The Theory of Evolution 51 



natural way that paternalism and systematic 

 social organization which has borne such 

 notable fruits in modern Germany. Perhaps 

 the greatest single step in the recent exten- 

 sion of that policy was taken when Bismarck, 

 actmg for the throne, started the social insur- 

 ance movement. It is noteworthy that in so 

 doing he officially announced the government's 

 opposition to the laisses-faire, survival-of-the- 

 fittest policy, and set forth in opposition to it 

 the policy of protecting the poor against the 

 greed of capital in accordance with Christian 

 ethics. In this pronouncement he set clearly 

 in opposition the system of competitive gain 

 through bargaining, which the evolutionary phi- 

 losophy had championed, and the social policy 

 of checking individualistic commercial aggres- 

 sion in favor of the good of the organized 

 group. It is, of course, easy to attack his position 

 as determined by the self-interest of a militaris- 

 tic dynasty, yet the wisdom and essential justice 

 of the policy is attested not only by its contri- 

 bution to the well-being and efficiency of the 

 German masses, but by the fact that the policy 

 has been adopted in most of its essential fea- 

 tures by other industrial nations, including 

 England. Even the United States, where 



