The maxim of industry is, “every
one for himself and the devil take
the hindmost.” Now, who are the
“hindmost” in the .economic strug
gle for existence? You will say,
“they are the ignorant, the intemper
ate, the depraved, the vicious, the
physically unfit, the mentally incom
petent; they make their own bed and
they must lie in it,” though let us
noi. forget that that is not a Chris
tian sentiment. But are these all
that are to be found among the
hindmost in the industrial struggle?
By no means. Among them are to
be found the inheritors of physical
and mental weakness, who being thus
handicapped through no fault of
their own are predestined to failure.
They are the product of industrial
conditions. England has long boast
ed that she is the workshop of the
nations. For the profits of trade her
mills and her factories have been
kept going at a breathless and ex
hausting pace. What has been the
effect upon her people? Parliamen
tary inquiries have shown that there
is a physical and mental degeneracy
among them unparalleled in any of
the continental nations of Europe.
One-third of the men who enlisted
for the Boer war were rejected as
physically unfit, although the stan
dard of fitness was lower than at any
time since the battle of Waterloo.
