Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/372

 358 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

These somber spirits assume that the crowd is the chief form of association, or else is so typical that what is true of the crowd holds true of all other modes of union. But sociology of this sort is sadly out of focus. The crowd is only one extreme of a long gamut of forms that stretches through the mass-meeting, the assembly, the representative body, the public, and the sect, up to the corporation. At the upper end of the series the group-unit shows traits precisely opposite to those of the crowd. In fact, each form of human association has its own character- istics and needs to be studied independently.

The first improvement on the crowd is the mass-meeting an assemblage heterogeneous, but not wholly formless. The mass- meeting has a platform and a chairman, listens to regular speeches, and preserves a semblance of order. Responsible persons, recognized by the chair, speak to resolutions usually drafted in advance, and the will of the whole is ascertained by a formal vote. The decisions of the mass-meeting are, therefore, likely to show more self-restraint and rationality than those of the crowd.

The next stage is the deliberative assembly the purposeful gathering of a particular category of persons, say the workmen of a trade, the stockholders of a company, or the householders of a ward. The fact of homogeneity marks out this form as a higher species of association. A body of persons cannot possess group-traits unless they converge upon certain emotions which all may feel, certain ideas which all can grasp. Now, in a hetero- geneous mass the only common ground possible is the elemental, the primitive. Persons of all sorts and conditions cannot be brought to vibrate in unison unless you strike a universal note, appeal to the crudest of impulses, the simplest of ideas. In a homogeneous assemblage, on the other hand, a basis of sympathy is already provided in the common experience or characteristic, and it is not necessary to descend so many rungs in the ladder of culture in order to find a meeting-point for minds.

In the fortuitous gathering leadership is a matter of chance or priority, but in the assembly there is a kind of natural leader- ship depending on the nature of the interest that has brought