Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1891-06-04
What Social Power Is.

How did mankind fall from the state
of primitive perfection and the golden
age into degradation, ugliness and pov-
erty? But there never was any primi-
tive golden age, says Professor w. G.
Sumner, writing in The Independent.
Mans earliest state was one of degrada-
ton, and the further back in his history
we go the more degraded he is. He has
risen to his present state, such as it is,
out of that degradation, by virtue of
something within him which makes him
strive on and strive on to better himself
materially.
No sooner does he gain one step than
he must fight and struggle to the next
higher one. If he stops he will fall back;
so he dare not stop, but must climb on
from achievement to achievement. We
must throw aside the old and grasp the
new, forever and forever. It is the law.
1t is never in the quiet enjoyment of rest, or
in exhausting the enjoyment which comes
from consuming the achievements of the past,
that either power or happiness is won. 1t is in
the work of achievement, in the sense of gain
and progress, in the movement and transition
from one plane to another. How then is it pos
sible to imagine that the human race will ever
get its work done?
Social power consists, declares Pro-
fessor Sumner, in the power of an indi-
vidual to produce more than the sub
sistence of that individual If one can
produce subsistence for a number the
population rapidly increases and So
ciety grows up. The person who can
produce this surplus is always in de-
mand, and the more surplus he produces
the more social power he has. Here is
an idea worth thinking about:
In the case of the individual it is emphat-
ically true that it is not tho man who is rich
who is happy; it is the man who is growing
richer than he has been. Hence this great
happiness is possible to all, for it is just in
tense for a man who has been used to 500 q
year and is now winning S1as it is to the man
who has been having 20 600 and is now winning
25m. Progress, therefore, means winning
more social power. It goes along with increase
Of power and is the proof and the realization
of such increase. The arts of life all contrib
ute to the increase.
Social power is especially increased by the
extension Of the cultivated area Of the globe
that is by settling new countries. This last
mode Of increasing social power is also the
easiest. From the increase Of industrial power
there follows advance in science, fine arts, lit
erature and education, which react again on
the social power to stimulate it and accelerate
the rate of its activity, thus increasing its eff
cheney. The point which here seems most i'm
portant is to keep the sequence and relation of
things distinct and clear.
The notion that progress proceeds in the first
instance from intellectual or moral stimuli, or
that progress is really something in the world
Of thought, and not of sense, has led to the
most disappointing and abortive efforts to
teach and elevate" inferior races or neglected
classes. The ancestors of the present civilized
races did not win their civilization by any such
path. They built it up through centuries of
toll from foundation Of surplus material
means, which they won through improvements
in tho industrial arts and in the economic or
ganization.