hage, or in some isolated region,
like Italy. All around were the "barbarians"--those who had less of the
good things of life than were at the disposal of the citizens of the
metropolis. Where two of these centres existed at the same time, they
warred for supremacy until one or both were destroyed.

Before the war the centre of the world's economic power was Great
Britain. To-day the economic centre has shifted to the United States,
while Britain is still the world's greatest political power. The
struggle between these two empires for the political suzerainty of the
planet must continue until one is victorious, or until both have been
reduced to impotence.

6. _The Livelihood Struggle_

Behind these struggles between various political and economic groups,
there is a broader reality in the shape of a billion and three quarters
of people, inhabiting the surface of the earth,--people of various
races, religions, nationalities, who, with all of their differences,
have this in common: that they are seeking life, striving to improve the
opportunities for its enjoyment, yearning for its enrichment, and,
despite the innumerable disappointments which they have suffered in the
past, willing to pay handsomely, in vast and patient effort for each
tiny gain that they secure.

One of the chief concerns of these human multitudes is the struggle for
livelihood--for the means of continuing physical existence and of
gaining the surplus and leisure out of which grow the higher life
satisfactions.

All men have certain simple economic needs--for food and shelter. Denied
these, they perish. Given them, they are able to devote their remaining
energies to one of the many lines of activity that men have developed.

What are these other wants of men, aside from the primitive needs for
food and shelter? Most prominent is the desire for human companionship,
friendship, love. Again, mankind has accumulated a vast store of
knowledge, of philosophy, of imagery, of artistic expression. Love,
truth and beauty sound an appeal that finds some answering echo in each
life. The leisure and the culture of the world, in the immediate past,
have been the heritage of a favored few: to-day they are the objectives
of the many. Heretofore it has been the belief of the aristocrats that
the best of life was none too good for them. To-day that idea has spread
among the people. Dimly, inarticulately, they feel that the world's
advantages are for them and