Book Reviews and Notices : Source Book in European Governments. By LIONEL H. LAING AND Asso CIATES. (New York: William Sloane Associates, Inc. 1950. Pp. viii, 437. $3.00.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400133
• Author: George G. Bruntz
• Date: 01 March 1951
• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Subject Matter: Articles

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capital and labor from declining industries; (5) afford guidance to export
industries; (6) encourage wide dispersal of industrial plants; (7) frame
a labor code relating to wages, hours, holidays, training, housing, and
general conditions of work; (8) supervise trade associations; (9) set up
public corporations (such as T.V.A.) to handle industries not suited to
private operation; (10) formulate price, interest, and credit policies; (11)
set up control of long-term foreign investments; and (12) develop inter-
national economic cooperation. The American reader may characterize
this plan as liberal or progressive political thought: it approaches and
includes most of Roosevelt’s New Deal and Truman’s Fair Deal. Or it
can be likened to Marquis Child’s outline of Sweden’s economy in Sweden:
The Middle Way.
Of especial interest to American reformers may be the advice, that,
first, &dquo;we do not run counter to national psychology and traditions, second,
that a nation is not made prosperous by policies but by the capacity,
energy and versatility of a people and third, that a misdirected policy may
stultify instead of stimulate these fundamental qualities.&dquo;
As a short and easily read review of recent economic history, this
book is a great contribution. It expresses hope for new values, great faiths,
and an all-encompassing social vision to give economic planning a dynamic
which will engage the loyalty of effective leaders and the masses.
PAUL A. EKE.
Economic Consultant,
Formerly, University of Idaho.
Source Book in European Governments. By LIONEL H. LAING AND Asso-
CIATES.
(New York: William Sloane Associates, Inc. 1950. Pp. viii,
437. $3.00.)
Nothing comparable to the collected sources on pre-~~Uar European
governments edited by Rappard and his associates was available to stu-
dents of comparative government until the appearance of Laing’s excel-
lent collection of documents. Selecting the most important documents re-
lating to the constitutions, the...