Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/602

584 sciously served the lower classes, and freed the different sections of the humble folk to serve each other. Civilization, to all outward appearances, is based on exploitation; but in its deepest essence it is founded on the law of service. Cleavage is a paradoxical involution of the law of service (pp. 84, 85).

4. The social problem has always been how to prevent the abuses of cleavage from outweighing its benefits. The greater part of the book (chaps. v-viii) is virtually expansion of this proposition.

The teleology more or less evident in the discussion may be reduced to the formula: The inevitable reforms, or adjustments, which will distribute the benefits of progress more widely than at present, will consist very largely of better socialization of the different sorts of capital which cleavage has accumulated. The influence of Henry George crops out very plainly, but this ought not to prejudice the main thesis.

The historical material with which the argument is fortified is handled with a degree of intelligence entirely out of the common. I have not been able to test his accuracy in details, but the author's quest of the underlying meaning of events always shows keen historic sense. The book is consequently a successful contribution to social analysis. Mr. Wallis's interpretation, however, is mediate rather than conclusive. What he means by "cleavage" is merely one of the phenomena of social differentiation in general, and in no other sense a "factor" (cf. pp. 12, 51, etc.) than is the case with every other institutional development. It is rather an incident in the operation of forces which are themselves the principal concern. This mode of their operation seems to have impressed the writer unduly: i.e., by regarding it more as a cause than as an effect he has obscured more ultimate causes. In his theory, therefore, "cleavage" takes the place of a deus ex machina. This by no means vitiates his argument; it merely qualifies the importance of the conclusions which the argument contains. A great cloud of scientific witnesses might testify that this was their experience too in proposing generalizations. Mr. Wallis has demonstrated his right to be heard, and it is to be hoped that he will pursue the studies so creditably begun.

addresses and discussions brought together into this volume were presented in a series of conferences held during the winter of