Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1903-12-05
H o SPIRIT.
Curious Facts About Its Manifestation
in CITY and Country.

Forum: Extensive observation of mob
action in many countries. in many Pc
RODS, has shown that, irrespective OF race,
the aggregation Of men in crowds is, in
and Of itself, highly favorable to impul-
sive, unreasoning and often violent ac-
ton. Men in crowds are easily Influenced
by suggestion, and in the mass a sense of
individual responsibility is lost. So far.
then, the increasing density of modern
populations Is seemingly favorable to pop
ular tumult, which might easily become
insurrection or revolution. In the ntera-
ture Of political science there Is perhaps
no more familiar assumption than the one
which associates all the dangers or the
mob spirit with a democratic organization
Of great cities.
And yet a strict application OF the COM
p~arative method to the study of this ques-
ton does not justify the apprehension. On
| the contrary, a systematic grouping Of OBJ
servations from many parts OF the world
would demonstrate that the phenomena
of lawless popular action, as In insurrec-
tions. lynchings and riotous outbreaks in
connection with labor strikes, are, on the
whole, phenomena of rural rather than OF
urban populations. There have been
scenes of wild violence In Paris and In
4 London; there nave been draft and other
riots in New York city, but the collective
violence IN all the great ClllcS VI GulopO
and America for 200 years would not make
a great showing by comparison with the
epidemics of emotion-accompanied by
dancing and other manias-that surged
through rural communities in connection
with the great revival movements under
the Wesleyans, the later reVtvals OF 1881
and 1857, the Instructions like Shay's re-
bellion and the whisky rebellion, the Ku
Klux Khan %outrages. the vigilance COM
Q p,{ttoa activities the conflicts between
Gentiles and Mormons, the whitecap out
RACES and the lynchingS IN our western
and southern states.
The reason for this curious fact Is UNI
doubtedly to be found In the restraining
effect of ethnic and mental difference. The
rural community is relatively homogene-
Gus. The "neighpors" for miles In every
direction are nearly all of one blood. They
are practically of one economic condi-
ton. For the most part they are OF one
religious confession or OF two or three
confessions not very unlike in creeds and
practices. All are acquainted with one
another. An exciting event or suggestion
thai moves one will, almost certainly,
move the others. Emotion among them Is
highly contagious. They respond to like
stimuli because they are alike. The city
population Is composite and Differentiated
In a mixed crowd Of hundreds that gath
ers OH the street no one man of them all
recognizes a dozen others. They are or
all sorts and conditions, the well-to-da
and the poor, and often of many nation
alities. Danger arises only when discon-
tent and inflammatory suggestion find
homogeneous material to work upon in a
quarter Who denizens are of one ma
~tionality and of the same economic con-
dition, and among whom. may be found
here and there small gangs Of toughs who
are already disciplined In associating for
awless purposes. Only an extraordinary
influence can combine the impulsive ten
I denotes OF unlike classes, differing nation
alit.es. ~unacquainted neighborhoods, in
one great outbreak. Such things have hap
pened, and doubtless will happen again
but the normal influence of heterogeneity
and differentiation in a population Is un-
favorable to collective action.