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 lATMNDOPA 
 
WHAT KIND OF A 
 FIGHT ARE WE IN? 
 
 BY 
 
 ERNEST R. GROVES 
 
 Author of 
 'Rural Problems of Today," "Moral Sanitation/' etc. 
 
 ASSOCIATION PRESS 
 
 New York: 347 Madison Avenue 
 1918 
 
'^' 
 
 Copyright, 1918, by 
 
 The International Committee of 
 
 Young Men's Christian Associations 
 
 JOL 20 lyiB: 
 
 ©CI.A499810 
 
 ~7.'M' ' ' ' 
 
DEDICATED TO 
 
 All Wearers of the Red Triangle, Whose Self- 
 forgetting AND Indispensable Service to the 
 Soldiers and Sailors of the Allied Nations, Both 
 IN Home Lands and Overseas, Has Become for All 
 Time a Priceless Example of Spiritual Devotion 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. The Moral Significance of the 
 
 War 1 
 
 II. The Conflict of Man Against 
 
 Man 8 
 
 III. Darwinism and Race Conflict. . 14 
 
 IV. American Idealism 21 
 
 V. German Retardation 30 
 
 VI. Christianity and the War 35 
 
 VII. Religion and the Future 40 
 
Chapter I 
 
 THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF 
 THE WAR 
 
 We are in the midst of what appears 
 to be the supreme conflict in man's 
 experience. With every passing day it 
 becomes clearer that this German-be- 
 gotten war is a peculiar and desperate 
 attack upon the spiritual welfare of 
 men and women everywhere. It is this 
 fact which gives the present world 
 struggle the significance of a moral 
 plague. It is no contest for markets. 
 Neither in race feeling nor religious 
 antipathy can we find its roots. It is 
 essentially a moral collision and one 
 that forbids compromise. 
 
 Germany, with diabolical fore- 
 thought and skilful preparation, has 
 attempted to bring to a fruitful victory, 
 by any means possible, a philosophy of 
 life which the better part of human 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 experience has most certainly repud- 
 iated. It is this which makes the pres- 
 ent ordeal, from which all peoples now 
 suffer and for many years to come must 
 continue to suffer, colossal in its moral 
 consequences. 
 
 Such a happening cannot be the event 
 of a day, a strange ethical accident 
 without history or cause. The Ger- 
 mans also are of flesh and blood. Some 
 false ideal must impel them. What 
 deeply-planted and well-nourished im- 
 pulse has caused them to break out 
 upon the astonished nations as a people 
 driven by the passion of a moral 
 mutiny? The madness that has already 
 changed an honored member of the 
 family of nations into a moral outlaw 
 must have a moral and spiritual ex- 
 planation. It is of the greatest import- 
 ance that we of America understand 
 the moral causes of this conflict. It is 
 not enough that we fight. We also must 
 fight with moral discernment, lest in 
 
THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 the process of fighting we ourselves be- 
 come Germanized. With our allies we 
 have become the custodians of the 
 moral security of nations and we cannot 
 exaggerate the importance of knowing 
 the issues of this struggle. 
 
 We are all familiar with the Dar- 
 winian controversy that made so bitter 
 and so unfortunate a division among 
 thinking people about a generation ago. 
 The world of thought was separated by 
 a great gulf. For the most part relig- 
 ious people were on one side and men 
 of science on the other. The Church 
 at the beginning fought against the evo- 
 lutionary hypothesis and fought a los- 
 ing fight. As we look back upon the 
 controversy it seems as strange as it was 
 unfortunate. As a matter of fact, this 
 generation has not been perfectly fair 
 to the religious leadership of fifty years 
 ago. The Church had the right in- 
 stinct in the controversy and perhaps 
 its protest was more effective than is 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 generally considered. It failed merely 
 in its form of attack. It had no fitness 
 to engage in a debate of science. It did 
 have, however, a solemn obligation to 
 protest against science doing violence 
 to the moral interpretation of human 
 experience. 
 
 Science v^as equally at fault. In the 
 spirit of a belligerent it tried to deduce 
 from man's animal history an interpre- 
 tation of human characteristics and mo- 
 tives that had already been outgrown 
 by the fact of moral progress. And the 
 protest of those who were guardians of 
 human idealism was immediate and 
 forceful. It also was unfortunately ex- 
 pressed, for the issues were not clearly 
 defined. Science won the victory, so 
 far as the maintaining of its hypothe- 
 sis of evolution was concerned. 
 
