A SOCIAL PROBLEM.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4084, 23 June 1900, Page 2

A SOCIAL PROBLEM.

DIRE ■-EFFECTS-eF THE STRUGGLE i 1 UR EXKSTJhN Cl;. (By S. W. Fitzherbert). - * A contribution by Mr M. Flurseheim, under ’the above beading, appeared the other day in the “New ZiealuncC Times, " and muse serve'to Still further confound, in the 'mind of the average reader, the confusion'.produced by a perusal of the somewhat slovenly production of the ••Spectator;”, Let me deal with Mr Flurscheim first. ,T’h'e pith of his argument is this: —The world" iS not over populated, i.e., there is no struggle for existence, because had societies better organisations than those which now obtain the world would support' a population immeasurably greater than its present one. In other words certain--eonseq nonts do-nnt follow because, given - different', antecedents’ they would not follow. One might'just as well say that because a. man with his head blown oft is dead, all men are dead. Now there is no doubt that better organisations of society can be conceived;; that in the course of lime they will he developed; find that they will admit of the maintenance of larger numbers of men than hitherto; but it is surely-a fallacy to infer from-this that the world is not over populated under present conditions^;Air Flursclieim. must know that the Europe of the'Middle Ages could .not support'the population of the present day and thatnmdor the then existing organisation', had there been a sudden, and great influx from other regions,' numbers must -'haye perished for want of the means of subsistence./ And he‘ must also recognise, that 'the better organisation of modern ' Eiirope- has* gradually been developed through; The . struggle. for existence out of the older organisation, and that this same struggle foV existence will develop still higher organisations. The whole commercial .machinery of the world ; is the directr outcome of the pressure of population on subsistence, and 'through this pressure alone will higher'! developments he attained.' ! , ' The article'reproduced from the, "'Spectator,’’ although not very 'definite, seems to identify Prince Mohenlohe with the opinion that moral progress and the higher forms of intellectual progress are coming to a standstill: not that commercial progress is coming to an." end. There would seem to be a good" deal of trut h in shell propositions, although, to my mind, all three require a good deal of qualification. Moral progress must come to an end when all the races of man have become completely adapted to the - conditions of social life. Intellectual and commercial progress must come to au end when the great propelling force of evolution—the increase of population beyond the means of subsistence —has worked itself out, 'when the / increase of population comes to a. standstill. That the birth rate Will at some future date merely balance the death rate may he deduced from 'physiological laws. The development of any function takes, place at the expense of some other .function, and in course of time the struggle for existence, throwing continually as it doo.s more work on the brain,'will develop the mental funcr tions at the expense of others and must in time lower the reproductive power to a strength just sufficient to maintain the race at a fixed number. When this equilibration lias come td.pass the hfdnan race will have Iconie to'a standstill. Both these processes,' however,' are very far from completion, ‘ Few, if any, human beings are adapted to complete social, life, and there is faV from .being a'direct ratio between the birth-rate and the death-rate. The first, process may require from 10,000 to 20,000/years to complete,; the second probably over l 00,00(1’. ‘ There is, however, not. wanting evidence to show that, for-a time at least, moral progress is not, merely coining to an end, hut has come to an end, and that there is a rapid retrogressive movement now going onj It would take up'too much space to point out the many indications of this retrogression; but I may ,be allowed to submit several factors that are contributing to bring about the change. The first of these is the recrudescence of militarism during the last few decades; the second, the expansion .of the world’s markets, bringing abdiit a retrogressive ''environment and a demoralising race for wealth; and the third, the development of Democracy before, its.time and the consequent usurpation’of'polilical poweKhy the most ignorant, classes of'the "community. In conclusion-I would ,like to add that the ‘‘'Spectator’s”; contributor, like many another ’journalist, "discovers views which have been published-for many years, and works them up in a sensational manner as though they were'the 1 last inspirations of some Heaven-sent. prophet. Had the contributor in question been a-student of Mr Herbert Spencer’s "Principles of Sociology’-’, he would have found nothing new in Prince Hohenlohe’s views, - but merely a popular expression of a change which..had already been observed and'accounted for in a scientific and indubitable manner. He would also'have retrained from his bizarre reference to God and the materialists which appears at the end of the article in question. V ' ' ■ ■ :