Riley (1911) Sociology and Social Surveys

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Sociology and Social SurveysAuthor(s): Thomas J. RileySource: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 16, No. 6 (May, 1911), pp. 818-836Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2763424 .Accessed: 12/03/2014 11:36

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SOCIOLOGY ANDSOCIAL SURVEYSTHOMASJ. RILEY

Washington University, t. Louis, Mo.

I. APPROACHES TO THE SOCIAL SURVEY

The social survey is the social technologcist's ttempt to seethings n perspective. It is his appreciation of the organic char-

acter of social facts. It is as yet his nearest approach to a doc-trine of social forces. The purpose of this paper is to considersome of these surveys, especially to consider to what extent theyhave taken account and to what extent the method can takeaccount of the social forces, to which the sociologists give thefundamental place in social theory. The general spirit of thepaper is rather to ask questions than to close arguments.

Throtugh he charity organization movement.-To appreciate

the social survey one must consider how it came to be. I shallnot, however, attempt to give a history, but rather an essentialaccount of it. WAhen e recall who have planned and conductedthese community nvoices, consider their scope, the relative em-phasis of subjects, and their immediate results, it is at onceapparent that they are closely related to the charity organizationmovement.

The charity rganization movement s in one sense organized,

co-operative ffort n some selected districts. A charity rganiza-tion society ists all the agencies for social betterment n a givendistrict, akes account of the needs of the neighborhood, nd de-liberately begins a persistent fight for better things. It bringstogether he charity gent, the friendly isitor, the truant officer,the probation officer, he settlement worker, the teacher, thepreacher, the physician, and the citizen; focuses their mindsnow on this case and now on that condition; and then sendsthem out as united workers with a plan. This is done not onceand not twice but all the time. If the city s properly organizedby districts, t is possible through this plan to know conditions

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SOCIOLOGYAND SOCIAL SURVEYS 8I9

and to work according to a well-defined program. It was in-

evitable that those who united to solve now this problem andthen that one, coming from different ields and using differentmethods, hould soon discover that there were common elementsin many of the questions they considered from time to time.Who, therefore, more than the thinker n the work of organizedcharity should require a general survey of the social problemsof the community?

The social survey is wider and deeper than this. The asso-

ciated charities is an organization of the forms and factors ofsocial service; the survey examines living, working, and com-munity onditions, takes account of the home, the shop, and theneighborhood. The charity organization is an appreciation ofthe organic character of forms of social service; the social surveyis an appreciation of the organic character of social problems.Although the survey is broad and deep it is not long. The in-fluence of it may abide, but soon its pictures are old, and itsfigures out of date. It has a definite beginning and a definiteclose as a survey. This is one of the problems nvolved to whichI shall recur near the close of the paper.

There is another way in which the charity organizationsocieties created the demand for the social survey. Throughthe case-counting method of determining he causes of poverty,used so generally by these societies, t became clearer and clearer

that these causes ran in series or even in circles instead of stand-ing isolated. Sickness was frequently et down as the causeof distress n a case, but what caused the sickness? It may havebeen the conditions at the shop or the conditions at the home.It may have been the habits of the person involved. It mayhave been these separately, but often it was all combined. Oragain, we may ask why do people have bad habits? Often it isbecause of bad homes that are bad because of bad shops. Or, it

may be, people have bad homes because of bad habits, because ofbad work, i.e., low wages, long hours, unhealthful or dangerousoccupations. And so the series runs, or the round goes on. Thediscovery of the serial or circular character of the causes of



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820 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

poverty reated demand for competent nvestigation f these

problems n their nterrelations.Another evidence of the close connection f the charityorganizationmovement nd the social survey s the fact hatoneof the most significant utcomes f probably he greatest ocialsurvey hat has yet been made was an associated harities, ornout of the needs that the survey isclosed, nd commissioned ocarry forward he work that the survey utlined.

Through cientific mnethod.-There s another pproach to

the ocialsurvey. This is by way of the cientific ethod. How-ever else we may characterize he scientific method t is themethod of objectified material. The instruments f scienceare laboratories, est tubes, weights, nd measures. In socialtechnology his same objectivation f material can be seen.Scarcelymore than dozen years ago the charitable orkers fthe country were still classifying he causes of poverty nderthe heads of misconduct nd misfortune. Today they re char-

ging distress lmost entirely o general ocial and living condi-tions. To illustrate his one might ite the classification y Dr.Frankel, iz., gnorance nd industrial nefficiencyboth charge-able to the failure f education), he exploitation f labor, ndthe ack of governmental upervision f the welfare f citizens;while Miss Brandt would eaveout the first wo, gnorance ndinefficiency, egarding hem s the results f the other wo,butwouldadd a personal ause,the perverted ill.

