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EDITED BY RICHARD T. ELY
OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
SOCIAL SCIENCE TEXT-BOOKS
OUTLINES OF ECONOMICS
By RicHARD T. E Ly, PH.D., LL.D. Revised and
enlarged by the AUTHOR and THoMAsS S. ADAMS,
PH.D., MAx QO. LORENZ, PH.D., ALLYN A.
Younc, PH.D.
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
By Lewis T. HANEY.
BUSINESS ORGANIZATION AND COMBINATION
By Lewis T. HANEY.
PROBLEMS OF CHILD WELFARE
By GEORGE B. MANGOLD, PH.D.
THE NEW AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
By JAMES T. YOUNG.
OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
By FRANK W. BLACKMAR, PH.D., and JOHN LEwIs
GILLIN, PH.D.
OUTLINES
OF SOCIOLOGY
BY
FRANK W. BLACKMAR, Pu.D.
PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND ECONOMICS
IN THE’ UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
AND
JOHN LEWIS GILLIN, Pu.D.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
New Work
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1915
All rights reserved
CopyRIGHT, 1905 AND 1915,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published June, rors.
Norwood Wress
J. 8. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
Saci ology
\a)5 REMOTE STORAGE
PREBPACE
WitH the growing interest in sociology both on the part of
students in the colleges and universities and on the part of an
increasing number of other people organized into study clubs
there is need of a comprehensive outline of the subject. More-
over, the rapid growth of the subject makes a new book impera-
tive every few years in order that students may keep up with
the development. This book is intended to meet the require-
ments of teachers of the subject in the colleges and universities
and also to provide a comprehensive survey of the field for the
general reader as well as for the large number of clubs interested
in the study of social questions of vital interest.
The writers have kept constantly in mind the teacher. The
book is divided into parts, each of which deals with a particular
aspect of the subject, thus assisting the instructor in the some-
times difficult task of making clear the main divisions of the
subject. Thus, Part I defines the subject and points out the
practical purpose of its study ; Part II outlines the way in which
; some of the more important social ideas and institutions have
- come to be what they are; Part III and Part IV attempt to pre-
- sent an analysis of society from the genetic point of view, the
former from the standpoint of the working of unconscious forces,
the latter with reference to the part played by social ideals in
social development; Part V deals with social pathology, a phase
of social life which cannot well be omitted if the student is to
be given an adequate conception of the nature of society; Part
_ VI is an attempt to vitalize the study of sociology by giving the
student an opportunity to make a first hand study of society and
_ to supply a few simple principles to guide him in the making of
» such a study; Part VII rounds out the beginner’s conception
of the subject by briefly setting forth the essential differences
_ between social philosophy and social science in the endeavor
Vv
23D, cy 42
CB zat fed ae Za
vi PREFACE
to give the student a clear conception of the nature of social
science and an acquaintance with the names of those who have
had a part in its creation. The division of the book into parts
has the added advantage that certain parts, for example, the
last two Parts, may be omitted in a course where time will not
permit covering the whole book.
It is hoped that the questions and exercises at the end of
each chapter will serve to quicken the student’s interest in the
subject, as well as serve as a convenient means whereby the
instructor may stimulate fruitful discussions in class. The ques-
tions are framed with the purpose of calling forth independent
thinking. In many cases some additional reading, as well as
independent thought, will be required. The references at the
end of each chapter are not offered as a complete bibliography
on the subject, but are intended to indicate supplementary read-
ing for both the teacher and the interested student.
The authors are under special obligations to Professor Ely,
the editor of the Series, and to Professor Ross, both of whom
have read the book in manuscript and have given unstintedly
of their time and thought in making many valuable criticisms
and suggestions.
CHAPTER
I.
4 &
ITI.
II.
CONTENTS
PART ONE
THE NATURE AND IMPORT OF SOCIOLOGY
PAGE
SocIAL LIFE IN GENERAL . , : - : y 3
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY ‘ 5 AS
THE PURPOSE AND METHOD OF SOCIOLOGY : i win BS
PART TWO
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
SOCIAL ORIGINS . é ; ‘ : : : : Attar gd
THE LAND AND ITs PEOPLE. f l . : ¥ ek. Og
SocIAL ACTIVITIES : 4 i m c x oy an te
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION . 4 2 i A 4 ‘ Nie AS
ORGANIZATION AND LIFE OF THE FAMILY . ts any Pe
DISORGANIZATION OF THE MODERN FAMILY : ‘ . 153
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE. i ‘ Sheet Wi
THEORY AND FUNCTION OF THE STATE E . ‘ MONG 1 54
THE SOCIAL PHASES OF PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION
OF WEALTH . i ‘ ; : ! é : Pe Be
EXCHANGE AS A SOCIAL FUNCTION . ‘ “ : e206
THE EVOLUTION OF ETHICS . , : : , . AOR
THE SOCIAL ORIGIN OF RELIGION ‘ ; i Ao!
THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGION : : : ‘ reek
PART THREE
SOCIALIZATION AND SOCIAL CONTROL
PROCESSES OF SOCIALIZATION ; is P ; swe ad
SOCIAL FORCES ; ‘ : . A ‘ ; : ay +
vii
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER
III. Socrat Laws
IV. THE SocraAL MIND .
V. PSYCHICAL ACTIVITIES
VI. SocrtaL CONTROL
PART FOUR
SOCIAL IDEALS AND SOCIAL CONTROL
I. THE AIMS OF SOCIETY
Il. IDEALS OF GOVERNMENT.
III. CONTROL BY FORCE.
IV. THE EDUCATIONAL METHOD .
V. SocraAL INEQUALITIES
VI. THE IDEAL OF JUSTICE
VII. ESTIMATION OF PROGRESS
PART FIVE
SOCIAL PATHOLOGY
I.. THE NATURE OF SOCIAL PATHOLOGY
isis POVERTY: ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES .
TI’ CHARITIES AND CHARITY ORGANIZATION
IV. Crime: ITs CAUSES AND PREVENTION .
V. SocriAL DEGENERATION
VI. THE ADMINISTRATION OF CHARITABLE AND CORRECTIONAL
AFFAIRS
PART SIX
METHODS OF SOCIAL INVESTIGATION
J. THE FIELD OF INVESTIGATION
II. MerETHODS OF INVESTIGATION .
PART SEVEN
THE HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGY
I. SocitaL PHILOSOPHY
II.
THE SCIENCE OF SOCIETY
PAGE
316
329
338
349
373
379
388
393
399
408
414
425
435
457
478
499
513
523
529
541
552
PART ONE
HE TNASUREVAND IMPOR TO OR
SUCIOLOGY:
aay
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‘ @ rm ; Tiare ath j -? & ” my é
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OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
CHAPTER I
THE SOCIAL LIFE IN GENERAL
Dependence of the Individual. — How dependent is the in-
dividual upon others, in spite of the fact that he often assumes
that he can do as he pleases. He feels that his will is free to
choose his course. So strong is this feeling of self-sufficiency
that in moments when it most completely masters him he acts
with a total disregard of the facts of his material environment
and of the thoughts and feelings of his fellows. If physical
material is in his way, he has but to remove it, his success being
measured by his power to do so. If his fellows attempt to
thwart his plans, he has but to thrust them aside and his pur-
pose is accomplished. This ever present, persistent, self-
assertive ego of man is constantly reminding him that he alone
is to be consulted about his course of action. He considers,
“Shall I do this or shall I do that? ” or ‘I will do this,” or
“This is the most profitable for me,” just as if he had the final
settlement of the affairs of life which concern him. Yet the
fact is that in the complex social life of our day his actions, —
indeed, even his thoughts and feelings, — are influenced in large
measure by a social life which surrounds him like an atmos-
phere. This conquering bent of man’s nature, developed
through long-continued race habits of conquest over both the
material world, the world of savage beasts and of more savage
men, deceives man by making him believe at times what is
only partly true. It is true to a degree that man can bend
things to his will. Human achievement is marked by his
ability to do so to a more remarkable degree than any other
animal. However, the converse is also true, that no man
3
4 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
really acts independently of the influences of his fellow men.!
Everywhere there is a social life setting limitations and pre-
dominatingly influencing individual action. In government,
in religion, in industry, in education, in family association —
in everything that builds up modern life, men are codperating.
They work together, combine, and organize for specific pur-
poses, so that no man lives to himself. It is this unity of effort
that makes society.
Forms of Social Coéperation. — If an individual considers
that he is managing his own business, regardless of others, let
him pause to think of the people upon whom he is immediately
dependent for the conduct of his business. If he claims to be
an independent farmer, still he depends upon the miner, the
manufacturer, the merchant, and the transporter, for his im-
plements. He depends upon the coéperation of his fellow
citizens for the protection of home and property, for the edu-
cation of his children, for the building of roads, and the es-
tablishment of social order. His household furnishings and
his clothing largely come from the toil of others. His whole
surplus wealth is dependent upon the consumption of his prod-
ucts by others.
If a man assume that religion, the most sacred of all motives,
is his individual affair, still we find him associating with his
fellows to build a church for worship and employing a teacher
paid by the membership. More than this, he meets with his
fellows to worship and subscribes to a creed and ritual not es-
tablished by himself but by thousands of his predecessors,
directly or indirectly, and over which he has little individual
control.
If he says, ‘‘I will educate myself,” he begins by reading
books written by others, containing the accumulated knowl-
edge of centuries, or he enters a school supported by the con-
tributions of thousands of his fellow men. The determination,
the will, the ego, in this counts for much, but it is hedged in
on all sides by the social life.
If a western farmer owes a man in Chicago for goods, he does
1 Cooley, Social Organization, Chaps. I and II.
Ross, Social Psychology, pp. 4, 11.
Baldwin, The Individual and Society, Chaps. I and II. For a contrary view
see Fite, Individualism, pp. 3-6, 156-158, 233-235.
THE SOCIAL LIFE IN GENERAL 5
not take a back-load of corn or beef, the products of his toil,
and walk to Chicago, but he sells his corn and his cattle to
others and accepts money made by the combined action of
thousands. If he wishes to pay a bill in Chicago, he might
board a train made and operated by others, and carry the gold
to Chicago, but he accepts the alternative and goes to a bank
conducted by the codperative work of others, buys exchange,
and sends his money by an express company or by the postal
service, two evidences of social coéperation. So that, turn
whichever way he will, the ego finds another superior ego over
which he has httle personal control. Assuming that he is
independent, he goes about doing as others do, thinking what
others think, codperating with them consciously and uncon-
sciously in the work of life, frequently yielding to the will, or
obeying the command of a general psychic force called society.
He cannot escape it, except by searching in ships made by
others for an uninhabited island of the sea, there to spend
the remainder of his threescore years and ten, alone, until he
perish and his works with him.
Forms of Society. — In considering any material body we
recognize it by its physical properties and, if living, by its
activities. For example, so familiar are we with the form and
life of the tree or the horse that we require no description to
separate it from other organisms. Recognition of the social
body is more difficult; for while we realize that there is some-
thing called ‘‘ society,” it is not easy to determine its char-
acteristic marks or to define its activities. But this is essential
before we can have any scientific notion of society. How then
shall we recognize society when we see it? Will it be by its
form or its function, or both, or is society merely an abstract
generic term used to give collective expression to a large number
of diverse things which men do in common?
(a) The Political Life. — We shall find on examination that
the most prominent characteristics of an organized group of
people are present in the politically organized body. The
institutions of the State afford a typical example of all social
institutions. Executive, legislative, and judicial bodies, ful-
filling the chief functions of political control, and each repre-
senting a large number of individuals, bring together all people
within a given territory, uniting them into an interdependent
6 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
membership for the purposes of protection, justice, and prog-
ress. From township trustee, policeman, and police judge,
to senate, chief executive, and chief justice of the supreme
bench we find a group of men with well-defined relations,
representing and carrying out the will of the people, not the
will of any single person. There is a regularity in which they
act and a universality of organization which is conclusive evi-
dence that the whole community is united with definite bonds
and that its parts are interdependent.
(6) The Economic Life. — From the foundation of human
society man has codperated with his fellows in obtaining’ food,
shelter, and material comfort. This process is called the
economic life. Perhaps there is no clearer evidence of the co-
operative existence of society than in the organized efforts of
man to satisfy his material wants. Here are groups of men
engaged in agriculture supporting other groups, and in turn
being supported by them. Here are giant corporations for the
manufacture of material goods; here are great organizations
for the transport of goods and men, and other great organiza-
tions for trade, commerce, and banking. Attendant upon these
and growing out of them, are the labor organizations for the
conservation and promotion of the common interests of the groups
of wage earners. How helpless is the individual who strives
alone, and how increasingly helpless as industrial organization
continues to improve! The man out of bread and out of work
quickly realizes how important is the organization of industrial
life and the dependence of group on group as well as of the in-
dividual on the whole,
(c) Voluntary Associations. — If we take another view of the
collective operations of men, we shall see large numbers forming
themselves in voluntary associations for specific purposes. These
organizations contribute to the general scheme of society
and add particular lines of activity. Such are church societies,
fraternal orders, benevolent and charitable associations, and
social clubs. They bear less distinct relations to the whole mass
than do the political groups, and unite only a part of the whole
general group. Yet they have special services to perform and
represent a large body of people working, thinking, and toiling in
concert.
(d) Educational Association. — There are educational processes
THE SOCIAL LIFE IN GENERAL 7
which have much to do with the well-being and progress of
humanity. Our public school system from the primary grade
to the university represents another phase of the organic reality
of society. This system aims to educate the child, not as a
separate, independent individual, but as a member of society.
It is supported by all propertied citizens, and in most instances
by all who are not paupers. There are private schools of
large foundations managed by voluntary associations, whose
influences are less universal than the public schools but are
essential to the organized community, and these schools bear
well-sustained relations to the whole. There are scientific
societies whose ultimate purpose is the extension of human wel-
fare, which are, however, great forces as well in social control for
social unity. These, and all educational institutions, give form
and solidarity to society, help it to consider present needs, and to
think and plan for future development.
(e) Methods of Communication. — Closely allied to education,
political, religious, economic, and the purely social institutions,
supporting and strengthening them all, are our various methods
of communication: the postal service, the telephone, and the
telegraph. These draw individuals closer together and give
them convincing proof of their daily and hourly interdependence.
No other phases of modern life have so quickened the activities
of society and contributed to the oneness of purpose and to the
common thinking, feeling, and willing together as these.
(f) The Family— Nor must there be omitted from this
category the family life, the center from which flow many impulses
of social life. Here is the vital institution for the propagation
and perpetuation of the race. Genetically it is the whole social
world in epitome evincing some of the elements of control, of
industry, of education, of religion, and of benevolence. It has
had its historical growth and is bound together by the most
exact and rigid rules of social order. It is the most complete
and perfectly organized group, the hearth at which are forged
the strongest sympathies and the most finely tempered im-
pulses of life. It is the center of the larger brotherhood of
humanity.
The Nature of Society. — All these groups are forms or mani-
festations of society, but are they society itself? They are
1See Chap. V, Part IT,
8 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
various organizations showing us somewhat of the morphology of
society, but they are only the body in which society incarnates
itself. As biology studies life in all its forms in order to find
out what the principle of life is, and to make practical use of that
knowledge, as the science of religion studies the manifestations
of religion in every rite and ceremony, every creed, every trace
of devotional or controversial literature among all the peoples of
the earth, so sociology in order to understand society, studies
that spirit which manifests itself in political, economic, re-
ligious, educational, cultural, and domestic organization; in
public and private corporations, in customs and costumes, in
imitations and oppositions, — briefly, in all the multitudinous
ways in which men and women living in social relations manifest
their social attitudes. Society therefore may be said to be
humanity, or any certain part of it, in its social relations. If
men have certain definite economic relations with each other,
we call them an industrial or economic society. If their relations
are political in nature, we call the group a political society. If
the motives of their relations are religious, we call the group a
religious society. Or, if we think of the extension of relationship
to all men, we call it a world society. Soctety then may be defined
as any group of sentient beings who are more or less alike, who
recognize more or less clearly that fact, and who have recognized
common interests in their social relationships?
So there is society and there are societies. The two terms
belong to different categories. The one is a general term, the
other a special. The one denotes the most general aspects of all
kinds of societies, the necessary attributes of any society, the
other suggests that there are various organizations belonging
to this genus society which differ from each other in certain
particulars. For example, the term “society ” denotes all
1Cf. Ellwood, Sociology and Modern Social Problems, pp. 7-9. For a more
complete discussion see the same author, Sociology in its Psychological Aspects,
pp. 9-15. Professor Ellwood has well emphasized the mental interrelation which
produces a society, but he seems to be uncertain in both these books as to whether
society is ‘‘association”’ or a group of individuals associating for certain reasons of
mutual interdependence. It seems clear to the present writer that it is impossible
to substitute the term “‘association” for ‘‘society,”’ as against both Professor Small
and Professor Ellwood, The term “association” describes the action of a society,
but a society is certainly a group of beings — who are associating. Two things are
necessary, — sentient beings and association.
2 Cf. Giddings, Descriptive and Historical Sociology, p. 9.
THE SOCIAL LIFE IN GENERAL 9
kinds of groups which are based on any kind of social interests ;
the other term, “ societies,” at once implies that an adjective
is needed to convey to the mind a definite idea of what is meant.
The same difference is suggested by the contrast between the
term “society” and “a society.” The term “society ”
therefore connotes in the most general way men in any kind of
associative relations.
Types of Societies. — Societies may be classified in various
ways. Basing them upon their most significant characteristics,
the psycho-social, Giddings has suggested eight different kinds of
human societies. The following is an epitome of these eight
types, with an indication of the social bonds which create
them, and with concrete examples of each type:
1. Broadest groupings — animal and human.
2. Human societies.
(a) Ethnic — based on kinship.
(b) Civil — based on propingquity.
3. Groupings more instructive for the sociologist.
(a) Instinctive.
(6) Rational.
These two general types combined in varying degrees give us the
following classification :
1. Sympathetic — blood relatives, e.g., the clan of an
ethnic tribe.
2. Congenial —like spirits, e.g., Pilgrim Fathers,
a an Latter-Day Saints, Amana Society.
N 3. Approbational — lawless elements drawn together
ATURAL ; : , he
by economic opportunity, e.g., frontier mining
camps. A general approbation of qualities and
conduct practically the only social bond.
4. Despotic— combination of elements of unequal
strength. Social bonds, despotic power and
MoRE OR servile, fear-inspired obedience, e.g., Norman
LESS ARTI- England immediately following Conquest, or the
FICIAL RE- South in early Reconstruction days.
SULT OF 5. Authoritative — despotic power long enough estab-
THOUGHT lished to be identified with tradition and religion.
ABOUT Social bond, reverence for authority. Exam-
SOCIAL ples: England of the Tudor and Early Stuart
ORDER periods; France of Louis XIV; Russia from
days of Peter the Great up to a recent
period.
fe) OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
6. Conspirital — results of the disintegration of a
preéxisting social order. Adventurers become
the leaders by means of bribery, patronage, and
special privileges. Social bond, intrigue and con-
spiracy. Examples: Italy of the time of Dante;
France of the Reign of Terror (to a less degree).
7. Contractual — result of perception of the utility
MoRE OR of association, leading to the conscious better-
LESS ARTI- ment of the general welfare. Social bond, a
FICIAL RE- covenant or contract. Examples: League of the
SULT OF Iroquois; Achzan League of Greece; American
THOUGHT Confederation; Federal Union; Confederate
ABOUT States of America; Australian Commonwealth;
SOCIAL Dominion of Canada.
ORDER 8. Idealistic — result of a population collectively re-
sponding to great ideals and thus forming a
society. Social bonds, mutual understanding,
confidence, fidelity, and unselfish spirit of social
service. Examples: U. S. of America (to a
degree) ; some of our states; the Sylvania Asso-
ciation; the Theosophical Society at Point
Loma, California.
Complexity of the Social Order. — Is it possible in this com-
plexity of the social order to discover any constant social forces
working for the building of the social structure? Can we
formulate general laws which operate for the control of society?
Itis the study of this complex social order that constitutes the chief
aim of the science of society. There are social phenomena more
or less frequently recurring, and movements more or less regular
which admit of study and classification. There must be some
order in this process of society building. It could not all be
referred to accident. Through it all runs a constant purpose, a
social trend. There are laws controlling the movement of
human society; there are forces in continual action impelling
it forward in well-defined lines; there is a mass of phenomena
which can be reduced to classification.
Need of Scientific Study.— Common as are the facts of
society which we observe about us, the knowledge of their real
natures and their reduction to system and order are difficult
tasks. If there are forces at work, the laws controlling and
limiting their action are not readily discovered. But there
THE SOCIAL LIFE IN GENERAL II
are many reasons why it is essential to human welfare that a sys-
tematic study of society be encouraged. First, because the social
life of man has been less carefully studied than other natural
phenomena. It represents the class of phenomena last to be
considered. Again, there is nothing which concerns human
welfare more than the study of man in his social relations. The
scientific and practical mastery of the lower forms of nature
is in comparison far more advanced. We know much con-
cerning the external world and its adaptation to our service. We
have learned to adjust ourselves to the conditions of our physical
environment whenever it is impossible to change the environ-
ment. But scientific knowledge of how men have learned to
live together in harmony, each seeking his own interest, is very
difficult to acquire. The art of social life is the most difficult
of all arts to master and to comprehend. Witness the long lists
of wars of tribes, nations, and races, caused by not knowing how
to settle their social differences properly and justly! Consider
the long struggle of man with his fellows for survival, a struggle
continued in the competitive business world where it is a struggle,
not so much for existence as for wealth. Observe the other
numerous attempts that have been made in the world for a
better system of justice. All these examples testify to the diffi-
culties of social adjustment.
Formulation of a Science of Society. — Yet when we attempt
to bring system into our knowledge of human society, we find
that it is difficult to collect sufficient data to furnish the ground-
work of science. ‘There is not a sufficient number of generaliza-
tions proven to be universally true upon which might be estab-
lished readily a well-defined body of principles of sociology. The
laws that control society and the forces that operate it are not
sufficiently understood to make the science of sociology easily
determined or quickly mastered. Yet it is the task of sociology
to compass within well-defined bounds a mass of social knowl-
edge, to classify it, showing its order and logical sequence, to
discover the forces that generate and move society and to deter-
mine and define the laws that controlit. Its duty as a science is
not done if it fails to point out the extent and manner in which
society can be forced into certain lines of development or progress
by the combined choice and action of mankind.
12 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
REFERENCES
Cootry, CHartes H. Human Nature and the Social Order, Chaps. V, VI;
Social Organization, Chaps. I, IT.
ELLWwoop, CHARLES A. Psychological Aspects of Sociology, pp. 9-15.
Ery, R. T. The Evolution of Industrial Society, pp. 3-110.
Grippincs, F. H. Principles of Sociology, pp. 3-20; Descriptive and His-
torical Sociology, Chaps. II, III.
SMALL, ALBION W., and VINCENT, GEORGE E. Introduction to the Study of
Soctety, pp. 15-20.
Warp, Lester F. Dynamic Sociology, ‘‘ Introduction.”
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Compare Cooley’s and Fite’s contentions and state whether you can
find any common ground.
2. Analyze the respective parts played by your individuality and by the
various social influences around you in your determination to get an educa-
tion.
3. Name all the characteristics which the following groups have in com-
mon: The state in which you live; a bank; a college; a sewing society; a
dancing party; a political party; a church; a lodge; a railway company.
4. Discuss the following definitions of society: ‘“‘The word society is
used scientifically to designate the reciprocal relations between individuals.”
— Etitwoop, Sociology and Modern Social Problems, p. 7.
“The concept here outlined is that of society as a continuing adaptation,
with instinctive and other physiological, subconscious processes at its
beginning, and a self-conscious and self-determining mind, a group mind
in the only real sense of the term, at its apex.’”’ — Davis, Psychological
Interpretations, p. 79.
5. Criticize Giddings’s classification of societies given in his Descriptive
and Historical Sociology, in the light of his exposition of the stages in the
evolution of society in his Elements, pp. 231-330.
6. Classify according to Giddings’s scheme the following groups: The
James gang of outlaws; the German Confederation; Japan of to-day; the
Christian Science Church; the Amana communistic society; a national
bank; England of to-day.
CHAPTER II
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY
Sociology Defined. — Definitions of sociology are many.
While it would be hardly correct to say that there are as
many as there are sociologists, it is safe to say that they are
as numerous as the various points of view of the respective
groups of sociologists.
Generally, sociologists, instead of giving a formal definition
of sociology, have entered into an extended discussion of its
nature. Some, however, have used a colorless definition like
“ Sociology is the science of society,” ! or “‘ the scientific study
of society,” ? or “‘ the science of social phenomena.” ? Others,
using more words, add but little, as for example, ‘‘ Sociology is
the name applied to a somewhat inchoate mass of materials
which embodies our knowledge about society.” * Other defi-
nitions somewhat more definite, yet unsatisfactory in many
ways, are, ‘‘ the science of social process ” ® and “ the science of
social relation.” ® Better than these are, “‘ Sociology is the study
of men considered as affecting and as affected by association,” ’
or, “the study of human association, including whatever con-
duces to it or modifies it.” ® Of the formal definitions that have
been given by scientific men, none is more comprehensive than
that of Professor Giddings, which follows: ‘‘ Sociology is an
attempt to account for the origin, growth, structure, and activi-
ties of society by the operation of physical, vital, and psychical
causes working together in a process of evolution.” ° While it
1 Ward, Popular Science Monthly, June, 1902, p. 113.
2 Giddings, Inductive Sociology, p. 9.
3 Ross, Foundations of Sociology, p. 6.
4 Fairbanks, Introduction to Sociology, p. 1.
5 Small, General Sociology, p. 35.
8 Wright, Practical Sociology, p. I.
7Small, op. cit., p. 23.
8 Dealey and Ward, Text Book of Sociology, p. 2.
3 Principles of Sociology, p. 8.
13
14 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
is difficult to give a brief comprehensive definition of sociology
that will prove entirely satisfactory through all of the changes
of a developing science, Professor Giddings’s definition is of great
service to one who wishes a clear understanding and a precise
view of the nature and purposes of the science. An adequate
knowledge of the true nature and import of sociology, however,
may be better obtained by a careful consideration of the underly-
ing principles of the science, than by an attempt to follow any
carefully formulated definition. Sociology treats of the phenomena
of society arising from the association of mankind. It includes a
body of classified knowledge relating to society and a number of
principles and laws. It investigates causes and effects, discovers
social forces, and formulates laws of control, or rules of action.
Sociology Treats of the Origin of Society. — It is possible to
have a science of society without going back to its origin, yet
there are certain advantages in studying, as far as we may, so-
ciety in its primitive state. This is the rule in all scientific in-
vestigations, that complex forms are traced to simpler ones in
order to discover laws and principles. Society to-day is so com-
plex that the laws applying to it are high generalizations not
easily discovered, while the simple movements of society in its
earlier forms reveal the cause and effect of social action.
Just as the botanist includes in the description of a plant the
nature of its development from the seed and traces the law of
growth from the beginning, so the sociologist follows the growth
of society from its primitive conditions. Biology’s great ad-
vances began with Darwin’s Origin of Species, a work charac-
terized by the use of what has come to be known as the “ genetic
method,” that is, the study of biological origins. So, sociology
is given a sound basis by the study of the primitive social insti-
tutions and processes. Many present-day social institutions
and processes cannot be understood without a knowledge of those
ancient ones from which they have developed. Therefore
sociology begins with a study of social origins.
Sociology Treats of the Growth of Society. — Beginning with
a simple association, society has expanded or developed into a
highly complex organization. Its growth is recognized by the
addition of new forms and new functions and increased energy ;
by the greater systemization of its parts and the greater precision
of its recurring actions. To show the gradual unfolding of
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 15
society, or as it is usually termed, “the building of society,”
how it developed from primitive forms to the forms found in
highly civilized societies, is one of the tasks of sociology. By
some this process has been called “social evolution.” In
the beginning of social life society was homogeneous. It had
not become highly differentiated into groups with specialized
functions and complex institutions. As time went on groups of
individuals became interdependent. The parts of the whole
mass became segregated and a specific function or service was
given to each part. ‘These parts gradually became more closely
related and interdependent. From a state of simplicity, society
grew more complex; it became heterogeneous. At first a mass
or horde of people driven about by the influence of circumstances,
following each other through imitation or led by their own in-
definite desires, gradually took up new activities which were per-
formed by separate individuals. This multiplication of services
and duties in time brought about a high state of social complexity.
Social Activities. — But while historic development is of
much value as a groundwork of sociology, giving the student a
broad conception of society as well as instructing him in the
elemental points of social order, nevertheless, the real work of
the science is with the forms and activities of a completed
society. By a completed society we understand one that has
all the ordinary activities and organization necessary to make an
independent social body. What men are doing in concert or
in groups concerns the student more than how they began to
work together, so that the social activities present the formal
basis of the science. The operations of the various departments
of government, the work of educational institutions, of the
church, of social and philanthropic groups, as well as the or-
ganized industrial groups, must come under the close scrutiny of
the student.
Social Forms. — It is quite impossible, however, to treat of
social activities without treating specifically of the structure of
society. In all development of social groups the function or
the action always precedes the formal organization. The United
States Senate, for example, if considered as to its structure,
would be treated as an organization composed of a group of
individuals chosen in a specific way for a definite purpose.
These individuals meeting together complete their own organiza-
16 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
tion by choosing various officers. Thus far we have nothing but
the structure of a group in society. If we consider what the
senate does, its various duties, services, and privileges, as a rep-
resentative body, we shall have the sociological function of an
organic group of society. If we were to consider in detail each
separate act of the senate, we should have its history. In this
case we should be outside of the field of sociology.
Organic Conception of Society.— The early writers on
sociology used many terms borrowed from physics and biology.
It was observed that society represented various interrelated
parts more or less dependent upon one another. Men saw that
the social groups in their activity resembled to a certain exte
the activities of the individual. Hence it happened that out of
these analogies the new science received its principal terms of
expression. As every new branch of knowledge must have an
independent terminology, or else be expressed in the terms of
other sciences, the writer of a new science must either coin new
words, or put new meaning into old words. In the early history
of sociology those sociologists who attempted to put new meaning
into old words succeeded better in making a clear exposition of
their science than those who attempted to coin a new terminol-
ogy.!
They saw first that there was an analogy between the organic
structure of a biological body and the structure of society. As
a result they wrote about the social organism, but the analogies
were carried so far by some writers that they assumed identity
of structure between the physical and social bodies. This led
to a revolt against what is known as “ biological sociology.”
In this case, as in many others, the critics were as far away from
a judicially balanced statement as were those criticized for
their extreme assumptions. There is a social organism, having
some analogies to the physical organism, but when we use
the word ‘organism ”’ in its application to society, it has a
1Tf possible, one should read Spencer’s essay on ‘‘The Social Organism,” in Es-
says, edition of 1891, and Lester F. Ward’s criticism in his Outlines of Sociology,
pp. 49-63. Cf. Ross, Foundations of Sociology, p. 3; Giddings, Principles of So-
ciology, Pp. 420.
2See Schaeffle, Bau und Leben des socialen Koerpers, passim; Lilienfeld, Zur
Vertheidigung des organischen Methods in der Sociologie (1898). This conception
is also at the basis of the social theories of Novicow and his French colleagues in
L’Institut internationale de Sociologie.
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 17
somewhat different meaning than when applied to a_ physical
body. With that understanding and in the absence of terms
of wide acceptance among sociologists, it is sometimes helpful
to use physical and biological terms to express the principles of
a new science of society.
Comparison of the Biological with the Social Organism. —
The tree has its roots, trunk, bark, branches, leaves, flowers, and
fruit. Each one of these parts is dependent upon the others for
its existence. The activities of this physical organism are closely
related. They are made up of groups of physical and chemical
actions. The social organism is made up of groups of individuals
more or less dependent for their existence upon one another.
They perform certain reciprocal services which are essential
to their respective existences. The analogy might be carried
out much farther to show that the bioplast in the cell of the
tree is living an independent individual existence similar to the
individual in the social group. It might be shown that one
group of bioplasts were building leaves, while another were
making roots, and another the bark of the tree. So it might be
shown that these correspond to groups of individuals, some
working in one department of social life and some in another.
But such extended comparisons generally lead to misconcep-
tions. The characteristic work of the social organism is a
psychical element which is lacking in the biological cell. The
predominance of conscious effort in human society forever de-
stroys the idea of making sociology merely a part of biological
science. With this understanding of the phrase there is no harm,
therefore, in using the term “‘ social organism.” It is not neces-
sary to think of the tree or the human body, or any other organic
structure, but to think of a social organism different from all of
these. The only requisite is to assume that society is made up of
interdependent individuals and groups more or less closely con-
nected with one another. The psychic element in the social
body makes it something more than an individual organism —
it makes it an organization. Moreover, each individual and
component group of society has its own life purpose to subserve,
while the biological cell seems to live and function only for the
organism of which it is a part.
Sociology Treats of the Forces which Tend to Organize and
Perpetuate Society. — Wherever there is action or motion there
c
18 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
must be some force impelling or causing it. Part of the work of
sociology, then, certainly is a consideration of the forces which
are in operation in human society. What causes mankind to
associate in groups? What forces brought about the establish-
ment of the family and the perpetuation of the family life?
What are the forces that give rise to the religious group and
cause people to build churches and carry on religious association ?
What forces cause people to come together in large cities, to
organize in industrial groups, to build a state or a nation, and to
develop a government? In short, what are the forces that are
working to create and perpetuate the social organization? These
are questions that must be answered by the sociologist. One of
the primary purposes of sociology is to discover these forces and
to trace their operations.!
Sociology Treats of the Laws Controlling Social Activities. —
The forces referred to are not irregular and intermittent, or there
could be no permanent organic development of society. There
must be a regular order in their activity and certain laws and
rules of action controlling them. If, for instance, it be consid-
ered that men are struggling to obtain wealth for the purpose
of improving their material condition, we have in this struggle
a positive social force. If we search for any regulating law, we
shall discover among others that man seeks to obtain the largest
possible return for the least sacrifice. Likewise, we shall find
that everywhere there are forces impelling society forward, and
with a description of these forces must go certain laws, describ-
ing how these forces operate. One of the specific services of so-
ciology is to discover these laws and to formulate them.
Psychic Factors in Social Organization. — While many activ-
ities tend to create and perpetuate society, none are more prom-
inent than the psychic forces. There are influences of physical
1 Professor Hayes contends that the ‘‘social forces’ concept is an error. See
American Journal of Sociology, Vol. XVI, p. 613 (March, 1ro11).
Ward looked upon social forces as social causations. His conception of a social
force, therefore, was a cause which influenced the origin, development, or activity,
of society. So far as it goes, this conception was a valuable one and cannot be ex-
plained as an error. However, it would have been better had he used the term ‘‘so-
cializing forces,’ as this concept conforms to what he actually described. The
force which is social in its origin arises from the fact of association. It is social energy.
It is an increment of power arising from two or more persons working together
harmoniously above that which they would accomplish working separately. It is
increased utilization of energy caused by group activity.
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 19
nature that compel men to codperate and combine. There are
certain physical characteristics of individuals that cause their
association. But the individual characteristics which arise from
the psychical nature of the associational process are among the
chief causes of the creation of human society. All society repre-
sents the “ feeling, thinking, and willing together ”’ of people,
and these elements are the most constant and permanent found
in society. While the study of biology may come to the support
of sociology in very many ways, social psychology is more than
an analogy —it is a distinct branch of the science. After
all, the strongest currents that draw society together when
followed to their origin are psychical.
Sociology is Both Dynamic and Static. — These terms are
borrowed from mechanics and in a measure have the same
meaning in sociology as in mechanics. However, the meaning
of these terms in sociology is modified to suit the requirements of
a science dealing with human beings with will power as against
a science dealing with inanimate matter. Dynamic sociology re-
fers in general to development or progress while static refers to
relationship. We should have the basis of the latter if we were
to take an instantaneous view of all society with its various co-
relationships in regard to structure or activity. If now we
could consider society moving forward and its various relation-
ships changing at each successive stage, we should have the
dynamic conception. In the static conception the comparison
of relationships might be referred to some ideal standard which
would lead us to an ethical basis of society. Some writers,
carrying over into sociology the terminology of physics, have
introduced the terms “ social kinetics’ and “ social statics” as
subdivisions of social dynamics.! This terminology, however, as
in the use of biological terms in sociology, is helpful only if clearly
recognized as borrowed and not as exactly fitting social phe-
nomena unless the terms are redefined. At the most they only
serve to call attention to two different ways of looking at social
phenomena. For, if we consider society at all, it is always
developing or changing. Only for an instant do relationships
continue until they are suddenly changed into new relationships
by the process of social development. This constant changing
¢
1 For an incisive criticism of the general use of the terms ‘“‘social statics” and
‘social dynamics’”’ see Giddings, Principles of Sociology (1900), pp. 56-60.
20 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
of society enables us to establish general laws of social order,
but not to determine a permanent status of society. Therefore,
social statics would give us a picture of society at consecutive
stages of its development, but considered together, this series
of snap shots would be a moving picture of social develop-
ment, that is, of social dynamics! Therefore it seems better
to speak of social dynamics, and then subdivide it into
social statics and social kinetics, the former dealing with
social movements which are not changing in rate or direction,
and the latter with those which change in rate or direction or
both.
The Cosmic and the Ethical Processes of Society. — Man is a
part of the universe, and its laws also bear upon and move him.
He is influenced by physical and mechanical as well as by vital
forces. Certain writers have attempted to subject him entirely
to the operation of natural law, giving him no position of inde-
pendent activity. They have treated him as a particle of the uni-
. verse being moved here and there by the various forces of nature
and of his own being. This doctrine came as a reaction against
the extreme theory of the freedom of the will and as the
result of the study of natural evolution. Here, as elsewhere, the
middle ground is safer and nearer the truth than either extreme,
for while it is recognized that man is controlled by circum-
stances, his will operates with much power within certain
limits.
The struggle for existence in the early history of mankind gives
unmistakable evidence of man’s common lot with other living
organisms. As such, on the one hand, he was dependent for
survival upon physical surroundings and, on the other, upon
his own effort. At first this struggle was common with the beasts
of the field. It was a wolfish struggle for life in which egoism
1For a statement quite similar, yet differing in some details, see Ward, Outlines
of Soctology, pp. 167-178. For a more complete statement of his position see
Ward, Pure Sociology, Chaps. VI, X, and XI. Cf. Ellwood, Sociology in its
Psychological Aspects, pp. 22-27. For a similar conception in Economics, in addi-
tion to citations by Ward, see Clark, Essentials of Economic Theory, pp. 128-132,
and Chap. XII.
Every careful student of sociology will wish to compare these modern concep-
tions of the static and dynamic in sociology with those of Comte, who not only was
the first to use the term “sociology,” but first introduced the terms “ social statics ”’
and “social dynamics.” See Comte, Positive Philosophy (Martineau), Bk. VI,
Chaps. V and VI.
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY at
was the predominating characteristic. Then, faintly at the
beginning were felt the first stirrings of altruism, which grew
stronger, until now altruistic practices constitute a remarkable
feature of modern society.1
The Shifting of the Struggle from a Physical to a Psychical
Basis. — Meanwhile, as the altruistic principles became ascend-
ant, the competition between individuals of the same species
became less severe, and changed from the physical to the intel-
lectual. At first this change was shown by the individual direct-
ing his energy to some line of pursuit for the purpose of accumu-
lating wealth instead of trying to insure survival by destroying
real or supposed enemies. Each in the attempt to satisfy his
desires learned to respect the rights of others. Subsequently,
men learned to codperate with one another in defense and in
the pursuit of wealth. Gradually the altruistic principle became
more important and each tended to seek the well-being of the
group as well as his own safety, believing that his final success
depended upon it.
The Survival of the Best. — Through the development of al-
truistic sentiments and the extension of the codperative practices
of mankind, the old struggle became modified and the survival
of the fittest biologically gradually tended to become the survival
of the best socially. The adaptability of the individual to his
physical environment was followed by adaptability to his fellow
men. ‘Those who codperated survived and those who failed to
codperate perished. One can scarcely estimate the importance of
this social fact in the development of the humanrace. So it came
about that those who were most interested in their fellow men
became known as the best, or, in other words, the best included
not only the physically and mentally strong, but those of the
largest codperative power and adaptability to social life. In this
process of codperative protection the virtuous as well as the
vigorous survived. It is really nothing more than an extension
of the idea of the survival of the fittest to social environment,
that is, to associated human conduct, when once social relation-
ships were established and survival became dependent not only
upon fitting into the physical environment, but also fitting into a
social life in such a way as made codperation possible. Then the
1 For a classic exposition of the change see Drummond, Ascent of Man, Chaps.
VI, VII.
28 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
fit was he who could control his impulses in the interests of
group codperation for purposes of survival.!
The Telic Process of Society. — As individuals become more
unified in sentiment, thought, and action there is developed what
is known as social consciousness, whereby society recognizes its
own collective power. In its endeavor to use this for the benefit
of all its members the society or group exercises its telic capaci-
ties. In other words, the attempt to force society through
certain channels, to cause it to perform certain acts for the
general well-being of the social body is a recognition of the con-
scious effort of society to change or reform itself. To a large
extent society has been created by the effort of each individual
to follow his own personal desires as they related to himself
and his fellows, regardless of any attempt to build the structure
of society. However, through the influence of social conscious-
ness there is a realization of social ideals and social aims, as well
as social defects, and there arises an attempt to remove the de-
fects and attain to social well-being.
The Scientific Nature of Sociology. — The foregoing state-
ments represent partially and in brief the complex material
with which the science of society must deal. It must consider
social facts of all kinds and arrange and classify these facts and
deduce therefrom universal principles or laws relating to the
growth and activity of human society. The difficulty in bringing
such diverse groups of phenomena into logical order and giving
a scientific basis to this order is not easily overcome. Sociology
is the most difficult of all the social sciences. It deals with
material which has existed from the beginnings of human asso-
ciation, but proposes to establish the most general fundamental
truths concerning its existence. Sociology to-day represents
the results of studies of different scientists sometimes along
parallel lines, in other instances along converging lines and in
still others, along trajectories which have crossed. Each science
views society from a different standpoint, and sociology will not
become a compact, well-defined science until sociologists are able
to generalize the truths discovered by those approaching social
phenomena from various points of view and to agree more or less
closely upon the subject matter and the method of treatment.
1 For the clearest exposition of this point see Kropotkin, Mutual Aid, A Factor
in Evolution, pp. 1-9.
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 23
The Place of Sociology among the Social Sciences. — This
point involves the real nature and scope of sociology. It is
one that has caused a vast deal of discussion among writers on
sociology and one which, to a certain extent, is still unsettled.
There is one group of writers who hold that sociology is a synthe-
sis of all the social sciences, that the science is fabricated by run-
ning a thread through all the sciences and stringing them to-
gether in one mass. Others a little more discriminating hold
that it is a synthesis or rather an amalgamation of the results
of other social sciences. Herbert Spencer used the term “ so-
ciology ”’ as a generic term to include all the other social sciences.
From a scientific standpoint such a usage might be of value in
showing that all are branches of one great science called ‘‘ so-
ciology ”’ just as Spencer included the group of all natural
sciences relating to life under the term “ biology.”
But the present writers hold that sociology is one of several
codrdinating social sciences, the most recent of the group,
created for a special purpose and standing on an independent
basis, and that while economics, political science, or ethics may
deal with specific laws relating to parts of society, sociology deals
with the general laws which apply to the whole structure.}
The Differentiation of the Social Sciences. — Let us suppose
that there are numerous phenomena of human society which
continually increase with the development of social order.
Society may go on developing from century to century without
any scientific attempt to make an orderly arrangement of these
phenomena. But gradually in the progress of knowledge
scholars begin to realize that there are facts that constantly recur
in the social process, for instance, those relating to the moral
conduct of the individual. As a result there is developed the
science of ethics. The classification of these phenomena and
deduction of general laws and principles make this chronologi-
cally the first of the social sciences. Again, some observe that
there are other groups of facts relating to government, and that
there are certain principles involved in the development of social
control. These facts are collected, classified, the principles
established, and the science of government is brought forth.
But there are other social phenomena unclassified and other
purposes unsatisfied. The processes of obtaining and distribut-
1Cf. Ellwood, Sociology in its Psychological Aspects, pp. 29-35.
24 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
ing wealth as independent activities may not be involved in
either ethics or politics. And so a new science called political
economy is created. These various sciences continue to expand
in their natural order but there still exist, outside their legiti-
mate boundaries, other social phenomena unclassified and other
scientific purposes still unsatisfied. No one yet has shown the
universal forces at work in the growth, development, and struc-
ture of society as a whole. The laws of social being have not
yet been set forth. Political, religious, ethical, and economic
life have been presented from specific standpoints, but the
general laws of society, the regularities to be found in man’s
thoughts, feelings, and purposes when engaged in any of his
social relationships, whether they be economic, political, ethical,
or religious, have not been developed. Here, then, is the op-
portunity for a new science called sociology. It refuses to be
included in any of the other social sciences, and the other social
sciences refuse to be grouped under it or to be absorbed or assim-
ilated by it. From scientific and pedagogical considerations
it stands alone. It has a definite purpose and a specific body of
classified knowledge, as well as a body of laws and principles of
its own.!
Characteristic Mark of Sociology. — Much of the confusion
concerning this science has arisen from books whose writers fail
to acknowledge that science has a subjective as well as an ob-
jective boundary. It is the aim of a science, the course of
reasoning and the end to be sought as much as the phenomena
with which it deals that give it its distinctive mark as a science.
For instance, botany and chemistry may be dealing with the
same material in a certain sense, but with entirely different aims.
However, added to this is the fact that in the scientific sense
the “ material ”’ with which each deals is quite distinct. The
chemist is dealing chiefly, though not wholly, with inorganic
matter and is interested primarily in molecules and atoms of
different kinds and their relations to each other. The botanist,
on the other Rand, is interested in molecules and atoms only
incidentally. He is studying organic matter primarily and is
concerned with cells and the forms into which they build them-
selves. Both are studying matter, but quite different aspects
1See Stuckenburg, Introduction to the Study of Sociology, pp. 75-77, or Carver,
Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 71-87.
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 25
thereof, and in widely varied relations. So with sociology, ethics,
economics, politics, and history; while they all deal with the
same thing in a broad sense, viz., human society, each is in-
terested in a different aspect of social relationships. In the
history of the natural sciences biology was the latest to develop.
It is a general science, in the sense that it deals with facts and
principles which underlie all the special sciences concerned with
various forms of life, such as botany, zodlogy, anthropology,
etc. While biology rests on all these special biological sciences
in the sense that they provide facts and principles upon which
larger generalizations can be made, yet its field is not precisely
that of any of these special sciences. It deals with fundamentals’
common to them all. So with sociology. While economics,
politics, history, anthropology, and all the rest deal with partic-
ular aspects of human association, sociology is the science which
investigates the regularities of human association in all its varied
aspects. The special social sciences take as presuppositions the
general aspects which are the objects of sociology. Take, for
instance, the trust and consider all the facts and phenomena of
society that arise out of it. If we consider it from an economic
standpoint, we shall be determining how the trust increases the
development of wealth, its effect on wages or on general distribu-
tion of products, and many other economic questions. It is
evident that we are working within the province of economics.
If we consider the moral conduct of the individual interested in
the trust, and its general effects on the morals of the community,
we shall be studying ethics. If, however, we consider what
legislation may be brought to control or regulate the trust, we
shall be in the realm of political science. If, finally, we consider
trust-phenomena in relation to their effects on the homes and
migrations of people, the dispersion and concentration of social
groups, in fact, the general effect on the social standard, we shall
be in the realm of sociology. So we shall find, so far as the
material field of operation is concerned, that all sciences cross
each other more or less, and we must not forget that in reality
there is but one science, — the science of the universe, — and that
the division of this science into groups and individual branches is
merely a matter of convenience and pedagogical relationships.
Let, for instance in Figure I, — which is merely illustrative,
not exhaustive, — the rectangle A, B, C, D represent all pos-
26 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
sible social phenomena, that of EF, F,G, H all the phenomena
of the science of ethics, M, NV, O, P that of economics, X,Y, Z,
W that of political science, S, V, T, L that of history, and J,
J, R, K that of sociology, and they will have a tendency to
overlap each other somewhat similarly to the arrangement rep-
resented in that figure. But the sciences themselves do not over-
lap for the reasons stated above.
A N x as Ss B
1
Political
Science
ee a
LN
Sociology i
-
Ve MS
ZO sd
D T Ww Z P
Ethics
ee
Ne
Groups of Social Sciences. — The following schedule will
represent a simple classification of the social sciences from a
pedagogical standpoint. Only the principal subheads are given
under each main group:
I. Ethics.
Principles of Ethics.
History of Ethics.
Social Ethics.
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 27
II. Economics.
Economic Theory and Institutions.
Economic Politics.
Industrial History.
Labor Legislation.
Banking and Monetary Theory.
Taxation and Finance.
III. Politics.
Political Theory.
Diplomacy and International Law.
National Administration.
Municipal Administration.
Constitutional Law.
Colonial Administration.
IV. History.
Political History.
History of Institutions.
Social History.
Historical Geography.
V. Sociology.
Descriptive Sociology.
Social Origins.
Social Evolution.
Social Pathology.
Socialization and Social Control.
Social Psychology.
History of Sociology.
VI. Anthropology.
General Anthropology.
Ethnology.
Ethnography.
Somatology.
Archeology.
VII. Comparative Religion.
This list of social sciences might be extended considerably, but
for pedagogic reasons this classification is sufficient to show the
relative position of each. It would seem absurd to attempt to
combine all these into one and to make a synthesis of the group or
to build up a science on the results of the group. This would
be to assume that everything that related to social life should be
classified within one science. It would be like attempting to
classify everything that relates to inorganic bodies in one science
28 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
and classifying everything that relates to life in another. Nor
will it answer to substitute in the place of the heading “‘ Social
Sciences’ the term “ Sociology,’ for this would necessarily
eliminate number V from the category and leave a great gap
in the scientific arrangement of social knowledge.
The Pedagogic Limits of Sociology. — For pedagogic reasons,
if for no other, sociology should have a definite boundary.
It should not attempt to displace or absorb either political
economy, ethics, political science, or any other well-established
social science. It should not attempt to be merely a generic
term including them all in a group, nor indeed is it a science built
up of the parts of the several social sciences. Much less is it a
classification or codrdination of the results of the independent
social sciences. It is an independent science having a separate
existence and its own methods of investigation. Nevertheless it
does obtain data from economics, politics, and other social
sciences. So, too, does it obtain material from biology and
psychology, and yet no one would think of including these within
the scope of sociology.
Sociology therefore occupies a very important place in the group
of social sciences. As already stated, it occupies much the same
position with reference to the social sciences that biology holds to
the natural sciences dealing with organic phenomena. As Ward
has well said, because of its general nature, “‘ Sociology is a sort
of a head to which the other social sciences are attached as a
body and limbs.” ‘Therefore, its relation to other social sci-
ences in the university curriculum must be very close.
The Relation of Sociology to Psychology and to Biology. —
Biology studies the completed individual unit and seldom goes
beyond this. Its object is to show the origin and development
of life in all of its various forms, and in its study it pursues the
history of the individual from the first protoplasmic germ to
the completed organism. On the other hand, psychology deals
with the mental powers and habits of the individual. Its whole
aim is to discover normal and abnormal action of the mind.
These two sciences dealing alone with the individual have com-
pleted the range of their scientific investigation when they have
discovered and classified all the phenomena concerning the in-
dividual ; the one, those manifested by him as a living being, the
other, those manifested by him as a being who thinks, feels, and
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 29
wills. It is true that biology incidentally touches upon some
phases of social life influenced by biological conditions, and also
that psychology branches out occasionally into social psychology
for the purpose of interpreting individual characteristics. But
in neither case is there any aim or purpose to present systemati-
cally the phenomena of social life. On the other hand, sociology
has to do with the association of the bio-psychical units. It does
not inquire into the growth of the individual man, either as to his
origin, structure, or evolution, but deals with the phenomena
arising from his association with his fellows.
The Relation of Sociology to Political Economy. — Prior to
the development of modern sociology, even before Spencer had
written his monumental work and Ward had published his
Dynamic Sociology, there was a tendency for political economy
to expand from the old narrow bounds as laid down by Adam
Smith, Ricardo, and others. This tendency grew with the ex-
pansion of industrial life until economics was reaching out to
grasp a large group of phenomena which might be treated either
from the economic or the purely social standpoint. The histori-
cal school of political economy brought into economic life many
of the details of human society which are rather the effects of
competitive economic processes on social well-being, than funda-
mental principles of economics. Indeed, some went so far as
to weave into their economic writings much of ethics and politics,
and also some characteristics of social life other than the
purely economic. But as sociology developed rapidly and
covered its own particular field, economics withdrew to its own
natural boundaries. Political economy deals with the social
phenomena that arise from the production and distribution of
wealth. In a general way it may be said that wealth is its central
problem, and only the social phenomena that are closely grouped
about it may be considered as economic. It is true that eco-
nomic relations are social relations, but the processes of economics
are different from those of sociology. Yet sociology may use
for its purpose certain conclusions of political economy, just as
it may use the laws and principles discovered in any other
scientific field which have social bearings, as data for broader
generalizations.
The chief differences between sociology and political economy,
then, are to be found in the fact that political economy works in a
30 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
specific, while sociology works in a general social field. Political
economy has to do with the wealth phase of social life, both as
it existed in the past and as it exists to-day, while sociology
searches for the general laws controlling the entire structure and
activity of society. Thus, their boundaries are clearly defined,
their purposes are widely different, and their material fields of
operation are separate except for certain overlappings, where
they deal with the same social phenomena, but always look at
them from a different angle.
The Relation of Sociology to Political Science. — Political
science generally purports to be, as its name indicates, — the
science of government, — which would include the classification
and study of the methods of local, state, and national govern-
ments or, in America especially, the interpretation of govern-
ment and methods of administration. The theory of politics,
the development of the state, and state craft are subjects for
its consideration. While political science is seeking to set forth
the principles of government, sociology, on the one hand, is
seeking for the universal elements of social activity to be found
in political development, as in economic development, and, on
the other hand, is studying the effects of those principles on so-
ciety. Here, as elsewhere, sociology uses as data the product of
another social science. There may be times when it is difficult
to draw a line dividing the field work of the two sciences, al-
though the respective aims of these sciences and the social facts
studied in each case are clearly distinguished from each other.
The history of the development of constitutions and systems of
administration, while it records the progress of humanity in a
given direction, is not strictly sociological, but it supplies raw
material for sociology in that like every other special social
science it furnishes a basis for generalization as to the way in
which society as a whole originates and develops.
The Relation of Sociology to History. — History deals with
the details of evidence, while sociology deals with general laws
and principles. History would be interested in the narration
of the various facts attendant upon the rise and fall of the Roman
Empire, but after giving a full and complete description of every
movement its service would be finished; on the other hand,
sociology cares nothing about all of these details except as they
lead to some general truths relating to the origin or progress of
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 38
society. However, certain treatments of history have ap-
proached nearer to the realm of pure sociology. Thus, for in-
stance, recent philosophy of history, represented by Barth’s
writings in contrast with Hegel’s, deals with the social causes
and effects of nation building and furnishes general concepts
concerning the development of single groups of known societies.
A good deal that has been written under the title of sociology is
nothing more than the philosophy of history interpreted in social
and economic terms and frequently the philosophy of history has
so broadened its scope as to be a social philosophy.t But the
philosophy of society proceeds deductively while sociology works
inductively. From this statement it must not be inferred that
history does not deal with social facts. Among many historical
writers this phase of history has been much neglected, but
history is broadening its scope and is becoming more serviceable
as a means of culture.2, However, in its broadest aspect it fails
to include the whole range of social phenomena. Facts about
society do not, in themselves, make a social science.
The Relation of Sociology to Anthropology. — Anthropology
in its broadest sense is the science of man, — physical, intellec-
tual, and social. There is a sociological aspect to some parts of
anthropology; for example, that which refers to sociological
characteristics and to the natural habitat of man. But anthro-
pology in its limited view should really only include the natural
history of mankind. It does not include such sciences as
biology, psychology, sociology, political science, or economics.
Its chief purpose is to view man as an minal possessed of
mental and physical characteristics, and in his normal habi-
tat in comparison with other animals. Its purpose is some-
what different from that of any other social science, but it very
nearly approaches sociology in the fields of social origins, social
population, and certain fields of social reform, like criminology,
and this gives it a position among the social sciences. If it were
purely biological, as is one branch of it, somatology, treating of
physical structure, — of anatomy and physiology, — it would be
purely a branch of zodlogy. A large portion of this work must
be given up to the description of the social life of primitive
1Cf. Paul Barth, Die Philosophie der Geschichte als Sociologie.
2See James Harvey Robinson’s essay on History. Columbia University Press,
1908.
32 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
people in order to represent man in his true characteristics, in-
dividual and social. There are many divisions of the subject of
anthropology, such as somatology, or the determination of physi-
cal characteristics, anthropometry, which relates to the system
of measurement of mankind; ethnology, which treats of racial
characteristics ; and ethnography, which concerns itself with the
origin, subdivision, and distribution of races over the earth’s
surface. But not one or all of these combined could be substi-
tuted for sociology. Here, again, is a special social science which
supplies data for the general social science, sociology. The
data furnished by anthropology are the bricks from which is
constructed in part the temple of sociology.
Herbert Spencer, in his Principles of Sociology, and Letourneau
in his Sociology, have dealt more with phases of anthropology
in many instances than with pure sociology; they show the
ethnic basis of society. Spencer’s Principles, as presented in
the first two volumes, would represent rather a preliminary
survey of the groundwork of sociology so far as it relates to
primitive people. Letourneau spends much time on the so-
ciological description of primitive peoples. Both furnish abasic
support to sociology, but they leave off about where sociology
should begin.
Various Conceptions of Sociology. — While various writers
have viewed sociology from many different standpoints, such as
economics, philosophy of history, anthropology, biology, and
political science, there are other writers who see sociology as a
general science, distinct from any of these special sciences, and
who seek to find some single unifying principle on which to base
it. They differ, however, as to what is the fundamental social
fact on which society is built up, and consequently as to the
central. principle or conception’ in sociology. For example,
M. Tarde in his Laws of Imitation, has laid unusual stress upon a
single feature of social action, viz., imitation. This is made to
dominate everything else. Later, in his Social Laws, he has
attempted to reduce sociology to three fundamental conceptions ;
namely, ‘‘ repetition, opposition, and adaptation.’”’ Giddings,
in his Principles, viewed sociology from a single fundamental
principle, ‘‘ The consciousness of kind.” In his later works,
however, Giddings has broadened out his structure of sociology
and has reduced “‘ consciousness of kind ” to a subordinate place,
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 33
where, although it is a very important concept, it occupies its
true position. Gumplowicz, in his Der Rassenkampf (War of
Races), has viewed society from the standpoint of the contact
of races, group-struggles being the fundamental fact. Novicow,
in his Les Luttes entre societies humaines (Struggle Among Human
Societies), has approached this same idea from a different stand-
point. And, finally, we have a new conception termed by Ward
“unconscious social constraint,’’ which represents a number of
writers who try to show that society has been built through the
moral or psychic action of individuals in association, and that
this represents, indeed, an important characteristic — an idea
which is essential to all rightly constructed society. This view
prevails in special studies of sociologists rather than as the foun-
dation of a completed system. Such works as Ross’s Social
Control, Spencer’s Ceremonial Institutions, and Durkheim’s
Laws and Methods of Sociology are good examples of this concept
of sociology, although each one sees it in a somewhat different
light.
The Foundation of Sociology. — Notwithstanding the im-
portance of all the above concepts of sociology, the science rep-
resents a much broader foundation than any one of them. A
complete sociology must take all that is true in each one of these
ideas and weave the whole matter into a logically constructed
science. Such a work would be a monumental treatise of the
subject. It would be beyond the range of possibility of an or-
dinary textbook to give it an adequate presentation. At pres-
ent we must be content to direct the mind of the student along
the highway of general development, pointing out certain move-
ments of society and the laws that govern them.
REFERENCES
ELLwoop, CHARLES A. Sociology in its Psychological Aspects, Chap. III.
Gippincs, F. H. The Principles of Sociology, Chap. I1; Inductive Sociology,
Chap. IT.
SMALL, ALBION W. Methodology of Sociology.
SMALL, ALBION W., and VINCENT, GeorGE E., Introduction to the Study of
Society, Bk. I, Chap. III.
Warp, Lester F. Pure Sociology, Chaps. II and III; “Contemporary
Sociology,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. VII, pp. 475-500, 629-
658, 749-762. Reprinted as brochure, Chicago, 1902, p. 70. Ouilines
of Sociology, Chap. I.
D
34 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. What are the essentials of a good definition? See Century Dictionary.
2. Judged by these essentials, which is the best definition given in this
chapter ?
3. Can you cite any other sciences which have benefited by use of “the
genetic method ”’?
4. How do survivals in clothing illustrate the point that it is impossible
to understand certain things now in existence without knowing the origins
from which they developed? Can you think of any other illustrations?
5. Write out a careful analysis of the social activities and the social
structures through which the activities are carried on in your home or other
community with which you are acquainted.
6. In what respects are a lodge, a bank, a state, like a tree or an animal?
In what are they different ?
7. State the general outlines of Spencer’s theory of “the social organism.”’
What corresponds to the digestive apparatus of an animal? What to the
brain and other higher nervous centers?
8. In what sense can we legitimately speak of social forces in sociology ?
9. What is meant by a law in sociology?
10. Name three influences of physical nature which cause men to co-
operate and combine.
11. What physical characteristics of individuals cause them to associate
together ?
Name some physical differences which keep them from associating
together.
12. Compare Comte’s, Spencer’s, and Ward’s conceptions of the term
‘social statics” or static sociology, and of “social dynamics,” or dynamic
sociology.
13. Explain how a struggle based on destruction of others could result
in a being whose guiding principle is love and service of his fellows and whose
practice is to “turn the other cheek.”’
14. Explain how, when such a creature once appeared in the midst of a
‘Nature red in tooth and claw,” he and his kind could possibly survive.
15. Criticize the assertion that sociology is only a hodgepodge of the
various social sciences such as politics, economics, history, etc.
16. State clearly the differences between sociology and the following
social sciences: economics, politics, ethics.
CHAPTER III
THE PURPOSE AND METHOD OF SOCIOLOGY
Purpose. — The foregoing chapter pointed out the position
of sociology among social sciences and indicated the field in
which it operates. Its scientific purpose is primarily to
generalize what is known about society. In attaining this
ultimate aim of the science, it is necessary for the student to
search a wide realm of knowledge and to acquaint himself with
sociological data. He must deal primarily with facts — not
necessarily with material facts, although these should not be
passed by, but psychical, economic, political, moral, and social
facts which exist over and above the material world; for here,
as elsewhere, the first scientific process is the assembling and
classification of facts. In this process social relationships are of
great importance. A knowledge of society as it actually exists
is essential, and this cannot be obtained by philosophizing about
what society ought to be, for the result of such a course would
be to generalize about an ideal society. However, it may fairly
be claimed that the full purpose of the science will not have been
attained until it contributes to the social well-being and the in-
dividual happiness of mankind. Sociology has a practical pur-
pose. Based upon a knowledge of how society has come to be
what it is to-day, sociology can better point the way in which
the social organization can more effectively adapt itself to the
changing conditions of life. From a careful analysis of the social
structures and processes of society as organized at present,
sociology will derive that understanding of the nature of society
which will suggest remedies for its ills. A sound social technol-
ogy is based upon a careful study of the origin, development,
and analysis of present-day social structure and_ processes.}
1 “Tt is vicious to encourage students to speculate about great questions of social
reform before they have learned to know intimately the facts of social structures
and functions.’”’ — SMALL and VINCENT, An Introduction to the Study of Society, p. 20.
35
36 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
The ought of social conduct, then, must be considered. The
purpose of sociology is not fulfilled when it has classified and
described social phenomena, discovered the social forces, and
formulated laws of social being and growth. It should point
the way to a better social life and to the improvement of the
social mechanism. In short, we may say that the purpose of
sociology is, first, to understand society; then, to enable us to for-
mulate a scientific program of social betterment.
The Object of Society. — Originally and fundamentally society
had for its aim the protection of a group of individuals from the
influences which tend to destroy either the group or the individ-
ual. Some of these influences are those operating from with-
out, others from within the group. On the one hand, the social
organization operates to preserve and perpetuate the human
stock by protecting it from its enemies — the ferocious animals,
violent forces of nature, and savage mankind. It is organized,
primarily, for the perpetuation of the group, and, secondarily,
for the protection of the individual. On the other hand, by its
beneficent organization, it deals out justice to those within the
group and keeps them from destroying one another. For long
ages this codperation was probably quite unconscious as to def-
inite purpose. From the codperation to be seen in the social
organizations of some of the lower forms of life, like ants and bees,
the probabilities are that social codperation was early established
by natural selection weeding out those who did not develop
the social tendencies leading to codperation. Later the advan-
tage which codperation gave for survival became apparent first
to a few leaders and then to wider circles of a population. Pleas-
urable results from codperation — results experienced from the
earliest days of association of like beings — were intensified
as intelligence developed and as new methods of codperation were
devised. At first limited to economic and sympathetic codpera-
tion, the field gradually widened to include an increasing number
of subjects. Gradually codperation became predominantly
conscious, varied in method, and wider in scope, so that in de-
veloped societies the objects for which social organization exists
have multiplied to include those finer satisfactions of life which
are beyond the mere necessities of survival. Hence, the sys-
tematic study of a society to-day having such a purpose creates
a science concerned not alone with social movements, but with
THE PURPOSE AND METHOD OF SOCIOLOGY 37
the well-being of man. This makes it one of the most im-
portant of the social sciences, for it appeals directly to every-
day life. Its phenomena are the everyday activities of men.
Its laboratory is the world of social life. Its interest is bound
up with every human aspiration and hope.
The Problems of Sociology. — The numerous problems con-
fronting the sociologist are of a varied nature. Perhaps the fun-
damental problem is a correct conception of the origin, structure,
and activities of society. A correct knowledge of the parts and
functions of society and their relation to one another is of prime
importance to the student. It is essential that he understand
not only social phenomena, but the causes producing them and
the effects which grow out of their interrelations.