 Science, however, had to modify its 
 first teaching regarding Darwinism in 
 order to do justice to the fact of man's 
 social evolution. Indeed, Darwin him- 
 
THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 self in the very beginning seems to have 
 been fearful that his theory would be 
 used as a basis for a brutal and one- 
 sided view of human nature. And 
 among his students were some — Drum- 
 mond and Kropotkin for example — 
 who from the first felt that the higher 
 life even of the animals had been dis- 
 torted by the interpretation made in 
 the name of evolution by some of Dar- 
 win's disciples. Drummond' insisted 
 that mother-sacrifice, as well as 
 struggle, had its place in animal devel- 
 opment. Kropotkin' pointed out the 
 importance of cooperation among ani- 
 mals in their struggle for existence. In 
 recent years science has come to see in 
 the clearest way how differently we 
 need to interpret man's social evolution 
 from the way in which it was first con- 
 structed by those who accepted the doc- 
 trine of evolution. 
 
 Henry Drummond, "The Ascent of Man.' 
 Kropotkin, "Mutual Aid." 
 5 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 The immediate effect of the Dar- 
 winian theory was to stimulate that 
 philosophy, always captivating to some, 
 which pictures the association of men 
 and women as a brutal struggle, differ- 
 ent from animal competition only in its 
 form. Man was portrayed as the su- 
 preme animal, merely more powerful 
 and better equipped than the others. 
 
 Nowhere did this philosophy receive 
 such hospitality as among the German- 
 speaking peoples. When Darwinism, 
 in the place of its birth, was first ap- 
 plied to man's social life, it appeared 
 as an attack upon the religious faith of 
 mankind, a denial of Christianity, but 
 in the German thinking it came to be 
 itself religious, the indispensable ele- 
 ment in a proper understanding of the 
 ways of God. 
 
 No German statement has ever made 
 this clearer than the following: 
 
 ''The old churchmen preached of 
 war as a just judgment of God. The 
 
 6 
 
THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 modern natural scientists see in war a 
 propitious method of selection. They 
 use different phrases, but they mean the 
 same thing. A saying of the much-mis- 
 understood Jesus, himself supreme in 
 the comprehension of life — a saying 
 whose profound wisdom Darwin has 
 again enabled us to grasp — is the con- 
 cise expression of all development: 
 *Many are called, but few are chosen.' '" 
 
 •Wagner, "Krieg." pp. 145, 146. Quoted by Thayer 
 \in "Out of Their Own Mouths." pp. 75, 76. 
 
Chapter II 
 
 THE CONFLICT OF MAN AGAINST 
 
 MAN 
 
 Nietzsche has been one of the most 
 popular of German writers. He ap- 
 plied the theory of competition to the 
 group life of men and women. It is 
 true that Nietzsche refused to admit 
 that he was a follower of Darwin and 
 in a most characteristic fashion he at- 
 tempted to belittle the influence Dar- 
 win's theory had upon his thinking. As 
 a matter of fact, however, in Nietz- 
 sche's teaching we find the idea of 
 struggle and survival applied to the or- 
 dinary relations of life. In studying 
 him we enter the familiar atmosphere 
 of brutal conflict. His originality is in 
 the form he gives his thought and in the 
 frank way he teaches the doctrine that 
 in human relationships the supreme vir- 
 tue is power. 
 
CONFLICT OF MAN AGAINST MAN 
 
 He denies the obligation of the 
 strong to the weak, regards pity as a 
 fault, and makes war a virtue. He was 
 a gifted writer and it was natural that 
 his fascinating application of Darwin- 
 ian ethics to the ordinary affairs of life 
 should among German peoples com- 
 mand attention and finally become pop- 
 ular. In every country he has had some 
 following, for everywhere there are 
 some who can see in the evolutionary 
 process merely the element of survival 
 through struggle and who regard suc- 
 cessful competition as the supreme 
 good in human association. In Ger- 
 many, however, Nietzsche has been 
 very popular and without doubt his 
 teaching has had some part in making 
 this terrible world war possible. His 
 teaching is most significant as a revela- 
 tion of the philosophy of struggle that 
 has so captivated German thinking. 
 
 It was logical for Nietzsche to make 
 a bitter attack upon Christianity, for it 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 had become the strongest protest 
 against the supremacy of selfishness and 
 force in human relationships. He saw 
 in Christianity the enemy of his doc- 
 trine and his vision was clear. Relig- 
 ion may not go down with the en- 
 thronement of the philosophy of 
 struggle, but Christianity must. Be- 
 tween two such different doctrines of 
 morality there can be no compromise. 
 The Golden Rule is an infinite distance 
 from the ethics of the superman as pic- 
 tured by Nietzsche. 
 
 The following quotations are repre- 
 sentative of Nietzsche's attitude 
 toward Christianity: 
 
 "I call Christianity the one great 
 curse, the one great intrinsic depravity, 
 the one great instinct of revenge, for 
 which no expedient is sufficiently pois- 
 onous, secret, subterranean, mean — I 
 call it the one immortal blemish of 
 mankind." 
 
