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work is also encouraged. As a rule, every villager is to make two pairs of straw sandals every night before he goes to bed. Since the outbreak of the present war, the number has been increased to three pairs instead of two. After ten years, the result of this co-operative work will amount to a profit of 40,000 yen.

A part of this money has already been contributed toward the war fund. And, moreover, to make the independence and self-government of the village firm and secure, the villagers are zealously striving to lay up a village fund. The profit from this source does not amount to much at present, and yet it is hoped that the time will not be very far distant when all the ordinary expenses of the village will be defrayed from the interest of this village fund alone.- A statement prepared in the Japanese Home Office; The Japan Times, December 24, 1904.

The Social Life. All men working at their various tasks continually lend one another help and co-operation without suspecting oftentimes that they are in association. This intricate and spontaneous co-operation we speak of as the social life. But it is not a single group to which all the activities of any man are related; in his pleasure, in his education, in his business, in his religion, he is participating in the life of many groups. In each of these there are systems of ideas which gradually occupy and dominate the mind. But these ideas are not always at peace; inner conflicts and contradictions occur, and the resulting conduct on the part of the individual is a most bewildering complex product. Hence the difficulty of social science.

While social life, viewed in the large, seems extremely varied, yet, due to the social law of division of labor, continual repetition rules in the life of the individual. Indeed, social life is distinguished by an intimate union of component elements, each concerned with a unique work, yet all profiting through a reciprocity of-exchange of the products of each. Society thus viewed in its aspects of interdependence may be described correctly as an organism, but it is important to add, an organism of ideas.

But it is not sufficient to perceive the repetitious round of actions by which individuals co-operate unconsciously in the life of society, as an organ concurs in the general life of the body of which it is a part. It is necessary that there should be something common to all minds, and to all wills, and which should serve as a point of junction. It is true that we yield more or less blindly to certain great currents of opinion, or habits of thought common to society; but individual works powerfully upon individual as an agent of suggestion, a model for imitation as well. This factor of individuality is not to be slighted: Why is it that one suggestion is rejected and another followed, one social current of ideas accepted, and another made the object of at least inner protest? Here and there new ideas, revolutions of opinion, present themselves; these must be accounted for. In a similar way it is important to remember that identical thoughts, as a matter of fact, do not exist in two consciousnesses; every mind has its own peculiar fashion of understanding, it may be a scientific formula, or, much more frequently, an affirmation bearing upon practical affairs.

We have already seen the co-ordinative unity of society. This unity can be nothing else than a unity of ends of which different individuals performing different tasks may have a common consciousness. The better these ends are perceived, and the better it is understood that other individuals have assigned themselves the same objects of effort, the greater will be the social co-ordination effected. Social life implies, then, a multiplicity of individual existences, and a unity of directions imparted to these existences, because all the individuals recognize in themselves a common tendency, a common desire for the realization of a common end. It is interesting to trace the transformations that occur in the ruling ends of nations or lesser social groups, and especially the judgment of the value of individual tasks according to the standard of the prevailing social end. Thus a period of great wars exalt the military type of hero, while the predominance of industrial ends serves to enhance the value set upon the work of the director of industry.

As we see it today, social life is above all a national life; it is true at the same time that international relations are multiplying on every hand, and are increasing in intensity and variety in the life of each nation. But while the social

life is essentially a national life, it is very important to keep clear the distinction between the social and the political. The sphere of the political includes such matters as forms of government, and the conditions under which men have formed this or that governmental institution, while sociology may be concerned with such things as the material, social, economic, and intellectual conditions of life.

In order to comprehend the true nature of the social life, it is not enough to consider it at a single given epoch. The sociologist should study each epoch, following its ideas, its tendencies, and its needs; he should trace similar modes of activity through different civilizations, back from bewildering complexities to simpler beginnings; thus will become evident "the gradual and continuous influence of generations one upon another." Not only such phenomena of society as political and religious movements, moral reforms, and industrial revolutions are to be accounted for, but, on the other hand, the conserving, immobilizing forces, such as instincts, habits, customs, institutions, must be given due importance.

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In an attempt to understand society, every significant aspect of its life must be weighed; the unconscious or the subconscious no less than the deliberate, the moral no less than the cognitive, the life of the crowd no less than the doings of the great. As M. G. Tarde has well said: 'Having to reform and remold itself deliberately, society is seeking to understand itself." In this article no attempt has been made to do more than make an analysis of social life.-Jules Delvaille, "La vie sociale," Revue philosophique, December, 1904. E. B. W.

The Spread of the Poles in Prussia.-The latest volume of Prussian statistics, a review of the development of Prussian population from 1875 to 1900, furnishes significant figures regarding the spread of non-German population in Prussia.

