e dozens of such children in this particular mill. A
physician who was with me said that they would all be dead probably
in two years, and their places filled by others--there were plenty
more. Pneumonia carries off most of them. Their systems are ripe
for disease, and when it comes there is no rebound--no response.
Medicine simply does not act--nature is whipped, beaten, discouraged,
and the child sinks into a stupor and dies."

So fares modern man and the child of modern man in the United States,
most prosperous and enlightened of all countries on earth. It must be
remembered that the instances given are instances only, but they can be
multiplied myriads of times. It must also be remembered that what is
true of the United States is true of all the civilized world. Such
misery was not true of the caveman. Then what has happened? Has the
hostile environment of the caveman grown more hostile for his
descendants? Has the caveman's natural efficiency of 1 for food-getting
and shelter-getting diminished in modern man to one-half or one-quarter?

On the contrary, the hostile environment of the caveman has been
destroyed. For modern man it no longer exists. All carnivorous enemies,
the daily menace of the younger world, have been killed off. Many of the
species of prey have become extinct. Here and there, in secluded
portions of the world, still linger a few of man's fiercer enemies. But
they are far from being a menace to mankind. Modern man, when he wants
recreation and change, goes to the secluded portions of the world for a
hunt. Also, in idle moments, he wails regretfully at the passing of the
"big game," which he knows in the not distant future will disappear from
the earth.

Nor since the day of the caveman has man's efficiency for food-getting
and shelter-getting diminished. It has increased a thousandfold. Since
the day of the caveman, matter has been mastered. The secrets of matter
have been discovered. Its laws have been formulated. Wonderful
artifices have been made, and marvellous inventions, all tending to
increase tremendously man's natural efficiency of in every food-getting,
shelter-getting exertion, in farming, mining, manufacturing,
transportation, and communication.

From the caveman to the hand-workers of three generations ago, the
increase in efficiency for food- and shelter-getting has been very great.
But in this day, by machinery, the efficiency of the h