World Unity/Volume 10/Issue 4/Text

←Previous

World Unity Volume 10, Issue 4

Next→

Return to PDF view Proofread once

[Page 217]

WORLD UNITY

INTERPRETING THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE

JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, Editor HORACE HOLLEY, Managing Editor

CONTENTS

Charles Evans Hughes Frontispiece Statesmanship Needed Editorial The Case for War Robert C. Stevenson Report of Committee on Economic Sanctions A Moral Order Exact As the Physical Order Hugh McCurdy Woodward Orient and Occident: The Economic Problem Hans Kohn Oriental Epoch of Passive Individualism Paul Hinner This Praying World-America John William Kitching What is Peace Education? Frank Walser The Adequate Wage Ernst Jonson Latin American Student Opinion Philip Leonard Green The Meeting Point Royal W. France The Dawn of Peace ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Round Table

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE is published by WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORA- TION, 4 East 12th Street, New York City: MARY RUMSEY MOVIUS, president; HORACE HOLLEY, vice-president; FLORENCE MORTON, treasurer: JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, secretary. Published monthly, 25 cents a copy, $2.50 a year in the United States and in all other countries (postage included). THE WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION and its editors welcome correspondence on articles related to the aims and purposes of the magazine. Printed in U. S. A. Contents copyrighted 1932 by WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION. [Page 218]

CHARLES EVANS HUGHES

Portrait by F. Soulé Campbell [Page 219]

STATESMANSHIP NEEDED

EDITORIAL

NOTHING reveals more clearly the cross purposes between politics and economics than does the Lausanne Conference which convened June 16th. From the political viewpoint, taken alone, nothing much can be expected in the settlement of the questions at issue. Germany has stated frankly her ultimatum—that she is not able to continue paying reparations, and she has authority of the Basle International Commission to justify her position. But the policy of France up-to-date has been just as determined that Germany must be forced to pay. Quite regardless of the economic realities, it is political motives both openly and behind the scenes that will present the great obstacle to any rational settlement.

It was desired by the European governments that Washington send a delegation to Lausanne to consider both reparations and all other issues bearing on the economic ills of the world. Washington, however, did not accept the invitation, taking the time honored ground that the settlement of reparations was a purely European matter. But the pressure of economic realities has led London to take the lead in inviting the United States to an economic conference, to be held at Lausanne immediately following the reparation conference. Washington was wary that this might involve us in the debt question and insisted it be held in London, and present indications are that there will be such a London meeting, which will be called the second part of the Lausanne Conference.

But here is the curious thing. An official statement says that the proposed London meeting "would have nothing to do with war debts, reparations, disarmament or any other than purely [Page 220]economic questions." Another reason given is that the conference is to handle "only economic questions."

So the position of the United States is that we are willing to attend "a purely economic conference" on the condition that it does not mention war debts, reparations and tariffs. One official reason is that they are not economic problems; our real reason is that for political reasons our government does not wish to take up those matters at this time. And this in face of the fact that all economists and a steadily increasing number of our foremost financiers, bankers, industrialists and men of affairs have gone on record in unmistakeable terms, to the effect that the greatest obstacles standing in the way of economic recovery, are war debts, reparations and high tariffs. It is self-evident that if the London Conference is to amount to anything, it must discuss these issues. Granted that these questions are badly entangled with politics, it still remains true that they are of the very essence of the economic problems that must be solved before we can expect any world recovery.

As Edwin L. James has said, "The truth of the matter is that the whole scheme of reparations and war debts, to be paid in billions for decades, has broken down. The real question relates to how and when the sorry mess is to be cleaned up. It may be at London, it may be later. It must be done somewhere and somehow. . . . The imponderables of the situation with a force that is merciless for politicians and their shibboleths, is bringing the world steadily closer to a showdown on war debts. In this development the operation of putting the situation up to the United States begins to appear as approaching with inevitable sureness."

This country holds the strategic position and should take the lead in removing these formidable obstacles to recovery. But as long as Washington holds that war debts, reparations and tariffs have no place at an economic conference, what hope is there?

The chief need of this country today is statesmanship of a higher order and broader vision than has as yet been apparent.

J.H.R. [Page 221]

THE CASE FOR WAR

by ROBERT C. STEVENSON Department of Social Science, University of Idaho

Since the World War the ideal of international peace has been dominant. The multifarious international activities of the League of Nations, the repeated conferences looking toward limitation of armaments, the Permanent Court of International Justice and the increasingly numerous and unreserved agreements to submit disputes to arbitration, the Kellogg Treaty of war renunciation, and Briand's proposal for a European Union—all witness to the general desire to prevent armed conflicts between nations. Perhaps many despair of permanently securing world peace, but few doubt its desirability. That war should deliberately be approved by thoughtful men as a mode of international intercourse seems incomprehensible today. Its glorification seems the work of mad men. The propaganda of the World War produced the impression, in America at least, that deprecation of peace as an ideal was confined to thinkers of the militaristic Central Powers, typified by the Germans, Treitschke, Nietzsche, and Bernardi. Such was not the case, however. War was seriously defended as a part of the social order by men of many nationalities. Thoroughgoing apologists for war were few in numbers, few in all countries, but they were to be found in England, France, and even the United States, as well as in Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The opinions of the apologists for war are worth examining. Intrinsically they merit attention. If war plays a necessary or useful rôle in social development, it is important to inquire whether uninterrupted peace would be entirely adequate. Apart from their [Page 222]bearing upon the validity of the peace ideal, pro-war views are also interesting as an illustration of the nature and development of social theory. The justification of war well exhibits the relation of a controversial theory to its antithesis, and also the way in which every possible line of thought is exploited to support the desired conclusion, irrespective of its proper significance.

It must be understood that the case for war is distinct from justification of a particular war and from the general justification of defensive war. The typical explanation of a nation which has resorted to war is that it was attacked or its rights were forcibly violated by another nation, or that such a situation was imminently threatened and that the only safety lay in armed defense. Each party normally alleges that its resort to arms was defensive. Such an explanation is obviously one-sided, and in strict logic such a justification could apply to only one party, its opponent necessarily being the aggressor. The general argument which justifies defensive war—that it is right to resist unrighteous force with force—is similarly partial. Only the party on the defensive is in the right: one party is necessarily the aggressor; and the blame for all the loss and suffering of the war rests upon the guilty party. Such an argument is not defense of war; it is the exculpation of one of the parties, and is entirely consistent with adherence to a pacific ideal. The case for war is not concerned with averting from either side the blame for war; it approves war, either in itself or as a necessary and beneficial element of social adjustment.

It is significant that such a thoroughgoing justification of war scarcely appears before the nineteenth century. Not until a pacifistic ideal and program appeared which threatened to attract considerable approval did the institution of war become the object of theoretical justification and emotional glorification. Although condemnation of war has existed since the early Christians, until recently it has been of practically no influence. Objection to war has been upon religious and moral grounds, but the dominant religious organizations—the Roman Catholic Church, and since their rise, the major Protestant bodies—have consistently sanctioned war under appropriate conditions. The pacifist program has consisted of the [Page 223]

THE CASE FOR WAR

exhortation individually to abstain from war, on the ground that violence is an evil of such magnitude as to outweigh every possible good which it might secure, even justice. This proposition the bulk of men have always rejected. They have supported, rather, the moderate view that the evils of war, great as they are, are yet preferable to loss of national independence or territory by conquest, or to the sacrifice of the honor or vital interests of the state. This position, which justifies defensive war, is still generally held and is institutionalized in the military forces of the various states. With the development, however, of a pacifist doctrine which sought means of securing peace consistent with justice and without demanding that men abstain from war under every condition, the one-sided argument which could justify war merely for whichever party was in the right ceased to be an adequate response to pacifism, and a radical militarism developed, capable of justifying war irrespective of its use to secure justice.

The less radical but more persuasive pacifism which proposed the securing of just peace through international organization found occasional proponents from as early as the fourteenth century. But not until the nineteenth century did it give sufficient promise of influence to evoke a positive justification of war. That such an ideal first prospered in the nineteenth century is to be attributed both to the intellectual milieu and to the actual international situation. The idea of progress—that human conditions are not static but that men may deliberately create institutions better suited to promote their happiness—which emerged in the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, was congenial to such proposals. Of greater importance was the increasing interdependence of nations resulting from the division of labor on a larger scale in consequence of new methods of production and transportation, and the consequent growth of varied international relationships, made possible by the inventions and new techniques in communication. The development of numerous public and private international organizations reflected the multiplication of human interests which overstepped national boundaries, and suggested that still other interests, including even that in national security, might be administered and [Page 224]protected by international agencies. With the ideal of peace through international organization being given plausibility by the meeting of international conferences for pacific purposes, by the practice of arbitration, and the development of international law, it is not surprising that radical justification of the established institution of war appeared.

Such justification counters the pacifist indictment of war by minimizing or even completely denying its horrors, by presenting suffering as glorious and conflict as ennobling. The pacifist’s assertion that justice among men may be approximated better by the political process than by periodical contests of arms in the world sphere just as within the nation, the militarist opposes by magnifying the national interests which war protects or promotes or even by viewing them in a mystical way as being of transcendent importance.

II

Much that is commonly accepted as unconditional justification of war is logically inadequate. The pacifist’s condemnation of war has received many answers which serve to lighten the picture rather than to show that war is actually good. Such mitigating considerations have been advanced not only by those who radically justify war on other grounds but by nationalists supporting military preparedness, especially, of course, in times of crisis.

The costs of war are minimized in various ways. For example, the annual military and naval expenses of a national are compared with its national income and with particular expenditures, as for liquor, tobacco, entertainment, or fire and theft insurance, in order to show that the costs of military preparation are not as high as often supposed. A favorite device is to represent the cost of preparedness as no more than a reasonable “premium” upon the “national insurance” which armaments provide—another illustration of the tendency toward a one-sided view in which war appears as always defensive. The annual financial cost of the wars of a nation, when averaged over the intervening years of peace, is shown to be small in comparison with income and expenditures in the same [Page 225]

THE CASE FOR WAR

fashion. Similarly, the human costs are minimized by comparison with the toll of industrial accidents.

Military training and peace-time preparation for war have great values, it is claimed. Military training is of genuine educational value due to its inculcation of discipline and obedience, punctuality and teamplay, and the lessons in personal hygiene and Sanitation which it teaches. Universal service broadens the horizons of many who would otherwise be condemned to the provincialism of their own localities. War and preparation for war quicken men’s ingenuity, stimulate invention and scientific research, and promote industrial expansion. The development of steel and high explosives, of precision instruments, of air craft, of medicine, surgery, and chemistry—all have been advanced under the stress of military competition. Society has benefited historically through the construction of military roads and more recently of canals and railroads for the same purpose. Army engineers and medical services have rendered valuable service in time of peace. These benefits are confessedly incidental, nor is it claimed that each desirable end could not have been achieved at least as well and more economically if it has been sought directly. Historically indeed, the motive of military necessity may have produced important incidental advantages which would not otherwise have appeared; but today scientific research, engineering, the construction of public works, and education are intensively cultivated without the military motive.

Attempts have been made to show an historical correlation between war and the flourishing of culture. The climax of Greek civilization, it is pointed out, occurred in the epoch of the Peloponnesian War; Rome’s Augustan age followed the civil wars; culture flowered in Germany after the Thirty Years’ War, and in France under Louis XIV after the War of Religion. John Ruskin developed the thesis that "all the pre and noble arts of peace are founded on war; no great art ever yet rose on earth, but among a nation of soldiers."

The common notion [he said] that peace and the virtues of Civil life flourished together, I found to be wholly untenable. Peace and the vices of civil life only flourish together. We talk of peace [Page 226]and learning, and of peace and plenty, and of peace and civilization; but I found that those were not the words which the Muse of History coupled together: that on her lips, the words were—peace and sensuality, peace and selfishness, peace and corruption, peace and death. I found, in brief, that all great nations learned their truth of word, and strength of thought, in war; that they were nourished in war, and wasted in peace; taught by war, and deceived by peace; trained by war, and betrayed by peace; in a word, that they were born in war, and expired in peace.

Those who hold this view advance sufficient evidence to show that the assertions of pacifists concerning war's blighting effects upon culture cannot be accepted without qualification, but at most their evidence shows a coincidence of warfare and culture in the same period, not a cause to effect relation. It would be at least as plausible to suppose that military vigor and achievement in art, literature, and other intellectual fields are diverse expressions of some underlying energy or stimulation, as to hold that culture is as a consequence of war. The cultural achievements in the smaller countries, the Scandinavian, Holland, and Switzerland, during the nineteenth century indicates that war and culture are not inevitably conjoined.

War has been lauded also as an important influence in the dissemination of culture. Hellenism was extended by the conquests of Alexander and Christianity by the campaigns of Charlemagne, for example. This function of war is now principally of historical importance, however. Today war tends to cut off a nation from foreign influences at least as much as the reverse; while in peace the contacts of travel and commerce, the interchange of books and periodicals and of students, the meetings of international associations proceed in increasing measure.

