possible hindrance--follows the line of least resistance. Either the
shortest path, or the path which presents fewest impediments, is that
which he chooses; and the like applies to courses of conduct at large:
he does not use great effort to satisfy a want when small effort will
do. Given his surroundings and the occupation he chooses, when choice
is possible, is that which promises a satisfactory livelihood with
the least tax on such powers as he has, bodily and mental--is the
easiest to his particular nature, all things considered. What holds of
individuals holds of masses of individuals; and hence the inhabitants
of a tract offering facilities for a particular occupation fall into
that occupation. In § 732 of the _Principles of Sociology_ I have
given from various countries illustrations of the ways in which local
conditions determine the local industries:--instance among ourselves
mining districts where there are coal, ironstone, lead, slate;
wheat-growing districts and pastoral districts; fruit and hop districts;
districts for weavers, stockingers, workers in iron; places for
shipbuilding, importing, fishing, etc.: showing that certain sections
of the population become turned into organizations for the production
of certain commodities, without reference to the directive agency of
any man. So in each case is it with the various classes of merchants,
shopkeepers, professional men, etc., who in each of these centers
minister to those engaged in its special industries: nobody ordering
them to come or to go.
Similarly when we pass from production to distribution. As in India at
the present time, where a Juggernaut festival is accompanied by a vast
fair; as, according to Curtius and Mommsen, in Greece and Rome, the
gatherings of people to make sacrifices to the gods were the occasions
for trading; so in Christian times, church festivals and saints' days,
drawing assemblages of people for worship, led to active exchange of
commodities--the names of the fairs proving their origin. This was not
arranged by any one: it arose from the common sense of all who wanted
to sell some things and buy others. There has been a like history for
the rise of markets, and the transition from weekly to bi-weekly,
and finally to daily, markets in respect of important things--corn,
money, securities. No superior man, political or other, dictated these
developments. When barter gave place to exchange by means of a currency,
the like happened. One wanting to dispose of surplus goods, meeting
those who had no personal need for such goods, took in exchange certain
things in universal demand, which he knew he would be able to pass on in
like manner--in early stages articles of food, of warmth, of defense,
of ornament; and from such articles arose in each case a currency--here
dried fish, there tea-bricks, and in other cases skins, bundles of
cotton, here standard bars of rock salt, there standard bars of iron,
in one place definite lengths of cloth, and in another fine mats, and
in many places ornaments and the materials for ornaments: which last,
gold and silver, being relatively portable, passed into wide use. These
precious metals were at first in quantities actually weighed; then in
quantities of professed weight; and finally in quantities bearing the
king's stamp as being the most trustworthy. No great man--political,
industrial, or other--invented this system. It has everywhere resulted
from men's efforts to satisfy their needs in the easiest ways. So was
it with the transition from a currency of intrinsic value to one of
representative value. When, instead of a direct payment in coin, there
came to be used a memorandum of indebtedness to be presently discharged,
which could be transferred to others--when, as in Italy, to save the
weighing and testing of miscellaneous coins, there arose the practice
of depositing specified quantities with a custodian and having from
him negotiable receipts--when, as in England, the merchants, after
having been robbed by the king of their valuables, left for security in
the Tower, sought safer places, and, depositing them in the vaults of
goldsmiths, received in return "goldsmiths' notes," which could pass
from hand to hand; there was initiated a paper-currency. Goldsmiths
developed into bankers; after central banks there arose provincial
banks; promises to pay became to a great extent substitutes for actual
payments; and presently grew up the supplementary system of checks,
extensively serving in place of coin and notes. Finally, bank-clerks
in London, instead of presenting to the respective banks the many and
various claims upon them, met and exchanged these claims and settled
the balance: whence presently came the clearing house. No superior
man arranged all this. Each further stage was prompted by the desire
to economize labor. From primitive fairs up to the daily transactions
of the money market, distribution and exchange have developed without
the dictation of any great man, either of Mr. Carlyle's sort or of
Mr. Mallock's sort. It has been so throughout all other arrangements
subserving national life, even the governmental. Though here at least
it seems that the individual will and power play the largest part,
yet it is otherwise. I do not merely refer to the fact that without
loyalty in citizens a ruler can have no power; and that so the supremacy
of a man intrinsically or conventionally great is an outcome of the
average nature; but I refer to the fact that governmental evolution is
essentially a result of social necessities. On tracing its earliest
stages from savage life upwards, it becomes manifest that even a
ministry is not the mere invention of a king. It arises everywhere
from that augmentation of business which goes along with increase of
territory and authority: entailing the necessity for deputing more and
more work. Under its special aspect it seems to be wholly a result of
the king's private action, but under its general aspect it is seen to
be determined by the conditions of his existence. And it is so with
governmental institutions at large. Without tracing these further it
will suffice to quote the saying of Macintosh--"Constitutions are not
made but grow."
