SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
Entice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsepsent review.] The Ruling Caste and Frenzied Finance in Germany. By M. Millioud. (Constable and Co. 4s. Gd. net.)—Sir Frederick Pollock bids us attend to the views of the Professor of Sociology at Lausanne, which now appear in an authorized translation. The first half of the book deals with the transition of Germany to industrialism and the rise of the ruling class to which the nation is so amazingly subservient. This is one of the mysteries of the war, " this wholesale assimilation of a people numbering 70,000,000 souls by an aristocratic, almost feudal ruling class, at once plutocratic and militarist." Tho fusion of this caste has been brought about thus : the power of money has brought the vasalthiest industrial class into political importance, and " militarism which is the mainstay of the aristocracy has been placed at the disposal of the ambitious capitalist through the prestige of armed force . . . more than once by nothing short of intimidation the army has become the means of achieving economic victory." Among the masses Pan- Germanism "is the outcome of a preparation which has been going on for three centuries." From the human side Professor Millioud turns to the economic. He goes into details and statistics of German methods of business. The gist is that the expansion of German trade has been too rapid to be sound. The great banks have dabbled too deeply in trade. The volume of trade has outrun credit. The keenness of the State to see foreign markets captured even at a loss has gone too far. Difficulties at home and hostility to German exports were making themselves felt. The crash of this frenzied finance was looming ahead. War was to be a distraction, conquest the means by which debt should be met. " Threatened by no one, Germany felt herself menaced on every side. She claimed to be fighting for very existence, and she spoke the truth. Her manufacturers, financiers, and statesmen had dragged her so deeply and by such methods into a war of economic conquest that she could not withdraw." There is no doubt a great deal of truth in these views, but how much comfort we may draw from Germany's difficulties is another matter : for if a comparatively poor and undisciplined Balkan State can fight year after year against different enemies, bankruptcy will not compel Germany to cease fighting yet awhile.
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