and for harm. The newspaper of today encourages superficiality and non-consecutiveness. It has not determined satisfactorily what real news is and what it may legitimately print. The comic supplements are degrading and pernicious in their influence upon the morality and manners of the rising generation. The ideal newspaper, on the other hand, should be such as would be read by all classes and such as would be believed in, though not always agreed with, because of its sincerity, honesty, and courage. The endowed newspaper would offer an experimental opportunity for putting such an ideal into practice. Such a paper need not be the organ for the exploitation of the personal views of the owner because an editor with high character and great knowledge should be in direct charge. It need not be either dull or void of news because there should be fine discrimination and selection. The duty of any newspaper is to be independent and to do what it knows to be right without regard to circumstances. Its silence can often be more efficacious than its clamor.-A. Maurice Low, Yale Review, January, 1913. J. H. K. The Sale of Liquor in the South. The prohibitory movement in the South is a response to a fundamental social impulse. Contrary to general assertion the presence of the Negro has been an inconsiderable factor; as a voter the Negro has neither hindered nor helped prohibition more than the white. It is not a temperance movement, but one to abolish the public retail liquor store. Taxation, and especially local-prohibition-through-special-legislation, with or without the referendum, have been the instruments for the gradual repression of saloons. The dispensary system proposed as a substitute for the saloon has proved open to grave abuses. The method local-prohibition-through-special-legislation is the important fact in the growth of no-license territory in the South. This system is superior to local option in that it secures a nicer adjustment of law to public sentiment, with correspondingly greater administrative efficiency, both in the local areas and later in the whole commonwealth.-Leonard Stott Blakey, Columbia University Studies, Vol. LI, 1913. A. H. W. of The "Psychological Interpretation of Language.”—The opinion of comparative psychologists seems to be that savage languages are encumbered with useless distinctions, and that they are poor in general concepts and rich in minute subdivisions of the species, with corresponding dearth of ideas and superfluity of words. Correct psychological interpretation of savage languages presupposes accurate knowledge of everything savages do, or think, or say. A lack of this intimate knowledge and a difference of point of interest furnish the basis of disparaging judgment. Interpreted in the light of the social context savage languages compare most favorably with civilized. The usual method if used in the study of English would show similar alleged disadvantages. Addiction to particular terms should not be considered a reproach when it is one of the chief excellencies of style. Historical conditions, which might go far to explain multiplicity of words, have been entirely ignored in the psychological study of savage languages. It is neither possible at the present time nor necessary to give a comparative psychological interpretation to savage languages.-A. M. Hocart, British Journal of Psychology, November, 1912. A. H. W. Changes of Climate and History.-The importance of physical factors, especially of climate, in influencing history has long been recognized. But the effect of climate is usually held to be slow and general because based on a non-pulsatory theory of climate change. The types of evidence for climatic changes are physiographical and archaeological phenomena, plant life, and historic evidence. Investigations seem to indicate that the climate of many portions of the past was different from that of the present; that climatic pulsations with a periodicity of centuries have been the rule; and that these pulsations were essentially synchronous in the eastern and western hemispheres. The importance for history of these climatic pulsations remains to be determined. But it would seem that with respect to the regions of the ancient empires of Eurasia and Northern Africa the advance and the regression of nations and the development and the decay of civilization have depended largely upon favorable or unfavorable changes of climate. The possible effects of climatic changes are economic advantage, political stability, and religious satisfaction, or the reverse; plagues, malaria, etc.; international peace or discord; and the repression or stimulation of particular races. Accepting the theory of pulsatory change historians may profitably examine historic facts from this point of view.