СНАР. XXII Economy of Central Control At a Given Time All Organizations in Society Partake of a Certain Character The Growth of zation Problem of Recreation and Leisure Time dinary citizen and taxpayer is tantamount to giving the intelligent, farsighted, and public-spirited element in society a longer lever to work with. The state, too, enjoys the economy of large-scale service. The county has too few blind, deaf-mutes, or feeble-minded to care for each class in a special institution. The management of state charitable institutions by a single central board instead of by separate local boards has proven highly successful. On the other hand, matters which can be appreciated by common-sense, such as the providing of local conveniences, etc., should be left to the local community. Although, as we have seen, the characteristics of an organization flow primarily from the nature of the task, there is, nevertheless, a tendency for organizations to agree in pattern. The principle of the dominant organization or organizations is likely to reappear in all the rest. Thus if, in government, the relation of superior to subordinate is purely authoritative, this spirit may be expected to prevail in family, school, church, business, industry, and voluntary associations. If, on the other hand, government admits into this relation a consultative element, something like it will be found in most other organizations in society. We have seen that the requirements of combined effort go rather against the native grain. As organization comes to emRaises the brace more of us, certain adjustments are necessary if human beings are not to become painfully warped. One is ample provision for holiday and recreation, to allow the bent bow to straighten. Another is access to a variety of means of recreation. The more closely the individual is boxed in while at work by schedule, routine, and direction the wider should be his range of choice out of working hours and the more scrupulously should his freedom to choose be respected. The more one's work conforms to plan, or pattern, or orders the more one's manner of life and one's disposal of leisure time must be relied on to nourish and to express an individuality. This is why that unity in moral and religious ideas and in ground pattern of life which has sometimes worked out quite well among a peasant or fisher folk is an utterly impossible and undesirable ideal for a people subject to the trying discipline of modern organization. CHAPTER XXIII THE ORGANIZATION OF WILL AN organization may receive its direction either from the will of an individual or from the will of a group. The process by which a group will is arrived at may be termed the organization of will. In the organization of effort, the movement is from the one toward the many, i.e., from the controlling purpose to the coordinated efforts of the various persons who contribute to its accomplishment. In the organization of will, the movement is from the many toward the one, i.e., from the wills of individual members to the single purpose which comes to direct and unify the activities of the group. Organizations may be represented graphically by the cone, the base of the cone representing the individuals organized, the apex their unifying purpose. The organizing of will may be thought of as a movement from base toward apex; the organizing of effort as a movement from apex toward base. These two types of organization may exist separately or combined. In an army, a railroad, a government department, and a municipal service, we see only organization of effort. In a church framing its creed, a party drawing up its declaration of principles, a Futurist group hammering out its manifesto, a gild standardizing mercantile usage, and a labor union passing upon a trade agreement, we see only organization of will. On the other hand, workingmen engaging in a strike which has been ordered by the union, farmers delivering their milk to a creamery established by their co-operative effort, the fellows of a learned society prosecuting co-operative research upon lines laid down by the society illustrate how, with respect to the same matter, both will and effort may be organized within a single group. This double process marks what is at once the most difficult and the most evolved type of organization. An extremely informal organization of will is presented in СНАР. The Organ. ization of Will Is the Reverse of the Organiza tion of Effort Organiza- tion of and Effort Same Group CHAP. Informal the assembly of the Russian Mir or village community as described by Wallace.1 The meetings are held in the open air . . . and they almost always take place on Sundays or holidays, when the peasants have plenty of leisure. . . . The discussions are occasionally very animated, but there is rarely any attempt at speech making. If any young member should show an inclination to indulge in oratory, he is sure to be unceremoniously interrupted by some of the older members, who have never any sympathy with fine talking. The assemblage has the appearance of a crowd of people who have accidentally come together and are discussing in little groups subjects of local interest. Gradually some one group, containing two or three peasants who have more moral influence than their fellows, attracts the others, and the discussion becomes general. Two or more peasants may speak at a time, and interrupt each other freely-using plain, unvarnished language, not at all parliamentary-and the discussion may become a confused, unintelligible din; but at the moment when the spectator imagines that the consultation is about to be transformed into a free fight, the tumult spontaneously subsides, or perhaps a general roar of laughter announces that some one has