Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/834

 820 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Europeans. They had the same tastes, the same passions, the same manners ; and how much more is this true today, exclaims M. Novicow. Every day the economic, literary, scientific, and artistic interests of all Europe are becoming more and more intermingled :

Every year, be it a good year or a bad year, there are a dozen inter- national congresses where ideas are exchanged, discussed, and brought to light ; where there is created a sort of union between the members of the same association and of the same profession, whatever their nationality. An inven- tion made at Rome becomes immediately known and tried in New York and in Moscow. A scientific discovery does not remain localized in a city or in a country ; it soon becomes the possession of the entire world. Humanity forms at present a great unit, having community of life, ideas, and manners. .... The large cities are already similar ;. . . . the fashions are the same ; the same operas are given on the stage ; the cuisine is uniform ; the system of tramways, omnibuses, hotels, post, telegraph, and railroads varies but little. In brief, one enjoys the same life in New York, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, and St. Petersburg. 1

With the progress of science people all over the civilized world come to think more and more alike, become more and more interdependent. Hence its development will hasten the formation of these new groups of civilization. Such inter- national federations will not inaugurate an era of cosmopolitan- ism ; they will not suppress nationality, but will rather tend to encourage national individuality. Switzerland today, which includes not one nationality, but a federation of three nationali- ties, is the prototype. This offers the miniature of one of Novi- cow's groups of civilization. It is interesting to note that he considers invention, 2 especially invention leading to increased communication, as the main factor in the process of socialization and assimilation. This will, he declares, in the course of time be responsible for the creation of international federations. Thus he assumes the function of assimilation to be, first, the

X CH. RlCHET, Dans centans, p. 79 ; quoted by Novicow, p. 615.

of Civilization, chaps, xxvii, xxviii, and xxix. He says : " It is easy to see .... that this [invention] is the real civilizing agent. If certain refining influences^ largely dependent indirectly upon this, be left out of the account, it is correct to say that civilization consists in the utilization of the materials and forces of nature, and the exclusive means by which this is accomplished in human invention." (P. 189.)
 * On the subject of invention see PROFESSOR LESTER F. WARD'S Psychic Factors