VI. SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Die Presse. Eine kulturphilosophische Studie: Public opinion as a determining factor in political life came to its full development only toward the end of the eighteenth century in continental Europe. Democracy is the political form of a society in which the relationship of the opinion of the groups constituting that society is given legal expression. All parties attempt to influence the balance of opinion in their own favor. The function of the newspaper: The newspaper is not only the transmitting agency of opinion but also the source of opinion. The public press is always confronted by the temptation to turn alarmist. Good news is less remunerative than bad news. The morality of the newspaper: The moral level of a newspaper is determined by its ability to resist the ever present temptation to excite public opinion. The newspaper and democracy: The outcome of the world-wide, historic experiment of democracy will depend upon whether the press will emulate Prospero or Caliban. The eighteenth century gave the press political freedom; the nineteenth put into its service tremendous technical facilities, enlarging its power; the twentieth will witness its struggle for moral status.-Julius Goldstein, Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, LI (Heft 2, 1923), 362-81. (VI, 7; VII, 3, 4.) L. W.

The County Jail and the Misdemeanant Prisoner.-The county jail is a school in this land of free schools. It is supported by the public. It is a school of crime where the teachers, the older offenders, teach the pupils, the less experienced, all they know of criminal ways.—Amos W. Butler, The Journal of Social Forces, II (January, 1924), 220-25. (VI, 7; VIII, 1.)

VII. SOCIAL SCIENCE AND THE SOCIAL PROCESS

J. L. D.

Religion among American Students.-The writer of this article has had exceptional opportunities to come into close touch with the religious life of students in our American universities. He gives the results of an extended experience and indicates some of the prevailing tendencies in the religious life of the modern American students.-Charles W. Gilkey, The Journal of Religion, IV (January, 1924), 1-15. (VII, 2.)

J. L. D.

The New Educational Front in Russia.-The whole educational system of Russia is being reconstructed in harmony with communistic ideals. Their idea is modeled more on the Dewey ideas of education than on anything else known in America. Every new book by Dewey is grabbed and translated into Russian for consultation. Then they make their own additions. The government is offering every assistance possible to realize this new form of school.-Anna Louise Strong, Survey, LI (February, 1924), 437-42. (VII, 2.)

J. L. D.

The Decay of Religion. The conflict between riches and religion seems to portend the ultimate decay of pure religion or the final failure of Christianity. The bearing of Christian principles upon a system of property, which leaves men who are in possession of enormous power also irresponsible in the use of it, demands radical thought and investigation.-George C. Cell, Methodist Review, CVII (January-February, 1924), 64-78. (VII, 2.)

J. L. D.

Philosophie de la quatrième assemblée de la société des nations.-Solidarity is at the foundation of an organization of international politics. The superstate inevitably causes uneasiness and upsets the equilibrium. The Greco-Italian conflict is a timely illustration of the accidents which may interrupt progressive organization of economic international solidarity.-G. Scelle, Revue économique internationale, XCVII (November, 1923), 220-40. (VII, 3.) E. P. G.

Pan-Americanism and the International Policy of America.-Pan-Americanism presents different aspects, the most important of them being the one that refers to international relations. It presents a double peculiarity: in the first place, because it

is the first aspect that has manifested itself from the beginning of the period of independence in the countries of the New World; in the second, because the international doctrines that constitute it were born and developed in all these countries without a previous agreement among them.—Alejandro Alvarez, Inter-America, VII (December, 1923), 69-89. (VII, 3.) J. L. D.

Education as a Means of World Unity.-The San Francisco World Conference on Education, with seventy-two nations represented, proposed to establish a New-World attitude by teaching in the public schools the ideals of international justice and good will.-Augustus O. Thomas, La Nueva Democracia, I (January, 1924), 11, 12, 26. (VII, 3.) F. H. S.

Raw News and Peace Views.-By distorting the news about the European situation during the past four years, the press of the country has succeeded in building up in the minds of the American people a picture of a world which he would do better to leave alone.-Will Irwin, The World Tomorrow, VII (February, 1924), 40-41. (VII, 3.)

J. L. D.

The Sentiment of Patriotism.—It is obvious that, in the present day, a new spirit is abroad, a new sentiment of patriotism different from that formerly known. If there is to be progress in the world, the nature of this sentiment must be understood, its elements of good and evil analyzed and distinguished, its toxin brought into the sun and neutralized.-Case H. Grabo, The World Tomorrow, VII (February, 1924), 37-39. (VII, 3.) J. L. D.

VIII. SOCIAL PATHOLOGY: PERSONAL AND SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION Nuzialità e fecondità delle case sovrane d'Europa.-Conclusions on marriage, birth-rates, divorce, fecundity, and infant mortality, are drawn from the study of a numerically select group of twenty-five sovereign houses as represented in the Almanacco di Gotha.-F. Savorgnan, Metron, III (September, 1923), 198–225. (VIII, 2.)

E. P. G.

La prédominance des naissances masculines.-According to the figures gathered for this study, difference in age of parents does not influence, but increase of age seems to be accompanied by a diminution of masculine births. H. Methorst, Metron, III (July, 1923), 20-34. (VIII, 2.) E. P. G.

race.

