as to the quality and authoritativeness of the other portions of the book.

The volume contains no bibliography of the voluminous periodical and pamphlet literature issued on this subject in this country and abroad during the war.

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

J. F. STEINER

The Ethics of Co-operation. By JAMES H. TUFTS. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1918. Pp. 73. $1.00.

In this suggestive and readable lecture, delivered at the University of California on the Weinstock foundation, Professor Tufts has outlined a social ethic in which the discussion turns upon the three types of solutions for the problem of human association, namely, dominance, competition, and co-operation. "The greatest of these is co-operation," which provides "the touchstone for the others." The problem is approached from the point of view of certain goods dear to humanity, such as liberty, power, justice, rather than "from the formulations of philosophers." It is argued that a social order based upon co-operation best promotes these goods.

The writer then sketches the rôles of dominance, competition, and co-operation in government, religion, commerce, and industry in the past in order to throw light upon co-operation in relation to the international situation. He thinks that "co-operation has asserted itself step by step" in the past. The low ethical standards accompanying co-operation in business at present are due to the fact that such co-operation as exists, being the product of selfish motives, is largely unintentional and unmoral. Furthermore the unequal conditions under which competition has taken place have made difficult any extension of real co-operation. On the ethics of business the author takes high ground. "I cannot see," he writes, "why it should be thought unworthy of a statesman or a judge to use the political structure for his own profit, but perfectly justifiable for a man to exploit the economic structure for private gain" (p. 41). These are brave words and true. Co-operation is the only solution of international issues. Its greatest enemies here are survivals of dominance, nonsocial competition especially in trade, and narrow nationalims. International co-operation implies free trade or the elimination of non-social competition in foreign relations.

In a single lecture, covering so much ground, a certain amount of formalism is of course to be expected. Dominance is used with a bad and co-operation with a good connotation, for which undoubtedly critical support would be provided in a more extended discussion. In reality both are relative terms. What differentiates the dominance of Kaiser from that of Demos? Is the dominance of the will of the majority in a democracy an evil? Is there not a very real sense in which the dominance of public sentiment is even more fundamental in a democracy than co-operation? Co-operation is a relative term. During the war Germany excelled the allies in co-operation. The most brilliant illustrations of co-operation in American society appear in corrupt politics and the questionable creations of big business. It would almost seem as though in sheer skill in organization and co-operation the forces of evil have had the better of the forces of righteousness. Not so much co-operation as the principles involved, the ends sought, is the important thing. Co-operation abstractly taken is exposed to the criticisms that have been levelled at the term upon which Royce sought to build his ethics, namely, loyalty.

In his closing section on the interaction of ideas and institutions Professor Tufts has suggested how this formalism might be eliminated by a psychological analysis of the social situation. He has wisely eschewed "the formulations of the philosophers" in this short essay but obviously some theory of society is needed before we can give to these general terms exactness of meaning. It is to be hoped that Professor Tufts will expand this sketch into a social ethics or perhaps a social philosophy. Certainly few among the philosophers are better equipped than he to give us this much needed interpretation of modern life.

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

JOHN M. MECKLIN

Jewish Contributions to Civilization. By JOSEPH JACOBS. Philadelphia: The Conat Press, 1919. Pp. 334. $1.50.

A main purpose of the present volume is a defence of the Jews against alleged facts and conclusions as pointed out by historical writers and critics of the race. To adequately meet these critics it is not sufficient merely to answer the arguments advanced: it is necessary to present an affirmative statement showing the capacity of the group to contribute valuable elements to Western civilization. In last resort,

the value of the Jews, or of any other group, lies in their ability to contribute indispensable elements to the advancement of world-culture. This capacity, according to Dr. Jacobs, can be demonstrated only on the basis of past and present achievement. So he turns to history and attempts a determination and an evaluation of Jewish achievement during the past two thousand years. The general trend of the discussion is to show that the Jews of the present time are, in capacity to produce intellectual genius, superior to any other group. Further, this intellectual superiority is a racial and biological thing; in the words of Dr. Jacobs, a superiority of germ-plasm.

Along these lines, Dr. Jacobs fails, to convince. Aside from the probable untenability of the thesis, the failure seems to lie in the assumption that racial and individual accomplishment is an infallible index of racial and individual capacity.

But this innate superiority in mental capacity is supplemented by the superiority of certain Jewish institutions, especially the religion of the people. To religion and especially to the Bible Dr. Jacobs gives the credit not alone for Jewish accomplishment but for the whole of Western civilization as well. "The Jews have been made what they are by the Bible." "The Jews are a creation of the Bible." It was because of this book that they retained, in spite of their dispersion in many lands, the cohesive elements which go to make up a people. Not only that; the Bible "in large measure, laid the foundations of European civilization." It was from the Jewish Bible that Europe learned the fundamentals of social justice and righteousness. "Without the Bible and Bible religion Europeans would, so far as we know, still be worshipping the gods, probably with animal sacrifices." All of this is so at variance with simple, objective fact that it is only the constant reiteration of the idea which convinces the reader that Dr. Jacobs desires that it be taken seriously.

