68 From Savagery to Civilization 



Wars have caused the death of many of the 

 best men of the nations at war, and the men so 

 killed have been eliminated from the general 

 stock. Yet it is a plain fact that those tribes, 

 races and nations which have lost the greatest 

 numbers of their best men, yet not enough to 

 cause extermination, are the tribes, races and na- 

 tions which have advanced most rapidly from a 

 low to a high stage. The explanation is simple 

 but it is not that of the eugenist doctrine. Good 

 men were killed, but the extra efforts caused by 

 warfare gave to the survivors an extra develop- 

 ment which more than balanced what was lost by 

 deaths. The next generation was produced by 

 these survivors and inherited their acquired 

 development. 



War is and always has been a destructive 

 agent, but the preparations for war and the ac- 

 tivities growing out of war have been a con- 

 structive agent. We learned this first fact from 

 war itself, but the second fact we learn from 

 other sources. Now that we know what it is 

 that brings about progress, we can have that 

 progress without any of the disadvantages of 

 war. One of the first things to do is to shut off 



