World Unity/Volume 12/Issue 5/Text

[Page 256]

_ coms

a WF Pile = . “tate “

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE Volume XII, August, 1933

World Crisis--The Halfway Point . . . Editorial 257-258 Historical Backgrounds for the

Contemporary Problem of

Religious Liberty in America... Carleton J. H. Hayes 259-270 The Engineer in the World

Community ... +++ ++. W. H. Barton, dr. and

J. W. Graham 271-278 Art, Education and Peace ..... . James H. Cousins 279-281 World Citizenship *eeeee*e ee Car] A. Ross 282-291 Manchuria, the League, and ‘Treaty Revision * 6©« @ @ ‘¢« * «# 2 Frank Doane 292-295 World Advance: A Monthly International Review ...... . Oscar Newfang 296-302 Efficient Socialism ........ . George Y. Rusk 303-304 The World of Reality ..... .. ». Ruhi Afnan 305-315 Book Notes * eee 8 © © © © © @ @ @ Joseph S. Roucek 316-319

Notes on the Present Issue 320 �[Page 257]WORLD CRISIS—THE HALFWAY POINT EDITORIAL

N the significant fact that all the nations found it highly neces- sary to hold an international conference on economic matters, and then almost immediately found that they possessed no common ground of understanding and action on the most essential issues, the hopes and fears of humanity seem in equal balance. The world, in fact, appears to have arrived at the halfway point in the profound crisis which first became manifest with the - outbreak of the European War in July, 1914. There could be no more opportune time to consider what real progress has been made during this period of nineteen years, and more especially what progress must still be made before the perils resident in the crisis are actually overcome.

What has been gained by the agony of the war and post-war years? First, the new realization that war brings no victory but on the contrary inflicts universal defeat. Never again will any nation be able to condone legalized murder by the booty it brings home. Second, the new understanding of the direct connection between militaristic foreign policy and domestic injustice. The mass of people have at last begun to realize that those political leaders who advocate aggression abroad are responsible for unbearable economic conditions at home. Pretending a valiant patriotism, they are the spoliators and real enemies of their own people. Third, the new awareness of the universality created by the modern scien- tific and industrial revolutions—a universality which transcends all former concepts of national sovereignty and local self-sufficiency, and makes every human being, willingly or unwillingly, subject to world movements and world conditions. Fourth, the new reali- zation of the unbounded capacity of the human intelligence to

257 �[Page 258]258 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

achieve vast further technical progress, and at the same time the gtave limitations placed upon intelligence by local political, eco- nomic and social authority. Fifth, the new sense of the dynamic quality of social evolution—the and momentum of its irre- sistible flow. Sixth, the new widespread resentment against any and all forms of special privilege divorced from actual service to society. Seventh, the new indifference to religious creeds and dog. mas which operated as powerful sanctions in the pre-industrial era Eighth, the new hunger for security and for conditions of life based upon a valid and enduring reality. Ninth, the development of economic and other theories to the stature of an armed, sover- eign state, suggesting the medieval conception of the militant Church-State.

What must be gained before humanity will have passed be yond the danger of another and final World War? First, the con- solidation of the new world view into a positive conviction—a con- viction based upon unswerving acceptance of the fact of human unity. Second, the rise of a new and dynamic ethics repudiating both the value and the necessity of competition and strife in any form and giving reality and substance to the spirit of cooperation. Third, the achievement of a spiritual faith of universal character, raised above sectarian limitations. Fowrth, the creation of a werld political organization not merely allying the sovereign states by treaty but uniting them through representation in a true inter- national government. Fifth, the adoption of world measures hav- ing sound social value, as the basis of a new economy and a re generated human society.

These further steps of human evolution are by no means in- evitable. The situation now existing merely balances, as already stated, the hopes and fears of the race. If evidences of a new age of universal peace are apparent, evidences of the possibility of vio lent conflict are no less visible. The hour is one of deeper conse- cration on the part of all who long for the realization of divine justice upon earth.

H. H. �[Page 259]HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDS FOR THE CONTEMPORARY PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN AMERICA* by CARLTON J. H. HAYES

Department of History, Columbia University

E meet here in Washington in this year of the bicen- tenary of George Washington as idealists. We are re- ligious idealists. We are convinced of the enduring

high significance of feligion in individual and social

lite. About the detailed content of our religious ideals, we frankly differ among ourselves. Some of us ate Jews; some of us are Catholic Christians; some of us are Protestant Christians. But to one or another of these groups we are, I hope, severally attached with reasoned conviction and honest enthusiasm, and keenly anx- ious to advance its true interests by precept and example. As such, we are all religious idealists.

We are also American idealists. Differing among ourselves, as we doubtless do, concerning partisan politics, we yet are united in desiring eagerly the greatest possible good for the country and the society in which we live. We appreciate the dangers to our civil future from religious prejudice and strife. And it is clear proof of the highest idealism that we should seek to remove those very dangers by uniting a firm faith in our particular religions with a sincere recognition of the right of all our groups and all our fellow-citizens to the fullest religious liberty.

There are perils in idealism. It may easily soar into vaporous clouds and leave dull earth behind it. It may readily content itself

"address delivered at the National Seminar of the National Conference of Jews and Christians In Washington, D.C., on March 8, 1933.

259 �[Page 260]260 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

with pretty, pious, or poetical expression and neglect the hard cold facts of practical and prosaic life. It may handily create the illusion that our task is quite simple; that a little fortuitous gathering has only to talk about love or merely to imagine a lowest common de- nominator, and presto!—among all people in all parts of the United States strife ceases and prejudices disappear. .

We need not rid ourselves of our basic idealism by tempering it with some sane realism. We shall but render it more serviceable by putting it in prose, relating it to actual conditions in our age and country, and seeing it in the long perspective of history.

In the long perspective of history! That is the theme of my remarks this afternoon. It is a theme to which personal predilection and training alike attract me, and it is a theme from which I hope to draw a few important lessons that, without upsetting our ideal-

‘ism, may yet divest it of false optimism.

First, let me emphasize the somber fact that the idea of “tive and let live” is a relatively recent phenomenon in human history. You and I, in our efforts in behalf of mutual understanding and respect, are engaged in an undertaking which runs counter to most human experience of the past. Indeed, intolerance appears to the historian to be about as old as the human race and to have been pretty constantly displayed by clan, city, and empire, by prince and populace, and by every faith from primitive animism to modern nationalism. Certainly, all the religious groups represented here today have records of intolerance which, however much we may blush or wince, no historian will blot out and no honest person should hesitate to confess.

The Hebrew Scriptures furnish abundant historical proof of intolerance in ancient Judaism, and there is documentary evidence that Jews regarded the Founder of Christianity as a heretic and clamored for His death. After the dispersion, the Jews were victims, rather than agents, of religious intolerance, but by that time they consisted of minorities who were hardly in a position to be agents of intolerance.

Christianity in its early days gave promise of being an excep-

�[Page 261]RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 261

tion to the general rule. It was founded by a Victim of religious intolerance, and for three centuries it spread without any use of force on its part and in the face of bitter persecution on the part of the pagan government of the Roman Empire. But that was while Christians were a minority in the Empire. In the fourth cen- tury a change occurred. Christianity became the state-religion, and a Christian Emperor excluded heretics from civil office and threat- ened them with dire penalties. Beginning in the year 385, when seven heretics were put to death by Christian officials at Trier, prelates of the Catholic Church gradually acquiesced in and then applauded and finally abetted a reign of intolerance throughout Christendom. In theory, of course, the Church during the whole span of the middle ages repeatedly reaffirmed the original doctrine that conversion to Christianity was to be preached but not com- pelled and hence that no pagan, infidel, or Jew was to be punished for refusing to accept Christianity. In fact, however, during the same centuries, Catholic clergymen erected and operated the In- quisition against heretics, and Catholic laymen visited Jews and other non-Catholics regularly with degrading disabilities, some- times with wholesale banishment, and occasionally with mob- violence.

