hological laboratories, aided by
physiology, through oft-repeated experiments conducted with
newly-invented weighing and measuring instruments of marvelous accuracy,
have put us in possession of an array of facts unknown to students of
earlier periods, who sought the "why and the how" of man's erratic
actions as a social animal. It is constantly being demonstrated that
under given conditions, moved by appropriate stimuli, the human animal
inevitably and surely reacts the same as does inorganic matter. If we
understand "intelligence" to be the "capacity to respond to new
conditions," we can measurably see and at least partly understand the
constant inter-play of heredity and environment. Between these there is
no antagonism. The sum of life experiences consists solely in the
adjustments required to enable the sentient organism--man or beast--to
live.

How readily a "throw-back" to earlier and cruder life may be brought
about under favorable conditions, is shown by the methods and virulence
of combat during the vicious massacre in the war just ended. Can the
conclusion be evaded that individually and collectively we constantly
teeter on the brink of a precipice? If we fall it spells crime or
misfortune, or both.

Wherever civilization exists on the private property basis as its main
bulwark, we find crime as an inseparable result. Man, by virtue of his
organic nature, is a predatory animal. This does not mean that he is a
vicious animal. It simply means that man, in common with the eagle and
the wolf, acts in accordance with the all-impelling urge and fundamental
instincts of his organic structure. In any conflict between newer and
nobler sentiments and the emotions which function through the primeval
instincts, he is shackled to the bed-rock master instincts in such
manner that they usually win. This is conclusively shown by the history
of the race.

If this is true, we should expect to find the master hunger specially
active through the many chances presented for exploitation after the
fall of feudalism--beginning, let us assume, with the invention of power
machinery--the "Age of Steam". It is apparent that from that time to our
own day, man's acquisitive tendency has so expanded, that if we were
capable of an unbiased opinion it might be said to be a form of
megalomania gripping the entire white race, where highly-developed
commerce and industry are found in their most vigorous forms.

If our theory is correct, we