World Unity/Volume 1/Issue 1/Text

World Unity Volume 1, Issue 1

Next→

Return to PDF view Proofread once

[Page 1]

WORLD UNITY

A Monthly Magazine for those who seek the world outlook upon present developments of philosophy, science, religion, ethics and the arts.

JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, Editor HORACE HOLLEY, Managing Editor

Contributing Editors MARY AUSTIN HARRY CHARLESWORTH NG POON CHEW RUDOLPH I. COFFEE GEORGES DUHAMEL HAVELOCK ELLIS AUGUSTE FOREL HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS KAHLIL GIBRAN CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN YAMATO ICHICHASHI RUFUS M. JONES DAVID STARR JORDAN SAMUEL LUCAS JOSHI VLADIMIR KARAPETOFF P. W. KUO HARRY LEVI ALAIN LOCKE LOUIS MANN ALFRED W. MARTIN F. S. MARVIN KIRTLEY F. MATHER LUCIA AMES MEAD HERBERT A. MILLER FRED MERRIFIELD DHAN GOPAL MUKERJI HARRY ALLEN OVERSTREET JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, JR. FORREST REID WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD MARY SIEGRIST ABBA HILLEL SILVER AUGUSTUS O. THOMAS GILBERT THOMAS M. P. WILLCOCKS FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Editorial Office-4 East 12th Street, New York City Business Office-122 East 34th Street, New York City

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE is published by WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION, 122 East 34th Street, New York City. MARY RUMSEY MOVIUS, president; HORACE HOLLEY, vice-president; FLORENCE MORTON, treasurer; J. WALDO FAWCETT, secretary. Published monthly, 35 cents a copy, $3.50 a year in the United States, $4.00 in Canada and $4.50 in all other countries (postage included). THE WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION and its editors do not invite unsolicited manuscripts and art material, but welcome correspondence on articles related to the aims and purposes of the magazine. Printed in U.S. A. Contents copyrighted 1927 by WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION. [Page 2]

William R. Shepherd

DESPITE WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR, the peoples of the earth are seeking more and more to realize the humanness that renders us all a unit in spirit, accomplishment and outlook. Once the mighty oceans were barriers to communication; now they have become highways of progress over which thought can travel. Impediments placed by nature to ease of contact on land have been turned aside by an inventive genius that has converted steam and electricity into forces productive of an ever widening interchange of ideas. The air, erstwhile an abode of winged creatures alone, has become a limitless zone wherein boundaries are annihilated and man is enabled to transmit with lightning speed the knowledge that makes us kin.

Because of what has been done to narrow space and shorten time, because of means by which the separateness of yore has become the interdependence of to-day, among the nations of the globe, the conception of world unity has arisen. Huge as the obstacles seem that hold apart folk of different speech, custom and tradition, they are sure to fall away as the process continues of drawing humanity closer. Governments and statesmen may strive to maintain isolation or engender mistrust; individuals cherish the illusion that each is living unto himself; but even while they do so, the forces of attraction in humankind work steadily onward toward approximation.

Of all lands our own country is one that resembles most the world-state of the future. Here are representatives of many nationalities brought together into a community of singleness. Alike a pattern and a symbol of the unity some day to be effective everywhere on earth, it reveals the possibility of men of diverse origins assembling and dwelling side by side, animated by the ideal that to each shall be yielded the measure of his worth and nought of privilege inherited or hatreds born of ages. Here as nowhere else may the thought of world unity find expression, here derive inspiration from conference upon the essentials of action needed for its diffusion throughout the globe. By it we may hope to aid humanity at large in its groping toward the dawn of that happier day, when there shall prevail upon earth, not the condition of peace alone, but the spirit of universal understanding and good will which assures its permanence. [Page 3]

THE IDEAL OF WORLD UNITY

by JOHN HERMAN RANDALL

I. The Forces Making for Disunity

From the beginning of man's life on this planet there has been a constant struggle between opposing forces. Frequently the struggle has reached the acute stage; more often it has gone on without coming to open conflict, as a more or less vague background to the conventional everyday life. Sometimes the struggle is carried on most aggressively in certain lands or places, while there are few, if any, indications of it in other localities. There are periods when outstanding leaders appear-great prophetic souls-who marshal the dispirited hosts and lead them on to fresh conquests; and then, again, there are long stretches of time when there seem to be no great personalities and the struggle goes on aimlessly without intelligent guidance or direction. In certain ages the struggle takes on a distinctly political tinge; in others, it is predominantly social or economic; while at still other times, questions of religion play the prominent part. But whatever form the struggle may take, whatever leadership or lack of leadership it may possess, it is always the age-long struggle between the forces of light and darkness, of truth and error, of good and evil, of selfishness and unselfishness, that is being waged. All progress that man has ever made is due to the fact that this struggle has always been in the world, and our only hope for the future lies in the fact that this struggle is still going on today with undiminished intensity and, let us hope, with increasing intelligence.

For the age in which we live, this age-long struggle has resolved itself into certain very definite outlines. While it possesses all the qualities of previous ages, still, it has a character that is [Page 4]peculiarly its own and that is bound to give the twentieth century an unmistakable trend-a trend that is already apparent. It is easy to see the political elements that enter into our struggle, the profound and far-reaching social and economic forces with which we contend, the moral and religious factors at work, but underlying all these, comprehending and involving them all, are still deeper forces that are less evident on the surface of life as yet, that are only just beginning to become articulate, but that are destined to become the great dominant forces in the life of the twentieth century.

All the lesser struggles of our time-political, social, economic, moral and religious-can be resolved into two groups-the forces making for disunity on the one hand, and those making for unity in the life of man, on the other. Deeper than all schemes of reorganization, all new social programs, all economic readjustments, all creeds of the modernists, the one fact that stands forth with ever-increasing clearness is that this world must achieve some kind of unity that has never yet existed, it must find the way to a cooperation that man has never yet known, it must create a fellowship between races and nations and classes and individuals that has never yet been experienced. This is not a matter of choice but of the sternest necessity.

The kind of a world into which we have come today, the very nature of the life we are forced to live on this planet, demand inevitably this new spirit of unity, this world-wide cooperation, this true and genuine fellowship. The old barriers of ignorance and prejudice, of separation and division, leading sooner or later to strife and war, are hopelessly doomed. They are an utter anachronism in a world like ours; they have become obsolete in this modern age; they no more belong to the twentieth century than do petty quarrels of childhood belong in the life of the full-grown man. Not to see this is to be absolutely blind to the meaning and significance of what is taking place throughout the world today. And not to take an intelligent part in this supreme struggle of our age is to miss the greatest opportunity that life affords to the men and women of this generation.

It was the war that revealed the true nature of the struggle [Page 5]

THE IDEAL OF WORLD UNITY

in which we are now engaged and from which we cannot escape, and the truly significant books that have appeared since the war from scholars in all parts of the world have but thrown a flood of new light on this supreme problem of our time. It was the war that made clear as never before the mighty forces that had been making for disunity and division and, against the background of their grim nakedness, brought into startling relief the many forces making for unity—a better understanding and a closer fellowship in the life of men. It is this new ideal emerging in the world’s thought that is destined to become the all-dominating ideal of the new age upon which we have entered.

And yet, the ideal of a world unity is not altogether new. In the poet Dante’s De Monarchia, we find a most appealing expression of this ideal which is in striking contrast to the competing nationalisms of the modern age. Never was a more faithful son of the Church; yet Dante was also the apostle of an idealized Empire. Fascinated by the dream of world-peace, inspired by the renewed vision of the achievement of the organizing power of Ancient Rome that came with the revival of the study of Roman law, he conceived the magnificent ideal of Pope and Emperor as the two heirs of the Roman State ruling the world for the same end, each by his own means and in his own sphere. But this ideal of an all-inclusive Empire soon faded into the dim distance never to be revived again, and since Dante’s time the world seems to have moved ever farther away from any conception of unity.

This ideal of the Middle Ages, however, was the farthest removed from the ideal that is emerging in human consciousness today. It implied uniformity both in political and in religious control, and it would have tended to minimize and eventually to destroy the cultural life and ideals of other peoples while it gradually substituted the standardized system of Roman government and of the Roman Church. Any such uniformity, which is a mechanical thing, had it been possible to achieve, would have proven fatal to all growth and progress in man’s life.

We know today that we are living in a dynamic, not a static world—a world that is constantly growing and, therefore, [Page 6]constantly changing; and anything that involves uniformity, whether in outward forms or in man’s thinking, is neither desirable nor possible. The unity for which the twentieth century is searching has nothing whatever to do with uniformity. It is a Unity in Diversity that we seek and that we must find—a unity that exists, not in spite of differences but even because of them, a unity that goes deeper than all differences, that respects them all and includes them all, a unity that creates a new synthesis of the best and truest in the lives of all peoples, that does not destroy the distinctive contributions which different races and nations have made to the common life of the world, but, rather, seeks to preserve these differences and blend them into one living Whole.

The unity we seek, therefore, is a spiritual thing that comes welling up in consciousness, not a mechanical thing foisted on from the outside. It is a growth—the result of knowledge of ourselves and of others. It can come only as ignorance is dispelled and prejudices of every kind are overcome. This knowledge is available today as it was not in the past. It is being forced upon the attention of all intelligent persons even though they may not be secking it directly. It is only a question of time when all men must see its meaning and become conscious of its spirit, for it is indeed the very spirit of the new age. To achieve this consciousness is the next step in human evolution. And when this consciousness is attained it will not be so difficult to solve the many problems of reorganization that perplex us so sorely today.

Let me point out some of the chief forces that have been making for disunity in the world’s life, especially during the last one hundred years. The first of these is Nationalism. According to Professor Hayes, the most significant emotional factor in public life today is nationalism. It is the intense and universal mark of the present age. There is scarcely a cloud on the horizon of domestic politics, social action, and international affairs, which is without a lining of nationalism. It stands as the greatest obstacle in the way of the coming of any true internationalism.

Nationalism is a modern emotional fusion and exaggeration of two very old phenomena—nationality and patriotism. There [Page 7]

THE IDEAL OF WORLD UNITY

have always been from the historian's view-point, human entities that can properly be called nationalities. There has been from ancient times the love of country or native land, which is patriotism. But the fusion of patriotism with nationality and the predominance of national patriotism over all other human loyalties—which is nationalism—is extremely modern.

The consciousness of nationality was greatly exalted in Western Europe by literary, political, economic and religious differentiations in the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries, but it began to be transformed into nationalism at the opening of the nineteenth century and has steadily intensified and expanded down to the present time. Professor Hayes assigns three causes for the rise and rapid development of nationalism: the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the vogue of Romanticism. During the nineteenth century it has assumed a three-fold aspect. First, thanks to the Industrial Revolution, it has ceased to be restricted to western Europe; it has gradually affected every nationality in Europe and most nationalities in all the other continents. Secondly, it has advanced with tremendous rapidity in states like England and France, which had already become national states. Thirdly, it has invaded non-national states, such as the Hapsburg, Muscovite and Ottoman Empires, and broken them up into national fragments.

That modern nationalism has been a disunifying force in the world's life is clearly evident when we remember some of the grave evils to which it has inevitably led. First, there is the spirit of exclusiveness and narrowness to which it leads. The national state, through education in national schools, national army and national journalism, through all the social pressure of national patriotism, inculcates in its citizens the fancy that they are a world by themselves, sufficient unto themselves; it teaches them that they are a chosen people, a peculiar people, and that they should prize far more what is theirs as a nationality than what is theirs as human beings. This tends to develop into a pharisaic smugness that is ridiculous, an ignorance that is dangerous, and an uncritical pride which is despicable. [Page 8]Secondly, nationalism places a premium on uniformity. It prescribes national models of art, national standards of thought, and national forms of conduct, and to these it expects all the inhabitants of each national state to conform. Individual differences, class differences, religious differences are alike deemed unfortunate It tends to reduce everything and everybody within the national state to a dull and lifeless drab sameness.

Third, nationalism increases the docility of the masses. As a result of their national upbringing and their life-long nationalist education, they are seldom inclined to question the "perfections" of their nationality, of their state, of their government, or of the economic conditions under which they live. "In the name of national rights, national interests, national honour, they will forego their own individual rights, sacrifice their own individual interests, and even foreswear their own individual honour. They are ready in the name of freedom and liberty of their nationality to abridge the liberty of fellow-citizens and to take away the freedom of other nationalities. They have, in supreme degree, the will to believe, and this will to believe renders them easy dupes of nationalist propaganda in support of imperialism and war.".

Fourthly, nationalism in its present form focuses popular attention upon war and preparedness for war. War is that historic tradition of a nationality which the national state, under present conditions, does most to keep alive and active in the minds and hearts of its citizens.

From this brief survey of the patent evils of modern nationalism it is clear that, whatever good it may possess, in its present form nationalism is a force making not for unity, but just the reverse. It divides and separates, it fosters ignorance and deepens prejudice; it creates frictions, breeds bitterness, arouses hatreds, and is one of the major causes leading eventually to war.

A second force making for disunity during the last century is Economic Imperialism. Of ancient imperialism, of the empires of Alexander, of Cyrus, of Caesar, we have all heard much, and of Napoleon's spectacular exploits every school boy has read. But in this country, at least, the average citizen is barely beginning to [Page 9]

THE IDEAL OF WORLD UNITY

realize the significance of the present-day imperialism-its motives, its technique and its inevitable consequences. Little as the general public may realize the fact, economic imperialism is the most impressive achievement and the most momentous world-problem of our age. More than half of the world's land surface, and more than a billion human beings, are included in the colonies and "backward countries" dominated by a few imperialist nations. Every man, woman and child in Great Britain has ten colonial subjects, black, brown and yellow. For every acre in France there are twenty in the French colonies and protectorates. Italy is one-sixth as large as her colonies; Portugal, one-twenty-third; Belgium one-eightieth. The nations of Europe are dwarfs beside their colonial possessions.

