Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-06-13
MANS PROGRESS.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE RACE WAS
BY RIGOROUS FIGHTING.

From the Unthinking Animal Man Has
Slowly Evolved In His Search For Food
Until He Has Become the Familiar Cap
itaIist of Today.
Every seat in Huntington hall was occu-
pied at the fourth lecture by Professor
Drummond ON the Evolution of Man. in
the Lowell institute course.
Professor Drummond's subject was, 1.-The
Struggle For Life" He said:
THE first great struggle was to get man
started on his upward journey. The inertia
of things is such that without compulsion
they will not move of themselves. The
whole world moves, and therefore every
thing in the world must move.
"A man eats food in the morning, but he
must soon move to get more. The sun
moves to the west, the wild animals move
about, and the man moves away for safety.
1.-THE first law of evolution is the law of
motion. Mans body is a quivering mass
of earthen leaven. 1t is always on the verge
of something else. 1t is like house built
cards. A shock, friction, wind or fire
affects it strongly.
"a single movement of any part of the
body draws new energy to it. Man walks,
and muscles are made and developed. Ina
child there is a constant building up-in an
old man constant repairing.
Under the stimulus of competition man
goes on to an advancing improvement.
Take him at the time when he was Mr..
Darwin's 4-footed Quadruped, and he wasn't
avery vigorous animal, and so as he couldn't
do much with his body he called something
else into action-the mind-and the quad
ruped took a club to help him in his strug-
gle for life.
''To use club the animal must stand
erect, and so it has continued until we
have the we'll developed, erect man of to-
day.
Ito prove that this erect position is UNI
natural, take a baby when it is born, and
1t is a quadruped, and for the first months
the baby goes on all fours Then also see
how a man always wants to sit down.
THE next stage after an invention is to
improve upon it or to further its useful
ness After taking the club roughly torn
from the tree one was found one day with
a point, and that was appreciated. and the
clubs were sharpened by rubbing them
against rough stones, and in that way the
spear came into use
''Then the man that could throw his spear
the farthest was the most successful in war,
and so other power was called into service,
and the sling came into use.
To-day we have gunpowder and dyna-
mite to do this same service, and thus the
struggle for life has gone on 1t is not mere
accident; it is the predestined evolution of
man
bulbs suggested agriculture By catching
at first the young or wild animals and keep
ing them for their flesh and milk the adj
vantage of domestic animals was shown.
Man slowly passed from the animal to
the savage. The sense of power grew strong
er and with it the sense of virtue
Now he subjugates other animals and
other men and takes to himself the best of
the earth. The struggle of life is called
war War to evolution is not simply war
fare, but the means of developing man
War is the foster mother of civilization, the
educator of the races II created a larger
sphere for the individual
Each community is governed by the law
of self preservation, and so it is forced to
fight for sufficient food with which to feed
itself, and so occurred the struggles for the
most fertile lands, the best game reserve
and the best fishing waters. That is war
Primitive man was a selfish man He
was so of necessity. He lived alone and for
himself Primitive man looked out for
number one
"A war combination made him think of
100 instead of one He didn't stop thinking
of himself, but he slowly began to think Of
others Number two was his wife. Three,
four and five were his children. After
learning to bear with these, he learned to
bear with others
1.-The struggle for life is as irresistible a
stimulus as life itself. The man must
struggle
1T is evolution or death. And among all
the struggles some man will once in awhile
perform a noble, self forgetful deed, and
that deed seen by others will never be for
gotten, and as it is talked Of around the
campfire the love of heroism grows and
grows.
From the struggles of tribes and COM
munities energies the nation. Then comes
revolution.
AN isolated man could not live in
age country. Either he would be forced to
unite with a tribe or he would be killed In
all the explorations of Africa not a single
isolated savage has ever been found He
must belong to tribe
'He cannot leave il. If the tribe fights,
he must fight. No man by the mere con
struction of the world liveth to himself
ut is absurd to say that man evolved
himself. As well might one say that book
printed itself. 1t was impossible for the
savage to keep out of natures machine, and
once in the machine to keep from being
nodded by it.
THE savage went in the machine and
came out the man.
1.-The struggle for life is only factor
in evolution. Science did not invent the
struggle for life; it only showed it's great
moral value. The other name for this
struggle is called the survival of the fittest.
If this is to be a good world the bad must
be eliminated or transformed. The law of
| the survival of the fittest demands that ev-
| cry man and every animal shall live its
| best. No better law was ever evolved
Before science was born nature had
| termed the struggle of life wax. The first
science was of war, the first industry that
of war the first music that of celebrating
victory in war, and the first religion taught
| trust in the god of war
Peace and the vices of civil life only
| flourish together. But it is here that the
| student of history is in danger of going off