Condemnation of war on moral grounds is controverted by the defenders of war. The battlefield is portrayed as the theatre of the highest morality, where selfishness is uprooted and union and discipline are inculcated. If permanent peace should be realized, "where then would be the steeps of life?" inquires William James. "Militarism is the great preserver of our ideals of hardihood, and human life with no use for hardihood would be contemptible. [Page 227]

THE CASE FOR WAR

Resolution, courage, endurance, obedience, comradeship, heroism, self-sacrifice--such are the virtues said to be evoked in peculiar measure by war.

"Except for war there would be no heroism. Discipline, authority, obedience have been cradled upon the great battlefields. In war have been born virtue and the heroic spirit. The virtues of war are the sine qua non of life and the daily bread of human nature."

"The noblest virtues of man are developed in war: courage and renunciation, fidelity to duty and the spirit of sacrifice; the soldier gives even his life. Without war the world would stagnate and perish in materialism."

"We have learned to perceive the moral majesty of war through the very processes which to the superficial observer seem brutal and inhuman. The greatness of war is just what at first sight seems to be its horror-that for the sake of their country men will overcome the natural feelings of humanity, that they will slaughter their fellow-men who have done them no injury, nay, whom they perhaps respect as chivalrous foes. Man will not only sacrifice his life, but the natural and justified instincts of his soul; *** When we pursue this thought further we see how war with all its brutality and sternness, weaves a bond of love between man and man, linking them together to face death, and causing all class distinctions to disappear."

That the sterner virtues find expression in: war is readily apparent, but that war should stimulate the converse qualities of human brotherhood appears so paradoxical that it is often especially emphasized. While pacifists stress the cruelty and brutality of war as between combatants and the hate which animates civilian populations, defenders of war point to the drawing together within each nation, the weakening of class lines, the willingness of all to be of service in a common cause, and, above all, to the idealism and self-sacrifice of those who offer their lives for their country. It is this quality of self-sacrifice which permits reconciliation of war with

1 Avon Boguslawsky, Helmuth K. B. von Moltke. Henrich von Treitschke. [Page 228]Christianity. As an example of such a reconciliation the following is quoted from a sermon in defense of war by the Reverend James B. Mozley before the University of Oxford in 1871.

"There is one side indeed of the moral character of war in special harmony with the Christian type--I refer to the spirit of sacrifice which is inherent in the very idea of the individual encountering death for the sake of the body to which he belongs. There is a mediatorial function which pervades the whole dispensation of God's natural providence, by which men have to suffer for each other. ***And it is this serious and sacred function which consecrates war. Without it, indeed, what would war be but carnage? With it, war displays in spite of its terrible features, a solemn morality."

It is true that many admirable qualities are displayed in war. Nor are they only those of the sterner sort, for in time of crisis solidarity is increased within the national group and the sympathetic virtues play an important rôle. External separation is accompanied by unification within. Here, again, however, as in the case of the coincidence of war and culture, the cause and effect relation is uncertain. War undoubtedly evokes desirable moral qualities (as well as others less desirable), but that does not prove that it creates them, or that they would not be present in society were it not for their occasional stimulation in war. The decline of morale as war progresses, which finally compels governments to accept terms which were unacceptable earlier, and the disillusionment and cynicism which follow serious wars, suggest that war consumes virtues rather than creates them. The eventual decline of warlike nations would bear the same interpretation. While the vigor shown by Japan after its reformation in the nineteenth century following nearly three centuries of peace shows that even the capacity for war does not atrophy in peace.

(To be continued) [Page 229]

THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC SANCTIONS

HE Committee on Economic Sanctions, organized in September, 1931, on the invitation of the Trustees of the Twentieth Century Fund, submits the following report on the possible use of measures of non-intercourse by the nations of the world in the avoidance or suppression of hostilities....

The Pact of Paris, which is sometimes referred to as the Kellogg-Briand Treaty, pledges some sixty nations of the world to renounce war as an instrument of national policy. Following its renunciation of war, the Pact of Paris expressly stipulates that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may have which may arise among the high contracting parties shall never be sought except by pacific means. This solemn and epoch-marking engagement puts an end to international war forever, provided each one of the governments signatory thereto keeps its word. It surely is not to be lightly assumed that any signatory power will break its word solemnly given in a matter of such great importance.

So much having been said, however, one crucial question remains, namely: What shall be the attitude and the policy of the other powers signatory to the Pact of Paris, if one or more of their number, failing to conform to the pledge given in the Pact, do begin or threaten hostilities?

The Committee on Economic Sanctions is of opinion that the time has now fully come for the powers signatory to the Pact of Paris to declare, in answer to this question, what, under such circumstances, will be their policy.

holas Murray Butler, Chairman; Joseph P. Chamberlain: William H. Crocker: John Foster Dulles: Las R. Eastman: Alonson B. Houghton: Edward N. Hurley: James D. Mooney; Harold J. Mol Beiton Smith; Silas Strawn. [Page 230]In the present state of world opinion, it is highly probable that no people whose government is signatory to the Pact of Paris will desire the use of their government’s military and naval forces in the settlement of international quarrels arising elsewhere in the world. Nevertheless, a clear and definite violation of the pledges given in the Pact of Paris, may easily lead to another world-wide armed conflict, this time finally and fatally disastrous in its effects.

The Committee accordingly suggests that the signatories of the Pact of Paris should enter into an appropriate protocol or agreement supplemental to that Pact whereby they will engage themselves, in the event of hostilities, actual or threatened, promptly to consult together with a view to determine upon measures of non-intercourse which would be appropriate to prevent the threatened breach of the Pact, or if it could not be prevented, to end hostilities and to restore the status existing prior to the breach.

Among the measures of non-intercourse which could be applied would be:

(1) A cessation of any shipment of arms or munitions or other absolute contraband;

(2) Such further economic sanctions and concerted measures, short of the use of force, as may be determined to be appropriate and practical under the circumstances of any given case.

In order to give an international basis for consultation and possible action along the foregoing lines, it is recommended that the Government of the United States, as an initiator of the Pact of Paris, call a conference of the signatories of that Pact with a view to their adherence to a supplemental protocol or treaty which shall provide for such consultation and action as are here suggested.

The Committee submits these proposals in the firm conviction that such an international undertaking as is here urged upon the signatories of the Pact of Paris will promptly and powerfully advance the cause of international peace. [Page 231]

THE COMMON MESSAGE OF THE WORLD'S GREAT TEACHERS

by HUGH MCCURDY WOODWARD Department of Philosophy of Education, Brigham Young University

A MORAL ORDER AS EXACT AS THE PHYSICAL ORDER

ANOTHER striking similarity in the great philosophies is that they ali assume a moral order in nature, a moral order as ethical program proposed by each of these great teachers rests squarely on the idea that a moral order is a fact of nature. All these philosophies assume that a moral order is fixed upon man by the very nature of the characteristics which inhere in his being.

By the moral order we mean that there exists in nature a uniformity or cause and effect relationship which extends to and concerns all of man's characteristics, thoughts, acts and experiences as they relate to his ultimate welfare and development or to his detriment. It means that the elements and characteristics which make up an organized intelligence are so related to one another and to other phenomena in nature that their exercise or lack of exercise are followed by definite results to the individual. Among the characteristics which constitute man a part of the moral order are: consciousness of self and of other selves, ability to acquire knowledge, awareness of relationships between self and other phenomena, abstract reason, independent choice, conscience and will.

What the law of the conservation of energy is to the physical world, the law of compensation is to the moral order. Emerson makes a clear statement of the principle when he says: "This law of compensation will not be balked of its ends in the smallest iota." [Page 232]It is in vain to build or plot or combine against it. Things refuse to be mismanaged long. If the government is cruel, the governor’s life is not safe. If you tax too high, the revenue will yield nothing. ... Has a man gained anything who has received a hundred favors and rendered none? The borrower runs in his own debt. A wise man will extend this lesson to all parts of life and know that it is the part of prudence to face every claimant and pay every just demand on your time, your talents, and your heart.... Always pay. for, first or last, you must pay your entire debt. Persons and events may stand for a time between you and justice, but it is only a postponement. You must pay at last your own debt.

The idea of a reign of law in nature running from the physical plane to the moral plane together with the scientific method of approach is coming to constitute the dominant religion of our public school system. With these two concepts, the dependability of God in the laws of nature and the scientific method of approach once thoroughly inculcated into our religious and educational thought. much will be done to help man find the truth and give him courage to face the facts. From the building of machines to the building of character they will constitute the foundation of his theory and practice.

That there is an established order in nature seems quite commonplace to the average thinker of today, but it has not always been so. Even today, to many, the order in nature applies only to the physical world. The concept of a moral order, however, gradually forces itself upon the minds of those who think the problem through. It is in the realm of ethics, morals, and character that the scientist of this century is likely to make his greatest contribution Until the teachers of the world realize that there is a moral order in nature as exact as the physical order, the business of character building will remain in the realm of uncertainty.

While this principle is slowly being recognized because of development in all the social sciences, it was taught by the great teachers of the race centuries ago. From Hindu literature we read: "The law of Karma is the counterpart in the moral world of the physical law of uniformity; the law of the conservation of moral [Page 233]"energy." According to the principle of Karma there is nothing uncertain or capricious in the moral world. We reap what we sow. The good seeds bring a harvest of good, the evil of evil. Every little action has its effect on character.

Buddhism is equally explicit on this point: "One thing about this universe we do know, namely that it is fundamentally moral. The Law of Karma, of strict retribution is the most fundamental law in it; and all other laws, chemical or physical, are bound to conform.... According to the seed that's sown, so is the fruit ye reap therefrom. Doer of good will gather good, doer of evil, evil reaps. Sown is the seed and thou shalt taste the fruit thereof.... To the universal law of composition and dissolution men and gods form no exception."

Confucius makes much of this moral law in nature. He says: "The ordinance of God is what we call the law of our being. To fulfill the law of our being is what we call the moral law. The moral law when reduced to a system is what we call religion. The moral law is a law from whose operation we cannot for one instant in our existence escape. A law from which we may escape is not the moral law. Every system of moral law must be based upon man's own consciousness. It must be verified by the common experience of men. The life of the moral man is an exemplification of the universal moral order. The life of the vulgar person, on the other hand, is a contradiction of the universal moral order."

With reference to the moral order as it relates to everyday life, he said: "The moral law takes its rise in the relation between men and women; but in its utmost reaches it reigns supreme over heaven and earth. The moral law is not something away from the actuality of human life. When men take up something away from the actuality of human life as the moral law, that is not the moral law. When a man carries out the principles of conscientiousness and reciprocity he is not far from the moral law. What you do not wish others would do unto you, do not unto them."

The relation which the moral order sustains to the physical order is set forth by Confucius in the following: "These moral laws form one system with the law by which Heaven and Earth [Page 234]support and contain, overshadow and canopy all things.... It is this system of laws by which all created things are produced and develop themselves each in its order and system without injuring one another; that the operation of nature takes course without conflict or confusion. It is this—one system running through all—that makes the universe so impressively great."

Zoroaster’s entire system is based upon this idea of a moral order in nature. Throughout nature there runs a constructive, creative, and integrating principle. Morality is to keep in line with this constructive integrating principle. As stated in his teaching. the aim is "to raise God’s best and fairest work,—man, to a level of human perfection by good words, good thoughts, and good deeds: to a plane where man discovers God within himself.

He Again we have the idea reinforced and emphasized by Jesus. He says: "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. And he said unto them; Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you."

No greater blessing can come to man than to acknowledge this moral order and to have the courage to face its decrees. It is the willingness to acknowledge the Law of Compensation and square one’s life to its demands that constitutes the very foundation of moral accountability. Man comes to recognize that God, through nature, is a very efficient paymaster. He never short changes a neither does He make the mistake of giving back more than we deserve. By this principle one comes to know that the way to any reward is through effort. He ceases to expect something for nothing, or to think that he can be carried on the shoulders of others The recognition of this law is a sure cure for the worst of all maladies—self-pity, because in accepting it the individual learns to expect only that which he earns.

This idea of a moral order in nature assumes that man is moral because of certain characteristics which inhere in his very nature If it is true that man is a moral being instead of an unmoral entity such as the rose or the bird, what are the characteristics which make [Page 235]him moral?

The fact that all moral individuals of developed or undeveloped races hold themselves responsible for at least part of their own conduct is at the very center of the moral problem. These individuals also hold others responsible for at least part of their conduct.

The problem of why man is moral has been one of the major problems of philosophy through the ages. We raise the question again in this chapter because of its importance. Why does man hold his fellows responsible for their acts but does not hold the animal responsible? No other characteristic in human nature can be more universally observed than the fact that man does hold himself and other human beings responsible for his and their own acts. This characteristic is so universal that were it in most fields of science it would be looked upon as an established fact of nature. All religions, all systems of law, all regulations in society, assume that the individual's failure to comply with law places upon him the responsibility for that failure.

Now, just what are the characteristics which make a moral man moral but which are lacking in unmoral entities such as plants and animals? There must be something definite in man's nature which makes for this universal tendency. Most students of ethics contend that the problem of personal responsibility for one's own acts is at the heart of the problem. If we can discover the characteristics in the nature of men, in nature outside of man, and the relationship which exists between the two that give man this tendency to hold himself responsible, we shall be able to find the answer to our problem: Why is man a moral being?

