•^. 
 
 SOCIOLOGY 
 
 JOHN M. GILLETTE
 
 The National Social Science Series 
 
 Edited by Frank L. McVey, Ph.D., LL.D., 
 President of the University of North Dakota 
 
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 SOCIOLOGY. John M. Gillette, Professor of Soci- 
 ology, The University of North Dakota. 
 
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 GOVERNMENT FINANCE IN THE UNITED 
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 THE COST OF LIVING. Walter E. Clark, Pro- 
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 TRUSTS AND COMPETITION. John F. Crowell, 
 Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. 
 
 MONEY. William A. Scott, Director of the Course 
 in Commerce, and Professor of Political Economy, 
 The University of Wisconsin. 
 
 TAXATION. C. B. Fillebrown, President Massa- 
 chusetts Single Tax League, Author oi A B C of 
 Taxation. 
 
 THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY. John M. Gillette. 
 Professor of Sociology, The University of North 
 Dakota. 
 
 BANKING. William A. Scott. 
 
 THE CAUSE AND CURE OF CRIME. Charles R. 
 Henderson, late Professor of Sociology, The Uni- 
 versity of Chicago. 
 
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 The National Social Science Series 
 
 Edited by Frank L. McVey, Ph.D., LL.D., 
 President of the University of North Dakota 
 
 In Preparation 
 
 PROPERTY AND SOCIETY. A. A. Bruce, Asso- 
 ciate Justice Supreme Court. Xorth Dakota, Com- 
 missioner on Uniform State Laws, etc. 
 
 STATISTICS. W. B. Bailey, Assistant Professor of 
 Political Economy, Yale University. 
 
 BASIS OF COMMERCE. E. V. Robinson, formerly 
 Professor of Economics. The University of Minne- 
 sota, late Professor. Columbia University. 
 
 WOMEN WORKERS AND SOCIETY. Annie M. 
 MacLe.AiN, Assistant Professor of Sociologjs The 
 University of Chicago. 
 
 THE NEWSPAPER AS A SOCIAL FACTOR. 
 Allan D. Albert, Former Editor Minneapolis Trib- 
 une, President International Association of Rotary 
 Qubs. 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LAND IN AMERICA. 
 Charles W. Holman, Editorial writer, expert of 
 L^nited States Industrial Commission, Secretary of 
 National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits. 
 
 MODERN PHILANTHROPY. Eugene T. Lies, Gen- 
 eral Superintendent. Chicago United Charities, Lec- 
 turer Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. Di- 
 rector Illinois Commission on Social Legislation. 
 
 ESSENTI.\LS OF FOREIGN TRADE. John F. 
 Crowell^ Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. 
 
 POPULATION. E. Dana Durand, Former Director 
 United States Census. Professor of Statistics, The 
 University of Minnesota. 
 
 COOPERATION. L. D. H. Weld. Professor of Busi- 
 ness Administration, Yale University.
 
 SOCIOLOGY 
 
 BY 
 
 John M. Gillette, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of Sociology in the Uni'versity of North Dakota, 
 
 Author of "Vocational Education," "Constructi<ve 
 
 Rural Sociology, ' ' and ' ' The Family and Society ' ' 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 A. C. McCLURG & CO. 
 
 1916
 
 Copyright 
 
 A. C. McClurg & Co. 
 
 1916 
 
 Published May, 1916 
 
 Copyrighted in Great Britain
 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 THERE are many books on Sociology ; nearly 
 all of them, however, rather ponderous 
 tomes of forbidding aspect to the reader who 
 approaches the subject for the first time. The 
 j^ application of scientific principles to social data 
 •^ has brought about a systematizing of material, 
 and the development of a rough approximation 
 S? to a science. This science is now called Sociol- 
 ^ ogy. To bring together the main features of this 
 < science in a small volume for the general reader 
 is the purpose of the author. The book should 
 open the way to a larger appreciation of what 
 is going on in the study of social phenomena. 
 
 F. L. M. 
 
 ^r^C?'-t
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 THERE is some justification for a small vol- 
 ume on sociology which the public gen- 
 erally may read, and perhaps study clubs and 
 secondary schools may use as a guide. I do not 
 question the usefulness of such a book if organ- 
 ized and readable. When so many issues are 
 placed before the public, and such diverse views 
 as to appropriate collective action exist, there is 
 a serious demand for a broader sociological 
 knowledge which will steady the judgment and 
 help decide questions on principle. The study 
 of society as an evolution, the consideration of 
 the constitution of societal life, and reflection 
 upon the methods by which society is controlled 
 and improved, should give a basis for the form- 
 ing of judgments about what should be under- 
 taken, and of a rational optimism as to the final 
 realization of a better social order. 
 
 The popular conception of the nature of so- 
 ciology is often hazy and requires information. 
 Sociology is liable to be identified with slum- 
 ming, charity and philanthropy, empty observa- 
 tions of public spectacles, socialism, and kindred 
 phenomena. While all of these items may fur-
 
 Author's Preface 
 
 nish data for sociological generalizations, a brief 
 study of the subject of sociology will serve to 
 distinguish it from any and all of them. 
 
 This book pretends to be merely an introduc- 
 tion to the study of sociology. There is nothing 
 original in it except that it is the formulation 
 and views of a teacher and student of the vast 
 field of sociology. It was prepared to meet the 
 demands of those who have some curiosity about 
 the nature of society and sociology, but have 
 not a great deal of time in which to satisfy it. 
 Sufficient references accompany the various chap- 
 ters to enable the reader and student to make a 
 larger study of the subject, and it is hoped that 
 this simple outline will not extinguish any whole- 
 some craving for information, but may even 
 whet the appetite for subsequent and more ex- 
 tensive investigations. 
 
 John M. Gillette. 
 University of North Dakota.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter I. )The Science of Sociology .... 1 
 
 Sx»cioTog-y as a Science 1 
 
 Development of Sociology 2 
 
 The Task of Sociology 3 
 
 Sociology and Other Social Sciences ... 5 
 
 Chapter II. The Origin of Society 9 
 
 Where Society Begins 10 
 
 Continuity of Human and Animal Societies 13 
 
 Earliest Human Society 15 
 
 Chapter III. Origin of Races and Institutions 19 
 
 Sociological Meaning of Institutions ... 20 
 
 Origin of Races 21 
 
 Language 24 
 
 The State 26 
 
 Religion 29 
 
 The Industrial Order 34 
 
 The Family 37 
 
 Education 41 
 
 Chapter IV. The Nature of Social Evolution . 45 
 
 Evolution as Quantitative Transfornxation . 45 
 
 As Qualitative Transformation 46 
 
 As Diversification 48 
 
 As Integration 49 
 
 As Accommodation 50 
 
 Social and Biological Evolution 51
 
 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter V. Factors Which Determine Social 
 
 Evolution 54 
 
 The Physical Environment 54 
 
 Inherent Impulses and Desires 57 
 
 Race Stock 60 
 
 Stage of Culture 62 
 
 Nature of External Social Groups .... 64 
 
 Chapter VI. The Nature of Society .... 66 
 
 Older Conceptions 66 
 
 Theories Expressing the Psychical Nature 
 
 of Society 69 
 
 Conclusion 72 
 
 Chapter VII. The Social Order 76 
 
 Evidence of a Social Order 76 
 
 Causes of the Order 78 
 
 Social Organization and Social Order . . 82 
 
 Changing the Social Order 85 
 
 Chapter VIII. The Social Mind 88 
 
 What It Is 88 
 
 What Makes It Possible 91 
 
 Its Coercive and EvaUiating Aspects ... 94 
 
 The Direction of the Social Mind .... 98 
 
 Chapter IX. Social Selection 101 
 
 Society and Natural Selection 101 
 
 The Factor of Mutuality 103 
 
 The Method of Social Selection 107 
 
 Chapter X. Progress and its Conditions . . .110 
 
 The Nature of Progress 110 
 
 Possibility of Progress U4 
 
 Conditions of Progress 119
 
 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter XI. The Equalization of Opportunity . 123 
 
 Equality and Social Justice 123 
 
 Removal of Artificial Restrictions .... 127 
 
 Direction of Equalization 130 
 
 Chapter XII. The Elimination of the Unfit . . 135 
 
 The Situation 136 
 
 The Origin of the Unfit 137 
 
 Elimination of the Unfit 140 
 
 References 147 
 
 Index 155
 
 SOCIOLOGY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE SCIENCE OF SOCIOLOGY 
 
 WHILE this small volume does not purport 
 to represent in an explicit manner the 
 science of sociology, it does suggest that there 
 may be such a science. As a consequence, some 
 explanation should be made of what sociology 
 treats and what its relation is to other sciences. 
 
 Sociology a Science 
 
 In saying that sociology is a science the term 
 science is used in its ordinary sense. There are 
 those who say that sociology is not a science. If 
 by science is meant absolute exactitude and pre- 
 dictability, the charge is true. But the statement 
 is equally applicable to most of the subjects that 
 are now denominated sciences, for the element of 
 exactitude and the basis of prediction are very 
 small in all save astronomy and portions of 
 physics and chemistry. With reference to the 
 social science group, there are none in which the 
 generalizations as a whole rest on a scientific 
 I
 
 2 Sociology 
 
 statistical basis so that accurate predictions as 
 to the future relationships among their phenomena 
 may be made. Only the somewhat elastic mean- 
 ing of the term science — that it consists of a sys- 
 tematic body of knowledge from which tendencies 
 in phenomena may be perceived — is applicable 
 to most of the sciences and to the social sciences 
 in particular. But such a body of knowledge is 
 useful for directive purposes and it furnishes the 
 foundation for a development toward a greater 
 degree of exactitude. Such a body of knowledge 
 is offered in sociology. 
 
 Development of Sociology 
 
 Sociology is one of the newer of the social 
 sciences. As compared with the age of history 
 and economics it is a mere youth. A few ideas 
 which are of a sociological nature date from the 
 time of Plato and Aristotle, but no general science 
 of society was formulated before the time of 
 August Comte and Herbert Spencer. Each of 
 these men drew up a system of social philosophy 
 to which was given the name of sociology. In 
 the United States, Lester F. Ward was the first 
 to develop an independent system of social 
 philosophy. 
 
 The science of sociology has had a rapid 
 growth in the United States and has become a 
 regular part of the curriculum in most of the col- 
 leges and universities. In England, since the time
 
 TJic Science of Sociology 
 
 of Herbert Spencer, it has developed but little 
 until recently, probably because Spencer demon- 
 strated so effectually to Englishmen that while 
 human intervention might greatly harm society it 
 could do little toward its improvement. The 
 science of economics as formulated by the Ger- 
 mans has been so largely of a general sociological 
 nature that little need has been found for a so- 
 ciology until recently. But during recent times 
 German economists and other social scientists 
 have insisted that a demand exists for such a 
 science, and as a consequence sociology is being 
 developed and established as a part of the cur- 
 ricula of higher institutions of learning. Else- 
 where in Europe it is exhibiting a sustained 
 growth. 
 
 The Task of Sociology 
 
 The late arrival of sociology was largely due 
 to the difficulty encountered in reducing the 
 phenomena of a complicated social order to gen- 
 eralizations of a simple and universal character. 
 [or_the task of a sociology is to put into scie n- 
 [ tific form the plain perception that there is suc h 
 a thing as society, that it is constit uted of man y 
 par allel as well as conflicting mtcrests. that i t 
 has had an origin and an evolution in which by 
 some me ans and in some manner the various in- 
 tgfest s have preserved a unity, that it is based on 
 prmciples which may be discovered and under-
 
 4 Sociology 
 
 stood, and that an understanding of these prin - 
 cigtSsena bles a given~society to modify the cour se 
 of its own development. As yet sociology has 
 impertectly accomplished this task, but it has 
 made praiseworthy advances toward that realiza- 
 tion. A judg m ent regarding whether it will b e 
 a ble to discover a single principle of expla na- 
 tion, or will be con st ructed on the basis of m any 
 pnnciples, lies in the future. And while there 
 
 ris'^riTrggenr^^dive rsityof view and method of 
 treatment among professional sociologists, there 
 is "neverth eless ft mdamcntal agrcLiueii t as to the 
 
 
 I nature~oT~s"ociety a nd""t"h"e " l arger teatures oi -the 
 *''~n_ascent science, ^ut there should be little ques- 
 tion as to the utility of a science which attempts 
 to give an intelligent account of the total collec- 
 tive life regarded as a totality. The human mind 
 w ill never rest until it has acco m plished this ta sk, 
 and man y^c pnsiderations of practi cal i mport de- 
 man d that such a discipljnejjejworked out. 
 ^^ I^js_lhe_busine ss of soci ology t o explain tha t 
 A great_2ll^^ IP^"Q" wh ich we term human s ociet y 
 
 t ^s a rollertivity To accomplish this it would be ' 
 
 necessary to give an account of the origin and 
 evolution of society, of the forces or conditions 
 which cause its development or retardation, of 
 the principles on which its organization depends, 
 of the principles of progress, of the possibility 
 of effectual human intervention, and of the 
 agencies by which social control and direction
 
 The Science of Sociology 
 
 are to be attained. S ociology seeks to make 
 society an object of scientific study in the same 
 ma nner that biology, for examp le, makes t lir 
 pfiysical organism an object of it s study. And 
 aT^ology seeks to discover the constitutent parts 
 and T unction? of the org anism, their relation to 
 each other an d~to the whole organism, and_ the 
 lavv^ of gro wth, so sociology is concerned w ith 
 the^ study of social structures an d functions, the ir 
 int errelationships, tneir relationships with the to - 
 tal collective life, and the principles of develop- 
 menT and t he laws of progress. 
 
 Sociology and Other Social Sciences 
 
 Since it is the undertaking of sociology to 
 view society as a whole and always to view indi- 
 viduals and phenomena in their relation to this 
 totality, there can be no difficulty in distinguish- 
 ing that science from the other social sciences, 
 such as economics, politics, anthropology, and 
 history. Without attempting an exhaustive ex- 
 amination of all the social sciences in relation to 
 sociology or of those considered in this relation*- 
 ship, it may prove useful to suggest the relation 
 of two or three of the other social sciences to 
 sociology. As a preliminary statement, however, 
 it is necessary to point out that the essential dif- 
 ference in general between sociology and those 
 sciences consists in the fact that sociology seeks 
 to correlate all of the fundamental lines of human
 
 Sociology 
 
 pa rticular i 
 asls7 while each of the other socfal sciences 
 
 interests, giving no ^g articular interest specia jjem- 
 ~ ^hoTl 
 
 essentially confines its" attentioiTTo one great in- 
 terest, treating other interests only in so far as 
 they have a bearing on the dominant interest 
 chosen for emphasis. 
 
 There are two sciences which deal with the 
 earlier life of mankind — anthropology and eth- 
 nology. The first gives an account of the origin 
 and development of man as a physical individual, 
 and of the origin and classification of races as a 
 physical fact. Ethnology, while it may cover 
 some of that ground, chiefly considers primitive 
 man in his group and cultural aspects, dealing 
 with the beginnings of artifacts, science, belief, 
 systems of numbers and language, and of insti- 
 tutions in general. Because the other social 
 sciences devote themselves to civilized man, an- 
 thropology and ethnology restrict themselves to 
 primitive man. In so far as sociology attends 
 to the primitive field it considers the origin of 
 society as such, and gives only a generalized 
 account of the origin and development of par- 
 ticular institutions. 
 
 The science of politics, or of government and 
 law, devotes its attention to the political interest. 
 It seeks to explain how government originates, 
 to give a causal account of the great stages of 
 j)olitical development, to consider the agencies 
 and means by which the governmental purpose is
 
 The Science of Sociology 
 
 executed, and to designate tendencies in the de- 
 velopment of the state and methods of better- 
 ment. Thus government or politics explains how 
 peoples and communities realize their collective 
 purposes by establishing state agencies. But poli- 
 tics concerns itself with society in general and 
 with other fundamental interests and processes 
 only in so far as those matters have a bearing on 
 government and political afifairs. Customs, man- 
 ners, and the working of the social mind are facts 
 and items which for most part are outside the 
 pale of political considerations, yet they are big 
 factors in society at large. These, together with 
 the correlation of social interests in general, it is 
 the function of sociology to interpret. 
 
 While government deals with collective action 
 and purpose as they realize themselves through 
 the state, economics treats chiefly of voluntary 
 individual and collective efforts directed toward 
 the satisfaction of wealth interests. Conse- 
 quently, economics explains the nature of the 
 material wants, how they create goods or wealth, 
 considers the factors of production in their rela- 
 tion to the production of wealth, the mechanism 
 of exchange and distribution, the principles of 
 finance and taxation, and allied topics. And while 
 the wealth interest is a tremendous factor in 
 human society its consideration does not exhaust 
 the category of human interests nor explain the 
 synthesis of interests save as related to material
 
 8 Sociology 
 
 satisfactions. Human nature lies behind the 
 wealth interest, and that interest is conditioned 
 by conventions, customs, beliefs, social currents 
 of almost a cosmical sweep, class and caste preju- 
 dice, and racial antipathies, which it is the busi- 
 ness of sociology to treat, together with its gen- 
 eral synthetic task. 
 
 Thus it is to be observed that to each social 
 science is given its particular and special task in 
 the total economy of the social sciences. No one 
 of these sciences can do the work of the others 
 save at the expense of changing its nature and 
 ceasing to be itself. Their relationship is not a 
 question of priority, of superior dignity, or of 
 higher and lower. Each one is dignified in the 
 doing of its work well. On the basis of the divi- 
 sion of labor pertaining to each and all of them 
 working together in a common domain there 
 should obtain among the social sciences the larg- 
 est measure of cooperation.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF SOCIETY 
 
 IT is necessary to distinguish between the dif- 
 ferent meanings of the term society. The 
 sociological meaning of "society" is distinct from 
 that employed popularly in such phrases as " the 
 best society," and " going into society." This 
 popular use of the term reflects a narrow, special 
 significance, pertaining, as it does, to but one fea- 
 ture of the group life. Even among sociologists 
 and social scientists generally the term " society " 
 possesses several meanings. It is employed as a 
 generic term to express the characteristics of 
 associational life in general; it is used also to 
 denote various special forms of group life, such 
 as the family, the state, the city, the nation, the 
 church, and organized labor. Hence, it appears 
 that the word " society," when used sociologically, 
 may mean human associations generally, just as 
 " humanity " signifies all kinds of men ; or a par- 
 ticular society like the city or nation ; or a group 
 of men within a given society who are bound to- 
 gether by a strong common interest such as com- 
 mercial, labor, and other kinds of organizations ; 
 or, finally, it may mean the civilized world viewed 
 in its associational aspect. The last interpreta- 
 
 9
 
 lo Sociology 
 
 tion corresponds to tlie " world-society," so far 
 as one exists ; for, of course, a complete world- 
 society cannot appear until all races and groups 
 of men are brought into an inter functioning rela- 
 tionship with one another. 
 
 Where Society Begins 
 
 Sociologists have engaged in an interesting dis- 
 cussion of the question. Where does society be- 
 gin? That their conclusions differ is due to the 
 fact that they have not agreed in their choice of 
 characteristics which shall serve as the criterion 
 of societal life. Thus one eminent waiter lays 
 emphasis on the rational factor, to the exclusion 
 of the instincts and emotions and, as a conse- 
 quence, he places the origin of society neither 
 among animals nor at the beginning of the human 
 species but far up in the course of the evolution 
 of man. Another distinguished writer goes to 
 the other extreme, and noting the ease and celer- 
 ity with which emotional phenomena sweep 
 through vast populations, he makes suggestion 
 the criterion of society. Upon this basis society 
 would have its origin in the course of evolution 
 wherever the psychical process of suggestion 
 makes its appearance. 
 
 While neither position is correct in character- 
 izing the essentials of society, the latter view per- 
 mits the closer approximation to the origin of 
 society. Society embraces both cooperation and
 
 TJic Origin of Society ii 
 
 conflict, and a theory of its origin must allow for 
 both processes. It also is founded on both the 
 emotional and rational processes, the latter con- 
 stituting the dominating factor in the most ad- 
 vanced stages of social evolution but being cor- 
 respondingly vague and feeble in the earliest 
 stages. 
 
 On the emotional side, there are certain in- 
 stincts common to the higher animals, at least, 
 which impelled toward a collective existence. 
 Sex, maternal and parental instincts, and the love 
 of companionship are sufficient to account for 
 the initial small and somewhat durable groupings. 
 The maternal and parental instincts could be 
 operative forces only among the higher animals, 
 since they do not appear among the lower ones. 
 Sex appears to have made its appearance among 
 the metazoa, so that sex instinct must have acted 
 as a uniting bond, of at least a temporary nature, 
 among all forms of life since the protozoon stage. 
 Gregariousness is a phenomenon of practically all 
 forms of life, but whether among the lowest 
 forms the love of companionship serves as the 
 nexus it is difficult to say, for it is conceivable 
 that some of the various tropisms act as the 
 segregating agent. 
 
 Society of a more rational type undoubtedly 
 emerges whenever plastic imitation appears, and 
 this is noticed among the higher animals. The 
 young animal learns many fighting, hunting, and
 
 12 Sociology 
 
 cooperative actions by observing and imitating 
 the activities of the adults. Indeed it is often 
 the case that the parents actively engage in the 
 process of teaching their young fighting, flying, 
 and hunting tactics. Each new generation learns 
 the reactions of the preceding generation, among 
 which is a considerable fund of societal responses 
 — namely, cooperative actions. Occasionally, 
 very infrequently indeed, a useful variation ap- 
 pears and because it is useful it is imitated and 
 transmitted to succeeding generations, by which 
 means society slowly evolves. But not until man 
 comes upon the scene and undergoes considerable 
 mental evolution does the rational factor enter 
 largely as a positive contributing agent to social 
 evolution. 
 
 Imitation doubtless accounts for initial like- 
 mindedness, agreement, cooperation ; but alone it 
 cannot account for disagreement and conflict. 
 The power to imitate is the product of heredity 
 and is based on the biological inheritance of sim- 
 ilar nervous and other bodily structures. But 
 since heredity also includes variation it follows 
 that some biological structures will appear which 
 differ to a greater or less degree from the parent 
 structures. The reactions of these structures are 
 not always of the passively imitative kind, and 
 the variants may be counted on to come into con- 
 flict at times with the group custom. Especially 
 when the rational element, as in the case of man,
 
 The Origin of Society 
 
 has developed considerably does the conflict of 
 interest become strong, for the desire of posses- 
 sion, unmodified by altruism, is sufficient to impel 
 the individual or groups of individuals having 
 interests in common against the current of the 
 common weal. 
 
 This insufficient outline of the stage of evolu- 
 tion at which society originates indicates thai 
 society had begun long before the appearance of 
 the human species. But it is essential to observe, 
 however, that not all seeming societal animal 
 groupings are necessarily such. Thus the forma- 
 tion of a flock of swans when swimming and of 
 geese when flying is possibly wholly a biological 
 matter, being transmitted by means of physical 
 inheritance and unmodified by experience. But 
 the dam-building of beavers, nest-construction of 
 birds, and tactics of hunting and associating of 
 animals generally are susceptible of modification 
 by group experience and in a measure are con- 
 tinued by the process of social heredity. 
 
 Continuity of Human and Animal Societies 
 
 A large part of the most fruitful scientific 
 insight attained in biological and sociological fields 
 has come as the result of viewing life and society 
 as evolutionary processes. Were the develop- 
 mental principles embedded in modem biological, 
 psychological, and sociological thought eliminated 
 there would be left almost an empty shell. Suffi-
 
 1 4 Sociology 
 
 cient evidence has been gathered to demonstrate 
 the truth of evolution to fair-minded people. It 
 is not in place now to give that evidence and we 
 will take the truth of evolution for granted. 
 
 It is sufficient to remind ourselves that man is 
 the descendant of a long series of ancestral ani- 
 mal forms having their beginning with the unicel- 
 lular organism. His more immediate ancestor 
 was not the ape or the monkey, but a member of 
 a stock of which these forms were variants. 
 What our remote human ancestor was like we 
 now begin to comprehend from a study of recent 
 archeological remains, such as the Javanese Man 
 (Pithecanthropus Erectus), the Heidelberg Man, 
 the Neanderthal Man, and the Sussex Man. The 
 gap between man and his animal ancestors is 
 being filled in by such " missing links," and the 
 idea of physical continuity is hardly any longer 
 a " theory." 
 
