Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/135

 REVIEWS 121

nedy Foundation before the School of Philanthropy of New York City.

In the first chapter under the caption, "Poverty and Maladjust- ment," Professor Devine states his thesis which is that misery ex- cept in a few pathological cases is the result of economic malad- justment and is therefore destroyed by removing the engendering causes. In order to bring forth clearly the causes of this "surplus misery" several groups of unfortunates are examined: suicides, incarcerated criminals, prostitutes, and dependents. Naturally the maladjustment which takes form in the existence of any of these classes is not the result of a single cause. The influences which tend to the creation are many and are so closely interwoven that no one specific remedy can be suggested in any case. Preventive medicine, probation, the indeterminate sentence, more general edu- cation, and a franker public honesty, all would seem to make for the alleviation of much of this. The interesting chapter, "Out of Health," is in direct line with the propaganda of the American Medical Society and suggests many avenues of escape from the misery-producing diseases.

The essay, "Out of Work," is conservative but clear. Very in- teresting is the argument of Mr. Herbert S. Brown quoted in this chapter, in its possible application to secondary education. Mr. Brown holds that the natural limits to occupational mobility are vastly less confining than the usual bounds set down by custom, habit, employers, and trades-unions. He desires a more general apprenticeship and thinks that with the wider training as a basis the special skill of many trades may be had in a short time and thereby entrance to many occupations may be gotten.

The most valuable portion of the book doubtless is the report of the investigation of 5,000 dependent families in New York. The separate causes contributing to dependency were in each case observed and isolated. Not unnaturally in most families the mal- adjustment could not be attributed to any single factor. The presence of one efficient cause appeared to render more probable the finding of other causes. The remedies for -social misery as for pathological disease must be specific. Beyond doubt, however, the author is on safe ground in urging that much of the suffering of maladjustment might be removed by measures looking to "sound heredity; protected childhood; a prolonged working age; freedom from preventable disease and professional crime; indemnity against