 ^That which deifies me, that which 
 makes me stand apart from the whole 
 
 10 
 
CONFLICT OF MAN AGAINST MAN 
 
 of the rest of humanity is the fact that 
 I have unmasked Christian morality. 
 
 . . . . Christian morality is the 
 most malignant form of all falsehood, 
 the actual Circe of humanity, that 
 which has corrupted mankind."' 
 
 "Have I yet to say that in the whole 
 New Testament only a single figure ap- 
 pears, which one is obliged to honor — 
 Pilate, the Roman governor. To take 
 a Jewish afifair seriously, he will not be 
 persuaded to do so. A Jew more or less 
 — what does that matter? The noble 
 scorn of a Roman before whom a 
 shameless misuse of the word truth was 
 carried on has enriched the New Testa- 
 ment with the sole expression which has 
 value — which is itself its criticism, its 
 annihilation. What is truth?"' 
 
 Nietzsche was as friendly toward 
 war as he was hostile to Christianity. 
 The following statements of his in re- 
 gard to war and warriors have become 
 familiar because their significance has 
 caused them to be often quoted : 
 
 "Ecce Homo," p. 354, p. 139. 
 "Antichrist," p. 316. 
 
 11 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 '^Ye shall love peace as a means to 
 new wars, and the short peace better 
 than the long. 
 
 I do not advise you to work, but to 
 fight. I do not advise you to conclude 
 peace, but to conquer. Let your work 
 be a fight, your peace a victory!" 
 
 ^'Ye say a good cause will hallow 
 even war. I say unto you : a good war 
 halloweth every cause. 
 
 War and courage have done more 
 great things than charity. Not your 
 pity, but your bravery, hath hitherto 
 saved those who had met with an acci- 
 dent." 
 
 "They call you heartless, but your 
 heart is genuine, and I love the shame 
 of your heartiness. Ye are ashamed of 
 your tide, and others are ashamed of 
 their ebb. 
 
 Ye are ugly. Well then, my breth- 
 ren! Wrap the sublime round your- 
 selves, the mantle of what is ugly! 
 
 And when your soul waxeth great, it 
 waxeth haughty and in your sublimity 
 there is wickedness. I know you."' 
 
 '"Thus Spake Zarathustra" (Tille tr.), p. 60. 
 12 
 
CONFLICT OF MAN AGAINST MAN 
 
 The popularity of such teaching is 
 proof that it contained an agreeable 
 doctrine. It was a vigorous branch 
 from the main trunk which supported 
 German political thought and which 
 drew its nourishment from roots im- 
 bedded in an archaic interpretation of 
 evolution. Such teaching, therefore, 
 added its contribution to the insid- 
 ious mass that permeated the national 
 thinking of Germany until the policy 
 of a great empire became a moral men- 
 ace to all nations. 
 
 13 
 
Chapter III 
 
 DARWINISM AND RACE 
 CONFLICT 
 
 Nietzsche applied the Darwinian 
 conflict to individual life and denied 
 the moral claims of pity, sympathy, and 
 sacrifice. An Austrian scholar and 
 scientist, Gumplowicz, one of the great- 
 est of European sociologists, inter- 
 preted the relationship of nations in the 
 same spirit and built up a theory of 
 race conflict upon the Darwinian hy- 
 pothesis. In the strongest terms he de- 
 clared himself a pessimist in world- 
 philosophy and made the chief corner- 
 stone of his system the statement that 
 the social life of men is unchanging, 
 fixed by " ^eternal iron laws' as truly as 
 the stars in their courses." Optimists 
 in world philosophy who expect to im- 
 prove human association for the wel- 
 fare of men and women are never genu- 
 
 14 
 
DARWINISM AND RACE CONFLICT 
 
 ine scientists. In other words, science 
 reveals man's relationships as merely 
 animal in spirit, even necessarily bru- 
 tal, and only ignorance and foolish con- 
 ceit give one hope of ever changing the 
 unhappy but fixed social order of hu- 
 man experience. 
 
 Especially stupid are those kindly 
 persons who look forward to a time 
 when nations will deal kindly and just- 
 ly with one another and in the spirit of 
 good understanding live at peace. To 
 indulge in the thoughts of such a benev- 
 olent program for the peoples of the 
 earth as an event ever likely to happen 
 even in the distant future is merely to 
 set reason and experience aside, and, in 
 disregard of the clearest revelations of 
 science, to accept the intoxicating 
 pleasures of social and political day- 
 dreaming. 
 