 Believing in man's physical descent, there can 
 be little difficulty in conceiving of man's intellec- 
 tual descent ; or, as Drummond preferred to call 
 it, man's " ascent." Mind is invariably associated 
 with body and it unfolds itself in its structural 
 and functional manifestation as fast as the phys- 
 ical mechanism attains organization. The senses 
 appear with the formation of the special sense 
 organs and intelligence grows apace with the de- 
 velopment of brain and the differentiation of the 
 nervous structure.
 
 The Origin of Society 15 
 
 In like manner we conceive there has been a 
 continuous series of societies from the time when 
 the first genuine social plasm arose down to the 
 present. The fund of experience has accumu- 
 lated gradually throughout the existence of all 
 those myriads of succeeding generations, making 
 itself felt in the direction of modifying individual 
 actions but slightly, but gaining qualifying and 
 checking power with its increase, until, as thought, 
 sentiment, custom, organization, it wields an im- 
 perial scepter. Social instincts and sympathies 
 have intensified ; race experience has enlarged 
 until it has taxed the mechanism of transmission ; 
 altruism and reason have expanded and changed 
 the course of events. But in a fundamental sense 
 the mighty civilization of today is the oflfspring 
 and descendant of the narrow, shrinking animal 
 society of millions of years ago. 
 
 Earliest Human Society 
 
 No one knows exactly what the first human 
 society was like, but it must have been slightly 
 more advanced than the society of the highest 
 kinds of animals, such as that of the apes, and 
 less advanced than that of present primitive men, 
 such as the Akkas of Africa, the Veddahs of 
 Ceylon, and the Fuegians of Patagonia. Present 
 primitive men, although low down in the societal 
 scale, do not by any means represent initial primi-
 
 1 6 Sociology 
 
 tive man. Ethnologists have arrived at the opin- 
 ion, as the result of the discoveries of human 
 remains in undisturbed strata of the early quater- 
 nary and possibly the late tertiary geological 
 periods, that man appeared approximately one- 
 half million to one million years ago. Examina- 
 tion of skeletons and restorations of skeletons 
 from skulls, femurs, and other skeletal fragments 
 has demonstrated that there have been two or 
 three distinct stages of anatomical development 
 below the present human form. We must con- 
 ceive an accompanying form of association which 
 would be appropriate to less developed brains 
 and minds. Our present primitive groups of the 
 most undeveloped type are kinship groups, but 
 in that earliest society the idea of kinship had 
 not yet originated. But what is the most like 
 kinship relation and was the foundation of it is 
 the relation between mother and offspring. 
 Mothers would protect their offspring until they 
 were able to care for themselves and it would be 
 natural for the young when grown to settle near 
 the mothers. We could thus think of a little asso- 
 ciation of a rather loose sort. Perhaps the 
 fathers formed a more or less temporary associa- 
 tion with the mother also, and a weaker one with 
 the children. In time the ties strengthened, sen- 
 timent grew, benefits from cooperation in times 
 of danger became dimly apparent. Ultimately the 
 idea of kinship developed. When this point was
 
 The Origin of Society 17 
 
 reached human society of a permanent and some- 
 what organized type was born. 
 
 The characteristics of such a group were few 
 and meager. The love of companionship un- 
 doubtedly was present. The reproductive instinct 
 must have been the dominant bond between 
 adults, and maternal and filial affection the 
 strongest influences among adults and the young. 
 Reason was only in its infancy and seldom or 
 never made collective matters an object of atten- 
 tion. The social relations which existed, col- 
 lective modes of action, were determined by cus- 
 tom, and were changed but little in generations. 
 Before the age of invention the food supply de- 
 pended on the bounty of nature. Populations 
 in given localities had to be small because of food 
 limits. When numbers increased above this limit 
 new groups, as they formed, were forced to mi- 
 grate into new localities, and because of this the 
 typical society was small. A premium was placed 
 on the form of group which cooperated to in- 
 crease the supply of food. Such a society stood 
 the best chance of survival, and ultimately super- 
 seded the non-cooperative kind. Sympathy of an 
 instinctive sort ameliorated existence but little. 
 Brute strength made right, and altruism, or de- 
 veloped sympathy, was yet to evolve and become 
 a checking and humanizing force. Religion, 
 which, when it arose, developed as an inference, 
 could not appear until reason became stronger.
 
 1 8 Sociology 
 
 Education consisted in teaching the young how to 
 get food, to shelter and protect themselves, and 
 perhaps how to use the club and the eolith. 
 
 Having thus sketched briefly in general terms 
 the situation in which society arose, and the ori- 
 gin of early human societal groups, we are pre- 
 pared to consider somewhat more in detail those 
 initial beginnings and their course of develop- 
 ment.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 ORIGIN OF RACES AND INSTITUTIONS 
 
 THE sociolo^cal conception of institutions is 
 somewhat different from that in common 
 use. An institution, in popular opinion, possesses 
 the characteristics not only of fixity and perma- 
 nence, but also possesses a material foundation 
 and form. When the average individual thinks 
 of an institution, it is likely that his chief thought 
 is of buildings and lands. But sociologically, in- 
 stitutions are the immaterial forms of associa- 
 tion, the various types of activities into which the 
 social mind is organized, and the fixed ideas 
 which represent social processes. Thus the insti- 
 tutional characteristics of the school consists in 
 the permanent manner society is organized for 
 the purpose of training its citizenship. The pub- 
 lic mind is organized into political institutions to 
 carry on affairs of state. In a real sense the type- 
 writer and other machines are institutions because 
 the mechanical principles they involve are per- 
 manently imbedded in the social mind as ideas. 
 Every idea which persists in the minds of many 
 individuals and is passed on to succeeding gen- 
 erations has an institutional aspect. Conse- 
 quently, the term institutions embraces not only 
 the great dominant organizations of society, but 
 19
 
 20 Sociology 
 
 customs, conventions, and all enduring ideas and 
 modes of reacting. 
 
 Sociological Meaning of Institutions 
 
 While, indeed, there is justification for consid- 
 ering all enduring ideas institutions, as a matter 
 of convenience in sociology it is desirable to treat 
 certain great groups of ideas which are organized 
 about centers of interest as representative social 
 institutions. As a consequence, the activities of 
 individuals are observed to coordinate themselves 
 for the realization of several great motives or 
 interests. While somewhat different classifica- 
 tions of the chief interests may be made, the most 
 usable one for our purpose is found in viewing 
 human beings as organized to realize their, domes- 
 tic, political, religious, industrial, cultural, and 
 sociability aims. Practically all of the permanent 
 ideas involved in societal life are associated with 
 these larger motives and assist in their realiza- 
 tion. Thus the ideas of beauty would constitute 
 a part of the cultural, those of health would fall 
 within the political arrangements to secure sani- 
 tation. Ethical ideas, however, cannot be classi- 
 fied under any one of these heads exclusively, 
 since they involve the proper adjustment of social 
 relationship in all lines of endeavor. Again, cer- 
 tain fixed ideas such as language and numerical 
 systems do not represent special centers of inter- 
 est but they rather constitute necessary basic
 
 Origin of Races and Institutions 21 
 
 agencies for the realization of fundamental so- 
 cietal motives. 
 
 Origin of Races 
 
 In some respects, race is a social institution 
 because it represents a persistent idea in society, 
 and affects the method of coordinating human 
 beings. But because in its origin it is so largely 
 a biological product and because it does not rep- 
 resent a specific sphere of societal interest, it is 
 best to accord it a treatment apart from and prior 
 to social institutions. The consideration of race 
 is important because race and the results of race 
 differences have been influential factors in the 
 development of society. Ethnic differences have 
 acted as a prominent cause of nearly all wars, and 
 race prejudice plays a strong part in our race 
 problems. Class dififerences, and especially those 
 of caste, are due in part to racial factors. 
 
 Ethnologists are practically agreed that the 
 region of man's origin was a vast one comprising 
 southern Asia, northern Africa, and southern and 
 western Europe, including the southern Baltic 
 regions. In this region are found the highest 
 forms of both extinct and existent apes, and of 
 the most undeveloped prehistoric man. It is pos- 
 sible that the original human race stock approxi- 
 mated the Caucasian, since the Caucasian is the 
 most variable of the races and its prototype would 
 ofTer a plastic foundation for differentiation.
 
 22 Sociology 
 
 From this region the original stock, when it 
 became populous, and perhaps after some crude 
 protective and offensive weapons had been in- 
 vented, migrated into other parts of the world. 
 Because those new habitats possessed different 
 environments, such as climate and foods, men 
 underwent physical changes, such as differenti- 
 ations of stature, complexion, form of head, color 
 and form of hair, color and shape of eyes, and 
 form of nose. The people who settled to the 
 northeast came to have an assemblage of those 
 characteristics seen in the Mongolians, differing 
 essentially from that of the original stock. Those 
 who settled in the south became possessed of an- 
 other assemblage of characteristics, seen in the 
 Negroes and other dark peoples. No doubt the 
 influence of light in making protective color pig- 
 ments, and of the chemical constituents of dif- 
 ferent foods acting as bleaching constituents had 
 much to do with forming complexions. The 
 structure of the follicle in which the roots of the 
 hair is embedded accounts for the form of the 
 hair. Other changes are only partly accounted 
 for. 
 
 The various peoples in the new habitats also 
 built up distinctive customs, languages, religions, 
 and it must have required ages to work out these 
 physical and social changes. By reason of the 
 physical and social transformations, these peoples 
 became distinctly different, and in after ages
 
 Origin of Races and Institutions 23 
 
 when further migrations brought portions of the 
 now distinct races into contact with one another, 
 since there was no remembrance of common ori- 
 gin, they met as entire strangers. Their differ- 
 ences, especially those of appearance, aroused 
 deep-seated prejudice, as the new and the strange 
 always do among the majority of men. Because 
 friendship was based on kinship and non-kindred 
 were considered enemies, conflict ensued and 
 the stronger either killed or subordinated the 
 weaker as slaves ; at least, race prejudice was 
 ushered in. 
 
 In much the same manner, within a given race 
 of people migrations into remote regions took 
 place, and in response to the physical environ- 
 ment minor physical differences appeared. Like- 
 wise language, religion, and other customs under- 
 went a differentiation. As a consequence, when, 
 in later times, these differentiated groups met 
 they were enemies, and there ensued conflict, ex- 
 termination or subordination. In the case of the 
 subordination of one group by another, a com- 
 pounding of groups took place. A long process 
 of fusion by intermarriage and social readjust- 
 ment then occurred until at last a resultant society 
 emerged. In their turn, compound societies 
 merged and fused with other compound groups, 
 and these doubly compounded societies com- 
 pounded again with others of the same kind. It 
 was by means of such compounding and conse-
 
 24 Sociology 
 
 quent expansion of societal organization that our 
 modern nations were formed. 
 
 Language 
 
 The institution of language deserves consider- 
 ation as typifying the basic agencies by means of 
 which societal interests in general are realized. 
 Like many other social phenomena, language had 
 its beginning among animals. Under a system of 
 struggle and competition, there would be a greater 
 chance of survival among those animals which 
 could cooperate. But since the basis of coopera- 
 tion is the ability to communicate, cooperative 
 groups could develop only in so far as their mem- 
 bers were able to transfer their ideas, and the 
 medium of this was a communication system, ini- 
 tially a system of signs and sounds. 
 
 It is well established that the higher animals 
 are adepts in recognizing the significance of the 
 actions, attitudes, and movements of their own 
 kind and of other kinds of animals ; and that 
 those of some species understand and employ 
 numerous cries and intonations. Human beings, 
 as they emerged from the brute plane of exist- 
 ence, possessed these facilities of communication, 
 and by conscious effort expanded and perfected 
 them. But as Drummond says, " Down to this 
 present hour there are still the three great kinds 
 of language. The movement of foot or ear has 
 been evolved into the modern gesture or grimace ;
 
 Origin of Races and Institutions 25 
 
 the note or cry into a word, and the intonation 
 into an emphasis or inflection of the voice." 
 
 While sign language possesses advantages for 
 primitive people living under certain conditions, 
 as in the case of the Siouan and Cheyenne In- 
 dians inhabiting the plains, and while it is still 
 extensively used by deaf-mutes, it is not suscep- 
 tible to that differentiation which makes possible 
 the transmission of the minute shades of thought 
 civilization demands, nor available for modern 
 modes of communication. Because of their avail- 
 ability, sounds and the symbols which represent 
 ideas have become the primary vehicles of com- 
 munication. Since the appearance of the use of 
 sounds to transfer ideas, the great stages of the 
 evolution of the communicative system have been 
 the development of different kinds of words 
 which our parts of speech represent, the creation 
 of an alphabet, of writing, of printing, of news- 
 papers, of the telegraph and telephone. Each one 
 of these stages of improvement has formed the 
 basis of a larger area of cooperative efifort and 
 intensified the human bond. 
 
 Briefly stated, the functions which language 
 has performed are as follows: (i) it developed 
 in response to a social demand, since a communi- 
 cating system is necessary for the existence of 
 an intensive cooperative life; (2) it stimulated 
 association and thus promoted survival through 
 cooperative response; (3) it furnished a vehicle
 
 26 Sociology 
 
 for the exercise of intelligence and of sympathetic 
 understanding, thus promoting intellectual devel- 
 opment, reducing friction, and expanding socia- 
 bality ; (4) after the development of written sym- 
 bols a record of events became possible, thus pro- 
 viding for the perpetuation of a knowledge of 
 the past and laying the foundation of history and 
 of science. 
 
 It is to be remembered that whereas language 
 was built by society and is, as a consequence, a 
 product of cooperative life, at the same time it 
 constituted the foundation of cooperation and 
 made society possible. 
 
 The State 
 
 By the term state we mean any people that 
 occupies a definite territory and has many of its 
 activities controlled and regulated by its central 
 government. Many a priori theories have sought 
 to explain its origin, such as the lawgiver, the 
 theocratic, and the social contract theories. These 
 a priori theories are being replaced by sociological 
 conceptions. Noted sociologists, such as Gum- 
 plowicz, Ratzenhofer, and Ward have espoused 
 the conflict theory of origin. According to this 
 theory, every state has been the result of conflict, 
 the conquest and subordination of one people by 
 another, and a slow gradual fusion of the two 
 peoples physically and culturally. Previously, 
 people beaten in battle had been exterminated or
 
 Origin of Races and Institutions 27 
 
 eaten. When men became advanced enough to 
 make use of captives as a labor force, slavery 
 ensued from war. The initial state arose as a 
 system devised by the conquerors for the use and 
 exploitation of the conquered. At first a military 
 system, it formulated rules of procedure for the 
 subjugated that in time became law, which, origi- 
 nally made for the conquered, after considerable 
 fusion had occurred, came to be applied to all 
 members of the resultant society. The rigid caste 
 lines which at first existed slowly crumbled as the 
 abler members of the captive class were increas- 
 ingly taken into the business of the ruling class, 
 and became overseers, superintendents, and man- 
 agers. Finally, intermarriage was legalized, and 
 legal miscegenation, which previously took place 
 illicitly, completed the physical fusion. The cus- 
 toms of both peoples underwent a modification, 
 new customs were evolved, and institutions of 
 many kinds which were used by all were estab- 
 lished. And along with the other processes which 
 were at work w-ent the gradual genesis of loyalty 
 to the " fatherland," which served to preserve 
 the state against dissolution and conquest. 
 
 Closely akin to the conquest theory is that of 
 Oppenheimer, which may be termed the exploita- 
 tion theory. The chief point of difference be- 
 tween the two theories is one of emphasis. Ac- 
 cording to the latter theory, the state arises by a 
 process of conflict, indeed, but it is a one-sided
 
 28 Sociology 
 
 conflict. A strong, militant, nomadic people pos- 
 sesses the lust of exploitation, and discovering a 
 peaceful peasant population, it invades its terri- 
 tory, easily conquers it, and organizes a system 
 under which the subordinate group hands over 
 to the conqueror the larger share of the products 
 of its labor. A system is developed by which the 
 conquerors are continuously able to collect the 
 forced tribute from the conquered, but what be- 
 gins as a matter of forceful compulsion grows 
 into a system of acquiescence, and what was pre- 
 viously tribute becomes the taxes levied by a rul- 
 ing class. Custom and tradition arise with their 
 powerful sanctions of the "established order," 
 and the shrewd ruling class employ all available 
 cultural and religious agencies to inculcate among 
 the subordinate class the sanctity and inviolability 
 of that order. 
 
 Thus the system of continuous exploitation 
 which the conquerors established is the beginning 
 of the state. Its motive and essence is the ex- 
 ploitation of a peaceful, productive class by an 
 organized militant class, and this initial principle 
 of exploitation of one class by another largely, 
 though less conspicuously, obtains in all modern 
 states. 
 
 While these theories are likely to give a rude 
 shock to the unsophisticated and traditional 
 minds, they are doubtless true in their essential 
 characteristics. However, since its origin, the
 
 Origin of Races and Institutions 29 
 
 state has undergone a considerable modification 
 in the direction of becoming more responsive to 
 the needs of all classes. By reason of the gradual 
 diffusion of knowledge and intelligence through 
 all of the strata of society, the state has passed 
 out of the exclusive control of a privileged order 
 and has assumed a multitude of functions for the 
 common good which were previously private mat- 
 ters. Thus coinage and the regulation of money, 
 the maintenance of armies, the levying and col- 
 lection of taxes, the exercise of the judicial func- 
 tion, the transportation of mail, the conducting 
 of an educational system, and the control of land 
 titles are some of the more important duties 
 which all modern states have assumed. And it 
 is undoubtedly true that the masses of people 
 have come to regard the state as their best de- 
 fense against abuses, and to expect of it the as- 
 sumption of all duties which are deemed neces- 
 sary to the common good. 
 
 Religion 
 
 Religion, popularly, means worship, a plan of 
 eternal salvation, and often morality. But viewed 
 genetically it signifies a belief in the existence of 
 superhuman agencies and in man's ability to in- 
 fluence or control them. This conception of re- 
 ligion is broad enough to comprehend the central 
 principle of all religions from the lowest to the 
 highest.
 
 30 Sociology 
 
 Religion must have made its initial appearance 
 in the course of evolution somewhere between 
 animals and existing primitive man, since the for- 
 mer do not and the latter do exhibit religious 
 phenomena. It could not have originated as an 
 instinct because instincts are biological in origin 
 and nature, and arise as bodily reactions for the 
 adjustment of the organism to physical condi- 
 tions. As such they are transmitted by physical 
 inheritance, and only variations of structure and 
 function useful for securing food, protection, and 
 maintenance of species are capable of perpetua- 
 tion. To say that religion arose as a " perception 
 of the infinite," or as an "innate idea," explains 
 nothing, since the former resolves itself into an 
 instinct, and the modern psychology has amply 
 disproved the possibility of innate conceptions. 
 Consequently, like other ideas, religion must have 
 arisen as an inference, a groping of the primitive 
 mind for an explanation of phenomena for which 
 it had no scientific apprehension in terms of 
 natural cause and effect. But the animal mind 
 knows something of cause and effect, and the 
 primitive man's mind possessed the tendency to 
 assume causes for phenomena. Since natural 
 explanations of the many surrounding mysteries 
 were impossible, it was inevitable and logical that 
 supernatural ones should have appeared. A study 
 of primitive peoples makes it evident that the 
 earliest religious conception must have been a
 
 Origin of Races and Institutions 31 
 
 vague dread of a mysterious something which 
 with time and under the stress of crises and 
 social conditions became differentiated into super- 
 human personahties. 
 
 A casual knowledge of primitive life is suffi- 
 cient to indicate that primitive society was satu- 
 rated with the belief in superhuman agencies, and 
 that the world was conceived as a realm of 
 demons and spirits. While the belief in spirits 
 was universal, every deity was ethnic and its 
 power was circumscribed by the confines of its 
 believers. Consequently, the adoption of an 
 individual into another group necessitated a 
 change of deities, and the rite of adoption was 
 one of accepting the gods of another people. But 
 the combining and enlarging of social groups by 
 means of conflict brought a consequent elevation 
 and expansion of the conquerors' deities and an 
 accompanying depression of the influence of those 
 of the conquered. By means of this process, 
 some gods became great national deities. With 
 the expansion of knowledge of the world through 
 tiie mingling of races and the growth of specu- 
 lative imagination, a universal deity was at last 
 conceived, and among advanced peoples polythe- 
 ism was displaced by monotheism. 
 
 Another characteristic of the evolution of re- 
 ligion is observed in the growth of social agents 
 and organizations. At the very outset there 
 could have been no religious functionaries, and
 
 32 Sociology 
 
 every man was his own mediator. But because 
 some men were adapted to dreaming dreams and 
 seeing visions, special religious agents arose. The 
 earliest ones were in the nature of sorcerers and 
 conjurors, because at that time all spirits were 
 conceived to be evil, and had to be frightened 
 away or outwitted. Hence the medicine men 
 were the earliest religious agents, and their chief 
 work was to drive out evil demons by means of 
 beating, creating great noises and stenches, or to 
 counteract their influence by magic. With the 
 rise of ancestor worship, however, since, while 
 they lived, ancestors exercised beneficent influ- 
 ences, deities were conceived as more kindly 
 disposed. As a consequence, the method of con- 
 trolling superhuman agencies changed to the use 
 of pacific means. Communal sacrifice, incense, 
 and, finally, prayers and worship became the 
 accepted formulas. 
 
 Whenever religious mediation, the control of 
 the deities, passed into the hands of a special 
 class of men, an enormous influence over society 
 was established. The religious functionary held 
 the keys of life and death, of disaster and for- 
 tune, of access to heaven or condemnation to 
 perdition. As a consequence, the teachings of 
 religious functionaries brought immediate com- 
 pliance, and the lives of men and the social order 
 were deeply influenced. Tabus, restraints, com- 
 mands, interdicts, penances, must be obeyed
 
 Origin of Races and Institutions 33 
 
 under penalty of offended deity. The religious 
 functionaries maintained a closed organization ; 
 there was no open shop or opportunity for boy- 
 cott, no chance of appeal. Because of this, much 
 cunning and craft were employed by medicine 
 men and priesthoods to enrich themselves and to 
 further the influence of their orders. On the 
 other hand, a well-disposed and beneficent relig- 
 ious order could do much to promote social 
 well-being. Not only might it stimulate philan- 
 thropic efforts, but at times seek to build a social 
 democracy. 
 
 A further tendency in religious development 
 has been toward making religion more ethical. 
 In so far as the earliest religion was largely a 
 matter of individuals it possessed no ethical im- 
 port. But when it became an organized affair, so 
 that it affected the relations of men to one an- 
 other, it possessed^ a socio-ethical basis. While 
 religion has always been dynamic in securing 
 action on the part of individuals, its tendency 
 has usually been one of conservation rather than 
 one of progress. Because it has, until recently, 
 been a state agency and, as a consequence, an 
 affair of ruling classes, it has been obliged to 
 support the established social order. Its ethics, 
 for this reason, has most often been a static and 
 conventional one. But in so far as ecclesiasti- 
 cism has been broken into competitive sects and 
 there has occurred a divorce between state and
 
 34 Sociology 
 
 church, rehgion has shown signs of teaching a 
 dynamic ethics. 
 
 The Industrial Order 
 
 Like the state, the industrial order was a late 
 social arrival. Initial man foraged for his food 
 and wore few clothes. Later, after the inven- 
 tion of weapons and snares, he lived on game. 
 Agriculture crept in slowly in the shape of hoe- 
 culture, supplementing the hunting and fishing. 
 Wherever pastoral life occurred, wants were 
 satisfied by means of the flocks. 
 
 Consequently, early social life was industrially 
 undifferentiated. The industrial order emerged 
 only when occuptional divisions of labor based on 
 sex-differences were replaced by those of func- 
 tion. This could take place only to a slight 
 degree in small pastoral groups, where inequali- 
 ties of wealth made two classes, owners and hired 
 herdsmen. But when a number of territorial 
 groups resulted from conflict, a varied industrial 
 differentiation arose. Not only did subjugation 
 introduce a slave class, but plunder accumulated 
 wealth, wants multiplied, and the workers broke 
 up into distinct occupations. Besides, in a large 
 territory, localities differed in products ; and fields, 
 forests, and mines must be worked. Further, the 
 raw products had to be worked up into consump- 
 tive goods, materials be transported from place 
 to place ; traders and merchants were demanded.
 
