Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/739

 THE PRESENT STATUS OF SOCIOLOGY IN GERMANY

industrial order which includes division of labor. "The division of labor which national economy considers is a historical cate- gory, not an elementary economic phenomenon" (p. 139).

Bucher directs his polemics against Schmoller also. The latter claims division of labor as the ground for variation in possessions, etc. Bucher declares: "So far as these occurrences (*. e., the phenomena of division of labor) do not elude research in prehistoric obscurity, as in the case of the rise of the priest- hoods and of the most ancient orders of nobility, I am disposed to believe that we might invert Schmoller's remarkable dictum and declare that differences of possessions and of income are not the consequence of division of labor but its chief cause " (p. 152).

The assertion of Schmoller that the structure of classes rests entirely upon inheritance is characterized by Bucher as "a thesis without supporting evidence, and a crooked Darwinian analogy." At the same time Bucher admits that it may be as difficult to adduce evidence against the assertion as for it. Bucher distin- guishes between vocational class (Bcrufsklasse) and vocational status (Berufsstand). Only of the former is it true that pos- sessions and occupation define its limits. Bucher also admits that the inheritance hypothesis is admissible in case of the for- mer but not in case of the latter.

Of special weight in Biicher's treatment is the further cir- cumstance that he does not overlook the differences between industrial epochs. The relation of division of labor to posses- sions is quite different today from what it was in the Middle Ages, for instance. Schmoller the head of the historical school ! planted himself on grounds of natural history, and let history drop out of sight! In opposition to this summary method of treatment, Bucher rightly emphasizes the difference between different periods. "During the Middle Ages," he says, "lack of capital compelled division of occupations (Berufs- tcilung^\ at present abundance of capital tends to minute sub- division of labor (Arbcitszcrlcgung) and to displacement of labor (Arbcitsverschicbung) (p. 155). In this analysis Biicher's new terminology does very good service.