СНАР. Stimulating the with those too far away to meet, and every pupil may feel the enlivening prick of rivalry. Rivalry for physical efficiency may be generalized by giving all pupils who pass the tests engraved certificates, setting forth the record of the individual in the various events. The Public School Athletic Association may give in addition a seal to affix to the certificate; a gold seal for high-grade performance, a blue seal for those attaining a mark between eighty and ninety, and a red seal for a mark between seventy and eighty. In many schools all of the important hygienic precepts are built Practice of into a score card whose aggregate is 100 per cent. The pupils Hygiene in physiology and biology are expected to check each day the of Rivalry items which they have lived up to and at the end of each half by Means Making of Selfdevelopment a Race Playing Upon the Rivalry in term their average is entered in the teacher's record book. By posting the names of those averaging above 80 per cent. and posting the averages, a health contest is under way encouraging the best averages, hence the best health. METHODS OF UTILIZING THE INSTINCT OF RIVALRY Shrewd athletic directors deliberately stir up rivalry in order to quicken interest in self-development. By means of competitive games and contests they enlist the young, who would accomplish nothing if they were shown gymnasium apparatus and urged to get to work in order to improve themselves physically. Another method is to encourage comparison of all-around individual efficiency. Perhaps ten tests are given each lad and the results are posted on a special bulletin board. If Johnny sees that Harry is jumping higher or lifting more than he is, he will practice day after day in the hope of beating him the next time the tests are given. They would never work so hard for mere health. The United States Steel Corporation has methodically employed rivalry among its plants in order to stimulate production. Says the Pittsburgh Survey,* "When a mill broke a record the men who accomplished the Instinct of feat were praised, their names published in the trade journals, while superintendents of other mills taunted their men with the disgrace of having been beaten. This would arouse all the skilled men to greater activity and another mill would establish a new record. For years a piece plate cut to the shape of a huge broom 4 Vol. III, p. 184. Production was kept suspended above the Edgar Thompson blast furnaces at Braddock, as a symbol that all competitors had been swept aside and that these furnaces were producing more pig iron a day than any others in the world. This made a strong appeal to the men, and they were constantly on edge to retain that record." 5 СНАР. Making Solicita tion Play zation of Of late a technique has been worked out for benevolent institutions by which the soliciting of members or contributions becomes a sport. The soliciting force is organized into two divisions, each headed by a general and consisting of a number of "teams" with their captains. The generals pick their captains and the captains pick their workers. The effort is concentrated on a "campaign" to end on a fixed date. Every noon the force lunches together, each team at its own table. After luncheon the captains report and the results of the day's work are chalked up on a big bulletin board. Each worker is racing with every other worker on his team, each team with every other team in the division and each division with the other. The spirit of rivalry is roused just enough to make the distasteful task play but never to the point of leaving disappointment or bitterness in the beaten. Whether intellectual effort should be stimulated by competition for college honors or election to Phi Beta Kappa is a muchmooted question. After long experience a distinguished schoolman condemns the whole system of incentives as "abnormal, unprofitable, false and immoral. Their entire tendency is to tem- Effort porary result, to stifle interest, to the recognition of an unnatural means to an end, to the development of the selfish spirit and to dishonest practice, as well as to over-pressure and over-nervous and physical strain." On the other hand, public recognition of the best scholars of each college class is general and few deans doubt its efficacy. Generally the objections relate to abuses, such as taking easy courses in order to win high marks, rather than to the principle of employing rivalry as stimulus. Those who decry emulation as a low motive for study in comparison with interest and thirst for self-improvement do not realize how strong and universal is its appeal. 5 When the men in a mill made a new record, that amount of production was thenceforth expected of them. However, "the superintendent passed cigars"! The Utili- Order to Intellec CHAP. War Roused by Rivalry RIVALRY AS A SOURCE OF MORALE Toward the end of the World War, the Russian soldiers, having no tradition of active stimulating sports, became the prey of sloth and boredom in the quiet sectors and suffered great moral deterioration. The English and American soldiers, on the other hand, brought with them an interest in sports and preserved their morale by games and athletic matches. The Young Men's Christian Association workers in the prison camps no doubt saved thousand of war prisoners from moral collapse, melancholia and death by applying the prick of emulation. Encouraging these half-starved, homesick, miserable captives to organize competitive games calling for strength, skill and quickness seems a mockery till one marks how the eye kindles, the form straightens and hope revives as their dejected hearts respond to the challenge of a chance to beat. In Borneo the rivalry of young men for the favor of girls leads to wanton murder, because no youth is regarded seriously until he has taken human heads. But rivalry may tend to good as well as to evil. Says a writer on Hungary: ". . . The Magyar peasant, like the Magyar noble, never forgets that he belongs to the dominant