 Origin of Races and Institutions 35 
 
 Thus emerged the systems of labor, of extractive 
 industries, of transportation and of exchange. 
 
 The growth of the industrial system has been 
 conditioned by the appearance of certain mediat- 
 ing agencies or connecting factors. 
 
 First, it has rested on the efficiency of the 
 means of transporting goods. Roads have been 
 a necessity, and we find a successive series of 
 landways coming into existence, such as indi- 
 vidual paths between neighboring peoples, trails 
 for large bodies of moving herds and peoples, 
 ill-kept roads, highways, and turnpikes, systems 
 of macadamized roads, railroads. Accompanying 
 this development has been a parallel series of 
 agencies of transportation : men as burden bear- 
 ers, animals, drags attached to animals, carts, 
 wagons, locomotives and cars. In like manner, 
 transporting agents used on water have evolved 
 from the raft and dugout to sailboat, steamboat, 
 and steamship. 
 
 Second, because industry, in its more advanced 
 stages of development, is carried on to furnish 
 goods at a distance, the consequent commerce 
 has depended on the efficiency of the exchange 
 system. The earliest method of exchange was 
 one of making presents with the expectation of 
 return gifts. Then came barter, which was 
 cumbersome and inconvenient because it was 
 difficult to make change. Markets and market 
 places helped to simplify this by bringing into one
 
 36 Sociology 
 
 vicinity a great assortment of articles of various 
 grades of value. Likewise, the adoption of some 
 commodity, such as a quantity of wheat or a 
 goat, as a standard of value, marked a step in 
 advance, but could not obviate the inconvenience 
 of making change. This could be met only by 
 the creation of some commodity which contained 
 great value in a small unit, was universally desir- 
 able, was easily worked into shape, and was 
 durable. The precious metals, especially gold, 
 ofifered such a medium, and coinage established 
 standards and variety of value. Not only could 
 money facilitate exchange of goods, but it served 
 as a great spur to the accumulation of wealth, 
 because it made possible an easy conversion 
 of wealth into goods to satisfy every kind of 
 want. 
 
 Third, the development of a communication 
 system conditioned industrial development. Since 
 the growth of a transportation system also accom- 
 plished the end of communication, it is only 
 needful to advert to later phases of development. 
 With the appearance of the locomotive and rail- 
 way, it was imperative that there should be a 
 swift transmission of reports of the movements 
 of trains. This came with the invention of the 
 telegraph, but this invention was soon adapted 
 also to sending market reports and to ordering 
 and reporting goods. Other agents, such as the 
 telephone and wireless, are competing systems.
 
 Origin of Races and Institutions 37 
 
 and it is evident that a world commerce would be 
 impossible without these lightning-like servitors. 
 
 A treatment of the industrial system, however 
 brief, should make some allusion to developments 
 which have occurred in the status of labor, in the 
 growth of productive capital, in the systems of 
 manufacture and production, and to the rise of 
 the capitalistic system and methods of organizing 
 business. But as the briefest outline of the 
 changes which have taken place in society in 
 those instances is obviously impossible for this 
 volume, we must be contented with their mention. 
 
 The social results of the industrial order are 
 obvious. That order multiplied wants, put a 
 premium on accumulation of wealth and attain- 
 ment of power, helped discipline a labor force, 
 made places for varying talent, in connection 
 with the state established class distinctions, and 
 enormously promoted social organization and 
 structure. While the results were generally bene- 
 ficial, the means used to secure the establishment 
 of the order have often been brutal, though in 
 large measure inherent in the age. 
 
 TJic Family 
 
 By means of the family the race is continued 
 and society made possible. Moreover, the family 
 places the first social imprint on the individual 
 and orientates him for a larger collective life. 
 While now it is but one of many bridges over 
 
 rrsfy^^
 
 38 Sociology 
 
 which the past moves into the present, originally 
 it was the only one. 
 
 In the historical sense, the family means the 
 association of offspring and one or both parents 
 during a greater or less interval. The natural 
 motives for creating the family are the repro- 
 ductive instincts and parental love. The first 
 secures mating, the second the nourishing and 
 rearing of children. Parental love is differen- 
 tiated into maternal love and paternal love. Of 
 these, the former is by far the older, since the 
 constitution of the female among higher animals 
 creates a durable physiological nexus between the 
 mother and offspring, and imposes on the latter 
 a period of dependence, with a consequent de- 
 mand for maternal care. The function of the 
 male, up to the later stages of evolution, consists 
 in fertilization, and beyond this he sustains no 
 fostering relations to the young. However, 
 among some of the higher mammals and birds, 
 the male parent bestows upon the offspring a 
 fostering attention, and in a real sense the insti- 
 tution of marriage begins. 
 
 While the male sometimes protected and fed 
 the female during incubation and the period of 
 childbirth, among the higher mammals generally 
 his parental contributions were few and short- 
 lived, and family life centered about the maternal 
 female. It was hers to bear the young, to suckle 
 and protect them, and, in some instances, to pro-
 
 Origin of Races and Institutions 39 
 
 vide food for them and to teach them to obtain 
 it for themselves. And doubtless this repre- 
 sented the situation among the earliest human 
 beings. It must have been a long time before the 
 male parent was harnessed into the family life 
 by his affections and by custom, and thereby 
 compelled to share in its responsibilities. If by 
 marriage we mean a somewhat permanent rela- 
 tion between mother and father, it may be said 
 that marriage had its beginnings among animals 
 but that it was not greatly developed until well 
 along in the course of human evolution. 
 
 With regard to the forms of marriage there 
 has been something of an evolution. It is not 
 likely that humanity has passed through a uni- 
 versal stage of promiscuity, though in some 
 primitive groups there are indications that pres- 
 ent sex arrangements presuppose a prior promis- 
 cuity. Nor is it clear that either of the forms of 
 marriage — monogamy, polygamy, and polyan- 
 dry — held the field exclusively in early society 
 and that the consequent development evolved the 
 other forms in a regular order. Probably all of 
 these kinds of marriage, and group marriage 
 besides, existed side by side in the beginning, 
 with conditions placing a premium on polygamy 
 and group marriage, but with equality in the 
 number of the sexes dominating the situation. 
 The evolution of marriage consists of a competi- 
 tive strife between these forms, with adaptability
 
 40 Sociology 
 
 to human purposes favoring monogamy. That 
 form of marriage realizes sex justice by giving 
 every man and woman the privileges of family 
 life; respects the principle of sex jealousy in 
 both men and women ; is most favorable to the 
 physical, mental, and social development of chil- 
 dren; and affords the best-defined method of 
 tracing lineage and transferring property. Be- 
 cause of these and other characteristics, mono- 
 gamic marriage has become the prevailing form 
 among civilized peoples. 
 
 Monogamic marriage has undergone a develop- 
 ment in the direction of establishing a greater 
 equality between husband and wife and in accord- 
 ing a more favorable position to the children. 
 The patriarchal family is typical of ancient family 
 life in which the patriarch was absolute over 
 wives and children. The Roman patriarchal 
 family, however, was monogamic, but the father 
 possessed no less despotic powers. But civiliza- 
 tion has reduced the authority of the father, 
 enlarged the functions and privileges of the 
 mother, and placed the training and disciplining 
 of children on a less severe and more ethical basis. 
 And while increasing divorce has been an accom- 
 paniment of the evolution of society toward a 
 more equitable social order and a fairer family 
 institution, it is to be viewed as a temporary 
 symptom and incidence of a transitional stage 
 rather than as inherent in democracy. The crea-
 
 Origin of Races and Institutions 41 
 
 tion of higher ideals of the family and of the 
 marriage relations by a due process of education 
 may be expected to reduce the number of divorces 
 and to place the family on a more wholesome 
 footing. 
 
 Education 
 
 By the educational institution is meant the 
 system established by society for the transmission 
 of the principles of social experience from gener- 
 ation to generation for the purpose of equipping 
 the young for life. Or education may be viewed 
 as a direct endeavor to socialize developing indi- 
 viduals. While at present there are many agen- 
 cies which help secure the equipping of the young, 
 education is to be regarded as the most explicit 
 and universal scheme of socialization. Only a 
 few pointed remarks may be permitted. 
 
 First, during social evolution organized society 
 has made an increasingly explicit attempt to edu- 
 cate the young. Before the state arose, primitive 
 society exercised a somewhat implicit educational 
 function. To the older men and to the women 
 was given the task of teaching the boys and girls 
 certain of their duties. The knowledge of the 
 larger part of their activities, however, was 
 gained by imitation and experience. After the 
 state arose and social classes were formed, only 
 the favored few were educated ; the masses, 
 being slaves, were trained by imitation and com-
 
 42 Sociology 
 
 pulsion. In more recent times, religious sects 
 undertook to educate men for religious functions, 
 but incidentally opened their academic courses to 
 all men. But because sectarian teaching formed 
 too narrow a foundation for social activities 
 generally, and also was possible only to those 
 fortune had favored, the state was impelled to 
 assume universal training functions and explicitly 
 to create a citizenship. 
 
 Second, education has developed away from 
 traditional lore chiefly toward bestowing scientific 
 principles. A large portion of primitive educa- 
 tion consisted of embedding in the minds of the 
 young the folk-lore and myths of the group. In 
 later society, education was a class affair and 
 consisted of transmitting the class view and learn- 
 ing, together with an effort to build up linguistic 
 powers and to give a religious interpretation of 
 the world. Nor has present education been 
 emancipated from largely dealing in traditional 
 learning and in promoting the remote. However, 
 the theological interpretation of the world has 
 given way in state schools to the teaching of 
 science, and there is a growing emphasis of the 
 rational. 
 
 Third, in recent years education has made an 
 attempt to recognize the complexity of society 
 and to prepare for callings as well as for life in 
 general. The view that education is only cultural 
 or disciplinary failed to recognize that society has
 
 Origin of Races and Institutions 43 
 
 grown and that it demands many diverse func- 
 tions. Such a view was suitable for a narrow 
 society and for caste purposes, but it could not 
 meet the demands of present conditions. This 
 could be done only by recognizing the scientific 
 and technical character of modern society, and 
 by establishing varied courses to train for the 
 different callings. This does not mean, however, 
 that a larger interpretation of the world and of 
 life is denied or that the common principles of 
 citizenship are withheld. 
 
 Society has also evolved means for continuing 
 the education of the individual after he has be- 
 come adult. By means of newspapers, books, 
 periodicals, chautauquas, lyceums, university and 
 college extension, and cultural associations of 
 many kinds it seeks to supplement the field of 
 experience. If we view all cultural processes as 
 education, it is manifest that practically all of the 
 great societal interests with which this chapter 
 deals exert a greater or less influence in the 
 direction of furthering information and thought. 
 
 For the sake of the casual reader, it may be 
 well to indicate that while certain great lines of 
 social development have been sketched as if they 
 originated and evolved somewhat independently 
 of each other, in reality such has not been the 
 case. Society has always existed as a unit, and 
 all structures and interests have originated and 
 grown together. The several structures did not
 
 44 Sociology 
 
 spring up apart from each other, but originated 
 as functions of the community Hfe as a whole. 
 While at times there has been need of bringing 
 some social structure into completer harmony 
 with the type of the given society to which it 
 belongs, this necessity has not arisen because 
 that structure grew up apart from the society 
 and required to be brought into the community 
 of institutions, but because it has suffered a 
 divergence from the aim and spirit of the larger 
 community, rendering it imperative that it should 
 be socialized.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE NATURE OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 THE conception has long been in the minds 
 of thoughtful men that human society under- 
 goes a development. Thus Plato believed that 
 government had a regular series of stages through 
 which it moved, returning in cyclical fashion to 
 its initial form, from which it set out anew to 
 repeat its round. Vico taught that society passed 
 through successive phases of development and 
 then deteriorated by going back to the initial 
 stage, to begin the process of development anew. 
 Written works on history have been an expres- 
 sion of the idea that nations and states come into 
 existence by degress and pass out to give way to 
 stronger ones. 
 
 Evolution as Quantitative Transformation 
 
 The commoner thougiit of evolution is that it 
 is a growth. Plants and animals grow. Things 
 appear which formerly had no existence in the 
 forms they assume. To the popular mind this 
 chiefly means a quantitative increase. Thus sand 
 hills grow as the particles of flint are gathered 
 up by the wind and piled up in one heap. The 
 crystal develops as the elements are arranged in 
 
 45
 
 46 Sociology 
 
 geometrical lines and figures so that they repre- 
 sent a larger mass. The seed placed in the soil 
 germinates, sends its rootlets into the soil, where 
 they expand into a system of sustention, and 
 shoots its stem into the air, where it branches and 
 leafs, growing but a season or through many 
 years and centuries. So much is visible to the 
 eyes of all. 
 
 Society likewise undergoes a quantitative trans- 
 formation. Beginning as a pair of primitive 
 beings just emerged above the plane of brute 
 existence, there has been a series of successive 
 reproductive events, with a consequent multipli- 
 cation of human beings until the original pair is 
 represented by approximately 1,600,000,000 indi- 
 viduals. Not all of these persons are welded 
 together into one society. Some day they will be. 
 Then there will be a world-society which was 
 evolved from an original family. But we have 
 only to consult the statistics of our nation, our 
 state, or our city to get the visible facts of growth. 
 Thus our nation has grown from about 4,000,000 
 people in 1790 to over 100,000,000 inhabitants 
 now. The cities of the nation grew in population 
 1 1 ,826,000 between 1900 and 19 10. 
 
 As Qualitatire Transformation 
 
 Further reflection indicates that besides quan- 
 titative increase evolution represents qualitative 
 changes. The plant is dififerent from the seed
 
 The Nature of Social Evolution 47 
 
 from which it sprang, the chick from its parent 
 tgg, and the crystal from the particles which 
 were organized into it. Some principle of organ- 
 ization has been presiding in the process of 
 enlargement. Substances gathered from the soil 
 by the roots of the plant have undoubtedly in 
 some way organized into the enlarging structure, 
 so causing the enlargement. But the material 
 assembled in this manner from the soil and 
 atmosphere is altogether different in character 
 from the material previous to the segregation. 
 There has been a vitalizing process, and matter 
 which formerly was called inorganic has been 
 converted into matter which is termed organic. 
 When the organism is done with it, it may again 
 pass into the inorganic form ; but so long as it 
 performs its function in and for the organism, 
 it is vital, living. However life began, it has the 
 power of bestowing its peculiar characteristics on 
 the material it requires to build itself up. 
 
 While not to the same degree that obtains in 
 organic life, there is a vitalizing process going 
 on in the development of society. The original 
 social plasm has passed down its socializing tend- 
 ency and imprint, and, as a consequence, every 
 human being is worked upon during his growth 
 and impressed with a collective characteristic. 
 While some of the societal qualities are inborn, 
 such as the love of companionship, others are 
 transmitted in the social environment. Intelligent
 
 48 Sociology 
 
 sympathy, appreciation, altruism, cooperative de- 
 sire and ability, social vision, are some of them. 
 As a consequence, a family, a neighborhood, a 
 state, a nation, or a party is more and something 
 different than the mere sum of the individuals 
 which statistically constitute them. The constit- 
 uent individuals have been merged in a sympa- 
 thetic organic structure which exists as a con- 
 tinuous articulated system in much the same 
 manner as do the particles which have been built 
 into the plant. 
 
 As Diversification 
 
 Another characteristic is peculiar to growth 
 and evolution. This is diversification, or differ- 
 entiation. If the plant is different from the 
 constituent elements out of which it is produced, 
 a part of the difference arises by reason of 
 diverging forms. In one sense, differentiation is 
 in the nature of an expansion, since by this 
 means enlargement is provided for. The mate- 
 rial represented in a plant could be collected in 
 the fashion a snowball is built, but it would not 
 serve the function of a plant. Differentiation 
 means essentially that growth is expressing itself 
 in the direction of new structures and functions. 
 The germ in the egg works upon the albumen 
 and constructs of it bone, muscle, blood vessels 
 and heart, blood, nerves, skin, feathers, and all 
 the many parts that constitute the chicken. Matter
 
 The Nature of Social Evolution 49 
 
 has taken many new forms, and each form has a 
 function to perform, not for itself, but for the 
 whole organism to which it pertains. 
 
 Social evolution has witnessed a similar diversi- 
 fication of parts as communities and groups have 
 enlarged their numbers of inhabitants. The early 
 human group was a most simple affair, as simple 
 in its structure in comparison with modern society 
 as is the egg when compared with the subsequent 
 chick. But greatly increased numbers, wealth, 
 tastes, and wants demanded that many kinds of 
 organizations should exist in order that the vary- 
 ing activities might be carried out. Consequently, 
 many varieties of divisions of labor arose to meet 
 these demands. Keeping house, farming, stock- 
 raising, mining, manufacturing in its many 
 phases, marketing goods, transporting them, 
 preaching, teaching, acting, serving in govern- 
 mental capacities, singing, painting, sculpturing, 
 are some of the important responses to enlarging 
 demands. 
 
 As Integration 
 
 And as was said above, all of these functional 
 organizations were welded into a whole as fast 
 as they came into existence. This followed from 
 the fact that every special function was not car- 
 ried on for itself, but i)ccause the larger com- 
 munity demanded it. When the larger society 
 came into being, every farmer, merchant, teacher,
 
 50 Sociology 
 
 or official was a community servant or server. 
 The teacher did not teach himself, or the preacher 
 preach to himself, or the official administer for 
 himself, since their duties were for the whole 
 community or group in which their services were 
 involved. As a consequence, as fast as differen- 
 tiation of structures and functions were worked 
 out they were integrated into a vital unity. 
 
 As Accommodation 
 
 Evolution also involves adaptation and accom- 
 modation. It is well known that the forms of 
 plant and animal life have come as the result of 
 a long series of accommodations of plants and 
 animals to the physical conditions in which they 
 lived. Our corn plant is changing its character- 
 istics as it migrates into the colder regions and 
 shorter seasons of the north. When men go to 
 dwell in tropical regions their blood undergoes a 
 change to meet the new demands the climate 
 makes upon the organism. Upon exposure to 
 constantly changing conditions, organisms must 
 either readjust themselves, at first functionally 
 and then structurally, or be eliminated. 
 
 Not only has man accommodated himself to 
 conditions as an individual, but also in his col- 
 lective capacity. The different methods men use 
 in meeting the different climates of the world is 
 an illustration of the general fact. Philippine 
 and Japanese houses are distinctly dissimilar to
 
 The Nature of Social Evolution 51 
 
 the habitations of the men of the inclement re- 
 gions of Europe and America. Communities 
 living in regions of drought betray different 
 reactions to nature than those inhabiting districts 
 of abundant precipitation. It was previously 
 seen that states and nations go through qualifying 
 processes in their effort to accommodate them- 
 selves to nature, and especially to the situations 
 made by the characteristics of surrounding 
 peoples. It is also true that societies change 
 in their response to the necessities of adjusting 
 their structural parts to each other as necessity 
 and occasions arise. A society that could not so 
 accommodate itself would stand a poor chance 
 of survival. Especially in the face of strong 
 competition from other groups, adaptation is a 
 prime requisite of group safety. 
 
 Social and Biological Evolution 
 
 Societal evolution resembles and differs from 
 other forms of evolution, more pertinently bio- 
 logical evolution. Biological evolution has taken 
 place chiefly by way of physical processes, 
 though in the higher stages the mental and 
 societal have had considerable influence. Varia- 
 tion, heredity, selection — these three processes 
 realizing the method of adjustment to the phys- 
 ical environment — have constituted the steps in 
 the stairway by which plant and animal forms 
 have made the ascent. Variation and heredity
 
 52 Sociology 
 
 are agencies which are entirely contained within 
 the sphere of the organic processes ; the natural 
 conditions favoring and penalizing the varieties 
 of the organic species as they arise is the selective 
 factor, and the outcome observed in the survival 
 of particular organisms is the adaptation or 
 adjustment. That variation taking place by 
 means of heredity which fits into environing 
 conditions is said to be adjusted. 
 
 When society begins, the process of evolution 
 is modified. The brain that has been evolving 
 all through the ages and, in an increasing man- 
 ner, becoming an agent of adaptation to the 
 environment, at last becomes the salient agent in 
 development. While variation, heredity, and 
 natural selection are still operative and act as 
 conditioning factors of evolution, the determina- 
 tions of the mental agent constitute the central 
 and immediate factors of decision and adapta- 
 tion. While biological evolution was unconscious, 
 in that no organism involved in the process fore- 
 saw or ordained an objective, societal evolution 
 increasingly comprehends foresighted direction, 
 although its initial stage was dominated by the 
 establishment of customary ways of realizing 
 collective action. Thus it is seen that societal 
 variation and heredity are substituted for biolog- 
 ical variation and heredity, as the more directly 
 active agents, that the social environment increas- 
 ingly displaces the physical environment as the
 
 The Nature of Social Evolution 53 
 
 medium to which social forms are adjusted, and 
 that the intellectual interests become the active 
 agents of adaptation.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 FACTORS WHICH DETERMINE SOCIAL 
 EVOLUTION 
 
 DARWIN and other colaborers in the bio- 
 logical field have amply proved there has 
 been a successive development of organic forms, 
 plant and animal. Spencer quite as successfully 
 demonstrated the occurrence of a larger cosmical 
 evolution. That human society participates in 
 the general scheme of development, only the 
 ignorant can doubt. It is therefore in place to 
 review the factors which have promoted and 
 moulded this societal unfolding. 
 
 TJic Physical Enznronment 
 
 Man, like all other organic beings, is and 
 always has been dependent on the physical condi- 
 tions which surround him. He can no more 
 escape the influence of these factors than he can 
 transport himself bodily to a life on some other 
 planet. His life and all his activities are en- 
 meshed and articulated with the forces and 
 conditions which constitute the physical uni- 
 verse. The associated life of man likewise par- 
 takes of this relation of dependence. Collective 
 existence has only a slightly greater power to 
 
 54
 
 Factors Determining Social Evolution 55 
 
 modify the physical conditions which obtain 
 than has the individual. Without seeking to 
 estimate the exact force of each one of the 
 physical conditions which have an influence in 
 shaping society, something may be said of 
 them. 
 
 What is termed climate has exerted a deter- 
 mining influence on collective life. Temperature, 
 rainfall, humidity, air-velocity, occurrence of 
 storms, sunshine and cloud, make up climate. 
 All or most of these factors decide the amount 
 and quality of plant and animal life which is 
 available for food. Primitive man, especially, 
 was greatly affected by temperature. Before the 
 advent of artificial dwellings, clothing, and fire, 
 men were forced to inhabit the warmer portions 
 of the earth. The early societies, and even civili- 
 zation itself, courted the torrid, and the warmer 
 portions of the temperate, zones. Only after 
 clothing, fire, and artificial dwellings were dis- 
 covered could the far north or south be invaded. 
 With all our modern facilities for living, the 
 great bulk of the population of the earth occupies 
 the temperate portions of the globe. 
 
 Topography, or configuration of the earth's 
 surface, has an influence on man's distribution. 
 The high altitudes and the mountainous regions 
 have relatively few inhabitants. The lowlands 
 and the plateaus are the homes of the masses of 
 people. Low temperature goes with very high
 
 56 Sociology 
 
 altitudes, and rough countries make communi- 
 cation difficult. 
 
 Closely associated with climate and topography 
 is fertility of the soil. Inherently, an arid or a 
 cold region may be exceedingly fertile, but the 
 dearth of moisture or the low temperature pre- 
 vents a large production of available food. The 
 arid regions of the United States are particularly 
 rich in soil properties, but they are unavailable 
 for agriculture until an artificial supply of water 
 is provided. The northern portions of Canada 
 have as rich soils as are to be found, yet the 
 short seasons give opportunity for few plants to 
 develop. The lowlands are the homes of man- 
 kind because they have fertile soils, sufficient 
 precipitation to insure crops, and generally lie in 
 temperate zones. Like physical bodies in motion, 
 society most commonly follows the line of least 
 resistance, and as a consequence associations of 
 men and civilization have established themselves 
 where obtaining a livelihood was easiest. 
 
