political, and intellectual life is determined by prevailing economic conditions, and that in the future, the economic conditions will be such as to necessitate inevitably a socialistic organization of society. To this we shall recur in a later chapter. The followers of Marx rank him with Darwin and Spencer as an evolutionary thinker.1

In 1896 Herbert Spencer published the third volume of his " Principles of Sociology," in which he traces the development of industrial institutions in particular. It did not receive very much attention because the main ideas which it contains, such as the growth of specialization and integration, the distinction between the militant and industrial types of society, and the author's uncompromising hostility to socialism, had been made familiar by his earlier writings.

Investigation has, perhaps, not proceeded far enough to enable us to state with great positiveness what the laws of change are. We have, indeed, in this investigation one of the richest fields for the cultivation of science. These changes are in part psychical in their causes, and we do not yet know enough about the laws of the individual mind or of the social mind to enable us to know what we should like about the order of industrial evolution.

1 In recent years a high position among the world's thinkers has been attributed to Marx even by non-socialists. Professor E. R. A. Seligman of Columbia University may be mentioned in this connection, and the reader is referred to his work, "The Economic Interpretation of History."

Nevertheless, the various classifications of the stages of industrial evolution that have been proposed are not without value. The one suggested by List has been usually followed in the past, so far as its main outline is concerned, and it seems to the writer that, in spite of all criticism, it is still, with some modifications, the most serviceable as a framework within which to study the course of economic development, and accordingly we shall follow it as a basis for our classification in the next chapter. As will be shown, however, it is not contradictory to the other classifications that have been proposed.

CHAPTER III

THE ECONOMIC STAGES

I. Introductory

THE way in which people get their living is in very intimate relation with their whole social life. It is probable, says Morgan, "that the great epochs of human progress have been identified, more or less directly, with the enlargement of the sources of subsistence." When men rely on hunting and fishing for a living, they are very different men from what they are when they have settled down to a predominantly agricultural life, or when they satisfy their wants by the aid of vast aggregations of capital.2

1 Morgan, "Ancient Society," New York, 1878, p. 19.

2 Karl Marx and his followers exaggerate greatly the influence of the economic life of a people upon their social life in general, holding what is known as the materialistic conception of history, or, as Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman calls it, the economic interpretation of history. This doctrine is defined by Professor Seligman as follows: "We understand, then, by the theory of the economic interpretation of history, not that all history is to be explained in economic terms alone, but that the chief considerations in human progress are the social considerations, and that the important factor in the social change is the economic factor. The economic interpretation of history means, not that the economic relations exert an exclusive influence, but that they exert a preponderant influence in shaping the progress of society." The Economic Interpretation

The ways of getting a living, therefore, ought to be a serviceable point of view from which to study the development of man, and from this point of view we get the following stages:

1. The hunting and fishing stage.

2. The pastoral stage.

3. The agricultural stage.

4. The handicraft stage.

5. The industrial stage.

Ist phase: Universal competition as an

ideal.

2d phase: Concentration.

3d phase: Integration.

II. The Hunting and Fishing Stage

If we accept the doctrine of evolution, we must be able to look back upon a time when our ancestors were living a mere animal existence. This indeed requires no great stretch of the imaginaof History," Political Science Quarterly, March, 1902, Vol. XVII, p. 76.

When stated in this mild form, it is difficult to see why the doctrine should have aroused so much discussion. The controversy seems simply to be whether we shall say the economic factor is the most or a most important factor. But to the Marxists generally the materialistic conception of history signifies far more than this. For example, one of them recently stated that religion is not a cause, but a product, that is, of economic life. See "The Economic Interpretation of History," by Mrs. May Wood Simons, in the International Socialist Review, March, 1903. This subject receives further treatment from a somewhat different viewpoint in the chapter on the "Widening and Deepening Range of Ethical Obligation," Pt. II, Ch. XII.

tion when one has read descriptions of some of the most primitive tribes upon the earth to-day,1 although, to be sure, there is a great gap between the lowest of them and the highest of the animals. The Negritos of the Philippines, the Veddahs of Ceylon, the Fuegians of South America, and the Australian aborigines afford illustrations. Take, for example, some of the tribes of central Australia. They are described as wandering about in small groups of one or two families, camping at favorite spots where the food is abundant. There is no such thing as a chief of the tribe. In their ordinary condition they are almost completely naked, for the idea of making any kind of clothing as a protection against the cold does not seem to have entered their minds, notwithstanding the fact that the temperature at times falls below the freezing point. Their habitation is merely a rough covering of shrubs for protection against the wind. Time is no object to them, and if there be no lack of food, the men and women lounge about while the children laugh and play. When they are hungry, the women, armed with digging sticks and pitchis (wooden troughs for carrying food), search for liz

1 Darwin, on first seeing the Fuegians, wrote: “It was without exception the most curious and interesting spectacle I ever beheld: I could not have believed how wide was the difference between savage and civilized man: it is greater than between a wild and domesticated animal, inasmuch as in man there is a greater power of improvement.”. "Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries visited during the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle around the World," New York, 1873, p. 205.