The Gavelyte, June 1912

The Gavelyte VOL. VI. JUNE, 1912. NO. 15 Ohio as Social Laboratory . BY WARRE H. WILSON, PH. D . On June first the Social Surve y of Oh io began. In the four months fol – lowing it is expected that twenty counties ot the State of Ohio wtll be sur– veyed, every county being visited and its social conditions and institutions c:xarnined by trained men using a uniform method of inquiry . This work is done under my directi on, with the guidance of an Advisory Council, of which President W. 0. Thompson of Ohio State University is Cbairman. In its membership are representatives of the leading religious denominations in Ohio . There is no state in the Union so brilliant in its scholastic organization as Ohio, unless it be Massachusetts, and the corpor– ation of the Ohio colleges with the Ohio church bodies promises a report of extraordinary value. This makes Ohio a social laboratc ry, which the colleg es and universties o f the state ought to use . In every one of the greater schools is a Department of Social Science having ~:me or mo re professors. These Departments are very popular, especially in the senior classes. The instruction, however, partakes in a measure of a dogmatical character due to Jack of laboratory facilities. The students are too often put at the study of social dogmas like Socialism, Single Tax, Free Trade, or other terminal discussion in the science. It would be better if the student were put at field work in the early part of his study of society. This Ohio Rural Lil e Survey offers an extraordinary opportunity for such field work . We stand ready to furnish for co lleges or universities attempting this kind of work the blanks for the survey of country communities; and to instruct the workers in these field surveys by correspoudence and by personal interviews. We will also be responsible for ma iling ummaries of the returns so far as they are of intt-rest to the public. We would expect to share in the use of those rtturns in order to compl ete the Survey of Ohio for which we are re– sponsible. The college Department, however, doing this wc;,rk have the use of an ordered social laboratory with a method of using the student already prepared and with much of the work already done. The stimulus of a great movement