Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/503

 SOCIAL CONTROL 487

craft. Still it may always have in it something of the fine art — something beyond the reach of ordinary persons. For a while the results on the young will not compare favorably with those of the old religious education. But it took the Jesuits a long time to perfect an education in the interests of the church ; so let us not begrudge the time to perfect an education in the interests of society.

And let those who rebel at this prospect be reminded that the only alternative is to go back to state churches and church schools. A state educational machine with its semi-military organization of little children, its overriding of individual bent and preference, its appeals to head instead of heart, its rational morality, its colorless and jejune text-books, its official cult of ethical and civic principles, its cold-blooded fostering of patriot- ism, is far from attractive. But its unloveliest features seem comely, compared with the harsh and forbidding traits of a state church.

The near coalescence of physical and spiritual forces in the modern state may well inspire certain misgivings. When we note the enormous resources and high centralization of a first- class educational system ; when we consider that it takes forcible possession of the child for half the time during its best years, and submits the creature to a uniform curriculum, devised more and more with reference to its own aims and less and less with reference to the wishes of the parent ; when we consider that the democratic control of this formidable engine affords no guaran- tee that it will not be used for empire over minds, we may well be apprehensive of future developments. The chief security for spiritual freedom under this educating modern state seems to lie in the vigor of other spiritual associations lying over against the state to check it and redress the balance. The "free church in the free state," the press, the organization of science, the republic of letters, the voluntary cultural associations — these forbid the undue ascendancy of the control organization of society.

Edward Alsworth Ross. Stanford University, California.