SOCIETAL EVOLUTION 137 



Sumner. 4 I am bound to say that he did not give much atten- 

 tion to the possibility of extending evolution into the societal 

 field; 5 but he furnished, in any case, the necessary basis for 

 such an enterprise. We shall review his findings in their salient 

 aspects. 6 



When the first societies of which we know appear to view, 

 they are already provided with a set of ways, or a traditional 

 procedure, by which they carry on self-maintenance, and every 

 other of their activities as well. These ways represent a con- 

 currence of group-members in the practice of expedients, eco- 

 nomic, political, religious, or other, which have been proved 

 to them, in the event, to be successful ones. These expedient 

 ways have been called the folkways or mores. Language is 

 one of the most typical of the mores; division of labor is 

 another. No one planned them, but they grew up and are 

 practiced unquestioningly, unconsciously, and automatically. 

 They correspond to habits in the individual. Taken all to- 

 gether, they constitute the code of behavior in a society. They 

 represent the proper way to act, and, even though they are not 

 subjected to any rational or critical examination, there exists 

 the conviction that they are the only right ways, the only ones 

 fit to live by. The mores, says Sumner, are "the popular 

 usages and traditions, when they include a judgment that they 

 are conducive to societal welfare, and when they exert a coer- 

 cion on the individual to conform to them, although they are 

 not coordinated by any authority." It is just as well to have a 

 technical term for them, for they are not precisely customs, or 

 social habitudes, or ethics, or morals. 



They become uniform and universal in a group, and also 

 imperative; and, often over long periods, they are so resistive 



4 Sumner, W. G., "Folkways," etc., 1907. 

 6 Cf. Keller, A. G., "Societal evolution," 1915, pp. 328-330. 

 6 Certain of the following paragraphs are a reproduction of Keller, 

 A. G., "Through war to peace," 1918, parts of chs. VI and XVIII. 



