34 SCIENCE REMAKING THE WORLD 



had intensified the tension between social classes be 

 cause the poor pedestrian resented having to turn out 

 of the road at the honk of the plutocrat and receive a 

 whiff of scorched gasolene in return. On the other hand 

 students from the West reported that the automobile 

 was an agency for democracy for it had wiped out the 

 distinction between classes. Formerly when the few 

 had buggies and the rest had to ride to town in lumber 

 wagons the former set looked down on the other but 

 now that all had automobiles they were substantially on 

 a level. This must be the case in such states as Cali- 

 fornia, Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska, which have 

 one motor vehicle for each five and a fraction persons, 

 that is, one for every family. 



Once I asked my class to "specify the influence of the 

 automobile in political, commercial, social, and martial 

 affairs." I got unexpected answers, for some students 

 seemed to have difficulty in reading my writing on the 

 blackboard and mistook the "martial" for "marital." 

 But I was glad of the misunderstanding for the answers 

 were interesting. Some said that automobiles pro- 

 moted marriages by providing courting parlours but 

 others said they dissolved marriages for similar reasons. 

 Here, as usually, the truth lies not in the mean but at 

 the extremes. Two opposites may both be true but if 

 we average them we may get nothing, or a falsehood. 

 Many a fallacy has come into sociology through dealing 

 with an average man who does not exist. 



It was commonly assumed that the automobile 

 would relieve the congestion of our cities and check 

 what was called their " abnormal growth." The mental 