From the quotations cited in this chapter we see that these great teachers assume that all nature including man is moving forward according to certain fixed and definite laws. They assume that nature or God moving along the line of constructive principles is constantly creating more complex and more perfect entities; that upon certain fundamental laws these entities exist and move in the direction of their greatest possibilities; that as long as the entities, whether they be trees, fish, or men, move in the direction of the [Page 236]constructive laws of their own natures, they are doing what nature or God intends them to do.

It is for this reason that one school of thought, embracing the fundamental principles of these philosophies and known in America as the Great School of Natural Science, defines morality as "The established harmonic relation which man as an individual intelligence sustains to the constructive principle of nature." A briefer statement of the same thought is, "Morality is man's established harmonic relation to the constructive principles of his own being." Many other great teachers besides those discussed in this volume are in agreement with this definition of morality, i.e., Pythogoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Roger Bacon, Francis Bacon, and others.

If this is moral then immoral would be the failure on the part of the individual to establish a harmonic condition with the constructive principle of his own best nature. All this assumes that there are certain principles which govern man's physical health, certain principles upon which his aesthetic, moral, spiritual, and intellectual development depends. It also assumes that man has certain capabilities and powers which enable him, if he properly uses them, to bring about a harmony between the life he lives and the constructive principles on which his higher and better self depends. If he did not possess these capacities and powers to bring his life in line with these constructive principles, he would be unmoral rather than immoral or moral.

It is now time to ask what are these capacities and powers which enable man to hold his life, his thoughts, his feelings, and conduct, in line with the constructive principles of his highest possible development? Before answering this question, we will do well to survey the principal characteristics in the four great kingdoms of nature. In the mineral kingdom we have a union of particles and an aggregation of groups of particles. From the making of an atom to the making of a planet this tendency for similar particles to unite explains the chief characteristics of creative activity in the mineral world.

In the plant kingdom we also have this union of particles and aggregations of groups of particles into various forms. Added to [Page 237]this we have that wonderful thing we call organization and growth. With the plant world it is not just a mere coming together of like particles as is the case in the formation of a rock or a crystal but there is a power in the entity which enables it to reach out and get the elements of nature, and work them into entirely different forms. There is also that wonderful capacity to reproduce itself.

Throughout the animal world there exists all that is found in the plant world plus a highly specialized set of characteristics known as appetites, passions, emotions, impulses, consciousness, and a certain kind of volition.

In the kingdom of man we have all the characteristics enumerated for the other kingdoms plus a marvelous set of characteristics unique to man, characteristics which, so far as we can tell, are not found below him. Man, therefore, seems to be a combination of all the major elements and characteristics found in nature. He has a purely chemical nature. The characteristics of organization, growth and reproduction found in the plant constitute part of his equipment. He has a full and complete set of appetites, passions, emotions, impuises, and desires found in the animal.

Man can truly be said to be an animal, but he is an animal-plus. But what is this plus? What does the animal lack which enables society to hold man responsible for his own conduct? What does the animal lack which enables man to have literature, science, art, philosophy, religion, societies, states, and nations? Are these things just an extension of something possible to the animal or do they represent other unique and definite characteristics not found in the animal? Does the animal have power to control its own appetites, passions, and emotions? Can it become master of these or must it ever remain a slave to them? Is there something in man which proves Henley to be right in the theme of "Invictus" which is not in the animal or plant? If so, what is it? Could any or all of the characteristics of plant or animal life account for the following stanza:

"It matters not how straight the gate, How charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate, [Page 238]"I am the captain of my soul.”

Can we explain man’s religious nature on a basis of animal characteristics? Can we explain his passion to know the truth, to become aware of relationships in nature on the same basis? Why do we say the animal is unmoral? If man is an animal plus something more, what is the something more?

Among the characteristics unique to man are the following:

1. Man is aware of his own personality. He has self-consciousness as contrasted with mere consciousness found in the animal. He is aware that he can say to himself, "I am that I am.”

2. Man has ability to extend his own knowledge, to become aware of the nature of himself and the nature of things about him.

3. Man has the power of abstract reason by which he can compare different groups of facts and determine the relation which exists between them. He can by this reason also determine the relation of these facts to his own welfare. To a marked and increasing degree he can see the relation which his own conduct bears to the laws of his own best development. Man reasons about himself, about his life, about the world, about God, about reason itself, and about the relation he bears to them all. Through this power of abstract reason he becomes conscious of his possibilities and also of the relation that certain modes of conduct bear to these possibilities.

4. Another of these unique characteristics which we find in man is the power to make a choice as to what his conduct will be. This choice is made on a consciousness of facts and of relations which exist between facts. There are many who deny to man this power to make a choice. But regardless of what our theories are all men move along adjusting to life as though they had this power. To argue that choice is merely response to the most powerful stimulus is to fail to appreciate the most important element in the problem. The ability to make a choice because of awareness of abstract relations between facts is quite a different thing to a response to immediate stimuli.

5. A fifth characteristic which is unique to man is his will to mastery. Regardless of what you call it, man has a power of spontaneity and initiative by which he can control and organize the [Page 239]clements of his own nature. Whether we call it free will or something else, the power remains the same. By virtue of this power man can control his appetites, passions, emotions, and even his thoughts.

It is in these abilities to know one’s life and to be able to control the elements of one’s nature that man differs from the animal. The animal follows its own appetites, passions, and emotions. In fact, so far as we can tell it is a slave to them. Man, by the proper use of these characteristics that are peculiarly human, can control his animal tendencies and thereby become master of his animal nature. These strictly human powers and capacities were designated by the great teachers as soul powers. It is a question whether any modern term describes them more scientifically or more accurately.

It would appear that Nature, or God, in giving to man these peculiar capacities and powers has shifted the responsibility for baking a success of life onto man’s own shoulders. By the very s of nature man is able to extend his knowledge of the prin ples and laws upon which his growth, unfoldment, and enlightenment depend. Because of his awareness of these relationships be ble to choose his course of conduct and shape his life.

It is in these higher capacities and powers that we meet the elements in the nature of man which are at the foundation of the moral order. These elements briefly summarized are:

1. Capacity to extend one’s knowledge, or awareness of the facts involved. 2. Power of reason by which to see the relationship which Exists between facts and between the facts and his own relation to them. 5. Ability to make an independent rational choice. 4. A power of will necessary to enable the individual to conform his conduct to his choice.

It is evident that man could not hold himself or anyone else esponsible if any one of these powers or capacities were actually bent. At this point we are reminded again of the words of Conus, “The ordinance of God is what we call the law of our being. To fulfill the law of our being is what we call the moral law. [Page 240]"The moral law is a law from whose operation we cannot for one instant escape." The reason we cannot escape it is because the characteristics upon which it depends are laid in the very heart of our nature. By these gifts from nature we are moral or immoral according to the right application or proper use of these gifts.

It is as impossible for man to fail to get the rewards of the right use of these gifts as it is to escape the penalties of their improper use or disuse. As pointed out in all of these great philosophies, Nature, or God, has made man a moral being subject to a moral law by virtue of the elements which inhere in his very nature He is man because of these unique characteristics and he is moral because he is man. Because of these inherent characteristics he becomes part of a moral order, an order as exact and irrevocable as the physical order. [Page 241]

ORIENT AND OCCIDENT

by HANS KOHN Doctor Juris, Uniterrity of Prague

Industrialization

The significance of the Orient in world economics during the Nineteenth Century lay in the fact that it was a market for the finished products of a rapidly expanding industry in Europe, and later in America, and was at the same time a source of supply for the necessary raw materials. The economic policy of the Occident with regard to the Orient was the result of these conditions. Capital was invested in the Orient to encourage the production of raw materials and, through the technical facilitation of transportation, to reduce the cost of exporting them. The customs policy of oriental governments was such that only a very low fiscal duty was levied on merchandise imported from Europe. China, India, Turkey and Egypt had no self-determination in the matter of tariffs. The growth of native industries in oriental countries, so far as there was any such growth, was impeded. Cheap machine-made products imported from Europe destroyed the native oriental crafts and corrupted the innate artistic talent of the people. In the Eighteenth Century India was still exporting to Europe her beautiful, gay-colored prints and fabrics produced by home industry. The importation of cheap goods from Manchester destroyed this home industry. Gandhi sees this destruction as the chief cause of the great impoverishment of the country population of India, and for this reason has been tirelessly propagandizing for the reintroduction of the spinning-wheel. [Page 242]This economic relationship between the Orient and the Occident is slowly beginning to change. Cotton goods still occupy first place, by far, among imports to China and India. Far more than twice as much finished and partly finished merchandise is imported into India as is exported, as against six times as much raw materials exported as imported. But since 1927 China has been struggling successfully for self-determination in the matter of customs, and in India this has already been realized. On February 17, 1930, Egypt put into effect for the first time a modern customs law which safeguards the interests of the country and the growth of Egyptian industry. India’s struggle for economic emancipation within the last fifty years expressed itself, for the most part, in the effort to put through an import duty on foreign cotton products, and on British cotton products in particular. The first cotton mill in India was established in Bombay in 1851, and is still the center of the Indian textile industry. As a sequel to the founding of this first Indian industrial enterprise the import duty on cheap English cotton was repealed altogether in 1877. When, for fiscal reasons, it became necessary again, in 1896, to impose an import duty of three and one-half percent on English cotton, a tax of the same rate was imposed upon the Indian cotton industry at the same time. Not until during the World War did the national customs policy of India attain results. In 1917 the import duty on foreign cotton goods was raised to seven and one-half percent, and in 1921 to eleven percent. without any simultaneous increase in the tax on domestic manufactures, and in 1925 all taxes on domestic cotton products were repealed. In the spring of 1930 the proposed budget of the Indian government provided for an increase of the import duty on foreign cotton goods to fifteen percent. This customs policy has rendered possible a rapid expansion of the Indian cotton industry. It now operates more than 9,000,000 spindles and 160,000 looms, employs more than a half million workers and produces 700,000,000 pounds of yarn and 500,000,000 pounds of cloth annually. The jute industry, centered chiefly in Bengal, is just as prosperous. About a quarter of a million workers are employed in the steel and iron industry. The leading enterprise is the Tata Works at Jamshedpur, [Page 243]which produce 400.000 tons of steel annually. These works were established only in 1912, with Indian capital exclusively. They grew rapidly during the World War, since they supplied the Indian government also during this time and furnished the ordnance needed in Mesopotamia. The World War gave a great impetus to industrialism in the Orient. During this time the countries of the Orient were cut off from European imports. Japanese industry, already developed, profited by this most of all. Even the years immediately after the World War were still years of great economic prosperity in the Orient. Japan’s industrialization served as a model for China and India. Leaders of national movements were beginning to see that a political emancipation without an economic emancipation could be only a half success, and t t political equalization is meaningless unless it leads to economic equalization.

The struggle for economic emancipation in the Orient assumed negative forms as well as positive. The boycott, in particular, served as a negative weapon. In India the economic boycott against British products was extensively adopted for the first time at the close of 1905, when Gopala Krishna Gokhale, as president of the Indian national congress in Benares, justified it. Two motives actuated this Swadeshi movement: one was to injure British trade and British industry, and thereby achieve a political victory; and the other was an educational motive-to awaken in the masses a recognition of their economic dependence, and to organize them for a struggle against it. From 1905 to 1907 the importation of cotton yarn fell from 46,000,000 pounds to 32,000,000 pounds. In 1907 Gokhale declared at Lucknow: "Swadeshi is not merely an industrial movement; it affects the entire life of the nation. Swadeshi, rightly understood, is a deep, impassioned, ardent, all-embracing love of the mother country.. This love not only endeavors to make itself felt in a sphere of outward activity, but takes possession of the entire inner being in everyone, and does not rest until it has exalted it. This movement will remain with us, and we shall find in it the true salvation of India." Through the introduction of the spinning-wheel Gandhi has since perfected the boycott movement as a national expedient. "The true Swadeshi movement consists in [Page 244]the introduction of the spinning-wheel into every household, which will spin its own yarn." He extended the boycott movement even to garments made of foreign materials; and under his direction many such garments were burned, since he also held that it was wrong to give to the poor what you were not willing to wear yourself. Gandhi's disciples all wear the Indian garb, made of native white linen.