The scientificmethod may also be described s inductive.It is an allegiance o induction hathas given us the more ompe-tent methods f social investigation, f which he social surveyis the comprehensive ype. Although case-counting s strictlyinductive t s not scientifically alid. The cases that re countedare not representative or the general population, r even forthe ndustrial lass. They may be representative f dependents,but even n the caseof these, hepersonal quation s so manifestthat only the tyro n science ould regard his counts s morethan shrewd uesses. Against his form of scientific ethodapplied to an element f the populationnot of general ignifi-cance, the reaction was inevitable.



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SOCIOLOGY ANDSOCIAL SURVEYS 82I

Moreover, here are limitations o personal observation ythe individual nvestigator. t has been aptly aid that: Lifeis too short, rejudices oo ineradicable, ndividual ualificationstoo specialized, nd the personal quation oo disturbing, o per-mit any single individual, owever gifted, o see for himselfthe community s a whole, and to measure the influences ndforces hat shape the family estiny. ' Thus arose a demandfor comprehensive nvestigations f great classesof the popula-tion by scientifically alid methods, hat brought forth grist

of studies f the tandard f living; or for general xaminationof living and working onditions n significant istricts hatbrought orth he social survey. The social survey s an attemptto determine hat tandards f livingdo and may exist n a dis-trict, r to apply n approved tandard o the ndustrial opula-tion of a community n order o disclose he heights nd depthsof living, nd to set the problems f raising weakened ife tohigher powers.

Through ociology.-Although he social survey s primarilythe work of the social technologist t does not appear to whatextent the social theorist may have been responsible or thepoint of view and for the ordering f effort nd of material.It is not unlikely, owever, hat the nsistence f the sociologistupon the interrelation f problems, hat the claimsof sociologyas a synthesis f the specialsocial sciences, nd that the effortsof sociologists oanswer hequestionwhat s worth while,have

at least played the part of nurse, f they have not been thefather f the thought.These things, hen, may probably e set down as antecedents

of the socialsurvey: a) the charity rganization movement-the organized ffort f social service,necessarily isclosing heorganic character f socialproblems hemselves; b) the scien-tific method-dealing nductively ith objectifiedmaterial nddemanding epresentativeness nd the elimination f the per-sonal equation; and (c) the insistence f sociologyupon theorganic haracter f social facts.

'Dr. E. T. Devine, ublications f the American ociologicalociety I908), 85.



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II. SOME SOCIAL SURVEYS

Some beginnings.-It would be difficult o list the socialsurveys that have been made, not so much because of their num-ber, as because of their variety. Indeed, without some definitionof the social survey one would hardly know what to include inthe list. However, we shall not offer definition, ut will callattention to certain investigations that have some elements incommon which perhaps entitle them to the name social survey.

A few years ago there appeared in one of the leading maga-

zines of America a series of articles on the cultural interests ofgreat cities, including among others London, Paris, New York,and Chicago. In one sense these were social surveys. Theywere somewhat short on data and not fundamentally nclusive,but they had the survey spirit.

I had the pleasure of preparing a monograph on what I waspleased to call the Higher Life of Chicago, which in form andspirit, though certainly not in significance, might have some

claim to the title we are considering. It set in order of composi-tion, at least, the several classes of facts found in the greatersurveys about to be mentioned.

The city plan is a form of survey; though we may hardlycall it a social survey. It is, however, the ground plan for allthe various social undertakings of a community nature. In onevery true sense also a competent harities directory-as the Lon-don, New York, and Boston directories-is a social survey. Itis usually more formal than vital, but after all it is a fairly com-plete and well arranged inventory f the agencies of communitybetterment. But I must come at once to the great surveys.

The Life and Labor of the People of London, CharlesBoo th.-I should like to call attention first to the monumentalwork of Charles Booth, The Life and Labor of the People ofLondon, published in seventeen volumes, after seventeen yearsof investigation. Mr. Booth writes of his work, My objecthas been to attempt o show the numerical relation which poverty,mnisery, nd depravity bear to regular earnings and comparativecomfort, nd to describe the general conditions under which eachclass lives (I, 6). Or again he says that he has tried to describe



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SOCIOLOGYAND SOCIAL SURVEYS 823

life and industry s they exist in London at the end of the nine-teenth century, under the influences of education, religion, andadministration (XVII, 220). Accordingly we find four vol-umes on poverty, five on education, and seven on religious in-fluences.

