The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-05-02

as doomed Is that it is an anachronism II,
conflict with the present stage of the evo-
lutionary law. We are in the fifth great
stage OF human development, and the fifth
stage is that OF the mind. The function Of
man just o is to evolve the principle of
intelligence dwelling within him, and the
mind powers already evolved give him Il
control over physica' forces sufficient to sup
ply his bodily necessities and leave him
ample leisure for cultivating his intellect,
were that control used for the general good
instead OF forthe heaping up of unnecessary
wealth in the hands of a limited number.
The minority of our population, especially
in the Older countries-the European states
toll with little interlnission all their lives
through merely to keep life in their bodies.
They have No leisure for cultiv&ting the in
tellectaai powers, the artistic faculties, the
imaginative potencies of the nunlau mind.
They are condemned to "A life Of labor. the
price OF which merely purchases for them
the right to live. Thus does the horse earn
his food and his shelter. and with these
generally more consideration for his health
than is bestowed or his fellow drudge, the
man who drives him. Tn horse needs but
food, shelter and rest; the man needs for
his human evolution leisure for mental
study with unweary body. That is the
right o. each child Of man born into the
world at this stage of evolution, Tor our
animal development lies behind us. AMI our
present task is to evolve the human ele-
men in us-the mind or soul.
Society should therefore be organized for
the production OF wealth with the least
possible expenditure of human energy and
the b%rotherly distribution of the wealth
produced, in order that mans forces may
be directed to the mental development of
the race. A society which, like our own,
sets itself against the order of evolution by
shutting the majority of its members away
from the possibility of performing the task
set them by nature, must be crushed under
the relentless and irresistible progress of
that nature which it blindly opposes.
While America has not yet touched the
worst conditions of labor, found so plenti-
fully in Europe, its social organization is
instinct with the same forces, and there
fore ultimately with the same effects. But
being younger and stronger than the r:u-
ropean states. it has more possibility of
working out fundamental reforms III peace
than Europe seems to possess. In the So
ciety of the future it seems to me that
the sexes will cooperate for mutual service,
each bringing its special powers to the
help of the race, without artificial re-
strictions on either: that ii marriage
entered into without intellectual and
moral aftinities will he condemned as pros
titution is now, and that it will he
permanent, as intellectual and moral char
acter is permanent: that brutal crime will
have disappeared, and subtler evil, will he
met by ~brotherly compassion, not BY vim
dictive penalty: that temperance legisla-
ton will be unknown because drunkenness
will be as impossible as the rcadortion Of
the woad garments OF our ancestors: that
-ah, me! but / am thinking of Il state
much further in the futurr than the Amer
lea Of 1898. ANNIE BEs;.ANT, 7. I. :.