An Acknowledged Failure of Evolution
By Editor
ONE of the foremost advocates of evolution, and one who has been the most widely known and read, is Alfred Russel Wallace. He has traveled extensively all over the world to study natural history, and to secure evidence in favor of his theories of evolution. He was a coworker with Darwin and Herbert Spencer, and it is claimed for him that he has done quite as much to "discover" and establish the theories of evolution as did Darwin himself. Mr. Wallace is now quite an old man, but he has recently given the world a book entitled "Social Environment and Moral Progress." In this book he reviews world conditions; and did you not know his history as an evolutionist and a scientist, you would think, at times, that he was an ardent Socialist. He delves with a great deal of earnestness into the conditions in society. Some of the topics considered are: "Insanitary Dwellings and Life-Destroying Trades," "Adulteration, Bribery, and Gambling," "Our Administration of 'Justice' Is Immoral," "Indications of Increasing Moral Degradation," etc. Such topics as these are hardly what we would expect from the far-famed evolutionist, in the ripened hours of the evening-time of his life. The concluding chapter of his book is entitled, "How to Initiate an Era of Moral Progress." The following paragraphs from this chapter will give some idea of the stupendous task he recognizes as confronting the world if the theories of evolution should be made a success: "We see millions still struggling in vain for a sufficiency of the bare necessaries of life (which in their misery is all they ask), often culminating in actual starvation, or in suicide, to which they are driven by the dread of starvation. Yet our governments, selected from among the most educated, the most talented, the wealthiest of the country, with absolute power to make what laws and regulations they please, and an overflowing fund of accumulated wealth to draw upon, do nothing, although more people die annually of want than are killed in a great war, and more children than could be slaughtered by many Herods." "And while all this goes on in the depths, where— " ‘Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate,
And the warder is Despair’— a little higher up, among the middlemen distributors of the necessaries and luxuries of life, bribery, adulteration, and various forms of petty dishonesty are rampant." "And higher yet, among the great capitalists, the merchant princes, the captains of industry, we find hard taskmasters who drive down wages below the level of bare subsistence, and who support a more gigantic and wide-spread system of gambling than the world has ever seen." "And, finally, our administration of what we call 'justice' (and of which we are so proud because our judges can not be bribed) is utterly unjust, because it is based on a system of money fees at every step; because it is so cumbrous and full of technicalities as to need the employment of attorneys and counsel at great cost, and because all petty offenses are punishable by fine or imprisonment, which makes poverty itself a crime while it allows those with money to go practically free." "Taking account of these various groups of undoubted facts, many of which are so gross, as terrible, that they can not be overstated, it is not too much to say that our whole system of society is rotten from top to bottom, and the social environment as a whole, in relation to our possibilities and our claims, is the worst that the world has ever seen." "Such are the evil products of the social environment we have ourselves created in the course of a single century. We have seen it going from bad to worse, and have applied petty remedies here and there during the whole period; but the evils have continued to increase. It has now become clear to the more intelligent of the workers that if we wish to improve it—if we wish to prevent it from getting even worse than it is—we must deal with the root causes of the evil, and, so far as possible, reverse the conditions which are so demonstrably bad, such hideous failures. And fortunately, this is by no means so difficult as it may seem to be, because a large body of our thinkers and a considerable number of our workers see clearly what these root causes are, and, less clearly, how to remedy them. They will, however, give their energetic support to any government that devotes itself to the task of remedying them." This quotation is italicized just as he has it in his book. It is hardly necessary to make specific comment on the foregoing utterances of this great scientist. He recognizes what we must all admit, that gross selfishness is piling up unprecedented fortunes, that there is a general lack of administering justice, and he affirms that society is "rotten from top to bottom," and says that these conditions are "going from bad to worse." "We must deal with the root causes of the evil" if we would "reverse the conditions which are so demonstrably bad, such hideous failures." Dr. Wallace thinks that good men are waking up to this situation, that they are recognizing the difficulties that are confronting the world, and that governments will be glad to call to their aid those who can help in overcoming the evil conditions of the time. The men of this generation have been led by evolution scientists. A certain class of "doctors of divinity" have fallen into the delusion of those teachers of evolution. And all together, they have discarded a large part of the eternal word of Jehovah. That Word has declared in the plainest language that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." That Word has declared also that the time just preceding the second coming of Christ would be characterized by conditions as gross in their sinfulness as marked the days of Noah and of Lot. The Bible sets forth those times as being so immoral as to call for the retribution of God in destructive judgments. And now the great scientist who believes in evolution, and who has been teaching that the world is progressing—that it is rising from a lower to a higher plane—is compelled by the awful facts to announce that we must bestir ourselves if we are to be saved from its "rotten" condition. Those who believe the word of God know that it speaks the truth, and all others will sooner or later be compelled to acknowledge that the old Book will stand, and all contrary theories of men must finally crumble into nothingness. Low Wages and Big Dividends
