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[Page 119]

WORLD ORDER

HISTORIC LESSON OF WARFARE

STANTON A. COBLENTZ

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INTERNATIONAL ASPECT OF ART

HENRY PURMORT EAMES

•

EVOLUTION AS TELEOLOGY

DAVID HOFMAN

•

MAN THE SUPREME TALISMAN

BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

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(Contents continued on inside cover)

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JULY 1935

Price 20c

VIEWING THE WORLD AS AN ORGANISM

[Page 120]

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

(Continued)

THE ADULT ATTITUDE

ARNOLD H. KAMIAT

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ECONOMICS OF WORLD ORDER

PAUL EDMOND HANEY

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THE INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE

C. W. YOUNG

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SOCIAL TRENDS IN AMERICAN LIFE

BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK

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PROBLEM OF WORLD PEACE

HARRY N. HOWARD

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THE DIVINE UNITY

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.

Publication Office—

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

Editorial Office—

119 Waverly Place, New York, N. Y.

Subscriptions: $2.00 per year, $1.75 to Public 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. Entered as second class matter, May 1, 1935, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879.

Contents copyrighted 1935 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee July, 1935. Vol. 1, No. 4

[Page 121]

WORLD ORDER

JULY 1935

NUMBER 4 VOLUME 1

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THE DIVINE UNITY

EDITORIAL

UNITY on the human plane is difficult to achieve because of the individualism of human nature. Of all the millions of human beings on this planet no two individuals have identically the same ideas, needs, and desires; hence an absolute unity of individual aims and plans is practically impossible. In addition there are innumerable subtile causes of disunity, due to the vanity and egotism of human nature.

Even love culminating in marriage is unable to establish complete unity, for no two married people ever have identically the same interests. Their cultural tastes, their needs of health, their personality patterns all present opposing desires and opposing needs which can be met only by renunciation on the part of one or the other, or by an equitable compromise.

The same urge toward disharmony, due to seeming opposition of interests, exists between employer and employe, between labor and capital, and between the various nations and races of the world. In crises when this divergence of interests becomes aggravated and acute, armed violence between classes or between nations has been the usual outcome.

YET while we see the world of human nature apparently committed inevitably by the nature of things to disunities and conflicts, we perceive in all the rest of the universe a vast and marvelous harmony.

In this visible expression of the will of the Creator which we call Nature disunity is inconceivable. The mind of God cannot act against Itself. There can be no conceivable division in that Will which creates and regulates the universe. Therefore there can be no oppositions of interest, no disharmonies, no disunities in that material universe which implicitly and completely expresses the Creative Will.

Why then does such disunity reign [Page 122] wherever this Life Force is expressed in the human spirit? Is it not because to each individual there has been given that most precious of gifts—the mightiest thing in the whole created Universe—an individual will? It is because of this individuality of volition that human beings find their desires and their intentions differing one from another.

How then can unity be attained? A harmony achieved through compromise is at the best but an imperfect form of unity. It may be devoid of external friction, but it is not altogether wholesome at the core; for the causes of friction, though restrained from external manifestation, remain within the subconscious self as festering complexes. Therefore compromise, while it may produce outward harmony, can never produce complete unity; for it lacks the essence of unity, which is oneness.

THERE is only one way for two or more individuals to attain complete unity. This is by turning to the Divine Unity Itself, and inhering in that Essence of Oneness. In so doing separate individuals become absolutely one; as they dip down into the fathomless depths of the Infinite Oneness they gain a unity that is not partial (by compromise, with its inevitable feeling of loss on the part of each); but a unity absolute and organic, with a sense of enrichment to each individual.

When the wills of separate individuals are thus merged in the Will of God, they find miraculously an identity of interest. For it is evident that there can be no separateness or opposition in the Divine Will. All separateness, all disharmony, all conflict that we know of is the negative result of the will of man asserting itself separately from the Will of God. And there is absolutely no way for these disunities to be terminated except by the merging of the human will into the Divine Will.

Herein is to be found the only solution to the world’s malefic problem of disharmony. And herein is to be experienced a unity perfect and joyous as only the Divine Power can bestow. “Be ye as one soul in many bodies”, said Bahá’u’lláh. And wherever an endeavor has been made to adjust personal differences by this miracle of Divine Love and Oneness a solution to all human problems has been found. The greatest miracle which human nature collectively can experience takes place under this power of Divine Oneness—the miracle of absolute identity of interest between separate and unmergeable individuals.

When whole nations and races come to experience this same Divine Unity and Oneness, they, too, will find identity of interests one with another. Then war will become impossible; and the scientific intelligence of man will be able to erect upon the foundations of World Unity marvelous institutions which will perfect the political, social and economic life of man. This is the true path to Progress. There is no other way under the sun by which the perfect world civilization can be achieved.

S. C.

[Page 123]

Fresh courage comes to the friend of peace who sees that modern warfare is not expression of human pugnacity but in fact of its very opposite, and that the evolution of the war system has now reached its culmination.

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THE HISTORIC LESSON OF WARFARE

By STANTON A. COBLENTZ

•

IT is commonly assumed that the history of warfare has no lesson to teach us other than the impossibility of ending war. It is supposed that no rule other than that of chaos is to be divined amid the bloody expeditions and collisions of all past centuries; that the one indubitable fact is that man is a fighting animal, and will remain a fighting animal so long as he continues to breathe the air of this crimsoned planet. Yet this point of view, so easily reached and often so stubbornly held, flies in the face of a series of facts so elementary that a child could understand them, and so momentous that their importance cannot be overestimated; flies in the face of any correct realization of the nature of warfare and warlike history, and of any effective effort to combat the mosc serious menace yet confronting our race.

Despite the bewildering number and variety of the wars with which man has blackened and befouled the ages, one powerful tendency stands out from the time of the first crude bronze sword to these progressive days of howitzers and poison gas. This is a tendency which, while often not to be observed over limited periods and areas, has moved across the wide panorama of history with the precision and the inflexibility of a law of nature. It is a tendency that was born with the first bands of arrow-wielding or spear-slinging savages, that ripened through all the variegated centuries of feuds, oppression and conquest, and that today is threatening to reach its logical culmination— with results either of unparalleled beneficence or of unprecedented malignity to all future generations.

By this I refer to the tendency of war to disappear from the lower rungs of society and to appear in the higher; to be eliminated on a small scale, and to be organized on a wider scope; to pass from the hands of small and casual groups into the supervision of large directive organisms in which vast operations and machine-like control become more and more manifest. While we know little of the actual beginnings of group conflict, aside from the fact that the unevolved or [Page 124] primitive peoples are unacquainted with warfare, we do at least know enough to say that the first battles were undoubtedly waged between small tribal or communal units, that the contestants were but a handful, and that the issue could not have been of wide consequence. Gradually, however, as tribes were consolidated into larger tribes, as a settled agricultural population grew more abundant, and as scattered communities were organized into states and nations, warfare ceased to be the prerogative of minor groups, and the military art was moved to a higher and wider level, coming to be the occupation of armies that numbered deep into the thousands and that followed the sword of commanders whose profession was war. From year to year, and from century to century, as nations expanded and as commercial and military ambitions gave rise to empires, the old process was accentuated, the sphere of conflict widened, and at the same time the smaller factions continued to surrender their independent right of battle . . . until many a once-sovereign country could no longer raise its own fighting forces or conduct its own expeditions, but added its martial resources to those of a Sultan or Emperor, thus making warfare ever less and less a limited and domestic affair.

To be sure, there were innumerable exceptions. Buccaneers and brigands in all ages have maintained their right to private combat, but they represent mere side-currents in modern development, and hence need not here be considered seriously; while the so-called Dark Ages embody a temporary reversion to the methods of a previous era, wherein, following the disintegration of the great ancient empires, men returned to the chaos of a remote past, and private wars and raiding expeditions again became the order of the day. But, considered with regard to the sweep and breadth of history, even the relapse of centuries was but momentary; from the broader point of view, it remains true that wars have continued to disappear from the level of the smaller groups and to be concentrated in greater units.

Recent developments have made this fact more evident than ever. Throughout the entire stretch of modern history; throughout the death-period of feudalism and the emergence of the great nations of latter-day Europe; throughout the Napoleonic epoch with its large-scale wars and its feverish awakening of nationalism; throughout the post-Napoleonic nationalistic evolution and the amalgamation of small states into great nations; throughout the early twentieth century and down into the period of the World War, wherein tremendous alliances of states rather than individual states were the competitors, we have witnessed the advance of the ancient tendency — but an advance that has assumed a range and a rapidity unknown in previous eras.

So obvious are these facts that they need but be stated in order to be realized. And from them two conclusions may be drawn—two conclusions that should be apparent from [Page 125] a mere statement of the case, but that have been so little recognized that they must he shouted from the housetops if this purblind world is to retain sufficient sanity to check its own self-destructive frenzy.

The first fact is that man throughout the ages has displayed no combative impulse that has not surrendered to larger compulsions. The individual has increasingly subordinated his aggressive tendencies to the command of the group; he has allowed first the tribe, then the state, the nation and the empire to govern him; he has more and more ceased to exhibit a pugnacious will of his own, while permitting himself to be whipped into pugnacity by the will of political leaders. This is to say that the individual has been essentially docile, essentially malleable in the hands of authority; that he has been virtually a negligible factor so far as his own aims and desires are concerned; that he has been ready to veer as the winds dictated, and that his apparent fighting propensities actually demonstrate the feebleness of any fighting qualities in opposition to a power imposed from above. On no other ground can we explain the world-wide subjection of vast populations, including great armies, to the dominance of small governing groups; on no other ground can we account for the tendency of warlike bands to expand into military machines in which the individual is repressed to the point of obliteration. In view of the trend toward greater and greater armies, wherein the private— as during the World War— comes to be little more than a Robot in a huge inhuman mechanism, we are abundantly justified in concluding that it is lack of pugnacity and not its presence which has made possible the immense armed forces and the Cyclopean conflicts of the so-called civilized centuries. And from this realization we may logically go forward another step, and state that the basic material of mankind is such that progress in any direction is possible: we may move toward still vaster wars or toward the often-dreamed Golden Age of Peace, toward international cooperation and harmony or toward an enhancement of the present disharmony and chaos, yet in either case the masses of men will not oppose the change so long as the will of the leaders bends inflexibly toward its goal.

