Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/387

 THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 373

Now, status is merely order recognized and secured. If it is secured so rigidly that the order cannot resolve itself into a different status, there is evidently an arrest of function in the social process. Perhaps we may suggest the reality by use of the analogy of the governor on the safety-valve of an engine. There is a certain statical relation between the steam-pressure, the weight of the balls on the arms of the governor, the speed of revolution, and the friction of the parts. If, however, the valve or the bearings of the governor be rusted into fixity, the entire functional value of the device is lost. It is useless, both as an end unto itself and as a structural element of the engine. The like is true of the social elements.

On the other hand, if there are no statical relations, no pro- portional values, no functional assignments among men, the whole social process is by so much reduced to what Spencer phrases as " indefinite, incoherent homogeneity." It is the absence of order and the negation of progress. This condition might be symbolized to a certain extent by pieces of metal suffi- cient to make the parts of an engine, but scattered promiscu- ously, instead of being manufactured and assembled in a working machine.

The bearing of all this upon the present term in our schedule may not be perfectly evident. The point is this : Assured con- stancy of the conditions involved in association, and assured safety of individual and social accomplishments, is the concept symbolized by the term "security." This set of relations among men is another universal incident of association. It is, primarily, a condition of order. It is, secondarily, like all static condi- tions, tributary to progress. Reduced to more concrete expres- sion the present theorem is that human association not only furnishes but is a guarantee of security on the one hand to the association, on the other hand to the individuals assimilated in the association.

Primitive association, say in the horde, realizes little more than security of the species-interest, as in the case of any other animal association. Changes in types of associations from less to more civilized are both effect and cause of security in a more