But the positive efforts which are being made in the Orient to encourage domestic enterprise by modernizing and industrializing it are more important than these negative expedients. Turkey and Persia are turning their attention to these problems. In Egypt the establishment of the first purely Egyptian bank—the Misr Bank, whose stockholders, according to law must all be Egyptians—marks a turning-point in the economic life of the country. The bank has also played an important part in the founding and financing of Egyptian industrial, commercial and shipping enterprises. It has just opened a branch establishment in Syria—the first bank in this country in which oriental capital only (Egyptian and Syrian) is employed. To the states of the Near East Japan appears as the exemplification of a thoroughgoing economic emancipation. Japan's industrialization has produced huge cities like Osaka, which resemble the great industrial centers of northwestern England. In China industrialization has shown no marked advance as yet. The genius of the Chinese seems to lie much more in the realm of trade and the minor crafts. The steady expansion, without the aid of any political or military means, which is slowly beginning to make the Chinaman the true master of all East Asia, is worthy of remark. Outside of China—in the Dutch East Indies, in British Straits Settlements and Malay States, in French Indo-China and in Siam—live many millions of Chinese who, in many departments of activity, have already become the deciding factor in economic life. Thus Singapore today is virtually a Chinese city; considerably more Chinese than Malays live in the Straits Settlements; and even in the Malay states of the peninsula the number of Chinese already amounts to somewhat more than half the number of Malays. The Chinese in southeastern Asia distinguish themselves not only be [Page 245]cause of their adaptation to the climate, which renders them superior to the Japanese in this respect, and because of their economic traits, but also in the thoroughness of the education which they give the children of their communities at their own expense, and in the acceptance of western culture, including even sports. Their situation is similar to that of the Greeks who, at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, were accustomed to carrying on trade outside of Greece and showed, in comparison with the Greeks of the motherland, an advanced stage of westernization, yet for this reason felt themselves most closely identified with the fortunes of the motherland. The Chinese in southeastern Asia "have, in the adoption of western ideas and western customs, thoroughly proved themselves of equal rank with the European. But beneath all these outer changes there remains untouched that intense race-consciousness which binds the Chinese together today more strongly than ever before. It is a very widespread error to believe that, because they are divided into cliques, speak various dialects and have fought one another in China, the Chinese in foreign countries are incapable of a common national feeling. I have found everywhere that the national consciousness was singularly strong, that oppositions were forgotten, that linguistic difficulties were not taken into account, and that the one controlling ideal of everyone was the regeneration of China." (Walter B. Harris). The fact that in 1926 alone, 348,600 Chinese immigrants settled in the British colony of Singapore is evidence of the importance of this Chinese colony in southeastern Asia. Along with this southward migration of the Chinese there is a corresponding southward migration of Annamites into Cochin-China and Cambodia. The Annamites are racially related to the Chinese and are similar to them in their racial peculiarities. These migrations are creating new problems in the countries of southeastern Asia, but they are weaving about them at the same time a unifying bond of economic enterprise and dawning nationalism.

The processes of economic transformation through which these countries are passing are made possible only because of modern technical developments in transportation and communication. [Page 246]tion. These countries are becoming more and more dependent upon one another and upon Europe and America. Modern trade has opened up isolated areas which were inaccessible a few decades ago, and has gradually drawn them into the common commercial net which is beginning to close more and more tightly about the globe and is encircling it with ever-increasing rapidity.

Means of Transportation and Communication

Modern means of transportation, which penetrated into the Orient only after the World War--the automobile and the air plane-have opened provinces which were only barely accessible a short time ago and had no part in current intellectual and economic exchange. In view of the scarcity of railroads in the Orient. the automobile and the airplane have considerably reduced distances in this part of the world. The sparse population of Africa. Asia Minor and Central Asia renders further railway construction unprofitable, and the desert in these regions, which separates the fertile lands from one another again and again, presents great technical difficulties in road-building. Modern means of communication have made their way across the desert. For the first time they have made a more highly organized affiliation of greater areas at all possible. In the kingdom of the Wahhabites the automobile, in facilitating the pilgrim traffic from the coast to Mecca, provides new amenities to the throng of pilgrims on which the public and private revenues of the country mainly depend. But it has more than an economic significance. Only the automobile made it possible for King Ibn Saud to hold together his great desert kingdom extending from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf. For these reasons the number of automobiles had mounted rapidly, even in Hejaz While in January, 1926, there were only four automobiles, which belonged to the royal family, there were as many as 1,500 by the middle of 1929. The automobile is crowding out the camel in Hejaz, as in other countries of the Near East. In order to increas the efficacy of the automobile as an auxiliary means for the administration and contro! of his kingdom, King Ibn Saud, at the beginning of 1930, added aircraft. In the Orient, and especially in the desert, airplanes have greatly simplified the problem of carry on [Page 247]

ORIENT AND OCCIDENT

war. In the place of numerous and costly troops in far-flung garrisons and expeditions they have substituted the presence and mobility of the smallest possible number of highly trained soldiers.

The commercial importance of modern means of transportation and communication in the Orient and their political importance, from a geographical point of view, are being proven everywhere. The French colonies of North Africa from Morocco to Tunis had already attained a unity among themselves and with France by means of steamship lines and railroads. The Mediterranean had joined rather than separated. Air service across the Mediterranean and automobile roads in North Africa have only accentuated this unity.

But until a short time ago there was no connection between North Africa and French West Africa, although both these provinces formed a continuous block. Here the Sahara proved to be a barrier, and not a connecting link like the Mediteranean. Only recently are automobiles and airplanes beginning to make a unit of these two most important provinces of the French colonial realm. The distance from Paris to Timbuctoo on the Niger, once so far away, has been reduced by airship from one and a half months to a few days. Automobile and airplane have played a similar rôle in the crossing of the Syrian Desert, and in so doing have brought the once fabulously distant Bagdad within a few hours' distance of the Mediterranean.

In Persia all administrative and economic reforms would have been of no avail if the building of the projected Northern and Southern Transverse Line from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf had not been hastened by airplane and automobile, upon which will devolve also, after the completion of the projected railway, the decisive rôle in the unification of the Persian provinces which have been so lacking in roads hitherto, and have for this reason been uncontrollable. The German Junker Corporation organized an air service between the cities of Persia, and in a short time was pleased to note the constantly increasing demand for passenger and merchandise bookings. The corporation is now concerned with organizing a service in Afghanistan. [Page 248]

THE PATH OF HISTORY

by PAUL HINNER

THE ORIENTAL EPOCH OF CIVILIZATION OF PASSIVE INDIVIDUALISM

LONG before the Roman era a high state of culture prevailed in the Orient, the beginning of which, however, is only dimly visible in the distant past. This Oriental civilization started on the Great Plain of China and grew until it reached from the tablelands of Tibet to the Behring Sea and from Indo-China to Siberia, but China proper always was and still is, the center of this culture and the name, "The Empire of the Center," is therefore very appropriate. In the appraising of this Oriental civilization. however, the present state must be correctly estimated not as its normal condition but as the result of the process of dissolution

The seemingly unusual long life of this civilization is due to the fact that it consists of two successive epochs. The first one was based on a belief in an impersonal deity which loved virtue and hated vice but which did not require love nor worship. In that belief already lay a tendency towards the passive view of life which became the dominating feature in the succeeding epoch. About the time of the beginning of the Christian era the teachings of Confucius, Lao-Tze and Buddha displaced the old religion and ushered in a period of spiritual growth which became the foundation for the civilization existing in the far East today. Confucius impressed a sense of duty on his followers through ancestor worship, while Lao-Tze advocated a passive stoical conduct towards the mutations of life in the conviction that in the end good will always overcome evil. Buddhism, which has the largest number of adherents, recog [Page 249]nizes the equality of the individuals and admonishes them to seek Nirvana through the conquest of desire. This religion has many points in common with Christianity and consequently has brought about the same result: "The abolition of slavery and the establishment of political equality." The distinctions between these three religions are not sharply drawn and their combined effects have developed a passive view of life in the people of the Orient which makes them cheerful and easily contented, in sharp contrast with the restless and aggressive disposition of the people of the West.

The Europeans penetrated, as eloquent missionaries or bold explorers and conquerors, unknown parts of the world and made them accessible to their ambitious countrymen. The Oriental on the other hand, lacking the aggressive impulse, was satisfied to remain a tradesman or a plain worker in his native land. The European nations established the doctrine that offense is the best defense and resorted to arms on the least provocation. China on the contrary built a wall many hundred miles in length as a protection gainst troublesome neighbors and resorted only rarely to violent methods. In the European countries the original professional soldiers, the knights and their descendants, the nobility, constituted the highest social strata, but in the old China the professional solder was despised and occupied the lowest social level.

Even medical practice developed in different directions. When the European suters from bodily ills, doctors are called immediately and forceful ethods and means are applied to restore the health of the soverin person. The Oriental with his passive view of life is far less jensitive towards bodily ills than the European and bears them with more resignation. The medical profession in the Orient, therefore, did not develop any violent methods but confined itself to less forceful means and mild stimulating medicines. The maintaining of bodily health is valued higher in the Orient than the treating of sickness. The aggressive and quarrelsome disposition of the weste nations is further reflected in their over-developed systems of isprudence with numerous laws and a multitude of professional ers, evils which were wholly unknown in the old China. However, the passive behavior of the people of the Orient must not be [Page 250]taken as an indication of cowardice. They are just as brave and fear suffering and death no more than the Europeans, but the warlike qualities have not been developed in them, as the organs of their civilization were adapted only to peaceful growth. It is a sign of the wisdom prevailing in nature that of two parallel epochs of civilization only one was aggressive; so that it might explore the balance of the world without coming in conflict with the other.

As a consequence of the prevailing ancestor worship the institution of the family was highly esteemed in China and served as a model for the organization of the government. The political and religious head, the son of heaven, ruled the family of subjects through a graduated officialdom. The officials of the different branches of the government were renewed originally through a selective educational system which draw the best minds from all classes. In this way the government was kept in close contact with the people even without a parliament. Socially the population was divided into stratas according to their education and the importance of their occupations. Scholars were the highest class, then followed in succession cultivators of the land, artisans, merchants and soldiers. The fact that merchants and soldiers were rated lowest reflects clearly the difference between the Oriental and Occidental viewpoint. An hereditary nobility did not exist outside of the imperial family, neither was slavery ever practiced in such harsh forms as in Europe. The prevailing views and social usages had a tendency to place certain limits on the materialistic pursuits of the individual and prevented a rapid centralization of the wealth of the country. The custom to include the families of the sons and of the servants in the household and to support needy relatives without question made the accumulation of great riches very difficult. The circulation of the currency was therefore maintained without interruption.

Despite the many good qualities this civilization of the Orient did not remain free from unhealthy developments. In the course of time the religions became permeated with superstitution and degenerated to a form without substance. The desire for offspring by which to be worshiped after death, overstimulated the impulse [Page 251]for race-propagation and prevented the development of sexual self-denial. This produced overpopulation and moral and mental indolence. The officialdom lost connection with the masses and as it held all power, created for itself a favored position and fell into a state of extreme corruption. The inclination of the Oriental people towards voluntary isolation and the aversion to the contact with foreigners prevented them from safeguarding the existence of surplus population through colonial expansion or foreign trade and as consequence many thousands of lives were destroyed through periodic famines or epidemic diseases. The continued division of the farmlands among the heirs of the deceased owner led to the impoverishing of the rural population. Geographic position and the resistance with which China met the approaches of all foreigners saved the Oriental civilization from being absorbed by the aggressive individualism of Europe. Towards the middle of the... oth century, however, the never resting energy of the European nations overcame all obstacles and penetrated the long maintained isolation. By force of arms the Europeans secured concessions in all places that were of value as centers of trade and created for themselves a favored position above the natives. Through the large industrial plants which they erected in order to exploit "cheap labor," conditions were created in the centers of population which were foreign to the nature of the Orient and an impoverished proletarian multitude was the result.

In consequence of the unhealthy developments, the Oriental civilization fell into a slow decline towards the end of the Middle Ages. The intrusion of the aggressive individualism of Europe and America hastened this decline through the fostering of materialistic tendencies and through intensive political and commercial exploitation. As a result the Oriental civilization is now in dissolution simultaneously with its parallel of the Western Hemisphere. Japan, which in consequence of the isolated geographic position had often followed its own inclinations, became part of the body of aggressive individualism and embraced the western civilization with remarkable facility. China, the main part of the Oriental civilization, has been ravaged in recent years by a succession of conflicts [Page 252]between different currents of selfishness. However, the sufferings growing out of these conflicts have aroused the masses out of their indolence and are preparing them for the influence of the collective principle, a process which represents the natural reaction to the dissolution of the individualistic order.

A review of the Oriental civilization shows that during ascendency a threefold spiritual inquiry was in progress and that spiritual interests dominated the people. As these three religions practised the utmost tolerance their teachings became intermingled and drew their adherents together to a living organic unit. After passing the zenith, the selfishness and materialistic desires of the ruling class and the mental indolence of the masses brought about its decline and dissolution. The passive individualism of the Orient, however, demonstrated that the elevation of culture and well-being of a people as represented in the abolishing of slaver and the establishing of political equality, could be reached not only through forceful and aggressive means but also without the use of violence through a passive participation in the process of life. The attainment of its object by peaceful means is the great lesson taught mankind by the Oriental civilization. It is a sign of the importance of the present time, that two great epochs of civilization which have governed the affairs of mankind for nearly 2,000 years have simul taneously reached the period of their dissolution. It would indeed be an aspersion on the justice and wisdom of nature if we were to question the possibility for further spiritual and social growth of mankind in response to new principles of conduct. [Page 253]

THIS PRAYING WORLD

by JOHN WILLIAM KITCHING Author of "Arubaal and Lamorna," et

America

Father, have pity upon me! I am weeping from hunger; There is nothing here to satisfy me.

The above is an Arapaho prayer and is frequently, when food scarce, sung to a plaintive tune, sometimes with tears rolling down the cheeks. The American Indians have two kinds of prayer: ()spells and oaths and pleas addressed to the lesser, the environ- mental powers of nature, expressed in a magical or hortatory mood; and (2) true spiritual supplications directed to a power variously interpreted as the Great Spirit, the master of life, the Heavenly Father. 'Father' is a frequent epithet in their invocations. J. Mooney says of the Arapaho 'niqa' or 'aniqu' that it is a term of rev- erential affection; the ordinary word for 'father' is quite different.

