Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/756

 742 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

be accomplished by their automatic device. They suggest the enormous price which the stock will presently bring and that the shares are limited in number and almost all taken. They suggest that large numbers of people are everywhere invest- ing in the enterprise, but give few names. They emphasize the business experience and shrewdness of the officers of the company — the treasurer has taken the thirty-third degree in a secret order. All these statements are general and no verifiable evidence is offered except the occasional name of a stockholder. A little healthy skepticism prompting a few direct questions like, "Has your company made any contracts to furnish their goods to the government?" (the government has been sug- gested as a mighty prospective purchaser) or, "Have your cars been put to practical use where they have stood the test of actual service?" puts the voluble agent to silence. But such questions are seldom asked. The agent makes a special effort to sell stock to leading members of the community. He develops friendly re- lations with the family of the man whose emotions he is working upon. He offers him a free trip to the factory and while there, instead of explaining the business, gives him a good time, so that he comes back and declares it is a "big thing." Now the anticipation of future gains, which, unrealized, is the funda- mental cause of commercial crisis, is itself caused by the clever way in which these agents play upon the dispositional emotions of the people. After disillusioning several speculators simply by explaining how their emotions had been worked upon by agents, it has seemed to me that a study of human motives should be included in our high-school education.

Politicians play upon the impulses of voters, as agents play upon the impulses of investors. They stimulate the same im- pulses, by the same methods. For instance, they cite this and that influential voter who is going to vote for their candidate; everybody is going to vote for him and he will win by a large majority; the election of the candidate will bring prosperity. Politicians work up an intimacy with the members of the family ; they give the voters a good time before election so that the latter come to believe the candidate is the man for them. I have found