The Pittsburgh urvey, aul U. Kellogg.and ollaborators.-In the United States the Pittsburgh Survey stands out pre-eminent. The survey is so recent-not all the volumes havingyet been published-and so stupendous that one may easily mis-

take it at many points. I shall have recourse therefore to thewords of the director of the survey n describing t. Mr. Kellogghas called it a rapid close-range nvestigation f living conditionsin the Pennsylvania steel district. Or, again, he says, Ourinquiries have dealt with the wage-earners of Pittsburgh a) intheir relation to the community s a whole and (b) in their rela-tion to industry. Under the former we have studied the genesisand racial makeup of the population, the physical setting and

its social institutions; and under the latter we have studied thegeneral labor situation: hours, wages, and labor control in thesteel industry; child labor, industrial education, women inindustry, he cost of living, and industrial accidents. 2

In brief, the Pittsburgh Survey deals with (a) the peoplefor the most part the immigrant, b) the place-clean air, cleanwater, and pure food, (c) the work-homes, wages, factoryinspection, ccidents, cost of living, and (d) the culture-libra-

ries, schools, playgrounds, and children's institutions.The Buffalo urvey, Mr. John Daniels, in its demonstra-tion year amounted to a study of the Poles as a considerablefactor in the population of the city. \ The work has been per-manently organized and much is expected from the survey inperpetuity so well begun. We might pause long enough tomention that some other cities, as Boston with its I9I5 move-ment and Kansas City with its Board of Public Welfare, aredoing social surveying n a legitimate sense of the word, whileSt. Louis and Chicago and some others are at least talkingabout it.

2Charities and the Commons,June , I909.



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III. SOCIAL SURVEYS AND THE SOCIAL FORCES

Interests.-I have tried to describe but not to discuss thesurveys of the life and labor of the people of London and of thepeople, the place and the work of Pittsburgh. I desire now toreconsider these social surveys especially from the standpointof what the sociologists call social forces. It may at first eemthat this is not a legitimate procedure because the sur-veys deal with material conditions and not with social forces.There is a measure of plausibility n such an objection. Butit is not our purpose to require the surveyor to speak in thejargon of the sociologist or to think in terms of social forces.We shall not thilnk t amiss if he speaks in terms of wagesinstead of appetitive desire. We shall encourage him to thinkin terms of industrial accidents instead of protective r negativeontogenetic forces.

I should like to say at the outset that it has been a mostdelightful experience to find how close is the correspondencebetween the social technologist's topics in his survey and thesocial theorist's terms in his list of social forces. There is, asshould be expected, a constant difference between them; theone speaking in terms of forces, and the other in terms of theresults of these forces, a difference hat should not be hard totranslate.

Before pointing out this correspondence it is necessary toadopt for the purposes of comparison, some statement of thesocial forces. My assumption at this point is that the phenomenaof society re the phenomena of social forces. I assume also thatthe social forces are desires. It is my understanding hat sociolo-gists are practically agreed upon these two assumptions. Howshall we classify these desires, these social forces?

Professor Ward has classified them as follows (Pure Soci-ology, 6I) :

Physical ( Ontogenetic 5 ositive, ttractive seeking leasure)Forces Forces Negative, rotective avoiding ain)(function, ) hylogenetic Direct, sexualbodily) k Forces Indirect, onsanguineal



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Spiritual (Moral (seeking he afe nd good)Forces Sociogenetic Aestheticseeking hebeautiful)

(function, Forcespsychic) 7 Intellectualseeking heuseful nd true)Professor Small adopts the familiar sixfold classification of

human desires, saying that all the acts which human beingshave ever been known to perform have been for the sake of(a) health, (b) wealth, (c) sociability, (d) knowledge, (e)beauty, (f) rightness, or for the sake of some combinationof ends which may be distributed mong these six (GeneralSociology, 44).

