Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/540

528 than society and has its own conditions of life and health. If these be widely disregarded in any group, both family and group will come to ruin. These three, then, toleration, respect for ownership, and respect for marriage are the fundamentals of group life. To society they are what food, drink and sleep are to the individual, or union of sexes and care of children are to the species.

Warfare, so universal among primitive groups and all-important even for the societies of today, determines the next development of internal relations. Here we have the basis for a true selective process. A study that indicates those characteristics of a group that favor victory and survival amid intergroup conflicts, marks the path of necessary social development.

War tests not alone physical strength but also the excellence of the social organization and particularly of the group solidarity. The proportion of fighting men that can be got into the field is an element in the result. This, in turn, depends on the amount of social cohesion that has been developed. Indifference of the individual to the fate of the rest, of parts of a group to the fate of other parts, felt divergence of interest, jealousies, dissensions, internal strife, all point the way to ruin and must be provided against by resort to social control. Furthermore, within the fighting body certain qualities are of supreme importance. Such are loyalty and obedience to leaders, respect for superiors, comradeship and helpfulness, interest in the fate or welfare of one's companions. Finally, endurance, courage, fortitude, spirit of self-sacrifice, contempt for danger, hatred of the enemy, rage, war-like spirit, fierceness and even cruelty are precious in the shock of battle.

Besides these conditions of continuance, there are conditions of group welfare and happiness. Care of the old, faithfulness to agreements, honesty, veracity, helpfulness, generosity, hospitality, industriousness, humility, temperance, patience, public spirit and obedience to law come to be recognized in the long run by the wise men of almost any group as favorable to general happiness, and therefore to be fostered by every means at the