The demonstration of the regularity of recurring social
phenomena is no less important, for without this no definite
conclusions can be reached. If there are no regularities in social
life, no general laws under which large bodies of social facts
can be subsumed, then sociology has not reached the dignity of
a science.
The question of the freedom of the human will in shaping
social development is another vital problem. Can the conscious
purpose of man control social events? In its solution is in-
volved the relation of the so-called natural development of
society to its development under the control of the social mind.
It leads to the problem of social consciousness and social pur-
pose. Moreover, it determines the position and influence of
the individual in social activities. If man’s purposive efforts
for the changing of social conditions are useless, he might as
well sit down and fold his hands while the slow but merciless
process of natural forces work out the destiny of the race.
This problem is followed, on the other hand, by the question
of the possibility of applying the principles of organic evolution
to society. If man can control society, then what part is left to
natural forces of the world in the shaping of social development ?
Again, if progress is brought about through the struggle of
individuals and races and the survival of the fittest, is peace
or war of greater value to the human race?!
In the wake of these fundamental philosophic problems con-
1See ‘The Problems of Sociology,” by Gustav Ratzenhofer, American Journal of
Sociology, Sept., 1904.
38 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
nected with sociology come many practical problems. There
are the questions of the relation of ethical and religious culture
to social development. Are they part of the process ? Are they
causes or are they effects, or each in turn? What kind of
government should be sought in view of the history of social
development? What should be society’s attitude towards its
waste products—the dependent, defective, and criminal
classes? What message, if any, has sociology for the educa-
tional and business systems of society? Does it throw any
light upon the measures to be taken to direct society along lines
of future development in the interest of the highest type of
social personality and of social group? All these and many more
problems thrust themselves upon the sociologist for answer.
The Unit of Investigation in Sociology. — Each science has
its unit of investigation, that is to say, its specific object of
study. Thus, biology studies the living being, and anthropology
man in his physical relations. Sociology studies the socius, or
man in his social relations. As in the case of each of the sciences
mentioned, processes and products are studied also, but these are
studied in order to throw light upon the main problem, that of
man’s social activities. Connected with man’s social activity
are all those products and processes which we call social phe-
nomena. Social phenomena, as Ross reminds us, ‘are all
phenomena which we cannot explain without bringing in the
action of one human being on another.’’? Moreover, these
phenomena must not be exceptional, but must be so characteris-
tic of a large group of people that they provide a basis for gen-
eralization. For example, the phenomena which arise when
two people meet and associate have no social significance if
they are peculiar to those two only and are not likely to occur
when two other people meet and associate under the same cir-
cumstances. Sociology studies man in his social relations, as
affecting and as affected by association, together with all the prod-
ucts and processes consequent upon such association.®
1See Ross, Foundations of Sociology, Chap. IV, where he contends that there is
no one unit of investigation, but many, such as products and processes of association,
as well as the socius himself. 2 Tbid., p. 7.
The position taken here is essentially that of Ward, Pure Sociology, p. 38,
where he says: “It [sociology] does not really study men or the human race at all.
That belongs to other sciences than sociology, chiefly to anthropology. It studies
activities, results, products, in a word, achievement.”
THE PURPOSE AND METHOD OF SOCIOLOGY 39
The Method of Sociology. — The method of sociology de-
pends primarily upon its nature as a science and secondarily
upon its position among other sciences. Being a general social
science devoted to the broad field of human association, it must
generalize upon the data furnished by other sciences bearing
upon social life. Its place in the hierarchy of sciences demands
the same general method as other sciences. On the other hand,
owing to the fact that so many social phenomena have not been
treated by any special social science, it has been necessary for
sociology to collect the facts in certain fields of social activity,
for example, that of the family, in order to have a basis on
which to generalize, and in every field to use the essentially
sociological data provided by the results of other sciences.! It
is to-day a concrete science with a strong tendency to become a
generalized science setting forth general principles based upon
descriptive studies. Just as political economy began with the
observation of special phenomena and rapidly became an ab-
stract science, so sociology is moving in the same way as more
general laws are discovered. But economics, even as an abstract
science, never loses sight of concrete phenomena. Certain
generalizations having been made, the economist proceeds with
renewed vigor to the investigation of concrete phenomena. It
is probable that sociology will, for many years to come, continue
to be largely a concrete or descriptive science. The variations
in the movements of society caused by the inventive genius of
man will have a tendency to prevent the science from tran-
scending the limitations of the concrete. Nevertheless the vital
point of any science is “ generalization,’ and while the accumu-
lation of facts is essential to its proper study, sociology will grow
only through generalization.
The Concrete Method. — The investigation of society will
always be carried on by the observation of the life of parts of
society and its movement as a whole. This will cause it to be
descriptive and concrete and to reach its conclusions from the
results of observation rather than from abstract reasoning.
There has been too much philosophizing about society without
an intelligent interpretation of the facts. Indeed, there is no
social science that has not lost much through the neglect of con-
crete observation and through the cultivation of deductive
1See Ross, Foundations of Sociology, pp. 81-84.
40 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
reasoning that has frequently ended in a vast amount of the-
orizing not always conducive to the development of science nor
the advancement of mankind. Yet there are always general
laws to be formulated, and it is the proper use of the facts, rather
than the facts themselves, that makes a science. Hence,
abstraction and generalization necessarily follow. The large
number of social phenomena make it necessary for the student
to collect, classify, and arrange them in logical order before he
can reach definite conclusions. ‘The best sociologists of to-day
have not at their disposal a sufficient number of concrete data
respecting the constitution and activities of society. Great as
is the difficulty, the observation of concrete phenomena fur-
nishes the only true basis for the construction of a formal science
of society. There remains much work of this character yet to
be done. We have only just begun the practice of studying in-
tensively and comprehensively cross sections of our social life
by means of the social survey.
The Data of Other Sciences. — While the sociologist carries
on his investigation independently, he accepts the conclusions
reached by other sciences and uses the data collected by them.
It would be idle to ignore what biology has taught us concerning
the physical system of man, the primary causes of association,
or, indeed, the influence of heredity, for these must enter as
primary causes of social development. We must not neglect
what psychology has to teach us of the nature of the mind of
the individual, for it is from this that we start in our efforts to
understand the social mind. Political economy in the study of
the economic life has given us many principles and laws and
accumulated data which must be utilized in developing the
science of sociology. And the same is the case with political
science, ethics, and history; they have gained knowledge of
certain aspects of social life, and it is idle for the sociologist to
ignore their conclusions and attempt to do the work over again.
But, as stated in the last chapter, sociology cannot become a
synthesis of these sciences, nor is it a mental science simply
because it studies the social habits of thinking people. Its
scope is much wider than this.
As Ross has so well pointed out, the sociologist is not looking
for the same things as the historian, the economist, the political
scientist, or the psychologist. The sociologist is trying to rise
THE PURPOSE AND METHOD OF SOCIOLOGY 4I
from particular cases to general terms. He wants not solitary
or striking facts but recurrent phenomena, no matter how trivial
they may seem to scholars in other fields. The only require-
ment is that these phenomena be social and that they show
tendencies and reveal regularities of social activity. Sociology
studies objective groups, relations, institutions, subjective im-
peratives and uniformities in society. All of them are products
of the social process. It also studies the social processes by
which these social products are produced.' Sociology differs
from the other social sciences in two respects. It begins where
they leave off, and its data are those growing out of association
in all its aspects.
Sociology varies from Other Social Sciences chiefly on
Account of its General Nature. — Sociology has its own inde-
pendent purpose and its own definite scope, and therefore can
accept what has been accomplished without interfering with
the status of other sciences. In seeking to discover and present
general laws it transcends the limited position of each of the
other social sciences. The difficulty attending its generalization
makes the development of the science slow.?
The scope of the sociological field as well as its differentiation
from the fields occupied by the other social sciences is clearly
indicated by Professor Ross’s Map of the Sociological Field
which is here added.®
The Course of Reasoning. — _M. Comte, who first made a
formal declaration regarding sociology, placed it in the category
of descriptive and concrete sciences, but his own treatment of
the subject in his Positive Philosophy was that of a social philos-
1 Ross, Foundations of Sociology, p. 90 sq.
2“ Sociology is one of the abstract sciences. The sociologist aims to rise from
particular cases to general terms which he can employ in formulating generalizations
and laws. He wants not unique facts, but recurrent facts, for which he can frame
a concept that shall neglect details and emphasize common properties. The facts
he uses are in many cases too numerous and too insignificant to attract even the
notice of the historian. . . . History is not, as many suppose, the quarry to which
sociologists resort for their material. The records of the past — its monuments,
survivals, legends, and documents are the common quarry for both historian and
sociologist. The former explores them for events, i.e. things that occur only once,
and are definite as regards date, place, and person. The latter prizes most the
humble facts of repetition which interest the historian only at those rare intervals
when he interrupts the current of his narrative to exhibit the staie or transformations
of domestic life, manners, industry, law, or religion.’’ — Ross, Foundations of Sociol-
ogy, pp. 81, 82.
8 Ross, Foundations of Sociology, p. 98.
OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
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THE PURPOSE AND METHOD OF SOCIOLOGY
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4A OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
ophy rather than that of an inductive science. In the beginning
it was very natural that sociology should be a philosophy in order
thatits place among the philosophic interests might be determined
and its field so delimited as to show its possible value. However,
recently emphasis has been given to inductive study. Facts
or data have; been observed, collected, and classified and
general principles have been deduced. The substantial prog-
ress of the science has been along the lines of concrete
investigation by establishing principles from constantly re-
curring regularities in the mass of data.
The experimental process of society building in which each
new form of association or organization has tried to meet the
exigencies of the case, and the consequent passing of customs,
habits, and laws rendered obsolete by the “law of survival,”
would seem to indicate that no formal science based on axioms,
postulates, and theorems capable of demonstration could be
established on such a shifting experimental basis. But as no
cycle of reasoning is complete without both methods, the de-
ductive will always be used along with the inductive.
Scientific Method must be Observed. — It is very important,
whatever process of reasoning is employed, that there should
be a strict scientific method in all treatment of social phenomena.
Comte _made the first step in this direction by giving sociology
an honored place in the hierarchy of sciences, and Spencer early
acknowledged the need of more extended data, which in part
accounts for his Descriptive Sociology and the large collection of
social facts in his Principles. Ward, in his Dynamic Soctology,
has approached his main topics from the concrete and rounded
his argument with a deductive method. Yet how many writers
on sociology have succeeded in doing little more than record im-
pressions or, at least, expound theories from their respective
points of view! Every science has made material advancement
just in proportion as it has discovered facts and arranged them
in scientific order. Therefore, sociology will develop in pro-
portion as speculation ceases and thorough scientific investiga-
tion advances. Difficulties indeed present themselves at once
when the endeavor is made to bring some classes of social facts
under statistical control. It is difficult, for example, to measure
the growth or decline of a custom, a belief, a tradition. We
may be convinced that there has been an increase or decrease ;
THE PURPOSE AND METHOD OF SOCIOLOGY 45
but the scientific determination of the quantitative differences
is much more difficult in sociology than in the biological sciences,
or even in psychology or education. Nevertheless, the sociolo-
gists have made a very creditable beginning. Dealing first
with the measurement of the most easily controlled social facts,
such as population, housing, wages, poverty, pauperism, crime,
insanity, and feeble-mindedness, the sociologists have attempted
to bring under control of exact scientific measurement the much
more intractable social phenomena of the social mind.
Many Phases of Sociology. — The descriptive phase of the
science of sociology must be made prominent, for it is only by
such description that clearly defined notions of the subject
matter can be obtained. Without it people are led into error.
For example, many people wrote about the trust, disposing of
it with summary methods when its real nature, as well as its
origin and development, was unknown to them. ‘They wrote in
the dark, hence their conclusions were mostly worthless. Com-
paratively little of all that has been written about such subjects
as “Money,” “‘ Marriage and Divorce,” ‘‘ Education,’’ “ Social-
ism,” ‘‘ Trusts,” ‘‘ Labor and Capital ”’ is of real value because
the facts were not known and the relations of the particular sub-
ject under discussion to other subjects were not understood.
Social statistics must occupy a large place in social science
and its work will, so far as possible, include the whole range of
social development. There is great need of careful statistical
studies of many aspects of our social life. The studies in the
Reports of the United States Census are valuable as far as they
go. They give us a grasp of some aspects of our social life,
such as population, its composition, and organization in family
groups. The census has also contributed special studies on
marriage and divorce, on religious bodies, on the colored people
in certain employments, etc. Each decade some new aspects
of our social life are studied statistically, but it leaves so much
untouched that the sociologist feels how inadequately the Census
as a whole represents our complex social life. From the stand-
point of the novice in sociology, often a much better understand-
ing of the nature of the subject is obtained by selecting a small
unit like a rural township or one or more city blocks and study-
1Such a study is Giddings’s “‘The Social Marking System,” American Journal
of Sociology, Vol. XV, p. 721.
46 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
ing that unit intensively according to a definite plan mapped
out by some competent person.
Social evolution contributes much to the understanding of
social life besides making clear the forces that act in society
building and the laws that govern it. Therefore the student of
sociology studies carefully the development of civilization in
different parts of the world. He goes to descriptions of the
nature peoples, to folklore, and to the life of the classic peoples
of the past, to medieval customs, and to survivals of all kinds
in our modern life, in order to learn the steps in the development
of social institutions and processes, in the hope that he may
find regularities of social action and reaction common to them
all and thus discover generalizations or laws of society.
While the normal society is the great object of study, one
must not neglect the obsolete forms of society, for it is in the
broken-down parts that we frequently discover the laws of social
growth and social decay. Just as it was by the study of dis-
ease in the human being that we came to know about the normal
body and normal mind, so by following up the evidence dis-
played in degenerate types of social groups, one is frequently
led to the truths which underlie normal society. Such study
must be thorough and scientific and far removed from all mor-
bid sentiment or philosophic hysterics. Social pathology may
have as an important result the determination of the ought of
social action.
REFERENCES
Gippincs, F. H. Inductive Sociology, Chaps. I, III.
RATZENHOFER, GUSTAV. ‘The Problems of Sociology,” American Journal
of Sociology, Vol. X, p. 177.
Ross, E. A. Foundations of Sociology, Chaps. I and IV.
SMALL, A. W. ‘Methodology of Sociology,” American Journal of Sociology,
Vol. IV, pp. 113-144; 235-256; 380-304.
Warp, Lester F. Pure Sociology, Chap. IV.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. How is the primary purpose of sociology related to its practical pur-
pose?
2. If it should be established that the conscious purpose of man can have
no influence upon social development, what would be the practical effect
upon movements to improve social conditions?
THE PURPOSE AND METHOD OF SOCIOLOGY 47
3. Make out a broad, general outline of the things you would want to
investigate, if you were going to study society so as to get a general idea of its
nature.
4. In connection with the section on the problems of sociology, read
Giddings’s Principles of Sociology, pp. 70-76, and then write out in outline
form a statement of the problems of sociology.
5. Why is it that statistics were not applied so early to the study of social
phenomena as to the study of, let us say, the biological ?
6. Name all the groups of social facts which you know have been treated
statistically.
7. Name some social phenomena which have not yet been studied by the
statistical methods.
8. Outline a study of your own home community, dividing the study into
the various heads and subdivisions under which the facts concerning it
would best be grouped in order to enable one to understand that community
from a sociological standpoint.
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SOCIAL EVOLUTION
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CHAPTER I
SOCIAL ORIGINS
Social Evolution. — By studying the various types of con-
temporary societies one may learn how society itself came into
being. The student might begin by considering the evolution
of several social groups which have grown up under his eyes.
One might consider them in the order of their complexity, for
example, first taking up the rural family, next, perhaps the farm-
ing community, then the village, and then the city.!. On the
other hand, an understanding of the simple processes in the for-
mation of a society might be obtained by a study of existing
social institutions, traditions, customs, and organizations in
various societies in different stages of development. The latter
method would show cross sections of societies in successive stages
of evolution. Both methods are needed in order that the
student may get a comprehension of the way in which societies
come to be. The social institutions of to-day have had a his-
tory, have gone through phases of development. We shall
know them only as we understand their respective origins and
the course of their various developments. Some are survivals
from a stage long since passed. ‘They are fossils as much out
of place in the present-day world as the skeleton of the dinosaur.
The sanctions which once gave them vitality and significance
have passed away. They remain only as traditions, anachro-
nisms. Others are living, vital social institutions and processes,
deeply rooted in the social necessities of the present.
The work of the biologists, beginning with Darwin, has made
clear to us many features of early social life. This knowledge
has been supplemented by the culture historians and archeolo-
gists, dealing with both the prehistoric and the historic peoples.
Perhaps most illuminating of all has been the work of the com-
1 Such is the method employed by Small and Vincent in An Introduction to the
Study of Socicty, Bk. II.
51
52 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
parative ethnologists, who have brought to our attention in
the last few years the social organization, the language, customs,
beliefs, and ideas of what are called the nature peoples of all
lands. Their labors have made it almost possible for the
student of society to retrace, step by step, the road along which
society has progressed to its present stage.
In our study of social evolution we shall follow the method
of the comparative ethnologists.!
The purpose of the study of social evolution is to acquaint
the student with social origins and the processes of social growth.
He must bear constantly in mind that society has expanded
from simple beginnings, part by part, and function by function.
Moreover, society is always developing. It is changing in size,
in character, in the complexity of its institutions, in the number
of its interests, and in the diversity of methods by which it ex-
presses its social purposes. This is not to deny that societies
exist in a state of arrested development. There are such,
but they too are phenomena of social evolution, for they have
been different and have become what they are through reacting
to certain definite social and environmental conditions. By
reason of the fact, however, that arrested or degenerate societies
are societies caught in the back eddies of the stream of human
life, our chief interest is in those societies which are in a state of
progressive development.
Perhaps it hardly needs to be said that in the study of social
origins it is assumed that man has developed from a lower
animal form. The work of the prehistoric anthropologists
and archeologists has made it comparatively easy to retrace in
some degree the steps in the physical evolution of man from a be-
ing which was neither man nor ape, but had characters similar to
those of both. The remains of Dubois’s Pithecanthropus erectus,
of the Neanderthal man, and of the Heidelberg man give us our
best conception of what that being was. The remains of
prehistoric men found in the caves of France and Portugal rep-
resent the next higher step in evolution. The development in
the art and industry of prehistoric men corresponds roughly
with their physical evolution. What their social life was like we
do not know. The fact, however, that man has developed from
1¥For a full statement of the reasons for following this method, see Giddings,
Elements of Sociology, p. 231; Thomas, Source Book for Social Origins, pp. 3-13.
SOCIAL ORIGINS 53
animal-like ancestors, considered in connection with the social
habits of certain higher animals, makes it highly probable that
man’s prehistoric ancestors had a social organization interme-
diate between that of the animals and that of lower types of
living men. All these discoveries have made a little clearer for
us that shadowy past out of which man emerged with some social
organization and some social ideas.!
Social evolution is difficult to present summarily, for society
has not developed uniformly from a single idea, but rather from
a group of ideas more or less interrelated. Hence, in its treat-
ment we cannot follow through successive stages a clearly defined
process like the growth of the tree from the seed, but must con-
sider different phases of activity, such as religion, government,
law, political organization, industrial activity, and the family
life, each leading from a simple to a complex state of society
and each contributing to the solidarity of society as well as to
the enlarged number of its activities. An outline of origins
followed by a brief survey of the development of important
phases of social life is all that can be attempted here.
The Society of Animals. — While sociology deals with human
society, it is well to note that the beginnings of social organization
appear among animals lower in the scale of existence than man.
This fact gives the student a ground plan for the superstructure
of society. It indicates also how the informal beginning of
society rests on a physical basis and develops in proportion to
intelligence. It cannot be shown that there is an uninterrupted
continuity of development from the social practices of animals
to the social practices of human beings, but there is a similarity
in many points between the lowest human’ societies and the
highest animal societies. The chief difference is found in the
variety and versatility of association. If we consider the law
of conflict and survival, it applies alike to animal societies and to
natural human groups; also the principle of association for
protection is the same in both. The social instinct exhibited
in the pure love of companionship is less pronounced in animal
societies than in human societies. The sexual instinct plays
1¥For an introduction to the interesting and instructive discoveries of the past
twenty years see Clodd, The Story of Primitive Man; Duckworth, Prehistoric Man;
Keane, Ethnology; Starr, Some First Steps in Human Progress; Chapin, An Intro-
duction to Social Evolution.
54 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
an important part in each group, but has less force in the former.
The greatest difference is found in a rapidly growing altruism
and larger mental power of the human group which permit
a high state of codperation and organization. In other words,
animal societies show a few social qualities in embryo which |
never pass a low grade of development, while human societies
show these and many others in a highly developed state.!
We shall find roughly classified two great groups of animals,
the non-social and the social, roughly corresponding to the
carnivora and the herbivora. The former are highly individ-
ualistic, they hunt alone and live most of the year alone; the
latter codperate in defense, live in families, and develop in con-
sequence elementary social qualities.
Some birds of different species work together unconsciously,
each species seeking to help itself. Others of the same species
develop a community life, they hold assemblages for migratory
purposes, they mix out of pure sociability, and they have the
family instinct. But, as Darwin clearly shows, in all animal
association the moral sense seems to be wanting. There is no
reflection on past acts and no comparison of past acts with
present ones, no valuation of their relative importance — char-
acteristics which give rise to morality.?
Herds of antelopes live in harmony and peace, the leaders
giving warning of danger to the group. Elephants have been
seen in herds numbering from five to a hundred and fifty. These
groups are based on family relationships. Monkeys of the Old
World live in troops composed of family groups. One species
(Cercopithecus) engages in expeditions under the direction of
a leader. He commands the troop, stations sentinels, and gives
orders that are understood and obeyed. Another species
(Cynocephalus), according to Brehm, exhibits a still higher state
of organization
The Causes of Aggregation. — Many influences have caused
individuals to associate in groups. Among the more important
may be mentioned the desire for companionship, including
1 Yet, how striking is codperation among animals and how important a part
it played in the evolution of animals and man has been most clearly shown by
Kropotkin, Mutual Aid, A Factor in Evolution. See also Parmelee, The Science of
Human Behavior, Chaps. XVIJ-XIX.
2 See Darwin, The Descent of Man, Chap. IV.
8 See Topinard, Science and Faith, p. 121.
SOCIAL ORIGINS | 55
sexual attraction, the influences of climate, the physical condi-
tions of the earth, the food supply, the consciousness of similar-
ity, identity of interests, the necessity of protection against
animals and men, the influence of controlling personalities, and
codperation in industry.
Responding to some or all of these influences, animals have
formed social groups. Primitive men, moved by the same factors
as the animals and often led by those with a more developed
mentality and a keener social consciousness, formed themselves
into groups in which social pleasure was fully awakened and in
which various social and economic advantages appeared. Illus-
trations of how animals form into groups are given by the herds
of buffaloes which once covered our West, by the beaver colonies
to be found even yet in parts of our country, and by such social
insects as the ants and the bees. In some of these cases the
group is a temporary one, in others more lasting, and in some so
stable that one almost wonders if they do not in the matter of
stability surpass human social groups.
The Horde. — The simplest aggregation of people without
formal organization is called a horde. It is less than the human
equivalent of the animal “herd.” Its leadership is natural,
not formal. Its bonds are stronger in some ways, but very little
different from those natural bonds of physical and mental
superiority and deference to be observed in animal groups. It
represents one of the phases of social development. Numerous
examples of a horde are cited by Westermarck in his History
of Human Marriage There is little organization among such
peoples. The constituent families of hordes wander from place
to place with no permanent dwellings; the group is large to-
day and small to-morrow. ‘There are some sighs of temporary
leadership, but no permanent organization. Life is largely sub-
ject to accident. Yet this group of people represents, to a
certain extent, the foundation of human society, for it is out of
this simple homogeneous assemblage that complex society has
risen.
The Beginnings of Social Organization. — Within the human
horde appear small, more closely related groups of people which
form the primordial social organizations. Small industrial,
1 Parmelee, The Science of Human Behavior, Chaps. XVII-XIX. See Thomas, A
Source Book for Social Origins, pp. 461-468.
56 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
family, and religious groups appear which gradually transform
the rather indefinite mass into a social order. These small
centers of organized power appear spontaneously. They are
the radiating centers of organized social relationships. Here
Vogue begins to establish its power. Here Tradition begins
to lay down its sacred laws. In these centers social interests
find their organized expression. The superior man finds here
a way to forward his own ambitions through leadership. The
weaker cleave to the stronger because thus they find protection
and benefit. Finally, relationships are adjusted and the small
groups become independent. Beginning in the differences of
sex, at an early period of social life the division of labor causes
the differentiation into inchoate industrial groups. As social
classes are founded largely on industrial occupations, industrial
specialization gives an impetus to the general organization of
society. Yet one must not forget that some social classes grow
up apart from occupational interests. For example, the ruling
class springs in part from the lust for power and deference to
the superior, the ecclesiastical from fear of the unknown, the
secret societies so often found in primitive groups from the de-
sire for acknowledged precedence, and those strange groups
based on the sex taboo observed in some primitive communities, !
from the mystery of reproduction and its allied phenomena.
But in all of the changes that take place society is organized
about small voluntary groups, springing up because of apprecia-
tion of the pleasure or advantage to be secured thereby. New
groups are formed by a process analogous to budding, but they
often branch off in consequence of the development of such
motives as jealousy of the power of a leader, fear of a superior,
consciousness of’ temperamental difference between persons and
the clashing and occluding of interests.
Kinship. — In primitive society the family life was very differ-
ent from what it is at present. It was more indefinite and
irregular. But, beginning with the sympathy of the mother
for her offspring, the unity of the family group grew as the bonds
of common interest multiplied. Members of the family group
were held together primarily by kinship or blood relationship.
Whether through the close association of the family group or
1QOn the last see Jenks, The Bantoc Igorot; Crawley, The Mystic Rose, pp. 33-
58.
SOCIAL ORIGINS 57
through the actual consciousness of blood relationship, the family
group finally became a unit of social order. Kinship played
an important part in all the early phases of social organization.
Those of the same blood recognized and protected one another,
uniting in offensive and defensive war with other tribes. Such
temporary union grew into racial or tribal unity and led to the
development of race aversion.
Adoption. — But the family group enlarged in other ways
than that of natural increase. In the warfare which occurred
among various tribes it frequently happened that one tribe was
conquered, broken, and scattered, and its members who sur-
vived the shock of battle had no protection except when they
joined themselves to other tribes. There was no state, no
politics, no political government, but only the family or tribal
organization. Hence, when an individual or a small family
group was left alone, it was obliged to fight its own battles in-
dependently or else unite with some family for protection. It
became a common custom for conquering tribes to adopt such
stray survivors into their own tribes, the only conditions imposed
being that of a strict compliance with the laws and customs of
the tribe. Thus it was that the family group enlarged con-
tinually by natural increase and adoption. The adopted mem-
bers became identified with the family, helping to fight its
battles, following it through its migrations and engaging in the
economic pursuits of the tribe.
The Consolidation of Groups. — There were always in early
society certain tendencies to consolidate small groups into larger
ones. Many causes contributed to this result. Among them
may be mentioned the external pressure of the physical environ-
ment causing the various groups to unite for protection from
the weather or from wild animals, the danger from stronger
hostile groups which often forced weak groups to unite to resist
a common enemy, the recognition of kind whereby like groups
tended to unite and like individuals to associate with one an-
other, and possibly, more than all, the industrial life demanding
unity of effort. The attempt to satisfy a common hunger led
to a common sympathy and a common codéperation. This
unity of effort extended to other departments of life and had a
tendency to consolidate groups which otherwise would have been
separated and destroyed. |
58 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
The Origin of Language. — Probably language grew out of
the instinctive cries andzsounds produced by primitive man
under the stress of strong emotions excited by elemental joy,
fear, love, and hate, or out of the sounds which he heard about
him in a nature full of danger or beauty. These sounds became
conventionalized and united with his facial expressions and
gestures — his prelingual methods of conveying his thoughts
and feelings to others. Doubtless, progress began to be rapid
in the development of language when the satisfaction of his
social instincts led him to play with his fellows. Out of this
social fellowship grew the rhythmic dance and choral song.
The excitement of the primitive dance, linked as it so often was
with the deepest feelings he possessed, the sex and hunger im-
pulses, the joyous exhilaration of the mock combat, the awe-
inspiring ceremonies of tribal religion, quickened and heated the
mind to the pitch of forging a language, which served to satisfy
in a new way his desire for expression and at the same time tended
to become a new sharp instrument of emotional stimulation.!
Once language had developed under social stimulation to the
point where signs and sounds had become independent and dis-
tinguished in thought from the objects they designated, hu-
manity had speech. After this achievement man was able to
make comparatively rapid progress. While association pro-
vided the stimulus which gave rise to speech, the latter in turn
became a veritable fulcrum of Archimedes in lifting social life
to a new complexity and perfection.?
Another important step was taken when language became
written. Beginning with “ reminders ” like sticks stuck in the
ground or holes dug therein or cords tied in knots, or strung
with shells to assist the minstrel or medicine man of the group
to recall certain important events, and proceeding through
ideograms, signs standing for ideas, such as are still used by the
Indians of our Southwest and as they were used by the Dakota
Indians in Schoolcroft’s time, written language developed pho-
nograms, or signs which stood for certain phonetic values, as in
the Chinese and especially in the Japanese language of modern
1 Darwin, Descent of Man, Chap. XIX; Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 66-72.
On the development of animal language and its relation to human speech, see
Romanes, Mental Evolution in Man; Origin of Human Faculty, pp. 51 ff., 163 ff.
For the connection of the origin of speech with social excitement see Giddings,
Principles of Sociology, pp. 222-225.
SOCIAL ORIGINS 59
times and in the ancient Egyptian language. The Phcenicians
borrowed from the Egyptians certain of these phonograms,
attached to them simple sounds and combined them variously
in the different words in use and thus gave the world an alphabet.
These probably in a general way are the steps in the develop-
ment: “ reminder,” ideogram, phonogram, and letter. Written
language had even greater importance for humanity in its
social development than spoken language.’
Language has always fulfilled an important function in social.
organization. Through it as a means of communication the
small group has been developed and strengthened and other
groups have been united. People of similar languages are
attracted towards one another, while those of foreign languages
have a tendency to repel one another. The difficulty of estab-
lishing social order among diverse groups of people, speaking
different languages and having diversity of thought and senti-
ment, is very great. Even now this difficulty of socialization
is observed in our large American cities with their heterogeneous
populations. But though in such cases language causes sepa-
ration, it originally caused association. It is the attempt to
communicate thought that gives birth to language. One who
seeks for the origin of society will find one of its causes and one
of its effects in the action and reaction of language. —
Physical Pressure.— Another of the important causes of
the rise of social groups is the pressure of physical nature on the
population. Apart from the fact that the food supply caused
people to assemble in the localities where food was most plenti-
ful and most easily obtained, the influences of climate and the
physical surface of the earth forced people into groups. Wan-
dering along the rivers in pursuit of fish and game, men came
into contact with one another and learned to dwell together.
The mountain ranges stayed their migrations and caused a
denser population on their slopes or in the adjacent valleys.
The shores of the ocean and inland seas and lakes caused them
to pause for long periods and finally to establish permanent
1 For a brief survey of the steps in the development of writing see Starr, Some
First Steps in Human Progress, Chap. XXI. One of the earliest valuable contribu-
tions to the knowledge of the development of speech and writing was Tylor, Anthro-
pology, Chaps. IV-VII. Perhaps the most incisive and discriminating discussions
of the importance of the development of language on social development is sup-
plied by Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 68-79.
60 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
homes. Violent storms caused them to seek shelter in caves
where early associations were formed, and the ice flow from the
north caused the population to assemble in the southern valleys.
Thus the influence of physical nature everywhere tends to favor
the aggregation of men and their association. |
Social Pressure. — The movement of tribes and races over
the earth has caused the extinction of some, the breaking up of
others, but the consolidation of still others. The pressure of
nomad tribes on the ancient civilization of the various Aryan
groups in Europe, of the Huns upon the Teutons, of the various
Greek and Roman tribes upon one another, caused a closer
social union among the survivors of the struggle. This pressure
forces the growth of social institutions as a hothouse forces the
growth of plants. These institutions are the result of new ideas,
the result of the group consciousness struggling with new situ-
ations forced upon it by the pressure of a hostile group. Two
of many historic illustrations may be cited to show this. When
the white man reached America and began to settle in the North
Atlantic region, two great groups of Indians were struggling
for the possession of the Atlantic seaboard and the fertile valleys
which led down to it. The Algonquins were pressing down from
Canada upon the Iroquois already in possession of these places.
One result was a confederation known as the league of the
Troquois. An organization was devised whereby the various
independent tribes were welded together for defensive purposes.
A great development was taking place within these tribes when
the coming of the whites interrupted the process. Another
example may be seen in the Norman conquest of England. The
more or less loosely organized elements of the British popula-
tion, consisting of the ancient population elements, Celts, Angles,
Saxons, and Danes, fused somewhat already in the early Saxon
kingdoms and then developing under Danish rule into a larger
and more solid organization, were finally welded into a demotic
unity and a strongly organized whole under the Normans and
their successors. The process culminated under the Tudors
and early Stuarts. During the course of this development
social structures were greatly multiplied in number. The
aggregation of unlike population elements resulting in class
conflicts forced the development of agencies of domination,
status, and toleration. The instruments of justice, like the
SOCIAL ORIGINS 61
courts, were improved, all kinds of judicial machinery were
invented like the jury, grand and petit. The laws were greatly
multiplied and changed to meet new conditions. Even the
common law, the child of custom, was greatly elaborated.
Every form of social life underwent readjustment. Social
devices of all sorts multiplied.)
Common Ethical Sentiment. — The union of various groups
of people always depends to a considerable extent upon the
existence of a common ethical sentiment, for ethics are deeply
rooted in the emotions. In the beginning of society, as now,
feeling played a much more important réle than reason. The
sociological ‘basis of morality is custom. Custom is rooted in
the feelings and in that mighty social force, social approbation.
Therefore, tribal customs touching the relationship of man with
man would tend to repel groups with different moral codes and
attract those with similar.
The importance of moral sentiments in the formation of social
groups rests on the fact that the moral codes of primitive peoples
are very rigid and exacting, and therefore play a great part in
the socializing process which makes for group unity. Hence,
the origin of morality is of importance in any study of the origins
of society.
Morality had one of its roots in mother love. At first it was
purely instinctive, probably caused by blind natural selection.
As such it brought in the wake of its manifestation its own emo-
tional reward and thus became established in the feelings and
habits of the creature.
The social root of actions which may come to have a moral
value is to be found in custom, by which is meant an act adopted
and practiced by a group of people.2, Out of some customs grow
moral acts. Which actions shall become customary, and which
of the customary actions of a group shall become moral in their
nature depends upon social considerations arising from the so-
cial life of the group rather than upon legal or economic consid-
erations.
How an act may come to be customary and then moral may
be illustrated best by a concrete example. A group of primitive
1 For many of the facts of this illustration the writers are indebted to unpublished
lectures by Professor Giddings.
2 See Wundt, Principles of Morality: Facts of the Moral Life, Chap, ITI.
62 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
people come face to face with a new experience such as a pesti-
lence or a famine. At once individuals in that group begin to
struggle with the problem of how to avert the calamity. In
the individuals’ minds psychologically there arises the stress and
tension induced by fear in the presence of a new danger. The
tendency of the human mind under such conditions is to relieve
itself by motor reactions of some kind. Instead of anticipating
the modern adage, “‘ When you don’t know what to do, do
nothing,”’ the primitive mind tends to do something — or any-
thing. What shall be the act which is to relieve the emotional
tension depends much upon the character of the minds com-
posing that group, and upon their previous experiences — what
they did in previous more or less similar cases. Or, in the
absence of any similar experiences some one will do the first
thing that suggests itself to him as in any way appropriate.
Others may follow his example. Perhaps the families of these
men do not die. After the danger is past what they did is re-
called, it is related to others and becomes a part of the group’s
traditions. In any recurrence of the same or a like danger this
act will be performed by many imitators. Thus it will become
established in the customs of that group. It is a psychological
fact that custom, mere groupal habit, will soon attract to itself
certain very definite and strong emotions, and these emotions
will be strengthened when the act becomes traditional, fostered
by forceful and dogmatic personalities and associated in the
common consciousness with group safety.
Again, since some religious practices have their roots in similar
emotional tensions,! the custom often will be adopted by re-
ligion and be still further strengthened by coming under re-
ligiously dominating influences such as the fear of punishment
or the hope of reward by supernatural beings. In all such ways
may custom be established.
Whether a customary action was considered moral, immoral,
or unmoral was determined by such considerations as the rela-
tions of the act to the welfare of the group, and the relations of
certain instincts of the individuals to the traditions of the group.
The falling away of certain individuals from fixed customary
standards aroused ethical questions. ‘This is in accordance with
1King, Development of Religion, pp. 54, 101. For a slightly different emphasis
see Wundt, Principles of Morality; Facts of the Moral Life, pp. 134-139.
SOCIAL ORIGINS 63
the law of mental development, that matters come to our knowl-
edge by our first becoming aware of the incongruity between
the feelings we have enjoyed in the presence of the usual and
the feelings aroused when the smooth current of our conscious-
ness has been disturbed by the unusual. Therefore, originally
morality was chiefly negative: ‘Thou shalt not” do this
or that. Primitive life is largely a life of privation, a constant
struggle against the forces of nature, against wild animals and
hostile men. Suffering was the common lot. It was an econ-
omy of pain.!. Hence, primitive ethics and primitive religion
stressed negative acts of self-deprivation and suffering. This
tendency, moreover, was in entire accord with the necessity of
repressing the individual in the interests of the group. Only
after the group had become consolidated and unified to a certain
degree was it safe to emphasize and encourage individual acts
positive, independent, and original in their nature. Such acts
again were connected psychologically with the partiality of the
mother for her child, leading her to sacrifice herself for its bene-
fit, and strengthened by the fact that after a certain social de-
‘velopment had been reached they were of advantage for the
survival of the group, so that they finally became sanctioned
by the whole group. Thus moral sentiment expressed itself in
positive acts, and morality became conscious and rational.?
Beginning thus with self-sacrifice for the young, the altruistic
act extended to self-sacrifice for the wider kindred within the
group, then further with the growing consciousness of kind so
as to include the nation, the Kingdom of God, and the whole
world.
Origin of Public Control.— Leadership is implied in all
movements of mankind where there is human concerted ac-
tion. It may be only temporary or accidental leadership, but
it must exist under all circumstances except where men are moved
to act by common impulse. Wherever, then, there is social
order there will be, to a certain degree, leadership. Whether the
leader is the head of the household, the medicine man, the man
rich in cattle and land, as in ancient Ireland, the chief of the tribe,
or the temporary war chief, who leads the host in battle, social
1 Patten, Theory of the Social Forces, pp. 75-80.
See Ward, Pure Sociology, pp. 187-188. Cf. Ross, Social Control, Chaps.
XXV, XXVI.
64 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
order is established in proportion as leadership becomes strong
and permanent. As social development proceeds, leadership
becomes more varied in its fields. At first the leader was only
the strong man, or the man of superior cunning, as the medicine
man. Out from these crude beginnings of social leadership,
however, in response to growing complexity of social interests
and specialization of functions sprang leadership in many lines
of activity. Eventually this leadership may develop into a
kingship, a parliament, a council, or a constitution; or into
fashions and crazes; into educational, economic, and social ortho-
doxies; into vogues, philosophies, modes of thought, and vari-
eties of the Zeitgeist; but it must appear somewhere as a repre-
sentative of social authority. It becomes a great power for
consolidating and unifying the group, tribe, or nation and then
for enriching the social life of the particular group.
The Beginning of Justice. — While the establishment of
justice is not the primary cause of social amalgamation, yet
once the group has been established, it certainly hastens the
process of socialization. In fact, wherever we find social order
appearing there is an opportunity for the development of civil
justice, for people cannot associate on a common basis without
some means of enforcing justice. The social elements act and
react against one another blindly before formal justice is es-
tablished. Conflicts arise between individuals in the group
which must be settled. At first might makes right — the
stronger man overpowers his antagonist and makes a decision
from his own standpoint. But soon civil justice brings in a third
party who adjusts the relations between the two, allotting to
each man his just dues. ‘The first stirrings of a sense of social
justice may even be observed in a herd of animals when one
bullying member finally attracts the attention of a number of
the herd who unite in meting out punishment to the offender
and so secure a form of justice between the two individuals
primarily involved. In the human group the origins are much
more complex. Here the brute strength, impartial judgment,
and finer sympathy of a third individual are supplemented by
the weight of tradition as to moral rights and duties and the
usages more or less applicable to the dispute, and by an apprecia-
tion of the necessity of smoothing out differences that imperil
the welfare of the group. Moreover, the increased appreciation
SOCIAL ORIGINS 65
of leadership and the growth of moral sentiments in even the
lowest savages make for increased deference to the decision of
the third party. Like moral sentiment justice began within
the group. Within the confines of a blood-kindred would the
moral sense first express itself most naturally and easily. Special
impetus to the tendencies just noticed to secure formal means
of settling disputes doubtless was given by the danger from a
hostile group. |
The Force of War. — Perhaps no other visible agency has
accomplished so many and such great changes in the progress of
society as war. Conflict of individuals has led to strength of
individual character, just as conflict between tribes has led to
social strength. True they may both end in the destruction
of one or both parties, but those who survive are made stronger
to cope with the opposing elements of social life. War has
destroyed individuals, tribes, nations. Millions of lives and
countless treasures have been sacrificed to war, and yet through
it have developed many of the finer qualities of life. Through
it man has been taught to obey the will of the stronger; through
it he has been taught not to abuse the weak. War is great in
discipline, preparing wild or savage people for the conduct of
civil government. It is one of the most important factors in
accounting for the origin of many social institutions.! War, how-
ever, gave rise to a firmer social structure chiefly by a rough-
hewing selective process which threw out all unsound material,
and, as Ward has shown,? by so multiplying social contacts
between alien peoples as to stimulate the growth of rigid social
structures. It was especially important in securing the transi-
tion from an ethnic to a civil society.2 On the other hand, in
mutual aid, we have a social beginning of great importance.‘
Arising in the animal group by natural selection mutual aid
developed in the kinship group by reason of the heightened
social pleasure it provided, and was firmly established in the war
measures invented against enemies of the group.
1See Ward, Pure Sociology, pp. 202-215.
2 Ward, Pure Sociology, pp. 193, 215.
3 The best exposition of war’s connection with this important step is by Giddings,
Descriptive and Historical Sociology, pp. 473-480.
4For a detailed presentation of the part which mutual helpfulness has played
in the beginnings of society see Kropotkin, Mutual Aid, A Factor in Evolution.
Cf. Ward, Pure Sociology, pp. 201, 202, 215, 216. For a corrective discussion of
Kropotkin, see Parmelee, The Science of Human Behavior, pp. 404-406.
F
66 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
REFERENCES
BRINTON, DANIEL G. The Basis of Soctal Relations, pp. 163-201.
CHAPIN, F.S. An Introduction to Social Evolution.
DaRwIN, CHARLES. The Descent of Man, Chap. IV.
DucxwortH, W.L.H. Prehistoric Man, New York, 1912, Chaps. I, II.
Ey, R. T. Evolution of Industrial Society, Chaps. I, II.
Grippincs, F.H. Principles of Sociology, pp. 199-356.
Grppincs, F. H. ‘‘A Theory of Social Causation,” Publications of the
American Economic Association, Third Series, Vol. V., or Descriptive and
Historical Readings in Sociology, pp. 118-121.
Ross, E. A. Social Control, Chap. I.
TuHomas, W.I. Source Book for Social Origins.
TOPINARD, PAUL. Science and Faith, pp. 60-173.
WarD, LESTER F. Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., Chap. VII.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Why should the student of sociology study social origins?
2. After reading Duckworth, Chaps. I and II, write a description of the
probable physical appearance of the earliest man of which we have any
remains.
3. What are the fundamental social institutions the origins of which go
back to a very early time in the history of man?
4. Trace back to its beginnings in outline, one modern social institution,
such as language.
5. What is the importance of language in the development of society?
6. Observe a group of animals, such as a herd of cattle in the pasture,
and write a description of the society which they form. (Before writing this
exercise read Darwin, Descent of Man, Chap. IV.)
7. How does a human horde differ from an animal herd?
8. Put down in tabular form the chief causes of the coming together of
human beings into groups.
g. Read Giddings, A Theory of Social Causation, and state briefly the
ways in which the physical environment affects the formation of human
societies.
10. Name the agencies which originate common ethical sentiments in
your home community.
11. What bearing on the peace movement has the view of war presented
in the text?
CHAPTER II
THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE
Physical Nature and Social Development.— In the last
chapter reference was made to the influence of physical nature
on the origin of society. It is still more influential on social
development. Everywhere we find man’s possibilities limited
by the conditions of his physical environment. It would almost
seem as 1f man sprang out of the soil, so great is his dependence
upon it. Always the lines of his development are determined
in part by the nature of his contact with the soil, and his social
progress is measured by his effective mastery of the forces of
nature. For early man at least the character of social life is
determined primarily by the manner in which the group at-
taches itself to the land. The compactly organized Oriental
tribe that wanders in the desert is very different from the Teu-
tonic village community, and the manorial group very different
from the community settled in the United States on small inde-
pendent farms. ‘The prevalence of great estates means a peas-
ant population and possibly a race of serfs.
Just what influence physical environment has upon intellectual
and social development is a matter of controversy. Some, for
example, Montesquieu and von Treitschke, have thought that
climate and the topography of the country affect a people
directly. The former thought frankness was produced by cold
climates, the latter that the difference in artistic temperament
between Switzerland and other Alpine regions and the more
level regions of Swabia, Franconia, and Thuringia was due to
the paralyzing effect of majestic mountains upon the minds of
men. Buckle, Spencer, Ellen Semple, Giddings, and others
have seen that the problem is not so simple.!
1 For a good brief review of the steps in the development of the conception of the
influence of physical environment on a people see Giddings, ‘‘A Theory of Social
Causation,” Publications of the American Economic Association, Third Series, Vol.
Ve Noranpp: 1517 552:
67
68 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
The Conflict with Nature. — Everywhere and at all times
man appears to be in conflict with nature. He struggles against
the wild animals of the forest, exterminating or subduing them;
he seeks to avoid the winter’s cold or summer’s heat; he wrests
from the forest, the stream, and the soil his means of subsist-
ence. He turns the forces of nature from his destruction to
his salvation. Water power and wind, steam and electricity
finally become his servants. On the other hand, he is attacked
by parasites and germs of disease. The deadly microbe causes
his perpetual warfare for its extermination. ‘Two theories pre-
vail among philosophers, one that nature is niggardly and harsh;
the other that she is bounteous and generous. There is truth
in both. By his intelligence man arranges his life in conformity
with the regularities of nature and by his effort he forces nature
to yield her treasures. Nature is bounteous in the supply of
all man’s needs if only by intelligent effort he compels her to
open her treasure house. Certainly the medial statement is
true, that all man’s wants are supplied from nature through in-
telligent and well-directed effort.
Character of the Land and the Development of Society. —
By “land” is meant land, air, and water — the physical en-
vironment. Climate, soil, and humidity determine whether
there shall be any society at all. Nine tenths of the globe’s
surface is not suitable for man’s occupation. Parts of it are
water, other parts are too high in altitude, some lack water,
others have an impossible climate, and still others lack the plant
food which we call fertility of soil.
One has but to reflect in order to appreciate how important
are the influences of the physiography upon man and his social
development. Oceans and mountain ranges have great in-
fluence upon climate. One ocean current makes Labrador,
with the same latitude as England, uninhabitable, while another
has made it possible for England to be an important seat of
Western civilization. The contour of a coast together with
an ocean current and the effects of ocean tides may make a
harbor of one place while destroying the entrance to another.
Mountain barriers, on the one hand, and rivers, the natural
highways, on the other, determine the direction in which an
inflowing tide of immigrants shall go. Witness the directions
taken by the barbarian invasions of Europe. Moreover, it is
THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE 69
probable that those invasions were started partly by physical
causes, the drying up of the central plateaus of Asia.! Coast
lines much indented by the sea, thus offering harbors and abun-
dant opportunities for man to reach the interior easily, have
much to do with social development. Minor features of topog-
raphy, such as lakes, waterfalls, mountain passes, cafions,
and fertile plains, have determined where settlements of men
should occur. Valleys, like rivers, are natural highways of
communication. One has only to look at a map of our own
country to see how important has been the influence exerted
upon American society by the physical factors.?
Moreover, the primary and secondary sources of subsistence,
as Giddings, following Buckle, calls them, have much to do in
determining where human settlement shall occur and, to a degree
the character of the society man creates.3 Out of these physical
conditions grew man’s economic relations, his social attach-
ments, and many of his interests and animosities, forces so
important to human society.
Man Touches Nature at an Increasing Number of Points. —
In primitive society life was simple and the wants of man were
supplied from a few sources of nature. But as civilization ad-
vanced man continually came in contact with nature at an
increasing number of points. Thus, in primitive life when man
obtained his subsistence from roots and berries, his shelter from
rocks and caves, and his clothing from rushes and leaves, his
command of the resources of nature was very slight. During
all this period he was at the mercy of the elements. Subse-
quently when he had learned to hunt and to domesticate animals,
and when the women had learned to keep a fire, other great
steps forward were taken, but when he obtained a permanent
relation to the soil and developed agriculture, he added to the
momentum of his progress a thousand-fold. In the history of
the race man has advanced the practical arts of civilization
exactly in proportion as he multiplied the number of points of
1 Kropotkin, Mutual Aid, A Factor in Evolution, New York, 1904, pp. 118-119.
Pumpelly, Explorations in Turkestan, Vol. I, pp. 13, 16. Huntington, E., The Pulse
of Asia, pp. 106-132.
2 Gregory, Keller, and Bishop, Physical and Commercial Geography, Chaps. I-IX.
Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Secs. 6-21.
8 Giddings, Descriptive and Historical Sociology, p. 68. Buckle, History of Civiliza-
tion in England, Chap. II, quoted in Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, Chap. X.
70 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
contact with nature, and utilized the possibilities of this contact
for his advantage. The use of the streams and the seas for
transportation, of the winds for propelling ships, of water power
for turning machinery, of steam power in its numerous and
extensive offices, of electricity in all of its varied services, of
the commercial value of minerals, and of new articles of food
made him independent. ‘These things give evidence of the fact
that man’s progress is due to the utilization of all the forces and
materials of nature. The story of civilization has been one of
more and more complete understanding of nature, of man’s
adaptation to nature, and therefore the more perfect subjection
of her powers for man’s benefit.
Attachment to the Soil. — Beginning with a very loose at-
tachment to the soil, man has come to an ownership of the soil
in fee simple. At first the primitive man owned no land. It
was merely the hunting ground of the group; each individual
member of the group took from it what he wanted. There
was only group ownership and for the wandering, pastoral Bedouin
tribes that was so loose that it was often disputed. The group
was here to-day and there to-morrow. Ownership focused now
about a well-watered old glacial delta in a rapidly drying-up
plateau, as in the case of the long-buried cities so recently
brought to light in Eastern Turkestan,! now about a spring in
a desert, as in the Arabia of the Nomads, and again about a ~
clearing in the forest or a tun or hill easily defended. The pas-
toral or tillable land about this center was the group’s posses-
sion so long as they could hold it by force. That was the be-
ginning of a closer attachment to the soil. Feudal agrarian
relations grew up partly on the basis of pastoral feudalism and
partly on the newly developed emphasis upon cultivation of the
soil.”
Through his permanent attachment to the soil man was
enabled to develop a distinct and separate class of social services.
It aided the tendency already strong towards the segregation of
families into separate permanent homes and thus developed
family life, which furnished the strongest element in social
order. The close proximity of more people than could possibly
1Pumpelly, Explorations in Turkestan, Vol. I.
* Giddings, Readings in Descriptive and Historical Sociology, pp. 467-473, and
Elements of Sociology, pp. 267-269.
THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE 71
be supported by pastoral industry taught respect for mutual
rights and established duties, for higher socialization takes place
only when people are brought into close personal relationship.
Under such circumstances custom changes into law; powers of
government become differentiated and established; the division
of labor in industry prevails; and society is divided into inter-
dependent groups, each having a common relationship with
the general social body. But so important is this attachment
to the soil in determining the character of civilization that its
history would reveal the fundamental characteristics of social
life. Thus the tribal method of occupation, the village com-
munity, the feudal system, the manorial system, and the owner-
ship of land in fee simple, are so many different economic bases
of social relationships.
The Various Uses of Land.— In man’s choice of land the
three chief considerations are position, fertility, and mineral
products. The first has reference to situation and also to sheer
standing room. The relation of the population to the soil and
its distribution give rise to many distinct social phenomena.
It would seem at first thought that there would be ample room
for the millions that inhabit the globe, but their distribution and
the means of support afforded by natural features and resources
cause the population to arrange itself in various centers, press-
ing more and more together on certain small territories until at
length such cities as New York and Chicago are formed. This
crowding of the population into congested groups has a vast
influence in the development of social relationships. Villages
in fertile valleys, the great cities of manufacture and trade, and
the mining towns that spring up in a single night are made by
people attracted by the lure of commonly appreciated advantages
there to be found. The result of this is increased land values
rising in some instances to enormous figures. Thus the land on
lower Broadway in New York sells for hundreds of dollars per
square foot simply because there is demand for it by many people
for commercial and social purposes. On the other hand, in the
Far West hundreds of acres may be bought for the price of a
single foot on Broadway.
Because man may obtain from the soil the means whereby
he may satisfy his wants, he seeks to possess it. Grain, vege-
tables, and live stock for food, trees and forests for houses and
72 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
furniture and various mechanical uses are all yielded from the
riches of the soil. Likewise man obtains from beneath the soil
gold and silver, iron and coal, and all the minerals for mechani-
cal services. Thus a general human demand for the products of
certain soils causes the aggregation of population and brings all
types of society into accord with the uses made of the soil and
its products. Every increase in population which causes an
increase in demand for the products of the land augments the
value of land and often leads to changes in the uses to which it
is put.
Increase of Population.— In primitive society tribes were
obliged to go where the food supply existed, and consequently
when a tribe exhausted the food supply there was division,
colonization, or migration. The increase in the food supply
by the use of a new variety of food frequently changed condi-
tions so that it was not necessary to migrate. The same effect
was produced by the discovery of processes by which some
natural product hitherto not fit for food could be used for food.
Such a discovery was the use of fire by primitive man in the
preparation of food. By that means not only was food made
more palatable and more easily digested, as in the case of meats,
thus releasing energy for social purposes, but it increased the
food value of many products, such as the starchy foods, and
rendered edible others which up until then had been almost, if
not entirely, worthless as food.! Moreover, with the adoption
of agriculture food supplies were increased. Domestication of
animals leading gradually to breeding for a definite purpose
was another step which increased the food supply and made
certain semi-desert parts of the earth’s surface available for
human habitation. The development of transportation and
the practice of exchanging the products of one part of the world
for those of another part have further increased the ability of
the world to support a larger population. New inventions,
furthermore, in agriculture, stock breeding, and in manufacture,
new methods of organization both on farm and in factory, have
further increased the available food supply. These, and many
similar facts, also explain the concentration of ever larger ag-
gregations of people in one small area, as in New York and
1Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Sec. 26. Starr, Some First Steps in Human
Progress, Chap. III.
THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE 73
London, because each draws its sustenance from a large ter-
ritory. If the population of New York City was limited for
its food supply to the territory within one hundred miles, most
of its people would starve within a few months.
The Efforts to Satisfy Wants the Basis of Society. — Many
different theories have been advanced regarding the basis of
society. Some have tried to establish kinship or blood rela-
tionship as the foundation. Others have insisted that the race
idea, which is only an extension of this, is the formal basis of
society. Again, others have held that religion is the great
motive resulting in the establishment of huge social bodies.
Some others have held that conflict is the cause of social develop-
ment, and still others that social contact is the basis of society.
It must be apparent, however, that man is moved in social
matters by two sets of factors, physical conditions either limit-
ing or stimulating his organism, and emotional impulses arising
from within his own organism, stimulated and given direction
by the environing physical and social influences. Two great
physical instincts man possesses in common with all animals,
the hunger and the sex instincts. The physical environment
plays an important part in giving direction to his activities.
He has been forced here and there by physical influences and
through their operation he has found himself associated with
his fellows who were influenced in a similar manner. For ex-
ample, the storm causes people to seek the same shelter, the
stream draws them to the same spot, and they meet on the best
hunting ground. In seeking to satisfy hunger and to avoid the
discomforts of inclement weather, primitive men were forced
together, sometimes into companies. ‘The sex instinct and the
desire for companionship operated powerfully upon primitive
men to cause them to congtegate together. Where they should
gather depended largely upon physical conditions. Without
forgetting that sometimes a land poor in food supplies forced
men to separate into small groups, watercourses, teeming lakes
and rivers, game-filled forests, and plains strewn with herds of
animals good for food were attractions which often caused
primitive men to converge. Mountain barriers, deserts, and
broad seas determined bounds beyond which even hunted men
could not go. Ever acting with the impulse of hunger were the
social instincts, —the attraction of the novel in sex and the mys-
74 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
terious but alluring adventure of establishing companionship
with the unknown stranger more or less like himself. Aggre-
gations were thus easily formed, impelled by such instincts,
and by the favoring influence of climate and soil, mountain,
stream, and ocean.
The Survival of the Social Group. — The character of the
group, however, is always dependent to a considerable degree
upon the nature of the country within which it has been formed.
The ultimate determinant of the composition of a group of people
is the physical characteristics of the place where people con-
gregate and form in social groups of a permanent character.
In their bearing upon the nature of the social groups naturally
nurtured by them the various physical environments may be
divided into four different kinds, as pointed out by Giddings,
viz., a poorly endowed region isolated by natural barriers, one
poorly endowed but easy of access and egress, a richly endowed
but isolated region and one richly endowed and readily acces-
sible. In the first the population will be formed by the natural
birth rate rather than by immigration and therefore will be
relatively homogeneous in blood. Whether it increases will
depend on the relation of the birth rate to the death rate. In
the second kind of country the vigorous, alert spirits will emi-
grate, but there will be few immigrants. The population, again,
will be homogeneous in blood. In both cases there will be little
or no group conflict, the result of intermixture. The tendency
in the population in the first case will be inbreeding, but with
a slower deterioration than in the latter ; in the latter rather rapid
degeneration both in stock and in culture will occur. Examples
of the first may be seen in Greenland, Central Thibet, and Cen-
tral Australia, and of the latter in many of the New England
rural districts whence the former inhabitants emigrated to
better lands. In the third kind of environment, such as is ex-
emplified in the Hawaiian Islands and Central Africa, one finds
again a genetic group of one blood, but large in numbers. It is
a variety of this kind of environment which has furnished the
migrations of history. Let such an environment change its
character by reason of either a gradual desiccation or of a sudden
1 Giddings, ‘“‘A Theory of Social Causation,” Publications of the American Eco-
nomic Association, Third Series, Vol, V No. 2, pp. 151, 152; Descriptive and Historical
Sociology, pp. 68, 118-121.
THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE 715
failure of crops, and the sturdier and more restless elements of
the population will surge forth in search of better habitats.
The fourth kind of environment, typified by such regions as the
Nile valley, the Shenendoah valley of Virginia, and the fertile
fields of our own Gulf States, or better still the great Mississippi
valley, attracts people from everywhere. This makes for a
highly mixed population, made up of the strongest and most
venturesome spirits from all parts of the world.
After the social group had been fully formed so that it had a
permanent identity and its numbers had increased sufficiently
to crowd its habitat, it began its career of struggle for the soil
with other groups. If the group represented a vigorous racial
stock and was successful in locating under favorable circum-
stances, it had many opportunities for survival. The larger
and stronger group was, by its vigor and foresight, sure to locate
in the best territory. However, if through accident a strong
racial stock was forced to remain for a period of time under
less favorable circumstances, the opportunities for success were
much decreased. On the other hand, if a race lacking in vigor
of body or in intellect should locate in the most fertile district
and with the most favorable environment, the opportunities for
survival would be even less than that of the vigorous race, which
settled under unfavorable circumstances, because the well-
directed effort of man is the prime factor in his survival. Hence,
where a race of low vitality locates on a barren soil or is thrust
back on poor hunting grounds its chance for survival is very
small. The history of races shows how thousands of these
groups are thrust aside by stronger races and perish, leaving no
record of civilization. The results of land occupation, therefore,
will depend largely on the size and activity of the social group
which settles upon it. If the group be strong and vigorous, it
moves more rapidly in subduing nature and bringing to its
support her various bounties.
The Natural Races. — Everywhere we find in contrast the
so-called natural races and the civilized races. By natural
races we mean those which have not reached any high degree of
civilization, although some of them may have the capacity for
progress. Wherever races have developed and become civilized
they have met in their migrations these natural races. Whether
in Europe, Asia, or Africa, the migrations of the stronger tribes
76 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
have encountered a population of lower grade. The American
continent was covered with these natural races which had not
yet entered the pale of civilization when the Europeans landed
there. Some of them, like the Peruvians, the Aztecs, the
Pueblos, the Cliff Dwellers, and the Mound Builders, have left
some records of the beginnings of culture,' Art and industry,
religion and government had been developed to a considerable
extent, but a great majority of the living tribes of the New World
were either stationary or degenerating at the time of their first
contact with European races. They occupied intermittently
nearly all the land areas of America. They used them mostly
for hunting purposes, so that their land tenure was of a very
primitive sort, usually consisting of nothing more than tem-
porary occupancy. ‘Tribal ownership prevailed with the excep-
tion that in some small villages a family had the right, for
the time being, to the soil on which it built its wigwam or hut.
However, the beginnings of a settled agriculture were made
among some of them, and the evolution of political organization
was developing when the coming of the whites stopped the pro-
cess of evolution. For example, the Iroquois, and probably
some of the other American Indians, had developed a gentile
confederacy of tribes.2, They were undergoing the transforma-
tions through which the Greek tribes had gone in the prehistoric
period. Had they been permitted to continue their develop-
ment without interruption by the whites, it is probable that they
would have developed, after a time, a civilization of a high type.
The achievements of some of the Central and South American
tribes in architecture certainly point in that direction.
During a long period the tribes continued to migrate or kept
changing their locations. However, there was not so much real
migration as is generally supposed, because the tribes had two
methods of occupation. One was the territory where their
villages, pasture lands, and permanent hunting grounds were
located, and the other was the territory claimed by them for
hunting purposes. At different seasons of the year they were
found going from their villages to these hunting grounds and
back. It was out of contention over these less permanent abodes
1 National Geographic Magazine, Vol. XXI, pp. 596-621, 1002-1020; Vol. XXIV,
PP. 315-338, 403-573.
2 Morgan, Ancient Society, New York, 1878, Chap. V.
THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE rie
that most of the Indian wars originated. In the migrations of
tribes, often when the stronger invaded the territory of the
weaker, the former settled down in tribal ownership of the soil,
which it held for the good of all. This is true even among semi-
civilized groups like the early Greeks, the Romans, or the
Teutons, in their migrations.
Habitable Land Areas. — The lands of the world are con-
sidered either habitable or uninhabitable, but these are really
relative terms, for the habitability of land areas depends upon
the stage of civilization and the standard of life prevailing
in the various countries of the world. There are unoccupied
territories that could be made to support a meager population.
Many low tribes lead a miserable existence on certain barren
soils or on inferior hunting grounds. Some of the arid land west
of the Mississippi River, generally considered uninhabitable, has
been subdued and utilized through the science and indomitable
efforts of a civilized race. The territory of New England sup-
ports a high civilization largely on account of the character and
energy of the people who brought with them the arts and in-
dustries of a civilized life. Many of the mountain ranges and
their approaches will not permit a thickly settled population
and, indeed, in some instances, practically forbid the permanent
habitation of man. On the other hand, the fertile valleys of
the Mississippi and of other great rivers permit a gradually
increasing population of great density. Mankind is constantly
searching out such fertile spots and developing all their resources
to support a large population.
The Settlement of Tribes.— The Indian tribes of North
America had spread over nearly the whole territory. The great
Algonquin tribe occupied nearly the whole of British America
and extended into the boundaries of the United States, covering
the New England states and the northern Mississippi valley ;
the Iroquois tribes occupied New York and a part of North Caro-
lina, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia. On the eastern
slope of the Rocky Mountains was the great Siouan tribe, and
the southwestern part of the United States was occupied by
the Shoshonean tribe. The Athapascans occupied the north-
western part of North America and a part of the territory in
the extreme southwest of the United States.
Other tribes were located on different territories of the United
78 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
States, a large number of them clustering along the Pacific
coast. They all showed the effects of migrations and wars in
the struggle for territory. While they occupied large areas their
centers of population were along the streams and in the fertile
valleys, following, like civilized man, the sources of food supply
and the natural lines of travel. Very few of this vast body of
natives could be considered sedentary. Most of them were
located in Arizona and New Mexico. Possibly also a few of the
Iroquois tribe and some of the ancient Mound Builders in the
southern part of the United States occupied permanent habita-
tions. When the Europeans came to America their migrations
followed the same natural routes as those followed by the
natives. Their most densely populated groups were located
in the districts most densely populated by the Indians. The
streams were followed, the valleys occupied, and subsequently
the great plains.
In view, however, of the extensive migrations by individuals
which have occurred in the last one hundred years among civi-
lized nations one is tempted to say that the movements of the
American Indian tribes or even the historic migrations of the
Aryans in comparison were but pigmy affairs, and that these
primitive peoples were relatively settled in their life as compared
with modern peoples. Nevertheless, there is a great difference
between the two migrations. The migrations of the Indians
and of the peoples in Europe in historic times were group affairs,
while modern migration is predominantly an individual matter.
When comparing individuals, one can say that there is more
movement to-day than at any previous time. When, however,
we think of groups, we must say that the tribes of American
Indians, of Arabian Bedouins, and of Aryan peoples were less
settled on the land than are our modern peoples with their
highly organized governments which give permanence to a popu-
lation even when the individual constituents of that population
are constantly and swiftly changing. The wit of man in the face
of the loosening of the former immemorial bond of kinship has
caught at the device of substituting for it settlement within
a given geographic area combined with a sharpening of the con-
sciousness of political unity. An absolute prerequisite of politi-
cal stability is attachment of the social group to a definite terri-
tory.
THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE 79
Growth of Population in Relation to Land Areas. — The ex-
tent and character of the land has always been a controlling
influence in the development of population, not only on ac-
count of the limitations of the food supply, but also on account
of the union of various tribes and groups into a more compact
and integrated body. Here, as elsewhere, the impelling forces
of nature have a vast influence in advancing social union. If,
for example, the land is broken by mountains and valleys so
that people in the different valleys are kept apart from each
other, social integration will be retarded. In fact, differentia-
tion will set in. The language will vary in the different valleys
in course of time, customs will become different, modes of
thought and codes of conduct will grow up, varying within de-
grees in each of the isolated groups from those prevailing in
the others. Good examples of such social variation are to be seen
among the inhabitants of the various valleys of the German and
Swiss Alps and of the Kentucky mountains.
But especially has population been limited by land areas
when there was no room for expansion, for then it must be
limited in its resources for supporting life. When the food
supply, with the method of utilization in vogue, would support
no larger population, either new methods of increasing the food
supply were found, or the standard of living was lowered, or
else the population expanded beyond its earlier boundaries.
Colonization has usually grown out of the pressure of population
upon food supply furnished by the area occupied in comparison
with the real or reputed possible supply to be found elsewhere.
The Greeks colonized when there was an overcrowding of the
population, the barbarians of the North invaded the Roman
territory when their own territory would not well support them
with their existing mode of life. The great modern movement
of elements in the populations of various countries of Europe
offers a modern instance. On the other hand, the intensive
agriculture of the Nile Valley in ancient times and of the valleys
of Indian and Chinese rivers to-day has made it possible for a
small area to support an enormous population. Often, however,
as in the case of the Chinese and the inhabitants of India, a
lowering of the standard of living and intensive farming have
been the double alternative to emigration.!
1 Ross, The Changing Chinese, Chap. IV.
80 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
Various Forms of Land Tenure. — The history of land tenure
reveals various prominent influences in social development.
When the tribe settles down upon the soil and owns it and
controls it without any individual ownership of the land, there
is always a limitation placed upon man’s individual effort.
There is a tendency for all to hold the property in common and
likewise a tendency toward democracy so far as property is
concerned. It also develops a closely integrated social group
that wields absolute authority. Forms and customs prevail
and are perpetuated because of the dominance of tradition as a
method of social control. In the old village life we find a little
variation because permanent ownership of the home or house
lot exists for the family and the small family group develops its
independent life more truly than where tribal ownership pre-
vails in its entirety. In both forms, however, community cul-
tivation of the soil is involved. Under this system there is no
incentive to the cultivator to do more than “skin ” the land,
for no one knows whether in next year’s allotment he will have
the same piece to cultivate as he had last year! Before great
progress in agriculture can be made some form of land tenure
by which the land can be held and cultivated by the same in-
dividual year after year must arise. Two forms of such tenure
did arise, tenancy for years and ownership in fee simple. The
old Roman laws developed from land holding gave character
to the entire Roman policy. The basis of feudal society rested
upon the system of feudal land tenure. The great farms and
estates of England and Scotland were conducive to the develop-
ment of aristocratic government, while the small, individual
holdings of America,:if persisted in, would insure democracy
forever.
Land tenure has usually been of a communal nature among
primitive tribes, but the individual system early developed out
of it. Wherever individual possession has been recognized,
there has always existed a great diversity in the size of the
holdings. Large and small holdings have existed side by side,
although in most instances the tendency has been to increase
the large holdings and to develop a landed aristocracy.
1 Gibbins, Industry in England, New York, 1906, p. 41. Warner, Landmarks of
English Industrial History, London, 4th ed., p. 44.
THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE 8I
REFERENCES
Grwpincs, F.H. Elements of Sociology, Chap. II.
Buckie, THomas Henry. History of Civilization in England, Chap. II, or
CarvER, T. N. Sociology and Social Progress, Chap. X.
DEGREEF, GUILLAUME. Introduction dla Sociologie, Part I, Chap. III.
LAVELEYE, EMILE DE. Primitive Property.
THACKERY, S.W. The Land and the Community, Chaps. I, II, and III.
WALKER, Francis A. The Land Question.
THomas, W.H. Source Book for Social Origins, pp. 47-54.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Trace the origin and growth of the various settlements in your county,
showing what physical and geographic features had to do with the establish-
ment of the various villages and cities of the county.
2. Why was Virginia settled before Ohio?
3. What were the geographical features which determined the location
of the railroad in your city or village?
4. Show how a “backwoods community” of which you may know has
been made different by physical conditions so far as the character of the
people is concerned.
5. Account for the backwardness of the Kentucky mountaineers on the
basis of the influence of physical conditions.
6. Point out specific ways in which the White Man who dispossessed the
Red Man was more closely attached to the soil.
7. What physical reason is there which helps to make land in New York
City worth thousands of dollars per front foot, while land ona fertile prairie
of the Central West is worth only a hundred dollars per acre?
8. Show what physical conditions predetermined America to be a country
of a very composite population — a very ‘‘ melting pot”’ of the nations.
9. Show that the physical factors alone are inadequate to explain social
phenomena, by indicating the reasons why the White Man is able to sustain
a very much larger population in the United States than was the Indian.
10. Why does individual tenure of land make for the betterment of a
country rather than the communal tenure of Europe in the Middle Ages?
11. Take a city block and a rural square mile and compare them as to the
proportion of the occupants who live in rented places in each and the pro-
portion who own the places they occupy.
12. Compare the results as to exhaustion of the soil and careful farming
in the modern rental tenure of farms with the same points in the communal
tenure of land on a manor in Medieval Europe.
CHAPTER III
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
Social Forms Preceded by Social Action.—It is evident
from every side that social forms have been developed from
social.action. Just as the tiny clam grows and builds his house
over him in the form of a shell, so each social action creates a
certain social form about it. No established law or rule of
action appears until first the need for it has been occasioned by
the action of individuals or groups. Indeed, in most cases the
action precedes its formal acknowledgment as well as the formal
establishment of an institution. The social activities, like
those of an individual, result from the endeavor of the social
group to adapt itself to its environment in order to secure the
satisfaction of certain felt social needs. We judge of the com-
position of society by its activities, and of its organs or parts
by the functions of such organs or parts. Ward asserts that the
purpose of organization is function and thus he holds that the
performance of social activities is the object of human institu-
tions. But primarily the social activities were merely to
satisfy human desire and, incidentally, permanent human in-
stitutions composing the social structure were created. After
the unconscious creation of the social structures the conscious
social effort appeared and under its direction the structures
were changed and improved by the conscious direction of society.
Feeling and Restraint. — The first general effort of man arises
primarily from the sources of sensation. The sense of hunger
causes him to make an effort to satisfy it. The pain of cold
leads him to seek warmth by changing location, or else by making
shelter. The desire for companionship induces him to seek
associates. The emotions of fear and love prompt him to act
1“The function is the end for which a mechanism is constructed.’’ — Warp,
Pure Sociology, New York, 1907, pp. 180, 181. Cf. Cooley, Social Organization,
New York, 1909, p. 21.
82
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 83
in certain directions to satisfy his desires. Primarily self-
interest was the only point involved, but by a process of social
selection or a conscious weeding out of excessively self-seeking
individuals by the majority of the group,! this gradually devel-
oped into a general or social interest. Feeling came to be modified
by social restraint, which represents one of the primary social
activities. The socialization of the individual’s egoistic feelings
doubtless was also furthered by the advantage for group survival
rendered by self-restraint in the interest of the group. Even
in animals this restraint has been developed, partly the out-
growth of a prolonged infancy and partly of natural selection.?
The instinct for the preservation and perpetuation of the in-
dividual was soon enlarged into the desire for the preservation
and perpetuation of the social group. The ultimate justifica-
tion of society as a whole can only be the superior advantages
which association gives for survival and happiness. If associa-
tion inevitably leads to the destruction of the individual, society
and all its ways will cease to be. That it has flourished among
human kind is a silent but cogent testimony that society means
superior opportunities for social beings to live and perpetuate
their kind.
While we now may look to the completed social structure with
all its combined activities to find its ultimate purpose, this
was not recognized by man in his primitive social activities. He
went about following his natural desires and spent his efforts
to satisfy his physical and social wants without any purpose
to build a social structure. Viewed from the present stand-
point, however, it is easy to perceive how these independent
and individual activities, directed only to immediate ends, have
worked together in a process which Ward calls “ synergy ”?
to produce a social structure with its various parts and accom-
panying activities.
Pleasurable sensation arose in a state of blind, non-purposive
Nature because it served to stimulate the functioning processes
necessary for the survival of the creature. However, so in-
tense is such sensation, that, unless restraints are imposed, the
1See Galton, Hereditary Genius, pp. 344-348, or Carver, Sociology and Social
Progress, pp. 641-646.
Drummond, Ascent of Man, New York, 1894, pp. 230-318.
2? Ward, Pure Sociology, p. 171.
84 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
process which it promotes — the functioning of the organism —
is overdone to the disadvantage of that organism. For example,
the pleasant taste of food was of advantage because on account
of it the animal of too low intelligence to know that food was
necessary to survival would perform the otherwise rather weari-
some function of eating. But if a man continues to eat just
because food has a pleasant taste and overeats, he will have
dyspepsia, a sign that his digestive organs are not functioning
properly.
So, to sum up, in the social world pleasant feelings arising
from association under certain conditions promote the formation
of social bonds which make for the survival of the group. How-
ever, those feelings unrestrained within certain bounds destroy
their own ends — social functioning — hence the restraint of
feeling brings about social order, and thus builds the social
structure.!
Preservation of the Social Group. — Gradually the preserva-
tion of the individual passes into concern for the preservation of
the social group. A little nucleus of group-conscious individuals
begins to work as a unit for the preservation of its own existence.
Conscious social action by each individual of each group takes
the place of instinctive action and is directed to group preser-
vation. The community interest in the preservation of the
group is seen in the development of war for defense, where all
are united in a common enterprise. Such group concern may
be seen also in the development of a government where individ-
uals are working together in the preservation of common inter-
ests. The observance of custom causes them to act as a unit
and each individual who comes into the group through birth or
adoption is subjected to the customs and traditions of the group
and finds himself controlled, not by one individual, but by a
higher power — the will of the group — to which all must be
subordinate... His feelings and desires are restrained, not only
by the natural environment, but by a newly created social en-
vironment. Gradually this restraint is embodied in decrees,
laws, or rules of action which are formally declared necessary
for the preservation of the group.
Moreover, in economic activities also there appears a great
development of conscious codperation. The individual prima-
1 Ward, Pure Sociology, New York, 1907, pp. 119-135.
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 85
rily sought food independently and regardless of his fellows. The
food supply at first instinctively and then consciously became a
matter of social determination. Men hunt in groups and share
the product of their combined labors. A whale found upon the
shore or captured in the surf belongs to the family or tribe and
not to the individual who discovers it. The field which is pro-
tected and defended by all belongs to the group, and conse-
quently its products partake essentially of communal owner-
ship. The building of the house is usually done with many
hands, representing the entire group, and hence sometimes we
have a communal ownership and use of the house. Although
individual activity remains, group activities become increas-
ingly important. Through this associated activity, and only
through it, was man’s present stage of development possible.
In the course of social evolution these activities of social order
and economic life expand until we now have a complex and
highly differentiated form of political and economic life.
The Perpetuation of the Social Group. — The love of life
and its converse, the fear of death, have been the two great
motives at the basis of the evolutionary struggle. These in-
stinctive attitudes, however, are not alone in their primacy
as fundamentals which explain the survival of the human race.
They give rise to flight and other methods common to animals
and men and adapted to promote escape from death; they
give rise to conflict with foes; to attack of prey for food,
with its joy of battle; and to the activities which end in
the satisfaction of immediate desires.
They are supplemented by another instinct necessary for
the perpetuation of race, the sexual. It is doubtful whether,
primarily, human beings desire offspring. But, following the
desire for companionship which gradually develops in all social
animals, and for sexual intercourse, the desire for offspring
appears. There is evidence that low down in the scale of
animal life the parents had no concern for the offspring. Yet
in some species of such low forms as fishes, there appears a care
for the nesting place, in certain higher animals maternal concern
for the eggs and the young, but paternal concern is much weaker
among many species of animals, as may be seen in the case even
of cattle. In gregarious animals, however, a beginning of
paternal regard is to be seen in the care which a gander and
86 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
certain other males take of their females and the young.
Even among human beings there is a wide difference in father
care between the lower grades of social development and the
highest grades. This growth in parental care doubtless developed
owing to a process of natural selection and resulted in the
better survival of those for whom their parents had manifested
concern. Obviously such concern in most cases was of advantage
to the preservation of the species. Even yet sentiment, that
child of instinct and tradition, rather than reason, is the most
effective weapon of appeal for the care of the young.
This instinctive concern for the offspring has produced im-
portant results in the history of mankind. Undoubtedly the
child is the real cause of the home. Its long period of help-
lessness has caused the building of shelter and the construction
of a permanent habitation. Around the child have been grouped
all the early social affiliations. Clustered about the home idea
we discover a variety of motives for the perpetuation of the
whole group. Living together develops a tender feeling and
sentiment among all inmates of the home. This is followed by
family pride, which seeks to perpetuate the group and to cause
it to survive the attacks of other groups. The ethnic idea
becomes prominent and out of it springs national life with
patriotism.
In the course of social evolution there appears, finally, a con-
scious effort for the perpetuation of the species. Certain cus-
toms and laws regulate marriage relationships. In some in-
stances individuals are forbidden to marry outside the larger
ethnic groups and also are forbidden to marry near relatives
within the group, but are forced to take wives from the larger
social divisions within the society, although it is uncertain how
much of such regulations was consciously prompted by the per-
ception of the advantage such arrangements gave for survival
and how much by accidental taboos of primitive religion.
Doubtless, however, to-day such regulations as well as laws
against infanticide, child labor, and neglect of children are
consciously directed towards race welfare. In a thousand ways
the social group seeks to protect itself and to perpetuate its
existence. It must be constantly on the defensive against
external foes who seek to destroy it and also watchful to seize
every advantage to ward off disease and to establish such laws
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 87
and customs as will be conducive to the perpetuation of life.
This social activity is absolutely essential to the existence of
society and never ceases its operations in the highest and most
perfected forms of social life.
The Advancement of the Group. — Many efforts are made in
several directions to raise the plane of living and to increase the
efficiency of the social group. Among these may be mentioned
all attempts to improve the physical conditions of mankind.
The increase of the food supply, the invention of means of
storing and preserving food, and the improvement of its quality,
lead to a more constant and regular supply of the necessaries
of physical life, do away with the loss of energy from hunger,
and give the group leisure to improve itself in other ways.!
Scientific discovery for the improvement of the material con-
ditions of society represents one of its chief activities. Also
the training of the physical man and the protection from dis-
ease involves another group of social activities making for social
development.
Equally important for the advancement of society is the
recreative life, the games and the amusements which were of
great variety in primitive society as well as among civilized
peoples. Through the ages not only of the human but also
of the animal world, there has existed the joy of play. Only
recently, however, has our philosophy found any justification
for the “foolish ”’ practice. At last it has been discovered
that the play element is essential to the highest development
and the best welfare of the community. Hence this phase of
social activity is important for the advancement of the race.
Moral and Asthetic Activities. — Every well-organized com-
munity has an unwritten code of moral law which has much to
do with the unity and strength of society. Societies are or-
ganized for the express purpose of advancing the moral standard
of the community. Such are temperance societies, those for
the prevention of cruelty to animals, and the large number of
rescue and charitable societies which seek the betterment of
particular classes of unfortunates. Every movement which seeks
to bring about a more socially efficient association of individ-
uals and to increase the integrity and adjustment of the mass
to better social ends elevates society to a higher plane and adds
1Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Vol. I, Sec. 26,
88 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
to it strength and vigor. Such efforts not only make for a
lessening of social waste, but add to the labor capacity of the
community, increasing its longevity and offering greater op-
portunity for survival of the ethnic group.
Very closely allied to the moral are the esthetic activities
which seek to elevate taste and to inculcate a love of the beauti-
ful. No doubt the general effect of the love of the beautiful is
increased satisfaction in life. Moreover, the love of the beau-
tiful has close connection with a passion for those social purposes
and standards which we call the truth, and which work for the
advancement of the race by promoting social adjustment to
better ideals, while the general effect of ugliness is toward de-
generation. Here, as elsewhere, however, it is the proper use
of the instrument that yields the highest reward, for the use of
art may be directed toward immorality as well as toward moral-
ity. Itis said that in Hungary, one effect of music is to develop
a lazy emotional life, and many people have held that the excess
of music in Germany, with its perpetual play on the emotions,
has a tendency to destroy the power of inventive and logical
thought. ‘This is psychologically what is to be expected, for any
stirring of the emotions — those social engines of prime impor-
tance — which does not result in action results in the atrophy
of that natural connection between the emotional life and activ-
ity, and therefore in social degeneration. Moreover, it may be
questioned whether the popular ‘“‘ragtime’”’ music, although
furnishing recreation to the faculties, has a beneficial effect
upon the community. It usurps the function of good music.
It also tends to appeal to such naive and grotesque tastes that
its effects soon pall. Further, it does not afford that diversi-
fication of satisfactions which best develops one’s nature. How-
ever, the general effect of art is to improve the ideals, to motivate
the social actions of the community, and to develop those activ-
ities which lead to the study of the beautiful in nature and art
and which are essential to the progress of the social group.
Cultural Activities. — Culture has no standard definition,
but in a sociological sense, besides implying the growth of our
faculties with increased attainment of knowledge and apprecia-
tion of art, it implies an elevation of belief and a transformation
of conduct. The social activities most directly enlisted in
culture of the group are religious, educational, and scientific.
| SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 89
Ba
Of the many thousands engaged in religious propaganda, all
are directly or indirectly attempting to change religious belief.
Now religious belief has its most intimate connections with the
emotions rather than with the reason. That gives it its peculiarly
important function in society. It becomes a mighty dynamic
force for social action. In all stages of social evolution it has
played a very important part in society building. Religion,
moreover, has to do primarily with belief and secondarily with
conduct. To change the belief from a lower to a higher form,
that is, from a less to a more socially efficient form, and to
bring the conduct of society into subordination to a belief is
the vital process of religion so far as its effect on society is con-
cerned. Since belief has a most vital connection with action,
in this capacity it is a powerful social organizer. While a
society might exist without it, nevertheless it has always been
an important element in the process of integrating the social
life, and the periods of decline in positive belief of nations have
been periods of decline of national greatness.
The educational activities are the most positive and direct
agencies for the advancement of society through the process of
culture. To persuade people to supplant ignorance by intelli-
gence, to balance the emotions with reason and thus give them
rational direction and control, to prepare the young for efficient
industry. and citizenship and to elevate the ideals of life, are the
principal functions of the educational activities. It is in this
field that the conscious activity of society is best seen. Through
education society seeks to force its own conduct into new
channels of action. In the highest types of modern society the
organized educational forces represent the most universal social
activity that may be discerned. They make for the unity and
solidarity of society and are the chief methods to insure society’s
adaption to changing social conditions.
The scientific movement is a part of the educational; for
while the object of science is to find out truth, its ultimate pur-
pose is to make it useful to society. No sooner is a scientific
truth discovered than great effort is made to bring it to a
utilitarian basis. Science has thus become necessary to the
material welfare of the human race. It is the handmaid of
human betterment. When a tribe adopts modern civilization
and fails to utilize the knowledge of life that science gives, it
go OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
declines rather than advances. This principle is observed in
the contact of savage or barbarous tribes with modern civiliza-
tion. Failing to master and employ the full force of modern
science in their adopted mode of life, they degenerate in the
presence of civilized arts. They learn the vices of civilization
while refusing to adopt the teachings of civilized science and
morals. The result is social downfall. Better that the rude
savage have nature as a guide than come in contact with
civilization without the application of scientific truth to the
conduct of life.
Anti-social Activities. — As there are social activities which
make for social advancement, so there are many activities
which obstruct it, such as the activities of bands of thieves or
burglars, street gangs, counterfeiters, “‘ thugs,” “‘ grafters,” etc.
As those activities which are social tend to result in social prog-
ress, these activities which we must denominate as “ anti-
social ’” tend to destroy group life, or thwart constructive social
programs. Genetically many anti-social activities must be
explained as survivals of past social practices which later social
developments have rendered obsolete and harmful to the new-
born social conscience. They illustrate that “the good is the
enemy of the best,” and provide evidence that clearer social
vision has rendered “ ancient good uncouth.”” Moreover, they
may point to a lack of perfect adjustment in the later social
activities and inventions to the needs of the people. The saloon,
the low dance hall, with all their low and evil practices, the street
gangs of city boys, and the neighborhood gangs of country boys
with their pranks and fights illustrate this point. They show
that some social needs of the people of the community are being
met in anti-social ways by reason partly of the fact that there
are lacking for the satisfaction of those needs means that are
socially constructive in their results. Organizations grow out
of these activities against which the social group in self-defense
must exert its most potent, preventive, repressive, and curative
methods.
Codperative Association. — Much has been said previously in
this volume about codperation and it will suffice here to mention
it in connection with the general social activities. It represents
a unity of purpose and action in accomplishing ends. The
working of people in groups for a particular purpose involves a
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES gI
large number of social activities making for the advancement of
society. Here one must distinguish the immediate from the
ultimate end. A group of people organized for the purpose of
developing a large body of iron ore are all desirous of making
an income, but the real service to society is found in the produc-
tion of a volume of useful metal which will improve the material
and probably the social conditions of the whole community.
When an entrepreneur borrows capital, hires men, and leases
ground, he is bringing capitalists, laborers, and landowners
into a combination of effort for his own profit. However, under
proper economic conditions he and these other beings are work-
ing together, often unconsciously, but none the less truly, in
a codperative enterprise of great benefit to the whole of society.
Such codperation is indirect, but codperation for the improve-
ment of society may be direct when a body of men organize
themselves into a civic league, to advance the social and political
interests of the community, or when a body of women form a
club with social purposes. This kind of codperation is common
and represents a distinct group of social activities. Here we
approach the idea of the social mind with its concert of feeling,
thinking, and willing for the welfare of the community. This
is the highest generalization of social codperative activity. It
depends upon public conscience and public will for its action.
Social activities in their highest forms are psychological in
nature. This subject will be further discussed in the chapter
on Psychical Forces.
REFERENCES
Grppincs, F. H. Descriptive and Historical Sociology, pp. 67-71.
SMALL and VINCENT. Iniroduction to the Study of Society, pp. 237-266.
SPENCER, HERBERT. Principles of Sociology, Vol. I, pp. 473-478.
Warp, LESTER F. Dynamic Sociology, Vol.1I, pp. 468-502, 524-565, 581-
706; Pure Sociology, pp. 169-216, 544-572.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Show how in the early history relief of the poor in your country social
activities preceded social forms.
2. How would you explain the fact that in early Iowa history laws pro-
viding for poorhouses preceded the building of any such institutions? (See
Gillin, History of Poor Relief Legislation in Iowa, p. 183.)
Q2 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
3. After reading Ward, Pure Sociology, pp. 119-135, supply instances
from your own observations in elections, church revivals, and church quarrels,
in tariff and tax controversies, in the history of women’s clubs, and in the
conduct of nations showing how feelings furnish the motive power of social
action.
4. Describe in your own community a social action inspired by intense
feelings upon which serious restraints had to be placed in order to further the
success of the action.
5. Describe some present-day laws which restrain the individual) in the
interests of the preservation of the group. Some customs.
6. What evidence does “race suicide’”’ supply in support of the assertion
that instinct rather than reason must be depended on for the perpetuation
of the race? Point out the fallacy, if any, in such argument.
7. Make a list of all the activities in your community which have for
their purpose the advancement of the group.
8. Classify the following activities: A church, a county fair, a temperance
campaign, a social survey, a city planning exhibit, university extension
work, a baseball game, a political campaign, a woman’s club.
g. If love of the beautiful has a close connection with virtue and truth,
show the social justification of the movement for city planning, housing
laws, art galleries, training in domestic science and art, and good music.
10. Explain the origin of a boys’ gang, showing how that organization
satisfies a social need. Show how it often achieves an anti-social result.
CHAPTER IV
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
Meaning of Social Organization. — Social organization is
represented by the various parts of society in so far as they
function with one another. When any group organized for a
specific purpose becomes essential to social life or social order
in the normal state of society, it becomes a part of the social
organization. Thus, for instance, the church as an institution
makes itself essential as an instructing and controlling body.
So do all trades and businesses, such as the banking business,
which perform an essential economic service to the community.
Above and over all private social organizations is the state and
the various subdivisions which, as a sort of a framework, hold
the great social body together in a definite form. Just how
this structure has been built up has been suggested in the chap-
ters on social evolution. Each activity, beginning faintly at
first, grows stronger and stronger until it builds about itself
a definite organic group of people continuing its function in a
systematic way.
The explanation just made applies more especially to societies
which are somewhat developed. The term “social organization,”
however, must also be applied to the social relationships to be
found in groups much less developed than civilized societies.
It must also cover the crude beginnings of social organization.
Any fixity of social relations whether the outgrowth of instinct,
feeling of likeness, or of conscious social purpose must be char-
acterized as a social organization. The essential idea in a
social organization is permanency of social relationships. Some-
times such relations are produced by instinct, sometimes by
the pleasurable feelings excited by being in the company of
those whom we like, and at other times by the conscious appre-
ciation of certain advantages of such relationships. They may
grow out of fear and patronage, congeniality, or even force. Or,
93
94 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
they may develop from a contract entered into by superiors
and inferiors or between equals. Social organization includes
all sorts of permanent relationships upon any basis whatso- —
ever.
Development of Groups out of Social Aggregations. —
Granting that the primal condition of society is a loosely con-
structed horde, brought together through accident, from follow-
ing the same desires, or from responding to the same stimuli,
how did it happen that this loosely knit group finally became
organized? Within this horde, smaller groups must have
formed, clustering about a central interest or activity. Some-
times these social bonds centered about the sex interests, some-
times about a strong personality who established bonds of
authority and obedience, such as may be seen in tribal and
historic feudalism, and in the primitive religious or secret society,
and sometimes about economic interests. When it was sexual
attraction which brought more definite social relations, gradually
the family and home life was built up, with their taboos, cus-
toms, and traditions. Likewise, the religious motive causing
a repetition of ceremonies finally produced an organized group
of people attending to religious services. In various industrial
occupations individuals began to work together to secure means
of subsistence, they combined in building homes, in games, and
in other social activities. All this had a tendency to diversify
the life of society.
Necessity of Social Integration.— Each of these small
social groups, however, arising about various social interests,
came into existence independently of other groups, and integra-
tion became necessary. They were often found working at
cross purposes socially ; the interests of one small group clashed
with those of another. In this struggle the paramount interests
of the whole body of people, which might be called an aggrega-
tion, were often placed in jeopardy, especially in the presence
of a hostile aggregation. This made necessary the subordinat-
ing of small circles within the group to those interests which
meant survival for the whole body of people closely allied.
Hence, little by little independent social groups became merged
or subordinated into a central organization. This integration
brought many of the scattered elements of society into compact
union well illustrated by that very highly centralized organi-
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 95
zation, the patriarchal family, in which almost complete control
centered in one head, who represented the controlling power
of the whole. Another example is to be found in the tribe
which is formed by many clan groups united for the common
purposes of religion, war, and association. The confederating
of various tribes into still larger groups also is a continuation
of the process of integration that went on through the centuries
of development of human society. Nor is this integration,
though it may have logically preceded other phases of social
development, ever eliminated from the social process. It is a
constant factor in society building, recurring in ever larger and
larger ways as society becomes more extended. It represents
the progress of race unity and solidarity.
Social Composition. — By the term “ social composition ”’ soci-
ologists mean those natural divisions of society comprising all
ages, sexes, marital conditions, and ethnic relationships which
are each self-sufficient for their perpetuation. The term
signifies the natural groups of people occupying a common terri-
tory, as contrasted with those groupings which are the results
of conscious planning and for definite purposes. Examples of
social composition are the family groups in modern societies,
the kinship groups in primitive societies, the village — or com-
munity — groups which have grown up largely on the basis of
blood relationship in both primitive and modern societies, the
town, the neighborhood, and the state. Social composition
predominates in the social organization of the primitive societies ;
the family, the horde, the tribe, and the village are the character-
istic social organizations. On the other hand, in the modern
civilized society the constituent society, or a group based upon
likeness of interest, and formed for a definite purpose, such as
partnerships, and industrial, cultural, and civil corporations,
is in the ascendancy. The chief mark of a component society
is that it is practically complete in itself, so that it could carry
on an independent existence. In a constituent society the
groups are interdependent. Under the old régime society was
composed of a blood kindred, a development from the family
group with the family relationships repeated in different forms
and combinations. These various relationships held society
together. Gradually the blood ties were supplanted by other
social bonds, and society was composed of individuals, each of
96 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
whom was connected with the whole group regardless of family
relationship. As Giddings has pointed out, this change took
place when for blood relationship there was substituted pro-
pinquity in the same political area! In both tribal and civil
society the social composition may be observed.
It is easy to see that the so-called structure of society is
represented by a body of people working for a definite purpose,
bound together in psychological and social union with other
bodies of people working for different purposes no less definite.
The basis of their organization may be custom or tradition on
the one hand, or, on the other, a written constitution. A social
organization may be a playground group drawn together by a
common play interest, a primitive tribe bound together by a
common blood, or a highly organized state united together by a
written convenant.
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CHAPTER I
THE AIMS OF SOCIETY
Social Ideals. — Social ideals are programs for the improve-
ment of human association. It is a necessary outcome of its
mode of evolution that society is perfect neither in structure
nor in action; and because of the imperfect articulation of its
parts, there is a tremendous waste of mental and physical energy
in the adjustment of its relationships. Since education is fre-
quently defective, legislation partial, and religion tainted with
bigotry, hypocrisy, and superstition, absolute justice is unknown
except in theory; perfect codperation does not exist ; and liberty
frequently is but the opportunity for a man to enslave himself.
Society, however, is never wanting in reformers who, seeing
these defects, raise and advance the standard of perfection by
pointing out the ideal of social action. And although his plans
may not always be adaptable to the conditions surrounding
them, the service of the idealist is most valuable in demon-
strating how far social practice falls short of ideal aims.
Revolutions, political upheavals, social agitation, and the
propaganda of special systems or creeds all are backed by social
ideals; for somewhere in the midst of the movement, or behind
it, is a prophet or philosopher pointing out the defects and call-
ing the group to adopt a new plan. But these very agitations
and programs of reform raise such questions as the following:
What is the purpose or aim of society? What conscious purpose
should society set for itself, towards which its leaders are to
direct the social development? There have been a number of
answers to these questions.
The Greatest Good. — It has often been stated that the aim
of society is to promote social well-being; and if we can reach
a proper conclusion in regard to social well-being, we shall be
satisfied with the statement as it stands. Now, granted that
social well-being results from the most efficient exercise of the
functions of society and the harmonious development of its
373
374 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
members, it does not necessarily follow that social well-being
means the largest amount of wealth, the greatest intellectual
development, the most advanced religious thought, the best
esthetic culture, or the greatest moral force. But possibly all
of these in certain combinations are included in the idea.
If we accept the oft-quoted statement that “ the aim of society
is the greatest good to the greatest number,” we are, until we
define what constitutes the greatest good and the greatest num-
ber, still as far from the truth as before. The greatest number
must, of necessity, apply to the future as well as to the present ;
for society is a continuous quantity perpetuating itself by the
replacement of individuals as they disappear. As for the
greatest good, the term may mean physical well-being, happiness,
usefulness, culture, or the wealth of a community; but no one
of these things, taken singly, can insure the greatest good to
society. Under certain conditions, moreover, the greatest good
may mean one thing; and under other conditions, entirely
different things may seem the desirable ones. At one time, for
example, the greatest good for the greatest number will be
gained by an extension of economic opportunity; at another,
by political security; at still another, by advance in culture.
And in obedience to this principle, the freedom of the individual
will be curbed in the interests of group solidarity at such times,
for instance, as in war; yet under other conditions, the individual
will be permitted to express his individuality. In the ideal
society, therefore, the term means all these things.
The Utilitarian Theory. — The doctrine that the object of
moral conduct is to promote utility began with the Greek
moralists, who identified utility with happiness. Since that
time, as its different advocates have approached it from different
points of view or considered it under varying conditions of society,
- the theory has undergone many changes. First it was con-
sidered merely from the standpoint of the individual, but later
the idea was extended to include social utility. In its modern
conception it is defined in terms of social progress. But as a
perfect society cannot be considered apart from individual
activity, of what value is utility of any sort unless it increases
the happiness of the individual and gives greater freedom of
active service? If the utility theory is to be accepted, there-
fore, it must be considered as both individual and social.
THE AIMS OF SOCIETY 375
Nature of Happiness. — If by the word happiness we mean
the happiness of individuals that compose society, then the
term, considered in its nobler sense of social adjustment, must
rise above mere pleasure, as defined in the doctrine of hedonism.
But since the keenest enjoyment of life must be one of the
accompaniments of a perfect society, happiness, which is based
on contentment alone, is not the true aim of society; for many
of the non-progressive peoples who have scarcely entered the
pale of civilization are far more contented with their lot than
are the cultured races who have the very highest degree of social
development. If, however, in the idea of happiness we include
a multiplicity of desires for a higher life and the means of satis-
fying them, we have a tolerably correct expression of the aim of
society.
Is the Aim of Society Fixed and Unchangeable ? — In the
discussion of social aims, we can find no fixed ideals of social
life or structure to which we may conform. Society never
becomes entirely conventionalized nor wholly petrified; its
growth is never completed. Since, therefore, so long as men
will utilize the forces at hand, society will perpetually reproduce
itself, the real, the final aim of society is normal progress. If
there is an equilibrium of social forces, if society is balanced in
all of its parts, if the social organs are well developed and well
articulated so as to afford each individual the greatest freedom
and at the same time the largest opportunity possible, and if the
whole is moving steadily toward a more harmonious condition
of things, society is progressive. And this normal progress is all
we can hope for or be sure of, and indeed, all that we really
desire. For if we were to have a completed society, growth
would cease; and not long after the cessation of growth, decay
would set in. Although people sometimes act as if society had
reached a stage where it could maintain itself without any effort
on the part of its component individuals, there has as yet been
discovered no process by which society will run itself according
to hard and fast rules. There are many forces, it is true, which
are seemingly more or less constant. But we must always be
prepared for the shifting of these forces; for the bringing forth
of new standards of law, government, morality, religion, and,
indeed, life; and for society’s constant adaptation to these
various ideals or standards. Moreover, one of the most potent
376 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
of these forces is the individual with initiative, who may turn
the stream of social development into entirely new channels in
a lifetime. And when society begins to realize itself, when it
becomes conscious of satisfying its own desires and aims, it has
advanced very far in the higher development of social life.
The Immediate Social Aim. — Society’s aims change with its
development. Growing, as it did, out of primitive man’s in-
stinctive feeling, or conscious perception that association aided
in his individual survival, it was society’s early aim to survive
as against competing groups. That aim remains dominant
even yet; the immediate aim of every society is survival. Who
has ever heard of a state, a church, or a political party, which,
after saying to itself, ““‘ Now my work is done; the purpose for
which I was organized can be better served by my death than
by my continuance,” then proceeded to put itself out of existence ?
But the determination of a society to survive as an organiza-
tion depends for its strength upon how fully its component mem-
bers believe that its continuance insures their welfare. This
feeling, while of primary importance, is greatly strengthened by
many others, which, having their origin in love of home, familiar
institutions, customs, and ideals, it is to society’s interest care-
fully to foster. Such, for example, is the tender sentiment for
“ the fatherland,” for ‘‘ the land of the free and the home of the
brave.”’ Society’s first incentive, then, for providing for sur-
vival is the desire among its members for the undisturbed enjoy-
ment of their particular mode of life, customs, ideals, and the
realization of their national and individual ideals.
From the more strictly functional point of view, however,
the purpose of society is to provide the objective conditions
under which the individual may secure the most adequate self-
expression — that is, to insure for him his most perfect adjust-
ment to his social environment. ‘These conditions Giddings has
called the “‘ proximate ends” of society. They include provi-
sions, by the political system, for the security of life and property ;
they include provisions for insuring to each member equal polit-
ical rights, equal justice before the law, equal economic oppor-
tunities, and similar cultural advantages.
The Ultimate Aim of Society. — But the securing of these
objective social conditions is not, after all, the ultimate social
aim. The ultimate aim of society is the creation of social per-
THE AIMS OF SOCIETY 377
sonality. Says Giddings: “In thus creating personality, society
converts mere evolution into progress. Evolution is integration
and differentiation; it is correlation and codrdination; it is not
necessarily a betterment of conscious existence. Evolution is
also progress when each unit of the integrated mass or group
becomes an end as well as a means.”’! This social personality
enables an individual to fit in perfectly with the objective con-
ditions of existence, enables him to codperate with others in so
molding the social structure that the self-realization of each is
assured. Society, therefore, gives the individual the guardian-
ship of government. It does not aim, of course, to make all
individuals equal; but it does aim, as far as the establishment
of social order will permit, to give the same opportunity to all.
Society may, indeed, go a step farther. It may furnish the
individual with the means for self-improvement; it may offer
him help and encouragement in his own redemption. Under
such circumstances, society will not only promote justice among
men; but by providing means for education and various forms
of codperative help, it will enable the individual to reach a high
state of culture. :
Nor must society neglect man’s development through asso-
ciation. It is difficult to estimate the extent to which man
draws his culture or development from others. His mental
capacity, his material prosperity, his religion and his art, come
largely from association. Thus while we are working to build
up the individual by giving him room for action, we must not
forget that we are also providing for his increased development
by promoting various social activities.
REFERENCES
Extwoop, C. A. The Social Problem, Chap. I, and pp. 189-196.
FAIRBANKS, ARTHUR. Introduction to Sociology, p. 174.
Gippincs, F. H. Descriptive and Historical Sociology, pp. 522-540.
Kipp, BENJAMIN. Western Civilization.
MACKENZIE, JOHN S. An Introduction to Social Philosophy, pp. 238-295.
SMALL and VINCENT. Introduction to the Study of Society, p. 72.
Warp, LESTER F. Pure Sociology, pp. 555-575-
1 Giddings, Descriptive and Historical Sociology, pp. 522, 523, 526-528; see also
Giddings, Sociology, New York, 1909, pp. 42, 43.
“a
378 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Point out the aims of the following societies in your community: a
church, a social club, a commercial club, a literary circle, a debating society,
a political party. Point out the aims of the United States government.
2. Show how a government which did not help to increase the wealth of
its citizens would be justly looked upon as inefficient.
3. Under what circumstances might its policies, while not increasing the
wealth of the nation, yet increase the general welfare of society?
4. Suppose a society, like that of these United States, should pursue a
policy which would deny to the poor the opportunities that it accords to the
rich. Would its aim be the general welfare? Why? Suppose that it
denied to the rich man the same opportunity to exercise his abilities that it
affords to the poor man. Would it be advancing the general welfare?
Why?
5. Show why our ideals of what a society should be lead us to oppose
“oraft”’ in government.
6. Indicate how the spending of such vast amounts of money on educa-
tion contributes to the welfare of society.
7. What social aim is satisfied by the provision of public playgrounds and
social centers?
8. Carefully examine the government of your village or city and indicate
as clearly as possible just what social aims it is trying to realize.
9. Why, since they afford pleasure to some people, do gambling and vice
not accord with the aims of society?
10. Cite two instances that show how social ideals rather than eco-
nomic interests or physical environment dominate social development.
(See the reference to Ellwood.)
CHAPTER II
IDEALS OF GOVERNMENT
An Attempt to realize a Perfect Social State through Govern-
ment. — Many attempts have been made, through the machinery
of practical government, to realize ideal social states. Most
familiar to us, of those of antiquity, is the Jewish ideal com-
monwealth, in which lawgivers and priests sought to secure
justice and equal rights for all members of the community, not
only by establishing social control in public affairs, but by
developing a code of laws which should severely regulate the
moral life and the social life, to the very minutest details. It
was, indeed, a theocratic commonwealth, with religion, politics,
and social usage all combined in one system. While this ideal
commonwealth, as set forth with special fullness in the later
Jewish codes, was far in advance of what was actually realized
by the Jews, because the Jewish people were dispersed and the
dream of an ideal commonwealth was not realized, yet many of
the principles set forth in these writings have had great influence
upon legislation among all peoples where the Bible has been
taken seriously. Especially good examples of this influence are
Calvin’s government of Geneva, Switzerland, and some of the
legislation of the English Commonwealth of Cromwell.
The Athenian democracy represents another great attempt
to institute justice through practical government. It sought to
regulate all the political affairs of the community by laws
instituted in the interests of the people. It is true that it was,
to a certain extent, a government of classes; for the govern-
ment did not include all the people. Nevertheless, the develop-
ment of the civic state, with the power of the senate and with
the privilege of the people to take part in the government, even
if those privileges were comparatively small, brought forth a
new era in the development of politics. To establish the prin-
ciple that every free man had a right to be heard was a long
379
380 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
way from the Oriental monarchy, where such rights were denied,
except as it suited the whim of the Oriental prince. This
declaration of human rights has since found its way into nearly
all forms of government. ,
Again, the Roman Republic, based upon a control almost
imperial in its nature, sought to work out the problem of har-
mony betweeen the different grades of people, giving to all a
fair representation in the government. ‘The whole system failed,
however, because of the ruling power of the senate, which,
through its aristocratic influence, sought to domineer over the
so-called lower classes. Thus, while the Republic developed
law, and familiarized men with the rights of government, it
remained for the Empire to universalize this system of recog-
nition of the individual wherever he was under the dominion of
the imperial power. But just as the democracy had to give
way before imperialism, so was imperialism finally overthrown ;
and the effort to establish the political and social rights of man
came to naught.
So, too, the Swiss Federation, the United Netherlands, and
the United States have attempted to work out ideal systems
of government founded on freedom and equal rights. And the
French nation, struggling for a century under the blighting in-
fluences of imperialism, injustice, and anarchy, finally, under
the ‘‘ third republic,” managed, in a measure, to establish the
rights of men.
Ideals of Philosophers. — Besides these practical attempts to
build up government through the influence of lawgivers, poli-
ticians, and wise statesmen, there have been attempts of philos-
ophers, who, evincing a lack of faith in the power of the existing
government to reform social evils, have set forth ideal systems
of government. The first great monument of this kind was
Plato’s Republic. It varied widely from the actual condition
of the republic of Athens of his time; as in the case of all other
utopias, it was written in a period of social unrest. In the Re-
public of Plato the community system of society is the one
recommended. The government goes into details in the regu-
lation of all social and family relationships, and defines minutely
the duties and privileges of all individuals who, in the scheme,
are made subservient to the state. But while Plato, apparently,
thoroughly believed in the ideas set forth in his Republic, he
IDEALS OF GOVERNMENT 381
probably had no hope that such a government would be insti-
tuted in his own time — perhaps none that it ever would. It
is, in fact, this very idealism of Plato which is severely criticized
by Aristotle, who, in his Politics, advances a theory of govern-
ment founded upon the practices of the best governments that
history had up to that time known.! )
Then there are certain of the Old Testament Prophets who
set forth, in considerable detail, their dreams of the ideal social
state. All through the denunciations of Amos runs an ideal
which involves social justice to the poor and helpless classes ; 2
and Isaiah, in his statesmanlike duties of counseling the King
of Judah and his task of upbraiding the rulers of his time, finds
opportunity to set forth changes which, in his opinion, would
make Judah and Jerusalem an ideal community under the
special favor of God. Yet while many others of these Hebrew
counselors of the nation suggested changes which would secure
the favor of Jehovah, the condition sine qua non of national life,
it remained for Ezekiel and the Post-Exilic prophets and writers,
who were no longer embarrassed by an actually existing Hebrew
state, to set forth in detail their ideals of a state to be based
upon theocratic principles. Scattered all through Ezekiel’s
prophecy are many passages outlining his ideas of the nature of
the restored Hebrew state; and in chapters thirty-seven to
forty-eight he presents a unified picture of the whole. More-
over, from the book of Daniel to the Revelation, the apoca-
lyptists simply reveled in pictures of the Kingdom of God to
be realized here on earth.®
But besides Plato and the reformers of both the Old and the
New Testament, there are writers from the last years of the
Roman Empire, from the Middle Ages, and from the early
modern period, who have advanced theories and plans of gov-
ernment. Among these are St. Augustine, with his City o
God; Campanella, with his City of the Sun; Thomas More, with
his Utopia; Bacon, with his Aflantis; and in more modern
times Cabet, with his Icaria, and Bellamy, with his Looking
Backward. The utopias of Plato, More, Campanella, and
1See Loos, Studies in the Politics of Aristotle and the Republic of Plato, lowa City,
1800.
2 Am. 2:6-12; 5:7, 10-13. SIsa. 28: 14-22; 32: 1-8.
* See especially Isa. Chaps. 40-66; Zeph. 3: 8-20; Ezek. Chaps. 37-48.
5 Zech. Chaps. 1-6; Dan. Chaps. 7-12; Rev. Chaps. 11, 21: 1-22: S)
382 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
Bacon are, perhaps, the most important; but since to describe
each one would require too much space, we must content our-
selves with the observation that each one pictured a perfect
government where human wants ceased to be troublesome, and
where harmony, happiness, justice, and love prevailed. If these
utopias accomplished nothing more, they at least pointed out,
by way of contrast, the evils of existing governments.
The Advocates of Socialistic Theories.! — Of a slightly dif-
ferent character were the ideals of certain French communists
and socialists of the latter part of the eighteenth and early part
of the nineteenth centuries. Baboeuf and his followers desired
to abolish private property and to establish equality and fra-
ternity by organizing a state of pure communism; and for this
purpose they organized, in 1796, a band of equals, who attempted
to overthrow the state. Maintaining that the aim of society
was the happiness of all, and that happiness depended on
equality, they emphasized governmental ideals chiefly as a means
for securing absolute economic equality.
Cabet, while he believed in pure communism, thought that
the transition should be gradual, that people, by organizing
communistic societies at will, could thus slowly transform the
whole community into a fraternity. He was perhaps the first
and greatest communist of France and Icaria the most ideal
community ever proposed. Saint-Simon, on the other hand,
was a socialist who held that the natural inequality between
men should be the basis of association. Rejecting the idea of
the community of goods, he advocated that all should be re-
warded according to their capacity and that this capacity should
be estimated according to works. And Fourier, though holding
doctrines similar to those of Saint-Simon, considered the benefit
of humanity the highest aim of each individual. Among other
things there were, according to his theory, certain natural rights
belonging to each individual, which entitled him to the protec-
tion and care of the whole community.
Modern Socialism. — The foregoing are a few of the principal
exponents of early socialistic theories. If space would permit,
many others might be named who have expounded complex
ideas of social, political, and economic readjustment. As com-
pared with the earlier theories, modern scientific socialism has
1See Chap. I, Part VII.
IDEALS OF GOVERNMENT 383
more particular reference to economic production and distribu-
tion. Karl Marx, a social democrat and one of the earlier advo-
cates of socialistic production, insisted on the political organiza-
tion of industry. He emphasized the great service of labor in
production and maintained that because of the excessive demands
of capital, labor did not receive a fair share of the product.
Social democracy, of which Marx may be called the founder,
includes, among other theories, the collective ownership of land
and capital, the abolition of competitive industry, and, conse-
quently, the social production of wealth. And while Karl Marx
was advocating social democracy in Germany, Louis Blanc was
founding state socialism in France. Opposing equality, he set
forth a system of distributive justice, by which, after each had
labored according to his abilities, he was to receive a reward in
proportion, not to capacity or product, but to his need.
Modern so-called scientific socialism, while in its results at
least it may involve many of the early doctrines, centers on col-
lective ownership of the agents of production, and associate
management of industry. It is opposed to the competitive
system and private ownership of the means of production; and
although different exponents of the theory vary as to the extent
to which it should be carried and the manner of its application,
its objective point is distribution of income. Dr. Ely’s excellent
definition expresses the general spirit of ‘‘ scientific ” socialism:
“Socialism is that contemplated system of industrial society
which proposes the abolition of private property, in the great
material instruments of production, and the substitution therefor
of collective property; and advocates the collective manage-
ment of production, together with the distribution of social
income by society, and private property in the larger proportion
of this social income.” !
Modern Socialistic Experiments. — Various groups of people
have attempted to carry out experiments in government for the
benefit of human society ; and there have been many individuals
who have organized themselves into societies for the propa-
gation of socialistic doctrines. These societies have been of
three different kinds: anarchistic, socialistic, and communistic.
The theoretical anarchist, believing that modern government is
a burden, maintains that, if it could be dissolved, men and
1 Socialism and Social Reform, p. 19.
384 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
women would form themselves into small groups which would
conserve their interests by spontaneous social order. So far as
discontent with present systems of government is concerned
and with modern forms of social order, the anarchist’s point of
view is really the same as that of the socialist; but anarchism
and socialism are widely different in their plans for the reorgani-
zation of society. While the anarchists hold that there is too
much government and that it should be reduced to a minimum,
the socialists insist that government could and should be greatly
extended so as to cover all of the modern industrial operations.
Thus, while the one party lays special stress on political ideals,
the other has for its principal ideal a system of artificial economic
distribution by which each receives according to his ability or,
as in some instances, according to his need.
Then there are the communistic societies, all representing a
species of socialism. ‘They hold all property in common and
advocate the absolute equality of all members of the community,
so far as the rights of property and social life are concerned.
Many of these societies have attempted practical experiments
in government, such as the ‘‘ Oneida Communists ”’ of New York,
the ‘‘ Amana Society ” and the “ New Icaria ”’ of Iowa, and the
several Bellamy societies of California. These experiments
have been of such a varied nature, extending from pure com-
munism to pure industrial codperation, that it is quite impossible
to classify them, no two of them being exactly alike. The
nearest that we can approach to a classification would be a divi-
sion into these three: first, those whose chief principle was
reward according to ability or service rendered; second,
those which required service according to ability and gave re-
wards according to need; and finally, those that had industrial
codperation for their chief aim. But because, in part, of the
impracticability of their plans, and, in part, because the people
who have gone into them have been lacking in codperative
qualities, nearly all of these experiments have failed.
There is still another group and one that belongs in a class
by itself. The people of this group have always advocated
what is known as Christian socialism, by which they meant the
making over of the whole political and industrial systems and
the general social system into a unified society, based upon the
teachings of Christ. No particular experiments have been tried
IDEALS OF GOVERNMENT 385
on this ground, though the propaganda has existed since the
time of F. D. Maurice and Charles Kingsley.
The codperative communities have established two forms of
codperation. The one, known as distributive codperation, has
reference to the exchange and distribution of goods; and the
other, called productive codperation, looks after their production.
Many of these codperative communities have failed; but a few
have succeeded. It took a long time to learn the codperative
art; and until it was learned, and until a group of codperative
people could be brought together, all such experiments proved
failures. In England, distributive codperation has now become
a strong movement. It was successfully inaugurated by the
Rochdale Pioneers in the year 1844; and there are, at present,
hundreds of societies which do a large codperative business.
Productive codperation, by far the more difficult to establish
of the two, was begun on a small scale in England in about
1850; it has now reached quite extensive proportions and has
become one of the solid institutions of the nation. The numer-
ous and successful codperative marketing associations for farm
and dairy products in Denmark are types of distributive co-
operation, as are the Grange and Farmers’ Alliance in
America, the California Fruit Growers’ Association, and in
the Middle West of the United States the more recent
organizations for codperative marketing of such products as
cheese and potatoes. On the other hand, the codperative com-
panies of Minneapolis and the codperative creameries and cheese
factories in some of the dairy sections of the United States are
good examples of productive codperation. Finally, the system
of profit sharing, so well illustrated in the management of the
Pillsbury Mills of Minneapolis, the Proctor and Gamble Com-
pany of Cincinnati, the N. O. Nelson Company of St. Louis,
and the Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio, is an attempt
to promote a community of interests between employer and
employee and bring about new social conditions of the laboring
class.
Individualism versus Socialism. — Individualism in politics,
borrowed, for the most part, from the English system, has been
so very strong in America that any innovation looking toward
state control of industries or, indeed, toward a community of
interests in any special way, has not been received with great
2C
386 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
favor. Always jealous of their individual liberty, the people
have frequently objected to having their industrial affairs con-
trolled by laws which would have been to their real and lasting
benefit. As a matter of fact, the radical theories advanced by
socialists have so threatened the individualistic system that
people have been overcautious about the regulation of industries.
We have seen, nevertheless, the gradual enlargement of the
powers of the state in, for example, the management of railways,
through the state railway commissions and the Federal Inter-
state Commerce Commission, and in the control of other great
corporate industries by state industrial commissions. Thus,
while the socialistic state is a long way off and probably will
never be, in practice, what it is in theory, community of interests
seems to be better understood and more desired by all classes of
people than it ever was in the past; and the state now does
infinitely more for the individual than at any previous period.
Yet while the state is continually establishing general laws to
control industries and to improve the general welfare of the
community, the individual seems to have as much liberty as
ever. Never before have we seen such public activity on behalf
of the individual citizen. The food he eats, the milk he buys,
the clothing he wears, are all carefully inspected to see that he
gets only those products which have not been exposed to con-
tamination by disease. The factories in which he works, the
houses where he dwells, even the condition of his garbage can,
are looked after in the interest of his health and efficiency. And
not only is the schooling of his children provided for by a special
board, but at public expense opportunities for his recreation are
offered to him. It is not, however, so much a function of the
state to produce as it is to regulate.
Ideals of Equality.— One of the important influences in
modern social life has been the ideal of equality advanced by
certain theorists. The practices of the Christian church have,
to a certain extent, set forth this ideal; but more especially
has it been advocated by radical democrats and radical socialists.
Taken all in all, that system should be considered an ideal gov-
ernment which advocates the utmost liberty of the individual
and at the same time yields the greatest well-being to the com-
munity at large. Ideals of fraternity, liberty, and equality are
valuable in pointing out many of the best elements of govern-
IDEALS OF GOVERNMENT 387
ment; but the sure foundation of an enlightened government is
justice. And the sooner this becomes the aim of society, the
greater the progress that will be made; for such an ideal, we
are sure, can be approximated in government. Above all is the
extension of a system of justice to industrial affairs one of the
pressing problems of modern society.
REFERENCES
ADDAMS, JANE. Democracy and Social Ethics.
BELLAMY, EDWARD. Looking Backward.
BLACKMAR, F. W. Economics, p. 239.
Ettwoop. Sociology and Modern Social Problems, Chap. XV.
Ey, R. T. Socialism and Social Reform; French and German Socialism.
FREEMAN, E. A. Federal Government.
More, Tuomas. Utopia.
PxLato’s Republic.
Warp, LESTER F. Dynamic Sociology, Vol. II, p. 158.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Read the reference to Ezekiel and then read More’s Utopia. Write
out your impressions of the difference between the two and the similarities.
2. As revealed in the Federal Constitution, what were the ideals which
the fathers held for the government of the United States when the nation
was founded ?
3. How do these ideals differ from the ideals held by the English goy-
ernment at that time?
4. Show in what respects the ideals of government held by the framers of
our Constitution have changed during the interval between 1786 and 10914.
5. How has the agitation for industrial democracy affected governmental
ideals in this country?
6. What ideal is back of the demand for Old Age Pensions, for Industrial
Insurance? What ideals prompt the demand for the curbing of trusts,
the regulation of railroads, the care of children, and the democratization
of education ?
CHAPTER III
CONTROL BY FORCE
The Ideal of Force in Government. — The authority of gov-
ernment is so well recognized and so ever present that it is com-
mon to accept it as the ideal of social order, or at least as a force
from which there is no escape and no appeal. Occasionally, it
is true, the voice of the anarchist cries out against it and offers
to substitute a new system of social order. To the average
citizen, however, it is but natural that force should seem to be
the essence of government and the cause of social order; for
every law has its penalty, every government has its standing
army, and every community its police. Even in our best forms
of democracy, the final appeal of government is to force. And
in the organization of campaigns and the control of government,
indeed, the leaders of political parties rely upon coercion rather
more than on codperation —a coercion not much better at
times than brigandage.
But while force is an essential element of government, it is
not the ideal of social control. The authority and power to
enforce order must rest somewhere, or government is a failure;
but the state cannot long exist when based upon force alone.
The highest type of government brings the military and police
into requisition as little as possible; for government is, after
all, but a temporary restraint upon the actions of individuals
until the real elements of social order can assert themselves.
Hence it is that the law comes in direct contact with only a few,
and the police force apprehends but a small number of the
offenders of justice.
Origin of Control by Force. — The idea of control by force
has an historic origin; for, in primitive society, where natural
justice prevailed, the battle was always to the strong. Might
made right; and that individual survived and succeeded who
388
CONTROL BY FORCE 380
could adjust his own affairs, defend himself and property, or,
indeed, take the offensive to enlarge his personal power or his
property rights. Naturally, he who could not, perished or
became subordinate to him who possessed the greater force.
And what was true of individuals was also true of tribes. Then,
as social life became more complex, this power to survive passed
into the power to rule. People became divided into those who
governed and those who submitted to their domination, those
who had obtained the superior position continuing to control
by force those whom they had subdued in war, by strategy, or
through necessity.
Ancient Leadership. — Through physical vigor, unusual will
power, or extraordinary resourcefulness, the individual became
a leader. Tradition, prestige, and superstition increased his
influence; religion and war were his servants. Gradually add-
ing to his power, and assuming, in war, in the council, or in
religious ceremony, to represent the interests of the tribe or clan,
he became king in fact before he was made so by custom or law.
But while leading the people in the interests of the tribe, he was
really creating a community of subjects. Not able to keep up
a display of force and manage all the affairs of the tribal state
himself, he associated with him, by making it to their interest
to assist him, a large number of people who were interested in
government and who worked together with him for the control
of the tribe or nation. ‘Thus, although theoretically the people
assumed the right to choose their leader and king, the king prac-
tically arranged to have himself chosen.
The Rise of the Governing Class. — The step from feudal
rule, founded on leadership and service, to aristocratic rule,
founded on class distinction, was taken when conquerors imposed
their will upon a conquered people. From the conquerors arose
a governing class, known as an aristocracy, a class distinctly
separate from the great mass of the people. As the ruling class,
they were supposed to be better and nobler than others; and
their claim to this supposed superiority and nobility they based
on force. Having its origin in feudalism, where superior ability
and native shrewdness counted for everything, this governing
class established its authority by conquest, usually in some other
region; and in every succeeding form of monarchy, either abso-
lute or constitutional, such a governing class has continued to
390 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
exist. Wherever nations have continued to grow, however,
there has been a development of other independent means of
social order, such as religion, justice, intelligence, industrial
organization, altruism, freedom of speech, and freedom of meet-
ing; thus control by force has become less essential, and the
governing class more useless. But out of all the surviving
nations, a few were at an early period so impregnated with im-
perialism and so dominated by the governing class as to be
unable, even now, to rid themselves of the ancient ideals. It is
true enough that dukes and grand dukes were once necessary
to the king and of service to the people; but in the natural
process of evolution a highly socialized and closely integrated
society, with the true national spirit, will eliminate archaic
forms. For people do not exist for the sake of a governing class,
nor yet for the government.
The Idea of Control in a Democracy. — Even in a pure democ-
racy this element of force appears, at certain times, to control
the public. It is known as the telic force, or that by which
society moves itself forward to a certain end. In fact, the con-
trol by democracy, in which every one is supposed to be a sov-
ereign, is, in some respects, a fiction; in reality there are, in
every community, ruling ideas, ruling thoughts, and, indeed,
ruling individuals. And in the nature of things, there must be;
for, because of a diversity of opinions and prejudices, our democ-
racy would not always be able to carry out successfully the
general will of the people. Indeed, so far as governmental
mechanism is concerned, enlightened absolutism is the surest
and most economical form of government; its plans to govern
for the public it carries out with a will and authority which
render justice to all. Most democratic governments are, in
contrast, wasteful governments. There is, in the first place, an
immeasurable loss of power in the attempt to give every man a
hearing or a part in the government. And, too, if we but turn
our attention to the dilatory methods, the short-sighted business
policies, of the common council of a city government, we are
forced to admit that the democratic form of government has its
drawbacks. Not only city councils, however, but even legis-
latures, only too frequently fall short of doing what is for the
advancement of the community. Above all, the people them-
selves are frequently so short-sighted that they do not know
CONTROL BY FORCE 301
what is best for them; hence they are as liable to take the
advice of a demagogue as of a statesman.
But most of the difficulties of self-government arise from im-
perfect socialization or incomplete social machinery. Govern-
ment is a great art which but few have learned well. Since
successive groups of individuals take their turn at being law-
makers, our legislative bodies are but schools for the practice
of the untutored; and because any one may aspire to office
and take his place as an administrative official, if he can but
get the votes or receive the appointment, it frequently occurs
that many are elected who are ill prepared for civil service.
Yet, after all, the safeguard of self-government is the perpetual
opportunity of the people to choose their own rulers and officers.
The judgment of the people is said, in the main, to be correct.
And if through lack of care they have an imperfect and expen-
sive government, they have, since the control rests ultimately
with them, only themselves to censure for the burdens which
they heap upon themselves. To make social control what it
should be, therefore, universal intelligence and a developed
capacity for self-government should obtain.
The Social Will of Democracy. — When once aroused and in
full action, the will of democracy is as intolerant and absolute
as the power of the monarch. Its redeeming quality is that,
although it acts intermittently and represents a series of mis-
takes, these are followed by corrections which point toward a
steady, if slow, progress. Its real success, therefore, depends
upon educating the great majority of the people into an inde-
pendent moral integrity which will enable them to live above the
law. And when people have attained to this attitude, there is
a species of social control which cannot be destroyed by the
defects of governmental machinery and the machinations of all
of the demagogues, nor yet by the “ hungry incapacity ” of
office seekers.
REFERENCES
GippINncs, F. H. Descriptive and Historical Sociology, pp. 357-366.
Ross, E. A. Social Control, pp. 376-432.
SPENCER, HERBERT. Principles of Sociology, Part V, Chaps. V-IX.
Warp, Lester F. Dynamic Sociology, “Introduction”; Pure Sociology,
pp. 184-216, 544-572.
392 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Read Giddings, Descriptive and Historical Sociology, pp. 357-359,
and point out the difference between the power to compel obedience and the
power to command obedience.
2. What survivals of control by force exist to-day in our government ?
3. What proportion of men conform to a course of conduct conducive to
the social welfare, from a fear of the force of the state?
4. In the origin of social control, what part does the use of force play?
5. Read Green’s Short History of the English People, Chap. II, Sec. V,
and note what part force played in the origin of Norman control in England.
6. Show how, following William’s conquest, a governing class grew up in
England.
7. Give illustrations, from the history of the United States, of control by
force.
8. Why is there need for forceful control in a democracy ?
g. Is there any social justification for the employment of troops in an
industrial dispute, like that in Chicago in1893, or in Colorado in 1913-1914?
CHAPTER IV
THE EDUCATIONAL METHOD
Force a Temporary Check on Insubordination. — Inasmuch
as social order has been developed by slow degrees, control by
force has, at times, been necessary as a temporary check upon
insubordination ; but it is always soon replaced by other agencies.
Gradually the idea has grown that other forms of control are
cheaper and more easily administered; and gradually other
methods have become the usual ones. Since, however, the con-
scious effort of society to govern itself demands a recognition of
the laws of social development and requires, among the com-
ponent members of society, some ability to control themselves
in the interests of the group, society cannot do better than to
adopt the educational method as a means of establishing that
high degree of intelligence necessary for democratic social control.
The Idea of Self-Government Demands Intelligence. — We
hear a great deal about the natural rights of self-government ;
but if there are such rights, they must have their source in intel-
ligence. All so-called natural rights must, after all, yield to the
social choices of the community; for no human being has the
right to engage in practices detrimental either to himself or to
others. Unfortunate, therefore, is the society that chooses
popular government when its citizens have not a sufficient degree
of intelligence to maintain it. As history shows us, every people
that has succeeded in governing itself has been of general intel-
ligence; and each republic that has failed may, in large part,
trace the cause of such failure to the general ignorance of its
people. As a matter of fact, where a few citizens are intelli-
gent and strong and the great mass lacking in intelligence, the
conditions fit an oligarchy rather than a democracy; and if such
conditions obtain for long, the ignorant many will be forced to
yield to the intelligent few. When, therefore, the rulers of an
ignorant people are sufficiently wise to consider the best interests
393
304 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
of their subjects, a strong central government, founded on force,
yields to its people larger immediate return of privilege and
benefit than does any other form.
Public Opinion Must Be Improved by the General Education
of All Members of Society. — If the general intelligence is low,
public opinion will, of necessity, be wrong in its premises; and
the type of political and social life which develops will then be
undemocratic. It is, of course, possible for a community to
maintain order on a low standard of social responsibility; but
only that society will be progressive and self-controlled in which
public opinion is permeated with social idealism. And notwith-
standing that, in any community, public opinion may some-
times be created by a few of the more intelligent, the fact re-
mains that unless the majority has sufficient intelligence to
understand the ideas of the leaders and make them its own,
society will be controlled, not by public opinion, but by the opin-
ions of a dominant few. For it is only when the members are
in intelligent and harmonious sympathy with one another that
public opinion can receive full expression — a condition involv-
ing, not only individual capacity, but the perfection of social
machinery as well.
The Improvement of the Type of Government by Education.
— As education grows more and more general, the critical faculty
of individuals, becoming stimulated, gradually raises the govern-
mental ideal. But the development is, indeed, gradual; for
even when people have determined what is right, they some-
times find it very difficult so to perfect the machinery of legis-
lation and justice as to carry out their ideals. As a matter of
fact, there is nothing in human experience that requires more
foresight, ability, and harmonious social action than does the
creation of laws for the government of a free people. And it is
because the governmental machinery is so imperfect that self-
government is both a wasteful and an expensive form of govern-
ment. Each year our statute books show us new laws, useless
or even detrimental to the best interests of the community.
Then, while, on the one hand, our courts of justice are slow to
reach their decisions, on the other, our rapid industrial develop-
ment is constantly creating conditions that require new legisla-
tion and new judicial decrees. An enlightened absolutism,
therefore, which could anticipate the future needs of the people
THE EDUCATIONAL METHOD 395
and by its mandates secure them at once, might, at first thought,
seem preferable to the present unenlightened control by political
demagogue and selfish trickster. But since there is no way of
making sure that an absolutism will be socially enlightened, we
are forced to choose the patent evils of a democracy rather than
fly to others that we know not of; and in a democratic form of
government we can at least hope that a general diffusion of
knowledge will raise the social ideals.