Professor Ross adopts another classification f desires, henceof social forces. He classifies them as natural and cultural,and lists them as follows:

a) Appetitive: unger, hirst, nd sex-appetite.1b)Hedonic:Fear, aversion o pain, ove of warmth, ase,

and sensuous leasure.c) Egotic:These re demands f the elf ather han f the

Natural organism. hey nclude hame, anity, ride, nvy,Desires loveof iberty, f power, nd of glory. The type f

this lass sambition.d) Affective: esires hat erminate pon thers: ympathy,

sociability,ove,hate, pite, ealousy, nger, evenge.e) Recreative: lay mpulses,oveof self-expression.

f) Religious:Yearning or those states of swimming runconditioned onsciousness epresented y the

religiouscstasy.Cultural g) Ethical: Love offair lay, ense f ustice.Desires h) Aesthetic: esire or he pleasures fperception,.e.,for

enjoyment f the beautiful.i) Intellectual: uriosity, oveofknowing,r earning, nd

of mparting.3However competent he schematic classification y Professor

Ward may be philosophically, t does not lend itself readily to

the uses of the surveyor be he never so philosophical or scientific.A little familiarity with the greater social surveys that havealready been briefly described makes it perfectly lear that the

3Foundations of ociology,69.



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list of Professor Small corresponds uite clearly o the scopeand order of subjects n the surveys. This obvious fact may bebecause he ist wasconsciously r unconsciously sed,or becauscboth he theorist nd the technologist rrived t the same classi-fication iving t a high degree f probable dequacyfor workingpurposes.

What has just been said is not necessarily n acceptance fthe sixfold ist as a competent lassification f human desires,using that word to name the subjective ide of interest. It is

declaring he fact of a closecorrespondence nd practical gree-ment between he list of Professor Smnall nd the subjects nthe surveys. What has been said leaves one free to adopt anyother lassification f desires s contrasted ith nterests, singthe latter erm s Professor Ross does when he says, Desires

iay well be distinguishable rom nterests, he former eing heprimary orces s they xvell p in consciousness, he latter hegreat complexes,wovenof multicolored trands f desire which

shape society nd make history. 4Professor Ross himself offers fourfold lassification finterests, .e., of complexes of goods which serve as meansto the satisfaction f a variety f wants, which differs romProfessor Small's list chiefly n having four instead of si?classes. I have been surprised t the close correspondence e-tween heclassifications f Professor mall and Professor Rosson the one hand, and of Mr. Booth and Mr. Kellogg and their

collaborators n the other. Note the correspondencen the caseof Professor Ross and Mr. Booth; the former isting wealtlh,knowledge, eligion, nd government; he latter using life andindustry, ducation, eligion, nd administration. Except forpractical imitations he agreement n the case of ProfessorSmalland Mr. Kelloggmight ave been equally pparent. Theselimitations, owever, nly obscured, hey did not destroy heclassification.

It has already eennoted hat he Pittsburgh urvey ncludeda study f the problems f cleanair, cleanwater, nd pure food,including specialstudy f the prevalence f typhoid, nd also

4Foundations of ociology,68.



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SOCIOLOGY ANDSOCIAL SURVEYS 827

of industrial accidents. Nothing could more happily illustratethe recognition of the health interest as Professor Small callsit. Or, to consider the wealth interest for a moment, at everypoint in the survey the question of wealth and its distributionis present or presupposed. Indeed, Dr. Devine has declared inthe presence of some here now that one of the most strikingthings discovered by the Pittsburgh Survey wasthe contrast between the prosperity on the one hand of the most pros-perous of all the communities of our western civilization, with its vastnatural resources, the generous fostering of government, the human energy,the technical development, the gigantic tonnage of the mines and mills,the enormous capital of which the bank balances afford an indication, and,on the other hand, the neglect of life, of health, of physical vigor, even ofthe industrial inefficiency f the individual. Certainly no community beforein America or Europe has ever had such a surplus, and never before hasa great community pplied what it had so meagerly to the rational purposesof human life.

The wealth and sociability interests are inseparably bound

up with the fundamental subjects of the survey such as lowwages for men, lower wages for women, overwork for all, andthe destruction of family life by the demands of such days'work and by the accidents of industry. Under this head shouldbe mentioned also the problem of the immigrant nd the workof charity.

The knowledge interest s reported under schools and libra-ries, while the beauty interest has recognition under such sub-jects as art galleries. The rightness interest was taken intoaccount under the moral influence of playgrounds, the systemof aldermanic courts, and the work of the churches.

There is every internal evidence for believing that somesuch a classification was used in ordering the survey and that thedirectors recognized the organic character of the problems in-volved.

Desires.-Thus far I have been considering the social sur-veys from the standpoint of interests, using that term to denotecomplexes of the objective aspects of desire. I wish now toreconsider them from the standpoint of desire, that is from thesubjective aspect of interest, s Professor Small uses the term.



