Moral Integration and Interpersonal Integration in American Cities

Abstract

IN TWO previous papers dealing with American cities I used the term to define the focus of study.' This characteristic was measured by two indexes, a welfare effort index and a crime index. Although both of these reflect the degree to which the life of a community constitutes a moral order, it was tacitly assumed that the degree of solidarity in interpersonal relations was also being measured, or at least that the latter would be closely correlated with the former. Hence it was thought that the term was appropriate. Further research demonstrates that moral integration and interpersonal integration are two distinct things; that there is no simple phenomenon of social integration. What was previously measured was moral integration alone. This paper will give the evidence for this conclusion. Although the objective of the large study of which one facet is here reported was to test certain hypotheses with respect to causal factors in integration, this paper is not concerned with causes. But something must be said on this subject in order to make clear why our data concern only four cities. My studies through I946 indicated that there was great variation among large American cities in integration as measured positively by welfare effort and negatively by crime,