Alice G. Fletcher gives this account of the initiation of the Omaha youth to the spiritual life:

"The rite (is) known by the name of Nonzhinzhon. The teral meaning of the word is 'to stand sleeping'; it here implies that during the rite the person stands as if oblivious of the outward world and conscious only of what transpires within himself, his wwn mind." The rite takes place at puberty, when the mind of the child has become white' when the youth is at the verge of his conscious individual life, is "old enough to know sorrow," it was considered time through the rite Nonzhinzhon he should enter into personal relations with the mysterious power that permeates and controls all nature as well as his own existence. [Page 254]The youth could repeat this rite from time to time until came to marry; then, unless he were a priest, he gave it up. The Omaha recognized other powers besides Wakonda, as the Earth the Sky, the Sun, the Moon, but personal prayers were addressed directly to this higher power, penetrating them all.

A man would take a pipe and go alone to the hills; there he would silently offer smoke and utter the call, Wakonda ho! while the moving cause, the purport of his prayer, would remain unexpressed in words.... Women did not use the pipe when praying their appeals were made directly, without any intermediary.

<poem> O Great Spirit! Thou hast made this lake; Thou hast also created us as Thy children; Thou art able to make this water calm Until we have safely passed over. </poem>

The foregoing is a Chippewa Indian Prayer for safety in crossing a storm-tossed lake.

<poem> "Hail! Hail! Hail! Listen, O Creator, with an open ear to the words of thy people as they ascend to thy dwelling! Give to the Keepers of Thy faith wisdom rightly to do Thy commands. Give to our warriors and to our mothers strength to perform the sacred ceremonies appointed. We thank Thee that Thou hast kept them pure unto this day. Listen to us still! We thank Thee that Thou hast spared the lives of so many of Thy children to take part in their exercises. We thank Thee for the increase of the earth For the rivers and streams For the sun and moon, For the winds that banish disease, For the herbs and plants that cure the sick, For all things that minister to good and happiness We pray for a prosperous year to come. </poem> [Page 255]

THIS PRAYING WORLD

Lastly, we give Thee thanks, our Creator and Ruler! In Thee are embodied all things! We believe that Thou canst do no evil; We believe that Thou dost all things for our good and for our happiness. Should Thy people disobey Thy commands, deal not harshly with them! Be kind to us, as Thou hast been to our fathers in times long gone by. Harken to our words as they ascend- May they be pleasing to Thee, our Creator! Preserver of all things visible and invisible!"

This is an Iroquois Indian prayer in the form of a Dance hant. [Page 256]

WORLD UNITY MEMORIAL To DAVID STARR JORDAN

The name of David Starr Jordan has become associated with faith in the reality of world peace. His contribution to the peace ideal was made at the highest level of human achievement, through the power of a personality uniting scientific intelligence and spiritual aim. In his life and work an age striving to throw off the intolerable burden of organized conflict grew more conscious of its capacity for progress and more determined to attain the goal of cooperation and accord.

In order to give continuance to Dr. Jordan's vision and attitude, never more needed than in this period of confused purpose and ebbing courage it is proposed by a number of his friends and associates to establish a World Unity Memorial to David Starr Jordan.

The purpose of this Memorial is to make possible the wider diffusion of Dr. Jordan's important statements on peace and international cooperation by magazine and pamphlet publication, in a form rendering them available to peace workers throughout the world, and to encourage the rise of the peace spirit among the new generation of college students.

It is the privilege of World Unity Magazine to serve as the organ of the David Starr Jordan Memorial, under the auspices of a Committee representing the scholarship of America, Europe and the East.

Friends of David Starr Jordan, and friends of world peace, may assist in the realization of the purpose of the Memorial by contributing toward the modest expenses involved. A contributing membership may be secured for five dollars; a student membership for two dollars; a life membership for ten dollars. Copies of all Memorial publications will be furnished members without charge.

In addition to the publication of David Starr Jordan's most important statements on the subject of peace, the Memorial will offer an annual prize for the best essay on world cooperation submitted by any college undergraduate.

WORLD UNITY MEMORIAL TO DAVID STARR JORDAN

JANE ADDAMS 4 East 12th Street, New York City (Sponsored by Mrs. David Sterr Jordan)

COMMITTEE

HAMILTON HOLT, Chairman SIR NORMAN ANGELL SALMON O. LEVINSON MANLEY O. HUDSON BARON Y. SAKATANI BRUCE BLIVEN JOSEPH REDLICH HANS WEHBERG [Page 257]

WHAT IS PEACE EDUCATION?

by FRANK WALSER

HROUGHOUT the whole world people are wondering why there is so little progress in disarmament. Disatisfaction is spreading among millions. A short analysis of what peace education should be like, is therefore timely.

A large number of lectures are given on international problems, on the League of Nations, and on peace generally. Churches and associations hold enthusiastic peace meetings. The continued State of insecurity does not however come from insufficient international interest or a lack of religious desire for peace. It is due to two specific causes, which are usually ignored, the one intellectual and the other moral.

The Intellectual Cause: We have arrived at a period in our history when we must either control scientifically the international exchange of products or allow the interdependence between States, which has grown up through our inventions and modern methods manufacture and transportation, repeatedly to disturb the world's peace. Uncontrolled, this interdependence is exploited in favor of the strongest nations. Existing organizations like the L. of N. and the I. L. O. cannot perform this scientific control based on the study of actual world conditions, because at every step they are paralyzed, and robbed of their authority, through insistent national demands. National prestige should not count in scientific problems world control. Yet we all know that prestige of size and power is constantly interfering at Geneva.

Another sign of a general ignorance of the present world interdependence and the urgent problem it presents, is the tragic lure of the world economic conference. In nearly every nation, [Page 258]politicians and masses of population still believe naively that protection will cure their part of the economic crisis, still not realizing that customs barriers have become reciprocal and so ruin all world trade.

If public opinion had been systematically educated on this point, there would now be a general recognition of the need of world economic cooperation. The public and governments would now be ready to make the necessary reorganization, and would consent to the necessary sacrifices involved. The truth that no other solution is possible would become obvious, and each nation would begin to increase that part of its production which it can best produce and sell freely.

The Moral Cause

This is a general weakening of the collective will of the community by an increasing habit of one-sided or opinionated insistence. Our modern world, with its freedom of opinion still based largely on misinformation, is increasingly divided into numbers of distinct social and political groupings, which pursue their separate programs regardless of one another. The importance which teachers, and even more parents, give to the child's individual rank in his class, and to individual work over group work thwarts his spirit of cooperation. Collective work and collective thinking should be taught in the schools, the latter by the best methods of group discussion.

In such creative discussions, the pupils should first express their opinions freely and clearly. Then, once the opposition of their opinions has become sharply marked, they may gradually be led through two or three minutes of complete silence to overcome their one-sidedness. They will then see the problem in its entirety and from a higher standpoint, giving equal justice all the various points brought out by the discussion. Finally, the chairman, a pupil elected by the group for the term, after giving. summary of the points and considerations expressed, and defining the issue, may receive proposals for the solution. By selecting and combining the best into a conclusion satisfactory to the whole group, he leads the group work to a crystallized discovery or production. This method has been tried in Vienna and elsewhere, and [Page 259]

WHAT IS PEACE EDUCATION?

has shown itself fraught with the emulative stimulus of the best creative work.

Our unwillingness to cooperate, rooted in our inner resistance pride, aggressive instinct, inferiority complex, produces an unhealthy social atmosphere which is fatal to our political and economic progress. It is as contagious as a physical disease, and every day we can see it breaking up our will to act together.

Either educators will become aware of this condition and will apply themselves methodically to cure it, or new wars and untold Suttering will finally bring us to the necessary humility and self-examination.

The situation before us today is simply this: Our public opinion has not received the education in recent history and economics which would help it recognize the present urgent need for world economic control. And the modern man has not received at school and at home the necessary training in cooperative discussion and its consequent group action. The result is that disorder in international trade, with all the opportunity it gives to selfish interests, is constantly—through press and propaganda—irritating popular feeling, which has never learned to overcome aggressiveness and violent insistence before opposition, and so can only aggravate a Situation which would require for its solution the greatest calm and goodwill.

The task before teachers throughout the world is therefore plain. In the two ways described above, they must supply what is king. No other profession can do it. The work is their work. We appeal for this to every individual teacher and to every organization of teachers. The purpose of our appeal is to place peace education on a clearly thought out and rational basis, and to place its clear analysis, with the responsibility that it involves, before the individual teachers of every land. Only by using such methods and science can we save humanity from destroying itself. [Page 260]

THE ADEQUATE WAGE

by ERNST JONSON Author of "Toward a Modern Culture, etc."

WE cannot hope to keep well in body by providing antidotes for all of the endless varieties of disease. The better way is to see to it that the basic needs of life are provided for. So also is it with the economic organism. It may not be at all necessary to uncover each separate cause of depression in order to eliminate it. Should it turn out that we have ignored one condition which must be fulfilled if industry shall function without interruption, it is possible that if we provide this one condition, Industry may be able to overcome all other obstacles by its own power of adaptation.

It is evident that people cannot spend more money than they take in. Industry is the people's only source of income. There exists no other source of wealth. Industry is the only agency by which the raw materials of nature are converted into goods fit for human consumption or human use. Hence it follows that the people cannot pay Industry any more for the goods which Industry would have them consume, than Industry has payed them in the form of wages, salaries, interests, dividends, rents, fees, and so on.

The consuming public is made up of various classes, each with its peculiar wants and tastes. Goods made for mass-consumption cannot be consumed by people of large income. When a certain schedule of production is adopted, the schedule of distribution is thereby determined. If the former is put into operation, and the latter fails to operate, there will result over-production, depression, and unemployment.

Each class derives its entire income from industry, conceiving [Page 261]

THE ADEQUATE WAGE

industry as the sum of all productive activity. Thus the wages disbursed by industry constitute the bulk of the income of the wage-earning class. The money which this class pays to Industry for the goods which Industry makes for them is the very same money which Industry has paid to them as wages. Hence, if the sum of wages paid by Industry to the working class should fall below the sum which Industry demands from them as payment for the goods which it makes for them all these goods cannot be sold. Distribution will suffer a check. There will result over-production, unemployment and hard times. In other words, when the schedule of production has been adopted, the real wages of the working class are thereby determined, for the goods which Industry produces for that class constitute their real wages. Industry places a certain money value upon these real wages, fixes upon them a certain price, demands a certain sum in payment for them. This sum can be raised only from the money wages which Industry pays to the workers. If the money wages do not equal the money value of the intended real wages, the distribution of these real wages will be checked. Hence the sum of money paid as wages to a class must not be less than the money value of the real wages produced for that class. This is the basic law of economic equilibrium. On this basis only can industry be stabilized.

But what of the profits? If Industry pays the workers as much as they pay for the goods which Industry makes for them, where do the profits come in? The goods produced by means of the labor of the wage-earners are not all for their use; part of these goods are made for use by the owning class, and another part consists of machinery of production. These two kinds of goods, together with personal services rendered by men and women whom the machine has released from the task of providing means of livelihood for the people, constitute the profits which Industry, and the owners of it, derive from the industrial process. These are what the owners of industry get out of their investments, the only things that in the long run it is possible for them to get. When they try to get money of industry, and to hold it, they choke the channels of distribution, and bring production to a stand-still. Industry can afford to [Page 262]pay out to the people all the money it takes in, because it has no other right use for that money. Hoarding is bad business. But that is not all; the total must be so distributed that each class gets that part which is required to buy the goods made for it. There are many conditions which may be regarded as causes of business depression, but when these are closely examined it is found that the tendency to expect a class of the consuming public to spend more than they have been paid is at the bottom of them all. Our troubles have come because Industry tried to grasp more profits than was possible. For any given industrial situation there is a right profit and this right profit is, in the long run, the maximum possible profit. It can be exceeded only for a time, and when exceeded there ensues a depression in which the excess profits are lost. The depression forces Industry to make up the deficiency in its payments This it usually does by lowering prices, which is an indirect way of increasing wages.

"There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt."

When a new and improved machine is put to use in an industry two things happen, the volume of the product is increased and the hours of labor are reduced. This means that there is more goods to be paid for by the people, and less time in which to earn it. Therefore, if distribution shall keep pace with production, the rate of wages must be raised, not merely to balance the reduction of hours, but also to correspond with the increase in the volume of the product. If the scale of wages be raised less than that, there will result a deficiency in purchasing power, which will check distribution and cause over-production, depression and unemployment Hitherto Industry has regularly failed to raise wages to the full extent required for economic balance, and this is the basic reason why it so regularly has fallen into depression. For a hundred years Industry has fallen into depressions because it has failed to balance money wages with real wages. Industry has been most liberal in its offers of real wages to its workers, but has tried to hold on to the money. Moneys which should have been used to increase wages have been diverted into profits, dividends, bonuses, large fees, high [Page 263]

THE ADEQUATE WAGE

Salaries, graft. And this is the basic reason why industry has fallen to depressions.

Today an enormous amount of time and vital energy are being wasted in trying to sell goods to people who don't have the money with which to buy the goods. If a small part of this energy were devoted to the task of financing the people there would be a very large saving in the labor of selling. True super-salesmanship would begin with a drive for bigger incomes and would then attend to the spending of the resultant increment of income. The present method puts the cart before the horse.

