Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/156

 142 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOC/OLOGY

cantonal Regierungsrath is at the head of the Armen Direktion and is responsible to his colleague and the people. Five trained officials are Direktion officials. These build and manage institutions for the poor. Twelve Poor Commissioners paid by the government advise and criticize the Direktion. They investigate the causes of poverty. — Edith Sellers, Contemporary Review, October, 1908.

J. T. H.

The College of Discipline and the College of Freedom. — The Ameri- can college, not thoroughly articulated either with the secondary schools or the university and with the cost of its maintenance rapidly growing, is undergoing increasing scrutiny. Its final place in our educational system, however, will be settled on the basis of some prevailing educational ideal. The differences in American colleges today rest upon the relative weight given to the ideal of discipline and the ideal of freedom. The extremes of these ideals are rep- resented by Harvard and Westpoint. Their purposes (contrary to common opinion) are identical, Westpoint, like Harvard, not being a mere technical school but seeking to develop men successful in any calling. The roll of alumni as a test of the work of a college may be misleading, but in this respect each of these ranks high. Each type of school tends to a certain superficiality. The special function of a college should be neither discipline nor freedom but to serve as a transition school in which the boy grows out of one into the other. — Henry S. Pritchett, Atlantic, November, 1908. J. T. H.

The Red Spook of Socialism. — Socialism may nag existing government into reforms but as a theory it is opposed to the spirit of our people. Para- doxically it favors woman suffrage, though that would double the vote against socialism, women being by nature conservative. Twenty centuries of hard knocks have made them so. The laborers are in much the same condition, trained to obey. The poor rather approve the ostentation of the rich employers. The labor unions are not friendly to socialism. "Gompers can't deliver the goods" has proved a true prophecy. The farmer population is unfriendly to socialism for obvious reasons. No matter how many votes the socialists poll they cannot change the constitution. "The Red Specter is a spook. It does not exist and if it did it would be unconstitutional." — Eugene Wood, New England Mag., November, 1908. J. T. H.

Miscarriage of Life in the West. — The drifting away of the mind to sensuous planes, its inability to serve the spirit is life-miscarrying. Every land has its own obstruction to true life. The west does not distinguish between kernel and shell. In religion we find verbal controversy that seeks to monopolize God in the interest of sects instead of seeking the love of God which is the essence of religion. A triumvirate of theology, philosophy, and science have made the agnostics. The position of the west in industrial progress is a mistaking of means for ends. In science it is ignorant of the distinction between worldly knowledge and godly knowledge. In politics it is obsessed with the idea that the rule of majorities is the rule of the people, a palpable error, for who knows how many blessings have been lost by the defeat of minorities. — P. Ramanathan, Hibbert Journal, October, 1 908. J. T. H.

Self-Realization and the Criterion of Goodness. — The objection that the self-realization theory must answer is its indefiniteness. What type of self is to be realized ? Though Hedonism and Rationalism have been discarded, they yet possessed the advantage of furnishing a definite standard of moral judgment. The self is not a combination of elements. It must be conceived dynamically. Volition alone expresses the complete self and volition is an organizing activity, including all others. In volitional processes the unity of self gives way to difference to be later united and enriched. The two features of differentiation and integration are always present. An act is good in the degree in which it promotes the organization of the full human self. The conditions that are fundamental to the organization of the human self are : self-interest, consciousness