Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/829

 SOCIAL CONTROL 815

there is bread and coal enough, what matters our dependence on art ! And so long as society can stamp its standards and values on its members, what matters our dependence on forms of con- trol !

Not that the future is secure. The crash may yet come through the strife of classes, each unable to master the others by means of those influences that subdue the individual. But if it comes, it will be due to the mal-distribution of wealth effected by new, blind, economic forces we have not learned to regulate, and will no more discredit the policy of social control than the failure of the mountain reservoir discredits irrigation.

III.

From the recorded social experience of five thousand years it ought to be possible to draw true criteria for judging a method of control. Even our brief reconnoissance enables us to declare that the marks of "a good disciplinary agent include the follow- ing:

Economy. On this principle a method that molds character is superior to one that deals merely with conduct, the symptom or index of character. A roundabout way, such as the impart- ing of social valuations, is preferable to the direct method of playing upon hopes and fears. A far-sighted policy, such as the training of the young, excels the summary regulation of the adult. In the concrete these maxims mean that the priest is often cheaper than the policeman, the school costs less than the prison, and the Sunday school saves at Botany Bay. And accordingly we can recommend the salutation of the flag in the army to the court martial, prefer a little reform school for the boy to much jail for the man, and declare it better to reform the offender, once we have him, than to catch and convict him again.

Inwardness. Sanction operates only so long as it is sure. Let witnesses be wanting or authority weak, and the ill will issues in deed. Consequently the control of the will by sugges- tion is to be preferred to control of the will by hopes and fears; and a flank movement aiming to influence feelings and judg-