This fact assumes added significance in view of our second general conclusion, which is that the historic tendency toward the amalgamation of smaller fighting units into greater has approached if it has not actually reached its natural limits. When we observe, as during the World War, half the great nations of Europe aligned against the other half, with the dominant Powers of Asia and America adding their fury to the fray, we can hardly suppose that the tendency will be able to proceed much further in its original direction —unless, indeed, the next war is to witness a duel to the death between the two hemispheres of the earth. Therefore it would seem self-evident that there are only two possibilities for the future. On the one hand, we may peacefully complete the historic trend toward the welding of smaller [Page 126] sovereign units into greater; we may consolidate the diverse and fire-spitting national groups of today into the organic harmony of a single world-state; we may achieve a further surrender of the power of particular factions to the authority of the whole, just as the one-time tribesmen uniting to form a nation have always been obliged to forget their mutual differences.

But, on the other hand, should this amicable outlet be refused, the historic tendency will exhaust itself in another direction: the recurrence of warfare, on the devastating scale necessitated by the great nations, mighty alliances, and formidable weapons of today, will be too much for the resistance of a planet already shaken to its foundations, and in the world’s despair and the wreckage of civilization we will pay the penalty for ignoring the manifest pronouncements of history. The crisis of civilization is at hand.

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The creative artist, this educator declares, weaves a bond between the peoples more delicate but more influential than all the agencies of commerce.

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THE INTERNATIONAL ASPECT OF THE FINE ARTS

By HENRY PURMORT EAMES

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THERE are relations existing between men and nations which are more real than industry, or commerce. They are the relations of feeling, of self-expression of man’s higher nature through line, mass, color, form, sound. Beauty, Truth, Goodness, this is the triad upon which the whole scale of man’s development is founded, and though races and nations may differ in their conception of these universal but divine fundamentals, the secret of mutual understanding lies in the perception and appreciation of them as vital forces issuing from the realms of feeling and emotion.

Internationally considered, the fine arts are the only constant arteries of communication between the nations through which flow understanding, friendship, and love.

Architecture, sculpture, painting, poetry, and music (the five fingers of the hand of God—the “Most Beautiful”—as the Oriental sage puts it) together or separately form a force for unity that is as tremendous in its quantity as it is spiritual in its quality. The perception and realization of beauty in space or beauty in time are not monopolized by any one [Page 127] people or period, nor are the form and content of the arts—material or immaterial—the exclusive possession of any race or nation. The message of beauty is the message of truth, and as such is for the healing of nations as well as individuals.

In my study and research of sources of art-impulses, aims and manifestations, I have found, as have others, that myths and their ultimate meanings, that primitive ballads and their rhythmitonal accompaniments, that decorative and symbolical drawings and carvings are more than national in their final, their spiritual meaning and applicability. The emotional depths they sound and vibrate, the elemental problems and purposes they present are universal, common to the life of humanity.

Emotionally we are bound together as one family. We sing the songs of Araby. We gown ourselves and appoint our homes in the handicrafts (the applied expressions of beauty) of the Orient and Occident. And then too often and to our ultimate destruction we fail physically and spiritually to recognize and utilize the universal possession of an emetional force which harmonized not only homes and communities, but nations.

Men have always profited by travel and study in foreign lands. The Greeks studied in Egypt, and on the foundation stones of Egyptian knowledge reared their own structure of self-expression,—the purest, most inspiring example of the beautiful which the world knows. The Romans at firSt studied in Greece, and later, through their wealth and power, commandeered the art of Greece for their very own. French, Spanish, English, Netherlands, and German scholars and artists traveled to Rome there to drink at the springs of beauty, which had their sources in the Orient and in Egypt. America sends thousands of ambassadors of good will to Europe every year, there to learn not only painting and music (as students of Fine Arts), but to see all Europeans as fellow-men and brothers. Through our quest for fresh expressions of beauty in time and space, we are awakening to the colors, forms, and harmonies of the Orient. Through our exchange of students and teachers in art expression the subjective Oriental is learning the objective Occidental is, like himself, a searcher for and devotee of the beautiful in mind and matter be it moulded into poems, “pagodas” or “parthenons.” In fine, that men are brothers, and need but know each other to discover the international aspect of basic human unity.

Ten European choral organizations have toured America in the last few years, representing Sweden, Germany, France, Czecho-Slovakia, Lithuania, Italy, Russia, and Great Britain, and we have sent bands, orchestras, and choruses to Canada and Europe.

The International Society of Musicians, and the International Society of Art are active and doing excellent work along the lines of exchange exhibits.

These may all be called Ambassadors of good will. So too are the thousands of students who come from other nations to us. The treasure of money spent in foreign travel [Page 128] and art education is sufficient to form the laws and policies of governments. But greater and more impressive than these expenditures and receipts in gold is the experienced revelation of the basic unity of all men. This experience brings true internationalism into the thought and acts of men, without destroying the legitimate and constructive nationalism which we cannot, at this stage of our evolution, do without.

I first studied music, as a young man, in Germany. That hospitable people took me in as their own. I went with some prejudices. These prejudices vanished, love took their place. It will always remain for I know their folk and art expressions, their language and true selves.

It is through the schools, to the great student body, that (in my opinion) we will find the surest steps to international understanding. There are some exchange professorships. There should be many more, in all subjects. Naturally I crave such in the fine arts. Commercial interests are investing more and more in advertising through individual and group education. Why should not the arts be so treated? . . .

The power of truth and of beauty are the subjective forces with which we and our children must resolve this world to concord. As Dr. Hartley Alexander so well says, “those who sigh for the authoritative objectivity of eras gone, and accuse our own of weak and paltry subjectivities, might well reflect upon the phenomenon of expanding sympathy. Subjectivity is but token that we are coming more and more to find enduring ideals in things of the spirit. There are today delicacies of insight, shades of feeling emulated in the past; and certainly the democratization of intellect is not more characteristic of our age than the democratization of the heart.” This is a philosophy to which workers in the arts, and all disciples of Beauty can subscribe. We should avail ourselves of these subjective powers. We should give place and power in out thought and practice to the universal presence of the spirit of understanding and unity.

The international aspect of the fine arts reveals their manifestations not as unrelated nationalistic entities but as interrelated parts of a universal whole.

Architecture, sculpture, painting, music, or poesy—the five fingers of the hand of God, “The Most Beautiful”; perhaps each in the garb of the other is equally beautiful and revealing. Surely each art has two chief attributes forming its true composition —unity and harmonious variety. These attributes rightfully belong to the human family, and through spiritual agency of beauty, they will enter the heart and direct the head so that objective good will follow subjective revelation.

The international aspect of the arts—major and minor—clearly and convincingly shows that the democratization of human hearts through the experience of beauty and wholemess is one of the most significant spiritual achievements of man’s struggling progress towards universal brotherhood. To these sources and forces of proven spiritual power we must turn for peace.

[Page 129]

Man’s fulfilment depends upon his finding himself a part in the stream of purpose revealed from cycle to cycle by the Manifestations of God.

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EVOLUTION AS TELEOLOGY

By DAVID HOFMAN

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THE time has come to complain of the widespread practice of designating man as the “human animal”. The term is used most frequently by people who profess to believe that man is just another species in the vast realm of “life” which has been fortunate enough to evolve along a particular line resulting in its dominance over the rest of the living world.

This viewpoint results, generally, from a superficial acquaintance with the doctrines of causality and Darwinism, in its most mechanistic-survival-of-the-fittest aspect, aided by the seeming facile explanation of an unconscious adaptability to conditions.

The acceptance of the whole process of evolution in terms of cause and effect with no other determining factor than the will to live, may give a plausible explanation for certain phenomena, but it certainly cannot provide any basis for a valuable philosophy or indicate any rational hope for the future. An endless chain of cause and effect or an endless elimination of the less fit could quite conceivably result in man or some other form of life becoming nothing but brain, living on air without need of motion, impervious to fire and flood, disease or famine or relationships of any kind, passing its solitary life in the splendid isolation of mere existence. This may seem an ideal end for the person who finds in the process of development nothing but a striving for invulnerability from hostile natural conditions, but such a theory cannot be made to fit the facts of human nature, neither to explain the story of mankind nor to include in its survey the greatest and most lasting achievements of the race.

For man is a conscious being, capable of progress or of decay, individually as well as en masse. While other creatures have been dominant on the earth for centuries they have not been able to resist their eventual decline. Man, rising to heights of achievement and sinking back again, has always recovered and attained yet another peak, and with each successive rise his dominance over the rest of creation has been more complete.

To men of thought the mechanistic interpretation of evolution is so unsatisfactory as to prove untenable. Let us therefore look at history from another point of view.

[Page 130] TELEOLOGY sees all development as the working out of a preconceived plan, the advancing towards a definite end. With this thought in mind, let us divide history into two sections, before man and after man. Dealing with the after-man period we find very few divergent opinions as to the desired end. The history of philosophy and religion is the history of a striving towards “Utopia” whether of Plato or William Morris or of the “Day of the Lord”. The greatest desire and aspiration of humanity from the earliest times has been and still is the attainment of the “promised day”, of that splendid age promised by all religions and which, variously expressed in different revelations, is summed up in the Christian prayer as “Thy Kingdom Come”. The establishment of universal peace, of a new age of happiness and well-being, of a world order in which the Divine Will will be done on earth, can, on the authority of religion and the undimmed hope of thousands of years of human endeavour, be called the aim of history. A clear statement of belief in and knowledge of the teleologic purpose is found in Kant’s Essay on Eternal Peace; “The history of the human race, reviewed as a whole, may be regarded as the realization of a hidden plan of nature to bring about a political constitution, internally and externally perfect, as the only state in which all the capacities implanted by her in mankind can be fully realized.”

Here is a statement which represents, not the vague hope of some idle dreamer, but the considered opinion of a rational man who has examined the process of history and found it an intelligent one. His finding is not only amply confirmed by subsequent events and present day conditions but has the sanction of religion as well. That world order is desirable, in fact imperative, is so obvious even to the most casual observer that we do not need to enlarge upon it here. But that world order is the definite aim of history is a statement requiring discussion.

