СНАР. XV All Effort Equal An- Is Decided Match IT CHAPTER XV ANTAGONISTIC EFFORT T has been shown that conflict is stimulating and that in some forms it is virtually equivalent to cooperation. Nevertheless, there is in conflict as distinguished from wholesome competition an element which is altogether bad and deplorable. This may be called Antagonistic Effort, i.e., equal efforts expended in opposite directions, so that A is neutralized by B and B is neutralized by A. It is illustrated in the "tug of war" which often exhausts the rival teams before a decision is reached; in the futile straining of locked wrestlers neither of whom can overcome the other until both are nearly spent; in the interchange of blows by which well-matched pugilists may pound each other into pulp; in the advertising campaigns of competitors which exactly offset each the other but leave them both nearer the poor house; in the alternate price-cutting of two rival producers which pushes them closer and closer to insolvency; in the lawsuits and appeals with which litigious men wear themselves out and in the retaliatory tariffs by which two nations beat each other's commerce to its knees. CONFLICTS OF ATTRITION So long as the antagonistic efforts are in balance, nothing is accomplished. All exertions which are promptly met and neutralized by counter-exertions are wasted, for they decide nothing. It is only the margin of superiority that counts. Hence the peculiar ruinousness of opposition which assumes this form. It is exhibited in a railroad "war" when rates are slashed far below the cost of service and both competitors slide slowly toward bankruptcy. The railroad with the longer purse will win; but it may never recoup itself for its losses by higher rates, for the beaten road, though bankrupt, does not cease to be a competitor. It is seen in the costly electioneering campaigns of rival political candidates. The total outlay of time and money may be absurdly out of proportion to the salary of the office they are seeking. Neither would make the canvass could he have foreseen how he would become involved. Yet they plunge deeper and deeper into expense because each realizes that all he has already expended is quite thrown away unless he wins the race. Each is hoping to win by a spurt at the finish, so they go on and on, winded but afraid to quit. CHAP. The XV Blindness of the Pug nacious Gives Him an tiation The greater the amount of effort which must be put forth before the telling margin appears, the more costly is the conflict and the greater is the incentive to seek a means of avoiding it. The expenditure of strength and resources in antagonistic efforts may Advantage leave both contestants ruined, the victor being no better off than in Negothe vanquished. The more clearly they foresee this possibility, the more they will rather compromise than pay the price of fighting to the bitter end. But if one opponent realizes what a struggle is likely to let him in for he will be at a disadvantage in negotiating with one who is blind to the cost of conflict. The former will have to make most of the concessions if the disastrous conflict is to be avoided. In dealing with the clear-sighted, the blindness of the pugnacious may be a trump card. MOST CONFLICTS COST MORE THAN WAS EXPECTED Rarely the Drain Will Lead to As we review the pitiful squandering of human life, strength Opponents and resources not only in the wars of nations but also in the Foresee struggles between labor and capital, in commercial "wars," in po- Confict litical contests, in lawsuits and in private quarrels, it becomes apparent that the impulses of anger, jealousy and greed should not bear all the blame. Even the cool and calculating enter into a disastrous conflict thinking it will be decided by a sudden thrust or a clever stroke and failing to foresee the long drain on energy which they must endure before a victory can be won. Convinced of superiority, one fails to compute the sacrifices which may lie between superiority and triumph. It is the besetting fallacy of militarists to picture war to their people as a sharp, brief struggle between prepared forces terminating in the victory of the force which is braver, more intelligent or better led. They refuse to recognize how normal it is that war should become an expenditure of antagonistic efforts which wears down the belligerents till both are prostrate. СНАР. Confict Are Con vertible into Fighting Power Each Opponent Dreams a Quick Decision by a out ' Blow THE CONVERTIBILITY OF RESOURCES In general, the more nearly matched are two combatants, the more prolonged and exhausting their conflict is likely to be. Again, the struggle will be prolonged in proportion as their strength is convertible into the particular kind of effort essential to a decision. If citizens can readily be trained into soldiers the conflict does not end when one belligerent has used up his original army but continues until one belligerent approaches the end of his man power or, at least, of his morale. In case the ban on the use of women on the battlefield is broken down, the final outcome of the conflict will be the same but it will be delayed and the prostration of the belligerents will be more complete when it arrives. If the factories are capable of being speedily converted into munition plants, the war is not decided by original stocks of munitions but becomes a matter of comparative coal, iron, copper, food production, woman power, child power, etc., and may go on until the complete economic collapse of one belligerent. FORCING A QUICK DECISION Lest conflict lapse into a process of competitive annihilation opponents strive to force a quick decision. The "winded" pugilist studies how