19451 B O O B AND PUBLICATIONS 257

independent representation at Washington. Before the war it was admitted on an sides that the last word lay with the cabinet in London. Now, says Professor Smith, it would appear from the precedent set in signing the Treaty of 1919 that the king cannot sign a treaty &e-cthg Canada except on advice of the Canadian Gov- ernment.

Canada has become a nation, and solemn and sweeping questions have heen raised thereby.

f

TEE BUDGET OF THE COMMONWTLUTE OF PENN-

Clyde L. Kmg, Secretary of the Common- Wealth. This budget and the accompanying letter of

Governor Pinchot reveal an amazing record of successful financial management during the 6rst two yeam of the present adminiitration. The state’s “inherited debt” amounted in 19s in round figurea to $30,500,000, of which $98.300,- OOO will have been paid by June 1,19!?5, and the remainder shortly thereafter. When it is re- membered that this debt had been piling up for fifteen years, and that the estimates of revenue for the biennium prepared by the auditor general turned out to have been too optimistic by about $7,OOO,OOO, the achievement looms all the greater. The deficiency appropriation tells the same story in another way; in 1941 the legislature was obliged to appropriate deficiency bills amounting to $7,- OOO,OOO, and in 1993 $5,800,000, while the present budget asks only for $177,000 which is mvered about eight times by money appropriated which will lapse into the treasury. Thus has been achieved Governor Pmchot’s pledge “to return to the healthy basis of pay-as-you-go at the ear- liest possible moment.”

The budget itaelf &s a financial document is

H. W. D.

SYLVANIA FOR TEE B- 1%5-19%7. By

of great interest to students of budget making, for it contains a number of significant innova- tions. Of these one of the most interesting is the use of charta and diagrams to present graphically the meaning of the figures. Thus the curve of expenditures by months for the biennium 19%l- 1935, the curve of estimated expenditures for 19fS.19e5. and the m e of actual expenditurea for 19SlSe5 (to May 31) has been plotted for each important department. These graphs show up the careful estimating of the 6rst budget, and reveal also some interesting capes of se~sonal

expenditures. Helpful charts of organization are also included. Corrective and remedial legislation is inserted in connection with the es- timates of each department. The detail budget shows for each department the number, title. and salary of each employee, and in connection with each department there is a summary by accounting heads. These aida to comprehemion will be greatly appreciated by all who have oc- casion to refer to the document.

An interesting evolkion is taking place in the form of our state budgets, tending toward clarifi- cation and compression. In many ways the fourth Illinois budget, which ha4 also recently appeared, makes an interesting parallel with the Pennsylvania budget. In size it is about one half as large, although containing about the same material. In choice of type it is somewhat more fortunate and in its summary it is distinctly superior. It lacks however the graphic presents- tion and the organization charts of the Penn- sylvania budgGt. The information contained in the detail budget is about the same. A usetul survey might properly be made indicating to what extent there is variation in form, what is now the best practice, and to what degree it might be possible to secure uniformity.

LEONARD D. WHITE. University of Chicago.

REPORTS AND PAMPHLETS

Michigan State Government.-A recent num- ber of Public Business, published by the Detroit Bureau of Governmental Research, is devoted to the constitutional convention proposed for Michigan in 1907. The pamphlet was prepared by Professor Thomas H. Reed and contains a great deal of information regarding recent efforts to amend the constitutions of other states. In accordance with a mandate embodied in the present state constitution, the people of

Michigan will vote in 1946 upon the question of holding a convention.

Another report by Professor Reed, also pub- lished in Public BuJineJ~, deals with the organi- zation of state government in Michigan under the reorganization effected in 1991. The author states that, while this reorganization materially reduced the confusion of authority, it represents a good work well begun but unfinished. Of particular interest is the appraisal of the newly