ing on such great conquest of the whites, or of their black or yellow allies." He sees the Negro as a man, with faults and virtues as other men, and begins and ends his book with the thought that there is but one genus homo, Homo sapiens. MARY WHITE Ovington BOOK NOTICES L'idée individualiste et l'idée chrétienne. By HENRI LORIN. Paris: Bloud & Cie., 1909. Pp. 61. Fr. 0.60. The author of this brochure vividly describes the confusion of the nineteenth century after the rejection of the venerated principles of Christianity as basis of thought and conduct. An extreme individualism gradually heaped ruins upon ruins in the various fields of human activity; it gave birth to new forms of tyranny in government, to the pernicious doctrine of "laissez faire" in the industrial order, and to anarchy in social life. So now, step by step, laboriously the masses endeavor to regain the protection and privileges which religion of old freely secured for them. But failure awaits their efforts unless they return to these same beliefs, for through the teachings of the church only can we hope to harmonize a moderate individualism and a genuine solidarity. A noble and enthusiastic appeal, indeed, but many will find it difficult to share the optimism of the author. Do not rather modern sociologists despair of ever reaching an agreement on metaphysical or religious bases, and advocate the sufficiency of a more immediate criterion of social values? Still there is hope in the fact that their conclusions tend, by no means, toward a denial, but toward a clearer and fuller restatement of the old formulas. P. H. P. Preventable Diseases. By WOODS HUTCHISON, A.M., M.D. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1909. $1.50. The use of social analogies to illustrate anatomical and physiological conditions is manifest in this very readable and helpful book. Malthus gave hints to Darwin. Most readers are more familiar with social structures and reactions than with the tissues and inner organs of their own bodies. Hence our author talks of the "republic of cells," and even of the rights and privileges of cells in order to make his medical explanations clear to the ordinary man. For those interested in social movements to prevent disease and promote public health this discussion has great value. Tuberculosis, diphtheria, colds, adenoids, malaria, rheumatism, nervous complaints are explained and the best methods of avoiding them are indicated. The inheritance of disease is minimized while the efficacy of wise social measures of prevention is authoritatively announced. C. R. HENDERSON The Making of the Balkan States.. By WILLIAM SMITH MURRAY. New York: Columbia University (Longmans, Green & Co., Agents), 1910. Pp. 199. $1.50. The treatment in this volume is almost wholly from the viewpoint of political and diplomatic history, with the usual weaknesses that result from this method. The sociologists who believe that the study of society is the study of the interaction of minds ought to be pleased with this way of writing history. It is likely, however, that most of them would prefer to have the economic, climatic, racial, cultural, etc., factors given a little more prominence. L. L. B. Legal Development in Colonial Massachusetts 1630-1686. By CHARLES J. HILKEY. New York: Columbia University (Longmans, Green & Co., Agents), 1910. Pp. 148. $1.25. This is a well-constructed and valuable presentation of (1) the lawmaking factors in early colonial Massachusetts and (2) the law itself which grew out of the local situation as influenced by the people's reverence for the common law of England. L. L. B. RECENT LITERATURE NOTES AND ABSTRACTS Die Fortentwickelung des Arbeitsrechts und die Aufgaben der Rechtslehre.Adequate labor legislation requires, in addition to the science of law, a sociological method by which can be shown the actual conditions of labor, including the adequacy of existing laws, and the possible developments which laws governing labor may assume. A real scientific treatment of the subject is required, in which public and private rights are not differentiated, and in which the laws regarding labor are considered as a special legal discipline co-ordinate in importance with the formal, technical science of the law. To this end the attention of all socially interested jurists should be secured.-Dr. Hugo Sinzheimer, Sozial Praxis und Archiv für Volkswohlfahrt, XX, 1202, 1234. J. V. S. Kultursynthese. The present tendency is toward a synthetic world-civilization, encouraged by innumerable common, economic, and social interests. Universal political development in the direction of democratic government is illustrated by the progress of such reforms as the initiative and referendum, local self-government, and woman suffrage. Economic tendencies are in the direction of large business organizations, combinations and trusts, and of municipal ownership of street railways, lighting plants, etc. Progress is being made in the treatment of the problem of the legal standard of wages and labor conditions through wages, commissions, and optional and compulsory courts of arbitration. Complete separation of church and state and church and school is fast becoming universal. Christian dogmatism is forced more and more into the background, and purely moral and social problems occupy the foreground. Similar tendencies manifest themselves in literature.