The Washington herald., 1915-12-05
What Men Fight For.

achs to fight it out to see who shall have the din
ncrs. This constant struggle to survive has been
going on through millions OF years during which
life has developed from the protoplasm to that
noble but still far from perfect creature, homo
sapiens dcmocratcus. Fighting in ono form or
another is cocval with life Its purpose has been
to improve the race. While only the ittest could
survive there appeared a tendency in the living
iorganism to modify itself to environment. A bcak
became elongated here, leg shortened there, fur
and feather took on the color OF sand and scrub.
The power OF flight developed and front feet be-
came paws and then hands.
But most OF all this invaluable capacity for
meeting and adverse conditions manifested it
self in the means Of scf-decnsc. For while this
tendency took a purely physical form. Huge
brutcs, mountains OF armourcd flesh, developed
They were practically brainlcss and were swept
away by natural forces far mighticr than they
Then it became matter OF brains. A creature
arrived that could throw and a stick. The
faint spark OF reason appcared-thc ability to CO.
relate and effect This was for all practical
purposes man. And through all these stages Of
developing types there was continual fighting. not
only against other types but against other men,
bers of the type. In the former case the
incentive hunger alone, in the latter it was
hunger, sometimes, but more often jealousy,
rivalry for the possession of females the occu-
patton of desirable hunting grounds and hiding
places. This fighting did not cease with the final
advent OF the man type On the contrary as in
telligence dawncd needs became greater, desires
more urgent. In the most primitive type posses
sion was unknown except perhaps regards the
females Of the species. But possessions multi
piled and the idea OF exclusion became more
sharply involved additional reasons for fighting
were added At first the fight between indi
viduals families, then between tribe and tribe,
village and village community and community and
finally between race and race.
The reasons for fighting remained the same,
however, enough to cat, freedom from attack, an
ample provision of wives, the occupation of lands
susceptible of cultivation and defense the possess
sion of the materials from which desirable
objects could be made and of the objects them
selves Then came the time when men began to
fight for ideals or against them. Then racial di-
visions were often lost sight OF. At first these
ideals were almost entirely religious but later po
litical ideals the subject of wars. Naturally
the racial element still buled largely, but it was
not the essential
That is the point that has reached today,
though for the matter of that he reached it three
thousand years ago-the will to fight for polt-
ical ideal But the fight is still as completely as
integral part of the struggle to survive, for
political ideals only the media through which
civilized nations endcavor to survive. But by this
time the individual instinct has given way to the
national instinct There is little question of the
individual surviving whether he fights not He
fights to survive as type, of which his political
ideals arc essentially part.
Germany is fighting today partly for the prim-
tive reasons, for more territory, more trade more
possessions, more pride and glory. which moth
ing but intangible possessions and not TO be con-
fused with ideals. But still is she fighting to
impose her political ideal-kultur-on nations that
do not want it, that fighting to retain their
own ideals This is the great and basic cause OF
the present war. All the other circumstances and
occasions arc secondary. They caused the fight to
commence at particular time and place and with
certain alignment OF parties. But the great strug
gle had 10 come.
The political basis Of the German kultur is the
Patonic idea OF the subjccton OF the rights OF the
individual to the State. The Anglo Saxon ideal
is that which Bacon described as Liberty under
the Law And that today is the political ideal Of all
democracics. The free countries of the world arc
fighting for this ideal. That Russia is fighting
with them is accident for which both they and
Russia may be truly thankful. The Russian po-
litical system has philosophical basis The
autocracy is not identified with the state In the
immediate future Russia is much more likely to
become constitutional monarchy than to place
the supremacy of the Gar on a scientific basis
To speak OF the subordnation of the individual
to the state is only explanatory phrase. state
as distinguished from the mass of the individuals
that compose it is Frankcnstein and has no actual
existence. Socialism is sometimes accused Of har-
boring this ideal but that is not correct. Social
ism aims at the greatest good of the greatest
number. 1t differs from what call liberty under
the Law in this respect that while the latter aims
at permitting any action that is not plainly and
grossly a menace to the good Of the community,
Socialism aims to direct all action even though it
affects but the actor and though the question
OF its good i'll effect be doubtful in the extreme
Socialism in word aims at the complete tyranny
of the majority over the minority extending to all
the activities of life
But the German philosophy of government is
quite different from this They tell the
workman that he must be prepared to make this
or that sacrifice for the good of the state but on
analysis it appears very clearly that he is making
it for the Kaiser, the princes of Germany the well
born the landed aristocracy, the merchant princes