 This doctrine is expressed in charac- 
 teristic fashion in the following quota- 
 tions from Gumplowicz: 
 
 15 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 "Nothing impresses thinking men so 
 seriously as the contemplation of the 
 social struggle, for its immorality of- 
 fends their moral feelings deeply. In- 
 dividuals can consider ethical require- 
 ments, they have consciences, but socie- 
 ties have none. They overfall their vic- 
 tims like avalanches with irresistible 
 destroying power. All societies, large 
 and small, retain the character of wild 
 hordes in considering every means good 
 which succeeds. Who would look for 
 fidelity, veracity, and conscience in the 
 intercourse of the ^most civilized' states 
 of the world ?"^ 
 
 "However cordial the personal rela- 
 tions of the monarchs, not one will cease 
 arming. It is felt instinctively that 
 with the first favorable opportunity any 
 state will pounce like a wild beast upon 
 a defenseless victim. Indeed, it is gen- 
 erally recognized that states oppose 
 each other like savage hordes ; that they 
 follow the blind laws of nature; that 
 no ethical law or moral obligation, only 
 the fear of the stronger, holds them in 
 
 'The Outlines of Sociology" (Moore tr.), P- 146. 
 16 
 
DARWINISM AND RACE CONFLICT 
 
 check; and that neither right nor law, 
 treaty nor league, can restrain the 
 stronger from seeking its own interests 
 when the opportunity is offered. 
 
 The same is true of the struggle of 
 the social groups in general. It is con- 
 ducted not by individuals but by socie- 
 ties and communities."' 
 
 It is folly to criticize those who are 
 forced to lead nations into these perfid- 
 ious struggles, for they are personally 
 blameless, since they are captives in a 
 cosmic system that offers them no 
 choice. There is no mistaking this po- 
 sition of Gumplowicz, which he states 
 as follows: 
 
 ^'But these ^perfidious' struggles do 
 not show the individuals to be utterly 
 base. They only prove that in the 
 struggle of the wholes individual opin- 
 ions play no part, that here social 
 groups struggle inexorably to satisfy 
 their own interests, to demonstrate 
 their own power. Blind natural law 
 
 » Ibid. p. 147. 
 
 17 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 controls the actions of savage hordes, 
 of states, and of societies."' 
 
 The conquest of the weak nation by 
 the strong is inevitable and the protest 
 comes only from those who suffer what 
 they would inflict were they in turn 
 powerful enough to do so. This cruel 
 interpretation of national survival 
 Gumplowicz expresses in these words : 
 
 ^'So long as a compact and powerful 
 body politic finds itself in the midst of 
 weaker states it will continue its policy 
 of conquest and annexation to the last 
 possible limit, as Rome did in Italy 
 and as Russia is doing in the East where 
 its neighbors are weak and loosely. or- 
 ganized. 
 
 If all are equally powerful so that no 
 one can hope to overthrow any other 
 one, then two or more will form alli- 
 ances in order to conquer the selected 
 object of attack. If a weaker state hap- 
 pens to be neighbor to several more 
 powerful, it must supplement its 
 strength by alliances or they will not 
 
 • Ibid. p. 148. 
 
 18 
 
DARWINISM AND RACE CONFLICT 
 
 fail to partition it among themselves. 
 No code of private morals can success- 
 fully oppose; even the men v^ho are 
 individually the most exemplary are 
 forced to act in harmony v^ith their 
 surroundings. The scruples of indi- 
 vidual feeling and sentiment are un- 
 known in politics; as Emperor Francis 
 said : The state has no daughter.' 
 
 Political conditions are peremptory. 
 Natural law prevails though the will 
 of the individual seems to be ^free.' 
 Those who sufifer speak of 'crimes.' As 
 well call an earthquake by which thou- 
 sands have perished a crime, for the 
 only difference is that in the one case 
 we think we see the responsible agents 
 while in the other we can find none."* 
 
 It is impossible to estimate the influ- 
 ence of this Austrian thinker upon the 
 social ideals of the rulers and peoples 
 of Germany and Austria, but in the 
 light of the events that have forced this 
 world-conflict upon suffering peoples 
 and the unspeakable indifference to eth- 
 
 Ibid. p. 151. 
 
 19 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 ical and humane obligations manifested 
 by the leaders of the Central Powers, 
 it certainly seems that, whether Gum- 
 plowicz influenced much or little Ger- 
 manic political thought, he disclosed its 
 philosophic basis. His system is at 
 least a characteristic expression of the 
 same brutal disregard of the moral de- 
 mands of human relationship that has 
 so shocked and prostrated the political 
 idealism of the neutral world. 
 
