La crise morale dans les sociétés contemporaines. -Contemporary societies have not yet succeeded in giving to their moral life a normal trend. The confusion is not less great in the doctrines than in the facts and doings of practical life. This moral crisis has two main causes: first, the profound changes which have come about in the industrial world and in political and social institutions; second, the great revival through which scientific and philosophic thought has opened to discussion the very basis of morality, and denied the reality of certain duties. Sociologists have emphasized the first cause; in reality the problem of the basis of the moral code is the essential thing. This basis, to be effective, must satisfy the critical exigencies of our reason, and the emotional tendencies of our heart.-M. Bureau, Bulletin de la société française de philosophie, April, 1908, p. 107. E. F. C. Celibate Education Today.— We are facing an era of celibate education. The celibate man was a failure as a teacher; the celibate woman will fail in the schoolroom just as he did. Failure is the lot of each because each is abnormal. The best type of male teacher is the married man. But the married woman in the school is a still more abnormal exemplar than the "old maid." Her place is in the home-there lies her highest, holiest, and, in fact, only duty. For teachers we must select women under thirty years of age. They are still normal, still cherishing matrimony as woman's work in life. Woman at this age is at the high-tide of her life; her disposition is then most sympathetic, and her ideals the clearest and strongest.-E. S., Popular Science Monthly, November, 1908, p. 423. E. F. C. A Slump in French Socialism.-Half a dozen years ago the French political world was ruled by M. Jaurès, the leader of the socialist party. But the country acknowledged it as a political party, not as the vanguard of socialism. Then, came the "unification" of the party; it cut itself adrift from the parties of Bourgeoisism, and immediately fell out of the political world back into its own little world. Its leaders ceased to be opportunists, and conformed to the new doctrinaire discipline. Since M. Clemenceau has been a cabinet minister, his deliberate and determined policy has been to widen the breach dug by "unified" socialism itself between socialism and the reality of politics. He has achieved his end, and the slump in French socialism is a reality.-Laurence Jerrold, Contemporary Review, October, 1908, p. 422. E. F. C. Education and the Socialistic Movement.-What is likely to be the permanent attitude of the scientific mind toward the claims of thorough-going socialism? While acknowledging the evils of the present system and the need for improvement, a majority of persons believe that socialism is not practicable and not desirable. Its unfavorable possibilities bulk large in an intelligent view. The present industrial system holds large possibilities for the future. A continued gain in productive power is certain. The laborer will be enabled to raise himself by his own efforts surely and steadily toward the condition of which he dreams. He may become in large degree economically independent, and socially equal to the rich. A stronger democracy may be realized than any which a leveling of fortunes would bring.-John Bates Clark, Atlantic Monthly, October, 1908, p. 433. E. F. C. Eugenics, the Science of Rearing Human Thoroughbreds.-The stockbreeder controls by artificial selection; society by social selection. Existing struggle is between groups of men. The folk-ways determine who shall live and breed. With the spread of Weismannism emphasis is laid on the importance of inborn characteristics. The question of interest is, who shall be born? The vital objection to eugenics is the belief that "nature has managed things better than we can." The incompetency of agents, inability to secure continuity, liability to disastrous errors are all to be feared. Galton's Fellow works along the line of (1) historical inquiry into the rates of contribution to population of the several classes of society; (2) facts under which thriving families originate; (3) social factors that control the strength of passion. This is a modest programme. Eugenics must be introduced into the folk-ways. A tendency to exogamy, for example, has been of advantage to the group. If the observance of eugenic principles favors a group then eugenics will crystalize into the customs of controlling groups. It is only thus that it can become such a force as its founders hope.-Albert G. Keller, Yale Review, August, 1908. J. T. H. The Historical Church and Modern Political Tendencies.