Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/784

768 common sentiment becomes universal and hence effective; while in stratified communities, the separation of classes hinders easy conduction of feeling throughout the group. Consequently an offender escapes the lowering glances and bitter words of the public by taking refuge in his class where his fault is excused and condoned. The bruiser dives into the sporting class and finds sympathy. The friends of the ballot-sharp close up and shield him from opprobrium. The snob shuts himself away from popular derision in a social atmosphere surcharged with contempt for the herd. This right of asylum with complaisant coteries is a very grave thing for it often transforms an act of punishment into a class war and rends the community in twain. The power of wealth or place to command an entourage of flatterers makes extremely difficult the control of rulers by public opinion. Between throne and people hangs oftentimes a thick curtain of obsequious courtiers and buzzing sychophants that shut away unwelcome murmurs till the gathering whirlwind of popular indignation tears away the curtain and topples over the throne.

The might of public wrath is destroyed by anything that diverts it from an individual and spreads it harmlessly over a network of administrative responsibility. The common indignation always confused by a shifting responsibility is most baffled when responsibility is traced back and is found to be lodged in a body of men. It is this fact that accounts for the increasing disregard of public opinion in the management of business. Corporate organization opposes to public fury a cuirass of divided responsibility that conveys away harmlessly a shock that might have stretched iniquity prone. Witness the ineffectual agitations against grade-crossings, link-couplers or fenderless street cars. In such cases public indignation must be given an arm to strike