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For this purpose shall use Professor Ross's classification f

desires. I have already given the ist and shall now take it upseriatim, oting ts recognition n the surveys nder discussion.First must be mentioned, herefore, he appetitive esire, thatis hunger, hirst, nd sex desire. With these as such neitherof the surveys deals except perhaps with the thirst fordrink. But at the same time they deal much with thequestions f wealth, wages and labor-complexes of the endsof the appetitive esire; the desire ppearing s a sort of veiled

force.The hedonic desire, that is fear, aversion to pain, love ofwarmth, ase, and sensuous pleasure, s for the most part nottaken nto the account by the surveyors, ossibly ecause it isso nearly ubmerged nder he more mmediate esires f appe-tite ust referred o. The egotic desire, hat s shame, vanity,pride, nvy, ove of liberty, f power, nd of glory, nd ambitiondid not seem to impress he surveyors much, ossibly ecause t

is deadenedby the manner f life, save in the case of vanity,envy, nd the love of liberty nd of power. Much the samecan be said of the affective nd the recreative esires. Some oAfthese natural desires, as Professor Ross calls them, have aveiled recognition hrough fairly dequate account of theirobjectsof satisfaction.

When we consider he cultural desires, t is not altogetherclear to what extent hey were reckoned with. The religiousdesire, s a yearning or states of swimming onsciousness,the ethicaldesire s a love of fair play, senseof justice, eemto have been consciously resent t many points n the surveys,especiallyn that of Mr. Booth. The aesthetic esire, s a desirefor hepleasures f the beautiful, nd the ntellectual esire s alove of knowing, f learning, nd of imparting, ikewisehas aplace,though somewhat ncertain ne, n these ocial nvoices.

A little care is necessary n passing judgment s to thedesire ying behind omespecified ct, for all too often he mis-chief nd eventhe crime f men re due not to an evildesirebutto a worthy ne denied its legitimate xpression. It is apt,though t may be trite, o name the recreative esire s an illus-



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SOCIOLOGYAND SOCIALSURVEYS 829

tration, which, when denied its natural gratification, s likelyto express tself n petty offenses mong youths, r in moreviciouspractices mong men. So that when one is consideringdrunkenness, mmorality, nd crime, ne may be dealing withthe objective spect of the natural ecreative esire gone wrong.

But it miay eem I have pronounced n the recognition fdesires n the surveyswithout avinggiven ny evidence n sup-port of the findings. shall therefore all attention o some ofthe evidenceupon which have based my udgment.

Mr. Booth seems to have appreciated he value of suchspiritual hings s desire and at the same time the difficulty freducing hese values to terms of traditional tandards. Hedeclares that in intensity f feeling . . . . and not in statisticslies the power to move the world. At times he writes s ifhe had the hedonic nd the recreative esires clearly n mind.For example, e says, concerning he nside filling p of manyblocks n London, that n some places may still be seen smallrough-roofed rections, nterspersed ith ittle lasshouses, hatrepresent obbies,pursuits f leisure hours-plants, flowers,

pigeons-and there s room to sit out, when the weather s fineenough,with friend nd pipe (I, 3').

At another imehe writes s if he were discussing he egoticdesire. He says: Connectedwith this-the ebb and flow ofthis or that ndustry, r all the industries ogether or a time-is the saddest form of poverty, he gradual mpoverishmentof respectability, ilently inking nto want (I, I5'). He isthinking ot of wealth or of want but of that psychical ome-what that he calls respectability ilently inking nto want.At another imehe points ut the subjective nd objective iffer-encebetween man who is on the up grade and another who ison the down grade even though hey both re at, he same level,assuming hat each knows the direction e is going. Such a

keen nalysis makes he psychic actof the condition f a man'smind a force to be reckoned with. He calls attention ividlyto another sychic actand indicates he necessity f reckoningwith t in a program f meliorism. He says:



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With regard to the disadvantages under which the poor labor, andthe evils of poverty, here s a great sense of helplessness; he wage earnersare helpless to regulate heir work and cannot obtain a fair equivalent forthe labor they are willing to give; the manufacturer r dealer can onlywork within he limits f competition; he rich are helpless o relieve wantwithout timulating ts sources. To relieve this helplessness better tate-ment f the problems nvolved s the first tep [p. 67].

Furthermore, n his chapter on The Point of View, Mr.Booth (II, chap. VII) describes three elements of it that arereadily translatable into the ordinary lingo of the social psy-chologist. They are (i) the relation to past experience, (2)the relation to expectation, and (3) the degree of sensitivenessof the public mind.