The average American has been accustomed to think, at any rate until the disillusionment of 1919, that seizure of territory was somewhat akin to theft, that militarism and aggressive war were out of date among democratic nations, that conquest was contrary to the normal principles of international morality. This, however, has not been the attitude of the imperialist nations of Europe or of Europeanized Japan. "French statesmen have vehemently declared the conquest of the colonies to be not merely permissible, but imperative for France, and the Third Republic has won almost five million square miles. Italian patriots have proclaimed it a sacred duty, and Italy has gained almost a million square miles. Englishmen have regarded it as 'the white man's burden' which civilized people dare not shirk; and in the last half century four million square miles have been added to the British Empire, besides many a veiled protectorate and sphere of influence. Germany plunged into world politics rather late, but not too late to appropriate a million square miles in Africa and the East Indies, to dominate the rich Asiatic empire of the Ottoman sultans, and finally to stake all and lose all in the war of 1914. Russian tsars stretched acquisitive hands into Central Asia, Persia, Manchuria and Mongolia. Japan took Formosa, Korea, part of Manchuria, Shantung, German Islands in the Pacific, and, during the great War, attempted at a single stroke to make all China virtually a Japanese protectorate. [Page 10]All the Great Powers, save the United States, boldly and frankly set themselves to the epic task, in the nineteenth century, of carving out stupendous colonial empires; and even the United States, feeling the same urge to action, reached into the Pacific and into the Caribbean for parcels of colonial territory."

It is not necessary in this connection to explain the economic causes, growing out of the Industrial Revolution with its increasing demands for new markets and for raw materials, nor the mixed motives that tempted one nation after another into this imperialistic expansion. It is enough to realize, as we must today, that this gradual encroachment on the territory, the economic resources and the political power of these other peoples by the European Powers was in no sense conducive to unity, to good feeling and better understanding, but just the reverse. We see now that out of it all has sprung racial antagonisms, national rivalries, and bitter hatreds. Division, strife and war are the inevitable results of economic imperialism, and the most hopeful thing about this imperialism of the Great Powers is that it is fast nearing its end.

During the last few years a spirit of rebellious self-determination has seized upon hitherto inert subject races; Nationalist Turkey has turned against European exploitation, Nationalist Egypt has won independence, Indian Nationalism has assumed monumental proportions, Nationalist Persia and Afghanistan have cast off British shackles, the Filipinos have become more insistent in their pleas for independence, and Latin-America is being aroused by American imperialism in the Caribbean. Unless all signs mislead the day of economic imperialism, as it has been practised, is drawing to a close, and the problems of securing markets and raw materials will have to be solved in the future by methods more in harmony with the principles of justice and fair play. The imperialistic control by a few Western powers of over half the surface of this planet and the exploitation of a billion of the earth's inhabitants is breaking down before our very eyes, and gradually giving way to a new spirit that recognizes the equality of all peoples and seeks to create unity and understanding between [Page 11]

THE IDEAL OF WORLD UNITY II

them rather than disunity and strife. What is taking place in China today, in its relation to the Western Powers, only proves this statement.

A third force making for disunity has grown directly out of the Industrial Revolution in the creation of an intense class-consciousness. In all industrialized countries a gulf or cleavage has been dug between Capital and Labor, employer and employee, that has divided society in twain. As the nineteenth century moved on these two groups became more strongly organized under their respective leaders, and more deeply entrenched in an attitude of hostility, suspicion, distrust, and increasing bitterness, each toward the other, breaking out constantly into industrial warfare, with strikes on the one hand, and lockouts on the other. The form that this class-consciousness has taken and the resulting class struggle have been inevitable under the prevailing type of industrial organization. It has also been a highly necessary thing, for despite its costliness and all the waste involved, the class struggle has brought into clear relief the conditions under which the workers generally were living and the many forms of injustice from which they suffered; it has also led to the alleviation of some of the worse conditions, at least in certain countries. But admitting all its benefits, it is obvious that it has not made for unity and cooperation but rather for division and strife in the life of society, and no intelligent man believes that it represents the truly "civilized society" that is one day to be. The problem of the just economic organization of society is still unsolved. But it is clear that it never will be solved until the sense of unity and the spirit of cooperation take possession of both "the sundered members of society," leading the way towards a just and righteous organization of the economic life of men.

A fourth force making for disunity has been the inevitable outgrowth of these intense and narrow nationalisms, these rapidly growing economic imperialisms and the deepening class struggle in all industrialized countries, in the form of the mad race in armaments carried on by the Great Powers during the last half century. The distrust, the rivalries, the bitterness and the hatreds growing [Page 12]out of all of these disunifying forces led inevitably to a steadily deepening fear of one another among all the various nations. And this fear led of necessity to the strengthening of the means of national defense, first by one nation and then by the others, until it soon became, literally, a "mad race" as to which nation should have the largest army and the strongest navy with the most formidable military and naval equipment. The argument used with the tax-payers was the old one, that preparedness for war is the best insurance against war. But what happened in 1914 has demonstrated the futility as well as the falsity of this reasoning for most intelligent people. Preparedness for war does not bring peoples together in closer cooperation and mutual understanding; it only separates them by the suspicion, the distrust, the fear that it is bound to create. It is the great disunifying force, the natural product of all these other forces that have dominated the last century.

When we turn from the political and economic fields to that of religion we confront another tremendously disunifying force in the spirit of religious sectarianism that from the beginning has created deep-seated prejudices, fostered bitter intolerance and led inevitably to cruel persecution and bloody wars. What nationalism is in the political life of men with its intense and narrow outlook, that sectarianism is in their religious life. The evils to which economic imperialism directly leads find their counterpart in the evils growing out of missionary propaganda when carried on through pressure and without understanding of local genuis, tradition or possibility.

So long as any religious body says, "Mine is the only true religion; yours is false and must be supplanted by mine," just so long will religious sectarianism make for competition and rivalry. The great prophets of religion have always voiced their message in universal terms. It is their followers who build ecclesiastical barriers and create creedal boundaries which divide the members of God's human family here upon earth. [Page 13]

APOSTLES OF WORLD UNITY

I—DAVID STARR JORDAN

By CHARLES HENRY RIEBER Dean, University of California at Los Angeles

In the preface to his autobiography—“The Days of a Man”*—Dr. Jordan says: “For half a century the writer of these pages has been a very busy man, living meanwhile three more or less independent lives; first, and for the love of it, that of a naturalist and explorer; second, also for the love of it, that of a teacher; and third, from a sense of duty, that of a minor prophet of Democracy.” Each of these three lives he has lived to the full, accomplishing three times as much as most men, even specialists. Among his major attributes are a marvellous memory, vivid imagination, patience and unlimited capacity for hard work. His other big qualities of mind and heart, which have endeared him to countless friends, colleagues and students, can only be hinted at here. Of his preeminence in the first two fields of endeavor I have also no space to speak. In this sketch, it is an outstanding phase of the third life, that of the social philosopher, which I am to appraise—namely, his contribution to the cause of democracy and world peace.

His thought partly moulded in early manhood by an eager reading of Emerson, Thoreau and Lowell, the young naturalist-teacher showed from the beginning an interest in human affairs quite outside his scientific absorptions. With added years he became an increasingly effective moral force in his rapidly expanding sphere of influence. It was not, however, until 1898, during the Spanish-American War, that he especially concerned himself with international politics. Thus the address entitled “Lest We Forget”

• If the reader is not acquainted with “The Days of a Man”, it will be to his soul’s delight and advantage to buy or borrow these two noble volumes. (World Book Company, Yonkers-on-Hudson,

[Page 14]get"*, delivered in San Francisco on the evening after Dewey's victory in Manila Bay, marked his entrance into a new field. On that occasion he warned the American people of dangers inherent in our conquest, and the likelihood of its resulting in a sad departure from democratic traditions.

Events of the Boer War confirmed and deepened him in his new convictions. At the same time, also, as a biologist he began to study the ravages of war upon posterity, a line of research leading up to his most distinctive contribution to the subject of war and peace. To this I shall later revert. In 1907, with the broadening of his activities in the sphere of internationalism, he instituted at Stanford University, in conjunction with Professor Benjamin Krehbiel, a course of lectures on international conciliation, the syllabus then printed for the use of students being the first ever prepared on that subject. This guide Krehbiel afterward expanded into his "War, Nationalism and Society," the forerunner, in a certain sense, of such scholarly volumes as Moon's "Syllabus for the Study of International Relations," and other similar works on "International Organization".

There have been many estimates of Jordan's character, purposes and accomplishments in the field of international understanding. It is impossible here to discuss these appraisals of the man and to show, by actual quotations from his published writings, how much he was misunderstood in the days of excitement and hysteria just before America's entry into the European War. Time has already vindicated him. One of the most remarkable post-war documents is "An Open Letter to David Starr Jordan' from the man who led the mob which broke through the cordon of police surrounding a meeting where Dr. Jordan was protesting against our participation in the war. In a long, honorable, complete apology, the writer says: "I acted after the fashion of an animal. The propaganda surrounding me on every side had affected me precisely as the tom-tom beating of a tribe in an African jungle affects the youth whom their chiefs and medicine men

• This address was afterward printed with several others on allied subjects under the significant title, "Imperial Democracy".

[Page 15]

DAVID STARR JORDAN

desire to stir to battle. . . you were motivated by the principles of civilization while I was motivated by the passions of barbarism."

In a pamphlet of twenty-four pages, recently printed by Stanford University, are listed upwards of four hundred and fifty titles of books and articles on international peace written by Dr. Jordan during the last thirty years. There are repetitions in these writings, of course. But he is never diffuse. He states again and again, in new ways, the central arguments against war and always in language of simple dignity and power, leaving epigrams to linger in the memory. It is difficult to select from this immense list of his writings, but I think the most irrefutably convincing statements of his doctrines are found in "The Standing Incentives to War," and "War and the Breed."

In the essay on "standing incentives to war," Jordan deals with factors inherent in the War System as such. The secret bases of wars are not armies and navies, but "war traders, armament builders, money lenders, recipients of special privileges, the corrupt portion of the press, and all other influences impelled by choice, interest, or necessity." Among the "standing incentives" he places last, but not least, the pseudo-patriotic school teacher. In the rear follows the schoolmaster, extolling the glories of war and exalting Thackeray's 'Redcoat bully in his boots That bides the march of man from us."

All of the ever present, hidden incentives to war are actually onfined to comparatively few persons, but the pressure from this minority is so insidiously persistent that at last the rank and file of the uneducated come to believe that war, however costly and magically painful, is necessary and that in the end it will be genuinely beneficial.

War and the Breed" contains a summing up of arguments earlier presented (in part) in two other smaller books, "The Blood of the Nation" and 'The Human Harvest." "War's Aftermath", written in collaboration with Professor Harvey E. Jordan [Page 16]of the University of Virginia, deals with the social devastation wrought by the Civil War in Virginia.*

Discussing the incalculable, tragic consequences of war, Dr. Jordan quotes Franklin's words, "Wars are not paid for in war-time; the bill comes later." The costs of war are thus of two kind—"the first costs" and "the last cost". The first costs are the immediate destruction of life and the waste of the world's physical resources. But the last cost is the visiting of the iniquity of the fathers upon the children even unto the tenth generation. Indeed, the actual loss in life and wealth is insignificant in comparison with those remoter losses which result from the deterioration of the race not merely physically but spiritually. And the spiritual losses through wars are the most devastating,—the degradation of truth, honesty, love, sympathy and all the other higher human virtues.

In Jordan's opinion no scientific problem of the day surpasses in interest and importance the destruction in war of the finest specimens of manhood and the resultant reversal of selection. "Through the reversal of selection," he writes, "due to the destruction of the young, the strong, the bold, the soldierly elements, the parentage of the nation is left to those war cannot use. For two thousand years this has been the most terrible fact in the history of Europe, the hidden cause of the downfall of empires, the basis of the problems of the slum, the basal cause of apathy, inefficiency, sterility and the drooping spirit of modern Europe. With such statements of irrefutable fact, Jordan has furnished the peace movement the most powerful weapon against the "social darwinists," who claim that "war is based on the natural struggle for existence and represents the selection of the fittest."

Certain clerical critics have objected to his arguments against war on the ground that they were too materialistic; he reaches his conclusions by inductive reasoning upon biological and other physical consequences. But "there is little final difference," he replies, "between idealistic pacifists like the Quakers who con-

• The reader will not fail to note Jordan's felicitously forceful titles for these as well as for similar works which have become an integral part of the literature on conciliation.

[Page 17]demn war for its own sake as contrary to morals and religion, and inductive pacifists who, studying war's effects, condemn it as thoroughly bad from every point of view."

Every plan that Dr. Jordan has ever suggested for peace and good will among nations has depended on public opinion for the Enforcement of its provisions. Upon this central imperative he insists with repeated emphasis. A "league to enforce peace" breaks down under the stress of its own inner self-contradiction. Likewise, he objects to the employment of boycott to secure peace a plan often proposed) quite as much as to military force. Boycott, he declares, is "a two-edged sword cutting first the hand that wields it."

In one essay of a book of general import entitled "War and Waste", he pleads for the extension of international law, the development of the "machinery of conciliation" and especially for the employment of Joint High Commissions in matters of international friction. This volume he dedicates

To

The Memory of

SIR CHARLES BAGOT

and of

RICHARD RUSH

patriots of a hundred years ago, who excluded warships from the Great Lakes of America, and thus secured lasting peace between two great nations. Where there are no soldiers there is no war; when nobody is loaded nobody explodes.

In this connection may be recalled Jordan's historic address at Ghent in 1914 on the occasion of the celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent making peace between Great Britain and the United States after the War of 1812, and leading to the dismantling of the Canadian boundary.

His faith in the Joint High Commission as an important tool for conciliation rests partly on personal and practical grounds, it having been his privilege to serve the United States on three such bodies dealing with international zoological problems. Moreover, in 1916, at a most critical juncture in our relations with

Samed from its initial essay, an address delivered at the Harvard Union in 1911. [Page 18]Mexico, he acted as one of the three American representatives in the joint El Paso Conference, which helped to avert war apparently impending with our sister state.

