PREFACE Some years ago, while teaching economics and sociology in Oberlin College, the editor of this book became impressed with the need of a course which should deal with the more basic and deeply rooted problems of our time in a serious and critical, but not too detailed or exhaustive, manner. Nearly every college and university was offering certain specific and detailed courses on individual, social, or economic problems, such as immigration, the family, poverty, etc. There were also many courses dealing with the abnormal side of society, the by-products of evolution, criminals and defectives, and methods of dealing with them— charities and corrections, criminology and penology, and the like. Thus there was much indication that many economics or sociology departments were devoting a very considerable part of their time—often the greater part of it-to a more or less superficial and temporizing study of what we may call for brevity the "down and out"; and this to the neglect of serious study of the underlying historical, economic, psychological, and social forces which produce in every normal society a number of problems of deepest import to the welfare of every normal individual and to the future direction of social evolution. Moreover, where only courses on specific individual problems or institutions are given, the student is not sure to emerge from his sociological study with anything even remotely resembling a perspective upon social and economic organization and process. Of a broad, general survey, demanding serious though not technical study of basic social problems of vital significance to-day, the editor could find few examples. During the past three or four years there has been much indication of changing sentiment with regard to the arrangement of economics and sociology courses. The incipient demand for a general introductory course in social science in the freshman year will probably bear fruit in the near future. The conviction that social science courses should be definitely graded and arranged in logical series—instead of allowing the student to step from Economics I or Sociology A directly into any other course, not a graduate course, in the department—is growing apace. Akin to this conviction is the belief, upon which this book rests, that it is better for a student whose time is limited, as that of all students is, to secure, after a general introductory course in social science or after the elementary course in economics or sociology, a serious survey of a number of fundamental but concrete social problems than it is for him to attempt an intensive study of one or two, to the neglect of all the rest. Some most important socio-economic problems have been practically neglected by both economics and sociology departments. Courses in one aspect of the population problem — immigration— there have been. Population as such has been considered chiefly by the economists, and by them principally as a matter of the acceptance or nonacceptance of the conclusions of Malthus, or as a subject incidental to the theory of wages. So far as sociologists have been able to take time out of the attractive business of building up social philosophies to consider practical issues, they have too often either ignored the population problem entirely or looked upon it as chiefly a matter of the declining birth rate, and usually without much apparent understanding of the underlying economic forces. The feminist movement and the woman problem (so-called for lack of a better and less invidious name) have, until very recently, either been touched upon with some hesitation or calmly ignored. In spite of the patent fact that they involve many of the most fundamental principles of ethics and economics and are freighted with profound significance for the future evolution of society and of social ethics, they have not been considered worthy the dignity of serious academic attention. It is high time this attitude were left behind in every educational institution. There have been numerous courses on the family, but they have usually treated it, mainly if not entirely, in its anthropological and historical aspects. The very important questions involved in matrimonial ideals and practice, and in divorce, with their attendant present social unrest, were, until a comparatively recent time, left largely to the attention of those reformers who, rightly or wrongly, wish to see the amount of divorce reduced, at all costs. Race problems, where not approached in a highly biased and totally unscientific spirit, have been treated chiefly from the standpoint of anthropology. Moreover, there have been practically no books, either for the student or the general reader, giving under one cover a serious introduction to these fundamental problems of social ethics and constructive sociology. The literature in each one of these specific fields has been increasing with gratifying, not to say embarrassing, rapidity in the past few years; but there is still a dearth of usable texts treating not one specific problem but a number. These considerations, more particularly that it was regrettable that so many promising and supposedly educated young women and young men should go out from college with little or no ordered and scientific study of these matters, led to the development of a full-year course in social problems. The present book is an outgrowth of this course. It is the editor's hope that these readings will not only be found valuable in some courses in general sociology and in courses devoted entirely to individual problems but that they may to some degree stimulate the offering of more survey courses of the sort here suggested. The selections will be found to reflect to some degree a historical method of attack. But for the limitations of space this would have been still more apparent. It is not always necessary to go back to the remotest anthropological or even historical beginnings of things, but some knowledge of historical development is essential to the proper understanding of any great social problem or movement. The historical attack, moreover, proves usually more interesting to the student than a purely statistical and critical method. Effort has been made in the selections to present diverse points of view. It is, however, not possible in limited space to present examples of all the shades of opinion, nor is it necessary. The main objects are to stimulate the student to further reading, to furnish well-chosen material for classroom discussion — no |