Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/91

 A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF SOVEREIGNTY 77

done by the people as private individuals in the administration of their private property, or by individuals employed by the state. In overcoming nature and exploiting her resources the problem is purely technical.

The same is true of the large array of people who, in the domestic and ecclesiastical institutions, are teaching the children at home or in the schools and churches ; of the policemen and prison officials who are dealing with anti-social classes ; of the charity workers and pauper overseers who are dealing with the sub-social classes ; these are fitting social material for society, just as the other technical workers are fitting natural material for society's uses. This work is also technical, requiring knowledge gained more or less from the sciences of psychology, penology, and sociology, and skill gained from experience in the application of scientific principles. Whether they do their work as employes of the state or as members of the domestic or of the ecclesiastical institutions is not at all a matter of concern, seeing that the quality of knowledge and skill for which they are employed is the same in either case.

Besides these technical duties which the state and the indus- trial institutions may have taken from the family and the church, the latter institutions have certain duties still peculiar to them- selves. The technical work of the family is the duties of " house- keeping, " the larger part of the training of children, the care of the health, the provision for amusements, comforts, and neces- sities of the home. These duties are usually met empirically, but they may be met by the help of science and technology, as is the case where the physician's advice is taken, or when "scientific cookery" and child psychology are enlisted.

The technical work of the church is the observances of rites, ceremonies, sacred times ; the arrangement of auditoriums, con- fessionals, wardrobes ; the routine of deacons, elders, bishops ; the provision for religious and secular education.

The technical problems of political parties are the duties of the party "workers;" the methods of nominating conventions, campaigns, elections ; the preparation of ballots and poll lists, in so far as these have not been taken over by the state.