race. There is often a touch of good-humored insolence in his treatment of peasants of other nationalities and especially in his relations with the Jews and with the Gypsies. Partly, perhaps, from this feeling of pride, though never afraid of hard work, the Magyar is seen at his best when employed with men of other nationalities. In such a case he throws his whole strength and energy into his work and would feel himself deeply humiliated if it were not evident that he has done more in a given time than the men of "inferior" race. This element in the Magyar character is one of no little national importance, and . . . the variety of races inhabiting the country, notwithstanding all its disadvantages, leads also to a healthy competition in almost all the walks of life that plays no small part in the progress the nation is making. STANDARDS GROWING OUT OF RIVALRY PREVENT OVERPOPULATION Man tends to multiply up to the food limit, at which point all margins for pleasure, beauty and leisure have been swept into 6 Palmer, "Austro-Hungarian Life in Town and Country," pp. 58, 59. At first this, that, or CHAP. XIV Rivalry Has Been the Prime Motive in Diversi fying the hopper for the production of population. Almost the only thing that has ever arrested the growth of numbers well inside the food limit is the diversification of wants. The chief motive behind this diversification has been rivalry. the other thing is wanted for vanity's sake. One thirsts to outshine or outpace others. One cannot endure to be surpassed by Wants another in trophy, ornament or display. In the course of time the new wants acquire a firmer basis. Vanities are pruned till they become comforts and decencies, enter into the inherited standard of living, and become indispensable to self-respect. SERVICES OF ECONOMIC COMPETITION Effect of Wasteful as economic competition often is, let us not overlook Bracing its magical effect upon the business man who has gotten into a Comperut. An editor who, a dozen years ago, gave his best thought to tition adapting his newspaper to the needs and tastes of the community has failed to notice how silent, gradual changes have transformed the community's interests. Not until a neighboring journal cuts seriously into his circulation is he roused to the necessity of making over his paper to suit his new constituency. So it is with the manufacturer, the merchant, the railroad man. They are absorbed in routine, become strangers to effortful thinking and fall below their possibilities until the danger of loss of business lashes them into intense mental activity. In a static time hard work and conscience may suffice to keep one up to the mark. But in a time of rapid development rare is the man who will serve the public best by continuing to work diligently on familiar lines. There is need of changing frequently the character of one's goods, one's services, one's methods. But few will do this of their own free will. The impulse of the conscientious man is to work hard in the accustomed way. It is not that he is lazy but that he is habit-bound. Nothing but fear of being supplanted by a competitor will goad him to the point of adapting his product to the changed needs of the public. ROUSING EFFECT OF WAR Even war, the most destructive of all forms of opposition, is not without its value as stimulus. It may impart courage to heave aside old obstacles and may release energies which remain fruitful long after the war has ended. CHAP. War May Call Forth in a People More The Americans Were Energized by Their Struggle for Independence Commenting on the state of Holland at the opening of the sixteenth century, the historian observes: "The long struggle for existence had filled the people with a new spirit, and, so far from bringing in their train exhaustion and misery, the very burdens of the war had been productive of unexampled prosperity. Nothing in history is more remarkable than the condition of the United Provinces, and especially of the Provinces of Holland and Zeeland at the end of thirty years of incessant warfare." After dilating upon the marvellous expansion of ship building, sea-carriage, foreign trade and the textile industries and reviewing the daring voyages and explorations of Dutch adventurers, he concludes: "Thus, then, their war for life and death had stirred the sluggish blood of the Dutch people and had aroused in them a most extraordinary spirit of energy and enterprise."7 Corroborative testimony is offered by Ramsay: "The American Revolution, on the one hand, brought forth great vices, but on the other hand, it called forth many virtues, and gave occasion for the display of abilities, which, but for that event, would have been lost to the world. When the war began, the Americans were a mass of husbandmen, merchants, mechanics and fishermen; but the necessities of the country gave a spring to the active powers of the inhabitants, and set them on thinking, speaking and acting, in a line far beyond that to which they had ever been accustomed. The difference between nations is not so much owing to nature, as to education and circumstances. While the Americans were guided by the leading strings of the mother country, they had no scope nor encouragement for exertion. All the departments of government were established and executed for them, but not by them. In the years 1775 and 1776 the country, being suddenly thrown into a situation that needed the abilities of all its sons, these generally took their places, each according to the bent of his inclination. As they severally pursued their objects with ardour, a vast expansion of the human mind speedily followed. This displayed itself in a variety of ways. It was found that their talents for great actions did not differ in kind, but only in degree from those which were necessary for the proper discharge of the ordinary business of civil society. In the bustle that was occasioned by the war, few instances could be produced of any persons who made a figure, or 7" Cambridge Modern History," Vol. III, pp. 630-633. |