As has been pointed out by severa! of his reviewers, the term pacifist' is not the proper designation of Dr. Jordan. He is primarily not a pacifist, but a democrat. He holds that safety against war must be found not in impregnable forts and invincible armies, but in the enlightened hearts of self-governing peoples. "The success of democratic institutions in America is the greatest single asset of the peace movement, for our colossal nation has developed along lines of popular government and federation." Wars are not conflicts between one specific nation, country or race and another, but between autocrats who try, by external force, to compel obedience and order and the democrats who aim to perpetuate the true human society by internal personal freedom. And, as a derivative thesis of this fundamental idealistic doctrine, he holds that "peace can not be secured by mere submission. To lic down before aggression is to accept the doctrine that might makes right, and furthermore to throw open the door to new assaults."

After the declaration of war by the United States, it was quite to be expected that all those who, like Dr. Jordan, had spoken so openly and so forcibly against our armed participation in the conflict, should be watched with suspicion, and criticized for every pacific utterance. During the World War, he did, as before, plead for conciliation, arbitration and progressive mediation. But he also said, and said repeatedly: "We are in the war and we can neither back out nor sidestep. All our energies, therefore, must be bent on the support of the cause espoused by the nation." The conflict actually under way, moreover, he refrained from public criticism, saying: "I believe the time to oppose what seems a wrong policy is before its adoption; and furthermore, I shall put no obstacles in the way of men engaged in loyal service."

Meanwhile (1915) in "Ways to Lasting Peace", he reviewed in detail the various proposals already put forth for the reconstruction of the world at the ending of the hideous conflict. In "Democracy and World Relations", published on Armistice Day, [Page 19]he furthermore summed up his thought on many problems of the modern state as related to its neighbors.

In spite of its "demand for the impossible", Dr. Jordan was strongly in favor of accepting the whole Treaty of Peace as President Wilson brought it back from Versailles. He was certain that no one of its provisions was so bad that it was not capable of correction as the years went by. At that time he wrote: "The League of Nations will be what world public opinion makes of it, and in every country public opinion is a long way ahead of the time-serving government. The League gives a chance to talk things over, and to delay violent action. Any sort of a legalized concern would apparently have made the outset of the great war impossible."

Because the socialists in all countries are, in general, opposed to violence as a method of settling disputes between individuals or nations, he was often mistakenly classed with them. To this he strongly objected. "I would feel no more at home," he said, among socialists than among capitalists . . too much public ownership reduces initiative and cuts the nerve of private enterprise." His central objection to the general theory of socialism he has put in one of his characteristically terse epigrams—"No permanent association is possible where drones and workers have equal access to the honey cells." Another definite theory he has with reference to the tariff. Protective tariffs he classes among the chief obstacles to friendliness between nations, putting them among the potent standing incentives to war. "Customs houses are symbols of suspicion and greed, relics of the time when it was thought to be good economics to make foreigners pay the taxes."

As the ultimate corroboration of Jordan's leadership in the cause of international amity came the winning in 1925 of the Raphael Herman Award for the best among six thousand plans for world education for peace. This scheme is now about to be put into operation under the auspices of the World Federation of Education Associations. The plan, instead of setting up a full program of education or a course adaptable to the various sections of our educational systems, proposed a series of fact-finding [Page 20]committees; the facts being discovered, definite lines of procedure were to be inaugurated. These investigations refer to education for peace in general, the teaching of history, the international use of athletic sports, etc., the current arguments for war as a cosmic necessity, and the import of the Permanent Court of International Justice. The main emphasis, however, is laid on two things: the establishment of an official "Council of Peace" or "Bureau of Conciliation" within the Department of State, and (most im- portant of all) the abatement of "standing incentives to war". Here the author of the plan lays his finger upon most urgent and most delicate questions. "Even admitting," he says, "that a large and well equipped military force will make for victory in case of an attack by jealous neighbors or other imaginary enemies, to what extent does it also invite war?"

The limits of this article do not permit the enumeration in detail of the many other ways in which David Starr Jordan has worked to promote the ideals of world peace and unity. The in- fluence of his powerful and stimulating personality has reached far beyond this country and this generation. His lectures in America, Europe, Japan and Australia have inspired thousands upon thousands. Some of his writings have been translated into Spanish, French, German and Japanese. And all this effort he has carried on at a great personal sacrifice of time, money and, oc- casionally, of popularity. To him it was more than a labor of love to hold out and to defend the cause of peace. His place in the movement for world unity is assured for all time to come. [Page 21]

THE WISDOM OF THE AGES

Edited by ALFRED W. MARTIN Society for Ethical Culture, New York

INTRODUCTORY

THE purpose of this department is to put before readers of World Unity Magazine selected passages from the sacred scriptures of the world’s great religions, to the end that, through them, the oneness of these religions may be made manifest and their respective contributions to world unity in the things of the spirit.

The Koran, the Bible of Mohammedanism, was discovered by a Spaniard. When in 711 the Moors crossed over into Spain from northern Africa they brought with them a book for which they made the astounding claim that if every extant copy were to be destroyed, no real loss would thereby be entailed, because an everlasting copy exists by Allah’s throne and can be readily re-communicated to men by relays of angels. The book proved to be the sacred scripture of the Moslems and has long since been translated into the leading languages of Europe.

Next in chronological order came the discovery of the Confucian and pre-Confucian scriptures of China by a group of Germans who, about the year 1350, left the fatherland for the Orient and eventually found themselves in a rich and densely populated country which they called "Cathay" but subsequently learned to designate as China. Here they came upon a literature rich in ethical content and stressing "business integrity" as a cardinal virtue of the "superior man". It proved to be the four Books of the Confucian faith and the five Kings which antedated the sage and had been edited by him. Together the nine works constitute the sacred scripture of Confucianism and they, like the Koran, have been translated into all the chief languages of Europe. [Page 22]It was a Frenchman, Anquetil du Perron, who while browsing in the Imperial library at Paris in 1784 discovered a collection of dust-covered parchment sheets—manuscripts written in the Sanskrit dialect (Pahlevi) and containing part of the Zoroastrian Bible, the Avesta. Eager to know more of this sacred literature, Anquetil journeyed to the presidency of Bombay in northwestern India where some ten thousand Zoroastrians dwell—descendants of the fugitives from Persia when, in 1648, Mohammedans overran the country and sought to compel the Parsees to become Moslems. During three years' residence in the Bombay colony, Anquetil acquired not only knowledge of the language of these scriptures but also one hundred and eighty additional sheets of manuscripts which, together with the Paris find, constitute all we have of the sacred books of the Zoroastrians.

Next in the chronological sequence of scripture-discoveries comes one made by the British who toward the close of the eighteenth century took possession of India as part of the great commercial enterprise of the "East India Company". That great business undertaking led to the discovery in 1787 of the oldest portion of what is perhaps the oldest Bible in the world—the Rig-Veda of Hinduism, written in Sanskrit and consisting of 1017 hymns in praise of personified forces and phenomena of Nature. Subsequently the other three Vedas were discovered—the Sama, the Yajur and the Atharva—and still later the Aranyakas or Forest Meditations and the Upanishads, besides the two great epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the whole constituting the greatest body of sacred literature identified with any religion.

Finally came the discovery of the three Pitakas, the Bible of Buddhism, written in the Sanskrit dialect of Pali, containing the 186 sermon-dialogues of the founder, Gotama, together with the metaphysical substratum of the system and rules for the monastic order, or clergy.

Such, in brief, are the ultimate sources, apart from the Old and New Testaments, whence the evidences for the unity of religions derive; such was the material available for the science of [Page 23]

THE WISDOM OF THE AGES

comparative religion which, proceeding by the orderly method of observation and classification, brought to light a succession of surprising and significant revelations, culminating in the supreme revelation of a oneness of religions which transcends their differences.

Thanks to the labors of European researchers in this field during the second half of the nineteenth century, the following six leading evidences of this unity have been clearly and indisputably established:

1. The universality of all the cardinal qualities of the moral life justice, temperance, truthfulness, love, etc. These, far from being the peculiar property of any one religion, are inculcated in the Bible of every religion. Take, for example, the moral sentiment of catholicity or broadmindedness; the willingness and readiness to acknowledge the worth of religions other than our own. See how in the Bibles of the seven living great religions this universality is revealed.

In the Hindu Bible we read: "Altar flowers are of many species, but all worship is one. Systems of faith differ, but God is One. The object of all religions'is alike: all seek the object of their love, and all the world is love's dwelling place."

The corresponding passage from the Buddhist Bible reads: The root of religion is to reverence one's own faith and never to revile the faith of others. My doctrine makes no distinction between high and low, rich and poor. It is like the sky; it has room for all and like water it washes all alike."

The equivalent of this in the Zoroastrian Bible reads: "Have the religions of mankind no common ground? Broad indeed is the carpet God has spread and many are the colors He has given it. Whatever road I take joins the highway that leads to Him."

The selfsame sentiment appears in the Confucian scripture: Religions are many and different, but reason is one. The broadminded see the truth in different religions; the narrowminded see only the differer.ces."

In the Jewish scriptures it is written: "Wisdom in all ages entering into holy souls, maketh them friends of God and [Page 24]prophcts." "Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."

Finally in the Christian scriptures we find the words: "God hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth." "God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that revereth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him."

2. The universality of all spiritual sentiments such as reverence, awe, aspiration, worship, these too, far from being the exclusive possession of any one system of faith, are found to be common to all. For illustration let us select the spiritual sentiment of trust, the trust that in Felix Adler's phrase, "we are not dust merely that returns to dust;" that men's essential spiritual selfhood does not die with the dissolution of the body; that the stamp of eternality is upon every human soul.

In the Hindu Bible is the command: "Go give to the plants and to the waters thy body which belongs to them; but there is an immortal portion of thee, transport it to the world of the holy."

In the Zoroastrian Avesta are these sentences: "At the last day questions will be asked only as to what you have done, not from whom you are descended. I fear not death; I fear only not having lived well enough."

From the Pitakas of the Buddhist we have: "The soul is myself; the body is only my dwelling place."

The Confucian Bible declares: "Man never dies. It is because men see only their bodies that they hate death."

In the Mohammedan scripture we find this passage: "Mortals ask, 'What property has a man left behind him?' but angels ask, 'What good deeds has he sent on before him?'"

In the Jewish Apocrypha we read: "The memorial of virtue is immortal. When it is present men take example of it, and when it is gone they desire it."

Finally, the Christian scriptures contain the familiar words: "Though our outward man perish, yet is our inward man day by day renewed."

3. The universality of the passion for the perfect, for actualizing the ideal, the mental picture of what it is supremely de- [Page 25]

THE WISDOM OF THE AGES

sirable that life should be. In none of the sacred scriptures is this spiritual passion wanting expression, though varied are the forms it has taken on. Differences of climate, of environment, of education, of racial origin have produced varying expressions of this reaching out for the ideal, so that whether it be the Aztec, intoning before his crudely painted image; or the New Zealander squatting before his feathered God; or the Mohammedan, prostrate before his mosque; or the Christian, kneeling in prayer to his heavenly Father; or the cosmic Theist, communing with the infinite, eternal Energy whence all things proceed;" or the founder of the Ethical movement, meditating on the "Ethical Manifold", conscious of himself as an "infinitesimal part of the infinite God, the spiritual universe"-in each case it is the yearning for a higher and purer type of personal life that has been expressed.

Listen to the Hindu chanting his prayer to Varuna, the god of Duty, and instantly you recall one of the penitential psalms of the Old Testament (CXXX), or perchance the Litany of the Episcopal Church with its pleading refrain: "Have mercy, O Lord, upon us and incline our hearts to keep Thy law." This Hindu chant is part of the Rig-Veda and was sung by the Rishis (poet-priests) not less than forty centuries ago.

"O Varuna, Thou bright and strong God, have mercy. Through want of strength have I gone astray, have mercy, Almighty, have mercy. It was not my will that led me astray; wine, anger, dice, thoughtlessness; have mercy, Almighty One. Not yet, O Varuna, cause me to enter the grave; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy. Absolve us all from the sins of our fathers and from those we ourselves commit. O Varuna, it was necessity, it was temptation-have mercy, Almighty, have mercy!"

4. The universality of the ethical content of the Old Testament Decalogue is missing in none of the other six Bibles. Nay [Page 26]more, the familiar Ten Commandments may be supplemented by four others; one concerning cleanliness and another touching humaneness, both contributed by the Koran; a third supplied by the Upanishads, enjoining intellectual integrity; and the fourth by the Pitakas, relating to temperance, or the use of intoxicating drink—missing in the Christian code, its absence deplored by Buddhists and the millions of Christian prohibitionists.

5. The universality of the Golden Rule; its utterance antedated Jesus by centuries and already very ancient in the time of Confucius. Each of the Bibles of the seven living great religions contains a version of the Golden Rule.

The Hindu: "The true rule is to guard and do by the things of others as you do by your own."

The Buddhist: "One should seek for others the happiness one desires for oneself."

The Zoroastrian: "Do as you would be done by."

The Confucian: "What you do not wish done to yourself, do not to others."

The Mohammedan: "Let none of you treat your brother in a way he himself would dislike to be treated."

The Jewish: "Whatsoever you do not wish your neighbor to do to you, do not unto him."

The Christian: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them."

6. The universality of the fundamental religious issues—God, duty, immortality. All the sacred scriptures of the world's great religions raise the root-questions of theism, moral obligation and final salvation, though the mode of dealing with them is in no two instances the same. To borrow an illustration from Herder: the great religions may be likened to the strings of a harp, each of which has its own distinctive note, serving to differentiate it from all the rest.

In Hinduism the note is that of spirit, repudiating the notion of "dead" or "inert" matter, on the ground that the universe is [Page 27]

THE WISDOM OF THE AGES

thrilling, throbbing, pulsing with divine energy and meaning.

In Buddhism it is renunciation, the stripping from oneself of all earthly desire through process of ethical self-discipline.

In Zoroastrianism it is spiritual warfare, culminating in the ultimate triumph of the "good principle" at war with the "evil principle" in the universe and calling for the cooperation of all human souls if world-redemption is to be achieved.

Confucianism contributes the note of order, bidding man in all his relations to reproduce the beautiful, calm, unbroken order he sees in the solar system.

