Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/562

548 as priest, as soldier and as nurse, as section boss and as kindergartner, as policeman and as tutor, as bill collector and as Sunday-school superintendent. The kindness that society desires of the pastor is no twin to the vigorous competition it expects of the business man. Running religion on business principles and running business on religious principles prove equally disastrous. Nor is the disciplinary severity of the warden akin to the tenderness of the "Salvation lassie," though each is suited to its function.

Unlimited altruism is, in fact, wholly unsuited to hold every one unswervingly to the special activities and forbearances belonging to his particular position in the social system. Such an adjustment of each to the demands of the social order as shall insure equilibrium flows not from a vague altruism but from a particular way of regarding these requirements. However contrasted the sentiments that go with the function of the jailer and that of the nurse, both functions can be looked upon and discharged as duties.

The spirit of love, whether born of fellowship or of faith, is everywhere at work abolishing flogging in the navy, abbreviating penal codes, rooting out slavery, averting or humanizing war, lifting the plane of business competition, relaxing the rigor of industrial discipline, softening the treatment of children in home or school, ameliorating the lot of dependents and defectives, injecting sweetness into manners and trimming the claws of theological dogma. It is the source of constant improvement in the social order. It continually revises the standard of requirement for the various positions in the system. But it is not the immediate parent of that orderliness that day by day harmonizes the activities of thousands of men. It is not the force that holds each individual in the orbit marked out for him in an organized group.

This view of social order is confirmed by Alexander. "This system of social relations … implies similarity and diversity of functions among its members. Many fight, and many work, and many govern; and there are some needs so general that