THE conflict between the capitalist and the laborer is growing in intensity everywhere, and is recognized as one of the leading issues of this time. The great spread of Socialism throughout the world is a strong voicing of the discontent that is contained in the hearts and minds of the common people. Leading men of all walks of life are discussing the situation, and offering solutions. And these leading men are by no means confined to the Socialist party. For instance, Secretary-of-Commerce Redfield, in addressing the Commercial Club of St. Louis, Missouri, recently, is reported to have said: "It is uncertain how soon public opinion will say that a wage for working men that is insufficient to maintain them in decency shall not go on side by side with a costly home for the owner of that business, and, perhaps, even with gifts to charities and education." "The business man of the country should understand the purpose of certain work we are about to undertake, with the approval of the president, provided Congress supplies the necessary funds." Mr. Redfield, of course, is a member of the Democratic party, otherwise he would not be in President Wilson's cabinet. And it will be observed that the secretary of commerce says that the president is considering certain matters of which the business men of the country should understand the purpose. And we are left to infer, from the connection in which the remark is made, that these things under consideration are related to the regulating of the distribution of wealth—in other words, that the laboring man will be more equitably dealt with. While these things are said within the Democratic party, and matters quite as strong are also said within the Republican party, yet they are nevertheless of a socialistic character. All of which goes to show that Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, and all alike, recognize that one of the great world problems is the question of the unequal distribution of wealth between the great capitalists and the large army of workers. The active men in this generation believe that they will solve this problem, and that the world will be made very much better because of the solution. We have conditions throughout the world now that are very similar to conditions that have existed in every one of the great nations of antiquity, and those nations all went down. There were great reformers in those times who advanced theories that are very similar to those advanced now for the solution of these problems; but their theories and their efforts never solved the problems, for the reason that they were created by the inborn selfishness of mankind. The only thing that can solve problems created by selfishness is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Self and selfish interests lie at the foundation of all sins. Satan is the great author of self-aggrandizement and self-serving. Jesus Christ presents the antidote in the gospel of salvation. The Lord graciously permits men to try all their expedients; and after they have utterly failed in all of their human inventions, we must finally be led to the conclusion that there is just one thing that can save men from the difficulties and the degradation of self-serving. That one means of salvation is the gospel of Christ, which is "the power of God unto salvation." SOME attention has been given to despatches sent out from Denver, which stated that recent government surveys showed that Pike's Peak had sunk thirty-nine feet in the last three years. A report from the United States Geological Survey states that this is a false rumor, due to the fact that the recent figures were based upon an accurate survey, while the old figures that made the famous mountain thirty-nine feet higher than it is were the barometric estimate of the railroad engineers. Mr. George Otis Smith, director of the United States Geological Survey, says that it is very remarkable that the barometric figures should have come so close to the actual survey. The changes that are in reality taking place in this old world of ours are sufficient, without having any false rumors started that might create unnecessary excitement or disturbance. SPECIAL correspondence from Washington to the daily press announces that Secretary-of-the-Navy Daniels is desirous of using the greater part of his large appropriation of $1,600,000.00 in the construction of three of the most powerful battle-ships each year, these battle-ships to be of 30,000 tons displacement, and to have each a main battery of twelve fourteen-inch guns. The proper accompaniment of submarines and a few smaller vessels is to go with them. He is very desirous of seeing the United States advanced as quickly as possible to the position of second in naval strength and power. COMMON sense is asserting itself in some localities in the matter of teaching sex hygiene in the public schools. The teachers of the Washington Educational Association, assembled a few days ago in Spokane, put themselves on record as opposing such teaching except in the grammar grades, and then only in classes where the pupils have been segregated. Another good thing done by this teachers' association, in its same meeting, was to place itself on record as opposed to the sale and manufacture of alcoholic beverages in the state of Washington. THE National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, in its recent meeting in New Jersey, voted to set aside New Year's day, 1914, as a day of fasting and prayer in behalf of a constitutional amendment for nation-wide prohibition. The national secretary of the organization was also authorized to call a W. C. T. U. mass-meeting in Washington, D. C., to bring the subject of the liquor traffic evils before Congress. THE work on the Cape Cod Canal is progressing rapidly. The canal, it is believed, will be thrown open to traffic in 1914. When completed, it will cut off seventy miles from the water route between Boston and New York. The great work of constructing this canal is quite largely eclipsed by the greater work in Panama.