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CONSIDER what is this material civilization of the day giving forth? Has it not produced the instruments of warfare and destruction? . . . . Instruments and means of human destruction have enormously multiplied in this era of material civilization. But if material civilization shall become organized in conjunction with divine civilization, if the man of moral integrity and intellectual acumen shall unite for human betterment and uplift with the man of spiritual capacity, the happiness and progress of the human race will be assured.
It is the province of man to confer life not death. It behooves him to be the cause of human welfare, but inasmuch as he glories in the savagery of animalism, it is an evidence that divine civilization has not been established in human society. Material civilization has advanced unmistably but because it is not associated with divine civilization, evil and wickedness abound . . . The cause is the absence of divine civilization.
BAHÁ’U’LLÁH teaches that the world of humanity is in need of the breath of the Holy Spirit, for in spiritual quickening and enlightenment true oneness is attained with God and man. The “Most Great Peace” cannot be assured through racial force and effort; it cannot be established by patriotic devotion and sacrifice for nations differ widely and local patriotism has limitations. Furthermore, it is evident that political power and diplomatic ability are not conducive to universal agreement, for the interests of governments are varied and selfish; nor will international harmony and reconciliation be an outcome of human opinions concentrated upon it, for opinions are faulty and intrinsically diverse. Universal Peace is an impossibility through human and material agencies; it must be through spiritual power. There is need of a universal impelling force which will establish the oneness of humanity and destroy the foundations of war and strife. No other than the divine power can do this; therefore it will be accomplished through the breath of the Holy Spirit.
No matter how far the material world advances it cannot establish the happiness of mankind. Only when material and spiritual civilization are linked and coordinated will happiness be assured. . . . If the moral precepts and foundations of divine civilization become united with the material advancement of man, there is no doubt that the happiness of the human world will be attained and from every direction the glad tidings of peace upon earth will be announced. Then humankind will achieve extraordinary progress, the sphere of human intelligence will be immeasureably enlarged, wonderful inventions will appear and the spirit of God Will reveal itself; all men will concort in joy and fragrance, and life eternal will be conferred upon the children of the kingdom. Then will the power of the divine make itself effective and the breath of the Holy Spirit penetrate the essence of all things. Therefore the material and the divine or merciful civilizations must progress together until the highest aspirations and desires of humanity shall become realized.
| VOL. 18 | APRIL, 1927 | No. 1 |
that through the Ideal Power he should be emancipated and free from the captivity of the world of nature; for as long as man is captive to nature he is a ferocious animal, as the struggle for existence is one of the exigencies of the world of nature. This matter of the struggle for existence is the fountain-head of all
calamities and is the supreme affliction.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.NOT UNTIL competition is supplanted by cooperation in the life of individuals and nations can peace and harmony reign on earth.
It is but natural that men should still think in terms of brute competition. For on our animal side we humans have evolved by the law of the jungle. The law of competition and survival of the fittest, which dominates the life of nature, apparently dominates also the life of man.
But man according to the teachings of ’Abdu’l-Bahá is destined to transcend the limitations of the natural world, and through spiritual evolution develop new powers and new qualities. The civilization which will rise upon these spiritual foundations will not be characterized by selfish competition. In it the jungle law will have no place.
How soon will this spiritual civilization, which Christ named the Kingdom of God, become established? As soon as humanity becomes convinced that the present civilization based upon man’s animal qualities is inefficient and unstable. Whether, as many fear, it will take another universal war to demonstrate this truth; or whether, which is more to be desired, humanity can learn through its innate spiritual capacity, remains to be seen.
MEANWHILE, one shudders at the doctrinaire which is commonly expressed by those whose patriotism consists of the idea of national exploitation and domination.
The morning paper of a leading American city in a recent issue assures its readers that our export trade, already eight hundred million dollars more than that of our nearest competitor, “is destined to completely eclipse the exports of all other nations, and dominate oversea markets.” But what result is to be expected as to the psychology of other nations toward us when we “dominate oversea markets”? The editor assures us that “we shall be most envied by our competitors—heartily hated by some of them.”
It is to be a grim life and death struggle, it seems. “All experience will have to be reversed,” the writer goes on to say, “if we maintain and expand our domination of oversea markets without clashing with the great nations whose exports we displace. Since time began the world’s markets have been the fat prize for which wars have been fought.”
Therefore, goes on this jingoistic argument, the only safety for us lies in strong defense, on land, on water, and in air. Militarism is involved as the inevitable corollary of international
competition for the domination of the world’s markets.
Deplorable as are the conclusions to which this newspaper editorial would lead us, the logic of it all is irrefutable provided we start off with the proposition that a country’s aim should be to dominate the world in trade.
THE CAUSES OF WAR are chiefly economic. There is indeed no question in the minds of those who have impartially followed world affairs for a generation that the last Great War resulted from economic causes. There can be as little question that if these economic conditions continue, war will occur again.
Selfishness on the part of nations, as on the part of individuals, can lead only to inharmony and friction. A healthy competition in which each individual or nation does its best and receives the rewards which naturally flow to effort and efficiency,—such competition is justifiable even in the cooperative civilization which must eventually displace our present system.
But that form of competition which seeks deliberately to dominate will soon be seen to be as archaic as any other form of autocracy or imperialism. Just why should any nation seek to dominate world markets, excluding others? Just why should any nation wish to uphold such domination by force of arms?
IT IS ONLY those nations which feel themselves powerful enough to be aggressors that dream of upholding commerce with armies and navies. Little nations like Switzerland seem to thrive without navies to uphold their trade. Selecting for manufacture those things in which they are most skillful or for which nature has given them an advantage, they find ready markets for their goods though encircled and ranged about by other and more powerful nations which could bar their way to the sea.
Holland survives and flourishes; and so does Denmark, which is considered the most evenly civilized and prosperous of all modern nations,—without the force of militarism to back their international commerce.
What natural or necessary relation has military force to commercial success or failure? When the discovery of the New World deflected trade from the Mediterranean, many cities such as Venice and Genoa lost the wealth which had been theirs through commerce. Could they have maintained their leadership in trade by force of arms? How absurd the thought!
The tide of commerce flows and ebbs. It follows natural laws with which militarism has no concern. Let each nation be content with the natural rewards of its prowess in industry and trade, and let armies and navies cease to follow the flag of commerce.
IF HUMANITY will but follow the law of God for this day and age, and practice cooperation, new and undreamed of benefits will accrue. Industry and trade need no bolstering up with thought of domination; rather, let them be founded on the ideal of excelling. Let each nation put effort to that in which it naturally excels, and exchange with other nations in the spirit of mutual aid and cooperation. The fruits of such cooperation will be so extraordinary that the whole world will live in prosperity and peace.
The economic life of man, so fundamentally important, is remodeled by the laws of Bahá’u’lláh as laid down for the New Age. Poverty, for the first time in the history of this planet, is to be abolished by a provision as simple as it is effective. Class-consciousness
will be diminished, and the conflict between capital and labor peacefully and harmoniously terminated by methods later described in this number.
Thus it will be seen that the Bahá’í religion not only satisfies the spiritual needs of man, but provides fully for all his material needs.
by just copartnership and profit-sharing, that the interests of both capital and labor will be best served. The harsh weapons of the strike and lockout are injurious, not only to the trades immediately affected, but to the community as a whole. It is, therefore, the business of the governments to devise means for preventing recourse to such barbarous methods of settling disputes.
How much of the energy employed in the business world of today is expended simply in cancelling and neutralizing the efforts of other people–in useless strife and competition! And how much in ways that are still more injurious! Were all to work, and were all work—whether of brain or hand—of a nature profitable to mankind, as Bahá’u’lláh commands, then the supplies of everything necessary for a healthy, comfortable and noble life would amply suffice for all. There need be no slums, no starvation, no destitution, no industrial slavery, no health-destroying drudgery.
One of the most important instructions of Bahá’u’lláh in regard to the economic question is that all must engage in useful work. There must be no drones in the social hive, no able-bodied parasites on society.—Dr. J. E. Esslemont in
“Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era.”
“The solution of economic questions will not be brought about by array of capital against labor, and labor against capital, in strife and conflict but by the voluntary attitude of good-will on both sides. Then a real and lasting justness of conditions will be secured. . . . ”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.
That profound and significant developments are occurring in the industrial relationships between those engaged in industrial pursuits is one of the most encouraging signs of the times. Whether this be due to a new attitude toward work, social evolution, or whether it be due to the force of economic pressure, matters little, for behind the mass of statistical figures and the trials and errors there is growing apace with our industrial life, a strong and decided trend toward cooperative endeavor which tends towards a better civilization and to glorify God in a degree hitherto not attained.
No less an authority than Hon. James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor, has recently voiced in the press some very illuminating utterances. Coming from a man of his experience and judgment they must arouse the interest of every thinking individual.
