Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/155

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 141

(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 tend- ency 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 de- fended 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 TreatmenJ of Women Prisoners. — In this respect England has some- thing 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 subsen'e 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