INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION 809 



The great problem then is the creation of institutions in accordance 

 with the needs of the different elements in the community, if we 

 arrange these into classes to correspond to their mental and moral 

 characteristics. We have as a matter of fact been creating such insti- 

 tutions during the past one hundred years. All civilized lands have 

 been engaged in this activity and they have created institutions to 

 serve the purposes of classes of men with widely varied needs and 

 capacities even in opposition to preconceived and generally accepted 

 theories. This has been particularly the case in the United States. 

 I believe that this is an explanation which throws new light on social 

 progress. The movement is destined to continue as it is an inevitable 

 outcome of that mighty struggle for equality of opportunity which is 

 shaping human history. 



We also have this economic problem when we come to deal with 

 those of other nations as we do in this era of expansion. It is a pro- 

 blem, for example, to what extent landed property in severalty, with its 

 free sale and purchase, is adapted to those tribes of people who have 

 not acquired the type of mind which has been gradually evolved by 

 the most civilized nations during the course of their history. Let 

 us once more take the case of the North American Indian. If this 

 line of argument is valid, is it possible that in a few short years he 

 should become adapted to that form of property which the most 

 highly developed people in the world have reached as a result of an 

 evolution of hundreds and thousands of years? If the problem is to 

 change the nature of the Indian, must we not shape our institutions 

 to his conditions and allow him generations to adapt himself to the 

 most modern institutions? If this line of argument is true, we must 

 expect that the results of property in land in severalty among the 

 Indians will be that they will lose their land. To prevent alienation 

 of the land allotted to the Indians for the period of twenty years 

 seems absurd, as the real problem is a change of Indian nature. 



Continuing this line of thought, that we must provide institutions 

 adapted to the needs of the various classes in the community, we 

 come to the problem of insurance. The gifted and capable can 

 make their way and do make their way in competitive society based 

 upon private property if they do not meet with accidents. It is 

 absolutely impossible that the ordinary man should prepare for all 

 the contingencies of modern industry. Accidents may befall the 

 worker just at the initial period of activity, and they may come in 

 middle life. It is beyond possibility for the ordinary man with 

 ordinary wages to make adequate provision therefor through his own 

 unaided efforts. The solution of the problem of contingencies is 

 found in insurance, which is making such rapid headway throughout 

 the world and in which Germany has left all the rest of the world so 

 far behind. There is no greater labor problem than that of insur- 