Judaism sounds the note of righteousness, ringing throughout the Old Testament and Apocrypha and most grandly in the Prophets.

In Mohammedanism we hear the note "islam" meaning submission; the supreme need of every human soul being that of self-submission to the "omnipotent and merciful Allah", the heavenly Sultan, merciful because omnipotent.

Christianity completes the symphony with its note of love; not indeed that the doctrine of love is absent from the scriptures of the other religions; it is not; but the spiritual genius of Jesus and the particular circumstances under which his teaching came into the world were such as to give special emphasis and fresh interpretation to the doctrine.

Such in brief, bare outline are some of the more important evidences of the unity of religions as revealed in the sacred scriptures.

In the next part we shall publish the first of a series of selections from each of the seven Bibles of the living religions exemplifying the title "The Wisdom of the Ages" carried by this department of World Unity Magazine, and in conjunction with cach group of quotations from these scriptures supply explanatory comment and a prefatory introduction. [Page 28]

THE NEW WORLD REVEALED BY MODERN SCIENCE

by KIRTLEY F. MATHER Department of Geology, Harvard University

"When be, the Spirit of Truth, is come, be will guide you into all truth." John 16:13

POST of us take the world very much for granted. We have ceased to wonder at its marvels; we are not often confused by its complexities. Many of us were brought home from the hospital at the tender age of two weeks in an automobile, and we have been riding in motor cars ever since. The first artificial light that we noticed was the gleam of an electric bulb; the changing flashes of a Broadway sign attract our attention because of their beauty rather than because they express something of man's achievement in the utilization of the forces and resources of nature. Only the radio and the aeroplane are so new that we marvel when we hear a symphony orchestra playing in a distant city or pause to gaze heavenward at the rush of silken wings.

With little realization of the contrast between America in the twentieth century and Palestine during the rise and fall of the Jewish Empire, it is not surprising that we find ourselves in great difficulty when we attempt to preserve such religious concepts as those which were developed in that ancient time and distant place. If Christianity or any other religion is to persist into the twenty-first century as a virile and significant force in human affairs, it must be related to the world as we know it and as our grandchildren will find it to be, rather than to the world as it was known to the philosophers of one or two or three thousand years ago. Whether we like it or not, the fundamentals of every religion [Page 29]

THE NEW WORLD REVEALED BY SCIENCE

are today undergoing the most searching examination they have ever had, in the light of the most brilliant and pitiless blaze that modern science can project. To understand aright the revolution which has been accomplished in the minds of thoughtful men during the last few generations, one must comprehend the fact that the world of the pre-scientific age was utterly different from our world.

Take, for example, the description of their environment which would have been given by Moses or Joshua or any of the characters of earliest Jewish history. For them the universe was exactly what it appears to a casual observer to be. The earth was a flat platform, firmly established in the midst of the sea. Joshua had no reason to doubt that at some slight distance beyond the rim of the horizon were the corners of the earth, whence blew the winds. The starry vault of the heavens was just what it seems, a firmament solidly built like a great massive dome "to divide the waters". When rain fell, it was because the "windows of heaven were opened" and the water above the firmament was thus permitted to spill down into the space below. The sun and moon were merely "lights in the firmament," a "greater light" for the day and a "lesser light" for the night. Each moved across the vault of the heavens from East to West, just as they appear to do. When Joshua had reason to believe that a particular day was of unusually great length, he very naturally assumed that the "sun stood still in the midst of heaven." Joshua's world was a tiny and simple affair, a vest-pocket universe.

In striking contrast is the universe revealed by modern astronomy. No longer do the stars look like specks of luminous matter hurled by a giant hand against a vaulted sky. Among them are the planetary associates of the earth in the solar system. Like the other planets, the earth moves in an elliptical orbit around the sun, keeping at an average distance of 93,000,000 miles from that glowing body which contains some 300,000 times as much material as the earth. In comparison the moon is a mere pygmy, only one-eightieth as massive as the earth, and only 140,000 miles away. It is not a "light" at all, but merely reflects [Page 30]the light from the sun. Instead of a "world so established that it can not be moved," the earth is now known to be hurtling through space at the rate of twenty miles per second in its haste to complete the circuit of its orbit in the lapse of time which we call a year. We all know now that the length of every day is determined by the speed of rotation of the earth upon its axis; have we not been so taught from our youth up? Although we frequently refer to the sun as "rising in the east and setting in the west," we know perfectly well that it does nothing of the sort, that the appearances which led to that assertion are a result of the earth's rotation rather than the movement of sun.

It is not that modern science has taught us to distrust our senses. On the contrary, the very validity of the scientific method itself rests upon the assumption that our senses report to us quite accurately the nature of the world in which we live. Modern science has taught us to doubt the judgment of the casual observer, the hasty conclusion of the untutored mind. It has given us instruments of precision for the making of measurements which displace the estimates of the unaided eye. Its telescopes and microscopes merely increase the efficiency of the lenses of the eye, its telephones and microphones merely assist the mechanism of the ear. Its records of the past and present merely give us vastly more data on which to base conclusions. Still is the world what it appears to be, but appearances no longer deceive us so completely as they once did.

Our world is a part of an orderly universe, a cosmos of well regulated heavenly bodies, each of which moves in accordance with definite laws and specific regulations. It is far more difficult for us to think of the universe as a result of chance or accident than it was for the patriarchs of olden time, who with even their limited knowledge of its systematic orderliness saw in it the handiwork of God. The eight planets in the solar system, together with the scores of tiny planetoids, called asteroids, all move in orbits which are nearly in a single plane. If we should draw their paths to scale upon the ordinary schoolroom blackboard, each orbit would look like a perfect circle, for the departure of the [Page 31]

THE NEW WORLD REVEALED BY SCIENCE

ellipses from circles is in each case so slight that it would be contained entirely within the width of the chalk line. Moreover, if we should place the sun at the center of the system, modelled to a scale which would permit the orbit of Neptune to appear on the blackboard, the relations of the various planetary orbits are such that all the members of the solar family could be placed within the board, a half inch or so in thickness. At no time would any of the planets come out in front of or appear behind the blackboard; only a few of the asteroids have sufficiently oblique orbits to permit them occasionally to move out of the narrow confines between the front and back faces of the board. Moreover, the solar system is so systematic that all of the planets revolve in the same direction around the sun, and all whose rotation is definitely known spin with forward rather than backward rotation. Nearly but not quite all the several satellites which like our moon pertain cach to its own planet, revolve about their controlling planets with motions which are forward rather than retrograde in reference to the planetary revolutions. Only two or three of the moons which belong to the outer planets break the regularity of the uniform direction of systematic motion.

Fixed though the sun is in respect to the earth and its fellow planets, it too is in swift motion through space. For it is but one of the many stars which form our stellar galaxy. So far as our observations go, the pathway of the sun is a straight line, but it is presumably moving in an elliptical orbit so tremendous that it would require centuries of swift flight at the sun's speed of twelve miles per second for any curvature to be apparent. Even as the members of the solar system move within a disc-shaped rather than a spherical portion of space, so the galaxy of stars is shaped like a a very flat disc. When we look at the "Milky Way," our gaze as directed toward the edge of the disc; between us and the limits of the stellar galaxy in that direction there are many stars. When we turn in any other direction we look toward one of the faces of the disc; between us and the "side" limits of the galaxy within which we live there are comparatively few stars.

Distances and dimensions within the stellar galaxy are literally [Page 32]beyond human comprehension. Though many of the stars are hundreds of times as large as the sun, space and energy rather than mass are the real characteristics of the galaxy. Light, travelling at the rate of about 186,000 miles per second, reaches the earth only about four minutes after it leaves the sun, but the nearest star is so distant that its light leaves it four and a half years before it reaches our eyes. Many of the stars in the "Milky Way" are so distant that the light which we see twinkling in the heavens tonight left them en route to the earth when the northern states were still imprisoned in the great ice sheets of the Glacial Period, scores of thousands of years ago.

Presumably, many of the other stars have planetary families in their train, even as has the sun, although it is the only star near enough for our telescopes to reveal the presence or absence of attendant planets. Our neighbor, Venus, is probably the only other planet in the solar system on which life, as we know it here upon the earth, could exist, but it is to be expected that the environmental conditions characteristic of the earth are approximated on hundreds of the many thousands of planets which are presumably in existence within the galaxy of stars. Nor have we any reason for concluding that life is limited to those creatures which can live only within the rather narrow ranges of temperature, atmospheric constitution, light pressure and other elements which together comprise the mundane environment with which we are familiar. Surely if vital energy displays such ingenuity in developing varied creatures to fit the varied environment which we know here upon earth, it is to be expected that living creatures may elsewhere be adapted to environments quite beyond the range of our experience, environments perhaps in which no earthy-born being could possibly exist.

Joshua’s vest-pocket universe has expanded until it staggers even our imaginations by its size and splendor and possibilities. Nor is it a question of the imagination merely. The facts alone are sufficiently impressive. Beyond the limits of the stellar galaxy, other galaxies of stars are now known to dot the farther reaches of limitless space. So distant are they, that the giant suns which they [Page 33]

THE NEW WORLD REVEALED BY SCIENCE

include appear to blend together into nebulous wisps of luminous matter which can not be resolved into separate bodies by even the most powerful telescopes. Only by deductions from their spectra can we know that they are distant stellar systems. Some are so remote from us that it requires a hundred million years for light to traverse the intervening space. A universe known to possess such magnificent distances as that is scarcely less impressive than an infinite universe.

This great contrast between the world revealed by modern astronomy and the Old Testament concepts of geography and heavenly bodies is fully equalled when the modern biologic world is compared with that known to Joshua and his compatriots. The only animals and plants they knew were those native in the hills and plains of Asia Minor and northeast Africa. Vague rumors concerning strange monsters which inhabited the seas came occasionally to the tents and villages of the Hebrew patriarchs, but these were doubtless looked upon with skepticism by the conservatives of that day. The narrow limits within which opportunity for observation of plant and animal life was thus confined meant that only a few score of kinds of living creatures were known to Joshua. These were sharply differentiated species, easily distinguishable one from another, reproducing each "after his kind". There was nothing incongruous in the thought that a wooden barge could be constructed of such dimensions that it could shelter Two of every sort of creature. Evidently the Hebrew patriarchs did not realize that plants are just as dependent upon air as are animals. Had they understood the effect of prolonged submergence upon and vegetation there would presumably have been some mention in the story of Noah and his ark of the storage of roots and seeds.

How different is our knowledge of the world of plants and animals! From the jungles of South America, the arid tropics of Australia, the snow-covered summits of central Asia, the far-flung islands of the sea, strange creatures are constantly brought to enrich our museum collections and swell the already bursting flood of living species. A hundred thousand distinct species of beetles, near four thousand kinds of mammals, forty-five hundred species [Page 34]of ferns, a thousand kinds of deep-sea fishes, but start the huge catalog which is daily increasing in numbers. All told, at least a million species of animals and plants are living in Our World, have been named by patient scientists, and are listed in scientific libraries.

As might be inferred, the task of classifying and naming this bewildering assemblage of creatures is not the simple job which Adam had when he "gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field." But it is not the number of forms that makes the real trouble; serious difficulties arise when it is found that the sharp distinctions which shouted aloud when only a couple hundred animals were known disappear completely when the roll expanded. Animals and plants are not arranged in isolated compartments like the pigeon-holes of the old-fashioned roll-top desk. Complete intergradations between "species" are constantly coming to light. Even the apparent gulf between the plant and animal kingdoms is now known to be bridged by creatures which are truly "plant-animals". No longer is the biologist able to give a satisfactory definition of the word "species". He now knows that the term connotes an artificial group selected from a continuous stream of constantly varying and perfectly blending individuals. Only when our knowledge of the organisms about us was far short of being truly representative was the "species concept" a wholly satisfactory one. Today the cleavage between the "splitters" and the "lumpers" among biologists is nearly as subversive of good-fellowship as is the cleavage between "fundamentalists" and "modernists" among Christians.

To tangle still further the web of life, we now know that organisms do not reproduce as rigidly "after their kind" as was formerly supposed. At least eight thousand distinct varieties of roses have been produced from the mere handful of rose species with which florists began to work. Give a cabbage plant a "college education" and it becomes a cauliflower. Send a seedy orange to Luther Burbank's training school and the navel orange is developed. Pigeon-fanciers have produced from the wild dove a hundred varieties of pigeons, some of which are as unlike as the [Page 35]

THE NEW WORLD REVEALED BY SCIENCE

pouter and the fan-tail. The plasticity thus displayed by many kinds of animal and plant life adds a new significance to the command to man that he should "have dominion over every living thing that moveth on the face of the earth." Modern knowledge of the world of living things gives an almost limitless opportunity to mankind.

An analogous leveling of barriers has marked the more recent progress of all our scientific thinking. Just as botany and zoology overlap when the protozoa and the protophyta are found to merge in the "plant-animals", so physics and chemistry join hands in the investigation of the intimate structure of the atom. As never before, science is impressing us with the essential unity of this universe which in spite of its name has seemed to many folk to have an essentially dual nature. Even this early in the development of the science of psychology it is becoming evident that the "natural history of man is the whole history of man." No longer is there a wide chasm between the natural and the supernatural, between the material and the spiritual. In spite of the handicaps of our vocabularies and the limitations of our mental vision we are being led inevitably into the ranks of the monists.

Man is not a creature from another plane or sphere, spending a small fraction of his existence in the strange environment of the earth, playing a brief role as an actor on a foreign stage before entering the environment for which he is truly fitted. He is distinctly an offspring of Old Mother Earth, this is his home; here is his natural environment.

Joshua's World was made expressly for man. Everything in it was designed especially to contribute to his welfare or to punish him when he incurred the displeasure of his god. He occupied the summit of the tall pinnacle of superiority, not because he had won his way to that proud eminence, but because he had been placed there by the Creator. The locality where he lived was the center of the universe; sun, moon and stars revolved around him and it.

Joshua's concept of man's place in nature has lingered long in the minds of his descendants; echoes of that concept are still with [Page 36]us. Did not Linnaeus give the name "Primates" to that order of mammals which he defined as including man?

