42 Social Environment 



the modern eugenists, though it should be said 

 that not all of them go to the extreme of the 

 biological argument. According to the evolu- 

 tionary philosophy as thus worked out, society 

 is considered to be a continuation of the natu- 

 ral struggle seen in the world of the lower 

 animals and plants. Overpopulation, the basic 

 factor of progress, precipitates struggle, 

 whether of the battlefield or of the market. 

 Dominating the struggle rise the world's aris- 

 tocracies, both feudal and commercial, which 

 represent fayorable biological variations, the 

 higher types of the human species. Progress is 

 to be measured by the degree to which these 

 superior breeds succeed through the competition 

 of life in crowding out the inferior breeds, for 

 social organization is thought of as a mere 

 function of the biological qualities of a popu- 

 lation at any given time. The eugenic philos- 

 ophy, then, amply met the demand felt by the 

 laissez-faire thinkers at the time of the con- 

 flict over the poor-laws. Not only was poverty 

 natural, as Malthus had shown; it was now 

 also seen to be the agency of all enduring 

 progress. In the shambles of the slum, where 

 drifted the broken and the beaten, nature was 

 eliminating the so-called inferior stock; hence, 