All this, at least to me, is sorry. I regret that Jews in their own native land had been intolerant. I regret that Catholics during the middle ages were intolerant. Yet I must point out another im- portant historical lesson from those times. It was then believed, as it had been believed from remote antiquity, not only by priests, but also by statesmen, scholars, and the mass of mankind, that re- ligious uniformity was essential to political unity, that each state must have an official religion to which every citizen should con- form, that it was the duty of princes, even more than of priests, to be intolerant of religious difference and dissent. This belief was no monopoly of medieval Catholics or ancient Jews. It was shared by tribal chieftains and Egyptian Pharaohs, by democratic Athens and oligarchic Sparta, by emperors of pagan Rome, Aztec Mexico, and Shinto Japan. It was well-nigh universal. �[Page 262]262 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

There is a curious notion among Protestants that, with the advent of Protestant Christianity in the sixteenth century, the old and universal belief in state religion and religious intolerance rapidly declined and the modern experimentation with separation of church and state and with religious liberty immediately began. The notion is surely widespread ...lay in the United States, and it is very curious. For I know of no reputable historian of the present day, whether Protestant, Catholic, Jewish or agnostic, who would endorse it. The actual historical facts are all to the contrary. They show that the advent of Protestant Christianity was accom- panied by an unprecedented outburst of religious intolerance and cruelty and that in this outburst, while Catholics were forward, Protestants were not at all backward. Catholic leaders felt that they were defending traditional Christian civilization against an- archical forces of rebellion and greed. Protestant leaders felt quite as sincerely that they were restoring the pure Gospel and safe- guarding it against superstition and corruption. To Catholics, Luther and Calvin and the other so-called reformers were possessed of devils. To Protestants, the pope was the beast, the scarlet woman of Babylon, the anti-Christ.

In the circumstances it was but human that Protestants as well as Catholics should seek to give full force to the old idea that polit: ical unity depended upon religious uniformity. If you recall that Catholic rulers in Spain, Italy, and Austria adopted drastic measures against dissent and put Protestants to death, you should bear in mind that Protestant rulers in Scandinavia, Britain, and Prussia were just as intolerant; that they suppressed Catholicism in their countries by banishments, confiscations, and capital executions. Protestants labored as zealously as Catholics for union of church and state and for religious uniformity. Calvin’s burning of Ser- vetus showed a great Protestant leader as eager to destroy heresy as any Catholic Inquisitor.

I shall dwell no longer on these dreadful incidents. My only purpose for dwelling on them at all is to point two morals which | think of special importance to our discussions. First, we shall get �[Page 263]RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 263

nowhere unless we all confess at the very outset our own faylts and say with sincere contrition mea culpa. I am tired of hearing Catholics try to explain away the intolerance of their medieval and sixteenth-century co-religionists. I am tired of the smugness with which Protestants assume that they have been the authors of modern religious liberty. I weary as I hear Jews talk exclusively about the intolerance which they have suffered. Jews must handsomely ack- nowledge that time was when Jews themselves were intolerant; Catholics must freely make like acknowledgment; and Protestants must humble themselves to confess that Protestants have been intolerant. ]

Secondly, by learning from the history of earlier centuries how universal was the practice of religious intolerance and what base and untrue things were thought and said and done by members of one group concerning others, we should be in a position to understand why there is so much prejudice and misunderstanding among our several groups today. Any long-established tradition dies hard. The tradition of religious intolerance is so old and so deeply imbedded in human experience that it still clings to millions of human beings in our contemporary and so-called civilized world.

Nowadays, in most civilized countries, there is not only formal teligious toleration, but also a public profession of religious liber- ty for all our groups. This situation obtains alike in countries tradi- tionally Catholic and countries traditionally Protestant, and all sorts of religious persons seem to acquiesce in it. We have numer- ous neo-Pagans in our midst who are opposed both to Christianity and to Judaism, but pagans no longer make a sport of throwing their opponents to the lions. Jews are everywhere emancipated, but Jews no longer clamor for the death of any dissenting prophet. Catholics are influential in many countries, but Catholics no longer anywhere burn heretics at the stake. Nor do Protestants anywhere at the present time hang Catholics from Tyburn trees or set their gory heads upon poles at city gates. In the twentieth century we do not kill one another for religion; indeed, we accord to one another freedom of conscience and worship and certain political �[Page 264]264 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

and civil rights. Here, certainly, is remarkable evidence of enor- mous progress in modern times toward real religious liberty, and the progress is not confined to our country. It is equally marked in England and France, Germany and Italy, Scandinavia and Spain.

What is the explanation of this progress? What ate its his- torical backgrounds? From my reading of history, I gather that modern principles and practices of religious liberty did not ung. inate among peoples pretty solidly Protestant or Catholic, nor at the behest of the leaders of any majority-religion. Rather it was the agitation of minorities and the pressure of political needs which led to the first steps.

In this connection, I would call your attention to one of the first grants of religious toleration in modern times—the Edict of Nantes, which the French King Henry IV issued in 1598 in favor of his Protestant subjects. This grant resulted less from deep te- ligious conviction than from demands of statesmanship.* After a half-century of civil war in France, Protestants appeared too strong to be exterminated and not strong enough to exterminate Catho- lics, and it was obvious to a statesman like Henry IV that if France was to survive as a great power, Frenchmen must be restrained from fighting one another about religion.

Thenceforth, in France and in other countries where political considerations dictated some accommodation among rival faiths, it gradually became evident to an increasing number of persons that the toleration of religious differences was not necessarily de- structive of national unity. In fact, evidence accumulated that a state might be strengthened, rather than weakenea, by extending its protection to religious minorities.

Such a revolutionary discovery was aided by religious minori- ties, who were anxious to secure toleration for themselves and could therefore normally be counted upon to second the efforts of conciliatory statesmen. In Catholic countries, the Protestant minor- ity advocated toleration and freedom. In Protestant countries the Catholic minority championed religious liberty. Gradually, too, as the number of different sects increased in Protestant countries,

• Henry IV was not famous in ‘his day for depth of religious conviction. In the eyen of his

contemporaries he showed himself a bad Protestant by becoming a Catholic, and a bad Catho- lic by tolerating Protestants. His zealous Protestant subjects were not satisfied with what they obtained from him, and he himself was eventually assassinated by a mad Catholic Which suggests some of the difficulties that beset the path of the religious peacemaker

’ �[Page 265]RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 265

various kinds of Protestantism found it possible (and even de- sirable) to tolerate each other, especially in order to present a united front against Catholicism. At length, when Protestants had slow- ly become habituated to the practice of toleration among them- selves, they made the further revolutionary discovery that the heav- ens would not quite fall if they tolerated Catholics.

Thus religious toleration began in our modern world. But for a long time it was only what its name signified—a tolerating, a suffering, of dissent from the established majority-religion, with attendant political and social disabilities for the dissenters.

What we call the principle of religious liberty is scarcely a hundred and fifty years old. Not until then was there a movement fully to emancipate Protestants in Catholic countries, Catholics in Protestant countries, and Jews in both. This movement got under way in the eighteenth century, first in France and Germany, and shortly thereafter in the United States and elsewhere. It was es- poused almost simultaneously by Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. No one of these groups can properly claim any district priority in this matter, and the historian knows that the United States was no such lone pioneer in the advocacy of religious liberty as many present-day Americans assert.

The impressive fact remains, however, that a great new ideal of full religious liberty came into the lives of our great-grand- fathers, wherever they might then be, whether here in the United States, or over there in Europe, in France or Germany, in Great Bri- tain or Ireland. It was the ideal of ceasing to penalize fellow citizens who professed a different creed and of treating them as equals in political and social life. It was an ideal shared by Washington and Lafayette, by Jefferson and Franklin, by the worthiest creators of the American nation and the foremost fashioners of its republican institutions.

