Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-10-06
CHILD NOT SAVAGE
SAYS PROF. THOMAS
CHICAGO UNIVERSITY socIoLo-
GisT DISCUSSES FUNDA-
MENTAL PRINCIPLE.
MYTH SUPERSTITION AND MAG
lcAL PRACTICE" HAVE GREAT
VALUE HE SAYS.

/ Parents SnOulu CHeef up. In6lf
young hopeful IS not little savage.
Al least this is what Iayman inters
after reading what Professor William
| l. Thomas of the University of Chi
cago says in a discussion of means
of interpreting savage society in the
current number of the American Jour
nal of Sociology.
The ideas OF educators regarding
that of the savage Professor Thomas
attacks without reservation. It has
been the custom in the schools OF
| Chicago and elsewhere to have the
children study the most primitive
methods of making things which can
be discovered and manufacture fish
nets and other implements of savage
life under the impression that the
minds of children were better adapt
ed to this work than to construction
of more civilized articles. Accord
ing to the view expressed by Pro
fesf or Thomas, they would be better
employed making electric dynamos or
otter articles that can be used in
N I"enlietn century,
Minds Fundamentally Alike.
we have every reason to think,
says Professor Thomas in this con
nection, that the mind of the saw
age and the mind of he civilized are
Fundamentally alike There are, in
deed, organic changes In the brain of
the growing child, but these are the
same in the children Of all races.
The savage is not a modern child,
but one whose consciousness is not
Influenced bv the copies set in civil
ization And the white child is nor
la savage, but one whose mind is not
yet fully DONNA ed by the white type
If culture. And incidentally, there
was never Il more inept comparison
thau that Of the child with he saw
age, for 5he savage is a \. SON def
uitely fixed and specialized aims ana
habits, while the child, as Professor
Dewey has expressed it, is primarily
ole whose calling is grow h., and
who is consequently characterized by
flexible and unspecialized habits"
OouOLS tne r oik-MInd.'
OF the value of the accounts of the
early history of man Professor Thorn
as has the following opinions to ex-
press:
81 think" he says, I'VE mus frank
ly despair of ever reconstructing the
past history of man in a complete
and particularistic fashion. Whether
certain incidents transpired as is set
down in the records or handed down
in tradition we can never know. The
folk-mind is highly imaginative and
anecdotal. 1t has always possessed
the appetite fer the sensational, the
morbid, and the marvellous which is
at present SO successfully catered to
by the yellow section of the daily
press. 1t has created many pictur-
esque situations, but it is not an or
gan for scientific observation.
Myth Has More Value.
Il suppose it is even true that tie
myth, superstition and magical prac.
tee of the savage have more GER
tain value for the study Of the his
tory of man than the written record.
The printed page is decetful, but the
myth cannot deceive. What It mar
rates is not true. but the student is
not deceived. And the mere exist |
ence of the myth is one of the grea
facts in this history of mind which !
must be recognized if we are to I'M
dorstand the present state OF social |
consciousness.
This -s a point on which Profess
or Taylor has insisted And as the |
historian abandons or relaxeS his et-
fort to establish a particular order
Of incidents in the past and turns |
his attention rather to the establish /
ment of certain general principles of /
change, he win find himself greatly /
assisted by q knowledge of the life /
OF the ngncivilized races.
Savage close to Civilization.
ut is true that the savage never be \
came civilized, and the claim is some [
ines made that ne therefore has no .
significance for the study of ciyiIiza /
lion. But The animal never became I
human and il is far from true that
the animal on that account has
no significance for psychology. And
The savage is much closer 10 the white
Than the animal is to man. indeed,
believe thai the reader who diyests
himself as far as possible of prepos-
sessions and race-prejudice, viii con
cllde that the savage is very close
to us indeed, both in his phye,ca, end
mental makeup and in the forms OF
his social life. Tribal society is viz
tually delayed civilization. and the
savages are a sort OF contemporaries