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WORLD ORDER

THE GOAL OF WORLD ORDER

SHOGHI EFFENDI

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THE MIND OF MODERN YOUTH

PAUL E. BAKER

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THOMAS GARIGUE MASARYK

JOSEPH S. ROUCEK

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(Contents continued on inside cover)

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APRIL 1935

Price 20c

VIEWING THE WORLD AS AN ORGANISM

[Page 0]

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

(Continued)

HOMOCULTURE

A New Vision of Education

STANWOOD COBB

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TURKEY TAKES THE NEW ROAD

D. D. JONES and R. PEISEN

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THE WORLD OF TOMORROW

STEWART F. BRYANT

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REDUCING TRADE BARRIERS

OSCAR NEWFANG

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RELIGION, RACE AND UNITY

Book Reviews

PAUL RUSSELL ANDERSON

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THE WORLD AS ORGANISM

Editorial

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World Order is published monthly in New York, N. Y. by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada.

Editors, Stanwood Cobb and Horace Holley.

Business Manager, C. R. Wood.

Editorial Office—

119 Waverly Place, New York, N. Y.

Publication Office—

135 East 50th Street, New York, N. Y.

Subscriptions: $2.00 per year, $1.75 to Libraries. Rate to addresses outside the United States, $2.25, foreign Library rate, $2.00, Single copies, 20 cents. Checks and money orders should be made payable to World Order Magazine, 135 East 50th Street, New York, N. Y. Application for entry as second class matter is pending.

Contents copyrighted 1935 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee

[Page 1]

WORLD ORDER

APRIL 1935

NUMBER 1 VOLUME 1

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THE WORLD AS ORGANISM

EDITORIAL

IN the long march of human development certain differences between peoples have successively become organized as sanctions for strife. At one stage the difference is race, at another stage religion, at still another stage nationalism or economic philosophy. During the period of conflict, the difference is felt to be vital and in fact universal, as though the contesting groups or societies belonged to separate kingdoms of existence.

Today these historic forms of differentiation, though still exerting powerful influence, are rapidly retreating before the rise of one all- encompassing distinction which appears to be truly organic. This vital differentiation between human beings now increasingly manifest is that in which sets apart those who view the world of humanity as an organism and those who accept it as a constant and necessary struggle between self- sufficient and sovereign groups.

Between these two types of human being lies a chasm wider and deeper than race, class, nationality or creed — a form of irreconcilable difference demanding attention as the ultimate source of the present world unrest.

At root, the differentiation is innate, not acquired. It emanates from the unconscious depths of human personality, and has become overwhelmingly important for the very reason that innate differences maintain themselves beyond the reach of external social influence and indeed beyond the reach of rational discussion. The philosophies, the principles and the actions proceeding from these innate differences are inherently irreconcilable because they are projections of the values expressing life itself.

The distinction between those who view the world as an organism and those who see it as struggle between isolated societies operates everywhere as a subtle but penetrating force, dissolving the pretence of power into the reality of weakness.

[Page 2]WHAT has happened is that destiny has brought about a mysterious condition in the development of mankind which compels each individual, consciously or unconsciously, to choose between loyalty to the race and loyalty to one or another rebellious group. The prevailing “world war” which takes so many complicated forms — war of trade and tariff, war of currency and credit, war of collectivity and freedom, war of statism and individualism, war of agriculture and industry, war of capital and labor — simply means that the imperative choice has confronted humanity throughout the whole range of feeling, action and thought. It would be well if the real issue were clearly understood, for at present the human mind is confused, and the universal virtue of loyalty is thereby tragically betrayed.

The purpose of this brief analysis is simple: it is to assert the need of a truly inclusive and universal loyalty capable of uniting together the people of good will, the people who are concerned with the safety and welfare of the race, who understand that the only vital issue is peace and world order, without regard to the older and superficial differences of race, nation, class and creed. The instinctively partisan and exclusive person has become the enemy of mankind. He has remained behind on the march of evolution. The object of his partisan loyalty, whether it is represented as a political, an economic or a sectarian philosophy, is no other than a Moloch which, if enshrined in power, will consume the very foundations of human existence.

The very existence of such formidable world unrest may justifiably be taken as a supremely significant factor in human evolution. Since it has already served to divide the entire race into two groups beyond and above the old geographical and territorial divisions, precipitating an issue which goes to the very roots of human nature, who can declare that the historic process just begun will not be consummated in some final struggle which will serve to clarify the real problem of men’s relation to life and to mankind?

As the soundest approach to the current social problem, it is suggested that the world unrest, in essence, represents the dawn of a new degree of maturity in humankind, a maturity not yet established but potential, the early light of which illumines those who are responsive to spiritual influence. One ray of this dawn brings clarity to the intelligence, which responds with the pursuit of plans for the ordering of society as a whole. Another ray penetrates the heart, which responds with new zeal for the eternal dream of brotherhood to be realized on this earth. Partisanship, on the other hand, is rejection of this dawn. Its standards and realities are those of the darkness. Unable to accept the new revelation of the oneness of mankind, it would vainly sacrifice the future to the past. As between these two exclusive attitudes, the goal of world citizenship and the establishment of some materialistic empire, the choice will be inevitable for the people of good will when the lines are once definitely drawn. H.H.

[Page 3]

Has an age so afflicted and confused received no spiritual inspiration of renewal, no social gospel to fulfill the yearning for Universal Peace? These excerpts from an exposition of the Teaching of Bahá’u’lláh make significant response to this question.

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THE GOAL OF WORLD ORDER

By SHOGHI EFFENDI

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A WAR-WEARY WORLD

NEITHER the force which the framers and guarantors of the Peace Treaties have mustered, nor the lofty ideals which originally animated the author of the Covenant of the League of Nations have proved a sufficient bulwark against the forces of internal disruption with which a structure so laboriously contrived had been consistently assailed. Neither the provisions of the so-called Settlement which the victorious Powers have sought to impose, nor the machinery of an institution which America’s illustrious and far-seeing President had conceived, have proved, either in conception or practice, adequate instruments to ensure the integrity of the Order they had striven to establish. “The ills from which the world now suffers,” wrote ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in January 1920, "will multiply; the gloom which envelopes it will deepen. The Balkans will remain discontented. Its restlessness will increase. The vanquished Powers will continue to agitate. They will resort to every measure that may rekindle the flame of war. Movements, newly-born and world—wide in their range, will exert their utmost effort for the advancement of their designs. The Movement of the Left will acquire great importance. Its influence will spread.”

Economic distress, since those words were written, together with political confusion, financial upheavals, religious restlessness and racial animosities, seem to have conspired to add immeasurably to the burdens under which an impoverished, a war-weary world is groaning. Such has been the cumulative effect of these successive crises, following one another with such bewildering rapidity, that the very foundations of society are trembling. The world, to whichever continent we turn our gaze, to however remote a region our survey may extend, is everywhere assailed by forces it can neither explain nor control . . .

Never indeed have there been such widespread and basic upheavals, whether in the social, economic or political spheres of human activity as those now going on in different [Page 4] parts of the world. Never have there been so many and varied sources of danger as those that now threaten the structure of society. The following words of Bahá’u’lláh are indeed significant as we pause to reflect upon the present state of a strangely disordered world: “How long will humanity persist in its waywardness? How long will injustice continue? How long is chaos and confusion to reign amongst men? How long will discord agitate the face of society? The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divides and afflicts the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appears to be lamentably defective.”

The disquieting influence of over thirty million souls living under minority conditions throughout the continent of Europe; the vast and ever-swelling army of the unemployed with its crushing burden and demoralizing influence on governments and peoples; the wicked, unbridled race of armaments swallowing an ever-increasing share of the substance of already impoverished nations; the utter demoralization from which the international financial markets are now increasingly suffering; the onslaught of secularism invading what has hitherto been regarded as the impregnable strongholds of Christian and Muslim orthodoxy—these stand out as the gravest symptoms that bode ill for the future stability of the structure of modern civilization. Little wonder if one of Europe’s preeminent thinkers, honored for his wisdom and restraint, should have been forced to make so bold an assertion: “The world is passing through the gravest crisis in the history of civilization.” “We stand,” writes another, “before either a world catastrophe, or perhaps before the dawn of a greater era of truth and wisdom.” “It is in such times,” he adds, “that religions have perished and are born” . . .

THE IMPOTENCE OF STATESMANSHIP

HUMANITY, whether viewed in the light of man’s individual conduct or in the existing relationships between organized communities and nations, has, alas, strayed too far and suffered too great a decline to be redeemed through the unaided efforts of the best among its recognized rulers and statesmen—however disinterested their motives, however concerted their action, however unsparing in their zeal and devotion to its cause. No scheme which the calculations of the highest statesmanship may yet devise; no doctrine which the most distinguished exponents of economic theory may hope to advance; no principle which the most ardent of moralists may strive to inculcate, can provide, in the last resort, adequate foundations upon which the future of a distracted world can be built.

No appeal for mutual tolerance which the worldly-wise might raise, however compelling and insistent, can calm its passions or help restore its vigor. Nor would any general scheme of mere organized international cooperation, in whatever sphere of human activity, however [Page 5] ingenious in conception, or extensive in scope, succeed in removing the root cause of the evil that has so rudely upset the equilibrium of present-day society. Not even, I venture to assert, would the very act of devising the machinery required for the political and economic unification of the world—a principle that has been increasingly advocated in recent times —provide in itself the antidote against the poison that is steadily undermining the vigor of organized peoples and nations.

What else, might we not confidently affirm, but the unreserved acceptance of the Divine Program enunciated, with such simplicity and force as far back as sixty years ago, by Bahá’u’lláh, embodying in its essentials God’s divinely appointed scheme for the unification of mankind in this age, coupled with an indomitable conviction in the unfailing efficacy of each and all of its provisions, is eventually capable of withstanding the forces of internal disintegration which, if unchecked, must needs continue to eat into the vitals of a despairing society. It is towards this goal—the goal of a new World Order, Divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, equitable in principle, challenging in its features—that a harassed humanity must strive . .

