family. Shunned by everyone, his life became unbearable and he was forced at last to leave the country a ruined and embittered man. As an individual he found himself helpless when others refused to assist him in any way.

Summary. All through life we find this same dependence of the individual upon others. To others we owe our hereditary traits and characteristics; and from others, to a large extent, come our surroundings, food, clothing, shelter, amusements, protection, and education. If we are so indebted, so dependent, can we do anything to pay back the obligation? Or, like parasites, do we live wholly on others and give nothing in return?

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS

1. Make a list of the persons who were of any direct service to you today; of indirect service. Can you live without the help of others?

2. One of the rules of good health is, Breathe deeply and freely of pure air. Can you obey this rule without the aid of others?

3. Do wild animals depend on one another? Illustrate.

4. Give illustrations showing how we depend upon the past. 5. Do we depend on others more than the early colonists did? Explain.

6. After Robinson Crusoe had been wrecked on his lonely island was he dependent in any way upon other people?

7. Compare the dependence on others of a city resident and a farmer. For what does the city resident depend wholly on others? For what does the farmer depend on others?

8. When Chicago constructed a drainage canal from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River she lowered the level of the lake ten inches (let us suppose). Did this canal make any difference to the inhabitants of Milwaukee? the inhabitants of St. Louis?

9. How did the interdependence of nations lead to the discovery of America ?

10. Strictly speaking, is there such a thing as a self-made man? Explain.

SECTION II. How OTHERS DEPEND ON ME

Danger of hasty conclusions. You may have heard the old story of the six blind men who once went to visit the elephant. As it happened, one of them touched only its tusk, another its trunk, the third its side, the fourth its knee, the fifth its ear, and the sixth its tail. Some time later they were talking about the strange beast. The first said that it was hard and smooth and sharp like a spear, the second that it was very like a large snake, the third that it was like a rough wall, the fourth that it was round like a tree, the fifth that it resembled a fan, and the last insisted that it was exactly like a rope. As often happens in such cases the argument ended in a quarrel.

The trouble, of course, was that each man was right and each was wrong. The elephant was all that each man claimed, but it was also a great deal more. In some ways many of us are very much like the blind men, for we, too, are quick to draw conclusions from insufficient information. From the first section in this chapter, for example, it is easy to conclude that an individual is a parasite living on others. But a little further thought will show that such a conclusion is as incorrect as that arrived at regarding the elephant by any of the blind men. For it is as true that others depend on the individual as that the individual depends on others, although fortunately the dependence is not so great in the former case.

Illustrations of dependence of others on the individual. For example, in 1905 a mistake by the quarter-back cost Michigan the Western football championship. The New York Giants once lost a world's baseball pennant because during a critical inning in the game a player failed to touch second base. Over two thousand years ago a traitor cost the Greeks the pass of Thermopylæ. A blunder by a helmsman is said to have caused the frightful Halifax disaster—a tragedy which cost the lives of hundreds of people, the destruction

of half the city, and the loss of millions of dollars' worth of homes, shipping, and military supplies.

All around us we see illustrations of this dependence of others on the individual. In the schoolroom the pupil who fails in a recitation, who speaks so he cannot be heard, who enters the room late, who makes unnecessary noise or in any

other way creates a disturbance, or who is irregular in attendance injures the entire class. And the pupil who fails in his work hurts not only himself and his family but the whole community.

In modern industry we have striking examples of the dependence of society on the individual and on groups of individuals. In the manufacture of shoes, for instance, there are over one hundred different processes. Let the man in charge of any of these processes fail to do his part and the whole work stops, at least temporarily. And not only do the men in the factory depend on each other but they depend

also on other men, and groups of men, outside of and far from the factory. They depend on the stock-raiser for leather, on the farmer for flax and food, on the mill-operator for thread, and on the miner, the ironworker, and the factory employee for coal, nails, and machinery. They depend on the transporter to bring together the various materials used

GENERAL CONTROL ROOM OF A GIANT BATTLESHIP

From this room every operation of the electrically driven battleship, the Tennessee, is controlled. The safety of all on board depends upon the accuracy and speed with which these men carry out orders.

in making shoes, on the capitalist for money to build and equip the factory, and on government officials for the protection necessary to carry on the industry successfully. Most of all, perhaps, they depend upon the consumer to buy the shoes when these are placed on the market. Let any of the men, or groups of men, fail to do their part and the whole enterprise is stopped or hampered.

Is it the same with society in general? Yes; for the community as a whole always suffers when any person fails to do his work. To be sure, the failure of an individual in such a case is fortunately not so harmful to society as the failure of

a vital organ would be to the body, for "society is not a big animal. There is no social stomach or brain or heart or eye or spinal cord." One member of an athletic team may play poorly and the team yet win. A workman may blunder sadly without ruining the factory. A pupil may not prepare his lesson, and the recitation may still go on without his help. And yet, even though society is not absolutely dependent upon the individual (by no means so dependent as is the individual on society), the fact remains that the failure of any person to do his part is always harmful and sometimes fatal to the group.

Summary. In fact, society is always injured when any of its members buries his talent, for the social talent is but the sum of the individual talents. Whenever "the man who can till a field, or work a forge, or build a machine, or organize a crew of laborers, or increase knowledge, or interpret law, or lead an army, or do anything which can be turned to the service of the many," fails to use his ability, society as a whole suffers. In short, the most important as well as the most common fact in life is the dependence of human beings in countless ways upon one another.

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS

1. Name the persons who depend on you. For what does each of them depend?

2. "When two people share a joy, it is doubled; when they share a sorrow, it is halved." Is this true? Explain.

3. Name industries that depend upon one another; cities; countries. Give in each case illustrations of the things for which they are mutually dependent.

4. What workers had a part in the making of this book? of your lead pencil? of your desk? of your school building?

5. How do the people of the future depend upon us?

6. Name several noble human qualities which result from our response to the needs of others.

1A. W. Small, Principles of Sociology, p. 527.