-Dr. R. Broda, Dokumente des Fortschritts, June, 1911. R. F. C. Savings and the Social Welfare.-In modern society there are immense expenditures for defense, recreation, travel, ornamentation, clothing, education, literature, health, and food. This wonderful progress has been possible because of the wider knowledge and sounder principles of social welfare, as seen specifically in (1) the recognition of individual and national interdependence, (2) inventions in transportation and other lines of activity, (3) the development of banking, which has made it possible to keep consumption within the income and has stimulated the increase of the amount of wealth available for the construction of productive works. Thus British savings have been used for world-wide development of communication, resources, etc.; there has been an increase in the spending power of wage earners, betterment of the condition of millions who have been enabled to go to new countries, building up of Egypt, China, etc. Only war, decrease in real wages, and the loss of labor efficiency can check the attainment of still greater prosperity. (The paper is followed by a live and enlightening symposium.)-George Paish, Sociological Review, July, 1911. A. H. W. Some Thoughts on Democracy.-There are two main ways of conceiving democracy: (1) the purely individualistic view that everyone's opinion on public questions should be treated as of equal weight; this view is unsound and is the cause of the numerous objections that have been urged against democracy; (2) the view that corresponds to the organic conception of the social unity, in practice permitting a combination of individual choice and expert guidance; this combination is difficult to secure because of the lack of expert social guides. The principle of democracy may be illustrated (a) by a Second Chamber, which should consist of able and experienced persons who might advise and guide; (b) by the Referendum, which is too purely arithmetical and mechanical to function satisfactorily, and is a form of the individualistic view of democracy; (c) by parliamentary suffrage for women, which, aside from the individualistic doctrine of equal rights, is obviously a reasonable demand, because women are experts on some social questions. The salvation of democracy is not to be found in manipulating machinery, but in the enlightenment of opinion.-J. S. Mackenzie, Sociological Review, July, 1911. A. H. W. L'ouvrier de la laine dans le Yorkshire.-The English type may be understood by the study of education in connection with the workshops and family life of the wool-workers of Yorkshire. Their machine work in the shop demands greater moral capacity than handwork; their training develops the capacity for continued attention, adaptability to direction, and a sense of personal responsibility; but machine labor develops little aptitude for varied and changing tasks, and little creative imagination. In the family, the child is given moral freedom, but there is energetic intervention in case of error; this training demands a peaceable home and constant harmony of parents. The family enjoys the advantages of trade-unions, co-operative societies, clubs, savings-banks, old-age pensions, etc. This training in the shop and family secures the gradual moral emancipation of the children and respect for personal and public authority.P. Deschamps, La science sociale, June, 1911. R. F. C. Les effets de l'intervention légale dans la lutte contre l'alcoolisme en Roumaine. -Alcoholism is a social phenomenon and cannot be prevented by the efforts of societies, educators, scientists, and other forms of individual propaganda so successfully as by legal intervention; this is especially true in Roumania, where the people are divided and are ignorant. Legal intervention is rapid and effective, and acts on all regions at once. Since April, 1908, legal intervention has decreased the annual consumption of alcohol 5,310,735 litres, and the number of selling-places 8,961; there is evidence of better health and increased power of labor, hence increased national wealth; crimes and delinquencies are fewer. These effects have been secured by the law of March 6, 1908, which provides that the right of selling spirituous drinks and of maintaining wineshops belongs to the communes, and that the profits are to be employed only for repairing churches, schools, communal infirmaries, etc. The communal council has general supervision of the wineshops.-Dr. M. Minovici, Die Alkoholfrage, Vol. VII, No. 2. R. F. C. La protection de l'adolescence en Prussie.