Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/878

 864 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The Broadening of the Mental Horizon. The rapidity and ease of com- munication which we have attained through the telegraph, telephone, the press, and other agencies has made man's mind ubiquitous. London is now as near the antipodes in time necessary for exchange of news as Paris was to Lyons by the old mattes posies. There is no longer a Russian chemistry nor a strictly national literature. But science and belles-lettres are the common possession of civilization ; and every art cabinet has specimens from Japan and India as well as from Flanders and Italy. " If it took a week for a sensation to get from the finger to the brain, there would be no human organism. Likewise when formerly it required years and then months for news to get from London to Calcutta, humanity could not constitute a single organism." But now the union is close and vital. "This is the first result of intellectual labor the mental coalition of the civilized nations."

The second result is the intellectualization of the world. To the ancients but parts of the world were known. From mysterious regions descended barbarous hordes to waste and spoil. But now we know the whole of our planet. We are aware of what goes on in its farthest corners, and we feel a sense of vital unity with all the race. Thus man's horizon has extended from group to horde, through city and state to unions of nations, and finally to the whole world. So, too, our knowledge of the resources of the different lands has grown, until now we no longer fear disastrous famines, since " we could provision a continent." Moreover, we have knowledge of long ages beyond the short antiquity our fathers knew. So, too, men think more of the future now, look farther ahead, and plan more largely than they used to do. Society no longer lives from day to day. And so the imagination of the race has grown.

Formerly men hoped for an eternal state, for a fixed and perfect order. Now we know that all by its very nature changes. Once men thought to conquer by war and to right wrongs with the sword. Now we see the folly of slaughter, and know that social misery cannot be alleviated by destroying riches. So questions and methods change. The Roman lords died of inaction when they had conquered the basin of the Mediterranean ; tomorrow our children shall strive to answer larger questions than we conceive ; today our task is the removal of misery in all the world. J. Novicow, from an abstract in ISHumanitd nouvelle, October, 1900, of a work now in press.

Women Workers in Germany. According to the industrial census of 1895, Germany had a population of 26,361,125 women. Of this number 19.97 per cent, were engaged in some profession or trade, and about 5 per cent, were domestic ser- vants. The former class had increased over one million from 1882 to 1895 ' an d at the latter date 18.4 per cent, of the entire working population were women. In the clothing, textile, and food-stuffs industries (where women workers would naturally be most numerous) female labor has tended to supplant male workers. For instance, in the tailoring trades the number of men increased 15.99 P er cent, from 1882 to 1895, while the number of women increased 113.65 per cent. But even in those lines of industry in which the absolute number of women workers is least, the relative number, as compared with men, has increased rapidly. It seems, then, that women are press- ing into new lines of work, and are practically monopolizing others.

The number of married women in all professional, employments increased 48.12 per cent, from 1882 to 1895 > whereas the number of single women increased but 14.36 per cent, during the same period. Many of the married women work at home about 40 per cent. But perhaps the advantages of domestic surroundings are more than offset by the unsanitary conditions of such labor. The investigations conducted in Baden in 1898 revealed the fact that in 1894 27 per cent, of the adult women workers in factories were married ; in 1898 they were 30 per cent. The cause for this element of labor is found in the necessity of supplementing the insufficient income of the head of the family. In proportion as the wage of the husband and father is raised, the wife and mother can devote herself to home duties. It seems impossible at the pres- ent time, however, to prohibit married women from working ; but it is possible to limit the character and the duration of their labor. E. DUBOIS, " Le travail des femmes en Allemagne, d'apres les dernieres statistiques," in Revue sociale catholique, December I, 1900. H. B. W.