assumption of chance combinations of unrecognized traits of ability widely scattered throughout the race (p. 235). They even assert that this is the chief source of genius (p. 244). To all of this the sociologist with an environmental bias may answer that until the biologists produce data instead of assumptions based on analogy in support of their conclusions, Lester F. Ward's arguments (Applied Sociology) have as much evidence back of them as these.

In regard to the crossing of races they say: "The hybridization of extremes is undesirable because of the improbability of regaining the merits of the originals, yet hybridization of somewhat nearly related races is almost a prerequisite to rapid progress, for from such hybridization comes that moderate amount of variability which presents the possibility of the super-individual, the genius" (p. 263). Thus they would oppose the intermingling biologically of white, black, and yellow races, but they would urge the interbreeding of peoples of Western Europe and the United States, including the Jews.

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

L. L. BERNARD

$2.50.

German Social Democracy during the War. By EDWYN BEVAN. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1919. Pp. x+280. This book gives an interesting and enlightening narrative of the activities and deliberations of the Social Democratic party from the beginning of the war to the close of the administration of Chancellor Michaelis in October, 1917. The narrative is based on published documents, speeches reported in the Social Democratic press, etc. The attention centers about the split in the party-the varying struggle between the will to support the government and vote war appropriations and the conviction that Germany and Austria were the aggressors in the war and, therefore, that the goverment's war policy should be unyieldingly opposed. The troublesome minority grows steadily in influence under an ever-changing leadership, but this growth finds its explanation in the fact that the masses were worn out by the exactions of the war and were clamoring for peace. The author, in his Preface, calls attention to the fact that, with the collapse of Russian opposition on the Eastern front, this desire for peace changed to enthusiastic support of the government. One notes with interest the characterization of many wellknow party leaders—and their dramatic outbursts against autocratic military domination.

PACIFIC UNIVERSITY

ROBERT FRY CLARK

Extreme Urgence. By GEORGES BENOIT-LÉVY. Paris: L'Association des Cités-Jardins, 1920. Pp. 46.

The cost of construction in France has increased to threefold the pre-war prices, and Mr. Benoit-Lévy endeavors to discuss methods of cost reduction in home building. Unfortunately the emphasis is placed upon a reduction downward of standards rather than an adjustment of production costs. We are already facing such a situation in the United States with the result that the compactness of the homes demanded by increased costs is bound to react upon home life by producing a shrinkage in its social as well as in its future economic value.

If a satisfactory relation between wages and rents can only be maintained by a reduction in the size, character, and quality of the home the remedy is not to be sought in compromises and devices for the compact storage of the human family but in the economic system itself. CAROL ARONOVICI

SAN FRANCISCO

RECENT LITERATURE

NOTES AND ABSTRACTS

Durkheim's Contribution to the Reconstruction of Political Theory.-Durkheim's political theories are based upon the proposal to strengthen the occupational group at the expense of the economic functions of the state, and to make it the basis of representation in the law-making body. The state is too slow-moving, incompetent, and ill-adapted to deal with the highly specialized industrial activities and relations of the present day. Therefore (1) there is needed an arrangement for dividing the control of industrial relations between the state and occupational groups. In this way the evils of bureaucracy can be avoided and expert control of industry secured; (2) this method would avoid a centralized and all-powerful state and yet secure for labor a large degree of authority in regulating its own conditions; (3) as Durkheim would give his occupational groups a corporate organization, his scheme bears a close similarity to the theory of Gierke, Maitland, and Figgis which would make the state a union of lesser corporate groups; (4) and finally his notion of the supremacy of the functional organization of society over the segmentary or territorial organization is in harmony with Professor Giddings' contention that civilization is characterized by a constantly increasing subordination of the social composition to the social constitution. Durkheim's political theories constitute in one particular phase one of the most advanced and most satisfactory of sociological positions in regard to political and economic problems.-Harry E. Barnes, Political Science Quarterly, June, 1920.

