Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/770

 754 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

A large increase of common utilities is not sufficient. The conception of the city as an agency for the distribution of water and fuel, as a cooperative express agency for the transport of freight and passengers, as an agency for the construction and maintenance of highways, is a mechanical rather than an organic view. Such a union of mere convenience can be in no proper sense organic. It does not attract the people from their isola- tion into closer contact. The utilities which the people coopera- tively own they individually consume. Collective control of gas-pipes and water-mains may demonstrate the powers of cooperation in the same way that a judicious purchase of stock in a sound and dividend-earning corporation attests the business sense of the purchaser. Such a conception reduces the civic cor- poration to the mechanical level of the soulless commercial cor- poration. It is, in fact, inferior to the ordinary corporation in that responsibility is less definite, the relationship of principal and agent is not so clearly recognized, the penalties for neglect and evil-doing do not seem so imminent. Hence self-interest is not so great a spur to administrative alertness and honesty.

To exite the municipal spirit into vigorous action something more than business methods and schemes are required. An organic life must be nourished by a certain amount of sentiment. In time past the spirit of nationality, and to some extent the spirit of municipality, have been nourished and strengthened by the tragedies of war, but peaceful means must now be found to excite the spirit of the new municipality. The roots of the municipal spirit must extend deeper than the brain; they must penetrate the heart. The commune must have the love of the people. The spirit is the creature of love and devotion, and it is weak and inert when it has not these. To strengthen the municipal spirit means must be found to arouse love and devotion on the part of the people.

People love that which gives them happiness. Some institu- tion or institutions must be introduced which will call forth a thrill of pleasure. The people must come to look upon the city as ministering to their joys as well as their conveniences. The life of the people in its lighter moods must be made to flow to a