Other internal evidence of the virtual recognition of desiresas social forces could be cited from The Life and Labor of thePeople of London, but we will content ourselves with these few.Turning now to the Pittsburgh Survey, I am compelled to saythat, n the short time I have had to consider the partial reportsthat have come to hand, I have not found evidences of an appre-ciation of desires as social forces so plentiful as in the Londonsurvey. I believe, however, that a careful reading would findmany evidences of this appreciation. In the quotation I anabout to make there is an implicit recognition of several classesof social forces some of which the survey can and some of whichit cannot take account of. Mr. Kellogg says:

The War Department ngineers an tell you the exact number f cubicfeet which slide past either side of the Point every minute. The sani-tarians can give you the number f bacteria, friendly r plague-begetting,which nfect cubic centimeter. The weather man in a high building anforecast the exact stage which the water will register hours hence. Butwhat of the people? ... They have largely aken themselves or granted.They have rarely aken time to test their own needs or consciously augethe destination of the currents that possess them. They are here . . .. thestrong, the weak, the cowed, the ambitious, he well-equipped nd thepitiful. They jostle and work and breed. For the most

part theyrun a

splendid course. But they do not keep tally, and their ignorance meanssorrow and death and misunderstanding.5

ICharities nd the ommons, XI, 526.



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SOCIOLOGY ANDSOCIAL SURVEYS 83I

IV. SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL SURVEYING

Social surveys nd social psychology.-In conclusion wishto set a few problems bout ocial surveying n the ight f whathas already een aid. I shallnot ttempt o discuss he questionsasked, eaving hem for the most part with ittle more than theasking. The first roblem o which invite your attention maybe pointed y the question: s it possible o take n account f thesocial interests f a community n terms f general iving ndworking onditions nd to work out a program f betterment

from uch an inventory, f the fundamental roposition f thesociologist s true, viz., that the social forces re the desires ofmen, or that the vital principle f society s psychical force?To take but a single illustration, oes not the thesis of thesociologistdemand a psychological ccount of poverty atherthan a statement f wages and a description f housing ondi-tions? This questionmay be stated n a slightly ifferent ormon the practical ide thus: Can the desires f men be controlledthrough he objects that satisfy hem?Social surveys nd their ugenic actors.-Closely related othis general uestion s another ne: Is there not some dangerof overlooking he factor f heredity, nd especially he princi-ples of eugenics, n the prominence iven to the environmentalfactor? Under the spell of objectivication s there not dangerthat personal nd parental responsibility ay be undervalued?This may be another way of saying that we are in danger ofundervaluing he power of religion n our wonderful rogressof understanding nd controlling ocial conditions. It is notaltogether vident hatwe should ookto the sociologist o redis-cover the personal power of religion, ut he may well have acare as may the social technologist hat this powerful nd gen-eral force may not be valued too lightly.

Social surveys and social statics.-Another problem thatcomes to mind s: Can the social survey, which s essentiallystatic, be made to function hrough long period of time. Agood survey s an accurate icture, ut t is not a motion icture.Mr. Booth says:



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I have attempted o produce an instantaneous icture, ixing he factson my negative s they ppear at a given moment, nd the imagination f

my readers must add the movement, he constant hanges, he whirl andturmoil f life.6

After his seventeen ears of work Mr. Booth depends notupon the cross-sectional iew of social conditions, ut upon thememory f his workers nd the flow of the seventeen ears, ogive length o his survey. Mr. Kellogg says:

The modern ndustrial ity s a flow, not a tank. The important hingis not the capacity f a town but the volume nd currents f its life and bygauging these we can gauge the community. We must gauge at the intake-the children, he immigrant, he countrymen ho come in; gauge at theoutlets; and gauge at the stages n the course of the working ife. If therebe unnecessary eath, f strong reedhands are crippled r diseased throughtheir manner f living or working, f the twelve-hour man sees everythinggray before his eyes in the morning, f women work in new ways thatcost their strength r the strength f their young; if school children redrafted ff s laborers before hey re fit; f boys grow nto manhood with-out training or the trades of this generation-then we have a problem n

social hydraulics o deal with.7Of course, t is perfectly vident hat f the surveys re sig-

nificant hey are certain to carry themselves orward not assurveys erhaps, ut n the form f undertakings hat got theirinspiration nd their basis of fact out of the survey. In thissense they are functional. Might t not be possible for themto carry hemselves orward n adequate systems f social ac-counting, hereby e shouldnot need again to take the nvoice,but a balance heet?