-The tendency of modern politics is not in the direction of liberty. The test of freedom is the liberty of minorities. By this test the democracies of Greece failed. The Macedonian Empire produced the theory of cosmopolitanism. The Stoics defended liberty by the Jus Naturale. The Romans joined it with the Jus Gentium as part of the Roman law. The history of this conception is almost that of freedom. The existence of the Catholic church was the realization of a concrete barrier, which the Stoics and Roman law could not make effective. The collapse of the Catholic church and of the system of estates at the end of the fifteenth century removed the checks which had prevented the formation of the autocratic unitary state. The idea of state-autocracy persists today despite the French Revolution. The tyranny of democracy was feared by J. S. Mill and Lord Acton. This doctrine of the state has been accepted by the English Socialists. Socialism is a new form of militant religion, with whose increase the whole community will be immersed in increasing complexities of economic and political affairs before the working of the law of substitution has had time to counteract the loss of mental output due to the abolition of a cultured class. Against this tendency the church must continually protest.G. H. Fendick, Economic Review, October, 1908. J. T. H. The Treatmen of Women Prisoners. In this respect England has something to learn from America. It is difficult for discharged men prisoners to obtain work, for women almost impossible. The prisons give no chance for regeneration. Unnecessary restrictions, deprivation of fresh air, monotonous and insufficient food, unsanitary conditions, lack of interesting employment, all unite to render the discharged woman prisoner certain to return to her lawless life. Imprisonment does not cure crime. The most pressing need of English prisons is reorganization of prison industries. By this means women could be made good mothers with some knowledge of cooking and care of children. Women boards of commissioners, women doctors and nurses are urgently needed, the separation of prisoners into classes according to offense, character, and mental condition. Lastly, state organization of Discharged Prisoners' Aid Societies is essential.-Elizabeth Sloan Chesser, Contemporary Review, October, 1908. J. T. H. Democracy and Scholarship.-The permanent interests of democracy demand that the pursuit of knowledge shall be made by its own servants, in its own interest, that it may not subserve the interests of a class. As the pursuit of wealth cannot properly be the one aim of a people, there must be other tests of success. The scholarly classes will furnish leaders to replace the boss. Scholarship in abstract subjects satisfying the higher wants of the people is necessary to prevent the decay of democracy. We are concerned with the solution of the problems of poverty, of the government of cities, of immigration. The scholar should lead in such work. The scholar must be the servant, not the slave, of democracy.-David Kinley, Science, October 16, 1908. J. T. H. Poor Relief in Switzerland. —Each of the twenty-two cantons and three half cantons has its own poor-relief system and twenty of them its Poor Law. The Bundesrath cannot interfere with the cantons, but does furnish federal relief to those destitute by reason of military service and to the poor districts where needed. Each poor district must care for its own whether they live in its borders or not. The Poor-Law Bureau has wide discretionary powers in placing in institutions where they are forced to work not only the poor, but those likely to become a burden. In Berne one of the nine members of the cantonal Regierungsrath is at the head of the Armen Direktion and is responsible to his colleague and the people. Five trained officials are Direktion officials. These build and manage institutions for the poor. Twelve Poor Commissioners paid by the government advise and criticize the Direktion. They investigate the causes of poverty.-Edith Sellers, Contemporary Review, October, 1908. J. T. H. The College of Discipline and the College of Freedom. -The can college, not thoroughly articulated either with the secondary schools or the university and with the cost of its maintenance rapidly growing, is undergoing increasing scrutiny. Its final place in our educational system, however, will be settled on the basis of some prevailing educational ideal. The differences in American colleges today rest upon the relative weight given to the ideal of discipline and the ideal of freedom. The extremes of these ideals are represented by Harvard and Westpoint. Their purposes (contrary to common opinion) are identical, Westpoint, like Harvard, not being a mere technical school but seeking to develop men successful in any calling. The roll of alumni as a test of the work of a college may be misleading, but in this respect each of these ranks high. Each type of school tends to a certain superficiality. The special function of a college should be neither discipline nor freedom but to serve as a transition school in which the boy grows out of one into the other.Henry S. Pritchett, Atlantic, November, 1908. J. T. H. The Red Spook of Socialism. —Socialism may nag existing government into reforms but as a theory it is opposed to the spirit of our people. Paradoxically it favors woman suffrage, though that would double the vote against socialism, women being by nature conservative. Twenty centuries of hard knocks have made them so. The laborers are in much the same condition, trained to obey. The poor rather approve the ostentation of the rich employers. The labor unions are not friendly to socialism. "Gompers can't deliver the goods" has proved a true prophecy. The farmer population is unfriendly to socialism for obvious reasons. No matter how many votes the socialists poll they cannot change the constitution. "The Red Specter is a spook. It does not exist and if it did it would be unconstitutional."