To What Extent Must All Laws Be Supported by Education
or Training ? — Through impulsive social action, or the imperfec-
tion of legislative machinery, it is possible to place upon the
statute books laws which do not receive the support of the
people whom they are intended to govern. In the first place,
people may not have been prepared for them by sufficient pre-
liminary discussion. Then, too, even after a new law has been
enacted, the governmental machinery is often slow to come to
its full support. During this period of lukewarm enforcement of
the law, however, there is an educative process going on among
the citizens; and if the law has sufficient backing from the
courts, the people may possibly become educated to its full and
free support. But if the law is obnoxious to a large proportion
of the people, a continual agitation will be kept up by the dis-
satisfied ones until the law is repealed by their representatives.
There is now, for instance, a great cry for tax reform; yet the
adjustment to a new tax law would not beeasy. If the courts
declared it to be a good and just law, and a sufficient number
of the people were inclined to obey it, the public could gradually,
through the process of education, be brought up to its standard
of requirements. But it can safely be said that no law can
succeed without the support of public opinion.
On the other hand, the law is an educator in itself. When
once established by the will of any considerable part of the
people, it is the expression of an ideal, a program of procedure ;
and since all people look to it for guidance, it influences them to
reach a uniform conclusion of right and wrong. A good example
of this educative process of the law is found in the prohibition
law of the state of Kansas. Because of certain political cir-
cumstances, this law was passed before a majority of the people
of Kansas really desired it. To keep this statute in force, there-
fore, it has been necessary for temperance workers to be con-
396 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
stantly in the field, educating the public against the evils of
drink and emphasizing the necessity of restrictive measures.
But the fact that the public had, by legislative enactment, com-
mitted itself to the prohibitive measure was of great value to
the temperance workers in their educative work. In spite of all
efforts to the contrary, however, in those communities where
the majority do not desire the enforcement of this law, it is
violated to such an extent as not really to be enforced at all.
And even in those communities where it is enforced, the con-
stant vigilance of right-thinking people is necessary. Either
before or after its enactment, therefore, there must be public
discussion of a measure in order to get a majority of the people
to assent intelligently to its enforcement.
Specific Training for Social Life. — Thus the state that is to
be perpetuated through self-government must see to it that its
citizens are well educated; and since a clumsy mode of pro-
cedure might destroy the best efforts of popular government,
something more than a general intelligence is necessary. Begin-
ning in the grammar grades and continuing with increased force,
through the high school and the university, special training
should be given in all the subjects that pertain to social order
and social control. It is not the place here to state specifically
what subjects should be taught and what methods should be
used to bring about the desired end. Yet it may be said that
everything that leads to an acquaintance with the political and
industrial history of the nation, with its social and economic
conditions, with its forms of government, its constitutional and
common law, and, indeed, with its social relations, should be
taught in its public schools.
Yet while the educating process should begin with the chil-
dren and continue with the youth of the country, the work is
not finished with the training of these. And although dis-
cussion of public questions and some little dissemination of
information is secured through the press and the platform,
these agencies are really inadequate to meet the growing need.
A realization of this inadequacy has recently led to the fruitful
suggestion that the present public forum, furnished by news-
papers, books, periodicals, public lectures and addresses, be
supplemented by neighborhood gatherings of adults in the
community building, the schoolhouse, for the discussion of
THE EDUCATIONAL METHOD 397
questions of common interest.1 The suggestion has received
the hearty indorsement of men of every political party and
such leading educational and social bodies as the National
Education Association, the National Federation of Woman’s
Clubs, the National Municipal League, the American Federa-
tion of Labor, the American Prison Congress, and three of the
national political parties. And Wisconsin has already placed
upon her statute books a law requiring that, upon the request of
a certain number of citizens, the educational authorities shall
open the doors of the schoolhouses for just such purpose.?
In carrying out this project, there are, of course, such practical
problems to be met as that of gaining a sufficient number of
the people of a community to take an interest in the discussion
of public questions and that of centering the responsibility
for requisite leadership. But the suggestion is certainly most
significant and most worthy of an honest endeavor to make
the public school more effective in promoting the intelligence
and social efficiency of that ninety odd per cent of our people
who never get beyond the grammar grades of our schools.
More than this, special technical schools preparatory to civil
service should be maintained for those who expect to make gov-
ernment their vocation; for if a state provides education for
its own protection and general social well-being, and neglects
the training of its officials, it is failing to use the best means it
has for conscious development and social control.
REFERENCES
BLAcKMaR, F. W. Federal and State Aid to Higher Education in the United
States.
MACKENZIE, J.S. Social Philosophy, pp. 351-366.
WarD, Epwarp J. The Social Center.
WarbD, LESTER F. Dynamic Sociology, pp. 540-634.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Show why education, custom, tradition, religion, social suggestion,
and all such methods, soon displace force in the government of a people.
2. Why is it more essential that the United States, for example, secure
intelligence among her population than, let us say, Russia?
1 Ward, E. J., The Social Center, New York, 1913.
2 Laws of Wisconsin, 1911, Chap. 514.
3908 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
3. Why cannot self-government long remain unintelligent ?
4. If education is for the purpose of securing an intelligent citizenship,
what purpose is subserved by education in the classics? Industrial educa-
tion?
5. State the arguments in favor of thorough preliminary discussion of a
measure before it is enacted into law. Against such a procedure.
6. What arguments can be advanced in favor of putting the law on the
statute books at the earliest possible date? Against such a method?
7. Cite examples of legislation enacted without much preliminary dis-
cussion.
8. Read, in Municipal A ffairs, Vol. III, pp. 462 sq., and in The World’s
Work, Vol. V, pp. 3339 sq., the account of Dr. Leipziger’s work in the public
schools of New York City. Estimate the value of such work in a democracy.
CHAPTER V
SOCIAL INEQUALITIES
The Social Classification of Individuals.— The provision
for securing for all both equal rights and equal social oppor-
tunities does not eliminate the possibility of social inequalities ;
for the status of an individual in society is, to a certain extent,
measured by his individual ability and the application of that
ability in an effort to improve himself. Thus, while in demo-
cratic society there may be a general tendency to make of indi-
viduals a homogeneous mass and destroy the graded orders of
ethnic grouping, there yet exists sufficient variety among indi-
viduals to bring about inequalities in capacity and social posi-
tion. There is a movement of society, but there is more than
one “ level of social motion’; consequently society is left in
strata, and people are grouped about the centers of their own
activity. We see laborers in the machine shop brought to-
gether by their particular industry ; we find those of the teaching
profession in another group; and we discover bankers in a third.
The character of the work done influences the social grouping
and, to a_certain extent, determines the social status of an indi-
vidual. And not only is there a division into groups; but
within the group there is a secondary classification based on
ability or position. A great factory, for instance, will have
managers, overseers, clerks, operators, and helpers. Thus,
while there is no determined assumption of superiority, these
natural industrial groups form the centers of social grouping.
Inequalities Arising from Individual Characteristics.1 —
Wherever the word “‘ equality ”’ is used in reference to individ-
uals of a community, it refers to freedom in the choice of oppor-
tunities, the chance for a man to use his capacities either in the
1 For a category of social inequalities, see Kelley, Government or Human Evolution,
PP. 337-338.
399
400 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
codperative or the competitive market; but it has no reference
to the equalizing of powers or conditions, nor to the insurance
of results. All the world is a market; and in it men make the
best possible exchange of their personal powers or services for
services of another sort. Now this trading capacity, if we may
so call it, may be superior physical strength, intellectual power,
moral character, religious nature, or personal attractiveness.
And it stands to reason that the individual with a pleasing per-
sonality can easily obtain an industrial or social position which
the one of forbidding personality can acquire only by proving
his natural handicap to be outweighed by other and stronger
forces, such as will power and intellectual acumen.
Some of these inequalities of powers arise from natural
sources. For example, people who are born with some physical
defect are handicapped when they compete with those who,
having strong physiques, possess greater trading capacity.
And just as the man who is endowed with superior brain power
may, if he use it to advantage, outstrip another of meaner
intellectual capacity, so, too, will a man naturally possessed
of high moral qualities have less to overcome and more to
work with than one born with a strain of moral obliquity in
his nature. Finally, there are the qualities of determination
and perseverance, which none of those other capacities can
compete against; for an individual who has each one of those
prime qualities in excess may yet be outstripped by one who
has power to organize his resources, and the force of will to
apply his powers. Thus the individual who has a strong
physical, intellectual, and moral nature, together with a pleas-
ing personality, has the opportunity to acquire a superior posi-
tion with comparative ease.
Inequalities Arising from the Natural Environment. — Many
a tribe or ethnic group has, by settling on sterile soil, condemned
itself to perpetual poverty. And not only has it lived a dull,
unprogressive life, but it has sometimes become extinct because
of the pressure of physical environment. Next in importance
to infertility of soil are climate influences, for they tend to
destroy the health of individuals, to limit their labor power,
to reduce their general vitality. These climatic conditions
may arise out of poor drainage, excessive heat or excessive
moisture, great variations in temperature, or generally unhealth-
SOCIAL INEQUALITIES 401
ful conditions. For instance, the struggle to overcome climatic
conditions in the Tropics will not permit of a high degree of
civilization in that region. As another illustration, the writers
have in mind a group of people who settled on a river bottom in a
Western state. In the period of melting snows, this river,
after plunging furiously down the mountain side, spread out
into sloughs and bayous full of stagnant water, excellent breed-
ing grounds for mosquitoes. And because the malaria carried
by these mosquitoes kept the people sick for a large part of
the year, their power to labor was curtailed at the same time
that their expenses were added to. And after they had mort-
gaged their farms to perpetuate life, they were finally obliged
to leave the lowlands and flee into the foothills, where a healthy
climate permitted them to live.
Then there are the parasite enemies of plants, which must
necessarily be enemies to man as well. The codling-moth, the
boll-weevil, the phylloxera or chinch-bug, and the army worm
sometimes make such ravages on vegetation as to destroy all
the economic products of a community and reduce the people
to poverty. Such a calamity may, by giving them unequal
chances with others, determine their economic and social posi-
tion in the world.
Or bacteria, the greatest modern enemies of human life, may,
through disease, destroy a man’s chances for physical, intellec-
tual, or social supremacy. Nearly 750,000 preventable deaths
occur annually in the United States alone. It is estimated that
$460,000,000 is the annual cost of illness and death in the fami-
lies of our American working men, or $960,000,000 a year, if
to the first sum are added loss of wages through sickness and
death. The sad part of the matter is that at least $500,000,000
of this expense is unnecessary. Hookworm in our Southern
states decreases the annual earning capacity by $50,000,000;
and every year tuberculosis, by throwing thousands out of
work, drops them from the race for self-support and advancement
in economic and social welfare.!
Only, therefore, as science and economic organization are
1 Fisher, ‘Report on National Vitality,” The Report of the National Conserva-
tion Commission, Vol. III, pp. 620 sq.: Stiles, ‘Economic Aspects of Hookworm
Disease in the United States,” Transactions of the 15th Congress of Hygiene and
Demography, 1913, Vol. II, p. 757.
2D
402 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
brought to bear upon these enemies of humanity, will the
inequalities of life be reduced. A short time ago a discovery
was thought to be made concerning yellow fever bacteria; and
yet more recently the yellow fever germ seemed to be found in
a minute animal parasite carried by a species of mosquito.
The diphtheria germ has been isolated; and it is now destroyed
by means of the injection of a serum into the veins of the sufferer.
Then, too, the fight to aid man in his battle with the natural
enemies of his plants and animals becomes, each succeeding
year, more energetic, more certain of success. Nor is this all.
Science is gradually discovering the causes and preventives
for diseases due to bad climatic conditions. And as a result,
great natural resources, hitherto unavailable, are now being
devoted to the advancement of civilization.
Inequalities Arising from Accident. — Many people lose their
normal position in the social and economic scale through earth-
quakes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, railway wrecks, fires, and
the common accidents of industrial life. These accidents
naturally have a vast influence over the lives of their victims;
for they often render people unfit to struggle along in the rank
and file of humanity. Some, of course, having an inherent
power of sudden recovery from misfortune, are enabled to regain
their former position; but there are others who go down in
the struggle. For example, a certain family owned a piece of
land along the Kansas River, which for years had yielded them
a handsome income. But there came a flood which destroyed
their growing crops, washed away large portions of the farms,
and ruined or depreciated others. After the flood had subsided,
they moved back into their home and began, with earnest
efforts, to till remaining portions of the soil and restore their
lost fortunes. Unfortunately, however, typhoid fever so pros-
trated the entire family that they were soon thrown upon the
care of the public. Thus, within six months, a well-to-do family
group had been reduced to poverty by accident. Nor is such
an experience an unusual one. Accident, health, life, industrial
insurance, and old age insurance schemes promise to do much,
however, to alleviate such misfortunes as these; for when the
economic results of these disasters are spread over the entire
community, equality of economic opportunity will, to a cer-
tain degree, at least, be secured. So, too, are the inequalities
SOCIAL INEQUALITIES 403
due to natural conditions reduced by thrift agencies, such as
savings banks, — both private and governmental, — safe in-
vestment companies for the man of small means, and schemes
like the small allotment plan of Great Britain, by which a man
has the help of the government to secure a little home of his
own.
Inequalities Arising from Social Environment. — Besides
the natural forces which render unequal the struggle for life
and wealth, there is a certain social pressure which arises
from artificial conditions. There are, in the first place, the
great inequalities of wealth which we meet at every turn of
life and which, though somewhat dependent upon individual
characteristics and the workings of natural forces, are, after
all, largely due to social conditions. If, for instance, a few
people have absorbed the wealth of the community and used
it arbitrarily, then all the others have an unequal chance with
them in the struggle for independence. The fact is that, in
the modern economic life, the use of capital in production is
so essential that the man without it cannot compete with the
one who possesses it. Then, too, the man born in a hovel,
surrounded by squalor and poverty, has an unequal chance
with the man born in a mansion, surrounded by culture and
luxury; for although it is true that the individual born in pov-
erty may rise above his condition, it is with great effort and
against fearful odds that he does so. On the other hand, it is
also true that the man born in the palace may fail to use his
opportunities and consequently make a wreck of life. Yet
these various statements are not inconsistent with the general
proposition that wealth and poverty bring people into the world
with unequal opportunities for position and power.
Industrial conditions may also have much to do with the suc-
cess of some and the failure of others. When there is great
prosperity in a community, it is easier for people to succeed
than where there is great trade depression or where there are
bad conditions generally. But as these business conditions
are constantly shifting, it happens that even men of foresight
and shrewdness are frequently ruined by unexpected industrial
changes. On the other hand, there are men who, associating
in business with men of industrial power, have the good for-
tune to enter industrial enterprises which succeed on account
404 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
of the favorable shifting of social conditions. And finally there
is always that struggling and unlucky majority — men who
cannot successfully compete with the more fortunate few.
There is, indeed, an incompleteness of business organization
which leaves a large number of people outside of the general
opportunities for business success. Some of the difficulty
arises from uncodrdinated individual effort in the modern
business life; but this defect is rapidly being atoned for by the
organization of men in groups for the purposes of production
and distribution. And should business ever become completely
organized on a codperative basis, opportunities would be more
nearly equalized, and wealth would, to a certain extent, be
redistributed.
Nor is inequality of power much less a fact in the political
world than it is elsewhere in society; for, although it has been
the boast of the United States that the American people have
equal opportunities for political and civil power, we know that
even here there are not only unequal capacities, but unequal
opportunities as well. Liberty of action may, to a certain
extent, have been secured; but political equality has not been
an essential outcome of this liberty of action. Money and
prestige can still secure place and power, can still blind the eyes
of justice. And although efforts are being made to secure the
social equality of every man, both at the ballot box and in the
courts, the wisdom of man has not yet been equal to the task.
The corrupt practices acts, it is true, are the attempts of various
states to correct the inequalities of the ballot box; but up to
the present, our systems of court procedure have not been so
perfected that the rich and powerful secure as summary justice
as do the poor and politically friendless. After all, law alone
cannot force men to recognize the social rights of others. Such
recognition must be acquired by the slow process of political
and social development, the growth of a sense of social justice,
and a passion for the general welfare.
But not only are there inequalities of wealth and industrial
conditions; for even religious belief may be the cause of cer-
tain definite inequalities. A man, for example, of a strong
religious nature, may owe his prominence to what he has accom-
plished in his church; or in his struggle for success, he may
be supported by some powerful religious organization. He has,
SOCIAL INEQUALITIES 405
in either case, an advantage over the man who has influence
neither in a church nor in a religious society.
And finally, although here in the United States we have
assumed that every child has the chance to choose his own vo-
cation in life, such is not the case. Because of the complexity
of our social life, the passing of our empire of free land, the
increasing economic and social stratification of our people, and
the lack of intelligent guidance of our children and youth, many
aman is as much “born to” a low plane in our modern eco-
nomic and social life as was the serf of medieval Europe to serf-
dom on some particular estate. The chief occupation must of
necessity be modified by environment. The public mind, by
the creation of social conditions, sets the limitations for indi-
vidual choice. No less powerful, on the other hand, in the
regulation of social position, are the inequalities arising from
family distinction. A man who, for example, is related to the
best families of a community has a greater opportunity to suc-
ceed than the man who is related to its worst families. To the
term ‘‘ best family ” we do not, of course, give the arbitrary,
and artificial, meaning accorded to it by polite society; the
term “best families” is used by us in contradistinction to
‘worst families.”’ Indeed, it only too often happens that a man
who, under ordinary circumstances, would succeed admirably,
fails to gain a position of usefulness and power because of the
weakness or wickedness of members of his own family.
The Modification of Inequality. — Education, as it is con-
ducted by the various states in the Union, represents perhaps
the greatest power for the reduction of the inequalities of social
life. The fact that the great mass of the people are associated
in the same schools and given the same education, suggests that
a leveling force is constantly being applied to the various social
inequalities. It must be remembered, however, that the strong
in mind and body still have the opportunity to outdistance their
weaker competitors; for those with will and brain power can,
by availing themselves of the opportunities of higher education,
gain power and influence over their fellows. And while we
ought not to wish to diminish such inequality in capacity, we
ought to try to educate our people to a sense of social respon-
sibility for their superior natural endowment. For we have
passed from that old idea of education, — the elevation of one class
406 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
above another, or to give the popular conception, the prepara-
tion of a man for an idle life. We now look at education as a
means for elevating society at large and for creating the power
to do a larger amount of work in a shorter time, to do it better,
and to make it count in the welfare of society.
Thus we have seen that there is an insurmountable diversity
in individual lives which leads from inequality of opportunity
to inequality of power. This diversity we have, indeed, no
desire to destroy. It should, however, be the aim of society
to provide for the development of each separate power and ca-
pacity by removing or modifying natural inequalities so far as
science and legislation can. For example, the inequalities of life
could be greatly reduced by a positive program for better sani-
tation; the removal of causes of disease; protection against
accident; the destruction of dangerous microbes, bacteria,
and predatory animals; the curbing of the activities of predatory
men and corporations; and provisions for proper recreation.
Moreover, the removal or modification of artificial inequalities
might, in a measure, be obtained by better instruction con-
cerning the rights, duties, and privileges of individuals and by
the establishment of laws regulating civil service, universal
suffrage, and equality in the use of public highways, buildings,
and conveyances. Great care should be exercised to give
equality before the law and in the making of the law. Such
instruction and such privileges, together with freedom in
the choice of position and service and the opportunity for uni-
versal education, would, indeed, reduce social inequalities to
a minimum and make social control rather less necessary than
it is now.
REFERENCES
Gipprncs, F. H. Inductive Sociology, p. 238.
KELLEY, EpMoND. Government or Human Evolution, pp. 335-360.
Warp, LESTER F. Outlines of Sociology, pp. 262-293.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Take a social unit, such as a village, a country township, or a city, and
make a classification showing the inequalities characteristic of the individ-
uals therein.
2. Give an illustration of how social inequality is brought about by natu-
ral ability; by environment; by social circumstances into which one may
be born.
SOCIAL INEQUALITIES 407
3. Show how the extension of the franchise in England made for political
equality; how the invention of street cars and the production of such things
as the cheap sewing machine, the postal savings bank, and the building and
loan association, iron out the economic and social inequalities between classes.
4. What effect has such a device as the joint stock company had upon
social inequality ?
5. Show how popular education works for equality; how it produces
inequality.
6. Why is it not desirable from the standpoint of the social welfare to
have a dead level of human equality?
7. Is it socially desirable to have equality of natural capacity? Of
economic opportunity? Of educational privileges?
8. What bearing has the fight against disease had on the problem of
human equality? The agitation for industrial education? For compul-
sory school laws? For workmen’s compensation laws? For employers’
liability acts? For pensions for widows with children? For juvenile
courts? For scientific relief of the poor?
CHAPTER VI
THE IDEAL OF JUSTICE
The Nature of Justice. — Civil justice, through authority
expressed in public opinion of law, defines and secures the rights
of the individual and imposes upon him obligations to society.
It gives a fair opportunity to every man in the group; it deter-
mines what belongs to him and what he owes to other indi-
viduals and to the community. And when a government has
established justice, there is nothing important left for it to do
which the individual cannot better do for himself. ‘“* Justice ”
says Madison, ‘“‘is the end of government; it is the end of
civil society.”! Not equality, not fraternity, for perhaps
these cannot be secured by government, but justice is the end
for which organized government is established. Nor is this
idea of justice based upon any natural right or law, but upon
the judgment of society. Its psychological beginning may be
found, doubtless, in that sense of fairness which arises in the
mind of an individual when he is brought in contact with others ;
but its final declaration is a social judgment. Since, then, it
is an artificial, socially determined right, it may vary with the
conditions of social order or individual environment.
So-called natural justice is the attempt on the part of an
individual to secure his self-determined rights without the
interposition of a third party. Existing only in an anarchistic
condition where might makes right; it is the animal struggle
for survival, the application of a biological law to human en-
deavor. A survival of natural justice may be observed in the
family feud, and in a larger way, in the selfish and arbitrary
struggles for power which nations enter into at the expense of
others. And expressions of natural justice are the arbitrary
measures of trusts and monopolies when they are uncurbed by
social regulation.
1 The Federalist, II, p. 241.
408
THE IDEAL OF JUSTICE 409
The Arbiter of Justice. — Civil justice implies at least two
contending parties, or opposing principles, and a third party
that decides between them. And since, in all social order,
there must be this authority to decide right and privilege, the
government takes it upon itself to represent the third party
and establish justice between contending individuals or fac-
tions. And just as in the ancient régime the king could say,
L’etat; c’est mot, so in democracy, that summation of the ideals
and will of the people, the government, can say Le roz; c’est mot.
In the evolution of the state, the governing power may take
many forms; but civil justice develops along with the state
rather than in accordance with the form of government. The
horde shows few signs of civil justice; but wherever there is
self-constituted leadership, there is need for some sort of social
justice. For that matter, the self-constituted leader maintains
his position in part by means of his service as arbiter in disputes.
And, in fact, whether the leadership be self-imposed, established
by custom, or based on heredity or the choice of the people,
the leader has always, directly or indirectly, been a judge
between differing individuals or clashing factions of the group.
Wherever government exists, however, the leader is but its
executor; back of the government is the supreme will of the
sovereign community. If that sovereign happens to be a small
group, as is sometimes the case just after a conquest, then the
king represents the oligarchy. If, however, the sovereignty
rests with all the people, then he represents democracy. Kings,
rulers, and officers may be its agents, and constitutions, laws,
and government its mode of expression; but the organized
social will of the group is the court of last resort, the final arbiter
of justice. Justice cannot, after all, rise higher than its source.
Thus, although the character of the organs of justice will deter-
mine its effectiveness, the knowledge of relationships, the con-
ception of right and wrong, and the standards of right conduct
held by a community will determine the quality of justice.
The Relation of the Individual to the Mass. — In all forms
of government the individual bears a certain relation to the
social group at large. This relationship varies in proportion,
on the one hand, to the degree to which government has de-
veloped, and to the passion for individual liberty, on the other.
The extreme example of the subjection of the individual to
410 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
the mass is found in socialism, which requires a complete sub-
ordination of each to the many. Plato’s Republic gives us a
vivid picture of this sort of government. And, indeed, the
practical government of ancient Greece shows the absorption, to
a considerable extent, of the individual by the government, the
subjection of the individual to society. But the modern ideal
democracy insists on political and social codperation in such a
way as to give the individual a large freedom of choice; that
is, individual liberty really prevails, although it is secured by
the codperation of many individuals who are seeking the same
end.
The extreme of individualism is exhibited in the political
theory of the survival of the fittest. When carried too far by
unscrupulous people, this political individualism leads to a
constantly recurring despotism. When, however, it seeks the
highest good of the majority, when it bends its energies to the
improvement of society, it will be regulated by a political co-
operation which involves the development of individual powers
and capacities. And as the group becomes increasingly homo-
geneous in feelings and thoughts, the restraints on the liberty
of the individual are lessened; for with uniformity of mental
and social characteristics, sympathy increases between indi-
viduals and hostility decreases. Thus is the individual really
governed by himself.
Ideal Democracy. — When reduced to its ultimate analysis,
the declaration that men are created free and equal, with certain
inalienable rights, indicates nothing more than the right of men
to make the laws that are to govern them and the right to choose
the officers that are to rule over them; and do the rulers as-
sume, for a time, the réle of sovereignty, they are, after all, but
acting as servants of the people. In our search for the ulti-
mate authority, therefore, we must not carry too far that idea
of natural right which received its initial impulse from the French
philosophers. For it is only by means of codéperation of his
fellows, who are impressed with the same idea, that the indi-
vidual determines his right to govern; hence, both the right
to govern and the right to freedom of individual action come
from the judgment of society. In other words, the individual
of to-day may do just what society grants him the privilege
of doing and no more — that is, whatever he, with the coéper-
THE IDEAL OF JUSTICE 4II
ation of his fellows shall determine to be right and just and for
the general welfare. The right to govern, therefore, is deter-
mined by the capacity for self-government; and the real free-
dom comes from the right established by codperative associa-
tion. The only natural right of the individual is the biological
right to existence manifested in the law of survival; it is not
biological fact, however, but social fitness that determines his
right to share in the government. If, then, there is any natural
right of government, it is a natural social right rather than a
natural individual right. Man is born under existing laws and
social institutions which, as an individual, he cannot overthrow;
he is heir to conditions which are the fruit of a thousand genera-
tions of men. These conditions may be wrong, but they have
been established by combined social action, active or passive;
and the only manner in which he can influence or change these
ideals, rules, and customs of society, is through combined social
action, and whatever society determines to be right or just will
be the source of individual liberty.
The Rational Choice of the People. — The social will of the
people seeks, then, to establish justice among the individuals
who compose the body politic. And when the social mind,
after determining what is just and right among the people,
carries out this social judgment, government has done its ulti-
mate service to society. Although not the popular idea of
equality, this plan for social codperation nevertheless insists
that each individual shall have the opportunity, so far as is
compatible with social justice, to develop his individual capac-
ity and exercise his individual powers. But if laws are needed
to secure political freedom and civil justice, they are also needed
to secure industrial freedom and economic justice. For just
as free competition in political affairs, unlimited by social regu-
lation, leads to anarchy, the outcome of which is a species of
despotism, so, too, freedom of competition in the industrial
life, when unlimited by social justice, leads to industrial anarchy,
whose final outcome is industrial despotism.
Of course, the ideals of justice held by a community will
vary from time to time, in accordance with changing circum-
stances. For example, social justice looked with favor on the
ideal of lazssez faire before great corporations had so far de-
veloped as to imperil the liberty of non-incorporated individuals.
412 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
Now, however, governmental interference in the interests of
justice between corporations and individuals has become neces-
sary. Again, there was a time when society believed that
_ Justice in education was done when “ the little red schoolhouse,”’
built at public expense, gave the merest elements of an educa-
tion to those who chose to come. But now social justice is
satisfied with nothing less than compulsory attendance, up to
a certain age, at a school where not only the three R’s are
taught, but where the pupil is trained in the sciences and in
certain practical subjects as well. It is beginning to be per-
ceived that, in the interests of social justice, a vocational train-
ing must be provided for each; that the youth must be taught
which vocations hold out the best prospects of success; and
that the adult should be provided a chance to redeem his lost
educational opportunities.
REFERENCES
BLuntscuul, J. K. The Theory of the State, Bk. VII.
KELLEY, EDMOND. Government or Human Evolution, pp. 211-354.
MACKENZIE, JOHN S. Social Philosophy, p. 290.
SPENCER, HERBERT. Ethics, Justice; Principles of Sociology, Vol. III,
“Political Institutions.”
WALLIS, GRAHAM. The Great Society, Part I, Chap. VII.
Warp, Lester F. Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I, p. 503.
WILLouGHBy, W. W. The Nature of the State, pp. 181-231.
Witson, Wooprow. The State, p. 623.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. In what sense is a vigilance committee in a frontier settlement an instru-
ment of justice? The social will of what part of the community does it
represent ?
2. Show how modern social legislation — juvenile court laws, probation
laws, pure food laws, and legislation for the regulation of the sale of intoxi-
cating liquors, ‘“‘dope,’”’ patent medicines, etc.— are attempts to secure
social justice.
3. In what sense is the “‘personal liberty” argument, as applied to liquor
legislation, inconsistent with justice?
4. When the manager of a great corporation says that he will “run his
own business,”’ why is his attitude antisocial ?
5. What light is thrown upon the relation between justice and forceful
methods of social control by the fact that isolated and homogeneous settle-
ments of people often have no officers of civil justice, such as constables,
justices of the peace, etc.? What light is thrown upon the more unseen
restraints P
THE IDEAL OF JUSTICE 413
6. Make a list of the various methods by which justice between man and
man is secured in a certain hamlet, village, or neighborhood which you know.
7. Show how the school playground prepares children and youth for
social justice.
8. What effect upon the development of social justice would a social center
have — a common meeting place for the discussion of questions?
CHAPTER VII
ESTIMATION OF PROGRESS
Change versus Progress. — Inasmuch as civilization is
made up of many complex elements, it is difficult to get a stand-
ard for the measure of progress. A thousand changes may be
taking place in society, whose final results are so difficult to
estimate that it is uncertain whether they are progressive or
non-progressive.
Observation and historical retrospect at once convince us
that change is not always progress. Just as, according to the
accepted doctrine of evolution, there is not only a development
of life, but also a regressive action, so in society, there is a work-
ing downward as well as upward. And before we may finally
determine whether society is progressing, we must consider
the aims of society and we must determine the standard by
which progress is measured. The question of aims we consid-
ered in a previous chapter; the matter of standards is still to be
discussed. What is the correct measure of art, literature, moral
action, and political usage? Of course, if our ideals were
constant, it would be an easy matter to determine progress
by a comparison of the reality with the ideal. But since these
are constantly shifting, we are forced to examine the results
of social action to see whether, as time passes, society is more or
less able to protect and develop man. There are, however,
certain unmistakable results of growth which may, at the start,
be enumerated.
Closer Integration of Society.— As society develops, it
becomes more and more closely integrated; the individual has
a more definite, hence closer, relation to the mass. In our
own day, for example, people of many different racial types,
assembled under one government and one national life, become
one in thought and sentiment in a comparatively short space
of time. And because of the increased harmony of thought and
feeling, this process of integration brings about more rapid and
414
ESTIMATION OF PROGRESS 415
more effective social action. When it comes to social action,
indeed, each of the ethnic groups of the world now has a much
greater solidity than when men were born under status rather
than under law; for although there are classes even yet, they
are based not so much on status as upon ability and occupation,
and it is easier for a man to go from one class to another.
Differentiation of Society in Structure and Function. — Since
society began to develop from the protoplasmic or homogeneous
state represented by the horde, there has been a continuous
differentiation into activities and structures; for society grows,
not only by the enlargement and solidification of the mass, but
in the separation of the mass into interdependent organs, each
of which has a function of its own. In government, for example,
there was first a concentration of all powers in one individual ;
but gradually there was a differentiation into senates, assem-
blies, courts of justice, military organizations, and ecclesiastical
orders. And this differentiation still goes on; new ministries,
new commissions, and boards, or any other new organs of
government are created whenever they are needed. Society
gains immensely in power and social effectiveness by this
growth, which is one of the signs of progress. Nor is this
method of development confined to matters of government;
for, in the economic world, we find each new industry de-
manding a new group of trained people to carry it on, each
new invention demanding a new division of specifically trained
labor.
Closer Articulation of Parts.— And not only do the old
organs of government become more perfectly developed, but
by change and practice, they are made to fit into one another
like the parts of finely adjusted machinery. Thus we observe
that society grows in efficiency by increasing its number of
functions and organs, by perfecting these organs, and by fitting
these into a more perfect social mechanism.
Has Each Succeeding Generation Better Life Conditions ? —
Another method of estimating progress is to observe whether
the present generation has better life conditions than the pre-
ceding — that is, greater resources, better methods of service,
and in a given time, with a given amount of energy, larger re-
sults. For, if we are to believe the theory of Weismann that .
permanent characteristics may be transmitted from generation
416 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
to generation, and that acquired individual characteristics are
not so transmitted, the hope of civilization depends upon bring-
ing each successive group into a better environment and mak-
ing certain that the social heritage of civilization is, without
loss, transmitted by such social machinery as the educational
system. That is, there must be an accumulation of energy,
materials, and the fruits of civilization; and if there is to be
progress, better methods of using social achievements must be
developed. The real service of education is measured by its
success in aiding a people to accomplish these objects; the
real progress of society is determined by conditions such as
these. And judged by this standard the world is certainly
ahead of its achievements of a hundred years ago.
The Improvement of Race or Stock. — Through the accumu-
lation of wealth, through invention and scientific discovery, man
is protected from disease, his physical welfare is increased, and
his life is prolonged for service. But does the racial stock grad-
ually grow better or worse as disease is eliminated and con-
trolled? To lower the death rate of a community by even two
per cent is immediately to increase its labor power, both by
creating a healthier state of society and by prolonging the life
of the individual. But may not such conservation of life mean
also the perpetuation of those unfit to propagate their kind?
Not in the long run; for the scientific care of the weak should
not develop weakness, but strength. Society has, it is true,
many evil effects of degeneracy to overcome; but better food,
better habits of life, and greater protection from disease ought
to develop a better racial stock. Furthermore, with the growth
of science and our knowledge of the principles of heredity, we
shall take care against the possible weakening of the race through
the saving of those who, under harsher conditions, would not
live to perpetuate their kind. Thus will human selection,
guided by science, come to the support of natural selection,
turning the survival of the fittest into the elevation and perpetua-
tion of the best.
The Equalization of Political Opportunities. — The changes
in political methods and the development of government have
brought about a democratic society in which the individuals
all bear the same relation to the whole body politic. It is only
natural that, in a government by the people, each individual
ESTIMATION OF PROGRESS 417
should have a right not only to participate in choosing legisla-
tors to make the laws, and officers to execute them, but even
the opportunity to win such political distinction as his merits
or ability will permit. Sometimes, it is true, a few, gaining the
ascendency by machinations, intrigue, and corruption, may
deprive people of their political liberty and their political oppor-
tunities; but these conditions are not lasting. For, although
wealth and prestige still play a considerable part in securing
political preferment, we find a growing measure of freedom,
an equalization of individual opportunity in political life, which
show us that society has progressed. And in spite of the fact
that the political boss still flourishes in our cities, his power,
dependent in these days on the imperfect assimilation of our
foreign population, is part of an outgrown political system
doomed to pass away. The old class-rule, by means of which
a few assumed and maintained a monopoly of government, is
giving place to a government in which the majority decides.
The Equalization of Industrial Opportunities. — The feudal
system gave every man a place; it permitted him to change
neither from one place to another nor, as a rule, from one class
to another. Now there is no doubt that the class system of
Europe, with its opportunities for one class and not for another,
was detrimental to the freedom and mobility of labor. These
barriers of humanity, however, have been gradually broken
down, and each individual has an ever increasing opportunity
to choose his own industrial life. And yet it is beginning to
be a question whether modern corporate industry, with its
strict classification of workers on the basis of an almost micro-
scopic division of labor, has not set a current running in the oppo-
site direction. Up to the present time, the large amount of
free lands in America has insured the greatest freedom of
choice in occupation; if an individual was not satisfied with
his calling or his salary, he could obtain a farm for the asking
and begin a new industrial life. On the other hand, the accumu-
lation of wealth and the organization of industry during recent
years would seem, in a measure, to preclude the universal oppor-
tunity of individuals to rise. Yet, in another way, the accumu-
lation of wealth and the organization of industry have, by devel-
oping the resources of nature, multiplied the opportunities of
all members of the industrial group; for while one individual
2E
418 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
may be limited by the power of organization or the initiative
of wealth, he has, as a matter of fact, a thousand choices of
occupation where formerly he had but a few. Inasmuch as the
industrial life demands skill and ability of widely different
kinds, it provides for the greatest efficiency and happiness of
all by giving to each the chance to do that work for which, both
by nature and training, he is best fitted. The multiplication
and equalization of industrial opportunities is, therefore, a
gauge for determining the rate of progress of a nation.
Increased Service of Wealth in Behalf of Humanity. — More
and more the surplus wealth of a community is devoted, either
by direct gift of the possessor or through enlightened methods
of taxation and public expenditure, to the advancement of the
people. Through individual management, wealth increases
the conveniences of life; and by the establishment of schools,
churches, libraries, gymnasiums, parks, and recreation grounds,
all the members of society are given the opportunity for im-
provement. The telephone, telegraph, means of rapid trans-
portation, and all forms and conveniences of travel, show what
wealth can do to advance the interests of mankind. The ma-
chinery used in manufactures, mining, and agriculture enables
people to accomplish more and to accomplish it more easily
than was possible in the days of hand work. Wealth, in fact,
if properly distributed, brings increased leisure for mental,
moral, and social improvement. And the progress of society
is clearly indicated by the service of wealth in the development
of better houses, a better grade of clothing, a more adequate
food supply, rational means of spending leisure time, and, in
fact, all the conveniences and pleasures of life. ‘Those nations
which have not accumulated wealth, therefore, have no formal
basis of progress; there is no opportunity for them to advance,
because they have nothing with which to work. It is by the
accumulation of wealth, and through the well-directed use of
it, that political and social progress is made possible. More
and more do men who have accumulated large fortunes realize
that they are but the trustees of the surplus wealth created
by a community; and more and more is the effort being made
to have this wealth bear its proper share in the public expendi-
tures for the common welfare and in the general advancement
of humanity.
ESTIMATION OF PROGRESS 419
Progress by Adaptation of the Forces of Nature to Man. —
There is no more definite kind of advancement than is shown
by the gradual mastery of nature by man. As among animals,
so, too, in the lower human societies, the organism lived and
developed by adjusting itself to nature; but the development
of civilized man is marked by his increasing ability to bend
nature to his wishes and make it serve his needs. Indeed, many
of the milestones in the progress of humanity are at points
where man touches and uses the forces of nature for his own
benefit, be it a new food discovered, or a new use of one of the
elements of nature, like electricity, steam, or radium. By the
application of scientific activity to industrial life, man is able
to increase the amount accomplished without increasing his
effort; for a growing intelligence and an increasing variety of
wants so whet man’s ambitions that the tendency is toward
more work, rather than less, and work that shows an increase
in power. Thus there is a tremendous addition to the product
of labor. When steam power is brought into practical use,
when electricity begins to be applied to everyday things, when
the producer and consumer are brought close together by cheap
transportation, and whenever the discovery of a new scientific
principle in medicine or chemistry points the way toward the
preservation of health and the prolongation of life, society ad-
vances with enormous strides. In every instance we have
nothing more than the bending of nature to the service of man;
and just to the extent to which man has mastered nature and
turned it to his use, a nation may be said to be civilized. Thus
is the progress of humanity measured by its utilization of the
forces of nature.
Social Direction of Society in the Interests of the Individual.
— Another criterion of progress is the comparative welfare of
the individual. Society exists only that it may advance the
welfare of all its component members, so far as the welfare of
each individual is consistent with that of every other. To
secure this general welfare, society sets bounds to the activities
of the individuals who trespass upon the rights of the defenseless.
For example, it protects women and children against soulless cor-
porations and ruthless men; and at all times, for that matter, it
protects the weak against the strong, in the interest of what is,
in the long run, the greatest measure of welfare for each.
420 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
To secure this aim, society must continually readjust its
machinery to meet new conditions and to offset and cure new
maladjustments brought about by calculating and antisocial
men. The whole process is a conscious direction of social
development by those who have at heart the welfare of society
at large. The activities of those, therefore, who look upon the
social machinery as a means whereby to further their own selfish
interests must be controlled by society as a whole. The com-
pleteness with which this artificial adjustment is made is the
final test of social progress. Civilized society is a highly arti-
ficial affair; so delicate are its relationships that the machinery
easily gets out of order. Thus it is the duty of the social en-
gineer to find satisfactory methods for keeping the machinery
going —a task none too easy; for, since precedents are few
or lacking entirely, much of this effort must necessarily be in
the nature of an experiment. The real statesman, therefore,
as well as the sociologist, can never lose sight of this social pur-
pose; and all suggestions for social reform are made with refer-
ence to their probable usefulness in securing this adjustment.
But all of these social inventions are for the sole purpose of
developing social personality; for the individual is the unit
for which society exists. Society must never lose sight of the
fact that all its machinery exists to help men to become happy
and fruitful personalities. We may define this ideal social
personality as one characterized by high vitality, a well-de-
veloped mentality, a generously endowed moral nature, and a
social nature capable, on the one hand, of ‘‘ cheerful and effi-
cient participation in the normal comradeship and coéperation
of society,” and, on the other, of “‘ sympathetic and positively
helpful” altruism.! Or, to put the matter in terms of the psy-
chology of social development, the purpose of society is to aid
in the development of those institutions and ideals which will
allow the individual to “ particularize,” to use Baldwin’s term,
on the basis of his social experiences, and thus produce innova-
tions which society may “‘ generalize’ and make available for
the whole group.”
Judged by this test, is society progressing? There can be
no doubt that, in democratic societies, at least, the individual
1 Giddings, Inductive Sociology, p. 259.
2 Baldwin, Social and Ethical Interpretations, pp. 539-542.
ESTIMATION OF PROGRESS 421
has now more freedom of self-expression, and society more
rapid and complete command of the contributions of the indi-
vidual, than ever before. The give-and-take between indi-
viduals, the influence, on the one hand, of genius upon the less
highly endowed portion of society, and the psychical and social
interactions which make up what we call the social mind, would
naturally bring about these results. And with the growth of
free institutions, the coming of a more perfect education, the
gradual discontinuance of war, a growth of international con-
ciliation of disputes between nations, and the regulation of
class conflicts, the individual will be more than ever at liberty
to give rein to his genius, and society more able than ever
before to direct all its powerful agencies towards a more perfect
socialization of the individual.
It is, of course, true that, in a highly dynamic state, society
may sometimes seem to show retrogression rather than progress.
It must not be forgotten, however, that, in the midst of rapidly
changing conditions, it is not always possible to measure the
degree of success attending any particular piece of social legis-
lation or any specific device intended to lessen maladjustment.
He who walks a steamer’s deck must not judge his progress
by his relation to the sea gull flying in the air, but by some
landmark, by the stars, by the complicated system of naviga-
tion in use by the navigator. After all, and in spite of war,
poverty, and crime, in spite of the ruthless oppression of the weak
by the strong, does not society, in the most civilized countries
to-day, more truly answer to the test of progress than ever
before? One has but to project himself back into Roman or
Grecian society, in the days of their highest development and
compare the lot of the ordinary man of those days with his
chances in ours, to grasp the real significance of our present
state of society.
REFERENCES
BALDWIN. Social and Ethical Interpretations, 1913, Chap. XIV.
Biackmar, F. W. The Story of Human Progress.
Ertwoop, C. A. The Social Problem, Chap. I.
Ey, R. T. Studies in the Evolution of Industrial Society, Chapter, ‘‘ Race
Improvement.”
Gippincs, F.H. Principles of Sociology, pp. 356-360; Descriptive and His-
torical Sociology, pp. 541-545; Inductive Sociology, pp. 249-278.
422 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
KE titER, A. G. Societal Evolution, p. 22.
Kipp, Benj. F. Western Civilization.
MACKENZIE, J.S. An Introduction to Social Philosophy, pp. 297 sq.
Mattock, W.H. Aristocracy and Evolution, p. 351.
SCHAEFFLE, AUGUST. Bau und Leben des socialen K6rpers, Vol. IV, pp. 152-
442.
Warp, LESTER F. Psychic Factors in Civilization, Chap. 34.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Show that evolution of society does not necessarily mean progress.
2. After reading the foregoing chapter and the assignments in Giddings,
make a list of the things which would serve as a test of progress.
3. Analyze some small community or group of people with which you are
quite familiar; compare its achievements now with those of, say, ten years
ago. On the basis of this comparison, decide whether it is a progressive or
a retrogressive community.
4. Show that, while material betterment may mean progress for the
community, it does not necessarily signify progress.
5. Outline a situation in which increase of culture might mean retrogres-
sion rather than progress.
6. Why may increase of such parts of the social structure as boards and
commissions signify social progress? Under what circumstances would
such increase mean the opposite?
7. If acquired characteristics are not inherited, explain how there can be
better physical types of men and women. Show what is meant by “our
social heritage.”” How are the social achievements transmitted from one
' generation to the next?
8. What evidence can you give that political opportunity is as great
to-day as it was a generation ago or even greater?
g. Is there any evidence that there is greater educational opportunity
to-day than there was a generation ago?
10. Is there any evidence that there is greater social application of wealth
to-day than there was fifty years ago?
11. What bearing have antitrust laws, railroad regulation, and regulation
of corporations, upon the social use of wealth and upon industrial oppor-
tunity for the people?
12. Compare the statement in the text, p. 419, that progress is measured
by the mastery of man over nature, with Keller’s statement on p. 22 of his
Societal Evolution.
PART PIV E
SOCIAL PATHOLOGY
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CHAPTER I
THE NATURE OF SOCIAL PATHOLOGY
Normal Distinguished from Abnormal Society. — It is diffi-
cult to determine and define a perfectly normal society. Pos-
sibly the difficulty rests chiefly in the fact that there is no uni-
versally acknowledged standard of correctness. A society with
all of its functions perfect, with all of its structure complete in
every part, is in the nature of things an ideal society; for the
real society is never completed. The same difficulty occurs,
though perhaps to a less degree, when we search for an indi-
vidual who is perfect physically, intellectually, and morally.
Physical perfection, of course, although difficult enough to deter-
mine, is much more readily measured than mental or moral
excellence. If, for example, in gauging a man’s moral capacity,
we accept the Golden Rule for our guide, how shall we deter-
mine who comes the nearest to its observance? And since,
on the other hand, even when we have a general standard of
perfection, we find that different intellects display different
characteristics of strength, it is difficult to test the powers
of mind in sufficiently accurate manner to determine whether
one mind is more perfect than another.
Nevertheless, there is a normal body, a normal mind, and
a normal moral nature which we are able to distinguish from the
abnormal; and just as there are abnormal individuals, so is
there an abnormal society. We have learned that society is
composed of many interdependent parts, each with its partic-
ular function. It is easy to see, therefore, that, if one of these
component units in any way fails in its normal function, thus
forcing extra burdens upon other portions of society, such so-
ciety is abnormal. In such a condition of affairs, however,
the whole structure is not necessarily defective, but only those
parts which fail to perform their legitimate or normal functions.
When, on the other hand, men have learned to live together
425
426 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
in harmony and so to-codperate that, in the exercise of his own
peculiar powers, each has all the freedom consistent with the
same degree of liberty on the part of every other individual,
society may be said to be, not only normal, but well-nigh per-
fect.
Standards of Social Activity Differ in Different Communities.
— There is such variety in social life that a minimum of require-
ments is to be expected in a normal society. Means of sub-
sistence should be assured by fairly close connection with the
soil and the resources of nature in general. There should,
on the one hand, be codperation of all individuals in the pro-
duction and distribution of wealth, no group of individuals
being relieved from the privilege and responsibility of perform-
ing its share of the service; and on the other, the wealth created
should be sufficient to afford leisure for other than industrial
pursuits. Furthermore, not only should each individual feel
secure in person and property, but there should be universal
opportunity for the most socially useful intellectual develop-
ment, as well as means for promoting and perpetuating a high
degree of morality. These are, perhaps, sufficient to indicate
the necessary characteristics of a normal society; yet the highest
type of society, in addition, would be conspicuous for its reli-
gious and esthetic culture, for its absence of poverty, pauperism,
vice, and crime, and for the exclusion of such defective classes
as fail to respond to the demands of social life. These latter
conditions, however, can only be approximated; for defects
are incidental to social development.
Characteristics of Social Pathology. — Social pathology may
treat of a general defect which spreads throughout the entire
social structure; but more frequently the term applies to a
particular class of people within a social group or to a defective
function of government.
There are, in the first place, the unbalanced conditions of
wealth and poverty. An excess of wealth may render some
individuals useless to the community, just as its lack renders
others dependent. These two groups, therefore, each failing
to perform its normal service to society, become social parasites.
Poverty, when its victims are slaves to the conditions which
it imposes, is one of the worst forms of social disease; for,
stunted in body and mind as are the hopelessly poor, they can
THE NATURE OF SOCIAL PATHOLOGY 427
receive but small return for their meager services. The pre-
vention of poverty, on the one hand, and on the other, the utili-
zation of wasted effort, have long been problems for reformer
and social philosopher. In the case of the idle rich the oppor-
tunity for service is, of course, more apparent than in that of
the inefficient poor; yet both groups are inefficient in social
cooperation because of a failure rightly to understand and use
opportunities, or because of social maladjustment which permits
idleness to the rich and forbids employment or permits parasit-
ism to the poor.
Pauperism. — Following closely upon poverty is pauperism,
which, passing beyond a mere pathological condition, is a social
disease having its seat in the individual; hence it cannot, like
poverty, be cured by changing conditions, although, to be sure,
a change of conditions is among the means for preventing
pauperism. Pauperism, when it seizes the social body, is like
a parasite receiving its sustenance from the animal on which it
lives and returning no service for its life. And normal society,
while attempting to check the growth of pauperism that it
may not become a curse, has learned to treat the pauper like a
parasite, and to place absolutely no dependence upon him in
carrying out its legitimate functions. But pauperism is even
worse than it appears; for, because of the various diseases,
defects, and evils which it engenders and supports, it tends
to weaken society by destroying not only its productive, but
its moral force, and is, in reality, one of the worst forms of social
pathology. Pretending to want to be respectable members of
society, but at heart unwilling to pay the price, paupers may
well be designated as pseudo-social.
Crime. — Crime is the very worst phase of social pathology ;
for, of all defects in society, it is the most directly abnormal.
Openly attacking the fundamental idea in social life — codpera-
tion in the interests of the whole group — the criminal becomes
the deliberate enemy of social order; for he attempts to take
without giving service in return, to destroy the individual with
whom he should codperate, or at least to live from the products
of his toil. Not only does crime fall heavily upon its victims,
whose property and means of service are destroyed, but since
it costs much to provide the machinery for the prevention and
punishment of crime, the burden is also heavy on society as a
428 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
whole. And although it is true that the tendency in recent years
has been to cause criminals under punishment to engage in pro-
ductive labor, they are still, toa large degree, non-codperative,
and they never quite pay to society the cost of their care.
Vice. — Vice works as a slow disease in destroying the vital
energy of society; no matter what form it takes, it develops
a pathological condition. Primarily it affects the individual ;
yet the whole social fabric may become so tainted with vice as
to have its normal activity destroyed. Vice and crime go hand
in hand; and laws are usually so carefully framed that vice
shades off into crime. It is difficult to cure vice; for, insidi-
ously laying hold of elemental passions and perverting them,
as it does, it contaminates by degrees all who come in contact
with it, so weakening them that they cannot carry on the normal
activities of society.
Defectives. — The large number of defectives, such as im-
beciles, such as the deaf, dumb, blind, and insane, must be con-
sidered from the social standpoint, because their existence con-
cerns society at large. Not only are they dependent upon
society for their support, but in a large measure, society is re-
sponsible for the increase of these classes. The defects become
social diseases and their prevention a social necessity. In fact,
many of the most grievous problems of social improvement
have to do with these classes of defectives. In another chapter,
the treatment of some of them will be handled more in detail.
The Pathology of the Family. — As has been stated before,
the family is, both historically and structurally, the primary
social group. Its fundamental purpose is to provide a place
where the offspring may be reared under favorable conditions ;
but incidentally it represents many different phases of social
life, such as the biological, the economic, and the educational.
And even when it is more or less defective in all of these, the
family life may still be normal. The abnormal or pathological
condition of society arises from imperfect social relations between
man and wife, between parents and children, and among children
themselves.
Perhaps the first requirement for a normal household is that
the parents be in good mental and physical health. Lack of
health in one or both parents often leads to pathological condi-
tions, not only in the children, but in the home relations. Simi-
THE NATURE OF SOCIAL PATHOLOGY 429
lar results arise from those who, by moral nature and tempera-
ment, are “ unequally yoked,” for incompatibility is as fatal as
bodily or mental disease. There is, indeed, perhaps no other
phase of social life in which defects have such lasting conse-
quences, and are so difficult to overcome or prevent. The fact is
that family life is so sacred and the customs of matrimony and
matrimonial life so delicate and of such long standing that it
is difficult to make any general law controlling them. However,
a step has been taken in the direction of regulating matrimony
by those of our states which have within recent years introduced
bills into legislatures forbidding the issuance of marriage cer-
tificates to those seriously afflicted with disease; and without
doubt, it would be to the benefit of the community at large to
have yet more stringent legislation in the matter. Indeed, as
part of an ideal system which might be gradually approximated,
the following provisions might be suggested: No persons shall
be permitted to marry who have not sound minds; thus will
the insane and the imbecile be excluded. All persons shall be
required to show health certificates stating that they are not
afflicted with certain hereditary diseases. Persons having no
assurance of means of support shall not be granted marriage
certificates. Persons shall not receive marriage certificates
who have not attended certain courses of lectures on physiology
and hygiene, the lectures being provided for in each county by
the properly constituted authorities, either in regular or special
evening school. A system of instruction for prospective home-
makers, both men and women, shall be established in connection
with our public school system. The subjects covered shall not
merely be those now given in the courses on home economics,
which are intended for only one sex and which cover only one class
of duties, but shall include training in the duties of husband
and wife, in the technique of mental and moral adjustment in
the home, in the rearing of children, and for the men, in the
economics of household management as it relates to their share
of the task. Finally, there shall be kept in every county a
system of registration for all residents, said registration includ-
ing statistics of age, birth, occupation, ancestry, and so forth.
It would require great care to put such provisions into operation ;
but if it were possible to have them satisfactorily administered,
they could not fail to improve present conditions.
430 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
Divorce, because of the division it creates in families, indicates
a pathological condition. Nor is it easy to see how it can be
improved without improving the conditions which are ante-
cedent to and attendant upon the marriage relation. The
highest and best form of matrimony is, of course, a codperative
companionship. In a spirit of love, sympathy, and helpfulness
man and woman agree to live together for life; and in this
spirit they build a hallowed place, called home, for the rearing
and culture of children. But there are many baser motives in
matrimony. Some men, for example, marry to gratify passion ;
some, desiring a good housekeeper or servant, secure a wife
much as they might a horse; some, in their advanced years
demand a nurse; and some marry for money. On the other
hand, many women marry merely for the sake of gaining a
home or support, regardless of what the man may be or of their
attitude toward him; some marry because it is considered
unfashionable or unfortunate to remain single; and still others
marry against their will because of the pressure of relatives.
Finally, there are many who, dazzled by the glamour of romantic
love, enter the bonds of matrimony hastily and lightly, only to
repent of their folly when it is too late for any assistance but
that to be gained from loose divorce laws. For conditions such
as these a uniform divorce law throughout the United States,
neither weak nor excessively stringent, would be of immense
service; but for remedying this phase of family pathology,
final dependence must be placed upon education in home
economics and home sociology and upon carefully developed
laws regulating matrimony.
Again, inadequate support of the family, inadequate shelter,
an insufficient amount of wholesome food, improper sanitation,
and bad family discipline lead to pathological conditions.
Where the moral status is not high and the socialization is not
perfect, the evil tendency of the home is so great as to be over-
come with great difficulty. It is, in fact, almost impossible
to train children for the discipline of the larger social life when
they have been corrupted by their home influences or at least
have been allowed to go undisciplined.
Pathology of the State.— Turning our attention to the
state as it exists in a federal republic like the United States,
we find that there is a great departure from the ideal govern-
THE NATURE OF SOCIAL PATHOLOGY 431
ment, that the real practice is far from what it ought to be.
Many of the defects of government are due, of course, to an
imperfect socialization; liberty is at best an expensive thing,
and a government by the people an unwieldy government diffi-
cult to establish and difficult to maintain. There is no science
of legislation, not even a well-learned art. Only a few states
have adopted the plan of a legislative reference library, with
a department devoted to drafting bills by a comparative study of
legislative experience. The authority to make the laws is
delegated, for the most part, to an inexperienced body; and
before the members of one legislature have fairly learned how
to provide for the needs of the people, they are turned out to
make room for others. Asa result our statute books are covered
with obsolete laws — laws that have been of little or no benefit
to the public, as well as some that are a positive injury. And
when, in addition to the other difficulties, are added the evils of
political corruption and the machinations of the demagogue,
the imperfections and misrule are sufficient to warrant us in
complaining of decided maladjustment in politics and govern-
ment.
Pathology of Education. — Again, our educational systems,
forgetting to adapt means to ends, frequently fail to provide
for a wide citizenship. Much of our training in the schoolroom
is imperfect, unbalanced, and on account of its evil social
results, decidedly pathological; for, by overtaxing the intellect,
such training develops a highly nervous people without sufficient
bodily support. Moreover, there are many positive defects,
such as bad methods of instruction, an incompetent teaching
force, a poorly coérdinated system, and curricula that fail to
produce the desired results.
The education provided by literature is also pathological.
From all the various books which are published and placed at
the disposal of the public, it chooses those which interest and
amuse. And since much of our cheap literature is positively
bad; since in its character of communication of knowledge it
sets forth falsehood for truth and generally wrong ideals of life ;
and since, by arousing uncouth or irrational desires, it causes
people to deceive themselves, its perusal leads to degeneration.
The pipe line may be perfect, but it may carry germs of disease.
The newspaper, because of like imperfections, has its patho-
432 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
logical side. Pretending to be a leader of thought and a teacher
of men, it frequently sells its services, becomes commercial, and
publishes that which pleases its patrons, regardless of the truth
or the evil effects on a community. The newspaper has, there-
fore, become to a large extent a purely commercial affair, which
seeks to supply the demands of the news market; and some of
the viler sort go to the length of depending upon a species of
blackmailing, through which they receive advertising material as
a sort of “hush money.” Hence, while we concede the great
service and great usefulness possible to the newspaper, we have
to acknowledge that it has unguessed possibilities of evil.
Many newspapers publish sensational material which gives
incorrect impressions and wastes time with its long explanations
about unimportant events; and some color news to suit their
purposes. It is really difficult to point out a remedy for these
conditions; for, since the present feverish state of society de-
mands lively news, a dull paper will not be read. The attempt
of Charles H. Sheldon to remodel the modern newspaper on a
Christian basis was a failure. It had many good features, such
as the reduction of descriptions of crime to a bare statement of
fact, and the elimination of spurious advertising material ;
yet, aS a newspaper, it did not satisfy the public. A modern
newspaper must, to succeed, be bright, racy, and “ newsy ”’;
if it fail to be interesting, few will want it. After all, the pro-
prietor of a paper furnishes the kind of wares that are salable
in the market; and nothing but a thoroughly socialized public
opinion can regulate the educational influence of the newspaper.
Nevertheless, each succeeding year shows fewer newspapers of
the baser sort — evidence of the improving moral tone of the
community; and it must be acknowledged that there are some
fearless newspaper editors who are voices crying in our social
wildernesses.
The Non-social Group. — One of the less obvious conditions
of social pathology is to be found in the non-social groups.
There are, of course, some individuals who would spend all their
time and thought for the welfare of others; with natures practi-
cally devoid of selfishness they are always solicitous for the
success and happiness of individuals or earnestly working for
the highest well-being of society. They are, in fact, so extremely
social as to be almost pathological. But there is the other
THE NATURE OF SOCIAL PATHOLOGY 433
extreme case, that of individuals so selfish that they take no
interest in their fellow-men. The lives of such are one perpetual
struggle for survival and advancement; nor do they hesitate to
advance their own interests at the expense of others. But a
perfect social group demands coéperation and harmonious actiy-
ity; it is easy to assume, therefore, that this non-social class is
pathological, or that at least it presents a case of arrested de-
velopment.
Again, in our large cities, where there is a dense population of
different nationalities, where, on account of the differences of
language, habits of life, customs, traditions, and ideals, codpera-
tion is slight and socialization imperfect, we have evidence of
social defects which, from their intensity, amount to social
disease. As a matter of fact, the social condition of our large
cities demands a constant warfare with vice and degeneration in
all its forms. Nor is the country always pure; for, while it
supplies the cities with vigorous manhood, it contributes also
its quota of vice and crime.
These various social maladjustments by no means exhaust
the list that might be made of what constitutes pathological
conditions in our social structure. And since it would be im-
possible to discuss all the various forms of social disease, three
have been selected for discussion within the limits of this treatise
—namely, poverty, crime, and degeneracy. These will serve
to give concrete illustration of the nature of the problems with
which society must deal in her efforts to secure a more perfect
adjustment of her machinery for producing the social individual ;
and they will serve to indicate some of the methods which ex-
perience has shown may be used in securing that adjustment.
REFERENCES
DEVINE, EpwarD T. Principles of Relief, Chap. 1; Misery and Its Causes,
Chap. I.
Ey, R.T. Studies in the Evolution of Industrial Society, Chapter on “‘ Race
Improvement.”
HENDERSON. Dependents, Defectives, and Delinquents, 1901, Chap. II.
HunrtTER, ROBERT. Problems of Poverty.
SMALL AND VINCENT. Introduction to the Study of Society.
SMITH, SAMUEL G. Social Pathology, Chap. I.
WarRNER, Amos G. American Charities, Revised Edition, Chap. I.
2F
434 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Define biologically a normal individual.
2. Criticize the following definition of a normal member of society, or a
socius: A member of a social group who functions in his social relationships
so as to forward the social aims of the group.
3. Would a normal member of a society of savages necessarily be a normal
member of a civilized society? Why?
4. Give reasons why a society in the Middle Ages might be considered
normal, and one with the same ideals, organization, and methods might be
abnormal in this century.
5. Apply your conclusion to the criticism of a society organized on a mili-
tary basis to-day. Apply it to one organized on the basis of the doctrine of
laissez faire.
6. Since brigandage was once an honorable occupation, why is it called
a crime to-day?
7. Why is pauperism considered an indication of social pathology?
8. Vice was once such a normal condition that it was attached to the
temples of the gods; why is it looked upon to-day as antisocial ?
9g. What light does the position of this chapter throw upon the conten-
tion that crime is an atavism, 7.e. that it is a sign of reversion to an earlier
type of conduct?
to. A man once had as many wives as he could afford to support; why
is it that now the polygamous family is looked upon as abnormal ?
11. Why is it that the recent war is looked upon by the conscience of our
country as dangerous to the welfare of the world, when, until recently, war
was the usual thing between nations?
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CHAPTER II
POVERTY: ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES
The Extent of Poverty. — One can better come to an appre-
ciation of a problem if he can have a few figures, rather than
general statements, to assist his imagination. In 1905 85,290
individuals were reported in almshouses in the United States,
and 80,346 more in permanent homes for adults, these latter
being chiefly aged and incurable dependents. Besides these there
were 92,289 in orphanages and homes for children and 25,466
in municipal lodging houses and temporary homes.’ As long
ago as 1890 a number of authorities estimated that at least
3,000,000 people in the United States, or one twenty-fifth of the
population, were receiving aid which was reported. And Pro-
fessor Bushnell estimated that the annual cost of supporting
this army of dependents was not less than $200,000,000 or an
amount equal to one tenth of the total wages paid by all the
manufacturing plants of the country.?
Robert Hunter estimated, in 1904, that, in addition to those
dependent, there were 10,000,000 of our population who were
‘““much of the time underfed, poorly clothed, and improperly
housed,” who were, in other words, in poverty. This is, of
course, only an estimate, but it is based upon such indications
as the following: in 1897 29 per cent, and in 1899 24 per cent
of the people of New York State applied for relief. After ex-
cluding one half of those who applied for dispensary help, the
statistician still finds the percentages mounting up to 19 per cent
and 18 per cent respectively for those two years; and if all dis-
pensary cases are omitted, still 12 per cent of the population of
the state of New York applied for relief. In Boston, in 1903,
20 per cent of that city’s population were aided by public relief
authorities alone; and in that same year 14 per cent of the
1 Devine, Misery and its Causes, pp. 43, 44-
2 Henderson, Modern Methods of Charity, p. 390.
435
4.36 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
families living on Manhattan Island were evicted from their
houses for non-payment of rent. Statistics showed, furthermore,
that 10 per cent of those who die in the borough of Manhattan
are buried in the potter’s field. And the United States Census
for 1900 demonstrated that about 100,000 persons in New York
were unemployed from four to six months of the year. On the
basis of these figures it was estimated that 14 per cent of the
people of New York State are in distress.!
Yet, if in this country the situation as suggested by these
figures is bad, the figures available for Great Britain show a con-
dition fully as bad or worse.?
Immediate and Remote Causes of Poverty.— The causes of
poverty are not easily discovered for the reason that they may
extend over a long period of time in their operations and may
arise from many sources. Indeed, such is the case as regards
all sociological phenomena. ‘There may be immediate causes
which are easily discernible; but there are always other deep-
seated causes, that, through a chain of events, reach back to
remote or primary forces.- Nevertheless, by statistical deter-
mination or case counting, we can obtain sufficient data to
classify most of the primary causes of poverty.
Characteristics of the Individual. — First, there are charac-
teristics of the individual which, arising from hereditary in-
fluences, always indicate weakness of some sort, although the
extent of hereditary influence in inducing poverty has not been
fully determined. Recent studies, however, throw a very in-
teresting, though somewhat uncertain, light upon the relation
between poverty and both physical and mental degeneracy.