The ideal of religious liberty, thus advanced in America un- der the most respectable auspices, has been realized only gradually and imperfectly. As early as 1791 the constitutional law of the land prescribed that Congress should “make no law respecting an �[Page 266]266 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” But the Federal Constitution did not forbid the enactment of laws of that kind by state legislatures and several states of the American Union actually maintained, well into the nineteenth century, Prot- estant state-churches and legal discriminations against Catholics and Jews. Eventually, of course, these state-churches have been wholly disestablished and most religious disabilities have been swept from state statute-books. Yet even now, several decades after the formal removal of legal disabilities, there are innumerable Americans, in all parts of the United States, who appear still to assume that members of religious minorities are not and can not be “good citizens.”

It is not my purpose to fill in the immediate historical back- ground of the contemporary status of religious liberty in America. Professor Greene, I suppose, will do that later this afternoon, and with this expert scholarship and his fine judiciousness he is peculi- arly competent to do it. Let me emphasize what I have already outlined—that remarkable progress toward real religious liberty has been made by all our groups, but that it has been made rather painfully and relatively recently. And then, in conclusion, let me point to three oustanding difficulties in the way of further pro- gress toward full religious liberty in our country.

First, let me indicate the difficulty of reconciling a deep de- votion to our own particular religion with full recognition of per- fect freedom for disparate religions. The difficulty, of course, would hardly arise if we were all Jews, or if we were all Catholics, or if we were all Protestants. It would probably be surmounted with comparative ease if we would all abandon our traditional faiths and all become Moslems or Buddhists. Or it might be con- siderably lessened if all of us should grow indifferent about our respective religious and find, perhaps in a sentimental humanism, a satisfying lowest common denominator of our differences. Such “ifs,” however, appear to me silly and somewhat worse than im- practical. All of us are simply not going to be converted within any calculable future to Judaism or Protestantism or Catholicism, �[Page 267]RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 267

any more than to Buddhism or Islam. And many of us are going to resist to the end any and every attempt to reduce us to a lowest common denominator or to make us indifferent to what we believe in all honesty is the dogmatic teaching of God through His divine- ly founded and inspired Church.

Let there be no mistake or misunderstanding about this. While I do not imagine that Jews desire to be Christianized, or Protestants to be Catholicized, or either to be paganized, I cannot and do not here speak officially for them. And while I am not an official spokesman for the Catholic Church, I am certain, and I think you should realize, that Catholic Christianity will positively resist being Judaized or Protestantized or Paganized; that, whatever other re- ligions do, it will stubbornly continue to heed the voice of its ecclesiastical superior when he speaks ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals.

But while I believe that I am right, I must sincerely respect your belief that you are right. Herein, it seerns to me, lies the true and only practical way out of the difficulty posed. It may be a hard way, admitting of no short-cuts, but it is the way to genuine religious liberty. For the test of genuine religious liberty is not the admission to political and social equality with ourselves of only such persons as believe about the same as we do or are indifferent to religion; the supreme and final test is whether we admit to such equality persons who believe quite differently from ourselves and are zeal- ous in the practice of their religion.

Next, let me point to a difficulty which results from the fact that in the United States the majority has always been, and still is, Protestant, while Catholics and Jews constitute minorities. As minorities, Jews and Catholics have been particularly eager for re- ligious liberty and for equality of treatment in politics and society more eager to obtain these things than the Protestant majority to grant them. Thereby friction has been increased. On one hand, the Protestant convinced that the majority to which he belongs is largely responsible for existing religious freedom in America, is apt to be irritated by importunities of minorities and to suspect that �[Page 268]268 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

their eagerness is prompted by sinister or subversive motives. On the other hand, the Jew or the Catholic, taught from infancy that America is the home of complete religious liberty and yet actually experiencing numerous discriminations in his public or private career, is likely to impute to the Protestant majority a large measure of hypocrisy or a considerable lack of the sense of humor.

The majority religion has always the chief responsibility in assuring, as well as proclaiming, religious liberty. If the majority in America were Jewish or Catholic, it would be to one of those groups that we would be appealing for leadership in the cause of religious liberty. In present circumstances, however, future progress must depend primarily on the attitude of the masses of the Protestant majority; do they truly believe in religious liberty or do they not?

This brings me to the last and perhaps the chief of the difficul- ties confronting us. What about the masses? We made great progress a hundred years ago in getting rid of state-churches in this country and writing the principle of religious liberty into our constitutions. We have since made great progress in mutual respect and trust among a large class of our more thoughtful and more idealistic citizens, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish. Thousands upon thousands are anxious not only to preach but also to give example of the fullest religious liberty, with all its implications, and they certainly include the most cultured, the most sincere, the most truly patriotic persons in America. But what about the masses? Are they sympathetic with our endeavors; are they progressing from the letter to the spirit of real religious liberty?

I have recently read two books which give me painful pause in answering those questions. One is Mr. Michael Williams’ In the Shadow of the Pope, a graphic record of the enormous props- ganda of hate and falsehood which is still being poured out among the masses against fellow-citizens of a religious minority. The other book is Dr. Joseph F. Thorning’s Religious Liberty in Transt- tion, a carefully documented history of the removal of legal disa- bilities in New England. Both books are worthy of serious study by all of us, but I would call your attention particularly to the light �[Page 269]RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 269

which Dr. Thorning throws upon the protracted struggle in New Hampshire for equal treatment of religious groups.

New Hampshire wrote into its state constitution of 1783 a natural favoritism of Protestant Christianity; without mentioning Catholics or Jews, the document expressly provided for the main- tenance of “public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and mor- ality.” I say that this was natural favoritism at the time; the popu- lation of the state was then solidly Protestant, and toleration, rather than complete religious liberty, was still the ideal. But, what is odd about the matter is that now, in the year 1932, when the whole nation is theoretically committed to the principle of religious neu- trality and when New Hampshire is thoroughly democratic and peopled by Catholics and Jews as well as Protestants, the present constitution of the state contains the self-same provision for the maintenance of “public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality.”

In the 150 years from 1783 to 1932, numerous attempts have been made to strike this provision from the New Hampshire con- stitution, and on seven different occasions it has been submitted to the voters of the state for approval or rejection. Opposition to the provision has never commanded the two-thirds vote necessary to delete it.

From Dr. Thorning’s analysis of the seven referenda, two generalizations became obvious. First, there has been a steadily waning defense of the provision in the state legislature in the public press, and in the ranks of leading clergymen and statesmen of the community; at the time of the last referendum, in 1922, not a voice could publicly be heard in support of what all of us, I dare say, would call an obsolete provision. Second, there has been a manifestly growing support of the very provision among the non-vocal masses of the New Hampshire electorate. In the referen- dum of 1791, a total of 3,700 votes were cast; in that of 1922, a total of 81,850 votes were cast. The growth in number of voters is impressive, in the ratio of twenty-two to one. Yet the shrinking of the spirit of religious freedom among the ‘masses seems to be �[Page 270]270 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

even more striking, for whereas the repeal of the provision failed in 1791 by only about two hundred votes, it failed in 1922 by almost ten thousand votes.

Dr. Thorning suggests that this strange phenomenon in New Hampshire is symptomatic of a country-wide development, which consists in “the driving of religious prejudice underground, into those subterranean caverns where no decent man will speak or lis- ten.”’ “In New Hampshire,” he goes on to say, “they are still frank about their hostility to Catholic and Jew. They are unwilling to change the form without a change of substance. By a quaint paradox, they are determined to maintain the legal warrant for the inner spirit which influences many of their actions in the business, social and political sphere.”