ACCEPTANCE of this teaching requires that man be regarded as a distinct being, a creature apart, on a plane above the rest of phenomena. For how could any mere outcome of animal or vegetable life visualize such world order or acquire and manifest those capacities and virtues which are found in man? That man is a separate being is emphatically stated by religion but from the time of Darwinism until very recently such a belief came into conflict with science. Now however the reconciliation has been made.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Expounder of the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, has clarified this problem for the whole world. The constant theme of His addresses throughout Europe and America was the divine origin and destiny of man. His words of greeting almost invariably emphasized this truth. “O ye children of the Kingdom; O servant of God; O my spiritual brother; you are all sons and daughters of God;” these were the words with which He continually impressed upon the people that they were not another species of animal but were truly of divine [Page 131] origin.

The realization of the divine plan required that man should dominate the natural world, and therefore should encompass all the capacities of that world. In the mineral kingdom he acquired the virtue of cohesion; in the vegetable world he acquired the capacity of growth; in the animal world he gained sense perception; in his own station he is endowed with intelligence and reason in addition to all the capacities of mineral, vegetable and animal existence. He is truly the microcosm, containing within himself the whole of existence by virtue of his progress through all the realms of phenomena. This is not to say that he was ever either a monkey or a rubber tree. He may have had the outward shape of an ourang-outang but that is only a difference of form; he was still man in the womb of the natural world.

Man was definitely created by God, but not as a carpenter makes a chair. He followed the course of the divine teleology until finally emerging onto the plane of conscious manhood. This was the aim of evolution in the before-man stage of history and the process itself must surely have been the acquiring of those necessary capacities, which Kant says are implanted in him by nature.

But in dividing history into two periods we do not intend to separate the historical process, but rather to use the most significant stage as the jumping-off place for further investigation. From now on we never lose sight of this hope for a great day, but Kant’s conception of it falls rather short of our own intimate knowledge of human nature. For would it be necessary or even reasonable to establish a world order merely for man to manifest the capacities of atomic cohesion, growth, sense perception, reason, memory and self-preservation, which are capacities implanted in him by nature? What of those qualities of love, mercy, faithfulness and justice which he has always manifested in varying degrees?

The Bahá’í Faith answers these questions. It clearly explains the history of man as the intelligent working out of the divine plan with the “promised day” as its aim. The realization of this aim has not been left to man alone or to any subconscious tendencies within him. This has been the mission of the Prophets. The progress of the human race is cyclic, like the seasons or the beating of the heart or the succession of day and night. And the great Revealers of religion have been the power for each new pulsation, the sun for each new season, each new Day. A cursory glance at history will provide ample grounds for further investigation of this attitude. The rise and fall of civilization is directly coincident with Divine Manifestation and the student cannot fail to be impressed with the fact that the impulse of renaissance of each new season is attributable to the Prophet. The very names of the great civilizations are a witness to this; Mosaic, Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Zoroastrian. These are the names of the daytimes of human history, the nights being such periods as the Dark Ages in Europe prior to the Islamic revival of learning and the decay of Rome prior to [Page 132] the Christian ascendancy.

IN other words the divine destiny of man has not been left to his own puny efforts to attain. Every so often he has been given a new push on the pathway just as he showed signs of going backwards. What lies at the end of this path? What is the goal towards which he is journeying?

“The Goal of a New World Order” is the answer given by the Bahá’í Faith through the pen of its Guardian, who unhesitatingly affirms that the New World Order of Bahá’u’lláh is “the consummation of human evolution” and is nothing less than “God’s immutable purpose for mankind in this day.” In the direct line of progressive revelation, Bahá’u’lláh, the Sun of this universal cycle, calling aloud to the people of the earth, informs them that the Promised Day is here. He calls them to the Divine Unity and proclaims that man was created for love of God, to manifest His attributes and acquire divine virtues.

This is the plan, no longer hidden. The establishment of a world order, physically, socially, politically and spiritually uniting the human race, wherein the attributes of God may be fully manifested and man may continue to acquire those virtues of radiance, justice, wisdom and love which are necessary for his further advancement.

The urgent need for universal cooperation in all spheres of activity is the problem before mankind today. That it will be solved by world order cannot be doubted for world order is the fruit of that long process which we can confidently call intelligent teleology and which never can be regarded as the fortuitous result of a chain of events deriving its impulse merely from the will to live and continuing only through the necessity of adapting to conditions.

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Industrial democracy is just as inevitable as political democracy, and we must not make the mistake of confusing the purpose of industry with production, any more than the mistake of identifying the purpose of the state with efficiency, and law, and order. The purpose of both will he found to be the human values which in the one case may be worked out through production, and in the other through the organization and function of the state. But they are both means and not ends of existence. One of the greatest mistakes of both industry and statecraft has been the notion that their object was to get things done; whereas the real objective was the doing of the things. In other words, life, not material accomplishment, is the only thing which can give contentment to men.

HERBERT ADOLPHUS MILLER, in “Races, Nations and Classes.”

[Page 133]

These passages from Writings of Bahá’u’lláh are directed to that quality of spiritual intelligence in men which can reflect realities when illumined by faith.

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MAN THE SUPREME TALISMAN

WORDS OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

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MAN is the supreme Talisman. Lack of a proper education hath, however, deprived him of that which he doth inherently possess. Through a word proceeding out of the mouth of God he was called into being; by one word more he was guided to recognize the Source of his education; by yet another word his station and destiny were safeguarded. The Great Being saith: Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures and enable mankind to benefit therefrom. If any man were to meditate on that which the Scriptures, sent down from the heaven of God’s holy Will, have revealed, he will readily recognize that their purpose is that all men shall be regarded as one soul, so that the seal bearing the words “The Kingdom shall be God’s” may be stamped on every heart, and the light of Divine bounty, of grace, and mercy may envelop all mankind. The one true God, exalted be His glory, hath wished nothing for Himself. The allegiance of mankind profiteth Him not, neither doth its perversity harm Him. The Bird of the Realm of Utterance voiceth continually this call: “All things have I willed for thee, and thee, too, for thine own sake.” If the learned and worldly-wise men of this age were to allow mankind to inhale the fragrance of fellowship and love every understanding heart would apprehend the meaning of true liberty, and discover the secret of undisturbed peace and absolute composure. Were the earth to attain this station and be illumined with its light it could then be truly said of it: “Thou shalt see in it no hollows or rising hills.”

THE generations that have gone before you—whither are they fled? And those round whom in life circled the fairest and the loveliest of the land, where now are they? Profit by their example, O people, and be not of them that are gone astray.

Others ere long will lay hands on what ye possess, and enter into your habitations. Incline your ears to My words, and be not numbered among the foolish.

For every one of you his paramount duty is to choose for himself that on which no other may infringe and none usurp from him. Such a thing [Page 134] —and to this the Almighty is My witness—is the love of God, could ye but perceive it.

Build ye for yourselves such houses as the rain and floods can never destroy, which shall protect you from the changes and chances of this life. This is the insrtuction of Him Whom the world hath wronged and forsaken.

CONSIDER the pettiness of men’s minds. They ask for that which injureth them, and cast away the thing that profiteth them. They are, indeed, of those that are far astray. We find some men desiring liberty, and priding themselves therein. Such men are in the depths of ignorance.

Liberty must, in the end, lead to sedition, whose flames none can quench. Thus warneth you He Who is the Reckoner, the All-Knowing. Know ye that the embodiment of liberty and its symbol is the animal. That which beseemeth man is submission unto such restraints as will protect him from his own ignorance, and guard him against the harm of the mischief-maker. Liberty causeth man to overstep the bounds of propriety, and to infringe on the dignity of his station. It debaseth him to the level of extreme depravity and wickedness.

Regard men as a flock of sheep that need a shepherd for their protection. This, verily, is the truth, the certain truth, We approve of liberty in certain circumstances, and refuse to sanction it in others. We, verily, are the All-Knowing.

Say: True liberty consisteth in man’s submission unto My commandments, little as ye know it. Were men to observe that which We have sent down unto them from the Heaven of Revelation, they would, of a certainty, attain unto perfect liberty. Happy is the man that hath apprehended the Purpose of God in whatever He hath revealed from the Heaven of His Will, that pervadeth all created things. Say: The liberty that profiteth you is to be found nowhere except in complete servitude unto God, the Eternal Truth. Whoso hath tasted of its sweetness will refuse to barter it for all the dominion of earth and heaven.

ALL-PRAISE to the unity of God, and all-honor to Him, the sovereign Lord, the incomparable and all-glorious Ruler of the universe, Who, out of utter nothingness, hath created the reality of all things, Who, from naught, hath brought into being the most refined and subtle elements of His creation, and Who, rescuing His creatures from the abasements of remoteness and the perils of ultimate extinction, hath received them into the Kingdom of incorruptible glory. Nothing short of His all-encompassing grace, His all-pervading mercy, could have possibly achieved it. How could it, otherwise, have been possible for sheer nothingness to have acquired by itself the worthiness and capacity to emerge from its state of non-existence into the realm of being?

Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He, through the direct operation of His unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon man the unique [Page 135] distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him—a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation . . . Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focussed the radiance of all His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty.

These energies with which the Day-Star of Divine bounty and Source of heavenly guidance hath endowed the reality of man lie, however, latent within him, even as the flame is hidden within the candle and the rays of light are potentially present in the lamp. The radiance of these energies may be obscured by worldly desires even as the light of the sun can be concealed beneath the dust and dross which cover the mirror. Neither the candle nor the lamp can be lighted through their own unaided efforts, nor can it ever be possible for the mirror to free itself from its dross. It is clear and evident that until a fire is kindled the lamp will never be ignited, and unless the dross is blotted out from the face of the mirror it can never represent the image of the sun nor reflect its light and glory.

