Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/867

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 851

Again, as has been hinted, back of the work which party is able to perform lies a great work which precedes and produces party — the work of research and discussion, the process by which the public opinion, of which party merely takes advantage, is made. Here is a field of labor in which the socialist cannot be too active. This must not be understood to mean, however, that the socialist should not enter the ranks of party ; quite the contrary : let him seize every opportunity to use party organization as a legitimate instrument for the carrying into effect of those plans which deliberation and discussion have shown to be wise and just. In particular is the socialist workman to take an active part in those cooperative associations having as their object methods of production and of consumption intended to better his condition relative to these two processes. At one time, and for a very good reason, the socialist was strenuously opposed to all such organizations; but the reason for that attitude no longer exists; associations for cooperative production and consumption are no longer used by the enemies of socialism as a means of makmg the socialist content with a miserable lot which would otherwise be unbearable ; the Belgian socialists have set the French socialists a good example in this respect, and one which we cannot afford to, allow to go unheeded. In any case a well-fed socialist is of more value than a famished one.

If socialism emerges from the present crisis with its sphere of activity limited to the reiteration of a few economic and political demands, it will have taken a back- ward step from which it will take long years to recover. But if there results a clearer recognition of the fact that socialism aims at nothing less than the complete emancipa- tion of the whole man from every form of oppression and a stronger determination to use all means that promise to further this aim, then once more is socialism to be con- gratulated upon its ability to adapt itself to the varying changes of social life without forgetting its mission and without failing to use every opportunity for the discharge of that mission. — Eugene Fourn'iere, " La crise de croissance du socialisme fran9ais," in La Revue socialisle, October, 1S99.

Youthful Criminality and Methods of its Control. — An interesting side- light is thrown upon the ever-recurring question proposed by the French Academy of Dijon, " Has the progress of science and art tended to improve our social customs ? " by the apparent fact that throughout the whole civilized world of our day criminality in youth shows a marked tendency to increase. Statistics are today more often ques- tioned and examined than ever before as to their validity, and yet nowhere do we hear of a decreasing tendency in youthful criminality in any of the great states of the world, and seldom of a stationary condition of affairs. Of course, the number of kinds of crimes, along with our sense of what constitutes a crime, steadily increases, and the machinery for gathering data on the subject constantly becomes more effective ; and yet, taking these things into account, it seems pretty evident that the above statement of the extent of youthful criminality is measurably true. For instance, in Germany, according to the Royal Statistical Office at Berlin, the number of youths brought up for trial annually between the years 1882 and 1897 increased from about loj per cent, to iqI per cent. — altogether an increase of 82 per cent., according to one authority. The number of second offenses has increased from a little more than one-seventh of all youths punished in 1889 to nearly one-fifth in 1896. In Holland the number of criminal youths seems to have increased between 1881 and 1897 one-fourth, while that of adult criminals increased one-ninth, giving in 1897 twice as many youthful as adult criminals.

The causes of this youthful criminality may be considered from the two stand- points ; inner and outer, or psychological and sociological. Under the former head may be considered tlie hereditary tendencies, and those other organic personal traits, to discuss which would be beside the mark here. Some of the chief sociological causes of criminality, however, we may note, appear from the following consid- erations :

1. That in the most densely populated districts youthful crimes are proportion- ately greater than elsewhere ; and that the strong tendency of the modern industrial movement to concentrate population abnormally in certain industrial centers has aug- mented the evil.

2. The great city exerts a strong disintegrating influence on the family, neces- sarily tending to vicious early experiences in childhood and youth.