-The Ministre des Cultes in Prussia has at his disposal funds for the protection of young men between the ages of fourteen and twenty; this should be extended to the young girls. By means of these funds and the assistance of competent men the social policy in regard to youths should be directed. A ministerial circular has been published that calls attention (1) to the changes in wage conditions and the consequent unfavorable effect on family and social life, especially the effect on the moral and physical welfare of adolescents; (2) to the necessity of providing general social means of development of the physical and moral forces of each generation; the following have been successful in some communities in this development: centers for reading, writing, and recreation; encouragement of healthful recreation under expert guidance; musical entertainments, lectures, and dramatic presentations with local talent; personally conducted visits to museums, monuments, and places of historic or scientific interest; conferences and clubs of young people for discussion of subjects concerning civil and social life, religion, science, history, geography, etc.-Charles Collard, Revue sociale catholique, June, 1911. R. F. C. The Constitutionality of Old-Age Pensions.-Old-age, accident, and sickness pensions are not prohibited by any provisions of the Federal Constitution. They are unconstitutional under the ordinary provisions of the state constitutions, unless they are confined to indigent persons, in which case they are probably unconstitutional, but may be justified as a form of outdoor poor relief. It is probable that such pensions might constitutionally be provided by the Federal La race. There is no satisfactory ethnological characteristic of race; of the proposed characteristics, the color of the skin is the most useful for sociology, because it is a symbol of a permanent series of physical factors; the formation of a race is due to geographic conditions. The race is not a static unity; like everything else, it evolves unceasingly; the transformation of races is due to racial crossing and to social environment; the mind of the race is a social product, rather than an organic property; it is impossible to determine the mind of the race, but it is possible to describe approximately some outstanding differences in the minds of races. Race does not determine action; it is merely one factor, which, in connection with several more immediate factors, influences activity at a given moment. Race is tending to diminish in importance; economic development is overwhelming racial factors. Consequently the biological concept of rival races is giving way to the sociological concept of classes and of professional solidarity. But race has a retrospective importance.-M. H. Cornejo, Revue internationale de sociologie, March, 1911. E. H. S. Sociologie théorique et sociologie pratique.-The proper kind of theoretical sociology is in its very nature practical and reformatory. The ideas of the sociologists are objectified in acts; therefore, those ideas are forces that influence the social evolution; by means of consciousness human phenomena react on themselves. In knowing itself the society is practically reforming itself. This social self-consciousness does not necessarily mean socialism.-Alfred Fouillée, Revue de métaphysique et de morale, May, 1911. E. H. S. Industrial Opportunities for Negroes in Philadelphia.-The Educational Committee of the Armstrong Association of Philadelphia has been investigating the industrial opportunities of the Negroes of Philadelphia; they have found that there exists no adequate opportunity for the training of young Negroes in the skilled trades; out of 8,000 Negroes in Philadelphia so few are skilled workmen that they form no vital part in the industrial scheme of the city. There are few opportunities to learn a trade through apprenticeship; of the apprentice-trained Negroes in Philadelphia, a considerable majority received their training in the South. The school-trained Negroes show a slightly greater degree of success than those trained as apprentices. Of 229 school-trained Negroes who were investigated, 42 have left their trade, 65 are having good success, 83 fair success, and 39 poor success.-James S. Hiatt (Chairman), “Industrial Opportunities for Negroes in Philadelphia," Southern Workman, July, 1911. E. H. S. Scientific Standards in Labor Legislation. Most labor laws cannot be enforced adequately because of their indefinite and confused formulation. In many cases the determination of the necessity of protection is left entirely to the inspector; the law requires that the inspector insist on safeguards "when deemed necessary"; unless changes are ordered by him, they need not be made. Most of our factory laws also leave to the inspector the determination of the nature of the requirements for protection; he is to see that the machinery is "sufficiently guarded," and that there are "suitable and sufficient" fire-escapes. Elasticity in laws is desirable, but laws cannot be enforced until more scientific standards of enforcement are made. Really scientific laws set up standards which make it possible for the employer to know whether he is complying with the law and for the inspector to require compliance with the law or secure evidence for prosecution. The development of these standards may come (1) by expert investigation either by government officials or by safety engineers employed in the large factories; but this method lacks uniformity; (2) by joint discussion before advisory boards composed of employers, employees, lawyers, physicians, economists, and other experts. This method of determining standards of legislation is becoming prevalent and is working successfully.-John and Irene Andrews, American Labor Legislation Review, June, 1911. E. H. S. |