Riley (1911) Sociology and Social Surveys

Sociology and Social Surveys Author(s): Thomas J. Riley Source: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 16, No.
6 (May, 1911), pp. 818-836 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2763424 . Accessed: 12/03/2014 11:36
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SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SURVEYS

St. Louis, Mo. WashingtonUniversity, I. APPROACHES TO THE SOCIAL SURVEY
THOMAS J. RILEY
attemptto see The social survey is the social technologcist's things in perspective. It is his appreciation of the organic character of social facts. It is as yet his nearest approach to a doctrine of social forces. The purpose of this paper is to consider some of these surveys,especially to consider to what extent they have taken account and to what extent the method can take account of the social forces, to which the sociologists give the fundamentalplace in social theory. The general spirit of the paper is rather to ask questions than to close arguments. the charityorganization movement.-To appreciate Throtugh the social survey one must consider how it came to be. I shall not, however, attemptto give a history,but rather an essential we recall who have planned and conducted account of it. WAhen these communityinvoices, consider their scope, the relative emphasis of subjects, and their immediate results, it is at once apparent that they are closely related to the charityorganization movement. The charityorganization movementis in one sense organized, in some selected districts. A charityorganizaco-operativeeffort in a given tion society lists all the agencies for social betterment district,takes account of the needs of the neighborhood,and deliberatelybegins a persistentfight for better things. It brings visitor,the truantofficer, togetherthe charityagent, the friendly the probation officer,the settlementworker, the teacher, the preacher, the physician, and the citizen; focuses their minds now on this case and now on that condition; and then sends them out as united workers with a plan. This is done not once and not twice but all the time. If the city is properlyorganized by districts,it is possible through this plan to know conditions
8i8
8I9
and to work according to a well-definedprogram. It was inevitable that those who united to solve now this problem and fields and using different then that one, coming from different methods,should soon discover that there were common elements in many of the questions they considered from time to time. Who, therefore,more than the thinkerin the work of organized charity should require a general survey of the social problems of the community? The social survey is wider and deeper than this. The associated charities is an organization of the forms and factors of social service; the survey examines living, working, and communityconditions,takes account of the home, the shop, and the neighborhood. The charity organization is an appreciation of the organic characterof forms of social service; the social survey is an appreciation of the organic character of social problems. Although the survey is broad and deep it is not long. The influence of it may abide, but soon its pictures are old, and its figures out of date. It has a definitebeginning and a definite close as a survey. This is one of the problemsinvolved to which I shall recur near the close of the paper. There is another way in which the charity organization societies created the demand for the social survey. Through the causes of poverty, the "case-counting" methodof determining used so generallyby these societies, it became clearer and clearer that these causes ran in series or even in circles instead of standing isolated. Sickness was frequentlyset down as the cause of distress in a case, but what caused the sickness? It may have been the conditions at the shop or the conditions at the home. It may have been the habits of the person involved. It may have been these separately,but often it was all combined. Or again, we may ask why do people have bad habits? Often it is because of bad homes that are bad because of bad shops. Or, it may be, people have bad homes because of bad habits, because of bad work, i.e., low wages, long hours, unhealthfulor dangerous occupations. And so the series runs, or the round goes on. The discovery of the serial or circular character of the causes of
820
THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
