28o THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
born of beliefs. The question is, therefore, whether the causes which niodify beliefs and desires succeed each other in a constant and irreversible order. There are cer- tain constant tendencies: First, the social group tends always to enlarge, involving considerable changes in the mutual relations of the members of the group. In pro- portion as the internal population increases at the expense of the external population, the difference between the two. with reference to duty and crime, becomes attenuated. The larger a social group becomes, the more vague becomes its limits. The distinction between interior and exterior crime then becomes a mere shade. In the small and compact clan, surrounded by enemies and filled with superstition, the first duty is the solidarity of every member with the group, and piety toward the protecting deity. ' The first and most odious crimes are, therefore, treason and impiety. It was the same under the regime of the cities. When the era of empires came, it was not so much divine high treason as royal and imperial treason which constituted the greatest of crimes. The highest crimes were then political, while, at the present day, to say that a crime is political is to extenuate it. In the course of time the greatest duties became, not to obey an order, but to fulfill a contract, either tacit or formal; hence the greatest of crimes became the violation of a fundamental social convention, by force or by improbity. Homicide and robbery, always criminal, then became the most worthy of public censure.
When the group becomes so large that the members do not know each other, the bond of social fellowship becomes feeble and does not contrast so strongly as formerly with the absence of every moral bond in the relation of group to group. In modern civilized society it is only when we come in contact with much inferior races that we feel ourselves altogether morally irresponsible, and abuse our power. The need of colonization by civilized races is stimulated by the desire to treat the stranger as game, to enslave him, and to domesticate him after conquering him. Much active criminality, out of employment in Europe, finds a career in enterprises of this kind. Another crimi- nal outlet open to the civilized is found in politics. When the greater part of the men included in the group-consciousness is unknown to us, a new personage appears, an impersonal personage, the public. In dealings with the public we wink at licenses that we would reproach severely in personal relations with acquaintances. Politics becomes civilized brigandage, enlarged and attenuated; colonization, too often, is brigandage exported and organized. Just as wars have become more destructive and murderous, though less malignant and ferocious, so crimes have gained in power of harm-doing what they have lost in spitefulness and atrocity.
To comprehend the transformations of criminality it is necessary to take into account two orders of considerations : (i) those which concern the successive enlarge- ments of the social circle (which has been considered); (2) those which concern the interior changes which the social group has undergone in consequence of the accumu- lation of discoveries and inventions. New inventions and new beliefs give rise to new crimes. Political crimes, consisting in the propagation of sedition and revolt, have increased in power immensely by the development of means of communication. Formerly dependent on the voice of an orator or a preacher, they are now propagated by the press and through journals.
What are the qualitative and quantitative variations in criminality, brought about by the passage of a people from one stage of culture to another ? M. de Candolle maintains that the greatest amount of criminality was to be found, not in savagery nor yet in civilization, but in barbarism, but there is not sufficient evidence of this. It is rather a change of conditions, a crisis of progress, which results in an increase of crime. As to the qualitative variations of criminality, in proportion as a people becomes civilized, that is, urbanized and industrialized, its criminality becomes less and le.ss vindictive and violent, but more avaricious, more crafty, more voluptuous. In our own century, cupidity inspired 13 per cent, of the crimes from 1826-30, 22 per cent, from iS76-!30, and 31.87 per cent, from 1891-5. Vindictive crimes decreased in the same proportion. — G. Tarde, " ProblSmes de Criminalitd," \n Arcltivei ifAnthro- pologie Criininelle, July, 1 898.
American Trusts. — A dozen years ago the American public suddenly awoke to the fact that the supply of some of the commodities of commonest use had come to
