Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/634

620 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY any degree as members of a society, presupposes certain intellectual faculties and certain emotions." To study social evolution the psychic faculties brought into play by social life and the influence of social life upon these faculties must be studied. The science of mind is dependent upon the science of life. For the laws of mind can only be known in connection with living bodies. Hence the relation of sociology to biology through psychology. The analogy between society and the animal consists merely in the fact that "in proportion to the multiplication of unlike parts, severally taking unlike functions, there is an increasing mutual dependence and a consequent individuation (integration) of the whole organism, animal or social," the mutual dependence of parts being that which constitutes the aggregate an organism. The analogy between animal and social structures is not to be used as the basis for sociological interpretation. Biology and sociology are reciprocal, yielding mutual elucidations. The latter can no more be founded on the former than the former on the latter. When contemplating the social aggregate simply as amass of living units, and concerned only with increases or decreases of the units in number, and organic modifications of their natures for interpretation of social phenomena in this group we depend directly upon biology. When, on the other hand, we are concerned only with the development of this social aggregate into an organization of mutually dependent parts performing different duties, we depend directly upon psychology for interpretation.—, Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, December 1896.

Report on the Testimony of Past Residents in College Settlements.—[This report is based upon forty-two answers to a long list of questions sent to settlement residents of three months' or more experience. Only a few of "the questions" and "the answers" can be given here, and then in such a way that the wide diversity of opinion cannot be shown.]

1. "What order of settlement work do you consider most valuable: personal, social and unorganized work, club work, educational work, or civil work?"

"Twenty-two place the personal work first, eight believe in all forms as equally valuable, four plead for emphasis on clubs, three on civil work, five on educational."

2. "In your opinion, is the amount of work done commensurate with the energy expended?"

"Here twenty-three enthusiastic and emphatic 'ayes' are offset by nine reluctant 'noes,' three or four well-balanced uncertainties, and one vigorous and aggrieved negative."

3. "Do you feel encouraged or the reverse with regard to the possibility of doing away with class distinctions?"

"Most of the answers are despondent; twenty grow less sanguine as time goes on, while ten are doubtfully hopeful. Settlement life is a great destroyer of theories, and the belief in the speedy disappearance of caste is usually possessed by the theorist alone."

4. "Do you think it possible for working people to attain hygienic living under present tenement-house conditions?"

"Unanimously 'no,' though one or two say 'they might do better than they do.

5. "Do you consider that the more general practice of thrift would materially affect the welfare of the working classes?"

"Varying and lively answers. The ayes have it by twenty-two to eighteen."

6. "What does your observation lead you to consider as the usual cause of distress among the poor? Intemperance, shiftlessness, incompetence, or conditions over which they have no control?"

"Seventeen trace poverty back to the original causes over which the poor have no control, twelve accent present incompetence however caused, four shiftlessness, seven incompetence. One only gives intemperance as primary cause."

7. "Are you on the whole satisfied with the conditions of the wage-earning population which is not suffering acute distress?"

" Very quietly, very positively, very unanimously, no. There is only one affirmative."

8. "What reforms or changes have you come to feel are (a) most urgent, (b) most practicable; (c) where would you begin?"