The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1896-11-07

GUS animals remove from HcrDlNOf-
our herds individuals past their
prime, and weed out the sickly. the
malformed, and the least fleet and
powerful"
#x#
And what may this different law
be that explains the continued ex-
istence of those who are weak and
feeble and punys The law that in
the hearts of the highest beings of
the earth there shall grow with their
progress upward from the animal an
increasing recognition of the claims
that the feeble have upon the strong.
This impulse of man to look after
and protect his weaker Brethren is
more completely pervasive Of our
civilization than would appear from
the surface of our daily life, covered
as it is with people scrambling Gag
erly for self and pelf, these two.
But surface indications are not
enough for our inquisitive human
race, else were coal mines and other
forms of mineral wealth practically
unknown, and we would still creep
in and out of caves and gather our
scant sheepskins about us.
81
Look then with me, just Tor few
moments beneath all the fierce
struggle for wealth, food, life even,
going on around us, and by the law
of 1.-The survival of the fittestn ex-
plain to me the existence of so sim
plea thing as your public school.
You will find yourself unable to do
it, for you will find there the chill
dren of worthless, shiftless parents
who make no contribution to the
maintenance of the teacher, and yet
who reap the benefits that are secur-
ed to all children alike by the indus
try and thrift of the parents of
some
By that same law explain a hos
pital where suffering creatures,
manned beyond all hope of future
utility, are kept alive by the most
expensive appliances of science;
where even the slightest neglect of
the poorest patient, if that neglect
becomes known, arouses an uproar.
You cannot by any possibility see
from such place that the fit alone
survive or are deemed worthy to
survive.
Endeayor to understand how, by
the rule of 'severy man fer himself"
your little country church came into
existence. Your task will be hard
one, for into it are built the widow
mite, the farmers hard earned dol
lar, the mechanics gift saved out of
some perilous employment-all Civ
en- up gladly without hope of per
sonal gain.
Again, tell me Of yourself whence
came public libraries instead of the
private aggregations of the middle
ages public parks instead of en-
closures prohibitiyely walled against
all that are common or unclean;'
public art galleries, where the con
noisseur needs must jostle among
uuc pun anu blItdtiDdlt.
In all the foregoing examples, the
chief benifciaries are those who
have succeeded in doing least to
gain such pleasures. From the
well-to-do have been distracted the
advantages they or theirs have
earned, and these advantages are
given to others who have not earned
them. Yet not voice of protest is
raised, though this is all manifestly
in favor of the "unfit" at the ex-
pense of the ''fit."
*#*
We run counter to this animal
law, "a law that has ruled even hui
man beings through many dark
age of the past, because the great
advancing common sense of eiviliza-
tion is superior to any such british,
beak and CLAW method of making
progress. You and | belong to So
ciety-to some one government, if
you willard we are no longer re-
garded by it as individuals. We
are members of that government,
much as your fingers are members
of your body, and, as members are
to be protected, guarded, cherished
as part and parcel of your own life.
BY our social instincts and our gov
eminent, which, after all, is more
for the protection of the weak than
the strong, an end is put in some
degree to the inter-individual strug-
gle for existence, and the strength
and advantage of all is in sense
given to each one. In fact, an I'M
hindered struggle for existence
would break up government, society,
everything that now surrounds us,
the defeated and the weak, with
pleasures that would be unreachable
by us in the days of Magma Charta,
or even in the days of the declara-
ton of independence.
~
This principle of government ex-
plains the theory of our courts of
law, where the most feeble, repre-
scented by ''thc state as plaintiff
may bring to his knees the most
naughty and wealthy criminal. If
you are enjoying any of the mental,
legal, physical, spiritual helps that
surround you on every side, you
may set it down as certainty that
some one somewhere has given up
something for you, whom he has
never seen just because you are a
member of the same society or the
same body polite. 1t amounts in
TALL to this, that we are coming
more and more to recognize the
value of human beings as brothers
of ours; that the interest of all is
best subserved by throwing the best
products of a high civilization un-
rcservedly before those who, in their
individual struggle, are least able to
attain to them.
*a*
You may possibly say in your
heart, "But what is all this other
than the old principle DO unto
others as you would they should do
unto your" Possibly you are right.
If so, then the fact that the Great
Social reformer uttered words which