constituting a pamphlet of 130 pages.* The meetings were harmonious, and a commendable spirit was manifested by those in attendance in the matter of subordinating the individual preferences of each country to the general good. It was recognized that international uniformity could be attained in this way only. A considerable number of American recommendations were approved, notably that providing for a rearrangement of deaths from violent causes, which will aid greatly in the proper presentation of the statistics of this important class of deaths.

The detailed results of the revision will be printed (Procès verbaux), and the revised version will be available, therefore, for the use of the United States Census, and all State and city registration officials, beginning with the year 1910. The opportunity of thus starting out with the mortality statistics relating to the actual census year, which affords the data of population with which the mortality statistics must be compared, is of the greatest value, and it is highly gratifying that the wishes of the United States for the advancement of the date of the International Revision from 1910 to 1909 were acceded to by the French government and the other countries participating.

In accordance with a resolution of the International Commission an official version of the titles is to be prepared in each language represented. The English translation is to be prepared by Dr. Wilbur, aided by the other American delegates and Hon. G. W. Knibbs, Commonwealth Statistician of Australia. This will provide precisely the same tabular list for all English-speaking countries that have adopted the International Classification.

The active interest of the United States in the promotion of international uniformity was accorded a very graceful recognition in the bestowing of the vice-presidency of the International Commission upon Dr. Wilbur, who was called upon to preside over one of the sessions.

The sessions closed on July 3, and on July 4 the delegates were received by the President of France and Mme. Fallières. They also participated in the sessions of the International Statistical Institute, which were held in the week following those of the Commission of Revision.

The next revision will be called in 1919 and under the auspices of the French government, unless other provision is made. It is to be hoped, however, in view of the great advancement of American vital statistics and the important part that this country has played in the extension of the International Classification, that the Third Decennial Revision will be called by the American government to meet at Washington.

C. W. D.

Exposé sommaire des observations présentées par diverses autorités statistiques à la Commission Internationale chargée de la révision décennale de la Nomenclature Internationale des Maladies. Deuxième session, 1909.

THE NEED OF STATISTICS OF AREA IN THE

UNITED STATES.

The writer recently undertook a simple statistical study of population density in the rural districts of the State of Ohio. He was very much surprised to find that, while population figures for townships and "incorporated places" were, of course, available in the United States Census Reports, there were nowhere in the State any official statistics of the areas of these local units. Even in Cuyahoga County, which contains the metropolis of the State, the county surveyor had only recently obtained the data of township areas. He had done this by measuring with a planimeter the surveyed maps of the county. Taking a hint from this method, the writer got his own data for the larger part of the State by measuring on a map and reducing to square miles those townships rectangular enough to admit of it. Of course, the results were crude, the measurements being inaccurate beyond a quarter-mile. Becoming interested in knowing in how many States of the Union this lack of data existed, he sent a letter to each of the forty-eight secretaries of state, asking whether "there was any compilation, printed or unprinted, of (a) figures giving the total area of each township in the state (or of other similar division smaller than a county) (b) figures giving the area of each town and city."

To these forty-eight letters thirty-nine replies were received. One State, Rhode Island, sent the figures desired, which covered, of course, a rather small proportion of the whole country's area. The answer of the other thirty-eight was that they knew of no such compilation, official or unofficial. In about twenty-cases the question was referred to some other department of the State government or to some Federal Bureau. One State surveyor said that he had long had such a work in mind, and hoped soon to get at it. Iowa offered to compile the data for thirtyfive dollars. In three cases the writer was referred to the United States Department of the Interior, whose lack had already been revealed when Ohio was investigated.

Professor Walter F. Willcox, of Cornell University, has gathered these data for New York State by the planimeter and map method mentioned above. But, as he did this as a purely private enterprise, it has not been included in this account of the status of public statistics of the subject.

This reveals again our woful lack in the United States of many of the most easily obtained and most elementary social statistics. It is exceedingly important, especially since we are coming rapidly to the end of our great free lands, that we should know more and more about the

quantitative relation of the population, particularly of the rural population, to the soil.

The United States Census, it is true, takes up the question of population density, but in a rather general, extensive way. Any intensive study is impossible to one not having access to the complete data of the Census Bureau. If, however, we had the area of every township, parish, hamlet, village, town, and city, it would be easy for any statistician to take up this problem. The only reason for choosing these subdivisions (township, etc.) is that they are the "enumeration units" of the Federal Census.

The purpose, then, of this brief article is to suggest to those interested in statistical studies the need of this particular kind of data, and to urge that a concerted effort be made to have these figures of area obtained by the Thirteenth Census. It would not be an expensive item for the census, though decidedly too expensive for private enterprise.

C. E. GEHLKE.

Social responsibility for the physical condition of labor is a new conception in political science and one of the most modern as well as difficult functions of government. The idea itself has been evolved out of a vast amount of human suffering and social distress resulting from crude methods of industry and ill-defined relations of employers and employees. The common-law doctrine of the complete assumption of industrial risk by the workmen employed in more or less dangerous trades, excepting gross negligence on the part of the employer, is no longer tenable, and gradually a policy of labor protection is being perfected, which, in addition to a more or less clearly defined employers' liability, includes community responsibility for the social consequences of industrial accidents and industrial diseases.

The principle of social justice which shifts the trade risk upon the trade itself and makes it a part of the cost of production is fully justified by both ethical and economic considerations. The modern state is chiefly industrial, for even agriculture tends more and more to become an organized and intelligently co-ordinated branch of industry. Under the modern industrial system, labor efficiency is a factor of first importance, and this implies a maxmium of disease resistance, physical

strength, and a long trade life free from serious interruptions caused by preventable illness.

Labor efficiency is but slowly acquired, and its conservation is as much a matter of national concern as the conservation of natural resources. Industry to-day is recognized as a branch of social conduct, and, in the words of Hobson, "society will insist, in proportion as it comes to realize its own good, that the industrial system shall in its structure and working be brought into conformity with the wider material and moral conditions of social growth." Just as the waste of natural resources will not always continue to be tolerated as a rightful exercise of reckless private enterprise, so the waste of human life, health, strength, and ability in industrial undertakings will be reduced to a minimum by effective social regulation and the strict enforcement of rational statutory requirements. The principle as laid down by Hobson in his "Industrial System," is that "the human worth of any given stock of material or immaterial wealth must evidently vary, and vary indefinitely according to the good or bad conditions of its production, according to the good or bad conditions of its consumption. Where it is made by vigorous workers, on short hours under good hygienic and technical conditions, it will involve a minimum of painful or distasteful effort, human disutility; where it is made by feeble women or children working long hours in some insanitary workshop or home, it will involve a maximum of this disutility."

There is, therefore, economic as well as ethical justification for a deliberate state policy of labor protection, and such a policy resolves itself, in its final analysis, into a complete theory of social insurance, conditioned, however, by rational state control of the methods and conditions under which industrial activity shall be permitted to be carried on. It does not follow in practice that the government itself needs to undertake the solution of social and economic problems by perfected methods in insurance, but rather that government insurance is the final alternative of a complete solution of the question of social and labor security unless the end can be achieved by other means.

At this time, however, it is rather a question of actual condi