That the unrest and suffering afflicting the mass of mankind are in no small measure the direct consequences of the World War and are attributable to the unwisdom and shortsightedness of the framers of the Peace Treaties only a biased mind can refuse to admit. That the financial obligations contracted in the course of the war, as well as the imposition of a staggering burden of reparations upon the vanquished, have, to a very great extent, been responsible for the maldistribution and consequent shortage of the world’s monetary gold supply, which in turn has, to a very great measure, accentuated the phenomenal fall in prices and thereby relentlessly increased the burdens of impoverished countries, no impartial mind would question. That inter-governmental debts have imposed a severe strain on the masses of the people in Europe, have upset the equilibrium of national budgets, have crippled national industries, and led to an increase in the number of the unemployed, is no less apparent to an unprejudiced observer. That the spirit of vindictiveness, of suspicion, of fear and rivalry, engendered by the war, and which the provisions of the Peace Treaties have served to perpetuate and foster, has led to an enormous increase of national competitive armaments, involving during the last year the aggregate expenditure of no less than a thousand million pounds, which in turn has accentuated the effects of the worldwide depression, is a truth that even the most superficial observer will readily admit. That a narrow and brutal nationalism, which the postwar theory of self-determination has served to reinforce, has been chiefly responsible for the policy of high and prohibitive tariffs, so injurious to the healthy flow of international trade and to the mechanism of international finance, is a fact which few would venture to dispute.

[Page 6] GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF WORLD EVOLUTION

IT wou1d be idle, however, to contend that the war, with all the losses it involved, the passions it aroused and the grievances it left behind, has solely been responsible for the unprecedented confusion into which almost every section of the civilized world is plunged at present. Is it not a fact—and this is the central idea I desire to emphasize—that the fundamental cause of this world unrest is attributable, not so much to the consequences of what must sooner or later come to be regarded as a transitory dislocation in the affairs of a continually changing world, but rather to the failure of those into whose hands the immediate destinies of peoples and nations have been committed, to adjust their system of economic and political institutions to the imperative needs of a rapidly evolving age? Are not these intermittent crises that convulse present-day society due primarily to the lamentable inability of the world’s recognized leaders to read aright the signs of the times, to rid themselves once for all of their preconceived ideas and fettering creeds, and to reshape the machinery of their respective governments according to those standards that are implicit in Bahá’u’lláh’s supreme declaration of the Oneness of Mankind—the chief and distinguishing feature of the Faith He proclaimed? For the principle of the Oneness of Mankind, the cornerstone of Bahá’u’lláh's world-embracing dominion, implies nothing more or less than the enforcement of His scheme for the unification of the world—the scheme to which we have already referred. “In every Dispensation,” writes ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “the light of Divine Guidance has been focussed upon one central theme . . . In this wondrous Revelation, this glorious century, the foundation of the Faith of God and the distinguishing feature of His Law is the consciousness of the Oneness of Mankind.”

How pathetic indeed are the efforts of those leaders of human institutions who, in utter disregard of the spirit of the age, are striving to adjust national processes, suited to the ancient days of self-contained nations, to an age which must either achieve the unity of the world, as adumbrated by Bahá’u’lláh, or perish. At so critical an hour in the history of civilization it behooves the leaders of all the nations of the world, great and small, whether in the East or in the West, whether victors or vanquished, to give heed to the clarion call of Bahá’u’lláh and, thoroughly imbued with a sense of world solidarity, the sine quâ non of loyalty to His Cause, arise manfully to carry out in its entirety the one remedial scheme He, the Divine Physician, has prescribed for an ailing humanity. Let them discard, once for all, every preconceived idea, every national prejudice, and give heed to the sublime counsel of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the authorized Expounder of His teachings. You can best serve your country, was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s rejoinder to a high official in the service of the federal government of the United States of America, who had questioned [Page 7] Him as to the best manner in which he could promote the interests of his government and people, if you strive, in your capacity as a citizen of the world, to assist in the eventual application of the principle of federalism underlying the government of your own country to the relationships now existing between the peoples and nations of the world . . .

In one of His Tablets ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, elucidating further His noble theme, reveals the following:

"In cycles gone by, though harmony was established, yet, owing to the absence of means, the unity of all mankind could not have been achieved. Continents remained widely divided, nay even among the peoples of one and the same continent association and interchange of thought were well nigh impossible. Consequently intercourse, understanding and unity amongst all the peoples and kindreds of the earth were unattainable. In this day, however, means of communication have multiplied, and the five continents of the earth have virtually merged into one . . . In like manner all the members of the human family, whether peoples or governments, cities or villages, have become increasingly interdependent. For none is self-sufficiency any longer possible, inasmuch as political ties unite all peoples and nations, and the bonds of trade and industry, of agriculture and education, are being Strengthened every day. Hence the unity of all mankind can in this day be achieved. Verily this is none other but one of the wonders of this wondrous age, this glorious century. Of this past ages have been deprived, for this century—the century of light —has been endowed with unique and unprecedented glory, power and illumination. Hence the miraculous unfolding of a fresh marvel every day. Eventually it will be seen how bright its candles will burn in the assemblage of man.

“Behold how its light is now dawning upon the world’s darkened horizon. The first candle is unity in the political realm, the early glimmerings of which can now be discerned. The second candle is unity of thought in world undertakings, the consummation of which will ere long be witnessed. The third candle is unity in freedom which will surely come to pass. The fourth candle is unity a in religion which is the corner-stone of the foundation itself, and which, by the power of God, will be revealed in all its splendor. The fifth candle is the unity of nations—a unity which in this century will be securely established, causing all the peoples of the world to regard themselves as citizens of one common fatherland. The sixth candle is unity of races, making of all that dwell on earth peoples and kindreds of one race. The seventh candle is unity of language, i.e., the choice of a universal tongue in which all peoples will be instructed and converse. Each and every one of these will inevitably come to pass, inasmuch as the power of the Kingdom of God will aid and assist in their realization” . . .

SOME form of a world Super-State must needs be evolved, in whose favor all the nations of the [Page 8] world will have willingly ceded every claim to make war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to maintain armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within their respective dominions. Such a state will have to include within its orbit an International Executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a World Parliament whose members shall be elected by the people in their respective countries and whose election shall be confirmed by their respective governments; and a Supreme Tribunal whose judgment will have a binding effect even in such cases where the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration. A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently demolished and the interdependence of Capital and Labor definitely recognized; in which the clamor of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally extinguished; in which a single code of international law—the product of the considered judgment of the world’s federated representatives— shall have as its sanction the instant and coercive intervention of the combined forces of the federated units; and finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious and militant nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness of world citizenship—such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order anticipated by Bahá’u’lláh, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age . . .

LET there be no mistake. The principle of the Oneness of Mankind—the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve —is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. Its appeal is not to be merely identified with a reawakening of the spirit of brotherhood and goodwill among men, nor does it aim solely at the fostering of harmonious cooperation among individual peoples and nations. Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family. It does not constitute merely the enunciation of an ideal, but stands inseparably associated with an institution adequate to embody its truth, demonstrate its validity, and perpetuate its influence. It implies an organic change in the structure of present day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced. It constitutes a challenge, at once bold and universal, to outworn shibboleths of national creeds—creeds that have had their day and which must, in the ordinary course of events as shaped and controlled by Providence, give way to a new gospel, fundamentally different from, and infinitely superior to, what the world has already conceived. It [Page 9] calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.

It represents the consummation of human evolution—an evolution that has had its earliest beginnings in the birth of family life, its subsequent development in the achievement of tribal solidarity, leading in turn to the constitution of the city-state, and expanding later into the institution of independent and sovereign nations.

THE principle of the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh, carries with it no more and no less than a solemn assertion that attainment to this final stage in this stupendous evolution is not only necessary but inevitable, that its realization is fast approaching, and that nothing short of a power that is born of God can succeed in establishing it.

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A former Religious Director at Fisk University interprets the mind and heart of the younger generation with a candor and insight truly stimulating. His “three fundamental needs” of youth have vital significance in that they are also fundamental needs of the entire community.

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THE MIND OF MODERN YOUTH

By PAUL E. BAKER

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YOUNG people of today are not different in their deepest emotions, their dominant tendencies, their heart longings and their impelling motives from the youth of yesterday. Fundamentally youth is the same no matter in what period of history or in What place on the globe you find them. However, because of new conditions and demands there are desires, ambitions, methods and points of view peculiar to modern youth. To do effective work in this period, one should understand the mind and heart of our young people.

Youth wants to know the facts about life. They are getting from the platform, press and class-room the scientific approach to an interpretation of the world of things and people. This helps them make their adjustment in a complicated age. They want to know whether a proposition is held as a fact, a theory or on faith. They want to hear what men know [Page 10] about the universe, the sun, moon, stars, earth and space. They want the facts about human relationships — races, nations and classes. They want to know about themselves, — their bodies, their minds, their emotions. They are painfully but happily realistic.

Young people wish to participate with Others in the actual processes of life. They want to be in the game rather than an observer. We have here an explanation of the pressing demand for Student Government and democratic control, for the absorbing interest in athletics and school life, for the desire to enter the business world and for the longing to be a part of all boards, committees and organizations.

Youth is eager for freedom. The shell of the past is too small for them. They break it in order to live a larger life. Because of a clearer understanding of themselves, they exert a more rational control over themselves and hence do not need many of the conventions, customs and taboos of the past. New boundaries are torn down and new paths opened in a way shocking to those who do not dig down into the motives and evaluate the outcome. Here is an explanation for the change in dress, for the freedom of the sexes and for the mixing of the races.

Young people are growing more tolerant. They realize there is room in the world for a diversity of opinion, for differing customs and for varying national groups. They are not shocked at strange ideas, peculiar mores or new experiences. They believe in the philosophy of “live and let live.” We have here an explanation of their interest in international problems and in finding a peaceful way of settling disputes between the nations.

Youth is getting away from institutional religion and are coming to a religion of upright living. They are less interested in ceremony, ritual and form and more interested in a vital faith expressed in common conduct and experience. They want people to “show their faith by their works.”

FOR this reason the denomination and the religious sect are losing their grip on youth. They refuse to become interested in the competition, rivalry and bigotry of modern “churchianity.” They are not concerned to perpetuate a particular brand or type of faith.

Much of the theology of the past must be expressed in new terms if it is to grip the new generation. The nature of God, the person of Christ, the use of prayer, the accessibility of forgiveness, the assurance of immortality, etc., must be matched up to the scientific interpretation of the universe. Students of this age have a keen and deep interest in critical problems issuing in Religion. They are seeking a Christianity that works. They believe that a religion that is worth holding should have something to do with the social, economic, racial and national problems of the day. They have a feeling that the “Jesus Way of Life” if properly interpreted is moving in the direction of their need.

