Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/734

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720 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

sails, the production of which gave employment to many. Many of these workers have followed the factory to the cities. The principal industries re- maining in the country are the making of linen, lace, embroidery, hosiery, and brushes. Others which may be mentioned are the making of gloves and straw hats by hand. The production of pasteboard and of religious jewelry, afford some employment but these industries are not destined to increase. — Ardouin Dumazet, Re forme sociale, December, 1909. R. B. McC.

Les faits pathologiques et I'erreur en sociologie. — Association between all men

is the healthy, normal, rational state of things and that most advantageous for each man ; conflict between them is a pathological state of things and arises from the mistaken idea that one will grow rich faster by despoiling one's neighbor than by producing riches oneself. Wealth is the adaptation of physi- cal environment to man's uses. Robbery is merely transfer from one individual to another of a utility already produced therefore spoliation is pathological and the Darwinians who consider war the social form of the struggle for existence are in error. The principal source of the evils of human kind is the fatal aberra- tion that spoilation is advantageous. Two streams run through history, one organization or production, the other, disorganization or spoilation. Society must advance by the former gaining on the latter. — T. Novicow, Rev. Internal, d. Sociologie, October, 1909. F. F.

Le bien de faniille insaisissable. — The object of the law in France making family property unseizable was to secure the conservation of the small farm in order to arrest the growing exodus from rural population. But such a measure, experience shows, by opposing the operation of economic laws will only make the problem more acute. Nor can legislation do anything to amelio- rate the situation of the proprietors who are unable to maintain themselves on their properties, since law cannot make individuals prosperous in spite of their faults and incapacities. Such a law has not been based on exact observation of facts. — G. Olphe-Galliard, Science Sociale, October, 1909. F. F.

Contributions a I'fitude du type professionnel et social de I'artiste. — The artist who from century to century is forced into dependence upon a patron for his living, has developed the mind of a spoiled child ; the laziness, whimsicality, generosity, turbulence, and above all, want of foresight so characteristic of him proceed from the fact that he is on the margin of society and that his work has no logical remuneration. At once the most dependent of men because he was the creature of one patron, he became the most independent, since he could escape, under this cover, conventional obligations exacted by all social groupings. This explains anomalies in the artists' manner of life, things which seem to disappear as economic conditions do away with the system of patronage and place the artists' work under the same selling conditions as other commodities. — Alf. Agache, Science Sociale, October, 1909. F. F.

Die Negerseele. — Diverse premises as to man's relation to nature and organic life in general give rise to hetorogeneous deductions and stand in the way of a harmonious solution of the race question. The negro is deficient in feeling, in constructive imagination, though capable of mechanical memorizing and of a de- gree of imagination. Race variations become fixed race characteristics, psychic as well as physical, and are increasingly transmitted. The negro stands in striking contrast to the Orientals in the matter of assimilation of western technique and culture. His long racial heredity is against him. To attempt to elevate the race suddenly to our level would be impossible and disastrous in effect. It is a mistake to attempt to change negro customs, to try to edu- cate him, except so far as is in the interest of colonizing Europeans. Social equality is impossible since the negro lacks the judgment and will requisite to our social and ethical activities. — Dr. K. Oetker, Archiv. f. Rassen- und Gesell- schaftsbiologie, July, 1909. P. W.