taxed on a graduated system as follows: Furthermore, unmarried persons over thirty years of age are to pay on their revenue a surtax of 20 per cent. of the abovementioned rates. AN Oxford correspondent writes :-"The proposal to establish at Oxford a Diploma in Commerce and Economics' for members of the University 'intending to pursue a business career' was at the last moment, and rather unexpectedly, killed by its friends. At a Convocation held on Tuesday, November 11th, Mr. Sidney Ball, speaking on behalf of the promoters of the proposal, explained that the amendment introduced into the statute by Congregation limiting the Diploma to candidates who had taken the B.A. degree had rendered the statute unworkable and made it a contradiction in terms. The character of the proposal had been completely altered, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to adapt the original framework of the statute to what was essentially a new proposal. It was a proposal, moreover, which would limit the Diploma to an almost negligible quantity of candidates, while the teaching required for the Diploma course would cost the University a very considerable annual sum. The Diploma was devised in response to one of the suggestions made in the Chancellor's letter on the Principles and Methods of University Reform, though the actual proposal was formed on rather less comprehensive lines than the Chancellor himself had indicated. It cannot be said that the proposal commended itself to a wide section of the University: it was generally felt that the liberal education provided by the ordinary courses of the University was in itself the best training for business as for other professions, and that, in any case, it was difficult to devise a course which would really fall within the proper limits of University teaching. On the other hand, the active opponents of the statute were not numerous, and had so far failed to make any impression on the fortunes of the statute, that, but for its friends coming to their rescue at the eleventh hour, they would hardly have availed to throw it out. The rejection of the present statute does not therefore mean so much the abandonment of the proposal as its reconsideration. In the meanwhile the existing Diploma in Economics and Political Science provides an excellent basis for further development on lines specially appropriate to 'persons intending to pursue a business career,' and probably this is the best and safest line of advance, more particularly as the Diploma is allowed to count for the purposes of a degree." "In this connection, attention may be called to the work of the Oxford Social and Political Studies Association, of which Mr. Sidney Ball is chairman, Professor W. G. S. Adams secretary, and Professor Geldart treasurer. It has recently started a scheme of training for social work, intended primarily for students who have made, or are making, a study of social and economic theory and history, such as is provided by the diploma course in economics and political science. The course of training consists of two parts: first, the study and observation at Oxford, for a period of not less than three terms, of the organisation and working of certain local institutions such as the City Council, the Labour Exchange, the Charity Organisation Society, and the Poor Law Guardians; and second, an inquiry of a specified character carried out in vacations elsewhere than at Oxford, and a written report on its result. During the past term a series of public lectures have been given at St. John's College by wellknown experts on various departments of social and civic work. Great stress is laid upon clinical work. This term, for instance, students have paid visits to some municipal schools, as well as to meetings of the City Council and of the Poor Law Guardians." AN association has been formed in Canada, under the title of the Canadian Political Science Association, as "a national society for the full and free discussion of Canada's political and economic and social problems." Similar organisations in the United States, where they have played a notable part for a quarter of a century past, include many Canadians among their members. In December, 1912, therefore, advantage was taken of the fact that an unusually large number of Canadians were in attendance No. 92.-VOL. XXIII. X X at the Boston meeting of the American Economic Association, to discuss the organisation of a Canadian society. The first annual meeting was held at Ottawa early in September, when numerous papers were read on the aims of the Association and on various Canadian economic problems. Prof. Adam Shortt, of Ottawa, has been elected as the first President, Prof. James Mavor, of Toronto, as a Vice-President, and Prof. O. D. Skelton, of Kingston, as Secretary-Treasurer. Dr. James Bonar and Prof. G. I. H. Lloyd are amongst the members of Council. Appointments, etc.-Professor S. J. Chapman has gone to South Africa at the invitation of the Government of the Union of South Africa to act as Chairman of a Commission which is to inquire into wages, working hours, and cost of living in various towns, and also into the question of a minimum wage. The Commission was primarily appointed on account of the recent troubles on the Rand, but it is also visiting a number of other districts, including Pietermaritzburg, Durban, East London, Alice, and Port Elizabeth. Professor Chapman left England in September, and expects to return about the middle of January. Mr. C. J. Hamilton, who was Secretary to the Royal Economic Society from 1906 to 1912, has been appointed to the Minto Chair of Economics in the University of Calcutta. Mr. Hamilton has been acting as Lecturer in Economics at "Wren's," and held last year the Dunkin Lectureship at Mansfield College, Oxford. RECENT PERIODICALS AND NEW BOOKS. The Quarterly Review. OCTOBER, 1913. The Financial Difficulties of Federalism. EDGAR CRAMMOND. The Vagaries of Recent Political Economy. PROF. J. S. NICHOLSON. A review of recent works, especially Mr. Wicksteed's "Commonsense of Political Economy," and Prof. Pigou's "Wealth and Welfare," which are criticised adversely. Indian Progress and Taxation. LORD CROMER. Profit-sharing. PROF. W. J. ASHLEY. A study of the Board of Trade Report (1912), and other recent works. The Nineteenth Century. DECEMBER, 1913. A Minimum Wage for Agriculture. PROF. A. C. PIGoU. Economic Review. OCTOBER, 1913. On some Fundamental Notions of Economics. Bankers' Magazine. OCTOBER, 1913. Callable Capital in Banks. A discussion of the wisdom of reducing the uncalled liability in English Joint-Stock Banks. NOVEMBER, 1913. Report of Bank of the Netherlands, 1912-1913. DECEMBER, 1913. Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. The opening of this bank's new London office is made the occasion of some account of its progress. Women's Industrial News. OCTOBER, 1913. The Case of the Sub-Postmaster's Assistant. MRS. |