# The American Journal of Sociology/Volume 01/Number 5/Notes and Abstracts

WORKERS AND THINKERS.
CONDUCTED BY J. D. FORREST, C. H. HASTINGS, AND PAUL MONROE.
Report of the National Divorce Reform League for the year ending December 31, 1895. A Review of Fifteen Years. This brief document surveys the history of an enterprise which deserves much more extensive and sympathetic attention than it has received. The corresponding secretary. Dr. Samuel W. Dike, has been foremost among American pioneers both in theoretical and in applied sociology. This history of the movement in which he has been the most important factor is therefore a considerable contribution to the history of American sociology. The report is also a valuable outline of specific subjects of inquiry, and an indication of needed effort to be centered about the family institution. (26 pp. Boston: The Everett Press Co., 47 Franklin St.)
The Restriction of Immigration.—Measures for straining out the unfit will not be neglected by our government in the future. Americans are changing their minds about further admission of foreigners fit for citizenship. It may be that the past view and the present view are equally right in their relations. Certain ideas about the effect of immigration are untenable: (a) That immigration constitutes a net reinforcement of the population of the country. The population of 1850, in spite of a million and three-quarters added from abroad was only 6508 above what it would have been according to the estimates of Elkanah Watson in 1815, based on the rate of natural growth up to that time, (b) That luxury, other than relative luxury tends to diminish the birth rate. Prior to 1850 the increase of luxury in the United States, was in ways to improve natural vigor and reproductive capability. (c) Immigration was economically necessary because our own people would not do the necessary work. This opinion puts the cart before the horse. Americans never refused to do manual labor till the foreigners came.
The positive reasons for restricting immigration are, (a) our arable land is practically exhausted; (b) the prices of agricultural products have fallen below a remunerative level; (c) we have a glutted labor market and consequently a labor problem; (d) immigration now brings to us elements least like our own people, and centuries behind us in capacity for civil action. The wage earners and not the rich will decide whether immigration shall be checked. So long as the working people are willing to see their standard of living threatened by the admission of more working people, the invasion will continue. I am willing to leave it to them, whether, for the sake of the American standard of living and the American rate of wages, the ports shall be at least temporarily closed.—Gen. Francis A. Walker, in The Manufacturer, Philadelphia, December 21, 1895.
Labor in England.—The general condition is a distinct improvement over the preceding year and the preceding months. The proportion of unemployed was only 4.26 per cent, as compared with 7.0 for the corresponding month in 1894. Trade disputes for November were 38 as compared with 77 in October and 56 in November 1894. Only 50 laborers sustained a decrease in wages in November as compared with 117,000 in the corresponding month in 1894. Immigration shows a slight increase. (The Labor Gazette, December 1895.)
Labor in France.—The French Labor Bulletin furnishes a model analysis of the status of labor based upon full reports by special correspondents, by patronal institutions, by labor organizations and by various other associations. This analysis reveals the conditions of the various departments and cities and of the various industries. The report on strikes shows twenty-nine for November and twenty-four for December 1895, an increase in both months over the corresponding months of the two preceding years. The syndicate movement in France is one of the most significant ​expressions of the expanding principle of mutualism. Including patronal, labor agricultural and miscellaneous syndicates there were reported 13 organizations and 11 dissolutions in November and 44 organizations and 14 dissolutions in December. The labor syndicates formed the largest proportion of those organized in each month. Ten cases of arbitration and conciliation are reported for the two months. (Bulletin de L'Office du Travail, December 1895, January 1896.)
Labor in Belgium.—The first number of the Belgian Labor Bulletin appeared in January, to be followed by monthly issues. It reproduces that commendable feature of the French bulletin, the general analysis of the conditions of labor in each locality and industry. Eight strikes are reported for the month of December and three cases of arbitration or conciliation. The account of the mutual aid societies reveals an increase from 369 in 1890 to 765 in 1895. A very complete study of the unemployed in Belgium during the winter of 1894–5 is given. A general statement of labor legislation and labor chronicles for the leading industrial countries is given as in the other labor bulletins. With the Revue is incorporated the Bulletin of Labor Inspection, which discontinued separate publications with the December issue. (Revue du Travail de Belgique, January 1896.)
