Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/441

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS

The Last Census and Its Bearing on Crime.— Fully 50 per cent, of the crimes committed in the United States and Europe are due to drunkenness ; about 20 per cent, in this country are actually committed in the saloons. Of white offenders 47 per cent, belong to the laboring-classes and servants; but only 3}/^ per cent, to the professional and clerical order ; 27 per cent, were credited to the manufacturing and mechanical trades. The agricultural and professional portions were more addicted to major offenses; the laboring classes, to lesser forms. The largest proportion of offenses against the person was found in rural sections ; against property, in the professional, clerical, and official ranks. The burden of crimes was committed by those who live near "the want line." — August Drahms, Pop. Sci, Mo., October, 1900. E. S. B.

Statistics of Divorce. — The divorce-rate based on total population was two and five-eighths times as great in 1905 in the United States as it was in 1870. Five married couples out of 1,000 were being divorced annually in 1905; one and one-half, in 1870. The rate is highest in the western states. The United States leads the world ; Switzerland ranks next, but with a divorce-rate less than one- half as great. In regard to the number of divorces granted, actors rank highest, then musicians and teachers of music, commercial travelers, telegraph and tele- phone operators, physicians and surgeons. Agricultural laborers rank lowest ; then, clergymen, draymen and teamsters, blacksmiths, farmers. — J. A. Hill, Amer, Stat, Assoc, June, 1909. E. S. B.

Ethics and Politics. — The laws of ethics sometimes seem to conflict with those of politics. On occasions, laws become external commands to seek ends which to the individual seem unethical. The individual may choose to stand for a new doctrine which he believes to be reconstructive ; he bases his claim to obey his conscience on the progressive character of society. The state may decide to suppress the new doctrine as dangerous. Both of the antagonistic views may be right ; but experience will test their truth. The fact of progress involves a degree of relativity for ethics. Ethics may justify the individual in standing his ground until the actual security of the state is endangered, but at that point he must remember that since the state protects life, and since it therefore makes the ethical life possible, the cases where disobedience would be "the greater loyalty" are exceedingly rare. — R. M. Maclver, Inter. Jour, of Eth., October, 1908. ' E. S. B.

La g6n€ration consciente. — The partisans of both repopulation and depopula- tion are partly right and partly wrong ; the former right in deploring the exces- sive fear of paternity and the practices "contre nature," which lead to voluntary sterility; wrong in their preoccupation with quantity instead of with quality — the latter, right in their suspicion of the blind production of elements of disease, misery, and vice ; wrong in preaching a general limitation of births, instead of a limitation of a bad quality of births. It must be remembered that in diminishing the causes of energy, activity, constancy, and emulation, which children repre- sent, the general good is decreased, that no real and honest satisfaction is possi- ble without some material or moral effort. — F. Passy, Jour, des Sconomists, September, 1 909. F. F.

Causes de decadences des peuples modernes. — With a decrease in produc- tivity, a lessening of resources through war and through useless expenses of governments and of private individuals, with a consequent decrease in popula- tion, the decadence of modern nations will begin. — G. de Molinari, Jour. des. iconomists, September, 1909. F. F.

Criminality et tatotiage. — The relation between criminality and tattooing is neither a cause-and-effect relation nor a quantitative one, that is, the majority

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