of these investigation poverty createda demandfora competent problems in theirinterrelations. Anotherevidence of the close connectionof the charity is the factthatone organization movement and thesocial survey social of probably the greatest of the mostsignificant outcomes born survey thathas yetbeen made was an associatedcharities, to and commissioned out of theneedsthatthe surveydisclosed, carryforward the work that the surveyoutlined. is anotherapproachto Throughscientific mnethod.-There thesocialsurvey. This is byway of thescientific method. Howthe scientific methodit is the ever else we may characterize of science method of objectified material. The instruments are laboratories, test tubes,weights,and measures. In social of material can be seen. technology this same objectivation of workers Scarcelymorethana dozenyearsago the charitable under the causes of poverty the country were still classifying the heads of misconduct and misfortune.Today theyare charto generalsocial and livingcondiging distress almostentirely tions. To illustrate by Dr. cite the classification thisone might inefficiency (both chargeFrankel,viz., ignorance and industrial of labor,and able to the failureof education),the exploitation of the welfareof citizens; supervision the lack of governmental and whileMiss Brandtwould leave out the first two, ignorance themas the resultsof the othertwo,but inefficiency, regarding will. wouldadd a personalcause,theperverted The scientific methodmay also be describedas inductive. thathas givenus themorecompeIt is an allegiance to induction of whichthe social survey of social investigation, tentmethods is strictly "case-counting" is the comprehensive type. Although The cases that are counted valid. inductive it is notscientifically for the generalpopulation, or even for are not representative of dependents, class. They maybe representative the industrial thepersonal equationis so manifest butevenin thecase of these, thatonlythe tyroin sciencecould regardhis "counts"as more method thanshrewdguesses. Againstthis "form"of scientific not of generalsignifiof the population appliedto an element cance, the reactionwas inevitable.
82I
by to personalobservation Moreover,thereare limitations the individualinvestigator.It has been aptlysaid that: "Life qualifications individual too ineradicable, is too short, prejudices to perand thepersonalequationtoo disturbing, too specialized, howevergifted,to see for himself mit any single individual, and as a whole,and to measurethe influences the community forcesthat shape the familydestiny."' Thus arose a demand of greatclasses of the populainvestigations forcomprehensive that broughtfortha grist tion by scientifically valid methods, examination of studies of thestandard of living;or fora general districts that of living and workingconditionsin significant is an attempt forth thesocial survey. The social survey brought whatstandards of livingdo and mayexistin a disto determine to the industrial populaor to applyan approvedstandard trict, and depths tionof a community in orderto disclosethe heights of raisingweakenedlife to of living,and to set the problems higherpowers. thesocial surveyis primarily Throughsociology.-Although it does not appear to what the work of the social technologist extentthe social theoristmay have been responsiblefor the and of material. of effort pointof view and for the ordering of the sociologist however, thatthe insistence It is not unlikely, of problems, thatthe claimsof sociology upon the interrelation and thatthe efforts of the specialsocial sciences, as a synthesis of sociologists to answerthe questionwhatis worthwhile,have at least played the part of nurse, if they have not been the of the thought. father be set downas antecedents then, mayprobably These things, movementof the social survey: (a) the charity organization the of social service,necessarily the organizedeffort disclosing of social problems themselves;(b) the scienorganiccharacter with objectified materialand tificmethod-dealing inductively of the perand the elimination demandingrepresentativeness of sociologyupon the sonal equation; and (c) the insistence of social facts. organiccharacter
(I908), 85. Society oftheAmerican Sociological 'Dr. E. T. Devine,Publications
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II. SOME SOCIAL SURVEYS
Some beginnings.-It would be difficultto list the social surveysthat have been made, not so much because of their number, as because of theirvariety. Indeed, withoutsome definition of the social survey one would hardly know what to include in but will call the list. However, we shall not offera definition, attention to certain investigations that have some elements in common which perhaps entitle them to the name social survey. A few years ago there appeared in one of the leading magazines of America a series of articles on the cultural interestsof great cities, including among others London, Paris, New York, and Chicago. In one sense these were social surveys. They were somewhat short on data and not fundamentallyinclusive, but they had the survey spirit. I had the pleasure of preparinga monograph on what I was pleased to call the Higher Life of Chicago, which in form and spirit, though certainly not in significance,might have some claim to the titlewe are considering. It set in order of composition, at least, the several classes of facts found in the greater surveys about to be mentioned. The city plan is a form of survey; though we may hardly call it a social survey. It is, however, the ground plan for all the various social undertakingsof a communitynature. In one very true sense also a competentcharities directory-as the London, New York, and Boston directories-is a social survey. It is usually more formal than vital, but after all it is a fairlycomplete and well arranged inventoryof the agencies of community betterment. But I must come at once to the great surveys. Boo th.-I
"The Life and Labor of the People of London," Charles