Apparently, he feels that there has been taking place in the minds of workmen, what amounts to a revolution of feeling. “One of these developments is the workman’s attitude toward the strike,” that dreaded weapon which has brought so much loss and suffering and which has so disrupted industrial peace. “It is common knowledge that this (attitude) has undergone a marked change in recent years. It seems to me, however, that we have failed completely to appreciate the improvement of industrial relations and on the whole structure of national prosperity.” And while national prosperity is important, any influence which is potent in this respect, nationally, cannot be without effect socially and internationally, so closely are interests knit today.
“A study of the strike history of our country reveals that we have been taking for granted, in this connection, a great many things which are not true. Chief among these are the erroneous beliefs that all employers’ associations were organized to combat labor and that the ultimate function of a labor organization is the strike.” It seems quite possible that the real function of industry is being appreciated; that its purpose is to serve and that the day is not so far distant when it will be generally recognized that “all effort and exertion put forth by man from the fullness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to do service to humanity. This is worship—to serve mankind and to minister to the needs of the people.” (Paris Talks, p. 164.)
With reference to work, Bahá’u’lláh has said:
“It is enjoined on every one of you to engage in some occupation—some art, trade or the like. We have made this, your occupation, identical with the worship of God, the True One.” As the consciousness of this, however vague and unrecognized, permeates human receptivities, is it any wonder that significant changes are occurring in our attitude toward industrial relations, toward the strike?
And again, “Waste not your time in idleness and indolence, and occupy yourselves with that which will profit yourselves and others beside yourselves.”
Service is vital to progress and to industry.
Commenting on these commands, Dr. Esslemont in his book, “Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era,” has written:
“How much of the energy employed in the business world of today is expended simply in cancelling and neutralizing the efforts of other people—in useless strife and competition.”
Almost as if in answer, Mr. Davis cheers and encourages when he says:
“. . certain apparent changes in strike strategy must be traced to new habits of thought on the part of the worker as well as the changing attitude of many employers.” A new note of cooperation is becoming more insistent. That the cause of this must be some deep spiritual influence cannot be questioned. It is a part of the bounty of the Sun of Truth, warming the earth and stimulating growth. Growth is always more rapid in the direct rays of the sun; however, some plants benefit indirectly even though they reach a limited development only in the shade. When the spiritual influences which are at work are recognized fully, development will be even more rapid than during the unprecedented period of the last fifty years.
(Mr. Davis) “I am convinced that not only the leaders but also the rank and file of labor have developed a wholly new conception of the strike. I believe they have made more progress toward social enlightenment in the past fifty years than their fathers were able to make in the preceding five centuries.” And if there is a new attitude toward the strike is it too much to presume that there is also a new attitude toward labor and the fruits of labor?
Surely man has not accomplished this alone? Why has it been only recently that distinct progress has been noted? Because there is spiritual leaven at work, beneath the surface, which is making cooperation the keynote of industrial development of this and coming periods.
Man does not germinate a revolution of feeling independently and of his own volition. Environment and circumstances may stimulate him to certain reactions and effort. Experience may temper his judgment, but what is it that touches the heart, remoulds our habits of thought towards life and its problems? Is this stimulus human or divine? Is it not a spiritual something which comes to man from God, a life-giving current which flows when the channel is unobstructed?
(Davis) “I do not expect to see any change in normal human desire for betterment that leads to strikes. But I think the great mass of workers has caught some inkling of the eternal truth that power carries with it responsibility for restraint that the abuse of power, which is responsible for most human misery, is also the beginning of the loss or destruction of power.”
It is to be hoped that the desire for the better things of life will increase but that the fulfillment of such desires will be brought about through cooperation and not strife. The abuse of power has always lead to misunderstanding and battle and whether it be national, industrial or religious warfare, there is a growing consciousness that such is not “the way.” In this industrial age a gauge is often applied—“Does it pay?” The answer is becoming more and more apparent, strife does not pay, either in economic gain or individual and collective well-being.
(Davis) “The psychology of organized labor is only the sum of the psychology of its members, magnified by the broader view to be expected. of those who must think in national terms. . . .
“When we reduce the consequences of this thinking to terms of the individual we get a still better picture of the remarkable standard of peace attained.”
And we must reduce it to individuals, for of them are masses constituted, and spiritual influences affect first and primarily the individual.
How comforting to be told that there are signs of “peace attained” in some degree, somewhere in the world of human activity today!
(Davis) “My idea is that we shall make much more rapid progress if we begin to see things as they are, free of the emotional influences handed down to us through generations of constantly diminishing struggle.”
How true! If we could only “begin to see things as they are” we would be greatly illumined and better prepared to accept and practice those precepts which will contribute to the ultimate and complete solution of the vexatious problem of human industrial relationships.
Years ago, ’Abdu’l-Bahá from His profound wisdom spoke of strikes. He attributed them to two causes: “extreme sharpness and rapacity of the capitalists, and the excesses, avidity and ill-will of the artisans.” Today we see huge labor organizations with millions in their treasuries. Have they become capitalists? If so, where is the line to be drawn?
’Abdu’l-Bahá pointed out that our laws were at fault for they permit individuals to amass fortunes which they cannot administer properly on the one hand and cause large numbers to exist in poverty on the other. “This is contrary to justice, to humanity and equity; it is the height of iniquity, the opposite to what causes divine satisfation.”
He stated that these laws should be changed to limit the misery of millions, but called attention to the fact that “absolute equality is just as impossible, for absolute equality in fortunes, honors, commerce, agriculture and industry would end in want of comfort, in discouragement, in disorganization of the means of existence. . . .” “Thus there is a great wisdom in the fact that equality is not imposed by law; it is, therefore, preferable for moderation to do its work.” And who can doubt but that laws will be changed?
Many of the benefits for which labor unions were formed have been attained and are considered not only just and equitable but as constituting good business. We do not hear as many protests against “poor working conditions” and long hours of labor as formerly. There is less cause. Conditions are infinitely better, generally.
The ultimate solution has been suggested by ’Abdu’l-Bahá:
“Now I want to tell you about the law of God. According to the divine law, employees should not be paid merely by wages. Nay, rather they should be partners in every work.”
Thus we see that many years ago, the keynote of making of industry a cooperative endeavor was sounded. And the motive behind this suggestion is love, sympathy, understanding and the desire to better the lot of humanity for its own sake. The effectiveness of cooperative endeavor in making unnecessary the organization of labor was proposed also, years ago, but this proposal was more or less a defensive conception.
In many instances we see stronger and stronger tendencies towards making industrial work cooperative. Experiments are being tried. Executives are finding that it pays. One of them has said: “and when you have fourteen hundred people working with a heart in the business it cannot help but succeed. . . . There is no mystery about it. Cooperation is the
keynote of the future. We have simply proven it will work today.”
There are two potent factors which vitalize and retain the worker’s interest in his tasks. One of these is an opportunity for self-expression and the other is the feeling that he is sharing in the actual profit derived; that what he builds into the product of himself is returned to him in a form which will benefit those he loves and in a measure at least mean to him the same sort of privileges, assurances and acknowledgments “as wider margined folk obtain or hope to obtain from other forms of property.” One of the precepts of the Bahá’í Teachings in this respect is that all those who contribute to an endeavor should share in the profits.
There seems to be a deepening sense of mutual responsibility and interdependence between owners and workmen which, as Mr. Davis says, has modified views in regard to the strike. No longer are strikes declared overnight. They are usually called only after deliberation and as a last resort. There is a growing hesitancy to rush into a state of active resistance and industrial warfare. The price is too great.
Students of social science probably do not attribute these changes in attitude to a spiritual quickening. They explain it by the fact that humanity, especially those who work, are giving more thought to these matters, and realize some of the uselessness of strife and contention, that economic pressure has forced the changes.
But if thought changes—what is the origin of thought?
“There is, however, a faculty in man which unfolds to his vision the secrets of existence. It gives him power whereby he may investigate the reality of every object. It leads man on and on to the luminous station of divine sublimity and frees him from all fetters of self, causing him to ascend to the pure heaven of sanctity. This is the power of the mind. . . .
“There is another power which is differentiated from that of soul and mind. This . . . is the spirit which is an emanation from the Divine Bestower; it is the effulgence of the Sun of Reality, the radiation of the celestial world, the spirit of faith. . . . . The spirit is the axis round which the eternal life revolves. It is conducive to everlasting glory and is the cause of the exaltation of humanity.” (’Abdu’l-Bahá.)
And so back of or above the realm of thought lies the impulse of the spirit. The Bounty of God is the cause of mellowing and enlightening tendencies which are becoming more and more visible today. It is the cause back of better and more enlightened thinking.