The people cannot spend more than they earn, not for any length of time. Could anything be more evident than that? And yet Industry has persisted in expecting the people to spend more than they earn and has planned its production on the basis of such expectation. How could Industry: commit a blunder so obvious?

In the first place the industrial mind has been so intent upon production that it has given little or no thought to the need for economic balance. Unthinkingly it has become possessed by the absurd notion that maximum quantity production at minimum money cost meant efficiency. Profiteering came to be regarded as a high industrial virtue, and was liberally rewarded. It was rewarded because there was money in it for the company. From the standpoint of individualistic self-interest the ideal business situation would be one in which all other business paid high wages, thereby enabling the people to pay high prices for one's goods, while one's own company managed to pay the least possible wages for the greatest possible volume of goods. Under the competitive system business the individual concern stands a chance to gain an advantage at the expense of the whole body of business. In part this is a wholesome condition for it promotes real efficiency which consists in producing a maximum of value at a minimum cost of labor, but insofar as it encourages profiteering, which means seeking to produce a maximum money value of goods at a minimum money cost, it is most unwholesome and highly injurious to the general body of business. The old craftsmen found this out; they formed guilds so as to prevent profiteering. The guild established a just [Page 264]price and a just wage; the just wage being the wage which enabled the people to pay the just price.

In the second place there exists no organ by which the industrial manager can ascertain what scale of money wages will balance the real wages which he has set himself to produce. So that be he ever so earnestly devoted to his duty as the economic guardian of the owning class, and inclined to pay good wages, and actually paying higher wages than most, he still may fall short of the adequate wage.

We see, then, that if we would prevent industrial depressions we must rid ourselves of the notion that scales of wages and salaries are a matter of opinion. We must come to realize that wages and salaries can be rightly determined only by a mathematical analysis of the entire movement of industry towards increased efficiency Every plan to produce additional goods for the masses, every installation of machinery for the production of such goods, imposes upon Industry the task of increasing wages and small personal profits and salaries to the extent required to offset the reduction in hours of labor, and to enable the people to pay for the additional goods. Ever will Industry be confronted with the task of financing each class of the people for consumption in precise accord with the expansion of facilities to produce goods for the various classes.

If the goods which Industry makes for the masses of the people are rightly proportioned among themselves and suit the popular taste, they will be consumed by the people so long as the people have sufficient money to pay for them. These moneys can come only from wages. The wage-earners have no other source of income. Hence, if Industry fails to increase wages in exactly the same proportion as it increases the volume of goods made for popular consumption the people cannot buy the entire increment of goods made for them. There ensues over-production attended with depression and unemployment. Every business man knows that the business depression comes because the people fail to buy the goods he offers for sale, and that the people fail to buy because they do not have enough money, and for no other reason at all. When they do not have enough money it is because the basic law of economic [Page 265]

THE ADEQUATE WAGB

equilibrium has been ignored. When, on the other hand, Industry increases its disbursements to the various classes of the people pro- portionately with the increase of its power to produce goods for these classes everybody prospers.

The curious thing about the adequate wage is that the con- tinued payment of it would not involve any sacrifice by the owning class as a whole. Under the present chaotic conditions the indi- vidual profiteer, if he be lucky, may gain an advantage, but it will be an advantage gained at the expense of the owning class. The principle of the adequate wage has no bearing upon the distribu- on of the consumable product of industry among different classes and different individuals. Adherence to this principle does not in- volve any restriction upon the scale of living of the owners of in- dustry. The adequate wage means simply this: that after the own- ers of industry have taken for their own consumption what their inclinations demand and their sense of prudence and desire for acquisition sanction, the workers shall be paid enough to buy the remainder of the product. Failure to do this is inimical, not merely to popular prosperity, but also to the prosperity of the owners of industry. When the workers are disemployed the machinery of production stops and capital ceases to yield revenue. Be it ever remembered that the modern large fortune is a by-product of pop- ular prosperity, that it is rooted in popular prosperity, and that if deprived of its native soil it would wilt and die. The only sacrifice required of Industry is that it shall rid itself of the belief in max- mum profits as the supreme and final aim of industry. It is required ot Industry that it substitute for this economic fallacy of maximum profits another aim, maximum production of values at minimum cost of labor.

If the owners can take for their own consumption as much as they want, why, then, it may be asked, do they not take the entire product of industry? Were they to try to take it all, or nearly all, the people would rebel. But there is another force which restrains them and keeps them from even approaching this danger point, it is the desire for the economic security and comfortable leisure found in permanent ownership, and such ownership involves mass [Page 266]production. The lure of mass production is such that it ... men to renounce their personal wealth so that it may yield wealth for the masses. They call it investing, and they imagine that nothing has been renounced, that the wealth belongs to them, and that if they would they could consume it themselves. But the money they invested has been turned into machinery of production, and such no man can consume. And of the goods produced only a part goes to the investor; the bulk of it is consumed by the workers. The modern fortune, therefore, is not in any real sense personal property, it is public property. The accumulator of it is rewarded for his service, is paid interests and dividends, but otherwise it is no longer his property, its use is to enrich the people." modern fortune is the root of the prosperity of the people, and in that sense it belongs to the people.

We hear much of the machine as a producer of wealth; seldom do we recognize the fact that it also tends to equalize wealth. The machine has turned the main current of industry's output towards the masses. As machines multiply it is the people and not the owners that consume the bulk of the product. The owning class becomes more numerous, and it gains a few new comforts, but on the whole it is little better off than before the advent of the machine. The new prosperity belongs to the masses—almost wholly Machine production means mass production, production for the masses.

The basic reason why workers are frequently underpaid lies in the fallacy that workers should earn their wages. Nobody knows what they earn, nobody can ever know. Under the order of mechanized industry wealth can be produced only when Capital and Labor, Invention and Management work together. No one of these separated from the other could produce wealth. Hence it is impossible to compute the just share of each. The problem of division of the product of industry between the different economic classes, therefore, is one which is not amenable to legal solution. Nevertheless we imagine that we have a just idea of what the workers earn. We form our opinion of a just wage upon the fact that the growth of efficiency of industry is due mainly to improvements in [Page 267]

THE ADEQUATE WAGE

the machinery of production, and to better management. Only in small part can it be credited to increased efficiency of the workers. For this reason the owners of industry feel that the bulk of the benefits should go to them. They forget that the reason why they pay wages is to enable the workers to buy the goods which Industry makes for them, and that therefore it is the value of these goods that should determine the scale of wages, and not opinions about earnings.

The American Federation of Labor has now come to realize the futility of the so-called living wage, and is firmly resolved to exert the full force of its influence upon the realization of the adequate wage, and therefore they have become more truly the friends Capital than the profiteering industrialist who, by paying low wages, indirectly robs Capital of its legitimate dividends.

When Industry increases its disbursements to the wealthy at a rate which exceeds their tendency to spend, the residue goes into investments, and these investments augment Industry's capacity to produce goods, mainly goods for consumption by the masses. But the incomes of the masses have not been correspondingly increased the additional product cannot be sold to them. There ensues over-production and depression. In apportioning its disbursements between dividends and wages Industry must look to the remoter consequences of this apportioning, must see to it that it will be able to take care of the resulting increment of capital offered for investment, which means that it has increased the income the masses sufficiently to enable them to buy the increment of consumable goods which will result from the proposed enlargement of its powers of production. In other words, economic equilibrium requires that the sum disbursed as wages and small salaries shall bear the same proportion to the sum disbursed to the more prosperous classes as the value of the goods made for mass consumption bears to the sum of the value of the goods made for these asses and the amount of money for which Industry can offer profitable investment.

There are some things, natural necessities such as foods, that may be produced in excess of the people's natural capacity to con [Page 268]sume them; there are many other things which may be produced excessive proportion to other things upon which they are dependent for their consumption; but it is inconceivable that the total product of industry, if in all its parts it were rightly proportioned. could exceed the people's natural capacity to consume it. When the people fail to consume the entire product it is because they have not been paid enough wages.

The depression may be delayed by selling on credit, on the installment plan, but such delayed depression, when it finally comes, will be one of extraordinary severity. The severity of the present depression seems to be due in part to this condition. During the past decade the people of the United States have bought some six billions of dollars' worth of goods on the installment plan. which means that the people's capacity to consume goods increased during this period from this cause alone at the rate of some hundred million dollars a year. When this sudden growth of popular credit reached the limits set by the people's capacity to earn, Industry found itself producing more goods than the people were able to buy; there ensued over-production and depression.

Some would extricate us from the depression by lowering wages, but if lack of popular purchasing power is the root and marrow of depression, the lowering of wages can be but a temporary expedient. It is possible, nay likely, that owing to the shrinkage of the volume of credit which the depression has caused, lowering of wages is the only practicable way out. But if the resulting increase of production be not promptly followed by a corresponding rise in wages the people will not be able to buy the increased volume of product, and no good will come out of the stimulation of production. The only possible way out is to increase the sum of wages which may be accomplished in two ways: by increasing the sum of money wages, or by lowering commodity prices. Any reduction in wages would have to be offset by a corresponding additional lowering of commodity prices. The indirect way of raising wages, by lowering commodity prices, seems to be the easier way. for it is the way Industry hitherto has extricated itself from its depressions. For example, Industry extricated itself from the depres [Page 269]

THE ADEQUATE WAGE

son of 1921-22 by a 23 per cent cut in the cost of living and thus the excess gains of 1919-20 were lost in 1921-22. It had cost Industry no more to pay when payments were due and by so doing it would have saved the Nation a loss of some ten billions of dollars, together with much worry and suffering.

To see the adequate wage as the indispensable condition of industrial equilibrium is one thing: to get it actually paid is quite another matter. To get this done under the competitive system seems quite hopeless. Under that system the profiteer will have the advantage when business is good, and when the depression, which he has brought about, overtakes Industry, he will suffer no more than his competitor who has paid the adequate wage. Under the competitive system the profiteer tends to survive while the employer who pays the adequate wage renders himself liable to failure. The adequate wage presupposes cooperation, and cooperation is possible only where there is organization. Employers could afford to pay the adequate wage only if they formed themselves into a guild and thus placed themselves under guild discipline. Indeed such a guild would make it clear to them that they could not afford to pay any less than the adequate wage, that is to say a wage which increases at the same rate as that which Industry increases its production of goods for mass production, for this is the only rate which can enable the working masses to consume the ever increasing volume of goods made for them. [Page 270]

LATIN AMERICAN STUDENT OPINION AND THE UNITED STATES

by PHILIP LEONARD GREEN

N THE United States, the indifference of students to social an political questions is proverbial. It is only within recent year that students here have become more interested in seriou subjects and have even given some promise of becoming social force in the life of the nation.

Not so in Latin America. There, not only students themselves almost from a tender age, are intensely interested in such questions but they are more instrumental than probably any other force excep the press, in shaping what there is of public opinion.

For years, the students have been organized into national fed erations. Many of these are surprisingly strong. The one in Mex ico, for instance, consists of twenty-six local organizations through out t. republic. Moreover, the student movements are usuall popular with the people.

When we appreciate their far-reaching influence, we are in. better position to understand what follows and to realize that wha the students of Latin America think assumes an importance at first recognized by an uninitiated outsider.

The ruling classes of Latin America have long ago learned t appreciate this importance. Certainly their reaction has not bee one of indifference. Student meetings have been broken up bi soldiers and police. Students have been imprisoned in many Lt American countries. Leaders have been exiled. On the other hand some governments have come to the conclusion that prudence the better part of valor and have listened to the students' grie ances and acceded to all or part of their demands. [Page 271]

LATIN AMERICAN STUDENT OPINION AND THE U. S.

Realizing the tremendous power that Latin American students wield in shaping public opinion, one naturally asks: "Just what their grievances and their demands?"

Do the students orate just to hear themselves talk? Do they write just to see themselves in print? Many outsiders who have not taken the trouble to investigate, are certain that the students who engage in these great movements are nothing more than seekers of martyrdom and publicity. Some of these may have crept into the movements. After all, don't many of the older generation also eck publicity (without martyrdom), in their "altruistic" activ- ties? Yes, there may be some who are intoxicated with their own ratory, there may be some who are exalted by seeing their names n print, but on the whole, an impartial observer cannot help realizing that within recent years, these student movements have een evolving something of far greater significance.

Each national student federation, of course, has a different set conditions to meet and some sort of program with which to meet em, but there are certain fundamentals on which almost all of them agree; and it is these which will form the subject matter of ur study.

In the first place, the students are one in their demand for free and obligatory education. They denounce favoritism in the award- ng of degrees and titles. They favor the abolition of final examin- ons and giving more attention to seminars than to class work. They call for more courses in Spanish and American (all Ameri- n) history and for "courses in anti-imperialism." They are inter- sted in the development of extension teaching and volunteer to en active part in extension programs. They clamor for parti- pation in university councils and for complete autonomy of the versities, which, in most Latin American countries are still bed up with the governments.

