Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/152

 140 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The Lack of the Power of Generalization among the Negroes. To what is the inferiority of the natural races to be attributed ? To what extent intellectual lack is conditioned by the physical organization of the individual, and to what extent by the social organization of the group, is an open question. An attempt will be made here to determine only whether there is an intellectual advantage entirely peculiar to the more highly endowed races, in which the lower peoples have little or no share. The power of generalization is the most characteristic mental trait of man, and one which especially marks the more highly developed races and individuals. It appears relatively late in life, and disappears in old age when the mental powers begin to decay. It is only natural, then, that if the lower races possess inferior mental powers, they should exhibit a lack in respect of generalization.

Proverbs offer a simple and indisputable proof of the existence of the ability to generalize on the part of a people. The proverb reveals the perception of similarities between things which are, in general, regarded as different, and a general principle is enunciated which is made to apply to particular events. Both of these points is evident in such a proverb as, " People who live in glass houses must not throw stones." This form of generalization is common, not only among the less highly developed classes of our own society, but also among the nature races, as, for example, the West Africans, whose proverbs are reported by Ellis. Many of these proverbs are parallels to our own, while others, although different, show as great a degree of penetration ; for example, such as : " It is easy to cut in pieces a dead elephant," and " He who does not understand the weaver-bird's call complains at the noise which it makes."

Thus we see that the power of generalization belongs among the intellectual possessions of the nature races, and we may expect to account for their backward- ness less upon grounds of mental deficiency than in view of their failure to con- centrate their intellectual powers upon mechanical invention, and other socially important matters. WILLIAM I. THOMAS, " Der Mangel an Generalisationsver- mogen bei den Negern," in Zeitschrift fur Socialwissenschaft, April 16, 1904.

E. B. W.

Reasonable Rates. States may fix local rates for public service, but decisions of the United States Supreme Court have swept away the power of states to make their rates conclusive. This result has been reached gradually through a line of decisions under the Fourteenth Amendment, providing that states may not take property without due process of law.

In the earlier decisions the court recognized the finality of state legislation on the fixing of rates. To quote from Munn vs. Illinois, 1876: " The controlling fact is the power to regulate at all. If that exists, the right to establish the maximum of charge, as one of the means of regulation, is implied." By 1885 a fundamental change had taken place in the position of a portion of the court on the question of state power over rates for public service. In a decision rendered that year the court says : " From what has been said, it is not to be inferred that this power of limitation or regulation is itself without limit." If the power to regulate is itself regulated by some other and higher power the former may be held within any desired limits. The above quotation must mean therefore, an assertion by the court of its power to review rates fixed by a state.

In 1880 the court was divided as to the ultimate authority in which the power to regulate and fix rates resided, a long dissenting opinion having been delivered in support of the finality of the legislative authority in such cases. But as new judges came onto the supreme bench, the support given by the court to this view grew less. Recently it was expressly stated to be the power and duty of the court " to inquire whether a body of rates prescribed by a legislature is unjust and unreasonable, and such as to work a practical destruction to rights of property, and if found so to be, to restrain its operation." At the same time the court was careful to avoid laying down as a general principle that failure to pro- duce some profit is conclusive proof of the injustice of a rate fixed by law.

In 1896 the court held that " it cannot be said that a corporation is entitled, as of right, and without reference to the interests of the public, to reatize a