848 SOCIAL STRUCTURE 



will be wrested from him by others who have no other claim than 

 that of superior strength. The immense sociological importance 

 of this cannot be too strongly emphasized. For a man's possessions 

 need no longer be confined to what he can himself consume or en- 

 joy; they may greatly exceed his wants, or consist of objects for 

 which he has no need, but which are needed by others who have 

 other things that he does want and for which he can exchange 

 them. He can manufacture a single product many thousand times 

 in excess of his needs, and exchange it for a great variety of other 

 objects similarly produced in excess by others. We thus see that 

 the institution of private property was the foundation at once of 

 all trade and business and also of the division of labor. But pro- 

 perty was not possible until the state was established, whose most 

 important function was at the outset and still remains the pro- 

 tection of the citizen in his proprietary rights. 



With the establishment of the state, or even before, there be- 

 gins a differentiation of social tissues. The analogy with organic 

 tissues is here particularly clear and useful in helping us to under- 

 stand the process. All well-informed persons are now familiar with 

 the fact that the tissues of all developed animals consist of an ecto- 

 derm, or outer layer, an endoderm, or inner layer, and a mesoderm, 

 or intermediate layer, and that out of one or the other of these 

 fundamental tissues all the organs of the body are formed. Now, 

 the evolution of the metasocial body is exactly parallel to this. 

 The conquering race, or superior class or caste, represents the so- 

 cial ectoderm; the conquered race, or inferior class or caste, repre- 

 sents the social endoderm. The social mesoderm is not so simple, 

 but it is not less real. It is one of the most important consequences 

 of race-amalgamation. 



Within the social body, under the regime of law and the state, 

 there is intense activity. Compelled by mutually restraining forces 

 to remain in one place and not fly off on various tangents, the 

 vigorous elements of the new complex society display a corre- 

 sponding intensity in their inner life. Only a small part of the 

 superior race can hold high places under the state, and the great 

 majority of them are obliged to support themselves by their own 

 efforts. Neither are all the members of the subject race held in 

 bondage; a large percentage remain free, and must of course 

 maintain themselves by some form of useful activity. These two 

 classes are too nearly alike in their social standing to continue long 

 socially and economically independent. It must be remembered 

 that both races have descended from the same original stock, al- 

 though they do not know it. There is therefore no essential differ- 

 ence in their general character. The superiority by which one was 

 able to conquer the other may have been due to a variety of more 



