Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-12-26
AN iMMUTABLE LAW.
fhE unrenitting Competition Which Is at
Work Wherever We May Go.

fnsUnremitting Competition Which Is ut
Work Wherever We May Go.
The man who fears to go into an en-
EseFrise on account of competition is
s.ae made of that sort Of stuff which
fsxds to marked success Whether
Encognized or not, there is no living
.mspt under the most unremitting
zmnpetition. Whether millionaire or
Wauper, old business man or the one
ta new enterprises, competition in
sana OF its forms is ever at work, and
hawho would escape competition must
escape from life. This is well illus
tassed by Kingsley's "Do-as-you-like
rsOe." race who were provided for
hy the droppings from trees. With
rTskhsng to do, the race degenerated
hssIow the apes. and finally ceased tc
exist simply because they had nothing
eado.
Competition means strife, antagon-
ism; In short. war. 1t exists both in
kAe natural world and the business
world Sir William Grove, in a lecture
aielivered at the Royal Institution Of
Great Britain on 'antagonism," says
that cit is a necessity of existence. and
6the organism of the universe, so far
xsrwe understand it; that motion and
liza can not go on without it; that it is
nDt a mere casual adjunct of nature,
buk that without it there would be no
nature, at all events as we conceive it;
thxt it is inevitably associated with un-
organized matter, with organized mat
tar. and with sentient beings" This
Is q very broad definition, but it is UNI
qualiiedly true. AS an example of an
tzaonism in nature, the lecturer speaks
frst of pulling forces between the
planets. If the one pulling force is not
counterbalanced by the other, then the
one body falls into the other; is, in fact,
wiped out by competition. In the SUBJ
stance of the earth force and resistance
are constantly at work; nothing is at
rest, and every atom seems to be COM
peting with it's neighbor. When we
come to organic life we find the law of
competition, still more plainly to be
seen; every blade of grass, every plant,
Is fighting with its neighbor for the
means of living. It is Darwin's ''strug-
gle for existence" and this very
struggle is necessary TO the life of the
vegetable world. In animal life the
struggle or competition is still palmer
to the view. The naturalist no longer
talks OF peaceful nature" for he
knows there is no such thing, but ma
ture is a scene of incessant warfare.
Birds in their little nests do not agree,
but the stoutest push the weaker ones
Out
Coming to man, we find the same
competition, the same struggle for ex-
istence. In the most barbaric races
those who can not stand the competition,
who can no longer take care of them
selves, are killed to get them out of
the way. In civilized society, however,
while there is no change in the war;
fare going on, the victims are some
what better treated. Instead of being
killed by the victorious competitors,
these latter pass around the hat so to
speak, to provide the necessaries of
Life for those who have been conquered.
This, we suppose, is what may be
called the amenities of life.
Advancing from the individual to
communities. the same warfare is at
work. Community is against commu-
nifty, town against town, city against
city, nation against nation. In the
moral world the same forces are at
work. From the law of competition
there is no escape, and it is a good
thing for the well-being of all.-StoUes
Gsad HG7'ClaGnre