Cultivation of Vacant City Lots by the Unemployed.—The experience of nineteen cities is described in a pamphlet of 48 pages, containing tables and illustrations. Practical philanthropists may well consult this report and learn that the butt of so much fluent newspaper wit has proved a feasible means of relieving want and rescuing some people from dependence. (A. I. C. P. Notes, Vol. I., No. 1, December 1895. Published by The New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, 105 E. Twenty-second street. New York. Single numbers, 10 cents; yearly subscriptions, 50 cents.)
Bulletin of the Department of Labor.—No. 1, November 1895. Strikes and Lockouts in the United States, from January 1, 1881, to June 30, 1894. Strikes and Lockouts in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Italy and Austria in Recent Years. Private and Public Debt in the United States. Digest of recent reports of state bureaus of labor statistics—Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Wisconsin. Digest of the report of Miss Collet on the statistics of employment of women and girls in England and Wales. Employer and employé under the common law. Bureaus of Statistics of Labor (in the United States and foreign countries).
No. 2, January 1896. The poor colonies of Holland. The industrial revolution in Japan. Digest of recent reports of state bureaus of labor statistics—Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Indiana, New Hampshire, Ohio. Trade Unions in Great Britain and Ireland. Wages and hours of labor in Great Britain and Ireland. Strikes in Switzerland in recent years. Notes concerning the money of the United States and other countries. The wealth and receipts and expenses of the United States. Decisions of courts affecting labor. Extract relating to labor from the new constitution of Utah. Note regarding bureaus of statistics of labor. Edited by Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor, and Oren W. Weaver. Chief Clerk. (Washington. Government printing office.)
Industrial Union of Employers and Employed.—(1) Report of proceedings at preliminary conference, held in London, March 16, 1894. 72 pp. Contains list of members of the conferences, report of sectional meetings, report of joint conference, proceedings of provisional committee, and an appendix containing the invitation circulars, list of approving employers, operatives, and social authorities, opinions of various of these classes, a memorandum on the Midland iron and steel wages board, some quotations from the press and an index.
(2) Report of proceedings at the inaugural conference, held in London, June 21 and 22, 1895. Pp. 62+xviii. Contains list of officers, list of representatives attending the conference, minutes of the sessions, and the by-laws of the Union of which the declared basis is: The recognition of association and combination both of employers and workmen and of the underlying common interests of both classes. The Union ​proposes to raise an organization fund of $50,000 with which to organize branches throughout the kingdom. It will offer no universal panacea for labor troubles, but will "try to acquire exact information, and then to throw light on the practical issues involved when those great problems arise which workmen and employers together alone can settle." The two pamphlets add much to available knowledge about the working of industrial arbitration and conciliation. The Union itself is likely to be useful in promoting industrial peace. (Price six pence each. Address Mr. Edwin Rainbow, secretary. The Butts, Coventry, England.)
Civil Service in Chicago.—The first annual report of the commissioners is a pamphlet of 144 pages. Contains text of Illinois Civil Service Act; account of organization of the commission; classification and rules; rulings, precedents and official opinions; statistics; financial statements and other matter of importance to students of municipal government. (Chicago. Printed for the Commissioners. Limited number for gratuitous distribution. Address: Civil Service Commission, Chicago.)
Socialism.—The social sciences, as all other sciences, are largely indebted to the past. There are many in recent times, however, who would break all bonds which unite past, present and future ; who would abolish inheritance in the intellectual world. This is especially true of economic principles. This hatred of principles is an incentive to social disorder. Such skeptics compose the advance guard of socialism. This evil tendency is promoted by the socialists of the chair, the Christian socialists, and the motley crowd who speak on these subjects without having any knowledge of them. On the other hand, there are those who claim to be philosophical, scientific and historical, who base socialism on the organic concept of society. The true socialists are these pantheists and doctrinaires of the evolutionary school. There is nothing more doctrinaire than scientific socialism, originating as it does in the Hegelian philosophy. It repeats to satiety the thesis, that the workmg-classes toil in a capitalistic world, excluded from the pleasures of civilization by moral and political laws and institutions which deliver the poor to the exploitation of the rich. Its insufficient and inefficient remedy is to transform man by a change in his environment. (Leon Say, in Journal des Economistes, December 1895.)