should like to call attention firstto the monumental
London, published in seventeen volumes, after seventeen years of investigation. Mr. Booth writes of his work, "My object has been to attemptto show the numericalrelationwhich poverty, and depravitybear to regular earnings and comparative mnisery, comfort,and to describe the general conditionsunder which each class lives" (I, 6). Or again he says that he has tried to describe
work of CharlesBooth, The Life and Labor of the People of
823
"life and industryas theyexist in London at the end of the nineteenth century,under the influencesof education, religion, and Accordingly we find four voladministration" (XVII, 220). umes on poverty,five on education, and seven on religious influences.
-In the United States the Pittsburgh Survey stands out preeminent. The survey is so recent-not all the volumes having yet been published-and so stupendous that one may easily mistake it at many points. I shall have recourse thereforeto the words of the directorof the surveyin describingit. Mr. Kellogg has called it "a rapid close-rangeinvestigationof living conditions in the Pennsylvania steel district." Or, again, he says, "Our inquiries have dealt with the wage-earners of Pittsburgh (a) in their relationto the community as a whole and (b) in their relation to industry. Under the formerwe have studied the genesis and racial makeup of the population, the physical setting and its social institutions;and under the latter we have studied the general labor situation: hours, wages, and labor control in the steel industry; child labor, industrial education, women in industry,the cost of living, and industrial accidents."2 In brief, the PittsburghSurvey deals with (a) the people for the most part the immigrant,(b) the place-clean air, clean water, and pure food, (c) the work-homes, wages, factory inspection,accidents, cost of living, and (d) the culture-libraries, schools, playgrounds,and children's institutions. tion year amounted to a study of the Poles as a considerable factor in the population of the city. \The work has been permanently organized and much is expected from the survey in perpetuity so well begun. We might pause long enough to mention that some other cities, as Boston with its "I9I5 movement" and Kansas City with its Board of Public Welfare, are doing social surveyingin a legitimate sense of the word, while St. Louis and Chicago and some others are at least talking about it.
June2, 2Charities and theCommons,
I909.
"The Pittsburgh Survey," Paul U. Kellogg.andcollaborators.
"The BuffaloSurvey,"Mr. JohnDaniels, in its demonstra-
824