And since there can be no tie of direct intercourse to bind the one true God with His creation, and no resemblance whatever can exist between the transcient and the Eternal, the contingent and the Absolute, He hath ordained that in every age and dispensation a pure and stainless Soul be made manifest in the kingdoms of earth and heaven. Unto this subtle, this mysterious and ethereal Being He hath assigned a twofold nature; the physical, pertaining to the world of matter, and the spiritual, which is born of the substance of God Himself. He hath, moreover, conferred upon Him a double station. The first station, which is related to His innermost reality, representeth Him as One Whose voice is the voice of God Himself. To this testifieth the tradition: “Manifold and mysterious is My relationship with God” . . . The second station is the human station, exemplified by the following verses: “I am but a man like you.” “Say, praise be to my Lord! Am I more than a man, an apostle?” These Essences of Detachment, these resplendent Realities are the channels of God’s all-pervasive grace. Led by the light of unfailing guidance, and invested with supreme sovereignty, they are commissioned to use the inspiration of their words, the effusions of their infallible grace and the sanctifying breeze of their revelation for the cleansing of every longing heart and receptive spirit from the dross and dust of earthly cares and limitations. Then, and only then, will the Trust of God, latent in the reality of man, emerge as resplendent as the rising Orb of Divine Revelation from behind the veil of concealment, and implant the ensign of its revealed glory upon the summit of men’s hearts.

[Page 136] From the foregoing passages and allusions it hath been made indubitably clear that in the kingdoms of earth and heaven there must needs be manifested a Being, an Essence Who shall act as a Manifestation and Vehicle for the transmission of the grace of the Divinity Itself, the Sovereign Lord of all. Through the Teachings of this Day-Star of Truth every man will advance and develop until he attaineth the station at which he can manifest all the potential forces with which his inmost true self hath been endowed. It is for this very purpose that in every age and dispensation the Prophets of God and His chosen Ones have appeared amongst men, and have evinced such power as is born of God and such might as only the eternal can reveal.

Can one of sane mind ever seriously imagine that, in view of certain words the meaning of which he cannot comprehend, the portal of God’s infinite guidance can ever be closed in the face of men? Can he ever conceive for these Divine Luminaries, these resplendent Lights either a beginning or an end? What outpouring flood can compare with the stream of His all-embracing grace, and what blessing can excel the evidences of so great and pervasive a mercy? There can be no doubt whatever that if for one moment the tide of His mercy and grace were to be withheld from the world, it would completely perish. For this reason, from the beginning that hath no beginning the portals of Divine mercy have been flung open to the face of all created things, and the clouds of Truth will continue to the end that hath no end to rain on the soil of human capacity, reality and personality their favors and bounties. Such hath been God’s method continued from everlasting to everlasting.

THE Purpose of the one true God, exalted be His glory, in revealing Himself unto men is to lay bare those gems that lie hidden within the mine of their true and inmost selves. That the divers communions of the earth, and the manifold systems of religious belief, should never be allowed to foster the feelings of animosity among men is, in this Day, of the essence of the Faith of God, and His Religion.

---

It was the discovery of other Bibles than the Old and New Testaments that gave birth to the science of comparative religion. And such were its revelations as to generate a new ideal of religious fellowship, a new mental picture of what it is supremely desirable to have, viz., world unity in religion, a unity in which all the historical religions are duly coordinated and at the same time subordinated to the higher whole of which each is a part. . . . . Each of the bibles of the seven great religions contains a version of the Golden Rule.

ALFRED W. MARTIN, in “Seven Great Bibles.”

[Page 137]

Our current social problems call for a higher degree of maturity—a dispassionate scientific attitude toward situations—in order to replace the emotional separateness of personalities by a unified intelligence. The new adult attitude, moreover, is the example needed by the younger generation.

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THE ADULT ATTITUDE

By ARNOLD H. KAMIAT

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THERE is current a very naive and virtually universal assumption that makes it difficult to establish the scientific attitude as a popular possession. This is the assumption that the mind, in order to know the outer world, need only inform itself concerning the facts that make up this world, and the relations subsisting between them. Knowledge of the objective world need, it is believed, be obtained by methods that are purely objective in character. Outlook is all that is needed. To know social phenomena, one must concentrate one’s vision on social phenomena; to know religions, on religions; to know men, on men.

This is a fiction, and it rests on an uncritical faith in a self-sustained efficacy of the mind in its capacities of observer and thinker. The mind is regarded as an instrument that, in the adult, functions smoothly and efficiently, and as one that is in no need of attention. It takes care of itself, thus enabling the individual to keep his eye on the external world.

This is a disastrous error. Introspection is as necessary to the learning process as observation. To know the world, it is as necessary to peer within as to gaze without. The mind that does not look in upon itself will never attain to a clear-sighted vision of the world without. Unless an inward search is continually maintained, the subconscious factors, which in every mind make for a distorted vision and for intellectual blind-spots, will not disclose themselves. These factors are: the delusion of infallibility; the tendency to finalize every idea, opinion, hypothesis, and theory into a dogma, and a group of ideas into a creed; the bias with which every creed is invested; the tendency to forget that one’s creeds were not rationally accepted, but were either surreptitiously, unconsciously absorbed from the social environment, or instilled in the mind when that was in its plastic, childish stage; the tendency to go on unconsciously absorbing the ideas of one’s crowd; the tendencies toward compromise thinking, toward rationalization, toward thinking designed to justify some course of conduct already determined upon, or already executed; the love of victory in [Page 138] debate; the feudal, dictatorial, tyrannizing tendencies. Introspection may reveal other factors equally perverting.

These hidden factors do their most effective work When the individual is unaware of their presence. The very fact of their subconsciousness renders their presence so much more menacing.

The mind that has its attention riveted upon the outer world will therefore not attain to a clear and realistic vision of that world; it will not even know that its vision is not clear and realistic.

To know the world one must know one’s mind too. But very few people know their minds.

It is only through self-observation and introspection that the growth and the presence of undesirable mental habits can be detected. Without self-observation and introspection one cannot guide the process of conscious self-re-education: the gradual elimination of undesirable habits, and their progressive substitution by useful habits.

THERE is a re-education that adults sorely need. They may learn to acquire the habit of introspection. They may learn to get the habit of detecting the presence within their minds of delusions of infallibility, prejudices, feudal attitudes, uncritical attitudes, the love of victory in argument. All these and other subconscious elements can be dragged into the center of consciousness. Once they have become conscious, steps can be taken toward the erection of habits that will neutralize the effects of these elements. There is a group of such habits that the adult may gradually acquire. First, one may learn to entertain the thought that one’s creed, beliefs, and opinions may possibly be erroneous.

Second, one may learn to entertain the notion that dissenting creeds, beliefs, and opinions, be they ever so abhorrent, may contain many a truth.

Third, one may gradually learn to overcome the temptation to condemn, ostracize, libel, and suppress the champions of dissenting ideas, however unpleasant.

Fourth, with regard to one’s beliefs, one may learn to check them up against the facts of life, and to suspend judgment upon them when no such check-up is possible.

Fifth, one may learn to apply, whenever circumstances are propitious, the experimental method to one’s ideas, and to entertain a skeptical attitude toward all hypotheses, creeds, speculations, beliefs, and dogmas that have not been, or cannot be, experimentally tested.

Sixth, one may learn to permit, if not indeed to encourage, yes, to demand, of dissenters that they check their ideas up against reality, that they apply the experimental method to these ideas, and that they entertain a skeptical attitude toward ideas that have not been checked-up, or that have not been, or cannot be, experimentally tested. There may be a few who may learn to acquire a tolerance broad enough to permit them to cooperate willingly and extensively in the experimental working-out of dissentient ideas.

[Page 139] An electorate with a set of mental habits such as the above would approach scientific-mindedness. Moreover, the adult who has succeeded in building up these habits may not feel disinclined to invite the scientist to play an increasingly greater role in the solution of the problems of society. He may find himself listening to whatever advice the scientist may have to offer, and he may call upon the latter to guide society through the experiments that must be undertaken if its problems are ever to be solved. In so doing, the adult may discover that the scientist, thanks to his relative freedom from creed, intolerance, the delusion of infallibility, and feudal attitude, is, as a counselor to a progressive society, superior to the politician, the military man, the captain of industry, the theologian, the labor leader, and the revolutionary agitator.

THE adult who has re-educated himself in the fashion just described will discover for himself the importance of attitude. He will learn to know something of the difference between a genuine truth-seeking attitude and the attitude that seeks but to justify the retention of a creed at any cost; between a delusive and a realistic attitude; between a feudal, intolerant, censorial attitude and one that is democratic and tolerant; between the propagandist, controversial, victory-seeking and the truth-pursuing, experimental attitudes. Knowing these, and impressed by the importance of attitude, he may learn to lay less stress on the machinery of government and more on the psychology of governors and electors.

Society can hardly be described as successfully solving its problems. War, crime, prejudice, exploitation, tyranny, intolerance, and vice have always been present. Science must make its contribution to the solution of these problems. The causes of these things must be disclosed, remedies have to be applied, preventive measures must be taken, and all this can be done only by men of scientific temper. Such men are the only persons in the world that can study human problems objectively, with relative freedom from creeds that have to be perpetuated, from the delusion of infallibility, from intolerance, from compromise-thinking. Such men can best educate the young to a mental condition free from these handicaps to thought. Men of scientific temper can regard social institutions as tools of progress, rather than objects of worship, to be eternally shielded against fundamental change, and they can therefore take the necessary steps in social reconstruction.

The problems of society must therefore be delivered into the hands of men of scientific temper. This does not mean the abolition of universal suffrage, nor does it imply the elimination of judicial courts and of parliaments. But it does mean that the citizen and his governors must be completely freed of creeds and of attitudes.

[Page 140]

How the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh overcome the anarchy of current economic science, and create an organic relationship between social philosophy and religion, is the thesis of this essay, which deals with the essential problem of the day.

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THE ECONOMICS OF THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

By PAUL EDMOND HANEY

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THE fundamental spiritual teachings which have been given to the world by the Founders of the Bahá’í Faith are universal in their scope and application, not only to the religious life of the individual, but to the economic and social life of all nations and peoples. The unique character of these teachings is abundantly illustrated by the fact that they contain the essential fundamental principles of a New World Order which is Divine in nature yet intensely practical in its direct application to the everyday economic and social life of mankind.

The disorder into Which our economic life has been thrown in recent years has focused the attention of every one upon the basic economic forces which govern our daily lives, and upon various means to control these forces in order to do away with insecurity and the various hardships which have followed in the wake of the depression.