As the old barriers between theory and practice are being leveled in industrial applications of science so also is there less differentiation between idealism and practicability, for some high ideals are becoming everyday realities and the passage of time is marked by a steady trend toward peace in the industrial world.
Such changes do not occur rapidly or without reverses, but when this period has become history and is looked back upon, these favorable tendencies, even in the time of incubation, as it were, will stand out clearly from a drab background.
Today one’s intellectual powers cannot become awakened without a quickening of the spirit, for the quickening of the spirit is the cause of intellectual awakening and yearning. Education follows and with it tolerance and breadth of vision which forces recognition of the accelerating brotherhood of man.
Mr. Davis closes his second article with the following:
“Other instances that might be multiplied almost without number have brought me to the conviction that unseen factors are at work. I believe that as strikes continue to decrease and our minds continue to open, these will become visible. It is now more than fifty years since the idea of cooperative enterprise as a means of making unions unnecessary was first put forth. It has been stated that this idea has made more advance in the past five years than in the preceding forty-five, and the only reason the unions have grown in strength and power is because they have found new functions. Perhaps the greatest contribution of organized labor to society is yet to be developed in the working out of these economic functions, not for the benefit of a single group or class, but for the maintenance and advancement of general prosperity.”
What an opportunity for constructive speculation these words present! It is not difficult to imagine the labor organizations having powerful influence for good upon the conditions of man. What a far cry from the strike as a function!
And so there is evidence to support the hope that the day is not far off when anvils will ring in unison and harmony, sending forth clear pæns of joy in service to humanity and to God; when the strike will be entirely forgotten and cooperative endeavor effective in the fullest degree; when all will share justly in the fruits of labor and the forge-fires, large and small, will be symbols of enlightenment which will brighten the life of every individual.
- WORK!
- Thank God for the might of it,
- The ardor, the urge, the delight of it—
- Work that springs from the heart’s desire,
- Setting the brain and the soul on fire—
- Oh, what is so good as the heat of it,
- And what is so glad as the beat of it,
- And what is so kind as the stern command,
- Challenging brain and heart and hand?
- Work!
- Thank God for the pride of it,
- For the beautiful, conquering tide of it,
- Sweeping the life in its furious flood,
- Thrilling the arteries, cleansing the blood,
- Mastering stupor and dull despair,
- Moving the dreamer to do and dare.
- Oh, what is so good as the urge of it,
- And what is so glad as the surge of it,
- And what is so strong as the summons deep,
- Rousing the torpid soul from sleep?
- Work!
- Thank God for the pace of it,
- For the terrible, keen swift race of it;
- Fiery steeds in full control,
- Nostrils a-quiver to greet the goal.
- Work! The power that drives behind,
- Guiding the purposes, taming the mind,
- Holding the runaway wishes back,
- Reining the will to one steady track,
- Speeding the energies faster, faster,
- Triumphing over disaster.
- Oh, what is so good as the pain of it,
- And what is so great as the gain of it?
- And what is so kind as the cruel goad,
- Forcing us on through the rugged road?
- Work!
- Thank God for the swing of it,
- For the clamoring, hammering ring of it—
- Passion of labor daily hurled
- On the mighty anvils of the world.
- Oh, what is so fierce as the flame of it,
- And what is so huge as the aim of it?
- Thundering on through dearth and doubt,
- Calling the plan of the Maker out.
- Work, the Titan; Work, the friend,
- Shaping the earth to a glorious end,
- Draining the swamps and blasting the hills,
- Doing whatever the Spirit wills—
- Rending a continent apart,
- To answer the dream of the Master heart.
- Thank God for a world where none may shirk,
- Thank God for the splendor of work!
This poem—for the republication of which the author has kindly given her permission—is particularly significant to Baha'is because its sentiment closely follows the law of God. Baha’u’llah said, “It is incumbent on every one of you to engage in some occupation, such as arts, trades, and the like. We have made this–your occupation–identical with the worship ofof God.”—Editor.
“Bahá’u’lláh set forth principles of guidance and teaching for economic readjustment. . . . This readjustment of the social economic is of the greatest importance inasmuch as it insures the stability of the world of humanity; and until it is effected, happiness and prosperity are impossible.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.
THERE is universal recognition among all who consider the problems of industry today of the important need of finding a means of harmony and mutual interest between labor and capital. Opposition, either in psychology or in practice, between these two great forces which make up industry, can mean only disaster and ultimate ruin to industry and civilization. The solution of the problem cannot come by attempted bargains between organized forces of capital and labor, for the reason that neither factor, as things are now arranged, will ever find contentment in arrangements which from the very nature must be unstable and impermanent.
Warfare and the spirit of warfare, whether as between nations or as between classes, can lead only to disintegration. So long as labor feels itself having interests different from capital, feels that it must make its gains by resisting the demands and interests of capital, so long will there continue a warfare, actual or implied, between labor and capital. Unionization, strikes, the suppression of strikes, the attempts at keeping open-shop: what are these but battles in the struggle between two immense forces which so long as they conceive themselves hostile to one another, can never find the solution to the problems of industrial management.
In reality it is not higher wages which labor most needs, but a share in the ownership and management of industry. This is the only solution which can bring peace in the industrial camp and which can bring satisfaction to the heart of the worker. At present under the regime of extreme specialization, labor can take little enjoyment in its efforts unless it feels itself an effective and controlling part in the industry which it is making possible. Says Prof. Wm. McDougal in his article “Crime in America” in the April “Forum,” “Add to all this (other causes of crime) that a large proportion of adults are engaged in occupations intrinsically uninteresting and unnatural, occupations which yield little satisfaction but the pay envelope, and it is easy to understand that serious moral conflicts are frequent and neurotic disorders a common scourge, for men lack those dominant ideals and purposes which develop strong character and which alone can resolve the conflicts of motives that inevitably arise.”
Thus we see that the industrial problem contains dangers not only as regards efficiency in the production of goods, but also as regards character, mental hygiene, and the social stability of the nation.
Is there any problem facing humanity at present—unless it be that of warfare between nations—so grave as that of capital and labor? Before the world can move on into its ideal civilization this problem must be met and solved.
The message of Bahá’u’lláh containing within itself the solution of all present-day world problems and presenting a plan covering every necessary detail for a perfect world civilization,
would of course, and does, include the solution of this problem of industrialism. The solution is this: that labor should have a part ownership in the enterprise in which it is engaged, entitling it to a certain share in the net proceeds in addition to its wages; and that it should share also in the management of the enterprise by representation on its board of directors.
Such an arrangement would entirely obliterate the present cleavage between capital and labor, and bring it to pass that these two forces would feel themselves as but one force working for production and sharing in the results with mutual interests and one common goal of efficiency and able production. Furthermore, it would give an added dignity to the personality of labor. Just as the abolition of slavery heightens the sense of personality and restores man to his natural position of human dignity, so the abolition of industrial slavery due to the wage system would operate to raise the workman to that position of innate dignity which was characteristic of the “Guild System” practiced in the Middle Ages, the loss of which through the modern industrial system is so much lamented by economists and sociologists.
Those who study the Bahá’í Movement and feel it to be an expression of the Divine Will and Power for this age, realize that that Power works mysteriously and suggestively in human inventiveness and ingenuity, unconsciously to men’s minds bringing about movements which are carrying out the purpose of God for this age. Thus it is that since the rise of the Manifestation of Bahá’u’lláh, the world-mind has enormously expanded, together with its capacity to conceive and define new ideals pertaining to a higher civilization and directly in line with the definite plan of Bahá’u’lláh for the new civilization of the coming age.
Therefore it is of extreme interest to note that already in the industrial world men of vision have been feeling out in this direction of industrial democracy, and have already made certain notable achievements along this line above mentioned of participation of labor in the ownership and management of industry. These efforts have been for the first time summed up in the admirable volume entitled, “Political and Industrial Democracy,” by W. Jett Lauck.*
The author, after showing the need of industrial democracy, gives several very interesting examples of industries which are at present in part or in full carrying out this idea.
“If as a people we are to prevail and prosper; if as a world we are to have an ordered future, then the arts of production must be so practiced that autocracy, whether of capital or of labor, must give way to democratic counsels. This is the way of peace and of plenty,” so says Dr. Morris L. Cooke, formerly Director of Public Works of Philadelphia.
George F. Johnson, of the Endicott Johnson Corporation, Endicott, N. Y., one of the largest shoe and leather manufacturing plants of the country which carries out at present a partial system of labor participation in ownership and management, has said: “As I understand it, an ‘industrial democracy’ is an industry operated for the benefit of the community, including the workers who produce, and the customers who consume the products. It is operated in a democratic fashion, ‘to see how much can be made of it, and not out of it.’ It gives every boy and girl, man and woman, an equal chance. It seeks to pay the highest wages, and to produce under the best possible conditions. It recognizes the
*“Political and Industrial Democracy,” by W. Jett Lauck. Funk & Wagnalls Co., publishers.