III. SOCIAL SURVEYS AND THE SOCIAL FORCES
Interests.-I have tried to describe but not to discuss the surveysof the life and labor of the people of London and of the people, the place and the work of Pittsburgh. I desire now to reconsider these social surveys especially from the standpoint of what the sociologists call social forces. It may at firstseem that this is not a legitimate procedure because the surveys deal with material conditions and not with social forces. There is a measure of plausibility in such an objection. But it is not our purpose to require the surveyor to speak in the jargon of the sociologist or to think in terms of social forces. We shall not thilnkit amiss if he speaks in terms of wages instead of appetitive desire. We shall encourage him to think in terms of industrialaccidents instead of protectiveor negative ontogenetic forces. I should like to say at the outset that it has been a most delightful experience to find how close is the correspondence between the social technologist's topics in his survey and the social theorist's terms in his list of social forces. There is, as should be expected, a constant differencebetween them; the one speaking in terms of forces, and the other in terms of the results of these forces, a differencethat should not be hard to translate. Before pointing out this correspondence it is necessary to adopt for the purposes of comparison, some statement of the social forces. My assumptionat this point is that the phenomena of societyare the phenomenaof social forces. I assume also that the social forcesare desires. It is my understandingthat sociologists are practically agreed upon these two assumptions. How shall we classify these desires, these social forces? Professor Ward has classified them as follows (Pure Sociology,26I) :
Physical
(function, Phylogenetic Direct, sexual bodily) Forces Indirect, consanguineal
Forces)
( Ontogenetic5Positive,attractive(seekingpleasure)
Forces
Negative, protective (avoiding pain)
825
thesafeand good) (Moral (seeking Spiritual Forces( Sociogenetic Aesthetic thebeautiful) (seeking ( Forces (function, and true) (seeking theuseful Intellectual psychic) 7 Professor Small adopts the familiar sixfold classificationof human desires, saying "that all the acts which human beings have 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 combination of ends which may be distributedamong these six" (General Professor Ross adopts another classificationof desires, hence of social forces. He classifies them as natural and cultural, and lists them as follows: and sex-appetite. thirst, Hunger, a) Appetitive: ease, to pain,love of warmth, 1b)Hedonic:Fear, aversion and sensuous pleasure. rather thanofthe oftheself c) Egotic: Thesearedemands envy, vanity, pride, shame, Theyinclude Natural organism. of and ofglory. The type ofpower, loveofliberty, Desires thisclassis ambition. others: that terminate Desires sympathy, upon d) Affective: revenge. anger, jealousy, love,hate,spite, sociability, loveof self-expression. Play impulses, e) Recreative: or for thosestatesof swimming f) Religious:Yearning consciousness by the represented unconditioned ecstasy. religious ofjustice. play,sense Cultural g) Ethical:Love offair i.e.,for ofperception, Desires h) Aesthetic: Desireforthepleasures of"thebeautiful." enjoyment and loveofknowing, or learning, Curiosity, i) Intellectual: ofimparting.3 However competentthe schematic classificationby Professor Ward may be philosophically,it does not lend itself readily to the uses of the surveyorbe he never so philosophicalor scientific. A little familiaritywith the greater social surveys that have already been brieflydescribed makes it perfectlyclear that the
i69. 3FoundationsofSociology,
Sociology,444).
826
quite clearlyto the scope list of ProfessorSmall corresponds and orderof subjectsin the surveys. This obviousfactmay be used,or becausc or unconsciously becausethelistwas consciously arrivedat the same classiand the technologist boththetheorist adequacyforworking givingit a highdegreeof probable fication purposes. of an acceptance What has just been said is not necessarily of human classification the sixfoldlist as a competent desires, using that word to name the subjectiveside of interest. It is agreeand practical the factof a close correspondence declaring and the subjectsin mentbetweenthe list of ProfessorSmnall the surveys. What has been said leaves one freeto adopt any using of desiresas contrasted withinterests, otherclassification the lattertermas ProfessorRoss does when he says, "Desires beingthe the former frominterests, iay wellbe distinguishable the latterthe forcesas theyxvellup in consciousness, primary of desirewhich strands wovenof multicolored greatcomplexes, shape societyand make history."4 of ProfessorRoss himselfoffersa fourfoldclassification i.e., of "complexesof goods which serve as means interests, from of a varietyof wants,"whichdiffers to the satisfaction Professor Small's list chieflyin having four instead of si? beat the close correspondence classes. I have been surprised Ross Small and Professor Professor of tweenthe classifications on the one hand,and of Mr. Booth and Mr. Kellogg and their in the case on the other. Note the correspondence collaborators listingwealtlh, of ProfessorRoss and Mr. Booth; the former the latterusing life and and government; religion, knowledge, education,religion,and administration.Except for industry, in the case of Professor the agreement practicallimitations have been and Mr. equallyapparent.These Small Kelloggmight however,only obscured,they did not destroythe limitations, classification. Surveyincluded It has alreadybeennotedthatthePittsburgh clean of clean water,and pure food, of theproblems air, a study of typhoid, and also a specialstudyof the prevalence including
i68. 4FoundationsofSociology,
827
of industrial accidents. Nothing could more happily illustrate the recognition of the health interest as Professor Small calls it. Or, to consider the wealth interest for a moment,at every point in the survey the question of wealth and its distribution is present or presupposed. Indeed, Dr. Devine has declared in the presence of some here now that one of the most striking thingsdiscovered by the PittsburghSurvey was
the contrast between the prosperity on the one hand of the most prosperous of all the communities of our western civilization, with its vast natural 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 of the industrial inefficiency of the individual. Certainly no community before in America or Europe has ever had such a surplus, and never before has a great communityapplied what it had so meagerly to the rational purposes of human life.
The wealth and sociability interests are inseparably bound up with the fundamental subjects of the survey such as low wages for men, lower wages for women, overwork for all, and the destruction of family life by the demands of such days' work and by the accidents of industry. Under this head should be mentioned also the problem of the immigrantand the work of charity. The knowledge interestis reported under schools and libraries, while the beauty interesthas recognitionunder such subjects as art galleries. The rightness interest was taken into account under the moral influenceof playgrounds, the system of aldermanic courts, and the work of the churches. There is every internal evidence for believing that some such a classification was used in orderingthe surveyand that the directors recognized the organic character of the problems involved. Desires.-Thus far I have been considering the social surveys from the standpointof interests,using that term to denote complexes of the objective aspects of desire. I wish now to reconsiderthem from the standpointof desire, that is from the subjective aspect of interest,as Professor Small uses the term.
