398 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The environment of a man changes not as he moves from place to 

 place, but as his income is raised or lowered. A change from $10 to $20 

 a week alters radically the conditions under which a family lives and 

 gives to its members other motives and temptations than those that 

 moved them in their earlier period. Two contrasted conditions result. 

 A condition of surplus where choices are large and a condition of 

 deficit where physical wants are seldom met. Each of these states have 

 visible effects that can be readily traced. A state of deficit affecting 

 children results in defective bodily development. The child matures 

 more rapidly and loses the plasticity of mind and body which better 

 nourished children possess. This means the appearance of atavistic 

 traits which in turn promote criminal tendencies. A state of deficit is 

 thus the cause of crime and of those peculiarities that accompany the 

 retardation of development. Families under its influence falling below 

 the normal standard approximate in thought and character the condi- 

 tion of distant ancestors. Deficit and retardation are different phases 

 of one group of tendencies. Deficit is the cause; retardation is an 

 effect. The result is the increase of crime and the loss of moral tone. 



The deterioration due to a deficit is not more marked than that 

 due to a surplus. An animal eats freely and even gorges itself without 

 injury because the energy to acquire food must always be kept active in 

 order to assure survival. Men, however, separate action from enjoy- 

 ment; those who are favored in income can expand their consumption 

 without correspondingly increasing their activity. The constant stimu- 

 lation of appetite and the overworking of organs to relieve the system 

 of its load leads to morbidness and disease. It also results in the 

 creation of toxic substances which poison the body and depress mental 

 activity. These evils react on the will and reduce its power to control 

 thought and activity. With the decay of will power the moral virtues 

 are undermined. The victim of indulgence thus sinks into vice and 

 drifts into evils that an active will power would have avoided. Morbid- 

 ness, disease, auto-intoxication, a weak will and vicious inclinations 

 appear when social conditions throw into the hands of individuals a 

 surplus that permits a cessation of strenuous activity. 



Surplus and deficit are thus equally dangerous. Those in want have 

 their development retarded and suffer from the evils bound up with this 

 condition. Those whose surplus permits satiety and idleness suffer 

 with equal severity from a train of evils that flows from morbid condi- 

 tions. Moral, vicious and criminal traits thus vary with objective con- 

 ditions and are marks of bodily states that depend on the surplus and 

 deficit of society. The result is the sinking of the race into a sub- 

 normal condition from which there is no relief until economic condi- 

 tions are altered. Normality is increased by taking from the surplus of 

 the prosperous and adding to the welfare of those injured by poverty. 