 The existence of an abundance of animals and 
 plants have had much to do with the establish- 
 ment of human associations. They afford the 
 food supply and much of the materials for manu- 
 facture which the human race has utilized. Like 
 human beings, they thrive best where climate and 
 topography are favorable. Consequently, their 
 supply coincides with the lowland regions of the 
 temperate and torrid zones. Animals have af-
 
 Factors Determining Social Evolution 57 
 
 forded tlie motor power wliich has been so long 
 used by mankind and which has been a necessary 
 factor in social evolution. Only recently have 
 mechanical motors taken the place of the horse, 
 camel, ox, and other draught and burden- 
 bearing animals. Perhaps the fact that the 
 Americas had so few useful animals for domes- 
 tication had something to do with the backward- 
 ness of social evolution on those continents prior 
 to the coming of the whites. In the case of primi- 
 tive societies, the presence of many fierce animals, 
 poisonous reptiles, and dangerous insects may 
 greatly hinder the development of collective life. 
 The presence of pestilential swamps, the occur- 
 rence of earthquakes and volcanoes, and of 
 violent storms, have likewise been modifying 
 circumstances. 
 
 Inherent Impulses and Desires 
 
 The external factors which we have just re- 
 viewed could not alone account for collective or 
 individual activities any more than could the 
 atmosphere, the gun, and the bullet explain the 
 speed of the projectile. An inner motor force 
 is a necessary provision in each case. The im- 
 pulses and desires are the motor forces in the 
 case of men and society. Without them, nothing 
 would occur. Plant and animal growth may take 
 place by means of metabolism, but the compli- 
 cated movements of animals and men are depend-
 
 58 Sociology 
 
 ent on new factors — instincts and wants. On 
 the basis of their inherited instincts, human beings 
 develop desires and wants which entice and drive 
 them into complex activities and cause them to 
 enter into cooperation and conflict with other 
 men. These wants and desires are the so-called 
 " social forces." 
 
 Several transformations have taken place in 
 human desires which have had a large bearing on 
 collective life. 
 
 First, there has been an expansion or diversifi- 
 cation. As compared with the few wants of 
 animals of the higher type, human beings present 
 an army of appetites and desires. The lowest 
 type of present primitive men are satisfied with 
 a small variety of articles and experiences. The 
 wants of civilized man are as the sands of the 
 sea in number. The names of all the consump- 
 tion articles which are produced for use would 
 be but a partial list of the desires of mankind, 
 or at least an indication of the differentiation the 
 original stock of desires has undergone. In one 
 way civilization may be said to be the expression 
 of the wants, and its measure to be indicated by 
 their expansion. In another way its complexity 
 is the product of the diversification which has 
 occurred. Reduce human desires to a half-dozen, 
 and civilization vanishes, the complicated social 
 structure crumbles. 
 
 Second, desires and wants have been standard-
 
 Factors Determining Social Evolution 59 
 
 ized and rendered persistent. As in the case of 
 diversification, this has taken place very grad- 
 ually. Early man was persistent in satisfying his 
 wants somewhat spasmodically. He went after 
 food when he was hungry, and was inactive 
 between times. Modern men are active day by 
 day. Only by this means are they able to satisfy 
 their multitude of desires. Because wants have 
 been standardized, there is no chance of let-up on 
 work. The standard set by the community or 
 by the set to which the individual belongs de- 
 crees that activity shall be persistent. Thus desires 
 and wants have become communityized, social- 
 ized. Each new standard set is not easily lost. 
 Society goes to successively higher standards. 
 
 Third, there has been an intensification of the 
 higher forms of desire. Primitive desires con- 
 cerned themselves with material and physical 
 things. Gradually the intellectual, the ethical, the 
 esthetic, and other higher desires entered. With 
 continued evolution these gained strength, until 
 in recent times large numbers of people possess 
 them in strong measure. Their reflex influence 
 on society has been beneficial. The more the 
 intellectual activities have entered, the greater has 
 been the conquest of nature on the part of society, 
 the more frequent have been the discoveries 
 which have promoted life, and the more elabo- 
 rate and perfected the organized collective agen- 
 cies by which results could be attained. Con-
 
 6o Sociology 
 
 tinued social evolution is assured only by making 
 the intellectual factor of constantly greater de- 
 pendence on the part of the masses of persons. 
 In consequence of development, the esthetic and 
 intellectual factors have received a larger ma- 
 turity, and have come to the position of existing 
 as ends rather than as means. A constantly 
 larger number of persons who labor for their 
 support devote a larger portion of leisure to 
 intellectual and esthetic enjoyment. 
 
 Race Stock 
 
 It is affirmed by ethnologists, anthropologists, 
 and other scientists that race has a considerable 
 bearing on social evolution. To what degree it 
 is an influential factor has not been determined 
 accurately. Thus it is stated that some of the 
 characteristics of the Negro race are truly 
 hereditary and peculiar to that people as a sepa- 
 rate race. But in studying the position of the 
 Negroes in the United States it is not easy to 
 determine how much of the so-called race char- 
 acteristics are not the product of the conditions 
 under which the Negroes have lived. We find 
 that, even in northern communities, where the 
 Negro is, theoretically, supposed to be given the 
 largest opportunities and to be socially equal to 
 the whites, this is not the case. Race prejudice 
 operates against them constantly, they are 
 crowded into the most backward districts of
 
 Factors Determining Social Evolution 6i 
 
 cities, and permitted to pursue only the most 
 menial occupations. Further, their women are 
 usually considered the legitimate prey of un- 
 scrupulous whites. Recently emerging out of 
 slavery, having never had equal opportunities in 
 education and culture with the whites, it is unsafe 
 to pronounce any particular quality which they 
 manifest the entire result of racial or biological 
 inheritance. 
 
 At the present time there is a growing school 
 of scientific students of anthropology and of 
 social evolution generally that holds that the 
 psychical differences the diiYerent groups of 
 peoples and the various grades of society pre- 
 sent are more the result of the special social 
 conditions in each case than of inherent consti- 
 tution. It is believed that the bodily and brain 
 structure of men have changed little since very 
 remote times in the evolution of the race. This 
 means that the potency of mind is ever present 
 to manifest itself, given the suitable conditions. 
 As a consequence, it follows that the backward 
 races, if placed under civilized conditions in such 
 manner that those influences could stimulate and 
 mould the individuals of those races from earliest 
 infancy as they do the young of the advanced 
 races, would make a response which would be 
 fairly comparable to those of civilized men. 
 
 Without dogmatizing concerning the previous 
 statement, it may be held, with fairness, that if
 
 62 Sociology 
 
 we consider a race as comprising both the heredi- 
 tary and cultural features of a given people, the 
 statement that race is a determining factor in 
 social evolution is undoubtedly true. In remov- 
 ing a group of individuals from a people pre- 
 senting backward characteristics, into the midst 
 of a more highly developed people, both the 
 physical and cultural, or folkway, factors operate 
 toward the manifestation of results quite distinct 
 from those shown by the inferior. These are 
 doubtless the important factors relative to race in 
 its bearing on social evolution. A people, dis- 
 tinguished by backwardness, develop their social 
 life but slowly; whereas a people, advanced in 
 culture, find little difficulty, as compared with the 
 former, in making changes for the better. 
 
 Stage of Culture 
 
 That the stage of culture a given society occu- 
 pies has much to do with its power of develop- 
 ment, needs little exposition in the light of what 
 has just been said and of what is commonly 
 known. It is a determining factor in two re- 
 spects at least, namely, of the rate at which 
 change is made and of the direction or kind of 
 transformation. By culture, it will be under- 
 stood, is meant the entire social content of a 
 given stage of social evolution ; that is, ideas of 
 every kind, modes of organization and of adjust-
 
 Factors Determining Social Evolution 63 
 
 ment, customs, conventions, occupational activi- 
 ties, beliefs, educational devices, and so on. 
 
 To perceive the force of the cultural stage of 
 development on the power or rate of change, it 
 is sufficient to compare the lowest type we know, 
 such as the Fuegians, with an advanced type, 
 such as the New Zealand. The former people 
 has only a slight development ; its cultural con- 
 tent is very meager. It has undoubtedly occupied 
 about the same stage of advancement for thou- 
 sands of years with scarcely perceptible change. 
 Left to itself, many thousands of years must 
 elapse before it could grow into civilization. The 
 New Zealanders, on the other hand, are a young 
 people. But in a few generations they have 
 established and wrought out one of the most 
 advanced and well-adjusted societies extant. The 
 ease and celerity with which they undertake and 
 carry through transforming enterprises is in 
 striking contrast with the sluggishness of the 
 Fuegians. 
 
 The direction or kind of changes which lower 
 and higher groups introduce are markedly differ- 
 ent. In the case of the former such changes are 
 likely to pertain to incidental matters, to affect 
 but a narrow range of interests, and to be con- 
 ducted for the benefit of a privileged few. The 
 higher a society is developed, the greater is the 
 tendency to undertake the reconstruction in 
 fundamental matters, to project transformations
 
 64 Sociology 
 
 which are general in nature, and to bring about 
 changes which promote the welfare of the masses 
 of the citizenship. 
 
 Nature of External Social Groups 
 
 External and neighboring social groups are 
 influential factors in determining the course of 
 development of any given society. According to 
 Oppenheimer and other European sociologists, 
 the state arose out of the exploitation of one 
 group by a neighboring group. The group most 
 susceptible of this exploitation was one made up 
 of peasants. They were sedentary, occupied with 
 cultivating the soil, unarmed, and peaceably dis- 
 posed. A pastoral people were likely to be the 
 exploiters. They were roving, could move expe- 
 ditiously by horse, bore arms, and craved the 
 enjoyment of other men's labor power. In each 
 case the life of each society was changed. The 
 existence of the peasant society, as a society, 
 might be ended; that of the pastoral society was 
 influenced in the direction of a ruling, tribute- 
 gathering, militant class. 
 
 In the case of advanced nations, contact with 
 other groups changes the course of a nation's 
 development in many ways. With favorable con- 
 ditions great industries may be developed, as in 
 the case of England ; extensive agricultural pro- 
 duction be engaged in for the markets of the 
 world, as in the United States until recently; or
 
 Factors Dctcnnining Social Evolution 65 
 
 some other line of interest promoted. The mili- 
 tant attitude of surrounding groups, or even of 
 one powerful neighbor, leads an accessible nation 
 in the direction of militancy. European nations 
 have stimulated each other and are now influenc- 
 ing America to maintain larger armies, to main- 
 tain greater fleets, and to create more powerful 
 armaments than would have been the case had 
 all those nations followed pacific aims. In turn 
 this preparation for war has modified govern- 
 ment, education, manufacture, and the aspirations 
 of the various peoples. 
 
 By presenting limitations to the dispersion of 
 populations and to the expansion of any given 
 people, external groups serve to throw the nation 
 back upon itself, to develop its own resources 
 more extensively, and frequently to tempt it to a 
 trial of supremacy. The intensiveness of the life 
 of the German people during recent decades has 
 come about largely because of the pressure of 
 surrounding nations. This has helped to arouse 
 a vigorous national consciousness, and to set to 
 work agencies for emancipation from the sup- 
 posed encroachment and dominance of other 
 peoples.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE NATURE OF SOCIETY 
 
 LIKE a great many other conceptions, that of 
 society has been a growth. From the time 
 of Plato and Aristotle the idea has been develop- 
 ing and refining. The essential characteristic of 
 human society has become pretty well defined. 
 In this brief chapter we will seek to portray it. 
 
 Older Conceptions 
 
 As a means of arriving at the true nature of 
 society, a consideration of two conceptions which 
 have been held will be useful. One of these is 
 the notable " social contract " theory. This theory 
 probably originated with Locke, the English phi- 
 losopher, passed over to France with Rousseau, 
 was brilliantly developed by him, helped lay the 
 basis of the philosophy of the French Revolution, 
 and was incorporated into the political philosophy 
 of the United States by Thomas JefTerson in the 
 Declaration of Independence. Of all political 
 theories, it has doubtless exerted the profound- 
 est effects, largely because it is a juristic theory, 
 deals with persons as legal entities, and is readily 
 made intelligible. 
 
 To facilitate exposition, Rousseau conceived of 
 66
 
 The Nature of Society 67 
 
 men as living apart in a state of nature, pos- 
 sessed of natural rights. For purposes of con^ 
 venience, they entered into a contract with each 
 other to form society. By this contract they 
 gave up certain of their rights to the collectivity, 
 reserving others to themselves. Through this 
 their common interests were promoted and the 
 life of individuals was enhanced. Thus society 
 was formed by contract, or a joint-partnership 
 agreement. 
 
 Although this theory is untrue, because society 
 came by slow evolution, because the individual is 
 conceived apart from society, and because many 
 social phenomena are not covered by it, the idea 
 has its value. It does emphasize the psychical 
 character of society. Association was accomplished 
 by direct conscious eflfort. Men formed an alli- 
 ance because it would be advantageous. We 
 now observe, as a matter of fact, that many 
 modern organizations are formed as conscious 
 undertakings. 
 
 The " organic concept " is a later theory to 
 account for the nature of society. Herbert 
 Spencer has made this idea familiar among 
 English-speaking peoples. A considerable part 
 of his Principles of Sociology is devoted to draw- 
 ing analogies between society and biological 
 organisms. While he did this to emphasize the 
 organic nature of society, he distinctly points out 
 that the latter is dissimilar in several funda-
 
 68 Sociology 
 
 mental points to animal organisms. Yet under 
 such powerful teaching sociology for a long time 
 was inclined to describe society as if it were a 
 biological fact. 
 
 In a large and true sense society is an organ- 
 ism, just as is the universe, the solar system, a 
 system of thought, or a locomotive. In this 
 larger, philosophical meaning anything is an 
 organism which possesses a unity dependent on 
 the interdependent cooperation of all the parts 
 in the production of its movements and func- 
 tions. Thus the function of the watch is to keep 
 time, and this function is the product of all the 
 parts of the watch working together. The func- 
 tion of a human body is to maintain life, and this 
 object is attained by means of the cooperative 
 activity of the interrelated organs of the body. 
 Since society is an association of individuals, 
 who get along together by working for results 
 through the numerous social organizations, it 
 possesses a similar interdependence of function- 
 ing parts and an organic unity. 
 
 The chief criticism of the organic concept is 
 that it has been so used as to obscure some of 
 the more important features of society. If 
 society were an organism in the sense that a 
 tree or an animal are organisms, then human 
 beings would be as fast and fixed in the meshes 
 of the parts and organs as are the cells in those 
 structures. Consequently, human intervention
 
 The Nature of Society 69 
 
 could have little or no effect in directing col- 
 lective affairs. We would be bound in a mecha- 
 nism which works automatically and unsympa- 
 thetically. If this were the truth, we, of course, 
 should accept it. But the teachings of sociolo- 
 gists since the time of Spencer and Lilienfeld 
 have minimized the relative importance of the 
 biological characteristics, and have properly em- 
 phasized the psychical qualities of social organi- 
 zations and interactions. A mere mention of 
 two or three prominent theories which have been 
 developed during the past twenty-five years will 
 serve to show this. 
 
 Theories Expressing the Psychical Nature 
 of Society 
 
 A notable theory is that of the late Lester F. 
 Ward. It may be called the " achievement " 
 theory, because in Ward's conception society 
 consists of achievements. Achievements are in- 
 tellectual products — devices, ways, means of 
 getting things done. Machines, books, laws, 
 social organizations and institutions, sciences, 
 mathematical systems, etc., are achievements. 
 Before the time of such agencies there was no 
 society. Society arose with their appearance and 
 has developed in proportion to their increase. 
 Since achievements are the ideas or principles 
 which are implicit in machines, institutions, and 
 the like (but are not the material or visible
 
 70 Sociology 
 
 structures), and since they afford cooperative 
 avenues for the larger life of men, they, rather 
 than men or institutions visible, constitute 
 society. If this is so, then society is a psychical, 
 immaterial, system. Society, therefore, accord- 
 ing to this theory, consists of the principles which 
 represent these intellectual products as they re- 
 side in the minds of men. The continuity of 
 society is then dependent on the perpetual trans- 
 fer of these ideas from generation to generation. 
 Human beings are necessary to this system only 
 in the sense that achievements are created in or 
 conserved by the minds of men. 
 
 The " imitation " theory is another interesting 
 and important sociological theory. Tarde in 
 France and Baldwin in America have been the 
 leading exponents of the imitation concept. For 
 sociological purposes, imitation may be stated as 
 the inborn psychical tendency of human beings 
 to follow the example of others. Animals do 
 this generally, monkeys are adepts at it, the word 
 "aping" was derived from the actions of apes, 
 and, consequently, man came by imitation natu- 
 rally. The child begins to follow suggestions 
 quite early in its career. It learns first by follow- 
 ing the examples of its immediate family, then 
 of those of the neighborhood, later takes sug- 
 gestions from or imitates the ideas of others in 
 school, and thus evolves to a grasp of the larger 
 world. All of the earlier life of the individual
 
 The Nature of Society 71 
 
 is made up of imitation. Actual, original crea- 
 tion is nil. Only a few able individuals ever 
 develop creative power and introduce variation 
 into the social world. Most individuals absorb 
 the copies set by others without modification. 
 Consequently, the new generation becomes like 
 the old, all the men of a community come to hold 
 essentially the same ideas, beliefs, and customs, 
 and society is continuous, because the parents 
 and elders transfer their ideas to the children and 
 youth. Since what is thus handed down consists 
 of ideas and ideas of ways to do things, it is 
 obvious that, according to this theory, society is a 
 psychological fact. 
 
 A third influential theory is the "interest" 
 theory. This is held by Ratzenhofer of Germany 
 and by Small of America. According to this 
 conception we see men in primitive times develop- 
 ing a variety of wants. The farther they develop, 
 the more wants they have. Each want calls out 
 an interest in getting the want supplied. Organi- 
 zations or social structures to get these interests 
 realized arise. Men of like interests group to- 
 gether more or less permanently. Organizations 
 appear as fast as distinct interests evolve. Grow- 
 ing, multiplying interests and wants ordain an 
 expanding and more enduring social structure. 
 In so far as men of one group or structure want 
 something which the men of another or other 
 groups desire, conflict arises. The stronger
 
 /- 
 
 Sociology 
 
 groups obtain what they want by subordinating 
 other groups to themselves. By this means we 
 have the appearance of classes and castes. The 
 larger society, in the form of the state, which, 
 as we saw, arose as an exploiting agency, seeks 
 to reconcile the interests of the antithetical 
 groups. Of course, the customs and traditions 
 of each group are factors to support the interests 
 of the given groups. In so far as there is custom 
 and tradition which is common to all the groups 
 constituting the larger society, such as a nation, 
 these are reconciling agencies. 
 
 Again we have a theory that has psychological 
 import. Wants and interests are psychical affairs. 
 The organizations and agencies instituted for 
 their satisfaction are also products of the mental 
 faculties, and are consequently of a psychical 
 nature. Social continuity is provided for in the 
 transfer of interests as permanent group assets 
 from generation to generation. Cooperation 
 among persons of like interests is a group amal- 
 gam, and frequently an inter-group bond, since 
 members of different groups may differ about 
 one matter and agree on many. 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 Other interesting theories exist, such as the 
 " folkway " theory of the late Professor Sumner, 
 Giddings' theory of "consciousness of kind," 
 the " synthetic " theory of Ellwood, the " social
 
 Tlic Nature of Society jt^ 
 
 control" idea of Ross, and others. All of 
 them agree with the former theories in be- 
 ing psychological in nature. It may be defi- 
 nitely stated, in view of present sociological 
 theories as to the nature of society, that human 
 society is to be viewed as a system of men who 
 are bound together by psychical bonds, and who 
 function together by means of psychological 
 organizations. Men's bodies do not constitute 
 society, although they are essential conditions for 
 its existence and furnish primary reasons why it 
 does exist. A sleeping army would not be a 
 society or a social group. It would not be an 
 organization ; only so many sleeping individuals. 
 Let the bugles blow and the drums beat the 
 signal of alarm or attack, the army becomes con- 
 scious, takes on organization, moves as a cor- 
 porate entity. The organizing, synthesizing factor 
 is the presence of conscious awareness and pur- 
 posiveness. Instead of the army, suppose as 
 many men who happened to wander to the same 
 place and to lie asleep. Now, should an alarm 
 be sounded, in place of organized movement 
 there is consternation and bewildered flight. The 
 minds of the men there may be as able as those 
 of the soldiers, but they have no plan. Each 
 individual is a unit and acts on his individual 
 impulse. Instead of concerted movement there 
 is pandemonium and interference. Thus the 
 organization we know as an army is a coopera-
 
 74 Sociology 
 
 tive undertaking and discipline, the condition of 
 which is the habit of mind and knowledge of 
 proper technical operations that are embedded 
 in the minds of all constituent members. The 
 army as organization, as a social fact, is the 
 psychic factor. 
 
 What is true of the illustration just used is 
 equally true of any other organization or asso- 
 ciational event. While people are necessary for 
 the existence of society, it is possible that under 
 certain conditions people may exist and there be 
 no society. Let all the persons of a city or a 
 state be in a condition of coma at one time, and city 
 or state as a social fact does not exist. Even in 
 the matter of custom and convention, which ap- 
 pear to carry themselves forward, the conscious 
 element is demanded. To eat with fork rather 
 than with knife, to wear an evening suit after 
 six in the evening instead of before dinner, or 
 to leave two cards for the gentlemen and one 
 for the lady caller, are items, the correct execu- 
 tion of which depends on mental alertness and 
 comprehension of a plan of action. If it is said 
 that it is the emotional element that unifies man- 
 kind and binds men together, in the first place 
 it is to be remembered that emotions are psy- 
 chical, and, in the second, that unless emotions 
 are guided by ideas they are blind. Again, such 
 conditions as physical environment and economic 
 situations operate to secure unity among men
 
 772^ Nature of Society 75 
 
 and cooperative action only as they are appre- 
 hended by the minds of the individuals concerned. 
 Their significance must be recognized or they are 
 impotent.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE SOCIAL ORDER 
 
 SOCIAL phenomena and human associations 
 have an arrangement which it is proper to 
 term the social order. Social order and social 
 organization are closely synonymous phrases. 
 What is meant is that there is an established 
 relationship in the arrangement of institutions, 
 customs, beliefs, ideas, modes of procedure, and 
 all else that makes up the content of society. The 
 existing relationships are regular, persistent, and 
 definite to that degree which is in harmony with 
 the nature of an aggregate that is constituted of 
 volitional elements such as human beings. 
 
 Evidence of a Social Order 
 
 Occasionally there is a doubting Thomas who 
 questions the existence of a societal order, at 
 least to the extent that it is a realm of law and 
 principles. The doubt is usually fathered by the 
 thought that an established order which is the 
 domain of law contradicts the assumption that 
 men are free moral agents. Therefore such an 
 order does not exist. Similarly, hundreds of 
 years ago, the heliocentric theory of the planetary 
 system was scouted as inconsistent with the testi- 
 
 76
 
 llic Social Order yy 
 
 mony of the senses and the Bible. Consequently, 
 such a theory was pilloried and executed. But 
 the treatment did not change the truth which is 
 now commonly accepted. The theory of evolu- 
 tion has received like treatment, but modern 
 science has builded its structure on the founda- 
 tions of that theory. To discard evolution is to 
 reject the fruitful part of science. 
 
 The intelligent man needs no proof of the 
 existence of an established order of human asso- 
 ciations. The everyday man takes it for granted, 
 and the question of its existence does not arise 
 in his mind. But for those who require proof, as 
 well as for scientific reasons, some evidences may 
 be suggested. 
 
 First, all men act as if they believed in such a 
 system. They initiate courses of action which 
 cover years to execute, make business ventures 
 which depend on the regular occurrence of 
 events, anticipate future conditions in many 
 ways, and in general bank on the continuance of 
 things just about as they are. Since they do this 
 because the experience of previous men and of 
 their own, the proof is of a high order of 
 competence. 
 
 Second, our knowledge of human nature makes 
 us treat men as if we believed that they act regu- 
 larly and according to system. Men have written 
 treatises on " the moral order of the world " in 
 spite of the fact that they believed in freedom of
 
 78 Sociology 
 
 the will. Archbishop Whately wrote that we stead- 
 fastly believe that men will do so and so accord- 
 ing to their character, and that in case they fail 
 to do as we anticipated, we lay it, not to the lack 
 of order in men's actions, but to our deficiency of 
 knowledge of their character. 
 