C. N.

The Principles in Accordance with Which Public Opinion Can Be Formed by the Church Democratically and Effectively.-Propaganda rules the world; but it is not the propaganda of the church. Up to the present, perhaps, this has been fortunate, because the church is only beginning to become truly Christian. The transition from non-Christian society to Christian society can only be effected by the formation and guidance of an effective public opinion, because that is the only mechanism by which conscious social changes are effected. The Christian churches must endeavor to create an effective Christian public conscience regarding all relations of individuals, classes, nations, and races. The problem of creating Christian society is essentially the problem of developing Christian mores, which are the product of public opinion. The mores of barbarism largely survive among us but they must be replaced by Christian mores. That means if we want a Christian society, we must capture public opinion for the Christian program. This public opinion does not imply uniformity of opinion rather one which, requiring unity in essentials, would leave liberty in nonessentials. This public opinion must not be confused with public sentiment and popular emotion but is a more or less rational collective judgment. The principle in accordance with which such public opinion can be formed democratically and effectively by the church are first, it must be formed under conditions of freedom; second, it must be formed under conditions of obvious disinterestedness; and third, it must be intelligent. This means a greater appreciation by the church of social service. To form and guide public opinion the church may use various agencies such as oral discussion, the press, and the church school.-Charles A. Ellwood, Religious Education, April, 1920. R. G. H.

Church School and Public Opinion.-The church school as one of the educational institutions must raise the question, What is its responsibility in the formation of public opinion? The educational psychologists like Dewey and Thorndike tell us that culturally each generation is at the mercy of its informal and formal education. If the church of Jesus Christ is the one and only institution openly and frankly committed to the idealism of Jesus, then the burden of responsibility with reference to

the formation of public opinion centered in this idealism rests upon the church school. There are at least four things the church school needs to do more zealously and in a more Christian way. The first of these is to rejuvenate the Home Department. The center of responsibility in all education is the home. The second thing is to socialize its own curriculum. We are to have not Bible Schools, but schools of religion; that is, of life. We need to Christianize the attitude toward money and foreigners and colored people. In the third place there is a big opportunity to form public opinion through the church school in its worship. The average worship in the church school is of the individual salvation type and does not develop a social democracy saturated with the idealism of Jesus.

Finally, more work of a real practical nature needs to be done, not only in our thinking, but also in our giving, if we would expect a sane and workable practice of social service and internationalism. We need to develop a public opinion that goes deeper than philanthropy and charity. Only thus can the church school create such a public opinion and practice as will eventually Christianize all social, economic, industrial, national, and international ideals.-Fred L. Brownlee, Religious Education, June, 1920. R. G. H.

The Effect of the War on the Chief Factors of Population Changes.-There are three factors fundamentally concerned in producing changes in the absolute size of the population in a given area: (1) the birth-rate; (2) the death-rate; (3) the net immigration rate. Of these factors the two first are of the greatest biological interest. This is true of such political units as France, Prussia, and Bavaria, where in normal times net immigration makes no significant contribution to the population. The official statistics show that (1) in the year prior to the beginning of the war the deathrate of France was at nearly twice as high a level as in any of the other countries dealt with; (2) in all the countries here dealt with the death-birth ratio in general rises throughout the war period, i.e., the proportion of deaths to births increased as long as the war continued. In France it was slightly more than double in 1918 what it was in 1913. The same was true of Prussia and Bavaria. These states started from a very different base in 1913, and the relative rise was even greater; (3) in England this death-birth ratio increase was markedly slower than in any other countries dealt with; (4) the epidemic of influenza in 1918 seems to have had the greatest effect upon England and Wales. The biological reactions of the French and Germans in respect to this most fundamental phenomenon, the death-birth ratio, were essentially the same, though they started from different pre-war bases. England's biological reaction to war was much less pronounced, due to the better food conditions and to a different_race psychology from that of the other belligerents.-Raymond_Pearl, Science, June, 1920.

C. N.

Om Geniet som Biologisk Problem.-Genius cannot be taught but is determined in the natural biological process. When the male and female germ-cells meet it is possible, but not probable, that new values may be created by a new constellation of the respective chromosomes. The determiners of heredity in the spermatozoa and egg-cell do not usually combine in the production of wholly new attributes. Genius can generally not be explained through the common laws of heredity. A partial explanation has come from an unexpected quarter, namely, the theory of degeneration which was set forth by Morel as early as 1859. Degeneration is a much misused word popularly having a derogatory meaning. Degeneration applies chiefly to the psychical but is also evidenced by certain bodily stigmata such as anomalies in bone-structure, especially the face and cranium, etc. A surprisingly large number of men of great genius have had serious physical defects. In the eighties, Lombroso put forth the startling theory that genius, despite its superiority, is closely related to degeneration, the stigmata of which are not to be mistaken. Nordau and Toulouse have followed Lombroso, the latter regarding genius as a kind of neurosis. Their generalizations do not seem to apply to all men of genius but their large collection of evidence seems to confirm the main thesis. In regard to offspring the relation of genius to degeneration is very apparent. Genius develops spontaneously its own destruction. A climax or culmination has been reached and thereafter there is an inevitable downward trend.-S. Laache, Samtiden, June, 1920.

