102 MICHAEL A. LANE 



as ferocious in his criticism as he is gentle, one is informed, 

 in his private hfe. 



The above mentioned men are the leaders in sociological 

 thought in America. As teachers they dominate the rapidly 

 growing cultures and their influence extends abroad, not 

 so much to Great Britain as to continental Europe, where is 

 found here and there in some university a sociologist so called. 



These scholars meet in two fora. One is the American 

 Journal of Sociology, edited by Dr. Small, who is advised 

 and assisted by a large corps of sociologists in America, re- 

 inforced by a few distinguished professors in European uni- 

 versities. The other forum is the celebrated Journal, or 

 Annals, of the American Academy of Political and Social 

 Science. The academy was founded several years ago by 

 Edmund J. James — at present the president of the Univer- 

 sity of Illinois, more recently president of Northwestern 

 university, and formerly head of the political science depart- 

 ment of the University of Chicago. For some time during 

 its earlier life the academy, like many institutions of its kind, 

 had a struggle for existence; but the tentative stage of its 

 life was happily passed and to-day it is a living factor in the 

 intellectual growth of the country. It is a record of the best 

 thought in sociological speculation and many of its con- 

 tributions come directly from economists. Its strongest 

 rivals are the Political Science Quarterly, Quarterly Journal 

 of Economics, Yale Preview and the American Journal of 

 Sociology. But it is not unfair to say that the Annals will 

 live long as the earliest records of the formative period in 

 American speculation upon the larger questions of social 

 science. 



The discussions carried on in the Journal and in the An- 

 nals can hardly be said to be of a popular character. The 

 new science of sociology has its special terminology and its 

 own peculiar concepts, and an understanding of the discussion 

 implies considerable study, if not a special training. Many 

 of the papers published in the Annals and in the Journal are 

 really adventitious — that is to say, they emanate from men 

 who as lawj^ers, business men, or financiers, imagine they 

 have something of value to say in the general round-up of 