For obvious reasons, the foreign elements in the great cities are of less absorbing interest than those dwelling in closed circles in the country. If one compares the figures for 1858 with those for 1900, one sees that the number of Danes has fallen from 6.55 to 1,000 of the total population of Prussia to 3.97, and of Lithuanians from 6.40 to 3.08. But with the Poles it is quite different; their relative number has remained unchanged at about 95 per 1,000. In their native province of Posen their numbers rose from 59.8 per 100 in 1890 to 61.3 in 1900; in Silesia, from 23 to 23.6. Through Polish migration into the province of Westphalia the Polish population increased from 1 per cent. in 1890 to 2.9 per cent. in 1900; in Rhineland, from 0.1 to 0.4; and in Hanover, from 0.2 to 0.4.

The more strongly the Poles are represented in the separate districts the more, in general, does the birth-rate rise. While the average of births for Prussia for 1875-1900 is 39.16, in those districts of the four eastern provinces of Prussia which have a predominantly Polish population the figure rises to 46.8, while in those districts where a non-Polish population predominates it falls to 36.9. When one considers the excess of births over deaths, it becomes apparent that the districts with a high birth-rate coincide roughly with those having a high excess of births, although infant mortality in the Polish districts is also high. While the average excess of births for Prussia is 17.6 for 1896-1900, that in the Polish districts ranges from 21 to 34. Also in the coal-mining districts of Rhenish-Westphalia, where the Poles are strongly represented among the miners, the excess runs high above the average. In these latter districts the Poles are forming almost closed settlements. Die Ausbreitung der Polen in Preussen," Archiv für Rassen- und Gesellschafts-Biologie, November-December, 1904.

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E. B. W.

Marriage Relations in India. - Two sets of influences affect the institution of marriage among the people of India; one tending to restrict, and the other to enlarge, its sphere. In the first group of restrictive influences are to be mentioned first of all endogamy, which forbids members of a given social group to marry outside of that group. In India endogamous groups are not only ethnic, but linguistic, occupational, and sectarian. Exogamy, which is also very common in India, acts as a further obstacle to unrestricted marriage, while the prohibition of a woman's marrying a man of a lower social caste than her own is a still further

hindrance. In this same category belongs the prohibition of the remarriage of widows which is in force in most parts of the empire. An opposite influence upon the frequency of marriages is exerted by the institution of child-marriage, and by polygamy and polyandry.

An examination of the General Report of the Census of India, 1901, reveals the striking fact that the proportion of married persons to the total population is a much greater one in India than in European countries. Religious conditions go a long way toward explaining this circumstance, for among the 207,000,000 Hindoos of the empire, marriage is a religious sacrament whose omission entails lasting disgrace.

While in England only about a third of the total population is married, we find that in India 45.5 per cent. of all males and 47.6 per cent. of all females are married. Of the Hindoos a much smaller number are unmarried, and there are many more widows than among the adherents of other religions. The Buddhists show the smallest proportion of married persons, and the Christians stand second.

Of those social conditions which influence the frequency of marriage in an especial degree, child-marriage is to be mentioned in the first rank. This custom, which can in no sense be regarded as a normal product of social evolution, has taken firm root among the lower strata of the population, although among these it seems to be in imitation of the social customs of the higher castes.

There are two kinds of child-marriages to be distinguished. In the first sort, after the betrothal has taken place, the bride returns to her father's house, where she remains from three to eleven years before taking up her abode with her husband. Such is the common practice in northern India, and in these districts the population shows no signs of degeneration; indeed, this is the principal recruiting ground for the Indian army.

Conditions are quite different in the lowlands, especially in the plains of the Ganges; here the bride returns to her father's house only for the period of a week after the wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, this custom of early entrance into actual marriage seems to have been spreading. The effect is an unmistakable degeneration of the population of the provinces where the custom prevails.

Among the Hindoos, out of every 1,000 girls from ten to fifteen years of age there were only 511 unmarried, and of those fifteen to twenty years of age only 141. Among the Buddhists child-marriages are most rare; especially in Burma, where this class forms a great majority, it is almost unknown. The very high percentage of widows in the districts where child-marriages are most common is accounted for by the fact that the husbands are ordinarily considerably older than the wives.

Polygamy is not widely practiced in India; this is apparent in the fact that for every 1,000 married men there are only 1,011 married women. Among the Hindoos the figures fall to 1,008 married women to 1,000 married men; among the Buddhists, 1,007; while among the fetich-worshiping or animistic tribes it rises to 1,034 to 1,000.

In India there are two forms of polyandry practiced. According to the first, a woman is united to two or more men who are not necessarily related. The descent is traced on the maternal side. The other form is the fraternal, in which case a woman is simultaneously the wife of several brothers, and the children are members of the father's clan, and inheritance takes place in the male line. Matriarchal polyandry is today confined to the Todas of Nilgiri, the Najars, and some of the inhabitants of the Malabar coast. Fraternal polyandry is still more or less common among the Himalaya tribes from Kashmir to eastern Assam, and in a few other districts. H. FEHLINGER, "Indische Ehwerhältnisse," Zeitschrift für Socialwissenschaft, November, 1904. E. B. W.

