be, owing to the feeling of clanship that
propinquity and material interests evoke. Its acme is found in those
organizations called nations, that have lived together, nourished from
the same soil, for generations; where the same loves and jealousies
and hates that they now feel were felt by their fathers and their
grandfathers and great-grandfathers for centuries back. Among a
people possessing the potentialities of national solidarity and
greatness this feeling waxes, into a self-sacrificing devotion
to the nation and to the land that bore them.

That there should be such a thing is sometimes deplored; because
patriotism, like all human qualities, has its bad side and its
unfortunate effects. If it were not for patriotism there would
probably be no war, and the greatest suffering that the world endures
would thus be obviated. But if it were not for patriotism there
would be no competition among nations; and in any one nation there
would be no national spirit, no endeavor on the part of every man
to do his part toward making her strong, efficient, and of good
repute or toward making the people individually prosperous and
happy. In the same way, on a smaller scale, many people deplore
the necessity of competition among organizations, saying that it
is ruthless and selfish; that it stamps out the individual; that
it makes every man a mere cog in a money-getting machine; that it
brings about strife, hatred, jealousies, and sometimes murders;
that, if it were not for competition, all men would live together
in peace.

This may be so; but if it were not for competition there would
probably be little of that strenuous, endeavor without which no
effective progress in advancing the welfare of men has ever yet
been made. Of course, it may be that what we call "progress" has
really not advanced the welfare of men; that the savage in Samoa is
as happy as the millionaire in New York; that knowledge itself is not
an unmixed benefit; and if we accept this view, we may logically declare
that competition, progress, and patriotism are all disadvantages.
But who will go so far? It seems to be a fact that we cannot get
something for nothing: that every plus has its minus, every joy
its pain; that if men succeed in passing beyond the savage state,
and in overcoming the forces of nature, so that they can live in
houses with every modern luxury and convenience, they must pay for
it by a condition of competition that causes personal jealo