The Social Question in France.—Socialism is the historical outcome of democracy; for political equality being secured, the next step was naturally towards social equality, or equality of opportunity At the same time theoretical social reform was quickened in France by the French fondness for the ideal. In the legislature the double aim of the socialists is to modify by present measures the pressing grievances of labor, and to prepare step by step for the substitution of "la propriété sociale à la propriété capitaliste." An outline of the general programme of the socialists is here given. Socialism is not likely to be carried to an excess in France, because in no country is there so little inequality of riches. Present abuses in France are due to a want of experience in self-government, and to the absence of traditions of civic duty under a democratic form of government. Through the industrial revolution the old guilds decayed, and the laborer; who was formerly owner of his own tools, found himself dependent upon the capitalist. In this case demand always had the advantages, because supported by the possession of capital ; and, as hopes of advancement decreased, the laborers began to look to the state for that liberation which voluntary action could not obtain. The chief ideas underlying the social question in France are the strengthening of individual effort, the increase of social equality, or rather equality of opportunity, and the saving of waste by means of coöperation. (Theodore Marburg in The Economic Review, January 1896. London: Rivington, Percival & Co.)
The Importance of the Home.—The particularist type, in contrast with the communistic type, is better adapted to the present form of society; it is more resistant; it gives to men a greater energy for surmounting the difficulties of life. It is an evolution from the communistic type. The first step in this evolution is to change the type of the home. The particularist type is more prevalent in the United States and Great Britain, but especially in the latter country can be studied in contrast with ​the earlier type as illustrated by the Celtic element. Great Britain is a great alembic, where the phenomenon of social distillation continues. The communistic type is being converted into the particularist type. The first step in this change is the transformation of the home; from a condition in which only the crude necessities and comforts of life are desired, to one in which aesthetic and intellectual desires modify and even subordinate the former. The home becomes not only a material thing, but a moral one as well. This is the fundamental distinction in the transformation. In the particularist type the habitation becomes of less importance. The cottage is characteristic of it, while the larger house sheltering several families is characteristic of the communistic type. In the former, change of habitations is easier, for with them the interior of the home is more important than the exterior. The character of the home is a social force of first order, for it develops the sentiment of dignity and interdependence, it predisposes to activity, it (its one to become a gentleman. This type of home has characterized the Anglo-Saxon race. There are certain significant results of this condition. The first is the small number of domestic servants produced by the Anglo-Saxon race. The second is the great number of those who spring from the working classes and reach the highest stations in life. This also partially explains why the English and Americans are at the same time the richest and the most extravagant of peoples. It is by a betterment of the home that every methodical and profound social reform must begin. The social question is not so purely a question of wages as often thought, but it is also a question of conduct. And the most judicious use of income is not that which economizes to start the children well in life, but which expends for both parents and children in education and in improving the type of the home. (Edmond Demolins in La Sociale Science, January 1896.)
Competition and Combination.—Supposing competition is indestructible, there is a great difference between what is left of competition in some industries, e. g., the English railways, and the competition of private undertakings in most other trades. The problems of persistence of competition cannot be solved by abstract reasoning, but only by going into the particular facts of different groups of production. The tendencies of competition on the one side, and of combination on the other, are always at work, but the conditions that make either the stronger of the two in different trades, in different countries, and at different times, can be learned only by analyzing the legal, technical and psychological facts in the various departments of trade.
The attention of economists has never been drawn to the fact that combinations existed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and have been destroyed by opposing forces. Monopolistic combinations were formed in the coal trade in the north of England. An historical sketch is given of the course of these combinations for the "Limitation of the Vends," and of the legislation against them. In 1830 a commission recommended the control of competition, but it was not until the building of railways to other mines was stimulated that the combination broke down. For the last half of the century, not a trace of the old combination can be found. (Gustav Cohn, in The Economic Journal, December 1895. London: Macmillian & Co.)
Human Cost and Utility.—It maybe questioned whether the relations between health, freedom, love, knowledge, etc., and marketable goods are not so intimate and organic in nature that to exclude all but the last from consideration will invalidate economic conclusions. There is no fixity as to what kinds of goods shall be measured by money, and so rank as wealth. Rightly speaking, money does not measure wealth, but want. If we took a more enlightened utilitarianism for our standard, we might measure the value of economic action by the net balance of rational satisfaction it afforded. A statement of value in terms of expenses of production, or of final utility as measured by money can tell nothing of the "real" effort which has gone to making a supply of wealth, or the "real" utility which is got by consumption.
