Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/772

 758 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

through, in imitation or imagination, the instinctive, motor-con- flict life of prehistoric times.

The industrial pursuits, then, represent artificial habits, not completely reinstating types of situation in connection with which emotional reactions were developed. Business and all industrial and professional occupations are more or less regular, monotonous, recurrent and re-recurrent ; the same situation comes up again and again, and no problem is presented throw- ing a strain upon the attention and producing the physiological changes and the emotions serviceable to the attention in manag- ing the problem. But some modern occupations are not irksome, and not all are irksome to the same degree ; and an examination of them from this standpoint discloses a preference for those in which the element of uncertainty is pronounced, in which the prob- lematical is present, or where, at least, the attention is intermit- tent. The modern business which, perhaps, involves the largest element of risk is referred to by Mr. Crump in these words : "Speculation in the stock market has almost irresistible attrac- tions as a mere amusement, quite apart from its being a kind of occupation which is the most luxurious and exciting mode of making money." The risk is, in fact, excessive ; the element of uncertainty in the problem cannot be controlled. Economically it is a business, in .the sense that it has a value in fixing prices and promoting exchange; but psychologically it is gambling; with this important qualification that, in so far as the profes- sional speculator gives his attention, perhaps during a period of years, to one class of stocks, and uses special wires and other private sources of information, he eliminates the element of chance, and is to that extent working. Again, the organizer or owner of a competitive business enjoys it. He is in conflict with others, his success is victory, his failure defeat, and his emotions are of the same quality as those experienced by the expert swordsman or the primitive warrior and hunter. The motor side of conflict is eliminated, but the strategic side is correspond- ingly developed, and there is no question that business may be so fascinating a pursuit as to compete merely in its pleasurable aspect with amusements properly so called. Many business-men