LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER
BY MARTHA L. ROOT
ONE of America’s well-known liberalists, Professor Herbert A. Miller, Professor of Sociology in Bryn Mawr College, gave the writer in December, 1936, an interview on the subject of the Bahá’í Faith. I wish to preface the interview by telling readers a little about this strong, sane thinker who stands courageously for the oneness of the world of humanity. He attracted nationwide attention when his contract at Ohio State University was not renewed for the year 1931-1932, since his reputation was such that a spontaneous and almost universal protest arose in the universities throughout America. The three reasons for his dismissal were: support of Gandhi, his attitude on the race question and his objection to compulsory military training in the university. In the investigation that followed he was completely vindicated by the report of the committee of the Association of University Professors. In 1918, he was associated with the Carnegie Corporation’s study of the methods of Americanization, his investigations resulting in the book "Old World Traits Transplanted.” Two other books of his which can with great profit be studied are “Races, Nations and Classes” and "The Beginnings of Tomorrow.” Few men have a better understanding of the situation of the world and what confronts us than has Professor Miller, and his views about the Bahá’í Faith and what it is actually accomplishing are of deep interest.
He said to me during our conversation at his home in Bryn Mawr that as a sociologist, his special field had been racial and national relations: "I’ve been interested for thirty years in trying to solve conflicts between races and nations, and that falls into the area of Bahá’í interests, as you know. The thing that interested me when I first heard of the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh was how, coming at this particular set of questions in a totally different way—namely, from a religious background—He had arrived at the same kind of conclusions as I had when I tried to make a scientific approach. Therefore, I was inclined to be interested.”
Professor Miller is very frank, open, sincere, lovable; he said that though his academic snobbishness hesitates to ally itself with any movement and is anxious to stand off from all movements, yet he is glad that everybody is not an academic person! "For many years I have insisted there is only one problem in the world,” he said, “and that problem is learning to live together; and it seems to me that at this time almost every scientific and moral force is driving in that direction. Anthropology and psychology have broken down the previous claims of natural differences between peoples so that now nothing is left except to break down the artificial, cultural, political and economic absurdities that frame themselves into nationalism and various types of group consciousness.”
Dr. Miller added that while an approach
to the solution of these problems needs to
be made through the scientific and moral
methods, one of the most remarkable
teachings of Bahá’u’lláh—considering that the
time when it was made was at least forty
years before the issue could have been
clarified in the West—is that there
is no conflict
between religion and science. He considers
this one of the most remarkable in the whole
of the "Utterances” of Bahá’u’lláh and he
adds: “Perhaps my snobbishness does not
permit me to say ‘Revelation’! This makes it
possible for a religion which is just
as universal as thought itself, really
to exist and be
vital. Now, of course, people of other
Faiths accept this principle but at that time,
when Bahá’u’lláh first gave it, no
people accepted it, unless there may
have been a very
few Muḥammadans. As far as I can
discover, there is nothing in the whole social,
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moral program of
the Bahá’í Faith that is in
conflict with the most enlightened findings
of social scientists.”
When I asked Professor Miller where he had heard of the Bahá’í Teachings, he said he had first heard of them in our country from Dr. Albert Vail and Mr. Louis Gregory. He said that when he was in Beirut, Syria, in 1930, he was in the Beirut University Hospital where there were two nurses who were Bahá’ís, also he had met Mr. Zaine, son of the Secretary of Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’í Cause, and had been introduced to a cousin of the Guardian, a senior at that time, in the University.
Dr. Miller explained, too, how he had met Bahá’ís in various places and he said: “What appealed to me is their attitude on the race question; none of the feeling of superiority or inferiority of races that still goes on among many Christians, have I ever seen among Bahá’ís. These are personal matters, some of these things can be practised by individuals; but there are other great questions like universal peace that must wait on slow development. The Bahá’ís haven’t yet established an international language in all the schools of the world, they haven’t achieved international understanding; many of the Principles of Bahá’u’lláh are not yet fulfilled—perhaps not yet fulfillable, but the important thing is that there is a religious group very much aware of them, which by purity of purposes and practices can nag on other religionists to live up to their own ideals. Both the Bahá’ís and Gandhi insist that all religions are basically aiming to solve these same problems. So somewhere, in their ideals, if they haven’t been cluttered up with theology, there is a pure aim.”
When I asked this interesting professor about his meeting with Shoghi Effendi, he told me: “I had known about Shoghi Effendi when I visited at the American University at Beirut where he had been a student. I had met some Bahá’ís in Jerusalem, and so one of the first things I did when I reached Haifa in the winter of 1926, I went to the house of Shoghi Effendi, and sending in my card mentioned that I had known Dr. Vail and Mr. Louis Gregory. He invited me to tea, and I remember we had tangerines from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Garden that afternoon. [Such a beautiful smile of pleasure passed over his countenance as he spoke of those delicious tangerines from the Master’s Garden!]
“We had a most delightful time. As usual I became professional and asked all the baiting questions I could think of; we had such a delightful time that when I came back to Palestine in 1930, I repeated my visit to Shoghi Effendi.”
I remember so well Dr. Miller’s last statement in the illumined conversation that afternoon in his Bryn Mawr home: “I have frequently said that it will be quite a while before the liberal world in practice catches up with the liberal plan of Bahá’ís, and from my academic mountain top, frequently I feel compelled to say, ‘More strength to the Bahá’ís!’ ”
