Sociology And Modern Social Problems - free ebook by Charles A. (Charles Abram) Ellwood

SOCIOLOGY AND MODERN SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Professor of Sociology, University of Missouri...

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PREFACE

This book is intended as an elementary text in sociology as applied to modern social problems, for use in institutions where but a short time can be given to the subject, in courses in sociology where it is desired to combine it with a study of current social problems on the one hand, and to correlate it with a course in economics on the other. The book is also especially suited for use in University Extension Courses and in Teachers' Reading Circles. This book aims to teach the simpler principl

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CHAPTER I

What is Society?—Perhaps the great question which sociology seeks to answer is this question which we have put at the beginning. Just as biology seeks to answer the question "What is life?"; zoölogy, "What is an animal?"; botany, "What is a plant?"; so sociology seeks to answer the question "What is society?" or perhaps better, "What is association?" Just as biology, zoölogy, and botany cannot answer their questions until those sciences have reached their full and complete development, so also s

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THE BEARING OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION UPON SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Since Darwin wrote his Origin of Species all the sciences in any way connected with biology have been profoundly influenced by his theory of evolution. It is important that the student of sociology, therefore, should understand at the outset something of the bearing of Darwin's theory upon social problems. We may note at the beginning, however, that the word evolution has two distinct, though related, meanings. First, it usually means Darwin's doctrine of descent; secondly, it is used to designa

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading: FAIRBANKS, Introduction to Sociology, Chaps. XIV.-XV. JORDAN, Foot-Notes to Evolution, Chaps. I.-III. ELY, Evolution of Industrial Society. Part II, Chaps. I.-III. For more extended reading: DARWIN, Descent of Man. FISKE, Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy. WALLACE, Darwinism. On the religious aspects of evolution: DRUMMOND, Ascent of Man. FISKE, The Destiny of Man. FISKE, Through Nature to God....

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THE FUNCTION OF THE FAMILY IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Instead of continuing the study of social evolution in general it will be best now, before we take up some of the problems of modern society, to study the evolution of some important social institution, because in so doing we can see more clearly the working of the biological and psychological forces which have brought about the evolution of human institutions. An institution, as has already been said, is a sanctioned grouping or relation in society. Now, there can be scarcely any doubt that the

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading: HENDERSON, Social Elements , Chap. IV. DEWEY AND TUFTS, Ethics , Chap. XXVI. ADLER, Marriage and Divorce , Lecture I. For more extended reading: BOSANQUET, The Family . SALEEBY, Parenthood and Race Culture ....

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THE ORIGIN OF THE FAMILY

We must understand the biological roots of the family before we can understand the family as an institution, and especially before we can understand its origin. Let us note, then, briefly the chief biological facts connected with the family life. The Biological Foundations of the Family.—(1) The Family rests upon the Great Biological Fact of Sex. While sex does not characterize all animal forms, still it does characterize all except the simplest forms of animal life. These simplest forms multipl

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading: WESTERMARCK, History of Human Marriage , Chaps. I-VI. HOWARD, History of Matrimonial Institutions , Vol. I, Chaps. I-III HEINEMAN, Physical Basis of Civilization , Chaps. IV-VII. For more extended reading: CRAWLEY, The Mystic Rose: A Study of Primitive Marriage . GEDDES AND THOMSON, Evolution of Sex . LETOURNEAU, The Evolution of Marriage . MORGAN, Ancient Society . STARCKE, The Primitive Family . SPENCER, Principles of Sociology , Vol. I....

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THE FORMS OF THE FAMILY

The family as an institution has varied greatly in its forms from age to age and from people to people. This is what we should expect, seeing that all organic structures are variable. Such variations in human institutions are due partially to the influences of the environment, partially to the state of knowledge, and partially to many other causes as yet not well understood. The family illustrates in greater or less degree the working of these causes of variation and of change in human instituti

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading: WESTERMARCK, History of Human Marriage , Chaps. XX-XXII. For more extended reading: MCLENNAN, The Patriarchal Theory. MORGAN, Ancient Society. PARSONS, The Family. WAKE, The Development of Marriage and Kinship....

