Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/342

 3^8 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

value of goods according to the positive or negative pleasure we expect to derive from them. Pleasure is value ; the means to it have value. Negative value is (i) free- dom from pain, (2) discomfort as a means to pleasure, (3) useless discomfort. As spiritual a; pleasure are never separated, so spiritual and sensual value run

into each other. The psycho-ethical value cannot be separated from the economic value. The two kinds of value are two sides of the same thing. Agreement of the inner and outer cannot be found in the social realm alone; for the individual must seek his own welfare. The subjective value may be determined a priori in so far as it is true for all men at all times. When not, the historical and economic determination of the objective value is necessary. The need which rarity makes for a good deter- mines its inner value. The -cant which leads to the production of any good determines its outer value. The need is the total sum of subjective power. Subjective power is the will energy necessary to determine an end. The inner and outer value stand in different relations to one another to different persons. Negative value of goods is relatively greater for the poor than for the rich. The value of goods may differ to two classes though the price remains the same. DR. VON SCHUBERT-SOLDERN, "Das men>chliche Gliick unddie soziale Frage," Zeitschrift fiir die gcsamte Staatswissen sc/iaft, Drittes Heft, 1896.

Crime and Punishment. The practical problem presented to every student of crime is this : All efforts have entirely failed in exterminating crime or in even largely- reducing it ; are further efforts conducted on normal lines likely to succeed ? The latest general attempt has been that of compulsory education. The latest theory advanced is that of the criminal anthropologists who hold that criminals do not live under ordinary social and biological conditions; but that crime is the product of anom- alous biological conditions as well as adverse social circumstances. Their contention is true to this extent ; there are born criminals in the sense that some men are born with stronger passions or weaker wills than the majority of their fellows, or in the sense that the moral average of the criminal class is much below that of others, or even rarely in the sense thta from birth certain persons are devoid of social instincts and the moral instincts and scruples which keep men within the law. These latter, however, are very rare and form an insignificant proportion of the persons convicted of crime. It is not moral monsters that our legislators and administrators have to consider, but men whose passions are a little stronger and whose wills are a little weaker than those of their respectable fellow citizens. Under the modern theory of punishment vin- dictiveness is wholly inadmissable. The preventive purpose is alone allowed. This can be done by deterring, by reforming, or by coercing the offender, or by deterring others or by fostering a detestation of the offense. The real problem is, which method will secure better results in the diminution of crime. The Elmira system best represents the reformatory method. Its effect is to diminish the deterring effects and to encourage hypocrisy, self-deceit and priggishness among criminals. Neither the prisoner's con- duct while under prison discipline nor his professed amendment, nor yet his educa- tional and intellectual progress are efficient tests, but merely the will and the power he exhibits, when at liberty, to keep the law and live an honest life. However, the mate- rial at present available is not sufficient to afford a solution of the problem. H. B. x in The Contemporary Review, July 1896.

Is Poverty Diminishing The conclusions reached by Mr. Hobson (summarized in this department in the July issue) are combated by Mr. W. H. Mallock. The underlying assumption of Mr. Mallock s article is, that from the beginning of the capi- talistic regime the incomes of the poor generally show a percentage of increase larger than the incomes of the wealthy and that the diminution of individual poverty, has been greater than the growth of individual riches. In the first place Mr. Hobson admits the correctness of the contention that there has been a general rise of wages, and objects to Mr. Giffen's conclusions on one point only, that the "real residuum" orthe ">ul)inerged tenth" is decreasing absolutely, though he admits that it is decreasing rel- atively. In the second place, Mr. Hobson's contention that there has been no rise of real wages, that the commodities which are necessary to life have, generally speaking,