bravery and strength make it relatively easy to be merciful; and there are ever in our civilized society forces at work which bend to the purposes of society bravery and strength. Social evolution accomplishes this result. It has been well said that as organic evolution gives us man, so social evolution gives the ideal man.1 But economic competition is an essential constituent of that social evolution which is producing the ideal man;

1 This thought finds beautiful expression in the following language of the late Professor Joseph Le Conte: "Organic evolution reached its term and completion in achieving man. But evolution did not stop there; for in achieving man it achieved also the possibility of another and higher kind of evolution, and was therefore transferred to a higher plane, and continued as social evolution or human progress. Now, as the highest end, the true significance, the raison d'être of organic evolution, was the achievement of man; so the highest and real meaning of society and social progress is the achievement of the ideal man. This view entirely changes the relation of the individual to society by giving a new and nobler meaning to society. Individual interests must be subordinated to social interests, not only because society is the greater organism, nor even because it represents all other individual interests; but also, and chiefly, because society is the only means of achieving the ideal. The higher law, from this point of view, is loyalty, not to society, as the ancients would have it, nor yet to the conscience, as we moderns would have it, but to the divine ideal of humanity. Fortunately for us, however, the highest interests of the individual are also thereby subserved. .. But subordination is not sacrifice. On the contrary, it is the highest success for the individual. In subserving this, the highest interest of humanity, each individual is thereby subserving his own highest interests. In striving to advance the race toward the ideal, he is himself realizing that ideal in his own person.". -"The Effect of the Theory of Evolution on Education." Proceedings of the National Educational Association, 1895.

...

and with competition are mingled other regulative principles. Psychologically, the ego and the alter ego, self and other self, arise together; economically they engage in many a conflict, but their spheres of interest are never entirely antagonistic to each other in the struggle for life. The egothe self - enlarges the sphere of its selfhood; and this widening and deepening goes on until the Christian ideal of humanity is at last attained.

But the upward struggle is part and parcel of the attainment of ideals; and, rightly conceived, elevated to a sufficient height, this struggle in economic life means competition; it means rivalry in the service of self and other selves - rivalry in the upbuilding of the ideal man in the ideal society.

LITERATURE

While competition is mentioned in every systematic economic treatise, it has not received adequate scientific examination. Most economic writers have assumed the existence of competition without any critical examination of its nature and its workings, although certain hypotheses concerning it underlie all explanations of economic life in modern times. Somewhat more attention has been given by economists to competition in recent years, but it still remains for an economist to treat the subject exhaustively. The subject reaches beyond economics, and much of the best writing on it thus far has been done by those who are not profes

sional economists. A few references which will prove helpful are given :

BAKER, CHARLES WHITING, Monopolies and the People. 3d ed. New York, 1899. This work is especially noteworthy in this connection on account of Ch. X, presenting the Theory of Universal Competition, and Ch. XI, Laws of Modern Competition. This is one of the few attempts to define competition accurately and to formulate laws explaining its economic action. What has been done is scarcely more than a beginning, but as such it deserves more attention than it has received from economists.

BASCOM, JOHN, Social Theory, New York, 1895. Pt. II, Ch. II, Postulates of Economics.

CLARK, JOHN B., Distribution of Wealth. New York, 1899. This presents a theory of wages, interest, and profits as determined by competition working in an ideal manner. Many economists will be inclined to criticise the theory of competition here presented as altogether too optimistic. It must be remembered, however, that what is presented is not a picture of the actual world, but of the operation of competition in a world in which many restraints upon the workings of competition now existing are removed.

CLARK, JOHN B., and GIDDINGS, FRANKLIN H., The Modern Distributive Process. Boston, 1888. The first chapter of this book is upon the Limits of Competition, by Professor Clark, and the second upon the Persistence of Competition, by Professor Giddings. Even those not agreeing entirely with the positions taken by these two authors will admit that their treatment deserves careful consideration.

COOLEY, CHARLES H., Personal Competition. New York, 1899. This is one of the Economic Studies published by the American Economic Association. It is interesting and suggestive.

Dictionary of Philosophy. Edited by J. MARK BALDWIN. New York, 1902. Articles, Competition; Existence,

Struggle for; Rivalry.

FISKE, JOHN, The Destiny of Man, viewed in the Light of

his Origin. Boston, 1884. Ch. XI, on the Universal Warfare of Primeval Man, and Ch. XII, First checked by the Beginnings of Industrial Civilization, have special significance in the study of competition. This subject finds further treatment in Mr. Fiske's more elaborate work, Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, 2 vols., Boston, 1879; new edition with an introduction by Professor Josiah Royce, 4 vols., Boston, 1903.

HUXLEY, Struggle for Existence. Nineteenth Century, February, 1888.

KROPOTKIN, P., Mutual Aid a Factor of Evolution. New York, 1902.

MARSHALL, ALFRED, Some Aspects of Competition. Presidential address delivered to the Economic Science and Statistics Section of the British Association at Leeds, 1890. Published in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, December, 1890.

WAGNER, ADOLF, Allgemeine Volkswirtschaftslehre. Erster Theil, Grundlegung. Leipzig, 1894. 2te Ausgabe, 3tes Kapitel, pp. 223-251. This is a reference for specialists rather than the general reader. Wagner is noteworthy on account of his treatment of the legal basis and limitations of competition. WALLACE, ALFRED RUSSEL, Studies Scientific and Social. 2 vols. New York, 1900. Vol. I, Chs. XIV to XVII inclusive, dealing with the Theory of Evolution, and Ch. XXIII, Human Selection. Vol. II, Ch. XXVIII, True Individualism the Essential Preliminary of a Real Social Advance.

Darwinism. London and New York, 1889.

WILLOUGHBY, W. W., Social Justice. New York, 1900. Ch. IX, The Ethics of the Competitive Process.

CHAPTER II

RIVALRY AND SUCCESS IN ECONOMIC LIFE

It is proposed, in this chapter, to treat somewhat more in detail a few points which are discussed only in a very cursory way in the preceding. A general view of competition has been presented, and an effort has been made to show that we have, in the stimulus and selection which competition affords, both a permanent and a beneficial economic and social force. While the present work aims to be suggestive rather than exhaustive, it is felt, nevertheless, that at least a few discriminations must be made, and a few features of competition further elucidated, in order that misunderstanding may be avoided and thought directed along right lines.1

It is obvious that the word "competition" is employed in a very wide sense so as to cover a multiplicity of activities, having in them little in common, except rivalry of one sort and another. The "Century Dictionary," it will be recalled, de

1 The author trusts that he may, without impropriety, repeat the statement that he hopes, in a later work in the Citizen's Library, to give a fuller treatment of competition under the title "Custom and Competition."