Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/608

 590 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

play an important part in the question of population can be separated and studied. K. DE B., "Congres International d'Hygiene et de Demographic," in La rtforme sociale, November 16.

E. B. W.

Social Conference of the Friends in England. No finer or more practi- cally effective social work is done in England than by members of the Society of Friends. Their newer meeting-houses resemble social settlement buildings, with the most ample quarters and best equipment for varied educational, industrial, social, and religious work. Some members of the society, who have become captains of the large cocoa industries, are marshaling their resources for the social betterment of conditions in and about their great plants with an ethical insight, a public spirit and a vision of the ideal far ahead of their times. These practical endeavors have led to a summer school and conference on social questions held at Woodbrooke, near Birmingham.

One of its most significant discussions was that by Mr. Joseph Rountree on " The Present Critical Condition of the Licensing Question." The following are among the " Propositions " to the discussion of which his paper was devoted : (i) that the consumption of alcohol in a country can be enormously affected by the force of law and of social arrangement ; (2) that that portion of the trade which cannot be suppressed should be placed under effective control ; (3) that an effective control of a character calculated to effect a great reduction in con- sumption is not likely to be brought about so long as the public-house trade remains in private hands ; (4) that it is altogether improbable that the nation will long permit the monopoly profits of the retail trade to pass entirely into private hands, and that public management on a large scale in the near future is inevitable; (5) that when the public-house trade is taken out of private hands and is conducted either by municipalities or by controlling companies, it is essential that the appropriation of profits shall be determined by law, and be such that localities can have no inducement either to stimulate or to continue the traffic for the sake of the profit which it yields.

Another significant discussion was that by Mr. A. L. Smith, of Balliol College, on the crisis in the administration of the poor-law. The increasing ratio of pauperism to population the speaker attributed mostly to the new system of outdoor relief, which has sprung up under the discretion recently given the guardians, and which threatens to equal the abuse prior to the enactment of the law in 1834. The magnitude of the poor-law expenditure in London may be seen in the total for 1901 of 3,770,926 a rate of is n^d on every i of assess- able property. PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOR, in Commons, November, 1903.

E. B. W.

The Moral Principles of Compensation in Temperance Reform. This article applies immediately to the situation in England. The question pro- posed is : What just claim for compensation exists when the state withdraws certain trading rights of the character of a monopoly, which was granted and is held under certain legal and moral conditions? The discussion is with special reference to the liquor traffic and may be presented under the following heads :

a) The argument that if any compensation is due, it must be to the public which has suffered, and not to the publicans who have inflicted the wrong, is not convincing.

fe) Direct and indirect violation of the law on the part of members of the trade is a complex and difficult problem, and calls for consideration in each case.

c) As to the " unearned increment " : A license for which a very small sum is paid becomes worth thousands of pounds : is it fair that the state which has given this munificent gift should have to buy it back again? If the license-holder himsell received the gift, it would not be unjust to refuse compensation or to give very small compensation. If the holder has bought his license in open market and paid large sums for it, the " unearned increment " has little application.

d) There is no legal right to the renewal of a license. The granting or re- newal ot licenses is at the discretion of the magistrates. The question of com-