‘human element’ as of the greater importance. It counts its profits greatest, which profits the largest number. This, briefly, is what Endicott Johnson are seeking to do.”
Summing up the benefits that will be derived from inaugurating completely this system of industrial democracy, the auther says: “Industrial democracy really assumes that a new regime is to be inaugurated—a new spirit is to be invoked in industry. It means the substitution of cooperation for conflict, confidence for distrust, and an attitude of mutual obligation and helpfulness for competition and restriction. A spirit of sincere democracy must constrain the whole structure. Without this moving force, any form of enumeration of standards will ultimately become futile. Strikes, suspicion and the use of force must be put aside. The animating spirit must be one of mutual trust and helpfulness, which, just as in any successful political democracy, says ‘Come, let us reason together. Let the spirit of common counsel and cooperation prevail, and let our efforts and objects be for the common good.’”
Mr. Lauck describes as follows the method which should be employed to bring up industrial democracy: “Genuine democracy in industry requires mutual and definite agreements as to methods and participation as well as complete opportunity to know the facts and problems with which the industry is confronted. There must be mutually agreed-upon machinery to insure responsible participation of employees in management, to enable employees to assist in effecting economies and in increasing productive efficiency, and to help in extending operations and in securing an expansion of the volume of business. Along with machinery should go a mutual agreement as to the degree of the employees’ share in the pecuniary results. Complete and responsible democracy in industry requires the acquisition of ownership or of a preponderating degree of ownership in industry by employees. As this ownership must proceed upon the basis of purchase of stock by employees from their earnings or through their participation in profits, it will be gradual and unaccompanied by any dislocations caused by inexperience and misguided action. Until such experience is gained, any possibility of inexperienced management also may be guarded against by the employees creating a voting trusteeship for their stock-holdings, made up of experienced and responsible representatives. Employee stock ownership and control is an essential preliminary to the complete achievement of industrial democracy.”
The tendency toward employee stock ownership is at present very widespread among different industries of the country, particularly public utility corporations. Professor Carver, of Harvard, in his recent noteworthy book states that . . . . . “the rise of employee stock ownership portends a tremendous growth in the financial power of labor and a new order of society.”
As Mr. Lauck points out, however, stock ownership does not necessarily satisfy the demands of industrial democracy. In a great majority of the industries just mentioned it is non-voting stock which labor is permitted to acquire, whereas it should be voting stock in order that labor should share in the direction and management of the business. “The net results of the schemes for individual employee stock purchase now in operation, however, show that the loyalty of the employee has not been secured. The chief obstacle has been that employees as a whole have not been allowed to gain an appreciable degree of control or voice in the policy
of the corporation, so that their position as ‘future partners,’ claimed by the corporations adopting stock-selling plans, is little more than an empty phrase so far as industrial democracy is concerned.”
Even allowing labor to purchase voting stock, the author points out, would not necessarily give labor an actual share in the management for the reason that the holding of these shares in small lots and among scattered representatives of labor, would in reality give them no collective voting power. Therefore, says Mr. Lauck, some form of collective ownership of this voting stock by the employees is necessary in order that labor may make effective its voting power. The employees of an industry holding voting stock in a collective form, could then elect their own officers to represent this stock on the board of directors and to stand for them. This, says Mr. Lauck, is the only real method of bringing about industrial democracy by stock ownership, and it is practiced in toto by only two industries in this country at present, although a larger number are carrying out in some part this idea of employee participation in the ownership and management.
The following corporations are cited as the leading ones permitting employee participation in stock ownership and in representation on the board of directorates.* In the first five such representation is through the voluntary action of the owners. According to the author’s opinion this is not actual industrial democracy but industrial paternalism, and therefore not the real solution of the problem but a praiseworthy effort toward solution.
* The latest list available showing the extent of employee ownership in twenty-four corporations is published by The Industrial Relations Section of Princeton University and can be secured from them.
1. Wm. S. Filene Sons—Cooperative Plan—Department Store.
2. Dutchess Bleacheries—Partnership Plan.
3. Boston Consolidated Gas Company—Profit-sharing Plan.
4. Louisville Railway Company—Cooperative Plan.
5. Columbia Conserve Company.
6. Mitten or Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company Plan of Cooperation.
7. Dennison Manufacturing Company—Partnership Plan.
8. The A. Nash Company, Inc. (“Golden Rule” Method of Cooperation.)
“In addition to the plans being especially considered in this study, there are also other forms, which in connection with employee stock-purchase plans, or systems of employee representation, permit, under varying conditions, employee representation on boards of directors. These companies are General Ice Delivery Company, Detroit; Pittsburgh Coal Company, Pittsburgh; Butler and Harmony Consolidated Railway and Power Company; Procter and Gamble Company; Studebaker Corporation, and the Marr Grocery Company, Denver, Colorado. There may be still others, but these constitute all for which data were obtainable for the present study.”
The A. Nash Company, Inc., has already in previous numbers been described in the pages of the Bahá’í Magazine. It is sufficient to state here that in the opinion of Mr. Lauck, it has been indeed “an industrial miracle.” It is in his opinion a pretty perfect form of industrial democracy, and the results of this democratization have been wonderful. From a democratic and ethical standpoint the situation of The Nash Company may be considered as theoretically ideal. “If the tendencies which have already been shown extend into the future, as
they undoubtedly will, the plan under which this company is operating will constiute one of the most perfect forms of industrial democracy, so far as spirit and achievements are concerned, which has thus far been developed.”
More remarkable even than The Nash Company because larger in its volume of business and its number of employees and in its position as a great public utility corporation, is the change which has been made in the organization of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company since it was put in operation there in 1911 by Mr. T. E. Mitten who at that time was placed in charge of the company.
At that time the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company was in a desperate condition both as regards its deterioration of equipment, the low value of its stock, and the disharmony of its labor. In so desperate a condition was it that when Mr. Mitten announced as a condition of his accepting the directorship or management of the company, that he should have full power to carry out any plan he wished, the stockholders were glad to accede to this. The plan is one of democratization which “provides for a direct participation and incentive to employees for cooperation on a definite stimulating basis, or by granting a fifty per cent participation in Management’s Fee or share in net earnings, payable after returns to capital have been met.”
The results of this plan as carried out have been remarkable. In the first place the inharmony in the ranks of labor was overcome and the employees have become most loyal and interested. They have systematically purchased both common and preferred stock of the company, and now hold through their own trustees more than ten million dollars par value, or more than thirty-three and one-third per cent of the total
common stock. The cash dividends on this stock are regularly distributed to the individual employees according to their respective shares and the total amount of stock purchased. As a result of the new attitude of employees the management of the company has been so much more efficient that all of its difficulties have been overcome, the equipment has been improved and brought to a greater perfection, the value of the stock and bonds has been greatly raised, and the whole organization tremendously strengthened by the Mitten plan, which Lauck cites as the most perfect of all the plans at present used in the direction of industrial democracy.
“Mitten, men and management, through voluntary agreement, voluntary discussion and voluntary action have made good one hundred cents on the dollar every stock and bond in the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. They have rehabilitated a great transit system, re-equipped it from top to bottom, and placed it on a par with any system of its kind in the world. . . . There is no healthier public utility in the United States today than that same Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, where management and men brought order out of chaos and brought prosperity out of despair through the instrumentality of voluntary discussion, and an agreement that would voluntarily arbitrate any differences that would ever arise.”
How great would be the results if industrial democracy could be achieved, the author says. “There would be a new industrial order which would represent greater efficiency and productivity and the fruits of which would be exceedingly great gains in human welfare and happiness. The losses of industrial conflict, as well as the danger of revolutionary and radical action, would be
eliminated. These would be supplanted by a democratic, constructive, evolution which would safely develop in accordance with the responsibilities placed upon management and employees in industry. Individual effort and ability would still be the constraining force in industrial life but it would be properly subordinated to a reasonable and practical spirit of cooperation and service.”
So much for the world at large.
As regards the Bahá’í world it may be of interest to state that Bahá’ís who are industrialists are endeavoring to carry out the Law as laid down in their religion, of participation in ownership and management. In the following short statement on this page is cited what we consider the most complete and effective carrying out of this plan.
It is to be hoped that this solution of the economic problem will be accepted and worked out by industrialists and labor in the coming generation, thus avoiding that economic warfare which, too, has its atrocities and lamentable wastes as devastating in their way as the evil effects of military warfare.
IS THIS PHILANTHROPY
The law of Bahá’u’lláh for the democratization of industry–that labor should have a share in the ownership and proceeds in addition to wages, and a voice in the management—has already been carried out by some of the Bahá'í business men of this country. The most notable is here cited of an importing coffee firm in New York.—Editor.
