SECTION A THE FAMILY 



(Hall 5, September 21, 10 a.m.) 



CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR SAMUEL G. SMITH, University of Minnesota. 

 SPEAKERS : PROFESSOR GEORGE E. HOWARD, University of Nebraska. 

 DR. SAMUEL W. DIKE, Auburndale, Mass. 



IN opening the proceedings of the Section of The Family the 

 Chairman, Professor Samuel G. Smith, spoke as follows: 



" The problem of the family may be studied from the speculative 

 point of view as the primary form of human institutions, the germ 

 from which all others have been developed. It may be noted that 

 the form of the family has varied by climate, food-supply, economic 

 and political conditions, and in short that every bond of each social 

 group has been affected by similar forces, and that all institutions are 

 formed practically on parallel lines. 



" Polyandry calls for a sterile soil, and polygyny must not only 

 have surplus bread-stuffs, but it is accompanied by despotisms. 

 The industrial tribe will differ fundamentally from the military tribe 

 in domestic institutions, but it will also differ in the character of its 

 gods and in the forms of its worship. 



" But the problem of the family may be viewed as a practical 

 question of modern civilization. The loosening of family ties, the 

 easy and frequent divorce, the lack of a sense of mutual responsibility 

 among the members of the family group, may stir the spirit of the 

 reformer, and may seem to him purely a moral question to be solved 

 solely by the aid of moral forces. To him the question of the family 

 is one of surpassing importance to the woman and to the child, and 

 must be settled by improved legislation and by an aroused public 

 opinion. 



" These two points of view may, perhaps, not be so far apart as 

 they at first appear. If the family be the primary social cell, then a 

 historic study will show that the strength of the family indicates the 

 strength of all other institutions. The permanence of a larger social 

 group will depend upon the preservation of the cells of the social 

 body. So the reformer will be reinforced by the study of society as 

 a whole. On the other hand, such a study will doubtless lead him 

 to inquire whether or not the condition of present instability of the 

 family is a local social disease, or whether it may not be in fact only 

 a symptom of general conditions. He will seek to be instructed by 

 the effect of woman in labor, the influence of the decay of faith upon 

 social ties, the effect of the sudden increase within the last generation 

 or two of the world's wealth, and similar inquiries will throw light 