For example, Goddard, in his study of the Kallikak Family,
showed that a considerable number of the descendants of the
feeble-minded Martin Kallikak, Jr., were also shiftless and more
or less dependent on others for support; and on the basis of
some study of the question, Goddard estimates that 50 percent
of the inmates.of.almshouses are feeble-minded.* While this is
1 Hunter, Poverty, pp. 20-65. ’
2 Space will not permit the inclusion of the figures, but they are readily acces-
sible in such intensive studies as Booth’s Life and Labor of the People of London, and
Rowntree’s Poverty, and in an extensive report, a Blue Book by the British Govern-
ment, entitled Public Health and Social Conditions and The Separate Report of the
Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress by Wakefield, Chandler,
Lansbury, and Mrs. Sidney Webb, 19009.
® Goddard, Feeble-mindedness, Its Causes and Consequences, 1914, Pp. 17.
POVERTY: ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES 437
the estimate of one who, because he deals constantly with one
particular defect, may be somewhat biased, and while the
estimate must be held subject to the correction of further in-
vestigation, it is the opinion of a man who has studied feeble-
mindedness more closely, perhaps, than any other in this country,
and it stands as a challenge to anybody to disprove it by an in-
dependent investigation. Miss Kite’s The Pineys, Dugdale’s
older study of The Jukes, McCulloch’s The Tribe of Ishmael,
Blackmar’s The Smoky Pilgrims, Danielson and Davenport’s
The Hill Folk, and Gesell’s The Village of a Thousand Souls
are reports of other investigations which supply indications
that degeneracy may be a potent cause of poverty.
It must not, however, be understood that poverty is a defect
which can be inherited. The suggestion is that poverty may be
a result of some hereditary defect like feeble-mindedness, in-
sanity, or some other inheritable trait of a degenerate character,
but there are certain influences of environment which, at the
present stage of social science, seem very much stronger than
those of heredity, so far as inducing poverty is concerned. What
is the relative importance of the two factors it is impossible to
state at this time except in very general terms. A broken-down
nervous system, certain diseases like syphilis, and such charac-
teristics of individuals as are inheritable, cause failure in the
struggle for existence and certainly are not to be overlooked in
search for the causes of poverty. Nevertheless, the preponder-
ance of evidence is in favor of external conditions as the greater
cause of poverty ; for causes of this sort are much more numerous
and, as far as present knowledge goes, seem to affect many more
people than do the inheritable defects. But how environmental
conditions may affect the production of inheritable degeneracy
we are not able to say absolutely, although there is some evi-
dence pointing to the fact that degeneracy is induced by bad
natural and social conditions. These two classes of influences
often operate together; and they enter into each of the causes
to be discussed in the following sections.
Undervitalization and Indolence.!— There are many people
who, because of certain biological characteristics, are under-
vitalized and who, in consequence, have an indolent nature.
1 For outline of causes of poverty see Warner, American Charities, Revised Edi-
tion, p. 37, and Devine, Principles of Relief, p. 155.
438 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
Such people have great difficulty in overcoming obstacles to be
met in the struggle for wealth or for mere existence, and it
would be impossible for such people, without complete change
of physical and mental characteristics, to overcome the inertia
which leads to poverty.
There is no way as yet known to science by which people who
are born deficient in vitality may have this defect remedied.
Negative eugenics have been proposed as a method by which
the birth of abnormal individuals may in the future be prevented
by keeping such living individuals from having offspring. ‘This
end could be gained either by an operation to render impotent
their generative organs, by life segregation, or by some manner
of inducing them to refrain voluntarily from parenthood. Posi-
tive eugenics, on the other hand, endeavors, by the promotion
of selective mating, to secure a new generation produced by
parents who answer to the tests*of such vigor and mental alert-
ness as are desirable in social beings. These suggestions are
interesting; and negative eugenics, as applied to the manifestly
abnormal classes, deserves serious consideration. It is doubtful,
however, whether we know as yet enough concerning heredity to
warrant our going further with selective mating than the educa-
tion of people to the importance of clean, strong parenthood.
Disease. — In his tables in American Charities, Warner has
given us sufficient evidence to show that sickness is the greatest
single cause of poverty. Devine says that 75 per cent of all
poverty is immediately due to disease! — not 25 per cent as is
usually supposed. And investigations carried on in Buffalo,
Boston, New York, and other large cities show that sickness is
the prime cause of poverty. Thus, while we still need to know
the social conditions causing sickness, it is of value to know
the extent of this proximate cause. However independent a
family may hitherto have been, if sickness leaves the wage earners
unable to work for their daily bread, to say nothing of being
unable to pay for medicines, doctors, and nurses, the family may
perhaps never recover from its calamity. And not only may
disease leave the bread earners unfitted for work for many
months or years, but by causing death, it may leave a dependent
family helplesss. Perpetual poverty accompanies such un-
fortunate conditions.
1 Misery and its Causes, p. 54.
POVERTY: ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES 439
Many things can be done, however, to diminish the importance
of this grave cause of poverty. The conditions, for example,
which produce undervitalization, such as bad housing and
unsanitary conditions about a city or a rural home, can be
changed; and by means of education, the conditions under which
people work may be improved. There should be wise factory
laws and fair hours, a minimum wage law in the unorganized
industries, and carefully devised laws regulating the employ-
ment of women and children. Moreover, there should be dis-
semination of information concerning the causes of disease, pro-
tection against diseases by proper vaccination and quarantine
regulations, and early attention to the first signs of disease and
the prompt removal of their causes. There should be many
safeguards and measures such as these.
Lack of Judgment.— Many people, though well-meaning
and industrious, fail to exercise a wise economy in applying their
earnings to the purchase of food, clothing, and implements of
general use. And since they are but poor managers of their
own affairs, they are unable to cope with the difficulties that
beset them in the world about them. There is nothing truer in
the world of poverty than the sentiment, long ago expressed,
that ‘‘ Poor men have poor ways.’ On the other hand, there
are many who, for a time, have felt the grinding heel of poverty,
and by means of courage or skill in management, have risen to
a position of independence. Wise in choice, thrifty in manage-
ment, and careful in the use of articles in their possession, such
as these are possessed of characteristics which go far towards
the maintenance of their independence and the gradual increase
of their wealth even on comparatively small incomes. In
strong contrast are those, who, with opportunities for advance-
ment, either fail to seize them, or in attempting to take advan-
tage of them, find themselves unable to manage; for, no matter
how many good things come their way, their poor methods will
counteract all their efforts to rise. People who have had much
to do in attempting to relieve the poor have found it impossible
to help individuals of this class without furnishing some method
of supplementing this lack of poor judgment. To such an ex-
tent is money squandered, are opportunities neglected, and
the wrong choice made, that all attempts toward independent
existence are neutralized.
440 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
The introduction into the schools of compulsory home eco-
nomics will do much for the cure of this evil. To-day the wives
are the spenders of the incomes; and up to the present wise
training has been lacking. Often too busy in their school years
to study household management at home, and deprived of any
such training in the schools, our housekeepers are often waste-
ful in their household management. Nor is the thing to be
wondered at. And even if they have had some experience at
home, how often has that home training included proper instruc-
tion in buying?
Safe and sound investments for small investors would, of
course, help in the solution of the problem. The Postal
Savings Bank provides opportunities for the investment of
savings, as do the enterprises of many banking institutions
and certain building and loan associations. Such encourage-
ment given to the man working for small wages does much to
promote thrift. But these agencies for saving need to be in-
creased in number and improved in the strength of their appeal
to the poor; and to supplement them, there is need of an educa-
tional campaign and the creation of a social ideal and social
customs which will check the present tendency towards wasteful
expenditure and will tend to promote saving. Indeed, the
place to begin is at the top, among the upper classes of society ; ;
for we are a nation of wasteful spenders. *
Unhealthful Appetites. — People who have unhealthful appe-
tites are not lacking in formidable enemies to thrift and inde-
pendence. ‘These unhealthful appetites are usually cultivated,
although the hereditary influence sometimes appears in a system
so weakened that the body and mind are susceptible to all evil
influences. While the influence of intoxicating liquors has been
entirely overestimated as an actual cause of poverty, it is never-
theless a strong factor in destroying an individual’s power of
independent action. Many families live in squalor, want, and
helplessness, because the bread-earner persists in spending his
income at the saloon, where he daily lessens his earning capacity
and his chances to compete with his fellows. Liquor, as a
beverage, is always a waster, and often a destroyer, of mental,
moral, and physical capacity; it interferes, in the long run, with
industrial efficiency and is increasingly a cause for discharge
from employment. ,
POVERTY: ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES 441
Alcohol in excess attacks the seat of the will power in a
peculiar way; for it destroys moral courage, a quality highly
essential to success. Narcotics in excess are like drugs; for,
while tobacco, for example, may not be considered as vitally
destructive to the human system, it affects the nervous system
and in many cases destroys the efficiency of individuals —
especially when taken in excess by the young. And since it is
likely to be more expensive than either the drug or the liquor
habit, it rapidly absorbs the surplus cash of the individual ad-
dicted to it. On the other hand, the use of morphine, opium,
cocaine, and similar drugs, taken for the purpose of drowning
trouble or relieving pain, quite frequently leads to poverty and a
long train of attendant evils.
Laws regulating the number and conduct of saloons, and provi-
sions aimed, like those of the Gothenberg system of Norway,
toward removing the profit from the sale of strong drink, would
do something to cure these evils. But even more important are
educational measures for teaching people the facts as to the
effects of alcohol and narcotics — not, of course, the pseudo-
science now taught in most of our schools, but the results of
careful scientific investigations. Along with these measures
must go the removal of the cause of drink, both physical and
social. Unstable neurotic conditions in men and women often
induce a craving for drink, just as bad nutrition, overwork, and
worry may. In order to remove the causes, therefore, atten-
tion must be paid to the conditions under which people live and
work. Again, people drink for social reasons; for alcohol
and narcotics promote genial flow of sociability. But the
substitution of other means of social stimulation, as furnished
by recreation and social centers, will, it is believed, do much
toward displacing the demand for artificial stimulation now
furnished by alcohol and other drugs.
A depraved sex appetite is no less conducive to poverty than
the love of rum. Still as true as in the days of the Hebrew
Sage are the words, ‘“‘ For on account of a harlot a man is brought
to a piece of bread.”’! The recent report of the Vice Commis-
sion of Chicago estimates that 5,540,700 visits to prostitutes are
made annually by men in Chicago alone, and at a total esti-
mated expenditure, on the part of these men, of $15,699,449.
1 Prov. 6: 26.
442 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
It may be noted in passing, however, that these millions of
visits are made by an estimated 200,000 of Chicago’s men.!
From these figures some idea may be gained of the enormous
waste in money alone which is imposed upon this class of men
by uncontrolled sex appetite. And of course, these enormous
figures take no account of the expense involved in dealing with ©
diseases arising from vice, of loss of earning capacity, of the
suffering and death that falls to the lot of innocent wives and
children, as well as to the guilty husbands and fathers.
What part uncontrolled sex impulses, exercised in normal
relations, may play in reducing physical efficiency, we have no
means of knowing until physicians make public the knowledge
they are able to obtain in their practice. Nor do we know how
great are the inroads of private vice upon growing children.
In both these ways, doubtless, unfettered natural impulse lays
a heavy tax upon the physical and mental efficiency of the race,
because what is controlled in the animal by instinct is supposed
to be controlled in man by reason; and the sanctions of reason
are less powerful and more uncertain in their operations than
are those of instinct.
Forbidding Personal Appearance. — Many people have a
great deal to overcome on account of a something called person-
ality, which depends not merely upon physical structure or
mental attitude, nor entirely upon clothing or personal habits,
but isa “coftbination of all these in making one man an agree-
able personality and another the opposite. To a certain extent,
of course, a personality may be cultivated or improved; but a
a large measure it depends upon hereditary characteristics and
early training. However, he who is afflicted with a disagreeable
one, can, to a certain degree, be taught to have a pleasant address
and a neat appearance; and he may possess a genuineness and
sincerity which will make up for the lack of many other things.
Yet the fact remains that one man will apply for a position and
be turned away, while another will easily succeed in obtaining
it; and there may be no other reason than that the second has a
pleasing personality, and the first has not. But it sometimes
happens that, after a man with unprepossessing personal ap-
pearance is once employed, his really pleasing character comes —
to the front and overcomes first impressions. But such is not
1 The Social Evil-in Chicago, pp. 106-115.
POVERTY: ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES 443
always the case. When it becomes necessary to reduce the
force of laborers, although skill may seem to be the first consid-
eration, it frequently occurs that the disturbing, disagreeable
person is the first to go. The quarrelsome, unsocial individual,
by creating a perpetual disturbance, destroys labor power and
is, therefore, not wanted; the one who survives to-day is the
one who has a strong, socially codperative nature, who can work
uncomplainingly with others and for others.!
Shiftlessness and Idle Habits. — Arising from certain in-
dividual characteristics, shiftlessness becomes a sort of habit.
Sometimes these characteristics are inherited, but often they are
the result of disease. The shiftless, indolent “ poor white
trash ”’ of the South were once looked upon as inherently lazy ;
but recent investigations have shown that two millions of
people in this country are suffering from hookworm, and as
a consequence of decreased efficiency, are causing an eco-
nomic loss of at least $50,000,000 a year.” Again, in other
sections, malaria has so depleted the vitality of the inhabitants
that they have the reputation of being lazy. The shiftless man
does his work poorly and half-heartedly; and he avoids, or at
least delays, any excessive labor, wasting his time because of his
inertness. He leaves the windowpanes out and thus increases
the expense of fuel; he leaves the vegetables unprotected in the
garden, so that the frost comes and destroys them. ‘The furni-
ture deteriorates for the lack of care; and, in fact, everything
is lost because of this lack of economy and thrift. Individuals
of this sort cannot help being poor so long as such habits control
them.
There is no cure known for the person who is inherently lazy
and shiftless. If he is such by reason of disease, because he
lives in bad conditions, or because he has become discouraged,
something can be done to help. A thoroughgoing fight against
the disease which saps his vitality will repay the effort; the re-
moval of a family from bad sanitary and housing conditions will
sometimes supply the incentive to stir them to industrious habits;
and their removal to a community where their bad habits will
not be popular will sometimes stir their sluggish spirits to action.
1See Devine, Principles of Relief, p. 155.
2 Stiles, “Economic Aspects of Hookworm Disease in the United States,’ Transac-
tions of the 15th Congress of Hygiene and Demography, 1913, Vol. III, p. 757.
444. OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
Unwholesome and Poorly Cooked Food. — Many people have
been rendered poor through the use of poor food; many may
attribute their failure through life to the dyspepsia or other
maladies acquired through the lack of proper diet. It has been
demonstrated it is possible to keep a laboring man in good
health on food that costs fifteen cents a day. It is frequently
true, however, that a good steak is rendered unpalatable and
unnutritious by the cooking, and it not infrequently occurs that
laboring men who use a poor quality of poorly cooked food
revert to stimulants in order to counteract the evil effects.
Poor food leads to malnutrition and engenders weakness or
disease. Moreover, it is only recently that another test than
the appetite has been suggested as to what toeat. Investigations
by Professor Atwater showed that people do not as a rule buy
those articles of food which have the highest nutritive value
relative to their cost.1 Domestic Science is now working on
the problem of ascertaining the food value of different articles
of diet and the twin problem of how to combine different articles
in menus so that the maximum of satisfaction in taste and the
greatest nutritive value may be combined in a meal. This will
do much to assist the poorer classes in reducing the high cost of
living and contribute to the reduction of this cause of poverty.
The Disregard of Family Ties. — Disregard of family ties
has contributed directly and indirectly to poverty. Many
people have become poor through broken families. Frequently
the father deserts the wife and children, leaving them in a
helpless condition, or less frequently the mother deserts the
father and children. Sometimes by separation through divorce
the children are scattered and rendered homeless and helpless.
Moreover, it sometimes happens that the bickerings of husband
and wife render home a place of wretchedness. Such condi-
tions represent a dissipation of individual and social forces and
render all concerned less efficient as bread earners, and lead to
social maladjustments out of which grows peverty. Nor must
it be forgotten that the home is the original economic unit.
It is the center whence radiates into the lives of the coming gener-
ation economic ideals and methods, which, if the home is broken
up or is not what it should be, are learned much less thoroughly
elsewhere. A good system of family desertion laws will help
1 Atwater, Farmers’ Bulletin, No. 142, United States Department of Agriculture.
POVERTY: ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES 445
solve the problem of poverty due to desertion, but the other
cannot be reached without giving much more attention by
society to the art and science of home making from every
point of view which affects the economic efficiency of the workers
and of the managers of business and of those who preside in
the homes of the country. Schools of domestic economy will
do much for the women, but they will not touch seriously the
side of the problem pertaining to the men, and for neither the
women nor the men will they give that intimate touch of emo-
tion which makes the ways learned in childhood hold with vise-
like grip. The home must also be preserved for the inculcation
of the virtues of industry, perseverance, and adaptability to
circumstances and those moral and spiritual qualities which have
no small part in the making of efficient economic and social
personalities.
Influences of the Physical Environment.— A good many
causes of poverty are wrapped up in bad physical or natural
conditions. Among these may be enumerated the inadequate
natural resources, such as the poor soil, lack of water, or other
means of support. With the growth of means of easy and cheap
transportation and the development of the habit of migration,
this cause of poverty can be partly remedied. The migrations
from the crowded and often infertile regions of Europe to
America, Australia, and South America are illustrations of one
way in which the difficulty can be met.
Again, there are bad climatic conditions which affect the
health, strength, and prosperity of individuals. Sometimes
these conditions may not be overcome. Often, however, the
wit of man combined with capital can change such conditions.
Climate, as it affects crops, is manageable by adaptation of kind
of crop to the climate. Once it was thought impossible to raise
corn in Minnesota and Wisconsin. By the production of new
varieties a corn has been found which can be raised successfully
in those northern states. Then there are plant and animal
parasites which frequently destroy the means of wealth
production and leave the people impoverished thereby. So
wonderful has been the advance of science, however, that there
is hope now that every plant inimical to man’s prosperity will
either be so changed that he can make use of it, or that it will
be exterminated. The success of agricultural experts during
446 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
the past quarter of a century has been so great that the task
appears by no means to be hopeless. Every year now sees
some new process invented to check the ravages of pests which
ravage the farmer’s fields and destroy his crops. Again, acci-
dents are caused by natural forces, such as floods, earthquakes,
storms, and drought, which give individuals such severe reverses
as to destroy their independence. Defective drainage, also,
leaving swamps that produce disease, may impoverish a whole
community through sickness and frequent death.
Many of these causes are dependent more or less upon the
judgment of individuals in presuming to reside where Nature
will not give them sufficient support or where she destroys them
through her violence. Yet, on the whole, many of them can
be remedied by society. Accidents caused by natural forces
are now being lessened by the campaign of “‘ Safety First,” by the
invention and adoption of safety devices, and when they do
occur the loss involved is distributed over society by various
kinds of insurance against accident. Drainage, while yet in its in-
fancy so far as great tracts of land are concerned, is bound to
become more general as land becomes more valuable and the
population denser. The recent agitation concerning the evil
effects of undrained pools and swamps on health together with
the growing popular concern for health which has resulted from
the newer medical discoveries relating to the causes of disease
will do much to secure further work in reducing this cause of
poverty. At the same time it will make available for cultiva-
tion an area of new land which will help much to provide people
with cheap land, homes, and an opportunity for eqonomic in-
dependence. :
Influence of Social Environments. — Poverty may be de-
veloped through bad associations. The crowding of the poor
into large tenement houses where there is insufficient light and
air breeds and intensifies poverty. The evil influence of im-
proper housing cannot be overcome by ordinary charity to the
individual, for it has been found that if bad home surround-
ings cannot be changed, it is idle to hope for any perma-
nent improvement in the inmates. Evil associations in general
beget idleness, shiftlessness, and evil habits, and induce
the conditions favorable to poverty. The defective sanitation
usually found in such overpopulated districts adds to the
x, POVERTY : ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES 447
general evil effect. Overcrowding breaks down the ordinary
decencies of life, demoralizes the family life, induces vice, under-
mines the health, and destroys hope. When the overcrowding
becomes as great as in some of the great cities, like London and
New York, land values go up, and the type of house changes
from the small, inexpensive cottage to the large costly tenement.
Consequently the man of small means finds it impossible to
‘town his own home. “In all of Greater New York City in 1910
only 11.7 per cent of the homes were owned by those who
occupied them, while in the borough of Manhattan only 2.9 per
cent were owned by the occupants.! He lacks that fine incentive
to save in order to pay for a home — a tangible thing appealing
to some of the most fundamental feelings. Much is being done
in recent years to build good homes and tenements for the
people. Rapid transit systems with cheap fares, allowing
people to live at a distance from the crowded centers of business
and manufacture, and the distribution of manufacturing plants
away from the crowded centers of population yet near enough
to enable them to command a sufficient supply of labor and to
secure the requisite shipping facilities will do much to prevent
the overcrowding now so frequent in our great cities. The large
tenements were built to enable men to rent cheap dwelling places
and yet get an adequate return upon their investments. They
have failed, however, in that they provide barracks instead of
homes.
Even more important in producing poverty are the evil asso-
ciations provided for children and adults. Not only do “ evil
communications corrupt good manners,”’ but they sow the seeds
of inefficiency by promoting bad habits and false ideals. The
most debasing influence of the saloon is perhaps not the alcoholic
liquors sold there, but the conversation, the contact with loafers,
criminals, and degenerates who find there their refuge. Combine
such associations with the influence of alcohol and you have a
potent engine for the debasement of manhood, for the promotion
of false ideals of home and family life, and for the production of
industrial inefficiency.
Almost as bad is the lack of measures and methods for the
fruitful, constructive employment of people’s leisure time in
recreation of an uplifting nature. Must men and children be
1 Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, Vol. I, p. 1313.
448 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
worn down towards inefficiency and poverty even in their
pleasures? Yet, until recently there was no thought given to
the production of agencies for rendering men more efficient
through their recreation.
The playground provisions of some of our large cities are doing
much to take away the curse of depraving influences from
people’s leisure time. Much yet remains to be done, how-
ever.1. Along with their further development both in extent
and in provision for the adults, there must go repressive or regu-
lative measures for the saloons, bad dance halls, amusement
parks, vicious theaters and moving picture shows. Along
with these measures must go the development of the social
centers.
Defective Government. — Legislation in favor of one individ-
ual or class may be to the detriment of other individuals or
classes and may lead indirectly to poverty. In many instances
we find defects in the judicial machinery, having a tendency to
render injustice to very many people, and causing them to lose
their position in the industrial and social life. Again, improper
and unjust penalties sometimes are imposed which in them-
selves are detrimental to the progress of the individual. Legis-
lation and its interpretation by the courts may be a very efficient
means for the advancement of the material interests of society,
by removing conditions which lead to poverty, and by develop-
ing conditions of industry and thrift. It may also shape the
economic development of a nation in a measure and influence
the wealth-creating power of individuals or groups.
The remedy for bad legislation is said to be better legislation.
“Aye, but there’s the rub.” What constitutes better legisla-
tion? What shall be the test? And how shall we get it?
Whatever else better legislation may secure, it will provide
less for special interests and more for the interests of all the
people. It will, indeed, not overlook the material development
of society, but it will see that in that development the interests
of the public are not forgotten or bartered away forever for a
song. On the other hand, it will not forget that ‘‘ man does not
live by bread alone”; it will keep constantly in mind those
large interests which we include sometimes under the general
1Mallery, “The Social Significance of Play,” Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science, Vol. 25, pp. 368-373.
POVERTY: ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES 449
term ‘‘ the social welfare ’’ — education, recreation, and ‘“‘ the
pursuit of happiness.”
We shall not get such legislation by the present practice of
political jobbery and the prevailing haphazard methods, —
political products of an imperfectly socialized group mind.
Growing out of an extreme individualism in political theory the
present system of lawmaking with its ever present log-rolling
is based upon the social theory that as each lawmaker represent-
ing the interests of his part of the state strives to secure the
enactment of laws favorable to his community, each part of
the state will secure the legislation which is best for it and so
the interests of the whole state will best be served. To a degree
the theory is true. The theory is, however, false in that it
assumes that there are no general state interests which may con-
flict in a measure with the interests of certain communities, and
yet are vital to the welfare of the state. Before general state
interests can predominate over local interests there must arise
a state consciousness as opposed to a merely local consciousness,
and the welfare of the state as a whole must sit at the center of
attention in the lawmaker’s mind. A wider dissemination of
information as to the interests of the state as a whole will gener-
ate a state consciousness. ‘The political theorists have suggested
certain measures which will help to secure better laws, such as
having fewer legislators, fewer bills introduced, and more
mature consideration given to each one. The second of these
we are beginning to secure in a clumsy fashion by a provision
that no new bills may be introduced after a certain day of the
session has been reached. The first has yet to win its way to an
established position in political theory. The last named can
be secured in part by securing the first two, by a lengthening
of the session if necessary, but best by the establishment of a
legislative reference library with a staff of experts to make a
comparative study of legislation in other states and in foreign
countries so that the administrative experience of previous ex-
periments may be available on which a sane judgment concerning
any proposed measure may be based, and with other experts to
draft bills, so that less of the business of our supreme courts
will be to throw on the junk heap of unconstitutionality much
of the legislation passed at each session of the lawmaking
body.
2G
450 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
Misdirected and Inadequate Education. — Education to be
of the greatest service should have reference to the conditions
of life of those to be educated and their prospective future. All
education should aim, among other things, to train the individ-
ual for self-support. It is not intended here to suggest that all
education be made up entirely of the so-called vocational sub-
jects and simply prepare for the commercial and industrial life,
but the industrial element should be made universal in all educa-
tion, for the first business of a good citizen is to be a producer
and thereby a bread-earner. Until recently a boy could not get
an education in a trade at public expense unless he committed
a crime and was sent to the industrial school or the reformatory.
While the sociologist would be the last to exalt the making of a
living over the making of a life, he believes that the making of a
decent living for himself and family is the sine qua non of mak-
ing a life which is worthy of the name. Happily, a beginning
towards supplying this lack in our school system has been made.
Much, however, remains to be done to make education do
its full share in the prevention of poverty.
Furthermore, how many of our paupers are such because they
have some physical defect which might have been corrected had
it been discovered in time! Recent studies have shown that
some children who fail in school are suffering from poor eyes,
poor nutrition due to bad teeth, deafness due to adenoids and
enlarged tonsils, and other physical defects easily corrected.
Other investigations indicate that there are more.of the retarded
and dull pupils who are mentally defective than we ever sus-
pected. While these cannot have the defect removed, they can
be discovered, and special educational treatment given them in
special classes, or in special institutions, and they can be segre-
gated so as not to entail their defect upon the next generation.
Medical inspection in the schools, though only quite recently
introduced in the United States, in contrast with its long es-
tablishment in some of the countries of Europe, has spread widely
and is doing much to teach us some of the causes of the failure of
the schools to prepare pupils for life. Tragic in its significance is
the fact brought out by some recent studies of the occupations
chosen by pupils who left school at the end of the compulsory
school age to earn a living. Large numbers were found in
1 Gulick and Ayres, Medical Inspection of Schools, Chap. XII.
POVERTY: ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES 451
“blind alley occupations”? — messenger, bell boy, cash girl,
clerk and common laborer — in which they were earning their
maximum at twenty years of age. From that time they slowly
gravitated down toward dependency. Vocational guidance in
the schools, based upon a close study both of the youth’s apti-
tudes and upon the prospects in the various trades and vocations,
has been proposed to correct this defect of our educational
system. Certainly every youth, ignorant often of his own ca-
pacities and generally quite unacquainted with the comparative
opportunities offered by the various vocations, has the right
to expect some one in this great society of which he is a part,
to givé him counsel on these vital questions. He has a right to
know something of the nature and promise of different occupa-
tions for his own sake. Society owes it to herself to give him
that guidance. In many places it is being done with con-
siderable show of success.1 Coupled with this defect is the
frequency of inadequate education. Children are allowed to
be out of school, either at work or in idleness, when they should
be preparing more thoroughly for the work of life. Many of
these pupils could have accomplished much more and become
industrially independent, had longer training been given them.
Stricter compulsory education laws, courses better adapted to
their needs, and continuation schools, will do something to aid
in correcting these defects of the educational system.?
Bad Industrial and Economic Conditions. — Frequently a
community has such bad industrial conditions that they are
conducive to the wealth of a few and the poverty of many.
When the control of the sources of wealth falls into the hands
of comparatively few people, there are indications that a cer-
tain number of individuals will fail to have sufficient income for
their support. Moreover, there are various changes that occur
through the shifting of economic society, either through what
might be called natural or arbitrary social causes, which induce
conditions of poverty. Among these might be named the varia-
tions in the value of money; trade depressions, like those of
1870, 1893, and 1907; changes in trade and industry, brought
1 Bloomfield, Vocational Guidance.
2 Miles, H. E., Industrial Education, No. 3, Bulletin of the Wisconsin State Board
of Industrial Education.
Reber, Louis E., Industrial and Continuation Schools, No. 5, Bulletin of the Wis-
consin State Board of Industrial Education. .
452 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
about by improved machinery, such as occurred in England fol-
lowing the industrial revolution; the shifting of industry
caused by invention and discovery, an example of the former
being supplied by the displacement of hand-weavers by machines
after the invention of the power loom, and of the latter by the
impoverishment of the New England farmers upon the opening
up of the rich farming lands of the Mississippi Valley ; excessive
or ill-managed taxation, as in the pre-Revolutionary days in
France; the undue power of class over class, well illustrated by
the supremacy of the aristocracy in Russia, and of the “ coal
barons ” in the United States; and the immobility of labor,
much more noticeable in former times than now and in a coun-
try like Russia than in the United States. Enforced idleness
of wage-earners is a potent cause of poverty and the most diffi-
cult of all to overcome.! All of these have, at various times and
in different degrees, influenced the social population, causing it
to degenerate.
Each of these conditions in varying degrees is amenable to
correction. Variations in the value of money are not under
absolute control, especially over long periods of time. If a new
discovery of a basic metal like gold is made or if through war or
some similar catastrophe an enormous waste of capital occurs,
the value of money is bound to vary. With every increase in
the amount of gold available the influence of new discoveries
of the metal is diminished unless the demand for gold increases
equally with the new supply discovered. On the other hand,
any monetary device which makes gold less necessary as a base,
unless the base is thereby made less stable, would tend to make
less likely fluctuations in its value due to this cause. The
abolition of war by arbitration and international conciliation
would remove a very important agency of waste, and would
therefore make the value of gold more stable.
Commercial crises, economists tell us, are the result some-
times of an over-extended credit, often of an unsound money
system, sometimes of an interruption of the ordinary channels of
trade by war, or the fear of war. Anything which disturbs the or-
dinary course of national or international commerce when indus-
trial conditions are strained helps to precipitate a panic. Meas-
ures, therefore, which prevent frequent and profound changes
1See Hunter, Poverty, pp. 318-340; Devine, Principles of Relief, p. 151.
POVERTY: ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES 453
of commercial policy within a nation, and between nations, make
less likely the crises which ruin people and press most heavily
upon the poor. If the time ever comes when war and the fear
of it no longer paralyze business and turn the laborers in shop
and on farm into destroyers of life and property, one of the
important causes of poverty will be removed.
There seems no way at present to obviate entirely the often
terrible cost of progress incident to the introduction of new
machinery and methods, which often means the displacement of
workers by a machine and their consequent poverty because they
find themselves unable to adapt themselves to a new occupa-
tion. A more general education in youth, thus making the
individual more adjustable to changed conditions, has been sug-
gested as a measure that would help solve the problem. The
present tendency, however, is towards making the worker merely
a cog in a machine and therefore the less able to adjust himself
to a new situation. Sometimes the workers have organized
and resisted the introduction of labor-saving machinery, but
that meatis greater cost of the article to the consumer.
A like situation exists relative to the hardships involved for
some in inventions and discovery. Unless society is willing to
sacrifice all progress inventions cannot be repressed. These
must go on, for they mean ultimately better conditions for the
greater number. ‘This kind of poverty is a cost of progress which
society must pay. Society can prevent, however, the burden
falling entirely upon a single class. By means of a system of
pensions and social insurance the cost could be spread out over
the whole social group.
By the ironing out of fluctuations in trade and industry, as
suggested above, much of the enforced idleness of laborers would
cease. A practical system of employment bureaus would take
care of others. A system of insurance against unemployment,
along lines similar to the systems existing in Germany and Eng-
land, would help to distribute the burden over society more
equitably.
Thus, by such measures society is struggling with these
socially caused maladjustments which involve the poverty of
many.
Unwise Philanthropy. — One of the greatest causes of pauper-
ism is unwise philanthropy, for it induces people who are poor to
454 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
become dependent. As is stated in the next chapter, wise
charity seeks to teach people to help themselves and to develop
independence and thrift through material and spiritual aid.
Much that is called charity is nothing more than almsgiving.
An indulgence in a maudlin sentiment which destroys the spirit
of independence and undermines self-help is antisocial. Scien-
tific charity will relieve distress and teach people to help them-
selves by making it impossible to become habitually dependent
upon others. It will make every effort to prevent pauperism.
It aims to take such measures as will enable people to remain
independent, or, if dependent upon others for a time, to make
that period as short as possible. Real charity does not try to
relieve of their responsibility those upon whom the burden of
support naturally falls. It endeavors to help the natural sup-
porters, however, to carry their burdens as easily as possible.
Modern charity believes that relatives rather than the state
should support dependents, but it will do all it can to help
those relatives to secure work by which they may do the task
with honor and independence. Giving to a beggar on the street
probably will confirm him in dependency; he will learn that a
living may be obtained more easily that way than by labor.
Giving to a family without knowing their circumstances may
determine a career of pauperism for them. Investigation, care-
ful records to enable others to whom such a family appeals to
know their history and what is being done for them by others,
and efforts at securing them an opportunity to earn an honest
living are absolutely essential in our complex civilization in. our
great cities where few people know their neighbors, would we
give helpfully. Service as well as immediate material help is
imperative. The world has been slow to recognize these prin-
ciples, but at the present an increasing number of people are
becoming aware of their existence and believe in their possi-
bilities.
To remedy the evils growing out of unwise philanthropy prin-
ciples of scientific charity, — principles, while not final, because
they are developing, which are based upon the experience of
those who have dealt most extensively with these problems, —
have been adopted. They have been most thoroughly worked
out by what is called organized charities and certain German
1 See Devine, Principles of Relief, pp. 185-266.
POVERTY: ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES 455
municipal experiments in dealing with poverty to be described
in the next chapter. These principles to succeed must be applied
both by private and public relief officials and receive the enthu-
siastic moral support of every private organization which gives
relief and of every philanthropic individual. They must be
worked into our public relief system, which for the most part
to-day in America is actually medieval in its methods, — no
investigation, scarcely any records worthy of the name, and little
codperation with the private agencies which are trying to intro-
duce constructive methods. Some of the experiments of foreign
cities might well be tried here with certain modifications. The
vagrant and those unwilling to work must be made to work.
Combined with these measures must go the preventive social
devices described in the preceding sections. We have only
just begun to attack the problem of poverty. To some it seems
hopeless, but to those who are in the closest touch with this
grave problem and who know most about the failures of our
best methods, but who also know that these modern methods
have never had a fair chance, there is nothing but promise. It
is they who talk of “‘ the cure of poverty.”
Summary.— As the causes of poverty are numerous and
varied in nature so attempts to prevent it must come from
many sources. To sum up the matter, we may conclude that
among other things are improvements in industrial conditions
through the process of social evolution and governmental in-
fluence, such as steadiness of employment at a fair remuneration,
stability of industrial and financial conditions, justice in taxa-
tion, government, and legislation. Again, improvement in
modes of living, such as better housing, good home surroundings,
improved sanitation, better care of the personal health, and
profitable recreation and amusement. ‘The change in personal
characteristics through education by developing thrift, energy,
prudence, sound judgment, and the power to labor, is a means
of the prevention of poverty. So likewise, the change in per-
sonal habits, the disuse, or at least temperate use, of liquor,
tobacco, narcotics, and the abolition of selfishness and the pro-
motion of love in the home, with purity of life, all tend to
develop the character of man and to remove him from a possible
state of dependence. As sickness is one of the chief causes of
poverty the removal of disease through science and legislation
456 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
are important measures of prevention. Add to the foregoing,
scientific charity, which helps persons at the right time and in
the right way, and poverty will gradually grow less as the years
pass.
REFERENCES
Charities Review, Vol. II, p. 279; Vol. IV, p. 142; Vol. VII, 922.
DEVINE, Ep. T. Principles of Relief.
DvucpDALE, R. L. The Jukes.
HENDERSON, C. R. Modern Methods of Charity.
HUNTER, ROBERT. Poverty.
RicumonpD, M. E. Friendly Visiting, pp. 140-165.
Ris, JacoB. The Children of the Poor; The Battle with the Slum.
Report of the Committee of Fifty on the Liquor Traffic.
Warner, Amos G. American Charities, Revised Edition, 1908, Chaps. I-
V, VII.
WRIGHT, CARROLL D. Practical Sociology, pp. 324-343.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Make an estimate of the extent of poverty in your own community.
(If a small place you can get the information by going to the town and
county relief officers and from common report as to who has received help.)
2. Make a list of the evil social consequences of poverty among families
of which you know, e.g. how many boys never had a chance at a proper edu-
cation, how many girls “went wrong” because of poverty, etc.
3. Classify the poor families with which you are acquainted in your com-
munity under as many of the heads in the chapter as you think are neces-
sary to account for their poverty.
4. What is your community doing to remedy or prevent poverty? (Make
a definite list of the things.)
5. What is your community not doing that it might do to cure and pre-
vent poverty? we
6. Suggest any other methods’ pf ‘meeting the poverty problem than those
mentioned in the text.
CHAPTER III,
CHARITIES AND CHARITY ORGANIZATION .
The Philosophy of Charity, — The common meaning of charity
is the giving of alms to the poor or the help of the sick. What
is popularly known as charity in modern times is called alms
in the Scripture and in other ancient writings. What is called
charity in the Scripture is merely love or a wide human sym-
pathy. It may apply in its widest sense to all classes of people,
whatever their condition, to whom sympathy and aid may be
given. | In its more modern and scientific sense charity means
the help of the poor, the weak, the sick and helpless. ) Charity
organization signifies the means of administering relief by a
coéperative method. Charity has become in modern times a
social rather than a merely individual function as well as an
individual matter, It has become chiefly a means of protect-
ing society at large and of encouraging normal social health
and growth. Society seeks to protect itself by caring for the
weak in order to prevent social disease and degeneration. The
normal healthy social structure is made stronger by warding off
pauperism, by preventing insanity, epilepsy, imbecility, blind-
ness, and deafness, as well as by caring for the afflicted. Cer-
tain philosophers, Herbert Spencer among the number, have
advocated the development of the strong by making them
stronger and neglecting to care for the weak and decrepit. They
hold strictly to the doctrine of the struggle for existence and the
survival of the fittest. Hence, properly to enforce this prin-
ciple of natural evolution, the efforts of humanity should be
devoted to the improvement of the best of the stock, rather
than to an attempt to uplift the defective, out of which
nothing strong and normal can come. They go so far as to
say that if the weak and diseased members of society were all
left to perish, the strong would then perpetuate the race, and
thus gradually the weak would be replaced by the strong.
457
458, OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY,
This is a good evolutionary principle in the absence of a con-
scious agency to supplement Nature’s selection. Nature’s chief
method of securing a more perfect adjustment to existing con-
ditions, so far as modern science has come to definite conclu-
sions, is by the elimination of the ill-adapted. As soon, how-
ever, as Intelligence appears upon the scene Nature’s slow
methods are supplemented by conscious adaptation to natural
conditions. Nature by eliminating the hairless animals pro-
duced after millenniums long-haired animals to withstand the
glacial cold. It is man, however, since the domestication of
animals, who by the introduction of intelligence into the breed-
ing process has, to put it from the standpoint of results rather
than of method, bred the legs off and put hams on the hog,
developed the race horse on the one hand and the draft horse
on the other, brought forth the spineless cactus, produced the
numberless varieties of various kinds of fruits and cereals. It
is still done by elimination in part, but elimination has been
supplemented and hastened by conscious selective breeding
instead of by Nature’s tardy processes. What man has actually
done to secure these results so speedily is to select those varieties
for breeding which show the qualities he wishes and to prevent
the propagation of the undesirable kinds. The slow and waste-
ful method of Nature, therefore, should not be allowed to work
out its results in humanity without some restrictions. Society
is so closely organized and the relations of its members so inti-
mate that the strong to protect themselves must be mindful of
the weak. As well may the head say that it cares not if the
hand is diseased so long as body, heart, and head remain, for
indeed the disease may spread until head, heart and body are
involved. Hence, if for no other reason than its own protec-
tion, society must care for the weak and the defective. Also,
because if society practiced utter selfishness, it would lose
interest in humanity, and altruism, and even sympathy would
decline and the human race be weakened on account of the loss
of its best social qualities. Charity, then, when properly ad-
ministered, may protect and help the weak, prevent the spread
of weakness, and make the strong stronger by unselfish activity.
Universality of Charity among Nations. 44 Charity or alms-
giving is a very ancient practice, common to all nations after
a more or less permanent social life was established. The
CHARITIES AND CHARITY ORGANIZATION, 459.
Hindu, Egyptian, Persian, Hebrew, and Chinese philosophers
have all uttered lofty and humane sentiments in regard to the
consideration of the poor, and means of relief are recognized in
many of their laws. In Athens a poor tax was regularly levied
and collected. Aristotle advocated the relief of the poor, not
by a tax but by a more permanent method of distributing the
land in small parcels among the needy, that they might become
self-supporting. While most savage tribes care little for the
poor or for the aged, the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of
Peru made provision for these classes. The former taught that
the poor should be helped and the latter provided homes for the
care of orphans. The Jewish synagogue was a center for the
distribution of alms and the Hebrew commonwealth had wise
provisions for the care of the poor. As the synagogue at first
was the meeting place of the Christians it continued to be a
center for the distribution of alms, and its successor, the church,
followed its example. It is noteworthy that one of the earliest
officers to be appointed in the primitive Christian organizations
was the “deacon” whose chief duty was to look after the poor
in the church.!
Many of the problems that confront us to-day in regard to
the administration of the charities, troubled the ancient nations,
although it must be admitted that, with all of the fine precepts
of philosophers, real charity was sadly wanting, in most in-
stances, when it came to the practice of genuine help to the
needy. ‘The sayings of the wise in charity as well as in religion
were far different from the doings of the people. And in the
ancient nations, as in many modern, the practices of government
and social order were such as to create the conditions of poverty
more rapidly than they could be relieved, even under the best
administration.
The main defect of the ancient methods of charity was that
the chief motive to almsgiving was personal interest. Through
superstitious fear, men were urged to give, that they might
thereby enjoy the favor of the gods. ‘‘ He that giveth to the
poor lendeth to the Lord,” are the words of the Hebrew Sage.
This sentiment was repeated a thousand times in the writings
of the Fathers of the Christian Church. In fact, it remained
1Harnack, Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christenthums, translated as, The
Expansion of Christianity, Vol. I, p. 194.
460 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
the chief motive down to very recent times and has not lost its
power even to-day. The motive being egoistic did not create
an earnest desire to help the poor, and led the people to careless
and indiscriminate giving, thereby creating paupers and beggars.
The poverty-stricken wretch of ancient society excited the pity
of benevolently disposed people, but through the teachings of
the church he became “‘ God’s pauper,” and giving to him opened
to the giver the doorway to heaven. Temporary relief was
usually the extent of the aid given, and no systematic efforts
were made to give man a permanent help. Hence, no organi-
zation was attempted. To give alms was to throw a piece of
money to a beggar with the hope that he would soon be out of
sight and out of mind. While this was one of the chief char-
acteristics of ancient almsgiving, it has not entirely departed
from modern charity. Many seem to give to relieve their con-
sciences or to get rid of the importunate solicitor, with the vague
hope that the person may be benefited. And by some, giving
in the abstract is still considered a means of grace.
Giving among the Romans.— As the Roman system was
widespread at the time of the appearance of Christianity, it is
necessary to refer briefly to the condition of affairs especially
subsequent to the foundation of the Empire. The history of
the separation of the people of the Republic into two classes, one
made up of the nobility and the patricians representing all of
the wealth and political power, and the other representing the
plebeians, is too familiar to need repetition. As the former
class possessed all of the wealth and controlled the means of
wealth, the latter came to expect alms or support from the
former. As the former maintained their power through political
position, the latter paid for support by means of their votes.
The mob finally became large and dangerous and difficult to
manage; yet he who sought power in Rome must reckon with
its demands, for there was no middle class to maintain the
equipoise of social and political life. All labor had been degraded
by the introduction of slavery until it was considered ignoble to
engage in any pursuit except politics and the proprietorship of
a landed estate. There was no other alternative than that one
class should be supported by the other, and, hence, the poorer
class expected gifts from the rich and powerful.
After the establishment of the Empire these conditions be-
CHARITIES AND CHARITY ORGANIZATION 461
came greatly exaggerated. At the time of Augustus, it is esti-
mated that 580,000 persons received relief in the city of Rome.
The custom of the emperors, when elevated to the throne, to
give large gifts to the people became general among all those who
held political position.
When it became known throughout the Empire that gifts of
corn and wine were scattered freely many flocked to the City
to be fed. While pauperism was not general through the prov-
inces, Rome became overburdened with people seeking alms.
To allow the poor to live, attempts were made to regulate the
price of corn, and Caius Gracchus succeeded in making the price
of a Roman bushel five asses, or less than the cost of production.
This, of course, caused a falling off in the production and ship-
ment of corn, and as a consequence corn was distributed gratis to
the populace. Then followed a careless or indiscriminate distri-
bution of corn, and later of oil and wine as well, which increased
from year to year and reign to reign. To give some estimate
of the extent of these gifts by politicians, demagogues, and public
officials a few general statements will suffice. In 73 B.c. it is
estimated that gifts amounting to $438,500 in value were dis-
tributed; in 46 B.c. it had increased to $3,375,000; in Augustus
Ceesar’s time 320,000 men received aid or grants of corn, and
the number increased from this on. The annual distribution
from Nero’s time to the end of Severus’s reign rose to a value of
$1,500,000. This was, of course, done by the officials represent-
ing the State. But this amount was greatly augmented by
office seekers and demagogues who could keep their places at
the public crib only by dividing the spoils with the mob. It
is estimated that Nero, during his reign, disposed of food, etc.
valued at $96,500,000 to the people and that Hadrian gave
food, etc. valued at about $165 per capita to the people of Rome.
It is difficult to ascertain the exact amounts, but even though
these estimates are only approximate they give us some notion
of the enormous expenditure. But this could not be called
charity in its best sense, but rather a systematic method of
developing pauperism. It established the right of the needy
citizen to demand and receive help from the state. The Romans
did something to provide protection to all people who resided
within their territory, and especially those who were Roman
citizens, but there was really little sympathy for people who
462 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
were in distress. Even in ancient Rome the exposure of infants
who were deformed was advocated, and it was considered better
that the aged should die and not prove a burden to the com-
munity.
Philanthropy was by no means unknown, however, among the
Greeks and Romans. We must not permit Uhlhorn’s prejudiced
position in his thorough but unfair work, Christian Charity in
the Ancient Church, to blind our eyes to the fact that the people
among whom Christianity entered as a ‘‘ gospel of love and
charity,’’ as Harnack calls it, had cared for the poor from sym-
pathy for them before charity was polluted by political motives.
Human sympathy is not limited to Christianized peoples; it
lies at the basis of all societies in every age, as we have seen.
It was the mainspring of charity in Greece and Rome before it
gave way to the passion for political domination in the period
of the disintegration of the early, efficient social bonds. Doubt-
less the contrast between the charity of the Greek and Roman
cities of that day and that to be seen among the early Christians
aflame with the passion of a new brotherhood and with a
heightened sense of membership in a new and heavenly society
was striking enough. The charity of the Christian Church,
however, was fine enough not to need the factitious splendor of
a false contrast.!
Charity of the Christian Church. — The early Christian asso-
ciations had for one of their cardinal points the care of the poor
of their own membership. The teaching that all men were
brethren made it necessary that brotherly love should abound.
The Church found itself diametrically opposed to the Roman
doctrine and system which it found in existence when it entered
the Roman Empire.
With a widely extended sympathy for all humanity the
Church began its work of permanent help to the poor, the suffer-
ing, and the downtrodden. Against the calculating political
nature of the Roman politicians, it set forth the warm heart-
love of fellowmen. Upon the downfall of the Roman Empire
the Church soon absorbed all of the charitable work of the time.
With the passing of time, however, and the Church’s succes-
sion to the place of power occupied hitherto by the Empire, the
1 Harnack, Die Mission und Ausbreitune des Christenthums, translated as, The
Expansion of Christianity, Vol. I, Chap. III.
CHARITIES AND CHARITY ORGANIZATION 463
ethical motive was contaminated by the selfish motive of thus
securing the favor of Heaven for the giver of alms, and thus
forging one more chain with which to bind men to the Church.
Instead of the old political motive of the Roman statesmen,
the Church substituted the commercial motive of securing by
almsgiving a treasury of grace. The foundations of such a
doctrine are to be found, in truth, as early as the writings known
as the Shepherd of Hermas and the Second Epistle of Clement.
Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, wrote that alms are the means
by which we wash off any stains contracted subsequent to the
cleansing of baptism.! Christianity in her conflict with bar-
barism attempted to bring all men within her fold by appealing
to motives already familiar to them, and did not scorn to appeal
to such motives in order to secure gifts for the poor.
This was a kind of giving which existed for the benefit of the
giver alone. According to theory, all gifts to the poor were
gifts to God, and those who furnished the gifts received their
reward in heaven. Therefore, giving became a means of direct
salvation to Christians, a part of their religion. This is a vicious
principle, for when carried far enough it makes religion irreligious
and charity uncharitable. When it comes to turning over lands
and estates to be given to the poor, for the sole benefit of the
giver, it results in a system of selfishness. Nor is that all, for
it leads to corruption of the society which obtains funds on the
pretense of insuring the salvation of souls in return for the loan.
Yet, it must be added, the Church cared not only for members
of its own little societies but also for those with whom it came
in contact, especially after the establishment of monasteries.
These it established throughout its realm, and they became
asylums for the poor and oppressed. It built hospitals and pre-
pared homes for the care of the poor, and preached to the whole
world the lesson of charity and brotherly kindness, with a new
earnestness born of the most powerful sanctions.
Results of the Charity of the Church. — The power which
the Church obtained through the decline of the Roman Empire
came to her in part legitimately through well-rendered service.
In part, the service rendered was for the selfish purpose of secur-
ing adherents. Consequently with that power came the respon-
sibility of caring for all of the subjects within the realm of the
1 De opere et eleemosyniis, i, quoted by Harnack, op. cit., Vol. I., p. 191.
464 | OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
Church’s authority. The result was a burden too great to be
easily borne.
On account of the indiscriminate giving on the part of the
Church, which believed in treating all people alike, thousands
took advantage of it and grew up in indolence and became veri-
table paupers, willing to draw a large part of their living from
public sources. So during the Middle Ages and at the begin-
ning of the modern period, the results of the lavish hand of the
Church began to appear in the thousands of all classes of every
description who clung to ecclesiastical and lay associations and
institutions for their own support. No one could censure the
Church for indiscriminate giving, if he granted the premises
upon which almsgiving was based. Moreover, there was no
careful consideration of the effects of this indiscriminate charity.
The need was great. There was no strongly organized govern-
ment, and the Church was practically the only existing agency
of help. When one considers the dense ignorance still prevail-
ing concerning the true principles of charitable relief, he is
prepared to deal leniently with the one institution of the Middle
Ages which was attempting in any organized way to meet the
needs of men. |
Charity of the State.— When society became thoroughly
feudalized, each person had his place and his support, such as
it was, and there was little need of almsgiving. On the decay
of this system of government the number of poor increased
enormously and the burdens of the Church became so heavy as
not to be borne without the assistance of the state. Gradually
the nascent nations of Europe began to adopt measures of relief.
First to do so on a large scale was England.
At first laws were passed for the regulation of labor with the
object of keeping the laborer in the state of servitude which the
feudal system had created. Among these laws passed during
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was one whose object
was to repress vagrancy. (12 Richard II.) When Henry VIII
dissolved the monasteries, vagrancy increased and laws were
enacted intended to diminish it. Subsequently vagrancy laws
were made more severe (Ed. VI) and provision was made to
raise funds for the poor by appointing collectors in each parish.
The Church was still the dispenser of charity. It was not until
Elizabeth’s reign, however, that the state took a vigorous interest
CHARITIES AND CHARITY ORGANIZATION 465
in charity and that the power of administering it was shifted
from the ecclesiastical to the civil authorities. A series of laws
was passed which finally culminated in the statute of 1601 (43
_ Elizabeth), known as the foundation of the English Poor Law.
Laws followed, from time to time, which modified and improved
this act until a complete state system of poor relief was estab-
lished. These laws in many respects were salutary but their
unwise administration had a tendency to increase pauperism
and consequently enlarge the expenditures for its relief. In
the care of the poor the state had reached the conclusion that
all of the needy poor should receive help and as nearly all
laborers were needy the conclusion was inevitable that they
should receive aid. Expenditures increased, until in 1783 the
amount for poor relief was, according to Fowle,! £2,004,238; in
1803 it had increased to £4,267,965, and in 1818 it reached its
high tide in the sum of £7,870,801, the population at this time
being only 11,000,000.
In 1834 the Poor Law was revised and the administration was
reformed. Subsequent acts have continued to modify and im-
prove it. The nation still suffers from the evils of a previous
short-sighted policy. Although it possesses the most elaborate
state poor relief system in existence, no nation has greater
burdens to bear from pauperism.
Hamburg-Elberfeld System. — In striking contrast with the
comparative failure especially of outrelief in England is an
experiment first tried in a Prussian city. About 1765 there
arose in Hamburg a new method of dealing with paupers and
poverty-stricken people. During the middle of the eighteenth
century and toward its close the number of helpless and wretched
people had increased greatly throughout Europe. A movement
for the assistance of these people arose. A general wave of
benevolence and charity spread over Europe. While it caused
the relief of the helpless, it was so lacking in intelligence and
system as to be a detriment rather than a help to society. Ham-
burg was a rich city, having been engaged in trade with the
East and West for many years. It was cosmopolitan in nature
and attracted thousands to the city, either for work or for a
living without work. The streets were lined with beggars,
thousands of people receiving help from all sources. Finally, a
; y 1Th~ Foor Law, p. 73.
2H
466 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
society was organized in Hamburg among the citizens, whose
chief aim was to promote a better system of government. To
this society a certain Professor Biisch presented a novel plan
for the care of the poor, which was finally put into operation.
He organized a central bureau, and divided the city into districts,
appointing an overseer in each district. The helpless were taught
to help themselves, work being supplied where they could not
find it; people were forbidden to give alms at the door; an
industrial school was provided for the children; hospitals for
the sick; and in fact a general system was established for the
care of every one according to his needs anddeserts. It worked
a complete revolution in Hamburg. It drove out the paupers
or put them to work. It relieved the distress of children and
educated them to industry and self-support. It cared for the
sick, and repressed begging on the streets. The transformation
was quite complete. Thirteen successful years were followed by
a decline for a time.! The system was revived, however, and the
idea spread to Elberfeld, a small German town, which applied
the system with some modifications in 1852 so that the Elber-
feld system, so well known among charitable workers, was in
reality the original Hamburg system slightly improved.
A summary of the Elberfeld system here may be of service.
The city is divided into 564 sections. Within the confines of
each section are included about 300 people, but with not more
than four paupers in any one section. Over each of these sec-
tions is placed an almoner, as he is called. The almoner is the
official with whom each needy person comes into first-hand con-
tact. To him the needy of that section make application for
help. He then inquires carefully into all the circumstances of
the case. If convinced that the family needs relief he gives it
himself. He must, however, keep in close touch with the family
by a visit at least once in two weeks. He gives relief according
to a minimum standard set down by law. Any income the
family may have is deducted from this minimum so as to make
sure that itis not getting more than enough to supply the bare
necessities of life. He not only supplies relief, but also is sup-
posed to keep a general oversight over his district and act as
adviser to any whose circumstances may indicate the possibility
of falling into dependence. He helps secure employment for
1 For details and causes see Henderson, m'odern Methods of Charity, pp. 9-12.
CHARITIES AND CHARITY ORGANIZATION 467
the unemployed, medical help for the sick, and offers advice to
the improvident and dissipated, or in case of the incorrigible,
reports them for prosecution. He loans sewing machines and
tools belonging to the municipality to those who may thus be
kept from want. These almoners are appointed for three years
and service is compulsory, on pain of loss of the franchise from
three to six years and an increased rate of taxation. The
best citizens are thus secured for this work. . They serve for
a long term of years, being reappointed again and again, so-
ciety thus securing experienced men. For example, among 600
almoners recently appointed one had served 49 years, 19 over
30 years, 81 over 20 years, and 268 over 10 years. The office
is considered such an honor that it is frequently sought by
the best citizens, being considered the first step on the ladder
to political office in the municipality. These almoners are usu-
ally unpaid, although in some places where the system is in use,
some of the officers are paid. :
Fourteen of these sections are organized into a district over
which is an overseer whose business it is to preside at the fort-
nightly meetings of the almoners, where the reports of all these
almoners are considered and a minute book prepared for the
Central Committee of nine which is over the whole system in
the city. This committee meets fortnightly also but on the
night following the meeting of the district meetings. Indoor
relief also is controlled by this Central Committee, the overseers
and almoners having no connection with that. In many places
both men and women serve as almonefs. These almoners are
chosen from all classes of the population, not from the upper
class alone.
In every city where the system‘is in existence a large army
of men and women of at least average intelligence are interested
in the problem of poverty, not after dilettante fashion, but by
first-hand acquaintance.
Efficient service is secured because it is personal and intimate.
With no more than four cases to look after it is possible to show
true neighborliness.
Constructive philanthropy is possible not only because the
system supplies personal treatment for those who already have
fallen into poverty, but because it makes the almoner an
instrument of prevention. He is a father to the fatherless,
468 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
an adviser to the foolish, and serves as the connecting link
between the inefficient individual and society which so often
is only a lifeless abstraction or a heartless automaton to the
poor.
The value of the system, however, is indicated in these figures :
In spite of the fact that the population of Elberfeld increased
from fifty thousand in 1852 to one hundred sixty-two thousand
in 1904, the number of those receiving either temporary or per-
manent help increased from 4000 to only 7,689, or a decrease
from 8 per cent of the population to 4.7 per cent. The cost of
relief per capita of population in 1852 was 89 cents; in 1904 it
was 88 cents including expense of supporting the almshouse,
orphanage, and kindred institutions.
It may be added incidentally that the system as administered
in most of the cities of Europe at present has some defects.
The almoners, although not trained for the work, make their
own investigations. It is quite likely that it is not done as
well or as tenderly as the trained worker would do it. They
give relief themselves, — a practice which organized charity on
the basis of long experience elsewhere condemns. The Elber-
feld system will not work even in Germany without the aid of
carefully devised poor laws. As Mr. Almy has remarked, how-
ever, these defects are not inherent in the system, and could
easily be remedied. Certainly the results in lessened poverty
justifies the hope that its essential features may, perhaps in
modified form, be introduced into this country.!
That the Elberfeld system is not adapted without some change
to cities of all sizes and conditions is shown by the experience of
Hamburg. As the relief system was originally organized at
Hamburg there were a number of defects which account for its
failure. ‘The number of cases looked after by one almoner was
from twenty to as many as eighty; the duty of the almoner
was consequently limited to receiving applications for relief and
more or less careless granting of aid at first without frequent
enough reinvestigation; and the records and materials bearing
upon the cases and their administration were not collected in
one central office. In 1892 a reorganization was begun. An
1 New Encyclopedia of Social Reform, p. 438; Almy, “The Use of Volunteers
by Public Aid Officials,” in Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and
Correction, 1904, Pp. 113-134.
CHARITIES AND CHARITY ORGANIZATION 469
expert was employed to assist in the reorganization of the system.
As a result of this reorganization requirements were adopted
making the visitors more independent of the central office than
before, and making the districts not only independent but also
giving them such rights as the nomination of superintendents
of districts and of new helpers, and considerable power to vote
aid. Hamburg dropped the small district system of the Elber-
feld system because it had been found in Hamburg that with its
rapidly shifting population some districts would soon come to
have no needy and others would have many. Hence, the new
Hamburg system also did away with committing a given needy
person to one almoner. A district is laid out with a superin-
tendent at its head. He selects his helpers in number according
to the need of the district. He receives the applications for
aid. He assigns the cases to the person who he thinks will
best fit that particular case. That case may be left in the
hands of this person or after some trial it may be given to another
better fitted to deal with it. This plan also enables him to give
to the man of leisure more cases than he gives to the busy man,
and to adapt the helpers to the particular case in hand. This
system differs also from the Elberfeld system in granting relief
for a longer period. In the Elberfeld system relief is granted
for only two weeks. In the new Hamburg system the depend-
ents are divided into classes, one of these containing the aged
and the sick and such others as are in a condition not likely to
change soon may be granted an allowance for six months, all
others for not more than a month, until the next session of the
council. The new Hamburg system has another feature not
found in the Elberfeld system, a body composed of the super-
intendents of the districts and called a Kreis, or circuit. These
constitute an appeal board to hear appeals from the districts, to
discuss matters of concern to all the districts in their circuit,
and to consider and care for cases which need institutional care.
The chairmen of these circuits are members of the central
board. The central board has much the same duties as the
Central Committee of the Elberfeld system. It is the court of
final appeal, conducts investigations into conditions in the city
bearing upon poverty, makes general rules and regulations under
which the various poor officers operate, and decides the larger
and more general policies. It has as its clerical agency a busi-
470 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
ness management. Through this central agency all applications
for relief must pass.
The system has worked remarkably well in Hamburg and has
been adopted with success in a number of the larger cities of
Germany.!
The Indiana System. — While space will not permit a full
description of the system of poor relief which has done so much
to make that state a leader in the administration of poor relief,
especially out-door relief, in the United States, a brief outline
will serve the purpose, perhaps, of indicating what can be done
with a carefully devised plan of administration based upon the
old discredited system of county and township relief.
The jail, poorhouse, county hospital, and children’s home are
the institutions under the control of the county authorities in
Indiana. In addition to the board of county commissioners who
in most states have sole charge of these county institutions, the
legislature in 1899 provided for the appointment by the circuit
court judge of six persons to act as a board of county charities.
The appointment is mandatory on petition of fifteen reputable
citizens of the county. They are required to visit each of the
charitable and correctional institutions in the county receiving
public monies, and to report their findings to the county com-
missioners at least quarterly and to the circuit judge annually.
Copies of their reports are to be furnished the newspapers and
the Board of State Charities. As a result of these provisions
and the excellent supervision given the poorhouses by the
Board of State Charities, the poorhouses of that State have
been made more nearly into what they should be, — homes for
the aged and respectable poor, instead of dumping grounds for
the refuse of humanity. The following table tells its own
story on this point:
1891 1909
Inmates under 16 yearsofage ,... . 13.3% 1.2%
Tinrates 16 and under ous, eo. ss 52.7. ae
IimatesGo' and OVErry ep eigt i et ere es 34.0 51.0
The Indiana plan of managing township charities has been
even more striking because out-door relief is included. Under
1¥For this summary we are indebted to the splendid outline of the system given
by Professor Henderson in his Modern Methods of Charity.
CHARITIES AND CHARITY ORGANIZATION 471
the old system of unsupervised relief the township trustees in
1895 were spending annually $630,168.79 without any record
being kept to show who were helped and for what reason. In
that year a law was enacted at the suggestion of the Board of
State Charities which revolutionized matters. The trustees as
overseers of the poor were required by that law to file with the
respective boards of county commissioners reports which must
contain certain information concerning every family and _ per-
son aided, a duplicate of which report was to be sent to the Board
of State Charities. That provided supervision not only by
the county commissioners, but also by a state body. Two years
later a law was passed requiring the trustees to levy a tax against
the township to cover the cost of poor relief granted to persons
in that township. This supplied the other element lacking in
the previous law, that of putting upon the people where the
poor were the burden of their relief instead of paying the cost
out of the general funds of the county. Each trustee was now
responsible directly to his constituents for whatever expenditure
was made. Two years later a law applying the principles of
organized charity to the relief of the poor was passed and put
the final element needed into the laws governing out-door relief
for a whole state. Thus are provided supervision by a state
board, local financial responsibility, and the application of the
principles of scientific charity to the relief system of a state.
This system also affords an opportunity to the State Board to
study the whole problem of poverty in that state and get at the
real causes of poverty.
The results of this system are shown by the fact that while
in 1897 one out of every thirty-one of the inhabitants of the
state were receiving public relief, ten years later only one out
of seventy-one were receiving such relief, although the amount
given each person had risen from $4.72 to $5.13. In 1897 there
were thirty-eight counties in the state in which one out of every
thirty or less inhabitants was receiving aid, while ten years
later there was not a county where so many of the inhabitants
were being aided at public expense. Furthermore, the expense
of public relief had fallen from $388,343.67 in 1897 to $279,967.31
in 1907; thus fewer persons were receiving relief, but those
1 The Development of Public Charities and Correction in the State of Indiana,
1792-1910, 1910, Board of State Charities, Indianapolis, pp, 118-127,
472 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
who were receiving it were getting more adequate relief. This
example of a state which by a few very simple changes in
her public relief system made it really efficient shows what can
be done if brains and perseverance are applied to the problem
here in the United States.
The Rise of the Charity Organization Movement. — The
reform of public charities after the methods of the Hamburg-
Elberfeld often modified in some respects to meet local condi-
tions, extended to many of the principal cities of Europe.
Paris, Vienna, and Berlin inaugurated systems of charity or-
ganization, which had for their purpose the systematic help-
ing of the poor, and the repression of pauperism. The influence
of all this work for the reformation of public outdoor relief was
felt everywhere, its results were made known and began to
show results in private relief work. This influence began to
tell on the ideals prevailing in non-public relief associations both
on the Continent and in England about the middle of the nine-
teenth century. About this time the charities of London were
very imperfect and inadequate. A large number of societies
existed having no particular coérdination or codperation. They
were relief societies pure and simple. However, in 1869, the
Charity Organization Sgciety of London was formed. It had
for its purposes the harmonious coéperation with each other
and with the poor law authorities, of the various charitable
agencies in the district, the checking of the evil of overlapping
relief, the repression of mendicity, the furnishing of help to
the needy, and the repression and prevention of pauperism by
thorough investigation and by means of self-help.
