e World War humanity passed through a tremendous trial and for those
years was under the strain of an extensive mobilization campaign. The
necessity of increasing power was manifest; the importance of a common
base or aim became equally manifest. In this case the base, the common
aim, was found in "war patriotism." This common base enabled all the
states to add up individual powers and build maximum efficiency into a
_collective_ power. This expression is used, not only as a social truth,
but as a known mathematical truth. Those high ideals, which were given
"Urbi et orbi" in thousands of speeches and in millions of propaganda
papers, had a much greater educational importance and influence than most
people are aware of. People have been awakened and have acquired the taste
for those higher purposes which in the past were available only for the
few.

Many old worn-out idols, ideas and ideals have fallen; but what is going
to take their place? We witness an unrest which will not be eliminated
until something essential is done to adjust it. Calm often betokens a
coming storm. The coming storm is not the work of any "bad man," but it is
the inevitable consequence of a "bad system." It is dangerous to hide our
heads in the sand, like an ostrich, and fancy we are safe.

"Survival of the fittest" in the commonly used animal sense is not a
theory or principle for a "time-binding" being. This theory is only for
the physical bodies of animals; its effect upon humanity is sinister and
degrading (see App. II). We see the principle at work all about us in
criminal exploitation and profiteering. As a matter of fact, the ages-long
application of this animal principle to human affairs has degraded the
whole human morale in an inconceivably far-reaching way. Personal greed
and selfishness are brazenly owned as principles of conduct. We shrug our
shoulders in acquiescence and proclaim greed and selfishness to be the
very core of human nature, take it all for granted, and let it pass at
that. We have gone so far in our degradation that the prophet of
capitalistic principles, Adam Smith, in his famous _Wealth of Nations_,
arrives at the laws of wealth, not from the phenomena of wealth nor from
statistical statements, but from the phenomena of selfishness--a fact which
shows how far-reaching in its dire influence upon all humanity is the
theory that human beings are "animals." Of course the effect is very
disastrous. The preceding chapters