 20 
 
Chapter IV 
 AMERICAN IDEALISM 
 
 The national consciousness of Ger- 
 many has been fattened for years upon 
 false inferences from the Darwinian 
 theory of evolution. The American 
 finds difficulty in appreciating this, 
 since his idealism has been drawn from 
 so different a source. Morality among 
 nations cannot be secured, however, 
 until there is widespread confidence in 
 the reasonableness of the American 
 ideal. To establish this confidence it 
 is first necessary to put emphasis upon 
 the happier and more humane interpre- 
 tations of the evolutionary process, as 
 it is now best understood by science. 
 
 Recent science has made competition 
 between animals a minor element in the 
 struggle for survival and has disclosed 
 as the fundamental element in the pro- 
 cess the adjustment of the organism to 
 
 21 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 the demands of the environment. If 
 this interpretation of animal evolution 
 be used as a basis for the understanding 
 of the social problems of men and 
 women, the result is both happier and 
 more just than that first made by Dar- 
 v^inian thought. This later construc- 
 tion gives an opportunity for the exer- 
 cise of the higher moral qualities that 
 man has regarded throughout historic 
 time as most characteristic of him. Em- 
 phasis upon the competitive element, on 
 the other hand, interprets man as be- 
 longing in the field of endless conflict, 
 where the hand of every one is against 
 his neighbor amid such conditions of 
 life as make the idealism of the New 
 Testament nothing more than a treach- 
 erous mirage. 
 
 The way of escape from this picture 
 of cosmic immorality is through a 
 healthier and more reasonable attitude 
 regarding the significance of man's 
 social life. The German people, the 
 
 22 
 
AMERICAN IDEALISM 
 
 German thinkers even, do not hold to 
 their pessimistic portrayal of the limi- 
 tations of human associations, except in 
 the territory of national relationships. 
 It is only in his national interests that 
 man must remain a brute. Germans, 
 like other people, have realized the 
 value of cooperation among human be- 
 ings and the necessity of charity and 
 sympathy. Their uncomfortable theory 
 of animal conflict has, however, made 
 it next to impossible for them to dis- 
 cover that the scientific basis for their 
 practical cooperation and benevolence 
 in the ordinary walks of life is an equal- 
 ly reliable support for justice and 
 friendliness among nations. 
 
 No American author has stated the 
 German fallacy more clearly than did 
 the famous scientist, Lester Ward. He 
 was of the generation of Darwin and 
 Huxley and in scientific preparation no 
 one had a better right to take part in the 
 discussion concerning the meaning of 
 
 2Z 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 organic evolution. His teaching, born 
 of intimate knowledge in regard to the 
 facts as reported by science, was dia- 
 metrically the opposite of that which so 
 gripped German popular thought. 
 
 No one has more forcefully stated 
 this opposition than Gumplowicz, nor 
 with greater respect. It was a dramatic 
 meeting that took place between Gum- 
 plowicz and Ward at Graz in 1903, 
 when, for the first time, Gumplowicz 
 felt the force of an optimism built upon 
 science. In most generous fashion 
 Gumplowicz himself has stated this 
 fact in the following tribute :' 
 
 "To confess the truth at once, before 
 I was aware, he had stormed my prin- 
 cipal pessimistic position, and as I took 
 leave of him at the station late in the 
 evening, after a half-day's debate, I had 
 the feeling that I had made the acquain- 
 tance of an intellectual giant of a type 
 that I had never before met in reality. 
 
 *An Austrian Appreciation of Lester F. Ward, 
 American Journal of Sociology, March, 1905, p. 646 
 
 24 
 
AMERICAN IDEALISM 
 
 Since that time I am studying his works 
 with quite other feelings from those 
 with which I read them before. To be 
 sure, no man can change his fundamen- 
 tal spiritual tone, nor can one easily get 
 rid of a world-view which is a product 
 of a long life. Perhaps one can never 
 get rid of it. But I am free to confess 
 that in place of the former feeling of 
 confidence in my own views, perhaps of 
 my own superiority to a 'utopian,' there 
 had come a feeling of hesitation, still 
 more a feeling of admiration for a 
 Menschheits-Idealismus, of which we 
 Europeans (with the exception of 
 Franz Oppenheimer) are entirely in- 
 capable." 
 
 American idealism is nourished by 
 confidence in man's ability to construct 
 an international relationship that will 
 be far removed from the brutal Dar- 
 winian struggle for existence. This 
 confidence is the daily bread that feeds 
 our national thinking. No author has 
 given us a greater sense of security with 
 reference to social and international op- 
 
 25 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 timism than Ward. As early as 1888 
 he stated in clear form in the following 
 words the basis of the American assur- 
 ance :' 
 
 "But how shall we distinguish this 
 human, or anthropic, method from the 
 method of nature? Simply by revers- 
 ing all the definitions. Art is the antith- 
 esis of nature. If we call one the nat- 
 ural method we must call the other 
 the artificial method. If nature's pro- 
 cess is rightly named natural selection, 
 man's process is artificial selection. 
 The survival of the fittest is simply the 
 survival of the strong, which implies, 
 and might as well be called, the de- 
 struction of the weak. And if nature 
 progresses through the destruction of 
 the weak, man progresses through the 
 protection of the weak. This is the es- 
 sential distinction. 
 
