The struggle for existence which makes the race progress is principally that of the species with its environment, not that of some members of the species with others. If the latter struggle could be supplanted by the former then racial evolution would go ahead steadily without the continuous reversals that warfare now gives.
William James saw, we believe, the true solution of the problem of militarism, when he wrote his famous essay on The Moral Equivalent of War. Here is man, full of fighting instinct which will not be baulked. What is he to do? Professor James suggested that the youth of the nation be conscripted to fight the environment, thus getting the fight "out of its system" and rendering a real service to the race by constructive reclamation work, instead of slaying each other and thus turning the hands of the evolutionary clock backward.
When education has given everyone the evolutionary and eugenic view of man as a species adapted to his environment, it may be possible to work out some such solution as this of James. The only immediate course of action open seems to be to seek, if possible, to diminish the frequency of war by subduing nations which start wars and, by the organization of a League to Enforce Peace; to avoid war-provoking conquests; to diminish as much as possible the disastrous effects of war when it does come, and to work for the progress of science and the diffusion of knowledge which will eventually make possible the greater step, effective international organization.
CHAPTER XVII
GENEALOGY AND EUGENICS
Scientific plant breeders to-day have learned that their success often depends on the care with which they study the genealogy of their plants.
Live-stock breeders admit that their profession is on a sure scientific basis only to the extent that the genealogy of the animals used is known.
Human genealogy is one of the oldest manifestations of man's intellectual activity, but until recently it has been subservient to sentimental purposes, or pursued from historical or legal motives. Biology has had no place in it.
Genealogy, however, has not altogether escaped the re-examination which all sciences received after the Darwinian movement revolutionized modern thought. Numerous ways have been pointed out in which it could be brought into line with the new way of looking at man and his world. The field of genealogy has already been invaded at many points by biologists, seeking the furtherance of their own aims.