Unfortunately the existence of these conditions has given rise, as always, to the introduction of a variety of economic nostrums of varying degrees of plausibility, most of which are completely unworkable both in theory and practice. As a result a healthy skepticism has developed toward all devices and plans which seek to correct the various maladjustments which have developed in our system of producing and exchanging goods and services.

In the midst of all this confusion, it is gratifying and hopeful to discover that in the teachings of the Founders of the Bahá’í Faith are to be found certain simple yet pragmatic principles which when put into effect will bring order out of chaos and establish a new economic society within the framework of existing institutions without a general overturning of the social order.

THE basic philosophy of the Bahá’í economic plan involves a change in human nature through the power of the universal divine teachings which have been revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Faith.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Son of Bahá’u’lláh, [Page 141] who interpreted His Father’s teachings and gave them to the occidental world, has expressed the keynote of Bahá’í economics as follows:

“The fundamentals of the whole economic condition are divine in nature and are associated with the world of the heart and spirit. This is fully explained in the Bahá’í teachings, and without the knowledge of its principles no improvement in the economic state can be realized”. . . . .

“The solution of the economic question will not be brought about by array of capital against labor, and labor against capital, in strife and conflict, but by the voluntary attitude of goodwill on both sides. Then a real and lasting justness of conditions will be secured . . . . . Among the principles or teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is the readjustment and equalization of the economic standards of mankind . . . . It is evident that under present systems and conditions of Government the poor are subject to the greatest need and distress, while others more fortunate live in luxury and plenty . . . . . This inequality of portion and privilege is one of the deep and vital problems of human society . . . . . The remedy must be legislative readjustment of conditions . . . . The rich must be merciful to the poor, contributing from willing hearts to their needs without being forced or compelled to do so. The composure of the world will be assured by the establishment of this principle in the religious life of mankind.”

The essence of the thought expressed in the foregoing quotations is that the Bahá’í economic plan is to be founded upon a new concept of the relationship between God and man which in turn will be the means of bringing about a new concept of the social relationship of man to man.

Admittedly this is a very idealistic conception of the age-old problem which we are discussing, but it is the cornerstone upon which any lasting solution must be built.

However, the Bahá’í teachings go farther than this and provide for a carefully integrated economic organization of the world state of the future.

Since agriculture is the world’s basic industry, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has wisely stated that the solution of the economic problem must begin with the farm and the small agricultural communities.

The problem of the economic insecurity of the individual farmer is met, according to the Bahá’í plan, by the creation of a central storehouse in every agricultural center. This institution is to be governed by a board of control elected by all the people of the community. Every member of the community contributes to this storehouse according to the principle of a graduated tax, each person contributing according to his ability to do so. When any individual, by reason of circumstances beyond his control, is unable to produce sufficient crops to supply the needs of his family, the resources of the entire community which have been pooled in the storehouse are called upon to the extent necessary to prevent this individual from undergoing any hardship.

It should be emphasized that under this system the private ownership of land is preserved, but the income from such privately owned land is taxed [Page 142] according to the ability of the owner to pay such taxes.

In manufacturing and other non-agricultural industries, the Bahá’í plan provides for the application of the principle of socialization, but retains the institution of private ownership and the free play of individual initiative within reasonable limits.

The Bahá’í plan for the modern socialization of industry has been described by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the following words:

“According to the divine law, employes should not be paid merely by wages. Nay, rather they should be partners in every work. The question of socialization is very difficult. It will not be solved by strikes for wages. . . . . . The owners of properties, mines and factories should share their incomes with their employes, and give a fairly certain percentage of their profits to their working men in order that the employes should receive, besides their wages, some of the general income of the factory, so that the employe may strive with his soul in the work.”

This idea of industrial profit-sharing and mutual employer and employe ownership of industrial plants has already been put into effect by some of our own domestic corporations, and with excellent results. However, before the principle can be universally accepted, its advantages must be more fully demonstrated, and in addition the largely prevailing attitude of opposition and distrust between capital and labor must be replaced by the new spirit of consultation and cooperation for the common good which will be established in the wake of universal acceptance of the principles of the Bahá’í teachings.

Perhaps an additional word of explanation will serve to bring out more clearly the essential soundness of the principle of mutual ownership which has just been described.

It is obvious that a mere wage payment, however large, will not satisfy the laboring classes for any length of time, for experience has shown that labor, as a group, is always striving for higher wages; no sooner is one wage increase granted than an attempt is made to secure an even higher one. On the other hand capital is constantly striving to economize on labor cost, and therefore, in most cases, the interests of capital and labor are diametrically opposed.

However, if the worker be admitted to even a small share in the equity of the corporation, it will be to his interest to strive to the best of his ability to increase the profits of the organization because his income, beyond a certain minimum wage, will vary directly with the profitableness of the enterprise as does that of the capitalist.

Capital benefits under this plan because the morale of the worker is improved, the output per worker is increased, and therefore the income per unit of capital which is shared in by both employer and employe is greater.

IT should be emphasized that the Bahá’í economic philosophy is in no way related to the principles of socialism or communism. A fundamental precept of the Bahá’í teachings is that absolute equality is an impossibility inasmuch as human capacities [Page 143] differ so widely. The following quotations from the writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá will clarify this point:

“Difference of capacity in human individuals is fundamental. It is impossible for all to be alike, all to be equal, all to be wise. Bahá’u’lláh has revealed principles and laws which will accomplish adjustment of varying human capacities. He has said that whatsoever is possible of accomplishment in human government will be effected through these principles . . . . . by adjusting the different degrees of human capacity.”

“It cannot be done by bringing to pass absolute equality between men. Equality is a chimera! It is entirely impracticable. Even if equality could be achieved, it could not continue; and if its existence were possible, the whole order of the world would be destroyed. The law of order must always obtain in the world of humanity. Heaven has so decreed in the creation of man . . . . . Degrees are absolutely necessary to insure an orderly organization. Certainly, some being enormously rich and others lamentably poor, an organization is necessary to control and improve this state of affairs. It is important to limit riches, as it is also of importance to limit poverty.”

Thus the Bahá’í teachings recognize that there must be an outlet for the different capacities and degrees of individual initiative. Society as a whole should have the benefits of the product of individuals endowed with superior minds and the ability to initiate enterprises.

The most effective utilization of these human abilities is dependent upon the existence and maintenance of adequate instruments of production. Capital assumes the risk of furnishing these instruments of production, and also assumes the costs and risks of developing new and improved methods and mechanisms. The latter could not be developed without capital, and capital would not flow into such undertakings unless rewards commensurate with the risk involved were made possible.

However, unless the Bahá’í plan for an equitable sharing of the rewards of capitalistic enterprise is put into effect, the widespread distribution of purchasing power, which is essential to maintain industry at an efficient and stable rate of production, will be lacking. The experience through which we have just passed during the depression years has clearly demonstrated that an undue concentration of wealth and the lack of a proper distribution of the income of society, has resulted in the virtual breakdown of the economic system, and has indeed threatened the very existence of capital itself. If we are to retain and develop farther the undoubted benefits of the modern capitalistic system of production, the system must be revised to meet the exigencies of the times, and to provide that equitable distribution of the income of society which is necessary to insure the proper functioning of the system itself.

It should be mentioned at this point that the essence of the Bahá’í economic philosophy is that the changes which it contemplates are to be brought about in an evolutionary manner as the peoples and nations of [Page 144] the world gradually realize the necessity for putting these teachings into practice.

Another phase of this evolutionary plan is contained in the laws of inheritance which have been suggested by Bahá’u’lláh and which will be observed by those who adhere to His teachings.

The Bahá’í teachings on this subject suggest several different classes of legatees among whom an individual’s estate should be divided at death. This plan is not obligatory for all Bahá’í but is merely suggested. It is obligatory, however, if an individual leaves no will providing otherwise.

The results of this evolutionary redistribution of wealth will be slow in coming, but the effect is cumulative, and eventually it will serve to distribute great concentrations of wealth without a sudden confiscation of property or a sudden breakdown of the social order.

In this connection it should be emphasized again that the sanctity of individual property rights is maintained and the freedom of the individual to dispose of his property as he sees fit is not circumscribed. It is believed by Bahá’ís, however, that those who adhere to the Bahá’í teachings will voluntarily dispose of their property in this way in order to assist in the working out of the general plan for the establishment of a new economic order based upon divine principles.

THUS far we have considered the Bahá’í economic plan as it relates to the problem of the individual as a member of our economic society. However, the economic problem is not solely a matter of the conflicting interests of individuals, for the modern world is one in which the economic problems of one nation are necessarily the problems of all nations. In other words every country is dependent in varying degrees upon economic conditions which exist in other parts of the world.

To a very large extent the depression through which we have been passing is a result of the absence of international understanding and good will among the various countries of the world. Universal economic prosperity is impossible unless all nations trade freely with one another, as each nation or group of nations produces certain products which other countries do not produce at all. Also many countries enjoy natural advantages which enable them to produce certain commodities more efficiently than can other nations which may also manufacture or grow these same products. The optimum result is achieved when each nation specializes in the production of the things for which it is the best equipped, and trades its surplus of these products with other nations in return for the balance of its material needs which may be more efficiently produced by other countries.

Unfortunately there are in existence today many artificial barriers to this desired free interchange of goods such as:

(1) Unequally distributed international debts, both public and private.

(2) Tariffs, import quotas, and other trade restrictions which have resulted in part from the debt problem [Page 145] mentioned above, and partially from an unintelligent policy of nationalism dictated by selfish and powerful internal economic pressure groups and interests.

(3) Lack of agreement on currency atabilization which has resulted in destructive competition in the depreciation of currencies.

In addition to the above mentioned barriers to world economic progress, there is also the ever-present danger of war, which is perhaps the greatest single force which is capable of causing economic upheaval. Many of the economic troubles of the world can be traced directly to the unbalance brought about by the last great war. Also history shows that economic greed is the most frequent and powerful cause of most of the wars that have taken place in the past. It is certain that permanent economic prosperity cannot be achieved while the possibility of war exists, and this possibility will continue to exist until the fundamental spirit of the Bahá’í economic philosophy which has been described becomes generally recognized and put into practice by individuals and nations.

