SOCIOLOGY FROM A BIOLOGIST'S POINT OF VIEW 533 



demands increased socialization. That is to say, new 

 social activities are needed, and must be met by taxa- 

 tion. The water supply, the public health, education, 

 and many other things come under social direction. 

 Experts are employed to do things which could not be 

 intelligently done by the average citizen. The in- 

 creased burden of taxes, which naturally becomes a 

 cause of complaint, does not necessarily involve greater 

 expenditure per capita. Private functions have become 

 public ones, and the actual amount expended may be 

 decreased. Still the social standard of living rises, and 

 such things as public parks, which would formerly have 

 been considered luxuries, come to be regarded as 

 necessities. In the educational field higher education 

 is more and more taken as a matter of course. 



7. Yet it becomes evident that even with expert Possibilities 

 guidance the whole is limited by the condition of its progress 

 parts. Scientific discovery has today gone far beyond 

 scientific application. Without an educated and in- 

 telligent community, the dreams of sociologists can 

 never be realized. It may be said of some projects, that 

 they postulate a population of angels or supermen ; that 

 the limitations of humanity forever render them im- 

 possible. While this may be true, one who studies the 

 history and nature of man must be convinced that he is 

 capable of enormous advances. We have never yet 

 tried the plan of giving every one the best chance which 

 society can afford. In our blind and reckless way we 

 have always sacrificed the prosperity and happiness of 

 untold numbers in order to attain ends having little or 

 no social value. The new sociology, rightly applied, 

 suggests at once the wickedness of past methods and 

 the way out. But it never can be intelligently applied 

 by ignorant people. 



