to succeed to at least the great majority of the posts at the top. Assuming that a suitable career is offered, the success of an administration depends in great measure on the methods adopted for choosing and training the young men who are to lead; and, in the writer's opinion, we in this country are still some distance from finality in this matter.

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Recent discussions disclose a sharp difference of opinion on the question whether recruits should be chosen at the end of the ordinary university courses and put to work without further training, or should be selected while at school, and required to proceed to a university, where they would complete a liberal education in studies which would at the same time afford definite professional training for the work before them. The former system is at present accepted by the authorities in this country, while the latter was recommended for India by the last Public Services Commission, but has been rejected by the Secretary of State. The arguments by which the alternatives are supported are too elaborate to be presented adequately in a brief summary; and it is quite possible that both sides may be right, and that different administrations may rely with advantage on different methods of recruitment. But, without going further into this discussion, the suggestion may be offered that the next move should be and made by the universities. The proposal has been put e forward that they should establish special Honour Schools for the small number of candidates selected annually for the Indian civil service; it would perhaps be more inf accordance with the needs of the situation that they should establish Honour Schools of Public Affairs, designed for the benefit of all portions of the Empire, a and providing the last stage of a liberal education which would fit the student either for administrative duties or for a political career.

There are obvious objections to the indefinite multiplication of courses, but the question turns largely on the resources of different institutions; and in some cases only minor modifications would be needed to bring an existing school within the definition I have given. The course of reading would inevitably be based mainly on the cognate sciences of jurisprudence, politics and

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economics, arrangements for the teaching of which are already in existence, but its value, both to future public men and to future public servants, would be greatly enhanced by the inclusion of the science of administration and the provision of adequate equipment for its study. Most aspirants to a public career hope eventually to take a prominent part in the work of administration; and it is surely desirable that they should start with a knowledge of the underlying theory, knowledge which is already indispensable to the expert administrators of the future. Opinions will doubtless differ as to the merits of this specific proposal; the precise arrangements to be made for facilitating the study of administrative theory are matter for separate and detailed discussion, but of the need for increased facilities there can be no Iserious question.

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I have now sketched the main lines of that theory as it presents itself to me. The account which I have offered is not only summary but incomplete, since in order to bring it within reasonable limits I have had to omit reference to many important branches of the subject, such as the theory of discipline, the limits of associated action by the staff, the scope of administrative law, the particular principles applicable to the administration of dependencies, the conflict between Service and professional ideals, and other topics which bulk largely in the discussions of the present day. Moreover, the scope of the science is likely to extend as time goes on. If we were to accept the views of some schools of thought which are prominent to-day, we should have to recognise that administration is destined to occupy much of the ground now assigned to jurisprudence and economics, if not also to politics; and, while the realisation of these ideals may appear to be improbable, there can be little doubt that administrative activities will increase. Even, however, at the present day their sphere is sufficiently extensive to claim the attention not merely of those who direct them, but of the wider public which bears their cost and experiences their effects.

W. H. MORELAND.

Art. 13.-CO-OPERATIVE LABOUR IN ITALY.

1. Manuale per le Co-operative di Produzione, Lavoro e as Agricole. By Felix Manfredi. Lega Nazionale delle Co-operative: Milan, 1914.

2. Co-operative Farming Societies in Italy. By Profs. A Mami and Serpieri. International Institute of Agriculture: Rome, 1913.

3. An Irish Commune (Ralahine), adapted from the history by E. T. Craig. Dublin: Martin Lester, 1920. And other works.

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THE tentative efforts which were recently made in England towards the organisation of building and furnishing activities on a guild basis naturally suggest a search for precedents. The theory of collective labour has survived to us from the Middle Ages; and here and there in every country and in certain trades we find it still being put into practice in a greater or less degree. Perhaps the most definite instance is that of the Russian 'artels' or self-governing workshops, in which a number of the poorer persons in agricultural districts combine their labour-particularly during the winter, when work on the land is at a standstill-for the manufacture and sale of small articles belonging to the category generally known as 'home industries.' The same method has also been applied to dairying and to the extraction of tar for export. These 'artels' are clearly derived from the early Russian village commune or 'mir,' and thus have definite and continuous line of descent from an earlier age of collectivism. Precedents of this kind, however, like the fruitières' of the Basque mountains and the 'positos' or grain-banks of Spain and Portugal, which are said to trace their origin to the activities of the Emperor Justinian, and are cited by a certain school of historical economists, following Prof. Gide, as the prototypes of co-operation in its modern sense, must be handled very carefully. Investigation discloses the fact that they are distinctly survivals rather than sources, and that, under pressure of modern conditions, they are rapidly weakening and disappearing instead of crystallising into new and fruitful forms of organisation.