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THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY

While we cannot enter into the historical evolution of the family as an institution among the different civilized peoples, still it will be profitable for us to consider the history of the family among some single representative people in order that we may see the forces which have made and unmade the family life, and incidentally also to a great degree, the general social life of that people. We shall select the ancient Romans as the people among whom we can thus best study in outline the devel

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading: DE COULANGES, The Ancient City , Chaps. I-X. LECKY, History of European Morals , Chap. V. SCHMIDT, Social Results of Early Christianity , Chap. II. For more extended reading: HEARN, The Aryan Household. HOWARD, History of Matrimonial Institutions. GROTE, History of Greece. MOMMSEN, The History of Rome. On the early Hebrew family: MCCURDY, History, Prophecy, and the Monuments , Vol. II. ROBERTSON SMITH, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia . On the early German family: GUMMERE,

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THE PROBLEM OF THE MODERN FAMILY

Passing over the changes which affected the family during the Middle Ages and the still more striking changes which came through the Reformation, we must now devote ourselves to the study of the problems of the family as it exists at present. The religious theory of the family which prevailed during the Middle Ages, but which was more or less undermined by the Reformation, gave away entirely in those great social changes which ushered in the nineteenth century. Again, the view that marriage was

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading: WILLCOX, The Divorce Problem: A Study in Statistics. ADLER, Marriage and Divorce , Lecture II. Special Report on Marriage and Divorce , 1867-1906, Bureau of the Census. For more extended reading: HOWARD, History of Matrimonial Institutions. LICHTENBERGER, Divorce: A Study in Social Causation. WOLSEY, Divorce and Divorce Legislation. WRIGHT, First Special Report of United States Commissioner of Labor: Marriage and Divorce , 1891....

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THE GROWTH OF POPULATION

Mass is a factor in the survival of a social group. Other things being equal, that society will stand the best chance of surviving which has the largest population. Moreover, the larger the mass of a given group the greater can be the industrial and cultural division of labor in that group. Hence, other things being equal, a large population favors the growth not only of a higher type of industry, but also of a higher type of culture or civilization in a given society. The questions which center

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DEATH RATE

1871-1890 1893-1902 1904 England ………………. 20.3 17.6 16.2 Germany ………………. 26.0 21.5 19.6 France ……………….. 22.8 20.8 19.4...

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BIRTH RATE

1871-1890 1893-1902 1904 England ………………. 34.0 29.3 28.0 Germany ………………. 38.1 35.9 35.2 France ……………….. 24.6 22.8 20.9 From the above table it is evident that while birth rates and death rates have been declining in all civilized peoples, the decline has been unequal in different peoples. Both England and Germany in the above table show still a good surplus of births over deaths; in the case of England in 1904 this surplus being 11.8 per thousand of the population annually, while in the case of G

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THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM

In new countries population may increase by immigration as well as by the surplus of births over deaths. Immigration is, therefore, a secondary means of increasing the population of a country, and in new countries is often of great importance. Immigration, or the migration of a people into a country, along with its correlative emigration, or the migration of a people out of a country, constitutes a most important social phenomenon. All peoples seem more or less migratory in their habits. Man has

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading: COMMONS, Races and Immigrants in America . HALL, Immigration and Its Effect upon the United States . MAYO-SMITH, Emigration and Immigration . For more extended reading: GROSE, The Incoming Millions . STEINER, On the Trail of the Immigrant . WHELPLEY, The Problem of the Immigrant . Reports of the United States Commissioner-General of Immigration. On Chinese Immigration: COOLIDGE, Chinese Immigration ....