AS THIS business is now arranged there is no distinction of employer and employee, capital and labor, for more than three-quarters of those concerned with it are capitalists and sharers in the enterprise. As its president points out, a capitalist, by definition, is “any man who spends less than he earns.” The employees of this company have been given an opportunity to purchase stock at cost. If they have not the funds available they are given the stock at six per cent interest. “The annual dividends,” said the president, “have more than offset the interest, and gradually these employees have paid for the stock from their savings. Even the office boys have become stockholders.”
Is this philanthropy? “Emphatically no,” asserts the president of the company. “In the first place common justice is not philanthropy”; and, secondly, he says “this is good business.”
The results that have accrued from this arrangement have been that all connected with the business have worked with utmost conscientiousness, not measuring their time, not giving clock service. The founder of the business has been absent for two months or more at a time, while this business, often exceeding two million dollars in volume in a year, has been ably, conscientiously and energetically conducted by these shareholder employees, even the buying, selling and general details now being largely in their hands.
“When the economic plan of the Bahá’í Cause becomes known and generally adopted,” stated the president, “it will bring new hope, new zest, justice, and a new world.”
This article and one shortly to follow by the same author, should be read by all who realize the danger the world is in at present from racial prejudice. The menace of active and armed hostility between the orient and occident grows daily stronger. The basis of association between the orient and occident as practiced during the past few centuries, is destined to be entirely abolished. This is apparent to every thinking person. No longer can the occident control the orient by assumption of superiority and by material domination. The great need at this present day is for better understanding and sympathy between the east and the west. Such is the plea that Mr. Harris makes for inter-racial appreciation.–Editor.
IN THIS country of ours, where many foreign races are represented, the fear is expressed, in some quarters, that their amalgamation with the so-called Anglo-Saxon race will result in an inferior mixed population. But we know from a study of the great migrations of the past, that all the European races are the result of such an amalgamation. Prof. Franz Boas concludes his article on “Fallacies of Racial Inferiority” in the February “Current History,” as follows:
“All historical, biological and sociological considerations point to the conclusion that we have at present merely a repetition on a large scale of the phenomena of mixture from which have sprung the present European nations.”
So, why fear? We should rejoice, for if we gaze with the eye of soul we shall see a new race being formed, a universal race; a race capable of thinking in universals, and judging by universal standards. All of the conditions are present in America for the birth of such a nation, if the spirit of our Constitution and our laws dwelt in the hearts of our people.
The supremely important work for the spiritually minded in this reactionary age, is to exert themselves to the utmost to destroy the roots of race prejudice and establish the oneness of the world of humanity. To accomplish this,—“there is need of a supreme power to overcome human prejudices; a power which nothing in the world of mankind can withstand and which will overshadow the effect of all other forces at work in human conditions. That irresistible power is the love of God.” (’Abdu’l-Bahá.)
Deeper than tolerance lies appreciation. We must learn to not merely tolerate but to appreciate all the races that make up the family of mankind.
To soar in the atmosphere of race appreciation we need the wings of Spirit, and the buoyancy of the love of God. So far from being impossible, this flight is really natural to man, for man is not a body but a spirit; he is, in fact, the spirit in the body of the world.
The ancient philosopher Epictetus, who was a slave, and whose body his master frequently misused, was fond of saying: “My body is not me.” Some day we will cease thinking of ourselves and of others as bodies and learn that the true oneness of mankind is that of one soul in many bodies.
This soul note is sounded with great pathos in the following negro song?*
- “I walk through the churchyard
- To lay this body down;
- I know moonrise, I know starrise;
- I walk in the moonlight, I walk in
- the starlight;
* (DuBois, “The Souls of Black Folk”)
- I’ll lie in the grave and stretch out
- my arms.
- I’ll go to judgment in the evening
- of that day,
- And my soul and thy soul shall
- meet that day,
- When I lay this body down.”
Can we not have this soul meeting of the races before we “lay these bodies down”?
’Abdu’l-Bahá says:
“We know that the body or form has nothing to do with spirit or spiritual conditions. When the spirit is disconnected with or leaves the body, that is no reason for thinking it can be re-absorbed or joined with the whole of spirit, as drops of water are absorbed or lost in the sea. The earth is one unit, yet how many beings and separate parts it contains; the body of man is one unit, yet it has an infinite number of separate and individual parts. . . . So, in like manner, is Spirit ONE—but consisting of many different parts.” (Notes of Ethel J. Rosenberg, Jan., 1909.)
Our bodies are only symbols of a myriad of differentiated soul entities, or identities, if you please, attached to one eternal tree—the tree of life in the Paradise of God. When one becomes conscious of this tremendous truth all strangeness disappears and all the races and tribes of the earth become one great family.
II
If we take a bird’s-eye view of the world, we behold everywhere, the earth over, in jungle and swamp, on arid desert and rugged mountain, under the seas, on the ice, and in the snow, human beings toiling and risking life to furnish the many wants, both real and artificial, which our modern civilization demands.
Let us spread the map of the world before us. A mere glance will show there is hardly a nook or corner of it where these our brothers are not toiling for our comfort and convenience.
The more materially civilized we become, the more dependent we become on other races and countries. We take great pride in our national independence and self-sufficiency, but investigation shows that for both our food and our manufactured products we are dependent upon the rest of the world.
For instance, we manufacture sixty-five per cent of the world’s steel, but we could not produce a ton except for the use of manganese from the Caucasian Mountains, Japan and South America, chrome ore from Asia and nickel from Canada. For the production of stainless steel we are dependent on cobalt from Canada. Our fountain pen points and our tungsten lamps come from South America, Australia and China. For tin ore we depend on China and other countries, and the palm oil the iron sheets are dipped in to make tin plate comes from Africa.
But what is the use multiplying examples? The truth is that the materials which are indispensable to our modern civilization come from every part of the world. This geographical dependence upon one another was thus stated by Mr. John Herman Randall in his recent address at the World Unity Conference in New York City:
“The second mighty force making for unity, cooperation and understanding has been the fact that the world is fast becoming an ecomonic UNIT, faster than a great many people realize. One hundred years ago practically all nations were sufficient unto themselves; possessed their own resources, their own supplies of food, clothing and shelter within their own borders. Now the whole world is furnishing these materials even to so rich and resourceful a country as America.”
The things we use and wear and eat remind us of our common brotherhood.
Science, too, is doing heroic work to rid us of unfounded prejudices and bring us to a realization of our unity. Biologically, we are told, there is no such thing as race superiority. The impartial investigations of the scientists, whose aim is to find the truth and not to bolster prejudices, dispose of the old fanciful idea of five different races. We are now told that there are only two grand divisions of the human family, and peculiarities of color and of physical structure mean to the biologist nothing more than the adaptation to climate and environment, color being a matter of pigmentation.
None of us, a Jewish friend of mine remarked to me, can be racially proud after we have read and really digested Dr. Dorsey’s recent book, “Why We Behave Like Human Beings,” for Dr. Dorsey tells us:
“There is no known fact of the human anatomy or physiology which implies that capacity for culture or intelligence inheres in this race or that type.”
If we devoted the necessary time to it, we should undoubtedly find that every so-called race or type of man, even the humblest, has something valuable to teach us. In this connection Mr. Randall said in his New York World Unity Conference address:
“John Dewey and Bertrand Russell spent two years in China studying their life, their culture, their ideals; and when these two Western philosophers came back to their respective countries they both sat down and wrote books in which they told us that we of the West, in England and America, have very much to learn from the Chinese. They have in their culture, life and ideals very much that is well worth our while.”
A two years’ residence by these distinguished men with any of the other races would probably have evoked similar statements.
But let us return to the soul view, that is, let us for a while look at race appreciation as defined by ’Abdu’l-Bahá. After all it is only the spiritual remedy which will prove effective in the cure of the diseases of racial and religious prejudice.
“The disease which afflicts the body-politic is lack of love and absence of altruism. In the hearts of men no real love is found, and the condition is such that unless their susceptibilities are quickened by some power so that unity, love and accord may develop within them, there can be no healing, no agreement among mankind. . . . This is the exigency of the times and the divine remedy has been provided.” (’Abdu’l-Bahá.)
As a condition precedent to the application of this remedy the conscience of mankind must be awakened and the beginning of that awakening will come by learning to appreciate each other as souls. First of all, we must realize the lowly and humble origin of the now proud race of human beings. Ignoring the ascent of the human spirit through the kingdoms up to man, let us begin with the earliest obtainable record of man as a self-conscious being.
Most all the facts we have point to the Mesopotamian Valley as the spot from which the various so-called races migrated to obey the biblical injunction of exercising dominion over the earth, and using it for the needs of the human race. Let us picture the universal human spirit differentiating itself into various family groups and sending these out upon their great missions. These various
soul families migrated to every habitable part of the earth and gradually evolved capacities and traits peculiar to themselves and in which they came to excel. (As an example of a marked physical trait, for instance, no man of any other race has ever been able to successfully imitate the peculiar dance motion of the red Indian.)