In order to humanize a bill of costs, to reduce the statement in terms of cash to terms of human life, we must know: (1) The character and condition of the work. The suggestion of economic text-books that the inconvenient or dangerous element is represented by a higher rate of wages, is not borne out by facts. If it were, no true equation is possible between money and life. No person economically competent to ​enter a "free contract" would work under existing conditions in white lead or linen. The lives of these unfortunate workers do not rank among expenses of production. (2) The distribution of the work. If shared among a large number of able-bodied workers during a reasonably short working day, the cost may be light. If sweated out of a small number of enfeebled workers, driven to a high intensity of effort during a long working day, the cost is immeasurably greater. (3) The capacities of the workers. Labor which involved but a slight painful effort on adult males during a normal working day, may involve a far heavier subjective "cost" if it is executed under similar conditions by women or children.
A corresponding analysis must be applied to economic "utility." We must know: (1) What the goods and services are. Adulterated foods, shoddy clothing, bad books, pernicious art, snobbish personal services, rank as wealth among the ignorant, vicious and vulgar. (2) Who will get the use of them. If each portion of the goods of a nation goes to satisfy the most real and urgent want, it attains its maximum value in a given condition of society, if it goes otherwise, there is waste. So long as any member of the community is without a "necessary," the distribution which assigns to any other member a "comfort" involves a net waste from the social standpoint. (3) How far consumers are capable of getting the highest use out of them. None of the higher or more refined kinds of modern commodities would have any "value" for a barbarous race, however rightly distributed; you may increase the wealth of a nation far more effectively by educating the consumer than by increasing the efficiency of the producer. Individual economics is the science of the relations between efforts and satisfactions for an individual. Social economics is the science of the relations between efforts and satisfactions for a society. Ruskin's work will some time be recognized as the hrst serious attempt in England to lay down a scientific basis of economic study from the social standpoint. (J. A. Hobson, in The Economic Review, January 1896. London: Rivington, Percival & Co.)
The New Administration of French Mutual Benefit Societies.—The first mutual benefit societies appeared in the 12th century. They were discouraged after the Revolution, but restored and encouraged under the Empire. In 1850 they were placed under the surveillance and protection of the municipal authorities. In 1851 they were required to report to the administrative authorities. In 1852 the establishment of a society in each commune was encouraged. Recent legislation requires the associations to submit to rigid inspection by actuaries appointed by the Minister of Commerce, and to conform to general regulations as to distribution of benefits, etc. The new regulations have been strongly opposed by many of the association leaders; but not until scientific methods have been adopted, instead of the obsolete regulations which have lead to impotence in action and sterility of results, can the success which the American Societies have attained to be expected. The progress of the societies in the past is shown by the following statistics: In 1789, there were 13 societies; in 1800, 45 societies; 1815, 59 societies; 1822, 132 societies, 11,000 members; 1830, 496 societies; 1848, 1584 societies; 1852, 2438 societies, 250,000 members, resources 11,000,000 f.; 1872,5793 societies, 800,000 members; 1882, 6525 societies, 1,000,000 members; 1887, resources, 154,000,000 f.; 1892, about 9600 societies, more than 1,500,000 members, resources, about 183,000,000 f. (Eugene Rochetin in Journal des Economistes.—January 1896. Paris: Librairie Guillaumin et Cie).
The Exclusion of Married Women from Factories.—In 1894, more than 39 percent, of all industrial laborers were employed in factories of the textile industry. Such factories have always employed an absolutely and also relatively large number of married women. Married women are also found in the metal and wood works, brick kilns, etc. All other movements for the amelioration of the condition of the working classes depend upon reform here.
