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[Page 159]

WORLD ORDER

IS WAR INCURABLE?

F. MELVYN LAWSON

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WORLD FEDERATION

OSCAR NEWFANG

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THE ONE SPIRIT

MARK TOBEY

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THE MEASURE OF REVELATION

BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

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(Contents continued on inside cover)

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AUGUST 1935

Price 20c

VIEWING THE WORLD AS AN ORGANISM

[Page 160]

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

(Continued)

SOCIAL TRENDS IN AMERICAN LIFE

BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK

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TRENDS IN TURKISH EDUCATION

HARRY N. HOWARD

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THE NEW MEANING OF PRAYER

G. A. SHOOK

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PRACTICAL MYSTICISM

JAMES S. COUSINS

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KEEPING SQUARE WITH THE WORLD

DALE S. COLE

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OUT OF THE ABYSS

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 August, 1935. Vol. 1, No. 5

[Page 161]

WORLD ORDER

AUGUST 1935

NUMBER 5 VOLUME 1

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OUT OF THE ABYSS

EDITORIAL

THE decline of a civilization begins at that point where society succeeds in suppressing the capacity of the individual to develop his innate spiritual powers. From that point to its collapse, the substitution of institutional authority for personal righteousness marks the fatal process by which a social order eventually loses its right to exist. This transmutation of energy from the inner life to the outer form is the essence of materialism, the denial of the divine origin and nature of man.

From the course of history it would appear that the majority of people have no firm and enduring view of themselves or of the reason for their life upon earth. They can apparently be flattered or frightened or tempted into large undertakings which promise advantage but which ultimately create more powerful institutions to feed upon their lives and reduce their souls to more abject subservience.

The whole meaning of religion in its purity is its capacity to raise against the restless adventures of civilization the power of the realization that man is essentially divine, innately noble, possessing a destiny which can never be suppressed Within the narrow confines of any economic principle or any political scheme. That realization is the sole leaven by the influence of which the forces of materialism can be dethroned in the human heart and destroyed in the social world.

“Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My descent. Thy spirit is My place of revelation; cleanse it for My manifestation,” Bahá’u’lláh says to the people of this age. “All that is in heaven and earth I have ordained for thee, except the human heart, which I have made the habitation of My beauty and glory.”

In this utterance, restoring the claim of Providence upon man forgotten since the early days of the former Prophets, we have the approach to that spiritual interpretation [Page 162] of humanity which relates them first and foremost to their Creator, and only secondarily relates them to the functions and activities of civilization.

The poignant cry of old, “What is man that Thou art mindful of him?” is the real clue to human hiStory in all its ages and cycles, all its degrees and stages, all its ascent from tribe to nation and from servitude to freedom.

“O army of life!” wrote ‘Abdu’l-Bahá many years ago, “East and West have joined to worship stars of faded splendor and have turned in prayer unto darkened horizons. Both have utterly neglected the broad foundation of God’s sacred laws, and have grown unmindful of the merits and virtues of His religion. They have regarded certain customs and conventions as the immutable basis of the Divine Faith, and have firmly established themselves therein. They have imagined themselves as having attained the glorious pinnacle of achievement and prosperity when in reality they have touched the innermost depths of heedlessness and deprived themselves wholly of God’s bountiful gifts.

“The corner-stone of the Religion of God is the acquisition of the divine perfections and the sharing in His manifold bestowals. The essential purpose of faith and belief is to ennoble the inner being of man with the outpourings of grace from on high. If this be not attained, it is indeed deprivation itself. It is the torment of infernal fire.”

Before wars and revolutions can take place, there must have been that prior spiritual degradation which consists in forgetfulness of God and ignorance of His power over mankind. The revolt against man proceeds from the revolt against the Father.

What darkness reigns over this age, that throughout the world there can be such strife, such cruelty, such dominion of the beast over the soul! What justice can ever abide, what peace be attained, until men have turned away from darkness and found the light? The separate and competitive civilizations destroy themselves, as though the very Armageddon had come.

Where is the individual to turn, if he would leave this scene of dire confusion and behold the peace and security of the world of spirit? “The holy Manifestations of God come into the world,” declared ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in answer to this most vital of questions, “in order to effect the disappearance of the physical, the animal, dark aspect of man, so that the darkness in him may be dispelled, his imperfections eradicated, his spiritual, heavenly phase may become manifest, his God-like aspect may become paramount and his perfections may become visible, his innate great power may become known, and that all the virtues of the world of humanity potential within him may come to life. Thus these holy Manifestations of God are the educators and trainers of the world of existence and they are the teachers of the world of humanity . . . . Were it not for the coming of these holy Manifestations of God, all men would be found on the plane of the animal.”

H. H.

[Page 163]

The goal of the peace movement should he the effort to teach people the relationship between their daily sowing of the seeds of conflict and their periodic reaping of the bloody harvest. Six causes of war are listed by this student of international realities.

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IS WAR INCURABLE?

By F. MELVYN LAWSON

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CAN warfare among the world’s people ever be eliminated?

Perhaps it is impossible to answer such a challenge by a simple affirmative or negative statement without laying oneself open to the criticism of being either a blind optimist or a croaking cynic. But if this great stumbling block to human progress ever is stamped out it will be through methods that seek to implant in the public mind the true reasons and causes for war.

No war ever was an accident. Neither was it produced by the event immediately preceding its precipitation. War followed in the wake of the Sarajevo tragedy, the destruction of the “Maine”, the Ems telegram, and the annexation of Texas, but the fundamental causes of the military contests subsequent to these historic happenings were built up, link by link, over a long period of time. The much publicized event that immediately preceded the roar of the cannon on each of these occasions was merely a natural consequence of many deep-seated and underlying forces.

War, in short, is merely a symptom of a virulent disease. The real disease from which nations suffer is not the mobilization of troops and the sacrificing of men on the battlefield. Such activities are only easily recognized manifestations of much more deep seated maladies. The source of the real sickness lies in the philosophy, organization and practices of every day life. Our economic structures, our political systems, our social attitudes, and our religious practices all contribute to the inequalities, the dishonesties, the intolerances and the prejudices from which wars are born. In short, war is simply the inevitable outcome of current thought and action. Unfortunately, however, the public seems to see little relationship between its daily sowing and its periodic reaping. To the average person there is no connection between these two phenomena. To show this relationship should be the goal of the modern movement for peace.

The real causes for war are still heavily screened by those who believe in the doctrine that “might makes [Page 164] right”, and are sadly neglected by those peace lovers who are hoping and praying for the millenium. As a result, we have at present in ours and other lands a situation that too long has been typical, namely, that of finding the majority of the people hating the thoughts of a call to arms, yet blindly following the very pursuits which make such a call inevitable. The tragic part of it is that these same people do not know that they are upholding policies that will carry them and their children before the executioner. As proof of this statement, it might be well to look for a moment at some of the recognized causes for war, and see how large numbers of the self-same persons who cry loudest for a lasting peace, are, by their daily attitudes and actions, preparing to fight.

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY

One of the most powerful causes for war is a condition which now exists throughout the world, known as international anarchy. Politically speaking, national governments are the supreme courts of human welfare, that is they are the highest authority for the settlement of controversial questions. Internationally speaking, there is no binding, compelling, organized control over the nations of the globe. In short, there is anarchy. A feeble, but gallant step was made after the World War to remedy this situation through the creation of a League of Nations. The League was not a perfect structure by any means, but was unquestionably a step in the right direction, for as long as there is no compelling power higher than national authority, countries will interpret every issue which has an international bearing, in a selfish and provincial manner, no matter what the cost. Such an interpretation by each member of the family of nations can have but one answer in the long run,—war. This is as true as it is to say that without a national authority over our forty-eight States, New York would interpret every important issue to its own advantage with little or no interest for the rights and needs of Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, or any of her sister commonwealths. Such a thing would happen in this country, and during the era of the weak-kneed Articles of Confederation did happen, in spite of the fact that practically all the American States of that early period spoke the same language and had the same general backgrounds. Nevertheless, this worthy beginning after the greatest war in history, this Association of Nations is tottering, a house of cards that crumbles before the sledge hammer blows of millions of the world’s peoples who see little connection between the absence or withdrawal of their country from the one exiSting source of potentially strong international authority the world possesses, and the certainty of armed conflict.

TERRITORIAL DISPUTES

Here is one of the oldest causes for fighting in existence. Ancient man fought over hunting grounds; modern man kills his brother over market places. Present day boundary [Page 165] lines are only temporary. They will be re-drawn in blood unless some form of international organization is set up through which a change in ownership of territory may be consummated as peaceably by nations, as property is transferred today from one individual to another. It is true that the move to settle the Saar Valley tangle on some such basis represents an encouraging step in this direction, but the general problem of territorial friction is far from settled. The Polish Corridor, Manchuria, Alsace-Lorraine, the Chaco Boreal, north Africa, the Central European boundary problems, and post war mandates scattered sporadically over the map are merely samples of these ever festering territorial “sores” on the world’s body.

NEO-MERCANTILISM

The New Mercantilism is a cause for war which few people know by name, but many support in practice. It is a revival of some of the ideas found in the old Mercantile Theory of colonial days, and may be defined briefly as government promotion and protection of business interests abroad. This cause is closely connected with various forms of economic expansion and imperialism, and is responsible for gigantic “trade wars” in the form of protective and retaliatory tariffs.

The New Mercantilism is apt to operate somewhat in this fashion. A business concern invests money in a sovereign, foreign country. Local or other outside interests in this foreign nation may oppose bitterly the progress and policies of said business corporation, and their opposition, if carried too far, will spell ruin to this concern operating in their midst. The managers, or big investors in the business, therefore appeal to their home government for protection, and the home government responds with a warship or two, a detachment of marines, or both. Bitter feelings are engendered, all sorts of intrigue is begun, and a localized war may be started which will soon spread beyond all control. It is strange that people who would never think of supporting a move that would summon the marines or militia to keep a domestic industry on its feet because of its suffering from a merciless competition will loudly acclaim the intervention of armed troops to protect their foreign investments languishing in the same predicament. Such support from our people can only continue to come through ignorance of its ultimate outcome.

MILITARISM AND NAVALISM

These add their weight to the powerful war forces which people must combat. The race for armaments goes on. Under the guise of “an army and navy consistent with national safety,” nations still spend billions for the instruments of war; more, in fact, than they spent in 1914. Our own country is no exception. Before the huge relief expenditures of the Roosevelt administration began more than 75 cents of every federal, American tax dollar went to pay for wars,—past or future. That our attitude on this question has not [Page 166] changed materially during the current year is evidenced by the meekness with which we aquiesced in the slashing of school and educational budgets, and in the next breath heartily approved of the greatest peace time appropriations for military preparedness in our history. Few persons who clamor for huge armies, navies, and air forces seem to realize that the construction of such weapons is practically synonymous with a one-way ticket to the battle front.