But Our World is not so flattering. "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" has a new meaning since Betelgeuse was measured. In geologic time, man has lived for but a moment in the earthly day. In astronomic space, he is a speck of foam on the crest of a single wave in the midst of a Pacific Ocean. The earth is neither the smallest nor the biggest, the hottest nor the coldest, the most central nor the most remote among the planets of the solar system. Presumably there are many other similar bodies in the heavens. Except for the fact that you and I are on its surface, there is nothing expecially distinguished about it. The sun is just an ordinary star.

There are many larger, many smaller; many hotter, many colder; many brighter, many duller. Presumably many of its neighbors in the heavens have fully comparable planetary dependants in their train. The stellar galaxy is but one of the many far-flung aggregates of stars. So far as we are aware, it may be duplicated many times in space. Only our presence for a brief span of years upon this insignificant earth gives importance to one particular star in one of many galaxies of stars.

There is no reason for assuming that human life is the most superior expression of the vital impulse which the universe has yet achieved. It is scarcely likely that the Administration of the Universe has staked all on this one type of life in this one locality. Perhaps on some distant planet the achievements of the Universal Spirit far outstrip anything that man has yet attained. But for us, Our World in this particular geologic epoch gives The Opportunity. It is Man's hour; the prize is almost in his grasp. Dominion over his fellow-creatures is for all practical purposes his; mastery over the forces of inanimate nature is well-nigh assured; only Self, individual and aggregate, remains to be subdued. Our World is not a furnished stage on which the puppet man enacts a role; it is a challenge to the best in man to overcome all handicaps and emerge successful in the attempt to achieve a truly satisfactory life.

In Joshua's World anything could happen. Magic played a [Page 37]

THE NEW WORLD REVEALED BY SCIENCE

most important part in everyday life. Happenings were determined by the caprice of ruling powers whose whims and intentions varied from day to day. Ours is a world of law. Effect follows cause with unvarying relations. Order and regularity reign where formerly magic and caprice held sway. The law of gravity operates relentlessly, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, regardless of bribe or entreaty.

In the pre-scientific world the forces of nature were under the direct and immediate control of supernatural beings who used those forces to wreck their vengeance upon certain unfortunate or guilty individuals or to add to the physical prosperity of their more fortunate or more "righteous" brethren. Jove hurled his thunderbolts with deadly accuracy upon any human being who incurred his displeasure. Jehovah drowned all the men and women he had made, except Noah and his family, because of their wickedness. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone rained out of heaven because not even ten righteous men could be found in those cities. On the other hand, the gods made easy the path of those whom they favored; with gentlemanly kindness they overlooked the shortcomings of their favorites. Food was magically supplied in a barren wilderness, even though the chosen people ofttimes strayed from the path of righteousness. The penalty was different for "him that sinneth through ignorance" than for "the soul that doeth ought presumptuously."

But Our World plays no favorites. The rain falls alike upon the just and the unjust. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes result from the operation of inflexible natural laws which can not be changed in the slightest by the morality or immorality of the human inhabitants of the locality. To be sure, in 1906 there were a few suggestions from certain pulpits of the land that San Francisco’s tragic earthquake was a just retribution for the sins of its citizens, but that only bears out the observation that long-treasured ideas die hard. Few people nowadays would claim that great wealth and material prosperity are an indication of righteous conduct, while poverty and want are the customary accompaniments of violation of the moral code. Experience indicated [Page 38]unmistakably the fact that ignorance of the law excused no man. Lack of knowledge of the relation between the anopheles mosquito and the germs of malaria does not protect the ignorant from the ravages of that disease.

The automobile is symbolic of Our World. It goes, or refuses to go, without any reference to the picty or volubility of its driver. Unless there is gasoline in the tank, oil in the motor, electricity in the battery, unless every necessary connection is made, the proper switches turned, the right adjustments made, it will not start; nor will entreaties, prayers or profanity make any difference with the machine. It matters not whether the occupants of the car are en route to a petting party at a roadside inn or are on an errand of mercy to cheer a loved one in a city hospital, the mechanism operates just the same, in accordance with the purely mechanical principles on which its effectiveness depends.

But the symbolism does not stop there. The automobile obeys the motions of the man at the steering wheel. Even so, mankind collectively is in charge of Our World. He can drive it whither he will. The responsibility rests fairly and squarely upon human shoulders. If the driver is drunk, crazed, ignorant or asleep, the machine will end in the ditch; if he is clear-eyed, intelligent, alert and careful, disaster can be safely avoided.

Our World is vast, beautiful and impressive; yet are we not satisfied with it. We know that there is much room for improvement; we yearn for a better world in which all men may have more abundant opportunity to live a more truly satisfactory life.

If our symbol holds good, two things are prerequisite to the attainment of that better world. We must know the regulations which control the mechanism so that we will have full power over the machine; we must select the right goal toward which to steer Our World and find the right road thither. The first involves the training of the human intellect and the extension of the scientific method of research until all the intricacies of our physical environment are discovered. The second involves the training of the human heart and the extension of the spirit of brotherhood until all our selfish interests are subjugated by the desire for the [Page 39]

THE NEW WORLD REVEALED BY SCIENCE

welfare of all men everywhere. Neither the trained intellect nor the loving heart can "save the world" alone, both are needed, else humanity must fail. The problems of life are not yet solved. Still do we know only in part. The new world revealed by modern science flings a challenge to meet which man must summon every resource of mind and heart and soul.

Among these resources none is more interesting than that which has made modern science so efficient an agent for the utilization of natural forces and material resources. In this New World the scientific method stands approved, vindicated by experience; unless it is applied to the problems of religion, the theologian can not expect to make any permanent gains in the midst of modern civilization.

The scientific method involves certain specific habits of mind, a particular intellectual attitude toward the universe. When a man of science approaches a problem he expects to make use of certain principles, among which is the principle of causal relations: for every effect there must be an adequate cause. There is also the principle of uniformity in nature; the same forces operating upon the same things under the same conditions will always produce the same result. And possibly most effective of all is the principle of multiple working hypotheses: in attempting to discover the real cause of any observed condition or effect, every possible explanation should be given full consideration. Sometimes a lead which appears at first glance to be hopeless, when followed clear to its end is the clue to the problem's solution.

The man of science never considers any problem as finally closed. The "last word" has never yet been said about anything. Conclusions reached and laws formulated by one set of investigators are always subject to renewed inspection and critical study by any other group of scientists. To have the products of one's own research critically examined by another is no indication of disrespect; it is rather a mark of highest honor. On the other hand, when the scientist finds that a large number of observable facts of nature are explained by a reasonable statement of a process or a relationship, and especially if many facts not known when [Page 40]that statement was formulated are later found to be in harmony with it, he feels he has a right to place great confidence in that statement as a true one. Thus he has come to respect a great number of so-called theories and natural laws. His belief in them, once firmly established and amply justified by observations and experiments, is not easily shaken.

The search for knowledge in that frame of mind has been richly rewarded. Nature seems ready to reveal her choicest secrets to the patient and humble investigator. Knowledge thus gained has made man powerful. The last half century has witnessed remarkable progress in the task of "subduing the earth". The practice of these scientific habits of mind has literally revolutionized the world.

But the scientific method is really nothing new. Its use, albeit faltering and rare, dates back beyond the dawn of recorded human history. Huxley's instructions to the investigator, "Sit down before a fact as a little child; be prepared to give up every preconceived notion; follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads," were paralleled by the thought in the mind of Jesus long ago, when he remarked, "Let the children come to me; do not try to stop them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as they. I tell you, whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at all." The scientific principle of multiple working hypotheses is but a practical application of the advice which Paul sent once to his followers in Thessalonica: "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

It is in such an attitude as this that man must summon the newly gained knowledge of his material environment to aid in solving the manifold problems inherent in his lack of knowledge of the spiritual phases of the world in which he lives. [Page 41]

THE NEW HUMANITY

"Without edifices or rules or trustees or any argument, The institution of the dear love of comrades."

Edited by MARY SIEGRIST

OETRY has its home in the timeless. What is it but a breath from the finer ethers of "worlds before and after"? Because it is drawn from the One Life and holds in itself this essence of mysterious Being, it is able to body forth in those regions where prose halts, the prophetic hopes and aspirations of all men, of all races, in all ages. It is the record of man’s divine Odyssey. Always it rediscovers and recreates itself and the world.

"We (poets)," says Tagore, "are the true renouncers, because change is our very secret. We lose in order to find. We call to everyone to carry his joys and sorrows lightly, in a rhythmic measure. Our call is the Renouncer’s call."

Beckoned by an appointed hand, unseen yet sure, in holy air, We wander as a wind, silver and free, With one song in heart, we, the children of prayer. Our song is not of a city’s fall; No laughter of a kingdom bids our feet wait; Our heart is away, with sun, wind and rain; We, the shadowy roamers on the holy highway.

The Pilgrimage

YONE NOGUCHI [Page 42]

The Desire of Nations

And when He comes into the world gone wrong He will rebuild her beauty with a song. To every heart He will its own dream be! One moon has many phantoms in the sca. Out of the North the norns will cry to men: "Balder the Beautiful has come again!" The flutes of Greece will whisper from the dead: "Apollo has unveiled his sunbright head!" The stones of Thebes and Memphis will find voice: "Osiris comes: O tribes of Time, rejoice!" And social architects who build the State, Serving the Dream at citadel and gate, Will hail Him coming through the labor-hum, And glad quick cries will go from man to man: "Lo, He has come, Our Christ the Artisan- The King who loved the lilies, He has come!"

He will arrive, our Counselor and Chief. And with bleak faces lighted up will come The carth-worn mothers from their martyrdom, To tell him of their grief. And glad girls caroling from field and town Will go to meet Him with the labor-crown, The new crown woven of the heading wheat. And men will lie down at His sacred feet; And He will say-the King- "Come, let us live the poetry we sing!""

And these, His burning words, will break the ban- Words that will grow to be, On continent, on sea, The rallying cry of man...

EDWIN MARKHAM [Page 43]

THE NEW HUMANITY

Races will be effaced in the New World.

Speak not of races. The drops of different seas are like.

Half of human life passes on the astral plane but men do not remember.

Men search for knowledge but perceive it not.

Blessed are you who comprehend the knowledge of the future and its ever changing outlines.

By love shall you learn the boundaries of the new order of life.

The miracle of perception into the future shall come without the sound of cannon.

But the bell will summon each wayfarer lost within the forest.

Consider the manifestations of My Shield as predestined.

Consider the manifestations of wisdom in the new generation as happiness.

Consider the manifestation of enlightenment in men as a step towards the New World.

Consider Our Manifestations as the hour of the World Guardians.

But observe Our Commandments.

Fulfill Our Message.

Know to bring Light.

And understand to manifest the grandeur of Beauty.

But to the wings that have touched the sun, But to the courser before sunrise, But to the song which filled midnight, The way is not a terrible and cruel one.

And the star is close to those who have found the Terraphim.

A smile should be sent to the stars. [Page 44]

THE SCIENTIFIC AND RELIGIOUS DRIVE TOWARDS UNITY

by HERBERT ADOLPHUS MILLER Department of Sociology, Ohio State University

SCIENCE is concerned with description and religion with exhortation. Science deals with things as they are and religion emphasizes things that ought to be. The principles of science are inexorable and inevitable. Science formulates the laws of natural processes, though the processes occur just the same whether they are formulated or not. Nevertheless an understanding of the laws of science helps greatly in accelerating movement by mere acquiescence.

A friend of mine said recently that he was becoming an optimist about the inevitable. This may be taken as the text for what I shall say about science.

The first principle of science is its universality. Its validity does not depend on time, or place, or source of origin. No one cares whether Einstein was a German or a Frenchman, Jew or Gentile, and, as a German Jew, whether he was a Zionist or an anti-Zionist so far as acceptance of the theory and its application is concerned. In the field of medicine we accept the fact that quarantine is not a matter of patriotism, and that nations must unite on matters of quarantine because germs pay no attention to patriotism, and do not recognize frontiers. For that reason the medical section of the League of Nations has from the beginning had popular support, even from most ardent anti-Leaguers, and America has a representative in this section.

For convenience we define science as of two sorts: natural and social. Natural science deals with physical phenomena. The Einstein theory, biological theories, the laws of electricity, chemistry and aeronautics, for example, belong in the field of natural science. [Page 45]

THE SCIENTIFIC AND RELIGIOUS DRIVE TOWARDS UNITY

In addition to its universality and objectivity which make localisms in science absurd, science has done a great deal to accelerate communication which is the first necessity in bringing the world into unity.

In Europe, as H. G. Wells has said, the size of nations was determined by the distance a king and his army could travel on horseback. The development of the railroad and telegraph made such areas unnecessary, but the radio and the aeroplane made them impossible. No barrier for the protection of sovereignty could stop the sound waves of the opera which I saw being broadcast from the Great Theatre in Moscow, nor keep me from hearing in Lithuania good English sent out from London.

The aeroplane has thrown into confusion the frontiers of the horseback-sized countries. The transatlantic flights have not only thrilled people, but have filled them with a vague understanding that old values and systems are passing away. The reorganization of the world as a result of natural science does not mean that patriotism may not be aroused at any time and begin using science to promote the fighting machinery. War and irrationality have always been companions.

Far-reaching and of inestimable possibilities as is the development of natural science, social science will be even more revolutionary. Plato and Aristotle gave important hints of the direction in which social science might go, but it is practically within our generation that any real progress has been made in laying the foundations for social science. Even yet it is more promise than accomplishment. There is a great lack of data and much uncertainty as to method, but, even so, much that has been taken for granted for ages has been overthrown in a day.

James Harvey Robinson in his book "The Mind in the Making", using psychological analysis, that would have been impossible a few years ago, shows that most of the pet notions which have dominated the conduct of people are rationalizations, and that those which have been held longest and most widely are the most likely to be wrong, for the very reason that justification has been sought rather than truth. [Page 46]The wide significance of science has made it easy for both writers and their readers to be led into pseudo-science in their zeal to make all things simple. Two such popular writers are Wiggam, whose Decalogue of Science has seemed to many a substitute for the Bible, and Stoddard whose Rising Tide of Color and other books have such an appearance of scientific soundness that the fact that they have used the scientific vocubalary to plead a cause is often lost sight of.

