ffort to define its point of
view and to describe the kinds of facts that sociology must look for to
answer the questions that sociology asks.

3. The period of investigation and research, the period into which
sociology is just now entering.

Sociological research is at present (1921) in about the situation in
which psychology was before the introduction of laboratory methods, in
which medicine was before Pasteur and the germ theory of disease. A
great deal of social information has been collected merely for the
purpose of determining what to do in a given case. Facts have not been
collected to check social theories. Social problems have been defined in
terms of common sense, and facts have been collected, for the most part,
to support this or that doctrine, not to test it. In very few instances
have investigations been made, disinterestedly, to determine the
validity of a hypothesis.

Charles Booth's studies of poverty in London, which extended over
eighteen years and were finally embodied in seventeen volumes, is an
example of such a disinterested investigation. It is an attempt to put
to the test of fact the popular conception of the relation between wages
and welfare. He says:

My object has been to attempt to show the numerical relation
which poverty, misery, and depravity bear to regular earnings
and comparative comfort, and to describe the general conditions
under which each class lives.

If the facts thus stated are of use in helping social reformers
to find remedies for the evils which exist, or do anything to
prevent the adoption of false remedies, my purpose is answered.
It was not my intention to bring forward any suggestions of my
own, and if I have ventured here and there, and especially in
the concluding chapters, to go beyond my programme, it has been
with much hesitation.

With regard to the disadvantages under which the poor labour,
and the evils of poverty, there is a great sense of
helplessness: the wage earners are helpless to regulate their
work and cannot obtain a fair equivalent for the labour they
are willing to give; the manufacturer or dealer can only work
within the limits of competition; the rich are helpless to
relieve want without stimulating its sources. To relieve this
helplessness a better stating of the problems involved is the
first step.... In this direction must be sought the