SECRET ALLIANCES

These have long been a bugbear to those who have sought to keep open the highway of peace. Much was heard of removing this war germ after the 1914 Armageddon. But recent twists in diplomacy show that “open covenants openly arrived at” was like “making the world safe for democracy” merely a Wilsonian verbalization. It failed to make itself felt in the hearts and lives of men. This forerunner of war, like all the others, has continued unabated since the world made peace at Versailles. Nations still are seeking “security” by weaving around their potential enemies a steel ring of alliances which may be drawn tighter at a moment’s warning. Thus, today finds the world’s diplomats and self styled statesmen shuffling the cards in preparation for the next showdown. As Florence B. Boeckel pointed out a short while ago, “there are only a few hundred men in the world who know in detail what plans are being made for another war, and only a handful of them are giving out so much as an occasional hint.” News agencies constantly carry dispatches revealing how the various major powers are moving toward an “understanding”, “a rapprochement”, or a “most significant agreement” with one another. The man who must march in the ranks might well feel uneasy over the specific stipulations connected with such “agreements” for, in the final analysis, he will be required to risk, and perhaps give, his life to fulfill the terms of the contracts now being made by his leaders.

PROPAGANDA

One of the most baffling of all causes for war to decipher, even by the best trained and informed persons, is propaganda. It may be defined roughly as one-sided information disseminated by speech or press. Perhaps it never can be eliminated entirely because information will always be distributed by human agencies, and it is well nigh impossible for a human being to write or speak without some form of indoctrination. However, under our present system of imparting information, this problem is most difficult to control. With an economy based upon the profit motive, and with the means of written and radio communication operated for a like purpose, facts are too often presented in terms of the dollar, or similar monetary standards, instead of in terms of human values. Until there is a concerted move to reorganize those news agencies upon which we depend for knowledge pertaining to the motives, attitudes, and objectives [Page 167] of our fellow men, the people of the world will continue to remain mere guinea pigs to be experimented upon and butchered at will.

Unquestionably there are many other factors, attitudes and states of mind that produce organized warfare. Our present economic system with its premium upon material wealth, its cut-throat competition for jobs and markets, and its ever increasing class distinction, is not the least of the reasons for sending armed troops across national frontiers. Unbridled tariff policies, racial intolerance, and the sometimes popular belief that war promotes the survival of the fittest, certainly are contributing factors in creating war sentiment. In fact, the causes of war are so intricate and numerous that it would be presumptuous to attempt a definition and discussion of all of them in the weightiest book. Nevertheless, there are certain war producing forces, attitudes, and practices working in our economic, political, and social organizations that should be recognized by all of us. Armed with a knowledge of such forces, and cognizant of such practices, the average man may still be a tool in the hands of shortsighted or unscrupulous leaders, but the tool will not be as sharp nor will it be as willing to be used. When those who really want a lasting peace realize this fact, they will cease trying to doctor their patients with inadequate medicines and use their talents and efforts to teach these patients what the causes for their ailments are.

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This statement, to be published in two consecutive issues, is a remarkably clear and complete summary of the case for the principle of World Federation as the only type of international order capable of assuring peace and stability to the nations.

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WORLD FEDERATION

By OSCAR NEWFANG

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1. THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF NATIONS

THE causes of war fall into four classes, dynastic, religious, racial and economic. With the gradual curbing of the irresponsible power of rulers and the destruction through the World War of the four chief war making dynasties of Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey, the dynastic causes of war have been largely abolished throughout the world. With the deposition from political power of the Papacy and the [Page 168] Caliphate, the ability of religious rulers to plunge the nations into war has been almost completely removed. The vast increase of travel, trade and investment throughout the world as a result of the inventions of the past hundred years has served to diminish race prejudice and to acquaint the peoples of the world with one another.

This great increase of intercourse among nations, however, has but served to multiply almost infinitely the economic contacts of nations with one another, with the result that the economic causes of war have become the most important class of war-causes in the twentieth century.

While the nations a century or two ago were largely self-contained and trade among them was of insignificant importance, the vast increase of intercourse brought about by modern methods of commerce and communication and the far higher standards of living resulting from international commerce have made all the nations of the world at the present day interdependent. National isolation cannot be restored without again reducing the nations to the low standards of living which prevailed in the Middle Ages and which still prevail in the backward parts of the earth where the benefits of commerce and trade are very little felt.

Nations are economically dependent upon one another in three degrees: for commodities which they cannot produce, for those of which they are unable to produce a sufficient amount to meet their needs, and for those which they can produce only at a greater expense than other countries.

IT is generally admitted that of all the countries of the earth the United States is nearest to economic self-sufficiency. And yet, to give but one illustration of the reduction of the high standard of American life which would result from cutting off all foreign trade, consider rubber. Take the tires off your automobile and see how you would enjoy riding in it. Take the rubber insulation from all electric wiring and see what would happen to our lighting, our industrial power, and to the thousand other uses in which electricity enhances our well-being.

It is not generally realized how independent even this most resourceful country of the whole world is upon commodities from outside her borders. The former Secretary of Commerce of the United States, William C. Redfield, in his book, Dependent America, gives a list of thirty vital war materials alone for which we must rely in whole or in part upon foreign sources. The list follows: antimony, camphor, chromium, coffee, cork, graphite, hemp, hides, iodine, jute, flaxseed, manganese, Manila fiber, mica, nickel, nux vomica, opium, platinum, potassium salts, quicksilver, quinine, rubber, shellac, silk, sodium nitrate, sugar, tin, tungsten, vanadium, wool. The same authority elsewhere says: “I got a liSt of the articles that the United States Steel Corporation has to import from other countries, and that list covered fourteen and a half typewritten pages.”

Most other countries of the world are even more vitally dependent upon foreign commodities than is the [Page 169] United States. How could England, for instance, support her dense population without food imports? How could Italy operate her industries without imported coal? How can France do without imported oil? Germany, without imported copper? How can Japan keep her dense population above the famine line without the import of the soya bean?

In order to give a fairly adequate idea of the extent to which all nations are interdependent in their ordinary peacetime livelihood, let me quote M. Francis Delaisi’s description of a Frenchman’s day (which to a large degree applies to any other modern commercial country): “M. Durand begins his day by washing himself with soap made from Congo nuts and drying himself with a towel made in Lancashire from cotton grown in Texas. He puts on a shirt and collar of Russian linen, a suit made of wool from Australia or the Cape, a silk tie woven from Japanese cocoons, and shoes whose leather came from an Argentine ox and has been tanned with German chemicals. In his dining room, which is adorned with a Dutch sideboard made of wood from Hungarian forests, the table is furnished with spoons and forks of plated metal, made of Rio Tinto copper, tin from the Straits, and Australian silver. His fresh loaf is of wheat from the Beauce, Roumania or Canada, according to the season; he has a slice of chilled lamb from the Argentine, with tinned peas from California; his sweet includes English jam made of French fruit and Cuban sugar, and his excellent coffee comes from Brazil. He goes to his office in an American car; and after noting the quotations of the Liverpool, London, Amsterdam and Yokohama exchanges, he dictates his correspondence, which is taken down on an English typewriter and signed with an American fountain pen.

“In his factory goods for Brazilian customers are being manufactured of materials of many origins, by machinery made in Lorraine on a German patent, and fed with English coal; he gives instructions that they are to be sent to Rio by the first German boat sailing from Cherbourg. He then goes to his bank, to pay in a check in guilders from a Dutch client, and to buy sterling to pay for English goods. After a profitable day he proposes to spend the evening at a show with his wife. She dons her blue fox fur from Siberia and her diamonds from the Cape; they dine at an Italian restaurant, go to see the Russian ballet, and after supper at a Caucasian cabaret to the music of a Negro jazz band, they return home. As M. Durand falls asleep under his quilt of Norwegian duck-feathers, he thinks with pride of the greatness of France, entirely self-supporting, and able to snap her fingers at the whole world.”

II. THE NATURAL FLOW OF COMMERCE

In the previous section it was said that countries are dependent upon one another in three degrees, for commodities which they cannot produce, for commodities of which they cannot produce enough to meet their entire need, and for commodities which they can produce only at a relative [Page 170] disadvantage or a greater cost of production.

No argument is needed to prove that there is a benefit to both countries in exchanging part of a commodity of which one country has a surplus for a commodity that is needed for its well-being, but which can be produced only in another country. Thus a mountainous country will naturally exchange metals and coal of which it possesses a superabundance, for foodstuffs which it cannot produce on its rugged and rocky mountains; while a fertile and level country, which has no metals or coal but which produces a surplus of foodstuffs, will naturally exchange its surplus for the metals and coal necessary for its manufactures. Common sense dictates such a flow of commerce.

The same reasoning proves beneficial to both countries an exchange of commodities of which each country is unable to produce its own full requirements. Thus the United States cannot produce the full amount of manganese required for her steel industry; Italy cannot produce her full requirements of coal; France, of oil; Germany, of copper; Great Britain, of wheat and meat; Japan, of iron. Again common sense dictates a policy of exchanging products of which a country produces more than its home market will absorb for the products of which it requires a larger amount than can be produced in the country.

WE come now to the third kind of commerce, the exchange of commodities which a country can produce itself, but only at a relative disadvantage or a greater cost of production, as compared with other countries. It is principally this kind of commerce whose mutual advantage is questioned and whose natural flow is restricted and hindered by governments. It is argued that nothing should be imported which can be produced at home, thus reserving the largest possible amount of employment for the citizens of the home country. The fallacy of this argument lies in not perceiving that commerce is a two-way flow, and that in payment of every commodity imported an equivalent commodity must be exported; that is, in the final analysis, for each day’s labor imported a day’s labor must be exported. The settlement may be deferred by financial expedients, but it cannot be avoided finally. The only point at issue, therefore, is whether the product representing these two “day’s labor” shall be larger or smaller; and hence, whether the two countries shall be in possession of a larger or a smaller amount of goods as a result of their exchange.