 Third, a great array of statistical facts proves 
 that human events occur according to system. 
 We estimate populations of cities and states for 
 some years ahead and find that the estimates are 
 approximately true. Even volitional matters like 
 marriage and divorce occur with great regularity. 
 It can be predicted with a large degree of cer- 
 tainty what per cent of persons of any given-age 
 group in the United States will be married ten 
 years hence. Actuaries make life tables, and 
 insurance is written on their basis. For given 
 nations the divorce rate can be safely estimated 
 in advance. Taking into account the incomes of 
 a group, it can be foretold what per cent of the 
 income will be spent for clothing, light and heat, 
 food, house rent, medicine, investment, etc. 
 
 Causes of the Order 
 
 Conceding that there is a social order, we may 
 ask what has produced it. First, that which is 
 really external to society, but which is the great 
 moulding influence, the uniformity of physical 
 conditions and processes, profoundly makes for 
 order. Men have to adjust themselves to nature
 
 The Social Order 79 
 
 according to the prescriptions imposed by nature. 
 Fortunately for men, nature is very dependable. 
 She seldom does the unexpected. When she does 
 indulge in eccentricities, such as furnishing 
 earthquakes, tornadoes, and droughts, the human 
 order is disturbed. The climates of the respective 
 zones and areas do not change perceptibly, sea- 
 sons occur with almost perfect regularity, pre- 
 cipitation is dependable, the nature of plants and 
 animals together with their responses are fixed. 
 Consequently, collective man has built his social 
 order to fit the functioning of nature, and much 
 of the steadfastness of that order is due to the 
 uniformity in natural phenomena. 
 
 Second, as was suggested above, human nature 
 contains factors which make for uniformity. The 
 more influential ones are instincts, habits, and 
 ideals of action. Man, in common with animals, 
 is fitted up with an automatic equipment which 
 primarily accounts for much of his conduct. All 
 of the early activities of the child are the out- 
 come of instincts. The foundations of the whole 
 emotional life are instinctive. Hunger, love, 
 anger, revenge, jealousy, sympathy, fear, the 
 manifestations of which possess an intense emo- 
 tional tone, are the roots of the larger portion of 
 social action. Given the conditions, and most of 
 these instincts operate immediately. All of them 
 may be modified and checked to a greater or less 
 degree. Hunger, and love of the sexual kind,
 
 8o Sociology 
 
 occur at stated intervals or at a given period of 
 the individual's development. Now the fact that 
 all men have them, and that they act sponta- 
 neously under appropriate conditions, serves to 
 create uniformity of action among men who are 
 in contact. 
 
 Habits are the near cousins of instincts. But 
 they are formed during the individual's lifetime, 
 while instincts are innate. Instincts have been 
 moulded, for most part, by the physical condi- 
 tions which have surrounded animal life. Habits 
 also arise in response to those factors, but the 
 social conditions which surround individuals dur- 
 ing the more advanced stages of society play a 
 larger part in their production. In so far as 
 men live under similar conditions they develop 
 like habits and habitual modes of response. And 
 considering the facts of uniformity of nature, of 
 instinctive modes of response, and of the asso- 
 ciational life which has developed as a conse- 
 quence, it is seen that there is a large similarity 
 in the various situations in which individuals are 
 reared. As a consequence, the responses which 
 are made as men carry on the collective life are 
 largely of one pattern. Hence arise the folk- 
 ways, or customs, the conventions, bodies of be- 
 lief, systems of teaching and of science, methods 
 of carrying on the work of the world, and all 
 the other agencies of relating individuals and of 
 securing cooperation. It eventuates that in any
 
 The Social Order 8i 
 
 given period of a community's life these habitual 
 responses organize themselves into a social order 
 which is as stable and regular as is human nature. 
 
 Third, ideals for community life likewise bring 
 about a solidarity. This may not be true in their 
 initial stage, but it obtains when such ideals 
 become widely accepted. It is true that in a 
 static society these ideals possess a characteristic 
 akin to the habitual. But in a changing society 
 they point toward such a transformation that 
 society will be bettered. When these ideals have 
 become generally accepted they operate to move 
 society forward gradually toward a new stage of 
 development. But because the change is a grad- 
 ual one, the characteristics of order and system 
 are maintained during the transformations which 
 ensue. A progressive society is one in which 
 such changes constantly occur under the influ- 
 ence of ideals, and the social order is a moving 
 yet stable order. 
 
 Fourth, social order is partly determined by 
 existing methods of social control. These methods 
 are either conscious or unconscious, relative to 
 the outcome. All of the cultural activities, in 
 so far as they have a bearing on the social 
 system, either disturb or the more firmly estab- 
 lish the order which is in vogue. Since most 
 of those activities are conventional, they serve 
 to retain rather than change the prevailing sys- 
 tem. Certain agitations and teachings are in-
 
 82 Sociology 
 
 tended to have a reformatory effect on society. 
 Carried on by considerable groups or parties, 
 they are conscious attempts at effecting change. 
 Historically, the most considerable of the con- 
 scious attempts to maintain the social order at 
 any given time have been made by ruling classes. 
 Before the French Revolution the "two estates" 
 constituted a ruling order in France which was a 
 class-conscious regime. Practically all of the 
 greater nations of Europe have such classes who 
 seek to maintain the established order. Perhaps 
 a growing number of citizens of the United 
 States believe this nation is dominated by the 
 wealthy classes acting together somewhat con- 
 sciously. In all these cases the ruling classes 
 desire that the social and economic arrangements 
 which obtain and which are favorable to their 
 interests shall not be disturbed. Having great 
 influence, they are able to prevent a rapid or de- 
 cided transformation of the order they sanction. 
 
 Social Organization and Social Order 
 
 By some, the phrase "social organization" is 
 meant to imply vv'hat has above been covered 
 by the social order. By others it is thought of 
 rather as pertaining to the system of articulating 
 the larger and more active interests of society. 
 We may think of it here as the social order made 
 more explicit. 
 
 When we think of society somewhat explicitly,
 
 The Social Order 83 
 
 we find that it largely consists of structural 
 organizations which are somehow bound into a 
 great whole, and that each of those structures 
 represents an important interest which it is its 
 business to realize. Some of the more important 
 interests about which organizations have grown 
 were indicated and outlined in Chapter 11. 
 
 The more thoughtful men are, the more they 
 see that society is a definite organization of 
 structures whose function is the realization of 
 their respective interests. Looking back on the 
 evolution of society, it is apparent that the 
 interests are the parents of the structures. That 
 does not mean that the functions arose before 
 the organizations, but that the wants or vision 
 of new demands made themselves felt and the 
 new structures were developed to meet those 
 wants. As rapidly as the organization was 
 evolved the function was performed. This 
 sequence constantly recurs. Men are discover- 
 ing new needs and. consequently, creating the 
 social agencies by which they may be met. Thus, 
 recently, people have come to believe that com- 
 munity recreation is desirable, and many commu- 
 nities are establishing agencies known as play- 
 ground or recreation centers. 
 
 It might be supposed that since these interests 
 grew up together there is no problem of recon- 
 ciliation and coordination. Society consists of 
 the balancing of all of these interests, but the
 
 84 Sociology 
 
 act of balancing is not without conflict and dis- 
 turbance. It cannot be assumed that just because 
 they do make up a totality, an integral society, 
 the whole moves forward or rests with entire 
 peace within the collective structure. Conflict 
 of interests in society is almost as common as 
 concord. Capital against labor, peace against 
 militarism, religious sect against sect, political 
 party against political party, labor group against 
 labor group, business against business, and com- 
 munity jealousies and divisions are a few of the 
 symptoms of the warring of interests. 
 
 One of the great reconciling forces exists in 
 the fact that each man represents several inter- 
 ests. He has political, religious, educational, 
 recreational, domestic, and all the other interests. 
 Consequently, he is bound up with others who 
 have like diversity of interests. On some of 
 these interests individuals agree, and on some 
 disagree. A man cooperates with his neighbor 
 in some directions, opposes him in others. His 
 neighbor and all other citizens are situated in 
 like manner. Hence society cannot fall apart in 
 sections. 
 
 In the long run the more powerful interests 
 prevail, and society is the resultant of the most 
 powerful forces of the period. At one time the 
 ecclesiastical organization was the dominating 
 agency, but it has fallen into the background. 
 The modern state is the great regulating agency
 
 The Social Order 85 
 
 of all the forceful interests. Every serious prob- 
 lem must ultimately be acted upon and settled by 
 the state. The state itself is an agency which 
 is influenced by the powerful interests. The 
 stronger interests place their representatives in 
 power and gain a preponderating voice in the 
 decision of matters. 
 
 Changing the Social Order 
 
 If social evolution and progress have occurred, 
 and no one can doubt that, at least, evolution of 
 society has taken place, it is inevitable that the 
 social order must have undergone a transforma- 
 tion. It is needless, therefore, to discuss the 
 possibility of such a change. Also, the discus- 
 sion thus far has suggested the causes of social 
 changes in general. Without seeking to be ex- 
 haustive, certain methods of changing the social 
 order may be mentioned briefly. 
 
 Advancement in culture in its educative sense 
 must have a profound influence. New discoveries 
 in all fields of efifort, mechanical inventions which 
 influence all phases of life, the improvement of 
 social devices of all kinds, are the result of the 
 heightening of culture. In their turn they stimu- 
 late and produce transformations in the various 
 organizations and in their articulation into a 
 social whole. Changes in society which are due 
 to heightening culture most frequently take place 
 quietly. But they may sometimes work them-
 
 86 Sociology 
 
 selves out in a brief time. In this case they are 
 catastrophic and are termed social revolutions. 
 By the peaceful method social structures are 
 changed gradually and the totality is little dis- 
 turbed. By the revolutionary method some of 
 the structures are eliminated or badly shattered. 
 As a consequence, the society goes through a 
 period of reconstruction in a more or less crip- 
 pled condition. The old structures may be 
 brought in later, or new ones built to replace 
 them. The French Revolution changed the polit- 
 ical structure of the French nation fundamen- 
 tally, and introduced transformations in other 
 directions. The Industrial Revolution substi- 
 tuted new producing agencies, which in turn 
 brought about swift changes in social conditions 
 generally. 
 
 After fundamental changes have been intro- 
 duced and society has righted itself, the new 
 comes to be accepted as the established scheme 
 of life, and a "new social order" is said to 
 exist. All phases of life become conventional- 
 ized after men follow the same methods of 
 reaction for a time, and custom, with its petrify- 
 ing grip, settles down upon the societal processes. 
 When once accustomed to the changed regime, 
 men's minds become fixed by habit and resent 
 suggestions of readjustment in the order, just as 
 was done in the case of the previous order. 
 
 It is sometimes stated that the economic fac-
 
 The Social Order 87 
 
 tors are more responsible for introducing changes 
 in the social order than are other agencies. No 
 doubt, in a general sense, this is correct. But 
 the final analysis indicates that economic factors, 
 in the proper meaning, are themselves the prod- 
 ucts of the scientific insight and largeness of 
 vision which are the outcome of the general cul- 
 tural system. The ultimate factors of change in 
 society, therefore, are the intellectual desires 
 which seek to bring new truths to light. The 
 men who are devoted to science in the quest of 
 truth are the real motive forces of social trans- 
 formation.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE SOCIAL MIND 
 
 IN the literature of sociology, and sometimes 
 in current writings of an intellectual cast, 
 certain expressions are met which suggest the 
 psychical characteristics of society. The "social 
 mind," " social consciousness," " public opinion," 
 and " public will " are examples. These phrases 
 do not connote exactly the same meaning, in- 
 deed, but they do suggest a collective psychical 
 solidarity. While the whole of society is psy- 
 chical and all of its phenomena must be regarded 
 as psychical manifestations, it is necessary to 
 consider society under certain of its aspects as 
 the social mind. 
 
 What It Is 
 
 To the average individual the social mind mani- 
 fests itself through the medium of his awareness 
 of or sensitiveness to a comprehensive, envelop- 
 ing publicity. Nothing very definite or tangible 
 appears to impinge, but "What they will say?" 
 has the note of decided reality. The sentiment 
 of the community concerning the proposed action, 
 the public opinion it may arouse, the moral sense 
 it may evoke, are factors which every normal
 
 The Social Mind 89 
 
 person respects, although their exact scientific 
 nature may never have been suspected by him. 
 It is the respect for and fear of the pubHc mind 
 which keeps most of us good. 
 
 The social mind sometimes manifests itself in 
 a spectacular manner as a symptom of mob- 
 mindedness. At times, indeed, a mob forms 
 deliberately, with little excitement, but com- 
 monly it is a spontaneous, emotional affair and 
 individuals are swept into its vortex by a strong 
 wave of feeling. Under those conditions the 
 critical faculties are passive, the habit and ability 
 to judge of the morality and expediency of the 
 course of action sink into abeyance, and the 
 members of the active group are dominated by 
 the collective mind. 
 
 Symptoms of mob-mindedness evince them- 
 selves also over large areas and populations. A 
 horrible catastrophe rivets the attention of mil- 
 lions, throws the larger public into a common 
 emotional attitude, and elicits a unified course of 
 action or of expression. The shelling of a Fort 
 Sumter, the blowing up of the Maine, the sinking 
 of the Lusitania create currents of sentiment 
 which surge through great masses of population 
 and make human beings respond as water drops 
 acted upon by ocean swells. 
 
 There is a social consciousness of a more 
 rational quality which embraces the minds of 
 practically all the citizens of the nation. A unity
 
 go Sociology 
 
 of thought and feehng exists among all citizens 
 relative to the nation, to the principles it en- 
 visages, to the flag, and to kindred ideas. In 
 addition, it would be remarkably easy to convert 
 that oneness of thought and feeling into united 
 action, should occasion arise. It is quite impos- 
 sible that the uncritically minded man should 
 place himself outside the sweep and influence of 
 this larger psychical atmosphere. Such mental 
 unity goes far to explain the persistence and 
 stability of national life. 
 
 Social consciousness expresses itself in a num- 
 ber of forms. It may be truer to say that there 
 are many social consciousnesses. Our national 
 life is made up of different publics or group 
 minds. Thus we have great political parties with 
 their platforms and policies. These parties are 
 composed of members who believe alike and hold 
 together for political action on the basis of their 
 common beliefs. We have the labor group and 
 the capital group, the members of each group 
 agreeing on certain fundamental matters and 
 striving to realize their doctrines. There are 
 religious publics, literary publics, publics founded 
 on scientific beliefs. Foist a choice idea from 
 any of these publics on public attention and citi- 
 zens array themselves in conscious groups 
 according to their attitude to the idea. 
 
 A paradox exists relative to the social mind 
 and individual minds. The former is but the
 
 The Social Mind 91 
 
 organic agreement of the latter, and the latter 
 is the product of the former. There is no social 
 mind, no separate, transcendental, collective en- 
 tity in the form of a social consciousness, above 
 and apart from individual minds. Unless men 
 fundamentally agree so that cooperative results 
 are obtainable, there can be no society and no 
 social mind. But this ability to agree, the think- 
 ing and feeling alike, are the outcome of indi- 
 viduals being nurtured and cultured in the 
 atmosphere of group association and solidarity. 
 The sociologist is more certain of nothing than 
 that individual mind and human personality are 
 the gradually formed accretions and resultants 
 of the age-old social evolution. Thus the agree- 
 ment among minds is not of the accidental and 
 superficial order. It is founded in the consti- 
 tution both of society and the individual. 
 
 What Makes It Possible 
 
 Since the social mind is the oneness of senti- 
 ment, thought, and tendency to reaction which 
 prevails among men generally, it must have 
 determining conditions. It is something inter- 
 individual and requires support. The contact and 
 interplay of mind with mind we take as a matter 
 of course as we do the air. Minds and society 
 have developed together, and the apparatus and 
 conditions needful to their expansion have also 
 been an evolution.
 
 92 Sociology 
 
 The ability to catch suggestions from the 
 movements and physical expressions of other 
 individuals, and the tendency to imitate and re- 
 spond to favored actions, doubtless were the 
 original foundation factors. These are precondi- 
 tions of a communicating system, and without 
 them we do not see how such a system could be 
 established. All the higher animals have those 
 abilities and tendencies. We need not concern 
 ourselves with how they began, except to say 
 that the rearing of families furnished beginning 
 groups, and heredity favored those animals 
 which made most out of communication. But a 
 communicating system is absolutely essential to 
 the existence of a social mind. 
 
 In an early chapter we noticed the rise of 
 language. This has formed the nexus between 
 minds and furnished the channel for the flow of 
 currents of ideas. Whatever has perfected or 
 extended this connecting agency has facilitated 
 the exchange of thought and helped build up a 
 social consciousness. The development of the 
 parts of speech, the establishment of sign lan- 
 guage, the working out of picture writing, the 
 creation of an alphabet, of running script, of 
 permanent writing material, the invention of 
 printing and the popularization of information, 
 the founding of schools for the training of minds 
 and the spread of more exact knowledge, the 
 introduction of newspaper, library, telegraph,
 
 TJie Social Mind 93 
 
 telephone, radiotelegraphy, the invention and 
 adoption of rapid transporting devices so that 
 mail and published matter may reach their des- 
 tination speedily, have widened the reach of 
 communication and expanded the area of the 
 operation of social consciousness. 
 
 Besides the development of a communicating 
 system, some other growths have favored the 
 establishment of a social mind. Among these 
 may be mentioned maxims, judgments, training 
 habits, and the like. It is one of the functions 
 of language to fix meanings. An idea comes to 
 be expressed by a certain word. That idea is 
 fixed in the word. All who use the word approx- 
 imate the same meaning. In the same manner, 
 a maxim or a judgment play large parts in fixing 
 and continuing ideas. Maxims are especially 
 effective because they express, in popular and 
 picturesque form, certain popular judgments 
 which have been worked out by long experience. 
 "A rolling stone gathers no moss," is the popular 
 verdict on the unfruitfulness of the man who 
 jumps from job to job. Such judgments, those 
 which serve to reflect a community attitude or 
 to teach virtues which are useful for community 
 purposes, fixate minds in a common form and 
 promote a larger consensus of opinion. 
 
 Habits of training, in so far as they are simi- 
 lar for diflFerent families and communities, exert 
 a strong influence toward producing a common
 
 94 Sociology 
 
 consciousness. Where all the children are brought 
 up in the same way and to believe the same 
 things, there should be little divergence of views 
 and of action when they are called on to conduct 
 affairs. This is a vital matter relative to the 
 greater issues and questions, where the point of 
 view determines what the ultimate course of 
 action by the community or nation shall be. 
 Thus, the family point of view relative to the 
 Negro and the Negro question is likely to deter- 
 mine the individual's lifelong attitude toward the 
 Negro race. It is largely by this means that the 
 public mind in the North and the South relative 
 to the Negro has come to be different. But in 
 smaller matters, such as modes of eating, dress- 
 ing, and appearing in public, similarities and 
 differences of habit have considerable import. 
 Racial disagreements are likely to hinge quite as 
 much on these things as on what are considered 
 more weighty. Racial consciousness is a form of 
 social consciousness which plays a serious part in 
 the affairs of men. It is chiefly made up of preju- 
 dices, and these prejudices in turn are based very 
 largely on such superficial differences between 
 racial groups as complexion, form of hair, modes 
 of living, of eating, of dressing, and the like. 
 
 Its Coercive and Evaluating Aspects 
 
 The social mind is both a coercing and evaluat- 
 ing agency. It is said that violators of the laws
 
 The Social Mind 95 
 
 of the United States have a great fear of the 
 national government because of its wide reach 
 and profound authority. But there is a force 
 that is more feared than that of the central 
 government, one without the existence of which 
 the central authority would be of little avail. 
 This is the social mind which manifests itself 
 in a national sentiment or opinion relative to a 
 given act or issue. However powerful combi- 
 nations of capital may be, they have slight 
 respect for national laws until those laws are 
 backed up by a strong publicity and general 
 sentiment. The fact that the most powerful cor- 
 porations are now seeking, by various means, to 
 direct and mould public opinion relative to them- 
 selves, is an index of their perception of the 
 force of the sentiment in a democracy. Could 
 this opinion be influenced in a direction opposed 
 to its present course, current national laws regu- 
 lative of corporate powers might be forced from 
 the statute books. Probably the crucial test of 
 democracy lies in its ability to keep open its pub- 
 licity channels. 
 
 Unless publicity is directed toward some par- 
 ticular issue or action, the social mind possesses 
 no coercive power. This is the reason so many 
 laws which are good are not enforced. They 
 were enacted before there was a general senti- 
 ment created in their behalf, or they have long 
 existed and the public has forgotten them. Every
 
 96 Sociology 
 
 law and community regulation is dependent for 
 its effectiveness on the support of the wide-awake 
 sentiment of the society involved. 
 
 In matters of right and wrong, of what is 
 commonly called morality, the social mind acts 
 as the largest compelling agent. Our ideas of 
 what is right and ethical are either purely formal, 
 which means that they have been accepted from 
 a distant past in which they were probably 
 formed under the lead of public sentiment, or 
 they are highly conscious and active. Save for 
 the cases of original thinkers who dare follow 
 their reason and blaze the way to new positions 
 of thought and conduct, the consciences of men 
 are incited only by an aroused community con- 
 sciousness. Leadership and "respectability" are 
 prominent factors in getting a consciousness 
 aroused. When the average man discovers that 
 the " respectable " citizens of a community, or 
 that a large number of persons, favor a course 
 of action, he is impressed and accepts " reasons " 
 which he previously repelled. After enough indi- 
 viduals accept the new position to make it for- 
 midable it may become generally sanctioned. 
 Then it is right and the opposite is wrong. All 
 follow the new course of action as a matter of 
 course because of the fear of community dis- 
 approval if they do not. For the same reason 
 the anti-social man often is restrained from anti- 
 social actions because of the dread of exposure.
 
 The Social Mind 97 
 
 During the " insurance scandal " of a few years 
 ago, certain high officers of insurance companies 
 who had engaged in nefarious practices and yet 
 had posed as public benefactors, withered like 
 blighted leaves before the public disapproval 
 which followed the exposure, and in some cases 
 died of shame. The fear of what people will 
 think and say, the reverence for the community 
 sentiment, is so strong in all, that it may be said 
 that most of the force of conscience is vested in 
 public opinion. 
 
 Such considerations introduce the idea of the 
 evaluating function which resides in the social 
 mind. Every active social mind, every new 
 incitement which the social consciousness expe- 
 riences, involves the process of setting and fixing 
 values. If a course of action is right, it is 
 right because society in the past has so deter- 
 mined it. When a new course of action opens up 
 before men, one the ethical nature of which has 
 not been determined, except when the evils to 
 society are very apparent, they are left free to 
 follow it. But if injurious social results appear, 
 the public's attention is directed to the new situa- 
 tion. After due consideration, if the evils are 
 found to be considerable, the new form of activ- 
 ity is proscribed or so modified as to be harmless. 
 Social consciousness has placed a valuation on 
 it, has pronounced an ethical judgment, and has 
 set up the norm which its members are to respect.
 
 98 Sociology 
 
 As a matter of course all the ethical judgments 
 which men highly regard have thus been worked 
 out in the past by a process of practical testing. 
 Actions which have proved socially harmless or 
 positively beneficial have been permitted or ap- 
 proved ; those which proved harmful were pro- 
 scribed. Needless to say that society may be 
 expected to continue this function into the distant 
 future. 
 
 The Direction of the Social Mind 
 
 As is the case with the mind of the individual, 
 the course of the social mind may be influenced. 
 In a genetic sense we may say that the movement 
 of the social mind is toward a fuller, more intelli- 
 gent comprehension of the conditions of collective 
 life. Sometimes this is called an evolution toward 
 social self-consciousness. It is certain that there 
 is a larger awareness of societal affairs on the 
 part of the members of the community today 
 than there was a century ago. As compared with 
 the situation in primitive society, community 
 consciousness in modern times is brilliant and 
 effulgent. Not only does the social conscious- 
 ness comprehend a larger number of considera- 
 tions than previously, but it is far more intelli- 
 gent relative to a much greater proportion of 
 them. Society has approached that stage of its 
 development when it is becoming conscious of 
 itself.
 
