Workmen's advocate., 1888-05-19
SURVIVAL OF THE FlTTEST.


 Every discovery of science, every in vention of mankind. has been seized by the bourgeoisie to delude and exploit the proletariat The priests, the ever will ing instruments of the former, fought against science, but when unable to con tend with it, turned round, accepted it's decisions, and used its weapons in de- fense of their dogmas. In d like man, ner the bourgeoisie accept the teachings of Malthus and pervert those of Darwin to bolster up the tottering fabric of so- ciety to-day, and they steal from the armory of the evolutionist weapons which they use in their own defence. Though they will not apply the theory of evolution to society itself, they never theless see, in what Darwin termed the "Survival " of the Fittest, natural law in justification of their own existence. Why the masses live in misery and pov- erty, and the classes in wealth and af11 enCe, the middle class pseudo-Scientists explain by citing the we'll known Oar winian law that in the struggle for ex- istence the tittest survive, and the least fit are crushed out of existence The drunken, the idle, the improvident, the weak, both III body and mind, have, in the struggle for life, to give place to be- ings superior to themselves. Poverty can never be abolished, say they, and it is nature that is alone to blame, for man cannot alter her laws. By applying biological law to a politico-social world he, fC fnr hn suits of our present economical system, and it's arbitrary legal and political ar engagements.
 It is indisputable that the Darwinian law-that in the struggle for existence the tittest survive-is applicable to man in a savage and barbaric stage, as it is to other animals, and that the physical struggle between man and man gives place to competition of brain against brain, no less cruel and brutal, in which cunning. deception and treachery play an active part, and in which the tyranny of the physically strong is succeeded by the tyranny of the mentally strong All this may be perfectly true, and that it has had it's uses in the past in the de- velopment of man, both physically and psychcaIly. But civilized man, though an animal, is yet more than mere ami nal, being a special animal that has evolved in brain development to an ex- tent that makes the gulf between him and his cousin the gorilla such that diff ference in degree becomes almost that of kind. Mans faculties having attained such an immense superiority that, be- sides being mere animal. he Is an intel ligent social and ethical being. From his long struggle with nature he has gradually raised himself from savagedom to civilization, and 1t is the mission of civilization to correct the fatalities of nature, and to sustain those that suffer from them, otherwise what would be the difference between it and savagedom? :? And where society neglects to do so it proves itself failure. For man, though unable to emancipate himself from his animality by breaking or suspending the laws of nature, can, bringing other laws to bear upon them, so modify their application that they cease to act detri- mentally to him. Such is the prodigious development of human intelligence that it constitutes new factor, which be- comes more powerful as civilization ad- vances, for by his increased knowledge of Nature and her laws, man, instead of passively submitting to them, as the lower animals do, Is able to modify natural laws and react upon Nature herself, and natural influences, which otherwise exercise themselves freely, without let or hindrance, by applying those laws by which he is able to a,ter hi environment and impose new condi- tiOns on the world.
 Though the laws of biology, like those of electricity, pathology and meteorol- ogy, are immutable, man, by his knowl- edge of science, can by applying other laws, modify them; thus, by the light ming conductor he preserves buildings from being destroyed by the electric fluid; by medical science and improved sanitation he saves the lives of those who otherwise would have perished; by the aid of the telegraph he is able to foretell storms from a distance, so that preparation can be made to prevent de- struction. In the same way he reacts against the laws of Darwin as against those of electricity, etc., by building hospitals to preserve the crippled and infirm. Scientific laws are only applica- ble under certain conditions; for example, the law that water boils at 100 degrees C., and freezes at degree C., is only true of pure water at the surface of the