Charity Organization in the United States. — It was not until
the year 1877 that the Buffalo Society of Charity Organization
was established, and it was the forerunner of all such movements
in American cities. It was based upon that modified form of
Hamburg-Elberfeld system which had been adopted in Lon-
don and elsewhere. Its principles, as announced, were to re-
duce vagrancy and pauperism and ascertain their true causes;
to prevent indiscriminate and duplicate giving; to secure the
community from imposture; to see that all deserving cases of
destitution were relieved; to make employment the basis of
relief; to elevate the home life, health, and habits of the poor;
and to prevent children growing up as paupers.
CHARITIES AND CHARITY ORGANIZATION 473
The means employed to bring about these results were co-
operation of charitable agencies; thorough investigation
of all applicants and all conditions of poverty; a careful regis-
tration of all those asking for help; and giving the kind of help
that suited the exact need of each individual. The society also
advocated the study of poverty and pauperism in order to
better understand the causes. In this way they hoped to im-
prove the condition of the poor and to reduce almsgiving
to a system of scientific charity.
The Indorsement of Charities.— The organization of
societies giving relief into an association whereby overlapping
of relief could be eliminated and coédperation between the vari-
ous relief agencies secured aimed to cure one kind of ills besetting
the philanthropic impulse. There is another sort of malady,
however, which that movement does not as yet touch. There
may be three or there may be a thousand relief agencies asso-
ciated in an associated charities’ organization. The associated
charities, except in a few instances, has not been in a position
to say that another relief agency is not needed and therefore
may not enter the field and appeal to the public for support.
As a consequence of the multiplication of relief agencies in re-
sponse to the great growth of the desire to relieve the suffering
to be seen in the midst of our plenty, and in response to the
opportunity provided by the philanthropic sentiment to thus
graft upon the public, there has been an enormous develop-
ment of institutions and organizations appealing to the public
for support. So great has this tendency become, and in some
places so numerous the organizations appealing for support,
that it is impossible for the busy business man to discriminate
between the claims of the various organizations appealing to
him for help. With a willingness to help any real need and
a desire to spend his money only where it will do the most good >
and not contribute to the development of institutions which
are unnecessary, he has been tossed about in his mind as to.
what he should do. The commercial organizations of the larger
cities finally took hold of the problem and decided that they
would look into the various organizations to which the business
men were asked to contribute and have a special force organized
in their office to investigate each organization. Each member
of the commercial body was then invited to codperate with the
474 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
commercial organization in this work by placing in his place
of business a card stating that those in that business house
or office were members of the board of commerce, or whatever
the body was called, and that they would contribute to no or-
ganization which did not have the indorsement of that organiza-
tion. At the same time that this was done publicity was given to
the fact that a special committee to investigate the claims of
philanthropic institutions had been organized, and the various
charitable organizations were asked to submit to the commercial
body information ‘on certain points which would show their
methods of financial\management, the field they covered, and
a number of other matters bearing upon the usefulness of the
organization in the community. In this way these organiza-
tions are carefully examined by the commercial body and the
contributing public has the advantage of whatever skill that
body commands in investigating the merits of the various
philanthropic organizations. ‘This method is intended to catch
the useless organizations and the imposters. It also serves to
prevent the organization of societies which would duplicate the
work of others already in existence. In Cleveland, where the
movement originated, it has gone so far as to enlist the com-
mercial organization with the philanthropic societies in an en-
deavor to gather the money necessary to carry on the work of
these societies which are indorsed and divide it among them
on the basis of what they spent the year previous, or some
such basis as may seem equitable to the board.
The results of charities’ indorsement have been fully up to
expectations in cutting down the number of institutions receiv-
ing their support from the public. It has also given an im-
petus to the movement to have institutions carry on their
work with more care for the financial methods employed, and
for the results obtained. They know that they will be judged
by results and that if these results do not commend themselves
to the investigating committee, their support will be cut off
by the refusal of this body to indorse their work. The campaign
for funds in the Cleveland plan is centered in a week and each
giver knows that when he has given once he will not be asked
for gifts by other organizations. The result_has been a great
increase in the amount given by each man and therefore a
greater amount to be used by the institutions approved.
CHARITIES AND CHARITY ORGANIZATION 475
The system of indorsement has not received the unanimous
approval, however, of social workers and students of the ques-
tion. There has been a fear expressed that the investigating
committee may not be intelligent enough to correctly judge
of the real merits of an organization. They are usually business
men, it is claimed, who are not familiar with the needs of the
people along philanthropic lines and therefore are likely to
think that an organization is unnecessary when it is really
needed. There was also a fear expressed by some that this
system would mean the control of charities by big business.
The debate is not yet settled, but wherever the plan has been
tried apparently it has worked well. In New York City, where
there is a strong charity organization society, that organization
does this investigating and indorsing. This plan in most
places where the associated charities’ movement is less well
established in the confidence of the people would probably
not work, inasmuch as the various relief societies would object
to investigation and indorsement by an association which is
supposed to codrdinate the various relief agencies in the task
of succoring the needy of the community. It is probable that
those cities which have strong commercial bodies and have
not a very strong associated charities will use the former method,
and those which have their charities organized well and are
strongly intrenched in the confidence of the people will manage
it as New York does. It is certain that the time has come when
the waste of effort due to institutions which duplicate efforts
in a field already well occupied and leave untouched other
fields suffering from the lack of help will be stopped. Some
agency must have oversight over the whole field of philanthropic
endeavor and direct the efforts of the community to meet its
needs systematically, cultivating each part thereof according
to the needs of each.
Principles of Scientific Out Relief. — Out of the confusion
of indiscriminate giving and haphazard methods of adminis-
tering charities, which have sometimes tended to increase rather
than to decrease dependency, there have evolved a few funda-
1 Baldwin, ‘‘ Committee Report on the Relation of Commercial Organizations to
Social Welfare,” Proceedings, National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1913,
p. 73; Williams, “‘A Chamber of Commerce Militant,” zbid., p. 84; Stewart, “Chari-
ties Indorsement in Retrospect and Prospect,”’ ibid., p. 100,
476 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
mental principles of charity based on scientific methods. Among
them the following may be enumerated: the helpless must be
taught to help themselves; the work test should be applied
to all persons to the extent of their working power; indiscrimi-
nate giving is dangerous and should be prohibited; every gift
should be for the purpose of permanently helping the recipients ;
relief, when given, should be adequate but should be carefully
supervised; the rehabilitation of the dependent family —
nothing less — should be one of the ultimate aims of scientific
charity; the other ultimate aim should be the prevention of
most difficult thing to do is to help others without at the same
time doing an injury. Promiscuous giving is no longer consid-
ered a virtue. To be generous and careless may lead to more
trouble than to be penurious. One should not refrain from giv-
ing and should not repress generosity, but the duty does not
end with the giving, it extends to the insurance of good results
from the gift. Acientific charity seeks not to relieve the public
from the burdens of the poor, but seeks to lay increased re-
sponsibility by doing more for the poor and doing it in a better
way. | It is easy to give without responsibility, but it is a very
difficult matter to follow up the gift with the responsibility of
its effectiveness. ‘‘ The gift without the giver is bare.”’ The
last quarter century in American charities has brought about
a general reform in methods of dealing with the poor and the
helpless. Much, however, still remains to be done. The public
must be educated to a sense of the importance of the principles
which experience has suggested. Workers both salaried and
volunteer must be trained. The principles wrought out in
the experience of private philanthropy must be introduced
into public relief in the United States; in only one state, Indiana,
has that been done to any appreciable extent. The experi-
ments of other lands in the cure and prevention of poverty
need to be adopted and tried out in our country.
CHARITIES AND CHARITY ORGANIZATION 477
REFERENCES
Fow Ee, F. W. The Poor Law.
HARNACK. Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums, translated as,
The Expansion of Christianity, Vol. I, Chap. III.
HENDERSON, C. R. Modern Methods of Charity; Chap. I.
National Conference of Charities and Correction, Vol. XVI, p. 24; Vol. XXI,
p. 301; Vol. XXII, p. 28; Vol. XXXTI, pp. 113 ff.
RicumonD, M. E. The Friendly Visitor.
ULHORN, GERHARD. Charity in the Christian Church.
WarneEr, AMOS G. American Charities, Revised Edition, 1908, Chaps. XII,
XIV, XV.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. State arguments for and against Mr. Spencer’s contention that by
charity we do an injury to society by saving alive the weaker people.
2. List the motives which lead people to give to the poor to-day.
3. Show the similarity of motives between the alms distributed by politi-
cal bosses, say the Tammany leaders on the East Side of New York and the
motives of the politicians of Ancient Rome in giving “corn and games” to
the populace.
4. In the light of what happened in Rome when the wealth was concen-
trated in few bands and the bulk of the people had little chance at inde-
pendence, what would you say would be good social policy with respect to
the problems of poverty in this country with its manhood suffrage, by which
votes may be exchanged for a living?
5. Are large sums spent on the poor necessarily good evidence of proper
care of the poor? Why? Are small amounts? Why?
6. In what respects was the charity of the church of the Middle Ages
a good thing? Wherein was it open to criticism?
7. Compare the charity of the churches to-day and public charity in their
results.
8. Compare the aims of public charity as administered to-day in the
United States and the charity administered by a Society for Organizing Char-
ity, or an Associated Charities.
9. Outline the plan of public relief provided for in the laws of your state.
10. Criticize these laws and suggest changes for the better.
CHAPTER IV
CRIME: ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION
Nature of Crime. — Crime is an offense against the law of
the land. It varies in character and degree on account of the
act itself and also on account of the law. A mild offense against
the law is called a misdemeanor. A serious offense is called
a crime. The only difference between a crime and a misde-
meanor is in the gravity of the offense, and, since the estimate
of the seriousness of an act varies from place to place, these
are not the same in different communities. In early society,
when natural justice prevailed and each man settled his own
difficulties with his fellows, crime in a legal sense was unknown.
Cruelty, savagery, and bestiality might have existed, but
they did not become criminal until the judgment of society
pronounced them so in formal law. Even after society began
to recognize certain acts as criminal, they were treated solely
as offenses against the person involved and not as against
society at large. But now every criminal act is considered an
offense against society. In a sociological sense a serious offense
against society may be a social crime, even though the law has
not been passed defining such act as criminal.
The Extent and Cost of Crime.—In the United States
it is impossible to obtain more than a mere guess at the extent
of crime. The United States Census supplies some figures
which are suggestive, although they do not measure the amount
of criminality in the country. As between states a comparison
is unfair because the various states do not have the same laws.
There is the same difficulty when one tries to compare different
countries with respect to criminality. With these limitations,
however, some statistics of crime in different countries will
be suggestive of the extent of this social malady.
On June 30, 1904, there were in the prisons of the United
States 81,772 prisoners, 77,269 males, and 4503 females, 55,111
white, and 26,661 colored. Of these 53,392 were in state
478
CRIME: ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION 479
penitentiaries, 7261 in reformatories, 18,544 in county jails,
and 2675 in city jails. During the year ending June 30, 1904,
there had been sentenced to imprisonment in prisons, 149,691.
Besides these numbers there were in juvenile reformatories,
23,034.1 Thus, in 1904 there were more prisoners in the peni-
tentiaries of the country (81,772) than there were undergradu-
ate and graduate students in all the public universities, colleges,
and technological schools of the United States (79,579), and
almost as many as there were men undergraduates in both
public and private universities, colleges, and technological
schools of the country (82,877).?
Inasmuch as the Census of 1890 included those who were in
prison awaiting trial, it is impossible to compare the number
sentenced in the two decades. The Special Report of 1904 re-
ferred to above gives some comparative figures which, while in-
exact and misleading perhaps, are worth consideration. As
nearly as the statisticians employed on that report could ascer-
tain there were per 100,000 population in the United States in
1850, twenty-nine prisoners, in 1860, sixty-one, in 1870, eighty-
five, in 1880, one hundred seventeen, in 1890, one hundred thirty-
two, or corrected by deducting prisoners not yet sentenced, one
hundred six, and in 1904, one hundred. These figures may or
may not indicate an increase of crime. Besides the inaccuracy
inhering in the figures themselves there is the fact that during all
these decades new statutes have been put upon the statute books
and immigrants not used to the language or the laws of the coun-
try have been arriving in unheard-of numbers. While they per-
haps break the laws and thus get into trouble, they are not always
culpable. The list of homicides and suicides compiled by the
Chicago Tribune shows in the twenty-one years from 1885 to
1906 an increase from 32.2 homicides per million inhabitants
to 108.9, and of suicides during the same period from 978 to
10,125, while executions arose from 108 only to 123. The
number of murders and homicides to each execution rose during
that period from 17 to 76. On the other hand, lynchings fell
from 181 to 69. One must not forget that it was during this
1 Special Reports of the Census: Prisoners and Juvenile Delinquents in Institutions,
1904, Pp. 29, 229. :
2 Report of the Commissioner of Education of the United States, 1913, Vol. II,
p. 180.
480 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
period that this country in common with most others has seen
a great increase in substitutes for imprisonment and the death
penalty. Certainly, however, these figures do not give us any
assurance that crime is diminishing.
Not much better is the showing of the European countries.
Aschaffenburg, in his scholarly and temperate work, after
giving many tables of figures comparing crime in Germany at
different times, says, “‘ Hence, the conclusion is unavoidable
that brutality, recklessness, and licentiousness are spreading
more and more in the growing generation.” ! Recidivism in
that country is increasing as everywhere else. He says, ‘‘ Of
the 98,411 persons, who at the time of their conviction, in the
years 1894 to 1896, had already served five or more sentences,
72.7 per cent recidivated in the course of the five years following
their last conviction.” ?
This gloomy picture is not relieved by a consideration of
the expense involved in this fact of criminality. Mr. Eugene
Smith, before the National Prison Association in 1900, esti-
mated that there are 250,000 persons in the United States
who make their living in whole or in part by crime, costing
the country $400,000,c00 a year, besides another charge of
$200,000,000 a year in taxes to catch, try, and punish them.
These enormous figures take no account of the property de-
stroyed, the time, life, and labor lost and the private expense in-
volved in running down criminals, to say nothing of the ex-
pense of locks, burglar alarms, and other devices to prevent
criminality. An interesting estimate of the direct and indirect
cost of crime in the United States has been made by the chaplain
of the Prison Evangelist Society of New York, which, while only
an estimate, gives some idea of the items which must be taken
into consideration. It is as follows:
Aggregate cost to the various states. . . . . . . $774,000,000
Aggregate cost to the Federal Government ... . 80,000,000
Griminal losses Dy ft 6S atlas teieet eo. Ber us leita aX OO,000,O0G
Custom Jhouse Thais ee Bick el us 60,000,000
Wages of 100,000 in states’ prisons . . ..... 28,000,000
Wages 0115 50.000 In alsa ne naa ne es) te re nee 33,000,000
ELOtaL cil sn tn PORE Acc 9 4 Ta] eh erg Cad vt ECT
1 Crime and its Repression, p. 218. * Tbid., p. 221.
CRIME: ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION 481
The situation is similar in Germany. Aschaffenburg re-
ports that in 1909 in Germany there were 248,648 thefts, frauds,
and embezzlements, and adds, “ Unfortunately we have no
idea, even approximately, how great the average damage was
in each case, but there can be no doubt that national prosperity
sustained a tremendous injury through these crimes against
property.” Taking as a measure his findings as to the time-
loss sustained by those who were gravely injured by assault
in Worms, 7.3 days for each act, he estimates that for such
crimes alone in Germany there was a loss of time amounting
to 2308.8 years in that single year in Germany from that crime
alone.}
The Causes of Crime.— Among those causes which are
prominent may be noted hereditary characteristics of the indi-
vidual. His organic constitution, including the structure of
the skull, brain, and vital organs, and his degree of sensibility —
in fact, all bodily characteristics — may be of such nature as
to induce criminal acts. Moreover, in the mental constitution
of the criminal are often observed anomalies of intelligence and
feeling. The moral sense is frequently blunted or deficient.
This amounts sometimes to what is known as “ moral insanity,”’
or the absence of moral sense. While defects of this nature
may not insure criminal action, they predispose the individual
tocrime. Criminality due to hereditary defect is a combination
of weakness and viciousness. Some inherited defect of mind
or body, or both, furnishes the individual basis for criminal
conduct. Under some social conditions such a person would
not become criminal. But under social conditions which give
the opportunity or furnish the social incentive to criminality,
such an individual will not have the will power to resist tempta-
tion to commit a crime, or will not be conscious of the gravity
of the act, or, finally, will not be moved by the usual prudence
which a socially normal person possesses. Some recent studies
indicate that most of the criminality due to hereditary defect
is the result of feeblemindedness. Pinel, Morel, and many
others * have pointed out that many people are frequently char-
acterized by what is called moral insanity, that is, seeming lack
of any moral sense from their earliest days. Lombroso, taking
1 Crime and its Repression, pp. 225, 226.
2 Ferrero, Lombroso’s Criminal Man, p. 53.
21
482 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
the cue from them, found, as he thought, a very close connection
between the characteristics of the morally insane and the crim-
inal, especially what he called the “ born criminal.”! He also
called attention to the close relations which crime has to epilepsy,
coming to the conclusion that moral insanity, epilepsy, insanity,
and crime committed by the born criminal are all of one piece.?
The labors of Lombroso stimulated inquiry both for and against
his position and resulted in finer discriminations than he made.
More careful studies made by others have, however, made clear
that insane persons are often criminals. Indeed, the figures seem
to indicate that the number of insane among those who commit
serious crime is unduly large. Thus, Aschaffenburg found of
those prisoners committed to the penal prison in Halle who had
been guilty of sexual crime, only 45 out of 200 were entirely nor-
mal. Leppmann found only 30 normal mentally out of go com-
mitted to the penitentiary at Moabit for rape or for assaulting
children.* Of the beggars and tramps examined by Bonhdffer 75
per cent were more or less abnormal mentally.5 Of the young
criminals incarcerated at Elmira the Superintendent and the
Board of Managers report that to the unpracticed eye of the
layman at least a third of them are mentally defective, while
the physicians of the institutions put it at a much higher figure.®
Sutherland, the English student of recidivism, is authority for
the statement that fully one third of the recidivists of England
are suffering from physical and mental degeneracy characterized
by mental warp, instability, and feeblemindedness. He esti-
mates that fully two thirds of the petty offenders who are re-
cidivists are pathological in the same sense.’ Healy, in his
Psychopathic Institute in Chicago, found that of 620 youthful
recidivists, 26 per cent of them were distinctly below the class
which he calls poor in native ability.2 Dr. Frank Moore, Super-
1 Ferrero, Lombroso’s Criminal Man, pp. 52-57.
2 Thid., p. 61.
3 Aschaffenburg, Crime and its Repression, pp. 190, 101.
4 Tbid., p. 191.
5 [bid., pp. 191, 192.
6 Report of the State Board of Managers of Reformatories of New York, 1912, pp.
, Saag Recidivism, p. 50, quoted by Healy, ‘‘Mental Defects and Delin-
quency,” Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1911,
p. 60.
8 Healy, “Mental Defects and Delinquency,” Proceedings of the National Con-
ference of Charities and Correction, 1911, p. 60.
CRIME: ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION 483
intendent of the Rahway Reformatory in New Jersey, found
that at least 46 per cent of the boys there were mentally deficient.!
Goddard, of the Vineland, New Jersey, Institution for the Feeble-
minded, estimates that 25 per cent of all delinquents are feeble-
minded.” In his last book he estimates that from 25 to 50
per cent of all our prisoners are mentally defective and incapable
of managing their affairs with ordinary prudence.*? Just what
proportion of crimes are committed by those who are mentally
unbalanced or deficient it is impossible at this time to say, but
the studies thus far made do indicate that inherited or acquired
mental defect is responsible for much more of the criminality
than we have been accustomed to suppose.
Evil habits also are conducive to criminal action by gradu-
ally destroying normal action. Also the use of narcotics,
liquors, and drugs, by weakening the will power and destroying
the moral sense, leads towards crime. Giving vent to wrath
in a violent manner often weakens the self-control and dis-
torts the judgment, and thus sometimes prepares the way for
criminal action, should conditions arise favorable to it.
This class of causes were once thought to be beyond human
control. God had made people so. They were endowed by
Him with certain evil propensities which were a part of the
naturally depraved nature of man. God’s work, while beyond
understanding, must not be meddled with; it must be borne.
Many criminals employ the very same reasoning to-day in
extenuation of their crimes.* With our growth of knowledge
concerning man’s natural history and the laws of heredity, we
know this reasoning is wrong. Whatever theory we may hold
on the subject of creation, we now know that heredity in animals
can be controlled to a remarkable extent. Why can it not be con-
trolled in man, we naturally ask. No stock breeder would expect
to raise race horses from draft-breed sires and dams. Heredity
here, as in the case of paupers, should be more subject to social
control than at present. The arguments for this are given in
the chapter on Degeneracy and need not be repeated here.
1 “Mentally Defective Delinquents,” in Proceedings of the National Confer-
ence of Charities and Correction, 1911, p. 66.
2‘ The Treatment of the Mental Defective who is also Delinquent,” in Proceed-
ings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1911, p. 64.
3 Goddard, Feeblemindedness, Its Causes and Consequences, p. 7.
4 See Ellis, The Criminal, 3d ed., 1907, p. 238.
484 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
Influences of Physical Nature on Crime. — Besides those
causes of crimes arising from personal characteristics there
are a large number of influences found arising from physical
nature. Among these may be enumerated climatic conditions.
It is observed that crime varies with the change of seasons or
with the alternation of excessive heat and excessive cold.
Crimes against the person are much more frequent in a hot
climate or in a hot season, while crimes against property occur
much oftener in a cold climate or in the winter season. Various
explanations of this observed fact have been offered. Some
have suggested that the heat irritates people and makes them
more inclined to violence, while cold has the contrary effect,
but coincides with the time of year when food is naturally
scarce and so induces crimes against property. Probably
the frequent opportunities offered by hot weather and warm
climates for social contact have more to do with crimes of violence
than the effect directly of the heat. The relative length of day
and night in part limits the kind and determines the nature
of crime. Meteoric conditions, storms, and sudden climatic
changes affecting the nervous and mental conditions of men are
conducive to crime. What influence electrical disturbances
have on criminal action has never been scientifically determined,
although there are specific indications that there are positive
relations between the two.
Little can be done to remove the causes of crime which reside
in the physical environment. Were the time given for it,
man would naturally become adapted to his environment by the
elimination of those who are moved to antisocial conduct by
the physical conditions. But human beings are migratory.
A people does not remain long enough in one place to permit
this slow process of adaptation by natural selection to work out
its results. Doubtless the repressive measures of society have
ever stimulated those most easily affected by the physical
conditions to adapt themselves and restrain their impulses.
Moreover, these influences are the most regular of all the causes
of crime in their action and can be foreseen and provided for
to a certain extent. Probably they also are the group of causes
accounting for the smallest amount of crime.
Social Causes of Crime.— Social conditions have much
to do with criminal action. The person somewhat weak in
CRIME: ITS CAUSES AND. PREVENTION 485
character might never be guilty of criminal action if he had
the right kind of social environment. On the other hand, a
person of strong character will have sufficient power of re-
sistance to remain uninfluenced by bad social or physical
conditions.
The density of population in large cities is conducive to bad
social conditions and supplies strong incentives to criminal
action. Crowded conditions in the home break down decency
and modesty and lead to sexual crimes. The intense crowding
multiplies human contacts, thus provoking conflict. Poverty is
ever there with her debasing influence, ever crowding the weak
soul to criminality to make a living. There are the glaring
contrasts between poverty and wealth leading to the develop-
ment of class feeling and class conflict. There also criminal
“ gangs’ with their baleful influence upon the innocent have
their paradise.
Isolated community life has, in an opposite way, an effect on
crime. The very vacuity of life in such places makes for
crime. In the absence of the more refined excitements of the
normal social community, people in these places resort to the
elemental and primitive. Violence, either lustful or predatory,
stalks abroad here with small chance of discovery. Vice and
sexual irregularities find’many who have nothing better to do.
Feuds thrive where the bonds are chiefly those of kinship.
The normal society is one of sufficient density to permit all
social advantages and proper social regulation without the evils
of overcrowding.
The moral attitude of a community has considerable to do with
the amount of crime committed. Where the standard is high
and public opinion severe against crime there is much less of
it than where the standard is low and public opinion not con-
demnatory. Likewise, it may be said that law may increase
the apparent amount of crime without increasing the actual
criminal conditions of a community. Thus, criminality always
seems to increase, following the enactment of a strong prohibitory
liquor law. That seeming increase, however, is often due solely
to men’s reaction against a new and unpopular law. Also
where the police force is active in the apprehension of crime
and the judicial system very efficient in its operations, the re-
corded amount of crime will be higher, although the tendency
486 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
in the long run will be to decrease crime. The customs and
religion of a community, the nature of industrial pursuits, as
well as the financial and economic conditions, have much to do
with the increase or decrease of crime. For example, let the
religion lay no or little emphasis upon morality and regard
for law and you will have much crime. Let financial and in-
dustrial depression come; thousands will be thrown out of
work; some will be ruined; and thefts and robberies will
increase.
Defective legislative, judicial, and punitive machinery may
actually increase the crime of a community. Consider what
happens when there is a corrupt or unjust judge. Criminals
believe they can buy the judge’s favor, and crime is increased.
Let the legislature pass a law which makes it impossible to
secure swift and certain justice; criminals will gamble upon
the chance, and crime will increase. Let the police take bribes
and collect graft, crime will flourish, for criminals will be pro-
tected against society by the paid officers of the law, as every
investigation involving police departments for the last twenty
years unmistakeably shows.
The social causes of crime probably bulk largest in their
influence upon criminality. Yet they are the most hopeful
because perhaps the most subject to control by society. If bad
social conditions are the result of social neglect, why may not
better social conditions be secured by careful conscious planning
by society? Every movement which relieves the density of
population — cheap transportation, suburban planning, re-
moval of factories from great centers to suburbs, garden cities,
good housing, which provides a normal outlet to social instincts,
normal recreation, stimulation of interest in books, art, clean,
healthful sport, social religion, scientific legislation, just judges,
and a criminal procedure which secures equal justice to all and
speedy and certain action to apprehend the guilty; an educa-
tion which prepares for the useful life — all will make good con-
ditions for people to live in, and tend to lessen crime.
Classification of the Causes of Crime. — Arranged according
to the influence operating to produce crime, perhaps the briefest
and yet a fairly comprehensive classification of the causes of
crime is proposed by Professor Henderson, which we have
ventured to summarize as follows:
CRIME: ITS CAUSES AND. PREVENTION 487
(1) Causes in the External World.
(a) Climate) Hot climates and seasons cause crimes against
(d) ny person ; cold, crime against property.
(c) Meteorological changes — electric conditions, barometric
changes, humidity and heat, day and night.
(2) Social Conditions.
(a) Conjugal relation — more crime among single than among
married.
(b) Social position — lower classes furnish more than upper
classes.
(c) Density of population — crime increases with density.
(d) Customs — begging, causing mutilation of children to pro-
duce sympathy for child by public; carrying concealed
weapons; dueling and fighting; public torture.
(e) Economic conditions — poverty, industrial changes.
(f) Food and famine — theft and robbery —not definitely
determined.
(g) Beliefs — “property is robbery”; the whole product of
industry belongs to labor; ‘‘scabs” have no right to
work, etc.
(k) Lack of industrial education — no chance to earn an honest
living.
(t) Political factors — spoils system, bribery.
(j) Bad associations and evil suggestion— ‘‘gangs’’ of boys
dominated by bad men; ‘“‘yellow” newspapers and
novels; public scandal and crime in newspapers, etc.
(k) Lynching — brutality and violence engenders crime.
(1) Immigration — not much directly, but indirectly through
race and industrial conflict.
(m) The negro factor — race prejudice, unskilled labor, social
ostracism.
(3) Physical and Psychical Nature of the Individual.
(a) Sex — five times as many male as female convicts.
(b) Age — youth is the criminal age.
(c) Education — training in trades and morals decreases crime.
(d) Occupation — those which attract rude untrained men
show most crime; semicriminal occupations like saloons,
gambling, etc., increase crime; kind of crime varies
with occupation.
(e) Alcoholism — weakens inhibitory powers, dulls the con-
science, excites anger and lust; leads to bad associations.
(f) Hereditary and individual degeneration.!
)
1 Henderson, Dependents, Defectives and Delinquents, 1901, pp. 238-253.
488 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
Classifications of Crime. — Stephen, in his History of Crim-
inal Law in England, has given the following classifications of
crimes: ‘“(z) Attacks upon the public order, (2) abuses or
obstructions of public authority, (3) acts injurious to the
public in general, (4) attacks upon the persons of individuals
or upon rights annexed to their persons, (5) attacks upon the
property of individuals or rights connected with, and similar
to rights of property.”” Perhaps in a more practical way we
might speak of political crimes, such as treason and counter-
feiting; of public crimes not political, such as lynch law, mob
violence and arson; crimes against persons, such as assault
and battery, rape, murder, manslaughter; and crimes against
the property of persons, such as theft, robbery, embezzlement,
and forgery.
The Classification of Criminals. — Criminologists have studied
long and hard to discover a criminal type. Thus far they have
not succeeded in demonstrating that there is a universal type
which is essentially criminal. But their investigations have
been rewarded in showing that certain criminals, especially
those known as “ instinctive,” have an aggregation of defects
or characteristics, which, taken together, show their possessor
to be an abnormal individual and help to explain his criminality.
These defects are in part physical anomalies. Among those
noticed more often in criminals than in non-criminals, accord-
ing to the criminal anthropologists, are skulls of the average
size with frequent extremes. Thieves have small heads, mur-
derers large heads. The pointed skull is frequent, the lower
jaw is unusually heavy, an asymmetrically shaped head occurs
often, the orbit of the eye is unusually large, the zygomatic
arch unusually high and prominent. Defects of brain are
very frequent in what Lombroso called the “ born criminal.”’
There is an extraordinary tendency to vary from the racial
type of head form. If he belongs to a long-headed race, the
criminal’s is likely to be unusually long. The physiognomy
is said to betray criminality — sullen looks; furtive eyes in
the thief, a stare in the murderer. Abnormalities of organs
occur more often than among non-criminals — unusually
long arms, left-handedness, or ambidextrousness, pointed ears,
scanty beard in men and beard in women, extra fingers, toes,
and teeth, defective lungs, heart, and nervous system. Many
CRIME: ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION 489
others have been suggested by students of the matter. It
must be added, however, that all these stigmata of degeneracy
which have been found only go to show that an unusual number
of degenerates become criminals, and therefore the greater
number of these signs of degeneracy appear among prisoners
than among non-criminals. The finding of these stigmata of
degeneracy was what led Lombroso at first to declare the crimi-
nal an atavism, then broaden the generalization and say that
the criminal is an insane person, and later to further declare
that he is an epileptoid.!
Likewise, abnormalities have been observed in the intellectual
characteristics of criminals. They are declared to be lacking
in moral sensibility, do not dream so readily as other people —
a condition found also among idiots and epileptics of long
standing. In intelligence they are stupid, inexact, imprudent,
yet having a cunning which leads to hypocrisy and lying. On
the whole they are distinctly below non-criminals in intelligence.
They are emotionally unstable, often very sentimental, usually
religious after a superstitious, unethical fashion, and manifest
a debasing tendency in all their literature and art. They are
anti-social, not in the sense that they do not love companion-
ship, but that they hate society and its ways, having a code
of their own, when they are not distinctly defective mentally.
These anthropological characteristics of the criminal are
not agreed upon by all criminologists. The Germans espe-
cially have contended that the Italian school has failed to es-
tablish many of its generalizations.2, While we must record
the judgment that the Germans have in many cases shown the
Italian case “‘ not proven,” yet there can be no doubt that the
Italian school has done an invaluable service in pointing out
the close relationships undoubtedly existing between degeneracy
and crime in a considerable number of cases. The debate,
however, is leading to the conclusion that crime has links
connecting it not only with physical degeneracy, but with bad
social conditions in even a larger number of cases.
While it may be contended that crime, not the criminal, is
1 For a full discussion, in a friendly spirit, of these findings of criminal anthro-
pology, see Ellis, The Criminal, 4th ed., 1910, Chaps. III and IV.
2 For a summary of the German position, see Aschaffenburg, Crime and its Repres-
sion, pp. 168-186.
490 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
the pathological social phenomenon, and therefore less atten-
tion should be given to a classification of criminals than of
crime, it must be remembered that so far as the treatment of
crime is concerned, no progress was made until after the theory
that the punishment must fit the crime gave way to the theory
that the punishment must fit the criminal. Bearing in mind
the practical aim of the study of crime — how to treat it —
we venture to classify the criminals as well as their crimes.
Dr. Dugdale has given the following typical classes of crimi-
nals who have come within his observation:! (1) Those who
are essentially non-criminal but by force of circumstances or
accident have broken the law. (2) First offenders who fall
through vanity or self-indulgence and the influence of evil
women. (3) First offenders who are led into crime by bad
associates. (4) Convicts of low vitality born under evil con-
ditions who have drifted into crime from lack of care. (5)
Illegitimate children born of intemperate, vicious, and criminal
parents, who bring them up to a life of crime. (6) Promoters
of crime as a regular business. (7) Criminals who seek to
retire from active service and become criminal capitalists. (8)
Those who pander to the vices of criminals and thus become
the active abettors to crime. (9) Criminals through epilepsy,
insanity, and perverted minds. (10) Those affected with
nervous diseases which cause them to lose control of themselves
and commit crime.
Henderson classifies criminals as: (1) accidental, (2) eccentric,
(3) insane, (4) moral imbecile, (5) instinctive, (6) criminals
by acquired habit, (7) criminals by passion, and (8) criminals
by occasion.?
Ellis has a simpler classification as follows: (1) political,
(2) by passion, (3) insane, (4) instinctive, (5) occasional, and
(6) habitual.®
Draehms has proposed a classification which is too simple.
He divides criminals into classes as follows: (1) instinctive,
(2) habitual, and (3) single offender.‘
From the standpoint of the social welfare rather than from
1 The Jukes, pp. 110-111.
2 Henderson, Dependents, Defectives and Delinquents, 1901, pp. 219-224.
3 Ellis, The Criminal, 4th ed., Chap. I.
4Draehms, The Criminal, Chap. III.
CRIME : ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION 491
that of legal status, which considers what the person charged
with crime has actually done, the accidental criminal is in no
sense a criminal. His act was the result of accident and his
conduct was not antisocial. For example, in the prison of
one of our states in the Central West was a man sentenced under
the law for several years for causing the death of a man under
the following circumstances: The man condemned to prison
and his wife were sitting on a bench in a park on a summer’s
evening attending a band concert, when a drunken man came
jostling through the crowd. Because the wife of this man
happened to be in his way he struck her with his fist. The
woman’s husband struck back at the drunken man and struck
him a blow in the temple which killed him. This man who
killed the other had never been a quarrelsome person and did
only what any man would have done in defense of his wife.
From the standpoint of sociology, therefore, the accidental
criminal should be excluded from the category of criminals.
So, the moral imbecile is either insane or mentally defective
in some other way and should not be classified separately. He
belongs either under the category of the insane or of the in-
stinctive. Nevertheless, since the law still is tinged with the
social theory of an earlier day, such crimes may be retained in
a comprehensive classification. We venture, therefore, to sug-
gest the following classification: (1) political; (2) occasional,
including (a) accidental, (6) eccentric, (c) by passion, (d) single
offender; (3) natural, including, (a) moral imbecile, (6)
insane, (c) feeble-minded, (d) epileptic; and (4) habitual,
including, (@) the natural criminal, (6) the criminal by acquired
habit.
The term “ political criminal” is used to indicate those
who commit a crime against the established government. It
includes those who are guilty of trying to kill public officials,
in order the better to overturn the government. They were
formerly called regicides for the reason that they usually
attacked the king as the chief representative of the hated
social order. It includes also the rebel against the established
government. The term also includes what has come to be
termed the regenticide, or magnicide, who is also an anarchist,
such as Caserio, who killed Carnot, president of France, and
Czolgosz, the assassin of McKinley. Sometimes such a person
492 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
is insane, as in the case of the man who made an attempt on
the life of ex-President Roosevelt at Milwaukee in the autumn
of 1912, and sometimes he is perfectly sane, as in the case of
Czolgosz.!
The occasional criminal includes four different varieties.
He may commit an offense against the law by accident, as in
the case of the man who struck the drunken fellow without
intent to kill. While such a man is a criminal in the sight of
the law, he scarcely presents a problem for criminology. He may
commit crime because he is out of tune with the times in which
he lives. If dissent from the established church is a crime, as
it has been in many countries in times past and still remains so in
some of the more backward countries, then the heretic is a crimi-
nal. Socrates was such a criminal. These men are eccentric
according to the thought of their times and they are therefore
criminals. Again, the occasional criminal may include him
who in a burst of passion commits crime, but when he is calm
suffers remorse for the act committed. Usually the act was
done under the spur of insult or severe provocation or under
the stimulation of wild companions in youth. These may
become criminals if they are thrown into prison with hardened
criminals or are not allowed to have a chance to redeem them-
selves. They may, however, under favorable conditions be-
come good citizens. A variety of the occasional criminal is
to be found in what is called the single offender. Sometimes
he is a criminal by passion. He learns his lesson by that one
experience and ever after controls his impulses. He may, how-
ever, be one who had got into bad company and had set out on
a criminal career with the avowed purpose of warring against
society, but who was caught in time and came out of his experi-
ence with the law with sobered mind and a social attitude.
What is here called the natural criminal is what the Italian
school calls “‘ the criminal born.”” The term “ natural ”’ is pref-
erable because it does not beg the question as to whether crime
as such is inheritable. It includes all those persons who become
criminals largely because of the inheritance of defects which
sometimes incline them towards antisocial acts. Included in
this class is the moral imbecile, who by reason of inherited mental
1For a good summary of the post-mortem and ante-mortem examinations of
Czolgosz see Ellis, The Criminal, 4th ed., pp. 415-417.
CRIME: ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION 493
defect, has no sense of the value of different acts. It also in-
cludes the feeble-minded of the higher types, who, under favorable
circumstances, would probably remain perfectly normal in con-
duct. In this class must be placed the epileptic who, in a
seizure, commits a crime, but who is not conscious of his acts.
The last class, the habitual criminal, is subdivided into the
habitual criminal who is a mental defective and who has con-
tinued so long in crime that it has become habitual with him
and no amount of favorable influences will now keep him in
correct ways. It also includes those unfortunate persons who,
while young, have fallen into bad ways, and who, because of
being refused a chance by society or because of bad associates,
while being punished, have lost all hope of a decent life, and
have finally decided that a life of crime is the only one open to
them.
Ferri has made an interesting estimate of the numbers of
criminals in the different classes. He estimates that insane
and criminals by passion constitute only from 5 per cent to
to per cent of the convicts; the natural, or instinctive criminals
from 2 per cent to 3 per cent; the habitual criminals from 37
per cent or 38 per cent to 47 or 48 per cent, and the occasional
criminals from 40 to 55 per cent. If this estimate is true, it is
apparent that the criminals by habit and by occasion form by
far the largest part of the criminal population. It must be
remembered, however, that in these classes are some who are
also defective and only by careful segregation can be kept from
preying upon society. However, the showing is hopeful by
reason of the fact that so large a proportion of the whole are
criminals because of wrong social conditions.
Why do we classify criminals? Only that we may know how
to treat them. He who is a criminal by passion needs to be
treated much differently from him who is a moral imbecile.
He who is a criminal by accident cannot be treated in the same
way as he who has lost all hope and has become an habitual
criminal. It is in the interests of individualization of penal
measures. Just as physicians classify disease that they may
know how to give the proper treatment to each kind of disease,
so the social physician tries to classify crime so that he may
understand it and know how to provide measures that will
prevent and cure it.
494 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
The Punishment of Crime. — In former times the punish-
ment of crime always carried with it the spirit of revenge, and
criminals were thrown into prisons and dungeons with some-
thing of the idea of getting even with them or hurrying them out
of the sight of the community. Under the more enlightened
conditions of modern society the objects of punishment are
clearly defined as (1) the protection of society, (2) the preven-
tion of crime, (3) the reform of criminals. The whole object of
punishment is to improve the conditions of society.
Various methods of exercising this punishment have been
instituted, such as capital and corporal punishment, imprison-
ment, confiscation of property, banishment, and a deprivation
of civil and political rights. While perhaps retributive justice
still receives the approval of most people who have not thought
carefully about the matter and of some students of penology
either as a deterrent or as a satisfaction of what is sometimes
called “‘ our natural sense of the fitness of things,’”’ but which is
really a survival in our thought of the old sanction of revenge,
correction of individual action, and the prevention of crime are
to-day considered the more important phases of the purpose of
criminal law. The humanity of modern society, and the aim
to improve society, demand that reform shall be made very im-
portant in the treatment of the criminal. So bad have been
the results of prison life and labor and so great has been the
growth of sentiment in favor of giving even prisoners a chance
to live their lives under the best possible circumstances, and, if
possible, to reform, that a number of important movements have
recently risen above the horizon of public attention. One is
outdoor work for prisoners not only in reformatories, but also in
the penitentiaries; sometimes on farms adjoining, sometimes
upon the roads. The purpose is to get the men out into the
open sunlight and fresh air, where their health is bettered and
their conduct much improved. The other is a movement in the
interest of the families dependent upon these men for support.
This takes two directions, the one in favor of parole for long-
term and even life prisoners, the other looking towards the
establishment of a wage for the families, this wage to be paid
by the state from the earnings of the man. These earnings are
supposed to be in excess of what it takes to support him in the
prison. The prison farm and road work have been introduced
CRIME; ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION 495
in a number of states. It has been possible in certain states for
some time for prisoners to earn some money by overtime work.
Earnings out of the actual production of the man in excess of
what it costs to keep him are a dream thus far in the experience
of prison management. ‘These movements, however, are experi-
ments which will probably suggest better ways of treating those
who must be shut away from society. As yet the problem is by
no means solved.
Reformation. — The reformation of the criminal is accom-
plished by the application of the various methods of prison
management. In the first place a careful study, both physical
and mental, by the most exact methods known, should be made
of all prisoners with a view to their proper classification. The
hardened and hopeless criminals should be separated from the
first offenders, and insane, feeble-minded, and epileptic criminals
should be segregated by themselves in special institutions for —
the care of these classes. Adult offenders guilty of a misde-
meanor should be placed either in a farm colony or on probation,
young adult criminals in a reformatory or on probation, and
hardened criminals in a penitentiary. Industrial labor of all
kinds should be instituted as a means of discipline, and, in
hopeful cases not in for life, as preparatory to the independent
life of the individual on release. In the case of hopeless re-
cidivists, labor should be provided which will help to defray the
expenses of their maintenance, and to support their families.
Academic instruction should be given to all prisoners capable of
profiting thereby during certain hours in the day. Opportuni-
ties should be given for moral and religious instruction as well.
Within the prison walls careful classification of all inmates
should be made, and only those allowed to associate together
who will be mutually helpful. All evil association should be
avoided. Some have advocated the unicellular system, in
which solitary confinement is the only rule, as in the Penn-
sylvania system. While this has its advantages in discipline, it
is lacking in the methods of reform inasmuch as it gives no
opportunities for association. On the other hand, where the
group system is allowed it requires great care and skill in classi-
fication and management.
One of the best methods of reform is found in the indetermi-
nate sentence, which treats the prisoner as susceptible of reform
496 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
under punishment. The law usually fixes the term of imprison-
ment from a minimum to a maximum sentence, for instance,
from two to six years. When found guilty the judge sentences
the prisoner to the penitentiary or the reformatory without
stating the exact length of time. Then, through the adminis-
tration of the prison board or the warden, he is kept in confine-
ment only so long as it seems necessary to complete a reform,
but within the maximum sentence; he is then allowed to go free.
Usually, in connection with the indeterminate sentence is the
parole system, under which a person is allowed to leave the
prison on parole, reporting monthly to the warden concerning
his location, condition, and success. If he fails to report while
on parole, or commits any crime or misdemeanor he is returned
to the prison to work out his full time of service. The parole
system has been a success in reformatories, industrial schools,
and penitentiaries wherever tried, even though in none of our
states has anything but the limited indeterminate sentence —
that is, with a maximum limit — ever been tried. A modifica-
tion of the indeterminate sentence, as it prevails in New York
and upon which most indeterminate laws are based, is that in
force in Massachusetts, applying only to women. Instead of the
time spent while out on parole counting on the maximum time
of sentence, only that spent in the reformatory counts, so that
it is impossible for a woman to behave herself for a few months
after release on parole until her sentence expires and then do as
she pleases. That unexpired time hangs over her for two years
if a misdemeanant, and for five if a felon, while out on parole.!
But the best method of social reform is prevention, and
therefore industrial education, care of boys in towns through
recreation grounds and social centers, and the prevention of the
spread of the criminal suggestion and example, are of great
value. To this end the juvenile court, which has recently been
instituted in a large number of the States, is proving an im-
portant means of prevention. It has long been known that our
jails are conducive to the development of crime. The careless
association of all classes, the herding of the young and old
together, and the lack of reformatory measures, have made the
modern jail nothing more or less than a breeder of crime. The
juvenile court comes to the rescue and says to the boy who has
1Mrs. Barrows in Henderson, Penal and Reformatory Institutions, p. 146.
CRIME: ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION 497
committed his first offense, “ The jail is awaiting you, you are
guilty, but I am going to send you back to your home and to the
school and you must report to me regularly for a term of six
months or a year of what you are doing. This report must be
signed by your teacher or your parents.’’ Or the judge may say,
*“‘T will send you to a good home or to the industrial school or
some other place, but I will keep you out of jail.”” A juvenile
court thus instituted to try all cases of children under sixteen
is an important means for the prevention of crime.
Program of Reform. — The program of reform, then, should
begin with the improvement of the condition of homes and tene-
ments of people of the poorer classes, the institution of free kin-
dergartens, and the development of industrial education. The
jail should be remodeled and created into an institution of reform
by the proper classification of the inmates and the establishment
of industrial and educational processes. The farm colony plan
has worked with signal success in Washington, D. C., and Cleve-
land, Ohio.! Great stress should be laid on reformation in the
industrial and reform schools, the reformatory, and the peni-
tentiary. But the best work that is done is that which educates
towards independent manhood and keeps people out of institu-
tions. Prevention of crime is the only certain cure of crime.
REFERENCES
ASCHAFFENBURG, GUSTAV. Crime and its Repression.
Evuis, HAaveELock. The Criminal, pp. 124-200, 233-329.
FerrRI, Enrico. Criminal Sociology, pp. 1-143, 200-265.
Forks, Homer. The Care of Destitute, Neglected, and Delinquent Children,
Pp. 198-239.
Gritty. “Social Factors Affecting the Volume of Crime,” The Physical
Bases of Crime, 1914, pp. 53-67, or Bulletin of the American Academy
of Medicine, Vol. XV, Apr. 1914, pp. 71-85.
HENDERSON, C. R. Dependents, Defectives, and Delinquents, pp. 102-232;
Preventive Agencies and Methods; Penal and Reformatory Institutions.
LomBroso, CEsARE. The Female Offender, pp. 27-35, 147-191; Crime, Its
Causes and Remedies.
MAcpDoNALpD, ARTHUR. Criminology.
TaLiack, WiLLiam. Penological and Preventive Principles, pp. 1-100, 194-
260.
Wines, F. H. Punishment and Reformation, pp. 132-229.
1“Farm Treatment of Misdemeanants,” Jackson, Proceedings of National Con-
ference of Charities and Correction, 1911, pp. 70 sq.; “‘The Farm Colony,” Cooley,
tbid., 1912, pp. 191 sq.
2K
498 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. State the difference between crime in the legal sense and crime in the
sociological sense.
2. Attempt to ascertain the cost of crime in your county.
3. Pick out a half dozen cases of crime in your community and ascertain
the causes operating in each case.
4. In the light of the discussion in the text carefully analyze the laws of
your state for dealing with murder and criticize them, pointing out the ad-
mirable characteristics and the defects.
5. What plans has your state for the reformation of criminals?
6. Make an outline of a system of laws governing the punishment of the
crime of homicide inspired by the aim to reform those that are probably
subject to reformatory influences and to protect society from those who are
hopeless. Give your reasons for each measure proposed in this scheme.
CHAPTER V
SOCIAL DEGENERATION
Nature of Social Degeneration. — Social degeneracy is often
discussed but rarely defined. Nordau’s large book upon degen-
eration lacks definiteness as to what is social degeneration.
His thesis is that the nervous diseases that curse society to-day,
the literary and artistic monstrosities which appear ever and
again, and the moral and religious crazes which arise from time
to time are symptoms of degeneracy.!
Morel made a learned study of individual degeneracy and its
causes and results, but it has a bearing only as individual de-
generation affects society. Social degeneration as such he does
not treat. So, many others with Morel, for example, Feré,
Talbot, Lange, and a host of geneticists and eugenists, have
written extensively upon certain aspects of degeneracy in the
individual. Only indirectly do these studies bear upon the
question of social degeneration.
Ward in his Pure Sociology touches the question of race
degeneration. He treats it from the analogical point of view,
drawing the parallel between the extinction of the highly special-
ized forms of animal and plant life, like the dinosaurs and the
giant sequoias, respectively, and races and nations, citing as
examples the conquest of Troy by Greece, the yielding to Spain
in the fifteenth century of the torch of civilization borne by
Italy up to that time. To Ward, “ race and national degenera-
tion are nothing more than this pushing out of the vigorous
branches or sympodes at the expense of the parent trunks.”
He makes the term degeneration synonymous with decadence.?
We know what biological degeneracy is. It is the degeneracy
~ of the individual in one or more of a number of ways. Genet-
ically it may be described as a variation from the type in the
direction of less complexity of physical organization, with the
1 Nordau, Degeneration. 2 Ward, Pure Sociology, pp. 77, 78, 227-229.
499
500 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
result that the organism is illy adapted to meet the conditions
of life. In the parasite it is adaptation of the organism in order
that the creature may the more easily adjust itself to the struggle
for existence in accordance with the law of parsimony, or least
effort, and a consequent simplification of structure. It is doubt-
ful whether the plants and animals which have succeeded the
old, highly specialized forms are degenerations from the latter.
Rather they seem to be cases of arrested development of un-
specialized forms better adapted to the conditions of existence
under a suddenly and greatly changed environment. So the
races and peoples which occupy highlands or those which are
found in out-of-the-way places like the interior of Africa or of
Australia are probably cases of arrested development rather
than degenerate races. If social degeneration is to be inter-
preted in this way, then examples are to be found in the decadent
Roman Empire, the Italian city states in the days of their
decadence, and in the Spain of to-day.
Social degeneration is the breaking up of the codrdination
existing between the various social elements, — individuals and
the subgroups which codperate in the social process, — by the
growth of so many antisocial elements that social unity is
destroyed. This comes about by the growth of degeneracy
among the individuals who make up society. Therefore, indi-
vidual degeneracy has a direct bearing upon social degeneration,
for degenerate individuals are either unsocial, or antisocial
and are unable to codperate in the aims and purposes of society.
Social degeneration, then, arises from the decline of the in-
dividual who fails to perform his part in the social activity.
This causes a breakdown in the social mechanism and a decline
in social activity. So long as each individual may be replaced
by another as he fails or declines, society may be perpetuated,
if not destroyed by outside influences. Just as a diseased mem-
ber of the body may eventually destroy the individual, so a dis-
eased part of society may be the cause of the destruction of the
whole body. Social degeneration, then, is an evidence of social
disease.
Degeneration through Intemperance. — Wherever intem-
perance of any kind exists social degeneration certainly and
physical degeneration probably will result. The parent who
is given over to the excessive use of intoxicating liquors may not
SOCIAL DEGENERATION 501
beget drunkards, but he probably will hand down to his chil-
dren the enfeebled germ plasm which made him a drunkard,
still further weakened by his excesses, and thus he may be the
cause of the development of epilepsy, or imbecility, in his off-
spring. Continue this to a sufficient degree and society finally
becomes extinct. On the other hand, the sober, industrious,
temperate people, the stock being untainted with degeneracy,
not only give forth the ideas which are the motors of develop-
ment and normal progress, but perpetuate a stock which in-
creases in vigor and is able to seize and use the opportunities
for advancement. Under this law temperate people eventually
possess the material wealth of the community, control the social
forces, and discover the truth, essential to social advance.
Hence, it is not merely the sapping of the physical vitality of
the race that constitutes the principal effect of intemperance;
it is the destruction of normal codperative society. Intemper-
ance is against all normal progress and therefore involves decay.
There is no doubt that intemperance is often the result of
degeneracy in the individual. The enfeebled intellect has no
restraining power. It drifts as a ship without a rudder. The
feebleminded, the epileptic, and the insane, as well as the neuro-
path in general, often find in alcohol a substitute for the emo-
tional satisfaction furnished normal beings in other ways —a
crutch for their unstable nerves. Dr. Branthwaite studied 2277
inebriates as to their mental condition and found 16.1 per cent
insane, 62.6 per cent imbeciles, degenerates, and epileptics in a
marked degree, defective but to a less degree manifesting defec-
tiveness in eccentricity, silliness, dullness, senility, or periodical
fits of ungovernable temper, while but 37.4 per cent were of
average mental capacity. He estimated that at least 62 per
cent of these cases were inebriate by reason of their mental
condition.! Of the 774 men committed to the lowa State In-
stitution for Inebriates in 1906-1908 the parents of 13 were
defectives and of 94 were diseased. The fathers of 26 and the
mothers of 21 were tuberculous and the mothers of 11 and the
fathers of 12 had heart disease. One or bdth of the parents of
427 of them were intemperate in the use of liquor. In the two
years 1910-1912 the figures are even more striking. Of 665
inmates of that institution 8 had defective fathers or mothers,
1Quoted by Warner, American Charities, Rev. Ed., 1908, pp. 79, 80.
502 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
116 diseased fathers or mothers, while 250 had fathers or mothers
who were intemperate. The parents of only 88 were known to
be non-users of liquor.
On the other hand we are uncertain how great is the influence
of liquor in producing inheritable degeneracy. In an investiga-
tion made for the American Medico-Psychological Association
published in 1903, 5145 insane persons were investigated.
Thirty per cent were total abstainers, while the insanity of
twenty-four per cent was considered due directly to the influence
of liquor. Dr. Billings in commenting upon these and other
figures of like nature said, ‘“‘ In any case where there is a tendency
to psychic or nervous instability or abnormal action either in-
herited or acquired, the excessive use of alcohol may act as the
exciting cause like a torch to inflammable material, but the
same result may be produced with any excess creating a strain
on the nervous system.” ? Professor Hodge of Clark Univer-
sity conducted some experiments upon cocker spaniel puppies,
1896-1898, to determine the effect of alcohol upon them. He
carefully controlled the experiments so that they would be as
nearly free from error as possible. He came to the following
conclusions :
(1) On the side of general intelligence the alcoholic dogs were
in nowise inferior to their mates.
(2) The alcoholic dogs manifested extreme timidity when the
others showed no signs of it. Commenting upon this charac-
teristic Dr. Hodge said, “‘ Fear is commonly recognized as a
characteristic feature in alcoholic insanity, and delirium tremens
is the most terrible fear-psychosis known.”’’
(3) The reproductive capacity of the non-alcoholic dogs was
much greater, and the viability of the progeny of the non-
alcoholic dogs was go.2 per cent, while of the puppies of the alco-
holic dogs it was 17.4 per cent.3
The author, while admitting that the experiments were too
few to serve as a basis for very definite general conclusions, says,
“‘ Possibly the most important of our results relates to the vigor
and normality of offspring.”
1 Second Biennial Report of the State Hospital for Inebriates, Knoxville, Iowa,
1908, p. 14; Jbid., 1912, p. 21.
2 Billings, Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem, Vol. I, p. 341 sq.
3 [bid., pp. 371-375.
SOCIAL DEGENERATION 503
These experiments were with dogs, not with human beings.
An investigation by Demme, however, throws some light upon
the human problem of degeneracy and alcohol. Demme found
that in the progeny of to alcoholic families, 17 per cent were
normal, the rest suffering either from physical deformities,
idiocy, epilepsy, or early death, while in the 1o non-alcoholic
families, 88.5 per cent were normal. Twenty-five out of 51
children in the former families and only 3 out of 61 in the latter
were non-viable.
Degeneracy of other sorts is closely connected with intem-
perance. Thus, Koren estimated 37 per cent of the pauperism
in this country due directly or indirectly to drink! Devine
says more than 16 per cent of pauperism is due directly to
drink.2, Koren found intemperance the principal cause of crime
in Over 21 per cent of 13,402 convicts investigated.2 Dugdale
found that 45 per cent of 176 habitual criminals were from in-
temperate families, and 42 per cent were habitual drunkards.4
Sullivan estimates that 60 per cent of homicidal offenses in Eng-
land and a slightly smaller percentage of crimes of lust are
caused by alcohol.5
The very close relation of alcoholism and degeneracy has often
been remarked. Some writers think that their influence is
reciprocal. Sometimes alcoholism is the result and at others
the cause of degeneracy.®
Goddard has recently reported on the most careful and exten-
sive study yet made of feeblemindedness. He sums up an
analysis of his inquiry as to the relation of alcohol to feeble-
mindedness thus, ‘‘ It looks evident that alcohol almost doubles
the number of feebleminded children in a family. But are we
sure that alcohol is a cause and not merely a symptom?” He
points out that while “ the percentages are very high for the
feebleminded children of alcoholic parents and at first glance
it appears that alcohol has greatly increased the number of
feebleminded, yet the argument is not complete.” In these
1 Koren, Economic Aspects of the Liquor Problem, p. 120.
2 Devine, Misery and its Causes, p. 211. Cf. Lindsay’s 15 per cent plus in Pro-
ceedings, National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1899, pp. 369 sq.
3 Koren, Ibid.
4 The Jukes, p. 187.
6 Sullivan, Alcoholism, pp. 164-169.
6 See Sullivan, Jd7d., p. 182, for remarks on this point.
504. OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
investigations he properly points out they were dealing only
with feebleminded children of alcoholics. To make the case
complete, the normal children of alcoholic parents in otherwise
normal families should be investigated. On the basis of his
study he concludes that alcohol instead of being a cause of
feeblemindedness, so far as his studies show, is simply a symp-
tom of degeneracy, that it occurs for the most part ‘‘ in families
where there is some form of neurotic taint, especially feeble-
mindedness.” So far as the evidence goes on the influence of
alcohol in producing physical degeneracy the findings are nega-
tive. All we can say is that the evidence is not conclusive that
the intemperate use of alcohol by drunken parents directly
affects the germ plasm in such a way as to produce that form of
degeneracy which we call feeblemindedness.! Goddard’s figures
seem to show that some degeneracy is caused by drink; they
do not make it absolutely certain.
This conclusion leaves untouched the problem of whether
alcohol in any way either directly or indirectly affects man’s
relations to his fellows so that he becomes pseudo- or anti-social.
Doubtless there are many cases where drink has induced pauper-
ism. The wages or savings have been spent for drink. The
family has come to want. Indirectly, doubtless, by inducing
irregular habits of industry, inefficiency in industry and business,
drink has contributed to dependency. The associations con-
nected with the saloon have frequently been the means whereby
the sturdy independence of the worker has been undermined
and his descent to social parasitism has been started.
The same is true with respect to alcohol’s relation to crimi-
nality. Some crimes are incited by drink. Alcohol seems to
paralyze the higher inhibitory brain centers and thereby favors
the formation of habits clearly antisocial in their results. It
seems to incite brutal and lustful passions at the same time that
it perverts the judgment. Socially it seems to stimulate fellow-
ship, for drinking is closely connected with the love of com-
panionship. Nevertheless, really it makes for lawlessness and
the breaking up of society into antagonistic groups, by its close
alliance often, especially in temperance countries, with criminal
groups. Alcohol is ever indissolubly linked up with antisocial
and vicious activities. Without a doubt, from the standpoint
1 Goddard, Feeblemindedness: Its Causes and Consequences, 1914, pp. 490-492.
SOCIAL DEGENERATION 505
of social degeneration, drunkenness bears a heavy share of
responsibility.
The Effect of Immorality.— Leading to sexual excesses,
immorality saps the physical, intellectual, and vital strength of a
community, thus dissipating the energy which ought to be used
in social action. As society develops by the enlargement of
activities on one hand and the accurate adjustment of its organs
or parts on the other, immoral influences destroy normal func-
tions and lead to decay.
Immorality, while often it is bound up in a tangled skein
with intemperance, is at least as fruitful a source of degeneracy
as intemperance in the use of alcohol. This stands out in such
degenerate families as those of the Jukes, the Rooneys, the
Ishmaels, and the Zeros. Whether they are intemperate or not,
they are usually immoral. They may not be criminals, but
they are immoral. The most hideous thing about the awful
stories of these families is the frightful depths to which they
descend in their sexual relations.
Immorality, considered as indiscriminate sexual relationships,
operates to produce degeneracy through the spread of disease.
Goddard found out of 40 children in what he calls the Heredi-
tary Group of feebleminded, from 10 matings where the parents
were syphilitic, 42.4 per cent were feebleminded, 4.9 per cent
normal, 27.7 per cent died in infancy, and to per cent were mis-
carriages. In this group, however, there was feeblemindedness
in the parents. The terrific proportion of these children who
died in infancy or miscarried — nearly two fifths — as com-
pared with an average of 12.9 per cent of all classes of feeble-
minded is significant.1. No conclusive study of the relation of
syphilis to epilepsy has yet been made. It is suspected, how-
ever, that they are closly connected. Recent studies in the Wis-
consin Psychiatric Institute show that nearly a fifth of the male
inmates of the Wisconsin Hospital for the Insane are insane
because of syphilis. Goddard does not believe that syphilis is
a potent cause of feeblemindedness, although he admits his
cases do not prove that it is not.
Moreover, the share of vice in producing human misery is
appalling. To say nothing of the cost of treating those afflicted
with the so-called social diseases and the loss of time and de-
1[bid., pp. 494, 495; 518-521.
506 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
crease of physical and mental efficiency by the victims of these
diseases, consider the unhappiness, domestic discord, and ruined
homes incident to vice. The most important cause of divorce
after desertion, which is a symptom rather than a cause and
probably is usually preceded by unfaithfulness, is marital in-
fidelity! There immorality strikes at the very foundation of
social life. The family relations are broken up. The most
important center for the development of helpful social relations —
—the home —is destroyed. Children are thrown into new
relationships and forced to new adjustments often with disaster
to them. Instead of promoting social codrdination and that
social control which makes for cohesion and social progress,
there arises disorder through disregard of social bonds. Pauper-
ism, crime, and vice flourish as the result. Society comes to lack
that close-knit codrdination and orderly functioning which is
necessary to social progress.”
Hereditary Influences. — The influence of heredity on indi-
vidual life has not yet been fully determined. The studies
already made indicate that through physical heredity one gen-
eration influences the next to a great extent. Disease is prob-
ably not transmitted from parent to offspring, but the charac-
teristics of physical structure conducive to the development of
the disease are probably handed down from generation to genera-
tion through the germ plasm. It may even happen that certain
poisons may so affect the somatoplasm and the germ plasm of
the parent, that the germ plasm has less resistance to that
poison, such as alcohol, for example, in a future generation.
The consensus of opinion among biologists and pathologists
to-day is that disease germs as such cannot be transmitted
through the germ plasm from parent to child.* Recent studies
have supplied some evidence to show that one thing which is
probably invariably inherited according to the Mendelian law
is feeblemindedness.* If so, then the presence of that defect
in the stock tends to social degeneration, for the feebleminded
are unable to perform their social duties and thus the social
group is injured and progress is by so much impeded. It is also
1Census Bulletin, No. 96: On Marriage and Divorce, 1908, p. 13.
2 Warner, American Charities, Rev. Ed., 1908, pp. 81-90.
8 Walter, Genetics, 1914, pp. 92-04.
4 Goddard, Feeblemindedness : Its Causes and Consequences, 1914, Chap. VIII.
SOCIAL DEGENERATION 507
true that many old families like the Edwards, or the Dwights,
show the perpetuation of a strong, vigorous stock, mentally and
physically, and also show an increase in social adaptation and
influence.
Examples, however, like that of the Jukes family,! the Smoky
Pilgrims, or the Tribe of Ishmael, show how disease, vice, and
crime may be transmitted socially from generation to genera-
tion, for the transmission of social characteristics comes through
early contact, training, and environment. If a family group
is criminal and vicious their children are liable to be the same
through early association. Certain it is that not only families,
but whole communities, become weakened and degenerate, grow-
ing worse from generation to generation — an evolution down-
ward so to speak — by reason of a bad social heritage of customs,
ideals, traditions, etc., which are socially disintegrating. It
thus sometimes happens that a hardy stock or race gradually
declines, degenerates, and even becomes extinct on account of
the failure to receive and use accumulated social achievements.
To such as these Lowell refers in his “ Interview with Miles
Standish ”’:
“They talk about their Pilgrim blood,
Their birthright high and holy!
A mountain stream that ends in mud
Methinks is melancholy.”
However, just to the extent that we ward off disease and develop
a higher degree of physical and mental life, to that extent will
social life be improved, for a high type of social life comes essen-
tially from the association of high-grade normal individuals.
While the two kinds of inheritance — inheritance through
the physical transmission of characteristics by means of the
germ plasm, and the transmission from one generation to an-
other by social means of communication, example, ideals, etc.,
of the mental and social possessions must be kept clearly sepa-
rated in our thought, yet both work together in the process of
evolution and of degeneration. Poor physique, poor mentality
biologically transmitted, bears very directly upon the kind of
social product in the way of ideals, customs, traditions govern-
1 These are studies in social degeneration, The Jukes, by Dugdale, The Smoky
Pilgrims, by Blackmar, and The Tribe of Ishmael, by McCulloch.
508 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
ing men’s relations with each other which a group will furnish
and use. The feebleminded, the insane, the epileptic, and the
neuropathic do not make good members of society, but on the
contrary contribute to its stock elements which are unable to
associate together in any helpful and constructive way. They
add to the social burden which society must bear —a very
costly burden upon the labor and thought of the social. More-
over, they contribute directly to the pauper and criminal classes
which set up ideals and generate customs and habits which eat
like a canker into the very vitals of society.