In the illustration above given, the mountainous country could probably raise a limited quantity of foodstuffs by the application of twice the number of labor-days that would suffice to raise the same quantity in the fertile country. Likewise, the agrarian country might conceivably, by sinking mile-deep shafts and at an expenditure of twice the number of labor-days, produce a limited amount of metals and coal. As a final result of their “home employment”, however, each of the countries would have only half the amount of foodstuffs [Page 171] and of metals, respectively, that they would have if each had devoted its labor power to the commodities for which it was specially adapted and had exchanged the resulting products against each other.

The same result, in varying degrees, is true in all cases in which a country can produce a commodity only at a relative disadvantage or a relatively higher cost of production than another country. There is, therefore, a natural flow of commerce between countries in all commodities which cannot be produced in certain countries, which cannot be produced in certain countries in quantities sufficient for the needs of the population, or which cannot be produced in certain countries except at a relatively higher cost of production; and in all of these cases the exchange of commodities is beneficial to both countries engaged in the trade. Hence the restriction or the prohibition of this natural flow of commerce is harmful to the welfare of both the importing and the exporting countries.

There is a much-quoted sophism, falsely attributed to Lincoln, to the effect that, when we buy abroad, the foreigner gets the money and we get the goods; but when we buy at home, we get both the goods and the money. The sophistry lies in the slippery use of the word “get”. In a domestic sale we, as a nation, do not “get” (acquire) anything whatever that we, as a nation, did not have before. As an argument against foreign trade, the sophism is as wise as saying that, when I buy a watch, the jeweler gets the money and I get the watch; but when I change my money from my right pocket to my left, and my watch from my left pocket to my right, I “get” both the watch and the money.

III. THE DESTRUCTIVENBSS OF WAR

Into this constructive, beneficent and civilizing flow of trade among nations bursts a destructive, devastating and barbarizing force,—war. The devastation of war affects the lives, the wealth and the character of the citizens of warring countries, and the safety, the solvency and the practices of their governments.

It has been conservatively estimated that the World War cost more than seven million lives, and that the conditions of disease and famine directly caused by the war resulted in fully as many more deaths. Worse than the direct loss of life in modern warfare, however, is the fact that through universal conscription it selects the most vigorous and virile men of each nation mutually to destroy one another while leaving the runts, shrimps and morons to breed the race. War reverses that beneficient law of evolution, the survival of the fittest; it leads to the survival of the unfittest, the gradual degeneracy of the human race.

As to the growing destruction of wealth in modern warfare, the World War entailed a direct cost of about two hundred billion dollars gold, not to mention the indirect cost of property destroyed, which was probably fifty billions more. Compare this with the estimated cost of the great wars of the past; the American Civil War, [Page 172] eight billions; the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, three billions; the Russo-Japanese War, $1,735,000; the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, $1,100,000; the Crimean War, $1,666,000; and even the prolonged Napoleonic Wars covering nineteen years, fifteen billions.

THE deterioration of human character caused by this rebarbarization of mankind (to use Spencer’s telling phrase) is more subtle and cannot be set forth in statistics. In the United States the World War was followed by a tidal wave of crimes of violence, gangsterism, racketeering, kidnaping and banditry which is only now beginning to subside, almost a generation after the close of the conflict. It is impossible to instill murder, arson, plunder and treachery toward opponents into the minds of millions of soldiers and not to find a certain percentage of the men using these same criminal methods in their private striving, after they return home.

The aftermath of war in the lives of nations, the headache of the morning after the spree, lasts longer and is more destructive of human welfare than the war itself. Fifteen years after the close of the Great War the world is still enmeshed in its ruins, trying to bring order out of chaos. The wild speculation in business and finance caused by the tremendous war demand for all commodities is bound to crash to earth in a great depression after the war demand ceases. The inflated structure of commodity and security markets can be temporarily sustained by the lavish use of loans, but in the end values, both of goods and stocks, must again descend to the solid ground of normal life.

The inevitable crash causes widespread curtailment and unsettlement of business, which produces an abnormal amount of unemployment and distress. This feature of the aftermath of war has not yet been overcome in some of the principal belligerents of the World War. To maintain stability of employment after the upheaval of a great war is impossible. The only way to do it is to abolish war: any other attempts are merely fighting the smoke and ignoring the fire.

The effect of war on public finance is deplorable. Not only are heavy burdens of debt and taxation placed upon the shoulders of the citizens for generations after the war is over (in America we are still paying heavy pensions on account of the Civil War seventy years ago); but the intolerable debt burdens of war force governments into the destructive practices of debasing or devaluing the coin, inflating and depreciating the currency, repudiating or revaluing at a fraction national debts.

A sorry mess to clean up! This is but a thumbnail sketch of the ruin caused by war.

IV. THE VICIOUS CIRCLE OF FEAR OF WAR AND STRANGULATION OF TRADE

Not only does war totally upset the beneficent flow of trade among nations, but it also leaves a profound and haunting fear which moves the nations to strive for economic self-containment, so that they may be [Page 173] prepared for the outbreak of another war. In order to achieve this self-sufficiency governments adopt the policy of encouraging the home production of all essential war and subsistence commodities. Since it is inevitable in this varied world that in the production of many commodities a country is at a relative disadvantage and can produce only at a relatively higher cost, which makes impossible free competition with the producers of a more favored country, governments restrict, hinder and seek to prohibit the import of such commodities by means of tariffs, preferences, quotas and embargoes. Furthermore, it becomes their policy to reserve raw materials in their country or in territories which they control for the preferential or exclusive use of the home producers, so as to give them an advantage not only in the home market, but also in world markets.

Fear of war thus leads directly to strangulation of trade. Hence the multiplication and the enlargement of trade barriers since the World War.

This prevention of equal access to necessary raw materials and to natural markets for their products paralyzes the prosperity and well-being of countries and is therefore bitterly resented by them. The only way they can see of permanently freeing themselves from these dangers lies in the conquest or the control of lands containing indispensable raw materials or vitally important markets. Hence Japanese seizure of Manchuria, the fight for the oil lands of the Chaco, the age-long struggle for the markets of China. Hence the constant plots and suspicion of plots to seize one another’s territory or markets which keep alive and increase the fear of war among nations, and which stimulate the race of armaments among them.

A VICIOUS whirlpool sucking the nations down to destruction! The profound fear of war causes the mutual strangulation of trade and prosperity; and the strangulation of trade increases the fear of war and the feverish arming of nations, until some nervous finger pulls the trigger and the explosion follows. It is evident that this vicious circle leading inevitably to war cannot be broken except by some method that will entirely remove the fear of war. Until this is done the economic war of the nations cannot be abolished; and if it is not abolished, it will in due time again plunge the nations into the destructive chaos of large-scale war.

(To be concluded)

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The conception underlying most of this medieval thought was that of Unity and Universality. When, therefore, the sixteenth century ushered in the era of the individual Sovereign States and all hope of universality was dispelled, the prophets took a new turn. Their aim after 1500 had to be to seek for unity in diversity. And this is true internationalism—A. C. F. BEALES, in “The History of Peace.”

[Page 174]

An artist who has followed the path of aesthetic vision awakens to the greater Beauty that offers itself to man in the return of spiritual Faith.

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THE ONE SPIRIT

By MARK TOBEY

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WHEN we attempt to contemplate the One Spirit we come to an abstraction unknowable in any manner akin to our three-dimensional state of being or existence. So we look to Its manifestations, numberless pluralities of its rich reflections, its valleys of grandeur, the powers of its exuberance as forms flow from forms—expressing this same richness in massive rocks or opening to us in some delicate blossom, as though an eye of extreme beauty had opened, fresh in its birth from harder and less reflecting substances but fed and related to them by some secret stream of life.

As we walk through these conditions, we can well ask ourselves (and especially in these days), are we related to these other manifestations, or do we feel ourselves independent, as though we were creatures of finer substances and therefore above — superior to and free from them?

IN this age of seeming mastery over the forces of nature we appear as kings of magic power, as we view our rise into the air, finding ourselves everywhere surrounded by numberless slaves of nature contributing to our comfort and pleasure, apparently almost lifeless objects— yet functioning for our advantage, helping us to conquer space, enabling us to break down barriers of personal thought—as though realms of mysteries were open to us for expansion and liberation.

And yet! Are we free? Are we exhilerated, flowing in this stream of life, this ocean of the Spirit?

Are we conscious of the source of these new possibilities, or even grateful to these other kingdoms for their bondage and service to us?

Or (on the other hand) do we act like spoiled children crying for more and more toys and for the very moon itself? What can we really ever do with anything we have if we have no consciousness of it and no relation to it; if that subtle but powerful essence which binds all things together and makes them all children of Itself is to find no place in our hearts and in our minds!

Has not Bahá’u’lláh said that we are like the whales living in and upon the substance of the sea—without consciousness of that, which supports [Page 175] them and gives them life?

Where is our Oneness so eagerly offered us by Bahá’u’lláh for our growth and advancement, if we neglect to meditate and to attempt to relate ourselves—not only through action but by our very lives, the fourfold plan of our very being—which manifests in the outer, through form and action and within us as attitude and thought.

It is (it seems to me) that our minds and hearts must be unlocked and through these doors, the vista, wherein the vision of unity lies, will disclose to us our true relationship one to another and also not to be excluded, the mystery of our differences.

For the inner and outer states are both aspects of the One Life—and in the great vision of the Oneness of the World of Humanity we must look to the One Power manifesting these multitudinous divisions of Its one rich Unity so that we may be stirred to the wonder and majesty of Itself, and in this power of Cohesion we may get our first glimpse of the Unity and Universality of God.

WHAT expansion! What rivers of inspiration pour from the greatness of Bahá’u’lláh’s Being as He attempts to acquaint us with this vision of Oneness, this sublimity of the One Great Power!

It is, as though from every leaf and doorway, from every cloud and flower, from the mystery of sun and shadow, rain and heat — multiple mystic voices poured into His Heart the Glories of God. It is as though His eye beheld and knew the mystery hidden by the ardor of Its own manifestation!

How He laments! How the sacred pen weeps that our capacity is not able to receive more! What a grief must be His, as He feels all things turned back upon Himself as though the confines of His very being would break when there is no ear to hearken, no heart to receive these poems of the spirit!

Had He found us as we had been created, He could have disclosed mysteries which would have turned this world into a paradise!

But we imprison Him, the Radiant One, the Sun of Truth.

We, in our separate compartments of life, we shut him up in a prison of darkness, forgetful that the Sun of Truth knows no darkness, accepts no limitations!

But this Spiritual Sun burns through the confines of our world of thought even as the sun’s rays fill valley and plain, flooding the high places and the low places with its light!

