Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/733

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 719

chiefly from causes for which the parents are responsible; diseases of the heart and blood vessels are due to racial deterioration, the remedy for which is preeminently a woman's question. "A healthy race is a woman's vocation." The tendency of women to center attention on "outside" activities reduces woman to a machine, saps her noblest feelings, "blasts home life." — Wm. Hill-Climo, Westminster Rev., January, 1910. E. S. B.

Christian Morals and the Competitive System. — Both are habits of thought, and develop out of different cultural situations. Underlying the competitive system are the principles of natural rights, where individual deals with indi- vidual on a footing of pecuniary efficiency. On the other hand, the Christian principle of non-resistance arose out of the servile relations under Roman authority in the early times, and has virtually been eliminated from Christian morals today. The other leading Christian principle, brotherly love, developed out of lower cultures and appears so often as to indicate that it is an essen- tial part of the species. "The ancient racial bias embodied in the Christian principle of brotherhood should logically continue to gain ground at the expense of the pecuniary morals of competitive business." — ^Thorstein Veblen, Inter. Jour, of Ethics, December, 1909. E. S. B.

Immigration and the Future American Race. — City populations die out rapidly, but are replaced by immigrants and by people from the rural dis- tricts. The presence of illiterate immigrants is an impediment to municipal reform. The United States for economic reasons will soon be compelled to close the gates to the great mass of poor immigrants. Then the stream of people from the country will reconquer the cities. As the great struggle for existence grows in intensitj', the negro will melt away from before the white man ; but no general intermixtiire between the two will ever take place. — Albert Alleman, Pop. Set. Month., December, 1909, E. S. B.

La situation des veuves et des orphelins. — The charities of France are well organized for relief of the aged, enfeebled, and infirm, but widows and orphans do not receive proper attention. Many young widows with children require immediate and careful assistance after that great blow which has taken from them the family support. The solution of the problem demands the combined action of the societies for aid and prevention : the former for carrying immedi- ate relief to the actual widows, and so assisting them as to maintain the cohesion of the family ; the latter for so organizing its work as to prevent future widows from falling to the charge of the aid society by distinguishing clearly the benefits coming to premature and late widowhood. — Emile Cheysson, Rev. Philanthropique, December, 1909. R. B. McC.

La criminalite juvenile. — ^The increase of juvenile criminality is unques- unquestionable, as all who frequent the courts of France will agree. One is struck with surprise at seeing that most of the accused are very young, almost children. On investigation we find that evil example of family, of street com- panion, of comrade, is the principal cause of this criminality. Alcoholism is a chief factor. Each year 67 per cent, of the military contingent is discovered to be unfit for the service, and in view of the facts we may say alcoholism costs France a corps of armed men every year. The children of alcoholics are very often predestined to criminality. The instruction of the schools is defective. Men like Herve inculcate in children abominable ideas of anti- patriotism, and also destroy in them all noble impulses. As to the remedy, private initiative is preferable to official action. — M. Henri Robert, La. Re- forme Sociale, January, 1910. R. B. McC.

Le Travail des femmes k la campagne. — One can readily attribute to the machine the disappearance of those industries which in our towns and villages once gave employment to large numbers of women as well as to men. The machine uses cotton instead of hemp and flax; ships use steam instead of