Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/492

 478 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The frequent propositions were checked by a revision of the rules. The attempt to secure the participation of every member in the management led to instability and financial weakness. Hence the general body lost all effective control of the govern- ment, and the power passed into the hands of salaried officials. Personal dictatorship has not resulted, but a closely combined bureaucracy. No real opportunity was given the ordinary member to participate in the central administration. The last twenty years have witnessed a change in the trade-union constitutions. Rotation in office is abandoned. Resort to the aggregate meeting diminishes in frequency and impor- tance. The use of the initiative and referendum has been given up in complicated . The delegate is coming gradually to exercise the freedom of a representative. The elected representative assembly appoints and controls an executive committee under whose direction the permanent official staff performs its work. SIDNEY and BEATRICE WEBB, Political Science Quarterly, September 1896.

"Ethics from the Point of View of Sociology. Characteristic phases of the formation of moral ideas. In a former article it was shown that the domains of action and morality have the same extension. Science by abstraction removes itself from the true conditions of action. Our analysis explains the bond which unites the moral and social elements, and shows why the development of sociology ought to be con- sidered as the point of departure of a renovation of science and morality. The only way to do this is to learn from history what the customs of each epoch and each social group have been. A. General characteristics of primitive morality, (a) It is a social function. The individual is a simple creation of the social life. The formation of the individual consciousness is constantly conditioned by society. (3) Diverse sociolog- ical interpretations of primitive morality. There are three different theories: (i) Sociology is frequently objective, and reduces morality to customs and habits of certain groups. (2) Other sociologists hold that customs reduce themselves to simple habi- tudes (Wundt, Spencer). (3) These two explanations have this common trait : that customs are imposed upon the individual from without. The first reduces morality to custom, and custom to simple mechanical reaction. The second accounts for the sentiments underlying moral laws by the sentiment of the supernatural. The first is based on anthropology ; the second on history. The subjective and ideal elements are neglected by both. (4) The psychological theory gives place for subjective conditions, yet presents also the different forms. (5) All of these theories hold to the social character of primitive morality. Among all the expressions of social life, morality can least well be studied abstractly, (c) The chief characteristics of primitive morality. It is a social function inseparable from all others. It is always traditional. It is sys- tematic and very rigid. It is incoherent, because it depends wholly upon exterior and occasional causes. (</) Conclusion. To reduce primitive morality to a simple state- ment of the customs of a certain epoch is to suppress the distinct element of morality. Vet it is true that the ideal element is subordinated. It is by examination of variations in consciousness of the ideal that we come to understand the ethical problem of today. MARCEL BERNES, "Programme d'un cours de Sociologie ge*ne"rale : la Morale au point de vue sociologique (suite}" Revue Internationale de Sociologie, August-Septem- ber 1896.

Is the Family Declining? There are fewer marriages in proportion to popula- tion than formerly; families are smaller; they are less coherent; they are less lasting. In England the marriage rate fell from 17.2 per cent, in 1851 to 15.2 per cent, in 1881, and from 1873 to 1888 the ages of men and women who married rose respectively from 25.6 and 24.2 to 26.3 and 24.7. The rise in the number of divorces 1860-1885 was universal. In 1871 England and Wales show I divorce to 1020.4 marriages; in 1879, i in 480.83. From 1867 to 1886 divorces in United States increased 157 per cent., while the population increased 60 per cent. One of the causes of change is the whole modern movement of liberation of subjects from sovereigns, slaves from masters, wives from husbands, and children from parents. Another is the disappear- ance of the ecclesiastical view of marriage. A more special cause has been the growth of large cities, which completely alter the environment of the organism. Men become