Statistical exhibits and analyses are given, showing the numbers and proportions of married women and widowed or divorced women having small children in various English and German factories. In Saxony the number of working women increased from 84,260 in 1883 to 135,903 in 1894; but the proportion to the total number of laborers decreased from 34.9 per cent, in 1883 to 33.6 per cent, in 1894. The ​number of children under 14 years of age employed in factories fell from 12,448 in 1890 to 1002 in 1894, on account of the operation of educational laws. In Baden the number of working women amount to 33 per cent, of all workers, and in Bayern in 1893 to 25.4 per cent, and in 1894 to 24.7 per cent. In Great Bntam in 1870, 60.4 per cent, of the laborers in the cotton industry were men, and in 1890 the proportion stood at 60.6 per cent. In Great Britain the number of females over 10 years old having employment increased from 34.05 in 100 in 1881 to 34.42 in 1891; but in the large industrial cities a smaller per cent of married women was employed in 1891 than in 1881. In the German Empire in August, 1890, the whole number of married women (excluding widows) employed in the textile factories was 130,079. Of the whole number of females 15 years old and older employed in Germany in 1881, 697,639 were married and 821,302 were widows. A detailed study of the employment of women in the Baden textile industries is made on the basis of private information secured from the firms.
The conclusion is reached that the extension of the employment of married women in the textile factories has been relatively the same in Great Britian and Germany. Where the social conditions of the English textile industries are essentially better than those of the German, the former enjoy in this respect no advantage over the latter. A table is given comparing conditions in several industries in various other states, including Massachusetts, from which it appears that the proportion of married women in the latter place is much below that in any other important state.—R. Martin in Zeitschrift für die Gesammte Staatswissenschaft. January 1896. Tubingen: H. Laupp'schen Buchhandlung.)
The Social Question in the Catholic Congresses.—A general interest in social questions began after the war of 1870–71. The subject-matter at the various congresses differs in some degree in different countries; but there is much common to all programmes—arbitration and conciliation, housing of the poor, benefit associations, cooperation and profit-sharing, various schemes of mutual insurance, factory and tenement-house inspection, loan funds, credit associations, etc. The younger clergy revolt against routine proposals, and advocate some form of restored guild with power to compel its members, or an increased supervision and activity on the part of the state. Agitation has been carried almost to the danger point over proposals to shorten labor time, establish a minimum wage, to give legal personality to trade unions. The dilemma which the church has to face is: how to reach the workingmen without adopting the methods of the unions. There was little friction in the earlier congresses because the employing class did not take them seriously; but now every concrete question of wage payment rouses hot discussion. The standpoint of the church is always that of the communitv rather than that of the individual. The concern of the employer is invariably with the "short run;" of the church with the "long run." The church seems to have committed itself to the principle that control from without is a necessity in modern industrial life. Through the influence of the employing class the center of demand for reform has been shifted to international ground.—John Graham Brooks, in International Journal of Ethics, January 1896. Philadelphia: International Journal of Ethics.
Human Welfare and the Social Question.—This is the first of a series of articles on the psychology of industry. I. Individual welfare in general. In one sense, "everyone is the forger of his own welfare." If we understand wherein another's welfare consists, we cannot give him the qualities necessary for the appreciation of it. On the other hand, no one is complete master of his welfare. We are the sport of circumstances, of our abilities, experience, and education. But though the happiness of an individual life cannot be determined, its general conditions can be fixed. Immediately these are of little value to the individual. Society is never able to consider the welfare of the individual as such. It can lay only the general foundations. Welfare has the character of desire. It is not a single desire but the resultant of many desires. These desires are both spiritual and sensuous. To understand the nature of welfare, it is necessary to examine the various kinds of desires. If the desires of various men were not comparable, there could be no knowledge of welfare in ​general. A general uniformity in the inner life, especially in the feelings and desires, of all men may be assumed. There is an unbounded variety of desires and they enter into innumerable combinations; but they may be classified according to their content, time and place relations being considered. This is the starting point for the detennination of welfare in general. In the moderation and mediation of these desires is found the principle of the basis of human welfare. II. Intelligence and self-control. This mediation is impossible without intelligence and self control; for we are concerned with a standard correctly adjusted to circumstances and not with an arithmetical medium. Only a desire for a goal in the future can act as a motive. This future happiness enters into the present conception. But within that future the nearer the point of realization seems to lie, the stronger becomes the desire. Under desire negative desire is here