According to Dorsey, who is more generally accepted as a real scientist, in his book "Why Men Behave Like Human Beings", much that they say is pure bunkum. Until the psychologists, physiologists, anthropologists and sociologists had collected data it was impossible to say conclusively whether there were differences between races or not. If there were, no genuine human unity could be hoped for. Now there is practical agreement that there are no significant differences.

If it were possible to show that some racial and national stocks are inherently superior to others the basis for patriotism and the development of armaments for the putting over of the particular race or country might have a justification.

There is now practically universal agreement among scientists that all the races and both sexes are essentially equal in capacity. But common sense had not been able to make that discovery even with regard to women. Without science any prejudice may become final. A fundamentalist in religion or politics merely stakes a belief against a belief. But an age-old prejudice may be punctured in a moment by science. Any child can now prove that the earth is not flat, and psychological tests can show the equality of men, women and races.

Last year I was at the University of Stamboul in Constantinople where I talked with the class in sociology. About half of the class were girls. Five years before there had not been a single girl in the university, now in the College of Arts they were half girls, and although they were all Mohammedans, they had bobbed hair and short skirts and would have been indistinguishable from [Page 47]

THE SCIENTIFIC AND RELIGIOUS DRIVE TOWARDS UNITY

my students at Ohio State University. We happened to get to talking about the woman's movement as an example of the social process, and one of the girls said: "Of course we do not think there is any difference in the capacity of men and women. Race prejudice was perfectly normal when peoples of different color first came into contact because they had in their separate habitats developed different cultures, and to unscientific observation they seem to possess different capacities. The culture that seemed to be superior has generally assumed some divine intention in the superiority, and has been eager to go to war to demonstrate its interpretation of Destiny.

We are making beginnings of psycho-analysis of war and patriotism and other forms of mass action which show the irrationality of such mass conduct. I must repeat that many of our findings are still only tentative, but we are making beginnings whose validity cannot be denied, and gradually the conclusions will permeate the thinking of people who will accept them just as they have accepted the roundness of the earth.

The millennium is not going to come immediately because of these scientific methods and discoveries which I have only hinted at rather than described, but there is a good deal of future to be counted on, and our optimism must be based on the direction in which we see things moving. I visited the Citadel at Angora, the modern capital of Turkey. The new town is bustling with energy, but the ruined wall which is at least fifteen hundred years old has built into it marble from Greek temples that preceded it by a thousand years, and I looked from the top out over the plain at mounds that had been built by Hittites centuries earlier. At that moment I got over my frenzy to get everything accomplished in this decade. The interest of society is not to get a benevolent despot who will make this generation happy and the next one miserable, but some foundations that will endure. The millennium is not very near, but modern science shows us that there is an understandable possibility of a world unity, and without science there is no understandable possibility.

What has been happening in science has been happening in a [Page 48]different way in religion. The problem of religion is the same for everyone and all time. Here we are finite in space, time and quality, and yet we have the concepts of the infinite in space and time, and perfection in quality. The bridge between our present tangible finiteness and that which we conceive beyond it is what religion is made of. The problem is the same for the heathen who bows down to wood and stone and for the modern philosopher who rejects all superstition.

Every people has tried to formulate a way of meeting these problems. In their isolations tribes and nations have made provincial dogmas which seemed to them to be ultimate, and for which they have time and again gone to war. But everywhere the tribal theologies and tribal divinities were bent on solving the same problems of adjusting a finite individual to a larger universe than people themselves could comprehend.

In the University of Moscow, I visited the class in Evolution. One carnest student after I had asked some questions, asked me if I would tell them about the evolution trial in Tennessee as they were very much interested. And again in Cairo I was talking with some devout but liberal Moslems and they said, "Of course we have our people like your Mr. Bryan, but in the long run liberalism will win." These two examples indicate the interpenetration of religious ideas.

The multitude of contacts of peoples is making religious provincialism in the old sense more and more impossible, especially as it is being accompanied by scientific and philosophical discussion. When nations were isolated state religions were inevitable, but except temporarily and incidentally this can never be general again in the old sense. I was calling on Bishop Nicholai, a very spiritual clergyman of the Greek Orthodox Church whom I had known before I was connected with a State University. When he saw where I now was he expressed his regrets, saying that the late war was the product of the state universities of Germany, because their graduates who ruled Europe were anti-religious. My own conviction was that the anti-religion was the result of a state university where there was an official state religion, and in- [Page 49]

THE SCIENTIFIC AND RELIGIOUS DRIVE TOWARDS UNITY

tellectually free students react against a stereotyped religion. My opinion was confirmed by the Archbishop of Bulgaria who attributes the irreligion of that country and other countries in which there is an official connection between the church and state to the fact that the state always uses the church for political purposes.

In most states, since the war, there has been a separation of religion from government, and religion is now obliged to stand on its own merits. There has been much criticism of the treatment of the Church by the Soviet government, but I am sure that genuine religion has been greatly helped by what it has done. With no political prop to lean on the various religions must look to their virtues in their competition with other religions. This is a new factor in world affairs. One of the most valuable things that could have happened to Christianity is that it must now compete with Mohammedanism. I think that in all probability the Turkish revolution will prove to have an importance comparable to that of Russia because it has released to modern influence some 250,000,000 people. Turkey has stayed Mohammedan, but it has made a complete separation of religion from the state. While the rest of the Moslem world resents the ruthless way Turkey has dealt with Moslem tradition, nevertheless her example is bound to be followed. I knew so little about Mohammedanism that I asked every intelligent Mohammedan I met if it were possible for Mohammedans to accept modern science and progress and stay devout, and the answer always was: "Perfectly."

One of the significant things about the Moslem world is its location. Within it all races meet-white, black, brown and yellow, and they come from Europe, Asia, and Africa. In view of the developing consciousness of race it is of incalculable significance that within the Mohammedan religion there is no race problem. Christianity only preaches what Islam practices. Among Mohammedans other Mohammedans are brothers.

We are reaching the point where all intelligent people of the world are at about the same place. They talk the same language with regard to spiritual values and accept the same science. I had [Page 50]asked two Moslem Sheiks who had written religious books my question about modernism, and later they asked me how the modern sociologist dealt with behaviorism and psycho-analysis. People who talk the same language may keep their various symbolisms without conflict.

It is an interesting fact that the American missionaries in Turkey are not allowed to teach religion, but instead of being discouraged about it most of them find a new opportunity. What they have had to do was to find a technic by which they can teach what is just as true to Mohammedanism as it is to Christianity, and not to try to make Christians by subterfuge, but to make better Mohammedans by showing that the things that are common to all religions are more important than the things that are different.

I told the Mufti of Jerusalem, who is president of the Supreme Moslem Council, that if the Arabs wished to compete with the Jews, to whom he is very hostile, they must do it on the level of the University which the Hebrews have founded on Mount Scopus, and he said they knew it, and had already made a beginning of a University in Jerusalem, but that for the present they were very well served by the American University at Beirut. I found at this University that with a strong Christian urge they were trying to make better Moslems, and that they had a Kosher kitchen for Orthodox Jews.

We might speak of the universal appeal of the religious teachings of Ghandi who is eclectic in his sources of inspiration. It will take a long time for these new approaches to religion to permeate the great masses, but such permeation is inevitable. The oneness of scientific truth and the universality of religious experience and problems, as they become more and more apparent, make impossible a return to the basis of tribal conflict which has characterized the world of the past, and, whether we lag or not, is driving us to a unity which could only have been dreamed of a generation ago. [Page 51]

THE WORLD OUTLOOK

by HORACE HOLLEY

THE tense anxiety of primitive man, depending upon the outcome of physical processes beyond his control, returns again as an experience far subtler but no less vital to the modern world. Lulled during generations which had learned to control nature and substituted belief in progress for magic rite and sacrifice, the sense of unescapable responsibility once more quickens in hearts sensitive to the implications of the daily news. The environment of nature has been displaced by the environment of men, but our relation to this new and higher reality, our understanding of it, is primitive and instinctive. We await social events as helplessly as early man confronted the inscrutable destiny of the stars.

Awareness of these implications compels more and more people to resist the opiates of personal indifference and the false stimulus of exclusive group ambition. Fundamental instincts of the human soul are reasserting themselves as the thick fog of tradition lifts and discloses the true character of the human problem. By revealing unfavorable physical conditions, pain proves itself wholesome and is an indication of reserve strength. Similarly, whole-hearted concern at the world outlook is evidence of spiritual vitality at a time of universal transition when not merely new expedients but new aspects of being are required. Such deep and reverent anxiety, far from expressing pessimism or unfitness, shows forth the power of the human soul to adjust itself to a series of influences more delicate, more significant and more decisive than any which history records. A people without sense of tragedy is a people without capacity to survive.

We await social events helplessly because the initiative in precipitating the most important issues lies with the negative [Page 52]elements, prejudice, hatred and fear, rather than with the positive elements of understanding, sympathy and cooperation. The most backward of countries can set on foot a train of conditions producing the bitterest consequences for the most enlightened. Political authority even within civilized lands wastes its precious powers placating implacable minorities when positive accomplishments are crying out to be undertaken on every hand. At the present stage of evolution, moral vision takes in so slight a portion of reality that even sincere national patriotism seems a burden tolerable only in crucial hours.

This prevalent moral nearsightedness comes as penalty for having concentrated interest and effort upon the needs of the immediate group. Only by slow diffusion and with fatal distortion can larger needs sift through to the perception of the average man. The result is that institutional relationships stand between practically all individuals and their fellowmen. Established under conditions of separation and strife, impelled by the power of a tradition developed by those conditions and actively sanctioning them, the most powerful and venerable institutions throughout the world motivate their members with negative impulses and false ideals, maintaining forms of opposition and separation not justified by the human realities and creating consequences by which these realities must be grievously betrayed.

The magnificent sense of freedom and power for further achievement released by conquests in the field of applied science thus becomes mere braggart assertion when brought over into the domain of human relations. For all its glittering mechanisms, modern society is nothing better than an unstable balance among bodies controlled by moral anarchy. Power divorced from true responsibility, authority sundered from world vision—the consummation of human action under such conditions is conflict and chaos.

While every generation undergoes readjustment to some new social factor, never before, apparently, has the entire world served as a laboratory of simultaneous change. The westward star of empire has disappeared with the rising of a burning sun which with- [Page 53]

THE WORLD OUTLOOK

out distinction fertilized new hopes, new desires and new demands in all social groups East and West. Instead of any one predominant race carrying the torch of progress and compelling some degree of order within the area reached by its flickering beams, we have many and diverse centers of influence, not one of which can secure complete mastery over the others. The people regarded as weakest from the political or military point of view may possess some natural resource or some creative spirit which, in the complex scheme of modern life, restores the balance.

The extent of present-day readjustment, however, is by no means measured merely by terming it international or worldwide. Were humanity stirred simply by demand for political equality, the collective mind could have solved the problem ere now. That particular problem has remained unsolved precisely because the general unrest will not focus exclusively upon any one definite ideal. The ideal it longs for is diverse, mingling many elements other than political progress. Its diversity is indicated by reference to the new movements initiated during the past two generations, whose range of aims and methods reflects stirrings and longings not less economic than political, not less cultural than economic, and not less religious than cultural. Every degree of progress in any of these realms is seized and employed as a tool to bring about progress in other realms; it is not regarded, except by a few specialists, as an end in itself.

The more one studies the psychology of modernism and learns to appreciate the emotional resources sustaining these new programs of progress and reform the more one realizes that what we term transition or unrest has no organized channel but runs as broad and deep as life itself. Such a force cannot be dammed by devices of legislation nor satisfied by any external result. It is an inner awakening which grows by what it feeds upon, and intensifies under apparent defeat.

Confronting vast movements that sweep wavelike across the surface of society, East to West, West to East, we can only feebly guess at the sheer power of this human sea. Who can make any result by adding together forces and energies operating on wholly [Page 54]different planes, qualitatively unlike as music and chemistry, mysticism and organized sport, invention and a national sense of frustration? The old quantitative yardsticks do not apply, and immersed as we are each in his own specialized activity and experience we register merely the by-products of change, as an anchored ship moving up and down with the tides.

Unable to measure the energy, we cannot arbitrarily set any point at which the movements will cease and transition be fulfilled. An aroused humanity is totally unlike an aroused national group or race, for the latter body is held in unity by pressure from without, while the former is subject to every manner of pressure from every direction within and without at the same time. The sources of change today are in fact hidden within the depths of human being; until we know what man is in his perfection, our efforts to resist or control world change will be tragic or vain.

For those who prefer understanding to domination, the essential seems to be to realize that the present is not merely the past in repetition on a larger scale. It is rather the past stimulated and released. It is history extended from a cycle of physical action to a cycle of mental action. Humanity has entered upon the unprecedented task of self-discovery and self-control, of attaining an organic solidarity utterly removed from the sterile uniformities suffered in the past. And nothing can check this profound, universal movement from its consummation, any more than an ice-bound landscape can overcome the sun in spring.

The fact is, we know much about nature but very little about ourselves, for the individual can only be fulfilled by and in the organic solidarity of mankind. We have learned the least and the worst about humanity, since our knowledge of men is practically confined to their relationships to external mechanisms and activities. That men become embittered by subjection or savagely enraged by war does not illumine the subject of man. It merely illumines the subject of subjection and war. If arsenic kills, this fact refers to arsenic more than to the human constitution. True knowledge is reference from capacity for perfection, not reference from details of imperfection. Every human responsibility, how- [Page 55]

THE WORLD OUTLOOK

ever, has been mastered except that of association in unity, and this new responsibility stands as the mystery of the present age. It seems therefore inadequate to judge of any phase of the world movement as exclusively an expression of political, economic or any other limited social science. Unrest in its true sense discloses a more or less suddenly stimulated need on the part of groups large or small for justification as human beings, no matter how this spiritual element may be obscured by technical methods or specific claims. What we perceive if we look deeper into causes is a general insistence by races, nations, religions and classes that each shall no longer be misunderstood. The mask which every group has imposed upon other groups, with its fixed conventional grimace of stupidity or hate, its essential inhumanity, has been discarded and trodden under foot; but the habit of antagonism still persists and is the hammer violently smashing every form of unreality upon the anvil of the will to be.

