Pugnacity and Gregariousness

Pugnacity and Gregariousness' BY DR. E. G. GOWANS, STATE SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOR UTAH of the training now given in institutions It is characteristic like this one, that thosewho receive it for any considerable time become filled with an intense feeling of social responsibility. Education is realizing, as never before, the ideal which Colonel Parker expressed in the motto, "Each for all and all for each." Yet notwithstanding this, the present is a perilous hour both for individuals and for nations. It is no doubt a birth-time, and birth-times are always perilous. Our guide-posts have been torn from their footings. New ones must be erected. Our sense of social responsibility must lead us to the solution of the new problems — problems which the present world-war has forced, and is still forcing for we upon us ; are evidently atthe beginning of a new epoch in the history of mankind. Patriotism, the love of country, the willingness to fight and die for the fatherland, rests upon two fundamental characteristics of human nature which, in the coming and going of generations, have been modified but little. Those two characteristics, as has been pointed out by Max Eastman, are pugnacity and gregariousness. We We are all pugnacious, we all love to fight. are all the descendants of those whose fighting ability determined that they should live. Those who had no such ability went down — they have no descendants. It is equally natural for us to unite ourselves with others who feel and believe as we do, and to use our fighting powers in their behalf as in our own. It is quite natural, for example, that those who hold similar views on such great human concerns as equality, liberty, and brotherhood, and have achieved some measure of their realization, should associate themselves together, and that they should fight for the maintenance of that equality, that liberty, and that brotherhood. — There are those and I think their motives are not to be — questioned whose advice in the present hour seems to be based on the assumption that these two powerful, inherent human tendencies can be obliterated. There are others who believe that, since pugnacity and gregariousness are inherent, powerful, and universal (for even the advocates of peace group themselves *A commencement address before the graduates of the Brigham Young University, June 2, 1916.

962 IMPROVEMENT ERA together and fight for peace), these prime human characteristics should be reckoned with and directed. These latter believe, moreover, that all substantial progress of the race has been brought about by a process of that readjustment of the individual whereby he expands his group loyalty successively to an ever-enlarging, ever-expanding group. It is an intensely interesting process, this readjustment in which the members of each succeeding group, even though it be each time larger than the preceding group, agree among themselves that they will conform to law in their new intercourse; that they will adjust their differences and settle their contentions, one with another, according to a code which they mutually agree to maintain and obey. And this is true, whether they have made the code themselves or had it imposed upon them by some authority which they recognize. Every time the individual finds himself a member of an enlarged group, he finds that his loyalty has expanded for there is now a larger number with whom he must ; — agree to conform to law a larger number for whom he will be willing to fight. In the early history of the American colonies there were times when relations were severely strained indeed, there were ; open ruptures which bordered closely upon actual warfare. Then as years went by, and the mother country in various ways oppressed the colonies, they began to recognize that they had certain common interests, purposes, and ideals. This paved the way for the union which was to come later. It was the recognition of a community interest on the part of the individuals of this enlarged group, which gave birth to this nation. Since that time the group has been constantly enlarging, until from the small number of 200,000 people it has become a group of more than a hundred millions. This enlargement has been accomplished by the purchase of territory, the colonization of that territory through the encouragement of immigration, and so incidentally producing in a civilized way an ever increasing market for our manufactured goods, a method which contrasts strangely and markedly with that pursued by certain European nations, which in the present conflict are attempting to secure enlarged markets by the obsolete, barbarous, mediaeval, and brutal methods that all free peoples* had hoped would never be resorted to again. The individuals who, as members of these smaller groups, were once ready to fight each other and to resist each other's aggression, were, by the establishment of the union, virtually transformed into loyal members of a much enlarged group, who were willing to fight, and who actually did fight and die for one another. Nothing is now more unthinkable, for example, than a war between Massachusetts and New York. This simple and familiar illustration should make clear to our

