138 
Kinley—The Direction of Social Reform. 
of the environment is no longer the result of forces wholly unreg¬ 
ulated by human action, but of forces working under conditions 
imposed by the will of man. In the one set of circumstances, 
social problems worked themselves out under the law of sur¬ 
vival of the fittest; in the other, they are worked out by the 
establishment of conditions which will evolve, or create, the 
life or organism which is deemed to be the fittest. They 
formerly fought themselves out, now they may be thought out. 
That is to say, reform is added to spontaneous evolution as a 
means of social progress. But reform is itself evolutionary 
It is but evolution under guidance. The spontaneous evolution 
is purposeless, at least so far as man is concerned; reform is 
purposeful. One is unconscious; the other, conscious. Yet 
both are evolution. For man cannot prevent the operation of 
natural laws. He can only guide, control, direct them. All 
his efforts to consummate his purpose must be under their 
operation. The laws themselves remain, but the conditions 
under which they operate may change or be changed, so as to 
produce different results. This is a general truth. It is 
true in physics as well as in sociology. The electric current 
which under one set of conditions turns machinery, under 
another gives us light. It is the same current, generated and 
flowing under the operation of the same laws, but through a 
different medium. So the sociologist, or the practical economist, 
may so adjust the conditions of taxation, for example, as to 
produce very varied social results. Yet the same general laws 
directing the “incidence of taxation” will still operate. Taxa¬ 
tion, like any other force, follows the line of least resistance. 
“Taxation may create monopolies or it may prevent them; it 
may diffuse wealth or it may concentrate it; it may promote 
liberty and equality of right or it may tend to the establish¬ 
ment of tyranny and despotism; it may be used to bring about 
reforms or it may be so laid as to aggravate existing griev¬ 
ances and foster dissension and hatred between classes; taxa¬ 
tion may be so contrived by the skilful hand as to give free 
scope to every opportunity for the creation of wealth or for 
the advancement of all true interests of states and cities, or it 
