Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/816

 786 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Nothing exists save by the conjuncture of two or more factors. If any one of these factors be wanting, the thing does not come to pass. Yet we do not term each and all of these factors "causes." The appearance of a new situation is consid- ered to be the effect of the precipitating factor. The ferment, the igniting spark, the touching of the electric button, the knocking away of the stay block, the turning of the lever, is looked upon as the cause of what ensues. The factors already present are termed the conditions, not the causes, of the change. Suppose, for example, a given phenomenon cannot occur without the conjuncture of factors a, b, and c. If a and b are present and the phenomenon occurs on the addition of c, then c is regarded as the cause, a and b as the conditions. But it is possible that either of these may be the precipitating factor working within the framework constituted by the other two factors.

Now, this logic applies to the advent of a new social form. If a tribe continues pastoral because of ignorance, then the cause of its entrance upon the agricultural stage will be its acquiring the arts of cultivation. But our frontier communities have always tarried some time in the cattle-raising stage, and the cause of their transition to agriculture has been the growth of their population. Japan in the early days had the capital for the building of railroads, but not the knowledge. On the other hand, New Zealand possessed the knowledge, but lacked the capital. In the former case the arrival of knowledge, in the latter case the arrival of capital, is the cause of the advent of steam locomotion.

The strategic importance of the precipitating factor has a bearing on the dispute between the champions of individuals as causes of social change and the champions of collective causes the innovationists and the adaptationists. A useful pro- cess or a labor-saving machine is promptly adopted and begins at once to work its transforming effects. The inventor may therefore be hailed as the prime cause of the social changes that ensue. The clever men that devised the great mechanical improvements toward the close of the eighteenth century indi-