-Ellsworth Huntington, American Historical Review, January, 1913. A. H. W. The Schoolhouse Recreation Center as an Attempt to Aid Immigrants in Adjusting Themselves to American Conditions. Our schools are not taking into consideration the fact that the foreigner's children come from the homes of immigrants who bring to this country a view of life which is different but not always wrong. We must teach the child to assimilate all that is good in American institutions and yet not lose the good that was brought to this country by his parents. In order to close the breach that generally exists between the child and the foreign parent, we must remember (1) that the immigrant considers play a waste of time, (2) that he is an individualist, and (3) that he has customs and sentiments quite different from ours. And we should aim not only to teach the child to play and take part in dramatics and other such things, but also to interpret to the parent the meaning and value of the child's activities. Thus through the children's play and amusements the blending of the races may be partially effected.-David Blaustein, The Playground, December, 1912. V. W. B. Was ist "Arbeiterschutz?"-The various newspapers in Germany and Austria have been arousing public interest in "Arbeiterschutz" ever since the time of Bismarck. So much interest has been taken in the movement by the politicians of the Social Democratic party and of the Liberals that it is politically inexpedient for an official to oppose it. The term "Arbeiterschutz" is now being applied, not only to the protection and insurance for the injured and sick and unemployed, but also for the well, and employed laborers.-J. Jastrow, Archiv für Rechts- und Wirtschaftsphilosophie, October, 1912. V. W. B. Die Formen des ehelichen Geschlechtsverkehrs.-A study of one hundred Jewish and one hundred Russian women has been made in connection with polyclinic work, with the purpose of determining the spread of Malthusianism. It was found that the lower classes of South Russian women make fairly extensive use of preventive means in sexual intercourse, and that the Jewish women use such preventive means twice as much as the Russians. The movement has spread to all age-groups of the Jews, but only to the younger Russians. The result seems to be the two-child system, which means a significant decrease in the number of children.-S. Weissenberg, Archiv für Rassen- und Gesellschaft-Biologie, March 13, 1913. E. H. S. "New Religions" among the North American Indians.-The new religions which have sprung up among savage peoples after contact with a "higher" race are largely the result of suggestions introduced by missionaries and others. A study of these new religions among the North American Indians reveals important facts in regard to primitive life, as follows: the importance of the individual in the origin and development of primitive culture; the sequence of attempts to reform society upon the individual's reform of himself; the close relations existing so often between religious and social or political movements; the widespread belief in the Messiah-idea and the possibilities of improvement; the theory of a return of the "golden age"; the curious combination of a sort of generic humanity or poetic justice with race prejudices and individual ambitions; the utilization of ancient and native dogmas and ceremonies in combination with new and foreign ideas and practices; the existence in one individual of the medicine man and the prophet or reformer who really accomplishes much; the alliance sometimes of really petty frauds and deceits with a high sense of truth and noble conceptions of personal and racial duty; the irrepressible human instinct for knowledge concerning the dead and the use of alleged visits to the spirit world as the basis for projected reforms.-A. F. Chamberlain, Journal of Religious Psychology, January, 1913. E. H. S. Notwendigkeit einer neuer wissenschaftlichen Begründung der Sozialpolitik. -The purpose of social politics is to increase the communal control of industry and thus to increase the share of the product received by the weak. Social politics throws no light on whether this is to be done by the organization of laborers, by state compulsion, or by state ownership of a part or all of the means of production. Consequently social politics, as represented by Schmoller, Wagner, Brentano, and the Verein für Sozialpolitik, has no adequate scientific basis. Its purpose is the proposal of remedies, not the understanding of the existing situation; prejudices are not eliminated; standards are not made definite; policies are proposed without a knowledge of actual conditions and investigations are undertaken, not in order to determine policies, but in order to substantiate policies already determined. If social politics is to be reliable, it must have a scientific basis.-Richard Ehrenberg, Archiv für exakte Wirtschaftsforschung, Band, Heft, 1912. E. H. S. La famille et l'évolution.-Four methods have been used in the study of the family: the evolutionary, the socialistic, the theological, and the monograph methods. The evolutionary method has not been scientific, for it has not been based on patient and methodical study of the social reality, since its facts have been selected at random, and its interpretation is not impartial. The theological and socialistic methods and doctrines are no better. The only scientific method for the study of the family is that of Le Play. Gabriel Melin, Revue de philosophie, December, 1912, and January, E. H. S. 1913. Grundlegung einer einheitlich-soziologischen Aufassung von Staat und Gesellschaft.