COHESIVE POWER OF SOCIAL LIFE 275 



struggle for power, where everything must get what it 

 can, and defend what it has, there is no escape but to 

 rob, or be robbed, or to remain stationary. In a world 

 that is not, and cannot be stationary, there are but two 

 alternative vital policies, or goals of vital endeavor, 

 and in reality but one of these goals is attainable; either 

 a perpetual life and death struggle of the stronger 

 against the weaker, making dominion and slavery the 

 ideal, or progressive cooperation, making equality of 

 rights and mutual service the ideal. At the beginning 

 of the twentieth century, the time had come in the social 

 evolution of man when a decisive conflict between these 

 two ideals was inevitable. For the first time in human 

 history, this alternative, openly expressed, and so clearly 

 formulated that the meanest intelligence could not fail 

 to grasp its import, became for every race, and class, 

 and nation, and individual, not merely an academic 

 question, but the practical question of the moment, de- 

 manding immediate action. 



The rapid growth of the preceding century, the 

 complete preemption of the world's habitable territory, 

 the contiguity of alert, hostile entities, gigantic reser- 

 voirs of power surcharged with pent-up energy and 

 cris-crossed with wires hot with inflammable lies, and 

 the deep-rooted conviction on all sides that the im- 

 pending struggle was to be one of life and death, made 

 the war that followed a fitting expression of the magni- 

 tude of the forces set in motion, the issues at stake, and 

 the unity of world interests. 



But it was also a most significant testimonial to the 

 uncompromising bitterness and heroism with which 

 man will fight for his convictions, right or wrong; the 

 willingness with which he gives up his life in the de- 



