Payments for total disability are much the same as to dependents on decease. Partial temporary disability is to be compensated for a limited period with “that proportion of the payments provided for total disability which his earning power at any kind of work bears to that existing at the time of the occurrence of the injury.” Lump sum payments may be made to beneficiaries out of the state, a provision which must include non-resident aliens. The Oregon law provides funeral expenses not to exceed $100 and contains a clause, such as was defeated in the Washington law on which it was modelled, giving the commission authority to provide first aid to workmen entitled to benefits under the act, together with medical and surgical expenses up to the sum of $250. In March a further step in compensation legislation was taken by the Ohio legislature when it established, in place of its elective law, a compulsory state insurance fund contributed by employers in all industries. Comment on this act by the state actuary will be published later. According to latest reports laws were on the eve of passing in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Texas. In New York a compensation bill was passed at the close of the session. It is pseudo-elective in form and provides benefits of 50 per cent of the employe’s wages up to $10 a week. SOCIOLOGY’S WELCOME IN THE NEW SOUTHLAND Genuine enthusiasm and interest on the part of nearly a thousand social workers, who gathered in Atlanta from April 25–29 to attend the sessions of the Second Southern Sociological Congress, tended to disprove the statement of a speaker at the opening session that “when sociology came south it met with a cold reception.” At Atlanta sociology received a hearty welcome. Signs that a spirit of “constructive criticism” is awake in the South were present on every side, in the newspaper, the pulpit and in conversation. Though the South is still a section and in some respects probably wishes to remain one, still, in the words of Acting President A. J. McKelway: “Broadly speaking, all our problems are American problems. There is no peculiarly southern problem of poverty, illiteracy or crime; our problems of the city, of rural life and child welfare are the same throughout the nation.” The spirit of introspection was apparent on the floor of the different conferences. The boastful paragon of knowledge was lacking. The frank admission of all was: “We want to know.” Dr. John E. White, of Atlanta, expressed this when he declared: “We have come at last to the conclusion that to rid ourselves of criticism, we must first criticise ourselves. We here propose constructive criticism at the hands of southern men.”