2Q4 THE AM ERICA \ JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
majority of these leaders were arrested and convicted on criminal charges, they were further incapacitated for election the second month. The outcome has been that the summer citizens, having three-fourths of the votes, have cast their strength for the weak and inefficient of the winter residents, instead of the capable leaders, and the legislature has, therefore, been almost a nonen- itv. This is very much like ward politics at large. The residents of 1897-8 are planning to remove the restrictions on summer cit- izens, and this again will tend to give to the political life of 1898 some of the thrill of 1896.
The main obstacle at present to the successful working of the educational and reformatory principles of the Republic is this inroad of summer citizens. Experience shows that at least a year's continuous residence is required to saturate a boy with the spirit of self-help and responsibility. The first month or two is a period of depression and discouragement. The boy is arrested and convicted again and again, spends much of his time in jail and on the stone pile, and onlv begins to reap the rewards of upright and industrious living at about the time when he goes home. The boys who stay through the year get a closer acquaintance with Mr. George and become model citizens. It is intended to increase the number of residents and lessen that of summer citizens, so as to give a preponderance of at least three-fourths of the votes to the former ; also to establish another "state" near by, exclusively for summer citizens.
The Republic is based upon the wage system. . This is a sys- tem of indirect coercion grounded upon the necessities of the wage-earners for food, clothing, and shelter. Traditional educa- tional methods of direct coercion through corporal punishment and despotic control are based upon the slave system. The indirect coercion is far more efficient, both as an industrial stim- ulus and an educational device. It is deliberate and searching; it stimulates thought and self-examination. I saw two boys go without breakfast, because on the day before they had loafed, and so failed to earn cash for a day's meals and lodging. Mr. George himself escapes the odium of enforcing this harsh pen-
