NOTES AND ABSTRA CTS 4 1 7
not seldom. Really we proceed still from the theory and seek facts merely f«r illustra- tion. If one does otherwise, starts from the facts and goes no farther than they permit, then people are astonished that his result is not so beautifully rounded off, not so faultless, as their own fancies. That the latter, even if ever so consistent, har- monious, complete, are yet absolutely worthless, that does not appear to such people.
Biicher, for example, in his suggestive book Die Entstehung der Volkswirth- schaft makes the following statement: "The psychical bond which binds children and parents to one another is but a fruit of civilization, and among the lower races the mere anxiety for self-existence outweighs all other emotions. Boundless selfishness is characteristic of the savage." I have undertaken a special investigation of this question of the relations of parent and children among the lower races, using a collection of notes made absolutely without regard to this question. I have divided my material into four groups. The first contains the cases of the absolute spoihng of children without any education at all ; the second, those of rudimentary education without discipline ; the third, those of harsh treatment with strict education ; the fourth, the cases of neglect. Class I I found to contain 48 out of the 104 instances investigated; Class II, 31 ; Class III, 13 ; Class IV, 12. It is a very noteworthy result that the two first groups, characterized by great parental love, with littJe or no disciplining of the children, are by far the most numerous. These two groups have not been formed out of the higher nature peoples, but, on the contrary, contain all the unsettled tribes. Besides, the disciplining and neglecting classes belong to the lowest and the developed agriculturists and also to the nomads. I believe, therefore, to have established that the lowest peoples in the majority of cases, and certainly the unsettled peoples, love tenderly their little children, spoil, and do not discipline them.
I should not like to enter too deeply into the explanation of the established facts. On general biological grounds one might hold it probable that primitive men must love their children to whom they grant life, because otherwise the chances against the child's life would be too unfavorable. Confessedly the love of apes for their young is great, and a similar tenderness and care are necessary to men as lon^ as they are in a hard and continual struggle with nature. Selectively this primitive child-love was unavoidable because necessary as instinct. This given instinct was strengthened through various circumstances. The long-continued nursing of the child among low peoples must have deepened the tenderness of the mother, while the very close liv- ing-together of primitive peoples worked m the same direction. Discipline was unnecessary, education superfluous, through the great simplicity of the conditions in which these children grew up. There was no priesthood as an organized corporation, with peculiar views, outside of the people. There were few rules, and hence few transgressions possible. In advanced conditions the number of rules increases, the organization of society becomes stricter, the economic and moral relations more com- plicated. Adaptation through education becomes indispensable, and at the same time, because the father must support the child out of his means, the child becomes much more dependent on the father. Education and discipline come in with the half- culture (Halbkultur) stage. Our riper culture is alarmed again at over-education and demands the free evolution of the childish nature, while the spoiling of children is again becoming customary in the higher circles. Thus is evident the incorrectness of the proposition that education proceeds with the growth of culture from original harshness to ever greater mildness. On the contrary, it began mild and has only now again become mild. — S. R. Steinmetz, "Das Verhaltniss zwischen Eltern und Kin- dern bei den Naturvolkem," Zeitschrift fiir SocialwissenschafI, August, 1898.
The Present Condition of Social Democracy in Germany. — Germany has become the classic land of modern socialism. The number of votes cast by the socialistic party has increased irresistibly, hand in hand with the industrial devel- opment of Germany. The party polled in the year 187 1 124,700 votes ; in 1874, 352,000; in 1877, 493,000 ; in l8»4, 550,000; in 1887, 763,100 ; in 1890, 1,427,000 ; in 1893, 1,786,700. At the last election, that of June 16, 1898, the social democrats polled 2.120,000 votes. Thus they constitute by far the largest of the parties, having secured as much as one-fifth to one-third of all the votes polled in the election of 1893, and having increased this again by some 19 per cent, in the election of i8q8. With proportional representation in Parliament the social democrats would have more
