336 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
development. Not pausing for illustration or further statement of this factor, we may turn to less familiar phases of the same condition.
Let us assume, for instance, a certain intensity of the wealth desire. Operating in a vacuum it would impel the peoples of Europe to labor until that desire is satisfied, or until they dropped down exhausted. But the sociability desire is to be reckoned with. This not only dictates customs in business, like the clos- ing of banks for three hours at noon; it not only dictates family and group merrymakings on birthdays and other anniversaries ; it causes whole populations to adjourn business on numerous feast- and fast-days, thus making industry in a large measure impossible even for those who prefer to work. The notorious American intensity in pursuit of wealth is not proof that Ameri- cans want wealth more than other people, but merely that for the present we want other things less. If all of us cared for sociability as much as some Frenchmen do, and in the same way, we should spend a couple of hours on the boulevards each afternoon, taking turns parading up and down the sidewalks, and sitting at the cafe tables commenting on other paraders between our sips of caft au cognac or absinthe. If we cared for socia- bility as much as the Italians do, and in the same way, we should have our St. Mark's squares, and spend our evenings listening to the music and exchanging gossip; or, like the Neapolitans, we should haunt the streets half our days and drive dull care away all our nights by wassail with our friends. If we cared for socia- bility as much as the English do, and in the same way, we should be more like them in making business tributary to sport and poli- tics and country life. If we had the quality of sociability that the Swiss and the Australasians have, we should be much farther advanced toward democratizing all our economies. The emphasis in this case is on the fact that in the countries named business is as certainly modified by certain qualities and tendencies of sociability as it is by the physical environment or the desire for wealth. The intensity of effort that may go into business enter- prise is limited by social instincts as truly as by material resources. That there must be economic effort of some sort is