The new generation wants inspiration. They will go a long way to a [Page 11] conference where they feel they will get it. A person who speaks with a prophetic voice need not apologize for appealing to the emotions. Youth wants a philosophy of life that will carry them over the bumps and through the fog of human experience. They are not afraid to face their own mistakes, weaknesses, and shortcomings. If a man knows the facts, is dealing with reality and is sincere, he can speak the whole truth without fear.

There are three fundamental needs of the new generation. First, an adult generation that will set a better example — all the weaknesses of the generation can be traced to the foibles and follies of the grown-ups. One of the great damning influences upon youth is the insatiable materialistic tendency of the older generation. We can not expect to have Christian young people until we have Christian adults.

Second, we need an adult generation that believes in youth—in its sincerity, its capacity, its power. Faith is creative—it tends to make that in which it puts its trust. Distrust is withering, demoralizing, destructive.

Those who believe—and act in accordance with their faith—that youth wants to travel the high road and have the capacity if shown—are the true helpers of the new generation.

Third, we need some great challenges to offer the young people. A great crusade that has high motives behind it lifts people to their greatest heights. Youth is capable of great hardships, suffering, sacrifice and service. There is something in them that is high and noble, which is drawn out only by a giant task. We need a “moral equivalent for war.” A young man at the close of the war came to a Mission Board Secretary and said, “Send me to your hardest post of duty.” He wanted something that would give him the same pull and expression of his personality that the war gave.

We believe in the problems which grow out of disease, ignorance, poverty, injustice and oppression. We have the kind of challenge which will lift youth to its highest levels. The leader who organizes youth for such high service will be meeting them at a point where they can be reached and led.

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The iniquities that grow out of Applied Science, Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution have given rise to an emotional and intellectual restlessness, and an insecurity and anxiety about the future which take the form of political and economic experiments in Communism, Fascism and Naziism, expressionism in the creative arts, and a religious revival or a religious disillusionment. Just as the 19th century was characterized by interest in applied science and its material comforts, so the hope is that the 20th century will be distinguished by interest in the progress of the sciences of sociology, economics and political theory. —— J. H. Landman, in "Since 1914.”

[Page 12]

A public executive who “calls to mind Plato’s description of the philosopher- king”, President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia gives responsible expression to the ideals and principles of the new age. To an American Bahá’í visitor he once said: “Take these principles to the diplomats, to the universities and colleges and other schools . . . It is the people who will bring about universal peace.”

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THOMAS GARIGUE MASARYK

ADVOCATE OF INTERNATIONAL IUSTICE

by JOSEPH S. ROUCEK

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DEMOCRACY has now few champions in post-war Europe. Parliamentary government has been sorely pressed by the rising tide of dictatorships. Communism, Fascism, and the older forms of dictatorship have risen, flourished, and developed political philosophies in self-justification. The world today is witnessing what Spengler calls the “return of the Caesars”.

In all this welter of change and intolerant nationalism, there are but few really great figures who still stand firm for the traditional concepts of democracy. Czechoslovakia, in the midst of dictatorships, has not modified her faith in democratic methods, although it stands as an island of democracy in a sea of autocracy which is increasingly adopting a philosophy of force. Czechoslovakia alone in Central Europe, in that region of absolute rulers and servile led, remains faithful to freedom and democracy. Political refugees from Germany and Austria utter thanks for it after crossing the Czechoslovak frontier.

For that there is one outstanding explanation. Providence has vouchsafed to Czechoslovakia a man who is in the truest sense of the term the “Father of his Country,” and allowed him to reach the ripe age of eighty-five on March 7, 1935, not merely in full possession of all his faculties, but in a position of authority such as still enables him to shape and influence the destinies of his people. A figure who calls to mind Plato’s description of the philosopher-king, Masaryk has survived all the crucial tests a public leader is called upon to face. He has been a revolutionary leader in a period which demanded all the traits of the agitator and prophet; he has been a diplomat at that period in which his state’s creation rested upon the results of diplomacy’s game of chess; and he has been the serene and tolerant leader of all factions in the trying years of reconstruction and readjustment for Czechoslovakia. What stands out about Masaryk today is that he has not permitted his government and his people to turn oppressor and [Page 13] tyrannize over Others, a thing that so often happens. It is true that there are undercurrents in Czechoslovakia which want to turn the forces of oppression against her minorities. Masaryk has had to interfere several times to check such currents and it is only because of the moral influence of his personality that tolerance is one of the major tenets of his country. For tolerance is an important part of Masaryk’s religion and creed—tolerance and forgiveness.

Masaryk was elected for the third seven-year term of Presidential office on May 24, 1934. While in 1927 Masaryk had received only 274 votes, in 1934 he received out of 418 votes of members of the National Assembly seventy-five more than the three-fifths majority needed for his re-election. His intimate and distant friends not only devoutly hope but profess to believe that he will live to face yet another re—election.

A PEACE-TIME HERO

BUT to this acknowledgment of Masaryk’s leadership in Czechoslovakia must be added Masaryk’s international reputation. When the history of peace-time heroes is written, Thomas Garigue Masaryk will occupy a prominent place, for it is not only as the “father” and first president of his own country that he is known, but as a great international statesman and a powerful supporter of world peace. He has constantly emphasized the need for better relations among the smaller countries of Europe as well as among their more powerful neighbors. He realizes that the best way for his little nation or any other to survive and prosper is to maintain friendly relations with all its neighbors.

Not the least of President Masaryk’s efforts in this direction has been a constant and persistent tendency to strengthen and stimulate public opinion by a whole series of speeches and addresses. His messages are political documents of the first magnitude, which are really basic philosophical discussions and analyses of democracy. Nothing could be more charming than his address to the school-children of Prague in which he weighs the possibility that he may be addressing a future President who in his turn may have to address their children “forty years on” from the same place. “A life without sacrifice is no fine life." “Live in friendly relations with all citizens, without distinction of calling, language, or religion.”

As far as the proponents of the world unity are concerned, Masaryk today is an outstanding statesman acknowledging the facts of internationalism. The ages teach us that the unwillingness of men to listen to new evidence—the refusal to face facts—always results in inevitable tragedy. Shakespeare taught this lesson over and over in his greater dramas in thundering tones. Examine Macbeth or Othello or Lear or Julius Caesar or Hamlet—and in every case, we will discover that the heroes, strong and noble as they were, failed, and failed tragically because they refused to recognize the imperial quality and the inexorable tyranny of hard and unbending facts. Masaryk [Page 14] knows this lesson because he knows life. He has seen life’s conflicts and tragedies all around him, and he always sought for their solution on some basis other than might. Straight thinking for him is a means for the attainment of justice. Everything he does, everything he thinks is aimed at a fair and honorable solution of the antagonisms and conflicts of practical life.

THOUGH Masaryk is now eighty-five years old, he seems as sturdy as the average man of sixty. I cannot refrain from citing Emil Ludwig in reference to Masaryk: “If I were asked to name him who, among living men, deserves the highest tank, I should say Masaryk, the Czech. No statesman in the whole world today has so great a moral right to live in his palace as the wise, brave old man in the Hradshin at Prague.”

A nation may be judged by its heroes. Czechoslovakia turned for leadership not to a politician, nor to a warrior. Instead it was through the scholar and moralist, Masaryk, that the peoples of Czechoslovakia found unity and freedom. And in proportion as they practice Masaryk’s principles of tolerance and good will, these people will be a force for peace and orderly progress in Central Europe. In remembering the eighty-fifth birthday of Masaryk, we are joining in the celebration of the things for which Masaryk stands, for the ideals which he has taught his people and the humanity. In him we remember and celebrate the ideal that Truth is the shrine at which intellect must always worship, that Truth must be found or approximated no matter how hard or costly the search, that Truth is always entitled to a full, fair hearing even though it proclaims new evidence which we dislike to hear.

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All over both Orient and Occident, on common political, economic and spiritual battlefields, a uniform world is growing up. But this world unity which is developing throughout the expanse of the globe has its roots in the soil of a multiplicity of traditions . . . But above this inexpugnable individuality of man and of cultural systems there is arising gradually an encompassing spiritual and social unity, the unity of mankind, whose organization on new bases is the problem of the modern historical epoch—a problem for the solution of which the harnessing of all the forces of the Orient and the Occident will be necessary. — HANS KOHN, in “Orient and Occident.”

[Page 15]

Education has at different times been employed as organized instrument for indoctrination of mere temporary attitudes emanating from exclusiveness on the part of race, nation, class and creed. In this statement an experienced teacher shows bow education will become truly universal under the influence of world Faith.

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HOMOCULTURE

A NEW VISION OF EDUCATION

by STANWOOD COBB

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CHIEF among the forces which have formed the present system of education are those derived from the spiritual consciousness bestowed upon the world by Christ. Implicit in His teachings was the sacredness of each and every person —no matter how humble—as an immortal soul whose destiny was pregnant with illimitable meanings, and whose perfect development was an obligation upon the social group.

Christ taught that we me our brother’s keeper. And in the name of Christ—for the first time in the history of the Mediterranean world— education became imbued with democratic ideals. The monastic schools of the Middle Ages were open to all, regardless of class distinction. Saintly rulers like Charlemagne and Alfred felt the obligation to bestow education upon even the humble classes, so that they might develop to the full capacity of their spiritual being.

At the close of the 18th century Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker, became inspired with the vision and obligation to educate the children of the poor, so that they might have direct access to the Word of God with all its perfecting and developmental forces. The history of education points to this vision of Lancaster, put into organized form in the Royal Lancasterian Society, as the beginning of free universal education, not only in England but also in this country.

If so potent an influence has emanated, by mere implication, from the Teachings of Christ, it is clearly to be seen the Bahá’í Faith that upholds a universal civilization and contains a wealth of explicit directions regarding education, also exerts a revolutionary and momentous effect upon directive homoculture.

One universal system of culture must eventually encompass the whole world, a common curriculum, a common aim, a common purpose underlying the distinctive educational expression of each nation.

[Page 16]What will be the nature of this new cosmic education which will encompass the whole world in the new age?

THE FAVORABLE SOIL FOR THE CULTIVATION OF PERSONALITY

THE underlying thought that inspires and directs this universal education is homoculture — that is, the scientific cultivation of man to the point of his most complete perfectibility, just as agriculture is the perfecting of the earth’s ability to produce, or as horticulture is the training of trees to bear the highest degree and quality of fruitage.

Educators must realize the sacredness of individuality. Each child, upon coming first to school, differs from another both in the effect of its past environment upon it and in the quality and destiny of its gifts and faculties. The aim of education should be to equalize the opportunities of cultural environment for every child, but to skillfully differentiate the training each child receives in accordance with its capacities, tastes, and vocational and cultural trends.