-Wealth may be acquired by (1) "economic means," and (2) "political means." Most social science has assumed that law develops only after economic structures are evolved, and does not influence them. Thus there is the fallacious reasoning that through "economic means" differences in wealth arise and hence class differences, i.e., differences in political rights. On the contrary, out of "political means" arise differences in political rights, i.e., class differences, out of which arise differences in wealth. The materialistic conception of history is fallacious also because (1) it attributes social causation only to economic forces, (2) it attributes social causation only to the productive process and does not recognize the influence of distribution upon production. Besides the economic forces there are political and social factors in social evolution. The state is an instrument of the dominant class. It creates and maintains class monopolies in industrial society. These class monopolies, such as the ownership of land and of the means of production, create what Marx called surplus value.—Franz Oppenheimer, Jahrbuch des öffentlichen Rechts, Band 6, 1912. V. W. B. Ueber Wesen und Inhalt der (einzelwirtschaftlichen) Lehre von den Erwerbswirtschaften. The particular science of business management and the more general social sciences are mutally dependent. J. F. Schär's conclusion, expressed in 'Allgemeine Handelsbetriebslehre," that private business enterprises are most intimately dependent upon their social utility, that private business management can be profitable only when at the same time it has a social utility, and that there is the greatest profit when the enterprise is socially the most useful, has a kernel of truth. There may be some relation between social utility and individual gain but we cannot say that the special object of investigation in the science of business management is the social effect of business enterprise.-Richard Passow, Archiv für exakte Wirtschaftsforschung, Band 4, Heft 2. V. W. B. The Combination versus the Consumer.-The habits of the laborer, fixity of machinery for the capitalist, and the nature of the soil in relation to the seasons are permanent conditions of the three factors of industry. So long as such permanency exists, the natural or fair price in a competitive market will not be obtained. The assumption of fair competition is fallacious also whenever combinations and trusts arise, for the small and the large producer and the large producer and the consumer are not equally dependent upon each other. The state should protect the consumer by regulating the monopoly, and a public service commissioner should be appointed to investigate conditions and to suggest criteria for discovering a fair price, and efficient regulation.-H. B. Reed, The International Journal of Ethics, January, 1913. V. W. B. "Are the Brains behind the Labor Revolt All Wrong?"-Change in the industrial system can be effected without class warfare. The great evil is that the demand lags behind supply because so many have not the means to pay. The solution is the legal increase of wages and the organization of the unemployed and of the non-producing soldiers into "production-for-use associations."-Hugh Walker, Hibbert Journal, January, 1913. V. W. B. Social- und Wirtschaftsphilosophie William Wundt als Socialphilosoph.Wundt's conception of the will as the primary factor or force in society and history will tend to overthrow the fallacious materialistic and teleological conceptions of history. Thus Wundt's work is a great contribution to social philosophy.-P. Barth, Archiv für Rechts- und Wirtschaftsphilosophie, October, 1912. V. W. B. La question du minimum légal de salaire dans l'industrie privée.The great obstacle to legal regulation of the wage is its lack of easy adaptation to the essentially mobile and fluctuating nature of the wage. Even in the same profession wages vary from place to place; the bids of laborers differ; the needs of the workers and those dependent on them are extremely different in amount. Rational legislation is therefore extremely difficult. If the legal minimum rate is lower than the current rate, legislation is superfluous; if it is higher than the normal, enforcement of the law will ruin the employers. The accompanying survey of the minimum-wage laws of Australia, New Zealand, England, Germany, and Austria is not reassuring as to the advisability of such laws.-P. Pic, Revue politique et parlementaire, September 12, 1912. E. E. E. Die wirtschaftlichen Güter als Rechte.-The economic theory of value must classify all commodities as passive material goods and active labor power or energies. The conception of property must accordingly be extended to refer not only to things but also to outward energies. The sole condition of the execution of economic plans, physically considered, is the possession of sufficient material goods and energies. But since the economic world is not an exclusively physical system, but is subject to a legal order, there are needed also legal rights to make possible the intended use of the things and forces possessed. If all rights were abolished, the economic value of physical goods would be diminished just so far as the security of control over them was infringed. The reduction in value would be very considerable. The effect of every legal order is to raise the value of all existing goods. The values of commodities are, therefore, not physical quantities depending on the nature of the things or the labor power expended in their production, but ideal magnitudes conditioned by the existing legal order.