But in time we become oppressed, imprisoned in our dark towers of personal tragedies. In time we become surfeited with our little ways and something within us yearns and grows restless. Then we open the doors of our little dwellings and venture forth, perhaps quite unconscious as to what the spiritual season may be. For we have grown fretful under the weight of old thought and quite as naturally as when spring comes followed by summer we abandon our winter clothing for lighter wear—just so perhaps some hint of a new springtime has entered our [Page 176] mind and so we come forth out of our wintry hibernation to find ourselves upon the threshold of a new day—a new time spiritually—a time in which we are stirred to abandon the thought of the past and to find ourselves standing in the charged silence of a new dawn. The promise of light and beauty shines upon us, this promise a growing reality as it manifests itself in the action of the morning hours, the quiescence of high noon, when the sun seems to govern everything and all things are held in its powerful embrace of light!

Then the afternoon passes with the radiance of art and music, as though the day itself wove the garments of its own time—the long, long shadows begin to fall bringing the last meditations of those who are still able to reflect the last rays of the setting sun in order to remember through the long night which comes to brood over us again.

And that, which so stirred us in the early days of Its light, seems to sink within us and we visit the tombs of what once was. And some forget that another Dawn will come, and some deny, and we dig our graves of material civilization and enter the tombs of self forgetfulness.

“And those that forgot God, God made them to forget themselves!”

But in the long hours before the rising again of a new Sun of Truth, when all have forgotten and men are asleep upon their beds of negligence, there are some who remember —such men as Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kazim—and they speak and foretell prophesies of the return of God’s promise, and in that magic hour a new Sun appears, a new Dawn floods the skies, tints the ashen clouds o’er land and sea, clinging unto the mountains and trees, a bodyless spirit embracing as a lover all contingent forms and in this embrace of the Return all things are restored to the secret of life and the quickening of the lover’s touch brings a great gladness and all become robed anew in a mantle of light. The joy of recognition spreads until no longer will strangers walk with covered heads but faces will be uplifted to recognize each other in the one Light of a new Day.

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It is not during the decomposition of philosophies, and especially of religions, that social changes occur, for such breakings-up commonly go on in an isolated, and therefore innocuous way; but if by chance the fragments and decomposed portions are brought together, and attempts are made by fusion to incorporate them anew, or to extract from them, by a secondary analysis what truth they contain, a crisis is at once brought on, and—such is the course of events—in the catastrophe that ensues they are commonly all absolutely destroyed. . . . Nations plunged in the abyss of irreligion must necessarily be nations in anarchy.—JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER, in “History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.”

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The generating force of a World Faith, consummating the religions of the past, animate the words in which Bahá’u’lláh reveals the possibility of man’s development in the new age.

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THE MEASURE OF REVELATION

WORDS OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

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KNOW thou assuredly that the essence of all the Prophets of God is one and the same. Their unity is absolute. God, the Creator saith: There is no distinction whatsoever among the Bearers of My Message. They all have but one purpose; their secret is the same secret. To prefer one in honor to another, to exalt certain ones above the rest, is in no wise to be permitted. Every true Prophet hath regarded His Message as fundamentally the same as the Revelation of every other Prophet gone before Him. If any man, therefore, should fail to comprehend this truth, and should consequently indulge in vain and unseemly language, no one whose sight is keen and whose understanding is enlightened would ever allow such idle talk to cause him to waver in his belief.

The measure of the revelation of the Prophets of God in this world, however, must differ. Each and every one of them hath been the Bearer of a distinct Message, and hath been commissioned to reveal Himself through specific acts. It is for this reason that they appear to vary in their greatness. Their Revelation may be likened unto the light of the moon that sheddeth its radiance upon the earth. Though every time it appeareth, it revealeth a fresh measure of its brightness, yet its inherent splendor can never diminish, nor can its light suffer extinction.

It is clear and evident, therefore, that any apparent variation in the intensity of their light is not inherent in the light itself, but should rather be attributed to the varying receptivity of an ever-changing world. Every Prophet Whom the almighty and Peerless Creator hath purposed to send to the peoples of the earth hath been entrusted with a Message, and charged to act in a manner, that would best meet the requirements of the age in which He appeared. God’s Purpose in sending His Prophets unto men is two fold. The first is to liberate the children of men from the darkness of ignorance, and guide them to the light of true understanding. The second is to ensure the peace and tranquillity of mankind, and provide all the means by which they can be established . . . Little wonder, [Page 178] then, if the treatment prescribed by the physician in this day should not be found to be identical with that which he prescribed before. How could it be otherwise when the ills affecting the sufferer necessitate at every stage of his sickness a special remedy? In like manner, every time the Prophets of God have illumined the world with the resplendent radiance of the Day-Star of Divine knowledge, they have invariably summoned its people to embrace the light of God through such means as best befitted the exigencies of the age in which they appeared. They were thus able to scatter the darkness of ignorance, and to shed upon the world the glory of their own knowledge. It is towards the inmost essence of these Prophets, therefore, that the eye of every man of discernment must be directed, inasmuch as their one and only purpose hath always been to guide the erring, and give peace to the afflicted. These are not days of prosperity and triumph. The whole of mankind is in the grip of manifold ills. Strive, therefore, to save its life through the wholesome medicine which the almighty hand of the unerring Physician hath prepared.

JUSTICE is, in this day, bewailing its plight, and Equity groaneth beneath the yoke of oppression. The thick clouds of tyranny have darkened the face of the earth, and enveloped its peoples. Through the movement of Our Pen of glory We have, at the bidding of the omnipotent Ordainer, breathed a new life into every human frame, and instilled into every word a fresh potency. All created things proclaim the evidences of this world-wide regeneration. This is the most great, the most joyful tidings imparted by the pen of this wronged One to mankind. Wherefore, fear ye, O My well-beloved ones! Who is it that can dismay you? A touch of moisture sufficeth to dissolve the hardened clay out of which this perverse generation is molded. The mere act of your gathering together is enough to scatter the forces of these vain and worthless people. . . .

Every man of insight will, in this day, readily admit that the counsels which the Pen of this wronged One hath revealed constitute the supreme animating power for the advancement of the world and the exaltation of its peoples. Arise, O people, and, by the power of God’s might, resolve to gain the victory over your own selves, that haply the whole earth may be freed and sanctified from its servitude to the gods of its idle fancies—gods that have inflicted such loss upon, and are responsible for the misery of, their wretched worshipers. These idols form the obstacle that impeded man in his efforts to advance in the path of perfection. We cherish the hope that the Hand of Divine power may lend its assistance to mankind, and deliver it from its state of grievous abasement.

In one of the Tablets these words have been revealed: O people of God! Do not busy yourselves in your own concerns; let your thoughts be fixed upon that which will rehabilitate the fortunes of mankind and sanctify the hearts and souls of men. This can best be achieved through [Page 179] pure and holy deeds, through a virtuous life and a goodly behavior. Valiant acts will ensure the triumph of this Cause, and a saintly character will reinforce its power. Cleave unto righteousness, O people of Bahá! This, verily, is the commandment which this wronged One hath given unto you, and the first choice of His unrestrained Will for every one of you.

O friends! It behoveth you to refresh and revive your souls through the gracious favors which in this Divine, this soul-stirring Springtime are being showered upon you. The Day-Star of His great glory hath shed its radiance upon you, and the clouds of His limitless grace have overshadowed you. How high the reward of him that hath not deprived himself of so great a bounty, nor failed to recognize the beauty of his Best-Beloved in this, His new attire. Watch over yourselves, for the Evil One is lying in wait, ready to entrap you. Gird yourselves against his wicked devices, and, led by the light of the name of the All-Seeing God, make your escape from the darkness that surroundeth you. Let your vision be world-embracing, rather than confined to your own self. The Evil One is he that hindereth the rise and obstructeth the spiritual progress of the children of men.

It is incumbent upon every man, in this Day, to hold fast unto whatsoever will promote the interests, and exalt the station, of all nations and just governments. Through each and every one of the verses which the Pen of the Most High hath revealed the doors of love and unity have been unlocked and flung open to the face of men. We have erewhile declared —and Our Word is the truth— “Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship.” Whatsoever hath led the children of men to shun one another, and hath caused dissensions and divisions amongst them, hath, through the revelation of these words, been nullified and abolished. From the heaven of God’s Will, and for the purpose of ennobling the world of being and of elevating the minds and souls of men, hath been sent down that which is the most effective instrument for the education of the whole human race. The highest essence and most perfect expression of whatsoever the peoples of old have either said or written hath, through this most potent Revelation, been sent down from the heaven of the Will of the All-Possessing, the Ever-Abiding God. Of old it hath been revealed: “Love of one’s country is an element of the Faith of God.” The Tongue of Grandeur hath, however, in the day of His manifestation proclaimed: “It is not his to boast who loveth his country, but it is his who loveth the world.” Through the power released by these exalted words He hath lent a fresh impulse, and set a new direction, to the birds of men’s hearts, and hath obliterated every trace of restriction and limitation from God’s holy Book.

O people of Justice! Be as brilliant as the light, and as splendid as the fire that blazed in the Burning Bush. The brightness of the fire of your love will no doubt fuse and unify the contending peoples and kindreds of [Page 180] the earth, whilst the fierceness of the flame of enmity and hatred cannot but result in strife and ruin. We beseech God that He may shield His creatures from the evil designs of His enemies. He verily hath power over all things. . . .

THIS is the Day in which God’s most excellent favors have been poured out upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace hath been infused into all created things. It is incumbent upon all the peoples of the world to reconcile their differences, and, with perfect unity and peace, abide beneath the shadow of the Tree of His care and lovingkindness. It behoveth them to cleave to whatsoever will in this Day be conducive to the exaltation of their stations, and to the promotion of their best interests. Happy are those whom the all-glorious Pen was moved to remember, and blessed are those men whose names, by virtue of Our inscrutable decree, We have preferred to conceal.

Beseech ye the one true God to grant that all men may be graciously assisted to fulfil that which is acceptable in Our sight. Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead. Verily, thy Lord speaketh the truth, and is the Knower of things unseen.

O YE the beloved of the one true God! Pass beyond the narrow retreats of your evil and corrupt desires, and advance into the vast immensity of the realm of God, and abide ye in the meads of sanctity and of detachment, that the fragrance of your deeds may lead the whole of mankind to the ocean of God’s unfading glory. Forbear ye from concerning yourselves with the affairs of this world and all that pertaineth unto it, or from meddling with the activities of those who are its outward leaders.