In the writings of the Founders of the Bahá’í Faith is to be found the framework of a new sovereign world government based upon divine principles. Bahá’ís refer to this future World State as the New World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has described this New World State in the following terms:

“True civilization will unfurl its banner in the midmost heart of the world whenever a certain number of its distinguished and high-minded sovereigns—the shining exemplars of devotion and determination—shall, for the good and happiness of all mankind, arise, with firm resolve and clear vision, to establish the Cause of Universal Peace. They must make the Cause of Peace the object of general consultation, and seek by every means in their power to establish a Union of the nations of the world. They must conclude a binding treaty and establish a covenant, the provisions of which shall be sound, inviolable and definite. They must proclaim it to all the world and obtain for it the sanction of all the human race. This supreme and noble undertaking—the real source of the peace and well-being of all the world —should be regarded as sacred by all that dwell on earth. All the forces of humanity must be mobilized to ensure the stability and permanence of this Most Great Covenant. In this all-embracing Pact the limits and frontiers of each and every nation should be clearly fixed, the principles underlying the relations of governments towards one another definitely laid down, and all international agreements and obligations ascertained. In like manner, the size of the armaments of every government should be strictly limited, for if the preparations for war and the military forces of any nation should be allowed to increase they will arouse the suspicion of others. The fundamental principle underlying this solemn Pact should be so fixed that if any government later violate any one of its provisions, all the governments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay the human race as a [Page 146] whole should resolve, with every power at its disposal, to destroy that government. Should this greatest of all remedies be applied to the sick body of the world, it will assuredly recover from its ills and will remain eternally safe and secure.”

In the terms used by political scientists, this World State contemplates the establishment of the principle of Federalism in the relationships which will exist between all the nations of the world and the superstate which will be formed by representatives of all existing governments.

A certain high official of our own government once asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in what way he could best promote the interests of his government and people. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s reply was:

“You can best serve your country 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.”

Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’í Cause, has summarized the essential features of this New World Order, as follows:

“Some form of a world Super-State must needs be evolved, in whose favor all the nations of the 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.”

The present trend of destructive nationalism which is in evidence throughout the world has brought to the attention of all thinking people the paramount necessity for the introduction of a new force which will [Page 147] reverse this trend before it causes further unnecessary hardships and economic maladjustments. A sovereign world government established upon the divine principles of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh is the only instrumentality which can generate the force necessary to induce all the nations of the world to renounce economic nationalism, group selfishness, and the other phenomena which are preventing the establishment of universal economic well being.

To many, undoubtedly, these principles appear to be entirely too idealistic ever to be put into practice in this mundane world. However, there are evidences that gradually our leading thinkers and statesmen are coming to a realization of the necessity for the putting into practice of these fundamental truths. The following quotation from a recent address by the Prime Minister of one of the world’s greatest nations, gives evidence of this trend:

“It would be inexcusable if we did not make a vigorous effort to ameliorate the frictions and animosities which tend to produce wars and impede the progress of civilization, by attempting to remove one of the chief causes. In these days, no nation can live wholly to itself without imposing upon its own people, and the peoples of other countries, unjustifiable deprivations and hardships. Therefore, despite all difficulties, and despite the artful propaganda of selfish interests, we intend to continue to strive for an economic cooperation among nations that will make the vast riches of the world more readily accessible to all, remove as far as possible the causes of envy and aggression, and so take a determined first step in the direction of greater economic well-being and universal peace.”

A very logical query might well be, “When is all of this coming to pass?” “How soon can we expect these principles to be put into effect and the beneficient results appear?”

No exact chronological answer can be given to this question, for a major change in the underlying forces of human nature is at best a slow process, and it has been emphasized that this entire plan is evolutionary in nature, and will take many years to become firmly established throughout the world.

In these dynamic times events are moving very swiftly, and the very confusion which characterizes present world conditions is rapidly demonstrating the supreme necessity for the establishment of the New World State, founded upon divine teachings. The exact time at which these things will come to pass is uncertain, but no uncertainty can exist as to the ultimate inevitableness of the full establishment of these principles as the guiding force which will regulate the affairs of the world.

[Page 148]

How can the world’s conscience and will be most effectively concentrated through the instrument of an international government? The function of executive authority is here described by an advocate of world federation.

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THE EXECUTIVE OF THE FEDERATED NATIONS

By C. W. YOUNG

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ONE of the best books published on the subject of international government is “The United States of the World” by Oscar Newfang, wherein he shows the deadly parallel between the Articles of Confederation of the United States and the Covenant of the League of Nations. Owing to the timidity of the framers, both documents created governments so deficient in power as to make them a bitter disappointment to everybody concerned. He shows how a convention provided for by the Continental Congress shaped a document, the adoption of which created a federated nation that has become one of the most prosperous, progressive and powerful of all the nations in the world.

He contends that similar steps must be taken to change the Covenant of the League and secure a transcendently beneficent federation of all the nations of the world. He claims that one of the weaknesses of the League of Nations is a scant grant of executive power, such as was conferred under the Articles of Confederation. On pp. 77-8 he states that “The extreme jealousy of their sovereignty and independence on the part of the states united under the Articles of Confederation like those of the states united under the League Covenant, made them very loath to grant more than a mere shadow of executive power to their general organization . . . the presidency of the League Council is jealously rotated from session to session, lest any real executive authority be developed.”

The Council of the League is supposed to be the Executive of the League, but a radical change in such grant of executive authority must be made before any federation of nations could function successfully thereunder.

The most powerful and most important department of government is the Executive. No government is worthy the name of government unless it has the power and equipment for friendly administration, with endowment of sanctions to enforce its laws. Peaceful administration is the oil that will remove much of the friction [Page 149] that has always irritated nations and led them to war. A World Federation should be like a school master with nations for pupils. The master makes rules for the guidance of the pupils in their relations with one another. He seeks to promote their happiness and well being. He has authority, but he strives to secure obedience by kindness and good will by persuading his pupils as to the benefits to all under harmonious relationships. However where peaceful administration fails, as it sometimes may, the federation master must have overwhelming police power to enforce obedience.

Laws are made by the legislative authority and interpreted by the judiciary, while the execution of the laws and the decrees of court is the function of the Executive. Laws and decrees are like inanimate bodies. The animating power is the Executive. He breathes in the breath of life. He is the soul of government. The Executive of the Federated Nations must be Commander in Chief of the International Police Force— the most powerful organization ever created by man—and he must wisely understand how to set in motion the huge wheels of administrative machinery, that will secure adequate legal adjustment of all international relationships even to the uttermost parts of the earth.

The Executive should be responsible to all the people in the Federation and should be endowed with full power to meet responsibility. There should be no doubt as to who and what constitute the Executive authority. There should be no divided responsibility.

On pp. 679,670 in Garner’s “Political Science and Government” he states: “The most distinguished statesmen,” said Judge Story, “have uniformly maintained the doctrine that there ought to be a single executive power, and this is best attained by reposing it in a single hand.” Plurality in the organization of the executive also tends to conceal faults and destroy responsibility. Responsibility under such an arrangement, observed Mill, is a mere name. What the “board” does, he went on to say, is the act of nobody, and nobody can be made to answer for it. Where a number are responsible, the responsibility is easily shifted from one shoulder to another, and hence both the incentive in the executive and the advantages of the restraint of public opinion are lost . . . At the present time, the executive in every sovereign state, with one exception, is organized on the singleheaded principle.”

THERE are at least three fatal objections to having the Council of the League of Nations become the Executive of the Federated Nations. First it is hydra-headed, being composed of a dozen or more men. Second it is not chosen by the people. Third it is burdened With the deadly incubus of the unanimous vote.

Is it physically possible for one man to supervise the running of all the machinery of the government of the Federated Nations? Yes, when the governmental organization is properly simplified and is constructed according to scientific principles now [Page 150] understood by the best students of government. Sir Henry Deterding, who has the job of “international oil man operating in nearly every known country,” stated in the Saturday Evening Post for September 23, 1933 that “All solutions are simple when you arrive at them . . . Only bring the sun of simplicity to shine on your troubles and they soon melt away . . . Practically from the first day I started in it (my job) I have endeavored to make it a very simple job.” Even after great “enlargement,” “the job itself remains as simple as ever. The master key to success is simplicity. A big job is not bound to be complicated.”

It would be much simpler and easier for one man to direct the police force of the Federated Nations and determine the policy of administration, than try to do what he could in determining these activities in competition with some other man or body of men with authority to share responsibility with him.

After much bitter experience in prosecuting war with divided executive authority, the Allies in the World War, united in giving one man supreme executive power, and the war was won. The fact that he was acting in behalf of nearly a billion and a half of people and that he was the sole judge of the movements of millions of men in no wise deterred the great commander. His job and his machinery of organization was sufficiently simplified to make it possible for him to manage it.

When the matter of securing the federation of the thirteen Colonies of America was being agitated, there were many who believed that the narrow strip along the Atlantic was too large a territory to be federated, but now the territory extends across the Continent and the population has increased forty fold, and yet the executive of the federation can now function just as efficiently as when it began. Rapid transit and instant communication, will prove to be a great help.

THE time has now come when a world president could instantaneously send a message that would reach the ears of people in every nation on the globe and in like time send an executive order, no matter how far away the recipient might be.

Baldazzi wisely says: “The United States represents the most perfect and successful form of federal organization of our time; so it is toward them all students of the problem of World Federation should turn their eyes.” All over the world there is a heartbreaking number of constitutions going into the scrap heap. Sir Charles Petrie in his book on the “Story of Government” asserts that “only the American Constitution has remained immune from attack.” One of the reasons for the stability of the American Federation is the centralization of executive power in one man and the selection of that man by the vote of the people. The people of America are not more capable nor more liberty loving than the people of other parts of the world, but the framers of the great document of 1787 set in use invaluable principles [Page 151] of government that has made possible the most successful federal organization of our time.

One of the things that will lighten the load of the President of the Federated Nations is that his activities are confined to adjustment of international relationships. He will not concern himself about the multitudinous local affairs of each and all of the nations composing the Federation. To again quote Petrie’s Story of Government, page 270, much of the scrapping of Constitutions has been due to too much “democratic centralization” and stability of the American Federation is due to the hands off policy toward local government.