So much for what might be grouped under the heading of aca- demic reform. But the students, realizing that they are to be the future leaders in the economic and politico-social life of their untries, have developed certain, definite ideas with regard to the problems with which their countries are beset and have not [Page 272]hesitated to make their opinions known. They realize, perhaps more than any other group, that the incursions into their countries are only made possible by corrupt and venal officials, conniving with foreign interests. Hence, they call in no uncertain terms for the birth of a real patriotic, civic spirit that shall place the welfare of the country above selfish interests. Openly opposed to imperialism, they also throw their influence against any form of oppressions from within. They fight incessantly for the abolition of child labor and against the exploitation of the Indian within their borders. They not only believe in equal rights for women politically but that women should be admitted to the professions on an equal footing with men. Last but certainly not least, they are bitterly opposed to all political dictatorship; and it is here where their troubles usually begin.

Since the formation of the Ibero-American Student Confederation, this opposition to dictatorships has taken on a new angle. Formerly, each national student federation fought the dictatorship in its own country if one existed. Now, the impact of all students in Latin America is brought to bear on any and all cases, as the students consider dictators common enemies of their cause. Students who are expelled from any one country for political reasons are to receive aid in studying elsewhere in Latin America during the period of their exile.

Regarding the attitude of Latin American students towards international questions, a definite trend is noticeable—namely Ibero-Americanism, a union based on race affinity of the peoples originating on the Iberian Peninsula, now occupied by Spain and Portugal. While many national student federations of Latin America are members of the International Student Confederation and were a number of years ago members of the Pan American Student League the greater part of them now support the Ibero-American Student Confederation, with headquarters in Mexico City. At this writing the national federations of the following countries are either members or about to become members: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru. [Page 273]Salvador and Uraguay. In addition, the students of Spain have been invited to come in. It is also planned to have the students of the Philippine Islands and Porto Rico enter as national units. One need not do much conjecturing to make out the trend of this movement.

If there is any doubt as to the trend in question, it would be dispelled by the following declaration, which states as one of the Ibero-American Student Confederation's objects: "Spiritual, economic and political union of Ibero-American countries and protection against outside attempts to throttle them."

Late in 1930, the First Ibero-American Student Congress was held. The Congress declared itself as being against Pan Americanism, the Monroe Doctrine and Article 21 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. It commissioned the Salvadorean Student Federation to investigate "crimes committed by the North American Invading Army" in Nicaragua. It expressed disapproval of imperialistic control of the Panama Canal." In the field of economics, the Congress placed itself on record as favoring high tarts and laws against foreign capital, in order to offset the economic superiority of the United States. The formation of an Ibero-American network of land, maritime and air communications" was advocated. It was decided to organize exhibits at which only goods produced in Ibero-American countries would be shown.

Of course, the international contacts of Latin America students are not limited to the Ibero-American field. For instance, not so long ago, a delegation of British students visited Argentina. Recently, the students of Japan visited those of Mexico to repay a former visit.

This may or may not have anything to do with the fact that at meeting of the Mexican National Student Congress, the students of Mexico declared themselves in favor of Mexican neutrality in the event of a war between the United States and any power of Europe or Asia.

Even between congresses, the students are in almost constant action. They send cables to dictators demanding that their colleagues be set free. They make demonstrations before Embassies [Page 274]and Legations of offending governments. They strike. On positive side, they have established classes for the workers and Indians. They have tried through their publications, to arous civic spirit and to awaken the people to dangers from within and without which they consider real. While in some respects, the show their youthful inexperience, they certainly do not lack sincerity of purpose—and that is a healthy sign in a world ridden with so much insincerity.

Towards the students of the United States, their attitude is of covert fear. In discussing a proposal of the North American students represented in the National Student Federation of North America, to hold a Pan American Student Congress at Miami Florida, this year, they stated that: "Despite the undeniable plane of equality on which we stand with all students, we are not so romantic as to believe that the North American students, in the event of our grouping ourselves with them, would refrain from attempting to impose upon us their ambition to dominate, which in them is a fundamental biological trait."

They have frankly advised the National Student Federation of North America that before any closer relations can be established between the students of Latin America and those of the United States, the latter will have to come out openly and declare just what is their attitude with regard to North America imperialism.

Much depends on the answer. If the situation is handled correctly, the students of the Americas may be the means of bringing about a new era of inter-American understanding.

After this article was written, news was received to the effect that the National Student of North America had just sent to the Hero American Student Confederation, a manifest among ther things: "In order that this Manite-to shalt not resolve itself into empty talk, case, undoubtedly, with the greater part of called fraternal" official declarations, we desire to without further ado, our complete and unmistakable disapproval of any act of violence of ne nation against another. As students, we believe that the student class at all times and wherever it be, has the supreme mission to defend reason, which should govern nations as well as in against force, a relic of the savage ages." [Page 275]

THE MEETING POINT

by ROYAL WILBUR FRANCE Professor of Economics, Rollins College

THE most impressive figure in London at the Round Table Conference on India, was the man who was not there. More real than any other voice, more dominating than any other person, in the background of all that took place loomed Mahatma Gandhi.

What is going on in India is more fundamental than a political revolution. Two great systems of life and thought have come to grips. "Master your environment," says the West. "Find the way throught invention and the organization of economic processes to satisfy all the desires of mankind. This way lies our salvation from drudgery and monotony."

In the quest of happiness along this route the West seems to have been blocked by an ever mounting tide of desires. The more we have the more we want. The very machine that we have created appears to thwart its own purpose. It produces beyond our capacity to purchase and consume and we are impoverished by the very abundance of our material wealth. Our strained faces reveal our mward fears. Only a few individuals among us have found the peace and happiness that the abundance of our life seemed to offer. Often they are the ones who lack the abundance.

"Not thus shall you attain the geal," the East answers to the restless striving of the West. "Not through the endless creation of desires and the vain attempt to satisfy them, will you win through appiness. In the elimination of desire rather than in its creation and satisfaction lies the way to peace and to God."

Rama Krishna, a Holy Man of India, expressed the Eastern [Page 276]viewpoint. "Have you noticed the steady flame of a lamp?" he asked. "The slightest stir in the air will make it flicker. Just as delicate is the task of seeking God. No matter how selfless your deeds—outwardly they may appear perfect—but if within you stirs the slightest feeling of self or desire it will destroy your realization of God as the wind blows out the candle."

It is the challenge of this philosophy that India, under the leadership of Gandhi, has thrown into the face of the West. Gandhi's physical body shrunk almost to nothingness, expresses the unimportance of the physical. He covers it with a simple garment woven on a hand-loom by his own labor. Why bother with a body at all? A handful of food and a little water suffices. What if it does shrink? The mind widens. The spirit enlarges. That is what counts. The Jain vows are significant. They give us a clew to the inner feeling. The physical love for a woman's body even for one woman, even for a wife, detracts. It narrows desire. It is aspiration that is carnal, not spiritual. We see that asceticism expressed in the vows of the Catholic priesthood. The very joy in sex condemns it. Joy must come from something else. Paul, the apostle of Christianity, its chief exponent before the Occident took it up, considered the sex relationship a "filthiness of the flesh." The flesh was lusting against the spirit. Gandhi is the incarnation of the Eastern ideal. The millions may not follow him indeed in his merging of his individual identity and personal desire into the spiritual whole. Appetites will continue to find satisfactions in India as elsewhere. No doubt they will. But what is the ideal? Those same millions come remarkably close to worshipping Gandhi. At least, he stands for what their hearts believe. To the extent that they can follow his lead in refusing the material things of Western civilization and confronting physical weapons with a spiritual force, India will triumph in the present struggle.

Gandhi's technique is typically Eastern. If the masses can apply it, the British Lion may as well lie down with the lamb with as little roar as possible. Armaments are clearly impotent. Unwilling people cannot be made to buy. No Power can long continue shooting down those who will not resist. The machine and the [Page 277]

THE MEETING POINT

If India follows Gandhi, it will win. That is already written in the book. But what of the victory? Will it be a gain for civilization or a loss? Here we touch something fundamental. Does progress toward the goal of human achievement lie in renunciation or accomplishment? The answer is confused. Keyserling and Roland and Spengler are afraid of the machine. They would scrap it and all its works and lead us back to primitive simplicity. They see our life not as richer but only as more complicated. Instead of increasing our mastery of life, we have become the slaves of our own machines. There are plenty of comments like that in the West. Hu Shih thinks otherwise. Our success or failure as a race depends upon our ability to use intelligence for the invention of necessary and effective tools. The civilization is not materialistic which is limited by matter, not the one which masters it. Hu Shih is not isolated in that opinion in the Orient. Japan has adopted it as a working theory en masse, quite furiously. Our own intensity seems quite mild in comparison. China yawns and stretches its long limbs and the sleepy look in its eyes is becoming concentrated. Gandhi and India remain unconvinced.

Shall we continue to improve our machinery and our organization for the satisfaction of our material desires or shall we rid ourselves of the desires? Gandhi is explicit. But his triumph in India will not be a final answer to the question. It will provide a point of departure. It will afford to the East an enormous testing ground for working out the Eastern philosophy.

There is no sign that the West will follow in the footsteps of the East. We are just not made that way. Our destiny follows different lines. But there is a question that neither the Western world or the Eastern has sufficiently examined. Are we both right and both wrong? Is the road to follow neither East nor West? Is there a larger synthesis which will include two points of view which at first glance appear irreconcilable? Must the West be forever restless and unsatisfied and the East forever hungry and squalid? Can we raise human life to altogether new levels by combining the efficiency of the West with the calmness of the East? [Page 278]Our chance does not lie in going back, Keyserling, Spengler and the whole chorus of defeatists notwithstanding. We will not lose our attachment to material things by destroying the machines that produce them. That would make their getting harder. But their scarcity has been the trouble. They have been much sought It is within the power of the machine to make the getting easy Suppose that we carry the mechanics of this thing to its logical conclusion. We do not see men obsessed with the struggle to possess blue sky or sunshine or fresh air. They are valuable. Undeniably. Even for the briefest time we would not be without them. But there are no consolidations between Fresh Air Corporation and Ozone, Incorporated. The explanation is obvious. Abundance thwarts exploitation. If we ever gear up the machine to produce all kinds of wealth so freely that it is as cheap as dirt, it will lose its significance. At least it will have no recognizable connection with wealth are now considered. Granted that such a conception is purely theoretical, chimerical even, yet it is within the possibilities. It may even be the goal toward which we are blindly stumbling. Man lives in a mental medium. His thoughts create his world What he dreams one day is a reality the next. What he demands happens. If he knocks at a closed door it opens for him. He actually possesses Aladdin’s lamp. Today our children are born with wings. Their voices span the world. Their ears are attuned to new vibrations. They explore curiously the minute and the infinite and nothing bars their way. Nothing unless it is their own limitations

What are we after?

Wealth comes to us almost for the asking. It pours from looms and soil, from machines and from the very air itself until the stor of the manna from heaven no longer interests us. Yet we still live in the fears of the past. We retain the psychology created in our race by a past era when struggle was more than a mild exercise We are still obsessed with the idea of accumulating material things You can see the “chip-munk” look on every other face in Wall Street or on Fifth Avenue. We still push and shove at life’s overloaded table as though there were not enough to go around. What are we afraid of? Is there any way of escape? [Page 279]The East, incarnate in Gandhi, says, "Renounce! Destroy the machines that your ingenuity has created. Rid yourselves of the desire for material things and find your joy in the things of the spirit." But we have physical bodies to be fed and clothed and kept clean and in good working condition. Is the East fed? Is it clothed? Is it even clean? If Gandhi's philosophy will not provide a sound material foundation for the spiritual life, we will have none of it in the West. I doubt whether the East will accept it for long. Men everywhere are beginning to realize that a fuller life is possible for mankind on this planet than we have ever yet attained. But what is it How can we secure it?"

The East calls us back to the things of the spirit. Let us grant that that is a fine phrase. All right. What of it? Just what does it mean? Does it mean that in order to get poise, a sense of beauty, realization of the unity of life, in a word, peace, we have to stop eating bacon and eggs for breakfast? Does the type of loom our garments are woven on affect our spiritual content? Do we see beauty more widely or only less clearly because of the enlargement : our motor abilities? If the later, is there any law of the machine which prevents us from going wherever we want to go in our extended radius and then stopping the motor? If spiritual life be considered in terms of altruism are we more charitably inclined on full stomach or an empty one? We are making a real attempt in education today to define our meanings.

One of my student sis a poet and an aesthete. He sympathizes with Keyserling. He feels oppressed by our mechanized civilization. We pin him down to facts. Does he object to bathtubs? No. Electric refrigerators? No. We go through the list. He does not slike, in fact, labor saving or time economizing devices in and tor themselves. What is it then? He thinks hard. He wants quiet. He objects to the noises of motors and machinery. It disturbs his psychological balance. Now we begin to agree. The group that wanted to go backward to simpler conditions again and those who believe that the machine represents progress have found a common objective. The motors which make quiet lakes hideous should be silenced. We feel that noise is no necessary part of the machine. [Page 280]Some of the greatest instruments of power are almost silent. If we have our way the factories of the future will resemble sylvan groves in their quietude.

"But what of the joy of creation?" asks another. "Can the monotonous acts of repetition at a machine ever satisfy the artisan in us?" Someone suggests a pleasure in studying the task to find a way to simplify it still further but our Keyserlings are not convinced. Not only is there no creative act for the machine operator but the things produced lack the individual touch and artistry that handcraft gave to the simplest objects. There seems to be no way out until we think of time. Suppose that the machine should be so efficiently used and our economy so perfected that no one had to spend more than two or three hours a day at monotonous tasks and that the remaining time was free to the individual to create whatever he pleased? That is within the power of the machine. With inventions breeding idle men like gnats, it is already in sight. Are we not just in the crude beginnings of the age of power? If we go forward instead of retreating in despair, may we not release through leisure and training, a new fecundity?

