The reader's guide to the Encyclopaedia Britannica

by Inc. Encyclopaedia Britannica

Heredity and Eugenics

Dr. Shadwell’s remarks on the relation of alcoholism to heredity may remind us that the very word “heredity” would seem strange to the typical man of a century ago, whose return to life we have imagined. We should be no more shocked by the occasional crudeness of his intimate and excited phraseology than he would be at our frankness in discussing even in mixed company such subjects as birth, reproduction, sexual morality, the social evil and the white slave trade. The growth of interest in these topics may be traced in part to Darwin, Huxley and Mendel, to what they did to make biology a science. Read in the Britannica the interesting story, in the article Mendelism (Vol. 18, p. 115), of the investigations of Gregor Mendel, Abbot of Brünn, in his cloister garden, in crossing peas and classifying the inheritance of peculiarities. Then read the articles Heredity (Vol. 13, p. 530), by Prof. Chalmers Mitchell, and Hybridism (Vol. 14, p. 26), by the same contributor, and turn to the articles Eugenics (Vol. 9, p. 855) and Sir Francis Galton (Vol. 11, p. 427), for an account of the attempt to found a practical science to improve the breed of men.

Especially within the last few years has the public conscience been aroused on the white slave traffic and prostitution, both in Great Britain and the United States, and particularly in the great cities, where this form of vice, if left under the jurisdiction of the police, gives rise to a singularly dangerous form of corruption and to the general disrepute of the defenders of public safety. The many important aspects of the subject, which need not be rehearsed here, are to be found in Dr. Shadwell’s article Prostitution (Vol. 22, p. 457) and Dr. Edmund Owen’s article Venereal Diseases (Vol. 27, p. 983).

One of the remedies most commonly suggested for the evils of prostitution in general and of the white slave trade in particular is a minimum wage. Dr. Shadwell’s article on prostitution gives “excessively laborious and ill-paid work” as only one of many secondary causes for women’s taking to a life of evil repute. Indolence, love of excitement, dislike of restraint, and abnormal sexual appetite, he counts as primary causes; and among secondary causes he names the difficulty of finding employment; harsh treatment at home, promiscuous living among the overcrowded poor; overcrowding in factories; the example of luxury, self-indulgence and loose manners set by the wealthy; demoralizing literature and amusements; and the arts of profligate men. But the subject of wages is an important one in itself, and as an introduction to the study of the labour question, it may well be taken up here, even if the efficacy of minimum-wage laws, or of any legislation, in producing a higher sexual morality has been exaggerated.

Wages and Labour

Read the article Wages (Vol. 28, p. 229, equivalent to 20 pages of this Guide), by Joseph Shield Nicholson, professor of political economy at Edinburgh University. The difficulty of an exact definition, and, specifically, of one that distinguishes between “wages” and “profits,” leads the author to adopt as the best the definition of Gen. Francis A. Walker, the American economist, “the reward of those who are employed in production with a view to the profit of their employers and are paid at stipulated rates.” The distinction between a nominal and real wage is based on the difference between the money value and the purchasing value of the wage as affected by variation in the cost of living. Irregularity of employment and other elements of uncertainty, such as liability to accident or to occupational diseases, are factors to be considered in estimating real wages. Professor Nicholson discusses the wage-fund theory, corrects it by Adam Smith’s observation that wages are paid from the product of labour; and treats “relative” wages, the state-regulation of wages (which he does not consider feasible); poor relief in aid of wages; factory legislation; trade unions; the effects of machinery on wages; and the progress of the working-classes.

Labour Legislation

The subject of factory legislation brings us back to the general topic of “state interference with private matters” as the old school of political scientists would have called it. Two treatises in the Britannica are important for the study of this subject—the general article Labour Legislation (Vol. 16, p. 7), equivalent to 70 pages of this Guide, by Adelaide Mary Anderson, principal lady inspector of factories to the British Home Office, and Carroll D. Wright, late U. S. Commissioner of Labor; and the article Employers’ Liability and Workmen’s Compensation (Vol. 9, p. 356), which is of peculiar interest now that in the United States recent laws in regard to employers’ liability and workmen’s compensation have shown a change in legislative theory and practice. Statutes of this kind have been passed by the legislatures of several states where nothing of the sort would have been attempted a generation ago, although legislatures have always been readier than courts to approve radical laws, and have been far more readily influenced by popular sentiment. After their passage they have in some states been held unconstitutional, and in other states the highest court has recognized them as valid; the decisions perhaps depending to some extent on the attitude of the court toward the opposed claims of capital and labour. Here as elsewhere the student should remember that much information of a local character is to be found in the articles on different states of the Union. The article Labor Day (Vol. 16, p. 6) describes an official recognition of the claims of labour in the United States.

Organized Labour

On labour organizations and their work see the articles: Trade Unions (Vol. 27, p. 140), and particularly the section Economic Effects of Trade Unionism, and the section on trade unions in the United States, by Carroll D. Wright, late U. S. Commissioner of Labor, who deals with such topics as railway brotherhoods, national unions, the “International,” Knights of Labor, American Railway Union, federations of labour, especially the American Federation of Labor, and estimated strength of trade unions. For the earlier history of trade unions or similar organizations see Trade Organization (Vol. 27, p. 135), Gilds (Vol. 12, p. 14), Livery Companies (Vol. 16, p. 809), and Apprenticeship (Vol. 2, p. 228).