do not in their lives support the preachments. This in some ways is discouraging, since institutions like the home and neighborhood groups are not strikingly amenable to external improvement; but it must also be admitted that society is held together by these primary groups. They furnish an indispensable basis for the development of the ideal of social solidarity. Home is the place where, when you have to go there, Other social relations are more precariously established when the training in social unity offered by primary groups has been denied. In addition the major part of our deepest and most valuable experiences develops out of these associations. A large part of all education, formal and informal, is devoted to indoctrination, while but little time and attention are given to a freeing of the mind. With little children no more ambitious program may be possible, since they must first really have minds before their minds can be free, and for that some knowledge, true or false, and some modes of action, good or bad, are necessary. But it certainly seems that colleges and universities might devote more effort and thought to the attainment of mental liberation. The problem is by no means a simple one, and we must remember that, though it is certainly worth having, few people would know what to do with freedom. The Erewhonians were accustomed to address the following adjuration to their children before permitting them to be born: 10 Remember also, that if you go into the world you will have free will; that you will be obliged to have it; that there is no escaping it; that you will be fettered to it during your whole life, and must on every occasion do that which on the whole seems best to you at any given time, no matter whether you are right or wrong in choosing it. Social functions of routine Some degree of routination is absolutely necessary for the saving of time and energy, as can be seen by comparing the ease with which an adult dresses with the slow and bungling movements of the child. The day would be over before we were ready for it, if it were not for our habits. Patients afflicted with aboulia offer pathetic confirmation of this fact. They may be unable to make even the simplest decisions without a fierce internal struggle which leaves them quite exhausted. "Shall I wear my coat, or shall I not?" may be the question which such an individual has to decide, but the reasons pro and con are so convincing that they cancel each other out, leaving the poor fellow with absolutely nothing to do. It is fortunate that for most of us all the simple acts of life have been settled beforehand by habits based upon the routines of our group. Stereotyped actions are easily enslaving, but for a really free mind it is nevertheless necessary to form many habits. If we are to think seriously about some things we cannot waste time over others, but must deliver them over to the care either of other persons or of habit. Routines stabilize action-they make the responses both of individuals and of groups more invariable, and therefore more predictable. A concert manager in planning his concerts can definitely assume that a certain proportion of his audiences will arrive late, and a certain proportion leave early, no matter when the concert begins or ends. The matter is summed up in the observation that no single Congressman is as big a fool as Congress can be. We are continually acting on the principle that in the long run life will grind out so much of this and so much of that, and in the human sphere the existence of routines is one of the chief reasons why it is safe to follow this principle. Routines generalize our responses by leading us to deal with the individuals whom we meet according to the canons of age, sex, caste, locality, relationship, wealth, or other classifications. Consider, for example, the officers of religious organizations. A certain type of behavior, varying somewhat from denomination to denomination, is regarded as appropriate for religious functionaries, and it is surprising how closely the members of these groups finally come to resemble each other. Thus life routines have the effect of reducing the differences between members of the same group, and of widening the gaps between different groups. Frenchmen and Americans are more nearly alike at birth than they are as developed individuals. As adults they have become accustomed to different modes of life and different ways of interpreting their experiences, and in spite of their personal idiosyncrasies it is seldom difficult to determine to which group given individuals belong. There are few of us who do not feel a real pleasure in being like the other members of some group-or, as one young fellow once expressed it, "Why not be original and do as the others do?" The trend of routines is therefore towards superficiality and social inertia. It is difficult enough for a single individual to get rid of a habit when he really wants to, but it is a thousand times harder to change the settled ways of acting of a group of persons when they haven't the least desire for something new. "That isn't the way we do it" is often the only answer given to a suggestion involving novel modes of