270 SOCIAL REGULATION 



This is true of children born into a family, and, in an early period 

 of society, into a tribe or local community. Then there are cases 

 where the membership, while not assumed for the purpose of mem- 

 bership, is the result of a condition or status which is voluntary in 

 the sense that in theory, at least, the condition is the result of choice, 

 or might have been avoided. That is the case with the dependent 

 and criminal groups. It is the case also with the urban and rural com- 

 munities. A man is free to live in a city or not as he pleases, but 

 he usually moves his abode to a city, or remains there because his 

 occupation or engagements lead him to do so, not because he desires 

 to be a member of an urban community. In all groups or com- 

 munities of the foregoing kinds the membership is the inevitable 

 result of a status which may itself be voluntary or not; and these 

 are the only kinds of groups treated under the different sections of 

 Department 22 at this Congress. But there is another kind of 

 entity, the membership in which is purely voluntary, because the 

 members belong to it not on account of any extrinsic condition 

 or status, but for the sake of the group itself. How far the choice 

 is really deliberate or free, and how far the result of environment, 

 of the association of ideas, and of suggestion, over which the in- 

 dividual has little actual control, we must leave to the psycho- 

 logists, and especially to the Section on Social Psychology. We are 

 concerned here only with the political and legal aspects of the pro- 

 blem, and from that point of view the membership may be regarded 

 as voluntary. Of such a character are social and learned clubs of 

 various kinds, religious bodies, philanthropic organizations, and, 

 let us add, political parties. In this connection it may be observed 

 that the trade-unions are striving to become communities based 

 upon status instead of voluntary association. This effort lies at the 

 foundation of the conflict over the open and closed shop. The policy 

 of the closed shop, if successful, would drive every man who pursued 

 a certain occupation into the trade-union; while the principle of 

 the open shop leaves the union a voluntary body, and for that reason 

 any one familiar with the trend of civilization will be very much 

 inclined to doubt whether the effort is likely to succeed. 



As an example of the political and legal problems presented by 

 communities based upon status, we may take the race question. 

 This problem, in one shape or another, faces most of the great civil- 

 ized nations at the present day, either in their national or their 

 colonial administration. A number of solutions of it have been 

 essayed. The simplest and most drastic is that of expelling or ex- 

 cluding the weaker race. At various times in the world's history 

 the Jews have been expelled from different countries. The Chinese 

 are now excluded from the United States and from Australia. 

 But expulsion on a large scale is clearly impossible to-day among 