he may deliver a "knock-out" blow. By a secretly planned advertising campaign the business man seeks to Knock- bankrupt his competitor before he has time to prepare a counterstroke. The railway company tries to administer a coup de grace to a parallel line by cutting fares 80 per cent. at a stroke. Regardless of expense, the litigant puts his cause into the hands of the leader of the bar. The aggressor state plans by surprise attack, by speedier mobilization, by having ready the larger number of trained soldiers or aviators, by accumulating in advance the greater stock of guns, aircraft, or submarines, or by springing some new and, at first, irresistible weapon- forty-two centimeter howitzers, or Zeppelins, or poison gas, or tanks to win the war before its enemy converts his potential strength into actual strength. Since the conversion of resources into telling effort calls for time, a protracted conflict becomes inevitably one of "attrition" and tends toward the utter prostration or impoverishment of both parties. As a rule, it is only the short decisive conflict that does not cost the victor more than victory is worth. СНАР. COMPETITIVE PREPAREDNESS XV to Obtain a Speedy Leads to Victory tive ness Which Is a Vari ant Form of Antagonistic Ef fort When resources can be converted only slowly into weapons and Eagerness the combatant wins who gets a broad "running start" over the other, fear begets competitive preparedness, which is only another form of antagonistic effort. It is, to be sure, less violent than Competiactual conflict but it may be nearly as exhausting. In the Cauca- Preparedsus the safety tower of each farmstead evidently absorbed more labor than the habitation itself. In Afghanistan the time wasted in standing guard in the sentry tower that overlooks each field exceeds the time spent in tilling the field. In Albania the male, being occupied in protecting his family, is parasitic on the female who alone produces anything. Just as in war each people is duped into believing that this levy of troops, this big gun armament, this "victory" loan will win a decision, forgetting that until the breaking strain arrives its every prodigious exertion is counterbalanced by a corresponding supreme exertion by the enemy, so in peace time they are victimized by the "preparedness" fallacy. They do not notice that their every sacrifice in the way of more ironclads, more guns, or more soldiers becomes the basis of an appeal by the preparedness party in each rival state to insure its safety by more ironclads, more guns, and more soldiers. And such sacrifices made by other peoples "for security" become in turn the basis of appeals at home for even greater sacrifices" for security." So the munition makers' game goes merrily on until armament-capping becomes well-nigh as ruinous as war itself. When a people realizes that the major part of what it produces goes into the bottomless pit of competitive preparation and finds such "security" is economically nearly as exhausting as war, it is tempted to attack its rival, in the hope of destroying it and thereby ending an intolerable situation. THE AVOIDANCE OF ANTAGONISTIC EFFORT Antagonistic effort is, then, the utterly evil element in conflict. It is a pit into which heedless man is precipitated by his aggressive and self-assertive instincts. It is the lurking devil which all glorifiers of war and struggle overlook. It is the Adversary baffling, betraying and tormenting a too-pugnacious and too-sanguine race. It devastates society as its counterpart, hatred, devastates the soul. Small wonder, then, that the supreme concern of all Antagonis tic Ef fort Has No Redeeming Feature СНАР. Limitation upon the Expenditure of tic Effort seers, prophets and founders of religion has been to draw mankind away from hatred and strife into the paths of amity and peace. It is possible, however, to eliminate or curb this noxious feature without suppressing contest itself. Intercollegiate athletics may Antagonis be kept from degenerating into a matching of purses by barring players who receive financial inducement to attend college and by so limiting the training period as to avoid an excessive loss of time in preparation. The anti-intellectual tendencies in public joint debate are held in check by rules forbidding "personalities and excluding everything foreign to the question. The law denies appeal from a court decision when the value in dispute is small. Party managers agree to buy no votes. Laws which limit the amount of campaign expenditure save opposing candidates from ruining themselves in a political contest or becoming bound to selfish moneyed interests which contribute to both parties. Rival railroads agree to close their needless downtown offices. "Legalized pooling" or commission-fixing of minimum as well as maximum rates restrain them from rushing into receivership via rate "wars." After a series of industrially lean years caused by "cut-throat" competition among producers the game of "beggar-my-neighbor" ends in a "combination" or in the absorption of all the weaker firms by the financially strongest. Missionary boards come to the understanding that none will plant a mission in a native center where a Christian mission already exists. Rival colleges avoid the waste of circularizing the same constituency or cultivating the same secondary schools by dividing territory if they are far apart or by specializing in different lines if they are near each other. Finally, war-worn exhausted states may do what has been done hundreds of times by jarring communities - form an organization for peace, create tribunals, with power to decide disputes, renounce their armaments and relinquish their liberty to make war at will. |