When we turn to what may be called deliberate efforts

in comparatively modern times to organise production on a collective basis, we have to admit that the results have been anything but encouraging. The most determined attempts were those made in France in the first half of the 19th century. Under the influence of such men as Lassalle and Fourier, self-governing workshops of various kinds, of which the 'lunetiers' were probably the best known, sprang up in Paris and other French cities in considerable numbers. But, with the disappearance of the leading enthusiasts and the rapid growth of large-scale industrialism, their decay was almost as swift and complete as their birth; and to-day, with the exception of a few scattered remnants, hardly any trace of them remains. It is true that Godin's celebrated 'familistère,' the great iron foundry which perished only when Guise came under the fire of German guns, may be claimed by some as a monument to the possibilities of this type of association. But the Familistère, though it was unquestionably based on control by the workers, had nevertheless a large share of capitalism of a benevolent type in its constitution, and must properly be referred to the category of profit-sharing institutions, with the benevolent intentions of the proprietors carried out more completely than is usual.

The principles introduced in France by Lassalle had their reaction in England, where the Christian Socialist group, headed by Neale, Hughes, and Kingsley, endeavoured to imitate their example. The resulting societies have a history less meteoric than those of France but hardly more successful. In spite of the valiant efforts of the Co-operative Productive Federation of Leicester, which still represents a certain number of them, the majority either collapsed or sold out to the Co-operative Wholesale Society and other representatives of the organised consumer. The chief causes of this dissolution have been lack of discipline and difficulties in finding the necessary capital and markets. Viewing the situation as a whole, we may say that the workers have not proved the possibility of competing, with their own small capital, against the powerful organisation of modern factory plants and marketing agencies.

The significance of the Italian combinations, to which we may now turn, lies in the fact that they are specially

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designed to meet the existing conditions of industry. No attempt is made to eliminate capital or to create a new market. Tenders for definite work are accepted on the ordinary terms, and the collective feature is only introduced in such a way as to allow to the workers themselves the determination of the amount of work f and remuneration to be allotted to each man. It is in fact simply an extension of the principle of direct labour, with which we are familiar in the methods of those who r take contracts for such work as road-mending and certain building operations.

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In order to understand the appeal made by these societies in Italy, it is necessary to grasp the fact that int the northern parts of that country there is a very large of reservoir of unskilled and semi-skilled labour, and un-th employment reaches proportions unknown in most s countries. So lately as 1910, the ordinary labourer could d only count on an average of 95 working days in the do C year; and for the remaining three-fourths of the period just he had to subsist on the very low wages of those days. Adan To a certain extent the problem has been solved by in emigration to America, but in many parts of Northern ra Italy it is regarded with deep aversion, and of Romagna was Preyer records that the Romagnol does not emigrate.' Accordingly we find that, in the troubled times from orke 1850 onwards, the lot of the Italian labourer was an ac desperate one. The Italian Government and the local authorities seized the opportunity to kill two birds within one stone, by undertaking large works of reclamation, ca drainage of rivers, road and railway making, and so forth, which would relieve unemployment and cost little owing to the cheapness of labour. The execution of these

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undertakings was entrusted to contractors at a fixed rern price; and the profit made by these middlemen depended of course almost entirely on the extent to which they could victimise the gangs of labourers employed by them. This form of enterprise reached large proportions in the beginning of the eighties; and within a few years dis-the content began to manifest itself among the workers. The first articulate sign of this discontent was the forma

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Ition of bodies similar in many ways to Trade Unions, g

under the name of 'Leghe di resistenza o miglioramento,' the objects of which were (1) the raising of wages;

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