Here, then, is our ultimate task—not merely to promote amity and understanding among handfuls of intellectuals, but to effect a revolution in attitude of the masses; a revolution which will open to the healing light of day those gloomy caverns where now fester the sores of bigotry; a revolution which will substitute knowledge for ignorance and fortify words with deeds; a revolution which will result in sincere respect for others’ religious convictions without impairing one’s own and which will thereby rebound to the profit of religion and of the American nation. �[Page 271]THE ENGINEER IN THE WORLD COMMUNITY by

Wm. H. BARTON, JR. and JAMrs WILSON GRAHAM

Pennsylvania Military College

I

‘| HE position and importance of engineering in the modern

world are almost always either underestimated or entirely

disregarded. In their professional pretensions engineers

themselves are the most modest of men. They keep before them a more or less clear concept of what their work is, try to do it, and look for more. The world accepts the results as a matter of course, talks a little about the more spectacular feats simply be- cause they are spectacular, and dismisses the subject. The real func- tion of engineering in the modern world and the broader signifi- cance of its achievements do not, usually, come to light. And yet to point them out is little more than a matter of rehearsing a series of truisms.

The facts are so simple that they are easily overlooked; their importance is to be appreciated only in the results. A great deal of what is most vital and worth-while in the advance of world culture during the course of the last five centuries can be laid to the mani- testations of human constructive genius in engineering enterprises. What the engineer has achieved has been done, oftentimes, with no ultimate ideal of grandeur. He has seen a present need and has hastened to do his best to fill it. His task, in general terms, is to make possible and to facilitate the application of the forces of nature to the needs of mankind. He is concerned with the genera- tion of power and its economical utilization; problems of housing, transportation, and communication are his. Being, in most cases, a man of an uncompromisingly practical turn, he claims little

271 �[Page 272]272 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

recognition or reward for his successes. He is not working to ma- terialize a vision. His frame of mind is the one which, when some- thing seems to be needed, insists on doing something about it. Such modest aspirations are not hard to satisfy: the world takes the engineer at his word.

II

Nothing can indicate the true scope of engineering more ac- curately than a glance at the past. As far down as the close of the middle ages the world was to all practical intents and purposes a world without engineering. Certain exceptions to such a state- ment present themselves very forcibly. The great periods of archi- tecture, from the Egyptian down to the Gothic, offer a wealth of examples of magnificent engineering feats. But their effect on the daily life of man was in most cases practically negligible. True, the achievements of the Roman builders of roads and aqueducts were of a somewhat different order. The Romans came much nearer to the modern engineers than any of the other ancients; but even their work was a mere episode and a fragmentary achieve- ment. It had no vital continuation.

The work of the medieval architect is typical. In adapting the forms of the Roman builders to new purposes and developing them always with an eye to the practical end of obtaining more light and greater spaces and minimizing the weight of his struc- tures without diminishing their strength, he performed, in ec- clesiastical architecture, engineering feats which, considering the means available, are worthy to rival the best of modern skyscrapers. But the example is an isolated one. Under the shadow of the cathedral, sewage ran down the middle of the street in an open gutter. The houses flanking it were hovels of the meanest sort.

Nor was the life of the people at large, or even of the nobility, affected to any great extent. The houses of the greatest lords, with all their luxury, were cold and cheerless. Life in the greatest cities was, from a modern point of view, unbclievably uncomfortable; and the villages were simply unlivable. Travel was difficult almost �[Page 273]THE ENGINEER IN THE WORLD COMMUNITY 273

beyond comprehension. There were those who did travel great distances, to be sure; but they were few, and they could move but slowly and with hardship. Commerce was difficult and consequent- ly restricted mainly to luxuries. Roads were bad; even the means of maritime communication were pathetically primitive. The power available for whatever work was done was little more than the animal strength of man and the beasts he domesticated. The close of the middle ages could look back on more than a thousand years during which the improvements made in the living conditions of mankind were mainly in matters of luxuries, during which ad- vances in communication and travel were achieved through simple enterprise, in spite of and without improving conditions and means, during which progress in handicrafts was mainly a matter of more skill, not better means.

The results need not be dwelt upon. The world lived in small communities almost completely isolated from each other. Men were forced to a self-sufficiency which, from the beginning it has been the purpose of civilization to eradicate. Government of any but the smallest communities was more a pretense than a reality. Lawlessness was rampant. The intellectual horizon and sphere of interest of all but the most fortunate and unusual of mortals were pitifully small. The spirit of gloom that settles about so much that is medieval is hardly a thing to be marveled at.

III

That great but somewhat overestimated development in the intellectual life of the world cailed the renaissance saw a marked advance in the place of engineering among the fields of human en- deavor. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that the greatest among the artists of the times were men of almost universal genius, and that in many respects their cast of mind was characteristically that of the engineer. Leonardo da Vinci was no mere painter, as his note-books will demonstrate, if many of his achievements are for- gotten. Like many of his great contemporaries he had as his ruling passion a combination of intellectual curiosity and a thirst for �[Page 274]274 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

achievement. Interested primarily in the physical world about him, he was fundamentally ari engineer. So also with Michael Angelo, as with a host of others.

But from an engineering point of view their successes were only partial. Two reasons can be distinguished. In the first place, the intellectual movement in which they found themselves was basically artistic and cultural rather than scientific. There was at their disposal no mass of science that they could utilize. As en- gineers their work lay in the practical application of known prin- ciples, and few principles were known. The other reason is morc intricate. The peculiar qualities that made up the state of mind typical of the renaissance tended to foster an intense individualism on the part of the mighty. The great man, emancipated from the bonds and inhibitions that had constrained the past, was the ideal. The artist-engineers were, for the most part, under the protection of powerful patrons. Thus, their scope was in a large measure re- stricted to the needs and desires of those patrons. Consequently, the engineer appeared primarily as artist, architect, and military engineer. The day of his independent fulfillment had not yet come.

IV

Important as the renaissance was in the cultural history of the race, its influence upon the daily lives of the great mass of the people was comparatively slight. The villager of 1700 lived in much the same manner as his ancestor of three hundred years be- fore. The changes and improvements that had been made were apparent chiefly in the higher levels of society. And even there, they affected the intellectual life more than the physical.

The early centuries of the modern world, particularly the seventeenth, saw great advances in the physical sciences. The basis was being laid, unwittingly but no less surely, for a revolution in human life which profoundly affected every stratum of society and the entire social structure of the world itself. Like all great move- ments, it was a gradual development, far too complex and far- reaching to be reduced to a formula. It is so many-sided that we �[Page 275]THE ENGINEER IN THE WORLD COMMUNITY 275

have no name for it. One aspect of it we call the industrial revolu- tion; another the rise of democracy; another the commercial revo- lution; another the rise of modern science; another the romantic revival. All aspects of the general movement are intimately con- nected, and together they form the basis of the modern world, with its shortcomings as weil as its advantages. The movement gave birth to everything we think of as characteristically modern, and even today it has not run its course.

In considering so complex and vast a subject, it is only too easy to be warped by one’s immediate preoccupations, and to say that the movement is fundamentally this or that. But in the present case it would be easier to underestimate the importance of en- gineering than to exaggerate it. In so far as the industrial and commercial aspects of the movements are concerned, as well as in what bears directly upon the life of the people at large in other tespects, the ultimate basis is scientific. Power is perhaps the greatest single factor. The invention of the steam engine, the electric motor, and the internal-combustion engine are among the great landmarks. These things were the work of the scientist-inven- tor and based upon the findings of the pure scientist. Carried no further they would have provided what?—a series of interesting curiosities. The application of the principles to practical purposes is the point of real importance. Not discoveries and inventions in themselves, but their practical application to the needs of mankind for the amelioration of the lot of the mass of humanity is the key- stone of the movem-nt. And this is the work of the engineer.

There is no need to belabor the point with examples. Thev lie at every hand. The organization of modern commerce as well as the development of modern means of transportation, the creation of our modern industrial fabric, modern communication, every- thing that makes possible what we call, in a material sense, modern life offers a wealth of illustration. It would be hardly an exaggera- tion to say that if the material world in which we live differs from that of the middle ages, it does so because the engineer has built �[Page 276]276 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

it, working on the basis of knowledge bequeathed him by the scientist.