PUGNACITY AND GREGARIOUSNESS 963 minds that it is fruitless to try to wipe out of existence the tendency to fight and the tendency to group together and it ought ; also to make clear that there is a way in which these deep-seated, fundamental elements of human nature can be directed and utilized for the benefit of the race. How ? you ask. By the simple process of ever enlarging the group to which our loylaty is due. Even now there are encouraging indications. Tt is but a few short months since representatives of all the south and central American republics met with representatives of our nation in a profoundly significant Pan-American scientific congress. The seed sown there and in former similar congresses, is now germinating vigorously for in this brief time our loyalty has ex- ; panded and we feel ready to fight for the welfare of these weaker republics. Why is this? Simplv because we have come to recognize a community of interest, a community of purpose, a oneness of ideal in government. We feel that these bonds are real, that these men are their brothers' keepers. The people of New England are more patriotic to the United States than we are to the West, no matter how dear the West may be to us and so it is with all ; worthy citizens of this great republic. And now let me ask : Is there any sane reason why we of the United States should feel patriotic to the United States only ? Is our nationalism of the kind that prohibits loyalty to humanity? I second the proposal for an international federation beginning with America. The campaign is on, the fight is ahead of us. No one knows how long it will take, and no one need care. There is plenty of time. All we need do, is to be sure that the ideal we fight for is worthy of our mettle. And when this war against war shall succeed will there still be causes worthy of our pugnacity. Just as long as mankind has a common enemy, so long will there be a worthy cause. So long as there is a disease-germ unconquered, just so long is there a worthy battle for humanity. As long as there are feeble-minded children coming into the world, as long as there is such a thing as criminality, as long as there is social and industrial injustice, so long will there be worthv causes to espouse, worthv wars to wage, worthv battles to fight. "Sentimental and idealistic," comments the ultra-practical man. "Do you not believe in preparedness ?" he asks. Prepared ness is a stirring word. It brings a thrilling call to the ears of all patriotic men and women. That call will not pass by unheeded. America will be prepared. It may be that one of the penalties we must pay for our democracv, is this slow progress toward that preparedness which some would like to see achieved at once but ; we will be prepared. Of course, we are coming to recognize, as

; 964 IMPROVEMENT ERA George Trumbull Ladd has said, that, "the patriotic spirit of national preparedness has reference to the nation's finances, its system of education, its internal improvements" as well as "its means for resisting foreign aggression, and for taking its place as the champion of truth and justice in the world." As long as any considerable number of the race to which we belong believe that fighting force is a desirable basis for national greatness, so long will it be necessary for us to be prepared by force, if necessary, to resist foreign aggression. Here in the greatest of all republics, where the rights of citizenship are universal, I am inclined to believe that military training and the liability to militarv service, must be as universal. All able-bodied citizens, high and low, rich and poor, well-educated and meagerlv educated, if such there be, must share equally in such responsibility. Our freedom, liberty, and equality have come down to us because the fathers were willing to fight and bleed and die that this heritage should be ours. We must be equally loyal to those who come after us. But we should not be blinded to the fact that national preparedness means more than military preparedness. Aside from matters of national finances, of education, and of internal industrial conditions, we should remember that national security can rest only on a basis of loyalty and patriotic devotion, the chief corner-stones of which are those measures which shall insure to all the people social and industrial justice. If our national security depends upon our intelligence, upon our physical efficiency, upon our standards of living, upon our attitude toward the nation, as well as upon the size and efficiency of our army and navy — — and T believe it does, then there are some big things for us to do. — We must realize our social ideals our feeling of social responsibility must function in our own lives. "To hold up a national ideal," says Devine, "in terms of salutes to the flag is an empty performance, unless it is reinforced by evidence of social ideals cherished by all who own allegiance to that flag." Whether you agree with me or not in the position I take, that military training and the liability to military service should be universal, as long as such preparation is needed whether you agree or not that such training can best be obtained in six to eight months of intensive work after the individual reaches the age of eighteen years whether you agree or not on ; the importance of the nation's finances, its system of education, and the efficiency of its industries as contributing to national pre- — paredness and national security really matters little for I am ; sure that your feeling of social responsibility will not permit a disagreement on the demand for a sane social policy as being fundamental to our preparation for war and to our preparation

: PUGNACITY AND GREGARIOUSNESS 965 for the stress and competitions of peace, for neither of which we are prepared at the present time. Germany has had compulsory education for a hundred years. For thirty years she has had a system of sickness-and-old-age insurance, which has made every worker feel that the nation is interested in a very immediate way in his welfare. Do you wonder, then, at the loyalty of the German people ? Do you wonder at the efficiency of the German fighting machine ? It is because we have neglected these matters of social and industrial justice, that I call upon you graduates who, because of your training and the opportunities educational, and legislative which, tomorrow are — yours you whose feeling of social responsibility makes you best — prepared to do this work to take hold, and once having taken hold, to turn not back but keep the forward look. Have you seen no vision of a social order in which crime and disease and povertv and feeble-mindedness and vice shall be reduced to a minimum? Have you seen no vision of yourselves working to reduce the death-rate of little children to stop the ; blindness of babies to abolish child labor to provide for those ; ;. who work some protection against accidents and occupational diseases to provide better housing for those who labor to insure ; ; the sick and aged, and those dependent upon them, against want to abolish unsanitary conditions to kill the liquor traffic to con- ; ; quer preventable disease to insure children a chance to play to ; ; segregate and humanely care for the feeble-minded? Has your vision of the future not revealed you to yourselves as fighters for rational prison reform ; for the removal of the causes of social unrest for tht establishment of a satisfactory and fair minimum ; wage system for a method of treating criminals that will not ; permit judges to commit those suffering from a disease known as crime, to prison for from one to twenty-five years and then, as Dr. Vaughan says, "immediately feel at liberty to wash their hands of the whole thing," but would require them to study the effects of their treatment, change it when it needs changing, and if in doubt call into consultation the trained criminologist, and finally terminate the treatment when the sick man has recovered? If your education has not shown you a vision of yourselves in the thick of this sort of warfare, it has failed, and your time has been wasted. But I am persuaded that your training has been right. Yov have formed right habits, you have acquired useful knowledge, you have made your own the best ideals of your race and you' time. You have seen a vision, and that vision does embody ? better social order, to the realization of which you must makf a contribution. The realization of that better social order means prepared-