—Dr. Andreas Voigt, Archiv für Rechts- und Wirtschafts philosophie, January, 1913. P. W. Alte und neue Einwände gegen den historischen Materialismus.Because the abuse of power (economic advantage) by one part of the population over another does not react harmfully on the former, institutions of social control have grown up in close adaptation to, and dependence upon, the economic system. The control of these necessarily passed into the hands of the possessing classes, to whose egoistic and exclusive interests they came to conform. The fundamental postulate of the theory of economic determinism is nothing more than that power is an outcome of income, and its exercise is always directed toward its own selfish ends. Social voluntarism stands opposed to this theory with the insistence that social and political events represent the expression of free human acts of will. In economics as elsewhere, scientific analysis proves that where apparently blind whim or chance rules, in reality an immanent regularity is revealed at work. The theory of the "élite" asserts that humanity is always governed by the best, i.e., those who possess the best qualities of leadership. This excludes the masses at the outset from the ability to lead and from intelligence. The presence of intelligence adapted to leadership has nothing to do with the possession of income and of authority. The ruling class does not represent an élite of intellect but a privileged class employing the authority of government for its own exclusive advantage. The objection that historic materialism ignores the modern criticism of causality and the postulate of pure functional dependence is not by the statement supported by science that the institutions correlated with the economic system issue as a natural necessity out of the network of economic relationships.-Achille Loria, Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, November, 1912. P. W. Ueber die zukünftige Soziophysiologie.-Sociology can become a natural science only by confining itself to the study of the physiological side of human relationships. Natural science deals with facts of experience, phenomena. The scientist disregards psychic processes in others than himself, as they are not phenomena. Modern sociology is full of erroneous conceptions of so-called social phenomena. Natural science is based on the principle that every external phenomenon has its cause in an external phenomenon. To explain means to establish a constant relation between phenomena of the same order. The naturalist may not have recourse to men's psychical processes in explaining their conduct. He proceeds from the data of immediate experience a viewpoint that may be called scientific solipsism—and comprehends all our reactions within the framework of objective physiological fact. We must rid ourselves completely of the idea of man as a psycho-physical organism, and must present him merely as organism, ignoring his psychics entirely. Sociophysiology must base itself on the external physiology of the individual organism. Psychological sociology will attain a high degree of development only on the basis of a mature physiological sociology.-G. P. Zeliony, Archiv für Rassen-und GesellschaftsBiologie, July-August, 1912. P. W. Foreign Legislation and Labor Disputes.-England, in looking about for precedents of legislation affecting labor disputes, has considered the methods employed by certain Continental powers. These powers have established special and permanent tribunals which have jurisdiction over industrial disputes and questions, and, in varying degree, possess powers of mandatory and directory enforcement of their sanctions. The general tendency in the Conseils de prud'hommes in France, the industrial courts in Germany, the court of arbitration in Denmark, and the boards in Switzerland seems to be, in case of failure of these boards to arbitrate satisfactorily, or to effect conciliation, to have final decision to public opinion.-Norman_Bentwick, Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation, October, 1912. BIBLIOGRAPHY d'Albuquerque, S. La sociologie comme science autonome. Cleara: Escolar. Arnoldus of Villa Nova. Conservation of Youth and Defense of Age; tr. by J. Drummond. Woodstock, Vt.: Elm Free Press. $2.00. Artand, A. (and others). De la sanction par l'autorité publique des accords entre chefs d'entre prises industrielles et commerciales pour l'amélioration des conditions du travail. Paris: Alcan. Fr. I. Association des bibliothecaires français. Bibliothèques, Livras et Librairies. Paris: Rivière. Pp. 4+181. Fr. 5. Bailey, Liberty Hyde. The Country Life Movement in the United States. New York: Macmillan. Pp. 11+220. 50 cents. Baldensperger, Philip J. The Immovable East. Studies of People and Customs of Palestine. London: Pitman. Pp. 330. 7s. 6d. R. E. S. |