344 Social Evolution 



rality. He will hardly assert that the Soudan is 

 more progressive than say Scotland or Minnesota, 

 where there is less of the spirit which he calls relig- 

 ious and which old-fashioned folk would call su- 

 perstitious. 



Mr. Kidd's position in reference to the central 

 feature of his argument is radically false; but he 

 handles some of his other themes very well. He 

 shows clearly in his excellent chapter on modern so- 

 cialism that a state of retrogression must ensue if 

 all incentives to strife and competition are with- 

 drawn. He does not show quite as clearly as he 

 should that over-competition and too severe stress 

 make the race deteriorate instead of improving; but 

 he does show that there must be some competition, 

 that there must be some strife. He makes it clear 

 also that the true function of the State, as it inter- 

 feres in social life, should be to make the chances of 

 competition more even, not to abolish them. We 

 wish the best men ; and though we pity the man that 

 falls or lags behind in the race, we do not on that 

 account crown him with the victor's wreath. We 

 insist that the race shall be run on fairer terms than 

 before because we remove all handicaps. We thus 

 tend to make it more than ever a test of the real 

 merits of the victor, and this means that the victor 

 must strive heart and soul for success. Mr. Kidd's 

 attitude in describing socialism is excellent. He 

 sympathizes with the wrongs which the socialistic 

 reformer seeks to redress, but he insists that these 

 wrongs must not be redressed, as the socialists 



