us examine more fully the relation
of morality to the competitive struggle between individuals and
communities. There can, of course, be no doubt that competition forces
life up in the scale. But it is equally true, and more significant,
that in the course of that progress competition itself is steadily
eliminated. The stronger units of life prevail against the weaker.
But the stronger units of life are the more inclusive and harmonious
complexes of interest. They are constituted by adjusting interests;
allowing each a modicum of free play, or crushing those that will not
submit to organization. Within such units the principle of mechanical
survival gives way to the principle of moral survival. I mean by this
that {25} the selection, rejection, and gradation of interests is made
not on the basis of the uncompromising self-assertion of each and the
survival of the hardy remnant; but on the basis of the contribution
made by each to the life of the collective body. The test of survival
is obedience to a law defined in the joint interest of all, and control
is vested in the rational capacity to represent this interest and
conduct it to a safe and profitable issue. The strength of life thus
organized lies in its massiveness, in its effective plenitude. When
such units wage war on one another, this strength is wasted; and the
very same principle that strength shall prevail, tends to the extension
of the organization until it shall embrace contentious factions.

Even where the principle of survival does not operate, conflict has
been, and yet remains, a factor in moral progress of enormous and
far-reaching importance. The more keen and unrelenting it is, the more
effectually does it expose the weakness of the competing units, the
more urgently does it require a better concentration and economy of
effort. In order to fight a rival, it is necessary to leave off
fighting one's self, and be healthy and single-minded. An industrial
corporation, in order to overreach its competitors, is compelled to
adjust its intricate functions with incredible nicety, to utilize
by-products, and even to introduce old-age pensions for the promotion
{26} of morale among its employees. And so a nation, to be strong in
war, must enjoy peace and justice at home. War has served society by
welding great aggregates of interest into compact and effective wholes,
the enemy providing an object upon which collective endeavor can unite.

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