History has shown conclusively the deep instinctive urge of humanity to select some one man as the head of government. This is a natural evolution of government, and in the framework of any government, this should be recognized. A constitution of the Federated Nations must be a written one, which must provide for the selection by the people of the Federation of a head of the government, with full executive responsibility and power to meet that responsibility. The masses of the people of the world can center their attention on one man, and become informed as to his policies, and when his term of office expires, they can vote intelligently as to who will succeed him. If not satisfied with his policies they can select another man, who they believe will be more progressive. If the Constitution gives the people full opportunity under legal procedure, they will select the man of their choice without any harsh revolutionary activity. Sir Chas. Petrie says of dictatorships that “whatever their origin, their policy is essentially progressive, if not actually revolutionary. In every case the dictator has faced problems particularly of an administrative or social nature, with which preceding regimes were afraid to deal.”

At a time of crisis, the people are ready to select one head of government with authority to advance quickly some solution to urgent problems, and if the Constitution of the Federated Nations provides a means by which the people can express their dissatisfaction with one regime and in a reasonable time select another leader with power to act, they will prefer to do so under Constitutional safeguards rather than by revolutionary procedures.

The United States have been peculiarly fortunate in the provision of their Constitution making the people responsible for the selection of their Chief Magistrate and making him responsible to the people and not to Congress. The whole world can keep informed as to the acts and policies of the President of the Federated Nations, and can be informed as to the merits of candidates for that great office.

The same principles of action and reaction that applies to family life applies to the life of the great family of nations. The happiness and prosperity of each and every nation is dependent upon the happiness and prosperity of every other nation. No nation can attain true riches by contributing to the misery of another.

[Page 152]

While Providence has given mankind the gift of invention to preserve social unity throughout every stage of human development, man himself has by abuse of this gift failed to keep pace with the requirements of the present age.

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SOCIAL TRENDS IN AMERICAN LIFE

3. COMMUNICATION

By BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK

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IN no field, probably, have the scientific inventions of the past century brought about such far-reaching changes as in the realm of communication and its closely related field of transportation. And yet Professor Counts asserts in the discussion of this subject in his book “The Social Foundations of Education” that the ordinary citizen, even with the telephone, the telegraph, the radio and the widely and quickly distributed products of the press at his command, is not as adequately served for meeting present day social problems and obligations in a democratic society as were his ancestors of the preindustrial period. This is not only because the problems of today are tremendously more complex but also because of the misuse of these modern means of communication. It is largely with this latter matter that his chapter on this subject deals.

Life in the early American community was simple. The economic needs of all were supplied largely in the home or at least near at hand. Communities were isolated and there was little communication with the outside world. Books and papers were few. But as life was simple and restricted so also were the problems the citizens had to meet whether governmental, economic or social. “The essence of government was local. And for dealing with the local situation the citizen was fairly competent. Through personal contact he came to know the candidates for office and through hours of discussion with neighbors across the rail fence, at the village store, or around the town pump he became familiar with issues . . . Life was still so simple in its relationships that man could tackle its problems with a fair degree of understanding and assurance.”

Contrast the picture of our country today: “The structure of American society has been transformed. The United States has become the most mobile and closely integrated society in history. From coast to coast and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, in spite of geographical differences, cultural diversity, and conflicting economic interests, the forty-eight states [Page 153] have been welded into a single great community. The unifying forces released by technology have even refused to halt before the boundaries of the nation. Already America has moved out into the world to become increasingly dependent on the fortunes of the other peoples of the earth.” “Happenings in the most distant parts of the earth may bring prosperity or adversity.”

Professor Counts’ indictment is that, with the mechanical devices at hand for quickly disseminating correct information and expert advice concerning our necessarily complex problems to everyone in this great community of states, we are misled and misinformed and our minds are confused in regard to these problems. This is due in part he says “to the fact that the American people have made no comprehensive and rational effort to organize the new agencies of communication for the simple purpose of spreading enlightenment and understanding. On the contrary, developing under the system of individualism, these agencies have generally been regarded, not as cultural instruments of society as a whole, but rather as tools of special groups and profit-making enterprise. Again and again they have been employed to confuse the public mind and to render issues more obscure. They have been used to spread propaganda inimical to the general welfare. This tendency has been manifested particularly in the practice of advertising, in the campaigns of certain powerful vested interests to win popular favor for their policies and in the reporting of any important event involving conflict, such as strike, revolution or war. Society today possesses the instrumentalities for creating a relatively informed public opinion, but it does not direct them to that end. It even permits them to be pointed toward a contrary goal. At their best, with rare exceptions, they are administered as business undertakings, purveying to the masses of the people what the masses of the people are thought to want.”

EMPHASIZING the tendency for a few powerful groups to control and dictate our news Professor Counts quotes Willey and Rice: “For his news, the reader of the paper is dependent largely upon the great news gathering agencies; for his motion pictures, there is dependency upon a group of well organized producers; for his radio, he comes more and more in contact with large and powerful stations, dominated increasingly by the nation-wide broadcasting organizations. Mass impression on so vast a scale has never before been possible . . . Greater possibilities for social manipulation, for ends that are selfish or socially desirable, never have existed.”

And we cannot escape the conclusion that in all the powerful controlling groups the selfish motives and influences rather than the socially desirable prevail. Books and magazines are written and published, with few exceptions, declares Professor Counts, “neither to improve nor to corrupt the popular taste, but simply and solely to make money.” A great change has taken place in the making of newspapers. Here again the commercial [Page 154] motive prevails. “The gathering and publication of news is becoming more and more a gigantic business rather than a profession.”

A striking example of misleading journalism induced probably by a desire to be first with a piece of news is elaborated by Laura Puffer Morgan in the May issue of Peace Action in regard to the recent Berlin conversation between the British representatives, Sir John Simon and Anthony Eden, and Herr Hitler. This seems to be a case where no authorized report of the interview was promptly given out yet a fairly detailed account of the interview was immediately printed with misleading headlines in a supposedly reliable London paper. This first report was largely copied, misleading though it was, and was persistently quoted even after the facts relative to the conversation were authoritatively stated by Sir John Simon in the House of Commons. In regard to the effect of these misleading reports Mrs. Morgan says; “The publicity achieved by the piece of journalism to which we refer was so immediate and universal that it is doubtful if its effects can ever be fully realized, much less overcome. But the issue at stake is war or peace.”

The matter of propaganda is another subject to which Professor Counts calls our serious attention. Americans, he believes, are most skillful and practiced in the art of making the public believe what the leaders think it is necessary to believe. “Examples of the use of the agencies of communication for propaganda purposes are innumerable. They may be observed in every issue of a newspaper, in many a cinema film, and in practically any radio broadcast. They may also be seen in every political campaign and in every struggle carried on among the countless groups, sects, and interests that compose American society. The publicity agent and public relations counsel have become a part of the social fabric. Individuals, corporations, and governments practice continuously the art of cultivating the good will and shaping the mind of the public.”

Propaganda during the World War is an outstanding example of the regimentation of public opinion on a grand scale. Harold D. Lasswell is quoted as saying: “During the war period it came to be recognized that the mobilization of men and means was not sufficient; there must be a mobilization of opinion. Power over opinion, as over life and property, passed into official hands, because the danger from license was greater than the danger from abuse. Indeed, there is no question but that government management of opinion is an unescapable corollary of large scale modern war.”

ALL this raises innumerable questions, one of which is how far it is legitimate to influence the opinion of others. Since we have come to be one great community it must be true that in large questions we need to have a common aim and to seek a common good. Unity of opinion is certainly desirable under some circumstances. How shall it be determined what that opinion shall be? Leland Gordon, in a recent issue of the Christian Century says, “Regimentation [Page 155] is not new. We have long lived in regiments and do now. But the idea of regimentation which seeks to elevate all mankind is new to some people.”

This is not yet a generally accepted American ideal in spite of much talk concerning service as the standard for business. But we cannot in justice put the blame entirely on the groups and individuals immediately concerned in developing and controlling these vast systems of communication since they are following the accepted American traditions and customs. As Professor Counts has made clear and as has been pointed out in a previous article the American belief in individualism, laissez faire and the conduct of business that has grown but of these theories, has come about as a natural corollary to our democratic ideas of freedom, our naturally rich country and our rapid western expansion. We have awakened to the dangers inherent in these theories, when put into practice upon a larger and larger scale and under greatly changed conditions, only when these dangers are upon us. And we are loath to admit that they are real dangers. It seems that the evil is not in centralization of control but in the selfish commercial motive back of it. Indeed centralization of control would seem to be necessary for efficiency. A remedy commonly proposed is government ownership and management. Certainly these highly prized instruments must be socialized in spirit. Is it too Utopian to believe that we can train and develop a new generation who will regard opportunities to control or manage these systems of communication as a trust to be administered for the benefit of all? This is not impossible. Neither idealism nor intelligence are dead in America, however much they may be asleep in some individuals. We are awakening to understand that technology with all it implies demands new social attitudes and new laws. There is much evidence of the growth of social consciousness and responsibility. Quite recently one of our great broadcasting companies has issued new regulations which are in the nature of reforms in this direction.

As to whether government ownership is necessary to bring about all the needed reforms it is well to recall some sentences printed in the New Republic a few years ago. In discussing a subject related to ours it said editorially: “Until religious aspiration does seek a synthesis of this kind between individual life and truth, human beings both in Europe and America will in one way or another, be dominated by machine technology and economic obsessions. The State, no matter whether it remains individualist or becomes socialist will humanize the machine and socialize capital only if it can summon to its aid a new and more authentic religious culture.”

These are words fraught with deep meaning. A true religious culture would be, we take it, religion so vital and fundamental that it would be interwoven with all departments of life, all activities, both business and pleasure. In these words is a recognition of what true religion is and its power in reconstructing society. More [Page 156] and more as other remedies for our social diseases fail is religion looked to as the true remedy. And more and more as the Bahá’í teachings spread do people recognize that Bahá’u’lláh has accomplished “this reformation and renewal of the fundamental reality”. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá calls the result of such renewed religion spiritual civilization in contrast to material civilization and would have us understand the futility of the one without the other when He tells us that in America spiritual civilization has been left behind. “Material civilization,” He says, “is like a beautiful body and spiritual civilization is like unto the spirit of life. If that wondrous spirit of life enters this beautiful body, the body will become a channel for the distribution and development of the perfections of humanity.”