 In human society the psychic power 
 has operated to secure the protection 
 of the weak in two distinct ways : first, 
 by increasing the supply of the necessi- 
 
 ^ Mind as a Social Factor, "Glimpses of the Cos- 
 mos." Vol. Ill, p. 371. 
 
 26 
 
AMERICAN IDEALISM 
 
 ties of life, and, secondly, by preventing 
 the destruction of life through the ene- 
 mies of man. The immediate instru- 
 mentality through which the first of 
 these processes is carried on is art, the 
 product of invention. The second 
 process takes place through the estab- 
 lishment of positive institutions." 
 
 "Art operates to protect the w^eak 
 against adverse surroundings. It is di- 
 rected against natural forces, chiefly 
 physical. By thus defeating the de- 
 structive influences of the elements and 
 hostile forms of life, and by forcing na- 
 ture to yield an unnatural supply of 
 man's necessities, many who would 
 have succumbed from inability to re- 
 sist these adverse agencies — the feebler 
 members of society — were able to sur- 
 vive, and population increased and ex- 
 panded. While no one openly denies 
 this, there is a tendency either to ignore 
 it in politico-economic discussions, or 
 to deny its application to them as an 
 answer to naturalistic arguments. 
 
 If, on the other hand, we inquire into 
 the nature of human institutions, we 
 shall perceive that they are of three 
 
 27 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 kinds, tending to protect the weak in 
 three ways, or ascending degrees. 
 These three successively higher means 
 through which this end is attained are, 
 first. Justice, second. Morality, and 
 third. Charity. These forms of action 
 have been reached through the devel- 
 opment, respectively, of the three cor- 
 responding sentiments : Equity, Benef- 
 icence, and Benevolence. 
 
 All of these altruistic sentiments are 
 wholly unknown, or known only in the 
 merest embryo, to all animals below 
 man, and therefore no such means of 
 protection exist among them. They are 
 strictly human, or anthropic. Many 
 evolutionists fail to recognize this. 
 Some sociologists refuse to admit it. 
 They look about and see so much injus- 
 tice, immorality, and rapacity that they 
 are led to suppose that only natural 
 methods are in operation in society. 
 This is a great mistake. In point of 
 fact, the keener the sense of justice the 
 more conspicuous the diminishing num- 
 ber of violations of it come to appear, 
 and conversely, the obviousness of in- 
 justice proves the general prevalence 
 
 28 
 
AMERICAN IDEALISM 
 
 of justice. It is the same with morality 
 and philanthropy."' 
 
 In speaking of the future supremacy 
 of the psychic method of evolution, 
 Ward says: 
 
 "These ends will be secured in pro- 
 portion as the true nature of mind is 
 understood. When nature comes to be 
 regarded as passive and man as active, 
 instead of the reverse as now, when 
 human action is recognized as the most 
 important of all forms of action, and 
 when the power of the human intellect 
 over vital, psychic, and social phenome- 
 na is practically conceded, then, and 
 then only, can man justly claim to have 
 risen out of the animal and fully to 
 have entered the human stage of de- 
 velopment."* 
 
 ' Ibid. p. 372. 
 * Ibid. p. 377. 
 
 29 
 
Chapter V 
 GERMAN RETARDATION 
 
 Why has German nationalism clung 
 so tenaciously to the theory of brutal 
 survival? This question comes to the 
 mind of every reader, but at the present 
 time it cannot receive a satisfactory 
 answer. Without doubt it will remain 
 a puzzle for historians, psychologists, 
 and students of public affairs for many 
 years to come — perhaps for centuries. 
 In matters of international relationship 
 German leaders have done their think- 
 ing on the level of a survival philoso- 
 phy which the representative thought 
 of the other modern nations has dis- 
 carded. It appears as if the final in- 
 dictment against German leadership 
 would be that it is guilty of moral re- 
 tardation. Of course this situation 
 must have some explanation. Already 
 
 30 
 
GERMAN RETARDATION 
 
 it is possible to discern some of the 
 causes that have led this powerful na- 
 tion, progressive in its use of the re- 
 sources of modern life, to linger behind 
 its neighbors in international idealism. 
 There is some evidence that the Prus- 
 sian people represent the most bellig- 
 erent group of the great fighting race, 
 the Teutons. The French, English, and 
 German nationalities include the same 
 fundamental racial stocks, but the Ger- 
 manic peoples appear closer to the 
 primitive racial type, at least in their 
 traditions, and indeed some of their 
 writers are boastful of this fact. As, 
 for example, ^^The Teutonic race is 
 called to circle the earth with its rule, 
 to exploit the treasures of nature and 
 of human labor power, and to make the 
 passive races servient elements in its 
 cultural development."' Close contact 
 with less advanced races tends to devel- 
 
 ^Ludwig Woltmann, "Politische Anthropologic." 
 Quoted in "Out of Their Own Mouths," p. 70. 
 