included. Fear and hope alone excite the human heart. Thus, a proximate inferior good often attracts more powerfully than a distant, greater one. It is the function of education to strengthen the conceptions of more distant pain and pleasure. Self-command is present when a proximate desire is avoided in order to escape a greater future discomfort or enjoy a greater future pleasure. Knowledge of the causal relations of the joy and sorrow of the future alone bring about self-control. Self-command can be brought about only through this insight into the causal relations of all occurrences. Mere insight is impotent, unless the feelings are aroused which set the will in operation. Without self-control, perceptions themselves do not endure. Self-command adjusts the acts to the end; but the end must be known, or the actions become capricious. The source of both intelligence and self-command is experience, which first accidentally discovers the causal relations. The greater hope one has to reach an end, the more will objective difficulties spur him on; the smaller his hopes, the more will the uncertainty depress him. The influence of an ideal upon the will therefore depends not upon its objective possibility or impossibility, but upon the subjective hope or belief that it may be reached. Knowledge also has value in measuring the intensity of joys and pains, and the duration of the desires and disinclinations. Too-frequent enjoyment is stupefying; too-seldom enjoyment is unsatisfying. The most distant future cannot guide us, because we know too little about it. The realization of a nearly unknown end is impossible. One cares only so far as he can reckon the future; but the future will not be the same to every individual. Foresight is the mother of wisdom, if she does not go astray with the most distant future to bear human foolishness instead of divine wisdom.—Dr. Von Schubert-Soldern, in Zeitschrift für die Gesammte Staatswissenschaft, January 1896. Tubingen: H. Laupp'schen Buchhandlung.
The Present State of Cooperative Industrial Associations (in Germany).—Sixty-seven pages of condensed report upon character, history, present legal standing, financial condition and accomplished results of these organizations. A remarkably complete exhibit in compact form. (Hans Crüger in Jahrbücher für National ökonomie und Statistik, December 1895. Fischer, Jena.)
German Associations for Obtaining Credit.—Desire to enjoy like advantages for obtaining credit at low rates of interest, with those which the better situated industrial classes command, has given birth to associations for conducting banks and making loans to members. These associations have flourished under a system developed by Schulze-Delitzsch. 2700 of these organizations now exist. Statistics of 1047 of these report a membership of 509,723. Members in 974 societies were, landowners 31.5 per cent., artisans 26 per cent., etc. These societies are specially significant for their composition from all social classes. In 1894 these 1047 societies furnished credits and renewals to the amount of $387,503,155, on a capital of $30,128,116, and a reserve of $8,792,057, and deposits and loans from banks of $114,433,632. On moneys borrowed by the societies for loan to members an average rate of 3.47 per cent, was paid. The rates on loans to members varied from 4 to 7 per cent., the last only in exceptional cases. Members received a dividend from the business, which further diminished the rate. Thirty-one organizations went out of business in 1894–5. Of them twenty-three were attempts to do business upon unsound methods.
Another system, called the Raiffeisen Loan Offices, has 3800 establishments, but ​their reports are meager and fragmentary. The League of Agricultural Associations furnishes also but partial reports, and there are numerous smaller associations.
A central bank has been established for these associations under the patronage of the German government which has furnished a working capital of $1,250,000 in 3 per cent, bonds. The objects of this central bank are: (1) to lower the rate of interest on the minor associations; (2) to encourage the extension of the system. On the one hand, it is urged that the sum furnished by government is insignificant for the purpose. On the other hand, that such help by government will only help to spread the idea that credit is a right which may be demanded by all. This is not a part of the system, and its beneficent possibilities are at present in jeopardy. (Hans Crüger in Vierteljahrschrift für Staats- und Volkswirtschaft, January 1896. Hirschfeld, Leipzig.)
Capitalism in Modern Society is a more explicit statement of a portion of the above doctrine. From this point of view, society is in bondage to capitalism; the exchange has become the center of national life; the humble laborer is forsaken. The chief of the present disorders grow out of the institution of interest on capital. In an ideal society interest would be prohibited. This is shown by the evils at present resulting from interest in agriculture, in commerce, and in the arts and trades. The church has held this ideal from the fifth century to the present time. The chief causes of the present situation are immense state loans, unrestricted speculation, indefinite and unlimited issue of stock by corporations without governmental inspection and regulation, legislative and judicial corruption by corporate wealth, and, finally, the Jewish money lenders. For the second and third of these evils efficient laws constitute a remedy; honest and courageous officials will obviate the fourth; while the first and the last are really the great evils now confronting European society. The only remedy for these is the creation and direction of opinion, chiefly by means of the church. (L. Dehon in L'Association Catholique; Revue des Questions Sociales el Ouvrières, December 1895.)
