COHESIVE POWER OF SOCIAL LIFE 261 



the symbol of this social unity; something that signi- 

 fied, in a simple, tangible form the history and tradi- 

 tions, or the common body of constructive agencies, 

 which produced that unity, and its common purpose. 



Such symbols are the material agencies of mental 

 compulsion in these various social groups. As occa- 

 sion may demand, they are effectively utilized to mobi- 

 lize the vital resources of all their individual mem- 

 bers, to summons them to augment and preserve their 

 possessions. 



But with better understanding, the sense of owner- 

 ship extends far beyond even these broader limits, 

 for it then becomes sufficiently obvious, at least to the 

 so-called idealist, that the scientific and political 

 achievements of the French, German and English peo- 

 ples, the art, literature, and philosophy of Greek and 

 Roman, of Hebrew, Hindoo, and Mongolian, and the 

 cultural inventions of the American, are practically im- 

 mortal human possessions, a common social heritage 

 open to the usage of all mankind, and having essen- 

 tially the same constructive value for one race or nation 

 as for the other. It is also obvious that the charac- 

 teristic quality in each local cultural product, and the 

 most valuable one to other peoples, is something which 

 can have its origin only in some particular social group, 

 with its own peculiar antecedents and surroundings. 



The consciousness in one people of this ownership 

 in the constructive attributes of all the others, and the 

 recognition of the common source of these attributes, 

 is the only power which can hold mankind together in 

 social unity, and compel man to mobolize his resources 

 in order to augment and preserve his common pos- 

 sessions. 



