156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of early conflicts between primitive social groups. These conflicts 

 were incessant in all parts of the world wherever there were virile and 

 progressive races and the cause of the conflicts was the natural de- 

 sire of the stronger to exploit the weaker, it being always easier and 

 more attractive to gain sustenance by robbery than by labor. Further- 

 more these incessant conflicts were in a high degree beneficial to so- 

 cial development, resulting in the extermination of the unfit and the 

 survival of the strong and the brave. Within the primitive groups 

 there was some degree of cooperation, sympathy, mutual helpful- 

 ness, regard for life and property, together with some observance of 

 " law " and " order " and " right " and " wrong/' this primitive organiza- 

 tion resulting perhaps from the rules and regulations imposed by a 

 victorious group upon a conquered group. Between the groups there 

 was fear, suspicion, hatred, with no respect for life or property. 

 Might was right. Within the group certain actions were stigmatized as 

 wrong and were punished, such for instance as murder and theft. But 

 between members of hostile groups these acts were praiseworthy. 



The modern constitutional state is the historical development of 

 the primitive group. Within the groups, now called nations, the upper 

 classes, nobles, lords, officers, plutocrats, still to a greater or less ex- 

 tent exploit the lower classes, as the victors did the vanquished, and be- 

 tween the groups there is still the old rivalry, suspicion and distrust, 

 while the taking of life and property is still praiseworthy and is not 

 called murder and theft, but war. 



But meanwhile within the political state there have grown up two 

 new communities — one moral and the other industrial and commercial, 

 and gradually, while the old bounds of the political state have persisted, 

 the moral and industrial states have expanded till they have burst the 

 bounds of the political state and become international and world wide. 

 A cosmopolitan conscience has replaced the old group conscience and 

 moral obligations extend to all mankind. In time of war between the 

 nations, however, under the transport of patriotism, the old group 

 consciousness revives, with its deep-seated instinct of pugnacity, and 

 with it is revived the old group conscience and the ancient hatred and 

 suspicion, and the ancient desire to exterminate the rival group. Hence 

 the reversion in time of war to primitive standards of conduct. 



But under the completely transformed conditions of society in 

 modern times, the original raison d'etre of war has ceased to be. Vic- 

 tory is no longer to the physically stronger and mentally braver. The 

 vanquished are no longer exterminated or enslaved. The victors lose 

 perhaps as many of their fighters as the vanquished and the disabled are 

 vastly more in number than the dead and both the dead and the dis- 

 abled are the flower of the nation's youth. Meanwhile, the monstrous 

 cost of a modern war, which impoverishes the nation and its posterity, 



