f wife and children, and they
clear out, free from the whole sordid problem of poverty, into a
situation filled with dramatic interest. Then, too, if anything goes
wrong at home they are not to blame, they have done their best, and what
they have done meets with public approval. Is it any wonder that an
inhabitant of the slums should be glad to exchange poverty and dirt, a
sick wife and half-starved children, for glorious freedom, especially
when he is urged by every sort of appeal to patriotism and duty to do
so?

But all these are individual factors that enter into the causes of war.
They represent some of the reasons why men like to fight, for it is
difficult not to believe that if no one wanted to fight war would be
possible at all. They too represent the darker side of the picture. War
as already indicated offers, on the positive side, the greatest
opportunities for the altruistic tendencies; it offers the most glorious
occasion for service and returns for such acts the greatest possible
premium in social esteem. But it seems to me that the causes of war lie
much deeper, that they involve primarily the problems of the herd rather
than the individual, and I think there are good biological analogies
which make this highly probable.

The mechanism of integration explains how the development of the group
was dependent upon the subordination of the parts to the whole. This
process of integration tends to solve more and more effectively the
problems of adjustment, particularly in some aspects, in the direction
of ever-increasing stability. It is the process of the structuralization
of function. This increase in stability, however, while it has the
advantage of greater certainty of reaction, has the disadvantage of a
lessened capacity for variation, and so is dependent for its efficiency
upon a stable environment. As long as nothing unusual is asked of such a
mechanism it works admirably, but as soon as the unusual arises it tends
to break down completely. Life, however, is not stable; it is fluid, in
a continuous state of flux, so, while the development of structure to
meet certain demands of adaptation is highly desirable and necessary, it
of necessity has limits which must sooner or later be reached in every
instance. The most typical example of this is the process of growing
old. The child is highly adjustable and for that reason not to be
depended upon; the adult is more dependable but less adjustable; the old
man