 31 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 op in the superior race a strong race 
 consciousness and it may well be that 
 the German peoples emphasize their 
 Teutonic characteristics because of 
 their close association with the Slavic 
 population of Russia. 
 
 The recent historical experiences of 
 the German peoples explain in part the 
 retrogressive spirit of their nationalism. 
 Napoleon, by cruelly crushing them, 
 made them feel deeply the defenceless- 
 ness of a country politically divided 
 and lacking in military preparedness. 
 In the days of Bismarck they came into 
 political unity by a most successful war 
 against France, which was manufac- 
 tured by him through an act of treach- 
 ery for the purpose of Prussianizing 
 the empire. Social Darwinism, as a 
 philosophy of national welfare, seemed 
 proven by the sufferings of the country 
 under Napoleon; the same theory of 
 the necessity of brutal struggle between 
 nations saved their national conscience 
 
 Z2 
 
GERMAN RETARDATION 
 
 from accepting criticism for their ill- 
 treatment of France. 
 
 There appears to be proof also that 
 great commercial interests, such as 
 Krupps, which profit by war and prep- 
 arations for war, have used money to 
 popularize the doctrine of race con- 
 flict/ 
 
 Without question, however, the chief 
 cause of Germany's political retarda- 
 tion, so far as present knowledge can 
 reveal such causes, is to be found in the 
 teaching of her schools and universities. 
 These have been controlled by the state 
 and this has permitted them to become 
 the instrument for advancing the ambi- 
 tion of the Prussian autocracy. Of 
 course, if nations are without moral ob- 
 ligations and exist in an environment 
 of perpetual conflict, the wise nation 
 will maintain the political organization 
 best fitted to protect a nation under such 
 
 Todd, "Theories of Social Progress," p. 275. 
 33 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 circumstances. Without doubt, to 
 people thinking in the atmosphere of 
 social Darwinism there could be no es- 
 cape from the conclusion that the best 
 political organization for military 
 strength was an autocracy. To be sure, 
 not all German thinking has accepted 
 this proposition. Indeed, it may be 
 sometime proved that the occasion of 
 this bitter European struggle was the 
 realization of the autocratic leaders 
 that there was a growing opposition to 
 the accepted theory, led by those who 
 had been educated in the world of class- 
 experience rather than in the universi- 
 ties. In that case it will be revealed 
 that the only object of the war was to 
 establish with greater security the rule 
 of the Prussian autocracy. 
 
 34 
 
Chapter VI 
 CHRISTIANITY AND THE WAR 
 
 We have long since traveled beyond 
 the question, ''Can Christians fight?" 
 As Christians we must fight against this 
 desperate attack upon the foundations 
 of the moral security of nations and 
 peoples. We are now asking a new 
 question, "What effect will the war 
 have upon religion?" 
 
 It is folly to suppose that we can pass 
 through so horrible an ordeal as this 
 present war, an experience that has al- 
 ready made profound changes in many 
 departments of life, without feeling 
 some influence from it in our religion. 
 
 It has been difficult for the non- 
 German peoples to realize the inability 
 of religion to protect civilization from 
 what this war has brought forth. We 
 still suffer as from a moral shock, for 
 we had taken it for granted that Chris- 
 
 35 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 tianity had too firm a hold of the 
 motives of all peoples professing it to 
 permit the events that are already re- 
 corded. It is to be expected, therefore, 
 that many will, at least for the time, 
 doubt the moral vitality of Christian- 
 ity. We can by no means escape from 
 the difficulty by saying that Christian- 
 ity has not failed because it has not 
 been tried. The problem is, Why has 
 it not been tried? Is its program a 
 mere religious day-dreaming experi- 
 ence, an emotional refuge that can pro- 
 tect us from life but cannot protect us 
 in life? We must expect such ques- 
 tions to be asked. Indeed, who has not 
 asked them in his own deepest thought- 
 fulness? 
 
 It would be unwise for us not to 
 realize the significance of such ques- 
 tions. In times past they would not 
 have been asked at all, for they would 
 have had no force. In earlier periods 
 in man's history everything that has 
 
 36 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND THE WAR 
 
 happened in this war would have been 
 taken for granted as bound to occur if 
 within the ingenuity of man. Our 
 moral shock is proof positive of our 
 moral progress. Indeed we have sub- 
 stantial proof that Christianity can 
 control the natural passions of men in 
 even so great a moral catastrophe as 
 this from which we suffer. Every time 
 an English boat rescues the survivors 
 from a sinking German submarine, 
 tribute is paid to the dominance that 
 Christian principles still exercise over 
 the hearts of sorely-tempted men. 
 