One branch of the family trekked to the north, encountered the hardships of a cold climate and developed a hardy, fighting spirit, and the spirit of invention, for they were compelled to build structures to protect themselves from the weather, and invent weapons to protect themselves from wild beasts and to kill the animals on which they were dependent for food and clothing. Since the forests and streams did not furnish them with a constant supply of food they were also compelled to turn to agriculture.
On the contrary, the branches of the family who traveled to warmer climates where the gifts of Nature were more abundant, being under no such necessity, had time to dream dreams and indulge in spiritual vision. The result has been that the people of the West, of the colder climate, are noted for their material. accomplishments and are characteristically aggressive and men of action. Their religion and their spiritual philosophy they have acquired from the branches of the family which traveled to the Orient.
Can we not see that this two-sided development has been quite natural and in reality most beautiful? Not only that, but in this two-fold biological and historical development there seems to be something basic and fundamental. It corresponds to the other biological facts that our brain is composed of two hemispheres, and that the human race is divided into male and female. The one branch of the race is the fulfilling of the other and it requires the two to compose the whole.
The West is the worker, the doer, the accomplisher, the administrator, the fighter, the protector. In fulfilling this task it has had little time left for spiritual contemplation; but God has given it another and a better half, which has solved its spiritual problems for it. The spiritual susceptibilities of the peoples of the East will always be a mine of jewels for the whole human race; but the distribution of these jewels over the earth as a whole, can be better done by the more practical, but in reality no less spiritual people of the West.
The duty of the West is plain; to make these spiritual bounties universal and to use its energy and rugged determination in cooperation and sympathy with their Oriental brothers to bring about such a mutuality and appreciation the one of the other as shall forever make impossible all foolish rivalry, and abolish the antagonisms, which too long have kept the world divided and prevented it from fulfilling its manifest destiny.
To quote Dr. Dorsey: “Human beings are the most interesting objects on earth, and to know themselves and get along with one another is their most important business.” So far from being impossible, this “getting along” with one another, establishing peace, mutual appreciation and brotherhood, could be brought about nearly overnight by the universal application of the real cure for all our ills, which is the Love of God.
- “Mankind shall yet be brithers all,
- For a’ that and a’ that.”
This article written at the request of the editors is a personal document which we feel is both illuminating and inspiring. In regard to the expression of her experiences in and ideas about the Bahá'í Movement, the author writes, “It seems to me that to be able to express in words why one believes is to admit a lack of that precious religious quality that marks the dynamic spiritual event. The more holy an experience the more difficult its description. At the resistance of my mind because of arrogance and at restraint of my heart through fear of betrayal when I first approached this Message, I can but look back with real embarrassment. All I can say is that the miracle of faith did dawn purging away those doubts and fears. The light did at last shine over the mountain-tops and down into the valley where I stood.”—Editor.
I WAS once asked to give a special course in Design to a group of college girls. These girls were juniors in a home-economics course and were well-trained in application and desirous of a good mark but only two or three had had any preparation whatever. Not a girl there had even ordinary talent for drawing; they were discouraged before they began. The first ray of hope came when I told them that drawing is a process and can be learned. On that basis we worked out a measure of success. A person without “an artistic eye” can learn to draw accurately by means of observation and the faculty of comparison; one lacking in taste can produce charming effects by the aid of the color chart. Bahá’u’lláh, the divine Teacher of this Day, wins us to faith by means of a process. The unquestioning belief born of intuition, the response of the lamb to the Shepherd’s voice. is like a heaven-sent talent. It is as rare in this western world as are those people whom we all know and love who by their innate simplicity, humility, and lovingness seem to have been born near the door of heaven. As a substitute for this genius for generosity of the heart and mind we less-favored mortals have the testimony of the senses and the medium of intellectual acceptance. We do not “draw easily” but under the guidance of the wise teacher we can be taught to simulate capacity. Who knows what latent talent for loving, and giving, and faith may be coaxed into expression at His hands?
The miraculously activating emotion of faith must indeed baffle the understanding of one who has not experienced it, especially when it is put to some test. At the time of the Declaration of the Báb (who was the Herald or John the Baptist of the Bahá’í Religion), we find a people who for generations had been born to servile acceptance of church and state suddenly becoming enrapt by the vision of a radiant Youth who preached a doctrine of universal love in a land of hatred, of freedom and equality in the stronghold of tyranny, of the simple adoration of God in a country where ceremony and superstition were rife. To respond to this call so radical and resounding meant to turn one’s back on security and social position, perhaps on friends and family, and to stand out as the target for persecution, fiendish devisings, debasement, possibly death itself. The intangible, elusive Possession proffered in the ringing words of the Báb, became the pearl of great price for these thousands of martyrs. They sold all that seems precious to man’s material regard for a something that cannot be conceived by the senses. Over Persia in the days of persecution was spread the glorious pageantry of faith; it was the miracle
of God coming with power and great glory and its like had never been seen there. Before such sublime faith we in the western world can but bow our heads.
My real initiation into the Bahá’í Faith was first by observation. I came all at once to meet persons who seemed to reflect the spirit of the Báb’s disciples. They spoke the language of Reality; their news of a Divine Message rang confidently. When they were ill or troubled by finances they maintained their high spirits. At their homes I tasted true hospitality; when they were at my house it was as if I had a retinue of servants. I think the thing that impressed me most was their prayers, such outpourings of adoration as I had not seen in churches; I would catch upon their faces the look of having been drained of self, the rapt expression of that which the mystics have termed “poverty.” Yet these new friends of ours suffered more defeats than we imagined because their goals were more inaccessible. These are the “tried soldiers of Bahá’u’lláh,” and of them I learned the principle of love in action.
Those who heard the Báb proclaim His impassioned utterances in the streets of Mecca learned thus, and those who witnessed the triumph of a martyr’s death. Those who beheld Bahá’u’lláh and noted the majesty of His movements though hampered by a convict’s chains, and those who beheld the serenity of the exiles in their hours of deprivation learned the lesson of the great Artist. The fact that ’Abdu’l-Bahá has lived the life of Christ and that He has exemplified in every act and word the ideal of perfection is the proof by deeds of the truth of these teachings.
The mission of all Bahá’í Teachers is to awaken in us the desire to solve the mystery of this Source, and to create in us a thirst for the Water of Life. There is a fountain in paradise called the salsible to which the feet of the believers have been guided, and it is for refreshment such as this that the soul of man has become parched. That such a fountain exists seems to be the conviction of all those who go in search of it with empty cup, and through the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh I attained to a drop of that knowledge.
The lesson by observation having been learned, Bahá’u’lláh instructs His students by means of comparison. For two thousand years the generations of Christians have prayed in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come.” Bahá’u’lláh says that the coming of God’s kingdom is the consummation of this age. He unrolls as on a scroll the drawing of a divine civilization in order that it may serve as a correction and a guide to the crude efforts and pitiful failures of mankind. In this conception so magnificent in scope yet so easy to understand one sees what appears to be God’s own plan for His creation.
It is instructive to place the blurred sketch of our present progress with its many erasures and unbeautiful distortions beside the model of the Master that we may scan its divine proportions and cease to tolerate that thing we have produced.
A view of our universal situation shows the deplorable fact that there is not a person in the world who is not abhorred by countless others of his kind because of his unforgivable odiousness; that is to say, he differs from them in color, nationality, religion, or the state of society to which he belongs. To these prejudices we have been born, so that we have come to look on them as justifiable. In 1914 and at many earlier dates these brooding resentments burst out in bloody warfare. Our history books are bulky with the records of race wars, class wars, and religious wars,
which have brutalized and impoverished the people for thousands of years. In this century the inventors have labored to bring men elbow to elbow and now there is no material isolation left. Yet it is true that, material unity accomplished, men hate each other even more than they did before; and today it is dangerous! Speaking as we do in different tongues the voices which ascend to heaven must sound like those of the Tower of Babel; we have wealth that stultifies and poverty that degrades; in many countries woman is still considered the inferior of man; we find the educated dominating the ignorant. We also find in this age where there is a kind of unity,—in fact where unity is being used as the keynote of material progress—that real differences are indeed abhorrent–everywhere difference, that condition least to be tolerated, is interfering with the friendship of the peoples and classes. The world hates and fears diversity and is ready to root it out at the cost of personal annihilation.
A study of the Bahá’í Revelation lifts one’s vantage point from the limited to the Supreme Horizon. We see our strifes and fears as they must look to God; we see that there are “differences” of each color and kind which are indispensable to the balanced design of the whole, but we see points of estrangement which like broken lines must be made firm. There is a basis of reconciliation between men and nations beside which their variations due to historical and geographical background become most trivial. This is voiced by Bahá’u’lláh who has said: “Ye are all leaves of one tree, fruits of one branch.”