The one true God, exalted be His glory, hath bestowed the government of the earth upon the kings. To none is given the right to act in any manner that would run counter to the considered views of them who are in authority. That which He hath reserved for Himself are the cities of men’s hearts; and of these the loved ones of Him Who is the Sovereign Truth are, in this Day, as the keys. Please God they may, one and all, be enabled to unlock, through the power of the Most Great Name, the gates of these cities. This is what is meant by aiding the one true God— a theme to which the Pen of Him Who causeth the dawn to break hath referred in all His Books and Tablets.

As to those that have tasted of the fruit of man’s earthly existence, which is the recognition of the one true God, exalted be His glory, their life hereafter is such as We are unable to describe. The knowledge thereof is with God, alone, the Lord of all worlds.

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Every public problem, as illustrated by the efforts to raise the standard of health, are entangled with general social conditions the roots of which go to the very basis of the existence of modern civilization.

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SOCIAL TRENDS IN AMERICAN LIFE

4. THE MATTER OF HEALTH

By BERTHA HYDE KERKPATRICK

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“SLUMS can kill more children than germs,” writes Paul de Kruif in a recent magazine. Here is a great scientist and humanitarian, who, after spending years in research in the field of disease germs with the hope of wiping out disease, turns his attention to the slums of one of our large cities. Of what use, he would ask, is the knowledge of the way disease spreads and sickness is overcome if the bulk of our people are unable to make use of that knowledge? A day spent in going from tenement to tenement, up dark stairways, into cold, forlorn rooms revealed a harvest of human misery— tuberculosis and other sicknesses, emaciation, insufficient food, no heat or sunshine, little and comfortless furniture, discouragement, and our patient human brothers and their little children enduring it. “If you have the bad luck,” he says, “to be born in the valley part of Cincinnati, you have less than half the chance to live to be one year old that a baby has who’s born in the hills.” This is only one city but no one will gainsay that conditions there are typical of our large cities.

In no field of scientific research has there been shown so much idealism and self-sacrifice as in this realm of overcoming disease. Men have devoted their lives and willingly sacrificed them to lessen the human misery caused by disease. And until recently doctors have served rich and poor alike regardless of remuneration. Many still do this. Even a brief survey of our present knowledge and our equipment for fighting and controlling disease shows the great achievements of these men.

Less than 100 years ago anesthetics were unknown; germs, aseptic surgery and the X-ray were undiscovered. Fifty years ago there were few hospitals in America, fewer clinics and the training of nurses was in its infancy. Today our hospitals and clinics number in the thousands. All over the country are well-equipped [Page 182] medical schools and schools of pharmacy. In some of our large cities are privately endowed schools of research. We have federal, state and county boards of health and many laws and regulations to prevent the spread of disease.

The terrible plagues of small pox, yellow fever and bubonic plague have been practically wiped out of the western world. In the United States the death rate from diphtheria and typhoid fever has been reduced to less than five per 100,000. The average length of life in our country has been greatly increased. Yet another achievement in man’s control over natural forces is the decline in birth rate, so that if present tendencies continue a point of stabilization of population should be reached about the end of this century.

These are cheering facts and yet there is another darker picture that in justice we must not overlook for there is still much work to be done before health and long life are the common heritage of all in America. The effacement of avoidable diseases such as diphtheria, typhoid fever and others is only partial. Although we know how to control malaria and tuberculosis yet, Dr. Counts states, “there are probably 1,000,000 persons sick with malaria and 700,000 suffering from tuberculosis” at any given time in the United States. Diabetics remain without insulin, rheumatics are untreated, cancer is not tested in time, babies die needlessly, blindness and mental disorders continue to bring helplessness and misery.

Professor Counts further calls our attention to definite needs for change in our health policy to meet the demands of our modern industrialized society. There is, for one thing, a great maladjustment in the geographical distribution of medical facilities. In general, rural communities, especially in the south, are poorly supplied with both doctors and hospitals. “. . . In 1928 approximately 43 percent of American counties had no hospitals for general community use.”

It is true too that many are deprived of medicine and health service because of economic conditions. “In spite of the large volume of free work done by hospitals, health departments, and individual practitioners, and in spite of the sliding scale of charges, it appears that each year nearly half of the individuals in the lowest income group receive no professional medical or dental attention of any kind, curative or preventive.”

Another need is for greater emphasis in prevention of disease. “It is in this realm moreover that medicine has made its great conquests: the reduction in the general death rate, the checking of the mortality of infants, the control of numerous contagious diseases, and generally the conversion of the world into a safer place in which men may live. But prevention is in large measure a public rather than a private enterprise. It is known today that both disease and defect are commonly social in their origins—products of group life, of living conditions, and even of time-honored institutional arrangements.”

UNDERNEATH these conditions [Page 183] is a mass of unenlightened people. We are told that American people spend three times as much on patent medicines as on public health and that “at least thirty per cent of the total expenditure for the care of illness is practically wasted because spent for self-medication or inferior types of practitioners.” Fake and clever advertising is responsible for much of this tragic waste of health and life. Education through schools and public health departments is needed to overcome this deplorable ignorance.

Again health problems which are even more directly caused by the rapid rise of industrial centers have proved most serious. The supply of pure water and the proper disposal of sewage and waste and the inspection of milk and food have called for the expenditure of much ingenuity and money. Epidemics of typhoid and other diseases have taken heavy toll in death before such problems were attacked. And they are by no means altogether solved at present. If we add to these the great increase in occupational diseases, the smoke and noise nuisances, the problems in connection with intoxicating beverages and narcotics we have named only some of the present day problems which our industrial civilization has brought about.

In too many cases antiquated methods of administration and overlapping authority makes problems so entangled as to be almost hopeless of solution. Professor Counts gives as example of such confusion the health and sanitary control in the Chicago region where a survey in 1930 showed “not a single authority as would seem natural, but 101 different public agencies pursuing different policies and programs.”

This condensed summary of Professor Counts’ survey of health conditions is enough to show us that although there is still great need for further research in the field of scientific knowledge in both therepeutic and preventive medicine yet the problem is even more largely a social one. He would have us realize that these problems have arisen with our modern industrialized society and that we need new methods and a new outlook to handle them. In the days of our early agricultural society individual idealism worked fairly well and seemed adequate to carry us along and overcome the greed and selfishness of other individuals. But health and disease has become a mass problem, almost unsolvable, before we have hardly become aware of its existence. Conditions are now such that however much idealism an individual may have he is almost powerless to make it function. This is what Dr. de Kruif felt when, visiting the valley district of Cincinnati, he saw no possibility that his work in overcoming disease can yet benefit great masses of our people.

“Why is it,” he writes, “since our nation’s wealth in materials, brains and willing hands to build houses, to produce good food and medical care, is so limitless—

“Why is it that we do not find wise, conservative men who could so order our system that, in exchange for the work our people are willing and able to do, our citizens would receive the [Page 184] modest wherewithal that would give all their children a chance for life?”

In the asking of this question Dr. de Kruif makes it clear that our health problems are not confined to the realm of medication and inoculation. They are even more social and economic problems. To solve them means education and better health laws and better and more economical methods of bringing patient and doctor together, but more than this it means right living conditions —air, space, sunshine, warmth, food and cleanliness. Dr. de Kruif tells us that the city of Cincinnati has plans already drawn for clean, airy, sunny apartments to take the place of the slum tenements. But to build these would require one hundred and fifty million dollars.

Does not this make it clear that our health problems are completely entangled with our social and economic problems and that whoever would solve them must be aware that their roots lie very deep? Here we can only point out that the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh are directed to this very end—the purifying of the roots of our social order.

WHEN ‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited America His penetrating insight saw our growing needs and problems. Again and again He praised our great scientific advancement and again and again He warned us that without spiritual progress our achievements in science would be useless or worse. Addressing a Cleveland audience in 1912 He said, “Material civilization has reached an advanced plane but now there is need of spiritual civilization. Material civilization alone cannot satisfy; it cannot meet the conditions and requirements of the present age. Its benefits are limited to the world of matter.”

Does not this apply perfectly to the question at hand? We have plenty of knowledge in healing and disease prevention; we have the materials and the knowledge for building homes of comfort. These things are material civilization. Man at present lacks the spiritual power to use this knowledge. When that is awakened we shall have spiritual civilization. But we must realize that nothing less can “meet the conditions and requirements of the age.”

And reading further we find that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gives us full assurance that man has it in his power to achieve this true civilization if he will turn to God and follow His commands for this age. He says, “There is no limitation to the spirit of man, for spirit itself is progressive and if divine civilization be established the spirit of man will advance. Every developed susceptibility will increase the effectiveness of man. . . . All this is conducive to the divine form of civilization. This is what is meant in the Bible by the descent of the New Jerusalem. The heavenly Jerusalem is none other than divine civilization, and it is now ready. It is to be and shall be organized and the oneness of mankind will be a visible fact.”

Reflective study of the Bahá’í teachings reveal that this “oneness of mankind” which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá here speaks of is not mere words. It means such a consciousness of all mankind [Page 185] that none will be satisfied until there is comfort, health and justice for all, not only in America, but in all the world. It is the awakening of a social consciousness and conscience. It is a reorganization of society on the basis of justice for all. Notice that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says; “It is to be and shall be organized and the oneness of mankind will be a visible fact.”

Does not this mean the reorganization of society on the basis of justice to all mankind? How can the spiritual awakening necessary for this stupendous task be brought about? Shoghi Effendi, conscious of the suffering of humanity today writes thus: “Who, contemplating the helplessness, the fears and misery of humanity in this day, can any longer question the necessity for a fresh revelation of the quickening of God’s redemptive love and guidance? Who, witnessing on the one hand the stupendous advance achieved in the realm of human knowledge, of power, of skill, and inventiveness, and viewing on the other the unprecedented character of the sufferings that afflict, and the dangers that beset, present day society, can be so blind as to doubt that the hour has at last struck for the advent of a new Revelation, for a restatement of the Divine Purpose, and for the consequent revival of those spiritual forces that have, at fixed intervals, rehabilitated the fortunes of human society?”

No thoughtful person studying the needs of present day society whether in the matter of health or in other fields will deny that this rehabilitation is urgent. In whatever fields individuals attempt to rebuild society, they find their efforts frustrated by insurmountable obstacles in other fields. Old individualistic methods, as Professor Counts shows us, are entirely obsolete in this new age. And as we turn from this remedy to that must we not seriously ask: Can anything but those spiritual forces which have always come with a new revelation in time of great need serve us now? Should we not expect, Shoghi Effendi would have us ask ourselves, that such a Revelation, such a “restatement of the Divine Purpose”, should not only reaffirm an “exalted standard of individual conduct” but point out for us a new social code?