been Successfully hit by a strong argumentum ad hominem, or biting personal remark. In any case there is no danger of the disputants coming to blows. The village elder is the principal personage in the crowd, but to call to order those who interrupt the discussion is no part of his functions. He comes forward prominently when it is necessary to take the sense of the meeting. On such occasions he may stand back a little from the crowd and say, "Well, orthodox, have you decided so?" and the crowd will probably shout, Ladno! Ladno! that is to say, "Agreed! Agreed!" Communal measures are generally carried in this way by acclamation; but it sometimes happens that there is such diversity of opinion that it is difficult to tell which of the two parties has a majority. In this case the elder requests the one party to stand to the right and the other to the left. The two groups are then counted, and the minority submits, for no one ever dreams of opposing openly the will of the Mir. The chief improvement that has been made in this procedure is the regulation of discussion to the end that it may be kept to the point and not be smothered in confusion and disorder. 1 Wallace, "Russia," pp. 116, 117. How far general assembly makes for a free organizing of wills depends upon a number of factors: CHAP. XXIII Formal a) To what extent is the assembly protected from disturbance, Organiinterruption. or intimidation? b) Is it in the power of anyone to dissolve the assembly against its will? c) Can it consider any matter? Or may it consider only such matters as are mentioned in the summons or are brought before it by the summoners? d) Is the assembly convened for the purpose of ascertaining the wills of the members as to a matter, or in order to make known and win support for a policy which has already been decided upon by the head men? e) Who may speak? Only officials, chiefs, or distinguished persons; anyone invited by the presiding officer; anyone called out by the assembly; or anyone "recognized" by the presiding officer? f) Is discussion ample and complete before a vote is taken? g) Is the prevalent will expressed by cheers, shouts, or clash of weapons which method expresses intensity of conviction as well as numbers or by registering the wills of individuals? h) In case voting is viva voce instead of by ballot, is the order of voting haphazard or according to age, rank, or other mark of distinction? This is important because in the latter case the early voters may have an influence upon those who vote later. i) Does a majority vote decide or is unanimity requisite as it was in the ancient Russian town assemblies and the Polish diet? zation of Will VARIETIES OF WILL ORGANIZATION As the matters to be settled become numerous or technical, the method of always taking "the sense of the meeting " becomes too burdensome, so that a board will be chosen to make minor decisions for the group, major matters still being reserved for the general assembly. These men may be granted power for only so long as the majority of the members are satisfied with them, or for a stated term. If experienced management and continuity of policy be essential to the prosperity of group affairs, and if the superior fitness of certain members for handling these affairs be evident to all, the group may clothe them with authority for a Abandonment of Certain Matters СНАР. Relation of Local to the tative Assembly long term or for life and cease to reserve certain fundamental matters for popular decision. In case an association becomes large and the membership scatAssemblies tered, the periodical convening of all in general assembly has to be Represen- given up. The local assemblies sometimes take turns in looking after the common concerns of the entire society, as was the practice during the early years of certain British trade unions. Then delegates are sent by these local assemblies to sit in a deliberative body which acts for the entire group, save perhaps in certain reserved matters. When the delegate becomes member of a permanent body during a fixed term and speaks for his constituents on all matters that may come up, he becomes a representative and the group comes under representative government. Relation of the Representative Assembly to the Execu tive With the officials who execute or serve the will of the group, this representative assembly may have various relations. It may appoint them, or they may be the choice of the group membership. It may mark out their sphere, or they may have a sphere independent of it. It may make laws which they are to enforce, adopt policies which they are to carry out, or it may leave them for the most part a free hand, contenting itself with granting money according to its degree of satisfaction with their conduct. In the case of a hereditary executive, claiming rule as a matter of inheritance or of divine right, the representative body may serve as little more than a forum for free speech where the " state of the country" may be discussed, grievances ventilated, and criticisms brought to the attention of the government. In short, the will of an organized group may be derived directly and in the simplest way from the wills of the members, or it may be so independent of them as to be able to defy them or to mold them at pleasure. The members may decide everything, they may decide only certain fundamental matters, they may decide only who shall decide, or they may be powerless with respect to quondam agents who have come to be their masters. Now, what is it that determines how the will of a group shall be organized? HOW THE COMPOSITION OF THE GROUP DETERMINES ITS It depends for one thing on how the group is composed. Is membership in the group a matter of free will? So far as asso |