On the other hand, there is an increasing amount of evidence
that social conditions have a great deal to do with the produc-
tion of physical and mental weakness. We know that bad
housing conditions, poverty, bad habits and customs, unsanitary
factories and dwellings, and social neglect of certain poisons
break down the physical efficiency of people, destroy ideals of
correct home life, cut the root of ambition and of hope, divide
society into suspicious and warring classes, put a strain upon
the minds of some which ends in insanity and makes impossible
the realization of ideals of cleanliness and health. Whether
these conditions affect the germ plasm by which some forms of
degeneracy like feeblemindedness are transmitted we do not
know, but the fact that this defect and bad social conditions
are so often found together, and the further fact that these
conditions reduce the physical efficiency of people both phys-
ically and mentally, lead to the natural presumption that they
may also affect the germ plasm and thus cause defect. That,
however, remains to be determined.
The Non-social Being. — There are survivals of the wolfish
disposition in men. This disposition manifests itself more in
the attempt of the individual to associate on his own terms
with his fellows rather than in refusal to associate. The preda-
tory instinct is evinced to a high degree in many members of
society. It is a survival into modern society of the barbaric
‘‘ passion for domination,” as Mallock has called it. Very few,
if any, however, reach such an unsocial condition that they
are willing to have society destroyed and all social intercourse
cease. They lack the wide social interest which considers the
welfare of all the people in the group. They form groups within
1See Warner, A merican Charities, Rev. Ed., 1908, pp. 66-90 and Chap. IV.
SOCIAL DEGENERATION 5°09
society. Such social degeneration is exemplified by the societies
of beggars, criminals, and predatory exploiters of the people
who mask under the guise of legality in their financial operations.
They are social within their own little group; they are anti-
social when the whole society of which they are naturally a part
is considered. Thus, there are very many individuals who fail
to perform their social part in a community, either through
weakness or viciousness. And wherever each individual fails
in this respect society is rendered degenerate.
Social Causes of Degeneration.— When discussing the in-
fluence of individual degeneracy in producing social degenera-
tion it was suggested that anything that breaks down the work-
ings of the social organism or renders ineffective the social
machinery leads directly to degeneration. We have very many
causes that work to destroy normal social action. They may
do nothing more than retard progress in general, though they
may so seriously affect organs as to eventually destroy the whole
group. An example is furnished by the effect of accidents on
the adjustment of social relations in industrial life through
dangerous occupations. The explosion in a mine may kill a
hundred people and thus destroy the earning capacity of a hun-
dred families. These families may resort to various expedients
for support, but there can never be the independent, normal,
social life that existed before. Homes are broken, individuals
die through want or excessive toil, others become sick and hope-
less, and some go down to vice or crime. Society may push on
through normal agencies and overcome the evil effects arising
from such accidents, but the social maladjustment thus en-
gendered must be overcome or society will perish. A hundred
cases similar to this, like the influence of disease from social
groupings, unsanitary surroundings, improper employment of
men, women, and children, enforced idleness through the shift-
ing of industrial life, and conditions which produce a high death
rate, all have a decided effect in producing social degeneration.
If all such defects should be massed at a given time, and also
vital causes should arise through lack of the food supply, a
community must grow weaker and weaker until there is no social
feeling, thought, or will power, no social codperation. The same
effect is produced if the sum total of social maladjustment,
though scattered over long periods of time, has a cumulative
510 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
effect, so impoverishing the normally social individuals with the
burden of taxation necessary to support the defective and delin-
quent, or of so burdening them with social duties made heavy
because some refuse or are unable to bear them.
Social Types. — Each social group has its own type which
determines its degree of progress. The ideal of such a social
group is ever above the average of what is actually achieved.
Through the momentum of social forces this ideal gradually
changes and consequently the social type varies from one period
to another. Whenever the agencies which are at work to main-
tain the social standard or to improve the environment cease
to act, the social life reverts to the old type, and the acquired
characteristics of generations disappear. This may occur by
the loss of the proper ideal or the failure to put forth sufficient
will power to approximate. the ideal. Luxury, idleness, or
shiftlessness destroys the thinking and working forces of society
and causes it to lose its acquired characteristics.
Separate groups have widely different views of the right and
wrong of social action and put in practice far different social
usages. The ideals of the Bantu negroes, the Thlinklets, the
Ainu, and the Sioux are very different and their social types
vary, and yet how widely different is any one of these from the
social ideal and practice of the civilized American. Degenera-
tion is a breakdown of not only the social ideals of the group,
but of the typical social relationships already achieved. What
would be social degeneration for a highly civilized people might
represent advancement of a tribe of Sioux Indians.
The Survival of Society. — The hope of society consists in
making the social relationships ever more complex and more
closely codrdinated. But in order to accomplish this it is neces-
sary to bring each succeeding generation into ever increasing
control of the accumulated products of civilization. In the
general order of society the fit must be given ample opportunity
to demonstrate their strength and the unfit must be gradually
eliminated. But the elimination of the unfit is a social process
and refers not so much to individuals as to characteristics. It
is therefore essential that the strong should protect the weak
and give them an opportunity to overcome their weakness.
While protecting the weak, nevertheless, society must take
measures to make certain that their weakness is not transmitted
SOCIAL DEGENERATION 511
from generation to generation. In the case of defectives, for
example, who transmit their defect by reproduction, they must
be segregated or be so treated otherwise that they cannot pro-
duce their kind. The criminals must be put apart where their
bad example and influence cannot contaminate others. The
whole community must therefore be trained in industry, sani-
tation, domestic habits, and social life in order to perpetuate its
normal growth. Vice and crime must be suppressed, poverty
relieved, and pauperism prevented. More than this, all must be
given the advantages of an education which will fit them for
an honest, independent individual life and prepare them for
their social duties. Society thus has the power, through the
selection of ideals and types and the ordering of social activities,
to perpetuate itself. The strong must give opportunities of
improvement to the weak and teach the weak to use them to
their best advantage. This must be done constantly because
there is no state of automatic society running from generation
to generation. The nearest approach to a social continuum
corresponding to the germ plasm in the body consists of the
traditions, customs, and ideals of a society. They, however,
seem to be very much more easily affected both for ill and for good
than the biological bearer of physical characteristics, the germ
plasm. All efforts for the improvement of society must be as
perpetual as the taking of food for the nourishment of the body.
Society’s work is never finished because society itself is never
completed. The hopeful part of it is that while acquired physi-
cal characteristics cannot be transmitted by heredity, acquired
social qualities, ideals, traditions, and customs are the major
part of our social heritage. |
REFERENCES
Booty, CHARLES. Labor and Life of the People of London.
DARWIN, CHARLES. Descent of Man.
Extwoop, C. A. The Social Problem, Chap. I.
Ety, R. T. “Social Progress and Race Improvement,” in Evolution of
Industrial Society.
GopDARD, Henry H._ Feeblemindedness; Its Causes and Consequences,
1914, Chaps. I, IX, X.
PATTEN, SIMON N. Heredity and Soctal Progress.
PEARSON, Karu. WNational Life from the Standpoint of Science, pp. 14-34,
41-57.
Ross, E. A. Social Control, Chaps. XXV-XXVII.
512 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
Warp, LESTER F. Pure Sociology, p. 227.
WARNER, Amos G. American Charities, Rev. Ed., 1908, Chaps. III and IV.
WEISMANN, A. Y. L. Studies in the Theory of Descent.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Criticize the definition of social degeneration given in the text by formu-
lating a better and giving reasons for the points of difference.
2. Distinguish between social degeneration and individual degeneracy.
3. Pick out one case of degeneracy in an individual and trace its history,
seeking to find out the causes, its heritability, and some of its social conse-
quences, like drunkenness, illegitimacy, disease, etc.
4. Show how, even if intemperance cannot be inherited, the use of alco-
hol to excess produces social degeneration.
5. State the objections to sterilization of degenerate persons.
6. Give the arguments in favor of that method of treating degenerates.
7. What other methods can be suggested to adequately deal with the
problem of such a degeneracy as feeblemindedness, if, as recently stated by
the Vineland, New Jersey, authorities, there are thirty thousand such in New
York, eighteen thousand in Pennsylvania, fourteen thousand in Massachu-
setts, over nine thousand in Michigan, and eight thousand (estimated) in
New Jersey?
8. Why should not degenerates be kept in poorhouses ?
9. Why should they not be left at large in the families of the country?
10. Suggest a plan by which marriage laws might be made to prevent the
spread of degeneracy.
11. What is a moron? What is the danger of having him at large in
society ?
CHAPTER VI
THE ADMINISTRATION OF CHARITABLE AND COR-
RECTIONAL AFFAIRS
Necessity of Care. — The foregoing chapter makes clear how
necessary it is that the strong and normal should care for the
weak and the abnormal. But to do this in such a way as to
increase the strength and sanity of society requires great skill.
If it were merely an individual matter, the unfit would probably
be weeded out by natural selection in the struggle for existence.
But in society it is impossible to permit natural selection to do
its work in the old brutal fashion and at the same time preserve
our sentiments of pity for the weak — sentiments produced in
the course of hundreds of generations. It is impossible for the
same reason to apply a stern method of social selection which
would eliminate the socially unfit. It is neither possible nor
desirable to behead people who are unfit for codperative life, or
even to commit them to a painless lethal chamber. Hence, all
that society can do is to endeavor to make people fit for social
life and to prevent the increase of unfitness. There is less
objection to measures which would insure the dying out of a
degenerate stock like the feebleminded or the insane, although
voices are raised against even such suggestions. In doing this,
great care must be taken that the weak and the vicious are not
perpetuated, and also that they do not become a burden to the
strong whose vitality might thereby be sapped.
The reformation of the reformable is highly desirable. So
costly is it to raise a human being that society can ill afford to
destroy one of whom there is any hope. We find it difficult,
however, to train even normal people into good social usage.
It is far more difficult to train the abnormal. Greater care is
needed, therefore, to train those who are educable and to care-
2L EY
514 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
fully segregate and care for those who are not, for the sake of
society as a whole. Because of the lack of scientific care in the
treatment of the weak and the vicious, crime, insanity, epilepsy,
pauperism, and degeneracy are increased.
Methods of Administration. — Charitable and correctional
institutions may be classified in two general divisions, namely,
private charities and public charities. The care of the poor
was for a long time left to private charitable agencies. Gradu-
ally, however, it has come to be recognized as a part of the duties
of the state. In other words, society is conscious that all its
members should be responsible for the care of the few weaker
ones. “So also in the early history of society crime was a per-
sonal matter and individuals were allowed to punish those who
wronged them, or, in case of death, the relatives of the deceased
were bound to pursue the murderer and destroy him. Gradually,
however, it became the duty of the state to punish criminals.
To-day the hand of the individual is restrained by law from
punishing those who wrong him. On the other hand, he has
the right to demand that the state protect him and his property
and punish all offenders. In like manner gradually it is coming
to be seen that both relief and correction, not in alleviation and
repression alone, but also in the doing of constructive remedial
work as well as providing preventive agencies, must come under
the management of public authorities as fast as private agencies
by experiment point the way in which it may best be done.
There is need of the private agency, but to assert that it is im-
possible for public relief agencies to command the men, means,
and methods necessary to do the needed work is a counsel of
despair which democracy is not ready to accept. Each type of
work has its peculiar advantages and drawbacks. Each has its
field of work. Each must supplement the work of the other.
So far as charity is concerned, private administration has the
advantage of sympathy, enthusiasm, and independent action,
but it lacks unity and comprehensiveness. Public charities, on
the other hand, have the advantage of complete supervision
within a given territory, and are always open to public inspec-
tion. Their dangers are failure to get full return for the money
expended and the interference of politicians in work which can
be well done only by experts. Public charities, being supported
by taxation, have a more stable income than most private
CHARITABLE AND CORRECTIONAL AFFAIRS 515
charities which are dependent upon the contributions of indi-
viduals. Nevertheless, there is frequently more humanity in
the private charity than in the public, which is liable to become
a cold, formal machine of administration. Private charity can
attempt more experiments than public. Its constituency is
smaller, more compact, probably more intelligent as to needs
and methods to meet those needs. It can respond more quickly
toanemergency. Public charity is less scientific, more wasteful,
and less efficient. These shortcomings, however, are not in-
herent, but are incidental to the lack of an enlightened public
opinion. What is needed is more public interest in the care
of the poor, and a general appreciation of the relation of poverty
to social welfare. Does any one doubt that if the general public
were as well informed as to the ideals and methods of proper
relief of the needy as the small body of constituents of the
private organization, the public could do it as well as the private
organization? ‘The probabilities are that it would do the job
much better.
Methods of Public Administration.— There are various
methods of public administration of charities and correction
which have risen largely under different conditions. The states
have, therefore, different laws and varying methods of pro-
cedure. Some states have a separate board for each institu-
tion, leaving the oversight to the legislature, which usually
commits it to a special committee to visit the institution and
report. A state board of charities, with supervisory powers,
each institution having a local board, is also quite common.
In a few states, such as Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, has
been established a state board of control which manages all
the charitable and penal institutions. In these cases there
usually is no supervising body aside from the board of control.
In Kansas a board of control has charge of all charitable in-
stitutions, but the penitentiary and industrial reformatory are
each under separate boards.
While the state board of control represents the most com-
plete method of supervision, it is in danger of the formality of
machinery, and lacks the independent judgment as to how ad-
ministration might be made better afforded by a board of state
charities purely advisory in its capacity. On the other hand,
the state board of charities that visits, inspects, and has ad-
516 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
visory powers only, is usually more progressive in the determina-
tion of the best systems of conducting charitable institutions
and in the scientific care of the unfortunate. In the latter case
usually the penal institutions are conducted by a separate
management. However, the state board of control as instituted
in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Kansas is growing in favor
in the West.
In Massachusetts there is a state board or commission on
lunacy, which has special supervision over all the insane,
epileptics, and weak-minded. There is supposed to be some
advantage in having a special board for a specific institution
or group of institutions. It is claimed that it gives an op-
portunity for members of the board to become proficient in
a given line. Moreover, it is claimed that when a single board
attempts to manage all the charitable and penal institutions
of a large state, while its administration may be perfect, it is
in danger of failing to understand all the institutions under its
control, and therefore the best methods of caring for the wards of
the state are not obtained. On the other hand, it is held that
when a board is provided for such institution, the members
usually do not give all their time to the work and therefore the
management of the institution falls naturally into the hands of
the paid superintendents, as the experience of Iowa has shown.!
There is the further difficulty that each institution endeavors
to obtain from the legislature more than its just share of the
state’s money without regard to the needs of the other institu-
tions of similar character. The legislature has neither the time
nor experience necessary to judge between these claims. A
state board of some kind is needed to study the whole situation,
make recommendations to the legislature, and thus secure an
orderly and symmetrical development of the state’s charitable
and correctional institutions in accordance with the just
needs of each institution. It has been suggested that the
penal institutions of a state should constitute one group;
the charitable institutions, such as care for orphans, insane,
epileptics, and imbeciles, another group under a separate
supervision. Schools for the blind and the deaf and dumb should
be placed under the department of public instruction. In this
way the state would not be burdened with the multiplicity of
1 See Gillin, A History of Poor Relief Legislation in Iowa, 1914, Chap. XVII.
CHARITABLE AND CORRECTIONAL AFFAIRS 517
boards and the work would be subdivided so as to produce the
best results. Where the population of the state is large and
the number of charitable and correctional institutions grows,
some such division of labor is best. On the other hand, in a
state with but few institutions a paid board of members devoting
all their time to the institutions seems to be best.
Segregation of Wards of the State into Separate Institutions.
— The first important thing in dealing with dependents and
delinquents is a careful segregation of these in different institu-
tions. There should be a penitentiary for the hardened crimi-
nals, a reformatory for younger criminals susceptible to reform,
and industrial schools for incorrigible boys and girls. Great
care should be exercised in sending each individual to the
proper institution. While this general plan is being carried
out in the United States, there is much neglect in specific in-
stances of the proper classification. Often insane are kept in
county poorhouses or sent to prison, and epileptics are found in
insane asylums and institutions for the feeble-minded. Some-
times this is due to lack of adequate provision for one or more of
these classes. Often it is due to failure to apply scientific tests
to determine to which class a person belongs. ‘The epileptics,
the insane, the feeble-minded, and the habitual drunkards
should be treated in separate institutions. The modern alms-
house or county poor farm often has no classification whatever.
There we find the pauper, the victim of misfortune, the imbecile,
the insane, the epileptic, the criminal, and sometimes those
afflicted with chronic diseases. By careful classification each
one could be helped in accordance with his specific needs, and
much time and money saved. From the standpoint of the social
welfare the placing of young offenders with old criminals in the
jail or penitentiary is utterly inexcusable. Next to it is the col-
lection of broken parcels of humanity in the county almshouse.
The mingling of the insane and epileptics in the same institu-
tion is a palpable error. The first principle of good adminis-
tration is classification. Each individual must be treated
according to his characteristics as well as his needs. Men can-
not be reformed in phalanxes, much less in a heterogeneous
mass.
The Classification of Inmates. — Classification should extend
further. The inmates of each institution should be classified
518 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
according to sex, age, health, temperament, habits, etc. Good
or evil may arise from association in any of these institutions.
Only those should be thrown together who are mutually helpful,
or at least those who are not mutually harmful. As man is
a social being, it is useless to ignore the helpfulness of proper
association. Human beings of the unfortunate classes, or those
of a vicious character may be made to help each other, if the
proper classification and the right method be used. For example,
it has been found that in many cases feeble-minded women take
great pleasure in caring for the young children in the institution.
So a careful study of the different people in a poorhouse often
will enable the authorities to put people together who are con-
genial in their tastes and habits. Mrs. Coolidge reports that
the matron of the San Francisco almshouse for women con-
trived to solve the problem of bad snorers by ingeniously putting
them with deaf persons.!
The Merit System among Employees and Officials. — Appoint-
ment of officers and attendants should be made with the greatest
of care as to the fitness of the applicant. The using of positions
in the charitable and penal institutions as rewards for party
workers is extremely pernicious. Men who have served their
party must have a place, or they have friends who must have
positions as rewards for such service. The world is full of
‘““ hungry incapacity ” seeking an office, and many appointees to
public service are “‘ mere pegs to hang an office on.” Men
or boards with appointive power are besieged by this class, and
it requires great skill, patience, and courage to secure the right
person for the right place.
Civil service has its advantages as a means of securing efficient
servants of the people. Civil service, however, is not an auto-
matic process by which capable officials are secured; it is only
a method which may be useful if great care be exercised. The
merit system should have much flexibility, and if the appointing
power is intelligent and conscientious and brave enough to resist
political pressure, it is usually better than the hard and fast rules
of a formal civil service system. Since these qualities are often
lacking in the high officials, civil service has been found a de-
fense — perhaps a rather poor one — to prevent the institutions
from being delivered over to the tender mercies of the politicians.
1 Warner, American Charities, Rev. Ed., p. 217 n.
CHARITABLE AND CORRECTIONAL AFFAIRS 519
In actual practice the heads of the institutions and of the boards
are usually appointed, while the subordinates are chosen from
the civil service lists.
But it is preposterous to make sweeping changes in officials
and attendants every two years as the party in power changes,
as has been done in some instances. The best economy is to
find the best officials that can be had anywhere for the positions,
and to keep them as long as they are the best. After all, it
depends upon the character of the men in the business, whether
a high degree of success is possible or not.
The public administration of charities is of great importance
to the welfare of society in general. For if the dependent, de-
linquent, and defective classes are not well cared for, either
within institutions or without, there is a tendency to increase
the number of the defective and criminal classes. This makes
society more abnormal and adds to its burdens. The enormous
sums spent for the care of the weak and the vicious cannot be
justified unless the world grows better thereby. The socially
constructive point of view must dominate all charitable and
penal affairs, or we but add to the misery and degradation by
our: efforts to care for the helpless. It would be better to let
nature take her course in weeding out the unfit than through
improper methods and defective administration to increase
and perpetuate a stock of degenerates.
REFERENCES
Brackmar, F. W. “State Supervision and Administration,” Proceedings of
the National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1903, pp. 358-366.
Crarkx, A.W. Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and
Correction, 1904, pp. 180-187.
HEBBERD, R. W., and Stewart, W.R. Proceedings of the National Con-
ference of Charities and Correction, 1907, pp. 18-23.
HENDERSON, C. R. Modern Methods of Charity, pp. 407-413; Dependents,
Defectives, and Delinquents, Rev. Ed., 1901, pp. 202-209.
SCANLAN, M. J. Proceedings, National Conference of Charities and Correc-
tion, 1905, pp. 167-179.
Warner, Amos G. American Charities, Rev. Ed., 1908, Chap. XVIII.
520 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. What would be the effect upon normal society if the number of depend-
ents were multiplied fourfold?
2. Why is it not cheaper to allow the poor to get along as they may and
relief to be given as any one wishes to have it done rather than to have super-
vision ?
3. Outline the method of supervision practiced in your state by public
authorities with reference to the public charities and the correctional insti-
tutions. With reference to the private charities.
4. Outline clearly the scheme of a state board of supervision, or, as it is
commonly called, a board of state charities. Of a board of control. What
is the essential difference between the two plans ?
5. Give arguments in favor of each of the two systems.
6. What arguments can be advanced in favor of the supervision of pri-
vate charities by public authorities? Against it?
7. What classification is possible in your state of the defective, dependent,
and delinquent classes? State the reasons why they should be cared for in
separate institutions.
8. What classification of inmates is practiced in your insane asylums?
In the jails of your state? In the poorhouses of your county?
g. State the reasons in favor of careful classification of inmates of insti-
tutions.
PART SIX
METHODS OF SOCIAL INVESTIGATION
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CHAPTER I
THE FIELD OF INVESTIGATION
Human Society. — The field of sociological investigation is
very broad, covering the phenomena of human society, i.e. of
human association. The laboratory method involving the
same principles as those used in the physical sciences in this
field is exceedingly difficult to apply. Human society cannot
be controlled for study as a frog, an insect, or a plant. For-
tunately, in studying society the microscope and the telescope
are not needed. The sociologist’s laboratory is the world of
men and women in their social relations. These, however,
he must carefully and patiently observe under all kinds of
changing circumstances.! He must observe and recount the
facts of society, classify them in proper categories and on the
basis of careful comparisons thus made possible draw generali-
zations. Therefore, the student should begin early to make
observation of the character of social structure and movements.
Wherever people are associated there will appear facts of social
relations to be observed and classified.
But in this only certain phenomena should be observed. We
are concerned only with the social relationships which produce
association or grow out of association. The human relationships
which arise in response to a special set of motives, like the
economic, is the business of the economist, those arising from
the political motive, of the political scientist, but those funda-
mental facts of association, the processes by which society
develops from one stage to another and the groupings and their
causes which operated previous to special motives, belong to
the field of sociology. While all society may be its field of
operation, sociology seeks only certain facts of society which
1 Giddings, Inductive Sociology, Chap. I. An application of scientific method in
the treatment of social phenomena is illustrated in an address by Giddings on ‘‘The
Social Marking System,” delivered before the American Sociological Society in
New York. See Publications of the American Sociological Society, Vol. IV, 1900,
p. 42.
523
524 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
pertain to its scope as a science. The boundary of the science
indicates the kind of facts that may be useful for its purpose.
There are phases of ethics, politics, and economics which, al-
though they are social, do not come within the special province
of sociological investigation, but belong to their respective
sciences. But when necessary for its purpose, sociology may
consider the same phenomena as other social sciences in a dif-
ferent way and for a different purpose, just as biology uses
certain facts in the fields of plant life and animal life as the
raw materials of its broader generalizations.
The Use of the Library.— A well-selected library is ab-
solutely essential for well-directed investigation, for the student
must know what others have accomplished and recorded before
he can succeed in the field of practical investigation. While
one might begin to investigate the facts of society by personal
observation, nevertheless it would be idle not to profit by the
experience of others. He will want to know their methods that
he may not experiment with methods already proven useless.
He will not wish to waste time on problems solved by others.
Hence, the facts that have been gathered, classified, and re-
corded and the principles which have been established through
the use of these facts call for thorough library research.
The reports of government departments and commissions,
such as the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Census
Bureau, the United States Bureau of Labor, the Department
of Commerce and Labor, and the various state commissions on
railroads, labor, charities, and correction, as well as numerous
reports of special investigations, such as those of the industrial
commission, represent to a certain extent the field of investiga-
tion. The results of the investigation of such men as Spencer,
Darwin, Huxley, and others are invaluable to the student.
Not less valuable, from a sociological standpoint, are the stand-
ard writers on sociology, such as De Greef, Ward, Tarde, Gum-
plowicz, Small, Ross, Giddings, Thomas, Simmel, Ratzenhofer,
Tonnies, and others.
It is necessary for the student to distinguish between the facts
of society and the theories about society, and to classify sources
and authorities as primary and secondary. For one of the first
principles of sociology is to learn to estimate values. As soon
as the student begins to follow the text and the lecture course
THE FIELD OF INVESTIGATION 525
with collateral reading, he should be given some specific subject
to follow out in the library and to report on it. These subjects
should be selected at first with a view to giving the student
practice in the methods of investigation rather than to adding
to the sum of human knowledge. There are thousands of topics
suggested by writers and investigators which have not been
worked out carefully, and which present a fruitful field of in-
vestigation for the student.
Field Work. — But the social investigator must go beyond
the library. Just as the chemist must experiment in his
laboratory, the geologist reconnoiter the earth, or the biologist
study the forms of life, so sociologists must enter and study
society at first hand. It must, however, be a process of observa-
tion rather than of experimentation.
While many general social problems seem to baffle every
effort to bring them under scientific methods, there are many
which await only the investigator of insight and resource. The
patient gathering of facts concerning the social life and activi-
ties of the backward nature-peoples has gone on apace. Begun
by Spencer in his encyclopedic, but rather one-sided, Descrip-
tive Sociology, the collection of ethnographic and sociological
material since his time has gone on with startling rapidity.
Observation of social life among various peoples is gradually be-
ing made with increasing care and scientific precision. While
still much remains to be done in gathering such material and
verifying reports of previous observers in that field, the major
task remains of carefully digesting for sociology the mass of
information already secured. Aside from this formal side of
social structure and process, there remains the great field of
social psychology. The ground in this field has been cleared by
the psychologists and the social psychologists. There remains
the task of devising methods by which the data in this field
can be carefully gathered and treated by scientific methods on
a large scale. Sociologists cultivating this field need to apply
more vigorously the scientific method to the now chaotic and
seemingly unmanageable mass of material in the realm of
social motive. The field has been roughly charted, and the
categories suggested. What is needed now is a regiment of
workers to scientifically control the wealth of material, to classify
and to interpret it.
526 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
The problems awaiting solution are many and varied. Such
problems as whether the tall, the dark-haired, dark-eyed mem-
bers of one sex choose the short, light-haired, blue-eyed of the
other sex for mates, and if they do, whether they do so instinc-
tively or from social motives; whether the motive which leads
people from the country to the city is social or economic or both,
and if the motives are mixed, which is dominant; whether the
basis of social choice is a biological, or a sociological factor
await the sociologist. We need careful statistical work in the
field of social theory. In the field of applied sociology we need
less theorizing on the basis of individual observation and more
careful gathering of facts in order that we may be more certain
of our generalizations. We prate about the causes of poverty,
for example, when as a matter of fact we do not know even its
extent. As for causes we are in the midst of a somewhat heated
dispute as to whether drunkenness is a cause of poverty or
poverty a cause of drunkenness. Which is cause and which
effect? Is each now cause, and now effect? Or are both
caused by nervous instability? ‘These are questions about which
we can debate until doomsday without result unless we get
more facts. In this and many other fields of social life, they
wait for the patient scholar to gather and interpret them.
In general there are two separate lines of work or divisions of
the subject for investigation, namely those which tend to show
the normal development of society and those which have for their
purpose the determination of abnormal conditions. In the
former the phases of codperate social life, as found in industry,
the church, education, the family, and social life in general,
represent the field of research. The study of a rural district,
of a mining town, of a large manufacturing plant, including all
forms of the labor and life of the people, are examples of studies
of normal types of social action. On the other hand, the search
for the defects of society, with a view to their correction, is of
great value. The pathological condition of different classes of
labor, such as miners, laborers in factories, clerks in stores, farm
laborers, and kitchen help, should be studied. Care should
be taken to inquire into the housing of the poor, methods of
employment, and the various evil influences of promiscuous
drinking saloons and of the liquor traffic in general. The evil
influences of the herding of boys together without proper supervi-
THE FIELD OF INVESTIGATION 527
sion, the conditions of jails and lockups, the social life of our public
schools, truancy, and a hundred other questions involving social
problems, furnish fields of social investigation in the other field.
The aim of social investigation is, first, to furnish exact knowl-
edge of conditions and, second, to provide means of remedying
evil conditions so that social life may be improved. To this
end the student should acquaint himself with all the special
movements like social settlements, children’s home-finding
societies, local charity organizations, industrial schools, free
kindergartens, and other similar movements that tend to better
the condition of human society. One of the primary purposes
of investigation to the young student of sociology, however, is
to vitalize his work. Human society being his laboratory,
his knowledge from books should be a guide to his actions,
furnish a normal standard of life and normal types of social
institutions. But since library work without practical observa-
tion has a tendency to give students unreal conceptions of life,
some study of actual social conditions is needed to vitalize one’s
knowledge gained from books and lectures.
But the more mature sociologist must extend his work much
farther than this and with a more definite object. He must
secure accurate data to verify his hypotheses. He is forced to
determine the form, structure, and operations of society by
actual observation. Having obtained sufficient data of this
nature, he is prepared to classify, combine, and generalize, and
thus obtain general principles of sociology. Without this he
cannot establish a science.
The Data of Other Sciences. — The sociologist will be free to
use any data relating to the origin, growth, processes, motives,
and structures of society which will answer his purpose of in-
vestigation. While sociology is an independent science with a
special field of work, the data and the generalizations of other
sciences may be of great assistance. A large amount of material
obtained from biology, anthropology, economics, ethics, history,
and psychology must be worked over by the sociologist to
enable him to reach his conclusions. For example, some of
the conclusions drawn by prehistoric archeology, for instance
that the Swiss Lake Dwellers probably had bridles for horses
and therefore we know had domesticated them, throw light upon
the origins of social life and codperative activities. Or that
528 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
feeblemindedness is inherited according to the Mendelian Law,
should such a fact be firmly established, would enter at once into
the presuppositions of sociology and into consideration in the
formation of any theory of social degeneration. This opens
up a wide field of research and puts the investigator in the atti-
tude of a generalizer of the knowledge of human relationships.
But one must not infer from this that sociology includes all
social sciences, nor is it made up of a synthesis of them, nor is it
a general amalgamation of the results of other social sciences.
Sociology no more includes all the social sciences than architec-
ture includes metallurgy, geology, physics, and chemistry.
Sociology is no more an amalgamation of the results of other
social sciences like economics, political science, and _ history,
than landscape art is made up of botany, civil engineering, and
agriculture. The data of other sciences, however, are used by
the sociologist for his specific purposes.
REFERENCES
BLACKMAR, F. W. The Study of History, Sociology, and Economics.
KELLOR, FRANCES. Experimental Sociology.
Grppincs, F. H. Inductive Sociology; Sociology, New York, 1909, pp. 21-
25\°36--36.
Mayo-SMitH, RICHMOND. Statistics and Sociology.
SMALL, A. W. Methodology in Sociology; Sociology as Social Science.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. List the subjects which might be investigated in your own commu-
nity which are strictly sociological in their nature.
2. Show that while the investigation of the motives which lead to a par-
ticular sort of activities among men, such as the economic motives and ac-
tivities, is not sociological, the findings of such an investigation may serve
as data for the sociologist who is trying to formulate the regularities of all
kinds of social motives and activities and thus establish generalizations
concerning human motives and activities in all kinds of associated life.
3. Go through the volume of the Census on Population and show one
thing which the sociologist may find of value therein.
4. Read one good elementary text on sociology and point out what parts
of it represent social philosophy and what parts belong to social science.
5. Choose some one social problem in your community, such as the recrea-
tion facilities, vice, the customs of courtship prevailing there, etc., and make
a careful sociological study of it according to the strictest scientific methods.
6. Make a study of feeblemindedness in your community, being careful
to indicate what part of that study is strictly biological and what sociological.
CHAPTER II
METHODS OF INVESTIGATION
Sociological Purpose. — Whatever methods are employed in
investigation, a sociological purpose is necessary in order to
obtain satisfactory results. In natural science, a beginner
may be sent into the field or laboratory to see what he can find,
with a view to training his observation. But what he discovers
will never be of permanent value until he goes into the field or
laboratory to find out certain things or to test certain hypoth-
eses. The complexity of social phenomena and the wide range
of observation make it idle for him to waste his energies in a
purposeless search for the facts of human society. He may have,
indeed, a very broad subject, such as the unity of the human
mind, which will oblige him to study the mental types of different
tribes and races. Nevertheless, without this definite purpose
he could study psychical phenomena of tribes and races forever
without reaching any definite conclusion. It may be a some-
what narrower subject, like the labor problem of America that
he is studying, but even in that he should limit his subject to
the closed shop, the pathology of the strike, or the effect of the
union label, in order to reach results of value. The purpose
having been once determined, all facts relating to it should be
used, and all others for the time being excluded.
On the other hand, one must ever guard himself against allow-
ing his bias or even his hypothesis to blind him to any relevant
facts. Sometimes, after sufficient experience has been gained
in first-hand study of a social subject, one may well begin the
study of a certain field without any previous hypothesis. A
definite sociological purpose will not hinder careful scientific
work by the trained worker, but may prove to be a pitfall
for the beginner. In either case, whether he starts with a theory
or without one, his scientific interest should dominate any re-
ligious or social motive which he may have. For example,
2M 529
530 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
one may start out to ascertain what function the saloon serves.
He may begin with a theory that it serves a useful purpose in
providing a place where the poor man may meet his fellows on
terms of equality and where the process of socialization may
take place, or that the saloon is entirely antisocial in its tend-
encies, and serves no useful social purpose, or he may seek to
get all the facts without any hypothesis as to whether it func-
tions as a social agent or not. In either case he will endeavor
to get all the facts and make up his mind from his findings, not
from his beliefs.
Limitation of the Subject of Study. — To succeed in socio-
logical investigation, it is necessary to consider only the relevant
facts. Take, for instance, a subject such as the relation of the
colored to white children in mixed schools. A great many
facts may be gathered concerning both of these classes of pupils,
but it would be better to narrow the work to relative progress
of the two races. Even this would require a wide range of re-
search. The vital object of such study would be a fair test of
relative mental ability of the two races. The sociological pur-
pose being narrowed down to the determination of racial mental
capacity, it would be necessary to consider all the environments
—in fact the entire social life — of the respective races. Be-
ginning with the kindergarten it will be found, perhaps, that
children of the colored race are as bright, and learn as rapidly
as those of the white race. In the grades, the former begin to
decline in relative ability and progress. In order to determine
whether this is due to environment or racial characteristics,
it will require an investigation into the home surroundings
and the wider social life. By a careful study of his nature the
relative mental powers may be determined. While all of the
data of every kind that relate to the subjects well may be con-
sidered, all else will be excluded.
Selection of Facts Bearing upon the Problem. — There must
be a perpetual selection of the right data or nothing will be ac-
complished. Certain facts must be cast away and the remainder
carefully compared as to relative values. It would be idle if
one were investigating the subject of apples to gather in his
basket cherries, pears, grapes, and peaches along with the
apples, simply because they may all be classified under the term
fruit, and so for every subject in statistics the necessary data
METHODS OF INVESTIGATION 531
vary from those of any other subject. Take, for example, the
labor problem. If one were to consider the whole subject of
labor in a descriptive way he might consider all of the facts in
connection with its history and progress. But, should he de-
sire to determine one point only, that of the relative rate of wages
between two communities, occupations, or groups, he need not
consider all of the numberless facts about strikes, boycotts,
the closed shop, injunctions, non-union labor, the walking dele-
gate, etc. All this matter he would exclude and confine himself
strictly to the fact of real and nominal wages, within the respec-
tive groups compared. Every beginner in the scientific study
of a subject must throw away much material which at first
sight seems to bear upon the problem, but which on careful
examination and further study is seen to be irrelevant, al-
though perhaps interesting in some other connection.
General Investigation. — Perhaps the simplest method of
investigation is found in a general subject, about which the
student collects all of the available data concerning a given
group or society and classifies them. ‘The investigator in sucha
study seeks to present the nature of the society described as a
whole rather than to deduce any principles relating to its
existence. A town, a rural community, a city, a communistic
society, or a special community of laborers may be taken. All
of the sociological characteristics of the group must be enu-
merated and recorded. Occupation, income, religion, education,
amusements, general social characteristics, political organiza-
tion, and government should be carefully noted and described.
A mining camp in Colorado or Nevada would furnish an inviting
study of this nature. A careful description of society in a
foreign country offers great possibilities for this kind of scientific
work. Examples are to be found in Nansen’s The Esquimos
and Ross’s The Changing Chinese. Moreover, such studies are
sadly needed to supply sociological material supplied at present
too often by the reports of untrained observers or persons
interested in other than sociological facts. Soon many of the
customs, practices, ideals, institutions, etc., of these backward
and isolated people will pass away. Unless the trained sociol-
ogist observes and describes them the world will lose some of
the most valuable data bearing upon the problem of social origins.
If only the early Spanish writers who described the customs and
532 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
rites of the Aztec Indians had been trained in sociology! Such
work is especially valuable to beginners because it is descriptive
rather than analytical in its nature, and because it shows them
what society really is and how it has developed. While the
results of the novice may not be of permanent value and his
descriptions will always have to be checked up by the trained
observer, the value of such studies to the student himself is
such that he may well begin with such descriptive labor. Thus
he learns to observe correctly and to describe accurately what
he sees. He is led to see the significant things in social life and
to set them forth in their proper relations.
Special Investigation. — Following the above method of
investigation a very limited subject, extending over a wide
range of facts, may be taken by the student. Feeblemindedness
as a cause of poverty in the United States, the relation of the
volume of circulating money to prices, or some such subject
may bechosen. A more difficult subject than either of the above
mentioned would be a specific subject covering a very narrow
field, such as the effect of the beef trust on prices, the relation
between the procedure of juvenile courts and child psychology,
the conditions of jails in a state, and popular education. In
order to accomplish anything in a field of this nature it is neces-
sary to obtain all the facts relating to the specific subject with
great accuracy and comprehensiveness, to make a very careful
comparison of them, and to deduce conclusions by rational
processes.
Specific Methods. — All investigation of social phenomena
before it is of any service to science involves both the inductive
and the deductive methods. Sociology has gained just in pro-
portion as it has followed the inductive methods of the natural
sciences. Gathering and classifying phenomena with a distinct
purpose in view is the foundation of the sociological method.
But this knowledge is of no use until it is arranged, classified,
generalized, and the principles deduced therefrom.
The statistical method is a scientific device to ascertain the
facts about society and the relations between groups of facts.
It is an attempt to measure social forces or values in terms of
number. Its fundamental principle is accurate counting. The
first movement is to determine the given unit, and the second
to notice its recurrence within a given time or given space. To
METHODS. OF INVESTIGATION 533
use a simple illustration, if one were to break a piece of chalk
into very many pieces by a blow from a hammer and then were
to ask, ‘‘ How many pieces of chalk are there as a result of the
blow? ”’ the first thing to be considered would be what con-
stitutes a piece of chalk, for there are pieces of all sizes, from the
particle of dust so small as to be scarcely visible to the naked
eye, to those of the size of a marble.
In the enumeration of social phenomena the unit of enumera-
tion is more difficult to determine. For example, if you are*
enumerating the Negro race or the Indian race in the United
States, it is important to determine the distinguishing mark of
the Negro or the Indian. How should an individual having
one thirty-second part Negro or Indian blood in his veins be
classified? If you are investigating the wage system it is neces-
sary to determine who are the wage earners — those who work
by the day, the week, the month, or the year, or whether all
of these shall be so included. Having determined the unit,
one must find its recurrence within a given time and space.
Social forces may be measured by the statistical method as to
what is accomplished in a certain time and space and in a given
direction. The increased productiveness of a given working
population by the use of a new invention may be determined.
The market reports have a purpose of this kind in the estimation
of prices and crops.
There are various specific purposes to be served by a statistical
treatment of social phenomena. The principal ones are the
static and the dynamic. The first seeks to see society or any
part of it in its various relationships at a given time. It has no
reference to progress or change, but seeks an instantaneous view
of social relationships covering a given social mass. As society
is never without change, and as it takes time to carry on an in-
vestigation, the purpose is never exactly realized. A very good .
illustration of an attempt to secure a static conception of society
is the taking of the United States census. Take, for example,
the subject of population alone. Working as rapidly as possible,
the director of the census must spend some months in obtaining
an accurate enumeration of the population. During this time
society has changed by emigration, immigration, birth, and
death, and the compilation of the census represents not the
present but the past. So it is with every attempt to get a static
534 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
view of relationships, the constant movement of society, always
shifting, changing, progressing or retarding, renders it impossible
to obtain an exact, instantaneous view of society. Perhaps if
one could invent a social kinetoscope he might obtain such a
picture of society.
The dynamic purpose supplements the static by recognizing
the constant change of society. It seeks to show the movement
of social forces and their results. It represents a series of
static views of relationships put together in natural sequence.
It involves the investigation of such questions as the increase
in wages, the rise and fall of prices, the increase or decrease
of population, the increase or decrease of crime or suicide, the
development of morality, the decline or growth of the war
spirit, or, in fact, any subject moving. over a given period of
time. Its success depends a good deal upon the accuracy of
the successive static views which one may take of the subject.
Since most societies are actually changing, one cannot fully
understand society without investigation with the dynamic
purpose in mind.
Analysis. — Facts collected are of little value unless intelli-
gently used. A careful analysis is necessary before they are
made of service in determining social relationships or social
progress. Even the best results that may be had will possess
only a high degree of probability. The difficulty of getting
exact information, the failure to get universal returns, and the
numerous processes involved before the final deduction is made,
give it only a degree of certainty. In proof of this it will be
found that the United States census, although of great value
in many ways, gives only approximate rather than mathematical
accuracy.
Nevertheless, the closer the student gets to the real mechanism
of society, the better acquainted he becomes with the real
forces of society through personal observation and the more
vital and serviceable will be his work.
The Social Survey. — A good illustration of the application
of the statistical method is to be found in what has come to be
called the social survey. This new application of an old method,
to which the name social survey has been given, has been charac-
terized as follows by Paul U. Kellogg, who conducted the Pitts-
burgh Survey in 1907-1908. It takes its unit of work from the
METHODS OF INVESTIGATION 535
surveyor in that it is limited to social conditions within a given
geographical area, a city, a county, etc. It takes from the
physician his art of applying to the problems at hand standards
and experience worked out elsewhere, such as what good ventila-
tion and good sanitation are. It takes from the engineer his
working conception of the structural relation of things. It
deals with the various problems of the community not as isolated
problems but as integral parts of one problem, the welfare of
the community. Again, the social survey borrows from the
charity organization movement its case-counting method of
bringing the problem down to human terms. It deals with
actual human beings, their needs and conditions. And finally it
borrows from the newspaper the art of graphic presentation of
the truth as found by investigation. Therefore, it may be said
that a social survey is an application of the statistical method to
a study of the social problems of a community confined within
certain geographical limits, and the publication of the results in
such a way as to lead to the information of the whole community
concerning itself.
The history of the social survey movement takes us back to
the great work of Mr. Charles Booth, who devoted his fortune
and a great part of his later life to a study of social conditions
in London, the results of which are published in his Lzfe and
Labor of the People of London. Mr. Rowntree’s study of
York set forth in his Poverty, A Study of Town Life, is another
example of the application of the statistical method to the study
of a phase of a city’s life. Other studies by individuals and
groups which approximated the methods of the social survey are
Jane Addams’s Hull House Maps and Papers, Mr. Woods’s
South End House Studies, The City Wilderness, Americans in
Process, etc., Mr. Roberts’s The Anthracite Coal Commumties,
and various other studies of specific communities. Phases of a
community’s life were furnished by Hunter’s Tenement House
Conditions in Chicago, and The First Report of the Tenement
House Department of the City of New York, 1902-1903. The
first social survey in the sense of our definition given above ever
attempted in this country, however, was the Pittsburgh Survey,
promoted by the Charities Publication Committee and financed
1 Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York, Vol.
II, pp. 477-480.
536 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
by the Russell Sage Foundation, the results of which are pub-
lished in a series of volumes. Since then a number of places
have introduced this method of social stock taking. Buffalo
undertook to study the Polish section of that city and financed
the undertaking itself. Mrs. Caroline Bartlett Crane made
a preliminary survey of a group of smaller communities of
Kentucky under the supervision of the State Board of Health
and the Federation of Women’s Clubs of that state. Various
cities have been surveyed since then, among them, to name only
a few, were Providence under the leadership of Mr. Aronovici,
Newark, New Jersey, and Sag Harbor, under Mr. St. John, and
Mr. Stelzle of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions. Since
then the Russell Sage Foundation has organized a Department
of Surveys and Exhibits with a director and staff which under-
takes to survey communities which are in a position to finance
the undertaking. The Department of Church and Country
Life has been organized within the Presbyterian Board of Home
Missions and has made a number of surveys of rural communities
throughout the eastern and middle western parts of the United
States. Some of the state universities are taking up the matter
of social surveys within their respective states, among them
being the University of Minnesota, the University of Kansas,
and the University of Wisconsin.
There is danger that the making of social surveys may be-
come a fad and degenerate into dilettanteism. ‘There is great
need of a standardization of methods and a perfecting of tech-
nique which will preserve the good in social surveying. If the
universities will take hold of it, as they have of civil, mechanical,
and mining engineering, the dangers mentioned will be mini-
mized because the commercial element will be eliminated. As
practiced at the present time by the professional, social, and
educational surveyor, it is liable to be brought into disrepute.
Too often it is made with a destructive bias by the surveyor,
on the theory, conscious or unconscious, that unless he finds
something wrong with the place or institution surveyed he will
have no reason for his existence. Moreover, it is tending in
some quarters to degenerate into an attempt to apply to such
matters as methods of education, standards of efficiency which
may be useful in checking clerks or workers in a factory, but
which when applied to testing the work of people who are dealing
METHODS OF INVESTIGATION 537
with the more delicate matters of education and religious in-
struction are like trying to mend a watch with a crowbar.
The limitations of this method must be clearly recognized by
those who are its friends. Its application to certain problems
in connection with all kinds of institutions will prove beneficial,
but to try to bend all kinds of social phenomena to its stiff and
undeveloped methods is to distort the facts out of all semblance
to reality and make them the instrument of error rather than of
truth.
REFERENCES
PEARSON, Kart. The Grammar of Science, Chap. I.
Jevons, W.S. Principles of Science, Chap. XIV.
See also the series of papers in Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science
in the City of New York, Vol. II, pp. 475-544 on “Social Surveys”’;
Riley, ‘Sociology and Social Surveys,” American Journal of Sociology,
Vol. XVI (May, 1911), pp. 818-836; Gillin, “The Application of the
Social Survey to Small Communities,” Jbid., Vol. XVII (March, 1912),
pp. 647-658; ‘The Social Survey and its Further Development,”’
Publications of the American Statistical Association, 1915.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Look over a volume of the Census, Volume I of Booth’s Life and Labor
of the People of London, Volume I of The Pittsburgh Survey, and state the
sociological purpose in each.
2. Would the study of family life among the Bantoc Igorotes of the
Philippines be a special or a general sociological study ?
3. Cite a book aside from those mentioned in the text which is a descrip-
tive sociological study.
4. Let the class organize itself for a complete survey of some community
or some one social problem therein. There is great need of a careful look-
ing into the situation with respect to the means of social recreation in most
communities. Other subjects will naturally suggest themselves.
5. When the Census Report on Marriage and Divorce sets forth the num-
ber of marriages in the United States in a certain year, is it following the
static or the dynamic method? Which is illustrated when it compares the
number of divorces in 1887 with the number in 1906?
6. Are Riis’s books, How the Other Half Lives, The Battle with the Slum,
and The Children of the Poor sociological investigations? If so, what kind?
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PART SEVEN
THE HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGY
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CHAPTER I
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
Historical Development of Sociology. — A knowledge of the
development of sociology is essential to a full comprehension of
the subject. It is a history of the speculations touching the
origin and development of society, and of the steps in the process
by which sociology is becoming not only social philosophy, more
or less closely applied to political philosophy, but also a science
with its own methods and norms, with its generalizations based
primarily upon a wide induction from social facts. In a brief
sketch the ideas of the principal contributors to the science
may be reviewed, even though an analysis of all their theories
and systems of thought is not possible.
Although the evolution of society has been in progress since an
early period, the development of sociology began at a compara-
tively recent date. However, wherever society has developed
so that there has been leisure for thought, men have speculated
about society. Hebrew prophet and Attic sage has each con-
tributed something to social theory, the one emphasizing the
purpose of the state from the standpoint of religious idealism,
the other stressing the philosophical nature and function of the
state. Plans of association, of government, law, religion, or
general social order have been set forth by leaders in thought
and action during the course of human history. Many of the
early suggestions were concrete plans for the practical regulation
of a particular social group or nation. General theories were
seldom advanced. Yet these practical experiments were of
service in developing a program of social action and preparing
the way for more general theories and systems. In the history
of sociology there will be found, then, three distinct classes
of ideas, namely: (1) those arising from ideal systems set forth
by philosophers, (2) those arising from plans of practical social
changes, and (3) those coming from the scientists who have
through investigation and logical construction laid the founda-
541
542 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
tions of a scientific sociology. These classes of ideas do not
necessarily follow each other but are more or less blended from
age to age. It will be possible to allude to only a few of the
prominent epoch-making examples of each class.
Ancient Philosophers. — The ancient philosophers who con-
structed elaborate theories of government and social organiza-
tion have had much influence in awakening thought on the
nature of society and forms of social order. In this particular
connection, perhaps the philosophy of Plato has been more
extensive in its influence than any other idealistic system.
While the methods of social organization set forth in The Re-
public were never put into practice, that book was the first
great utopian scheme conceived by man and has influenced
modern thought in many ways.
In quite a different way has the Politics of Aristotle modified
social thought. It was rather a scientific treatise on govern-
ment than an ideal system of social order. Discussing the
philosophical foundations of social order it could not fail to in-
fluence men’s thoughts about social relations. As a critical
analysis of the bases of government it modified the thought of
Western Europe from the time of its introduction into the cur-
rent of political discussion among the nations which slowly
arose from the ruins of the Roman Empire in the Middle Ages.
It was an original philosophy of government based upon the best
examples in history. Wherever read, it created thoughtful-
ness as to the nature of society and the power and duty of
government.
Likewise, Cicero in his philosophy of the State and Justinian
in his Codex, from the Roman standpoint gave a new direction
to social philosophy. The Romans were intensely practical in
governmental affairs, and were so successful in creating law and
establishing social order, that the impress of their deeds upon sub-
sequent philosophy was tremendous. Not only was their theory
of the law and their form of government followed closely by
succeeding generations, but their conception of society and
social order have colored the discussions of jurists, historians,
and philosophers of medieval and modern times. Especially
to be noted is the Roman interpretation of property rights and
systems of administration which dominated the early states
founded among Teutonic peoples.
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY 543
Among the Teutonic peoples, before they were influenced by
Roman law, there was comparatively little constructive work.
Their codes of laws were tribal customs and their social life
very simple, although Alfred may have devoted some thought
to a plan for the better government of his Saxons. The Roman
law found in the Teutons and Celts a people prepared both
by their previous history and by the new problems raised by
their recent social development.
Medieval Philosophers. — While early philosophers and
practical reformers sought to make a transition from the ethnic
to the demographic society, those of medieval times were
crying out against the corruption of a system of government
that was established through the rise of kingship immediately
following the dissolution of the feudal system. The Roman
idea of imperialism entered the Teutonic nations just as they
were emerging from the tribal into demotic society. On the
decay of feudalism the Roman idea of government, suggested
both by the students of Roman law and by the example of the
Church, came into practical operation. The Christian Church
had already by the fourth century so thoroughly established its
system of brotherhood and so completely adopted the Roman
idea of government in its organization that it became a formi-
dable opponent to the rapidly decaying Roman Empire. On the
fall of the Western Empire in 476 a.p. the Church was pre-
pared to take up in a measure the reins of government struck
from the nerveless grasp of the ancient City. The one first
to give this aim convincing literary expression and so to es-
tablish it in the minds of succeeding generations of churchmen
was Augustine, who in order to contrast the ideal workings of
the Christian Church with the corrupt practices of the world,
wrote his City of God. It was a presentation of the ideas of a
Christian state founded on the doctrine of brotherly love and
perfect equality, under the headship of the Catholic clergy.
In subsequent years a series of able popes realized in concrete
and definite form the main lines of his ideal of this divine system.
St. Augustine was a virile writer and had a great influence, not
1See Augustine, The City of God, Bk. XX; Harnack, History of Dogma, Vol.
V, pp. 151-155; Monasticism and Confessions of St. Augustine, p. 121; Bryce,
The Holy Roman Empire, Rev. Ed., 1904, Chaps. IV, X. The Genevan state at .
a much later date bears a close resemblance to this ideal city of God, so far as it
could be carried out by human endeavor,
544 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
only on subsequent theology, but on the medieval church
as a temporal state. Writers of the medieval period followed
Augustine in seeking to reform the government on what they
believed was the Christian basis.
Several writers who would scarcely be classified as medieval,
but with much less propriety may be considered modern, such
as Sir Thomas More, Campanella, Dante, and Machiavelli,
presented ideal systems of government in contrast with the
corrupt and defective medieval system which was prolonging
itself beyond its stage of usefulness. In The Prince, Machia-
velli makes an attempt to unify these scattered elements of
governmental practice and philosophy into a new imperialism.
Its chief influence arises from its recognition of the need of
reform rather than from the definite remedy suggested. Like-
wise, in the De Monarchia of Dante, imperialistic ideas are
not wanting, but the evil characteristics of government are to
be eliminated through the light of Christian doctrine. But
neither Machiavelli nor Dante had so great an influence on
social philosophy as Thomas More. While More’s Utopia,
the most remarkable of all the ideal commonwealths after
Plato’s Republic, comes at the opening of the modern period,
its chief aim is the criticism of the medieval system then ob-
taining in England. In contrasting the corrupt and defective
methods of government then in vogue with an ideal community
based on political, industrial, and social equality, he created a
new conception of social organization and suggested new aims
of association and of government. Campanella’s City of the
Sun, written about the beginning of the seventeenth century,
formulated for the first time a complete socialistic system.
While not so great a book in many ways as the Utopia of More,
it emphasized the communistic ideal of society. It presented
an ideal city carefully organized and thoroughly disciplined.
The basis of government was equality and the sacrifice of the
individual to the community. Campanella was opposed to
the philosophy of Aristotle, and his work was the counterpart of
Plato’s Republic. It furnished a scientific basis for communistic
socialism.}
These systems of ideal governments, projected by thoughtful
minds, helped to suggest scientific principles of government and
1 See supra, Chap. II, Part IV.
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY 545
showed the world how far the regnant ideals of the time were
from the ideals of social justice, and from social aims terminating
in the general welfare of the people. They called attention to
the changes in economic and social life consequent on the rise of
a broadened commercial and industrial horizon and suggested that
these new conditions demanded the consideration of the state.
While the works of Campanella and More represent only a
dream of government which could never be realized as pictured,
they embodied an ideal of justice which, if states and societies
are to be perpetuated, must eventually be approximated.
Further, they demonstrated that the methods of social life were
worthy of the study of philosophers.
Modern Philosophers. — The difference between medieval
and modern philosophy is a difference in fundamental ideas
rather than in chronology. It is difficult, therefore, to say
when the former ended and the latter began. Perhaps The
New Atlantis of Bacon, written early in the seventeenth cen-
tury, should be classified along with the Utopia of More and
the City of the Sun of Campanella. However, as The New
Atlantis was a fragment of the philosophy of Bacon which
stands at the beginning of the modern era it may be considered
as a part of modern philosophy. Its purpose is rather to awaken
an interest in philosophy and show the duty of the state towards
science than to stimulate governmental experiments. Bacon
hoped to ameliorate the conditions of society through the ad-
vancement of knowledge, and he attempted to show that it is,
therefore, the state’s duty to take an interest in all affairs that
affect the physical well-being of man, as well as those that per-
fect the organization of human society.
The approach to the social order through philosophical
means was finally changed to the political point of view. Har-
rington’s Oceana, written in 1656 and dedicated to Cromwell,
was a serious consideration of a written constitution for the
purpose of limiting monarchy. This was followed by Hume a
century later in his Essays Moral and Political, in which he
presented his idea of a perfect commonwealth. From this
time a strong current of English thought set in toward a liberal
spirit In government.
In France the same spirit of liberty was stirring in the seven-
teenth century. Vairasse d’Allais pictured an ideal monarchy
2N
546 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
in which the state owned the land and the people dwelt in semi-
communistic groups. Fenelon’s Télémaque also describes a
perfect monarchy ruled by a perfect king. These were but
hints of an ideal system in strange contrast with the government
then in vogue.
The eighteenth century in France witnessed a serious con-
sideration of the so-called natural rights of men and the rela-
tion of civil government to natural law. Montesquieu gave a
philosophical discussion of the three sorts of government, the
despotic, the monarchical, and the republican, which he exam-
ined with great care, and thereby gave an impetus to the study
of political science. Rousseau’s Social Contract appeared in
1762, which set forth the peculiar doctrine that government
existed through voluntary compact, to be dissolved at will.
While it was extreme in its views, being inspired by reaction
against the French monarchy and the theory of the divine right
of kings, then supreme, it has had enormous influence on social
philosophy. This was followed by Mably, who in a series of
writings denounced private property, the right of inheritance,
methods of commerce and credit, as well as all forms of culture.
He was iconoclastic in the extreme, almost revolutionary in his
utterances. He was a strong advocate of poverty as the mother
of virtues, and of equality and community of goods as the basis
of the state. These writers prepared the way for the French
Revolution and its socialistic philosophers.
Babceuf, Saint-Simon, Fourier, Cabet, Louis Blanc, and
Proudhon advocated various ideal systems which ranged all
the way from state socialism to a system of anarchy. These
schemes were the attempts of dreamers to eliminate the harsh
and unjust, social and political systems of Europe by the es-
tablishment of an ideal social order. Impractical as many
of their schemes were in detail, their writings were highly ser-
viceable in pointing out the evil of existing affairs and suggest-
ing many means of improvement which were brought about
later by less radical measures.
Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations gave a great impetus to
thought concerning the commonwealth. John Stuart Mill’s
Political Economy and his political philosophy embodied in
others of his writings were important contributions to the sub-
ject of political science. Mill points out the need of a social
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY 547
science or sociology as a more complete study of human society.
Malthus, in his study of the relation of the food supply to the
population, startled the world by his conclusions and stimulated
interest in statistical inquiry into the condition of human
society. All of these writers, as well as others, directed human
thought towards social affairs, but formulated no science of
society and suggested no synthetic method for its study.
Experimental Social Philosophers.— While the number
of persons who have given us ideal systems of government
is great, comparatively few in number are those who have
attempted practical experiments for the improvement of the
social order. In some cases experiments in social reform by
means of laws and ideals grew out of the practical necessity
of coming to terms with an existing situation. In other cases,
especially in later times, social experiments were inaugurated in
response to utopias presented by the social philosophers of their
time or of earlier days. Among those who stand out from all the
rest among the ancients in suggesting practical social improve-
ment are Moses, Lycurgus, Solon, Servius Tullius, and Charle-
magne; while among the moderns are the French revolutionists,
the American revolutionists, and men like Robert Owen, Louis
Blanc, and Etienne Cabet. While the great lawgivers used
the practices of common law and social order already in existence
before them as a foundation of their systems, still they were
masterful organizers who set forth new plans and forced society
to adopt them. For example, the early Hebrew kingdom was
built up on a social basis of tribal customs and laws existing
long before but modified by the exigencies of settlement among
a hostile people, the Caananites, and connected by tradition
with the earlier hero and lawgiver, Moses. Upon that basis
layer after layer of law and rule was laid down from age to age
by lawmaking prophets and priests, from the Deuteronomic
Code, the work of the disciples of the great eighth century
prophets, down through the so-called Priest’s Code to the legis-
lation of the Talmud. The earlier codes aimed at political,
social, and industrial justice, and, dealing as they did with a
semicivilized race, they regulated morals and religion as well
as civil affairs. They represent the transition from ethnic to
demographic society. They recognized classes and defined
the rights of each class and gave each individual a place in the
548 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
social organization. Perhaps no collection of laws in existence
ever illustrated more fully the sociological development of law
and government than the various codes of the Hebrew and
Jewish peoples. All the social relations in existence at the
time were recognized and clearly defined by law. While the
rights of the individual were acknowledged, they were always
subordinated to the general. social order. It was recognized
that the individual could not go far in any direction without
coming into conflict with the rights of his fellows. They all
reflect the social order of the times for which they were intended
and set forth an ideal towards which the people were urged
by formal enactments ostensibly handed down by an ancient
lawgiver of peculiar endowment and authority. The so-called
Mosaic codes, therefore, represent not only the collected laws
relating to the Hebrew people, but also ideal societies and prac-
tical experiments in social life. These laws have had great in-
fluence on subsequent forms of government and legislation and
especially on the philosophy of government and social usage.}
The laws of Lycurgus, while representing the usages of
the Spartans, had for their purpose the carrying out of the
new practical plan of government in which the individual was
largely subjected to the social order. Likewise, the laws of
Solon represent the transition from the old forms of ethnic
society to a newer democracy and as such are somewhat experi-
mental in their nature, although like all others his laws rested
upon the best usages of the people. Yet many of them, based
upon existing laws as a foundation, instituted such practical
reforms as resulted in the transformation of social order. Of a
similar character were the laws of Servius Tullius of Rome,
who organized the Roman society on a military basis — the
first formal departure of the Romans from the old groupings of
ethnic society. Subsequent attempts at the reform in the land
laws of Rome represent practical experiments in government.
All attempts to reform society through such experiments have
had great influence in shaping the practices and theories of
government. The conquest and reorganization of Western
1On the development of the Hebrew and Jewish codes, see Hastings, Dictionary
of the Bible, Art. ‘“‘Hexateuch”; Cheyne, Encyclopedia Biblica, Art. ‘‘Hexateuch ” ;
Briggs, The Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch, Chaps. VII and VIII; Mitchell,
The World Before Abraham, pp. 1-72.
* Goodspeed, History of the Ancient World, p. 100.
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY 549
Europe by Charlemagne was accompanied by an attempt to
establish educational and civil reforms which, though not
lasting or continuous in subsequent development, stand out
as historical landmarks and possibilities of what may be done
by government to modify society.
Robert Owen sought to reéstablish society on an industrial
basis and his experiment at New Lanark was a theory of society
put to the acid test. While it eventually failed, he left an
influence making for codperation which was both important
and permanent. The modern experimenters, like Cabet and
Louis Blanc, and the various communistic societies are impor-
tant in demonstrating what may not be done by way of social
reorganization, rather than what may be accomplished. All of
these practical experiments have been useful in lighting up the
nature of human society and the peculiar limitations which
surround it. Practical experiments like these testify to a sense
of social unity in a nation, and are indicative of the growth of
social consciousness. More than this, they give evidence of a
telic force in society — the socialized human mind — aiming
to guide it towards a clearly perceived goal. They have inspired
social study and helped to establish principles of social order,
through a critical discussion of aims of society.
Recent Philosophy. — Recent philosophers following in the
line of thought started by the writers mentioned above be-
gan to philosophize as to the origin, development, and con-
stitution of society. Somewhat dogmatically, perhaps, they
reached lofty conclusions concerning the nature and destiny
of society, which they approached usually from the standpoint
of social reform. The Christian socialists of England through
the leadership of Charles Kingsley and F. D. Maurice protested
against the hard determination of the dominant J/aissez-faire
theory, and advocated the development of the social side of
Christian life. They emphasized the social element as essential
in the building of a Christian state. The problems of politics
and economics, and the peculiar relations of rich and poor were
to be settled on the basis of a Christian philosophy. The
preaching by Carlyle, Ruskin, and William Morris of the gospel
of a life of the true and the beautiful had a tendency to elevate
social ideals. If their social points of view were not always
properly taken, their impulses were good and their suggestions
550 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
of the value of conscious social activity for the common good
bore fruit in philanthropic endeavors.
More recently J. S. MacKenzie, in An Introduction to Social
Philosophy, defined in a broad and general way the scope and
limits of the application of philosophical principles to social
questions. He brought the world of thought a little nearer
to a social science. With a keen insight he presented the ele-
ments of social order and by his superior analysis of society
showed what might be accomplished in the adaptation of social
organization to social needs. Nevertheless, it was a critical
philosophy rather than a science that he presented to the world.
Its service, however, in establishing clearness of thought on
social questions cannot be overestimated. Benjamin Kidd,
in his Social Evolution, emphasized religion and the power of
the emotions in human progress. But his work is rather a
philosophy of civilization and progress than a scientific treat-
ment of the evolution of society. It would scarcely claim to be
scientific in premises, analysis, or conclusion, yet it served to
arouse thought respecting certain phases of social development.
Lotze, in his Microcosmus, brings history to view the social life
of the people and lays down some scientific principles for the
movement of civilization. Grozier, in his Civilization and Prog-
ress, and Nash, in The Genesis of the Social Conscience, brings
us close to the organic conception of society.
All these are but philosophies about society, based more or
less upon general facts. For the most part they are philosophic
generalizations about society and social functions. While
taken as a whole they give an exposition of certain aspects of
social life, not one or all combined could rise to the dignity of
a science of society. Yet their influence in shaping thought and
in bringing general philosophy to the service of the science of
society must be recognized.
REFERENCES
Dunninc, W. A. Political Theories.
Exy, R. T. French and German Socialism.
SMALL, A. W., and VINCENT, GEORGE E. Introduction to a Study of Society.
WritLoucHuBy, W. W. Ancient Political Theories.
The student is especially urged to read the authors mentioned in the pre-
vious chapter.
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY 551
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. By what three movements was sociology prepared for?
2. Read Exodus 20: 23-26; 21: 2-16, 18-37; 22:1-23, 33, and make
an outline of the state of society contemplated by this Mosaic code.