 Indeed, it looks as if Christianity had 
 all but saved the world from so terrible 
 a conflict and that our consciousness of 
 this is the root of our bitter dis- 
 appointment. The failure is none the 
 less real because it was so nearly pre- 
 vented. Where has been the difficulty? 
 
 Has it not been in the desire of men 
 and women to place the emphasis in 
 religion upon something else than ac- 
 
 Z7 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 tivity? We have had too much of the 
 brutal survival-conception in our or- 
 dinary associations of life to feel the 
 necessity of discarding the theory in 
 our international relations. We have 
 taken kindly to other definitions of 
 Christian faith than that w^hich insists 
 that faith is such confidence in God's 
 moral absoluteness as leads men and 
 women into right relations with one 
 another. This conception of faith is a 
 morally expensive program, since it de- 
 mands action — at least the desire for 
 action — and many there are who pre- 
 fer an easier program. 
 
 Christianity will need to make great- 
 er demands upon the doings of men and 
 women from now on, or it cannot main- 
 tain its position as the supreme moral 
 influence in life. As Christianity leads 
 men and women away from animal, 
 away from primitive, away from pa- 
 gan levels of conduct to higher and 
 higher forms of human association, 
 
 38 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND THE WAR 
 
 it has to increase its demands at 
 each step of progress. It cannot with 
 moral safety permit its followers to lin- 
 ger even on high levels, when the reve- 
 lation of human needs discloses new 
 heights that can be attained. 
 
 The great nations of the earth are in 
 desperate need of a new disclosure of 
 compelling Christian idealism. In 
 each social wrongs have been too long 
 endured. Ethical conventions and so- 
 cial attitudes have been outgrown and 
 no longer fit the needs created by mod- 
 ern habits of life. The moral level of 
 yesterday is no longer safe. The war 
 points out to Christianity its present 
 task. It must provide motive power 
 to draw both nations and individuals 
 above the moral level of Darwinian 
 conduct. 
 
 39 
 
Chapter VII 
 
 RELIGION AND THE FUTURE 
 
 Will Prussianism reach its goal? 
 
 At this moment when the armies are 
 in deadly and uncertain grip on the 
 Western front no man knows. It is 
 true that the God of battles often seems 
 to be on the side of the heavier artillery. 
 Nevertheless it is difficult to imagine a 
 German victory. 
 
 As a spiritual conquest the German 
 program is, however, impossible. Man 
 does not go backward, even if he moves 
 forward with painful slowness. Man 
 will not return to the atmosphere of 
 animal struggle from which he has so 
 largely escaped. 
 
 Only the moral atheist, who believes 
 in the morality neither of God nor of 
 man, can have misgivings at this point. 
 Against the dominance for any length 
 
 40 
 
RELIGION AND THE FUTURE 
 
 of time of the cruel, survival code for 
 national and individual conduct, even 
 were the Krupp guns to bring a Ger- 
 man peace, there remain two insur- 
 mountable obstacles. 
 
 In the first line of defence stands 
 man. Stripped of all pretense, famil- 
 iar with both evil and good, with the 
 shadow of his primitive past thrown 
 upon him to hamper his vision, never- 
 theless he stands firm against a por- 
 trayal of his nature that forbids his 
 moral growth. For a moment he may 
 forget his spiritual promise under the 
 stress of national passion produced by 
 clever, reprehensible ambition, but not 
 for long. Led by deceit to support the 
 malicious program in the delusion that 
 he fights merely for national self- 
 protection, sooner or later he will see 
 clearly his moral betrayal. In that day, 
 with all the moral vigor that he has 
 gathered from his first day until now, 
 he will turn upon his moral seducers 
 
 41 
 
WHAT KIND OF A FIGHT? 
 
 and execute the judgment of spiritual 
 repudiation. 
 
 Behind man stands God. Not the 
 pagan God of man's childhood whom 
 we are glad to forget, but the God of 
 Christ who has given surety of His con- 
 fidence in man's moral worth. We 
 would not infringe His purposes, for 
 well we know that His ways are not 
 our ways nor His thoughts our 
 thoughts, but in a contest between man 
 at a low level and man at his highest 
 we can hardly believe in God at all 
 and suppose that the final issues of such 
 a spiritual struggle are in doubt. It is 
 stupid skepticism that trembles, fear- 
 ful of the moral destiny of the universe 
 of God. 
 
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