482 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
has been a home for all. She has extended her rights fully to the foreigner and shown the world that under fit conditions the foreigner and the "lower classes" are not dangerous. Finally, we have shown the world an example of the diffusion of general well-being. It is shown in our school system, our homes, our high standard of living, our wonderful development of industry, and our great systems of transporta- tion. CHAKI.K-; \y. ELIOT in the Atlantic Monthly, October 1896.
The Standard of Living of the American Workingman. It is a well- known fact that the nominal wage is much higher in America than in England, France, and other European countries. But how is it with the real wage ? Does the American wage mean more than that of the Englishman or the Frenchman ? Yes, the author " In my estimation a family of working people, in their ordinary consumption, obtain with a certain sum of money as much in America as in England, and probably more than in France." Food is just as cheap in America as abroad. So is ready- made clothing, the clothing bought by the working people. The American does spend more for rent, but it is because of his better accommodations. Taking into considera- tion his accommodations his rents are no higher. So if the purchasing power of an American laborer's dollar is as great as that of the English or the French laborer, he gets the full benefit of his higher nominal wage. This gives the American a greater variety. That this is true is shown by the fact that he spends relatively less for food, and rela- tively more for clothing, rent, sundries, and amusements than the foreign laborer. True, the laborer has no surplus left, but this is because he has to spend more to maintain his rank, because his standard of living is high. EMILE LEVASSEUR in Yale Review, August 1896.
The Problem of the Population. The diminution of the fertility of civilized peoples is becoming more and more apparent. It is especially evident in France where the death rate exceeds the birth rate and the population is kept stationary only by immigration. The Malthusian theory does not afford an explanation of this phenomenon, for the wealth per capita among all nations is increasing much more rapidly than the population. Nor is the decrease in the birth rate due to physiological causes, but to two great social causes : first, increasing uncertainty of being able to give self and offspring defense against want ; second, abolition of the right of primo- geniture, entailing the dissipation of property in families in which there is more than one child. Under the capitalistic system life is difficult for the mass of mankind. A child is a burden. Thus of necessity reproduction is restrained. Fertility is high where* large landed proprietorship is the rule ; low where the soil is minutely divided. Fertility is in inverse ratio to the degree of divisibility of the soil. As but compar- atively few can be large proprietors, the general fertility must remain low under the present system. Conclusion : Individual possession of land and the means of pro- duction is an obstacle to the reproduction of the race. This obstacle increases continually. Society must remove it or perish. DESIRE DESCAMPS, Revue Socialiste, September 1896.
The Social-Evangelical Movement in Germany. Wichern gave the first impulse by founding the Inner Mission. Victor-Aim^ Huber insisted that economic reforms must be added to the private benevolence of Wichern's schemes, but these reforms must be brought about by cooperative clubs, and by the upper classes. Godt, with the New Testament as a criterion, secured fairer judgment for socialism by show- ing that its economical and political principles are not anti-Christian in essence, and that Christians should aim not only to save individual souls, but so to transform society by political and social reforms that it become truly the kingdom of God. Stocker, court preacher, interested by Godt, founded the Christian Workmen's party in 1878. Ill- received by the press of all parties, even by the socialists, who were then violently attacking Christianity, the party at first gained many workmen, but gradually came to be made up of shopkeepers, clerks, students and a few officers. Their prejudices and the violent attacks of the liberal press, then in the hands of the Jews, made Stocker and his party anti-Semitic. This again led toward conservatism, and the party and its