Social Evolution and Social Progress.—The great triumph of the physical period of science has been the establishment of the theory of evolution. The object of science in its social period is the application of the same theory to the problems of civilization and society. In a certain broad and general way this has been established; but all more definite attempts have proven futile. The reason for this is found in the crucial difference between the subject matter of physical science and that of the social sciences. The physical sciences study sequences not causes. They tell us how, never why. But the very thing impossible in the physical sciences becomes possible in the social sciences. We can discover not only how the units act but why they act. These inner properties of the social unit not only equal the facts of its external behavior in point of accessibility, but are superior to them. Not only does social science thus naturally begin with the unit, but it is also the unit with which its conclusions end. For these two reasons the methods and theories of physical science are inadequate for social science. The neglect of this truth is the cause of the failure of social scientists. Contemporary sociologists, notably Herbert Spencer, deliberately reject the methods by which, in social science, the methods of physical science must be supplemented. So far as it goes this method is correct, and its introduction into the study of sociology is a genuine scientific achievement. Furthermore, social evolution is not identical with social progress though in many respects they coincide. There is a large part of social progress which is not evolution; and there may be much evolution which is certainly not progress. Evolution, as revealed in the physiological world, is in its essence the reasonable sequence of the unintended. Social evolution is even more strikingly so. But social progress is a double progress. It is the joint result of evolution, or unmtended changes, and changes introduced designed and carried out by men of various degrees of greatness. So in a study of social progress Carlyle's "great man theory" cannot be ruled out as Spencer would have us do, though in a study of social evolution this may be done. These intended changes are of two kinds; first, those further changes which are accomplished by other great men and which require for their accomplishment design and intention also; and second, those further changes which are suffered rather than accomplished by average men, ​and of which the total result is not intended by anybody. Evolutionary progress accompanies and influences intentional progress, but would not exist without it. The survival of the fittest in the social world is not the true counterpart of the survival of the fittest in the physiological world; it is rather the domination of the fittest. The struggle which causes social progress is a struggle of the few against the few. It is a struggle fundamentally different from the Darwinian struggle for existence. Progress is mainly the result of a struggle, not to execute work in the best way, but a struggle to give the best orders for its execution. It is the struggle to employ, not the struggle to be employed, that is the main cause of progress. This struggle of the few against the few, resulting in the domination of the fittest, is as necessary for the maintenance of civilization as it is for its progress. It is this struggle which causes the survival of the largest number of great men, not the largest number of men of average capacity, that is the cause of progress. In any study of sociology, therefore, the first step to be taken is to study the part played by great men. (W. H. Mallock in Contemporary Review, December 1895, and January 1896.)
Geography and Sociology.—All who have considered the philosophy of history have taken account of three factors: race, epoch, environment. Whatever the relative importance, all writers recognize in the latter a fundamental factor. Most of them, however, after formally making mention of it in their introductory remarks, have dismissed it from further consideration. A marked change is taking place in this respect. Mr. Freeman and Mr. Bryce are the apostles of the movement. The new conception makes geography subordinate to history and yet superior to it. It stands to history as anatomy does to art. It becomes a branch of economic as well as of historical inquiry, deriving from that fact twofold importance. In every science which deals with man a similar diversion of opinion can be traced; one which emphasizes the importance of the hereditary influences, the other those of environment. But in the latter a fundamental distinction must be made between physical and social environment. The importance of this distinction lies in the fact that with the advance in culture, it is the latter, subtler aspect which becomes progressively of greater importance. The scope and purpose of this new phase of geography, the study of physical environment, are well defined. It is a branch of economics, with a direct bearing upon history and sociology. In a sense the science maybe termed merely a mode of sociological investigation; and in this sense there is no limit to its application. (W. Z. Ripley in the Political Science Quarterly for December 1895.)
Bulletin of Events in the Field of City Government.—First number, November 1895, contains 16 pages of concise report of important municipal events in New York and thirteen other cities. Second number, equal space, to New York and nine other cities, with four pages of miscellaneous information. A valuable conspectus of civic life in representative centers. (Published monthly by The City Club of New York, 27 Pine street.)