True religion has the effect upon education of accentuating the qualities of sympathy, understanding, and appreciation. One of the chief functions of the educator is to discover and train the particular genius in each child. Professional wisdom and skill are employed to the utmost to assist in such analysis and development. Moreover, the atmosphere of kindliness and mutual sympathy existing between teachers and pupils and between the pupils themselves, is such as to encourage rather than discourage the expression of individual differences and gifts. No one is derided, no matter how unique or Out of the ordinary be his particular quality of thought and action. Such a spiritually fostering environment furnishes a favorable soil for the cultivation of personality to its fullest and richest perfection.

THE CHIEF FUNCTION OF EDUCATION

CLOSELY related to the development of individual talents is the important question of character training. What is of greater value to the unfolding life of the growing child than the formation of a character which shall be ennobled with the qualities of integrity, earnestness, responsibility, serviceableness and cooperation; a character free from egotism and completely qualified for harmonious living?

Every individual, religion teaches, has a dual nature. On the one hand he is inclined by the animal side of his nature to traits of selfishness, greed, brutality and sensuality. On the other hand, he is inclined by the spiritual side of his nature to traits of kindness, love, service, purity, harmony and cooperation.

The chief function of education, therefore, is to aid the child to develop to the utmost his spiritual qualities while ruling, subordinating, and sublimating his animal tendencies. “There comes a time in the development of character,” said ‘Abdul-Bahá, “when nobility of expression becomes habitual. We then hardly have to try to be good.” But it is a long step from the weak and [Page 17] ignorant child, full of careless and selfish tendencies, to the mature man or woman Clothed in the wisdom and power of a spiritualized character.

Bahá’í schools include spiritual training as part of their program. Children are taught spiritual precepts such as inspire and control behavior. They realize themselves as immortal souls on the quest of perfection. They know that their actions produce results that never end, that they can never escape the consequences of their own evil doing, that reward and punishment on the spiritual plane are as certain as the seasons and as the daily rising and setting of the sun. These truths they learn as the most important lessons in the evolution of character and the guidance for daily living.

Thus children are trained gradually to control and direct their actions from within, basing their deeds on ideals of spiritual perfection. They are taught to act to please God rather than man. They are helped to become unselfish, cooperative, harmonious; to realize that the undue expression of the ego is the worst thing that can happen, and that the self is their worst enemy—the only “Satan”. In this way they learn to control themselves not only outwardly in facing the world, but also in their unseen actions.

This education makes use of the spiritual training of children not only to insure security and peace within the nation but also to inculcate those glorious and all-embracing principles of world unity enunciated by Bahá’u’lláh which will stabilize civilization under the new dispensation. The children and youth of such schools, instead of learning from their books of history to fear and hate each other, imbibe ideals of world order and universal brotherhood. From the cradle up they are trained to look upon all the people of the world as their brothers. They are given the vision of the essential unity, relationship and interdependence of all human beings. Thus they become in the course of their education world citizens in the fullest meaning of the word, capable of sharing in and directing the world civilization for which they are being prepared.

RECONCILIATION OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION

A SERIOUS obstacle to character development in current education has been the prevalence of scientific materialism. The encroachment of science upon religion at the end of the nineteenth century has played a large part in the chaos and disintegration of civilization in the twentieth century. The sharp cleavage between spiritual aspiration and belief on the one hand and scientific knowledge and certainty on the other not only has resulted in depriving education of all spiritual impulse; but worse than that it has caused, so to speak, duality and strife within the individual. While in one direction the average educated man of today is seeking instinctively for that faith and guidance which alone can make life livable, in another direction he is held in rapt admiration of [Page 18] the miraculous precision and cosmic scope of a science which has seemed entirely hostile to religion. This struggle within the individual has been reflected in the outer life of the world. The old moralities based upon the spiritual teachings of the past have been discarded. And the empirical search for a practical morality based upon methods of trial and error has proved disastrous both to the individual and to society.

The Bahá’í Faith asserts the absolute unity of science and religion. “Any religion which denies the plain truths of science”, said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “is not truth, but merely superstition.” The universe is one. The truth concerning it can be but one. There cannot be a truth about the universe which is scientific, and another opposing truth about the universe which is religious. Just as there is but one universe, so there is but one truth. And it is the aim of the Bahá’í educator to comprehend and to convey this unified body of truth to his students.

But the blame for this feud has not been entirely on the side of religion. Science has been equally dogmatic and fallacious. It has frequent1y asserted as facts ideas which were merely theoretical and which were later proved to be untrue. Now science is beginning to show a more reasonable attitude. A healthy skepticism is springing up, and the greatest scientists are beginning to wonder whether scientific knowledge is as definite as has been supposed. Many former dogmas of biology, of astronomy, chemistry, physics have been exploded. New discoveries and postulates all tend to point toward the unity of being; and in that unity of being all matter seems to dissolve into pure force. What is this Force, the primal myscery of which lies back of all the changing phantasmagoria of the material universe?

Today many of the world’s greatest scientists, even though averse to proclaiming a belief in God as personified in the religious teachings of the past, admit a belief in both a Universal Force and a Plan which seems to underlie in a causal and evolutionary way all phenomena. They see the universe in terms of a Force so majestic, eternal, vast and illimitable, so perfect in plan and execution from microcosm to macrocosm, that the human intellect must stand in reverence and awe before this august, unknowable Mover of all things.

In this universal culture, science and religion are absolutely reconciled. Reason and faith are joined in a close working union. Every individual should become both scientific and spiritually minded. Baha’u’llah gave the highest praise to the work of scientists, and said that they are the pillars that support society and civilization. In the Bahá’í plan for world civilization there are no clergy, and scientific and educational professions are to hold the positions of highest esteem in the community.

EDUCATION A SPIRITUAL LAW

CURRENT education is open to grave criticism on the grounds of its failure to elicit interest and earnest effort on the part of youth. But Bahá’í students show a remarkably [Page 19] earnest spirit of devotion to their studies. This is because the acquisition of knowledge is one of the religious duties of Bahá’í youth. Bahá’u’lláh taught that to acquire learning was incumbent upon all: “Knowledge is like unto wings for the being (of man) and is like a ladder for ascending. To acquire knowledge is incumbent upon all, but of those sciences which may profit the people of the earth, and not such sciences as begin in mere words and end in mere words . . . The real treasury of man is his knowledge. Knowledge is the means of honor, prosperity, joy, gladness, happiness and exultation;” and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá reemphasized this obligation of youth to acquire knowledge and intellectual training to the highest possible degree, so as to be “the means of illumination and unlimited progress to the world.” Therefore Bahá’ís from the earliest childhood realize it be a religious obligation to acquire knowledge. They seek to expand their being to the fullest capacity so as to become worthy citizens of the new age, able both to comprehend and to administer the world principles of Bahá’u’lláh and if possible to contribute to the expansion and progress of civilization.

The new education is seen as a spiritual process. That is to say, it is a complete unfolding and perfect functioning of the human soul. The traditional education has concerned itself chiefly with the intellect, which is after all merely one of the tools used by the human soul in its functioning upon this planet. This is a very limited view of education and necessarily has produced faulty and limited results. In fact, modern scientific intellectual education has come near to defeating its own end; it does not arouse in the average student a desire for attaining to the perfection of his own highest powers. The stimulation, the motive is lacking.

But now, with the renewed vision of man made in the image of God and dowered with almost unlimited gifts and powers, we see in education the means of developing that perfection which God destines for each soul. That is why education is in reality a spiritual process.

THE curriculum of the future from primary up to graduate and professional courses, will be built around the central core of a practical understanding of the universe and world in which we live. The physical sciences will be taught under the comprehensive aspect of the unity of knowledge. In the same unified way the social sciences will be taught as the history of human culture, with due reference to all influences—geographic, climatic, political, economic, social and spiritual—which have organized and formed humanity into its present patterns. In all of these studies the objective is a knowledge that will lead to further progress for humanity, in accordance with Baha’u’llah’s statement: “Teach not those things that begin in mere words and end in words, but rather those things that pertain to human progress.”

The study of languages will be reduced to a minimum by the creation of a universal auxiliary language to [Page 20] become effective throughout the world. Only the native language and this auxiliary language need be taught in the future curriculum. No ancient nor modern languages will be required, though they may be studied as electives.

Algebra, geometry and higher mathematics, like ancient languages, will be relegated to the category of electives. Meaningless drudgery will be eliminated from school work. The whole curriculum will be reduced in quantity. Academic assignments in the elementary and secondary schools Will not require, for the average pupil, more than five hours work a day including all the time necessary both for preparation and recitation of lessons. (The quantity of mental work done under the existing system is excessive and in many cases actually injurious to the mind as well as to the body, said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.)

The acquisition of an art, craft, trade or profession will enable every person to fit into the social structure.

The most important feature of Bahá’í education is its universal quality. Intellectual and cultural isolations, provincialisms, meaningless and obstructive traditions and superstitions are transcended. The foundations of the future World Order must be laid in the schools, and its stability will be assured by the ideals and principles in which the youth of the world are trained.

Nationalistic educational systems must not be permitted to nourish a poisonous and militaristic jingoism on dogmas of untruth, hatred, fear, pride and vainglory. Youth must not be taught that their highest duty to the state is to take part in competitive enterprises the success of which depends upon the slaughter of millions of innocent youths of other countries. Rather must they come to realize, through education, their sacred obligations to uphold at all points the cause of universal peace, of world unity and brotherhood. They must learn to advance by means of individually righteous and creative living, as well as by collective activities, the prosperity and happiness of all mankind.

[Page 21]

What peoples and nations are destined to form links between East and West and make possible a true community of interest among populations inherently divided throughout history? The authors of this article on Turkey feel that the republic “may bring as an offering the best from her Oriental culture, to place beside the ideals she finds in Western Civilization.”

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TURKEY TAKES THE NEW ROAD

By D. D. JONES and R. PEISEN

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JUST as the Athenian youth of ancient Greece pledged himself to honesty, loyalty, and progress for his city, so too the Turkish youth of today takes a serious pledge to his, a new nation. His consecration is, “I am a Turk, honest and industrious. My duty is to protect those weaker than I, to respect my elders, to love my country sincerely. My ideal is to raise myself higher and to continue in the path of progress. I make a gift of my life to the life of Turkey.” It is upon such a spirit as this that the new Turkish State is being built and one asks, “Can it fail?”