Any sincere effort to define the world outlook in its larger outlines must, it would appear, accept two alternatives as the doorposts between which the race must sooner or later pass: the alternative of universal peace-peace spiritual as well as material, peace religious as well as military, peace economic as well as political-and that of universal war.

To dismiss either alternative-the alternative of perfectibility or that of world destruction and chaos-is to deny the very universality of the universe and repudiate the reality of man. Only in an incomplete, a partial universe could causes fail to produce effects; and causes exist in the soul of humanity capable of eventuating either in a higher human type or in self-destruction of the most frenzied kind. To remove these alternatives, in fact, is to argue that man is a kept pensioner of nature, without full responsibility and therefore without essential being.

The acceptance of these alternatives, moreover, is the only basis on which can be attempted any interpretation of current movements and events freed from the false influence of self-interest, subtle or gross. The possibility implicit in both is so [Page 56]tremendous that the individual is reduced to actual humility, the only condition bringing truth and admitting growth. For humility not merely of emotion but of mind is a pure solvent by the action of which prejudice melts away, tradition loses its apparent authority, conventions are made unreal, and the mirror of perception cleansed for the universal vision of man in his innate, though yet undeveloped, being.

The most bewildering manifestations of social disturbance begin to assume a form of universal harmony if we once admit that disturbance will not subside until world unity is attained, along with the related fact that the very purpose of such general turmoil is to establish an organic human solidarity. By setting up this goal as the inner objective revealed in one way or another by otherwise unrelated movements and trends, we possess a qualitative measure capable of evaluating any one factor or influence. Whatever possesses the spirit of unity is an instrument of progress and will be steadily reinforced, no matter how feeble it may appear outwardly at the present time. On the other hand, world unity cannot join elements of disunity and separateness, consequently the attainment of world unity means their removal somehow from the scene. This is the significance of transition: that the survival value of the various elements of society is undergoing the supreme test. The difference between loyalty to man and loyalty to one body of men at the expense of others is profound, but it is a difference which only emerges in a crisis which compels choice under terms of justice utterly impartial and unmoved.

World chaos and world unity are hence not so much alternative results as successive phases of the same process of human evolution. There can be no world unity until the foundations of disunity and separateness have been destroyed both as ideals and as institutions. So deep-seated is the disunity and separateness which actually exists, the preliminary approach to world unity must appear utterly unlike world unity and confuse, disturb and betray all but the staunchest faith. The world today represents a balance sheet carrying the total of the debits and credits entered by humanity since the first dawn. [Page 57]

THE WORLD OUTLOOK

The ideal of world unity is not modern, new; it is timeless in its essence, breathed into mankind again and again by prophetic spirits who have derived their vision of reality from perception of universals even yet unknown and unknowable to personal minded people. But until now its claim upon human life as the condition of survival could be resisted, denied, postponed. In that our material necessities combine with our spiritual responsibilities to compel response to the law of brotherhood, the age is new in its spirit and evokes a new quality of mind and heart in man. [Page 58]

THE RISING TIDE

Notes on current books possessing special significance in the light of the trend toward world unity.

Edited by JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, JR., Department of Philosophy, Columbia University

We are all either doctors or prophets these days. The doctors diagnose what ails our society; the prophets proclaim the one thing needful. We are as worried over the state of our civilization as a sick man over the state of his health. And as each of us has his publisher, an un-ceasing stream of this valetudinarian literature pours from the presses. It often seems easier to write a new book that will be perfectly satisfactory to us than to paw frantically over the mountains we know we ought to read. The doctors are all so plausible, and the quacks so hard to run down! And every last prophet speaks as though inspired by God!

We all know that the pulse of our society is irregular and its breathing hard. We all know we need a doctor. We even fancy we know what it would be like to be healthy. But in this avalanche of remedies, where shall we turn? Some advocate surgery—cut off the patient's arms, or his stomach, or his head. Some advocate fasting. Some advocate strong medicine, and some urge us to get drunk. We have gone so far as to try the good old prescription of blood-letting, and it nearly proved fatal.

What we need is a testing laboratory that will bring the treatments together and throw out the poisons and the nostrums, a clearing-house that will keep us informed of the progress of social medicine. The doctors, in their constant search to maintain and increase our physical health, have built up an organization to serve just such a purpose in their field. They cooperate from every land to stamp out disease and eradicate suffering. We are all [Page 59]

CURRENT BOOKS ON WORLD UNITY

collaborators in the search for social health. There is an increasing host of investigators who are honestly and earnestly striving to get our patient out of bed. They are thinking and working under every flag. They are agreed as to the worst disorders that trouble his functions. They are even coming together on the state in which he should be living. What they need is a place for their ideas to meet, where each can appraise the fruits of his colleague's toil, and pool the resources of those laboring for the common end.

In a modest way this department hopes to work at such a task. It will try a preliminary sifting of the books that are piling up so rapidly with suggestions for the new world. It will try to bring together the thoughts of those who are seriously reflecting on the state of our civilization and the forces that are moving it. As yet most of our doctors are just becoming aware of the causes of our social strife and disunity. Most of the investigators are still trying to diagnose our condition. They are studying our society under the microscope, analyzing its halting functioning. They are tracing the outlines of the new world in which science has placed at. They are seeking the hidden springs of human nature that drive it along. They are studying its growth and development, the causes that have moulded it in the past and the new forces that have in the last century pushed their way in to upset its balance and transform it utterly. All this investigation must be carried through before we can hope to resolve our social conflicts.

There is today an army of writers who are making available for the thoughtful layman the results of all this spadework of the last generation. These ideas and concepts are the tools with which we must all build the new world. Until the last few years they remained the possession of the specialist, locked up in his monographs and reports. But we can hardly hope to guide our society through its present rapid adjustments toward that more unified world we all dream of, without a wide dissemination of the new knowledge that the last generation has found out about the nature of man and his civilization and the world in which he lives.

As a result of this careful investigation, our present age is coming to know itself as no other has in the past. Such [Page 60]selfknowledge is the most hopeful sign-post pointing to a more intelligently ordered world. But to know ourselves, it is not enough to know our own civilization and its history. We must know our neighbors as well. The keynote in all this eager new investigation of society is the resolve to treat all manifestations of human life as equally worthy of interest and respect. The life of man in the island of Tahiti is as much to be looked into as the life of man on Manhattan Island. The civilization of Western Europe and the civilization of Northern India are alike great organizations of human activities, feelings, and beliefs. And, most significantly of all, the more we of the Western World have learned about these other ways of life, the more we have come to feel the underlying pulse of humanity beating wherever men move from birth to death, in all the richly diverse habitations the human spirit has fashioned for itself. The discovery of the fact that human life can be equally worth living when clad in garments unlike our own has heightened our respect for the inexhaustible energy of man that can create so much that is both beautiful and noble. We have come to recognize that the human spirit cannot be found in one culture, in one religion alone, it must be sought wherever it has brought forth itself, like the creative energy of the God it worships, an ordered world in which to pass its days.

It is the unity of man’s life in the midst of all this diversity, the same underlying theme played with infinite variations, that we of this generation are coming to realize. And in the face of this conviction, there is a rising tide of impatience with the strife that sets class against class and nation against nation. Men are beginning to discern the strident discords in what they have come to feel might be the richly orchestrated symphony of a united humanity. Science is teaching them to see in all men and all societies the manifestation of a common human nature. History is teaching them the wealth of peoples that, each in its own way, have contributed to the building of the world we now inhabit. Religion is showing them how each great prophet has seen beyond his people the vision of a mankind cooperating in the free life of the spirit. Philosophy is making them aware of the great problems that face [Page 61]

CURRENT BOOKS ON WORLD UNITY

all mankind, and is forging for them the intellectual tools for a united effort at solution. It is because we see our present state projected against the picture of what might be, that we have so many doctors and prophets. A knowledge of the disease is the first step to recovery, or, if you prefer a religious metaphor, the conviction of sin is the sole path to salvation. It is not that our society is more seriously ill than it has been at times past; it is rather that we are coming to know ourselves better, to realize our maladjustments and needless conflicts, and to catch a vision of the more perfect world that our new self-knowledge makes possible.

These columns will welcome every book that can contribute to this self-knowledge and this vision. History, science, religion, philosophy, as well as those works more narrowly directed to the problems of the emerging world—each is making its own offering to the truth we require. We desperately need knowledge, and we crave faith and inspiration. From the flood of books that is overwhelming us we shall earnestly search for the best.

It seems well to preface an attempt to judge the current output by a list of books that already stand out as pioneers in this great enterprise. Most of them are very recent, for this self-knowledge of ours is a thing of but yesterday. One familiar with the thought of these writers will find it easy to judge the offerings of those who come after. The attitudes, the concepts, the viewpoints of these men are the indispensable instruments with which their many colleagues are working.

1. HISTORY

THE NEW HISTORY, by JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON (Macmillan) THE NEW HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL STUDIES, by HARRY E. BARNES (Century) HISTORY AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE, by HARRY E. BARNES (Knopf)

These three books describe the spirit of the new history that has deserted politics and battles for the life of peoples, and concerns itself with the building of a common civilization, not national glorification. [Page 62]THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY, by H. G. WELLS (Macmillan) A spirited account written to show the ever-enlarging sphere within which men have recognized friends and allies.

THE STORY OF MANKIND, by HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON (Boni and Liveright) A vivid and graphic narrative.

THE HUMAN ADVENTURE, by JAMES H. BREASTED and JAMES H. ROBINSON (Harper's) A pioneer work in the new history, with many illustrations.

THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION, by LYNN THORNDYKE (F. A. Crofts) An attempt to show the growth of civilization as a unit, based on the most recent scholarship.

WORLD HISTORY, 1815-1920, by FUETER (Harcourt) The 19th century as it looks to a judicious and impartial Swiss.

MODERN WORLD HISTORY, 1776-1926, by ALEXANDER FLICK (Knopf)

ASIA, a Short History from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, by HERBERT H. GOWEN (Little, Brown) A desirable corrective to our European viewpoint.

THE OUTLINE OF MODERN HISTORY, by EDWARD MEADE EARLE (Harper's) A detailed syllabus with an excellent bibliography.

The development of the great institutions of our civilization that know no national boundaries

THE MIND IN THE MAKING, by JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON (Harper's) A sketch of the growth of our scientific and critical attitude.

THE LIVING PAST, by F. S. MARVIN (Oxford)

THE CENTURY OF HOPE, by F. S. MARVIN (Oxford) Taken together, an admirable brief account of the formation of our culture.

THE MAKING OF THE WESTERN MIND, by F. M. STAWELL and F. S. MARVIN (Doran) Episodes in European cultural life.

THE UNITY OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION, by F. S. MARVIN, ed. (Oxford)

WESTERN RACES AND THE WORLD, by F. S. MARVIN, ed. (Oxford)

THE EVOLUTION OF WORLD-PEACE, by F. S. MARVIN, ed. (Oxford) [Page 63]

CURRENT BOOKS ON WORLD UNITY

Notable lectures on the historical roots of the unity of man. The following describe the present forces making for disunity and war:

ESSAYS ON NATIONALISM, by CARLETON J. H. HAYES (Macmillan) A classic description and diagnosis.

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY, by G. LOWES DICKINSON (Century) An impartial study of the fruits of nationalism.

IMPERIALISM AND WORLD-POLITICS, by PARKER T. MOON (Macmillan)

INTRODUCTION TO WORLD-POLITICS, by HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS (Century) Standard accounts of the nature and workings of imperialism today.

IMPERIALISM, A STUDY, by J. A. HOBSON (James Pott) Written a generation ago, but still the most reflective study.

EMPIRE AND COMMERCE IN AFRICA, by LEONARD S. WOOLF An unsurpassed account of the actual workings of imperialism.

(Prof. Randall's list will be followed in later issues by similar lists on the subjects of Religion, Science, The Sciences of Man, Philosophy, Education, and Ideals of Life.) [Page 64]

INTERPRETING THE NEW SPIRIT In Science, Religion, Philosophy, Ethics and the Arts

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE will bring you each month a series of articles by well known leaders which anticipate the conclusions of current lectures and books.

A new, universal culture is in process of formation—new values are creating a true world outlook. The education received even a few years ago is inadequate for those who desire to live abreast of the times.

A subscription to World Unity Magazine will inform you about the essentials of progress as registered upon minds awakened to the deeper meanings of world change and responsive to the underlying forces of the new era.

Bring World Unity Magazine to the attention of your friends.

WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION, 122 EAST 34TH STREET, NEW YORK.

Please enter my subscription to World Unity Magazine. I enclose $3.50. (In Canada, $4.00; other countries, $4.50.) [Page 65]

THE WORLD UNITY Conferences

To Create. Harmony and Understanding Among Religions, Races, Nations and Classes

Program of Meetings

OCTOBER and NOVEMBER 1927 [Page 66]

THE WORLD UNITY CONFERENCES

In the World Unity Conferences a new and distinctive type of public meeting has been established, one which strongly appeals to all who desire to come into contact with the forces making for universal unity yet prefer not to identify themselves with any formal organization through membership or dues.

A World Unity Conference consists of several consecutive meetings at which responsible leaders in the fields of education, science, philosophy, ethics and religion interpret those fundamental principles of human association capable of overcoming traditional prejudice and promoting the ideals of brotherhood and world peace.

Conferences are held at frequent intervals in cities throughout the United States and Canada. These meetings are open to all, without dues, admission ticket or collection. The committee will be pleased to receive correspondence from organizations and individuals willing to cooperate in the extension of this independent platform dedicated to the promotion of harmony and understanding among religions, races, nations and classes.