O. B. Y.

Der Nachwuchs der begabten Frauen. It is not only a commonplace, but is shown by statistics, that talented men and women have fewer offspring than the ungifted. The same tendency that prevails among men is evident among women; the more gifted are less sexually inclined, and do not permit motherhood to interfere with their other activities. However, in this manner the continuation of the race is left to those women who have no other capacity. The observation that personal achievement is always accompanied by reduced sexual tendency among both sexes has, however, been subject to a twofold interpretation. In the case of man, the fact has simply been noted as self-evident; in the case of woman, the attitude has been quite different. All biologists are trying to impress upon woman that it is a crime against the race if she places the expression of her talents above her maternal function, even though, in the possession of the former, she is not naturally inferior to man. Especially the most gifted women are urged to make more than the ordinary contribution to the continuation of the race, in order to pass on to future generations their unusual abilities. The demand of Schallmeyer that woman must first of all perform her generative function, is, from the standpoint of eugenics, pure nonsense. How will the race benefit, if the woman gives up her abilities and devotes herself exclusively to bearing children of a father who is not her equal in generative capacity? For, if man is permitted to exhaust his virility in unrestrained pursuit of personal achievement, his contribution to the offspring must be inferior to woman's, and woman's sacrifice of her personal achievements is economically and culturally a great waste, and detrimental to the nation. In biographical studies of famous persons, it is, in the case of woman, invariably discussed whether her maternal functions were neglected; but in the case of man, it is rarely asked whether the paternal function has been unfavorably affected. From the standpoint of racial biology, the prevalent tendency to emphasize this eugenic factor in the case of women only, can be explained solely on the basis of a social order in which men have superior control. Such one-sided control always leads to illogical conclusions. The anxiety concerning a talented woman's fulfilment of her sexual duty, only arises where these women have chosen the path of personal achievement. Ehrhard Riecke in "Der Mediziner u. die sexuelle Frage" (Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft, 1914, S. 109) has called attention to the fact that often not the worst women become prostitutes, but women who might have been highly valuable in the evolution of the race. But do men wage a campaign against prostitution to prevent this social waste? Here, no mention is made of the importance of the continuation of the race. Prostitution is legally established. In conclusion, there can be but one law applicable to both sexes: the harmonizing of individual and generative capacities.-M. Vaerting, Die neue Generation, September, 1919. L. M. S.

Der Konflikt zwischen der individuellen u. generativen Leistung beim Menschen. In the past, the tragic import of the conflict between individual achievement and generation has not been fully comprehended and therefore no efforts have been made to harmonize both activities. The former has been relegated to man as the chief function of life; to woman, the latter. The folly of this procedure can be measured by its results. Particularly in the family of the most gifted, man's intellectual achievement was put above all else, while woman denied herself all creative expression except that of bearing children and catering to the comforts of her family. The progeny of such unions, with few exceptions, are even below the average; within a few generations, they have completely degenerated. Raibmayer, in "Genie u. Talent," has made a careful study of the rapid extinction of the families of talented men. Pontus Fahlbeck, in a study of Swedish aristocracy has shown that it became extinct even in the fourth generation after it achieved historical prominence. Lorenz has shown the same to be the case among the peasant stock of Saxony. Every disease of races, which resulted in their extinction, had its final cause in the division made between personal accomplishment and purely generative activity, in which the latter was chiefly relegated to woman. The eugenic failures of the past, instead of being viewed in the light of terrible warnings of nature, have been viewed as inexorable biological laws; and their causes continue to flourish. Only recently, Bumm said in his address on "Frauenstudium," "Our children must be born of women who have rested brains, and time for the rearing of numerous offspring. Thus woman is of greatest service to herself, the family, and the state." But woman has had a "rested brain" for thousands