Back of the creation of this new republic stands the inscrutable figure of Mustafa Kemal, who was born about fifty years ago, into a poor Turkish family living in the city of Salonika. He was trained in the military schools of his country and since has served his state faithfully as a military expert. While still in school he became interested in revolutionary doctrines, and participated in the organization of secret societies which were opposed to the despotism and practices of the Sultan’s government. It was this attitude growing and intensifying with the passing of the years that ultimately placed Mustafa Kemal at the head of the present Turkish Republic. While the actual events of his coup d’état took place rapidly, his rise to power covered a long period of years. It was a determined, ruthless struggle based upon a complete confidence in his own ability to lead his country to much-needed reforms. Upon gaining the Presidency, Mustafa Kemal immediately set to work to build a new state, to create a renewed nationalism, and to instill within the Turkish nation a restored self-confidence. Along with his desire for personal power his policy includes two phases, Turkey for the Turks, and the Westernization of that State.

With the statement that a manner of dress which clearly differentiated people from the orthodox attire of others was either a curiosity or a source of amusement, Mustafa Kemal attacked the Turkish characteristics of dress, symbolical of old Turkey, namely the fez and the veil. For over a century this head-covering had been prized by the Turk because it indicated that the estate of manhood [Page 22] had been reached and it had distinguished him from the infidel. But to Mustafa Kemal it was oriental and symbolized backwardness of ideas. The change from the fez to the hat, or cap, was first ordered for the army and government officials, with the young Turks following suit rather readily. The next step was a general order forbidding the wearing of the fez and placing a penalty of ten years’ imprisonment for failure to comply. Doubtless in the prisons of Turkey today may be found numbers of the older, and more conservative Turks who failed to buy hats before the supply was exhausted. This abrupt change which was decreed in 1925, led to disorder and rioting because hat brims were a nuisance to worshippers of the Muhammadan faith, inasmuch as the covered head must touch the floor or ground during prayer.

EQUALITY OF MEN AND WOMEN

THE new regime has changed the styles for women too, because not only has the wearing of the veil been tabooed, mainly through persuasion, but the age-old oriental practice of harem seclusion has been replaced by western freedom. Women are permitted to attend institutions of higher education and are eligible to the professions. They have the suffrage privilege in local elections, and if the government fulfills its promise made in 1930, they will be given a broader franchise for voting.

Latifa Hanoum, for a time the wife of Mustafa Kemal, set an example for the women. Although Turkish born she was educated in English schools and lived for some time in Paris. With this western experience she easily took her place beside the President. She wore European dress, mingled in society after occidental fashion and was actively interested in affairs of state. In fact, her advanced ideas of government conflicted with those held by Mustafa Kemal and served as one cause for the divorce which he later granted to himself.

An interesting incident is told of Mustafa Kemal as he attempted to teach his people the western art of social intercourse. The president, following western practices, planned a ball for army and other governmental officials. As the dancing Started the guests grew shy and ill at ease, with the women on one side of the room and the men on the other. That irked Mustafa Kemal, and he ordered the men to dance, and he announced to the women that no Turkish woman would refuse to dance with a man who wore the uniform of her country. In consequence, somewhat awkwardly but determinedly, the activities of the dance proceeded.

Mustafa Kemal attempts to acquaint his people with western manners through the production of western plays. These performances are shown in public theatres and are attended by both men and women. The younger Turkish women accept this opportunity with considerable enthusiasm, but many of the older ones are unable to remain throughout the performance if strange men are seated beside them.

[Page 23] But it is not only in social intercourse that a new life is opened to the women of Turkey. They are equal with men before the law in divorce procedure. They are allowed to select their own husbands, and polygamy is passing. As has been said, they are encouraged to enter training for various professions, and today growing numbers of women are found in the fields of medicine, law, social welfare work, and teaching.

MORE significant in relating Turkey to western nations is the adoption of a new alphabet. The old Turkish script is based on that of the Arabs and it in turn is closely related to the Chinese. The Arabic form is composed of ninety-six characters which are difficult to learn. As a result of these qualities the Turkish people were sadly lacking in the very foundation of republican success, namely, the ability to read and write. A Congress of philologists was called to study the language situation and to Suggest beneficial changes. After careful consideration the members reported their agreement favoring the Latin Alphabet. Their recommendation was accepted by Mustafa Kemal who immediately perfected himself in its usage. His government officials were ordered to do likewise and were required to pass examinations.

Official notes were written in the new form, which was also placed upon stamps and paper money. Turks of importance who sought conferences with the president were first asked to show their ability in this new field. Classes were established throughout the entire republic and persons under twenty-four years of age were required to attend classes. After sufficient effort had been made in spreading information relative to this new alphabet a time limit was established after which the use of the old form was forbidden by law.

The statement has been made that by a single stroke of his pen Mustafa Kemal made the entire nation illiterate. This action, for some nations, would be most revolutionary, but for Turkey where only fifteen per cent of the people could read it is not so startling. There certainly is significance, however, if Turkish figures are reliable, in the fact that in the four years from 1928 to 1932 Turkish illiteracy has been reduced from eighty-five to forty-two per cent. It should be emphasized just here that the people are learning a language that ties them closer to the West.

THE new government is not neglecting the schooling of its people. When it is recalled that Old Turkey had practically no system of education, the tremendous demands placed upon the present administration as it attempts to organize one can be readily comprehended. Mustafa Kemal maintains that no people can govern themselves unless they are educated. As long as the Turkish people are lacking in this respect the Ghazi holds to his right to act as dictatorial president. At the same time, however, that he insists upon being an absolute ruler, he is making efforts to perfect a system whereby [Page 24] his people may ultimately be able to govern themselves. His attitude is brought to us forcefully by Armstrong in his biography of The Grey Wolf, in which he quotes Mustafa as saying, “I will lead my people by the hand along the road until their feet are sure and they know the way. Then they may choose for themselves. Then my work will be done.”

The three-year plan of Turkish education arranges for the erection of a primary school in every village of the republic. The national government provides material, skilled labor and furnishings, while local groups contribute whatever resources are native to the community, unskilled labor, and the building site which includes one acre for play ground, and three acres for garden tracts. Secondary schools are to be established in the larger cities.

WHILE regulation subjects are taught, probably the greatest emphasis is placed upon the nationalizing factor found in the history courses. Throughout the entire system the teaching of history is based upon a four volume text, written under the direct supervision of Mustafa Kemal. The only volume now completed is the one that deals with ancient history. Herein the student is constantly impressed with data which establish the responsibility of Turkey for every civilization past and present, including the ancient ones of China, Egypt and Rome.

The University of Constantinople has been reorganized and moved to Ankara, Mustafa Kemal’s new capital. In an investigation of the old educational system by Albert Malche, President of Geneva University, it was found that the teaching was mechanical; that no personal guidance was given the student and that little of the spirit of research existed. As a result of the report the old faculty was dismissed and part of the new one is selected from among young Turks educated abroad, who are whole-heartedly in accord with the policies of the president. Other members of the faculty are selected from the most acceptable of the old group and from experts connected with western universities. It is interesting to note that twenty of the Jewish scholars dismissed by the Nazi government have been placed here and that in general in Turkey the fields of chemistry, engineering, and medicine are practically dominated by the influence of German Jews. One chief responsibility is placed upon the new faculty at the University of Constantinople. It must create within the student body a love for learning.

Another educational influence is a governmental organization known as the House of the People. The Houses act as community centers in every town, and in them are found departments of language, fine arts, theatre, sports, social welfare, libraries and museums. They are in fact cultural and propaganda centers through which the government reaches its people.

THE present administration is not neglecting the economic development of the country, although [Page 25] authorities seem to differ as to the degree of success attained in this field. It is known for a certainty, however, that the Treaty of Lausanne abolished the old system of capitulations or special privileges to foreigners and opened the doors of business opportunity to Turkish citizens as never before. Foreign corporations remaining in Turkey are forced to have a certain number of Turks among their stockholders. They must employ a certain percentage of Turkish citizens as workers, and they must use the new Turkish language in all their dealings.

The development of natural resources, especially copper and agricultural wealth, is attracting the attention of the government. The president is particularly interested in the agrarian problem and personally supervises the experimentation conducted on his huge farm situated just outside Ankara. Agriculture is further encouraged by the removal of the old tax upon farm products and improvements.

Industrial production has increased in value from 40,000,000 in 1928 to 100,000,000 pounds in 1932. Turkey desires a self-sufficiency in her economy program, and she is attempting to reach it by the aid of a protective tariff.

Railroad mileage has increased over three times. To meet the growing demand for railroads the government this past year issued an internal loan for 4,000,000 pounds. These bonds were sold to the people in small denominations, and it is interesting to note that despite the uncertainty of the times the people of Turkey oversubscribed the issue.

The new government of Turkey has little in the way of a national debt, but it accepted the responsibility for the debt of the old Ottoman Empire to the extent of 10,700,000 pounds. Just recently, at the instigation of the French government, the bond holders of this debt agreed on a reduction to 7,000,000 pounds. Plans were made at this same meeting for refinancing the obligation and arrangements were agreed upon whereby the interest and principal are to be paid from the customs received at Istanbul, which amount to about 700,000 pounds annually. This plan greatly relieves the financial pressure upon the administration and strengthens French favoritism throughout the Republic.

Some fields of economic difficulty encountered by the Turks, have been their inexperience in business; the too rapid withdrawal of foreign capital due to discriminations against it, troubles in the collection of taxes, and the stabilization of the currency. Some authorities maintain that unless the government of Mustafa Kemal can correct the above difficulties it will never achieve permanent success. Among their other internal reforms it may be mentioned that the Turks use the metric system, Gregorian calendar, and reckon the beginning of the day from midnight instead of their former way of reckoning from sunset.

TURKEY seems to be on a new high road to civilization. The future rests in her visions of the West and in her dreams of her Oriental past.

[Page 26] On this new road Turkey may bring as an offering the best from her Oriental culture to place beside the ideals she finds in Western civilization, and at last these two elements may meet to develop her into a lasting and honorable state.

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To face the realities of the “world tomorrow” we should study the seven maps suggested by Stewart F. Bryant and realize the “ten social forces in the world today.” His article is an analysis of the existing problems, and a proposed solution, meriting careful attention.

