Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/364

 346 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

that sewers were needed. Gradually a few people took advan- tage of natural water courses, and turned their sewage adrift for the benefit of the people down stream. Then a beginning of public sewerage was made as an experiment, and later an exten- sive system was carried out by the town. Up to the date of my removal, however, all the wisdom of the town had failed to make the citizens generally take advantage of this new means of sani- tation. There were many householders who still endangered the health of their neighbors by lazily assenting to the abstract proposition that "drainage is a good thing for the town," while they refused to connect their own premises with the sewers. Discovery, persuasion, and, after that, individual adjustment are steps in the social process for each of which time has to be allowed ; and a sane social leader will discount this necessity and govern his programme accordingly.

Fourth, in case of any extensive reform, all these elements have to be subordinated to a process of social adaptation. This may not always come last in actual order, but it always has its turn and its influence somewhere in the series. For brevity I illustrate merely by reference to recent legislation in Illinois. We long ago discovered our need of reform in various directions. A certain percentage of our citizens had reached conclusions about better ways of conducting our affairs. It was necessary to change our public organization more or less. We had to get new statutes enacted. In that way we adapted our state and municipal institutions to a better order of things in connection with our revenue system, our primary elections, the merit system in the civil service, registration of land titles, etc., etc. ; but meanwhile we dropped a cog in social adaptation by losing our grip on control of city franchises.

The point which I am urging is that all the other stages in social reform are abortive until this stage of social adaptation, in some form or other, supplies its share in the conditions of social progress. All the clear ideas in the minds of inuividuals, all the fervent exhortations to act in accordance with the ideas, may be so much waste material and misdirected energy. This is the case if there exists a veto upon the application of the ideas, in the