* * * * *
Of course inequalities of nature and consequent inequalities of relative
position are factors in social changes. Of course, as implied above,
any assertion of the approximate equality of human beings, save in the
sense that they are beings having sets of faculties common to them all,
is absurd; and it is equally absurd to suppose that the unlikenesses
which exist are without effects on social life. I have pointed out that
in the earliest stages of social evolution, when war is the business of
life, the supremacy of a leader or chief, or primitive king, is a fact
of cardinal importance; and also that the initiator of ecclesiastical
control is necessarily distinguished from others "by knowledge and
intellectual capacity." The beginnings of industrial evolution are also
ascribed by me to differences of individual capacity; as instance the
following quotations from that part of the _Principles of Sociology_
which deals with Industrial Institutions.
The natural selection of occupations has for its primary
cause certain original differences between individuals, partly
physical, partly psychical. Let us for brevity's sake call this the
physio-psychological cause (§ 730).
That among the fully civilized there are in like manner
specializations of function caused by natural aptitudes, needs
no showing: professions and crafts are often thus determined ...
occupations of relatively skilled kinds having fallen into the
hands of the most intelligent (§ 731).
Speaking generally, the man who, among primitive peoples,
becomes ruler, is at once a man of power and a man of sagacity: his
sagacity being in large measure the cause of his supremacy. We may
therefore infer that as his political rule, though chiefly guided
by his own interests, is in part guided by the interests of his
people, so his industrial rule, though having for its first end to
enrich himself, has for its second end the prosperity of industry
at large. It is a fair inference that on the average his greater
knowledge expresses itself in orders which seem, and sometimes are,
beneficial (§ 770).
In its beginnings slavery commonly implies some kind of
inferiority (§ 795).
Considered as a form of industrial regulation, slavery has
been natural to early stages of conflicts and consolidations (§
800).
The rise of slavery exhibits in its primary form the
differentiation of the regulative part of a society from the
operative part (§ 798).
The recognition of these effects of individual differences, especially
in early stages, may rightly go along with the assertion that all
the large traits of social structure are otherwise determined--that
all those great components of a society which carry on the various
industries, making the life of the whole possible, all those
specialized classes which have established and maintained the
inter-dependence of the producing structures, by facilitating and
regulating the exchange of their products, have arisen from the play
of aggregate forces, constituted of men's desires directed by their
respective sets of circumstances. Mr. Mallock alleges that the great
fact of human inequality--the fact that there is a minority "more
gifted and efficient than the majority"--is the fundamental fact from
which "the main structural characteristics of all civilized societies
spring."[10] That he should assert this in presence of all the evidence
which the _Principles of Sociology_ puts before him, is, to use the
weakest word, surprising. If his assertion be true, however, the way of
demonstrating its truth lies open before him. In volumes II. and III. of
the _Principles of Sociology_, several groups of institutions, presented
by every developed society, are dealt with under the heads, Political,
Ecclesiastical, Professional, Industrial: seventy-one chapters being
included in them. Each chapter treats of some aspect, some division or
subdivision, of the phenomena grouped under the general head. Instead
of the Industrial Institutions discussed above, suppose that Mr.
Mallock takes a group not touched upon--Professional Institutions. The
thesis worked out in the part so entitled is that all the professions
are differentiated from the priesthood; and the differentiation is
tacitly represented as due to the slow operation of those natural
causes which lead to specializations of function throughout the whole
social aggregate. If Mr. Mallock is right, then of the chapters dealing
with the ten professions enumerated, each is wrong by omitting to say
anything about the great man, political, industrial, or other, who set
up the differentiation or from time to time consciously gave it a more
pronounced character--who thought that it would be well that there
should be a separate medical class, or a separate teaching class, or a
separate artist class, and then carried his thought into effect. Mr.
Mallock's course is simply to take each of these chapters and show how,
by the recognition of the supplementary factor on which he insists, the
conclusions of the chapter are transformed. If he does this he will do
more than by merely asserting that my views of social evolution are
wrong because the "great fact of human inequality" "is systematically
and ostentatiously ignored."
* * * * *
If in his title Mr. Mallock had, instead of "Evolution," written Social
Sustentation, the general argument of his book would have been valid.
If, further, he had alleged that social sustentation is instrumental
to social evolution, and that in the absence of processes facilitating
social sustentation social evolution can not take place, no one could
have gainsaid his conclusion. And if he had inferred that whoever
improves these processes betters the conditions which favor social
evolution, his inference would have been true. But this admission may be
made without admitting that the men who directly or indirectly further
sustentation, or who improve the quality of the social units, are the
agents who determine and direct social evolution. An account of their
doings in no way constitutes an account of that social transformation
from an indefinite incoherent homogeneity to a definite coherent
heterogeneity, in which the evolution of a society essentially consists.
