FAMOUS SCIENTIST DEAD.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1902, 10 November 1913, Page 7

FAMOUS SCIENTIST DEAD.

DR. ALFRED RUSSELL WALLACE.

By TeleSri^ph—Press ABEOciation—Oopyrlgtit London, November 7. Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, Q.M., LL.D., F.R.S., occasional author, and president of tne Land Nationalisation Society, is dead. , A DISTINGUISHED CAREER. Just a few months ago Dr. Alfred Walke& in his 91st year, arrested the attention of tho world by publishing a re- ; markablfl review of "Social Environment and Moral Progress," in which he declared, without qualification, that our "whole system is rotten from top to bottom," and that our present social environment "as a whole, in relation to our possibilities and our claims, is the wore't that th% world has ever Been." After treating of morality in. general, and of character as a permanent attribute of humanity, ho devoted a chapter to environment during tho nineteenth century, tracing the gradual urbanisation of life in civilised countries, the drift from country to crowded eity, and all the ills of "hectic A few of tho words «nd"pbrases in his chajK ters show the range of his indictment! Insanitary Dwellings, Adulteration, Bribery, Gambling, Immoral Justice, Pro-stituti-o-n, Alcoholism, and Suicide. The result of the vast economic revolution which has como of the advance of man's fower to utilise tho forces of naturo has ceii, says Dr. Wallace. "Mmose *11. tirelv evil"; all our remedies "have been petty awl ineffectual." Closing, with what he calls "the root cause and the remedy," Dr. Wallace, said s— "(1) *£hey aro due, broadly and gcncr.■ally, to our living under a system of universal competition for the weans of existence, tho r&medy for which is <jq-uar-ly universal co-Operation. "(2) It may be also defined as a sye. tem of economic antagonism, as of enc mi-cs, the remedy being a system of economic brotherhood, as of a great family, ot of friends.

"(3> Our system is also one of monopoly by a few of nil tho means of existence: tho land, without aeee-si? to which no life is possible j and capital, or the results of storcd-up labour. wbisTi Ts now in tho possession of a limited number of capitalists, and, therefore, is a mttiiopoly, Tho remedy is freedom of access So laad and capital for all. Also, it may ho defined as social injustice, inasmuch as the few in. each generation are nllowicd to inherit the storcd-up wealth of all preceding generations, while tho many nothing, Tho remedy is to adopt tho principle of equality of opportunity for all. or of universal inheritance by tlio State in trust for tho whole community.

"These four statements of the existing causes of nil o-ur social evils cannot, I believe, lie controverted, nwl the remedies for them may'bo condensed into one general proposition; -that it rs tho first duty (in importance) of a. civilised Government to organised tho labour of the whole community for tho equal good of all; but it is also their first duty (in time) to take- immediate steps te abolish death I>y starvation and by preventable disease, duo to insanitary dwellings and dfttigerons employments, while carefully elaborating tho permanent remedy for want in the midst ot wealth."