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 NO TES AND A BSTRA CTS 143

and, further, in order to aid it in seeking the causes of social changes by furnish- ing a methodical comparison of different evolutions.

Thus history and sociology render one another mutual services, by providing one another with: (i) methods of work history a method of analysis, sociology a method of synthesis; (2) bodies of knowledge history the knowledge of past evolutions, sociology the knowledge of causes drawn from the observation of actual society. So long as sociology shall not have settled upon its vocabulary, it will be best for each study to preserve its own. If the historian today should adopt the vocabulary of one school of sociology, it would only complicate the work of the others. History, then, will make known the facts in common language language which everyone understands, giving to words a precise and concrete meaning and avoiding abstractions ; while to sociology will fall the further task of formulating the general laws of social phenomena.

Lecture by M. C. Bougie. In sociological researches it is not enough that sociology should draw upon psychology and biology ; it must utilize the data fur- nished by the historian. It is necessary for the sociologist to know and to practice historical methods. Sociology cannot content itself with being either an illustrated psychology or a transposed biology ; it must be an analyzed and compared history.

But does history have any need of sociology? The historian binds facts together, explaining one fact by another fact, but does not concern himself with the knowledge of laws. If one can explain historical facts without having recourse to sociology, of course the historian may leave it out of account ; but that is the question. As a matter of fact, if the narratives of the historians seem to us to offer explanations, it is in proportion as, apart from individual accidents, they take account of the constant relations which unite social phenomena. The entire explanatory thread of their recitals is found, in a word, in the sociological laws expressed or implied to which they make reference. But how much more intel- ligible would be the explanations if these laws of social phenomena were handled consciously and methodically ! MARCEL POURNIN, " La sociologie et les sciences sociales," in Revue Internationale de sociologie, March, 1904. E. B. W.

Neighborhood Evolution. Away out in Kansas I once overheard a man talk with bated breath of Middle Alley in Philadelphia. It stood for all that was unsavory in social life, and for half a century had carried the palm. Today Middle Alley is only a tradition, and when visitors try to find it they experience diffi- culty, because the street has changed its name ; and, when found, they are dis- appointed, for it bears none of its former characteristics, and the whole neighborhood is very much like others where poor and ignorant people live.

But what has produced this change in a community that bore a world-wide unsavory reputation? About eleven years ago two social settlements planted themselves in the heart of this community, the College Settlement and Neighbor- hood House : and these, with the influence of the Starr Center on the west flank and Bedford Street mission on the south, proved the forces which have altered the entire social life of the community. None of these was a mission in the accepted sense, and two were strictly social settlements. Planted in the midst of unsanitary surroundings, the residents began to live their lives, and at once the unsanitary surroundings became apparent. This led to a complete system of under-drainage and street-paving which made it possible for Neighborhood House to have the first bath-tub in the street and to pump its cellar, which was filled with sewage. Thus far the residents merely took care of themselves, but in doing so the entire community received the benefit. Others could now have bath-tubs and drainage ; and thus the forces became social.

This story would be an interesting one, and a sad one if it were told how the authorities neglected the street-cleaning, and the streets themselves were in such a condition that cleaning was impossible ; and how there was no pretense of gathering garbage until the residents astonished the city hall by requests from the alley. The residents simply wished to live civilized lives, and demanded service. But when they received it, their neighbors got the benefits as well as they. It was a neighborhood affair. This sanitary reform alone justifies the