 The Social Mind 99 
 
 If knowledge about conditions yields a power 
 over those conditions commensurate with the 
 completeness of the information, the fact that 
 society has developed a wider and deeper intelli- 
 gence concerning collective aJffairs warrants the 
 conclusion that by this means it must have at- 
 tained some influence over its own direction. 
 By building up an understanding of his own 
 mind, of its activities, its organization, and its 
 origin, man has attained a more complete mas- 
 tery over himself. In like manner a pro founder 
 insight into the nature of society has not only 
 assisted in the development of a social conscious- 
 ness, but has enabled that consciousness to 
 operate as a controlling and directive force of 
 the further activities of the collectivity. Since 
 in its nature society is psychical, and since, as 
 we have had reason to conclude, society exists 
 to that exact measure and degree that a common 
 and cooperative consciousness occurs, it follows 
 that any directive influence the social mind is 
 able to exert on the development of society is 
 at the same time and in reality a control and 
 regulation of itself. Thus if social evolution has 
 been toward a more developed social conscious- 
 ness and a more intelligent shaping of collective 
 affairs, it has involved the consequent larger self- 
 control and self-direction on the part of the social 
 mind. 
 
 Inasmuch as the social mind is susceptible of
 
 lOO Sociology 
 
 direction by means of its own agency, it follows 
 that it may also be influenced by other agencies. 
 Every considerable organized body of opinion 
 that actively exerts its influence toward shaping 
 the mind of the public has its due effect. Since 
 many organizations have for their specific aim 
 the moulding of minds, and many others seek to 
 do so on particular occasions, it is obvious that 
 the social mind must bear the imprint of their 
 efforts. Instead of " making itself up " it is 
 being made up. Consequently, it is the com- 
 posite of all the influences at work on it. Only 
 in so far as the people in general arrive at a 
 thorough understanding of society and what 
 affects its welfare for evil, can the social mind 
 be rendered immune to the effects of pernicious 
 influences.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SOCIAL SELECTION 
 
 AFTER observing the clash of interests that 
 seem to pervade society in almost every 
 quarter, there is a temptation to conclude that 
 all society is conflict and that the struggle for 
 existence is as dominant in human society now 
 as it is among animals in the jungle. The temp- 
 tation is all the greater if the observer dwells 
 in historic Europe, where races and peoples enter- 
 tain for each other such bitter animosity because 
 they have fought with one another for ages. On 
 the other hand, there is a tendency in some quar- 
 ters to regard the collective life as a pacific 
 process and to think of human beings as lifted 
 above the plane of conflict. Both of these posi- 
 tions are extreme, and the truth lies somewhere 
 between the two conceptions. 
 
 Society and Natural Selection 
 
 We may admit that biological principles have 
 a large measure of application to society and to 
 individuals in their organized capacity without 
 having to infer that men are dominated by those 
 principles to the exclusion of all others. There 
 is a close analogy between the relation of the 
 
 lOI
 
 I02 Sociology 
 
 social to the biological processes, and that of the 
 biological to the physical and chemical. The 
 opinion is often ventured that the life processes 
 of human bodies and other organisms can be 
 reduced to chemical terms. But no extended 
 proofs exist that this is possible. The organic, 
 synthetic element present, especially in the 
 higher organisms, has completely eluded the 
 attempts of the present experimenters to reduce 
 it to chemical terms. Likewise, while we must 
 acknowledge that social existence rests on bio- 
 logical foundations, it is apparent that society is 
 non-biological and that the mutual-aid factor 
 cannot be analyzed into biological elements. In- 
 stead, therefore, of seeking to account for the 
 facts of society on the grounds of natural selec- 
 tion, the sociologist must make use of a principle 
 that was introduced later into the evolutionary 
 process. Because any given societal phenomenon 
 is the result of the conditions at work in society, 
 we may think of the new principle as social 
 selection. Just as, in a state of nature, natural 
 selection includes all of the factors which deter- 
 mine what plant and animal forms shall survive, 
 so, under a collective regime, societal selection 
 governs the persistence of social forms and of 
 individuals. 
 
 The essential factors in natural selection are 
 reproduction, heredity, variation, struggle, and 
 adaptation. All forms of life reproduce. The
 
 Social Selection 103 
 
 tendency is to multiply rapidly, the ratio of in- 
 crease varying with the species and, among 
 animals, decreasing with the advance of evolu- 
 tion. By heredity the form and qualities of the 
 parents are passed down to the progeny. This 
 serves to establish the type and to preserve the 
 integrity of the different varieties. But no two 
 individuals are exactly similar. Small variations 
 make the offspring slightly different from the 
 parents. Should these variations prove service- 
 able to the organism they may recur more mag- 
 nified in succeeding generations of offspring, 
 with the result that new varieties of a superior 
 type appear. But because organisms multiply 
 rapidly, a region may become congested and, as 
 a consequence, a struggle for subsistence takes 
 place between individuals and types. Further, 
 the physical environment will undoubtedly favor 
 certain varieties more than others, and a process 
 of adaptation is thus set up. The attempt to 
 live, opposed by the other forms of life and 
 frequently by the physical conditions, constitutes 
 the struggle for existence. Hence it is held that 
 evolution of the forms of life has taken place by 
 natural selection. 
 
 The Factor of Mutuality 
 
 In the biological realm, under the conditions 
 of natural selection, a process of adaptation is 
 carried on in which the organisms which are
 
 104 Sociology 
 
 permitted to survive are said to be adjusted. The 
 adjustment is to all the factors of the environ- 
 ment, involving the physical, the vegetal, and 
 animal features. The surviving organism con- 
 forms to the physical and devours or crowds out 
 other biological organisms. 
 
 Now, the import of a collective mode of life 
 is that the force of natural selection is modified, 
 for the very essence of society is mutuality. As 
 fast as society was evolved, the biological method 
 of physical dominance and deadly struggle be- 
 tween individual organisms was mollified and 
 mitigated by the interjection of an attitude of 
 conciliation and a spirit of cooperation. In place 
 of individual seeking to exterminate every other 
 individual, groups of individuals acting together 
 faced the common enemy and constructively re- 
 acted on the soil and plant life. While it is 
 impossible to discover a nature that is abso- 
 lutely " red in tooth and claw," large sections 
 are undoubtedly lacking in the mutual factor. 
 However, the element of mutual aid is clearly 
 visible among most of the higher animals, and 
 it is clear that, among them, for the process of 
 " struggle to the death " between individuals has 
 been substituted in part one of group existence 
 and competition. 
 
 The larger the scope and the higher the de- 
 velopment of the social group, other things equal, 
 the greater the amelioration of the existence of
 
 Social Stiection 105 
 
 the members constituting it. The rule of might 
 within the group was checked by sentiments of 
 affection and esteem. Brute strength gave way 
 to the appeals of gentleness and humanity. Thus 
 the appearance of society involved the use of the 
 new principle of social selection. This did not 
 in the beginning displace natural selection, nor 
 has it ever entirely done so. The factors of 
 natural selection still operate, although not in 
 their former complete and exclusive manner. 
 Often the processes of heredity, variation, multi- 
 plication, competition, and adaptation are visible. 
 
 Modern society is assuming a very positive atti- 
 tude towards certain of the factors of natural 
 selection. It is seeking to make use of heredity 
 and variation for the improvement of the race 
 stock. By preventing the occurrence of defective 
 persons it endeavors to build a better physical 
 and mental type. In the evolution of its stand- 
 ards of living and of aspirations it has placed a 
 check on the rapid multiplication of the stock. 
 The improvements in the construction of build- 
 ings, in methods of heating and ventilation, in 
 matters of sanitation, and in wearing apparel 
 have rendered practically all portions of the earth 
 habitable, robbed the deadly zones of their power 
 to penalize, and given man a greater power of 
 adaptation to conditions. 
 
 Besides these mitigating tendencies, society has 
 worked out a large exemption of certain classes
 
 io6 Sociology 
 
 from the immediate and extreme results of the 
 former inevitable struggle. Among animals there 
 was little or no leniency shown the unfortunate 
 members. The disabled, the feeble, the mentally 
 deranged, the sick, the old, were left to their fate. 
 Among many groups of present primitive men 
 only a little less " brutality " is manifested. Weak 
 infants are exposed in order that they may be 
 eliminated ; the old are killed or left to die ; the 
 insane, idiotic, and sick are treated as possessed 
 of evil spirits, or abandoned. Society has 
 wrought a revolution in these respects. The 
 more delicate the infant, the greater its care. 
 Great efiforts are made to preserve the lives of 
 all classes of the disabled in body and mind. 
 Society maintains munificent institutions for the 
 preservation of its derelicts who in a primitive 
 age would have been exterminated by nature. 
 Further, the ofif spring of civilized peoples are 
 guarded from danger and stress in many ways. 
 Those of the Vv^ealthy may never have to put 
 forth the least efifort for their subsistence or 
 toward being useful. 
 
 Not only has the establishment of collective 
 life mitigated existence, it has enhanced it. The 
 establishment of cooperative effort in numerous 
 directions has expanded life. Production of the 
 goods to satisfy wants has been improved so that 
 there is a greater assurance of existence and a 
 larger range of satisfaction and realization.
 
 Social Selection 107 
 
 Higher interests and wants have been developed 
 and mutuality has secured their appeasement. 
 
 The Method of Social Selection 
 
 The method of natural selection is brute strug- 
 gle, the competition of might or of cunning. That 
 of social selection has been and is now such 
 struggle plus the mutual element of cooperative 
 assistance. The ideal society is one in which the 
 purely selfish element, the desire to exploit 
 others, disappears, and the desire to afford each 
 human being the opportunity to develop his tal- 
 ents to the fullest prevails. While we are far 
 removed from that ideal society, it is pretty 
 apparent that our development is in that direc- 
 tion. When that stage is reached social selec- 
 tion will be wholly a mutual, reciprocal process. 
 Now it is a synthesis of might, cunning, and 
 mutuality. But because social selection involves 
 factors not included in natural selection it is 
 thereby rendered different and is constituted a 
 higher synthetic process. 
 
 The competitive element which obtains among 
 men is partly based on inherent biological fac- 
 tors. Thus when two men compete for position 
 or wealth, the outcome is determined by their 
 comparative capacity and ability, capacity rep- 
 resenting heredity, and ability the influence of 
 training. Health, strength, temperament, and 
 capacity are general conditions of social selection.
 
 lo8 Sociology 
 
 The struggle process in society has undergone 
 a transformation in the course of social evolu- 
 tion. It has become less an affair of physical 
 strength. Whether it takes place between indi- 
 viduals or groups, conflict today rests on intellec- 
 tual prowess more than formerly. Cunning, 
 shrewdness, indirection, sheer mental power, are 
 important factors in determining the outcome. 
 It has also become more largely an affair of 
 groups than of individuals. Within a given group 
 or organization, individuals may compete for 
 place. Yet standardization of processes has done 
 much to eliminate this kind of conflict. But be- 
 tween rival group interests, whether industrial, 
 political, sectarian, or " social," the competition 
 is often intense. Besides this, there is a conflict 
 between classes, often of a strained and bitter 
 character. 
 
 Still another change has been to create a clash 
 between the individual and the system. Unless 
 he is a member of an influential class or organi- 
 zation, the destiny of the individual is determined 
 by the industrial system. Treated as an incident, 
 as a pawn in the process of business, having the 
 fate of self and family decided without consulta- 
 tion or recourse, the individual frequently sets 
 himself against the cosmic pressure of the social 
 system which restrains him. 
 
 Because of the conflict of great interests, the 
 attempt of vast industrial systems to subordinate
 
 Social Select ion 109 
 
 the larger welfare to their own ends, as well as 
 because of the appearance of other phenomena 
 which menace the general interest that society 
 represents, there is a demand for a stricter and 
 larger social control. The attitude of mind is 
 rapidly developing which calls for the extension 
 of the functions of the only agency which has 
 the power to coordinate conflicting elements and 
 the neutrality to fairly represent all interests. As 
 a consequence, state control and supervision of 
 industrial processes and conditions of life gener- 
 ally has been greatly extended. Thus is being 
 wrought out the highest stage of social selection, 
 that of socialization.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PROGRESS AND ITS CONDITIONS 
 
 OF the two conceptions, evolution and prog- 
 ress, the latter is the more important for 
 sociology. Modern sociologists and social re- 
 formers are bound to concern themselves with the 
 idea of progress and the instruments by which it 
 is attained. It will be well, therefore, to consider 
 the chief features of progress. 
 
 The Nature of Progress 
 
 It has been a common mistake to regard evolu- 
 tion and progress as identical concepts and proc- 
 esses ; but progress is distinctly a sociological 
 idea and process, peculiar to society, while evolu- 
 tion embraces the development alike of the uni- 
 verse, of celestial systems, worlds, the organic 
 realms of animals and plants, and society. Prog- 
 gress is thus seen to be but a phase of the larger 
 process of evolution. In another respect their 
 lack of identity is obvious. Evolution involves 
 all that takes place in any given system during the 
 course of its existence, whether it is in the nature 
 of advance or of retrogression. Progress cannot 
 pertain to any process that tears down the system 
 and results in deterioration. Consequently, only 
 no
 
 Progress and Its Conditions 1 1 1 
 
 those changes and transformations which are for 
 the improvement of the system concerned can be 
 rightly termed progressive. 
 
 Progress also includes the idea of well-being. 
 The welfare of the individuals which constitute 
 the given system of society is the great end of 
 progress. This has been denied by some writers 
 because in their estimation a scientific account of 
 society has nothing to do with the subjective 
 states of the individual. A scientific sociolog}', 
 they maintain, would concern itself only with the 
 formal process, not with what men think the 
 process should attain. But satisfaction is an 
 essential part of the social process, because, in 
 part, it determines what direction the process 
 shall take. Further, the only justification to be 
 found for any system is in its ability to realize 
 the human element — the well-being of man, the 
 general welfare or contentment. Herbert Spen- 
 cer believed that evolution and progress were one 
 and the same process because evolution meant 
 a better adjustment of Hfe to its conditions and 
 a better adjustment involved the subjective fac- 
 tor of well-being, or satisfaction. But he for- 
 got his own teaching that evolution covers both 
 advance and retrogression, and he overlooked 
 the fact that a social organization in its growth 
 may meet the criteria of evolution and yet prove 
 oppressive. Some of the great modern trusts 
 exemplify this statement. They have enlarged
 
 1 1 2 Sociology 
 
 and expanded, differentiated, and integrated, un- 
 til they have stood as almost perfect examples of 
 social organization ; yet the well-being of their 
 workers often has been disregarded and their 
 operations have not always conduced to the 
 larger welfare. It is objected that progress 
 should not be treated by sociology because the 
 idea of progress involves utility and science 
 should avoid utilitarian aims. In reply it may be 
 said that of all the sciences only the highest kinds 
 of mathematics have ever been in the position of 
 being able to disregard utility, and that for only 
 a short time. We have no sciences that ulti- 
 mately are not intended to be useful. But, in so 
 far as it prejudices the judgment, it is justi- 
 fiable to exclude a consideration of the immedi- 
 ately useful from pure science. However, in the 
 long run, the only justification of any science is 
 that of being useful. 
 
 Able writers have maintained that society is 
 realizing progress whenever it moves away from 
 a "pain economy" and realizes in larger measure 
 a " pleasure economy." Animals leading a wild 
 life live in a state of fear of death from their 
 enemies. Every animal is destined to die of vio- 
 lence or starvation. The satisfaction of funda- 
 mental wants of mere existence is ever pressing. 
 Lower human society was very little removed from 
 this condition. With the growth of cooperative 
 ability the invention of mechanical devices of of-
 
 Progress and Its Conditions 113 
 
 f ense and defense, and the establishment of organ- 
 ized agencies for getting food, making the many 
 forms of goods for satisfying wants, and of pro- 
 moting Hfe generally, the force of the pain econ- 
 omy waned and that of the pleasure economy 
 strengthened. The very center of the system was 
 the invention and adoption of devices for bring- 
 ing a greater store of satisfaction to the masses 
 of people. Hence it may be said that progress 
 represents the better adaptation of all social 
 agencies to the conditions of life and the conse- 
 quent well-being which results from it. 
 
 Modern progress is characterized by a height- 
 ened social consciousness or is the product of 
 collective intelligence. It would require an ex- 
 tended discussion to determine whether or not 
 progress has always been the result of an active 
 public mind. It might seem that in primitive 
 times favorable adai)tations of social agencies 
 could have been effected without foresight on the 
 part of the group acting as a group. Yet it is 
 found that among such very primitive peoples 
 as the Australians, before changes in the institu- 
 tions were made, the proposals were seriously 
 considered in a council of the leading men of the 
 group. It is likely that, w'hen custom and tra- 
 dition were so greatly revered, as they were in 
 primitive times, the transformation and readap- 
 tation of at least important ones must have had 
 an authoritative sanction. Whatever may have
 
 114 Sociology 
 
 been the case then, it is certain that fundamental 
 changes in modern society are either projected 
 by some form of the state, as the representative 
 of the given society, or, when made by other 
 agencies, they are finally sanctioned or regulated 
 by the collective authority. No agency can be 
 permitted, for long, to v^ork against the interest 
 of society in general. The state is the guardian 
 of the interest of the masses of its citizens, and is 
 bound to sit in judgment on the various organi- 
 zations which affect the lives of its people. 
 Beneficent activities are sanctioned or permitted, 
 injurious ones are prevented or modified. 
 
 Possibility of Progress 
 
 The term progress is used so widely, and what 
 is supposed to represent progress is appreciated 
 in terms of such unction, as to force the infer- 
 ence that progress is universally desired. Yet 
 nothing is further from the truth, for progress 
 necessitates a transformation of social organi- 
 zation, a fundamental change in the social order. 
 A readjustment of this nature is destined to be 
 opposed for two reasons. 
 
 First, individuals in general are creatures of 
 habit, and, since social readjustment signifies 
 the breaking up of customary modes of reacting 
 and the establishment of new ones, they may be 
 depended on to resent innovations.
 
 Progress and Its Conditions 115 
 
 Second, every social order comprehends a 
 privileged class as a part of its organization, and 
 because progress in reality involves a reduction 
 of unjust privileges it can only be dreaded and 
 hated by that powerful section of society. In so 
 far as it signifies disturbing privilege, progress 
 can come only by being forced upon the privi- 
 leged class ; and, since it means the disturbance 
 of custom, the masses of people must be con- 
 vinced that their interests demand it before it is 
 possible of realization. 
 
 The foregoing statement illustrates the ob- 
 stacles to progress but it does not prove its pos- 
 sibility or impossibility. Some acute thinkers 
 have sought to demonstrate the impossibility of 
 progress. M. Emile Faguet believes that progress 
 is beyond attainment because it involves the idea 
 of continuous improvement, something he indi- 
 cates we cannot demonstrate since we cannot 
 prove that human beings as individuals possess 
 greater knowledge, happiness, and morality than 
 originally, and that if they do the advance has 
 been a continuous one. It is possible to prove 
 that scientific knowledge has increased but such 
 knowledge does not increase happiness and mor- 
 ality. But while it is impossible to demonstrate 
 progress in general, it is feasible to believe in and 
 attain certain kinds of improvement. Progress 
 in general cannot be attained, in his estimation, 
 because we cannot know the goal of society, and
 
 1 1 6 Sociology 
 
 without this knowledge we have no means of 
 continuous social direction. 
 
 The late sociologist Ludwig Gumplowicz de- 
 veloped a system in which the possibility of prog- 
 ress was denied. According to his teaching an 
 increase of human misery is the inevitable result 
 of development, and is inherent in the social 
 process. For social evolution involves the mul- 
 tiplication of wants on the part of individuals and 
 it is unlikely that continuous differentiation and 
 multiplication will be checked. But while the 
 privileged few control the means by which all 
 their wants are realized, the preponderating ma- 
 jority of men have developed no corresponding 
 ability of attaining such satisfaction. Indeed that 
 ability has remained comparatively stationary in 
 the face of increasing numbers of biting desires. 
 And when we seek to form a judgment of future 
 social conditions, and to ground that judgment 
 on the course of evolution thus far realized, we 
 find no basis of hope that the situation will be 
 changed. Indeed, we observe the control of the 
 means of satisfaction so firmly held by the ruling 
 classes that its weakening is beyond rational ex- 
 pectation. As a consequence we are forced to 
 picture the future lot of the common people as 
 becoming continually worse, for an increase of 
 misery is consequent to the genesis of ever mul- 
 tiplying wants that cannot be satisfied. 
 
 Notwithstanding the large measure of truth in
 
 Progress and Its Conditions 117 
 
 the foregoing statements, there is warrant in be- 
 Heving in the possibihty of progress. 
 
 First, the more advanced a society becomes the 
 greater is its abihty to settle on a goal which it 
 desires to realize. It is quite likely that this na- 
 tional society will emphasize one set of attain- 
 ments, and that one another set. There can be 
 little question that the German nation has ac- 
 cepted and realized most successfully a certain 
 national ideal and that this fact differentiates it 
 from other nations. A widespread intelligence 
 as to social conditions in general is the founda- 
 tion of an agreement on the ideal to be realized, 
 and a sympathetic understanding is the essential 
 to the universal acceptance of a systematic plan 
 for its attainment. 
 
 Second, an intelligent interpretation of the 
 course of human development results in the be- 
 lief that the lot of the masses of people has 
 undergone improvement. For note what is ex- 
 pressed and involved in these successive stages 
 of social evolution : cannibalism, slavery, serf- 
 dom, free labor, the right of property, and civil 
 and political rights. The terms of this series rep- 
 resent the condition of the mass of people at the 
 successive stages of societal development, and 
 the series indicates a tremendous and consistent, 
 if slow, advance in the enjoyment of personal 
 liberty, property rights, and the larger satisfac- 
 tions of life. While the great majority of men
 
 ii8 Sociology 
 
 today have many wants they cannot satisfy, yet, 
 except for a small minority, many desires besides 
 the more necessitous ones are realized. And 
 while considerable sections of our populations 
 actually face want in the midst of plenty, it is 
 doubtful if those populations would be willing 
 to exchange their condition for those of the 
 slaves and serfs of previous ages. And this is 
 the more true because present normal individuals 
 possess a foundation of hope that they may be 
 able to work an improvement in their lot while 
 the slave and serf possessed no basis for such 
 optimism. 
 
 Third, a consideration of the development of 
 the agencies of social control by the masses, to- 
 gether with that of the sociolog}' of control, war- 
 rants the belief that it is possible to improve the 
 lot of the average man and ultimately to abolish 
 from society the major portion of misery. If it 
 is a fact that the conditions of the masses have 
 improved during the centuries, it is also a fact 
 that the gains have come because those masses 
 have taken over more and more of societal direc- 
 tion and have attained a greater appreciation of 
 their place in the social system. A study of the 
 evolution of the state indicates that that insti- 
 tution has developed away from being a mere 
 agent of exploitation in the hand of a ruling class 
 and towards becoming the means by which a 
 whole people regulates its common life. And
 
 Progress and Its Conditions 119 
 
 although tlie process is still incomplete it is a 
 hopefully continuing process. 
 
 Likewise the sociology of control demon- 
 strates that society is a field of forces and con- 
 ditions which may be studied and understood. 
 Because they may be understood, as is the case 
 with natural forces whose characteristics are 
 known, they can be harnessed, regulated, and 
 directed. Hence the conclusion arises that a peo- 
 ple may successfully coordinate and direct the 
 forces and conditions of its life by promoting a 
 universal insight in the societal realm. But it is 
 essential to recognize that a knowledge of the 
 appropriate means to attain societal ends and a 
 general desire to realize them are as imperatively 
 demanded as knowledge. 
 
 Conditions of Progress 
 
 Since the nature of progress is not identical 
 with that of evolution, it would be expected that 
 the conditions which favor the former may not 
 correspond to those which were seen to deter- 
 mine evolution. In so far as evolution consists 
 of an adaptation of society to nature in such 
 manner that the well-being of the members of 
 society is promoted, the conditions which account 
 for such an adaptation are also conditions of 
 progress. Thus it was necessary for the United 
 States government to systematize sanitation in 
 the Panama zone as a precondition to construct-
 
 120 Sociology 
 
 ing the Panama canal. This doubtless was an 
 evolutionary step, as it was one of progress. But 
 there are some special factors or conditions which 
 must exist in order that progress may take place 
 steadily and extensively. 
 