To the student of social science, however, the chief interest in the volume lies in the theory which it advances to explain the anti-Jewish sentiment. This prejudice seems to have existed in Persia, in Greece, and in Rome, and to have been due in these places to the fact that the chief bond of union in the ancient city-states was the common worship of a local deity. The Jew with his one-god system could not share the worship and remain a Jew. As a result of this he was "regarded with disfavor by the ruling classes and, as a consequence, with contempt and hatred by the mob." The same principle of explanation is used to account for the more modern expression. Bismarck,

in the latter days of his career as Imperial Chancellor, revived the prejudice in order to use it as a tool to discredit the National Liberal Party in the Reichstag. This revival tended to center around the newer doctrines of race and nationality but otherwise did not differ from the earlier expression. The prestige of Prussia made her an example to be imitated in this as in other respects by the remainder of the German Empire. Germany being the ideal for the reconstruction of the most of the other European states, her Jewish hatred was imitated by the others. Even in England and America there was a revival of the antiJewish feeling.

The peculiar practices and beliefs of the Jews, the fact that they are aliens in most Western lands, and the fact that their characteristic physical appearance makes their identification as of a different race comparatively easy, are important, in Dr. Jacobs' opinion, only in accounting for the ease with which anti-Jewish sentiment spreads. These things form a nucleus about which the sentiment can crystallize but are in no sense an explanation of the sentiment itself. That is a creation of the upper and ruling classes and persists among the people because it is supported by the opinions of men above them. It is not due to any difference in racial temperaments. It is a purely artificial thing and throughout the ages has been propagated "as a part of political and ecclesiastical policy."

As disguised propaganda designed to foster a nationalistic or racial sentiment in a disintegrating religious sect the book is particularly well done. As a side-light on Jewish psychology it is not without its points of value to the student of social and race psychology. As a scientific study the book is not valuable.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

E. B. REUTER

The Gary Schools, a General Account. By ABRAHAM FLEXNER and FRANK P. BACHMAN, General Education Board, New York, 1918.

Careful study of this summary of a searching but dispassionate survey of the Gary schools will have a sobering effect on the rapidly increasing group of persons who turn to educational reforms for effective means of reconstructing a war-wrecked world. The demand that a fine equipment, an ingenious organization, and an exceptionally sound adjustment of the curriculum to social needs and to child psychology shall be supplemented by a capacity for "taking infinite pains" in caring

for administrative details is a challenge to perfection which must prove stimulating to conscientious educators.

Credit is given, in this audit of the Gary school system, for the development of a type of organization which permits the instruction of a maximum number of children in a plant having modern facilities, and for consistent efforts to develop through school life the characteristics desirable in citizens of a democracy. A person familiar with the deadening round of the average public school class room will find high praise in the authors' declaration: "Gary appeals to the co-operative spirit, relies on it, believes in it, gives it something to do at times perhaps unwisely and to excess. In any event the schools are rich in color and movement, they are places where children live as well as learn, places where children obtain educational values, not only through books, but through genuine life-activities. The Gary schools make a point not only of the well-known measurable abilities, but of happiness and appreciation which cannot be measured even though they may be sensed."

Is it possible to retain this spontaneity and freedom for personal initiative on the part of both teachers and pupils and at the same time to give the disciplinary supervision which will result in a mastery of the tools of learning, exactness in the execution of details of necessary tasks, and such perfection of output as will be demanded in the world's markets? Here we have the familiar problem which has been the central theme of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister and of innumerable other educational treatises. The Gary experiment has attracted attention largely because of the belief that no previous scheme adapted to conditions in our public schools has offered such possibilities for balancing these conflicting interests. Weaknesses revealed by the investigation are charged to failures in execution rather than to lack of soundness in the plans of organization.

Greater central control is proposed as a remedy for the dead and mechanical classroom instruction, for the failure to teach thoroughly the common branches, for the slovenly standards in industrial work, and for the wasteful irregularities in details of school administration. Discretion in applying this remedy will be necessary, since in dealing with teachers as with pupils care should be given to the preservation of democratic ideals, enthusiasm, and personal initiative. A sounder but less immediate remedy is suggested by the reports of the investigators of satisfactory results obtained by teachers with an intelligent grasp of the educational principles of the plan, and with ability in applying