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Primary source: "Fruits of Evolution," magazine article, 1893.
Caption: In this 1893 magazine, an unknown writer comments on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution as it applied to the labor movement.
In writing of evolution there is no purpose to investigate or criticize Darwinism relating to "man's place in nature." We take man's place in nature as it stands to-day regardless of his creation. His remote ancestors may have been apes or tadpoles, or, he may have been created as the Bible proclaims. In any case there has been going forward in processes of evolution a steady unfolding of mental powers, whatever may be said of man's early physical endowment. It is quite possible that in the processes of evolution, man has lost in physical strength and gained in mental vigor. . . . The evolution of intellectual power is consequent upon education, which is the great unfolding force. Hence, it follows, that those who command the largest educational advantages control those of inferior opportunities. To equalize these opportunities is the great purpose of the American free school system, to secure all mind evolution, the unfolding of its powers, so that the humblest citizen may become a thinker and be prepared to maintain his independence in all conflicts that may arise between contending classes....
Labor organizations are also the fruits of evolution, and it is just here that comes into view the theory of survival. In evolution as it relates to animals and plants, the strongest survive, the weak go to the wall--disappear--sometimes styled "the survival of the fittest" but always the strongest. It must be granted that when large mind forces are in alliance with wealth, immense strength is developed, and as against ignorance and poverty, the latter must succumb, except incidentally and spasmodically, as in the early days of the French Revolution.
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"Fruits of Evolution," Locomotive Firemen's Magazine, January 1893, 6–9.
Courtesy of History Matters, a project of the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning (City University of New York, Graduate Center) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University).
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