Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/554

 540 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

men saw in human society a theater of wide general activity which proceeds from the inherent nature of man. They per- ceived that if men were left quite to themselves they would, in seeking their personal ends, spontaneously initiate and carry on all the industries of society. Owing to the manifest abuses of power by the ruling classes in seeking to raise revenues for their own uses, conquer other nations for their own glory, and other- wise satisfy their own greed and ambition, whereby the free flow of these natural activities was checked, industry and commerce were stifled or misdirected, and the general prosperity was inter- fered with and diminished, they felt called upon to counteract these tendencies and advocate the liberation of the natural forces of society. In taking this course at such a time they accom- plished a worthy purpose and inaugurated a wholesome reform. No one denies that the unrestrained activities of the human race would work out some sort of social development. The analogy with organic evolution in the subhuman sphere is also a true one. Though qualified in its details by the differences between men and animals, even by the immense difference between the human mind and the animal mind, with a corre- sponding difference in the results, the principle according to which these results are accomplished is essentially the same. Those reformers who maintain that the monopolistic tendencies so prevalent in society under the apparent absence of external restraint or collective influence are peculiar to human affairs, and wanting in the lower domains of life and mind, simply betray their lack of acquaintance with those domains. In fact, the fundamental condition to biological development is monopoly. Natural selection operates on this principle exclusively. What is called the survival of the fittest is simply the monopoly of the strongest. It does not work here either in the mild manner characteristic of human society, viz., that of allowing the weaker to exist, only under conditions of reduced activity and stunted growth, but it is thoroughgoing and crushes out the unsuccessful competitors completely. It is only paralleled in human society in those rare cases where a superior race overflows the domain