THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



NOVEMBER, 1881. 



THE INDUSTKIAL TYPE OF SOCIETY* 



By HEEBEET SPENCER. 



HAVING nearly always to defend themselves against external 

 enemies, while they have to carry on internally the processes of 

 sustentation, societies, as remarked in the last chapter, habitually pre- 

 sent us with mixtures of the structures adapted to these diverse ends. 

 Disentanglement is not easy. According as either structure predomi- 

 nates, it ramifies through the other : instance the fact that, where the 

 militant type is much developed, the worker, ordinarily a slave, is no 

 more a free agent than the soldier ; while, where the industrial type 

 is much developed, the soldier, volunteering on specified terms, ac- 

 quires, in so far, the position of a free worker. In the one case the 

 system of status, proper to the fighting part, pervades the working 

 part ; while, in the other, the system of contract, proper to the work- 

 ing part, affects the fighting part. Especially does the organization 

 adapted to war obscure that adapted to industry. "While, as we have 

 seen, the militant type, as theoretically constructed, is so far displayed 

 in many societies as to leave no doubt about its essential nature, the 

 industrial type has its traits so hidden by those of the still dominant 

 militant type that its ideal form is nowhere more than very partially 

 exemplified. Saying thus much to exclude expectations which can 

 not be fulfilled, it will be well, before proceeding, also to exclude 

 probable misconceptions. 



In the first place, industrialism must not be confounded with in- 

 dustriousness. Though the members of an industrially-organized soci- 

 ety are habitually industrious, and are, indeed, when the society is a 

 developed one, obliged to be so, yet it must not be assumed that the 

 industrially-organized society is one in which, of necessity, much work 



* Part XI of the series on " The Development of Political Institutions." 

 vol. xx. 1 



