BOOK NOTES

Date01 June 1953
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1953.tb01686.x
Published date01 June 1953
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
outside to staff or help to staff Government
Departments, does not turn, as
it
would in
this
country, on how best to supplement
the regular Civil Service at a time of
expansion
in
emergency, but on whether
it
would not be a good thing for far more
emphasis to be placed
in
the normal way
on staffing from outside. The conclusion
is to some extent a compromise. Measures
should be taken to improve the quality
and availability
of
senior and administrative
and executive staff in the career service,
but equally more needs to be done to
ensure that senior executives from outside
can quickly be found and attracted. This
is particularly
so
for emergency pro-
grammes which
it
is recommended should
be staffed in the main from outside. To
read the record of
this
particular discussion
is to appreciate very clearly the differences
between the systems of government
in
this
country and in the United States and
how they spring from historical differences.
This whole record is in fact a fascinating
example of how two countries which
have certain problems common in
all
major respects, except size, can only solve
them by the processes which are acceptable
to each in the light of their whole back-
ground and history.
MARY
SMIETON.
BOOK
NOTES
Railway Commercial Practice (Volume
Two-Freight
)
Chapman and
THIS
volume is designed as a text-book
to
meet the needs of
all
who are concerned
with railway freight services, whether as
operators, users or students.
It
opens with
a survey
of
the technical processes and
transport requirements of the main in-
dustries of Great Britain, and proceeds to
describe the facilities which British Rail-
ways provide in order to meet these varied
needs, the charges which are made for
them, and the operational problems to
which they give rise.
Productivity and Trade Unions
By
H.
F.
SANDERSON.
Hall. 1952. Pp. ixs-312. 30s.
By
F.
ZWEIG.
Basil Blackwell. 1951.
Pp.
240.
21s.
THE
author investigates the effect
of
trade
unions on productivity by means
of
a series
of comprehensive studies, based on first-
hand interviews, of actual conditions in five
selected industries
:
building, cotton, iron
and steel, printing and engineering. A
brief introductory section is also included
in order to sketch the general background
of industrial life and labour relations in
this
country. One
of
the most striking impres-
sions left by a reading of the book is the
extent to which the trade unions are the
repositories
of
collective memories which
have receded from the memory of their
individual members. This realisation
lends added force to the author’s contention
that in the field of labour relations we
should always think in terms not
of
isolated phenomena but of basic situations
and of the group behaviour which deter-
mines them.
Exemptions
from
Rating
Incorporated Association of Rating ad
Valuation Officers. 1952. Pp. xvi+ 105.
16s.
A
SURVEY
of the various grounds for
exemption from rates, comprising chapters
on common law, total and partial statutory
exemption, and special methods of valua-
tion which may restrict the assessments on
which rates are levied. For each class of
exemption or special treatment the various
statutory provisions are quoted and then
elucidated in the light of the relevant
case law.
The
Worker’s
Point
of
View-A
Discussion
of
“Reporting Back
based
on a Study in a Coaljield
Acton Society Trust. 1952. Pp. 32. 2s.
A
STUDY
of the need for an effective
system for the communication of informa-
tion between miners and management.
The bulk of the report is based on research
carried out in a single coalfield, though
it
is
recognised that much of the information
handled relates not to a single establish-
ment but to the industry as a whole. The
present methods
of
reporting back are
described, their effectiveness is assessed
on a basis of factual enquiry; proposals
194

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