The Future of South America by Roger W. BabsonReview by: A. D. W.Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Jul., 1916), p. 542Published by: Wiley for the Royal Statistical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2341017 .

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542 IReviews of 'Statistial and Econ,omic BooLks. [July,

effects, he will not wobble as he does between the view that " Rissia "achieved a remarkable feat in her transport of an army so great a "distance by a single-track line of railway " and his later view that "the operation of the Siberian and Eastern Chinese lines did give rise "to a degree of confusion whi-h greatly increased the difficulties of "the position in which the Russians were placed." The great achievement of the Russians was in the work of construction of additional crossing places, sidings, &c. Their failure to make good use of these works was deplorable. How deplorable can be judged by the working of the captured railways by the Japanese, to which no reference is made.

With all its defects this book fills a gap in railway literature, and we are grateful to Mr. Pratt for it. Still we hope that in another edition Mr. Pratt will see his way to rearrange the matter so that the work may be a miore connected whole. W.T.S.

12.-The Future of South America. (Illustrated.) By Roger W. Babson. viii + 407 pp., 8vo. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1915. Price (in leather) $2.50.

This book is written for the young American who desires to "make a dent in the world," in other words, for the young man with a little capital and plenty of enterprise, who wishes to make money. Some of the places where this can be done appear to be in South America and the West Indies. The possibilities of the several States and islands as regards trade and industry, and in some cases finance, are here set out by Mr. Babson after many years study on his part. He has travelled a good deal, and his remarks, besides disclosing the results of personal observation, embody the advice and opinions gathered in the course of interviews with Presidents, other public officers, and traders, in the countries he deals with. The out- look for that part of the world appears, on the whole, to be a very alluring one.

British writers on the practice of trade hardly ever fail to lecture John Bull for his slothfulness and lack of initiative in matters of foreign trade, and to exhort him to wake up and follow the example of some of his neighbours. After a course of reading on these lines, it is refreshing to find an American writer occasionally directing Uncle Sam's attention to the push and enterprise of the Old Cou.ntry. But we may find ourselves with a rival for our entrepot trade in- Panama ! This appears to be subject only to the condition that Panama will not miss its destiny by erecting protective tariffs.

In surveying such a large area as South America, country by country, in a book of this compass, the author is necessarily brief, and in some cases very cursory. But so far as we can judge he has many useful things to say, which it would be worth the while of everyone to read who is desirous of opening up trade in that continent or settling there to make a living. There is also a chapter for the stay-at-home, who simply wants to invest his lmoney in South American bonds. A.D.W.

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