Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/496

 476 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

have something to say. It is time enough then to throw away the technicalities and put the new knowledge into general circulation.

The really flagrant sins that have been committed in the name of sociology in recent years have been inflammatory utterances, in terms that found quick response in popular feeling, while there was no proper social knowledge behind them. They conveyed definite impressions, but they were simply audacious appeals to prejudice. Serious sociology is a deliberate plan to discredit that sort of thing and to find a basis for social opinion in a sufficient analysis of social facts. The details of this analysis will not be edifying to the multitude. They will seem academic and pedantic. No doubt they will be, to a consider- able extent, as this has been the case in nearly every other field of knowledge. In the end, however, sound learning will be pro- moted sooner and faster by discussing unsettled problems in the technical language appropriate to problems, than by a parade of simplicity which encourages the public to assume that open questions are settled.

The necessity for this professionalism varies in different divisions of sociology. It is greatest among the first two types named, and least in the fourth group. Members of the latter are less likely to offend the public by excessive obscurity of terms than by the moderation of their conclusions. Popular impatience craves what the serious sociologist can never furnish. There is always a brisk demand for social specifics, but relatively languid interest in social hygiene. One could get tooted as a social prophet any day by publishing a scheme to do away with government. If one merely points out a practicable way of improving the workings of government, it may be a generation before he gets a hearing. A new way to abolish private prop- erty would command wide attention at any moment. A feasible plan of juster taxation would have a long and thankless struggle fora chance to explain itself. A crusade to smash " trusts" is always in order, and there is never a lack of spectators eager to see the fun. Serious analysis of inequities in the work- ings of corporations, and proposals of sane remedies, meet