Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/430

 414 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

stated, the recent objections are given scant notice, since "the attacks upon the accepted principle of saving are not regarded as more than ingenious." In the chapter on "The Educational Aspects of Saving" a very important point is made (p. 53), that community provision of the means of culture will fail of their best results if the individual home can- not possess the means of aesthetic and intellectual satisfaction. "It can hardly be said that the priceless art treasures of Italy, which belong to the people, bring them to a higher plane of living. The highest art and the most wretched squalor are the closest neighbors." The savings bank is even more valuable as a means of education than as an agency of thrift. " Criminality largely flows from hazy conceptions of the character of property and proper methods of acquiring it." The author sees with clearness (p. 79) that the voluntary movement is utterly inadequate ; the national government must be invoked to assist this potent agent of national education and morality. The postal savings bank, with solicitors among the people, is necessary to estab- lish a universal habit of economy.

Having abandoned the theory of laissez-faire, one might expect from the author a favorable opinion of German compulsory insurance, which trains the wage-workers of the entire nation to save means to help in time of sickness, accident, and old age. But the author assumes a rather hostile attitude to these measures, and some of his assertions about them seem to require further reflection and inquiry. He admits he has no inductive proof (p. 424).

There are chapters on "Building and Loan Associations," "Savings Banks," "Trustee Savings Banks," "Co-operative Savings Banks," "Municipal Savings Banks," and "Postal Savings Banks." After making critical comments on each of these schemes, he concludes : " The savings bank as an institution represents the most conservative, the most logical, and the most hopeful scheme for bettering the condi- tion of the laboring classes."

CHARLES R. HENDERSON.

Reformatory Education.

THE movement to establish juvenile courts, with probation officers, parental schools, and other allies, has gained great momentum in this country, from Massachusetts to Colorado and Louisiana. The absurd- ity and wickedness of trying mere children in ordinary courts have been discussed, and the proverbial conservatism of judicial traditions has been broken down for the sake of humanity.