WOODS AND TREES—KRECKER 315 
portion of it can again take on the form and function of a sponge. 
Here, it matters little whether any one or a group of cells fail. At the 
opposite extreme in man, the loss of an islet of cells in the pancreas 
means death. Clearly specialization and responsibility go hand in 
hand. 
The inexorable demands of nature that each do his duty to his kind 
need not of necessity mean that before us lies a future in which we 
shall be slaves to the State, Nazi-fashion. A slave performs his duty 
without choice, has no voice in his fate. Before us lies the opportunity 
to both exercise our choice and discharge our duty. If, however, we 
do not so choose, we shall have responsibility and no freedom, no 
chance to direct our fate. There are even now those among us who 
would impose the prototype of insect rigidity upon our form of social 
organization. Its most extreme exponents are the followers of Nazi 
philosophy. Rauschning™ reports Hitler as declaring, “There will 
be a master class * * * also a new middle class * * * and 
the great mass of the eternally disfranchized. Beneath them still will 
be * * * the modern slave class) * * * Universal education 
is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has 
ever invented for its own destruction.” Carrel? has expressed some- 
what similar views, as for instance, * * * “The democratic prin- 
ciple has contributed to the collapse of civilization in opposing the 
development of an elite. * * * modern civilization is incapable 
of producing people endowed with imagination, intelligence and cour- 
age. * * * the equality of their (man’s) rights is unequal.” 
It is true that there are biological differences among us which cause 
difficulties in a democratic state, but gene distribution is such that few 
are wholly of inferior quality and few, if any, of wholly superior stuff. 
The mechanism of transmission and interaction of genes further com- 
plicates the picture. And who is to differentiate what is good or how? 
As Jennings suggests, “One of the greatest difficulties in the way of 
effective human action lies in the lack of agreement as to the end to be 
attained. * * * perhaps the greatest difficulty of all lies in the 
lack of agreement as to the individuals or groups that should benefit 
by the action to be taken.” 
The course upon which the physically undifferentiated and mobile 
fabric of the vertebrate social organization is set does not of necessity 
demand a society strait-laced and closely regimented in which free- 
dom of action is surrendered. It does demand and will exact the 
surrender of action for self alone. It does place upon us unalterably 
responsibility to our fellow men. The failure on the part of many of 
us, most of us I fear, to realize this fact has been an important source 
4 The voice of destruction. 
2% Man, the unknown. 
