ment is by no means a cause for pessimism; quite the contrary. Human nature is malleable; and it is as readily responsive to right as to wrong stimuli. In this is the educator's opportunity. His task is to surround the young generation with an environment designed to elicit the higher, happier, cooperative traits of

human nature.

(c) Modern thinking has shown us human nature's deep demand for recreation. In fact recreation has become one of the foremost social and educational problems. The evolutionary view of man's origin which has cleared up so much of the conflict between reason and instinct, has afforded an understanding of the problem impossible before. It has put play in its right perspective. Neither Mencius' idea of the original goodness of human nature nor Calvin's doctrine of total depravity have tallied with facts. Man's nature is not simple. Its roots extend to the remote past, and it is these very old tendencies in human nature, inherited from prehuman ancestors as well as from early man, that explain much of our psychical composition. Each of those original tendencies, commonly called instincts, were good in the sense that they were instruments of survival But owing to the grip of heredity the instinct survives the wild life in which it was serviceable. Conditions of living have changed so greatly that many of these tendencies no longer find an outlet; nevertheless, the demand for their expression continues. Man has passed through various culture stages, and "the series-herdsman, husbandman, craftsman, artisan-constitutes a curve away from the instinctive, which finds its terminus in the machinetender With little in it to arouse the impulses of rivalry, curiosity, or constructiveness, the day's work is done under steady strain."2

There is today, Ross observes, a growing passion for recreation, and it is due to the poverty of modern employments in elements which stimulate the instincts. What is coveted by the tired worker in store, office and factory is not merely rest, relaxation or change of activity. "No, what ails the slave of desk and clock,

2 Ibid, p. 610.

of client and customer, is what ails the horse pawing in his stall, the wolf restlessly pacing his cage. He needs experience that will feed his famishing instincts. Hence the great recipe for recreation is "back to Nature"-raw Nature, so rich in simple and racially familiar things! In a wilderness trip the novice thinks that it is the big outstanding features that do him good-canoe paddling, swimming, fishing, or shooting rapids. The fact is, most of his benefit comes from a lot of little things which he scarcely notices, but which register in his subconscious mind. Such are green-clad hills, tossing seas of verdure, the sparkle of sunlight on stirring leaves and rippling waters, the mirror magic of still lakes, the soughing in pine tops, the shadow dance of sun falling through foliage, the challenge of precipitous trails, the sense of little peering furry creatures, all about one. Thick woods, darkness, and queer night noises stir the wild self in us just enough to afford a delicious tingle."

This fine passage explains very well the claim of Nature upon human nature. Increasingly modern employments have denied expression to the instincts. Ross suggests that a methodical study be made of occupations to determine to what extent they accord with or go against the grain of our natural dispositions. Of course the situation is easier for the man who operates his own business because his quest of success provides situations which stir his emulative, fighting and constructive instincts.

We are told that the want of recreation drives to vice. No people have been more destitute of amusement than the Chinese. The opium habit is the result. The monotony of factory or packing-house labor coupled with the dinginess of home life induces the drink and drug habits. Dullness of existence is one of the causes of prostitution. Ross suggests three methods for dealing with social recreational tendencies, suppression, substitution, and sublimation.

Suppression has been tried the most but with bad results, becaused based upon a misconception of human nature. Substitution, working by means of playgrounds, sports, group dances

1 Principles of Sociology, p. 607.

and pageantry, has remarkable promise for elevating world civilization. "The four thousand supervised playgrounds in the United States, looked after by nine thousand professional leaders and supervisors, have weaned great numbers of lads from mischief-making, broken up "tough" gangs, and overcome slum tendencies. Athletic contests have driven the bull fight from Hispanic peoples under American influence Under the lead of American officials the wild Igorrotes of Luzon have learned to divert themselves with athletic contests and dancing instead of head-hunting. At first the savage bystanders would stone the tooskillful pitcher of a visiting team and match games often broke up in a free fight; but the onlooking Americans and the police checked such tendencies and now the Igorrotes are said to be good sportsmen. In China, as opium smoking declines, sport comes in with a rush and thousands of Chinese make long journeys by train in order to attend the national meets. In the light of experience it does not seem rash to anticipate that bullfight and cockfight, opium debauch and vinous "speer;" every ghoulish orgy of religious fanaticism, and every obscene or bloody rite in Asiatic temples, may be displaced in a generation or two by ball games and track meets, folk-dancing and symbolic pageants, if only in public supervised recreation centers all the children are bred to merry and wholesome games."

