Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/882

 868 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

poration to outweigh any evidence that may be introduced in its favor; honest people delight in stealing transportation ; others make exorbitant demands of insurance companies for indemnities. On the other hand, corporate right is magnified ; officers and directors are not made to suffer by personal fines and imprisonment for corporate wrong ; the law fosters corporate privilege at the expense of the masses. Corporate right accepts the role of freebooter, forces honest competitors into bankruptcy, houses its employees and their families in squalor — all this and more in order to make money. The corporation has a right to enjoy the privileges and immunities of a person, but is under a profound obligation to promote the social well-being. — ^J. B. Ross, Political Science Quarterly, March, 191 o. E.S.B.

Le r61e social de 1' 6glise. — To observers religion often appears to be a purely individual affair. But in fact the Christian church has always stood for social salvation also. Monasteries built for the retreat of priests were open to the poor. The wealthy knights gave freely their material goods to save their souls, and the church used this in organized beneficence. The church has stood strongly for Sunday rest, for limited hours of work, for the protection of women and children. It has fought the practice of speculation in business which still ruins families and nations. The church is built upon the brotherhood of men, and its natural function is to increase the spirit of unity, to aid the poor, aged, and infirm. Our modern conditions especially call for the social activity of the church. Governments are absorbed by political parties. The church only is independent and disinterested enough to care for the people sincerely, and it must continue. — A. de Mun, Rev. de I'act. pop., January, 1910. R.B.McC.

Evolution of Consciousness. — (1) Consciousness is a product of evolution which continues in a higher form the movement which is manifest in all earlier adaptations. (2) As soon as consciousness was fully evolved the direction of all adaptation was radically modified. (3) If any scientific explanation of human life is to be attained it must be based on a thoroughgoing study of consciousness. The social sciences have sought in vain to base themselves on a general doctrine of organic evolution. Human adaptation is determined in character by consciousness, which must be taken as a cause of physical events, and which makes a desired pattern of the world and shapes environment to fit. Therefore McDougall's demand to rewrite psychology from the standpoint of the instincts is unjustifiable. — Chas. H. Judd, Psychological Review, March, 1910.

L.L.B.

Professor Albion W. Small is giving a course of ten open lectures before the University of Chicago during the Spring quarter on "The Relations of the Social Sciences." The lectures are as follows : "The Unity of Social Science," "The Disunity of the Social Sciences," "The Sociological Reassertion of the Unity of Social Science," "The Center of Orientation in Social Science." "The Social Sciences as Terms of One Formula," "The Descriptive Phase of Social Science," "The Analytical Phase of Social Science," "The Evaluative Phase of Social Science," "The Constructive Phase of Social Science," "The Future of Social Science."

Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminoloj^. — The first number of this journal appeared May i. It is the first journal of this sort to be published in English, though various European countries have a number of such publications. It is to be issued bimonthly. The editor-in-chief is James W. Garner, of the University of Illinois, and the editorial director is Colonel Harvey C. Carbaugh, Chicago. The associate editors are Charles F. Amidon, Frederic B. Crossley, Charles A. DeCourcey, Charles A. EUwood, Frederick R. Green, Charles R. Henderson, Francis J. Heney, Charles H. Huberich, John D. Lawson, Orlando F. Lewis, Edward Lindsey, Adolf Meyer, Frank H. Norcross, Roscoe Pound, Richard A. Sylvester, Arthur W. Towne, John H. Wigmore, and Lightner Witmer. The journal is published at 87 Lake St., Chicago.