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For this purposeI shall use ProfessorRoss's classification of desires. I have alreadygiventhe list and shall now take it up in the surveys seriatim, notingits recognition underdiscussion. First must be mentioned, therefore, the appetitive desire,that and sex desire. With these as such neither is hunger, thirst, of the surveys deals except perhaps with the thirst for drink. But at the same time they deal much with the questionsof wealth,wages and labor-complexes of the ends of the appetitive as a sortof veiled desire;the desireappearing force. The hedonicdesire,that is fear, aversionto pain, love of warmth, ease, and sensuouspleasure,is for the most part not taken into the accountby the surveyors, possiblybecause it is so nearlysubmerged underthe moreimmediate desiresof appetite just referred to. The egoticdesire,that is shame,vanity, pride, envy, love of liberty, of power,and of glory, and ambition did not seem to impress the surveyors much,possibly because it is deadenedby the mannerof life, save in the case of vanity, and of power. Much the same envy,and the love of liberty can be said of the affective and therecreative desires. Some oAf these natural desires, as Professor Ross calls them,have a veiled recognition througha fairlyadequate account of their objectsof satisfaction. When we considerthe culturaldesires,it is not altogether clear to what extenttheywere reckoned with. The religious desire,as a yearningfor "states of swimming consciousness," the ethicaldesireas a love of fairplay,a sense of justice,seem at manypointsin the surveys, to have been consciously present in thatof Mr. Booth. The aesthetic especially desire,as a desire forthepleasures of thebeautiful, and theintellectual desireas a of learning, and of imparting, love of knowing, likewisehas a a somewhat uncertain place,though one, in thesesocial invoices. A little care is necessaryin passing judgmentas to the desirelyingbehindsome specified act, forall too oftenthe mischiefand eventhecrimeof menare due not to an evil desirebut to a worthyone denied its legitimate expression. It is apt, to namethe recreative desireas an illusthoughit maybe trite,
829
is likely tration,which,when denied its natural gratification, among youths,or in more to express itself in pettyoffenses amongmen. So thatwhen one is considering viciouspractices and crime,one may be dealingwith immorality, drunkenness, desiregone wrong. theobjectiveaspectof the naturalrecreative of on the recognition But it miayseem I have pronounced in suphavinggivenany evidence without desiresin the surveys call attention to some of portof the findings.I shall therefore the evidenceupon whichI have based my judgment. Mr. Booth seems to have appreciatedthe value of such of spiritual thingsas desireand at the same timethe difficulty standards. He reducingthese values to termsof traditional lies the power to move the world." At timeshe writesas if desiresclearlyin mind. he had the hedonicand the recreative up" of many theinside"filling he says,concerning For example, blocksin London, that in some places may still be seen small glass houses,that interspersed withlittle erections, rough-roofed hobbies,pursuitsof leisure hours-plants, flowers, "represent pigeons-and thereis roomto sit out, whenthe weatheris fine and pipe" (I, 3'). enough, withfriend theegotic as if he were discussing timehe writes At another desire. He says: "Connectedwith this-the ebb and flow of or all the industries together for a time this or that industry, the gradual impoverishment -is the saddest formof poverty, He is of respectability, sinkinginto want" (I, I5'). silently somenot of wealthor of want but of thatpsychical thinking what that he calls "respectability silentlysinkinginto want." and objectivedifferout thesubjective timehe points At another who is ence between a man who is on the up grade and another on the down grade even though theybothare at,the same level, he is going. Such a assumingthat each knows the direction of a man's factof thecondition keenanalysismakesthepsychic vividly with. He calls attention mind a forceto be reckoned to another of reckoning the necessity psychicfactand indicates withit in a program of meliorism. He says:
of feeling . declares that "in intensity
. .
. and not in statistics
830
With regard to the disadvantagesunder which the poor labor, and the evils of poverty, thereis a great sense of helplessness;the wage earners are helplessto regulatetheirwork and cannot obtaina fair equivalentfor the labor they are willing to give; the manufacturer or dealer can only work withinthe limitsof competition; the rich are helplessto relievewant withoutstimulating its sources. To relievethis helplessness a betterstatementof the problems involvedis the first step [p. 67].
Furthermore,in his chapter on "The Point of View," Mr. Booth (II, chap. VII) describes three elements of it that are readily translatable into the ordinary lingo of the social psychologist. They are (i) the relation to past experience, (2) the relation to expectation,and (3) the degree of sensitiveness of the public mind. Other internalevidence of the virtual recognitionof desires as social forces could be cited from The Life and Labor of the People of London, but we will contentourselves with these few. Turning now to the Pittsburgh Survey, I am compelled to say that, in the short time I have had to consider the partial reports that have come to hand, I have not found evidences of an appreciation of desires as social forces so plentifulas in the London survey. I believe, however, that a careful reading would find many evidences of this appreciation. In the quotation I an about to make there is an implicitrecognitionof several classes of social forces some of which the survey can and some of which it cannot take account of. Mr. Kellogg says:
can tell you the exact numberof cubic The War Department engineers feet which slide past either side of the Point every minute. The sanior plague-begetting, tarians can give you the numberof bacteria,friendly whichinfecta cubic centimeter.The weatherman in a high buildingcan forecastthe exact stage which the water will registerhours hence. But what of the people? .... They have largelytaken themselves for granted. They have rarelytaken time to test theirown needs or consciously gauge strong,the weak, the cowed, the ambitious,the well-equippedand the pitiful. They jostle and work and breed. For the most part they run a splendidcourse. But they do not keep tally, and their ignorancemeans sorrowand death and misunderstanding.5
I Charities XXI, 526. andthe Commons,
the destination of the currents that possess them. They are here .
..
the

