Review of Periodicals Corporations. "Pooling Agreements Among Stockholders." By William P. Rogers. 19 Yale Law journal 345 (Mar.). “Wherever one corporation is permitted to own stock in another corporation without restriction, an eflective plan for pooling stock can be easily devised. . . . But the stock holders of the holding company may change, and elect directors who are not in accord with the idea of thus controlling one corporation by another. Besides, there are only a few states in which one corporation can legally purchase and hold the stock of another . . . "The most feasible plan for creating the de sired voting trust is y means of a common law joint stock company. This kind of an organization requires no legislative sanction for either its existence or powers. . . . The sale of a share by one of the compan will not, if so provided, work a dissolution o the asso ciation, as would the sale of a partner's inter est in a partnership. The articles ma pro vide, however, that the purchaser 0 such share of stock shall not become, by such pur chase, a member of the association, unless acceptable to all the other members. Or he may be ‘given a right in the pro rty, income, or ividends without the rig t to vote, or to in any way partrcr
fe in the
management of the com n 's a airs. This restriction could not lega y im sed upon a stockholder in a corporation. ence, the joint stock company may be utilized to greater advantage than could a corporation. t is not beyon the wers of a joint stock company to purchase. old and vote the stock of corporations." 00st of Living. "An Old-Fashioned Theory of Prices.” By Prof. Franklin H. Giddings’ LL.D. Independent, v. 68, p. 443 (Mar. 3). A sprightly exposition of what the views of the classical economists Malthus, Ricardo,
and Mill on the causes of the resent rise of prices would probably be. ey would say:— "The whole world, in short, and not merely one small part of it, has arrived at diminishin returns. . . . Meantime, supplies of new gol of hitherto unima 'ned extent have been discovered and are ing cheaply turned into the money reservoirs of the nations. . . . At present, standard money of gold is produced under conditions of increasing return. The raw materials of other commodities are produced under conditions of diminishing return. 50 long as these conditions last, prices must continue to rise." "High and Low Prices.” By Prof. Edwin R. A. Seligman, LL.D. Independent, v. 68, p. 674 (Mar. 31).
"Whether at any given time the rise in rents, in wa es and in ood is counterbalanced and more t n counterbalanced by the fall in the prices of manufactured articles depends upon the relative progress that is made in the command of man over nature, and the forces at work in controlling population or
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raising the standard of life. The real problem of importance to the world is not that of high or low prices, for that is in large measure the result of an accident as to the supply of the money metal. The real problem rs one of high or low cost. High or low prices will ultimately take care of themselves; cheap or dear cost means the entire difference between progress or poverty." "High Prices and the Cost of Living." By Frank Greene, Editor of Bradstreet's. Outlook, v. 94, p. 569 (Mar. 12).
"Prices have gone down frequently in periods of large gold production, as, for Instance, from 1873 to 1896, and evidence is not apparent that the increase in gold supply or bank currency and credits based thereon have been greater than the increase in the world's business justified. . . . "The t cheapening processes witnessed from 18 0 to 1900 as a result of the openin of the West have apparently culminate, and there is an apparent vacuum to be filled either by the o mug of new lands or by the re-entry of the arms of the East or of Europe into the fields of roduction. . . . "There are evi ences that increased cost of municipal government operation has culmi nated in higher taxation, thus making for higher costs of wholesale and retail dis tributron in the cities. Then, too, the changed habits of many of the people, the falling into disuse of the old-time central markets, and the necessarily increased cost of retail food distribution must be reckoned with." This is one writer's ingenious solution of the problem of increasing prices resulting from currency deprecratron:—
"Too Much Gold."
By Byron W. Holt.
Everybody's, v. 22, p. 476 (Apr.). “If a salary of 82,000 a year is made payable in a multiple standard, com sed of the prices of one hundred comm ‘ties, and if, as happened in 1909, prices should rise an average of eleven per cent in a ear, the salary would be increased to 82,22 the next year. In this way the purchasing power of wages, salaries, rates, incomes, etc., could
be kept stable, and the inequalities and in justices of the gold standard would be largely overcome." Conservative and properly equip writers, it will be noted, attribute t e higher cost of living to the abundance of gold ro duction more than to any other cause. he tariff and the action of the trusts are not usually treated with such seriousness, in attem ting to explain a current situation. A we l-known writer on the trust problem reaches moderate conclusions which may be regarded as typical of leading opinion of the day : “Do Trusts Make High Prices?" By Prof. Jeremiah W. Jenks. Review of Reviews, v. 41, p. 343 (Mar.).
"The general conclusion. must be that the late great general increase m prices cannot be
