Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/903

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 887

and in the workshop. The outlook in these two domains is favorable, as shown by the recent advance in the prices of agricultural staples and by the great increase in value of the domestic manufactures exported in 1896 over those exported in 1895. L. G. POWERS, Engineering Magazine, January 1897. Kr.

In Praise of Charity. We often wonder why so much money and charitable effort do not regenerate the world. The reason is that they are so often unwisely and ignorantly applied. " The great mass of distress is due to moral defects of some kind." Most of our effort does harm because we disregard this fact. Individual responsibility is weakened and the problem is made more serious. What we need first in charity work is a clear understanding of the facts in the particular case. Then every effort must be made to induce self-help, for in self-help alone is the solution to be found. " Material relief," " friendly visiting," everything must be carefully used to make character, to make a man feel " responsible for maintaining himself and his family," for " the end of charity is to civilize," and "civilization implies a certain reg- ularity and foresight in life." t. S. LOCH, in Charity Organization Review, October 1896.

The Relation of Sociology to Philosophy. Sociology assumes that natural laws of social progress can be ascertained. Philosophy has entered upon the study of man in society with the assumption that it is possible to read in society the larger expression of what individual man has it in him to become. The philosopher inves- tigates the social whole, as he investigates other expressions of the human mind in order to learn what the mind really is. Sociology deals with the laws of aggregation and the behavior of aggregates as such, and has no primary reason for regarding one society as of greater interest than another. According to Bernes, sociology is not an art devoted to immediate action, but a philosophy which divines the impulse and the indications of a partially unrealized unity in the world which demands realization. If this is the case, the line which separates sociology from philosophy is in all essentials done away. Sociology may be compared with psychology in its relation to philosophy proper. The laws of association, with which modern psychology began, might serve for a designation of the general problem of abstract sociology. Psychology, in deal- ing with the mere course of psychical events, makes abstraction from the relations of reality which constitute the essence of logic, ethics, etc. As sociology acquires com- mand over its material and its conceptions, it will recognize a gradation and a tend- ency, and find means to distinguish on its own grounds the social forms in which development is fullest from those in which it is most meager. In as far as it succeeds in this, it will assume towards the philosophy of society the same general attitude which psychology holds towards logic, ethics, and aesthetics. The force of facts appears to be determining sociology to the position of a psychological science. The psychol- ogy of crowds, the idea of imitation, and the conception of consciousness of kind bring us into contact with ideas with which political or social philosophy has long been accustomed to work. Such conceptions as the unity of science and the influence of sociology on scientific method are not new in principle. For Plato politics was a science, and the political forms corresponded to types of mind. B. BoSANQUET, Mind, January 1897. 1

Public Employment Offices in Belgium. During September 1404 persons asked employment, and places were found for 420. Revue du Travail, October 1896.

Public Assistance (Paris). Indigents receiving regular relief July, 47,400; August, 47,299. Necessitous persons receiving irregular relief July, 19,547 i Aoglit, 16,723. Bulletin de UOffice du Travail, October 1896.

Insurance against Unemployment in St. Gallen.- It November 1896 St. Gallen repealed her law of 1894 pp.vi.lmir for compulsory insurance against unrm ployment. The opposition to it seems to have become quite general, im-linling not a tew laborers. The law provided that all persons receiving not more than five francs