IV. SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL SURVEYING
83I
Social surveys and social psychology.-In conclusion I wish to set a fewproblems aboutsocial surveying in thelightof what has already beensaid. I shallnotattempt to discussthequestions asked,leavingthemforthe mostpart withlittlemorethanthe asking. The first problem to whichI inviteyourattention may be pointed bythequestion:Is it possible to takean account of the social interests of a community in termsof generallivingand workingconditions and to work out a programof betterment fromsuch an inventory, if the fundamental proposition of the sociologist is true,viz., thatthe social forcesare the desiresof men, or that the vital principle of societyis psychicalforce? To take but a single illustration, does not the thesis of the sociologistdemand a psychological account of povertyrather than a statement of wages and a description of housingcondiform tions? This questionmay be statedin a slightly different on the practical side thus: Can the desiresof menbe controlled through the objects that satisfythem? Social surveys and theireugenicfactors.-Closelyrelatedto this generalquestionis anotherone: Is therenot some danger of overlooking the factorof heredity, and especially the princiin the prominence ples of eugenics, given to the environmental is therenot danger factor? Under the spell of objectivication that personaland parentalresponsibility may be undervalued? This may be anotherway of sayingthat we are in dangerof undervaluing the power of religionin our wonderful progress of understanding social conditions. It is not and controlling evident thatwe shouldlook to thesociologist to redisaltogether cover the personalpower of religion, but he may well have a thatthis powerful care as may the social technologist and general forcemay not be valued too lightly. Social surveys and social statics.-Another problemthat comes to mind is: Can the social survey,which is essentially a long periodof time. A static,be made to function through butit is nota motion good survey is an accurate picture, picture. Mr. Booth says:
832
I have attempted to produce an instantaneous picture,fixingthe facts of on my negativeas theyappear at a given moment, and the imagination my readers must add the movement, the constantchanges,the whirl and turmoil of life.6
Afterhis seventeen years of work Mr. Booth dependsnot but upon the upon the cross-sectional view of social conditions, years,to memory of his workers and the flowof the seventeen give length to his survey. Mr. Kellogg says:
The modernindustrial thing cityis a flow,not a tank. The important of its life and by is not the capacityof a townbut the volumeand currents gaugingthese we can gauge the community.We mustgauge at the intake who come in; gauge at the -the children, the immigrant, the countrymen life. If there outlets; and gauge at the stages in the course of the working or diseased through be unnecessary death,if strongfreedhands are crippled man sees everything if the twelve-hour theirmannerof living or working, if women work in new ways that gray before his eyes in the morning, cost their strength or the strength of their young; if school childrenare draftedoffas laborersbeforetheyare fit; if boys grow into manhoodwithout trainingfor the trades of this generation-then we have a problemin social hydraulics to deal with.7
Of course,it is perfectly are sigevident thatif the surveys forwardnot as nificant they are certainto carry themselves thatgot their surveys perhaps, but in the formof undertakings inspiration and theirbasis of fact out of the survey. In this sense theyare functional. Might it not be possible for them of social acforwardin adequate systems to carrythemselves we shouldnot need again to take the invoice, counting, whereby but a balancesheet? asked Social surveysas purposeful.-It may be pertinently also whether the social surveydominated purpose by a practical can be completely scientific.Perhaps we should not put upon thesurvey thetestof scientific validity. It maybe thattheyare for immediate and practicalpurposesand reach theirsufficient arguments to perproportions whentheyamountto convincing suade mento undertake the workof civicand social betterment. wouldstillremain, whether thecollection The question however, of data can be done without and interpretation prejudicewhen
'Booth, op. cit., I, 26.
'Kellogg, op. cit.,525.
833
thereis an ever-present purpose,and when everyitemis to be testedby the touchstone of getting done. something Allow me a word of summary and then I am through. I have tried (i) to indicatethe approachesto the social survey, naming thecharity organization thescientific movement, method, and the insistence of sociology;(2) to describe the London and the Pittsburgh surveys; (3) to raise some questionsas to the limitations of themethod of thesurveys.I wishto add myheartiof thislatestform estapproval of organizing theavailableknowledge of generallivingand working and its necessary conditions, outcome,a programof industrialand social betterment, the measureof the power of whichno one can yet take. To use thefigure of the distinguished of the American Politipresident cal Science Associationin his splendidaddress at the opening meeting of thesekindredsocieties, the social surveyissuingin I can thinkof, of the scholarand actionis the best illustration thestatesman in unitedeffort. coming together
DISCUSSION
MAURICE PARMELEE, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
