, 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.

It will be worth while to discuss briefly the relations between the
conventional genealogy and eugenics. It may be that genealogy could
become an even more valuable branch of human knowledge than it now is,
if it were more closely aligned with biology. In order to test this
possibility, one must inqui