Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/894

 860 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

and of employees, Great Britain is about twenty-five years older and richer in experience than this country. But whether in Great Britain, on the continent, or in America, the great majority of those who have tested the trade agreement are pronounced in their indorsement of it. It operates for the prevention of strikes both by its substitution of arbitration and conciliation, and by its education of employees who thus less often make ignorant and unfair demands upon employers. It brings but the best intelligence of the trade unions and affords them a practical training in business methods and co-operation in industry which will prove a valuable substitute for socialistic tendencies.

With the establishment of the principle that each individual member of a contracting union, whether it is incorporated or not, is liable for damages result- ing from a breach of a contract, the practical value of trade agreements is still further enhanced. CARROLL D. WRIGHT, in Quarterly Review, December-March.

E. B. W.

Social Suggestion and the State. The nineteenth century permitted indi- vidual initiative to develop and to substitute its action 1 for that of the state. But did it not go too far in wishing to reduce the role of the latter to that of the police which arrests the criminal and thus protects life and property ? Recent discoveries in psychology enable us to see the function of the state in a new light. Suggesti- bility, so necessary in creating and conserving societies, may in certain cases become a peril. A glance at some of the many evils which actually threaten our civilization will reveal the preponderating influence of suggestion and the desira- bility of state intervention as a preventive measure.

The passion for gambling is one of the most harmful to society. A simple study of the psychology of gaming will prove the stupidity of the hope which some indulge that the mere proclamation of the truth by voluntary societies will result in the spontaneous abandonment of the evil. Men play, not from reason, but by imitation ; they see someone play and win, they hear the talk of the casino, and forthwith the passion to play and win is upon them. Without doubt, by instruction and by inculcating from infancy the habit of reflection, one can diminish the importance of suggestion ; but it is impossible, and moreover would be vastly undesirable, to suppress this inherent quality of the human soul. What is necessary is to remove the circumstances which favor the operation of dangerous suggestions. Thus, public gambling, with all the brilliant attractions which are provided in order to gather a crowd of spectators, should be forbidden. By this means, gambling as an open and spectacular institution, and consequently a power- ful suggestive agency, would be done away with, and much of its evil would cease.

The suggestive solicitation to debauchery which is being offered constantly by immoral literature, by pictures, and by veiled advertisements in the press is another instance of suggestion dangerous to the public welfare. It calls for the addition to the list of misdemeanors of all sorts of public inducements to debauch- ery. The kleptomaniac is another highly suggestible unfortunate who could be kept, many times, from indulging his abnormal passion by adequate regulations providing for uniformed guards in the great stores, in place of disguised detectives, whose work is deficient on the preventive side.

Alcoholism offers still another example of suggestive contagion. The state is guilty in not protecting the man addicted to drink against himself, in not defending his family, and, if he has committed an offense, in making him suffer the penalty with common-law criminals, instead of placing him in a special asylum where he may be able to recover. The state could effectually reduce the sug- gestions which favor the spread of this evil, by diminishing the number of places for the sale of liquor a plan which has everywhere been followed by a corre- sponding diminution in consumption.

The public press, the greatest of the media of suggestion, is doing an immense amount of harm, not only by accepting the insertions of unscrupulous advertisers, but also by the simple reporting of facts. Well- known epidemics of crime or of anarchistic activity might be instanced in this connection. Only with the sup- pression of anarchistic declamations and appeals to violence has crime of this sort been checked.