The tools for our economic salvation are already in our hands. The wealth necessary to abolish want is now for the first time in human history available. The genius of America is for practical solutions. Have we nowhere the ability to formulate a program? The social mind is stirring. But it is functioning on unemployment or results, not causes. We need to arouse it further from its lethargy, to let it begin to function with knowledge to a defined purpose. Some day creative intelligence may triumph over physical environment, the world may become a home to us and human society a fellowship of free souls. To bring that about is worth considerable effort, cerebral as well as cardiac. [Page 281]

by ‘ABDUL-BAHÁ

THE fatherhood of God, His loving-kindness and beneficence are apparent to all. In His mercy He provides fully and amply for His creatures and if any soul sins He does not suspend His bounty. All created things are visible manifestations of His fatherhood, mercy and heavenly bestowals. Human brotherhood is likewise as clear and evident as the sun, for all are servants of one God, belong to one humankind, inhabit the same, globe, are sheltered beneath the overshadowing dome of heaven and submerged in the sea of divine mercy. Human brotherhood and dependence exist because mutual helpfulness and cooperation are the two necessary principles underlying human weltare. This is the physical relationship of mankind. There is another brotherhood, the spiritual, which is higher, holier and superior to all others. It is heavenly; it emanates from the breaths of the Holy Spirit and the effulgence of merciful attributes; it is founded upon spiritual susceptibilities. This brotherhood is established by the Manifestations of the Holy One.

The divine Manifestations since the day of Adam have striven to unite humanity so that all may be accounted as one soul. The function and purpose of a shepherd is to gather and not disperse s flock. The prophets of God have been divine shepherds of humanity. They have established a bond of love and unity among kind, made scattered peoples one nation and wandering tribes mighty kingdom. They have laid the foundation of the oneness God and summoned all to universal peace. All these holy, divine Manifestations are one. They have served one God, promulgated the same truth, founded the same institutions and reflected the same [Page 282]

Address at Metropolitan Temple, New York City

light. Their appearances have been successive and correlated; each one has announced and extolled the one who was to follow and all laid the foundation of reality. They summoned and invited the people to love and made the human world a mirror of the Word of God. Therefore the divine religions they established have one foundation: their teachings, proofs and evidences are one; in name and form they differ but in reality they agree and are the same These holy Manifestations have been as the coming of springtime in the world. Although the springtime of this year is designated by another name according to the changing calendar, yet as regards its life and quickening it is the same as the springtime of last year For each spring is the time of a new creation, the effects, bestowals perfections and life-giving forces of which are the same as those of the former vernal seasons although the names are many and various. This is 1912, last year’s was 1911 and so on, but fundamental reality no difference is apparent. The sun is one but the dawning-points of the sun are numerous and changing. The ocean is one body of water but different parts of it have particular designation, Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean, Antarctic, etc. If we consider the names, there is differentiation, but the water, the ocean itself is one reality.

Likewise the divine religions of the holy Manifestations God are in reality one though in name and nomenclature they differ. Man must be a lover of the light no matter from what das spring it may appear. He must be a lover of the rose no matter what soil it may be growing. He must be a seeker of the truth no matter from what source it come. Attachment to the lantern is not loving the light. Attachment to the earth is not befitting but enjoyment of the rose which develops from the soil is worthy. Devotion to the tree is profitless but partaking of the fruit is beneficial. Luscious fruits no matter upon what tree they grow or where they may be found must be enjoyed. The word of truth no matter which tongue utters it must be sanctioned. Absolute verities no matter what book they be recorded must be accepted. If we harbor preju [Page 283]

THE DAWN OF PEACE

ce it will be the cause of deprivation and ignorence. The strife herween religions. nations and races arises from misunderstanding. It we investigate the religions to discover the principles underlying their foundations we will find they agree, for the fundamental reality of them is one and not multiple. By this means the religionists of the world will reach their point of unity and reconciliation. They will ascertain the truth that the purpose of religion is the acquisition of praiseworthy virtues, betterment of morals, spiritual development of mankind, the real life and divine bestowals. All the prophets have been the promoters of these principles; none of them has been the promoter of corruption, vice or evil. They have summoned mankind to all good. They have united people in the love of God, invited them to the religions of the unity of mankind and exhorted them to amity and agreement. For example, we mention Abraham and Moses. By this mention we do not mean the limitation implied in the mere names but intend the virtues which these names embody. When we say "Abraham" we mean thereby a Manifestation of divine guidance, a center of human virtues, a source of heavenly bestowals to mankind, a dawning-point of divine inspiration and perfections. These perfections and graces are not limited to names and boundaries. When we find these virtues, qualities and attributes in any personality, we recognize the same reality shining from within and bow in acknowledgment of the Abrahamic perfections. Similarly we acknowledge and adore the beauty of Moses.

Some souls were lovers of the name Abraham, loving the lantern stead of the light and when they saw this same light shining from another lantern they were so attached to the former lantern that they did not recognize its later appearance and illumination. Therefore those who were attached and held tenaciously to the name Abraham were deprived when the Abrahamic virtues reappeared in Moses. Similarly the Jews were believers in His Holiness Moses, awaiting the coming of the Messiah. The virtues and perfections of Moses became apparent in His Holiness Jesus Christ most effulgently but the Jews held to the name Moses, not adoring the virtues perfections manifest in him. Had they been adoring these virtues and seeking these perfections they would assuredly have [Page 284]believed in His Holiness Jesus Christ when the same virtues and perfections shone in him. If we are lovers of the light we adore it in whatever lamp it may become manifest but if we love the lamp itself and the light is transferred to another lamp we will neither accept nor sanction it. . . . We must not be fettered. If we renounce these fetters we shall agree, for all are seekers of reality. The counterfeit or imitation of true religion has adulterated human belief and the foundations have been lost sight of. The variance of these imitations has produced enmity and strife, war and bloodshed. Now the glorious and brilliant twentieth century has dawned and the divine bounty is radiating universally. The Sun of Truth is shining forth in intense enkindlement. This is verily the century when these imitations must be forsaken, superstitions abandoned and God alone worshiped. We must look at the reality of the prophets and their teachings in order that we may agree.

Praise be to God! the springtime of God is at hand. This century is verily the spring season. The world of mind and the kingdom of soul have become fresh and verdant by its bestowals. It has resuscitated the whole realm of existence. On one hand the lights of reality are shining; on the other clouds of divine mercy are pouring down the fullness of heavenly bounty. Wonderful material progress is evident and great spiritual discoveries are being made. Truly this can be called the miracle of centuries for it is replete with manifestations of the miraculous. The time has come when all mankind shall be united, when all races shall be loyal to one fatherland, all religions become one religion and racial and religious bias pass away. It is a day in which the oneness of humankind shall uplift its standard and international peace like the true morning flood the world with its light. Therefore we offer supplications to God, asking Him to dispel these gloomy clouds and uproot these imitations in order that the East and West may become radiant with love and unity; that the nations of the world shall embrace each other and the ideal spiritual brotherhood illumine the world like the glorious sun of the high heavens. [Page 285]

ROUND TABLE

In pointing out, in "The Case for War," that a formal militaristic philosophy (or rather, myth) was not evolved until a philosophy of peace had been strongly established, Dr. Stevenson indicates the unique crucial and climactic character of this epoch. The sheer fact is that this modern age has intensified each and every human activity to its extreme limit. The good and evil, the profound and the superficial, the useful and the destructive, the spiritual and the bestial, the selfless and the selfish, the individualistic and the collectivistic, the vital and the mechanical, the democratic and the tyrannical—all these innate human values, tendencies, traits, instincts, acquisitions, virtues and vices, have during the past two or three generations received tremendous reenforcement, like seeds fertilized by the past, prodigal and indiscriminating orgiastic life of a jungle.

To any one grasping the world situation as a whole—feeling the conflict of minds and wills behind the rapid movement of theories and institutions—the age has the very essence of nightmare, wherein the impossible, the unlikely and the inevitable, strangely transformed, change places with one another under the unseen power of some new logic transcending the reach of reason. Not men but heaven and hell, as before ancient chaos, have become the protagonists of this "greatest drama of man's spiritual history." Human beings, save only a few, flee before the manifestations of their own fateful destiny—flee into the vain anonymity of groups, to discover some hiding place behind or within some theory or action capable of assuming the impossible burden of moral and rational responsibility.

Climax has become the unescapable order of this age, an age which culminates and fulfills every past era of mankind. Whether tomorrow or the day after—whether this year or next—the climax [Page 286]cannot now long be stayed. We may call it the struggle between democracy and autocracy, the struggle between capitalism and communism, or the struggle between priestcraft and prophetic religion—the terms, in the last analysis, mean the same thing. Oppositions have become so acute in every department of life, on every plane of being, that the chain of social security will break here or there, at its weakest link. And once broken, no power can reconcile that which has been irreconcilable since the first dawn.

What the world needs is a path to God—a source of Reality above the ignorance and the compromise of a self-betrayed humanity—a source of renewed and regenerated being to cleanse us from the mire of our universally organized and rationalized materialism. We need to climb a mighty mountain, high above this nightmare struggle of classes, creeds and nations, a mountain of aspiration, of faith, at whose foot we must needs leave these selves behind, from whose top we can peer hopefully, gratefully, into an infinity not of space, not of time, but of love.

"A Moral Order as Exact at the Physical Order"—the gift of the prophets in their purer insight—here is the beginning of that long lost Path. How long shall we turn to institutions, rooted in the bloody past, for that salvation that can only come from above? Modern society is man—man turned away from God.

Like an adult being among children, a matured, poised soul among those who had drunk the cup of Circe, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá twenty years ago reminded the western world that "The fatherhood of God, His loving-kindness and beneficence are apparent to all... The divine Manifestation since the day of Adam have striven to unite humanity so that all may be accounted as one soul. . . . All these holy, divine Manifestations are one. They have served one God, promulgated the same truth, founded the same institutions and reflected the same light. . . . The time has come when mankind shall be united, when all races shall be loyal to one fatherland, all religions become one religion and racial and religious b... pass away. It is a day in which one religion shall uplift its standard and international peace like the true morning flood the world with its light." [Page 287]

A WORLD COMMUNITY

by John Herman Randall

THE book for those who seek to grasp the world movement as a whole, with the inter-relations of economic, political, industrial and social actors, and a careful analysis of the trends making for international organization.

It has been included in the reading list issued by the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War.

NATIONALISM AND INTERNATIONALISM

by Herbert Adams Gibbons

IN THIS book, Dr. Gibbons has infused his historical scholarship with a personal experience participation

The result is a study accurate enough for the classroom and interesting enough for the average reader.

"Nationalism and Internationalism" traces the evolution of political life from its first expression in the movement toward modern nationalism, through the nineteenth century, to its present expression in internationalism as the true outcome of national ideals.

SEVEN GREAT BIBLES

by Alfred W. Martin

HERE, at last, are the essential truths about Hinduism, Buddhism, Hasanism, and Christianity that demonstrate the underlying unity and harmony in The texts from which these religions derive—a very history of the soul of man illumined from age to age by inspired teachers pointing the path to brotherhood and peace.

These three books have been published in the World Unity Library initiated and sponsored by this magazine. Per copy, $2.00. Any one title, with annual subscription to World Unity Magazine, $4.00; subscription and two books, $5.75; subscription and all three books, $7.50.

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

4 EAST 12TH STREET NEW YORK [Page 288]

ORDER BLANK

"It has been very encouraging to see the warm reception which WORLD UN has received and to note its constant progress. There was room for a magaz which should devote itself to a non-partisan discussion of the intellectual and m aspects of world cooperation and international movements, and WORLD UNITY met this need in a most satisfactory manner."-John Dewey.

WORLD UNITY 4 EAST 12TH STREET NEW YORK CITY

I enclose $ for which kindly enter my order for the ite checked below.

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE. Annual subscription, $2. $2.00 to Libraries, Educational and Religious Institutions.

☐ A WORLD COMMUNITY, by John Herman Randall, $2 Book and annual subscription to World Unity, $4.00.

☐ NATIONALISM AND INTERNATIONALISM, by Herb Adams Gibbons, $2.00. Book and annual subscription to World Un $4.00.

SEVEN GREAT BIBLES, by Alfred W. Martin, $2.00. Book a annual subscription to World Unity $4.00.

EDUCATION FOR HUMAN BROTHERHOOD, by Rufus Jones, 16-page reprint, $0.05 per copy. (Rate quoted for larger quan on request.)

FOUNDATIONS OF WORLD UNITY, selections from the dresses of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America, $0.75. Book and annual subscript to World Unity, $3.00.

BUILDING UP THE INTERNATIONAL MIND, by Ha Allen Overstreet, 16-page reprint, $0.05 per copy. (Rate quoted for lar quantity on request.)

READING LIST OF CURRENT BOOKS ON WORLD UNIT $0.05 per copy. (Rate quoted for larger quantity on request.)

Name. Address.