 One condition is the existence of intelligence. 
 More than any other agency intelligence begets 
 progress. Custom-bound and backward-looking 
 minds bind society to a treadmill of repetition. 
 Improvement does not arise when what obtains 
 is regarded as so sacred that it may not be read- 
 justed. Reason studies conditions and perceives 
 that evils arise because conditions are unfavor- 
 able and that they may be eliminated by a process 
 of modification. It invents, devises, organizes, 
 and transforms. A few such minds in a 
 community may induce favorable action. Mul- 
 tiply the number of rational minds and bene- 
 ficial actions are increased. Raise the intelli- 
 gence of all the minds of the group, and advan- 
 tageous ways to secure results are sought by 
 all. Progress is advanced to the degree minds 
 are rationalized and in the measure of the uni- 
 versality of intelligence among the people. Con- 
 tinuous progress is dependent on the steady ele- 
 vation of intelligence among a citizenship at 
 large. 
 
 Along with a greater development of intelli- 
 gence must go an increased altruism. Intelli- 
 gence left to itself may work individualistically
 
 Progress and Its Conditions 121 
 
 and selfishly. Not all inventive minds are con- 
 siderate of the welfare of others in the effects 
 which their inventions produce. It is possible 
 to promote an organization which secures a 
 greater efficiency in its particular processes but 
 which, at the same time, is capable of being used 
 to benefit a few and injure the many. Since 
 society is a gigantic cooperative association in 
 which every citizen has vested rights all agencies 
 must be used for the common good. A large 
 sympathy with other men and an insight into 
 the nature of society are necessary safeguards of 
 the common life. 
 
 An additional condition of progress is the 
 institution of an adequate means of social con- 
 trol. Since it has proved possible that individ- 
 uals and groups may organize agencies which 
 they use for selfish purposes to the injury of the 
 masses of their fellow citizens, it becomes highly 
 essential that society shall provide a means of 
 regulation and control which shall make such 
 results impossible. That society has perfected a 
 complete system of such control agencies is obvi- 
 ously untrue, but it has made advance to the ex- 
 tent that initial provisions have been instituted. 
 Since society consists of all its individual mem- 
 bers, and all have equal vested rights to the bene- 
 fits of society as a cooperative undertaking, it 
 is obvious that regulating agencies should be 
 under the control of the citizenship generally. If
 
 122 Sociology 
 
 they are to be secure in their rights and produc- 
 tive labor the distribution of the achievements 
 of society can not be left to be operated by a few 
 interested individuals or to a small class of men. 
 If culture in its best sense is "the total technique 
 for getting things done," the promotion of civ- 
 ilization consists in the "popularization or demo- 
 cratization of the use of culture."
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE EQUALIZATION OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 WE have hitherto concluded that the thought 
 of well-being lies at the very center of the 
 conception of progress and assists in differenti- 
 ating progress from evolution. In so far, there- 
 fore, as society presents a system in which the 
 well-being of any or a large number of individ- 
 uals is unnaturally restricted, the possibility of 
 equalizing conditions among men becomes an im- 
 portant consideration. 
 
 Equality and Social Justice 
 
 To whatever degree equality among men is 
 possible, its desirability must rest upon social 
 justice. It is theoretically conceivable that equal- 
 ity might be possible and yet be undesirable. 
 However, if social justice demands it there is no 
 justification for preventing its realization. For, 
 in part, justice is the habitual principles of hu- 
 man relationships men have worked out empiric- 
 ally and that have come to regulate those actions 
 which have an effect on others. But the concep- 
 tion of social justice also involves our idea of 
 what human relationships should be, and, as is the 
 case with all well-founded ideals, the accom- 
 123
 
 124 Sociology 
 
 panying imperative which demands that the ideal 
 shall be realized is strong. 
 
 It is well to recognize that the idea of human 
 equality is liable to valid criticism, but there is no 
 sanction for the extreme attack which has been 
 directed against the positive claims made in the 
 Declaration of Independence. The purpose of 
 that document was not to give a precise defini- 
 tion and exposition of terms but to make clear 
 and positive statements that would grip the men 
 of the time and secure their assent. Further- 
 more, Jefferson's assertions contain more truth 
 than the statements of the opponents of human 
 rights. Were the attacks made against the con- 
 ception of equality well-motived and intended 
 to advance social well-being, such criticisms 
 would be valuable ; but too often they are thinly 
 veiled attempts to disparage aspirations toward 
 democracy and to promote a system of in- 
 equalities. 
 
 As a matter of fact, absolute equality among 
 men is non-existent and practically impossible of 
 realization. Only a little reflection is required to 
 show that in respect of weight, stature, strength, 
 appearance, and other physical characteristics 
 men are neither born equal nor destined to de- 
 velop into beings that are equal. It is almost as 
 obvious that a profound inequality exists among 
 individuals in their mental capacities, for native 
 capacity grades up through a series of interme-
 
 The Equalization of Opportunity 125 
 
 diate intellectual stages from the imbecile to the 
 genius. Being congenitally unequal in capacity, 
 the individuals can never become equal by devel- 
 opment. Likewise it is apparent that there is a 
 great diversity in the social conditions into which 
 men are bom. Fortune determines that some 
 shall be born to wealth and position and that 
 others shall inherit poverty and obscurity ; and 
 these conditions of birth have great influence in 
 determining to what economic and social attain- 
 ment the individuals shall arrive. 
 
 It is somewhat patent that if we were to base a 
 doctrine of equality on the facts of birth and of 
 prevalent social relationships, we would have to 
 conclude that fate has decreed a social system in 
 which inequalities are inherent. And perhaps 
 we would further incline to a justification of a 
 class system in society which would correspond 
 to the outlines of the various congenital classes. 
 Thus the strong and the able would form the 
 upper classes, and the weak and the mentally 
 deficient would constitute the lower. And could 
 the restraints of a well-estabHshed system of 
 relationships be overcome, no doubt human be- 
 ings would be sifted out on the basis of capacity 
 and settled in an order of social classes which 
 would conform to their various grades of ability. 
 Further, if the strong and the able were always 
 well-disposed, such an arrangement would pre- 
 sent a social order based on a large measure of
 
 1 26 Sociology 
 
 so-called natural justice. Because congenital ca- 
 pacity constantly determined where each indi- 
 vidual should serve in the system, there would 
 occur a perpetual adjustment of individuals to 
 the social order. 
 
 Unfortunately our social system was not estab- 
 lished on any such principle, and human beings 
 are not regimented according to their capacities 
 and their developed abilities. And it is quite 
 certain that, if, suddenly, society could be ar- 
 ranged according to that scheme, it would not 
 perpetuate itself according to the principle of 
 congenital capacity so that "natural justice" 
 would continue. For the able individuals who 
 occupied the places of power would insist that 
 their offspring, whatever their capacities, should 
 retain the positions of the parents. As a conse- 
 quence, the natural method of establishing the 
 social relationships would be broken down and 
 a system of inequalities would be established. It 
 is quite obvious that a "natural order" would 
 soon be wrecked on the rock of privilege. 
 
 Since men are born unequal, and since the 
 social system tends to perpetuate such inequali- 
 ties as obtain, what then does social justice re- 
 quire? Evidently it does not require the impos- 
 sible, and proclaim that the genius and the imbe- 
 cile should be considered equal. It does demand, 
 however, that every human being should be given 
 opportunity to develop his powers to their limits,
 
 The Equalization of Importunity 127 
 
 and that no restrictions should be allowed to pre- 
 vent that development. 
 
 Removal of Artificial Restrictions 
 
 It is difficult to appreciate the operations of 
 the minds of these who would maintain that the 
 present social order actually realizes social jus- 
 tice ; that every individual obtains his righteous 
 deserts, and that there are no inequalities of op- 
 portunity. For it would appear evident, to the 
 fair-minded man, that many such inequalities 
 exist, and that multitudes of able and deserving 
 men and women enjoy only a minimum of that 
 well-being to which their gifts entitle them. To 
 deny this is to overlook many startling facts as 
 well as to assert that whatever happens is right. 
 Such a position would have to maintain that the 
 450,000 men who were unemployed in the city 
 of New York during the winter of 1914-15, a 
 small part of those in the entire nation, received 
 their just deserts. Yet the majority of those 
 workers had been thrown out of employment in 
 which they had shown themselves steady, intelli- 
 gent, skilled, and ambitious citizens. It would 
 have to demonstrate that social conditions have 
 no influence on human development, and that 
 criminals, paupers, prostitutes, and the wreck- 
 ages of child labor invariably have determined 
 their own destiny, in spite of any and all circum- 
 stances. Because such a position, when its Ic-
 
 128 Sociology 
 
 gitimate results are stated, reveals its own weak- 
 ness it is unnecessary to devote time to its refu- 
 tation. 
 
 In view of what has been said it can be stated 
 that equality of opportunity can obtain only 
 when, and to the degree to which, artificial social 
 hindrances are removed. Again we are likely to 
 be met by the assertion that many of the results 
 that are considered artificial restrictions of op- 
 portunity are in reality the outcome of heredity, 
 physical environment, or ethnological character- 
 istics, none of which can be eliminated. Let us 
 admit that those are important influences for 
 mankind in general, but insist that their deter- 
 minative efifects must not be overrated. The in- 
 fluence of heredity has been recognized in the 
 discussion of the idea of equality. It doubtless 
 diflferentiates the talented from the feebleminded, 
 and completely foreordains the position of the 
 latter, but only partially that of the former, in 
 society. It has been amply demonstrated by 
 Odin, Ward, and Davies that the social environ- 
 ment is the important factor in deciding whether 
 a born genius will or w'ill not develop into an 
 actual genius, according as it offers or with- 
 holds opportunities for development. Inherit- 
 ance bestows capacity but cannot guarantee its 
 development as ability ; the social environment 
 may prove an insuperable obstacle. 
 
 In like manner the searching work of the pub-
 
 The Equalization of Opportunity 129 
 
 Heists just mentioned has proved that physical 
 locaHty and ethnological characteristics exercise 
 no appreciable influence on the production of 
 talent. Talent is likely to manifest itself irre- 
 spective of geographical situations and emerge 
 from any racial group, providing the fit oppor- 
 tunities are ofifered by the society. And while 
 the investigations have been directed toward dis- 
 covering what conditions determine the develop- 
 ment of talented individuals, it is most probable 
 that their results are applicable to the masses of 
 people. For it would appear that the conditions 
 which favor or retard the development of the 
 talented mind also influence correspondingly the 
 minds of the normal individuals. If conditions 
 are able to check potential talent, they no doubt 
 exercise a greater hindrance over the average 
 man. 
 
 As a result of the foregoing considerations, 
 we may conclude that the conditions which pro- 
 duce the inequalities of opportunity in society, 
 aside from the factor of heredity, are resident in 
 the social system. We are consequently driven 
 to believe that the dependable hope of equalizing 
 opportunities lies in some sort of social reorgani- 
 zation. And, as will be observed in a subsequent 
 place, the conditions which govern heredity may 
 prove subject to regulation. Relative to the 
 equalization of opportunity, then, the removal 
 from society of what may be termed artificial
 
 130 Sociology 
 
 restrictions constitutes the foundation of op- 
 timism. The suggestion is of fundamental im- 
 portance and, consequently, its closer scrutiny is 
 desirable. 
 
 Direction of Equalization 
 
 What has thus far been said justifies the belief 
 that the causes which produce inequalities of 
 opportunity between the individuals of any given 
 social system are to be discovered in the system 
 itself, and not in race characteristics and the ex- 
 ternal physical environment. If this be true, the 
 inference is inevitable that all efforts to remove 
 inequalities must be directed toward readjusting 
 the fundamental relations and processes which 
 society expresses. The question as to whether 
 or not progress is possible was raised in a pre- 
 vious connection, and the conclusion involved 
 belief in its feasibility. We are now confronted 
 by the necessity of showing what direction efforts 
 to equalize opportunity should take. A brief 
 allusion to the processes by which inequalities 
 arise is required in order that the way to im- 
 provement may be seen. 
 
 The chief characteristics of the process by 
 which inequalities eventuate are the desire of a 
 group or class to exploit and enjoy the productive 
 ability of other groups or classes, the actual sub- 
 jugation of such groups, the formation of a sys- 
 tem of control by the subjugating group by which
 
 TJic Equalization of Opportunity 131 
 
 those subordinated may be continuously exploited 
 of their productivity, and the accompanying es- 
 tablishment of a ruling and of a dominated class. 
 Social scientists have demonstrated beyond per- 
 adventure that when the state arose this process 
 accounted for its genesis. When it was estab- 
 lished it was formed as the authoritative system 
 by means of which the large group of producers 
 were deprived of the fruits of their labors. The 
 ruling class possessed the power to maintain the 
 order it had established by force, and it further 
 built up a system of social doctrine and sanctions, 
 by means of the inculcation of which the subor- 
 dinated group was gradually reconciled and came 
 to view the social order as a sacred system. 
 
 While, as will be indicated in a later connec- 
 tion, the state has undergone a marked transfor- 
 mation since its establishment, it is certain that 
 it has not lost all of its primitive characteristics. 
 \\'ithin the social order of which it is a part, the 
 desire of a strong class to secure the fruits of 
 labor of other classes without adequate compen- 
 sation, the control of the industrial organization 
 through which the social product is distributed 
 so that the producing class can be exploited, a 
 large influence over the state, the regulative 
 agency of society, and a somewhat successful 
 command of the organs of publicity by which 
 opinions relative to the fairness of the social 
 system are founded, still measurably obtain. Due
 
 132 Sociology 
 
 reflection upon the facts of the distribution of 
 wealth and incomes in the United States, of the 
 methods which the great industrial organizations 
 have employed to increase their profits unduly, 
 and of the exploitive motive of business gen- 
 erally, will convince the candid mind that the 
 principle of exact justice does not control the 
 ordering of our present system. 
 
 A fundamental and adequate method of im- 
 proving the present social order must begin with 
 the attempt to secure an efficient system regulat- 
 ing the production and distribution of wealth. 
 And this is placed first, not because it is thought 
 that wealth is the most important consideration 
 in life, but because it is the means which com- 
 mands the avenues to the successful attainment 
 of all the other great interests. It regulates the 
 control of leisure by which access to education, 
 culture, and the higher blessings of life are made 
 possible. Since the state is the agency which the 
 masses of men must depend on to safeguard their 
 interests, they must seek to adapt that institution 
 in such fashion that it will perform its full duty. 
 
 Since economic inequalities have to do with 
 the distribution of wealth, attempts of the state 
 to exercise regulative functions cannot avoid 
 dealing with the institution of private property. 
 The unlimited power over the channels of pro- 
 duction and distribution of wealth cannot be left 
 in the hands of a class. The very fact that a few
 
 The Equalization cf Opportunity 133 
 
 men enjoy incomes greater than that of many of 
 our states, while milHons of able and deserving 
 men have a bare subsistence, is a great injustice 
 and a perpetual menace to social democracy. It 
 is the part of wisdom that the citizenship, acting 
 through the state, shall place limits on the size of 
 private fortunes and establish a system of taxa- 
 tion so graduated that all wealth and income 
 above that limit shall return to the state. 
 
 While the regulation of the economic processes 
 is seen to be fundamental, because wealth is the 
 basis of realization in general, the precondition to 
 successful regulation and to the removal of all 
 inequalities consists in the use of the intellectual 
 faculties. The human mind is the agent by means 
 of which all improvements have come. This is 
 as true of the business of society as it is of that 
 of private individuals. In the last analysis, so- 
 ciety moves forward to better conditions in the 
 measure of the enlightenment of its constituent 
 members. The condition of the masses of peo- 
 ple cannot be improved until they are intelligent 
 enough to see the value of changed methods of 
 living. Nor can it be expected that permanent 
 readjustments in the social system are to be real- 
 ized before the body of citizens become intelli- 
 gent about social relationships. Intelligence, of 
 course, means information and education. 
 
 The only remedy for the inequalities of life 
 and for the subordination of class by class is to
 
 134 Sociology 
 
 be found in the establishment of an educational 
 system that places a premium on modern thought, 
 and the instruction of all in the social sciences; 
 and the accompanying ordering of a system of 
 publicity which guarantees that accurate and full 
 information about industrial and political affairs 
 shall be vouchsafed. It is astounding that in the 
 educational system of a democracy, which sup- 
 posedly prepares for the functions of citizen- 
 ship, the great majority of the youth who pass 
 out of elementary schools, high schools, and uni- 
 versities, have never studied the social organiza- 
 tion which involves their destinies. It is further 
 remarkable that the promotion of publicity, the 
 work of circulating the facts pertaining to the 
 affairs of industrial production and of the state, 
 is left to agencies which operate for profit, and 
 which, therefore, are under the control of the 
 exploitive interest in man. The wise man knows 
 that the social millennium will not soon dawn be- 
 cause society has not created the fit agencies by 
 which an adequate adjustment can be brought 
 about.
 
 A 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE ELIMINATION OF THE UNFIT 
 
 REDUCTION in the number of unfit ele- 
 ments in society and the ultimate complete 
 elimination of that class of human beings con- 
 stitutes a suitable consideration for the closing 
 chapter of an outline of sociology. For not- 
 withstanding the admirable collective sentiments 
 and the loving care of parents the existence of 
 such individuals evokes, any considerable accu- 
 mulation of abnormal and devitalized persons in 
 a society forms a very grave menace. Under a 
 regime of natural selection such an accumulation 
 was impossible because nature weeded out the 
 physically and mentally deficient individuals and 
 so prevented their breeding. Yet, as we have 
 observed in preceding pages, social selection has 
 mitigated the processes of nature in this respect 
 and, consequently, has placed a premium on the 
 preservation of multitudes of inefficient persons. 
 And while the mere fact of the existence of a 
 large percentage of incompetents is to be de- 
 plored, the really serious thought is that by their 
 unchecked reproduction the proportion of such 
 individuals is increased and the strength and 
 vigor of the whole human stock is lowered. It 
 
 135
 
 136 Sociology 
 
 is inconceivable that social evolution could con- 
 tinue in the direction of progress under the reign 
 of such conditions. On the contrary, we would 
 have to expect it to flounder, halt, and eventually 
 to become regressive. 
 
 The Situation 
 
 The socially unfit consists of those individuals 
 who by reason of serious defects of any kind 
 are rendered dependent for their care and sup- 
 port upon the efforts of others. That the extent 
 of this class of persons is enormous is the testi- 
 mony of statistics and observation. Should we 
 enumerate the number of insane, feebleminded, 
 epileptics, chronic paupers, " habitual " and " in- 
 stinctive " criminals, tuberculous, cancerous, blind 
 and deaf, not to mention milder forms of defi- 
 ciency, which exist in the United States, the 
 result would have to be recorded in millions. 
 Conceding that some of the classes may have a 
 degree of conventionality and fluctuation, the out- 
 come is not greatly changed. And while the 
 question of whether or not certain kinds of these 
 defectives are increasing faster than the popula- 
 tion is a decidedly vital one, perhaps the more 
 serious consideration is that such colossal defi- 
 ciency exists in a " civilized " social order, and 
 how far society and its members generally are 
 weakened by its presence. Should we compare 
 the present situation with our vision of the social
 
 TJie Elimination of the Unfit 137 
 
 Utopia, with our ideal society, we must be truly 
 astounded that our civilization harbors so much 
 waste humanity and misery. 
 
 The Origin of the Unfit. 
 
 The easy view of the origin of the unfit is that 
 they are the products of an inscrutable Provi- 
 dence, perhaps created to chasten the parents or 
 to offer due scope for the exercise of benevo- 
 lence on the part of the wealthy. Quite as com- 
 placent a position is that the impoverished class 
 is wholly the result of the volitional stupidity and 
 inefficiency of its members. The naturalistic view 
 regards all derelicts as the " unfit " which natural 
 selection and the struggle for existence of a sheer 
 biological evolutionary process are seeking to 
 discard. The sociological position represents 
 them as the product of societal conditions, the 
 results being mediated or actuated by means of 
 biological processes. The advantage of the lat- 
 ter position is visible in the foundation it lays 
 for remedial action, for if such derelicts are the 
 products of Providence or of a purely biological 
 process they are obviously beyond the reach of 
 human control. Besides, it is the scientific atti- 
 tude because it coincides with the facts. 
 
 Most of the deficiency of humanity that col- 
 lectively bulks as the unfit has an immediately 
 biological cause. There can be no question that 
 this is true of most feeblemindedness, idiocy.
 
 138 Sociology 
 
 much of epilepsy, blindness, deafness, and cer- 
 tain diseases which render individuals incompe- 
 tent. Researches in the field of mental deficiency 
 have amply demonstrated that feeblemindedness 
 in all its forms descends from generation to gen- 
 eration according to well-known laws of heredity. 
 The same is true of congenital blindness, deaf- 
 ness, epilepsy, certain kinds of insanity, of spon- 
 taneous cancer, and probably of other deficiencies. 
 We may select a case within these limits and be 
 assured that its immediate determining conditions 
 are to be found in the parent stock. Deficiencies 
 of a kind beget deficiencies of that kind with 
 Mendelian regularity and certainty. 
 
 Further, it is known that some of the defi- 
 ciencies that are passed on in a hereditary man- 
 ner arose out of diseased conditions. This is true 
 of some mental and physical deficiencies. Thus 
 epilepsy, idiocy, feeblemindedness, insanity, deaf- 
 ness, blindness, and so on, may be the outcome 
 of syphilitic poison and may descend in Mendel- 
 ian fashion. It could hardly fail to be the fact 
 that, once pathological inroads have been made 
 into the cell structures of the physical organism, 
 the defects should be passed on from generation 
 to generation. This does not touch the question 
 as to whether or not acquired characteristics are 
 transmitted. 
 
 It would be difficult to discover what propor- 
 tion of human deficiencies and misery is of
 
 The Elimination of the Unfit 139 
 
 immediate biological origin and what arose out 
 of societal inequalities. But it is necessary to 
 remember that many of the ills of body and mind 
 have their causal conditions in the illogical and 
 inhuman strains and deprivations which the pres- 
 ent social system imposes. Thus the dwarfed 
 and enfeebled workers in many cases are the 
 products of child labor, insufificient food, and 
 unsanitary conditions of labor and of living. The 
 portion of human misery such societal situations 
 produce must be, on the whole, greater than that 
 produced by biological causes operating imme- 
 diately. 
 
 Again, there are certain so-called pathological 
 conditions of society which produce societal mis- 
 fits. The presence of prostitution with its attend- 
 ant venereal diseases, and of alcoholism with its 
 well-known physical and mental ills, is illustra- 
 tive. Like societal inequalities, they are condi- 
 tions set up in the social system out of which 
 come great misery and physical and mental defi- 
 ciencies, some of which entail hereditary conse- 
 quences. 
 
 What seems to be true is that modern men are 
 so enveloped by the societal environment that it 
 not only conditions their present societal state 
 but is the fruitful and ultimate cause of the phys- 
 ical and mental qualities of descendants. The 
 societal system determines under what biological 
 conditions men shall associate and work and, con-
 
 140 Sociology 
 
 sequently, what they will transmit as a physical 
 and mental heritage to their descendants. 
 
 Elimination of the Unfit 
 
 By reason of what has been sketched in the 
 immediately preceding paragraphs we have an 
 indication of the lines of procedure by which 
 society may get rid of its misery, in so far as its 
 misery is identified with the existence of the unfit 
 classes. Since that portion of societal ills which 
 is the product of the inequalities of the existing 
 social order has received consideration in a sep- 
 arate chapter, and the methods of its abolition 
 were there sketched, no further notice of it will 
 be taken. Besides that, as we have seen, there 
 are present in society the hereditary causes of the 
 unfit, however they may have started, the vices, 
 alcoholism, crime and dependency, not to speak 
 of many diseases, such as tuberculosis and can- 
 cer. Tuberculosis might well be added to vice 
 and alcoholism since it so frequently emerges 
 from depressed classes, and consequently is a 
 product of societal maladjustment. 
 
