Again, selection operates both in an inter-group
competition and an intra-group competition. The influence of any agency
on natural selection must be examined under each of these six heads. In
the case of war, however, fecundal selection may be eliminated, as it is
little influenced. Still another division arises from the fact that the
action of selection is different during war upon the armed forces
themselves and upon the population at home; and after the war, upon the
nations with the various modifications that the war has left.
We will consider lethal selection first. To measure the effect of the
inter-group selection of the armed forces, one must compare the
relative quality of the two races involved. The evidence for believing
in substantial differences between races is based (a) upon their
relative achievement when each is isolated, (b) upon the relative rank
when the two are competing in one society, and (c) upon the relative
number of original contributions to civilization each has made. Such
comparisons are fatal to the sentimental equalitarianism that denies
race differences. While there is, of course, a great deal of
overlapping, there are, nevertheless, real average differences. To think
otherwise is to discard evolution and revert to the older standpoint of
"special creation.
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