966 IMPROVEMENT ERA ness for war — preparedness for peace. It means the exemplification of the superiority of our modern scientific, humane, democratic ideals over the barbarous, brutal and aristocratic ideals of Europe. It means that while we believe in preparedness, wc believe in it for the purpose only of "resisting foreign aggression and taking our place as the champion of truth and justice in the world ;" and not for the purpose of oppressing another people, or of extending the boundaries of our present domain. It means that we recognize the roughly-sketched-in- outlines of a picture of the future, which sets forth the divine mission of America, and indicates the part wc must play in the regeneration of the world. To have part in such work as this, is the high privilege before you. It will require the courage of sincerity, the forsaking of personal ambitions, the exercise of the profoundest patriotism. Lincoln, the greatest American, stood for national unity. The preservation of the union meant that individual states must give up certain rights, or supposed rights, and that the allegiance and loyalty of the true citizen must be greater to the nation than to the tate. The true significance of the Civil War lies in its estab- ; lishment of the supremacy of the nation over the nation's constituent states. May it not be that the present conflict marks the birth of a more perfect brotherhood? that it will bring forth a federation of nations? that it will establish a nation above the nations, as the Civil War established a nation above the states ? The world has th's lesson to learn from America. Let me remind you young people that ultimately you and your lives are not to be judged by those of us who are older than yourselves. Further, that that ultimate judgment will not be pronounced by your contemporaries. You will be judged by the wisdom of those who are younger than yourselves — you must stand before the final tribunal of the next generation of mankind. It is yours to measure up to their standard — to make a contribution to their welfare — to be acquitted by the great tribunal of posterity but to do so you must be true to your vision ; — as worthy as any other men who have come up, as Foss says, from the crowd. Men seem as alike as the leaves on the trees, As alike as the hees in the swarming of bees; And we look at the millions that make up the state, As equally little and equally great, And the pride of our courage is cowed. Then Fate calls a man who is larger than men. There's a surge in the crowd, there's a moment, and then There arises a man who is larger than men, And the mar. comes up from the crowd.

— PUGNACITY AND GREGARIOUSNESS 967 The chasers of trifles run hither and yon, And the little small days of small things still are on, And the world seems no hetter at sunset than dawn, And the race still increases its plentiful spawn, And the voice of our wailing is loud. Then the great deed calls out for the great man to come, And the crowd unbelieving sits sullen and dumb; But the great deed is done, for the great man has come! Aye! the man has come up from the crowd. There's a low hum of voices, all say the same thing, . And our forefathers' songs are the songs that we sing. And the deeds by our fathers and grandfathers done Are done by the son of the son of the son, And our heads in contrition are bowed. So, a call for a man who shall make all things new Goes down through the throng! See, he rises in view! Make room for the man who shall make all things new! For the man who comes up from the crowd. And where is the man who comes up from the throng? Who does the great deed and who sings the new song? And who makes the old world as a world that is new? And who is the man? It is you! It is you! And our praise is exultant and proud. We are waiting for you there — for you are the man! Come up from the jostle as soon as you can, Come up from the crowd, then, for you are the man, The man who comes up from the crowd. Fatherhood I could not tread the path you went last night, my beloved, with your eyes of awe; It was a time when my protecting might Could bring no shield between you and Life's law! I could not even guard you on your way, Nor share one little mite of all your pain ; I could but feel — — and hope and dumbly pray That you would safely come to me again. And you have come. * * I do not seem to know am a father. * * All my thoughts outpour 1 To you, who last night felt the undertow Safe in the haven of my heart once more! —Edwin Carlile Listey, in the "Metropolitan Magazine.''