6l6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
better order. Which will be favored in such interference depends on how they are esteemed. For obvious reasons order was prized before progress was, and until modern times enjoyed far greater consideration. But the visible triumphs of physical science in these latter days have implanted the idea that progress is vastly beneficent and must be provided for.
This, however, by no means implies a general recognition of the principle of progress. How few there are who honestly believe that improvement is possible anywhere and everywhere ! Who expects change in dress or funerals, as he expects it in surgery ? Who admits that the marriage institution or the court of justice is improvable as well as the dynamo ? Who concedes the relativity of woman's sphere or private property, as he con- cedes that of the piano or the skyscraper ? No ; the sway of custom has been weakened. But who will say that too much room has been made for social progress ?
Edward Alsworth Ross.
Stanford University, California.