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Man is in the highest degree of materiality, and at the beginning of spirituality; that is to say, he is the end of imperfection and the beginning of perfection, he is at the last degree of darkness, and at the beginning of light; that is why it has been said that the condition of man is the end of the night and the beginning of day, meaning that he is the sum of all the degrees of imperfection, and that he possesses the degrees of perfection. . . . . Not in any other of the species in the world of existence is there such a difference, contrast, contradiction, and opposition, as in the species of man.

‘ABDU’L’-BAHÁ, in “Some Answered Questions.”

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This essay, by a member of the Department of History, Miami University, is based primarily, but not exclusively, on an unpublished memorandum sent to the author by M. Hikmet Bey, Minister of Public Information of the Turkish Republic.

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TRENDS IN TURKISH EDUCATION

By HARRY N. HOWARD

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THE dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following the world war was one of the most significant events in recent world history. No less amazing was the rejuvenation of the Turkish people and the establishment of the modern Turkish Republic under the leadership of Gazi Mustapha Kemal. Before the war the Ottoman Empire included territory of more than 1,700,000 square miles, and a polygot population of almost 40,000,000. In the period of Suleiman the Magnificent (the mid-sixteenth century) the empire was equal in every respect to the states of western Europe. As a result of the partition of the empire after 1919 Turkey became a compact national republic of about 14,000,000 people most of whom lived on the Aanatolian plateau. It was not by chance that the break-up of the imperial structure became part and parcel of the great political, economic and social changes which have played so profound a part in the eleven year history of the republic, for it would be almost inconceivable to imagine an essential modernization in an empire at one of the world’s great crossroads, a prey to the ambitions of the European great powers, with the Moslem religion at its basis and a population of such diversity.

The new republic was to be oriented along the paths of nationalism, industrialism and secularism. Among the varied and important changes which have taken place in the revolutionary republic none are more striking than those in the field of education and cultural transformation. Every society, whether new or old, has its own educational conceptions and ideals, and its own organization or system. Certainly this is true of the Turkish Republic which has arisen from the ashes of the old Ottoman Empire. Indeed the development of a modern educational edifice was itself a part of the processes of transition from medieval Islam to modern nationalism.

[Page 187] THE most significant move in the beginning of the republican educational program was the closing of the theological seminaries through the Law of Uniform Education of March 3, 1924. This act, which coincided with the abolition of the caliphate and the exile of the dynasty, marks an important epoch in the history of Turkey and the Near East. The old religious training, which followed conservative or reactionary traditions, was now to be abolished. No longer was the nation to be divided between medieval Islam and modern nationalism. The new government was not to tolerate this cultural antagonism. By removing the theological seminaries—however one might object to the methods employed—the Grand National Assembly of Turkey secularized education in all the schools, and laid the basis for modern Turkish education along western European lines. Two years later, it will be remembered, the Turkish government adopted western codes of law based on the French, Swiss, German and Italian legal systems, in substitution for the old Sheriat which was based on the Quran. Count Leon Ostrorog has stated that this is the most significant cultural development in the Near East since the coming of Islam to that region almost 1400 years ago.

The next important step was the abolition of the Arabic script by the Law of November 1, 1928 and the substitution of the Latin characters. The Perso-Arabic language and literature had been used for 1,000 years. Special courses were organized to teach the new alphabet especially to adults, and all newspapers and magazines were required to use that system. The new alphabet is used exclusively today in all schools and in all official publications and correspondence.

The Ministry of Education, which replaced the religious foundations, is divided into four directorates: elementary, secondary, higher and professional. There are also directorates for museums, libraries, statistics, accounts and school equipment. A National Board of Education composed of a chairman and nine members is responsible for school programs and publications, and acts as general advisor to the ministry. There is also a board of inspectors, composed of a head and twenty-eight inspectors. Each province has a chief education officer, as do also the sub-districts.

Elementary education. Elementary education is free and compulsory in government schools, for a five year course. It really begins with the kindergarten. The government is gradually increasing the facilities for taking care of the pre-school age child through the establishment of kindergartens all over the country. The elementary course proper includes such subjects as: alphabet, reading, dictation, composition, grammar, handwriting, life study, history, geography, arithmetic, nature study, object lessons, civics, drawing and handwork, music and gymnastics. Girls also study house-keeping and sewing. The teachers are to encourage especially the activity and initiative among the children, inculcating good habits and the qualities of good citizenship. Boys and girls are, of course, taught [Page 188] together. The expenses of the schools are administered by a special board in each province. The number of children attending these schools has increased from 343,438 to 523,611 (1923-1933). So crowded are the schools, which now number 6,893, that some are forced to operate on a double schedule basis.

Since villages in Turkey are very poor and widely separated, despite the requirement of the law, it is frequently impossible for each village to have a separate school. In such cases a joint (or consolidated) school is built by several villages at a suitable center, where children are either received as boarders or transported in buses. Sometimes traveling teachers are employed. Adjustment is also made to the fact that some children must work in the fields at home.

The government has been especially concerned with the training of elementary teachers, and for this purpose has established some ten new training colleges, including two for village school teachers, one for kindergartens, one for music and one for physical training. The total number of such colleges is now twenty-four. All of them are free, fifteen being for boys and nine for girls. The period of training requires five years. The students are enrolled after completing the elementary course. Each student signs an agreement undertaking to serve for eight years as a teacher in any school designated by the Ministry of Education. Special courses have been provided at Ankara for training in new methods of teaching. They are taught in part by foreign experts. The enrollment in the training colleges has increased from 2,478 to 5,645 (1923-1933), including 3,109 boys and 2,536 girls. Out of 9,672 elementary teachers in 1923 only one third were graduates of training colleges; today more than one half of the 13,000 are graduates, the rest holding diplomas from high schools or other qualified institutions.

Secondary Education. The course in secondary education is based on the American six year plan, with three years each in the junior and senior high schools, following the five year elementary period. There is now a plan to add another year to the senior high school. No student may enter the university or any other college without a senior high school diploma. The final year of the senior high school is divided into science and literature sections. The weekly course of study in the junior and senior high schools includes the following:— (1) Languages — Turkish language and literature, French, English and German (two foreign languages are compulsory); (2) Social studies — history, geography, civics, philosophy and sociology; (3) Life sciences — physiology, zoology, botany, geology, hygiene and biology; (4) Physical sciences — mathematics, physics and chemistry; (5) drawing, music, physical and military training. Girls are taught child care, housekeeping and sewing. All religious training has been eliminated, since religion is viewed as a private matter.

Today there are 99 junior high schools and 36 senior high schools. The number of students attending junior high schools has increased from 3,228 to 30,316—22,805 boys [Page 189] and 7,511 girls since 1923. The number attending senior high schools has risen from 1,241 to 6,840—5,120 boys and 1,720 girls. In the junior high schools co-education prevails, but in some of the larger towns there are separate schools for each sex. Coeducation does not apply to the senior high schools. Tuition is now free for all day students in junior and senior high schools, attendance to which has been placed on a compulsory basis since 1931. Free tuition and board are provided for worthy students, who are unable to pay the cost, in government boarding high schools.

A great change in school life has taken place under the republic. Formerly children were taught only from books and discipline was so severe as to cramp individual capacities. Today the aim is to make every school a living community reflecting the life about it. In the high schools and training colleges students have a large degree of self-government which takes the form of health competitions, cooperation and assistance to poor students, school journeys, literary, musical, theatrical and debating societies, school papers and athletic organizations. In the newer schools attention is given to rooms for public lectures, laboratories, workshops, class and school libraries, and museums. Athletics have been greatly developed. Before the constitution of 1908 no provision was made for physical training, and children were not even permitted to play during a recess. Today there is regular provision for play and there are regular Swedish exercises and Other sports for all children.

THE plan for reconstruction had been prepared over a period of three years by a Swiss expert. According to the new plan the scientific efficiency of the new institution is largely increased by the addition of many well-known German scholars, who were forced out of German universities by Adolph Hitler and his German Nazis. Altogether about fifty German and other western European professors were imported and placed on the staff of the university. The practical means and facilities of the institution were also increased. Provision was also made to make the new institution liberal as well as utilitarian and scientific.

An Institute of the Revolution was established, attached to the faculty of letters. It was to deal entirely and in great detail with every aspect of the new revolutionary reforms and their historical development. Every student in the university—no matter what his specialty—has to pass examinations and obtain a certificate from this institute before he can receive his diploma from his own division of the university.

The University of Istanbul is now located in the building of the old imperial Ministry of War and has a student body of more than 2500 students, of which something more than 500 are women. It has an almost entirely new staff. The professors in the Institute of the Revolution are proposed by the faculty of letters and invited by the rector to give their periodic lectures. They include the prominent figures in Turkey, ministers of the republic, deputies, and members of the learned societies.

[Page 190] The nucleus of another university has been established in Ankara, with the foundation (1925) of a School of Law.

To popularize education a great many steps have been taken. Turkish libraries contained more than 200,000 books in 1933, though this is only a beginning of what must be done in this direction. More than 1,700 lecture halls have been established. In 1933 more than 2,000,000 people were attending popular adult schools. Through the instrumentality of the People’s Houses (Halkevleri), organized under the auspices of the People’s Party—the only political party in the country—a beginning has been made in extending popular education in every village, town and city of the land. Though much of this exists only on paper, it is an important step. These clubs were not promoted by the old regime. In the year of their foundation, (1932), fourteen People’s Houses were opened, and today there are fifty-five. They are divided into nine sections, for the promotion of the fine arts, dramatics, athletics, social assistance, popular classes in various subjects, the development of libraries for the people, hygiene and agricultural science among the peasants. They also are in the movement to develop museums and expositions of the products of Turkey.

EVERY society builds its own educational ideology and its own organization or system. So it has been in the case of Turkey during the past ten or eleven years of the republic. Turkey has been undergoing many changes, though it is well to stress, the fact that many of the peasant masses have remained relatively untouched by the new cultural changes which are now going on. As a whole the country has been moving from medieval Islam to modern nationalism, industrialism and secularism. The Turks themselves say that they are republicans, nationalists, populists, statists (state capitalism), secular and revolutionary. The educational system must fit that scheme of things.

What Turkey needs—and what the Near East in general needs—is an opportunity to build up its own society and its own culture along modern lines. The revolution in the educational system of modern Turkey is an earnest that the great processes of westernization and modernization are moving along fundamental lines. They deserve a chance to strike deep roots in the cultural soil.