-Eugene Wood, New England Mag., November, 1908. J. T. H. Miscarriage of Life in the West. -The drifting away of the mind to sensuous planes, its inability to serve the spirit is life-miscarrying. Every land has its own obstruction to true life. The west does not distinguish between kernel and shell. In religion we find verbal controversy that seeks to monopolize God in the interest of sects instead of seeking the love of God which is the essence of religion. A triumvirate of theology, philosophy, and science have made the agnostics. The position of the west in industrial progress is a mistaking of means for ends. In science it is ignorant of the distinction between worldly knowledge and godly knowledge. In politics it is obsessed with the idea that the rule of majorities is the rule of the people, a palpable error, for who knows how many blessings have been lost by the defeat of minorities.P. Rámanáthan, Hibbert Journal, October, 1908. J. T. H. Self-Realization and the Criterion of Goodness. The objection that the self-realization theory must answer is its indefiniteness. What type of self is to be realized? Though Hedonism and Rationalism have been discarded, they yet possessed the advantage of furnishing a definite standard of moral judgment. The self is not a combination of elements. It must be conceived dynamically. Volition alone expresses the complete self and volition is an organizing activity, including all others. In volitional processes the unity of self gives way to difference to be later united and enriched. The two features of differentiation and integration are always present. An act is good in the degree in which it promotes the organization of the full human self. The conditions that are fundamental to the organization of the human self are: self-interest, consciousness of the interest of others, adjustment of the human life to the life of the cosmos.-Henry W. Wright, Phil. Rev., November, 1908. J. T. H. The Feminist Movement and the Birth-Rate. -The philosophical radical has no argument against the feminist movement, but the average person is unconvinced. Alarm over the decline of the birth-rate has created a demand for discrimination as to proper forms of education for the sexes. Stanley Hall's suggestion of education for motherhood ignores the possibility that the girl so educated may never have opportunity to marry. Much of the revolt has come from the position of women no longer young. A woman with a high sense of the duties of motherhood is likely to be unattractive to men. The attitude of men toward marriage places women in an impossible position. Marriage between fellow-workers in professions do occur but are hindered by the woman's dislike of economic dependence and the man's inability to support a wife, meanwhile the state needs the children they could rear. State endowment of motherhood would solve the problem.-"B," Albany Review, April, 1908. J. T. H. The Use and Misuse of Statistics in Social Work.;-As a rule the investigation is not wide enough to admit of safe generalization, yet generalizations are made. The report of the New York Committee on Physical Welfare of Children largely failed to reach definite conclusions because no standard of comparison was adopted. The budget inquiry of the New York Conference which sought to determine the family income necessary for normal life failed to distinguish the fundamental necessaries of different race-groups. Misinformation in the guise of information does harm. A false generalization supported by a statistical table has tremendous authority with the mass of people. The invasion of the homes of the poor by the curious investigator is objectionable. It would be better not to publish so much that is of indeterminate value. There is need of better technique in publishing. There is also need of a new variety of expert, one who has at the same time sense of numbers and sense of social values.Kate Holladay Claghorn, Proc. Am. Statistical Assoc., June, 1908. J.T. H. Feminism in Politics. If feminism means the introduction into politics of wholly new forces, that would substitute feeling for conviction, enthusiasm for argument, we need not dread any revolution; no other state of affairs has ever existed. In general, man's education has little effect on his opinions; his qualities as a citizen depend much more on his heart than on his head. He does not furnish a contrast to woman in this respect. A study of the genesis of men's political opinions, shows them to be based also, not on reason and conviction, but on feeling and sentiment. The admission of women into politics, then, would involve no great change in political methods; but it would mean that their admission to a share of social responsibility and their moral education would be reflected in the general tone of civic life, in the family, and in men.