Introduction to the Science of Sociology Part 85

4. Race Conflict

A European school of sociologists emphasizes conflict as the fundamental social process. Gumplowicz, in his book _Die Ra.s.senkampf_, formulated a theory of social contacts and conflicts upon the conception of original ethnic groups in terms of whose interaction the history of humanity might be written. Novicow and Ratzenhofer maintain similar, though not so extreme, theories of social origins and historical developments.

With the tremendous extension of communication and growth of commerce, the world is today a great community in a sense that could not have been understood a century ago. But the world, if it is now one community, is not yet one society. Commerce has created an economic interdependence, but contact and communication have not resulted in either a political or a cultural solidarity. Indeed, the first evidences of the effects of social contacts appear to be disruptive rather than unifying. In every part of the world in which the white and colored races have come into intimate contact, race problems have presented the most intractable of all social problems.

Interest in this problem manifests itself in the enormous literature on the subject. Most of all that has been written, however, is superficial.

Much is merely sentimental, interesting for the att.i.tudes it exhibits, but otherwise adding nothing to our knowledge of the facts. The best account of the American situation is undoubtedly Ray Stannard Baker's _Following the Color Line_. The South African situation is interestingly and objectively described by Maurice Evans in _Black and White in South East Africa_. Steiner's book, _The j.a.panese Invasion_, is, perhaps, the best account of the j.a.panese-American situation.

The race problem merges into the problem of the nationalities and the so-called subject races. The struggles of the minor nationalities for self-determination is a phase of racial conflict; a phase, however, in which language rather than color is the basis of division and conflict.

5. Conflict Groups

In chapter i conflict groups were divided into gangs, labor organizations, sects, parties, and nationalities.[219] Common to these groups is an organization and orientation with reference to conflict with other groups of the same kind or with a more or less hostile social environment, as in the case of religious sects.

The spontaneous organizations of boys and youths called gangs attracted public attention in American communities because of the relation of these gangs to juvenile delinquency and adolescent crime. An interesting but superficial literature upon the gang has developed in recent years, represented typically by J. Adams Puffer _The Boy and his Gang_. The brief but picturesque descriptions of individual gangs seem to indicate that the play group tends to pa.s.s over into the gang when it comes into conflict with other groups of like type or with the community. The fully developed gang appears to possess a restricted membership, a natural leader, a name--usually that of a leader or a locality--a body of tradition, custom and a ritual, a rendezvous, a territorial area which it holds as a sort of possession and defends against invasion by other groups. Attention was early called, as by Mr. Brewster Adams in an article _The Street Gang as a Factor in Politics_, to the facility with which the gang graduates into a local political organization, representing thus the sources of political power of the typical American city.

Although the conflict of economic groups is not a new nor even a modern phenomenon, no such permanent conflict groups as those represented by capital and labor existed until recent times. Veblen has made an acute observation upon this point. The American Federation of Labor, he states, "is not organized for production but for bargaining." It is, in effect, an organization for the strategic defeat of employers and rival organizations, by recourse to enforced unemployment and obstruction; not for the production of goods and services.[220]

Research in the labor problem by the Webbs in England and by Commons, Hoxie, and others in this country has been primarily concerned with the history and with the structure and functions of trade unions. At present there is a tendency to investigate the human-nature aspects of the causes of the industrial conflict. The current phrases "instincts in industry," "the human factor in economics," "the psychology of the labor movement," "industry, emotion, and unrest" indicate the change in att.i.tude. The essential struggle is seen to lie not in the conflict of cla.s.ses, intense and ruthless as it is, but more and more in the fundamental struggle between a mechanical and impersonal system, on the one hand, and the person with his wishes unsatisfied and insatiable on the other. All attempts to put the relations of capital and labor upon a moral basis have failed hitherto. The latest and most promising experiment in this direction is the so-called labor courts established by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and their employees.

The literature upon sects and parties has been written for the most part with the purpose of justifying, to a critical and often hostile public, the sectarian and partisan aims and acts of their several organizations.

In a few works such as Sighele's _Psychologie des sectes_ and Michels'

_Political Parties_ an attempt has been made at objective description and a.n.a.lysis of the mechanisms of the behavior of the sect and of the party.

