It would be a decidedly incomplete treatment of the nature of psycho-sociologic thought that did not make reference to the work of George Elliott Howard, political scientist, historian, sociologist, but above all, social psychologist. In each of the fields in which Dr. Howard has achieved fame, his method of approach is psychological. He has prepared an excellent outline of the field of social psychology, together with a scholarly bibliography of the same. Perhaps the best way to treat Professor Howard’s socio-psychologic thought, is to give a sample of it, as found in his address before the American Sociological Society when he was president of that body. The theme was, “Ideals as a Factor in the Future Control of International Society.” This magnum opus served as an excellent introduction to the series of papers on the subject of social control which were read at the annual meeting of the Sociological Society in 1918, and which have been published together with the presidential address as Volume XII of the Publications of the Society.
By social control, Professor Howard means the standard conception of the “ascendency of the social consciousness.”[XXIII-70] In the same volume, however, Professor Carl Kelsey interprets social control as “the organization and utilization of our wealth and citizens for private purposes.”[XXIII-71] Professor Hutton Webster is inclined to believe that the main feature of primitive social control is “the superstitious fear of the new.”[XXIII-72] Professor F. Stuart Chapin sees the essential element of primitive social ascendency in the pressure upon the individual of social conditions, customs, and conventions.[XXIII-73] Without giving additional interpretations of social control, the reader will be referred directly to Volume XII of the Publications as the best symposium that is available on the subject.
In discussing ideals as a phase of international control, Professor Howard makes clear that certain ideals exert a baneful influence. The ideal of the nation-state appears to be unmoral if not immoral.[XXIII-74] Of four prevailing standards of ethics, namely, personal morality, business morality, national morality for home consumption, and “standards of international morality for use with outlanders,” the scale is descending, and the fourth type is the lowest. Nationalisms have been overdeveloped—at the expense of a needed internationalism.
Another false ideal of which society needs to rid itself is its conception of the function of war and militarism. War is not a good in itself. War as war is not heroic. Race values constitute a third false ideal. “Every race deems itself superior to every other race and every race is mistaken.”[XXIII-75] Race conceit is contrary to the Christian ideal and has steadily been supplanted by the new doctrine of the potential equality of all races.
The ideal of democracy, on the other hand, rings true to the needs of progress. It makes for peace. Democracy, however, must rid itself of blemishes. Hereditary and class privilege must be abolished; political corruption and race riots must be defeated; woman, “the original social builder, the mother of industry, the first inventor of the arts of peace,” must be granted a full voice in social control.
The ideal of education is exceedingly delicate, for it involves the process of the changing of ideals. Education may prepare a people to admire autocracy or to build a self-governing democracy.
Dr. Howard enters a strong plea for social idealism—the most effective that has yet been written.[XXIII-76] “The idealist is the inspired social architect, who dreams a plan for the sanitary or moral cleansing of a great city; the campaign for purging politics of graft; a law for saving little children from the tigerish man of the factory or the sweatshop; a referendum for banishing from the commonwealth the saloon, that chief breeder of pauperism, sin, and crime; a conference for the rescuing from the hands of predacious greed, for the use of the whole people, of the remnant of our country’s natural wealth. The idealist is the statesman—the head of a nation—who dreams a scheme for safeguarding democracy and guaranteeing peace throughout the world.”
It is evident from the introduction to the history of psycho-sociologic thought that has been given in this and the preceding chapter, supported by the materials in the chapters on social conflict and social co-operation concepts, that psycho-sociologic thought holds a place of first rank in the field of sociology. It bids fair to become the central force in social thinking and to lead the social sciences. It deals with the most vital social concepts, namely, groups, personality, behavior, conflict, co-operation, and process. Of all the main approaches to an understanding of societary problems, it promises most.
Chapter XXIV
The Trend of Applied Sociology
In the preceding chapters the discussions have dealt primarily with the philosophic and psychologic phases of social thought. Another important phase of our field is applied sociology. The hosts of individuals who have been engaged in dealing directly with societal problems have learned valuable lessons from their personal experiences. Sometimes they have labored according to false theories; often they have scorned theories entirely. At the other extreme, the world has often accepted fine theories, but made a pitiable spectacle of itself in falling away from its idealistic professions.