"The conception of ' primitive society' which we ought to form is that of small groups scattered over a territory. The size of the groups is determined by the conditions of the struggle for existence. The internal organization of each group corresponds to its size. A group of groups may have some relation to each other (kin, neighborhood, alliance, connubium, and commercium) which draws them together and differentiates them from others. Thus a differentiation arises between ourselves, the we-group, or in-group, and everybody else, or the others-groups, out-groups. The insiders in a we-group are in a relation of peace, order, law, government, and industry, to each other. Their relation to all outsiders, or others-groups, is one of war and plunder, except so far as agreements have modified it.
"The relation of comradeship and peace in the we-group and that of hostility and war towards other-groups are correlative to each other. The exigencies of war with outsiders are what make peace inside, lest internal discord should weaken the we-group for war. These exigencies also make government and law in the in-group, in order to prevent quarrels and enforce discipline."[1]
The politics of most great cities offers abundant materials for the study of the type represented by the political boss as well as the social mechanisms created by and embodied in the political machine. It is necessary, however, that we study them disinterestedly. Some of the questions we should seek to answer are:
- What, as a matter of fact, is the political organization at any point within the city? What are the sentiments and attitudes and interests which find expression through it?
- What are the practical devices it employs for mobilizing its forces and putting them into action?
- What is the character of the party appeal in the different moral regions of which the city is made up?
- How much of the interest in politics is practical and how much is mere sport?
- What part of the cost of elections is advertising? How much of it can be classed as "educational publicity," and how much is pure graft?
- To what extent, under existing conditions, particularly as we find them in great cities, can elections be practically controlled by purely technical devices, card catalogues, torch-light processions, spell binders—machinery?
- What effect will the introduction of the referendum and recall have upon present methods of conducting elections in cities?
Advertising and social control.—In contrast with the political machine, which has founded its organized action on the local,
- ↑ Sumner,Folkways, p. 12.
