TEE P8YCE0L0GY OF WAR 161 



superior brain, and sometimes perilously near the surface, there lies a 

 vast network of inherited dispositions connecting the man of to-day with 

 his warlike savage ancestors. 



In place, then, of this unreal social unit, the peace-loving, land- 

 tilling citizen, we have the real man, the restless and aggressive man, 

 who loves the city rather than the country, frequents the stock exchange, 

 the theater and the moving-picture show, likes to speculate and gamble, 

 is fond of rapid transit by means of steam or trolley car, automobile or 

 aircraft, passes much of his time indoors, reading, writing, planning 

 and contriving, delves into new problems of philosophy, science and 

 invention, exploits new lands and new routes of trade, invents new guns 

 and new explosives, devises new methods of rapid communication and 

 transportation, is addicted to the use of tobacco and alcohol and strong 

 coffee and tea, is subject to chronic fatigue, has a tendency to the use 

 of poisonous drugs and to insanity and suicide and small families. 



This is our typical man of to-day and beside him and living in close 

 proximity to him, there is another class, likewise neither peace-loving 

 nor land-tilling, namely, the class of dependents, delinquents, and de- 

 fectives. 



This then is the material we have to work with, and now, given this 

 material, let us suppose that international rivalries should cease, that our 

 colossal modern armies and navies should disappear and that the vast 

 number of men and the enormous amounts of capital involved in military 

 armaments should be turned into productive channels, and let us sup- 

 pose further that the burden of taxes hitherto required for armies, navies, 

 and pensions should be lifted and with it lifted also the fear of invasion, 

 ■ — what then would happen ? Something very different, no doubt, from 

 that condition of idyllic happiness and peace which one infers from the 

 arguments of the pacificists. 



The fact is, the causes of war lie much deeper than in any political 

 conditions. They are to be sought in the constitution of the human 

 mind. The question, therefore, is a profoundly difficult one and de- 

 mands a different method of approach. It must be approached from the 

 biological and psychological as well as the sociological point of view. 

 The following attempt to approach the subject from its psychological 

 side is submitted in the belief that the facts here presented, while no 

 doubt partial and incomplete, are facts which the student of the causes 

 and remedies of war will have to consider. 



To understand the psychology of war, it is necessary to go back and 

 trace the actual history of the development of the human being. Here 

 lies the trouble with all our schemes of pacificism and all our Utopias and 

 all our pleasure and peace economies. They deal with an ideal human 

 being, not with actual men. Sociologists will make futile contributions 

 to human progress except as they keep in close touch with the facts of 

 human evolution and of human history. 



