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The article presents the proceedings of the Ohio Valley Sociological Society Council Meeting, Held on Thursday, April 27, 1971, held at the Cleveland-Sheraton Hotel, Cleveland, Ohio. Resolutions concerning deceased members of the Ohio Valley Sociological Society should be published as obituaries in the Sociological Focus. Physician Olmstead reported for the publications committee. He indicated that the publications committee was currently seeking a new editor for Sociological Focus. He also reported on the number of papers submitted in the undergraduate and graduate paper competition. At the undergraduate level the committee has selected two CO. President Useem then introduced the topic of convention development It was moved that the principle of establishing an office of executive secretary, and/or business manager (which would be ad hoc for now) be approved. Such an executive secretary and/or business manager will work on the managerial issues of the society. The resolution was passed. The executive committee will designate an acting executive secretary.

The article presents the proceedings of the annual business meeting of the Ohio valley sociological society. Don Olmstead reported for the Publications Committee. He reported on the search for a new editor, the maintenance of the publication, Sociological Focus at the University of Akron, and the exploration of future publication possibilities between the OVSS and other societies. Whereas the innovative and sematic scheme of the program produced interesting and provocative papers and discussions. Be it resolved that Chairman Marvin Olson and Program Committee members Elizabeth Mullins, and John Scanzoni be recognized for their efforts and that their universities be so informed. Whereas, the three year term of office for the following officers of the Ohio Valley Sociological Society has expired, be it resolved that the new officers and membership recognize the extraordinary efforts and contributions made by: Shailer Thomas, Secretary; Charles Westie, Treasurer; John Lindquist Editor of Sociological Focus.

This paper first reviews the descriptions and structural explanations for variations, in urban population densities in the United States over several decades. The research reviewed focuses on shifts in the technology and economics of travel as being the major influences on urban density distributions. These variables appear to be somewhat less adequate as explanations of the process in recent decades. After reviewing these findings and suggesting several research questions, we attempt to assess the evidence relating variations in population density to several other aspects of human behavior. A review of the research relating high population densities to various "social pathologies" indicates that little of the variance in rates of these pathologies can be attributed to density independently of other social structural variables. Some important consequences of population density have been reported, however, and possible research directions are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is the analysis of the interactional patterns of Wisconsin farm couples with their parents. Step-wise multiple regression analysis provides a technique to solve a sequence of one or more multiple linear models by step-wise application of the least sum-of-squares method. The predictor variables used in this analysis include: distance, husband's age, stage in the family life-cycle, husband's education, wife's education, gross farm income, agricultural training of the husband, productive-man-work-units, and level of living. The results showed that distance is an important factor in the interaction between generations in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the address given by the author during the general session of the Midwest Sociological Society's 25th anniversary meeting on April 13, 1962, in Des Moines, Iowa. It discusses the author's experience with the society and his participation in its previous annual conferences. During his term as secretary of the society he has observed the changes in the structure and the functions of the society since its reorganization in 1937. The most important phenomenon having implications for a regional society is the decline in regionalism of American sociology. Regionalism, in the sense that it existed in 1937 has disappeared. The birth of the society have a significant impact on the origins of modern American sociology. The educational institutions established by notable members of the society have contributed to the production of doctor of philosophy degree in sociology.

The article comments on the enduring pluralism in the American society. Despite its mistakes, the American experimentation in pluralism has been largely a success compared to the ethnic and racial conflicts in India, Palestine, Yugoslavia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Iraq, Ceylon, and Burma. Notwithstanding its large land mass and population, the U.S. was marked by only one civil war. The durability of the social fabric may be attributed to the spirit of tolerance and liberalism which has characterized the American society.

The article discusses the case of Oliver Lee in Hawaii, for his professional survival and rights of a free man under the protection of the First Amendment of the Constitution. Lee is a naturalized citizen of Chinese-German background and an assistant professor in the department of political science at the University of Hawaii. Lee was recommended for tenure in a split vote by his department but was questioned for being an advisor of the anti-war student group, Student Partisan Alliance. The decision of the Hearing Committee noted that the administration did not have reasonable cause to revoke the letter of intent.