I findit a littledifficult to discuss this paper fromthis point of view because ProfessorRiley has not furnished us in his paper an outlineof a social surveyof a greatcity. If he had done so I could have indicatedjust where attention should be paid to the investigation of crime. But without such an outlineit is impossible to indicatebriefly the scope of such an infor manyof the thingswhichwould be done anywayin such a vestigation, general social surveywould also be necessaryfor a thoroughinvestigation of crime. For example,the subjectof population is of great importance for the investigation of crime,as, for example, its density, composition, etc. But it goes withoutsayingthat the populationwould be studiedanywayin a generalsocial surveyof a great city,so that the information thus gained would be at hand to use in the investigation of crime. It is a well-known fact that the majorityof crimes are committed in cities,so thatthe cityis the best place in whichto investigate crime. Such a thoroughgoing investigation of crime includedin the social surveyof a
great city?"
I have been asked to discuss ProfessorRiley'spaper fromthe following point of view: "What do the facts and conditionsof crime and the principles of criminology indicate should be includedin a social survey of a
834
to be of the greatestvalue. For one thing it great city ought therefore factthatcrimeis concentrated oughtto throwlightupon thisverysignificant it oughtto throwa great deal of lightupon the in the cities. Furthermore, general questionof the causationof crime. for the social surveyoris, of course, The firstquestionof importance the crimein a great city. It is natural how he is to go about investigating a great deal courtswould furnish to expectthatthe recordsof the criminal under present conditionsthe but unfortunately of valuable information, whichcannot courtsfail to recorda great deal of veryvaluable information be secured in any other fashion. These records will of course indicate and forwhat crimes.But the number of personstried, convicted, thenumber as to the character and past life of these verylittleinformation theyfurnish individuals. For example, some years ago while making a study of the the effect of immigration upon crimein New York City,I triedto determine of those convictedof crime accordingto race. After going classification through thecourtrecordsfora good manyyearsI was forcedto desistfrom the attempt because of the inadequacyof these records. In like fashionthe police recordswould give the numberof arrestsbut would fail to furnish factswhichshouldbe includedin them. Howa greatmanyotherimportant ever, fromthe personal knowledgeof many of those connectedwith the can a good deal of this information courts and the police administration be secured. To speak of but a few of the thingswhich should be includedwithin the administration of the criminalcourts the scope of such an investigation, of the saloons or studied; the influence and of the police shouldbe carefully and incentivesfor upon crime; the opportunities of other drinking-places gamblingand high living as well as the ways in which makinga livingis in a great city. As many individualcases as possible should be difficult studied in order to trace in these specificconcretecases the causation of crime. It would be well to choose the cases in such a fashionthat they kinds of crimes and of will illustrateas far as possible all the different causes of crime criminals. And while of course the social or environmental forcesalso should the hereditary will be thoroughly studiedin such a survey, characteristics but as far as possible the anthropological not be neglected, to some shouldbe studiedin orderto be able to estimate of thesecriminals extentthe biologicalforceswhichare at work in the causationof crime.
CHARLES
A.
ELLWOOD, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
topic,the relaProfessorRiley has discussedin his paper a verytimely tion of sociologyto social surveys. The sociologistis, of course, vitally of the social conditions surveyor investigation in the scientific interested done, should be not simply in various communities.This work,if properly but should be significoncerned, of some practicalvalue to the community
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of a scienceof sociology, whichis afterall nothing cant for the development factorsin the social life. but the studyof the biological and psychological undertaken in thiscountry I suspect, however, thatsomeof the social surveys of scientific fall far short of the requirements sociology. Most of them, a more or less adequate studyof the biological to be sure,have undertaken factorsin the community life, such as population, place, work,and the like. nutrition and The conditions and the conditions of the environment affecting has physicalwell-being have receivedattention, but relatively less attention been given to the psychological factorsin the community life, such as education,religion, government, and law, to say nothing of more intangible phenomenalike public opinion,the mentalattitudeof individualstoward their group, and the ways in which they are co-ordinated. Professor Riley's monograph on The Higher Life of Chicago comes as near being a social as some recent the matterfromthe psychicalstandpoint surveyapproaching fromthe material side. do in approaching the matter social surveys life be so But why should the psychological aspects of the community froma scientific emphasized? Is not theirstudyquite unnecessary pointof when we know the view? Do we not know everything about a