 First, in so far as the societal unfit are the 
 product of hereditary factors at work in society, 
 it is obvious that they cannot be eliminated by 
 medical treatment nor by a let-alone policy. Since 
 the cause is clear — inheritance — a method of pre- 
 venting a recurrence in succeeding generations 
 by means of transmission is essential, and the
 
 The Elimination of the Unfit 141 
 
 only way to accomplish the result is by making 
 reproduction impossible. This imposes the nec- 
 essary task of segregating the feebleminded of 
 all types, the congenital epileptics of advanced 
 form, the hereditarily insane, and " instinctive " 
 criminals, in institutions where reproduction is 
 rendered impossible. This is the only certain 
 method of accomplishing the desired results. It 
 is considered here that, in so far as dependency 
 and crime are the products of hereditary factors, 
 that the individuals may be detected by clear 
 symptoms and should be included among the 
 segregated. No doubt it is true that eugenic 
 marriage laws and such operations as vasectomy 
 may accomplish much, but the latter is likely to 
 be confined to institutional practice, and the for- 
 mer does not prevent reproduction by extra- 
 legal means. 
 
 Second, prostitution has been, for a long time, 
 a quasi-societal structure, sometimes provided 
 for by regulation and sometimes penalized by 
 law, but always to be reckoned with as an exist- 
 ing fact. Its train of diseases and afflictions, 
 therefore, have an intensely societal character- 
 istic, the whole situation often being termed '' the 
 social evil." Since vice involves a continuous 
 societal relationship, the method of eliminating 
 it must involve recourse to social measures. In- 
 vestigations of prostitution made by commissions 
 created in various American cities during recent
 
 142 'Sociology 
 
 years uniformly prescribe absolute prohibition by 
 law as the only adequate means of combating 
 vice, and, conversely, they agree in pronouncing 
 the method of segregating and regulating prosti- 
 tution so largely practiced in European cities a 
 colossal failure. It is noteworthy that many of 
 the most eminent physicians of Europe have 
 come to the same conclusion. Vice is to be 
 stamped out, not palliated. This will require leg- 
 islation and education to accomplish, but vice 
 entails such widespread and deadly results that 
 the extremest measures should be approved. 
 
 Third, alcoholism also bears an institutional 
 aspect, having been practiced so widely during 
 the past and so uniformly abetted by govern- 
 ments. It is only in recent times that it has 
 received any considerable opposition by public 
 opinion and legislation. It is possible to be judi- 
 cious and say that probably over twenty per cent 
 of insanity, as much or more of dependency, and, 
 perhaps, fifty per cent of crime are immediately 
 instigated by alcoholism. It is condemned by the 
 fact that it is the uniform associate of the worst 
 and most vicious in human society. 
 
 As in the case of prostitution, regulations 
 which continue its existence are palliatives of its 
 evils and are inefTectual cures. Men have no 
 rights that need to be regarded where the evil 
 consequences are so disastrous to race and society 
 as in this case. Absolute prohibition on the part
 
 TJic Elimination of tJic Unfit 143 
 
 of organized society is the only effective and 
 finally effectual method of dealing with alco- 
 holism. To say that men will have liquor in 
 spite of prohibitions is no greater argument 
 against prohibition than the same form of argu- 
 ment is against legal prohibitions of prostitution 
 or of other societal ills. 
 
 In neither case can prohibition be absolutely 
 effective so long as large communities maintain 
 flourishing institutions, protect them by law, and 
 support governments and educational institutions 
 with derived revenues. But every expansion of 
 the prohibition circle renders the system more 
 effective, and in reason, this is all that could be 
 expected of it. 
 
 Until prohibition becomes universal, certain 
 alleviatives of intemperance must be made use of. 
 If drunkenness is a disease and if the inebriate 
 breeds a degenerate will adequate institutional 
 treatment will be necessary to reclaim devitalized 
 personalities, such as farm-colonies for inebriates, 
 where they may be segregated and reinstated by 
 regimen and work. 
 
 By a careful scientific observation, study and 
 classification of the unfit and especially by the 
 attainment of a knowledge of the conditions 
 which produce them, it should be possible finally 
 to eliminate that class of persons from society. 
 That it could not be accomplished in a generation 
 must be patent. First, our knowledge of the
 
 144 Sociology 
 
 causes of such individuals is by no means com- 
 plete ; we do not know to what extent many of 
 their ills are immediately biological or socio- 
 logical, and, as a consequence, the proper pre- 
 ventive measures could not be formulated. Sec- 
 ond, we have not as yet the social mind and will 
 with which to appreciate, favor, and adopt suffi- 
 cient eliminating remedies. It will take much 
 time under a superior system of education and 
 publicity to breed a zealous, popular intelligence 
 in behalf of such reforms ; and with our present 
 somewhat backward systems it will necessarily 
 require longer. The outlook is that, as in the 
 case of the equalization of opportunity, several 
 generations probably must elapse before the 
 masses are educated up to the point of adopting 
 remedial measures, and experiments in the direc- 
 tion of just the right eliminative measures have 
 been made. But society is almost incalculably 
 old, the progress that has arisen has come about 
 by fits and starts all through the ages, and conse- 
 quently there is ground for hope of completing 
 this gigantic task. 
 
 However, it must be anticipated that there 
 will always be present in society, in spite of 
 eliminations of the unfit, a best and a worst, the 
 superior and the inferior. The abolition of in- 
 equalities and the elimination of the unfit could 
 contemplate no more than, first, the establishment 
 of such societal conditions that individual capac-
 
 The Elimination of the Unfit 145 
 
 ity would never meet artificial obstacles of the 
 monopolistic and class species in seeking to real- 
 ize itself ; and, second, that until subnormal 
 societal members should become obsolescent, 
 within the sphere of the normal all shadings of 
 physical and mental capacity would be found 
 existant.
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Blackmar and Gillin. Outlines of Sociology, Pt. I, 
 Ch. II. 
 
 Ellwood, C. a. Sociology in its Psychological As- 
 pects, Chs. III-IV. 
 
 GiDDiNGS, F. H. Principles of Sociology, Pt. I, Ch. II. 
 
 Ross, E. A. Foundations of Sociology, Ch. I. 
 
 Small, A. W. General Sociology, Ch. I. 
 
 Ward, L. F. Outlines of Sociology, Ch. I. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Baldwin. J. M. "The Basis of Social Solidarity." 
 American Journal of Sociology, 15: 817 ff. 
 
 Blackmar and Gillin. Outlines of Sociology, Pt. II. 
 Ch. I. 
 
 Chapin, F. S. Social Evolution, Ch. IV. 
 
 Ellwood. Sociology in Its Psychological Aspects, Ch. 
 VII. 
 
 GiDDiNGS. Readings in Descriptive and Historical Soci- 
 ology, Ch. II. 
 
 Gillette, J. M. "Ward's Conception of the Origin of 
 Society," Ainer. Journ. Social.^ 20: 31-4. 
 
 Parmelee, Maurice. The Science of Human Behavior, 
 Ch. XVII. 
 
 Sumner, W. G. Folkivays. Ch. I. 
 
 147
 
 148 References 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 General 
 
 Hayes, E. C. Introduction to the Study of Sociology, 
 
 Pt. HI, Chs. XXVH-XXX. 
 Parmelee, The Science of Human Behavior, Ch. XX. 
 
 Races 
 
 Chapin. Social Evolution, Ch. VH. 
 Deniker, J. The Races of Man. 
 Keane, a. H. Ethnology. 
 Ward, Pure Sociology, pp. 193-220. 
 
 Language 
 
 Drum MONO, Henry. Ascent of Man, Ch. V. 
 
 Keane. Ethnology, Ch. IX. 
 
 GiDDiNGS. Principles of Sociology, pp. 221-226. 
 
 The State 
 
 Blackmar and Gillin. Outlines of Sociology, Pt. II, 
 
 Ch. VII. 
 GiDDiNGS. Principles of Sociology, p. 319 ff. 
 Oppenheimer, Franz. The State. 
 Ward. Pure Sociology, pp. 203-212. 
 Wilson, Woodrow. The State, Ch. I. 
 
 Religion 
 
 Deniker. The Races of Man, pp. 224-233. 
 King, Irving. The Development of Religion. 
 Menzies, Allan. History of Religion, Chs. II-VI. 
 Thomas, W. I. Source Book for Social Origins, Pt. 
 
 VI. 
 Tvlor, E. B. Anthropology, Chs. XIV-XV.
 
 References 149 
 
 The Industrial Order 
 
 Deniker. The Races of Man, Ch. V. 
 Ely, R. T. Studies in the Evolution of Industrial So- 
 ciety. 
 Spencer, Herbert. Principles of Sociology, Pt. VIII. 
 
 The Family 
 
 Dealey, J. Q. The Family in Its Sociological Aspects. 
 
 Deniker. The Races of Man, Ch. VII. 
 
 Gillette. The Family and Society (The National Social 
 
 Science Series). 
 Letourne.\u, C. The Evolution of Marriage. 
 Howard, G. E. History of Matrimonial Institutions. 
 Todd, A. J. The Primitive Family as an Educational 
 
 Agency. 
 Westermarck, E. a. History of Human Marriage. 
 
 Education 
 
 Thomas. Source Book for Social Origins, Pt. II. 
 Ward. Dynamic Sociology, Vol. II, pp. 180-189; Applied 
 Sociology, Ch. X. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Chapin. Social Evolution. 
 
 Dealey. Sociology, Ch. IX. 
 
 FxLwooD. Sociology in Its Psychological Aspects, Ch. 
 
 XVIII. 
 GiDDlNGS. Principles of Sociology, Bk. III. 
 Gillette, "Ward's Social Statics and Dynamics," Amer. 
 
 Journ. Sociol., 20:41-52. 
 Hayes. Introduction to the Study of Sociology, Chs. 
 
 XXV-XXVI.
 
 1 50 References 
 
 Keller, A. G. Societal Evolution. Ch. I. 
 Small and Vincent. Introduction to the Study of So- 
 ciety, Pt. I. Ch. V. 
 Spencer. Principles of Sociology, Pt. II, Chs. I-III. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Blackmar and Gillin. Pt. II, Ch.s. I-II. 
 
 Fairbanks, Arthur. Introduction to Sociology, Ch. 
 
 VI. 
 Parmelee. The Science of Human Behavior, Ch. XX. 
 Ross. Foundations of Sociology, Ch. VIII. 
 Small and Vincent. Introduction to the Study of 
 
 Society, Bk. III. 
 Spencer. Principles of Sociology, Pt. I, Chs. II-IV; 
 
 Pt. II, Chs. Ill, XI. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Blackmar and Gillin. Outlines of Sociology, Ch. I. 
 
 Cooley, C. H. Social Organization, Pt. I. 
 
 Ellwood. Sociology in Its Psychological Aspects, Ch. I. 
 
 Fairbanks. Introduction to Sociology. Pt. I. 
 
 Giddings. Readings in Descriptive and Historical So- 
 ciology, Bk. I, Ch. III. 
 
 Gillette. "The Organic Concept and Society," Quar- 
 terly Journal of the University of North Dakota, 4, 
 245-258. 
 
 Haves. Introduction to the Study of Sociology, Ch. 
 . XIX. 
 
 Ross. Foundations of Sociology. Ch. I. 
 
 Small. General Sociology, Ch. I. 
 
 Spencer. Principles of Sociology, Pt. II, Ch. I-II.
 
 References 151 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 CooLEY. Social Organisation, Pts. IV-V. 
 
 Ellwood. Sociology in Its Psychological Aspects, Ch. 
 XVII. 
 
 GiDDiNGS. Readings in Descriptive and Historical So- 
 ciology, Ft. II. 
 
 Ross. Social Control, Pt. I. 
 
 Small. General Sociology, Ch. XXXI. 
 
 Ward. Pure Sociology, Chs. X-XI. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Anderson, B. M. Social Value, Pt. TV. 
 
 Blackmar and Gillin. Outlines of Sociology, Bk. Ill, 
 Ch. IV. 
 
 BooDiN, John E. "The Existence of Social Minds," 
 Amer. Joum. Socioi, 19:1-47. 
 
 CooLEY. Social Organisation, Chs. XI-XII. 
 
 Dealey. Sociology, Ch. IV. 
 
 Ellwood. Sociology in Its Psychological Aspects, Ch. 
 XV. 
 
 Fairbanks. Introduction to Sociology, Ch. V. 
 
 Giddings. "The Elements of Sociology," Ch. XII. 
 
 Ross. Foundations of Sociology, Ch. V ; Social Psy- 
 chology. 
 
 Small. General Sociology, Chs. XXV and XXXIX. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Drummond. The Ascent of Man, pp. 41-57- 
 
 Ellwood. Sociology and Modern Social Problems, 
 
 Ch. II. 
 Fairbanks. Introduction to Sociology, Chs. XIV-XV. 
 Keller. Societal Evolution, Ch. III.
 
 152 References 
 
 Parmelee. The Science of Human Behavior, Ch. XX. 
 Ross. Foundations of Sociology, Ch. IX. 
 Small. General Sociology, Ch. XXVI. 
 Thompson, J. A. Heredity, Ch. XIV. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Baldwin. Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental 
 
 Development, First Ed., Ch. XIII. 
 Blackmar and Gillin. Outlines of Sociology, Pt. IV, 
 
 Ch. I. 
 CooLEY. Social Organization, Ch. II. 
 Dealey. Sociology, Ch. IX. 
 Ellwood. Sociology in Its Psychological Aspects, Ch. 
 
 XVIII. 
 GuMPLOwicz, LuDWiG. "An Austrian Appreciation of 
 
 Lester F. Ward," Amer. J own. Sociol., 10:643-653. 
 Hayes. Introduction to the Study of Sociology, Pt. IV. 
 Ross. Social Control, Pt. III. 
 
 Spencer. Principles of Sociology, Pt. II, Ch. I-III. 
 Ward. Pure Sociology, Chs. X-XI ; Applied Sociology, 
 
 Ch. III. 
 Woods, E. B. "Progress as a Sociological Concept," 
 
 Amer. Journ. Social., 12:779 fif. 
 Yarros, Victor S. "Human Progress ; the Idea and 
 
 the Reality," Amer. Journ. Social., 21:15-29. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Alden, Percy. Democratic England. 
 
 CooLEY. Social Organisation, Pts. III-IV. 
 
 Croley, H. D. Progressive Democracy. 
 
 Davies, Geo. A. "A Statistical Study of the Influence 
 
 of Environment," Quar. Journ. Univ. N. Dak., 4, 
 
 212-236.
 
 References 153 
 
 Gillette. "Utilization of Talent," Popular Science 
 
 Monthly. Nov., 1915, pp. 151-164. 
 Nearing, Scott. Social Adjustment. 
 Oppenheimer. The State, Chs. VI-VII. 
 Small. General Sociology, Ch. XXVII. 
 Ward. Applied Sociology, especially Chs. IX-XIII. 
 W.\RD and Dealey. Text Book of Sociology, Ch. XX. 
 Weyl, W. E. The New Democracy. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Davenport, C. B. Heredity in Relation to Eugenics. 
 
 Devine, E. T. Misery and Its Causes. 
 
 Ellwood. Sociology and Modem Social Problems, 
 Chs. XIII-XIV. 
 
 Ferrero, G. L. Criminal Man According to the Classifi- 
 cation of Cesare Lombroso. 
 
 Gillette, French, and Davies. "Insanity in North Da- 
 kota," Quart. Journ. Univ. N. Dak., 5:139-164. 
 
 Handbook of the Mental Hygiene Movement and Ex- 
 hibit. 
 
 Haviland, C. F. The Treatment and Care of the In- 
 sane in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Henderson, C. R. Dependents, Defectives, and Delin- 
 quents; The Cause and Cure of Crime. 
 
 Mangold, G. B. Problems of Child Welfare. 
 
 Proceedings of the Mental Hygiene Conference and 
 Exhibit. 
 
 Salmon and Sanville. The Care of the Insane in Two 
 States. 
 
 Walters, H. E. Genetics.
 
 INDEX 
 
 "Achievement" theory of society, 69, 70 
 
 Alcoholism, effect of, 139; institutional aspect, 142; 
 
 prohibition of, 142, 143 
 Anthropology, 6 
 Aristotle, 2, 66 
 
 Baldwin, J. M., "imitation" theory of society, 70, 71 
 Biological evolution, 51-53 
 
 Caucasian race stock, 21 
 
 Collective mode of life, 104-106 
 
 Communication systems, and industry, 36; and social 
 
 consciousness, 92, 93 
 Compte, August, 2 
 Conquest theory of the state, 26, 27 
 Conscience and community consciousness, 96 
 "Consciousness of kind" theory of society, 72 
 Cooperation and conflict in society, 10, 11 
 Culture, stage of, 62-64 \ influence on social order, 85 ; 
 
 defined, 62, 122 
 
 Darwin, 54 
 Davies, G. A., 128 
 
 Economics, 7 
 
 Education, primitive, 18; meaning and development of, 
 41-44 
 
 Ellwood, C. A., and the "synthetic" theory of society, 72 
 
 Environment, influence on society, 61, 128 
 
 Equality in society, 123-127; and social justice, 123-127; 
 direction of equalization, 130-134; only remedy for 
 inequality, 133 
 
 Ethnology, 6 
 
 Evolution, and society, I1-14; developmental principles, 
 13; as quantitative transformation, 45, 46; as quali- 
 tative transformation, 46-48; as diversification, 48. 49; 
 as integration, 49, 50; as accommodation, 50, 51;
 
 156 Index 
 
 social. 51-53; biological, 51. 53; factors which de- 
 termine social, 54-65 ; and natural selection, 103 ; and 
 progress, no; as adaptation, 119 
 Exchange system and industry, 35, ^,6 
 
 Fagnet on progress, 115 
 
 Family, historical meaning, development, 37-41 
 
 "Folkway" theory of society, 72 
 
 French Revolution, effect on nation, 86 
 
 Germans, and science of economics, 3; reason of in- 
 tensive life, 65; and progress, 117 
 
 Giddings, F. H., "consciousness of kind" theory of so- 
 ciety, 72 
 
 Government, 6, 7 
 
 Gumplowicz, Ludwig, 26; denies progress, 116 
 
 Habits, 80; and social consciousness, 93, 94 
 
 Heidelberg man, 14 
 
 Heredity and the unfit, 137, 139, 140 
 
 Imitation, 12; theory of society, 70, 71 
 
 Individual, and the system, 108; welfare of, in; habit, 
 
 n4; and his righteous deserts, 127; unfit, elimination 
 
 of the, 135-145 
 Industrial order, arrival and development, 34-37 
 Instincts, 80 
 
 Institutions, origin of, 19-44; sociological view of, 19, 20 
 Insurance scandal, 96, 97 
 Intelligence, condition of progress, 120 
 "Interest" theory of society, 71, 7- 
 
 Justice, social and social conditions, 127, 128; and 
 wealth, 132, 133 
 
 Labor, development in status of, 37 
 
 Language, 24-26; nexus for social consciousness, 92 
 
 Laws and public sentiment, 95 
 
 Locke and "social contract" theory, 66 
 
 Man, primitive, 15-18; place of origin, 21 ; migrations of, 
 22; and language, 24-26; physical environment, 54-57; 
 impulses and desires, 57-6o; race stock, 60-62
 
 Index 157 
 
 Marriage, 27; development of, 39-41; eugenic laws. 141 
 
 Maxims and social consciousness, 93 
 
 Migrations of man, 22, 23 
 
 Mind, development, 14 ; relation of to society, 73-75 ; 
 the social. 88-91 ; what makes the social possible. 
 91-94; coercive and evaluating aspects of, 94-98; di- 
 rection of, 98-100 
 
 Mob-mindedness, 89 
 
 Mongolian and original human stock, 22 
 
 Morality, and social mind, 96 
 
 Mutuality in society, 103-107 
 
 Natural selection, and society. 101-103; and evolution, 
 103; heredity and variation. 105; attitude of society 
 toward. 105 
 
 Neanderthal man, 14 
 
 Negro characteristics, 22; position in society, 60, 61; 
 and family point of view. 94 
 
 Oppenheimer, Franz, 27, 64 
 Opportunity, equalization of. 123-134 
 "Organic concept" theory of society, 67-69 
 Origin of society, 10-13 
 
 "Pain economy," 112 
 
 Panama Zone sanitation, 119 
 
 Pithecanthropus Erectus, 14 
 
 Plato. 2, 45, 66 
 
 "Pleasure economy," 112 
 
 Politics, science of, 6, 7 
 
 Population of United States, growth of, 46 
 
 Principles of Sociology, 67 
 
 Private property, 132 
 
 Progress, its conditions, 1 10-122: nature of. 110-114; 
 
 possibility of, 114-119; well-being the center of the 
 
 conception, 123 
 Prohibition of alcoholism and prostitution, 142, 143 
 Prostitution, and social conditions, 127, 139; societal 
 
 character, 141, elimination of, 142, 143 
 Psychical nature of society, theories of, 69-75 '• the social 
 
 mind, 88-100 
 
 Race, prejudice, 22,; disagreements. 94; stock, 60-62 
 Races, origin of, 21-24
 
 T 58 Index 
 
 Ratzenhofer, 26; "interest" theory of societj-, 71, 72 
 Religion, rise of, 17; meaning and development of, 29-34 
 Ross, E. A., "social contract" theory of society, 73 
 Rousseau, "social contract" theory of society, ^, 67 
 
 Science, sociology- a, i, 2; social, and sociology, 5-8 
 
 Sex, appearance of, 11, 12 
 
 Small, A. W., "interest theory" of society, 71, 72 
 
 Social consciousness, 89-91; and modern progress, 113 
 
 "Social contract" theory of the state, 26; origin and 
 meaning, 66, 67 
 
 "Social control" theory of society, 7;^ 
 
 Social control and progress, 121 
 
 Social evolution, nature of, 45-53 ; factors which de- 
 termine, 54-65; and future conditions, 116, 117 
 
 Social groups, nature of, external, 64, 65 
 
 Social mind, what it is, 88-91 ; causes of, 91-94; coercive 
 and evaluating aspects. 94-98; direction of, 98-100 
 
 Social order, 76-87; evidence of, 76-78; causes of. 78- 
 82 ; and social organization, 82-85 ; changing the, 85- 
 87; and privileged class, 115; fails to realize justice, 
 127; method of improving the, 132 
 
 Social organization, and the social order, 82-85 
 
 Social selection, society and, 101-103; factor of mutu- 
 ality, 103-107; method of, 107-109 
 
 Society, and task of sociology, 3, 5; origin, 9-18; defini- 
 tions, 9, 10; begins where, 10-13; earliest human, 15- 
 18; compounding of, 23. 24; and language. 24-26; and 
 the state, 26-29; religion and, 29-34; industrial order 
 in. 34-37; family and, 37-41; and education, 41-44; 
 development, 45; quantitative transformation, 46; 
 qualitative transformation, 46, 47; diversification, 48, 
 49; integration, 49, 50; accommodation, 50, 51 ; Negro 
 and, 60, 61 ; culture stage, 62-64; nature, 66-75; "social 
 contract" theory, 66, 67 ; "organic concept" theory, 
 67-69; theories expressing its psychical nature. 69-75; 
 what constitutes, 73-75 ; social order, 76-87 ; psychical 
 characteristics, 88; social mind, 88-100; becoming 
 conscious of itself, 98; and natural selection, 101-103; 
 mutuality, 103-107; social selection, 107-109; progress, 
 110-122; equality, 123-127; social justice, 127; artificial 
 restrictions, 127-129; equalization. 130-134; elimination 
 of unfit members. 135-145; pathological conditions, 
 139, 140; hope for its future, 144-
 
 Index 1 59 
 
 Sociology-, the science of, i-8; development, 2, 3; task. 
 
 3, 4; social sciences and, 5-8; view of institutions. 
 
 19, 20; and progress, no; of control, 118, 119; and 
 
 the unfit, 137 
 Spencer, Herbert, 2, 3, 54; "organic concept" theory of 
 
 society, 67-69 
 State, origin of the. 26-29 
 
 Sumner, W. G., "folkway" theory of society, 72 
 Sussex man, 14 
 "Synthetic" theory of society, 72 
 
 Talent, 128, 129 
 
 Tarde, and "imitation"' theory of society, 70, 71 
 
 Transportation and industry, 35 
 
 Unfit, elimination of the. 135-145; sources of the, 137 
 
 Vico, 45 
 
 Ward, L. F., 2. 26, "achievement" theory of society, 69; 
 
 128 
 Wealth, interest in society, 7; and class control, 132, 133 
 Whately, 78
 
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