Neither Individualism nor Collectivism.—Individualism and collectivism are the great antitheses, the two contradictory solutions of an eternal problem. The history of this autonomy is in reality the history of human thought. Whoever solves this holds the key to all the great theoretical and practical questions in social science, in philosophy, in religion. But a social Christianity ofitrs a conciliation of these two contradictory terms. The religious question and the social question are one. Individualism is insufficient in both, for it undervalues solidarity. So, on the other hand, the collectivist conception is insufficient, for it exaggerates solidarity. For the socialist the individual is only an instrument, a tool, a member of a class. The conception of the state in antiquity is essentially socialistic. The distinction of species and individual is only relative. The individual in the abstract does not exist; nor does society in the abstract. That which does exist is the individual associated, and society individualized. And in the individual associated, in this social man, is found both individual and species, organ and organism. These are the two fundamental principles, individualism and solidarity. The two conceptions are complementary on one condition, however; that is the fusion of the one in the other and the formation of a conception altogether ​new, as the chemical combination of an acid and a base forms a salt. So individualism and socialism should form a social reaction, producing a new body of religious and economic doctrine. Into this the social question resolves itself—that the individualist should become social and the socialist become individualistic. This substitution is the profound law of social redemption. (Elie Gounelle in the Revue du Christianisme Pratique, December 1895.)
The Problems of Interest and of Capital are further discussed from the same point of view but upon more technical economic grounds, tracing the historical distinction between the older forms of capital and the modern ones, in a series of articles by Henri Savantier, the initial one of which appears in L'Association Catholique; Revue des Questions Sociales et Ouvrières for January 1 896.
Social History; Its Nature, Method and Purpose.—Social history is the history of the economic and moral conditions which have determined the formation and development of races. Morals in this sense includes both social and individual morality, that is both customs and manners. The method is to study the origin, development and decline of institutions, their structure, functions and relation to environment. So also with arts and literature, the military and political history of the people. The fundamental principle of interpretation is the Aristotelian one: "reject the accidental and admit only the essential." It is less difficult in history to scientifically establish general laws than particular events. The most important factor of national life, is the common people. If one measures the greatness of things by their extent and duration, then the most common becomes the most important, for they represent the principle part of human activity. This offers a field for an exact science. It offers a more important advantage. Through such a study there will develop a true intellectual union of the people, and through this intelligence will develop community, as well as individual, activities and affections. (Frantz Funck-Brentano in La Reform Sociale, January 1896.)
The Social Doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church are stated in an article entitled The Church and Social Science. These doctrines are formulated in the gospels, the writings of the Christian Fathers, and in the encyclicals of the popes, especially those of the reigning pontiff. The fundamental expression is in the Lord's Prayer, which asserts the brotherhood of man; not a fraternity of words, but of the heart. It also involves a fundamental equality, not a mechanical one, and thus declares true liberty. The order of the triune virtues are thus reversed, for fraternity is the fundamental one. Consequently the church is uncompromisingly opposed to slavery. No less positive is its duty to relieve poverty; and further, by its teachings as to the rights and duties of private property and as to labor to strike at the roots of poverty. By its law of Sunday rest and its law against usury it has sought to prevent the violent exploitation of the labor of others. These are the main points of a vast programme which justifies the statement that Catholicism is a social doctrine of the most pronounced type. The social welfare is to be obtained by means of individual welfare; for Christianity is opposed to a social pantheism as well as to a religious pantheism. (G. De Pascal in L'Association Catholique; Revue des Questions Sociales et Ouvrières, January 1896.)
Causal Relations in Society.—A review of the countless attempts and methods to establish the relations of cause and effect that obtain in society leads to the conclusion that the statistical method cannot suffice to establish such relationships. Statics, like sociology, studies the structure of society, but there is a wide difference between the methods employed respectively. Statistics investigates in the first instance statistical conditions, and phenomena of uniformity, whereas sociology is concerned particularly with the general direction in which human evolution is progressing. (G. Fiamingo in Vierteljahrschrift für Staats- und Volkswirtschaft, January 1896. Hirschfeld, Leipzig.)
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