community materialconditions of its life? The answer will be evidentif we consider is certainly a groupof peoplelivfora moment what sociology is. A society ing together.I thinkthatwe can all agree upon that. But how do theylive their activitiesor by co-operation, together? By co-ordinating as we say, but this does not tell us much. How do theyco-operate, or co-ordinate their activities? Manifestly by means of mental interactions, that is, through interstimulation and response. A societyis, therefore, a group of people living together by means of interstimulation and response. What its total life is dependsvery largelyupon the attitudeof its members toward one another. How theyco-operate depends, therefore, upon common will,belief; and opinion,and the agencies by which commonwill, belief, and opinion effect social control. These agencies are chiefly religion,government and law, and education. These are the chief agencies by which a community controlsits commonactivities and carries on a collectivelife process. We should not forget, however,that back of them stand the more intangible thingsalreadymentioned.We need,therefore, in any scientific social survey a studynot only of the materialconditionsof life, such as work,wages, population, housing,etc.,but also a studyof religion, government and law, education,and the more intangible thingsof commonwill, commonbelief, commonopinion,and the like. Only such a surveycan be adequate from the sociologicalpointof view,or fromany purelyscientific pointof view. My criticism of some social surveysin the United States, then,is that theyfail to take accountsufficiently of thesepsychological factors. They do not go to work in any intelligent way to studythese factors. Of course,the is moredifficult thanthe studyof the materialfactors, studyof these factors
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and I have not time to discuss with you scientific methodsby which the study of these factorsmay be undertaken. But it is evident that these of scientific factorsare not impossible studyand that theyare the real key to the social situationin everycommunity.If more stresswere laid upon them,if ways were found out of influencing mind,the dynamicagent in I thinkthe complaint of ProfessorBlackmarregarding society, the inefficacy of most social reformmovements would not need to be made. I need hardlysay that I disagreewith ProfessorRiley's assumption that the desires are the true social forces. Surely Dr. Riley is aware that for numberof sociologists at least a dozen years a considerable have protested against this idea. By social forceswe can mean, of course,nothingmore than the active factorspresentin any social situation. The word desire is altogether too vague to cover the subjectiveor psychological factorsin the social life. No two sociologistscould agree upon the exact connotation whichtheygive to the word. Some use the word desiresto mean the native impulses; othersmean by it the feelings, and still others, generalhabits of responseof a population. The truthis, this word desire was borrowedby the sociologists, not fromthe psychologists, but fromthe economists, who made use of the termin connection with that over-rationalized conception, "the economicman." Desire is a termborrowedfromthe intellectualistic of the early nineteenth social philosophy century. It is vague in its psychological connotation and altogether inadequateto describethe varied psychological factors in human society. How much, may I ask you, of the phenomena which ProfessorVincenthas so admirably describedfor us in in termsof conscious his paper on "Group Rivalry" could be interpreted desire? We mustbringthe terminology of sociologyinto accord with the of scientific terminology psychology;and only thus can we take into acin the social life, countand adequately studythe variouspsychological factors whether we are makinga concrete social surveyor givingan abstractstatementof theory.

Riley (1911) Sociology and Social Surveys

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Riley (1911) Sociology and Social Surveys

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Sociology and Social Surveys Author(s): Thomas J. Riley Source: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 16, No.

SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SURVEYS

SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SURVEYS

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SURVEYS

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

"The Life and Labor of the People of London," Charles

work of CharlesBooth, The Life and Labor of the People of

SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SURVEYS

"The Pittsburgh Survey," Paul U. Kellogg.andcollaborators.

"The BuffaloSurvey,"Mr. JohnDaniels, in its demonstra-

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

(function, Phylogenetic Direct, sexual bodily) Forces Indirect, consanguineal

Negative, protective (avoiding pain)

SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SURVEYS

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SURVEYS

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SURVEYS

. and not in statistics

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SURVEYS

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SURVEYS

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

ELLWOOD, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SURVEYS

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

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