Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/728

 714 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

300 in towns of from 20,000 to 50,000, and I to every 250 in smaller places. This law reduced the number of saloons from 43,000 in 1881 to 24,600 in 1896, and the consumption of alcohol from 9.87 liters (50 per cent.) per capita to 8.66 liters in the same time. The license system has had various results. If too low, it is ineffectual ; if too high, it leads to evasion. Dr. Baer thinks that high license in America has had a good result.

The manifold means employed in dealing with intemperance clearly show the importance of the question. Too strict measures defeat their own purpose, whereas too lax laws lead to the multiplication of saloons. License is used to check the pro- duction of liquor at its source, and to bring revenue to the state. If too high, it leads to smuggling and evasion such as defeat the end in view. License is therefore some- times levied so as to get as much revenue as possible out of the liquor traffic. The tax on beer and wine has often been made low in the hope that the general use of these would drive out the stronger liquors. But this scheme should be employed only in the case of beverages with a very low per cent, of alcohol. For otherwise a free use of the cheap strong beer will defeat the end in view. Laws restricting the time of sale for liquor, persons who may purchase, etc., as well as those against open drunkenness, are effective only in so far as they are backed by the sentiment of the society and ener- getically applied.

Of perhaps more effect than the laws of the government, and certainly more sig- nificant than they, are the various temperance and total-abstinence societies which have sprung up among^the people. The Temperance Society founded in New York in 1808 has spread throughout America, gaining a large party of adherents, and influencing politics and legislation. The movement extended to Europe, where it was backed by the clergy and often promoted by royalty. In 1844 there were in Ireland alone 5,500,000 adherents to the temperance party. In 1837 one-sixth of the popula- tion of Sweden owed allegiance to the party. Since their introduction, many of the societies, however, have succumbed to political conditions. But not a few continue to vigorously prosecute their work. More recently other associations have arisen against the liquor traffic. Among these may be mentioned the Association for the Prevention of Misuse of Alcoholic Liquors, composed of physicians in various European countries. The Good Templars order in America and other countries, and the Blue Cross in Switzerland, have also attacked the evil from the social side. The "total-abstinence " party sprang from the temperance movement as an extreme "right." It has had its greatest success in securing old drinkers. It is rather the common-sense teaching of the temperance societies (properly so called), however, that has prepared the people for a correct estimate of the use of alcohol. The teaching of this stripe in the lower schools is of great value.

The advance of the exact sciences has also aided the war against the inordinate use of alcohol. Thus biology has demonstrated the effects of alcohol on the system. Statistics have shown the connection of alcoholism with criminality, suicide, and insanity.

The fight against alcoholism in the nineteenth century has been a brave one. The most bestial forms of this vice have been banished from most cultured communities. But yet more is to be expected when the state and society shall set for its members higher standards of living and thinking, such as shall make drunkenness despised. DR. A. BAER, " Der Kampf gegen die Trunksucht im neunzehnten Jahrhundert," in Der Alkoholismus, Heft I, 1900. H. B. W.

Castes and Biological Sociology. The Revue philosophique published in the April number an article by M. G. Bougld on " La Sociologie biologique et le rdgime des castes." "The advocates of the organic theory assert," says the author, " that societies are organisms, and that the laws of biology ought to apply to soci- ology. How, then, do they explain why social evolution is the reverse of biological evolution ? Inferior organisms are composed of parts which can lead an independent existence, but as organisms tend toward perfection, their constituent parts are welded together, independence is lost, and they fall under the despotic authority of the brain. Therefore, biological evolution proceeds from a large degree of liberty and equality toward a smaller degree. Social evolution proceeds in a reverse direction. In primi- tive and rudimentary societies the individual is closely welded to the group, like a cell