230 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



growth of population. Even at the times of the 

 great famines that destroy their millions sufficient 

 food is produced in the fortunate countries to save 

 the lives of all the famine victims, so that our prob- 

 lem is no longer the production of food but its distri- 

 bution. 



It is apparent that man has thus become freed to 

 a large extent from the struggle for existence, so far 

 as concerns his contests with inanimate nature. But 

 this is possible only so long as he fails to fill the in- 

 habitable world. When the limits of population are 

 reached the conditions will be different. If ever the 

 time comes when the population of the earth is so 

 great that it approaches closely the limit of possible 

 sustenance, then will mankind be brought face to 

 face with a struggle for existence with nature, such 

 as must have been the lot of primitive man. Then 

 will the question as to life be determined by the same 

 principles as those which determine the life of lower 

 animals. But until this limit is reached, until the 

 whole of the habitable earth is covered with a dense 

 population, as dense as can be sustained by the food 

 that can be produced, until that time, man is so far 

 freed from the problem of the struggle for existence 

 as it relates to inanimate nature, that we may look 

 upon him as superior to that struggle which has 

 dominated the development of the savage tribes and 

 has ruled the evolution of animal nature. The 

 diminishing birth rate among all higher races makes 

 it at least doubtful whether population will ever 

 surpass the possibilities of food production. 



Struggle op Man with Man 

 If we consider it in its wider sense, it is in the 



