There is, of
course, some truth in all of these sweeping generalizations, but it must
be said that there is not sufficient in any of them to stand the test of
concrete investigation; rather these men have made the mistake of
attempting to explain a very complex social phenomenon in terms of a
single set of causes, which, as we have already seen, has been the bane
of social science in the past. Even the theory of evolution itself
fails to explain, as ordinarily stated, the genesis of the depressed
classes in human society. It may explain it in part, however. As we
have already seen, biological variations are always found in
individuals, making some naturally superior, some naturally inferior,
and in the struggle for existence we know that the inferior are more
liable to go down; they are less apt to maintain a place in society, and
hence more readily fall into the depressed classes. Many well-endowed
persons, however, also fall into the dependent classes through accidents
and causes inherent in our social organization but in no way natural.
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