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International law was regarded essentially by its early exponents, Grotius, Wolff, Vattel, etc., as a philosophy of history. Going farther hack, the Hebrew prophets conceived the idea of universal peace as the conclusion of their philosophy of history. And that conception persisted to the middle of the last century — NORMAN BENTWICH, in “The Religious Foundations of Internationalism.”

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The great epochs of spiritual renewal have always followed periods of materialism and indifference, and out of the agony and unrest of the present day there are evident signs of a world quickening which the Bahá’ís believe will transcend every religious renewal of the past.

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THE NEW MEANING OF PRAYER

By G. A. SHOOK

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No phase of our religious life has been subjected to so much criticism as prayer, and none is encumbered with so much superstition. The great scholars in every field of thought have had something to say about prayer. Even science has made contributions that cannot be overlooked. For example, it has observed that in prolonged prayer the mind becomes very sensitive to any suggestion. Consequently, the impressions we receive during meditation may be irrelevant to religion. The mystics of all ages maintain that in prayer they enter the presence of the Infinite, a claim that is refuted both by science and religion. Science also has arrived at another conclusion, concrete but disconcerting, namely, that the god to whom we pray does not necessarily exist. The beneficial effects of prayer, says the psychologist, are simply the result of mental relaxation. Wasteful tensions are relieved and the worshipper has an opportunity to adjust himself to life. The psychologist realizes the value of prayer but shifts the emphasis from religion to psychological technique.

Most of the writers upon prayer, therefore, ignore either the assumptions of science or the traditional viewpoint. While the light of the intellect must be turned upon the emotional life to save us from superstition, science and reason cannot create for us an art, a literature, nor a religion. We use no mathematics to evaluate the excellence of a Shakespeare, a Bach, or a Rembrandt, much less a great religious prophet like Christ or Muhammad. But the voice of a prophet has not been heard in the world for a very long time, and man has forgotten that the Divine Purpose may be restated again and again through a Revealer. In the darkest periods of history spiritual forces have been released to reconstruct society and it is not unlikely that they will come to our aid again.

To those who are familiar with the Bahá’í Faith it is clear that there is in the world today a new revelation compatible with the maturity of the age. We cannot ask intelligent rational [Page 192] beings to accept man-made presuppositions regarding prayer or any other phase of religion but we can ask them to investigate the validity of a contemporary Faith, a religion suited to a scientific age.

Following blindly the traditions of our forefathers is manifestly impossible but we may follow, and with humility, those spiritual guides like Christ or Bahá’u’lláh who are sent into the world to resuscitate humanity.

THERE are two elements of our prayer life which are necessary but not sufficient in themselves. Too often they are confused with prayer but in reality they have a much wider application. These elements are adoration and devotion.

Adoration means a surrender to some supreme good, but this supreme good may be nature, our country, or an individual. A personal God is not essential to adoration, which needs only an ideal object.

Devotion, on the other hand, is concerned not with objects but with values, ethical, intellectual, esthetic or religious. It is a mood of the soul, still, exalted, consecrated. We see it in art, music, and even science. Devotion is subjective while adoration is objective.

Prayer is something more than adoration or devotion—it is more than a feeling of exaltation or a hallowed mood.

“Prayer”, says ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the expounder of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh, “is conversation with God”. Too often the modern world sees in prayer only the devotional attitude and contemplation. Prayer involves adoration, that is, the holding to an ideal object, and also devotion, the feeling of exaltation, but it is more inclusive than either. It is the Prophet and the Prophet alone who can restore for us the true meaning of prayer.

LET us consider some of the fundamental laws of prayer gleaned from the Bahá’í writings. The efficacy of prayer depends upon freedom from outside thoughts, surrender of the will, and concentration. The idea of surrendering the will may strike a discordant note in most of us, and quite naturally, for those fellow mortals who require submission from us are not always concerned with our welfare. But the will of God is not the will to crush but to develop and educate. Clearly, if we trust God we must be content with what He has ordained for us and we must be willing to abide by the commands of His Prophet. Surrendering our will to God is not like surrendering to a dictator; it is more like submitting our opinion concerning art or music to the authoritative opinion of the creative genius.

IN the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh there are no professional clergy nor spiritual leaders who may require us to pray if we are not in the mood. Private supplications to God are, however, obligatory. We should note here that the Bahá’í Faith is always in keeping with the spirit of the age.

Although God knows our desires before they are voiced we are told [Page 193] that, “ . . . . it is becoming of a weak one to supplicate to the strong One . . . .” Here is a law of life and when one turns to his Lord and supplicates to Him this supplication is of itself, “ . . . . a light to his heart, an illumination to his sight, a life to his soul . . . . ” We are attracted and our capacity is increased.

Practically everyone today believes in a Creator or Designer but many find it difficult to believe in a personal God, a God that is interested in our prayers. After all, is there any indication that the god we observe in nature is concerned with our daily wants or that he desires our devotion? To whom then do we pray? Is it a blind force or a god of mercy? Christ made it clear to Philip that it was through Him that we know the Father, and the Bahá’í teachings reinforce His statements. “If a man wishes to know God he must find Him in the perfect mirror, Christ or Bahá’u’lláh. If we wish to pray we must have some object upon which to concentrate.” Naturally we first form a concept of God before we make our wants known. God must mean something to us, if our prayer is real, that is, if it is communion. The thing we conceive with our mind is the thing we comprehend and that which we comprehend is not the infinite God. We understand to a limited degree the Prophet or Manifestation of God for in some ways He is like us and the Prophet comes to reveal or manifest to us the attributes of God; mercy, justice, wisdom.

In prayer, therefore, we turn to the Manifestation. We cannot know God directly, the way to the Divine Essence is barred. Both science and religion are agreed that man cannot enter the presence of the Infinite. When the Prophet reveals a prayer, inevitably it is more effective than any other kind.

MAN has two natures and in order that the higher may dominate it is necessary to hold to some ideal. Since we are objective we should be in a continual attitude of prayer. Moreover, we must constantly remind ourselves that we are dependent upon God. The daily prayers revealed for us are affirmations of this relationship. It is well to begin the day by acknowledging our helplessness as in the prayer, “I testify, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and adore Thee. I testify at this instant to my powerlessness and to Thy Power; to my weakness and to Thy Might; to my poverty and to Thy Riches. There is no God but Thee, the Protector, the Self-Subsistent.”

In this day the old line between secular and religious is disappearing. In prayer therefore we are permitted to ask for health, daily living and economic independence. If the race is to progress man’s material condition must be improved. Many saints in the past refused to pray for temporal blessings but they did not hesitate to ask the community to provide for their daily living. God does not want our wealth nor does He desire to deprive us of wealth. “But that which God, glorious is His mention, has desired for Himself is the hearts of his servants which are treasures [Page 194] of praise and love of the Lord and stores of Divine knowledge and wisdom,” says Bahá’u’lláh.

On the other hand we are reminded of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s word, “True supplication to God must therefore be actuated by love to God only.”

But prayer need not be expressed in words, it may be in thought and attitude. He says it is like a song, sometimes the melody will move us, sometimes the words.

If we are not filled with love and desire for God the mere words of a prayer will mean nothing. When our thoughts are turned to the lives and deeds of the Prophets and their heroic apostles the prayerful attitude may be restored. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tells us that spiritual knowledge is the source of love. We should try to understand the wisdom and greatness of God, and to realize our dependence upon Him.

Sometimes we cannot pray when we need it most and then our friends must aid us by their prayers. Even when we leave this physical world they may pray for us.

Without training it is not possible not desirable to pray for long periods. We realize today that the average mentality is not capable of abstract thinking. When we meditate for a considerable time irrelevant thoughts may crowd into our minds. Bahá’u’lláh’s warning is very timely. “Read the Divine verses to the extent that will not weary and depress you. Do not impose upon the spirit what will weary and weigh down upon it; nay, rather feed it with what will make it lighter, so that you may soar with the wings of verses to the dawning-place of proofs.” We should all strive for the higher life, we should seek the good pleasure of God only, and we should be detached from everything in the world. But we must remember also that sainthood is not attained in a day.

IN the world of existence we are confronted constantly with diversity. Men differ in spiritual as well as intellectual capacity. This difference is not a defect in creation but rather an essential necessity In a community where everyone thinks alike unity and harmony are readily attained but such a condition is not conducive to progress. We should not be surprised therefore to find that people react differently to prayer. This is particularly true with respect to that somewhat troublesome question, “How is prayer answered?”

Some people report that they hear sounds or see lights during prayer. Others do not experience these phenomena. They pray for guidance and then go about doing their work with alert, receptive minds and somehow they are guided—circumstances seem to shape their actions and destinies.

Those who experience manifestations may feel more certain of their guidance but there is clearly some danger in relating such experiences. In passing we should remember several facts. Many highly developed individuals do not receive these sense impressions. Moreover occasionally people are misguided by such manifestations. Again sense impressions are experienced by people who are [Page 195] not given to piety. Finally there is another class who have witnessed these phenomena but who consider them unreliable. They avoid anything irrational.

LET us turn again to the words of ‘Abdul-Bahá. “When man prays he sees himself in the presence of God. If he concentrates his attention he will surely at the time of prayer realize that he is conversing with God. When we pray to God a feeling fills our hearts. This is the language of the Spirit which speaks to God. When in prayer we are free from all outward things and turn to God, then it is as if in our hearts we heard the voice of God.” Speaking the words of a prayer helps us to concentrate. If the heart alone is speaking the mind may be disturbed. On the other hand there are times when the spoken word is undoubtedly distracting.

Science has made no positive contribution to prayer but it has cleared out some of the rubbish. We are free now to approach prayer without so many intellectual doubts. Once more the voice of God has been heard on earth through his Prophet. Once more prayer may mean conversation with God.

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A student of spiritual truth makes an important distinction between vision, the power to perceive reality, and visionary, the belief in abnormal experience.

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PRACTICAL MYSTICISM

By JAMES H. COUSINS

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MYSTICISM is generally regarded as a specialized form of religious experience, some abnormal state of consciousness of a visionary nature. The notion is not new. Tertullian in the second century declared that “almost the majority of mankind derive their knowledge of God from visions.” The comparative mythologists of today say much the same thing. But while the religiously minded regard their visions as inadequate embodiments of reality, the mythologically minded regard them as quite adequate representations of unreality. Such visionaries have peopled the imaginations of humanity with the multitude of personalizations of various aspects of the universal life. Around these personalizations the emotional life of humanity has gathered. The reality that is in them has imparted power. The unreality that is necessarily in their objective presentations has brought separation and therefore weakness. Separation energized by [Page 196] the emotional power of devotion has become bigotry.