But this is not all. Life has not merely been made easier. Hu- manity has been and is being emancipated from the bondage of labor and isolation. The movement is still incomplete and still moving forward. The present results are very imperfect. But a real measure of final success is assured, because the scientist and the engineer work without creed or ultimate goal except mankind per se. What they believe is beside the point, and they do not ob- trude it. Their point of view, unlike that of the theorist or the reformer, proposes no final goal, no utopia. They work step by step, impersonally, utilizing and oftering to the world whatever of good they find or create. The sum is increased; the attainment of order is another detail. That immense hardship has been our inheritance along with great practical advantages is a fact imme- diately to be conceded. The tyranny of the machine, the evils con- nected with the operation of our present economic structure, the new world-sickness are not to be forgotten. But they are inciden- tals, possibly to be conquered by the same spirit that has translated the findings of the scientists into the practical basis of our modern world: the urge to “do something about it” and the ability to apply scientific knowledge to present needs.

The ramifications of the question of the relative part of the various aspects of the development of the modern world are in- finite. The question of political development is particularly knotty. And the degree to which it involves our prejudices and passions increases its difficulty tenfold. That nationalism was unknown to the early middle ages and attained its full flowering in the form of absolutism only after the renaissance is a platitude of the schools. That the rise of democracy, fed by the philosophers of the eight- eenth century age of reason accompanied the growth of the mod- ern world and was given its greatest impetus by the emancipation (partial but no less real) of the lower classes is just as obvious. But what of the relation of the two? How is our own idea of patriotism, for instance, tinctured by the spirit of the older order? �[Page 277]THE ENGINEER IN THE WORLD COMMUNITY 2.77

One thing at least is certain. Whatever the technique of govern- ment may be, in a world where the intellectual horizon is as broad as ours can be, harmony among peoples is attainable only on the basis of harmony among people. A realization of common interest and a gradual dissolution of hatred, envy, and malice among the races of the world are possible only through the sympathy and un- derstanding chat come of mutual knowledge. It is a matter that involves the enlightenment of every corner of the minds of men, from their artistic to their commercial interests. Is it mecessary to stop to point out the part of the engineer in facilitating this realiza- tion of common interests?

The development of our country is an example in point. The endless squabbling and dissension among the colonies almost de- feated the very cause of independence. When the westward ex- pansion began, the land was a chaos until easy transportation and communication drew the country into some semblance of unity. The sectional difficulties between the North and the South had as their basis a lack of common interest and mutual understanding. And the South did not become, in a true and complete sense, welded into the nation, until after the engineering development that roiiowed the reconstruction. At present, America is the largest unified community that the world has known. Its power of assim- ilation is proverbial. It is curious but hardly surprising to note at the same moment that it is the country in which engineering is most highly developed.

Granting all this, are we to believe that the future of engineer- ing advancement is to reduce the world to a dead level after the manner of Mr. Aldous Huxley's satire? By iis means. Mutual knowledge and understanding and appreciation do not mean mu- tual imitation. If man’s intellectual activity could become reduced to nothing but exact science, if life were no more than food and the body than raiment;—but no, we are under no compulsion to believe that an increase of knowledge and its practical application will be accompanied by a loss of wisdom. The “superfluous” and gracious and infinitely important things of life will be no less �[Page 278]278 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

precious then than now. There is no danger of standardizing the soul of mankind.

The engineer, once more, has no final program: he is con- tented with a practical task to perform. But he works, even though unconsciously, in view of the fact that the basis of an adult and sane world community is mutual understanding and appreciation among the people of the world themselves,—a thing not brought about by treaties or alliances or new forms of government, but by men’s realization of their common interests and their recognition of their common nature. It can be made possible only through in- ternational and inter-racial intercourse through the products of the mind, and the consequent lowering of the threshold of mingling. But engineering is an intensely practical profession. Reduced to its prime factors, it consists in little more than an active and con- structive state of mind plus a mass of practical technique. In his small way, in lightening the burden of toil and removing the neces: sity tor isolation, the engineer has accomplished and is contrib- uting not a little toward this end.

The tenth article in a Syinposium on THE SURSTANCE OF WORLD COOPERATION—the contribution of the scientist and engineer to international unity and peace. �[Page 279]ART, EDUCATION AND PEACE by

JAMES H. Cousins

Former Visiting Lecturcr in Poctry in The College of The City of New York

per may not, at first sight, appear. Art is generally looked

upon as something in the nature of a luxury, an adornment

that may give pleasure to those who can afford it, but not essential to the ordinary affairs of life. Peace is largely regarded as a matter to be discussed by politicians and newspapers, a vague hope clouded by fear.

Yet, something is happening in the mind of humanity that is altering the imperfect notions held with regard to these apparently separate human interests. American industry has recognized the value of the artistic element in its products. An automobile of ten years ago looks worse than ancient to our eyes today: it looks ugly. On the other hand, the desire for peace among the nations is com- pelling the consideration of more reliable ways and means towards its fulfilment than mere perilous balancings of political expediency. Peace-patching is felt to be futile. Peace-making is what is needed, the foundationing and building of a structure of relationships in which humanity can live in the assurance that it is a substantial edifice and not a house of cards.

Before the war of 1914, the ex-Kaiser said to a lady painter, “War is fatal to art.” The converse, I am convinced, is equally true: “Art is fatal to war.” Let us consider how and why this may be so.

In the literature of India, which is being increasingly studied in America for its suggestions towards ideal thought and life, it is declared that a work of art is useful for the double purpose of mak- ing an individual a better citizen, and of liberating the higher nature of the individual from the lower. This work is accomplished, according to the ancient yet modern psychology of the Orient, through the power which a work of art possesses of bringing to a

‘TT: relationship between the two ends of the topic of this pa- �[Page 280]280 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

radiant and dynamic focus in our feelings and thoughts certain de- sited worthy impulses and concepts that ordinarily are scattered. vague and ineftective.

Two implications are involved in this declaration of the pur- pose of art: one, that a work of art, in order to serve the higher na- ture of humanity, must itself be high in nature; the other, that art can be used for the uplift of humanity.

These two ideas of art are not common in the western world today. For the rich, the taste for art may be indulged in by the col. lection of rare or famous objects of art and the patronizing ot elaborately organized performances by art-specialists. To the less rich, art takes the various forms of mass entertainment over which they have no control save the undramatic protest of abstention. The standard of such entertainment is not regulated to the higher nature of humanity. Its tendency is mainly downwards; towards the stimulation of lower forces in human nature which are powerful enough in themselves, and which, by over-stimulation for pleasure without purpose, lead to individual and social dissatisfaction and disorder.

Happily this is not the last word that may be said on the quality and use of art. The wisdom of ancient India as to the power of worthy art to enable the individual to express his and her higher self, and so to become a better citizen, is being confirmed today by educators in America. Experiments have proved that tendencies to moral delinquency in children of both sub-normal and abnormal mental ability can be almost completely eliminated by giving the children full, free and continuous opportunity to turn their grow- ing creative energy into some form of creative art. Such release of energy into tangible forms of beauty or usefulness not only reduces delinquent tendencies as such, but brings emotional and mental satisfaction whose natural sequel is poise and peace.

Now it is acommon observation that personal states of thought and feeling, and particularly of feeling, influence group activities. Disordered nerves will cause disorderly decisions that may attect large numbers of people not directly concerned in the provocative �[Page 281]ART, EDUCATION, AND PEACE 281

cause. It is therefore obviously desirable, nay necessary, that the peace-making powers of creative activity, which have been found successful when applied to delinquent children, should be given a wider and more normal use than merely as moral medicine. Per- sonal peace, through the elimination of irritating ingredients by the flowing stream of creative activity in arts and crafts in every day’s work in schools, would inevitably spread peace-making in- fluences in the local community.