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THE NEGRO PROBLEM

Already we have been brought in our study of the immigration problem to race problems—problems of the relations of races to one another and of their mutual adjustment. The negro problem is one of many race problems which the United States has, but because it is the most pressing of all of our race problems it is frequently spoken of as the race problem . An unsolved factor in all race problems is the biological influence of racial heredity, and this factor we must seek to understand and estimate

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading: HOFFMAN, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, Vol. XI of Pub. of Am. Economic Ass'n. STONE, Studies in the American Race Problem. BAKER, Following the Color Line. For more extended reading: DOWD, The Negro Races. DU BOIS, The Negroes of Philadelphia. DU BOIS, editor, The Atlanta University Publications. KEANE, Ethnology. KEANE, Man, Past and Present. MERRIAM, The Negro and the Nation. PAGE, The Negro: the Southerner's Problem. SMITH, The Color Line. TILLINGHA

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THE PROBLEM OF THE CITY

Professor J.S. McKenzie says "The growth of large cities constitutes perhaps the greatest of all the problems of modern civilization." While the city is a problem in itself, creating certain biological and psychological conditions which are new to the race, the city is perhaps even more an intensification of all our other social problems, such as crime, vice, poverty, and degeneracy. The city is in a certain sense a relatively modern problem, due to modern industrial development. While great cit

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading: WEBER, Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century . WILCOX, The American City . ZUEBLIN, American Municipal Progress . For more extended reading: FAIRLIE, Municipal Administration . HOWE, The City: the Hope of Democracy . PARSONS, The City for the People . ROWE, Problems of City Government . STRONG, The Challenge of the City ....

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POVERTY AND PAUPERISM

While the many social problems arising from the presence in society of abnormal or socially unadjusted classes, namely, the dependent, defective, and delinquent classes, cannot be discussed in this book adequately, yet they must be briefly noticed in order to correlate them with other social problems, and even more in order to call the attention of the student to the vast literature which exists concerning these problems. Definitions of Poverty and Pauperism.—Poverty is a relative term, difficul

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading: WARNER, American Charities, Revised Edition. DEVINE, Misery and Its Causes. HUNTER, Poverty. For more extended reading: DUGDALE, The Jukes. DEVINE, Principles of Relief. HENDERSON, Dependent, Defective and Delinquent Classes. RUS, How the Other Half Lives. ROWNTREE, Poverty: a Study of Town Life. Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction. The Survey (formerly Charities and the Commons )....

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CRIME

The problem of crime is one of the great problems of social pathology. There have been developed, in order to deal with this problem scientifically, a number of subsidiary sciences, especially Criminology and Penology, which are sciences dealing with the causes, nature, and treatment of crime. We cannot therefore deal with this problem adequately in this chapter, but again must refer the student to the literature on the subject. The Definition of Crime.—The best definition of crime and the simpl

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading: ELLIS, The Criminal. WINES, Punishment and Reformation. BOIES, The Science of Penology. For more extended reading: BARROWS, The Reformatory System in the United States. BARROWS, Children's Courts in the United States. DRAHMS, The Criminal. FERRI, Criminal Sociology. MORRISON, Crime and Its Causes. MORRISON, Our Juvenile Offenders. PARMELEE, Anthropology and Sociology in Relation to Criminal Procedure. TRAVIS, The Young Malefactor....

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SOCIALISM IN THE LIGHT OF SOCIOLOGY

There have been many "short-cuts" proposed to the solution of social problems. Among these the various schemes for reorganizing human society and industry, brought together under the general name of "socialism," have attracted most attention and deserve most serious consideration. In criticizing the most conspicuous of these schemes of social reconstruction, the so-called "scientific socialism," it should be understood at the outset that there is no intention of questioning the general aims of t

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading: ELY, Socialism and Social Reform. SPARGO, Socialism. Revised edition. GILMAN, Socialism and the American Spirit. For more extended reading : HUNTER, Socialists at Work. KIRKUP, History of Socialism. SCHAEFFLE, Quintessence of Socialism. WELLS, New Worlds for Old....

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EDUCATION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS

As has just been said, the ultimate reliance in all social reform or social reconstruction must be upon the education of the individual. Social organization can never be more complex or of a higher type than the individual character and intelligence of the members of the group warrants. At any given stage of society, therefore, the intelligence and moral character of its individual members limits social organization. Only by raising the intelligence and character of the individual members of soc

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SELECT REFERENCES

For brief reading : WARD, Applied Sociology , Chaps. VIII-XII. WARD, Dynamic Sociology , Vol. II, Chap. XIV. HORNE, The Philosophy of Education , Chaps. IV and V. DEWEY, The School and Society . For more extended reading : DAVIDSON, History of Education . GRAVES, History of Education . MONROE, History of Education ....

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