The third method, sublimation, is based upon the fact that our natural cravings may find gratification within the imagination. Instead of arousing emotions issuing in harmful reactions, we substitute situations known to be unreal which can induce only play-emotions. This is the function of art. "It is the mission of literature and art to create means of satisfying our repressed desires wholly within the mind, thereby giving them a fuller or less costly scope than we dare to give them in real life. The relief of the soul by art or sport so resembles that of the body by a cathartic that the Greek thinkers called it katharsis or purgation.' 992 But art does much more than relieve the soul. It broadens our vision

1 Principles of Sociology. p. 615. 2 Ibid, p. 44.

of human life. It makes us aware of unseen possibilities in our own lives. It gives us zest. It shakes us out of the humdrum of existence to renewed vigor in a quest of the worth-while.

Since art, meaning music, sculpture, the drama, the moving picture, is so vital in the life of a people, we must give heed to Ross's warning of its present commercialized condition. Commercialization means "the increasing subjection of any calling or function to the profits motive." We are told that the manipulations of certain "monument associations" conducted for gain throttle the artistic ambitions of the young sculpture. Even the great actor has become today but an employee of an amusement corporation. Commercialized recreation is developing a demand for coarse pleasure because it sees "more money can be extracted from young people by offering them the high-flavored, the risqué, the sensational, than by offering them the pure and elevating.

In several important respects society has shaken off the fetters of commercialization. A dowry, or "marriage portion," was once essential to the marriage contract. In America today mating is largely free from the taint of avarice. It required years of struggle to lift the ministrations of religion and of government out of the market place. We are now faced with the problem of de-commercializing recreation. The community provision of recreation which has already succeeded in some places is the most hopeful sign that this field is not be abandoned to mammon.

(d) Sociology is a new science and has been little influenced by tradition. Tradition has dominated education. Today this is especially true of the education of girls. Only recently did we begin to educate girls at all, and then we assumed that what was best for the boy was likewise best for the girl. Four years of high school followed by four years of college became the established regime, and the girl was allowed to participate in this sacred order of things. Today the number of women seeking higher education promises to exceed the male element. The high school population already shows an excess of females and the number of women in colleges is rapidly increasing. In this con

dition the sociologist sees important consequences for society as it affects the parentage of future generations.

In the chapter on Selection we are told that "College women marry two years later than non-college women of the same social class and for this class marriage occurs two or three years later than for women in general. Furthermore, only one out of two college women marries, whereas in the general population nine women out of ten marry. Moreover, the average number of children born to a married alumna of our famous women's colleges in no case runs as high as two, and for some colleges the average is less than one.' Ross assumes that the colleges are recruited from among the brightest fifteen or twenty per cent. of each generation of girls. And since the college woman's chances of bearing progeny are greatly below those of her non-collegiate sister, it follows that the increasing college attendance of women is having the effect of lowering the native ability of the race.

991

Speaking as eugenist the sociologist makes two recommendations. First, women should graduate from college at the age of twenty. This could be accomplished by eliminating superfluous things from the curriculum and by better teaching methods especially in early grades. This change would assure early and more numerous marriages among college graduates. Second, motherhood must be recognized and honored as a career. "Brilliant girls covet careers because the career is honored. Many of them would be content as mothers if motherhood were equally honored. But this is impossible until superior motherhood is differentiated from commonplace motherhood, which in turn awaits a marking system by which superior children can be discriminated from commonplace children."2

Eugenic considerations likewise furnish a strong argument for the married school teacher. The school board policy of enforcing celibacy upon that superior type of women who compose the teaching body cannot be good for the race. "The courts should