Social surveys s purposeful.-It may be pertinently skedalso whether he social survey ominated y a practical urposecan be completely cientific. Perhaps we should not put uponthe survey hetest of scientific alidity. It may be that hey refor mmediate nd practical urposes nd reach their ufficientproportions hen they mount o convincing rguments o per-

suade men to undertake he work of civic and social betterment.The question would still remain, owever, whether he collectionand interpretation f data can be done without rejudicewhen

'Booth, op. cit., , 26.'Kellogg, op. cit., 525.



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there s an ever-present urpose, nd when every tem s to betested by the touchstone f getting omething one.

Allow me a word of summary nd then am through. Ihave tried i) to indicate he approaches o the social survey,naming hecharity rganizationmovement, hescientific ethod,and the nsistence f sociology; 2) to describe heLondon andthe Pittsburgh urveys; 3) to raise some questions s to thelimitations f the method f the urveys. wish to add my hearti-est approval f this atest orm f organizing he vailable knowl-

edge of general iving nd working onditions, nd its necessaryoutcome, program of industrial nd social betterment, hemeasure of the power of which no one can yet take. To usethe figure f the distinguished resident f the American oliti-cal Science Association n his splendid ddress at the openingmeeting f these kindred ocieties, he social survey ssuing naction s the best llustration can think f, of the scholar ndthe statesman oming ogether n united ffort.

DISCUSSIONMAURICE PARMELEE,UNIVERSITYOF MISSOURI

I have been asked to discuss Professor Riley's paper from he followingpoint of view: What do the facts and conditions f crime and the prin-ciples of criminology ndicate should be included n a social survey of agreat city

I find t a little difficult o discuss this paper from this point of view

because Professor Riley has not furnished s in his paper an outline of asocial survey f a great city. If he had done so I could have indicated ustwhere attention hould be paid to the investigation f crime. But withoutsuch an outline t is impossible o indicate briefly he scope of such an in-vestigation, or many of the things which would be done anyway n such ageneral social survey would also be necessary for a thorough nvestigationof crime. For example, he subject of population s of great mportance orthe investigation f crime, as, for example, ts density, omposition, tc.But it goes without aying hat the populationwould be studied nyway na general social survey f a

great city, o that the information hus gainedwould be at hand to use in the investigation f crime.It is a well-known act that the majority f crimes are committed n

cities, o that the city s the best place in which to investigate rime. Sucha thoroughgoing nvestigation f crime ncluded n the social survey of a



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great city ought therefore o be of the greatest value. For one thing tought o throw ight upon this very ignificant actthat crime s concentratedin the cities. Furthermore, t ought to throw great deal of light upon thegeneral question of the causation of crime.

The first uestion of importance or the social surveyor s, of course,how he is to go about investigating he crime n a great city. It is naturalto expect hat the records of the criminal ourts would furnish great dealof valuable information, ut unfortunately nder present conditions thecourts fail to record great deal of very valuable nformation hich cannotbe secured in any other fashion. These records will of course indicatethe number f persons ried, he number onvicted, nd for what crimes. But

they furnish ery ittle nformation s to the character nd past life of theseindividuals. For example, some years ago while making a study of theeffect f immigration pon crime n New York City, tried to determine heclassification f those convicted f crime according to race. After goingthrough he court records ora good many years was forced o desist fromthe attempt ecause of the inadequacy f these records. In like fashion hepolice records would give the number f arrests but would fail to furnisha great many ther mportant actswhich houldbe included n them. How-ever, from the personal knowledge of many of those connected with the

courts and the police administration good deal of this information anbe secured.To speak of but a few of the things which should be included within

the scopeof such an investigation, he administration f the criminal ourtsand of the police should be carefully tudied; the nfluence f the saloons orof other drinking-places pon crime; the opportunities nd incentives orgambling nd high iving as well as the ways in which making living sdifficult n a great city. As many individual ases as possible should bestudied n order to trace in these specific oncrete ases the causation ofcrime. It would be well to choose the cases in such a fashion that theywill illustrate s far as possible all the different inds of crimes and ofcriminals. And while of course the social or environmental auses of crimewill be thoroughly tudied n such a survey, he hereditary orces lso shouldnot be neglected, ut as far as possible the anthropological haracteristicsof these criminals hould be studied n order to be able to estimate o someextent he biologicalforces which are at work in the causation of crime.