Kindly use reply coupon on last page of this announcement

WORLD UNITY CONFERENCE COMMITTEE JOHN HERMAN RANDALL ALFRED W. MARTIN MARY RUMSEY MOVIUS FLORENCE REED MORTON HORACE HOLLEY HELEN LOUISE PEARSON VINCENT G. BURNS

Program of Meetings-October and November, 1927

New York City-October 10, 11, 12 Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.-October 23, 24, 25 Brown University, Providence, R. I.-October 31, Nov. 1, 2 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.-November 5, 6, 7 Chicago, Ill.-November 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 Worcester, Mass.-November 27, 28, 29 [Page 67]

THE WORLD UNITY CONFERENCES

From March, 1926, to June, 1927, World Unity Conferences were held in the following cities: Worcester, Mass.; Eliot, Maine; Philadelphia; Buffalo; Cleveland; Boston; Dayton, Ohio; Chicago; New York; Springfield, Mass.; New Haven, Conn.; Rochester, N. Y.; Hartford, Conn.; Montreal, Quebec; and Toronto, Ontario.

The Evening Transcript of Boston described the Conferences in an article published December 11, 1926. "The phrase 'world unity' is still so comparatively new that it probably summons up a quite different thought in every mind that considers it. Whether we regard world unity as a feasible program or a remote, unattainable ideal, the fact that prominent scientists, educators and statesmen, as well as representative Christians, Jews and followers of other faiths are willing to participate in a public meeting devoted to this object is a very significant indication of the new trend.

"To many, world unity implies something in the nature of a formal political organization, like an extension of the much debated League of Nations. To others, it suggests a further perfection of the machinery of communication, including airplanes for physical going about, and radio for the dispatch of ideas. There are some who perhaps feel that world unity suggests at least a tentative working alliance between capital and Labor, while a few would undoubtedly point to the fact of increased religious tolerance as indicating a future possible unity between the various religious bodies of the East and the West.

"It is world unity as a deeper understanding and stronger spirit of cooperation between peoples themselves, quite apart from their present political, economic or religious affiliations, however, which is the ideal promoted by the World Unity Conferences. This view considers that it is essential to rise above all partisan questions and appeal direct to the latent humanity obscured in the hearts of men. To achieve this result, the first beginning has been made by establishing a platform independent of any existing social organism, and thus capable of giving equal respect to the ideals and principles of all. Probably no more universal public forum exists in this country today than the World Unity Conferences supply, since they offer the same hospitality to Jew and Moslem as to Christian, and to scientist or philosopher as to religionist, while the black and yellow races have also found on this platform a place not inferior to that accorded the white. The selection of speakers, however, does uphold a strict standard of suitability, in that each speaker must represent some approach to the problem of world unity."

WORLD UNITY CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

March, 1926-June, 1927

MR. ALFRED W. MARTIN Society for Ethical Culture, New York

MR. LOUIS GREGORY National Lecturer an Racial Amity

ALI-KULI KHAN, N.D. Former Persian Minister to the U. S.

REV. KAPRIAL BREDOSIAN Church of the Martyrs, Worcester, Mass.

DR. JOHN HERMAN RANDALL Community Church of New York

SYUD HOSSAIN Editor The New Orient

THOMAS QUE HARRISON Youth Movement

PROP. CLARENCE SKINNER Tufts College [Page 68]

THE WORLD UNITY CONFERENCES

PROP. HENRY W. HETZEL President, Esperanto Assoc. of North America

REV. ALBERT R. VAIL National Lecturer on Religions Unity

REV. LAWRENCE PLANK First Unitarian Church, Rochester, N. Y.

PROP. JESSE HOLMES Swarthmore College

DR. HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS Historian

Dr. S. P. CAPEN Chancellor, University of Buffalo

DR. TEN-YI HSIEH Chinese Trade Commissioner, Boston

DR. DILWORTH LUPTON First Unitarian Church, Cleveland, Obie

DR. JOEL HAYDEN Fairmount Presbyterian Church, Cleveland, Ohio

PROP. HERBERT A. MILLER Obio State University

RADDI HILLEL SILVER The Temple, Cleveland, Obio

PROF. KIRTLEY F. MATHER Harvard University

PROF. WILLIAM E. HOCKING Harvard University

RADDI HARRY LEVI Temple Israel, Boston

PROF. FRANK D. SLUTZ Moraine Park School

JUDGE FLORENCE E. ALLEN Supreme Court of Ohio

MR. LORADO TAFT Sculptor, Chicago

Mas. CHARLES S. CLARK President, Presidents' Conference of Women's Clubs, Chicago

DR. SHAILER MATHEW'S Dean, Divinity School, University of Chicago

MR. HORACE J. BRIDGES Society for Ethical Culture, Chicago

Ma. J. C. CHATTERJI Vidya Varibdi, Cambridge, England

Da. EUSTACE HAYDON University of Chicago

DR. FREDERICK CARL EISELEN Northwestern University President, Garrett Biblical Institute,

DR. JACOB PISTER St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Chicago

Rev. FRED MERRIFIELD All Souls' Church, Chicago

DR. MAX MASON President, University of Chicago

RABBI LOUIS L. MANN Sinai Congregation, Chicago

REV. PRESTON BRADLEY The People's Church, Chicago

DR. WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD Columbia University

ALAIN LOCKE, Ph.D. Author of The New Negre

HON. ZIANG-LING CHANG Chinese Consul General, New York

MRS. MARY CHAPIN International New Thought Alliance

DR. L. L. DOGGETT President, International Y. M.C. A. College, Springfield

Da. S. L. JOSHI Dartmouth College

Da. AUGUSTUS O. THOMAS President, World Federation of Educational Associations

PROP. KENNETH SCOTT LATOURETTE Yale University

MR. DEVERE ALLEN Executive Editor, THE WORLD TOMORROW

PROF. VLADIMIR KARAPETOFF Cornell University

MR. MOUNTPORT MILLS Bahá’í Movement

MISS AGNES MCPHAIL, M.P. Ottawa, Canada

REV. JOHN BEVAN, M.A. London, England

DR. DEXTER PERKINS University of Rochester

DR. WILLIAM MOSHER University of Syracuse

Dr. E. M. BEST United Theological College, Montrea!

PROF. D. M. KEYS University of Toronto

DR. JAMES L. HUGHES Inspector of Schools, Toront

PRINCIPAL MAURICE HUTTON University College, Taranto

PROF. R. M. MACIVER University of Toronto

WORLD UNITY CONFERENCES, 5 WHEELER AVENUE, WORCESTER, MASS.

I am interested in the aims and purposes of the World Unity Conferences.

Please send announcements ☐ I will cooperate locally ☐

NAME..

ADDRESS.. [Page 69]

Institute of World Unity

A SUMMER conference appealing to those interested in the development of the humanitarian ideal in terms of science and philosophy has been founded as a service to world unity. Under the auspices of the Institute, leading educators will each season offer courses presenting subjects of vital significance.

The program of the first season, held at Green Acre, Eliot, Maine, shows the character and scope of this unique experiment in the field of "adult re-education".

PROGRAM OF INSTITUTE OF WORLD UNITY AUGUST, 1927

August 1-6. Nationalism and Internationalism, by Herbert Adams Gibbons. Nationalism before 1789. Nationalism vs. Internationalism from 1789 to 1815. Factors in the Development of Nationalism in Europe from 1815 to 1870. Nationalist Movements in Europe from 1870 to 1914. Nationalism vs. Internationalism from 1914 to 1919. The International Movement Since the World War.

August 8-13. The Making of the Modern Mind, by John Herman Randall, Jr. The Building of the Christian Tradition. The Discovery of the Scientific Order of Nature. The Romantic Call to a Larger Experience. The Growth of Faith in Evolutionary Science. The Adjustment of Religion to the Scientific Faith. The Emergence of the Ideal of a Functionally Unified World.

August 15-20. Comparative Religion, by Samuel Lucas Joshi. The Main Phases of Development among Leading Religions. A Survey of the Concepts of God, Prayer and Sacrifice. The Nature of the Soul and a Comparative Study of Eschatology among Different Religions. India's Contribution to the Interpretation of the Cal Problems of Religion. Science and Feiigion among Western Nations in the 19th Century. Some Problems of Today and the Religious Outlook for Tomorrow.

August 22-27. Science and Religion, by Kirtley F. Mather. The New World Revealed by Modern Science. Survival of Religion in the Struggle for Existence. Machines, Men and Mystics. The Search for God in a Scientific Age. Miracles and Prayer in a Law-Abiding Universe. The Present Trend of Science and Religion.

August 29-September 3. The Relations of East and West, by William R. Shepherd. The Meeting of East and West. Western Ways in Eastern Lands. Western Thoughts in Eastern Minds. Eastern Ways in Western Lands. Eastern Thoughts in Western Minds. Two Strong Men Stand Face to Face.

Present plans contemplate a winter as well as summer session of the Institute of World Unity. The program will be published in a few weeks.

To receive information, kindly send name and address, and state whether bulletins of summer or winter sessions are desired.

INSTITUTE OF WORLD UNITY 4 EAST 12TH STREET, NEW YORK [Page 70]

Reading List of CURRENT BOOKS on WORLD UNITY

By JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, PH. D. Review Editor, World Unity Magazine WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE Reprint No. 1. Ten cents a copy postpaid In quantity, five cents WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORP. 122 East 34th Street New York

THE FOUNDATIONS of WORLD UNITY

Ready October 15th

A SELECTION from the public addresses delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at Universitics, Churches, Synagogues and Peace Societies in the United States and Canada during 1912.

112 pages, paper covers. Seventy-five cents a copy at your bookstore. From the publisher, postpaid, eighty cents.

WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORP. 122 East 34th Street New York

GROUP SUBSCRIPTIONS For the Benefit of Non-commercial Organizations

THE attention of executives, field workers and members of organizations established for service without commercial profit is called to the Group Subscription Plan of World Unity Magazine.

The purpose of this plan is to enable those identified with institutions or societies of an educational, scientific, ethical, religious or humanitarian character to receive copies of World Unity Magazine at a special discount based upon group subscription.

Under the Group Subscription Plan, the specified number of monthly copies will be sent to one address only, for re-distribution to members through the regular channels of the organization itself.

By elimination of mailing and also selling costs on such copies, the Group Subscription Plan represents scientific economy which should bring publisher and reader together in actual cooperation not possible in the case of the ordinary magazine.

Group Subscriptions apply to the following number of monthly copies ordered for a period of one year: 25 50 100 500 1000

If you are a member of a non-commercial organization you can receive World Unity Magazine at a special rate.

Details on request

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE Office of the Business Manager 122 East 34th Street, New York [Page 71]

CHRISTMAS CARDS of DISTINCTION

New and original designs Printed on choice papers Hand-colored Send for samples

CLARA HALLARD FAWCETT 122 East 34th Street New York City

THE NEW STUDENT

"If we were the parent of a young man or woman aged seventeen who was about to leave the home nest and eating house for more and larger education, we should advise ourselves to subscribe for The New Student. Having no college authorities to fear or placate, The New Student is free to tell all that happens, with comment. Their (the editors) glass turns impartially east and west, on colleges large and small. They are interested in everything that attracts any sizable attention on a campus, not excluding religion, censorship, dramatics, morals, evolution, compulsory military drill and Russian educational experiments." -from OLD OREGON (University of Oregon Alumni Magazine)

THE NEW STUDENT speaks for the thinking student and professor. There are some! A sample copy will be a tonic for you. Be sure to send for one.

THE NEW STUDENT 2929 Broadway New York Published every week during the college year. $1.50

STRAUSS SCHOOL of the CREATIVE DANCE

SARA MILDRED STRAUSS Director

THE CREATIVE DANCE aims to control and master the physical body—to make at the obedient and the instant servant at the will, to make it alert and expressive, to develop its natural grace and beauty to the full. It develops distinction and form in bodily movement.

The Creative Dance stimulates the imagination, vitalizes our mental processes, and makes us more consciously ve. It strives to touch and awaken the human spirit.

Send for illustrated circular STRAUSS SCHOOL OF THE CREATIVE DANCE Carnegie Hall, New York City

Evelyn Berckman

Distinguished American Pianist and Composer

LECTURE PROGRAMS with explanatory illustrations at the piano

WOMEN IN MUSIC Two CENTURIES OF MUSIC: From Scarlatti to Brahms MUSIC, THE MIRROR OF MODES AND MANNERS CHOPIN

Address Management, EVELYN BERCKMAN 1020 W. Upsal Street, Philadelphia, Pa. [Page 72]

Beginning in October: Two Notable Series of Articles in THE WORLD TOMORROW

OCTOBER marks the beginning of the eleventh year of THE WORLD TOMORROW. We are proud of the growth of this monthly journal and its influence during the last ten years. Fittingly the eleventh year opens with two notable series of articles: one, "Recent Gains in American Civilization"; the other, "A Group of Articles on Vital Religion". Each article of the two series is to be written by a distinguished critic of contemporary life. These special features, which are to begin in October and run for the next twelve months, are in addition to the material on the topic announced for each month.

Recent Gains in American Civilization

By a group of distinguished critics of contemporary life

HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK, Religion CHARLES A. BEARD, Government NORMAN THOMAS, International Relations STUART CHASE, Business and Finance ROCKWELL KENT, Art CHARLES S. JOHNSON, Race Relations DALLAS LORE SHARP, Education MARY VAN KLEECK, Industrial Relations HEYWOOD BROUN, Stage and Screen DAVID STARR JORDAN, Science MARY AUSTIN, Literature OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD, Journalism

A Group of Articles on VITAL RELIGION

BISHOP FRANCIS J. McCONNELL RICHARD ROBERTS CHARLES W. GILKEY SHERWOOD EDDY ADELAIDE CASE MORDECAI W. JOHNSON MAUDE ROYDEN HARRY F. WARD JEROME DAVIS REINHOLD NIEBUHR HALFORD LUCOCK DAVID BRYN-JONES

The World Tomorrow, Inc., 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York City

I am tremendously interested in the two series of articles which will run for a year, beginning in October, in THE WORLD TOMORROW. Please enter my subscription for one year. (I enclose $2.00, Canada $2.25, Foreign $2.50.)

A year's joint subscription with WORLD UNITY for $4.00 instead of the regular $6.00 if this coupon is used.

Name

Street Address...

City and State