Reviews : Whetham, W. C., and Catherine D. Heredity and Society. Pp. viii, 190. Price, $2.00. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1912
| Author | Carl Kelsey |
| Published date | 01 September 1912 |
| Date | 01 September 1912 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000271621204300129 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
345
Oberholtzer,
Ellis
P.
The
Referendum,
Initiative
and
Recall
in America.
Pp.
xii,
533.
Price,
$2.25.
New
York:
Charles
Scribner’s
Sons,
1911.
Dr.
Oberholtzer
has
added
to
his
splendid
work
on
&dquo;The
Referendum
in
America&dquo;
four
supplementary
chapters
entitled,
respectively,
The
Initiative
and
the
Refer-
endum
in
the
States;
The
Local
Referendum,
Home
Rule
for
Cities,
Commis-
sion
Government,
etc.;
The
Recall;
and
The
Referendum
vs.
the
Representative
System.
As
all
know
of
the
high
merit
of
the
original
volume
it
is
necessary
here
to
speak
only
of
the’supplementary
chapters.
In
these
added
chapters,
the
author
is
unfortunately
no
longer
the
investi-
gator
but
the
advocate.
He
has
a
thesis
to
prove
and
that,
in
essence,
is
that
the
Initiative,
Referendum,
Recall,
Commission
Government,
etc.,
are
all
meas-
ures
pushed
by a
&dquo;junta
of
lobbyists,&dquo;
&dquo;a
socialistic
group
of
agitators,&dquo;
&dquo;for
socialistic
purposes
much
closer
to
the
hearts
of
their
inventors.&dquo;
He
sees
in
the
movement
only
&dquo;an
attack
on
the
representative
system.&dquo;
He
admits
evils
and
abominations
in
the
representative
system,
to
be
sure,
but
declares
them
to
be
&dquo;evils
of
the
people’s
own
making.&dquo;
&dquo;Such
abominations,&dquo;
he
con-
tinues
&dquo;are
an
accurate
reflection
of
their
own
minds
and
morals.&dquo;
Even
if
this
be
true,
and
few
indeed
are
the students
of
government
who
feel
it
is,
is
it
not
at
least
possible
that
these
movements
are
the
result
of
a
desire
on
the
part
of
the
people
to
throw
off
their
own
&dquo;abominable&dquo;
mistakes
and
chasten
their
own
minds
and
morals?
The
author
deplores
that
democracy
is
being
&dquo;released
from
the
checks
which
were
established
for
it,&dquo;
but
does
not
inquire
whether
those
checks
were
ever
sound
in
theory
or
have
ever
worked
in
practice.
He
believes
all
these
movements
to
be
the
outgrowth
of
a
&dquo;socialistic
unrest&dquo;
in
the
&dquo;frontier
states&dquo;-like
California- (just
where
individualism
is
strongest)
and
finds
nothing
akin
to
the
movement
in
that
foreign
country,
Philadelphia,
in
which
he
chances
to
dwell.
His
statements
do
not
have
always
the
merit
of
getting
at
the
root
of
the
matter.
University
of
Pennsylvania.
CLYDE
L.
KING.
Whetham,
W.
C.,
and
Catherine
D.
Heredity
and
Society.
Pp.
viii,
190.
Price,
$2.00.
New
York:
Longmans,
Green
&
Co.,
1912.
The
making
of
books
whose
object
is
to
direct
attention
to
the
relation
of
biology
to
national
life
and
character
goes
on
apace.
We
may
not
rely
on
blind
iorces
of
nature
which
may
produce
good
or
evil
types.
Society
must
now
control.
After
a
brief
introduction,
Variation
and
Heredity
are
described
in
the
second
chapter.
Natural
Selection
is
treated
in
the
third.
Formerly
competition
eliminated
the
weak.
In
modern
civilization
the
great
factor
in
selection
is
disease.
As
we
come
to
control
disease
we
may
be
weakening
this
selective
act
and
thus
injuring
society
by
preserving
the
unfit.
This
does
not
excuse
a
neglect
policy.
It
merely
indicates
the
growing
complexity
of
the
case.
In
training
persons
for
social
work
the
role
of
heredity
must
be
carefully
taught.
The
Biological
Aspect
of
Religion
is
the
suggestive
title
of
the
fourth
chapter.
The
authors
think that
the
materials
for
this
discussion
are
not
yet
collected
and
they
only
hint
at
some
of
the
probable
results.
Religious
sanctions
have
To continue reading
Request your trial