Another element in the movement towards peace through art in education is that of mutual interest in creative activity. No ac- tivity is so infectious in mutual enthusiasm or so potent in per- sonal coalescence. The art activities of students in one country will become increasingly interesting to students of another country. Interchange of the products of the highest capacities of their nature will lead to mutual appreciation and understanding, and lay the psychological foundation of international approaches which have been blockaded by ignorance and misunderstanding. The empires of the past expanded themselves by adding other peoples’ terri- tories to their own: the empire of culture grows by adding one- self in sympathy to the achievements of others. Through mutual cultural interest man can perform the paradox of gaining the whole world and yet not losing his own soul.

Many ways towards peace bet een the nations are being ex- plored. I believe the ultimately surest way is by an education that includes integral and constant exercise of the creative faculty of the young in arts and crafts. Iam convinced, from long experience in education in both the Occident and the Orient, that through the giving of opportunity for creative expression and appreciation in both juvenile and adult education equal to language or calculation, the elements of disorder in the individual will be reduced towards extinction, and the consequent growing harmony in the individual will extend into harmony between individuals and groups, and ul- timately generate a disposition and atmosphere in which peace will cease to be a problem since it will be natural and inevitable. �[Page 282]WORLD CITIZENSHIP by CarRL A. Ross

Lawyer

Il. World Citizenship and Races

ORTH AMERICA is predominantly English, Central and Nw America are predominantly Spanish, in Europe

there are both English and Spanish, also French, German,

Italian aid many other old races, no one predominating. The Christian religion is predominant in these nations, though it varies widely from nation to nation. These races are often called the “Western Races” or the “White Race.” When we come to the Near East and the Far East, we find the Christian religion no longer predominant and encounter what are loosely referred to as the “Asian Race.” In reality there are many races in Asia, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Indian, the Malay and many others, widely differ- ing and some of them like the inhabitants of Russia and Turkey, hard to classify as they have many languages and origins. In con- trast to the “Western Races,” these are often called the ‘‘Eastern Races,” or the “Yellow Races.” A considerable part of history has to do with race conflicts, but these age long quarrels have failed to harmonize the races, have failed to establish any standard of life acceptable to any working majority of the races or any group of similar races, like the white race or the yellow race. In literature, art and science, races differ as widely as they do in religion and law. During recent years, however, there is a beginning of 4 greater tolerance, a tolerance beginning intellectually but not yet put into practice. The so-called dominant races are beginning to realize that other races that have not risen to a dominant station,

may yet have an art or culture or spiritual quality of such valu or 282 �[Page 283]WORLD CITIZENSHIP 283

superiority that the world cannot well afford to lose them. How-

ever, by the same token, we must recognize that nationalism has

grown rapidly, spreading from the dominant to the less dominant

traces and that nationalism in dominant nations indicates im- rialism.

All these problems have to be faced when world organization is considered and constitute one of the greatest hindrances or ob- stacles to world cooperation. How can nations and races so widely divergent ever cooperate, how can they join in a world govern- ment? We wish to review and elaborate some of our earlier com- ments on these problems.

The League of Nations is considered our foremost plan of world cooperation. The leading proponents of the League are now Great Britain and France, nations among those we would class as dominant, yes, as imperialistic, since the effort of each is to spread its influence over other territory and curb any local development that would interfere with those trade advantages each has ob- tained. They seek to curb the giving of equal trade advantages to any other nation and to curb any attempt to restore to the local nation or race those advantages lost by grant to the dominant pene- trating nation. Thus the clashes brought on by imperialism are evi- denced in China, for example, in two ways; by the campaign to oust the foreigner and by the clash in China between Japan and Russia and Western nations. This whole movement also evidences the rise of nationalism in China and of growing imperialism in those countries competing for Chinese concessions and trade advantages. Of these two movements, the eftort to oust the foreigner does not hindex world cooperation to such an extent as does the clash be- tween imperialistic nations competing for trade advantages, and it is plain to see that in this competition the capitalistic nation is no more imperialistic than the nation of Soviet Republics.

The term, “the confraternity of the snubbed,” used by Upton Close, indicates the tie between Eastern races produced by the im- perialism of Western races, and this tie looks to the organization of a racial group, the Asian group, rather than to world organization, �[Page 284]284 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

and in effect it is inimical to world organization. This “confrater- nity” is evidenced by the trend in China favorable to the Soviets, and is clearly expressed in the so-called “Will” of Sun Yat-Sen in the following words: “It is necessary *** to join hands with those countries in the world which are prepared to treat us as equals in our fight for the common cause.” Harmony among Asians is surely to be sought so long as it does not envisage or presage even greater world conflict, but what benefit is cooperation in Asia aimed at war with the West, another world war?

In this regard, how shall the United States be classed, has the United States developed nationalism to the point that it is im- perialistic? This leads to a discussion cf whether the Monroe Doc- trine is imperialistic, but we would point out that from one point of view the United States is not imperialistic. From the point ot view of the forty-eight States as governments, the forty-eight States still remain real governments, real nations, but no longer imperial: istic. Before 1789, the thirteen States were nationalistic and most of them were also imperialistic, seeking to extend their control over territory west to the Mississippi River. Viscount Bryce points out that the thirteen States existed before the United States and that new territory has to organize as a State before it is admitted to the Union, also that the States would continue to exist as gov- ernments should the United States be dissolved.

“The American Federal Republic is itself a commonwealth as well as a union of commonwealths, because it claims directly the obedience of every citizen, and acts immediately upon him through its courts and executive officers. Still less are its minor communitics, the States, mere subdivisions of the Union, mere creatures of the national government, like the counties of England or the depart- ments of France. They have over their citizens an authority which is their own and not delegated by the central government. Thev have not been called into being by that government. They—that is, the older ones among them—existed before it. They could exist without it.”

Granting for the sake of argument, that the United States is �[Page 285]WORLD CITIZENSHIP 285

imperialistic as to Nicaragua, it is not imperialistic as to New York and doubtless the people of New York have greater freedom and more sovereignty than the people of Nicaragua. This difference is not due to the races or religions or languages of the peoples in- volved, but to the fact, or accident of government, that Nicaragua is not one of the nations or states of the United States, while New York is. This difference in the political realm or constitutional realm could be removed by constitutional changes whereby Ni- curagua was admitted as a State to the Union, so that, thereby, the people, the citizens of Nicaragua would possess and exercise more sovereignty than they now exercise. There is, then, a constitutional method of harmonizing nationalism and overcoming imperialism. Bryce, however, points out that the European parliamentary form of government does not permit such a development, because it lacks dual allegiance and dual citizenship, but that the federated torm of government—or World Citizenship—does harmonize con- flicting nationalisms and subdue the imperialistic tendencies of the participating nations or races, by making (as the quotation above shows) the citizens of each participating nation, citizens also of the Federated Union and owing it an allegiance in some respects superior.

“Federalism furnishes the means of uniting commonwealths into one nation under one national government without extinguish- ing their separate administrations, legislatures and local patriot- isms. These are causes and conditions which dispose independent or semi-independent communities to form a closer union in a Fed- eral form. There are other causes and conditions which dispose the subjects of one government to desire to make their governmental union less close by substituting a Federal for a unitary system. In both sets of cases, the centripetal or centrifugal forces spring from the local position, the history, the sentiments, the economic needs ot those among whom the problem arises. Federalism is an equally legitimate resource whether it is adopted for the sake of tightening or for the sake of loosening a preexisting bond.

“Federalism supplies the best means of developing a new and �[Page 286]286 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

vast country. It permits an expansion whose extent, and whose rate and manner of progress cannot be foreseen, to proceed with more variety of methods, more adaptation of laws and adrninistration to the circumstances of each nart of the territory, and altogether ina more truly natural and spontaneous way, than can be expected under a centralized government, which is disposed to apply its settled system through all its dominions. Thus the special needs of a new region are met by the inhabitants in the way they find best; its special evils are cured by special remedies, perhaps more drastic than an old country demands, perhaps more lax than an old country would tolerate; while at the same time the spirit of self- reliance among those who build up these new communities is stim- ulated and respected.