La guerra dai punto di vista deil' eugenica.-If the war really had such disgenic effects as some writers assert, we could only look for a decadence of the white But recourse to figures on birth-rates and general health of offspring, during the war and since, does not uphold the argument.-C. Gini, Metron, I (September, 1921), 92-122. (VIII, 2.) E. P. G.

Some Aspects of Reproduction Considered in Relation to Eugenics.-In order that the best may be made of the inherent potentialities of the germ cells, and, the fertilized ova, it is essential that reproduction shall take place under physiologically good conditions, and, if possible, under optimum conditions.-A. S. Parker, The Eugenics Review, XV (January, 1924), 571-95. (VIII, 2.) J. L. D.

Factors Influencing Longevity. The object of hygiene and preventive medicine, in the last analysis, is the extension or prolongation of life in individuals, and, by summation, collectively.-Raymond Pearl, The Journal of the American Medical Association, LXXXII (January, 1924), 259–64. (VIII, 2.) J. L. D.

The Relation of the Foreign Population to the Mortality Rates for Boston.-The mortality rate is higher for those people having mothers of foreign birth than for those born of native mothers. But looking at the problem in a broad way the handicap is less in 1910 than in 1900. The improvement is most encouraging and leads to the hope that the handicap will grow less and less with the improvement of environmental conditions.-William H. Davis, American Journal of Public Health, XIV (January, 1924), 9-22. (VIII, 3.)

J. L. D.

IX. METHODS OF INVESTIGATION

La statistica e le scienze naturali.-A method of estimating social phenomena which so far has seemed to contribute as much as any other has been by the use of statistics, anthropometry, frequency curves, etc. We adopted the method because of its use in the natural sciences. It has not availed us so much here, however, mainly because we have not our problems in social science sufficiently before us.-L. Colomba, Metron, II (June, 1923), 722-29. (IX, 1.) E. P. G.

A New Method for the Analysis of Plant Communities.-The field work is carried out as follows: a rope, with marks at decimeters intervals and a different color for every meter, is stretched tightly on the ground between two poles. Following this rope, the record is carried over on a belt of arbitrary breadth, this depending on the closeness of the association (mostly a breadth of 1-2 cm. is sufficient). The plants are noted as they stand on the belt, and for each decimeter and meter special marks are made in the record.

When the field work is finished and the material is to be put in order, the first thing to do is to reduce the results obtained to a unit surface of 1 m. size. In this way, numerical material is obtained representing the "absolute" frequency degree, that is, it can be compared with any desired community. The lack of comparability between analyses obtained by other methods depends largely on the lack of this important factor.-O. Arrhenius, The Journal of Ecology, X (November, 1922), 185-99. (IX, 1.) J. L. D.

Statistics of Employment Derived from the Working of the Unemployment Insurance Acts.-The purpose of this paper is to describe how statistics on unemployment are obtained, to examine the limits of their trustworthiness, and to discuss the qualifications attaching to their use as measures of general unemployment.—John Hilton, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, LXXXVI (March, 1923), 154–206. (IX, 1.)

J. L. D.

Character Traits in School Success.-Character traits seem to be one factor in explaining the low correlation of .50 between intelligence tests and school success. A study of ninety-seven children in grades six through eight shows that all combinations of the following imply "success": (1) great care for detail, (2) lack of freedom from load, (3) lack of motor inhibition, (4) high degree of assurance, (5) high degree of perseverance.-A. T. Poffenberger and F. L. Carpenter, Journal of Experimental Psychology, VII (February, 1924), 67-74. (IX, 2; Ï, 2, 4. 4.) W. M. G.

X. GENERAL SOCIOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY OF THE

SOCIAL SCIENCES

M. Weber's Arbeiten zur Soziologie.-logic of the social sciences: The two monumental works of Weber: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religions soziologie (3 volumes, Tübingen 1920), and Wirtschaft und Geschichte (Tübingen, 1921), have done more toward the solution of the problem of the relationship between history and sociology than any other recent work. If the theoretical content of history is to be called sociology, then most of the history that we are studying today is sociology. The history of sociology: Sociology has been imported into Germany as an opposition science. It attacked the validity of the concept of the state and substituted the concept of society. Sociology had a strong materialistic bend and was largely sponsored by dilettantes. Through his work Weber has formulated a problem rather than staked off a domain Whether sociology will be able to maintain itself as an independent science will depend largely on whether the type of research to which Weber has given an impetus will be continued. -E. Rothacker, Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, XVI (Heft 3-4, 1923), 420-34. (X, 1, 2, 5.) L. W.

La métapsychique et le tact social.-Critical observations on Richet's Traite de métapsychique and W. H. R. Rivers' Instinct and the Unconscious. Telepathy and premonitions, hysterics, "gregarious intuition," and other communications of the field of psycho-physiology are considered with an attempt to maintain "sang-froid and lucidity."-G. Pápillault, Revue anthropologique, XXXIII (September-October, 1923), 305-13. (X. 3.)

E. P. G.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS