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The article presents information on recent developments related to rural sociology in the U.S. Homer L. Hitt resigned as head of the Departments of Sociology and Rural Sociology and as associate dean of the Graduate School to become dean of Louisiana State University at New Orleans, Louisiana. On April 28-29, 1958, the first annual "Louisiana Conference on the Aging" was held on the campus. This conference was sponsored jointly by the Department of Sociology and the Louisiana Commission on the Aging. Outstanding scholars in gerontology were brought to the campus for the two-day session. Evan T. Peterson has joined the staff of the Division of Sociology and Rural Life, Mississippi State University, as assistant sociologist and assistant professor of sociology and rural life. The twentieth annual meeting of the Ohio Valley Sociological Society was held on May 1-2, 1958, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Host for the meeting was the Department of Sociology, University of Cincinnati. The 1959 meeting of the Society will be held in Columbus, Ohio.

Cross-sectional data on voter turnout and political interest from 28 American national surveys, and data from a cohort analysis of voter turnout, indicate a Pronounced increase in political interest and participation from young adulthood to middle age. Voter turnout apparently remains almost constant from middle age to advanced maturity, and average political interest apparently increases. These findings are related both to theories of political participation and to Cumming's and Henry's notion of disengagement of the aged. Some pitfalls of the use of cross-sectional data to infer changes with aging are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the aging population in the U.S. The article discusses why larger proportions of the aged are found in certain areas and in certain types of communities. According to the author, aging is found in greater proportions in areas to which they have migrated and areas in which larger proportions of the mature population have remained to grow old together. Retirement from the labor market might well be accepted as the crucial act in determining the ecology of the aging. To develop an ecology of old people it is necessary to know something about their retirement status and their family characteristics. A large part of the aged men in 1940 were living in their own homes with their wives and were wholly or in part self-supporting through their labor. A large portion of the elderly women were not living in their own domiciles but in establishments with their sons or daughters, and they received their support wholly or in part from their offspring or from the state in the form of old age relief. From 1910 to 1950 the change went on with the aging showing consistent partiality only for rural-nonfarm residence.

In the last generation compulsory retirement at the age of 65 years, or earlier, has become an increasingly common occurrence in the U.S. In a youth-centered culture, with much emphasis placed on production and money income, the period of life between retirement and death may become quite meaningless for older people. That physical decline is inherent in the process of aging is a well-established fact. The extent to which deterioration can be prevented or retarded remains a question future research will answer. Social workers who are committed to conserving human capacities and to aiding in the development of potential abilities should not overlook those of the aging. Just what part satisfactions and frustrations of the creative urge of people play in their behavior has not yet been fully explored. Moreover, creativity may give expression to depth of feeling and emotion. Many old people have creative capacities. The repeated evidence may even lead one to speculate that the creative urge may possibly become stronger as life draws to a close, like the push for life in the old apple tree that produces an especially bountiful crop just before its death.

This article attempts to bring out major points of similarity in findings of research on relations of old people to their family of procreation, and in particular on the problem of intergenerational cohesion. If theories are understood as conceptual models closely connected with generalizations of empirical data, then theory formation should proceed only when sufficient results have been collected. Social gerontology has now reached a stage when such theory formation becomes possible. During recent years, gerontological research both in the United States and in European countries has grown rapidly and enough data have already accumulated from different national and regional cultures to attempt the development of preliminary theoretical propositions on the basis of generalizations stemming from research. According to the conception of theory formation in sociology, theoretical propositions presuppose systematic, coherent material with conclusions that may be integrated and transformed into such a proposition.