СНАР. XLVIII Men's ditions than Present Conditions The Vitality of Religious Denominations, of Nationalities Men Form Groups, but GROUPS. AS TRANSMITTERS OF THE THOUGHT AND PURPOSE OF THE Thanks to the power of tradition and the stability of structures human groupings often correspond to bygone conditions and aims rather than to living forces. Not only do men stick together after they have lost their reasons for sticking together, but they remain apart, mutually suspicious and at sword's points, after they have lost their reasons for remaining apart. Because they abide in groupings which no longer answer to their actual sympathies and interests they fail to come together in groupings which correspond to their actual needs. It is this power of the past over human association which in many parts of the world keeps groups small and local, suited to means of communication, modes of travel, forms of economic life, and tactics of defense, characteristic of an earlier time. The persistence of groupings is illustrated in the contemporary failure of kindred Protestant denominations to merge into a single organization in order to avoid wasteful competition and duplication of work in communities too weak to support several Protestant churches; this despite the fact that the principal causes of their separateness no longer exist, while their doctrinal differences mean nothing to the majority of their members and are trivial from the viewpoint of modern religious thought. Again, the persistence of groupings has shown itself in the successful revival of submerged European nationalities since the middle of the last century. Lately we have seen the sentiment of nationality fly in the face of common sense by inspiring the founding of independent states quite too small to promote effectually the industrial and commercial interests of populations which virtually constitute a single economic unit, e.g., those of the Danubian basin. Jewish nationalism thrives as if Israel had a present binding interest, despite the fact that the members of this scattered race have the best of reasons for identifying themselves with the peoples amid which they find themselves and with which their future is bound up. One would expect human groups to arise and pass away freely like vortices in a liquid, for they are supposed to project and to Form Men fulfill the changing purposes of their members. As a matter of fact, however, once an organized group has gained headway and Groups traditions it behaves as if it had a life of its own, for it determines its members instead of being determined by them. How often a political party or reform association which has fulfilled its mission, instead of disbanding casts about for new issues to justify its further existence. The dominating spirits simply cannot bear to relinquish the power which their control of the organization gives them. GROUPS AFFORD LEVERAGE FOR MINORITY CONTROL CHAP. XLVIII may be Multi pliers of the Infu ence of the Because churches, nationalistic associations and political parties Groups play so great a rôle in pre-determining the reactions of the average man to whatever comes up, they afford the shrewd and masterful few a rare opportunity to mould opinion. Can any one doubt, for example, that from the last seventy years' conflict between Science and Faith the Christian religion, organized into ecclesiastical bodies, has emerged with far less damage than if it had been no more organized than the religions of Asia? Under the leadership of positive characters who love the tenets and past of their denomination, the churches have yielded little from conviction and have revised their theology only when it was a matter of keeping their hold upon the rising generation. Political Parties as In the same way national parties afford the Vested Interests a rare opportunity to direct political opinions to their own advan- Stabilizers tage. In view of the progress of manhood suffrage in Europe since the Revolution of 1848 it is really astonishing how little the ballot in the hands of the toilers has actually been used to modify property rights, inheritance, taxation, or the legal status of labor. When they saw the tidal wave of political democracy coming the privileged classes were in despair and never dreamed that they would be so little disturbed. The fact is, however, before the war very little had been done anywhere to correct the monstrous concentration of ownership, while the "rash experiments" which were expected to be launched as soon as the common people wielded the ballot never materialized. The explanation is to be found partly in the control of newspapers by the Vested Interests, but chiefly in their ascendancy over such opinion-forming groups Society," the churches, and the political parties. The party, instead of being a fluid grouping corresponding to the play of popular interest and opinion, is really a tough highly-organized Resultless body, taking in respect to a new political issue a position dic Why Po litical De mocracy is often so СНАР. XLVIII tated by the watchful dominant element and indoctrinating the rank and file with this official view. Instead of the position of the party reflecting the view of the majority of its members-as is the bland accepted theory- the position of the majority of its members is likely to reflect the view of the party. Here is the secret of the fruitlessness of English political democracy as long as English politics was a series of sham battles between "Liberal and "Conservative" parties under the "invisible government of one and the same social class. Only when a formidable party arose, built and officered by bona fide representatives of labor, was Privilege seriously menaced. T CHAPTER XLIX INSTITUTIONS - THE FAMILY CHAP. The Fam Natural tionalized HE family is not collectively willed in the same degree as, for instance, the public school. It springs directly out of certain universal instincts and, among some primitive peoples, it iy is a is more of a natural formation than a social institution. In the Formation civilized stage, however, society has striven to master this depart- Institu ment of life by moulding to an approved type the relations springing out of the sex instinct and the parental instinct. The societies which have contributed most to human progress have taken a deep interest in the family and have had no little success in standardizing it. Will Sex Relations Become a Private Religion NEED THE FAMILY BE A SOCIAL INSTITUTION? Some speculative thinkers insist that the endeavor to institutionalize a thing so intimate and personal as mating and care of the young goes against the grain, is foredoomed to failure and Matter.as will be abandoned as mankind becomes more enlightened. They hail the modern latitude of divorce and the tendency of the law to individualize the members of the family as harbingers of an era of greater freedom when society will no longer force upon men and women a single rigid pattern of relation. They anticipate that sex relations between the mature will become a private. matter as in many modern societies religion from being a social institution has become a private matter. Recogni. tion of the Social Sig. of the Family The facts give small encouragement to these expectations. The Growing state intervenes on behalf of the abused or neglected child or wife not out of indifference to the "sacredness" of the family, but just because it cherishes the family too much to suffer it to fall below a fixed minimum standard. Social control of the domestic relations is advancing rather than losing ground. Sociology, the scientific study of society, which has made marked progress in the last thirty years, has brought to light in the family unsuspected social significance. It has become clear that the family is basic СНАР. The is the Fu ture of Durable Monogamy Expansion of Wom in respect to the production of the social traits of character, so that society has good reason to treat it as a social institution rather than a personal concern. ECONOMIC CHANGES AFFECTING THE FAMILY There is hardly an imaginable form of sex relation or of parentchild relation which has not prevailed somewhere in the world sometime. Nevertheless, the queer and even (to us) shocking forms which crop up here and there in the childhood of peoples have no significance for the future. Over most of the world the durable monogamic family has triumphed, so that the real question is, What modifications is monogamy undergoing, or likely to undergo? Since the middle of the last century the family, which appeared to have reached its fixed and final form, has been played upon by so many transforming forces that it has become an active mutant. The machine in the factory has filched from the home most of the industrial processes-spinning, weaving, knitting, sewing, brewing, pickling, curing and preserving - which made the wife nearly equal with her husband as a prop to the prosperity of the household. One result is a growing economic dependence of the home-staying wife which makes her discontented with the slowly-narrowing round of domestic duties. If, on the other hand, the wife engages in paid work outside the home, the unity of the family is apt to suffer. Thanks to the march of invention, the volume of light-running an's Earn machinery has become so great that industry offers an illimitable field for the employment of girls and women. On account of ing Opportunities Outside the Home City Life ticity being able to accept a lower wage than the man, especially the man of family, requires, they are continually substituted for men in the industrial field and rarely experience lack of employment. With more than ten million females above sixteen years of age earning outside the home, women's participation in industry is momentous enough; but it is access to industry, even more than participation, which reacts upon the family. The open door to self-support lessens woman's interest in the protected economic position of the wife. She is harder to win and harder to keep than when matrimony was the sole career open to her. The engulfing of population in the maw of cities is unfavorable to the family institution. On the farm the family is the convenient unit for life and work; in the city, however, celibacy is |