The ethical problem of group relations is made still more difficult by the expansive desires and unethical attitudes which develop naturally within the group as a corporate entity. That is, groups as such find it even more difficult to maintain moral attitudes toward other groups than do the individuals within it toward individuals in other racial or political unities. All human groups tend to be more predatory than the individuals which compose them. The most tender emotions may characterize the relations of members of a family to each other; but the family as such is easily tempted to gain its advantages at the expense of other families. The tendency of family loyalty to accentuate covetousness has been frequently noted by social observers who have seen the family instinct as the very basis of the sanctity which civilization has given private property. Religious organizations are not free of the imperial ambitions which come naturally to social groups of every kind. One fruitful cause of the dilution of religious idealism is the desire of religious groups to gain power and prestige among larger numbers. They therefore soften the rigor of their ideal that it may captivate the morally mediocre majority. Both employers and employees frequently find agreement in specific cases of conflict difficult because the policies of both are determined by considerations of loyalty to their respective groups. Of all human groups the political state is probably most inclined to unethical conduct. It was a dictum of George Washington’s that a nation was not to be trusted beyond its interests, and history supports the justice of his observation. After shrewdly observing the statesmen of England equivocate on the attitude of their nation toward the southern rebellion until they could determine their policy by considerations of expediency, Henry Adams came to the melancholy conclusion that masses of men were always moved by interest and never by conscience and that morality is a private and a costly luxury.[15] One reason why the relations of nations to each other are still characterized by primitive fears and excessive caution is because their actions have not, as a matter of fact, been morally dependable. The problem of making nations and other groups conform to ethical standards of any kind is particularly difficult because the ethical attitude of the individual toward his group easily obscures the unethical nature of the group’s desires. The patriot identifies his tender emotions toward his nation with the attitude of the nation itself until he becomes incapable of a critical appraisal of its policy; or he frankly condones the selfishness of the nation because he recognizes no ethical values beyond those implicit in group loyalty. The father of a family may feel moral pride in essentially selfish pursuits because he means to secure advantages by them not for himself but for his family. Loyalty to “the firm” may give the business man a consciousness of