The New York herald., 1922-05-21

IN lay predicted that modern
society, unlike its ancient
predecessors, would be destroyed, not
by barbarians from without, but by
the barbarians within it.
This study of Mr.. Stoddard's deals
with this kind Of barbarians, who.
unless very great care is taken to
counteract their influence, will in
evitably revolt against civilization
and tear down the social structure so
slowly and laboriously built. Indeed.
their revolt has already begun. The
problem is to prevent its spread.
Where are the barbarians? Every
where. Modern nations are full of
them. They are (the author is speak
ing especially of America) increas-
ing at an alarming rate, while the
superior, more highly gifted, are
hardly reproducing their kind suf-
ficiently to maintain their number
at stationary point.
The barbarian that threatens civil
ization is the naturally inferior, the
individual who is congenitally in
capable of sharing in the benefits of
civilization. He is, by heredity, un-
civilizable. His instinct is to revert
: to lower stage of society, where he
would not be at such a disadvantage.
1t is natural for him to feel that
way about it. One can expect moth
yond the pale. Though living in a
civilized community, he is essen
TALLY on the outside looking in and
doomed to stay there. He may think
this very unjust, and from one point
of view it assuredly is; but the in
justice is natures, and it is beyond
the remedy of society. All that So
ciety can do is to protect itself from
him.
Civilizations are delicate plants.
They are comparatively recent
growths. Several have flowered and
after a time withered away. Must
this always be so? Is there, as
Brooks Adams sought to demon
strate. law of civilization and de-
cay? Do highly developed societies
necessarily go through periods of
youth, maturity. senescence and
death? Numerous theories have been
worked out to account for the rise
and fall of social structures. But to
Mr.. Stoddard the explanation is sim
pie. Modern biology provides it.
Civilization depends upon the quail
ties of the people who are the bear.
ers of it." It's duration is deter.
mined by the human material OF
which it is made up.
In the past this material has not
been predominantly. or even mainly.
of a high type. The most brilliant
civilization rested upon a small COM
munity of only few thousand free
men in Athens. In any civilization
the genuinely superior have been
almost negligible in number. But
civilization involves complex de-
mands-in government. mechanics,
art, science, morals. And only a high
average race can be equal to the
strain. Any other eventually gives
up the struggle and goes back TO
barbarism.
Our own society has advanced to
new forms and new burdens with a
rapidity infinitely greater than that
/. of any previous change. Henry
Adams in his Education" endeav-
ored to measure the acceleration OF
social movement represented by the
use of coal and power machinery and
to predict its rate for the future. He
e suspected that it could not continue
without great-perhaps too great
friction. But with an unprecedented
overweight of social structure and
vastly greater energy mechanism to
deal with man has no greater body
or brain capacity than his ancestors
of the earliest historic period. His
heredity is much the same as theirs
And heredity is the force that
mainly determines the character of
individuals and races. 1t determines
l.r