— W. M. Lightbody, Westminster Review, October, 1908. F. F. The Mind of Woman. -The fact that our modern progress is mainly the accomplishment of the white man is no proof that he is superior to woman or to the lower races because of inborn psychological capacity. He has simply entered a field of experience, interest, and practice, into which woman and the lower races have not yet followed him; he is not a superior creature, but merely a specialist. The differences in mental expression between the lower and higher races is mostly due to differences of attention and practice, to the development of different habits in different regions. Certain organic conditions and historical incidents have inclosed woman in habits which she cannot fracture, and also given man an attitude toward her which renders her alien to his interests and practices. She exists in man's world of practical and scientific activity but is excluded from full participation in it. It is not that she cannot accomplish men's feats, but that as yet, she has not the practice.— W. I. Thomas, American Magazine, December, 1908. F. F. The Alternative to Socialism.-A Single Tax system by which all landvalues would be taxed, by which the economic value of the land would be taken for all, while the possession and use of it would be left the people, in short, the nationalization of rent instead of the nationalization of land which the socialists advocate, would have the beneficial result of removing the restrictions that land monopoly now imposes on labor and enterprise on every hand.-Arthur_H. Weller, Westminster Review, November, 1908. F. F. Le problème de la population dans l'économie nationale.-The development of civilization in a nation is directly influenced by its population, among other things. The aim should be to have not the greatest possible number of births, but the greatest number of births of children capable of surviving. This vital force of a people presupposes the existence of a vigorous rural population to bring new strength into the middle classes who possess the means of success. Therefore a public policy of intervention in favor of the proletariat and of the middle classes is a reasonable one.-Eugene Schwiedland, La reforme sociale, September, 1908. F. F. Some Reflections on the Failure of the Modern City to Provide Recreation for Young Girls. Only in the modern industrial city have men concluded that it is no longer necessary for the municipality to provide for the insatiable desire for play, and they have therefore entered upon a most dangerous and difficult experiment. The modern city sees in young girls only two possibilities, both commercial: first, a chance to utilize by day their labor power; second, to extract from them in the evening their petty wages, by pandering to their love of pleasure.-Jane Addams, Charities and The Commons, December 5, 1908. F. F. The Advance of Civilization in Fiction. One sign of advance in fiction is that the muck-raking novelist is passing, that the popular novelist is showing fewer honorable thieves and noble murderers, and not so many heroes and heroines that ought to be in the penitentiary. We have been paying more attention to the art of the performance in fiction, than to the moral of it. The average reader has not yet put his morals and his mind together in reading, nor learned to articulate what he wants; he buys it on hearsay, does not select.Mrs. L. H. Harris, Independent, November 19, 1908. F. F. Have You Paid Your Board?-We may ask of different classes of society whether they have produced as much as they have consumed. The common laborer and the specialized worker can answer "yes." Perhaps the artist and scientist can. There are many forms of "business," however, which give no social value to the community; the same is true of women who consume more than the housekeeper's wages and produce no more, of the woman who spends enormously. It is time to awake to the social consciousness that we must produce more than we consume.-Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Independent, November 26, 1908. The Psychology of Women's Dress. -The occupation of woman is to charm, and when man gave up personal display for specialized skill in occupation, woman took up and began to specialize in personal display to charm man. Man's activities are largely a means of supplying woman with those accessories which she uses to charm him. Yet she is only a pawn in the industrial game played by man. Her individual possessor uses her as a symbol of his wealth, and she wears not what she wants, but what the manufacturers want her to want. The effect of this on the character of woman is wholly bad, for her attention is so bound up with the expression of her own charm, that it stops there. If the economic value of the superfluity of women's dress, and the energy and attention they waste on following the fashions were devoted to humanistic enterprises, we should be in a fair way to add the elements lacking to make our machine system a civilization.-W. I. Thomas, American Magazine, November, 1908. F. F. |