The elaboration of this statement is of significance regarding our situation of political and international unrest. In the principles of this faith one may read Bahá’u’lláh’s contribution to modern policy:
1. He shows that it is our intellectual prerogative and moral duty independently to investigate Truth.
2. He asserts that all religions have risen from one Source; that all mankind is one; that science and religion are in accord.
3. He suggests that a better understanding can be fostered by a plan of universal education, the use of an auxiliary language, and an admission of the equality of men and women in all countries.
4. He presents a workable plan for an adjustment of economic difficulties and the arrangement of international arbitration.
Bahá’u’lláh predicts that by accepting and acting upon these world principles the Most Great Peace may be attained to in this century.
The design of the Master Artist is not only true in its representation, but exquisite in its workmanship; the quality of its line and the beauty of its detail imply the perfection of each part. So do the divine laws extend from the correction of the nations to the purification of each separate individual who is to be part of the New Civilization; without the awakening of the people even the perfect laws would not be imbued with life.
Within this Message I found a formula for building what Maeterlinck has called “a great moral personality.” I found an ideal in which love, energy, insight, and understanding combined to meet the measure of a person not less than man. I realized too that these words are life-conferring and charged with a potency beyond human ken; that somehow once more a Man of Sorrows has guided the footsteps of humanity to the Path. This message of resurrection is not meant for a few advanced beings who like the mystics of the Christian dispensation have charted a lonely
and endless way to God, but for all seekers who in this Day will submit themselves to the “rule and ceremony of loving,” so clearly defined by God’s Messenger.
I have come to see that there is a chance in the not so far distant future for man with a heightened consciousness to become part of a reclaimed civilization, a universe which like the product of the artist shall have a center of interest toward which all lines seem to lead and to which all else is subordinated. In regard to this center, ’Abdu’l-Bahá has said, “The Law of God is a collective center which unites various peoples, nativities, tongues, and opinions.” To attach oneself to that Center comes to mean a dissolution of that enveloping self-consciousness that has ever made for discord. When at last as individuals or nations we fit into the picture, our dreams and coveted goals, orientated for the first time in the world of Reality, will gain purpose and dignity and we shall experience a focus of our forces toward undreamed-of accomplishments.
Is this the Word of God? One who seeks for Truth in the Bahá’í Revelation searches his soul for the answer. All the manifest proofs such as the record of prophecy, and the signs the mob demand, fade out beside the testimony of the Book. The Word of God will not admit of imitations. In the Words of the “Iqan” (Book of Assurance revealed by Bahá’u’lláh). “Consider how great is the value of the verses in which God. hath completed His perfect argument, consummate proof, dominant power and penetrating will. . . . . To the people they are everlasting proof, fixed argument, and shining light from the presence of that Ideal King. No excellence equals them. They are the treasury of divine pearls and the depository of the mysteries of unity. They are the strong thread, the firm rope, the most secure handle and the inextinguishable light. Through them flows the river of the Divine Knowledges, and bursts the fire of the consummate wisdom of the eternal.” That this is a true description of those verses which I read in my days of search and those words which are now my nourishment and my delight, I here bear witness.
In Persia in 1844 there were certain souls who had been awaiting with the utmost vigilance the call of the Promised One. At the news of the Báb’s proclamation they sold their property and traveled from the cities and outlying country districts to His side, perhaps a journey of weeks. In America in 1927 we who term ourselves of the vigilant must set out on a spiritual pilgrimage, a going forth of the heart and mind, to that place where we may find Him in order to discern if this Message of such startling import be true. We will be rewarded with the evidence that:
1. A pure and selfless man has again walked this earth.
2. He has proclaimed His prophethood.
3. He has left teachings in every way conducive to the universal advancement of the people.
4. He was willing to pay the price of martyrdom in order to deliver His Message.
Who shall say that He speaks not the Truth!
Thus I journeyed to the City of Assurance along the main high road which is pleasant to travel, assisted by loving guides and obvious signs. I am confident that ere long many shall pass by this Way. “The White Hand shall cleave an opening in this somber night, and God shall open into His City a gate. On that day the people shall enter into it in crowds. . . . that there may appear in the end what began in the beginning.”
THOSE who have had the joy of visiting Switzerland, who have grown brown in its brilliant sunshine, seen the clouds wreathe themselves in a myriad of fantastic forms about the snow-capped mountains, watched a sunset or a moonrise over the iridescent waters of Lake Leman, can never quite forget the experience, nor fail to realize an upliftment of soul, a sense of being enfolded in a deep peace touched at times even with ecstasy. But who dare hope to describe the beauty that has been immortalized by a Byron or a Shelley?
No wonder, therefore, that when ’Abdu’l-Bahá visited this country in 1911, driving in the mountains or crossing by steamer to the picturesque towns, linked, like beads on a silver chain, all round the lake border, His tender, sensitive heart knew gladness and refreshment and rejoiced in the loveliness mirrored forth by nature on every side. And surely wherever He passed, spiritual seed was sown that will spring up and grow unto the harvest.
One day, we are told, gazing across the level waters lying “like a sea of glass mingled with fire,” ’Abdu’l-Bahá looked beyond where the busy little haunts of men lay embosomed in foliage, beyond where the mystically blue summits of the Juras stood drawn as with a mighty pencil along the skyline, to that spiritual world where “the Hosts of the Lord rise up to the assistance of the faithful ones,” and “the White Hand cleaves an opening to the sombre night” that shrouds the Continent of Europe, to where “God had opened into His City a Gate, through which men shall enter in crowds.” For, turning to those who were with Him, He said, slowly and impressively: “There is much work to be done around the lake." And so has the work begun.
In obedience to Shoghi Effendi’s request, Mrs. Jane Stannard, whose field of service for the Bahá’í Cause had hitherto lain in the East, traveled to the quiet, grey town lying at the end of the Lake—where meet the waters of two rivers—and courageously opened, some fifteen months ago, a Bureau for international correspondence.
Over Geneva still lingers the severe shade of Calvin; yet, side by side with and superimposed as it were upon deeply-rooted tradition and indifference are the manifold activities of numberless modern societies, working, each in their own way, for the good of all. But memories haunt the broad boulevards and narrow, cobbled streets, not only of stern, fiery reformers, but of the idealistic, reckless Rousseau, of the two wild English poets who went sailing and singing over the tranquil lake on summer evenings, and of many another vivid personality famous in history and literature. And here, also, on a summer day came One to bless this ancient home of hardly-won liberty, which had been destined to hold the heart-throbs of the world of international hopes and ideals—the Great Physician—bringing with Him balm for the healing of the nations.
Here, also, during last autumn, Martha Root arrived, to deliver at a special Esperanto Conference, the message of love and unity to the representatives of thirty-two nations. A veritable meeting of the Waters!
Now, in order to comply with growing needs, an earnest endeavor is being made to maintain the regular publication of a central organ of news and propaganda—“Le Messager
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Bahá’í”—which seeks also to emphasize, in the light of the Bahá’í Teachings, some of the great thoughts and striking utterances delivered here, from time to time, by prominent people. And in this connection it is encouraging to know that, to the Bahá’í principles and ideals, men, whose names hold honored place in Switzerland and in the intellectual world generally, are giving open assent and sympathy,—hilltops kindling with the glory of the Sunrise!
The Bureau serves, too, as a meeting-place for Bahá’ís arriving from all parts of the world. Visitors during the spring and summer have included friends and enquirers from France, Germany, America, Russia, Austria, India, Egypt and Palestine. And the Center has provided yet another example of that spirit of unity, the shining secret of the growth of our Movement, for members have traveled here from several parts of Europe, England and America to manifest their interest and practical sympathy.
One of the most gracious proofs of the operation of the Holy Spirit has been the attraction to the Bahá’í Cause of the owner of a well-known bookshop, dealing with all kinds of progressive thought literature. This gifted woman caused a beautifully illuminated scroll to be displayed in the window of her store, embodying, in three languages, the Bahá’í Principles.
“What is this Bahá’í Revelation?” asked a casual passer-by gazing in at the window. “Sure, I don’t know,” was the equally casual reply of his companion, “but it seems to be a very sensible affair.” Just so: for the Divine common-sense of the Great Plan cannot fail to make its appeal to the merest passer-by, so that even “he who runs may read.”
Let it be our earnest prayer that in this important world-center the Divine Oriflamme may glow with ever-increasing radiance.
