Emil Lederer · 1911
Emil Lederer’s 1911 review examines the expanded coverage of the Austrian Statistical Central Commission’s handbook. He evaluates its additions through their relevance to public policy and their contribution to a comprehensive account of economic, political, and cultural life. Expansion takes place within a largely stable framework:
Die systematische Gliederung des Handbuches wurde bis auf einige Einzelheiten beibehalten.
English translation: The systematic arrangement of the handbook has been retained apart from a few details.
The review surveys new Salzburg landownership data, retrospective stock-exchange quotations, and hunting statistics. Lederer notes the generally increasing extent of private hunting grounds while distinguishing divergent developments among crown lands. Such observations show his interest in territorial differences as well as aggregate tendencies.
Housing receives particular attention because new statistical material bears directly on fiscal reform:
Ganz neu ist der Abschnitt über das Wohnungswesen (XVII), besonders wichtig wegen der geplanten Reform der Gebäudesteuer.
English translation: Entirely new is the section on housing (XVII), which is especially important on account of the planned reform of the building tax.
The use of house-rent tax results allows the handbook to differentiate housing-market size and rental classes and to indicate their respective contributions to tax revenue. Lederer nevertheless regrets the absence of comparisons with the housing inquiry undertaken during the 1900 census, while acknowledging that its coverage was limited to larger cities. His reservation qualifies the value of expanded reporting: new classifications become more informative when they can be related to earlier observations.
Surveys of nonprofit small dwellings and workers’ houses further extend the evidence available on housing conditions. The closing discussion turns to foreign trade, motor vehicles, corporate profitability, provincial elections, and education, with particular appreciation for the treatment of crown-land finances and autonomous municipal budgets.
Lederer’s favorable assessment rests on the handbook’s increased capacity to make collective social phenomena intelligible. Coverage, comparability, and practical relevance are the review’s central evaluative criteria, bounded by recognition that statistical inquiry can represent only those aspects of social life accessible to its methods.
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