Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/681

 LE PLAY METHOD OF SOCIAL OBSERVATION 665

one ought always to choose a family which is originally of the locality, and which gathers together nearly average (mean) conditions ; that is, which is neither superior nor inferior to others in respect to its material situation or its morality. Again, one must attach himself most often for description to a com- plete household, for the study of such is, in general, more fruit- ful than that of a household without children. Finally, it is necessary to take a family which lends itself willingly to obser- vation, yielding itself to the wish expressed by the observer or by persons influential in the locality.

Admittance to the family will be especially open to the observer, in all the countries where social peace reigns, through the employer in whom the confidence of the workingman reposes. In the countries that antagonism desolates, and with a workingman whom a secret or declared hostility alienates from influences which are ordinarily efficacious, the difficulties will be greater, but by taking for an absolute rule, in this case, that one shall never let be seen or felt the least disapprobation on the subject of what has been said to him ; by remembering always that it is proposed to observe and not to enlighten or to redress the wrongs of him who is observed, the investigator will suc- ceed beyond doubt in calming the laborer's mistrusts, and in getting him to speak with an open heart. In any case one must recollect that the time of a workingman is his capital, and com- pensate him from whom he has taken long hours in order to obtain from him the information of which he has need.

3 . Conditions in which it is necessary to place oneself in order to observe well. The type of the monograph being thus chosen, two conditions will permit of obtaining from this study the results that one has a right to expect. The first is a sincere love of the science which aims to seek out the truth and to register the facts with a scrupulous exactness. It is not, however, nec- essary that the observer be impartial or imbued previously with true social principles; he can often set himself to the work with the purpose of demonstrating by the facts an erroneous principle, which has his sympathies, but the application of the method will