Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/140

 126 THE AMERICAN JOURXAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Market Wrecking. During the years 1895-6-7 the world's production of wheat has been considerably below the consumption for the same period. Yet the price of wheat has been steadily falling. This anomalous state of affairs can only be accounted for by the success of the trickery of market wreckers. Under the old

a of trading the bare possibility of a deficiency would have sent the price up to a high rate. Wheat for nominal delivery in June is being sold in New York at nine cents a bushel. This is fictitious wheat sold without intention to deliver actual grain. Yet the fictitious price regulates the price at which real grain is sold. The markets of the United States are being wrecked for the benefit of gamblers. Essentially, an option is a bet upon the price of a certain commodity at a given date. This gambling

a completely rules the markets of the civilized world. The option sales in a year in the American wheat markets amount to ten times the total quantity of wheat grown in the United States. The results of the system are : (i) Profuse offerings of fictitious wheat have a lowering effect upon market prices ; (2) the maintenance of the option system involves the active operation of men who are professional market wreckers, who gain more by a fall than by a rise in prices ; (3) the " bears " have a more powerful influence upon market prices than the " bulls ; " (4) the fixing of low prices for distant months reduces the prices of spot wheat and tends to stereotype the prices of distant months at low rates ; (5) the gambling and trickery of professional " bears " and " bulls," and their frequent defalcations create a constant feeling of insecurity among capitalists, and thus exercise a generally depressing effect upon the markets. This growing system is thus a gross wrong to producers of wheat and some other commodities. The objections to anti-option legislation are no more valid than to the existing law against the sale of bank shares not in actual possession. No one should be allowed to sell produce which he does not possess, or will not obtain and deliver. The anti-option bill which failed in effect proposed this. WILLIAM E. BEAR, Fortnightly Review, April 1897. Fr.

The Genesis of the Ethical Self. The child's thought of self is at any time a self of habit or a self of accommodation. But the only adequate expression of him is that which acquaints us with the self of all the rich social relationships, or the " socius." The question of the further development of the sense of self, based on the conflicts of the two earlier partial selves, is really one of vital social meaning, and that, too, in the ethical sense. Historical doctrines of the rise of the ethical sense are of two classes : those basing the ethical sentiments on sympathy, and those basing them on custom or habit. They represent constructions based on the partial selves the "accommodating" and the " habitual." The child begins to be aware in his contact with others of such a presence as the socius. By his actions through obedience he learns that there is something always present, a circle of common interest, a family propriety, a mass of accepted tradition. As he understands the meaning of obedience better, the socius becomes more and more intimate as a law-abiding self of his own. It becomes the germ of the ideals of life, (i) The ethical self is a slow attainment of the child. The developed ethical sense needs less and less to appeal to an alter self, an authority. (2) As the socius in the mind of the child expands, there is the constant tendency to make it real in some concrete form in the social group. (3) The law, which this self embodies, is in one sense always the realized self of somebody. But further, the law is a function of the socius consciousness in each of its two aspects - " projective " and " ejective." (4) The social attitude in favor of law becomes to a degree habit, but a habit of acting, not a habit of action. It is frequently a habit of violating habits. J. MARK BALDWIN, Philosophical Review, May 1897. Fr.

The Grievance of the West. During his campaign work in Ohio and Indiana last fall, Professor Hyslop found that when he told farmers that "free silver" would lower salaries and wages, they said that was just what they wanted. Upon investigating the conditions he found that while prices of farm products had fallen, money wages had remained stationary. The farmers could not afford to pay high wages, and as a rule laborers would not work for less than they had been receiving. Tin: cause of this astonishing fact Mr. Hyslop finds in the system of out-door relief,