Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1917 — Idea That Nation Must Engage in War or Lose Its Virility Is Mistaken One [ARTICLE]

Idea That Nation Must Engage in War or Lose Its Virility Is Mistaken One

By D. JACQUES LOEB

of the Rockefeller Institute

The biology of which the war enthusiasts make use is essentially antiquated, and the statement that a nation, by not going to war, will lose its virile virtues is not supported by our present knowledge. Enthusiasts maintain that unless a nation engages occasionally in war, it will lose its courage, which is essential to its survival. There is a wide difference in the development of instincts and fn the powers of inhibition in different individuals, and these differences may be hereditary. *, Individuals with a strong homicidal mania, who just manage to suppress their tendencies, will welcome war, since it removes for them the burden, of constant inhibition. Unfortunately, such poorly balanced individuals have rather too frequently been the leaders of governments. - U' ' Since at present the making of War has been left in the hands of statesmen, it may be well to mention that the exact sciences have paved, the way for the replacement of the present type of statesmanship by a new we. The new statesman will apply the xesults of the exact sciences to the improvement of the lot of humanity. We shall then diminish the danger of war.