NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 2^^
alliances with Utopian schemes for social amelioration. It has not sufficiently weighed the importance of small savings, past experience, efficient counsel, instability of pop- ulation due to immigration and migration, and competent leadership. EDWARD CUMMINGS, Quarterly Journal of Economics, April 1897.
Over-Insurance and Under-Consumption. Recently life insurance has devel- oped enormously. The number of policies has increased about 300 per cent., and the average amount of insurance to a policy has also increased. Many carry too large a policy and thereby burden the present unduly for the future. It necessitates sav- ing, and this may not always be wise from the standpoint of individual and social interest.
" Saving means curtailment of expenditure." Production is governed by con- sumption. Not many are so completely under the sway of this fallacy k that they will stint themselves of what are the necessaries of life, but they will curtail the more social side of expenditures and consume only those commodities which cost relatively little labor and so give less employment to laborers. Serious industrial consequences may follow its extensive practice. "Because consumption is limited to few articles, industry will not be able to extend beyond the limits of the production of those articles. In these channels the whole stream of new capital will he diverted, with the result of overproduction and industrial depression." It were better for society if it increased its demand for higher classes of goods and limited its saving by a reduction of life insurance. JOHN DAVIDSON, Journal of Canadian Bankers' Association, April 1897.
Sympathy and Reason in Charitable Work. Failure to perceive the rela- tion between sympathy and reason in charitable work is a cause of confusion and some controversy. On this account we have as yet arrived at little tenable philan- thropic theory. Adjustment between the two is possible, inasmuch as their union is largely a question of proportion.
As we advance toward clearer vision we find that their tendency is toward har- mony both in interest and aim. This harmony is evinced by an examination of the elements of sympathy experience and imagination. Experience enables one to realize the meaning of suffering and so acts as an incentive to effort at relief. This, however, is accentuated by imagination. The data for reliable judgments are fur- nished by experience and imagination. Springing so largely from the same root, it would seem that harmony between their final product must obtain.
Reason in its highest product is sympathetic. This is confirmed by the history of charity. Abuses have appeared when in its administration reason and sympathy were not exercised in proper proportion. Sympathy moves the world to charity, while reason aims to harness these impulses and direct them in the interest of humanity.
Present-day charity aims to develop character through personal association and influence. In order to be effective, sympathy guided and directed by reason must be the motor. Love and the infliction of pain are not antithetical. Sympathy and reason must be so balanced in charitable effort that one can see the pain endured that spurs to the development of character.
Sympathy awakens an interest in charitable work. A hundred causal connections then lead to a study of economic problems. "To isolate any social question and examine it apart from its relations to the social question as a whole, is clearly impos- sible Such is the solidarity of knowledge in general and of this subject in par- ticular, that to follow the ramifications of poverty one needs to be trained in all the social sciences." There are social laws, and reason aided by sympathy in discovering the facts for their induction must formulate them. Harmony exists between real sym- pathy and true reason. EDWARD T. JONES, Charitits AVnVw, June 1897.
The Immigration Question. Former centuries have known migration. It has been superseded by immigration, or change in domicile by individuals and families. The latter has taken place extensively during the last century, and that without apparent union of interests or destination. Immigration becomes a serious problem <>nlv after conflict of economic, social, and political interests arises between the immigrants and the old inhabitants.
