e
formulating themselves gradually into certain well-defined social laws,
which men recognize as essential factors in social thinking.

Some of the more important among these social laws or principles which
have been determined by the painful processes of trial and error are
those relating to the manner in which the structure of society is built
up. Society is not a collection of people, in the sense that a basket of
eggs is a collection of eggs. Quite the contrary, society is a structure
formed through the association of individuals and of groups having some
common interests and some co-operative functions or activities. A
family, for example, consists of a number of persons, usually connected
by blood ties, living together in a common dwelling. A chamber of
commerce consists of individuals, firms and corporations, doing
business in one locality, and all concerned with the maintenance of
certain property rights. The British Miners Federation is composed of
local and of district organizations, which are built up around
collieries, towns, and coal deposits. The local union is composed of
individual mine workers. The district organization is composed of a
number of locals in the same field. The federation is composed of these
lesser organizations. No matter which one of the many forms of human
association is examined, the same thing will be found true. Each social
group is composed either of individuals or of lesser social groups which
have certain common interests and certain co-operative activities, and
which band themselves together in response to their interests and in
pursuance of these activities. It is this organic structure of society
to which Hobson applies the phrase "the federal units which society
presents." ("Work and Wealth." J.A. Hobson. Macmillan. 1914. p. vi.)

Among primitive peoples who have simple forms of social organization,
each individual is connected with some association like the clan or
tribe which is state, church and family, all in one. The stories of the
Jewish patriarchs are good illustrations of this stage in social
evolution. In advanced and complex societies, however, each individual
belongs to a number of groups--to a town, a factory, a school, a home, a
political party, a fraternal order, a church. In complex societies these
groups are united to form the whole social structure. The individual
belongs to society, therefore, because he belongs to one or more of the
groups composing socie