“And so,” he concluded, in a swift resume, “no state composed of the slave-types can endure.  The old law of development still holds.  In the struggle for existence, as I have shown, the strong and the progeny of the strong tend to survive, while the weak and the progeny of the weak are crushed and tend to perish.  The result is that the strong and the progeny of the strong survive, and, so long as the struggle obtains, the strength of each generation increases.  That is development.  But you slaves—­it is too bad to be slaves, I grant—­but you slaves dream of a society where the law of development will be annulled, where no weaklings and inefficients will perish, where every inefficient will have as much as he wants to eat as many times a day as he desires, and where all will marry and have progeny—­the weak as well as the strong.  What will be the result?  No longer will the strength and life-value of each generation increase.  On the contrary, it will diminish.  There is the Nemesis of your slave philosophy.  Your society of slaves—­of, by, and for, slaves—­must inevitably weaken and go to pieces as the life which composes it weakens and goes to pieces.

“Remember, I am enunciating biology and not sentimental ethics.  No state of slaves can stand—­”

“How about the United States?” a man yelled from the audience.

“And how about it?” Martin retorted.  “The thirteen colonies threw off their rulers and formed the Republic so-called.  The slaves were their own masters.  There were no more masters of the sword.  But you couldn’t get along without masters of some sort, and there arose a new set of masters—­not the great, virile, noble men, but the shrewd and spidery traders and money-lenders.  And they enslaved you over again—­but not frankly, as the true, noble men would do with weight of their own right arms, but secretly, by spidery machinations and by wheedling and cajolery and lies.  They have purchased your slave judges, they have debauched your slave legislatures, and they have forced to worse horrors than chattel slavery your slave boys and girls.  Two million of your children are toiling to-day in this trader-oligarchy of the United States.  Ten millions of you slaves are not properly sheltered nor properly fed.”

“But to return.  I have shown that no society of slaves can endure, because, in its very nature, such society must annul the law of development.  No sooner can a slave society be organized than deterioration sets in.  It is easy for you to talk of annulling the law of development, but where is the new law of development that will maintain your strength?  Formulate it.  Is it already formulated?  Then state it.”

Martin took his seat amidst an uproar of voices.  A score of men were on their feet clamoring for recognition from the chair.  And one by one, encouraged by vociferous applause, speaking with fire and enthusiasm and excited gestures, they replied to the attack.  It was a wild night—­but it was wild intellectually, a battle of ideas.  Some strayed from the point, but most of the speakers replied directly to Martin.  They shook him with lines of thought that were new to him; and gave him insights, not into new biological laws, but into new applications of the old laws.  They were too earnest to be always polite, and more than once the chairman rapped and pounded for order.