But mysticism is not only a matter of vision. Originally, in the “Mysteries” far beyond Tertullian, it meant the secret teaching which the mystic, or initiated one, saw with closed eyes, that is to say, with introspective vision, as distinct from the objective dream of the religious mystic or the open eye of research among the phenomena of the outer life. From this derivation arose the subsequent psychological definition of mysticism as the power of the illuminated mind to pierce through the superficial falsities of external things to their essential truth. This is vision as contrasted with a vision, the power not merely to look upon, but to look through.

One special result of this looking-through —perhaps in the end the only result—is a sense of unification. The mystic’s eye, passing through the minutiae of external things, glimpses inner relationships that throw the details into groupings of affinity. Deeper still there are still larger groupings, and it is not difficult for the free imagination to proceed towards an ultimate unification.

It was this mystical vision that guided the researches of Sir J. C. Bose, as he declared before the Royal Society in London a generation ago, and his life’s labors, as summarized in his recent volume “Plant Autographs and their Revelations,” have confirmed his original intuition. “The barriers,” he says, “which seemed to separate kindred phenomena, will be found to have vanished, the plant and the animal” (also the mineral as he elsewhere shows) “appearing as a multiform entity in a single ocean of being.”

This is not only the discovery of the oriental intuition ratified by an eastern scientist. The philosophers of the East have declared it, but the thinkers and poets of the West have reached after it. Wordsworth saw the spirit that “rolls through all things,” and western science, through the authoritative voice of Sir Oliver Lodge, in his essay on the teaching of Huxley, says: “The universe is recognized as one.” This is the last word of science and of mysticism. It is also, or should be also, the first word of daily life.

There is a strong suspicion in the minds of the freer spirits of today that it is the non-mystical attitude of the ultra-practical people that has brought the world to its present pass. It is being perceived that the past attitude of separateness is the fundamental fallacy that has almost brought western civilization to the dust. Searchers after reality feel that if two weaknesses unified can make a strength, and two strengths unified can make a power, it should not be impossible to find a unification of all humanity that would be invincible.

The personal application is obvious. There can be no unification in the general until it is to some extent established in the particular. This is the law of progress, and it becomes clearer and clearer that the future is with the practical mystic because he has got the secret of true power, not the power of domination which separates, but the power of service which unites.

There will, no doubt, always be the [Page 197] mystic who is content with his mysticism, and there will be the practical man who has no use for it. But, as Dean Inge says in his essay on St. Paul, “The mystic who is also a man of action because he is a mystic, wields a tremendous power over other men.”

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Too long has economics been regarded as a science unconcerned with the art of human relationships. As the old order fails, examples of statesmanship in the industrial field are recognized as vitally important. In this book review the Endicott Johnson plan receives appreciative comment.

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KEEPING SQUARE WITH THE WORLD

By DALE S. COLE

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FLY over the Susquehanna Valley between Binghamton, N. Y. and West Endicott. You pass an interesting panorama, one which William O. Inglis describes in his recent book, “George F. Johnson and His Industrial Democracy,” as having “a feeling of balance, of harmony, of unity of purpose. It is a symbol of what men working together can accomplish for their mutual good. More than a symbol, it is visible, living proof of their achievement.”

To students of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh this book is extremely interesting because it describes an attitude and a method of industrial cooperation which are consonant, at least in part, with the sweep and power of the Bahá’í Faith. Before the middle of the last century, Bahá’u’lláh voiced the necessity of readjustments in the industrial world, especially conditions affecting capital and labor relationships, the need for justice and equity.

A technique which works, bringing great and lasting good to large numbers of people, must have many elements of sound theory and wise practice. Certainly it cannot be dismissed as just another experimental “dangerous expedient.” It arouses the interest of all students of security.

A community in which there has been no labor trouble in forty years, no deep privation during the depression, where there are no loungers and few if any police, where there is community medicine and legal guidance, group buying and helpful services of all kinds; where happy homes, libraries, [Page 198] schools and recreation fields are interspersed with factories and warehouses, not discordantly but in harmonious beauty, stimulates prophetic speculation as to the possibilities in the realms of industrial relationships in the future.

The mainspring of this venture is George F. Johnson. His ideas and personality are directly responsible for many of the factors which contribute to the success. He has proven himself to be a good administrator and a kind neighbor.

THE MOTIF

The human motif is best expressed in Mr Johnson’s own words—“. . . . my picture of a real factory was a shop out in the open country, with houses of the workers around it in a little village . . . . gardens . . . . fresh air and the sun.” This later crystallized into the conviction that environment is a “fundamental point in labor relations”, that the large unit results in the greatest economy but should be a community in itself. There is much of the mellow wisdom of the old guild system resurrected in this.

The purely business incentive is that employers insure a better future for all concerned by “paying good wages and helping all workers to lead normal, happy lives, owning their own homes and being a real part of the community.” This is a wise foresight only too infrequently encountered in our highly competitive business life.

The Endicott Johnson Company make shoes of all kinds in tremendous numbers. It tries to make the best shoes possible for the least money, beginning with green hides and crude rubber.

POLICIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Mr. Johnson feels that no man can own a business, for it belongs to four interested parties; the consumer, the workers, the community and the public. Those actually engaged must make the most of the business, not merely try to take all they can out of it. Such a policy defines a worthy goal, at least for the business itself, however it may fall short of the essential, basic spiritual directive purpose of humanity. It calls for greater cooperation with less discord, more harmony with less friction, and it goes far in attaining these ends.

Experience as well as inclination indicate that the management should live with labor and know what is in the minds and the hearts of the workers, should recognize itself in the men. “Love in industry is possible and it is good business . . . It’s the only answer for human beings.”

Also, for the maximum effectiveness there must be good faith resting on solid friendship and mutual regard between workers and the company. The aim is real democracy, with leadership as essential, an organization and spirit which lasts through good times and bad.

The Endicott Johnson effort is a highly geared object “based upon a spirit that leavens the whole body of workers,” fusing friendship and fair play and producing eighteen shoes per worker per day. There is content, freedom from worry and a sense of [Page 199] individual and collective responsibility.

Bossing is not tolerated. It is assumed, not without justification, that Endicott Johnson workers need no driving. The ideal is jobs so well done that little supervision is required and overhead expense thus greatly reduced.

“Our chief need in life is someone to make us do our best. Work is just as necessary for our health and well being as play, entirely apart from the income we derive from it,” are Johnson’s principles.

It all seems to pay, in money and in security, in comfort and happiness. And as long as justice is apportioned to workers, consumers and company, is there not a reasonable hope for continued success and prosperity?

One wise old veteran of the experiment (which is no longer experimental but fully effective) summed up his conclusions thus: “You see, he is doing for the people what the Soviets think they are going to do.”

Fully nine-tenths of those participating are said to understand the ideas back of it all and just how they work out and these keep the other one-tenth in line.

SHARING

In such a philosophy and method the idea of sharing profits as well as affording a comfortable, pleasant and stimulating environment is consistent and to be expected. Mr. Johnson is reported as saying that he always wanted to share with the workers what was earned together. Money, as capital, is entitled only to security and fair interest.

No attempt is made to throttle or side-step technical advances in production. The very latest improvements in machinery and processing are always used. All labor is on a piecework basis, thereby, according to Mr. Johnson, removing the ache of deadly monotony attendant to a fixed wage, providing reward incentive, encouraging individual effort, and sustaining an interest in both the quantity and quality of the product. A speed and precision hitherto unknown in the trade has been happily and willingly attained and maintained. But the fact that “wages alone, no matter how fair, how liberal” will not bring about real cooperation, is an operative principle of management.

Group buying and low cost services greatly augment the piece work dollar earned. Mr. Johnson believes that “other more important things” precede mere profit sharing in the list of possible “remedies” for industrial misunderstanding and antagonisms. In addition to the piece-work remuneration (wages), each worker who has been employed for a specified time shares in an annual fifty-fifty split of profit between themselves and the holders of Common Stock, after a 7% dividend on the Preferred Stock and a 10% dividend on the Common Stock has been paid.

Even though stockholders receive the first consideration in a division of net profits, the plan is administered so fairly and openly, that apparently little if any dissatisfaction results however much economists may wonder. The company reserves the right [Page 200] to distribute common stock in lieu of cash, thus allowing the workers to acquire common stock in this way as well as by outright purchase.

RACIAL AMITY

The “Johnsonized” Valley harbors peoples of many nationalities at peace with each other and respecting themselves and their fellow workers, for George F. Johnson believes that “there can be no permanent dislike or trouble among honest people who will get acquainted, who will compare notes with one another, who will talk over their troubles and their pleasures and their daily lives; who will take one another into their confidence, in order that they may make righteous decisions and righteous judgments with respect to one another.” He seems to be able to have this belief lived.

Thus does he not formulate a pattern of living and working which might well enlist the sympathetic interest of statesmen? That which works so well in the industrialized “valley of contentment” may encase needs of thoughts and experiences which might flower internationally were they but properly planted and cultivated.

SECURITY

The future is not too heavily discounted for the present; for there is a well founded feeling of security in the community. As Mr. Inglis, author of the book recites: “When time has worn down a worker so that he can no longer turn out as many shoes as in his best days, he is not thrown out on the scrap heap. He has no fear that slowing hands and dimming sight will banish him from his job. He knows that so long as he will do his best by the company it will do its best by him. Long before age slackens his pace, any falling off in his work is noticed, and generally the cause is found and remedied.” Perhaps a different or easier job is provided.

Those too old to work are given help if needed in such a way that they retain their self-respect. They are happy in a sense of work well done and rest well earned. It is said that fear for the future is unknown among the Endicott Johnson workers in that friendly valley.

George F. Johnson believes that every industry should be honestly capitalized, honestly organized and economically conducted; paying labor as much as possible considering the rights of consumers and investors, thus bringing “into control and for distribution an immense amount of capital now squandered by management useless overhead . . . ” He goes much deeper than this in recognition of the scheme of things entire.

“I believe that every worthy and good act in the life of a man is in accord with that plan; that service is real religion, and that real religion is found only in real service. It is just as much the part of a manufacturer to reveal his religion by service as it is for a minister of the gospel. It must be looked for in the daily work of all man’s lives.”

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THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE

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FOUNDATIONS OF WORLD UNITY

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

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

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

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SOME ANSWERED QUESTIONS

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

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SECURITY FOR A FAILING WORLD, by Stanwood Cobb

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

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THE PROMISE OF ALL AGES, by Christophil

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

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