Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/562

544 the power of the purse on the one side, the march of technique is broadening it on the other.

A lesser derivative interest is the political. Like wealth, a center of power is valued as promoting many kinds of satisfactions. Undoubtedly the earlier state-building forces are Fear and Greed. Groups ally themselves in order to make or resist attack. People dread the enemy, and hence cheerfully submit to the yoke of the war-leader. They tremble before the predatory, and therefore rally around a power that can make law respected. These fear forces are strongly seconded by the love of power which impels the masterful to supply more government than is needed. In time the absolute state arises in all its grimness, and men start back in affright before the Frankenstein they have created. There ensues a struggle to wrest from government guarantees of individual liberties and rights. Finally, it is recognized how much the distribution of wealth in an era of social production depends upon the state, and the people grapple with the classes for the mastery of power. During these four phases—military, civil, liberal, and social—of the political interest, while men are pouring out their blood and treasure, first to create and then to control the state, their groupings will depend much on their political feelings and politics will be a maker of history.

Since the feeling for the state is derivative, it varies with the importance of what the state does. Loyalty touches its zenith when blows ring harmless on the broad shield the state holds over her people. The flame of patriotism rises or sinks with the approach or retreat of violence. The state, moreover, enlists strong affections when it is the center of all kinds of co-operation and the active promoter of every form of culture. But with the triumph of peace, order, individual liberty, and popular government, the old fears and passions are forgotten. The industrial organization disengages itself from the political. The promotion of culture devolves more and more upon free associations. Religion relies for support on free-will offerings. Public opinion comes to be the great regulator of conduct. The non-political side of society comes forward, political concern dies down, and the state no longer plays a star part in the drama of history.