The natural history of the state from the tribe to the modern nation has been that of a political society based on conflict. Franz Oppenheimer maintains the thesis in his book _The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically_, that conquest has been the historical basis of the state. The state is, in other words, an organization of groups that have been in conflict, i.e., cla.s.ses and castes; or of groups that are in conflict, i.e., political parties.

A nationality, as distinct from a nation, as for instance the Irish nationality, is a language and cultural group which has become group conscious through its struggle for status in the larger imperial or international group. Nationalism is, in other words, a phenomenon of internationalism.

The literature upon this subject is enormous. The most interesting recent works on the general topic are Dominian's _The Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe_, Pillsbury's _The Psychology of Nationality and Internationalism_, and Oakesmith's _Race and Nationality_.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY OF CONFLICT

A. _Conflict and Social Process_

(1) Simmel, Georg. "The Sociology of Conflict." Translated from the German by Albion W. Small. _American Journal of Sociology_, IX (1903-4), 490-525; 672-89; 798-811.

(2) Gumplowicz, Ludwig. _Der Ra.s.senkampf._ Sociologische Untersuchungen.

Innsbruck, 1883.

(3) Novicow, J. _Les Luttes entre societes humaines et leurs phases successives._ Paris, 1893.

(4) Ratzenhofer, Gustav. _Wesen und Zweck der Politik._ Als Theil der Sociologie und Grundlage der Staatswissenschaften. 3 vols. Leipzig, 1893.

(5) ----. _Die sociologische Erkenntnis._ Positive Philosophie des Socialen Lebens. Leipzig, 1898.

(6) Sorel, Georges. _Reflections on Violence._ New York, 1914.

B. _Conflict and Mental Conflict_

(1) Healy, William. _Mental Conflicts and Misconduct._ Boston, 1917.

(2) Prince, Morton. _The Unconscious._ The fundamentals of personality, normal and abnormal. Chap. xv, "Instincts, Sentiments, and Conflicts,"

pp. 446-87; chap, xvi, "General Phenomena Resulting from Emotional Conflicts," pp. 488-528. New York, 1914.

(3) Adler, Alfred. _The Neurotic Const.i.tution._ Outlines of a comparative individualistic psychology and psychotherapy. Translated by Bernard Glueck and John E. Lind. New York, 1917.

(4) Adler, Alfred. _A Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation._ A contribution to clinical medicine. Translated by S. E.

Jelliffe. "Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series," No. 24. New York, 1917.

(5) Lay, Wilfrid. _Man's Unconscious Conflict._ A popular exposition of psychoa.n.a.lysis. New York, 1917.

(6) Blanchard, Phyllis. _The Adolescent Girl._ A study from the psychoa.n.a.lytic viewpoint. Chap. iii, "The Adolescent Conflict," pp.

87-115. New York, 1920.

(7) Weeks, Arland D. _Social Antagonisms._ Chicago, 1918.

C. _Rivalry_

(1) Baldwin, J. Mark, editor. _Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology._ Article on "Rivalry." Vol. II, pp. 476-78.

(2) Vincent, George E. "The Rivalry of Social Groups," _American Journal of Sociology_, XVI (1910-11), 469-84.

(3) Ordahl, George. "Rivalry: Its Genetic Development and Pedagogy,"

_The Pedagogical Seminary_, XV (1908), 492-549. [Bibliography.]

(4) Ely, Richard T. _Studies in the Evolution of Industrial Society._ Chap. ii, "Rivalry and Success in Economic Life," pp. 152-63. New York, 1903.

(5) Cooley, Charles H. _Personal Compet.i.tion: Its Place in the Social Order and Effect upon Individuals; with Some Considerations on Success._ "Economic Studies," Vol. IV, No. 2. New York, 1899.

(6) Triplett, Norman. "The Dynamogenic Factors in Pacemaking and Compet.i.tion," _American Journal of Psychology_, IX (1897-98), 507-33.

(7) Baldwin, J. Mark. "La Concurrence sociale et l'individualisme,"

_Revue Internationale de sociologie_, XVIII (1910), 641-57.

(8) Groos, Karl. _The Play of Man._ Translated with author's co-operation by Elizabeth L. Baldwin with a preface by J. Mark Baldwin.

New York, 1901.

D. _Discussion_