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THE WORLD OF TOMORROW

By STEWART F. BRYANT

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FOR a picture of the present world situation, let us imagine five maps superimposed over the ordinary world map of national geographic areas. These other maps would include the racial divisions; the innumerable linguistic divisions and mixtures; the approximated and mixed religious divisions; the political areas, such as Fascist, Communist, Democratic and Monarchic; and the economic resource areas showing the distribution of vital materials. To these we could add two more; one showing areas of abundance and scarcity, and another outlining the natural strategic areas. If a composite of all these maps could be put on one sheet it would give some idea of the general world mix—up.

As the next step, we shall consider our present situation as a culmination of several great changes which to our misfortune have simultaneously been imposed upon a bewildered system of governments and peoples.

First, all of the inhabitable part of the earth has now been taken over by nations whose boundaries have become contiguous. In other words, the earth has become occupied and all land of value belongs to some particular nation. Free expansion is over.

Second, these nations have become economically inter-locked. Prosperity of one depends upon prosperity for all. Decline for one spreads its impacts [Page 27]on the others.

Third, practically all of the vital raw materials of the earth are earmarked. The distribution is precariously without equity.

Fourth, colonial territory is not only all pre-empted but many of the outstanding colonial areas are developing their own industries with an eye to their own ultimate self-sufficiency. This does not bode well for nations whose wealth and power depend upon colonial exploitation.

Fifth, nationalism is at its zenith when international cooperation is critically needed for the solution of the most complex problems the world has ever had to face.

Sixth, extreme political contrasts such as between Fascism and Communism, and extreme economic contrasts such as between Capitalism and Communism, have arisen to further embarrass international effort.

Seventh, science has taken such a lead over political and social progress that it can lead to the destruction of the very civilization that it should serve to foster and protect.

Eighth, communication has not only accelerated the impacts and tempo of human society, but stands to further intensify them through each coming year.

SMALL wonder that many of our critics are unwilling to style the present confusion as a “depression”. It will serve us no good to play the ostrich regarding the full price which must be paid for peace, security, and recovery. What is the full price? What is the ultimate inevitable objective? We can sum it up briefly by saying that it means world law with military force, economic sanction, and moral influence for the support of that law, and not military force for the unhindered use of the law-breaker.

A court and a council must go with this law—the court for peaceful settlement of disputes, and the council for the provision of international machinery for anticipating problems and for instituting measures for the amelioration of economic conflict. All the law that the best legal minds can provide will not suffice unless the differences in economic opportunity can be lessened. For that a long process of international education will be necessary—for it will be futile to attempt the far-reaching changes necessary until there has been laid a psychological foundation that can sustain those changes. Utopian? Any change may be considered Utopian from the seats of the scornful. But we cannot avoid the realities of the future. We shall have to keep on living in this world and we, as nations, are going to be thrown closer and closer together each year.

The advances in communication are going to speed up even more throughout each coming year, and political and economic clashes are going to be increasingly intensified. We are up a blind alley. There is no retreat. We shall simply be forced to break down the barriers to security if we want to keep what there is left of civilization.

WHAT do we know about the world tomorrow? Is it futile to peer into the crystal ball for a [Page 28]glimpse of future international conditions? Perhaps we had better get the habit just as fast as possible. Improved means will be needed for studying social forces, and for measuring their drift from the past in order to see where they are taking us. The velocity of world change is not steady,—it is accelerating. That means that a constant social lag leads only to decline. The only safe solution is to increase our front sight as compared to our hind sight.

The records of knowledge are assuming such vast proportions that they are getting beyond human compass. It is a hazardous thing indeed to estimate the future results of present social forces. But we are navigating now on international seas of constantly increasing danger. Our knowledge of the rocks and shoals we have missed and the storms we have weathered in the past becomes of less value than that concerning those which lie ahead. We have got to figure the safer ways and change the course and speed with courage and timeliness. We cannot do that without something to go on for data.

TEN SOCIAL FORCES IN THE WORLD TODAY

SO we shall take some ten of the most visible and stronger social forces in the world today and estimate their effect on future change. After that we shall be interested in examining their reaction on the United States and what we may do about it.

First of all the influence of aviation will bring several changes of special strategic significance. Those nations possessing a combination of large area and extensive resources for aircraft construction will have greater incentive for the development of civil air transport services. These, due to convertibility for military use, will influence the trends in military power. Russia and the United States will be most affected. In smaller countries, and particularly in the case of insular empires like England and Japan, the reverse influence will be felt. These nations will be doubly injured in the future as their supply lines of needed materials from outside will be exposed both to submarine and aircraft attack, while further disadvantage will be imposed in their concentrated industrial areas exposed to aerial attack. Insular security will become insular exposure with severe strategic penalty. Aviation will also place increasing emphasis on the value of immediate offensive for the purpose of wiping out aircraft industrial centers. Control of the air will have a parallel place with the former historic value of control of the sea. The power of maritime blockade will be weakened. Also, as of unique interest and particularly in the case of the crowded areas of Europe, the personnel of governments will not find themselves so immune from destruction as before.

Second, the Russian socialistic system is a going concern that the world must now accept for weal or woe. It is here to stay. We shall have to live with it in this world. The impacts will be tremendous and unavoidable. The working classes of the world will come into another deal [Page 29] whether we conservatives like it or not. Labor is increasingly educated, has increasing power of organization, has the advantage of numbers, and its leadership increases in strength. The spectacular Russian achievements need no further propaganda than mere example. The consequence may appear in increased resistance among proletariats against war. Threats of revolution may act in some cases as strong deterrants against war by capitalistic powers.

Third, the increasing penalties of war will provide social forces which will be bound in the long run to have effect. One result may lie in developing a common interest among those great powers which combine area, arable land and great natural resources; those which have the least need and the least desire for war such as Russia, the United States and the British Empire. By combining their economic power in support of the principles of the League, war would stand much more chance of limitation.

Fourth, another influence of importance lies in the amount of vital raw materials in reserve in the home lands of certain powers. Industrial civilization and military power travel principally on coal, iron and oil. The United States apparently stands first and Russia second. In rough figures, the United States has nearly four trillion tons of these materials in reserve—about twice as much as all the Far East combined. Russia has, from what estimates are obtainable, some known six hundred billion tons. The British Empire has about four hundred and fifty billion tons. These approximate figures are related not only to power but to example in world leadership. The relatively great potential strength of the United States carries exceeding responsibility. What we do will affect the trend of security of all civilization.

Fifth, imperialism is under change. In some areas it may have to retreat. Large colonial areas will tend to use their own resources for increasing their industrial autonomy. That will weaken imperial powers like England and France in the long run. Processes of empire disintegration may ultimately be set up. That will relatively enhance the strength of nations like Russia and the United States.

Sixth, the Fascism of Italy, Naziism of Germany, and the militarism of Japan appear fundamentally to be the unavoidable resort of the “scarcity” or “have-not” powers. These are three danger forces in the world and will continue to be so until some international means can be found to ameliorate the critical differences in international economic opportunity. This is a problem apparently beyond solution at present in a world of unrestricted competitive markets. It results in continuous economic war and until the problem is met the conditions will be supplemented and paid for in armaments.

Seventh, these three powers stand among the highest in the yearly increase of population. This will tend only to intensify the situation. The solution does not appear to lie so much in the reach for new territory as it does in access to markets through which populations may be supported in their native areas.

[Page 30]Eighth, this problem naturally brings up the relative merits of socialistic and capitalistic control. It is an issue on the world program and we cannot avoid it. The historic resistance of intrenched economic power will stay with us. The reconciliation of these two opposing forces also seems at present beyond the power of statesmanship. Only time and trial can give the answer.

Ninth, political progress is perilously slow. In the meantime science and communications are not only progressing but accelerating. To repeat our theme—as each year passes they increase the speed of impact and bring out shocks and danger to a world order beyond the capacity of social machinery to absorb. Again we must look ahead and realize that there is no check possible on this increasing tempo. There is grave harm in calling this situation a mere depression. It is something that calls for a new structure of human society if civilization is going to hold its own.

Lastly, we should note the increasing complexity of society. Civilizations have fallen because of problems that became so complex that social organization could not bear up under the burdens imposed. This complexity during the last century has increased beyond any former rate. It can only be met by a commensurate increase in control, restraint and sacrifice which nationalism and unrestricted capitalism inherently oppose.

IN this bewildering and chaotic outlook there are nevertheless grounds for optimism. There are tremendous forces and weapons at our disposal for rebuilding civilization that were never available to mankind before. A majority of the great powers have solved the problem of scarcity. Not only that, but the abundance of these powers, from an examination of statistics, shows that their capacity for production far surpasses the deficiencies of the three “scarcity” powers. In other words there is now at least enough to go around for those nations capable of disturbing the world order by military means.

Again, even if we cannot entirely prevent war and even if we cannot now erect a world state system, it should be within our power to localize war and to erect pressure machinery to terminate war prior to its spread over the world.

Also, we now have resources in world educational communication which were undreamed of in former times. We have not begun to really use this means. At present they only seem to increase international barriers of propaganda and misconception. Also, our problem is not a case of changing human nature. It is a case of appealing to enlightened selfishness.

THE tragedy of the situation lies in not having the machinery ready to profit by our capacities of abundance. Here again the Russian example, in spite of its harshness, offers hope not so much as in what is being done, as in proving that collective opportunity can be used on such a large scale.

[Page 31] FACING REALITIES

THERE are undoubtedly many good reasons why the United States should remain aloof as far as possible from foreign entanglements. These however are overshadowed by other considerations for two main reasons. First, we have and will have foreign economic entanglements and must have political engagements, not to increase these but to lessen them. Second, as the years pass by and as nations draw closer, and as shocks and problems increase, we shall simply have to face realities. The problems must be met in time. We will have to keep living on this planet.

It means that we shall have to accept the principles of the World Court and the League and take our share of sacrifice in economic evolution. With adequate international machinery there are brains in this world under whose leadership our problems could be solved. Without it there are no brains on earth which can ever solve them.

It is economic peace or the powder cart and the latter will ultimately lead to the human dump heap.

IT IS the question of adaptation— the biological secret of security and survival. Society in general has progressed more through the aid of living together than it has by competition. The units of collective impulse have constantly tended to increase in size and ultimately increase advantage in so doing.

Those who dare look ahead and recognize these principles and who offer aid instead of obstruction will share indeed the vision of a higher form of patriotism.

•

Today nothing but the power of the Word of God which encompasses the realities of things can bring the thoughts, minds, hearts and spirits under the shade of one Tree. He is the potent in all things, the vivifier of souls, the preserver and the controller of the world of mankind. Praise be to God, in this day the light of the Word of God has shone forth upon all regions; and from all sects, communities, nations, tribes, peoples, religions and denominations, souls have gathered together under the shadow of the Word of Oneness, and have in the utmost fellowship united and harmonized! —— ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ, in “Tablet to the Central Organization for a Durable Peace, The Hague.”

