Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/150

 138 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OP SOCIOLOGY

and other companies has already produced admirable results in protecting the public against monopolistic control.

In order that monopolistic tendencies and industrial violence may not encroach upon the ideas of individual liberty and free competition, several modi- fications of existing labor conditions seem necessary, (i) Steadiness and security of employment through mutual agreement or sliding scales of wages will do much to prevent frequent contests over fluctuations in wages. (2) A settled place of abode for the laborer, to which he may become attached and in which he may rear his family, is essential. The managers of a factory ought to live in the same place with the work-people, in order that they may all have common local interests and daily friendly relations. (3) The workman should have, first, a voice in the discipline of the works, including that very important part of discipline, the dealing with complaints ; and, secondly, a direct pecuniary interest besides wages in the proceeds of the combined application of the capital and the labor to the steady production of salable goods. The workman who has contributed to the reputation of the product and to the good-will of the establishment believes that he has earned something more than the wages paid him, and a share in the pecuniary value of this good-will would give him the opportunity and purpose to serve generously and proudly the establishment with which he is connected. The rising wage rising, that is, with years and experience and the pension or retiring allowance at disability will, it is to be hoped, continue to spread through our industrial system.

Such wasteful and stupid methods of adjustment as strikes, boycotts, and lockouts should give place to conference and discussion. Furthermore, since com- petition in industries, trades, and professions provides the indispensable oppor- tunity for progress, any tendency to substitute monopoly for freedom should be earnestly deprecated. Democracy, finally, will always believe in every man's doing his best, and being free to do his best. The labor union's too frequent effort to restrict the efficiency and the output of the individual workman should, therefore, be met with profound distrust, for we are told to bear one another's burdens, and to make every man's burden no heavier than the weakest can bear. PRESI- DENT CHARLFS W. ELIOT, in Bibliotheca Sacra, April, 1904.

E. B. W.

A Concrete Case for a Scientific Method. How to meet the need tor larger salaries for ministers is a question which is receiving careful consideration in many quarters. The conventional answer is : Get the churches to give more for the purpose, or possibly ask ministers to be more self-sacrificing. That is, put your hand on the best remedy you can think of and apply it vigorously, then try something else. This is working by rule of thumb.

Now let us go at the problem more scientifically, remembering that, as Mr. Huxley used to say, " science is, after all, only trained and organized common- sense.'" Assuming that we have all the facts before us, as to where these small-salaried ministers are in city, village, or country town with many or few churches near them, a native or foreign population, and so on, let us call to our aid one branch of scientific study, known as the comparative method.

We begin with the sociological principle that the local church, the school, the factory, and the town are each essentially similar types in four classes of institu- tions. They are, therefore, comparable with each other, and the changes in the others must help us see what may happen in the church. How, for example, have structural and functional changes in the three affected the support of adminis- tration ? The briefest outline of two is all that can be given, but it will show the method and its value.

The school district was nearly the unit of the educational work of fifty years ago. It hired its own teachers, and paid them as it could afford. Each teacher taught a little of everything in unmethodical ways and with little supervision. Studies were uncorrelated, the product was often poor, and the pay small.

AH this has gradually changed. Consolidation, division of labor, expert work and supervision, with other features of systematic organization, have brought better pay and better results.