CHARLESA. ELLWOOD,UNIVERSITY OFMISSOURI

Professor Riley has discussed n his paper a very timely opic, he rela-tion of sociology to social surveys. The sociologist s, of course, vitallyinterested n the scientific urvey or investigation f the social conditionsin various communities. This work, f properly one, should be not simplyof some practical value to the community oncerned, ut should be signifi-



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cant for the development f a scienceof sociology,which s after ll nothingbut the study of the biological and psychological actors n the social life.I suspect, owever, hat ome of the social surveys ndertaken n this countryfall far short of the requirements f scientific ociology. Most of them,to be sure, have undertaken more or less adequate study of the biologicalfactors n the community ife, such as population, lace, work, and the like.The conditions f the environment nd the conditions ffecting utrition ndphysicalwell-being ave received ttention, ut relatively ess attention asbeen given to the psychological actors n the community ife, such as edu-cation, eligion, overnment, nd law, to say nothing f more ntangible he-nomena ike public opinion, he mental ttitude f individuals oward their

group, and the ways in which they are co-ordinated. Professor Riley'smonograph n The Higher Life of Chicago comes as near being a socialsurvey pproaching he matter rom he psychical tandpoint s some recentsocial surveys o in approaching he matter rom he material ide.

But why should the psychological spects of the community ife be soemphasized? Is not their tudy quite unnecessary rom scientific oint ofview? Do we not know everything bout a community hen we know thematerial onditions f its life? The answer will be evident f we considerfor a moment what sociology s. A society s certainly group of people iv-

ing together. think hat we can all agree upon that. But how do they ivetogether? By co-ordinating heir activities r by co-operation, s we say,but this does not tell us much. How do they o-operate, r co-ordinate heiractivities? Manifestly y means of mental nteractions, hat is, throughinterstimulation nd response. A society s, therefore, group of peopleliving together y means of interstimulation nd response. What its totallife is depends very largely upon the attitude f its members oward oneanother. How they o-operate epends, herefore, pon commonwill, belief;and opinion, nd the agencies by which common will, belief, and opinioneffect ocial control. These agencies are chiefly eligion, overnment ndlaw, and education. These are the chief agencies by which a communitycontrols ts common ctivities nd carries on a collective ife process. Weshould not forget, owever, hat back of them stand the more intangiblethings lready mentioned. We need, therefore, n any scientific ocial surveya study not only of the material onditions f life, such as work, wages,population, ousing, tc., but also a study of religion, overnment nd law,education, nd the more ntangible hings of common will, common belief,commonopinion, nd the like. Only such a survey an be adequate fromthe sociologicalpoint of view, or from ny purely cientific oint of view.

My criticism f some social surveys n the United States, then, s thatthey fail to take account ufficiently f these psychological actors. They donot go to work n any ntelligent ay to study hese factors. Of course, hestudy f these factors s more difficult han the study f the material actors,



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and I have not time to discuss with you scientificmethods by which thestudy of these factors may be undertaken. But it is evident that thesefactors re not impossible f scientific tudy nd that they re the real keyto the social situation n every community. f more stress were laid uponthem, f ways were found out of influencing ind, the dynamic gent insociety, think he complaint f Professor Blackmarregarding he inefficacyof most social reform movements ould not need to be made.

I need hardly ay that disagree with Professor Riley's assumption hatthe desires are the true social forces. Surely Dr. Riley is aware that forat least a dozen years a considerable umber f sociologists ave protestedagainst this idea. By social forces we can mean, of course, nothing morethan the active factors present n any social situation. The word desire isaltogether oo vague to cover the subjective r psychological actors n thesocial life. No two sociologists could agree upon the exact connotationwhich hey ive to the word. Some use the word desires o mean the nativeimpulses; others mean by it the feelings, nd still others, eneral habits ofresponse f a population. The truth s, this word desire was borrowed bythe sociologists, ot from the psychologists, ut from the economists,whomade use of the term n connectionwith that over-rationalized onception,

the economic man. Desire is a term borrowed from the intellectualistic

socialphilosophy f the early nineteenth entury. t is vague in its psycho-logical connotation nd altogether nadequate to describe he varied psycho-logical factors in human society. How much, may I ask you, of thephenomenawhich Professor Vincent has so admirably escribed for us inhis paper on Group Rivalry could be interpreted n terms of consciousdesire? We must bring the terminology f sociology nto accord with theterminology f scientific sychology; nd only thus can we take into ac-count nd adequately tudy he various psychological actors n the sociallife,whether we are making concrete ocial survey r giving n abstract tate-

ment of theory.

Documents

Riley (1911) Sociology and Social Surveys