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[Page 32]

A staunch advocate of the federal principle as the solution of many vital international problems, and a careful student of current world affairs, Oscar Newfang clarifies for the non-technical reader the question of how to promote the flow of international trade.

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REDUCING TRADE BARRIERS

By OSCAR NEWFANG

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THERE is no commercial country in the world which can produce within its own borders everything needed for our present high stage of civilization. America must import rubber, coffee and other tropical products; Great Britain, meat and wheat; Germany, copper; France, oil; Italy, coal; Japan, soya bean. It is evidently desirable, therefor, for every country to import such needed commodities as it cannot produce, paying for them by the export of other commodities of which it produces a surplus. There are also many commodities of which a country is unable to produce a sufficient quantity to meet its needs, and in this case, also, it is evidently desirable for a country to import the part which it cannot produce and pay for the imports through shipment of such goods as are produced in quantities beyond home needs. There is still a third class of commodities in which foreign trade is advantageous to both the exporting and the importing country. This class consist of such commodities as can indeed be produced at home, but only at a relative disadvantage or a relatively greater cost of production than they are produced in another country.

Regarding the desirability of foreign trade in the first two classes there will hardly be any question among intelligent persons; but in regard to the third class there is a widespread idea prevalent that a country should not import any article that can be produced at home, for the reason that such imports reduce the amount of employment available for the citizens of a country and so take away the jobs of the workers of the country. This fallacy arises from ignoring the fact that commerce flows in two directions, and that for every million dollars of imports there must in the long run he a million dollars of exports. And when these equivalents are reduced to the last analysis, it means that for every day’s labor imported into a country a day’s labor must be exported in payment. Hence for all the employment taken away by imports there will be an equivalent creation of employment that would not have existed, in providing exports to pay for such imports.

[Page 33] The only difference, therefore, between import and domestic production of commodities which can be produced at home only at a relative disadvantage is, that in the former case each country engaged in the trade exchanges a larger product of the day’s labor than would be the product of the home employment in which the country is at a disadvantage. This is merely an international instance of the advantage resulting from the division of labor according to individual aptitude or individual native ability.

THE RECIPROCITY POLICY IS INTERNATIONAL BARTER

GIVEN the present situation of universal trade barriers in every commercial country hindering and even preventing this mutually advantageous exchange of commodities, what shall be said of the method of reducing and removing these obstructions through reciprocal agreements? The first thing to be observed is that this method is practically a reversion to barter. The idea back of the reciprocity policy is, that each country shall find another country which needs its surplus commodity and which produces a surplus commodity needed by the first country, and by making reciprocal tariff concessions to make possible the exchange of these two commodities against each other. The attempt is made to rule out, as far as possible, the troublesome problems of monetary balances, foreign exchange quotations and gold shipments. In order to accomplish this it becomes necessary to stipulate that the reciprocally battered commodities shall be of approximately equal money value.

These processes present practically the same difficulties found in barter between individuals, where the one party to the barter must find some one who wants precisely what he wants to dispose of, and who has precisely what he wants to acquire; moreover, the exchange values of the two commodities must be equal in order to make the trade. The difficulties of barter between individuals have been so long and so well known that it is needless to dwell upon them.

There is no room for triangular trade under a barter arrangement between individuals, nor under a reciprocal agreement between nations. With a natural flow of commerce and a sound banking system, free from governmental interference, triangular or quadrilateral trade is easily handled. For instance, Brazil ships coffee to the United States; the United States ships cotton to Great Britain; Great Britain ships cotton goods to Brazil. Bills of exchange circulated in the reverse direction between these three countries cancel all three debts. The same method cancels quadrilateral foreign trade. Such triangular and quadrilateral trade allows much greater freedom to traders both in imports and in exports, since it is not necessary that the accounts of any two countries must balance each other, but only that the total exports and the total imports of a country to and from the whole world shall balance one another. It it evident that the possibility of a large volume of foreign trade is much greater under the latter arrangement [Page 34]than it is under the reciprocal arrangement in which the exports and imports of each two nations must be balanced against each other. Furthermore, the necessity for making an enormous number of reciprocal agreements between each grouping of two countries throughout the world is entirely obviated: foreign traders sell where they can sell to advantage and buy where they can buy to advantage, and simply balance the total transactions against one another.

The policy of governmental reciprocity is also subject to the serious objection that the decision regarding the industries whose protection is to be diminished and which are thus sacrificed for the good of the whole nation is made arbitrarily by the government. Under this arrangement the industries which can bring the greatest pressure to bear upon the government will be able to retain their protection, and the industries which cannot bring sufficient pressure to bear will be sacrificed for the sake of the exporting industries. The reciprocity or barter system of foreign trade is, therefore, antiquated, inefficient and arbitrary as a method of building up foreign trade.

THE DUAL POSITION OF GOLD

THE fundamental reason for the multiplication of trade barriers since the World War and for the very limited and cautious reduction of such barriers through reciprocal tariff agreements is the fear on the part of the nations of losing their gold reserves by the settlement of unfavorable trade balances. If gold were merely a commodity like other commodities, its export would be determined by its relative cost of production in each country in comparison With the cost of production of other commodities which might be exported to pay for imports. But in addition to its character as a simple commodity of commerce gold is the foundation of the monetary and credit structure of all modern commercial countries, and its export or import therefore profoundly affects the entire business of a country. The intense desire of all commercial countries to hold their gold and to acquire more is not due to the old mercantile theory of economics, to the effect that gold is the mosc desirable kind of wealth. It is due to the fact that for every lost million of gold at country must withdraw from the circulating medium at least ten millions of credit, if it wants to maintain its ratio of coverage. The export of large amounts of gold, therefore, seriously cramps the entire business life of a nation, restricts all its enterprises, causes many failures, and produces much unemployment. The difference between the export of ordinary commodities and the export of the particular commodity, gold, is the difference between shipping goods from a warehouse and removing the foundation of the building.

THE NEED OF A WORLD CENTRAL BANK

WE have learned how to remove the danger of specie movements within each country by means of a banking system unified through a central reserve bank, which holds the specie reserves for the entire country and effects settlements between the various [Page 35] regions through book transfers of balances and seasonal loans to offset seasonal movements of commodities within the country. It would seem to be a fair inference that, in order to remove the danger of specie movements throughout the whole world there is needed a world central bank, which would hold the specie reserves of the national central banks in the same manner that the latter hold the reserves for the local banks of a country; which would make seasonal loans to the central banks of the various countries during periods when the flow of commodities was against those countries, to be repaid when the opposite flow set it. Settlements between nations would be largely effected by mere book entries against the balances of the national central banks with the World Bank, shipments of specie would be reduced to a minimum, and the danger to the credit structure of the individual countries would be eliminated. Following the analogy further, the World Bank could be made the sole bank of issue, thus eliminating the numerous fluctuating and unrelated currencies in the various commercial countries and establishing a world “sterling,” which the writer believes should consist of a purely representative currency; that is, of specie certificates against specie held to meet them. All injection of credit into the medium of exchange should be made through bank credit, and not through a fiduciary currency.

TOWARD A WORLD FEDERATION

IT is, of course, obvious that the development of the policy of reciprocity as here outlined would not be possible until the League of Nations shall have much more nearly integrated the states of the world in the direction of an actual world federation. The need for adequate protection of the world banking reserves by an effective international police force immediately occurs to mind. The impossibility of making the necessary world monetary regulations without an adequate world authority or legislature to authorize them is also obvious upon the slightest reflection. Most important of all, it is obvious that the nations of the world will not consent to abandon the economic defense in war which they derive from the home production of all essential war materials (the so-called key industries), even though produced at a higher cost and at a national sacrifice, until their security against military attack is absolutely guaranteed by the existence and the functioning of an international police force adequate to compel the use of the methods of reason in international disputes and to prevent the disturbance of the world’s peace. Until the danger of military attack against the states of the world is removed by the development of a powerful federal world structure, the League of Nations will not be able to secure either the military disarmament or the economic disarmament of the individual nations of the world. This development of the League is the fundamental problem for the restoration of the normal, beneficent flow of international commerce.

As the policy of ruthless and strangling tariffs, preferences, quotas and embargoes against international trade makes for international friction, hatred and war, so the policy of reciprocity makes for harmony, goodwill and peace.

[Page 36]

Four recent books dealing with the closely related themes of religion, race and unity are considered by Paul Russell Anderson of Lake Erie College. The reviewer’s horizon has become inter-religious and inter-racial, as well as international, by experience on the faculty of the American University, Beirut.

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RELIGION, RACE AND UNITY

By PAUL RUSSELL ANDERSON

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PERIODS of national and industrial distress lead to reverberations of racial and group strife. The Nazi program in Germany affords an adequate illustration of the way in which a crisis period stimulates one group to pour out on the other the stored-up hatred and bile enkindled in economic and cultural rivalry. The drive to control in many cases is just as vigorous as the struggle to survive. It has led Moslem majorities in Iraq to massacre Christian minorities in recent months. It has been expressed in student riots in Poland, in social and political antagonism in Mexico, in the streets of Shanghai, in the shops of New York, and in the farmlands of the south. Prejudice, social ostracism, religious intolerance, economic inequality—these are the fruits of the bitter and hateful antagonisms of men. The greater the rivalry the greater the antipathy. Thus a period of turmoil recreates the discriminations of race, class and religion and the strife between groups is upon us. It is thus appropriate for our attention again to be focused on the problems of group relations in America.

THE tension of group contact as strained through periods of economic instability is emphasized by Everett R. Clinchy in his book All in the Name of God. (1) He points to the panics of 1837, 1849, and 1857 and the periods of political and industrial unrest in the 1890s and 1920s as examples of where the bitterness of economic competition led to racial and religious prejudice and enmity. His book was written with the purpose of starting a “‘backfire’ against prejudice,” for he says, “When the fuel of ignorance and indifference, upon which the fires of intolerance feed, is itself destroyed, the flame falters, halts, and dies.” The book is for the most part a record of the history of intolerance in America. It deals with the early religious barriers erected between groups. The author spends considerable time on such organizations as the Know-Nothing movement, the American Protective Association, and the Ku Klux Klan and tries to show how they developed in periods of instability and turmoil. He writes vigorously and poignantly and the chapters

(1) E. R. Clinchy, All in the Name of God, with an introduction by Newton D. Baker, The John Day Company, New York, 1934, 194 pp., $2.00.

