330 BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN PROBLEMS 



actively agitated. The hostility felt toward these rich 

 men is by no means confined to them, but includes 

 thousands of other men who have attained business 

 successes by opportunities, methods, and talents 

 similar to those of their more conspicuous and more 

 wealthy prototypes. It is doubtless true that the 

 use of harsh or even dishonest methods of business 

 and of artificial advantages, such as rebates and a 

 high protective tariff, have contributed to the wide- 

 spread unpopularity of many of the most successful 

 American business men. It is worth while to con- 

 sider some present tendencies that will certainly lead 

 to changes in the distribution of the profits of busi- 

 ness and of property generally. 



In all complex forms of civilization society is 

 organized on an aristocratic basis, and has al- 

 ways been so organized. This holds true in the 

 sense tha a relatively small number of individuals 

 have obtained for themselves superior advantages in 

 respect to wealth and political influence and the 

 privileges which these can secure. The obtaining 

 of these advantages depends in the final analysis on 

 perfectly definite biological conditions; that is to say, 

 on superiorities of physical organization inclusive of 

 that superiority in the central nervous mechanism 

 which is the substructure of intelligence, will, and 

 character. In former civilizations wealth and po- 

 litical and military power held an even greater place 

 in the aristocratic scheme than in the societies of 

 to-day, for with the rise of literature, art, and science 



