304 Heredity and Environment 



of the inmates of all public institutions, which is urged by some 

 of our modern crusaders, would be the defense which some per- 

 sons make for war, namely that there are too many people and 

 that anything which will prevent the growth of population is to be 

 welcomed. 



Effects of Waflr on Race. Advocates of war never cease to 

 point out its beneficial effects on the race, how it makes men 

 strong, courageous, unselfish, how it makes nations great, power- 

 ful, progressive. There is no doubt that war like any other great 

 crisis discovers great men and furnishes opportunities for the 

 development of great qualities that might otherwise remain unde- 

 veloped and unknown. But there is also no doubt that it takes 

 the very best blood of the nations. Those who go to war are the 

 young, the strong, the capable, while the weak, incompetent and 

 degenerate are left behind as unfit for military service. If con- 

 ditions could be reversed and the bungled and botched, the feeble- 

 minded and insane, the degenerate and debauched could be put 

 in the forefront of battle some benefit to the race might result, 

 but no increase of national greatness can compensate for the 

 awful waste of the best thing which any nation possesses its 

 best blood. 



Realizing that progress in evolution has been won only through 

 struggle and that the human race owes much to the fact that 

 man is by nature and instinct a "fighting animal" many persons 

 who have recognized the evil effects of war have endeavored to 

 find some substitute for modern warfare, which is no longer 

 the wager of personal combat, but a y^ast impersonal mechanism 

 of destruction. In view of the fact that "intrepidity, contempt 

 for softness, surrender of private interests, obedience to com- 

 mand, must still remain the rock upon which states are built," 

 William James proposed, as a "moral equivalent for war," com- 

 pulsory service in hard and difficult occupations where dangers 

 and hardships would be incentives to effort and where struggle 



