236 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF ANIMALS 



progress much of the average nation's energy, wealth 

 and forethought is diverted to preparing for the next 

 war. 



Peaceful intergroup competition within a nation 

 has come to rest, in the first place, on habit, prefer- 

 ence and a realization that only temporarily is an 

 advantage gained by violence; and, in the second 

 place, on a government, often set up by mutual con- 

 sent of the competing groups, which is strong enough 

 to block or stop cruder appeals to force, and which 

 is expected by them to do so. 



The suggestion has been urgently repeated since 

 the time of Sully, (61) the great minister of Henry 

 of Navarre and France, that there should be a simi- 

 lar international organization. Theoretically there is 

 almost everything to be said for this proposal. Such 

 an international organization might be set up much 

 as the federal government of our country was 

 planned, to supervise the functioning of the differ- 

 ent states. This system calls for representative gov- 

 ernment, a relatively unbiased court of final judicial 

 appeal, and certain potential police power, which in 

 our American experience has been used but rarely 

 on a national scale. 



The present League of Nations, even in its most 

 hopeful days, did not show more than remote pos- 

 sibilities of equaling on a world scale what the British 



