Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/731

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS

How History Can be Taught from a Sociological Point of View. — At present sociology can best be taught in the high school through the medium of history, if the latter is taught, from the social viewpoint and so as to show the laws of social growth, organization, and functioning. This necessitates a satisfactory training in sociology in addition to a thoroughly scientific training in history. This should include the history of social theory as well as the study of present theories of society. In the teaching of history, no one particular theory of social development should be given undue prominence, as the eco- nomic (Marx), geographical (Buckle), ideological (Hegel), great-man theory (Carlyle), or other, but all views should be given due prominence, as all these factors have played a part. The object of teaching history from the sociological point of view should be to give better training for citizenship. — Charles A. Ellwood, Education, January, 1910. L. L. B.

Social Self-Control. — Sociology is the study of the nature, scope, and consequences of the reaction of a community upon itself. Society controls the variations from itself ; it has always been standardizing conduct and character by means of discipline. This disciplinary activity of society is recorded and described in official reports and documents, largely statistical. This large set of numerical data may be used for a scientific analysis of social pressure and to answer the question : How much liberty and how much restraint are con- ducive to the welfare of society? If in a given situation the degree of social restraint was normal, fluctuation would make known the action of the disturbing forces. — F. H. Giddings, Polti. Sci. Quarterly, December, 1909. E. S. B.

Labor Supply and Labor Problems. — The chief handicap to the develop- ment of manufactures in the South is a dearth of population. Why has Rhode Island 407 inhabitants per square mile and South Carolina but 44? Why Massachusetts 348 and North Carolina only 39? Inefficiency characterizes the mass of laborers, and this phenomenon does not follow racial lines. The funda- mental economic problem is physiological. It is necessary to get rid of diseases including those due to the mosquito and the hookworm, and to give artificial stimulation to the powers that latently exist. Booker Washington is right in advocating immediate and far-reaching educational work along the lines of economic training. — Enoch M. Banks, Annals Amer. Acad., January, 1910.

E. S. B.

Want of Work and Poverty. — Work would increase and be of a constant and steady character unless artificially interfered with. Temporary interferences with trade are entirely dependent on the credit system which causes waves of much and little work. Permanent interferences such as monopoly of land and railway preferences cause constant diminution of work. The immediate duty is to increase the war against internal malpractice ; the ultimate and efficient remedy is nationalization of industry. — N. M. Taylor, Westminster Rev., Jan- uary, 1910. E. S. B.

The Negro's Part in Southern Development. — Negro labor dug the ditches, cut down the forests, and helped to build the railroads of the South. Even before the Civil War, the productive labor of the negro contributed annually to the wealth of the southern states about $30,000,000. Today, they own 19.057,377 acres — an area equal to that of Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut combined. They own or are paying for 375,000 homes. In 1866, they owned about twenty million dollars worth of property; today

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