Moreover Mr. Mallock is justified in contending that the great
man--discoverer, inventor, teacher, administrator, or other--may
equitably receive all the reward which, under the principle of contract,
flows to him as the result of his superiority; and that disregard of his
claim by the mass of men is alike inequitable and ungrateful. This is
the position I have myself taken, as witness the following:--
Even were an invention of no benefit to society unless thrown
open to unbought use, there would still be no just ground for
disregarding the inventor's claim; any more than for disregarding
the claim of one who labors on his farm for his own benefit and
not for public benefit. But as it is, society unavoidably gains
immensely more than the inventor gains. Before he can receive
any advantage from his new process or apparatus, he must confer
advantages on his fellow men--must either supply them with a
better article at the price usually charged, or the same article
at a lower price. If he fails to do this, his invention is a dead
letter; if he does it, he makes over to the world at large nearly
all the new mine of wealth he has opened. By the side of the
profits which came to Watt from his patents, place the profits
which his improvements in the steam-engine have since brought to
his own nation and to all nations, and it becomes manifest that the
inventor's share is infinitesimal compared with the share mankind
takes. And yet there are not a few who would appropriate even his
infinitesimal share![11]
Had Mr. Mallock recognized the fundamental distinction I have pointed
out between social sustentation, life, activity, enlightenment, etc.,
on the one hand, and the development of social structures on the other,
his polemic against socialists and collectivists would have been equally
effective, and he would not have entailed upon me an expenditure of time
and energy which I can ill spare.--_The Nineteenth Century._
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Nineteenth Century, p. 316.
[5] Aristocracy and Evolution, pp. 52, 53. The italics are his.
[6] Literature, April 2, 1898.
[7] Westminster Review, April, 1857.
[8] Aristocracy and Evolution, pp. 5, 7.
[9] Ibid., pp. 10, 11.
[10] Nineteenth Century, pp. 314, 315.
[11] Justice, pp. 110, 111.
THE TORRENTS OF SWITZERLAND.
BY EDGAR E. DAWSON, M. E.
Mark Twain once said that he was in constant expectation in Switzerland
of seeing a farmer fall out of his farm. The farmer has in many cases
appreciated his hazardous position when harvesting his crops, and has
put on crampoons to prevent a precipitous trip into the valley below.
The crampoons prevent the farmer leaving his farm in such an undignified
manner, but they do not prevent that same farm leaving its position
on the mountain side. To show how, in many cases, the mountain sides
are kept intact is the object of this paper. The old simile, "I am as
sure of it as of the ground on which I stand," would be as much out of
place in some parts of Switzerland as in those parts of the world where
earthquakes are endemic. In fact, in these latter places, though the
surface may receive a good shaking, it generally returns to somewhat the
same neighborhood after its nervous peregrinations are over. Not so with
the Swiss mountain side. When part of the mountain takes leave of the
rest, it is forever.
Switzerland is often spoken of somewhat derisively as a garden, so
perfectly have its pleasure grounds been laid out, and so completely
comfortable does one find one's self in the midst of Nature's grandeurs.
If its water courses had not been controlled and cared for as are
those of a well-conducted park it would be chaos! The constant and
vigilant struggle the Swiss have been forced to maintain against
the liquid element is much to their credit, for they have generally
been victorious. They have spent enormous sums of money in keeping
their torrents and rivers within reasonable limits, and are even
now, at times, forced to suppress new insurrections on the part of
these irresponsible agents. The corrections of the water courses have
been necessary for several reasons. In the first place, the erosions
on the mountain sides result in deposits which present different
inconveniences, of which I shall speak later. In the second place, the
erosions are frequently the cause of landslides. The work of regulating
the action of the water courses is now done according to accepted rules
based on experience and on theories which have been confirmed by facts.
Years ago, before the confederation took charge of this matter, it was
done often in a haphazard, empirical fashion by the local authorities,
with or without the aid of an engineer. But some great disasters in
the canton of Grisons awakened the people to what might occur to many
of them who had hitherto been more fortunate. At the end of September,
1868, both slopes of the Alps, and particularly the cantons of Valais
and Grisons, were visited by floods of enormous magnitude. Such was
the devastation caused that an appeal was made to the generosity of
the nation at large in behalf of the sufferers. This was responded to
with such liberality that a large portion of the sum subscribed was put
aside for the purpose of improving the water courses permanently. The
fact that collective action was necessary in the attempts to control the
turbulent streams became very apparent. This being the case, the state
was called upon to take charge of this colossal enterprise. In July,
1871, by federal decree, the confederation declared that the correction
and extinction of torrents was a matter of public utility, and worthy
of the subsidies of the national Government. At the same time the
relative burdens of the cantons and the confederation were settled. The
importance of the improvement of the water courses and of the wooding
of the regions where they rise was recognized in the Constitution of
1874. There the matter was definitely put under federal control and
classed with the allied question of the conservation of the forests.