The article discusses the survey regarding the public policy and the opinion of public people in the U.S. Surveys of public opinion seems to indicate that American complacency has been slightly touched. It is hard for the people to imagine the extent of the willingness of people to forget, to fail to register, to distort, and to overlook what all mass media will say. It has been said it is seldom that one must ask why congressmen or any elected officials in the country to try to get on what they consider the popular side of an issue.

The current U.S. emphasis on geography as spatial organization has evolved over the last fifty years from an early emphasis on man-land relations followed by an emphasis on area1 differentiation. The spatial view has shown both strengths and weaknesses during the sixties. It has led to more cumulative generalizations and increased cooperations with other social sciences, but has also been felt by some to have been associated with an overemphasis on sterile geometries and an apparent neglect of pressing social questions. For the seventies it is hoped that geographic research can maintain a reasonable balance between activism and scientism by stressing those emerging generalizations which promise to have the greatest ultimate impact, upon society. The spatial view should be more closely articulated to a revitalized man-land view and to the complementary but relatively neglected area study view [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the effect of physiography on the population distribution in Maryland and in Pennsylvania. Discrepancies due to abnormal variations in population distribution; Variability of statistics in the states between 1900-1910; Average increase in Piedmont, Pennsylvania.

The main leaders of a large rural county were identified and classed into visible, symbolic, and concealed leader-types by Bonjean's technique. The composition of each type was summarized. The leadership pattern in this county was found to be distinctly different from the leadership pattern of places previously studied. Leaders were more visible and had stronger anchorage to public offices. Little variation existed in the locations of the leader-types in the generalized social structure of the community. The typology was, nonetheless, useful. It served as a good index for the factional and clique memberships of the leaders, which were recognized as crucial in the decision-making structure of the county. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Shils has pointed out, the study of the life of immigrants was one of the original justifications for the existence of American sociology. The earlier widespread sociological concern with immigrants and ethnic groups is confirmed by the voluminous literature, both analytical and descriptive, produced on these subjects. Since 1935 and particularly after World War II, however, the attention of sociologists to these subjects has continually been declining, as can be evidenced by comparative statistics on the "race and ethnic relations" specialty of the members of the American Sociological Association (while before 1955, 8.2 per cent had listed this field as their specialty, the percentage declined to 8.4 per cent in 1959); and by a decline in the scope and number of sociological publications on immigrants and ethnic groups. In contrast, it should be noted that a comparable decline of interest does not prevail among historians and anthropologists. The historians appear even to have increased their interest in recent years, as we note in the works of Handlin, Bjork, Hoglund, Jones, and Govorchin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An area of research in which sociologists and historians would seem to share a rather obvious concern is that of social change. In his presidential address before the joint meeting of the Canadian Historical and Canadian Political Science Association, S. D. Clark emphasized this. "We cannot become students of change," he said, "without becoming historians. It is only by looking at what has happened to societies of the past, and over time, that the sociologist can derive the data on which to build his principles of social change." That is to say that the study of social change requires recognition of processes in time and must deal, insofar as time past is involved, with evidence that is historical. The student of social change must become a historian and the historian, insofar as he is interested in understanding and interpreting general processes, must become a social scientist. When, however, one searches the literature for particular studies of historical social change, one's findings are meager indeed, especially if one's standards, theoretically and methodologically, are reflective of those of contemporary social science, and one's historiographical standards, of contemporary history. If, in addition, one is searching for social change studies of a particular national history, then the material is even more limited. For this reason I have expanded this review, which was originally concerned with the American nineteenth century only, to include two studies of English history, because these two studies include important theoretical and methodological contributions to the study of history and social change in America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the thirties, excitement ran high over the possibility of closing the gap between theory and technique in American sociology. The great Chicago tradition of Veblen, Dewey, Park, and Mead seemed about to join with that of Cooley at Michigan to reduce grand theory to method, while Ogburn, Stouffer, and Burgess, working to develop techniques based on statistical inference and case studies, were attempting to close the gap between technique and theory. In the Middle West at least, it was recognized that unless something was done to relate theory and technique, sociology could not be taken seriously as a science. As one wag puts it, American sociology was the only human study that passed from theory to technique without developing a methodology. Unfortunately, the hopes of the thirties have not been fulfilled. The gap between theory and technique has not closed-indeed, some believe that it is even wider than it was in 1934. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]