A REPLY TO HAECKEL 129 



practice of certain moral principles in animal 

 societies may constitute, or add to, fitness. But 

 in present society in a vast number of in- 

 stances, fitness does not mean "best" even to 

 the extent that such a word may be used in the 

 natural world. 



A real estate "shark'' is a libel on the fish. 

 An indispensable qualification in business is to 

 have few scruples and be a first-class liar. 

 Honesty and suicide are synonomous terms. 



The statement that natural selection "favors 

 aristocratic aspirations," involves the same fal- 

 lacy. It assumes that aristocrats are on top 

 because of fitness to be there. Recent revela- 

 tions in Berlin indicate that the aristocrats of 

 Haeckel's own country are "fittest" for the 

 garbage can. 



Haeckel's main position is that "the struggle 

 for existence" in nature is a justification for 

 "competition" in society. To begin with, 

 Kropotkin has shown that Haeckel grossly 

 misrepresents nature when hQ speaks of "the 

 cruel, pitiless 'struggle for existence' which 

 rages everywhere throughout animated na- 

 ture and "between all living beings." When 

 this is used as a defense of present society, it is 

 equal to saying that human society should 

 seek its models among the lowest forms of 

 organic life rather than the highest. Haeckel's 



