Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/737

 THE PRESENT STATUS OF SOCIOLOGY IN GERMANY 721

proofs. It is, to be sure, doubtless true that the first impulse to human differentiation is given by the physical and psychical differences of men. That these differences, however, are so exactly and certainly transmitted from generation to generation that they produce the groupings according to class is by no means to be asserted without further evidence. The constant passages from class to class, ascents to a higher class, and falls into a lower one are too plain and frequent to be ignored. Gustav Freytag was nearer right than Schmoller in saying that "a piece of Darwinism finds expression when the sexton's son becomes a parson." No more is Schmoller's assertion to be accepted that the division of labor is to be traced solely to physical and psychical differences in individuals instead of being an eminently social category. So far as our social order of today is concerned it is surely false to assert that each individual fills the place which best corresponds with his abilities. The division of labor appears in Schmoller's representation, on the one hand, as a natural necessity, on the other as the voluntary act of the individual. In fact it is usually a necessity socially imposed on the individual.

Quite as unauthorized is the assertion of Schmoller that the promotion of classes is a consequence of division of labor alone. It is not superior industrial capacity of given persons and occupations that determines their inclusion in a higher class, but their superior social power. Doubtless Schmoller would not claim that social power (Machf) and industrial capac- ity (Leistungsfahigkeit) are identical concepts.

In spite of the insufficient basis and evidence for Schmoller's specific assertions, his fundamental thought that the industrial order tends not towards uniformity, but towards diversity, seems to me a very fruitful one for sociology and materially quite justified. We are reminded by it of the thought of Herbert Spencer, that specialization and differentiation are in direct ratio to each other. These two tendencies, particularly in modern society, assert themselves with equal energy, and no one is entitled to say which of them will be the victor. At all events