action. In addition, cultural elements usually interpenetrate to such a degree that a change in one situation would involve changes in many others, and the game is seldom thought to be worth the candle. As a result we observe the phenomenon of the cultural lag, or the latent period when forces making for change are present in the social order but are seemingly impotent.11 This latent period may last from a very short time up to many centuries, as may be seen by comparing the rapid manner in which the radio was recently introduced with the long history of the antislavery movement. Most of our routines represent adjustments rather to past conditions than to the way things are actually functioning at the present moment. It is fascinating to realize that the world in which we live is really a great historical museum in which are preserved all manner of ideas, customs, traditions, beliefs, and institutions. Even today many people to all intents and purposes are still living in the stone age, and if a census were taken of the contents of men's minds it would be safe to wager, in the case even of brilliant and independent thinkers, that a large proportion of their ideas are of extremely ancient origin. Even when the basic conditions of life are in rapid flux, as in a frontier community or on the battlefield, the old routines may persist to retard much needed adaptations to the new situations. Yet when all is said and done a good word may still be put in for routine as the chief social conservator. Intelligence and innovation are after all far too fragile instruments to be entrusted with the task of holding society together. What is required are not the subtle principles of affinity that sometimes bind single individuals to each other, but gross and general forces which can act on and through all men, whether they will or no; and among such forces routine is by no means the least significant. Then too, although its binding threads do hold us tightly in our places, they are seldom felt as chains, and whenever they are cut we at once start replacing them with others. REFERENCES 1 Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1923). 2 See Josephine Goldmark, Fatigue and Efficiency, A study in industry (3 ed., N. Y., Russell Sage Foundation, 1919), 43-53; based largely on Report of the Royal Commission on a Dispute Respecting Hours of Employment between the Bell Telephone Company of Canada, Ltd., and Operators at Toronto (Ottawa, 1907), and Investigation of Telephone Companies made by the U. S. Bureau of Labor (Senate Doc. No. 380, 61 Congress, 2 Session, Washington, 1910). Charles H. Judd, The Psychology of Social Institutions (N. Y., Macmillan, 1926), 105–128; the quotation is from pages 105-106. 4 Jonathan Swift, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World (London, 1726), Part I, Chapter 2. 130. Cf. Hamlet's soliloquy, Act 3, Scene 1. Franz Boas, Anthropology (N. Y., Columbia Univ. Press, 1908), 11. 7 Graham Wallas, Our Social Heritage (New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, 1921), 17. 8 Charles A. Ellwood, Introduction to Social Psychology (N. Y., Appleton, 1917), Robert Frost, The Death of the Hired Man. 10 Samuel Butler, Erewhon, or Over the range (N. Y., Dutton, 1920; 1 ed., 1872), 194. 11 Cf. W. F. Ogburn, Social Change, with respect to culture and original nature (N. Y., Huebsch, 1922). What tools are Chapter X TOOLS AND MACHINES A tool is a device employed to facilitate the application of mechanical power. The simplest tools are unshaped natural objects used to direct or control the release of muscular force, as when a man hurls a stone at an attacking dog, or thrusts out a stick to keep himself from falling. In such cases the object is utilized as it exists in the order of nature, nothing being done to work it over into a more effective form. Animals often use objects as tools to the construction of which they have contributed nothing, as when a monkey beats his companion with a club, or climbs onto a box to reach a banana suspended from the ceiling of his cage. In this elementary sense few objects escape being tools. But natural objects are also made over so that they may be more effectively utilized. Köhler has shown that monkeys are capable of making simple tools. They can fit two sticks together to form a longer stick with which to reach a banana lying outside their cage, or they can make a ladder by piling packing boxes on each other so as to reach fruit which has been suspended high above their heads. Such acts, and many others described by Köhler in his work entitled The Mentality of Apes, require no little intelligence, and cannot fail to increase one's respect for these near-humans.1 Whether other animals are in the habit of manufacturing tools is not so clearly established, except possibly in the case of the social insects as the bees and ants. One of the most important sources for an understanding of prehistoric man is the large variety of tools, such as clipped flints, smoothed stones, and shaped bones, which have been found in and about the places where he lived. These exist in many different styles and forms, and of widely varying workmanship. With the limited facilities available to prim |