[Page 37] naturally flow from the pen of a man who has seen bitterness, hate and discrimination gnaw at the vitals of American unity and cosmopolitanism. As for the causes of antagonism, in addition to the economic factor, Mr. Clinchy refers to group consciousness, ethnocentrism, and the exaggeration of intra-group values. He rejects the theory of biological superiority (as most sociologists do today) and feels that the various racial and religious groups can be conditioned to cooperate on the basis of common ties and bonds. His solution for the class problem in America is cultural pluralism. There are economic, vocational, historical, philosophical, social, and community factors always to be considered in intergroup relations, but there has been a constant leveling of barriers despite numerous conflicts. There has been a development in tolerance from the position of “live and annihilate” to “live and let live”, but the “third stage in intergroup relations . . . is the goal for the future; live and help live.” Cultural pluralism, he believes, is democracy at its best. The variety, differentiation, and uniqueness of group life may cross-fertilize, stimulate, and enliven a civilization in a way which is impossible under a unified religious culture. The obvious advantage of Mr. Clinchy’s position lies in its immediate utility in tempering the distressing wave of class opposition. If nothing more, it is at least a temporary expedient for allaying the bitterness of competitive and intolerant provincialism. In that light it deserves the sympathetic understanding of those who are realistic enough to weigh present possibilities as well as to contemplate future hopes. There are questions concerning the position, however, which bear consideration. May not this position be but the declaration of a truce rather than a long-time process of mutual development? Again all kinds of group conflict may not respond to the same treatment. Arbitration may not be the final word in economic strife on the one hand and complete race fusion may not be satisfactory on the other. Thus to apply the principle of cultural pluralism to economic, social, racial, political, and religious problems at one and the same time may force one to overlook important considerations which are not equally present in each of these fields of antagonism.

RELIGION has always been involved in the strife among men. One need not refer to historic examples to substantiate this contention, many as the cases are which might be cited; the present offers sufficient material in itself. One of the most exhaustive studies of interreligious relations is that written by Silcox and Fisher. (1) Their familiarity with religious problems is well-known, Mr. Silcox having produced a worthy volume previously in his Church Union in Canada and Mr. Fisher being the executive secretary of the Institute of Social and Religious Research, under whose direction this study was made. The divisiveness of religion creates a social problem of much significance as the authors well point out. They deal with the historic background of the

(1) C. E. Silcox and G. M. Fisher, Catholics, Jews and Protestants, Harper and Brothers, New York and London, 1934, 369 pp., $2.50.

[Page 38]conflicts between American religious communions and the sociological barriers which arise because of these religious divisions. They point to discriminations in business, employment, real estate, social clubs, political life and immigration to show how religious differences create social problems as well as to show how economic and social factors strengthen religious antagonism. At considerable length they deal with the relations of Catholics, Jews and Protestants in social work, in education, in marriage, and in proselytization. In social work there is a general spirit of cooperation, in education the conflict between authoritarian and secular training involves serious obstacles to union, in marriage social restrictions tend to make relations divisive, in conversion religious institutions often provoke animosity rather than foster amicability. A chapter summarizes the institutions working for cooperation, some national in scope, some restricted to colleges, some local in nature. These, however, are led by the few and represent the minority; their achievements have not been many as yet. Barriers exist, strong ones, and these are based upon philosophical, psychological, and sociological considerations. Their Study leads the authors to point out that the ultimate hope for the recovery of a religious philosophy in America lies in an ad interim era of tolerance and sympathy leading ultimately to the development of a religious culture “not limited by the experience of ancient Judea or of Imperial Rome or of the Anglo-Saxon peoples.”

Religious monism is much easier to advocate than racial monism because religion is modifiable far easier than racial heritage. Ideas in the mind can be more easily changed than color of the skin. Thus fundamental disagreement over the ultimate objective of religious forces is found between Mr. Clinchy on the one hand and Messrs. Silcox and Fisher on the other. The latter men look upon Mr. Clinchy's cultural pluralism as only a step toward an ultimate fusion Of the peculiarly good and beautiful in America’s various faiths into an expressive American religion.

THE place of the Negro in American society affords an equally difficult problem in inter-group relations. The growth of the Negro population to its present figure of 12,000,000 accentuates rather than diminishes the difficulties involved. Economic competition between individuals (and extended to groups) has multiplied the sources of antipathy and conflict. Trevor Bowen in his recent book (1) on white—Negro relations has presented a vigorous appeal for the eradication of segregation as a hope for more democratic relations between the two groups. The Preface clearly states the problem with which the author deals, namely, the attitude of white religious groups toward the Negro. His findings (carried on under the advisement of The Institute of Social and Religious Research) lead him to conclude that the basic discriminations against the Negro are economic in nature (from the slave period through the New Deal) but that

(1) Trever Bowen, Divine White Right, a study of race segregation and interracial cooperation in religious organizations and institutions in the United States, with a section on the Church and Education for Negroes by Ira. de A. Reid, Harper and Brothers, New York and London, 1934, 310 pp., $1.75.

[Page 39]they have been augmented in many cases by the activities of white religious institutions whose true purpose should be to condemn “segregation as being unworkable, unsound, and incompatible with the principles of a social order based upon values inherent in human personality.” He charges the churches with being unfair toward the Negro at the time of the Civil War, in forcing Negroes to establish separate church institutions, in Y. M. C. A. work, in hospital service and throughout the educational structure of religious denominations. The hope, he feels, lies in abandoning the principle of segregation in religious and educational affairs thus lessening the tension between races on the economic plane. Bowen has collected some very forcible information to show the oftentimes incommensurates in religious practice, ideals on the one hand and social attitudes on the other. He points out the necessity for religious institutions to see more clearly the social demands of religion and to make actions accord with professed beliefs.

THE reshaping of religious attitudes is only one means of achieving equality for the Negro, however. It would certainly lead to greater tolerance in all events, and might lead even to further recognition of the rights of and duties to minorities. However, the strength of religious institutions to complete this process alone is doubtful. This leads one to seek the deeper causes of antagonism between racial groups. The very concept of race is so involved as to force one to seek motives other than pure racial antipathy which lead to the clash of racial groups. The causes are often those of economic, social and cultural rivalry which seek outlet through the medium of race prejudice. The study of white-Negro relations, then, involves an inclusive sociological investigation of widely diverse elements which lead to race hatred. It is just such a study which Weatherford and Johnson have made (1), a study which takes in the philosophy of race relations as well as the immediate causes of antagonism. This voluminous work deals effectively and conclusively with the whole problem of the background, the expression and the results of white-Negro conflicts in America. The authors deal with the cultural background of the Negro and find in it basis for the subsequent inequalities when the Negro became an integral part of American economic life. The struggle for economic security and for social prestige are pointed out as outstanding sources of antagonism together with a set of customs and mores which emerged in the course of contactual relations. A changed set of mores appears to be the most necessary expedient to alleviate inequalities in economic, political and cultural standing. A splendid picture of the history of the Negro in America, his economic relations, education, health, home life, civic status, and cultural progress is given in this volume. It is an exhaustive study of the whole field of white-Negro contacts in American life. The authors are not content to speak solely of the Status of the

(1) W. D. Weatherford and C. S. Johnson, Race Relations, D. C. Heath and Company, 1934, 590 pp., $3.20.

[Page 40]Negro; to this extent the volume becomes more than a sociological treatise. The spirit of the work seems in opposition to the commonly accepted idea among whites of an inferior culture in its midst. This attitude which leads either to belief in colonization, segregation, subordination or annihilation is unpractical and inadvisable. The possibility of parallel cultures also presents difficulties although offering possibilities for the progressive development of good-will and understanding between groups demanded by the complexity and proximity of modern civilization. The authors point out difficulties in the attainment of a separate culture, namely, the weakening of the original cultural drives of the Negro, the impossibility of a separate economy, and the improbability of being able to resist the effects of a parallel culture. The emancipation of the Negro has led to the enrichment of the general culture rather than of a distinctive culture. Because of this, and because of the belief that all cultures develop by borrowing and by adaptation, the authors lead one to believe that the only permanent solution of white-Negro relations lies in some slow process of amalgamation through which the divisive elements will be disintegrated and American culture become one, enriched through, rather than retarded by, the contribution of Negro as well as white.

To offer any comprehensive conclusions on the problems dealt with in these volumes would demand more space than at present is permitted. One cannot help but feel after reading volumes of this sort that there are subtle but powerful forces leading to the more complete equality and understanding of man. Changes in human civilization are only wrought slowly on the anvil of time. The determinant forces in cultures are too strong to permit the whole direction of civilization to change quickly. Reactions at present are sufficient to substantiate this statement. We have at hand, however, greater knowledge of man and of the means of making cultural shifts than ever before. Granted the materials with which to work it is no idle dream which permits one to say that the more rational and objective powers of man may yet be strong enough to imprison the emotional and instinctive forces which have made an ordeal of civilization and in so doing to open the way toward a brighter world where the cooperative spirit may guide and enhance the life of generations to come. Without it the struggle to live will be a fight against death.

[Page 41]

THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE

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FOUNDATIONS OF WORLD UNITY

Public addresses delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during the year 1912 in Universities, Curches and Synagogues, and before members of Peace Societies, to promulgate principles of Universal Peace. 112 pages. Paper covers, $0.75.

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BAHÁ’U’LLÁH and the NEW ERA, by J. E. Esslemont

An exposition of the teachings and history of the religion established by Bahá’u’lláh for the unification of peoples in one faith and one order. This work has been translated into more than twenty languages within the past decade. 308 pages. Bound in leather, $1.00. Paper covers, $0.50.

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SOME ANSWERED QUESTIONS

Compiled by Laura Clifford Barney from the recorded explanations given her by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1907 to questions concerned with the significance of the Prophets, the renewal of civilization, the spiritual reality of man, and sociological subjects. 350 pages. Bound in cloth, $2.00.

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SECURITY FOR A FAILING WORLD, by Stanwood Cobb

The psychological approach to economic and political problems, emphasizing the vital need for a new spirit in humanity as well as a new order for societh. 202 pages. Bound in cloth. $2.00.

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THE PROMISE OF ALL AGES, by Christophil

The spiritual content of religion, with its evolving social implications, traced through the succession of Prophets to its culmination in the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh. 254 pages. Bound in cloth, $1.50.

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