The political problem of every society is the practical one: how to
secure the maximum values of competition, that is, personal freedom,
initiative, and originality, and at the same time to control the
energies which competition has released in the interest of the
community.

II. MATERIALS

A. THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE

1. Different Forms of the Struggle for Existence[184]

The formula "struggle for existence," familiar in human affairs, was
used by Darwin in his interpretation of organic life, and he showed
that we gain clearness in our outlook on animate nature if we recognize
there, in continual process, a struggle for existence not merely
analogous to, but fundamentally the same as, that which goes on in human
life. He projected on organic life a sociological idea, and showed that
it fitted. But while he thus vindicated the relevancy and utility of the
sociological idea within the biological realm, he declared explicitly
that the phrase "struggle for existence" was meant to be a shorthand
formula, summing up a vast variety of strife and endeavor, of thrust and
parry, of action and reaction.

Some of Darwin's successors have taken pains to distinguish a great many
different forms of the struggle for existence, and this kind of analysis
is useful in keeping us aware of the complexities of the process. Darwin
himself does not seem to have cared much for this logical mapping out
and defining; it was enough for him to insist that the phrase was used
"in a large and metaphorical sense," and to give full illustrations of
its various modes. For our present purpose it is enough for us to follow
his example.

a) _Struggle between fellows._--When the locusts of a huge swarm have
eaten up every green thing, they sometimes turn on one another. This
cannibalism among fellows of the same species--illustrated, for
instance, among many fishes--is the most intense form of the struggle
for existence. The struggle does not need to be direct to be real; the
essential point is that the competitors seek after the same desiderata,
of which there is a limited supply.

As an instance of keen struggle between nearly related species, Darwin
referred to the combats of rats. The black rat was in possession of many
European towns before the brown rat crossed the Volga in 1727; whenever
the brown rat arrived, the black rat had to go to the wall. Thus at the
present day there are practically no black rats in Great Britain. Here
th