“Federalism prevents the rise of a despotic central govern. ment, absorbing other powers, and menacing the private liberties of the citizen.

“Federalism enables a people to try experiments in legislation and administration which could not be safely tried in a large cen- tralized country. A comparatively small commonwealth like an American State easily makes and unmakes its laws; mistakes arc not serious, for they are soon corrected; other States profit by the experience of a law or a method which has worked well or ill in the State that has tried it.

‘Federalism, if it diminishes the collective force of a nation, diminishes also the risks to which its size and the diversities of its parts expose it. A nation so divided is like a ship built with water- tight compartments. So if social discord or an economic crisis has produced disorders or foolish legislation in one member of the Federal body, the mischief may stop at the State frontier instead of spreading through and tainting the nation at large.

“Federalism, by creating many local legislatures with wide powers, relieves the national legislature of a part of that large mass of functions which might otherwise prove too heavy for it. Thus business is more promptly dispatched, and the great central council �[Page 287]WORLD CITIZENSHIP 287

of the nation has time to deliberate on those questions which most nearly touch the whole country.”

So far Bryce, from the point of view of the Union, speaks of the advantages of Federalism as a means of cooperation, he then speaks from the point of view of each participating nation, dem- onstrating that the people by retaining their allegiance to and citi- zenship in their respective nations, do still possess the advantages of local self-government. If local customs, patriotisms, languages and religions can be thus easily rctained through the federal type of union, why should there be opposition to World Citizenship and why should it be considered impracticable?

“Another set of arguments relate to and recommend not so much Federalism as local self-government.

“Self-government stimulates the interest of people in the af- fairs of their neighborhood, sustains local political life, educates the citizen in his daily round of civic duty, teaches him that per- petual vigilance and the sacrifice of his own time and labor are the price that must be paid for individual liberty and collective prosperity. Also, self-government secures the good administration of local aftairs by giving the inhabitants of each locality due means of overseeing the conduct of their business.

“That these two sets of grounds are distinct appears from the fact that the sort of local interest which local self-government evokes is quite a different thing from the interest men feel in the affairs of a large body like an American State. So, too, the control over its own affairs of a township, or even a small county, where everybody can know what is going on, is quite different from the control exercisable over the aftairs of a commonwealth with a mil- lion of people. Local self-government may exist in a unified coun- try like England, and may be wanting in a Federal country like Germany. Through both sets of arguments there runs the general principle that the more power is given to the units which compose the nation, be they large or small, and the less to the nation as a whole and to its central authority, so much fuller will be the lib- �[Page 288]288 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

erties and so much greater the energy of the individuals who com- pose the people.

“All of these arguments recommending Federalism (7.¢., ad- vantages from the Union point of view and from the local or sclt- government point of view) have proved valid in American ex- perience.

“To create a nation while preserving the States was the main reason for the grant of powers which the National government re- ceived; an all-sufficient reason, and one which holds good today. The several States have changed greatly since 1789, but they are still commonwealths whose wide authority and jurisdiction prac- tical men are agreed in desiring to maintain.”

Our problem today is “to create a world-nation while pre- serving the States’”—our widely differing nations—and these con- stitutional doctrines expounded by Viscount Bryce are the princi- pal reasons why we advocate World Citizenship with its dual citi- zenship making it the equivalent of Bryce’s Federalism. This dual citizenship consists for each citizen in each nation of a dual allegi- ance, one to the nation of his residence in domestic affairs, the other like allegiance to the world group or union in ‘‘foreign”’ affairs, whereby the World Empire is enabled to govern citizens—"‘people, the only proper objects of government,” according to the Fed- eralist. Having thus shown the practicability of combining na- tional self-government in domestic affairs and world government in exterritorial affairs, we can attack the race problem confronting world organization in the light of these constitutional principles.

As we conceive it World Citizenship in practice need not follow the American citizenship model too closely. In certain re- spects, for example as to races, the divergence may be extreme, the direct opposite of some American features may be permitted to gain for 1933 the essence, the essential benefits of the federal doc- trines. In 1789 the French in Quebec and the French and Spanish in the south along the Gulf coast were excluded, or at least were not considered as a part of the group. There was a diversity not only of race, religion and law, but also in the fact that the French �[Page 289]WORLD CITIZENSHIP 289

and Spanish were dependents of France and Spain, and not of England. We cannot well speculate what the results would have been had an attempt been made to include Quebec, Florida and Louisiana in the Union because of the European complications that would have resulted, but we feel they did not form a part of the same community as did the thirteen States, they had little or noth- ing in common except proximity.

It must be admitted, however, that this history does not fully answer the race objection to world organization and when it is disclosed that World Citizenship contemplates cooperation be- tween the races, the white race, the yellow race and the brown and the black, the reaction is that is it a utopian dream, that the mere statement is enough to condemn it. The charge is made in the West that World Citizenship would be trying to force the dominant white race to rub noses with inferior races, the yellow, the brown and the black, yes with the igorrote too, while the East has a similar superiority complex.

If the premises of our opponents are sound this might prove an unanswerable objection to World Citizenship, but who is the one who would do away with all the basic civilizations of the earth, who is the one who would wipe out the culture of many older races in the process of reform, who is the one now trying to make all races rub noses? What peace principles would work the discard of the languages, art and literatures of the world? If you are not sure, read the quotations from Bryce again. We would not hold a brief for World Citizenship if we believed it meant the extinction of races, languages, local customs and civilizations now the pride of vast aggregations of peoples, either the white race or the yellow race whichever should fail to survive the long heralded conflict. We believe World Citizenship can retain its vital essence while harmonizing and reconciling races. We believe the organi- zation of the World Empire should, in direct contrast to the or- ganization of the American Empire, include diverse races, diverse torms of republican government, diverse religions and, as regards local self-government, diverse systems of law. We believe this can �[Page 290]290 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

be accomplished without any rubbing of noses offensive to all races alike. We also believe the participation of Asian races in World Empire affairs, that is in affairs now exterritorial, would “save the face” of Asia and by the same token “‘save the tace” of the West. The constitution for the World Empire can and should permit and provide for a wide diversity in the domestic or local affairs of all nation members. In fact it is the only form of world organization where such diversity is at all possible. Who are those who would have us rub noses with other races and peoples? Clearly those advocating a single citizenship, an undivided allegiance, those who would give the Central Parliament of the World Empire juris- diction over the local affairs of all nations alike, those who would b; a single allegiance to the Empire require it to absorb all partici- pating nations and make all people conform to the same set of locai laws. We do not charge that present day peace advocates oppose any races openly, rather they cheerfully consort with all races, but in all their dealings with other races the white man now controlling the League group of peace organizations silently assumes that when any conflict arises the dominant, capitalistic, white man’s system is superior and must survive imperialistically. It is truc that as to languages, if the white man is French, he would insist that the French language survive, so the English, so the others, but is this an illustration that points to unity except through French imperialism, English imperialism or other national imperialism: As with language, so with finance, so with law, so with education, the speaker assumes that the custom or practice of his own nation must survive and control. Has the League any antidote for this nationalistic poison, this imperialism? The literature of the League points out only one means by which they so much as claim they may be able to control these imperialistic ambitions of races, name: ly, public opinion. These people fail to recognize that there are as many kinds of public opinion as there are races or nations. Be- tween heathen public opinion and educated public opinion there will always be a clash. If you say that educated public opinion should survive and dominate, perhaps you are right, but this does �[Page 291]WORLD CITIZENSHIP 291

not avoid the clash and the fateful thing is that under the League system only one allegiance and citizenship can survive on that day when one public opinion, the world public opinion, supports the League so that it becomes a power competent to maintain world peace. In that day there can be no effective American public opinion, no effective European public opinion, no effective Japan- ese or Chinese public opinion and it is easy to see that if by a miracle an effective world public opinion should come within the few years requisite to rescue the world from its present ills and threatened world wars, it could only be an esperanto public opinion.