These words tempt one to let his imagination play, unrestrained, for a moment and picture how quickly the perfections latent in humanity might be brought to the surface if our press, our radio, our cinema were wholeheartedly devoted to this end. But there is one of these perfections to which we all render lip-service; yet where commercial interests are at stake it is so commonly disregarded that we are scarcely shocked when we hear of untruthfulness on a large scale. We have forgotten how great and fundamental a virtue is truthfulness. There are doubtless other more intricate causes for many of our present troubles but the observance of this homely virtue would certainly eradicate many of the evils from which we are suffering in the misuse of our means of communication. Do we underestimate its importance? In the most positive way ‘Abdu’l-Bahá states, “Truthfulness is the foundation of all virtues of mankind.” And Bahá’u’lláh unequivocally says, “Honesty is the greatest door to the security and tranquillity of mankind. The stability of every affair always depends upon it, and the worlds of honor, glory and affluence are illumined by its light.”

Again in writing of the importance and responsibility of newspapers Bahá’u’lláh goes directly to the point of this matter of truthfulness when He writes: “In this day the mysteries of this earth are unfolded and visible before the eyes, and the pages of swiftly appearing newspapers are indeed the mirror of the world; they display the actions of the different nations; they both illustrate them and cause them to be heard. Newspapers are as a mirror endowed with hearing, sight and speech; they are a wonderful phenomenon and a great matter.

“But it behooves the writers and editors thereof to be sanctified from the prejudice of egotism and desire, and to be adorned with the garment of equity and justice. They must inquire into matters as fully as possible in order that they may be informed of the real facts, and commit the same to writing. . . . . Good speech and truthfulness are, in loftiness of position and rank, like the sun which has risen from the horizon of knowledge.”

To point out that a problem is fundamentally due to moral decay is by no means the same as prescribing a remedy, for to change moral attitudes [Page 157] is the most difficult of undertakings. Nor does it mean that a correction of moral attitudes alone would completely solve the problems that today are in such urgent need of solution. Well trained minds are needed to cope with the very complex problems connected with our agencies of communication. It does mean, I believe, that all efforts of the intellect will fail to better our social order unless there is a foundation of highly moral character to build upon. Who will question that this is dependent upon renewed religion such as Bahá’u’lláh has inspired? For the religion of God not only changes hearts, it is “the stimulus and illumination of mentality, the impulse for advancement and uplift,” “the cause of the happiness of the world of humanity.”

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Three current books dealing with the problem of world peace are reviewed by a member of the Department of History at Miami University.

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THE PROBLEM OF WORLD PEACE

By HARRY N. HOWARD

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NEVER since the formal end of the World War has the peace structure seemed so seriously threatened as in the period 1934-1935. Never has the problem of peace more seriously challenged the constructive effort of thoughtful people. The three works listed below are fitting answers to this challenge.

Professor Robinson’s work sketches, in broad outline, a new ethics for our troubled era. His primary aim is to bring together the essential material for an intelligent consideration of the ethical problems at issue in the complex welter of political relations in the post war period. After discussing the raison d’être of the state, which he calls “civilized man’s instrument for lessening the evils and for enhancing and enriching the values of his existence,” Dr. Robinson outlines three chief evils which exist in modern political society. These are 1) the clash of ideals; 2) the competitive nature of economic value; and 3) the fixity of institutions. As is becoming a man of philosophical temperament, the author sets up certain postulates for an ideal state. Essentially, the ideal state should be flexible enough to make the adjustments demanded by a changing society. It should provide for a system of distributing wealth which will best minister to the “conservation and enhancement of culture.” It must assure “to all the opportunity to participate in the enjoyment of cultural values.” It must [Page 158] always provide for constructive criticism through the preservation of the right of freedom of speech and thought. His criteria are then applied to the three chief types of present-day states: the Soviet Union, the Nazi and Fascist dictatorships in Germany and Italy, and the representative democracies. He finds that Soviet state, though it denies political and economic freedom, is better than the old Tsarist regime, and offers some prospect, ultimately, of development toward a freer and more democratic life. This is not true, he believes, either of Nazi Germany or of Fascist Italy, either when compared with the societies out of which they grew, or when considered from the point of view of future possibilities. He finds little hope of real cultural advancement or progress in states in which the elementary condition of free constructive thought or criticism is fundamentally denied. Only the democratic state, with all its present evils of heavy concentration of economic wealth, offers the possibility of that development of personality, which any society ought to offer.

Turning to international relations, the author seeks to throw light on the application of his ethical principles to the relations among sovereign states. Unlike many “realists” he is convinced that there are such norms—or should be—in international politics. There are right and wrong actions—and they may be discovered. Quoting Professor Hocking, he agrees that “states are subjects of rights just as much as are individuals,” and that the “fundamental principle of right is the same for states as for individuals.” Dr. Robinson makes out a good case for right and justice in his discussion of the relation of great powers to backward peoples and in his consideration of the League of Nations and world peace. The League of Nations was crippled in the beginning, he believes, by its connection with the Treaty of Versailles, but he thinks it should and can be strengthened. “The indispensable prerequisite to the making of the new League of Nations is the unification of the will of free peoples of the earth, under the leadership of the three major powers: France, Great Britain, and the United States.” He is convinced that only a system of real collective security can give us that peace which the world most certainly needs.

THE central thesis of Challenge to Death is cogently and succinctly stated by Vera Brittain:

“The authors of this book stand for collective security and for the maintenance and improvement of that machinery [the League of Nations, the World Court, etc.] which, for all its imperfections, represents our sole defence against anarchy. They visualise, as an intermediate step without which it is impossible to proceed to that rational Utopia which all desire, the collective ownership of armaments and the collective enforcement, in the last resort, of sanctions against an aggressor.”

Written by fifteen distinguished British authors, Challenge to Death is one of the ablest pleas for the building of an international society which will have some hope of leading [Page 159] to a peaceful world which has come out in recent years. It is based on political, social, and economic realities. And it is guided by a sound idealism and constructive ideas. In his foreword, Viscount Cecil points out that “unless the nations of Europe [he might have added ‘and of the world’] abandon their present attitude and make a determined effort to reinvigorate the machinery of peace it is only a question of time before the slaughter and suffering of those four terrible years are repeated with added horrors.”

It is almost impossible even to indicate the wealth of the volume without going into too much detail within our limited space, but the risk is worthwhile. In her introductory chapter, Storm Jameson traces the flight from reason in the post-war era. “Reason,” she declares, “looks at a world so small that a man can fly round it in eight days, so rich that it could feed twice its existing peoples, so disorderly that it half starves millions of them, so civilized that a squadron of aeroplanes can annihilate in agony a city, and warns it: Agree or perish.” In discussing “the roots of war,” Professor G. E. G. Catlin rightly states that “the sovereign State—‘the remaining wild beast of the political jungle’—is the supreme and basic cause of wars . . . The day of peace will dawn when [the Geneva] flag is flown at every masthead and on every fortress flagstaff.” The same note is sounded by Vernon Bartlett, the able British journalist. Few students of international politics will disagree with his contention that “there must be either unlimited national armament or national security. There cannot possibly be both, and the world will probably have to make its choice within the next twelve months . . . You may sign pacts and pledges not to go to war, but they will be meaningless unless you establish the machinery for maintaining peace . . .But the only possible alternative to the system of alliances is the system of collective guarantees of security.”

Mr. Philip Noel Baker, who has had a distinguished career both as a writer and as an active participant in the work of the League of Nations, stresses the fact that national armaments, notably air armaments, do not bring security. He outlines the practical possibilities for the establishment of an international air force for the preservation of peace. Miss Rebecca West, the novelist, writes that “if we want any further hope of security we must turn to internationalism. We must hand over our arms to a tribunal which is certain not to be perfect, to be frequently repellent in its indecision and timidity, and even from time to time to break down altogether, but which offers nevertheless far more than the best possible manifestation of contemporary nationalism.”

Mere pacifism, as Mary Agnes Hamilton points out, will not bring peace — international organization and security is the answer to the cry for peace. Julian Huxley discusses the work of science in behalf of peace, as it most certainly has worked in behalf of the demons of war. All these writers agree, incidentally, that neither Fascism nor Naziism is working [Page 160] in the interest either of world peace or a sound internationalism.

IN his little volume on The Future of Sea Power in the Pacific, Mr. Walter Millis, well-known for his The Martial Spirit and The Road to War, gives us a really penetrating study of naval rivalry in the Pacific area. Here again we have the breakdown of the collective system of the Washington Conference, and the renewed race between great armaments and regional collective security. He points out in conclusion that “In accepting an American-Japanese naval race as the appropriate answer to the naval problem of the Pacific, one must also accept the fact that it means embarking upon a policy unquestionably filled with a war danger and leading to ends which cannot be predicted.”

Implicit in all three volumes is the conclusion that if we are to have peace we must build a world order on the basis of a sound political, economic, and cultural internationalism. Most thoughtful and informed Americans would agree to this thesis. These books ought to have a wide reading and a deep influence on all those interested in one of the most important issues of our time—the issue of peace or war.

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BOOKS RECEIVED

Le Chemin de la Croix. By Armand Godoy. Editions Grasset, Paris.

A poetic drama, presenting fourteen episodes in the crucifixion of Jesus.

Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv. Verlag von Gustav Fischer, Jena.

Papers published under the auspices of the Institute of International Education, University of Kiel, Germany.

The Far Eastern Problem and World Peace. By the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Lytton. Chinese Cultural Society, New York.

Reprint of address delivered at Washington in February, 1935.

The Unemployment Relief Digest. Department of Research and Statistics, State of Pennsylvania.

A monthly bulletin presenting the substance of recently published material concerning unemployment and the administration of relief.

The Economics of Inflation. By H. Parker Willis and John M. Chapman. Columbia University Press.

A volume embodying the work carried on by the Banking Seminar of the School of Business, Columbia University. Part One, by the two authors, deals with contemporary aspects of American Inflation. Part Two consists of supplementary essays by eleven authors.

Ajanta and the Unity of Art. By W. E. Gladstone Solomon. “Drashti” Publication, Bombay.

A pamphlet dealing with fundamental impulses of Eastern and Western Art, by the Director of the Bombay School of Art.

[Page 161]

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.

BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE

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