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The Ethics of Gambling. Gambling is the determination of the ownership of property by appeal to chance. It may be described as pure or "mixed," according as the determining power of chance is or is not blended with other powers. A certain element of skill and knowledge enters into most games of chance, but where genuine tips are given the operation is fraudulent; all gamesters denounce betting on "certainties." When the result is controlled by

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manipulations, by fraud or force, the case is not one of pure gambling, but rather of cheating.

In normal societies there is a rational system governing the possession of property. This system involves, on the one side, a certainty of consumption of product, or a part of product, by those whose labor has brought that product into being. On the psychical side such ownership serves as a stimulus to the undertaking of difficult or painful productive tasks. But even a bad system under which consumption does not follow production with full or reasonable certainty is better than no system at all. Gambling involves the denial of all system in the appointment of property: it plunges the mind into a world of anarchy, where things come upon one, and pass from one miraculously, where the organized rejection of all reason is an essential factor. Thus gambling exhibits a deliberate reversion to a primitive mental attitude, with its barbarous superstitions and its strong, untamed, emotional excitement. It is fair to adduce the belief in "luck" as an important testimony to the derationalizing influences of gambling.

High degrees of cunning, memory, and judgment, as well as determination and self-command, are often found among certain classes of gamblers; but it is significant that these qualities are useful only in proportion as the game is not pure gambling.

In thus exposing the irrationality of gambling, both as a mode of transferring property and as a mental occupation, I have implicitly exposed its immorality also. Its repudiation of equitable order involves at once an intellectual and a moral descent to a lower plane of thought and feeling.

The conditions which foster the gambling instinct are not difficult of discovery. The dull, prolonged monotony of uninteresting drudgery which constitutes the normal work-a-day life of large masses of people drives them to sensational reactions which are crude and violent. The instinctive zest in the unexpected, the hazardous, and the disorderly must find satisfaction somewhere. Even a moral order imposed in the public interest, if too uniform and rigorous, will arouse, not merely in bad but in good natures, reactions toward lawlessness. If the monotony of toil drives large numbers of workers to such violent sensational relief in gambling, the ennui of idleness prompts the leisured classes to the same abuse.

Regarded as a mode of transfer of property, gambling involves a union of several anti-social desires. For a willingness to accept the unearned, facile gains of gambling quickens the latent instinct of avarice, and invites infatuated selfabsorption and a callous indifference to the misfortunes of others.

The part which alcohol plays in gambling is naturally a rather large one, for while the professional "mixed gambler is under the necessity of keeping his head clear in order to retain his cunning, the non-professional finds in alcoholic drinks just the stimulus which is usually necessary to induce that instability of judgment and disregard of the future which are conditions of gambling. The fact that cheating is inseparably associated with most actual modes of gambling serves to loosen general morality, and in particular to sap the rationale of property.

Since professional gambling involves some use of superior knowledge, trickery, or force, which in its effect on the "chances" amounts to "loading" the dice, the non-professional gambler finds himself a loser in the long run, and these losses are, in fact, a fruitful cause of crime among clerks who have the handling of sums of money not their own. But, living in an atmosphere where secret speculation with other people's money is so rife, it is easy to understand how the employee sets about justifying himself for "borrowing" the firm's money.

Every step which places the attainment of property upon a sane, rational basis, associating it with proportionate personal productive effort; every step which enables men and women to find orderly interests in work and leisure by gaining opportunities to express themselves in art or play under conditions which stimulate new human wants and supply means of satisfying them, will make for the destruction of gambling.- JOHN A. HOBSON, in International Journal of Ethics, January, 1905. E. B. W.

THE AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

VOLUME X

MAY, 1905

NUMBER 6

THE POPULAR INITIATIVE AS A METHOD OF LEGISLATION AND POLITICAL CONTROL

The popular initiative is usually referred to under the dual title of "the initiative and referendum." Its advocates treat of it as an extension of the referendum; its promotion is largely through the agitation of referendum leagues; and for these reasons the two terms seem to be generally, although erroneously, regarded as synonymous.

It is the object of this paper to show the difference between the initiative power and the referendum, and to point out the revolutionary principle imbedded in the initiative as advocated by its propagandists for adoption in the United States.

The scheme of the initiative includes: (1) “direct legislation (the proposal of laws by petition and the adoption of them by majority vote); (2) the "veto of the people" (the submission by petition of laws passed by legislative bodies to the voters for sanction or rejection); (3) the "recall," or imperative mandate, by which through petition a faction, being displeased with the action of a public official, may require him to go before the voters again at any time against another candidate for the office, and if the official fails to receive a majority of the votes, he is dismissed, and the opponent holds the office for the remainder of the term.

The "recall" and the "veto" are the negative side of the general plan for substituting government by petition and the popular voice for government by representation.

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