The problem of keeping the waters under control in Switzerland ranges
from the marshy lowlands to the summits of the passes. In spite of the
varying conditions that this range entails, there are certain general
principles that bear on all cases where the water is in movement. As the
Swiss supplies his want of coal by harnessing his streams, so he makes
the water do a large share of the work of correcting its erring ways and
preparing itself to be harnessed. This he does by utilizing its power of
carrying or depositing stones and soil, according as it is held within
narrow banks or allowed to roam at will. As this power depends also
on the steepness of the slope down which it runs, he uses this latter
factor as well.
When he has got the water courses into what he considers good working
condition and one that should be permanent, he tries to clinch
matters. This is done by so combining the various conditions of
cross-section, slope, and quality of soil that the action of the water
is automatic--that is, it brings down no more earth and stones than
it is capable of carrying below to safer places where the dangers of
floods are small. Whenever the force with which the water moves along
is stronger than the cohesion of the soil, erosion occurs. This erosion
will continue, the channel of the stream becoming ever deeper, until
a soil is encountered whose resistance is equal to the erosive action
of the water. As the alluvion is carried on, the slope of the stream
will become steeper and steeper the higher one goes. This circumstance
would be of much greater importance if the gorges and gullies in which
most of the streams run were not so well provided with rock. The power
of the water to cause erosion is lessened in proportion to the amount
of material it is carrying with it, which material is generally the
product of previous erosions. Whenever the current needs all its
strength to carry the material it has in suspension, together with the
solid matter it is pushing along, it will have lost all its power to
cause erosion. If the slope is decreased, or if the matter in suspension
is increased in any manner, deposits will occur. These deposits render
the slope less steep at that point but steeper below, so that the action
of the water beyond will make itself felt, and by digging gradually up
stream tend to restore the original slope.
In some cases there is very little erosion where the current is much
stronger than the cohesive power of the soil, for the reason that the
beds of the streams have been almost paved with stones that have been
carried along by the propulsive action of the water.
This has in many cases produced an equilibrium between the resistance
and the destroying power; in others the equilibrium has been brought
about in a different way by the same natural agents. The current of a
stream will very often go on causing erosion until arrested by some
rocky obstacle that determines a waterfall. These falls cause breaks in
the action of the water not only in stopping the erosive action in its
upward march, but also in checking the velocity of the water. Then, as
basins are often formed just above the falls and where the current is
much less swift, matter in suspension is deposited, so that when the
stream is swollen it has material to work upon, before starting to make
the original slope steeper.
The subject divides itself broadly into two branches--the extinction
of torrents and the correction of the water courses in valleys. In the
extinction of the torrents various plans are resorted to, which give
the current greater propulsive power, but at the same time they render
necessary greater protection of the bed. This may be done by incasing
it within walls of masonry (though other materials are used in some
cases) or shortening meandering portions. In the latter plan the slope
is increased, the fall being the same for a shorter distance. Currents
that have been making dangerous deposits at certain points and causing
dangerous erosions at others are treated by the above systems until the
danger has disappeared or the money has given out. When the erosive
action of the water is already too great, the material carried and then
deposited by the stream is often made use of to consolidate banks that
are threatened. Spurs are built out from such banks, and this tends to
mend matters not only in forcing the water to take another channel, but
also in causing deposits at the foot of the menaced bank.
The destructive effects of the current are arrested when the streams
are not important by means of dams made of trunks of trees and wooden
stakes, often strengthened roughly with stones. Where the streams are
larger, and where the erosive action can not be modified by enlarging
the channel, as is the case in many gorges, it is necessary to make an
artificial bed for the stream and at times to supplement this by masonry
dams. The dams are not permanent in their effects, for as soon as the
basin immediately above the dam has been filled with deposits and the
original slope of the stream has re-established itself, the products of
the erosion pass over the dam. They prove, however, of great utility
at times of large freshets by causing deposits which are subsequently
carried down in much smaller quantities. This prevents the disasters
that would be caused by sudden enormous deposits when the streams are
swollen.
The prospect for many a narrow valley would be a sad one indeed if means
had not been taken to prevent the lateral erosions so common with the
mountain torrents and so productive of landslips. Where the stream has
provided itself with a stony bed on which to roll, it often tries to do
damage by leaving the stones and attacking the earthy banks. It is in
these cases that the danger has proved so insidious; for until disasters
actually occurred, in many instances, the undermining effect of the
water was not suspected, being entirely hidden from view.
The most economical way of combating such cases is by making use of
those points that by their formation arrest the erosive action. This
is done by re-enforcing them in such manner as to produce a series of
natural steps. The upward march of the excavating action of the water
is stopped at least partially and temporarily at each step. Such a
method is of great advantage when it is necessary to delay a more costly
correction for financial reasons.