3. Compare with this code the Code of Hammurabi in Hastings’ Diction-
ary of the Bible, Extra Volume, pp. 599-608.
4. Read More’s Utopia and show its bearing on the problem of social
relations. .
5. How does social philosophy differ from social science?
6. In what ways does social philosophy prepare for social science?
“CHAPTER II
THE SCIENCE OF SOCIETY
Basis of Sociological Thought. — In the last chapter a brief
review was made of the early attempts to provide a theoretical
basis of social relations. Conscious of the defects of society
and seeing some ways in which these shortcomings could be
remedied, social reformers and philosophical thinkers formulated
a philosophy of society. These theories, although mere guesses
at the riddle of social life, made necessary a well-defined and
comprehensive science of society. As guesses they had value
in calling attention to the necessity of a theory of society based
upon a broader study of social facts and less influenced by indi-
vidual and party prejudice.. The ultimate fulfilment of these
various social philosophies, however, is social science.
In the present chapter it is desired to present very briefly
the principal elements which have entered into sociology and
the successive steps in its development. The foundations rest
primarily upon (1) the organic conception of society, (2) a
recognition of the conscious, collective action of its members,
and (3) upon the scientific analysis of the structure and the
activity of the social body. Every systematic study of society
involving one of these phases of thought, even though it be
limited in scope, contributes to the formation of the science.
Forerunners of Sociology.— Many writers approaching
society from a religious, political, economic, ethical, or psychologi-
cal standpoint have contributed something to the study of
social relationships. Wherever they have supported their
theories by scientific data they have prepared the material for
the construction of sociology. These writers may be called
the forerunners of sociology, for their lines of thought prepare
for a scientific conception. Perhaps five lines of thought,
sometimes distinct and again blending in more or less confusion,
have promoted scientific sociological study. These are the
552
THE SCIENCE OF SOCIETY 553
study of the biological sciences, the scientific conception of
history, and the modern method of studying economics, philos-
ophy, and ethics. Writers who have followed these lines, view-
ing society as a whole, have brought the thinking world into a
semiscientific attitude respecting the activities of society.
Prominent among the men who have influenced this new
attitude in some of these lines of study is Vico, who, declaring
that history is governed by laws as fixed and regular as those
which control the material world, gave a new direction to that
study; Montesquieu, who, in his Spirit of Laws, applied the
new methods to a study of politics; Turgot, in his evolutionary
exposition of finance, economics, and politics; Condorcet, who
recounted the progress of the human mind and insisted on the
indefinite perfectibility of social institutions; Adam Smith,
whose philosophical and economic writings emphasized the
interdependence of individuals and classes; and John Stuart
Mill, who asserted that there was need of a new science called
sociology. The recognition by all these philosophers and writers
that society presents a group of phenomena worthy of study,
and that there exists a social organization needing adjustment,
paved the way for sociology.
The Founders of Sociology. — August Comte coined the
name “ sociology,”’ and laid the corner stone of its foundation.
His work was that of a builder who should make the plans for
and clear a place for a building, lay a stone in the foundation,
and leave it for others to complete. Others had been contrib-
uting material of different sorts, not dressed for the builders,
to be sure, but material which could be used when prepared.
Comte’s great merit lay in his gathering up these materials
ready to hand in the shape of historical and scientific studies
and outlining the method by which they could be built into the
new temple which he first called sociology. In his “ hierarchy
of sciences,” set forth in The Positive Philosophy, he gave an
important place to sociology, for universal knowledge would
not yield to classification without it. Social physics or sociology
was given as one of the five fundamental natural sciences.
Moreover, he perceived it was the latest addition to the hierarchy
of ordered knowledge. The corner stone of the new science
was the evolutionary conception of society.
Comte has been called a “ herald ” of sociology, and indeed,
554 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
he was little more. Nevertheless, in insisting on classification
and in making rules for that classification he left plans for the
builders who followed him. His generalizations are suggestive,
far reaching, and valuable, although the details of his system
are incomplete and sometimes seriously out of place. As
Ward, referring to Comte, well says: ‘‘ He seems to possess
the rare power, everywhere manifest through his work, of weav-
ing upon a warp of truth a woof of error. ... He is a great
general in the army of thinkers; but when he descends, as he
continually does, to meddle with the brigades, regiments, and
platoons, he throws them into confusion by the undue severity
and amazing stupidity of his commands.” !
But as Spencer, who built his sociology in part upon the
corner stone laid by Comte, says: ‘‘ We must not overlook the
greatness of the step made by M. Comte. His mode of con-
templating facts was truly philosophical. ... Apart from his
sociological doctrines his way of conceiving social phenomena
is much superior to all previous ways.” Comte’s conception
was all-embracing. To have pointed out the relation between
biology and sociology, and to have outlined the plan of a science
and suggested how to complete it was of incalculable service.
In the accumulated, heterogeneous mass of social theory and
speculation already in existence, unclassified, undifferentiated
and without a general purpose, he established a fixed point about
which the phenomena of society could be organized. In doing
these things he can safely be considered the founder of sociology.
But in the beginning of a science, as in the beginning of a
state, there is frequently more than one founder. Herbert
Spencer built upon the foundation laid by Comte. Differing
in many points as to philosophical doctrine, Spencer elaborated
further the main principles of Comte, modifying them in accord-
ance with new knowledge and restating them in terms of his
evolutionary philosophy. He gave the new science an impetus
and demonstrated by inductions from a wide collection of facts
its possibility. Though his system is one sided, sociology,
viewed from the present standpoint, owes more to Spencer than
to any other sociologist. True, he constructed his theory’ of
society upon the analogy of an animal organism, .and carried
1 Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I, p. 129.
2 The Study of Sociology, p. 329.
THE SCIENCE OF SOCIETY 555
too far the comparison between the biological and the socio-
logical organism. Yet his main thesis, that the social organism
grows like a biological organism by differentiation, was helpful
in the beginning of an attempt to apply the scientific methods
to society which has accomplished such wonders in the natural
sciences. His error is easily accounted for when one considers
that at the time he wrote his Principles of Soctology all eyes
were fixed upon the great change which was occurring in
biology and that his sociology is essentially a study of social
structure alone. In pressing the biological analogy, Spencer
overlooked the importance of integration, which has been cor-
rectly emphasized by later sociologists. He rightly insisted on
the collection of social data and the construction of sociology
from an inductive study of society. In the development of
sociology his emphasis proved an excellent thing for sociology,
but he failed to carry the investigation beyond a study of
social structure, and he did not give proper emphasis to the
psychological element of society.
Spencer’s Descriptive Socrology is but a classified collection
of social facts based on social activities and social structures.
It furnished the basis of his Principles of Sociology which ap-
peared later. These, together with an introductory book on
The Study of Sociology comprise his formal contributions to the
science of sociology, although many premises are laid down in
First Principles and Social Statics. Sociology has advanced
along so many lines since Spencer’s labors that much of his work
appears as a study of institutions and a description of ethnic
society.
Progress of Sociology. — Since the writings of Comte and
Spencer appeared, the main development of the science of sociol-
ogy has been secured by the application of a scientific method
to the study of human society. The progress of its develop-
ment has been exceedingly irregular because each investigator
has approached the subject from his own point of view, and has,
therefore, contributed to the science according to his own pecul-
iar theories, doctrines, and preconceived notions. Hence we
find a large number of men — many of them of tremendous
power — who have been trying to construct the science of
sociology. But there has been little synthetic development.
Even now there is just arising a consensus of opinion among
550 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
sociologists as to the scope, boundaries, and essential principles
of sociology. No one has offered a system that would be ac-
cepted by all. Yet there is sufficient agreement, as to methods,
enough data have been collected, enough principles have been
demonstrated, and conclusions reached to promise rapid prog-
ress henceforth. In recent years the points of view are closer
and the lines of thought converging. It is becoming clear
that each of the great workers in this vast field has been studying
a certain part of it and a synthesis of the results of their labors
is at hand.
The Organic Conception of Society. — Comte recognized
the unity of society and in a certain way its organic nature.
But to Comte the structure was physical rather than biological.
Spencer, as we have seen, based his sociology on biology and
therefore conceived society as a physical organism. It is evi-
dent, however, in the unfolding of his thought concerning the
development of society, that he changed his viewpoint from
time to time. Sometimes he treated society as merely analogous
to a biological structure and at others he asserted that it is
more than an organism. But while upon the whole he recog-
nized the physical unity of society, in considering the functions
of the state, he seems at times to lose sight of his conception of
society as an organic whole and to relapse into a crass indi-
vidualism.
The Austrian economist, August Schaeffle, in 1874, began to
publish his monumental work on structural sociology, called
The Structure and Life of the Social Body (Bau und Leben des
Socialen Kérpers). As the title suggests, it describes the organs
or parts of the social body and analyzes their functions or activ-
ities. It is a more complete exposition of the biological idea
of sociology than that given by Spencer. Yet, it is quite re-
markable that Schaeffle discussed the form of society with refer-
ence to its functional activity. For, in showing the activities
of the respective organs or parts of society, he recognized and
classified the social forces which are, to a great extent, psycho-
logical, which would seem to indicate that the psychological
principle underlay the formal structure which he elaborated.
Essentially, nevertheless, Schaeffle must be classed among the
biological sociologists. In the same group, although of less
importance, are Jacques Novicow, René Worms, and de Roberty.
THE SCIENCE OF SOCIETY 557
Influence of Economists.— The lines between political
economy and sociology are sharply drawn, yet many of the
methods used by economic writers, as well as their investi-
gations, have influenced the development of a theory of society.
This is especially true in regard to their use of the historical
and statistical methods. The so-called historical school of
economists have emphasized the development of economic
ideas in connection with the industrial development of partic-
ular nations. While generalization has usually been one
sided in that emphasis has been placed upon the economic life
as a thing apart, the study of the origin and growth of one field
of human activity has been of great service in interpreting social
life in general. These economists have also shown the relation
of classes and groups, and of economic organs and activities. In
so doing they have set forth some of the motives actuating men
to conflict and to codperation, and thus have supplied concrete
illustration for more general social principles. Roscher, Hilde-
brand, Knies, and Schmoller in Germany, Wolowski in France,
and Cliffe Leslie and Posnet in England are the principal
representatives of this school.
Le Play, in his Social Reform in France, used the statistical
method with great skill. The possibilities of the statistical
method were thus shown for sociological as well as for economic
studies. He has been followed by Quetelet, Mayo-Smith,
Bailey, Levasseur, and Leroy-Beaulieu chiefly in studies of the
social population but with a decided tendency to extend the
method to other fields of sociological investigation as illustrated
by Galton and Karl Pearson in the field of eugenics and by
Professor Benini of Pavia, Italy, and Professor Giddings, in the
field of social psychology.
Durkheim, in De la division du travail social, expands -the,
economic idea of the division of labor in society and makes it
the basis of his system of sociology. He holds that socializa-
1 Pearson, Grammar of Science, 2d ed., Chap. XI; Galton, Hereditary Genius;
Bailey, Modern Social Conditions; Leroy-Beaulieu, P., La question de la population,
2d ed., Paris, 1913; Levasseur, Emile, La population francaise: histoire de la
population avant 1780 et démographie de la France comparée a celle des autres nationes
au siécle 19°, Paris, 1889-1892, 3 vols.; Quetelet, L. A. J.,~ Physique sociale,
Bruxelles, 1869, 2 vols.; Mayo-Smith, Sociology and Statistics; Giddings, Sociology,
p. 37; “The Social Marking System,” Publications of the American Sociological
Society, Vol. IV, p. 42.
558 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
tion comes about because men broken into groups by diverse
social interests find themselves dependent on each other for
social completeness. The pressure of necessity for the pres-
ervation of the interests of each group leads to codperation
between them. While his work is sociological, it has been greatly
influenced by the work of the economists.
This brief catalogue of writers who have indirectly influenced
sociological thought must not omit the name of Thorstein
Veblen, whose three books, The Theory of the Leisure Class, The
Enterprise of Business, and The Instinct of Workmanship, have
thrown a clear light upon the social motives which affect the
economic life of man. Here economic results are shown to
be produced, not alone by those motives which were dear to
the classical economists, but by motives less simple and con-
cerned with quite other things than getting enough to eat and
wear — motives of social distinction, motives born of the social
passions to excel and to dominate.
The study of industrial development in recent years has
been of service to sociology in working out the processes of
change and the principles of evolution in this particular field
of associated life. Ely’s Evolution of Industrial Society, is a good
example. Professor Ely always having been an ardent student
of society, his studies of economic: development have supplied
principles of development of much wider social significance.
Likewise, Biicher’s Industrial Evolution and Ashley’s English
Economic History throw light upon the development of society.
Recent Development of Sociology. — With all due credit to
the earlier writers in this field, its really scientific development
has occurred since sociologists have ceased to pursue the bio-
logical analogy, and viewing social phenomena without either
biological or economic prejudices, have endeavored to apply
scientific methods to them. From many sources and by a
multitude of writers, each seeking the truth from his own point
of view, the contributions to the science of sociology have been
made. Only a few of the main lines of thought and, conse-
quently, but a few of the chief writers may be mentioned here.
The formal beginning of sociology in the United States was
made by Lester F. Ward, in his monumental work, Dynamic
Sociology, which appeared in 1883. Previous to the appearance
of Ward’s book, social science was considered by scholars as a
THE SCIENCE OF SOCIETY 559
collection of ideas on social reform. So little was the educational
world prepared for the introduction of a new science that the
Dynamic Sociology was received with much misgiving by those
who paid any attention to it. It has grown in influence steadily
since its introduction. Representing the dynamic aspect of
sociology, it covers only a part of the subject, but it was unique
in clearly delimiting the field of sociology and suggesting help-
ful divisions of the subject. Further, Ward’s work was a rigid
application of the scientific method to this limited field. Trained
as a paleobotanist, fanciful analogies had no charm for his
scientific spirit. While Ward sees human life as a part of the
great whole of life, he insists that the basis of social activity
is really psychological, and that the social forces are psychic
forces. Ten years later Ward brought out The Psychic Factors
of Civilization, in which he elaborated his social psychology,
and developed his thesis that society is fundamentally psychical.
Another ten years passed before the appearance of his Pure
Sociology, which was followed by a volume on Applied Sociology.
In the Pure Sociology, Ward makes the word ‘“ Pure ”’ signify
an account of the origin and development of society due to
spontaneous, non-conscious causes. Indeed, the secondary
title to this volume is The Origin and Spontaneous Development
of Society. Upon this foundation is built the theory of social
improvement by “ telesis,’’ or purposeful social action.
In 1886 appeared the first part of Introduction @ la sociologie
by the Belgian sociologist Guillaume De Greef. This part
treated of Elements, and was followed in 1889 by the second
‘part on Fonctions et organes, and later by a third part on Struc-
ture général. A part of it has appeared serially in The American
Journal of Sociology, translated into English by Eben Mumford.
It is a systematic outline of social systems, organs, and func-
tions. In the last part he uses the statistical method. The
central idea in his system is social “‘ contract,” or as Small points
out social ‘‘ contact.”
In 1894 a textbook was published with the title An Intro-
duction to the Study of Society, written by A. W. Small and George
E. Vincent. While sociology has made much progress since
this book appeared, it has proved to be a valuable and sugges-
tive working manual. However, Small’s service to sociology
is better represented by his discussions in The American Journal
560 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
of Sociology on the nature of sociology and on methodology,
and in his larger systematic work, General Sociology, published
in 1904. Vincent previously had published his Education and
the Social Progress.
Giddings’s Principles of Sociology first appeared in 1896.
The foundation of his system of sociology rests on the instinc-
tive theory implied in Aristotle’s dictum that man is a political
animal. To him sociology is both a natural history of society
and a psychological analysis of the structure, processes of growth,
and the functions of society. He places “consciousness of
kind ” as the basic social force and the cause of human relation-
ship. The recognition of kind, or mutual attraction, has built
society through the processes of differentiation and integration.
His critics insist that he has made too much of consciousness
of kind. In his Inductive Soctology, which was published in
tgo1, Giddings has apparently given consciousness of kind a less
important place, but really has analyzed its workings much
more completely than in his previous work. In 1908 he pub-
lished his Readings in Descriptive and Historical Sociology.
In this work his system was further elaborated and some points
developed which had been merely implied in his previous
writings. Thus, his analysis of the kinds of societies went much
farther than in any of his previous books, and the social dif-
ferentiations and resemblances which grow up in the formation
of the social mind were traced and illustrated much more com-
pletely than in his previous works. The treatment of the
stages in the evolution of society which marked his Princrples
and Elements and which many think the most important con-
tribution he has made to the study of society, was worked in as
a minor feature in the part devoted to social organization.
Perhaps his most important contributions to sociology are his
theory that society has risen from the operation of the conscious-
ness of kind, which in his use of the term includes not only
consciousness of likeness, but also of difference, and his theory
of social evolution. Consciousness of likeness makes for social
integration, recognition of differences for social variation.
Professor Ross’s Social Control, published in 1901, is a brilliant
and original exposition of the influence of instinctive and con-
scious social restraint in the process of socialization. He fol-
lowed this work with his The Foundations of Sociology, and his
THE SCIENCE OF SOCIETY 561
Social Psychology. Later Professor Ross has turned his atten-
tion from systematic sociology in one or more of its special
fields to descriptive sociology in The Changing Chinese, Changing
America, The Old World in the New, a sociological study of
immigration, and South of Panama.
This brief catalogue of American sociologists would be incom-
plete without reference to the brilliant work of Professors Cooley
and Ellwood. In his first work, Human Nature and the Social
Order, Professor Cooley pointed out how those qualities of the
mind which are distinctively human are socially conditioned,
and the bearing of these qualities upon society. In his last
book, Social Organization, he has analyzed the social mind with
the primary emphasis upon its functioning in social relation-
ships. Here we are shown how the social mind works itself
out through certain primary groups in social ideals, how it
develops through communication, giving rise in the end to the
democratic mind. Yet, in that development the mind of a
community operates through social classes, leveling some and
causing others to emerge, sometimes leading to the disorganiza-
tion of the social institutions characterizing a society which has
not yet developed unity of opinion, and finding expression at
last in the public will for the general welfare. In his recent
book, Soctology in its Psychological Aspects, Professor Ellwood
has made a systematic study of the field of social psychology,
with special reference to the bearing of psycho-social principles
upon social structure and function.
Much more than can be allowed here might well be written
of the work of Thomas, who, in his Sex and Society, showed the
part played by the difference between the sexes in social de-
velopment, and whose monumental work, A Source Book for
Soctal Origins, with its brief but lucid criticisms, has cast a great
light upon that hazy group of primitive activities and ideas
which underlie and condition later social development.
Space will not permit more than the mere mention of a number
of recent European sociologists, who have made important
contributions to sociology. Gumplowicz,! the Austrian Dar-
winist, and Ratzenhofer,? the Austrian, both of whom saw in
the struggle of groups or races the fundamental social fact
1 Der Rassenkampf; Grundriss der Sociologie.
2 Die sociologische Erkenntnis.
20
562 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
out of which grew social order and progress; Tarde,! the great
French jurist, whose emphasis upon invention, imitation, and
opposition as the important factors in the origin and develop-
ment of social relations made sociology his debtor; Le Bon,? to
whom we owe the theory of mob psychology and mob activity ;
Simmel,? who has worked out most completely the psychology
of differentiation of groups and their subordination to a domi-
nant ideal represented by a valued common possession such
as a common country, by a symbol of common feelings such as
a flag or a shibboleth, by a common ruler, or by a common
ethical and social code of action such as a code of honor ; —
these are the names of a few of the most prominent men who
recently in Europe have attracted world-wide attention in
sociology.
The study of social pathology and the administrative care of
“‘ dependents, defectives, and delinquents”’ has contributed
to the development of a true social science. The work of such
scholars as Emminghaus, Warner, Henderson, Devine, Hun-
ter, Kellor, Booth, Miinsterberg, and scores of others in Europe
and America, who have attempted to find out the true nature
of society by studying the outcroppings of the ledge of char-
acter or the defects of socialization, and who have endeavored
to apply sociological principles to the correction of social malad-
justments, has been of great service to students working on
the normal development of society. Aside from the field of
descriptive sociology, in these fields more careful scientific
work has been done in the endeavor to find out the exact social
situation than in any other. Some studies of pauperism and
crime have been alluded to in a preceding chapter, which are
of the highest importance to the study of human relationships.
Rapidly the practical interest of the administrator is being
supplemented by the scientific interest of the sociologist in
the questions of the extent and cause of these social phenomena.
The influence of the sociological journals and reviews must
not be passed without brief mention. The American Journal
of Sociology, edited by Professor A. W. Small, has done more to
promote education in sociology than any other agency in the
1 Les lois de Vimitation; Social Laws; L’ opposition universelle.
2 Psychologie des foules; translated The Crowd.
3 Uber sociale Differenzierung.
THE SCIENCE OF SOCIETY 563
United States. Likewise, the foreign journals are performing
a similar service in Europe. Of these the Revue internationale
de soctologie, the Année soctologique, The Sociological Review,
and the Revista Italiana Soctologia are especially worthy of
mention. Popular journals and the newspapers are gradually
adding this field to the wide range of subjects they cover. In
fact, sociology has a wider hearing to-day than ever before.
While some of this interest is superficial, it signifies that the
public realizes that the sociologist is no longer a creature who
speaks and writes in a lingo beyond the comprehension of
educated people, but one who has something vital to say
about the social life of to-day, — how it came to be, its es-
sential principles, its shortcomings, and whither it is tending.
Sociology is progressing rapidly as a science, especially as the
points of agreement of different writers become more numerous
and the varied nomenclature is reduced to an intelligible system.
In closing this brief sketch of the foundation and growth of
sociology, the following inventory of synthetic progress is
quoted from Vincent :! “ Sociologists have by no means reached
a consensus comparable, for example, with that of the economists,
but when variations in terminology have been eliminated a
considerable and everwidening area of agreement emerges
from the apparent confusion. Thus as to society in general
all agree that it is (1) a product of physical and psychical
forces, (2) working in an evolutionary process in which (3) at
first predominantly instinctive activities later yield in some meas-
ure to (4) reflective and purposeful policies. This view regards
society as (5) organic in the general, not specific, sense of the
term. As to the social group as a type of common mental life
it is further agreed that (1) individuals in their very personal
growth unconsciously incorporate the standard of their group,
by which they are, furthermore, (2) coerced into conscious
conformity. The uniforming influence of imitation and group
ascendency is counteracted by (3) leaders or authorities who
initiate new ideas and activities to be selected and appropriated
by all. Between such leaders with their followers a (4) struggle
for ascendency ensues. This results ultimately in (5) a rela-
tively permanent body of customs, and institutions embedded
1“The Development of Sociology,” in The American Journal of Sociology, Sept.,
1904.
564 OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY
in feeling; 1.e., group tradition or character. When the mem-
bers of this group are aware of common ideals and purposes a
(6) social consciousness is developed.”
While some of these writers manifest the influence of the bio-
logical and psychological biases, the tendency has risen to study
society without the help of that broken reed, the social organism,
or that perhaps only less errant prejudice, that sociology is
only a sublimated psychology. Not at all blind to the bearings
of the biological and psychological sciences, and to the scientific
methods developed in the natural sciences generally, especially
in those which touch more specifically human relationships,
the sociologists are trying to look the varied and complex social
phenomena about them squarely in the face and to interpret
them as a distinct class of phenomena, the social. Each may
be investigating a particular field. One perhaps is interested
in the psychological aspects of the social process, another in
the biological which come out in a study of birth and death
rates, of immigration, the age and sex classes, and still another
may find his work in studying the social institutions and struc-
tures in which society embodies its ideals. Less and less do
logical schemes dominate. Increasingly the workers in this
field of complex relationships are finding that they secure re-
sults worth while only as they observe, describe, and interpret
the facts of society without reference to any far-fetched analogy
or any bias which their previous training in an older science or
philosophy may have established.
REFERENCES
The American Journal of Sociology, especially articles by Small, Ward,
Vincent, Ross, Branford, and Ratzenhofer.
SMALL. The Meaning of Social Science.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Read Adam Smith’s chapter on Instinct in his Theory of the Moral
Sentiments and show in what sense in that chapter he was a forerunner of
sociology.
2. Look over Martineau’s translation of Comte’s Positive Philosophy and
show in what sense he was the founder of sociology.
3. Compare Spencer’s system of sociology in its essentials with that of
Comte.
THE SCIENCE OF SOCIETY 565
4. Show what is meant in the text when it is said Spencer’s sociology is a
study of social structure.
5. What is the fundamental social fact which is emphasized in his system
of sociology by Spencer; by Giddings; by Tarde; by Le Bon?
6. What criticism can be made of the effort to find some one fact in social
life on which to base a system of sociology?
7. What is meant by descriptive sociology? What is its value in the
development of the science of sociology?
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PARTIAL LIST OF BOOKS CONSULTED
Addams, Jane. Democracy and Social Ethics, New York, 1902.
Adler, Felix. Marriage and Divorce, New York, 1905.
Anderson, B. M. Social Value, Boston, 1911.
Aschaffenburg, Gustav. Crime and its Repression, Transl. by A. Albrecht,
Boston, 1913. :
Augustine. The City of God, New York, 1899, Transl. by Marcus Dods.
(Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. IT.)
Bachofen, J. J. Das Muitterrecht, Stuttgart, 1861.
Bagehot, Walter. Physics and Politics, New York, 1808.
Bailey, W. B. Modern Soctal Conditions, New York, 1906.
Bain, Alexander. Mental Science, New York, 1874.
—— Moral Science, New York, 1869.
Baldwin, J. Mark. Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, New York,
IQOI-1Q05.
—— The Individual and Society, Boston, 1911.
Social and Ethical Interpretations, New York, 1913.
Barth, Paul. Die Philosophie der Geschichte als Sociologie, Leipzig, 1897.
Barton, George A. A Sketch of Semitic Origins, New York, t1got. ©
Bellamy, Edward. Looking Backward, New York, 1800.
Billings, John S. Psychological Aspects of the Liquor Problem, Boston, 1903,
2 vols.
Blackmar, F. W. Economics, New York, 1907.
— “The Smoky Pilgrims,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. II, pp.
485-500, Jan. 1897.
—— Story of Human Progress, Leavenworth, Kansas, 18096.
— Federal and State Aid to Higher Education in the United States, United
States Bureau of Education, Circulars of Information, No. 1, Washing-
ton, 1890.
Bliss, W. D. P. Encyclopedia of Social Reform, New York and London,
1908.
Bloomfield, Meyer. Vocational Guidance of Youth, Riverside Educational
Monograph, Boston, rog1t.
Bluntschli, J. K. Lehre vom modernen Staat, Stuttgart, 1876-1885.
Theory of the State, Oxford, 1885.
Booth, Charles, Life and Labour of the People of London, London, 1891,
2 vols.
Breckenridge, S. and Abbott, Edith. The Delinquent Child and the Home,
New York, 1912.
Briggs, C. A. The Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch, New York, 1897.
Brinton, Daniel G. The Basis of Social Relations, New York, 1902.
567
568 PARTIAL LIST OF BOOKS CONSULTED
Bryce, James. The Holy Roman Empire, New York, 1904.
Biicher, Carl. Industrial Evolution, Transl. by Wickett, New York, 1901.
Buckle, Thomas Henry. History of Civilization in England, London, 1857-
1861.
Cadbury, Edward. Women’s Work and Wages, London, 1906.
Carver, T. N. Sociology and Social Progress, Boston, 1906.
Chapin, F. Stuart. Introduction to Social Evolution, New York, 1913.
Cheney, Edward P. Industrial and Social History of England, New York,
1906.
Cheyne, T. K. Encyclopedia Biblica, New York, 1899-1903.
Clark, John B. Essentials of Economic Theory, New York, 1907.
Clodd, Edward. The Story of Primitive Man, New York, 1908; The Child-
hood of the World, New York, 1914.
Comte, Auguste. Cours de philosophie positive, 6 vols., Paris, 1830-1842,
Transl. by Martineau as Positive Philosophy, London, 2 vols.
Cooley, Charles H. Social Organization, New York, 19009.
—— Human Nature and the Social Order, New York, 1902.
Cornill, Heinrich. The Prophets of Israel, Chicago, 1904.
Crawley, E. The Mystic Rose, A Study of Primitive Marriage, New York,
1902.
Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man, 1871.
Davis, M. M., Jr. Psychological Interpretations of Society, New York, 1909.
Dealey, J. Q. The Family in its Sociological Aspects, Boston, 1912.
Dealey and Ward. Textbook of Sociology, New York, 1905.
De Greef, Guillaume. Introduction d la Sociologie, Bruxelles and Paris,
1886-1889.
Dennis, James S. Christian Missions. and Social Progress, 2 vols., New
York, 1899.
Devine, Edward T. Principles of Relief, New York, 1904.
Misery and its Causes, New York, 19009.
Drahms, August. The Criminal, New York, 1900.
Drummond, Henry. Ascent of Man, New York, 1894.
Duckworth, W. L. H. Prehistoric Man, New York, 1912.
Dugdale, R. L. The Jukes, 4th edition, New York, toto.
Dunning, W. A. A History of Political Theories from Luther to Montesquieu,
London and New York, 1905.
Durkheim, Emile. De la division du travail social, Paris, 1893.
—— Les régles de la méthode sociologique, Paris, 1895.
Elderton, Ethel Mary.
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INDEX
Abnormal society, normal distinguished | Assisi, Francis of, 254, 357.
from, 425.
Abraham, 262.
Accident, inequalities arising from, 402.
Accumulation of wealth, slow, 192.
Activities, anti-social, 90; cultural, 88;
moral, 87; social, 15.
Adaptation of the forces of nature to man,
progress by, 410.
Addams, Jane, 535.
Administration, methods
methods of public, 515;
in civil causes, 182.
Adoption, 57.
Adultery as ground of divorce, 146.
Advancement of the group, 87.
Advertising and exchange, 214.
Advocates of socialistic theories, 382.
Aggregation, 271; causes of, 54; de-
velopment of groups out of social,
94.
Ainu, 510.
Alfred, 174, 543.
Almy, Frederick, 468.
Altruism, egoism versus, 230.
Amos, 254, 300.
Analysis, 534.
Ancestor worship, 120, 252, 253.
Ancient leadership, 389.
Ancient monogamic family, 119.
Ancient philosophers, 542.
Animals, the society of, 53.
Animal society, o.
Anti-social activities, 90.
Appearance, forbidding personal, 442.
Appetites, unhealthful, 440.
Approved modes of acquiring wealth,
216.
Arbiter of justice, 409.
Aristophanes, 208.
Aristotle, 176, 177, 381, 450, 542.
Aronovici, Dr. Carol, 536.
Art, control by means of, 350.
Articulation of parts, closer, 415.
Aschaffenburg, Gustav, 480, 481, 482.
Ashley, W. J., 558.
OL ueeSiA;
of justice
Association, 273; means of control
arising from voluntary, 367; primary
result of, 320.
Associations, codperative,
tional, 6; voluntary, 6.
Athenian democracy, 379.
Attachment to the soil, 70.
Attempt to realize a perfect social state
through government, 379.
Atwater, Professor, 444.
Augustine, Saint, 254, 307, 357, 381,
543.
Augustus, 461.
90; educa-
Baboeuf, F. N., 382, 546.
Bachofen, J. J., 113.
Bacon, Francis, 381, 382, 545.
Bad industrial and economic conditions,
451.
Bagehot, Walter, 343.
Bailey, W. B., 557.
Bain, Alexander, 223.
Baldwin, J. Mark, 224, 225, 245, 246,
339, 420.
Bantu negroes, 510.
Barth, Paul, 30.
Basis, of social action, land or nature as
a, 195; of social order, 350; of socio-
logical thought, 552. —
Beginning, of federation of states, 169;
of justice, 64; of social organization,
55:
Being, non-social, 508.
Belief, control through, 352.
Bellamy, 381, 384.
Benini, Professor, 557.
Billings, J. S., 502.
Blackmar, F. W., 437.
Blanc, Louis, 383, 546, 547, 548.
Bonhoffer, 482.
Booth, Charles, 535, 562.
Branthwaite, Dr., sor.
Browning, Mrs. E. B., 231, 301.
Biicher, Carl, 297.
Buckle, Thomas Henry, 67, 69.
575
576
Buddha, 267.
Buffalo, 536.
Burgess, J. W., 158.
Biisch, Professor, 466.
Bushnell, Professor C. J., 435.
Cabet, Etienne, 381, 382, 546, 547, 540.
Cabrillo, 261.
Cesar, Augustus, 461.
Calixtus, 254, 266.
Calvin, John, 379.
Campanella, 381, 544, 545.
Capital, service of, in the production of
wealth, 197.
Care, necessity of, 513; of the poor and
incapable, 185.
Carlyle, Thomas, 549.
Carnot, 491.
Caserio, 491.
Causes, of changes in economic processes,
sociological, 199; of crime, 481; of
growth of divorce, 146; of poverty,
immediate and remote, 436.
Causes of crime, classification of, 486;
social, 484.
Ceremony, social control by, 358.
Changes, from homogeneity to hetero-
geneity, 102; in the social position of
women, 147.
Change versus progress, 414.
Characteristics, of social pathology,
426; of the individual, 436; of the
state, 157.
Character of the land and the develop-
ment of society, 68.
Charities, indorsement of, 473.
Charity, giving among the Romans, 460;
Hamburg-Elberfeld system of, 465;
Indiana system of, 470; of the
Christian Church, 462; of the state,
464; results of charity of the church,
463; universality of, among nations,
458.
Charity organization in the United
States, 472.
Charity organization movement, rise
of, 472.
Charlemagne, 547, 540.
Cheney, Edward P., 109.
Choice, of the people, rational, 411; laws
of individual, 317; laws of social,
310.
Choosing mates, irrational methods of,
148; psychological and social factors
in, 154.
INDEX
Christ, 384.
Christian Church, charity of the, 462.
Church, results of charity of the, 463.
Cicero, 542.
City-State, 164.
Classes, struggle of, 199.
Classification, of causes of crime, 486;
of crime, 488; of criminals, 488; of
inmates of institutions, 518; of social
forces, 283.
Closer articulation of parts, 415.
Closer integration of society, 414.
Code, Deuteronomic, 547; Priest’s, 547;
Mosaic, 547.
Combination, 277.
Common ethical sentiment, 61.
Commons, John R., 159, 160, 172.
Communication, 272; methods of, 7.
Comparison of the biological with the
social organism, 17.
Complexity, of belief and ceremony, 262;
of problem of origin of religion, 253;
of the social order, 10.
Complex nature of social production,
193-
Composition, social, 95.
Comte, Auguste, 41, 240, 553, 555.
Conditions, bad industrial and economic,
451; of primitive family life, 1109.
Condorcet, M. J. A., 553.
Conflict with nature, 68.
Consciousness, of kind, 166; social, 331.
Conscious resemblance, law of, 321.
Conscious social effort, 312.
Consolidation of groups, 57.
Constituent parts of society, 100.
Constitution, the social, 99.
Consumption, economy of, 201; social,
200.
Contract, government, 174; rights be-
tween individuals, 181; social, 175.
Control, by ceremony, 358; by means
of art, 359; by personal ideals, 357;
by social religion, 356; by social sug-
gestion, 354; idea of, in a democracy,
390; means of, arising from voluntary
association, 367; means of, through
public opinion and law, 368; origin of,
by force, 388; through influence of
personal suggestion, 360; through in-
tellectual factors, 363.
Cooley, Charles H., 109, 279, 330, 561.
Coolidge, Mrs. Mary R., 518.
Codperation, 276.
Codperative association, go.
INDEX
Cornill, Heinrich, 266.
Cosmic and ethical processes of society,
16.
Course of reasoning, 41.
Court of domestic relations, 153.
Crane, Caroline Bartlett, 536.
Crime, causes of, 481; classification of
causes of, 486; classifications of, 488;
definition and punishment of, 182;
extent and cost of, 478; influences of
physical nature on, 484; nature of,
478; punishment of, 494; social
causes of, 484.
Criminals, classification of, 488.
Cromwell, Oliver, 370, 545.
Crude and meager nature of primitive
religious practice, 257.
Cruelty as a cause of divorce, 146.
Cultural activities, 88.
Cyprian, 254, 266, 463.
Czolgosz, 491.
Daniel, 381.
Danielson and Davenport, 437.
Dante, 544.
Darwin, Charles, 14, 54, 126, 223, 224,
226, 524.
Data of other sciences, 40, 527.
Defective government, 448.
Defectives, 428.
Definition, and punishment of crime,
182; of legal relations between man
and wife and between parents and
children, 180.
Degeneration, nature of social,
through intemperance, 500.
De Greef, Guillaume, 332, 524, 550.
Demme, 131.
Democracy, idea of control in a, 390;
ideal, 410; social will of, 391.
Dependence of the individual, 3.
De Roberty, 556.
Desires, zsthetic, 301; affective, 204;
appetitive, 290; egotic, 293; ethical,
300; hedonic, 291; individual, in-
stinctive in origin, 290; instinctive-
cultural in origin, 298; instinctive-
social in origin, 293; intellectual,
302; recreative, 295; religious, 208.
Determination, of contract rights be-
tween individuals, 181; of liability for
debt or crime, 181; of political duties,
privileges, and relations of citizens,
182.
Deuteronomic Code, 547.
2.P
499;
577
Development, of civil justice, 235; of
groups out of social aggregations, 94;
of justice, 232; of social structures,
law of, 324; of sociology, historical,
541; of sociology, recent, 558; social,
67.
Devine, Edward T., 438, 503, 562.
Difference in divorce rate, between dif-
ferent countries, 141; between dif-
ferent occupations, 141; between
different states, 141; between the
sexes, IAI.
Differentiation, 280; an evidence of
progress, 101; of organs or parts, 98;
of political organs and functions, 168;
of social sciences, 23; of society in
structure and function, 415.
Disapproved modes of acquiring wealth,
2106.
Disease, 438.
Disregard of family ties, 444.
Distribution of divorces, 139; in United
States, geographic, 141.
Divine origin of the state, 173.
Divorce, adultery as cause of, 146;
causes of the growth of, 146; cruelty
as cause of, 146; distribution of, 130;
economic causes explain in part, 147;
geographic distribution of, 141;
grounds of, 145; increase of, 138;
probability of, 145; proposed remedies
for, 150.
Divorce in the United States compared
with other countries, 141.
Domestic relations, court of, 153.
Draehms, August, 490.
Dubois, 52.
Dugdale, Robert L., 437, 409, 503.
Durkheim, Emile, 103, 557.
Dwights, the, 507.
Early forms of marriage, 116.
Economic basis of family life, 121.
Economic causes explain divorce in part,
147;
Economic changes and their effects upon
the family, 122.
Economic conditions,
and, 451.
Economic goods or wealth produced to
satisfy desires, 192.
Economic life, 6.
Economic processes, sociological causes
of changes in, 199.
Economists, influence of, 557.
bad industrial
578
Economy of consumption, 201.
Education, 185; misdirected and in-
adequate, 450; pathology of, 431;
to improve public opinion, 394; to
improve type of government, 394;
to what extent must laws be supported
by, 395.
Educational associations, 6.
Edwards, the, 507.
Effects, of immorality, 505; of other
social changes upon the home, 124;
of social progress upon methods of
exchange, 210.
Effort, conscious social, 312.
Efforts to satisfy wants the basis of
society, 73.
Egoism versus altruism in social develop-
ment, 230.
Elizabeth, 464.
Ellis, Havelock, 490.
Ellwood, Charles A., 141, 286, 320, 561.
Ely," ROT 5's835) 558:
Emminghaus, A., 562.
Employees and officials of institutions,
merit system among, 518.
English Poor Law, 465;
465.
Environment, influence of the physical,
445; influence of the social, 290.
Equality, ideals of, 386.
Equalization, of industrial opportunities,
417; of political opportunities, 416.
Essential functions of the state, 179.
Ethical practice through sympathy,
progress of, 220.
Ethical sentiment, common, 61.
Ethics, genesis of, 222; nature of, 220;
social importance of, 220.
Ethnic basis of the state, 160.
Eugenic marriage laws, 151.
Evil habits, 483.
Evolutionary theory, 178.
Evolution of man, moral, 228.
Exchange, advertising and, 214; depen-
dent upon extensive transport, 213;
effects of social progress upon methods
of, 210; social effects of, 207; social
importance of, 206; use of money to
facilitate, 211.
Experimental social philosophers, 547.
Experiments, modern socialistic, 383.
Extensive exchange dependent upon
transport, 213.
Extent of crime, 478; of poverty, 435.
Ezekiel, 381.
revision of,
INDEX
Family, the, 7; ancient monogamic,
Img; as a social unit, 112; economic
changes and their effects on, 122,
education of women and the size of,
134; genesis of forms of, 114; mar-
riage rate and, 128; metronymic, 113;
pathology of, 428; patriarchal, 120;
patronymic, 113; physical degeneracy
and the size of, 135; primitive, 112;
race suicide and, 129; small or large,
127; social status of, 136; woman’s
movement and the size of, 134.
Family ideals, liberalization of thought
and its effects upon, 125.
Family life, conditions of primitive, 119;
economic basis of, 121; influence of
religion on, 120.
Family organization, psychical influences
on, I2I.
Family ties, disregard of, 444.
Federated groups, 96.
Federation of states, beginnings of, 169.
Feeling, 338.
Fénelon, 546.
Feré, Charles, 499.
Ferri, Eurica, 493.
Field work, 525.
Food, laws relating to the manufacture,
sale, and consumption of certain
kinds of, 186; unwholesome and
poorly cooked, 444.
Forbidding personal appearance, 442.
Force, a temporary check on insubordi-
nation; 393; in government, ideal of,
389; of war, 65.
Forces, power of psychical, 346; prog-
ress by adaptation of forces of nature
to man, 419; psychic, 338.
Forerunners of sociology, 552.
Formal expressions of the social mind,
336.
Formation of the social mind, steps in
the, 334.
Form of social codperation, 4.
Forms of society, 5.
Formulation of a science of society, 11
Founders of sociology, 553.
Fourier, 382, 546.
Fowle, T. U., 465.
Francis, Saint, 254, 357.
Functions of the state, essential, 179;
optional, 183.
Galileo, 266.
Galton, Francis, 557.
INDEX
Gautama, 254.
General investigation, 531.
Genesis, of ethics, 222; of forms of the
family, 114.
Genius and origin of religion, 254.
Gentes as political units, 162.
Geographic distribution of divorces in
the United States, 141.
Gesell, A. R., 437.
Giddings, F. H., 9, 13, 14, 67, 60, 74,
96, 107, 118, 158, 162, 188, 241, 240,
275, 276, 310, 322, 330, 342, 524, 557,
560.
Giving among the Romans, 460.
Goddard, H. H., 436, 483, 503, 504, 505.
Good, the greatest, 373.
Gothenberg system, 441.
Governing class, rise of the, 380.
Government, contract, 174; defective,
448; ideal of force in, 380.
Gracchus, Caius, 461.
Grounds of divorce, 145.
Group, marriage, 118; non-social, 432.
Groups, consolidation of, 57; enlarge-
ment of kinship, 166; federated, 96;
of social sciences, 26; relation of the
individual to the group, 103; the
primary, 103.
Growth, of divorce, causes of, 146; of
population in relation to land areas,
79-
Grozier, 550.
Gumplowicz, Ludwig, 32, 324, 524, 561.
Habitable land areas, 77.
Habits, evil, 483; shiftlessness and
idle, 443.
Hadrian, 461.
Hamburg-Elberfeld system of charity,
465.
Happiness, nature of, 375.
Harnack, Adolph, 462.
Harrington, 545.
Healy, William, 482.
Hedin, Sven, 243, 308.
Hegel, 30.
Henderson, Charles R., 486, 490, 562.
Henry VIII, 464.
Hereditary influences, 506.
Heterogeneity, changes
geneity to, 102.
Hildebrand, 557.
Hindu doctrine, 353.
from homo-
579
Hobbes, Thomas, 175.
Hodge, Professor, 502.
Holding, transmission, and interchange
of property, regulation of the, 18r.
Home, effects of other social changes
upon the, 124.
Hood, Thomas, 301.
‘Hooker, Richard, 175.
Horde, the, 55.
Hosea, 254, 263.
Human society, 9, 523.
Hume, 240, 249, 545.
Hunter, Robert, 435, 535, 562.
Huxley, Thomas H., 266, 524.
Idea, of control in a democracy, 300;
of self-government demands _ intelli-
gence, 303.
Ideal democracy, 410.
Ideal of force in government, 389.
Ideals, control by personal, 357; of
equality, 386; of philosophers, 380;
social, 373.
Idle habits, shiftlessness and, 443.
Imitation, laws of, 320.
Immediate and remote causes of poverty,
436.
Immediate social aim, 376.
Immorality, effect of, 505.
Importance of well-being, 194.
Improvement, of public opinion by
general education of all members of
society, 394; of race or stock, 416;
of social organization, 215; of type
of government by education, 3094.
Impulsive social action, laws of, 322.
Increased service of wealth in behalf
of humanity, 418.
Increase of divorces, 138; of population,
72.
Indiana system of charity, 470.
Individual, characteristics of the, 436;
dependence of the, 3; relation of, to
the mass, 409.
Individual characteristics, inequalities
arising from, 399.
Individual choice, laws of, 317.
Individual desires instinctive in origin,
290.
Individualism versus socialism, 385.
Individuals, social classification of, 399.
Indolence, undervitalization and, 437.
Indorsement of charities, 473.
Historical development of sociology, 541. | Industrial classes of traders, rise of,
Historic theories of origin of religion, 240.
212,
580
Industrial opportunities, equalization of,
4I7.
Industry, state management of, 184.
Inequalities, arising from accident, 402;
arising from individual characteristics,
399; arising from the natural environ-
ment, 400; arising from social en-
vironment, 403.
Inequality, modification of, 405.
Influence, of economists, 557; of personal
suggestion, control through, 360; of
physical environment, 445; of religion
on family life, 120; of religion on
social development, 239; of the social
environment, 290, 446.
Influences, hereditary, 506.
Injustice, resentment of, 352.
Inmates, classification of, 518.
Insubordination, force a temporary check
on, 393.
Integration, conscious, 97; necessity of
social, 94; of society, closer, 414.
Intellectual factors, social control
through, 363.
Intellectual interests, 310.
Intelligence, idea of self-government de-
mands, 393.
Intemperance, degeneration through, 500.
Interests, intellectual, 310; political,
305; religious, 307; wealth, 305;
welfare, 311.
Investigation, general, 531; special, 532.
Irrational methods of choosing mates,
148.
Isaiah, 254, 263, 381.
Ishmaels, the, 505.
Jastrow, Morris, Jr., 244.
Jehovah, 381.
Jenks, J. W., 104.
Jeremiah, 255.
Jerusalem, 381.
Jesus, 254, 255, 267, 300, 307.
Judah, 381.
Judgment, lack of, 439.
Jukes, the, 505, 507.
Jupiter, 258.
Justice, Administration of, in civil
causes, 182; arbiter of, 409; begin-
ning of, 64; development of, 232;
development of civil, 235; nature of,
408; origin of natural, 234; sense of,
351; transition of natural to civil,
235.
Justinian, 542.
INDEX
Kellogg, Paul U., 534.
Kellor, Frances, 562.
Kidd, Benjamin, 298, 320, 550.
King, Irving, 242, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249.
Kingsley, Charles, 385, 540.
Kinship, 56, 159.
Kite, Miss Elizabeth S., 437.
Knies, Karl, 557.
Knowledge, 343.
Koren, John, 503.
Labor, as means of wealth production,
196; regulation of, 184.
Lack of judgment, 439.
Land, the various uses of, 71.
Land areas, growth of population in
relation to, 79; habitable, 77.
Land or nature as a basis of social
action, 195.
Land tenure, various forms of, 80.
Lange, 499.
Language, the origin of, 58.
Lawgivers, traditions of, 174.
Laws, of conscious resemblance, 321;
of development of social structures,
324; of imitation, 320; of impulsive
social action, 322; of individual
choice, 317; of M. Tarde, 316; of
social aims, 319; of social choice,
319; of spiritual development, 325;
of survival and progress, 326; of
sympathy, 321; of tradition, 323;
relating to the manufacture, sale,
and consumption of certain kinds of
food, 186.
Leadership, ancient, 389.
Le Bon, Gustave, 562.
Legal relations between man and wife
and between parents and children,
definition of, 180.
Le Play, P: G..F.> 537,
Leppmann, Fritz, 482.
Leroy-Beaulieu, P., 557.
Leslie, Thomas Edward Cliffe, 557.
Letourneau, Charles, 31.
Levasseur, Pierre Emile, 557.
Liability for debt or crime, determination
of, 181.
Liberalization of thought and its effects
upon family ideals, 125.
Library, the use of, 524.
Lichtenberger, James P., 140.
Life conditions, has each succeeding
generation better, 415.
Limitation of the subject of study, 530.
INDEX
Limits of the powers of the state, 186.
Locke, John, 175.
Lombroso, Cesare, 481, 482, 488, 480.
Lotze, Hermann, 550.
Lowell, James Russell, 507.
Lubbock, Sir John, 240.
Lucretius, 240.
Luther, Martin, 254, 357.
Luxury, 202.
Lycurgus, 174, 547, 548.
Mably, G. B. de, 546.
Machiavelli, N. di B., 544.
MacKenzie, J. S., 550.
McKinley, William, gor.
McLennan, J. F., 113, 116.
Madison, James, 408.
Malinowski, B., 120.
Mallock, W. H., 280, 508.
Malthus, Thomas, 195, 196, 547; theory
of, 195.
Manitou, 242.
Man touches nature at an increasing
number of points, 60.
Map of the sociological field, 42, 43.
Marriage, early forms of, 116; group,
118; raising the social ideals of,
153; Yregulation of, as remedy for
divorce, I51.
Marriage laws, eugenic, 151.
Marriage rate and the family, 128.
Marx, Karl, 383.
Maurice, F. D., 385, 5409.
Mayo-Smith, Richmond, 129, 557.
Means of control, arising from voluntary
association, 367; through public
opinion and law, 368.
Meaning of social control, 340.
Medicine man and priest, services of, 259.
Medieval philosophers, 543.
Mendelian Law, 506, 528.
Mental emancipation of women, 148.
Merit system among employees and offi-
cials of institutions, 518.
Methods, of administration, 514; of
communication, 7; of public adminis-
tration, 515.
Metronymic family, 113.
Micah, 263.
Mill, John Stuart, 546, 553.
Misdirected and inadequate education,
450.
Modern philosophers, 545; social state,
170; socialism, 382; socialistic ex-
periments, 383.
581
Modification of inequality, 405.
Mohammed, 254, 267.
Money, use of, to facilitate exchange, 211.
Monogamy, 118.
Montesquieu, C. L. de S., 67, 546, 553.
Moore, Dr. Frank, 482.
Moral and esthetic activities, 87.
Moral evolution of man, 228.
More, Thomas, 381, 544, 545.
Morel, Jules, 481, 490.
Morgan, Lewis H., 114.
Morley, John, 159.
Morris, William, 5409.
Morrow, Prince A., 131.
Morton, Dr. Rosalie S., 132.
Mosaic codes, 547.
Moses, 174, 547.
Miiller, Max, 243, 244.
Mumford, Eben, 559.
Miinsterberg, Hugo, 562.
Nansen, Fridjof, 531.
Natural conditions that influence society,
288.
Natural environment, inequalities aris-
ing from, 400.
Natural phenomena, sacred places and,
261.
Natural races, 75.
Nature, conflict with, 68; of crime,
478; of ethics, 220; of happiness,
375; of justice, 408; of social degenera-
tion, 499; of social production, com-
plex, 193; of society, 7; of the state,
157.
Necessity, of care for weak and abnormal,
513; of social integration, 94.
Need of scientific study, 1o.
Nero, 461.
Newman, John Henry, Cardinal, 254.
Non-social being, 508.
Non-social group, 432.
Nordau, Max, 499.
Normal distinguished from abnormal
society, 425.
Novicow, Jacques, 32, 550.
Numa, 174.
Object of society, 36.
Observance of scientific method, 44.
Optional function of the state, 183.
Order, social, 180.
Organic conception of society, 16, 556.
Organization, 278; of industry, social
effects of, 197; tribal, 164.
582
Oriental monarchy, 380.
Origin, of control by force, 388; of
language, 58; of natural justice, 234;
of public control, 63; of religion, 2490;
of religion and revelation, 239; of
the state, 150.
Other sciences, data of, 40, 527.
Other social organs, 104.
Out-relief, principles of, 475.
Owen, Robert, 547, 540.
Pathology, of education, 431; of the
family, 428; of the state, 430.
Patriarchal family, 120.
Patronymic family, 114.
Patten, Simon N., 366.
Paul, Saint, 254, 255, 267, 300, 307.
Pauperism, 427.
Pearson, Karl, 131, 557.
Perpetuation of the social group, 85.
Personal appearance, forbidding, 442.
Personal ideals, control by, 357.
Philanthropy, unwise, 453.
Philosophers, ancient, 542; experimen-
tal social, 547; ideals of, 380;
medieval, 543; modern, 545.
Philosophy, of charity, 457;
549.
Phratry, purposes of the, 163.
Physical degeneracy and the size of, the
family, 135.
Physical environment, influences of, 445.
Physical nature, 67; influences of, on
crime, 484.
Physical pressure, 50.
Pilgrim’s Progress, 360.
Pinel, 481.
Pittsburgh Survey, 534, 535-
Plato, 380, 381, 542.
Polis or city-state, 164.
Political duties, privileges, and relations
of citizens, determination of the, 182.
Political interests, 305.
Political life, 5.
Political opportunities, equalization of,
416.
Political organs and _ functions,
ferentiation of, 168.
Political units, gentes as, 162.
Polyandry, 118.
Polygyny, 118.
Poor and incapable, care of the, 185.
Pope Leo XIII, 254.
Population, increase of, 72.
Posnet, H. M., 557.
recent,
dif-
INDEX
Poverty, extent of, 435; immediate and
remote causes of, 436.
Power of psychical forces, 346.
Powers of the state, limits of, 186.
Preservation of the social group, 84.
Pressure, physical, 59; social, 60.
Priest’s code, 547.
Primary groups, 103.
Primary result of association, 3209.
Primitive family, 112.
Primitive religious practice, crude and
meager nature of, 257.
Principles of scientific out-relief, 475.
Probability of divorce, 145.
Processes of social production, sociologi-
cal effects of changes in, 108.
Production of economic goods or wealth
to satisfy desires, 192.
Program of reform, 497.
Progress, by adaptation of the forces
of nature to man, 419; change versus,
414; of ethical practice through
sympathy, 229; of sociology, 555.
Prometheus, 254.
Prominent forces in state building, 165.
Proposed remedies for divorce, 150.
Protection of person and property from
violence and robbery, provision for.
180,
Proudhon, 181, 546.
Provision for protection of person and
property from violence and robbery
18o.
Psychic forces, 338.
Psychical influences in family organiza-
tion, 121.
Psychological factors in choosing mate,
154.
Public control, origin of, 63.
Publicists, theories of, 176.
Public opinion and law, means of control
through, 368.
Punishment of crime, 182, 404.
Purpose, sociological, 529.
Purposes of the phratry, 163.
Quetelet, 557.
Race conflict and amalgamation, 161.
Race or stock, improvement of, 416.
Race suicide and the family, 129.
Races, the natural, 75.
Raising the social ideals of marriage
necessary, 153.
Rational choice of the people, 411.
INDEX
Ratzenhofer, 285, 324, 524, 561.
Readjustment of society, 336.
Recent development of sociology, 558.
Recent philosophy, 5409.
Reform, program of, 407.
Reformation, 495.
Regulation, of holding, transmission and
interchange of property, 181; of
labor, 184; of marriage as a remedy
for divorce, 151; of trade and indus-
try, 183; of trades for sanitary pur-
poses, 185.
Reid, Dr. George, 132.
Relation, of individual to the group,
103; of individual to the mass, 409.
Relationships, social, 104.
Religion, a strong factor in society
building, 265; and _ social progress,
264; genius and origin of, 254; _his-
toric theories of origin of, 240; in-
fluence of, on family life, 120; influence
of, on social development, 239; origin
of, 230, 249.
Religious forms and ceremonies, 260.
Remedies for divorce, proposed, 150.
Resemblance, law of conscious, 321.
Resentment of injustice, 352.
Results of charity of the church, 463.
Revelation, 381; origin of religion and,
239.
Rise, of charity organization movement,
472; of governing class, 389; of in-
dustrial classes of traders, 212.
Robertson, Dr. John, 132.
Roman Republic, 380.
Rooneys, the, 505.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 492.
Roscher, 557.
Ross, E. A., 38, 40, 41, 107, 226, 285,
286, 325, 320, 341, 353, 358, 361,
364, 524, 351, 560, 561.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 175, 546.
Rowntree, 535.
Ruskin, 540.
Sacred places and natural phenomena,
261.
St. John, Mr., 536.
Saint-Simon, C. H. de, 382, 546.
Sanitation, including regulation of trades
for sanitary purposes, 185.
Schaeffle, August, 556.
Schmoller, 557.
Scientific method, observance of, 44.
Scientific out-relief, principles of, 475.
583
Scientific study of society, need of, to.
Segregation of wards of the state in
separate institutions, 517.
Selection of facts bearing upon the social
problem, 530.
Semple, Ellen, 67.
Sense of justice, 351.
Service of capital in the production of
‘wealth, 197.
Services of medicine man and priest,
259.
Settlement of tribes, 77.
Severus, 461.
Sheldon, Charles H., 432.
Shiftlessness and idle habits, 443.
Simmel, Professor Georg, 524, 562.
Sioux, 510.
Slow accumlation of wealth, 192.
Small, Albion W., 285, 524, 559, 562.
Small and Vincent, 346.
Small or large family, 127.
Smith, Adam, 223, 546, 553.
Smith, Eugene, 480.
Smith, Robertson, 247.
Smoky Pilgrims, 507.
So-called social organism, 08.
Social action, land or nature as a basis
of, 105; laws of implusive, 322;
social forms preceded by, 82.
Social activities, 15.
Social activity, standards of, differ in
different communities, 426.
Social aim, immediate, 376.
Social aims, laws of, 3109.
Social causes, of crime, 484; of degenera-
tion, 509.
Social choice, laws of, 319.
Social classification of individuals, 399.
Social composition, 95.
Social consciousness, 331.
Social constitution, 99.
Social consumption, 200.
Social contract, 175.
Social control, by ceremony, 358; mean-
ing of, 349; through intellectual
factors, 363.
Social codperation, form of, 4.
Social degeneration, nature of, 499.
Social development, 67; egoism versus
altruism in, 230; influence of reli-
gion on, 230.
Social direction of society in the interests
of the individual, 4109.
Social effects, of exchange, 207; of or-
ganization of industry, 197.
584
Social effort, conscious, 312.
INDEX
Social well-being, 194.
Social environment, inequalities arising | Social will, 345; of democracy, 3or.
from, 403; influence of the, 290.
Social evolution, 46, 51; and the theory
of the state, 172.
Social factors in choosing mate, 154.
Social forces, classification of, 283.
Social forms, 15, 105; preceded by social
action, 82.
Social group, advancement of, 87; per-
petuation of the, 85; preservation of
the, 84; relation of the individual
to the, 103; the survival of the, 74.
Social ideals of marriage, raising the, 153.
Social importance of ethics, 220; of
exchange, 206.
Social integration, development of groups
out of, 94; necessity of, 94.
Socialism, modern, 382.
Socialistic experiments, modern, 383.
Socialistic theories, advocates of, 382.
Social life, specific training for, 306.
Social mind, formal expressions of the,
336; steps in the formation of the,
334.
Social order, 180; basis of, 350; com-
plexity of the, ro.
Social organism, comparison of the
biological with the, 17; the so-called,
98.
Social organization, beginnings of, 55;
improvement of, 215; meaning of,
03, 98; psychic factors in, 18.
Social organs, other, 104.
Social origins, 51.
Social pathology, characteristics of, 426.
Social philosophers, experimental, 547.
Social position of women, changes in,
147.
Social pressure, 60.
Social production, complex nature of,
193.
Social progress, religion and, 264.
Social relationships, 104.
Social religion, control of, 356.
Social sciences, differentiation of, 23;
groups of, 26.
Social status of the family, 136.
Social structures, law of development of,
324.
Social suggestion, control by, 354.
Social survey, 534.
Social types, 510.
Social unit, the family as a, 112.
Social versus individual wealth, 194.
Society, animal, 9; closer integration of,
414; constituent parts of, 100;
differentiation of, in structure and
function, 415; forms of, 5; formula-
tion of a science of, 11; human, 9g,
523; is aim fixed and unchangeable,
375; natural conditions that influence,
288; normal distinguished from ab-
normal, 425; of animals, 53; organic
conception of, 16; readjustment of,
336; social direction of, in the in-
terests of the individual, 419; survi-
val of, 510; the cosmic and the ethical
processes of, 20; the nature of, 7;
the object of, 36; types of, 9; ulti-
mate aim of, 376.
Society building, religion a strong factor
in, 265.
Sociological effects of changes in pro-
cesses of social production, 108.
Sociological field, map of, 42, 43.
Sociological purpose, 529.
Sociological thought, basis of, 552.
Sociology, characteristic mark of, 24;
concrete method of, 39; definition of,
13; dynamic, 19; forerunners of,
552; foundation of, 32; founders of,
553; historical development of, 541;
many phrases of, 45; methods of,
39; organic conception of, 556; peda-
gogic limits of, 27; place among the
social sciences, 23; problems of, 37;
progress of, 555; purpose and method
of, 35; recent development of, 558;
relation to anthropology, 30; relation
to history, 30; relation to political
economy, 28; relation to political
science, 29; relation to psychology
and biology, 28; scientific nature of,
22; static, 19; treats of forces which
tend to organize and _ perpetuate
society, 17; treats of the growth of
society, 14; treats of the laws con-
trolling social activities, 18; treats
of the origin of society, 14; unit of
investigation in, 38; varies from
other social sciences chiefly on account
of its general nature, 41; various con-
ceptions of, 31.
Socrates, 300, 492.
Solon, 174, 547.
Special investigation, 532.
Specific methods, 532.
INDEX
Specific training for social life, 396.
Spencer, Herbert, 23, 28, 32, 44, 67, 90,
106, I17, 242, 243, 244, 349, 524, 525,
554, 555, 556.
Spiritual development, law of, 325.
Standards of social activity differ in
different communities, 426.
Standish, Miles, 507.
State, beginnings of federation of, 169;
building, prominent forces in, 165;
characteristics of the, 157; charity of
the, 464; divine origin of the, 173;
essential functions of the, 179; ethnic
basis of the, 160; from a sociological
point of view, 187; limits of the powers
of the, 186; management of industry,
184; modern social, 170; must pre-
serve its life and maintain its political
relationship with foreign powers, 183;
nature of the, 157; optional functions
of, 183; origin of the, 159; pathology
of, 430; prominent forces in building,
165; social evolution and the theory
of the, 172; theories of, 173.
Stelzle, Rev. Charles, 536.
Stephen, James Fitzjames, 488.
Steps in the formation of the social
mind, 334.
Stricter regulation of marriage, 151.
Struggle, of classes, 199; shifting from
physical to psychical basis, 21.
Stuckenberg, J. H. W., 285.
Subject of study, limitation of the, 530.
Sullivan, W., 503.
Summary, 455.
Survey, social, 534.
Survival, and progress, law of, 326; of
the best, 21; of the social group, 74;
of society, 510.
Sutherland, J., 482.
Swiss federation, 380.
Sympathy, progress of ethical practice
through, 229.
System of charity, Hamburg-Elberfeld,
465; Indiana, 470.
Talbot, Eugene S., 499.
Talmud, 547.
Tarde, M. Gabriel, 32, 316, 317,
339, 524, 562; laws of, 316.
Theories, advocates of socialistic, 382;
evolutionary, 178; of Malthus, 195;
of publicists, 176; of Weismann, 415;
state, 173; utilitarian, 374.
Thlinklets, 510.
320,
585
Thomas, Professor William I., 524, 561.
Tiele, C. P., 244, 325.
Tonnies, 524.
Trade and industry, regulation of, 183.
Traders, rise of industrial classes of, 212.
Tradition, laws of, 323.
Traditions of lawgivers, 174.
Transition from ethnic to civil society,
161; from natural to civil justice, 235.
Tribal organization, 164.
Tribe of Ishmael, 507.
Tribes, settlement of, 77.
Tubal-Cain, 254.
Tullius, Servius, 547, 548.
Turgot, 553.
Tylor, Edward B., 241, 242, 243, 244.
Types, of society, 9; social, 510.
Uhlhorn, Gerhard, 462.
Ultimate aim of society, 376.
Undervitalization and indolence, 437.
Unhealthful appetites, 440.
Universality of charity among nations,
458.
Unwholesome and poorly cooked food,
444.
Unwise philanthropy, 453.
Use, of money to facilitate exchange,
211; of the library, 524.
Utilitarian theory, 374.
Various forms of land tenure, 80.
Various uses of land, 71.
Vairasse d’Allais, 545.
Veblen, Thorstein, 558.
Vice, 428.
Vico, 553.
Vincent, George E., 550, 563.
Voltaire, 306.
Voluntary associations, 6.
Von Treitschke, 67.
Wants, efforts to satisfy, 73.
War, the force of, 65.
Ward, Lester F., 27, 28, 32, 44, 82, 83,
I16, 201, 232, 285, 301, 327, 340, 340,
499, 524, 554, 558, 550.
Warner, Amos G., 438, 562.
Wasserman test's, 152.
Wealth, approved modes of acquiring,
216; disapproved modes of acquiring,
216; increased service of, in behalf
of humanity, 418; interests, 305;
labor as a means of production of,
196; production, labor as a means of,
586 INDEX
Wealth, Continued. Wilson, Woodrow, 159, 178, 170. :
196; service of capital in production | Wolowski, 557.
of, 197; slow accumlation of, 192;} Woman’s movement and the size of the
social versus individual, 194. family, 134.
Webster, Hutton, 104. Women, changes in social position of,
Weismann, August, theory of, 415. 147; mental emancipation of, 148.
Welfare interests, 311. Woods, Robert A., 535 .
Well-being, importance of, 194. ’ | Worms, René, 556.
Wesley, John, 254. Wundt, Wilhelm, 224.
Westermarck, Edward, 55, 224, 225.
Will, social, 345, Zeros, the, 505.
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