An hour’s automobile ride from Geneva brings one to that pleasant center of sport and education, of youth and flowers, which falls down the hillside to the lake like a mighty laburnum—Lausanne-Ouchy. Here the Bahá’í Cause has been known and devotedly sustained for several years by Madame Beck. At present, through the kindness of an American believer, Bahá’í weekly meetings are being held in the salon of a small hotel in the town, and at these meetings, a blind Egyptian radiates the spirit of love by his sweet chantings and interesting talks. And when the Bahá’ís here join with friends all over the world in commemoration of the Ascension of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, the gathering will be held in the home of a Swiss woman who has only known the Bahá’í Cause for a few weeks. With her it was a case of instantaneous attraction. Seeing, for the
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first time, a photo of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, she caught it up in her hands crying: “Oh! c’est le visage du Bon Dieu!” and shed tears.
All round the lake Bahá’ís have been visiting; wafting, we trust, spiritual pollen on the breezes of Divine Assurance, and thereby fertilizing, maybe, many a wayside flower. “For the harvest of every seed is limited,
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but the bounty and blessing of the Divine Teachings are unlimited.”
To Thonon, that ancient citadel perched high on the French coté, a pilgrimage was made by friends from Geneva; the hotel at which ’Abdu’l-Bahá stayed with His followers standing out on the brow of the hill.
Evian, close by, in the season a glittering little spa, was the holiday resort of that fine soldier and friend of ’Abdu’l-Bahá—Lord Allenby.
Glion, hanging like a nest on the mountain-side above which towers the majestic Rochers de Naye, was the scene, one Sunday afternoon, of a social gathering—Mrs. Stannard motoring over with a friend. And during September, three or four Bahá’ís found each other on Mount Pélerin—that sunny and peaceful summit! There the clergyman attached to a little English Church recently opened, joined friends from Paris, England and America, and with the magnificent panorama of the Savoy Alps and the whole of the Swiss Riviera spread out before them,–they studied together the teachings of Swedenborg—that great Evangel—comparing them with the Bahá’í Scriptures. A truly illuminating study in an ideal environment!
Nyon, Vevey and Montreux—beloved as we know by members of the
family of ’Abdu’l-Bahá–and now ablaze with the season’s glory—have had Bahá'í guests. And who knows what spiritual wirelessing may have been operating, preparing minds and hearts all along this lovely route—a route so rich, too, in literary associations—for the blaze of a greater Glory than that of their woods in Autumn, the recognition of a sublime and sacred literature written by the power of a Supreme Pen!
And so we labor on, with the stirring words of Shoghi Effendi ringing in our hearts:
“Naught else can provide that driving force and sustaining power that are both so essential to the success of vast and enduring achievements. . . but the realization, down in the innermost heart of every true believer, of the regenerating power, the supreme necessity, the unfailing efficacy of the Message he bears.”
DANZIG, “the Queen of the Baltic Sea,” a city of sweet-sounding chimes, of fresh sea breezes wafting, and a mediaeval charm of joyously colored streets, old gates and antique churches, has a treasure which every city in the world might sigh to possess. Not one of the greatest countries can fanfare that they have its counterpart. This jewel is a dear little woman, Mrs. Anna Tuschinski, eighty-five years “young,” who is the pioneer of Esperanto in the Free City of Danzig.
Left a widow at the age of forty-nine years, she became an instructor of languages. One day, quite by chance, when she was in her sixty-sixth year, she found a little Esperanto grammar. She read it carefully and immediately saw how logical it is. She learned this universal auxiliary language, gathered the youth, both young men and women, taught them and soon she gave a large evening reception to which she invited the citizens of Danzig. For the first time they heard Esperanto and about Esperanto.
The proofs of her twenty years of indefatigable labor and her excellent Esperanto are: first, her city, Danzig, has captured the honor of having the Nineteenth Universal Congress of Esperanto which is to take place there July 28 to August 4. A second proof is that some of the most intelligent, cultured young people of Danzig are fervent Esperantists. Miss Kaethe Marquardt, private secretary to the President, is a remarkable Esperantist. The President, Dr. Heinrich Sahm, is the Patron of this coming Universal Congress of Esperanto. The Chief Delegate of Esperanto, Mr. Bernhard Aeltermann, is in the office of the City (State) government and Mayor of the small city, Emaus, which is close to Danzig.
How has it all come about? Sweet
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Free City of Danzig, Europe, where the Nineteenth Universal Congress of Esperanto will be held, July 28-August 4.
Mrs. Tuschinski is not tall, silent, awe-inspiring; rather she is very petite, slender, always smiling, richly blessed with the gift of humor, and so light is her step that she still dances with the young men at the Esperanto balls and informal parties. The writer learned from pupils that their teacher never hesitates to go up three and four flights of stairs to visit the sick Esperantists, or more often the very poor. Some people say she is very unwise, because she has spent everything she has on others; but she said to the writer: “I am richer than any of them for my heart-possessions no one can ever take from me.”
Anna Tuschinski, unconsciously is teaching Danzig and she will teach all Congress visitors something, even more than perfect Esperanto: it is the wonderful secret of happiness! She possesses a high spiritual aim which gives joy to life; plunged in love and service, she is always surrounded by love and friends.
When the writer of this sketch told her of the two Bahá’í convention sessions as part of this coming Congress, she quickly replied: “Yes, I will come to your two Bahá’í sessions and to the Catholic Sunday service and to the Jewish meeting, I love all noble people. We must cross over the narrow bridge of differences in religion. I became an Esperantist to cross over the bridge of language differences. You are the first Bahá’í I have ever met, but very often I have read of Bahá’u’lláh’s Principles in the Esperanto magazines.”
The three days’ visit to Danzig was made in March especially to arrange all details for these two important Bahá’í sessions. The general subject for the convention session on July 30, is: “Bahá’í Principles for the
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Mrs. Anna Tuschinski, 85 years old, pioneer of Esperanto in Danzig.
New Universal Education”; the subject for the session on August first is: “Bahá’í Scientific Proofs of Life After Death.” Of course the Universal Congress of Esperanto is neutral in religion and politics, but “Fakaj Kunvenoj” as these different convention sessions are called in Esperanto, may be arranged by members of different religious organizations, peace societies, scientific societies, labor parties and others, and all Congress participants may be invited. Fifty international organizations will have representatives at this Congress.
Danzig is preparing for 2,500 visitors during Congress week. More than 500 are expected from Germany. Polish Esperantists write that more than 300 will come from their cities; Great Britain will have a large representation. Almost every country in the world is sending delegates. As Danzig is central in Europe many hundreds can attend. The Summer University in Esperanto is attracting many, and also, as this is Jubilee Year in Esperanto, many will be present at the solemn and impressive celebration which is to form part of the Congress program.
There will be many other features. One day all the Congressionists will be taken for an excursion on the Baltic Sea. Another evening a Grand Opera performance of “Gutterdämmerung,” will be presented in a beautiful forest of pines and birches in Zoppot, a famous seaside city near Danzig (only twenty minutes by fast train.) Three hundred musicians will come from Berlin, Vienna, Dresden and Munich to sing in this opera. The Esperanto Oratorical Contest will take place in Zoppot, in a great garden of one of the hotels overlooking the Baltic Sea. Later tea will be served, the hundreds of tables arranged so that all may see the beautiful Baltic and heart its murmur.
May the dear “Esperanto little mother,” eighty-five-year-old Mrs. Anna Tuschinski, live to see this Congress and may the Esperantists see her!
of these peerless days! God is establishing in the hearts of men His kingdom of peace and good-will. Blessed are those who have taken
part in this glorious work.-’Abdu’l-Bahá.
shared by various nations created a spirit of solidarity amongst them. For instance, thirteen hundred years ago there were many divergent nationalities in the Orient. There were Copts in Egypt, Syrians in Syria, Assyrians and Babylonians in Bagdad and along the rivers of Mesoptamia. There existed among these peoples rank hatred; but as they were gradually brought nearer through common protection and common interests, the Arabic language grew to be the means of intercommunication and they became as one nation. They all speak Arabic to this day. In Syria, if you ask any one of them, he will say, “I am an Arab,” though he be a Greek, an Egyptian, Syrian or Jew.
We say “this man is a German, the other an Italian, a Frenchman, an Englishman,” etc. All belong to the great human family, yet language is the barrier between them. The greatest working basis for bringing about unity and harmony amongst the nations is the teaching of a universal tongue. Writing on this subject fifty years ago, His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh declared that complete union between the various nations of the world would remain an unrealized dream until an international language was established.
Misunderstandings will not be dispelled except through the medium of a common ground of communication. Every intelligent man will bear testimony to this. . . . A mutual language will become the mightiest means toward universal progress, for it will cement the east and the west. It will make the world one home and become the divine impulse for human advancement. It will upraise the standard of oneness of the world of humanity and make the earth a universal commonwealth. It will create love between the children of men and good fellowship between the various creeds. . . . Religious prejudices play havoc among the peoples and bring about warfare and strife and it is impossible to remove them without a common
medium. ’Abdu’l-Bahá.