We believe that history teaches that through the dual allegi- ance of World Citizenship, races widely different can cooperate in a successful world government, and we would respectfully ask how otherwise the League or any other peace organization can hope to salvage from the wreck of world domination, the races, lan- guages, religions, laws and local patriotisms so necessary to a happy, peaceful world community ? �[Page 292]MANCHURIA, THE LEAGUE, AND TREATY REVISION by

FRANK DOANE University of Chicago

HE recent Lytton Report to the League of Nations puts Japan ] in a rather bad light. What League officials probably did

not anticipate was that it also puts the League in a difficult

position. It is one thing to publish a statement that indicts the foreign policy of a sovereign state and another thing to make that state mend its ways and repair the damage done without re- sorting to force. This is the last thing the League of Nations wants to do. Its very existence is predicated upon its ability to prevent war. For the League to call upon its member states to force Japan to evacuate Manchuria, is to threaten the further life of the League itself. Yet, if the Tokio Government maintains the evasive policy it has pursued during the last fourteen months, the League can do nothing else. This is what the Lytton Report has done to that august assembly at Geneva.

Clearly, what Japan wants is a revision of the Nine Power Pact. Tokio never was enthusiastic about any treaty that would guarantee the political and administrative integrity of China and in order to avail herself of the economic advantages accruing from a powerful sphere of influence in Manchuria, has taken steps to assure such a condition. The Nine Power Treaty would prevent just this—so it has been ignored. With Great Britain threatened with dissolution, France, Germany, and Italy ready to spring at each other’s throats, and America in the throes of its greatest de- pression, concerted action against Japan would not be likely. Nip- pon therefore resorted to the’ old fashioned method of getting

292 �[Page 293]TREATY REVISION 293

what it wanted. Other methods are supposed to exist today but time has not proven them to be particularly eftective.

From the beginning of time, Treaties have been revised by war. There is nothing new in what Japan has done despite the Nine Power Pact, the Kellogg Treaty, or any other agreement to which she has affixed her signature. It is rather the antiquity of her method that has astonished the society of nations. It is only the primitive man, so-called who has no conception of what we in our naiveté, have come to call ‘‘the sanctity of treaties.” In the past, an adverse decision was accepted only until the vanquished had recovered his strength and launched an offensive of his own. Victory of one over the other has never meant anything other than a temporary cessation of hostilities.

With the development of a system of international law, a supposed moral justification for the abrogation of treaties without resort to war, gradually grew up. This doctrine of “rebus sic stan- tibus,” as it has come to be called, has always been highly contro- versial although many nations have invoked it to their own ad- vantage. Briefly, it may be said to declare that any treaty may be terminated when conditions have changed to such an extent that the treaty is obsoicte. In the words of Sir John F. Williams: “After the change of circumstances, the treaty is zone—avoidance follows automatically.”* Russia applied it in regard to the neutrality of the Black Sea as imposed by the Treaty of Paris in 1856. Russia invoked it again in 1886 in declaring the Treaty of Berlin obsolete. In 1908, Austria-Hungary made use of the same idea in annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina. Finally, in 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm denied the applicability of the Treaty of 1839 guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium because Belgium had become a first class power in the meantime.

It should be mentioned that in each of the cases mentioned except the last, world conditions conspired to make the application successful. It was President Wilson's idea to put an end to this uncertainty of treaties when he linked up Article 10 of the Cov-

• ’The Permanence of Treaties,” in Am. J. Int. Law, 1928.

�[Page 294]294 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

enant of the League with a proviso for peaceable revision. This proviso became Article 19. It reads:

“The Assembly may, from time to time, advise the recon- sideration by members of the League of treaties which have become inapplicable and the consideration of international conditions whose continuance might endanger the peace of the world.”

This arrangement leaves it to a supposedly neutral body, the As. sembly of the League, to decide whether or not the treaty has be- come obsolete. The joker is in the temperate language used as evidenced by the failure of the League to apply it during the twelve years of its existence. Article 19 has only been invoked twice but both times the Assembly exhibited the courage of a Middletown tea party.

In November of 1920, Bolivia requested the Assembly to de- clare obsolete, her Treaty of 1904 with Chile, by which she lost direct access to the sea. The chief representative of Chile denied the competency of the League to consider it, stressing the words “advise” and “inapplicable.” He argued that if a precedent was established in this case, not even the Treaty of Versailles would be proof against question. This, it seemed, might lead to serious consequences so a committee of three jurists was appointed to de- fine the legal authority of the Assembly under Article 19.

The decision rendered was that “the Assembly cannot of itself modify any treaty but has the power to advise the reconsideration of treaties—only, however, where treaties have become inappli- cable, when the state of affairs has subsequently undergone such radical changes that their application has ceased to be reasonably possible. Nevertheless, the Assembly would have to ascertain whether these conditions did in point of fact, exist.”*

Just why the Bolivian delegates accepted the decision only reserving the right to bring up the case again, has never been made clear. The committee of jurists was such as to render a verdict in favor of Chile almost a certainty. No Italian judge would ac that time encourage any revision that might lead to a modification of

• Records of the Second Assembly. p. 466.

�[Page 295]TREATY REVISION 295

the Carthaginian Peace of Versailles. No one from Columbia, likewise, would run the risk of alienating the former Allied Powers when his country was engaged in border disputes with Peru and Brazil. Yet it gave Lord Balfour a chance to congratulate the League on the amicable settlement of a knotty problem.

By September of 1929, China challenged the efficacy of Article 19 and asked to have a committee appointed “charged with the task of finding the most effective means of putting this Article into op- eration.””** The Chinese delegate admitted that it was the so-called “unequal” treaties which had prompted his resolution and Euro- pean Powers recognized the coming of a demand for revision. The committee therefore returned a report dealing almost entirely with tules of procedure. Thus, aside from the fact that the Assembly was still empowered to review a given case upon request and ad- vise, (or in the French translation, “invite” the other party to consider revision, nothing definite was accomplished, and despite official denial by the Assembly, Article 19 is, in fact, inoperative.

As a matter of fact, revisions since 1919 have been made with- out any aid from the League. Turkey changed the Treaty of Sevres by fighting another war. The Young Plan has taken the place of the Reparations Commission and the so-called war criminals have never been taken to trial. The Tacna-Arica Dispute has been settled. Why should Japan invoke Article 19?

By side-stepping the issue in South America and in the case of the unequal Chinese Treaties, the League lost the opportunity to establish precedents. It may well be that if the Assembly had ex- erted its influence in settling these earlier difficulties more satis- factorily, Japan would not now stand accused of having fa‘led to exhaust pacific means. Knowing however, that the other signatory powers would oppose any revision of the Nine Power Treaty, and knowing the ineffectual methods of the League in dealing with such questions, only one way remained open if Japanese capital invested in Manchuria was to be protected and the long- dreamed-of empire on the mainland was to be made a reality.

• Records of the 10th Assembly, p.. 99,

�[Page 296]WORLD ADVANCE

A Monthly International Review by

OscaR NEWFANG Author of ‘‘The Road to Peace,’’ etc.

TOWARD WORLD ECONOMIC PEACE

(Continued)

HE world is an economic unit. As Premier MacDonald, of

England, said in opening the London Economic Confer-

ence: ‘The nearer we can make the world an economic unit,

the better it will be for each nation.” The attempt to pursue a policy of isolation and air-tight economic exclusiveness under the present conditions of infinitely more numerous and closer contacts among nations can result only in increasing economic frictions, increasing political frictions, and finally in increasing danger ot war. For while the religious, the dynastic and the racial causes ot warfare have been largely diminished or eliminated in this twen- tieth century world, the economic causes of war have been vastly increased, owing to the tremendous inventions for bridging space and annihilating time, thus shrinking the whole world into a close neighborhood and multiplying many times the former economic contacts of nations with one another.

After the present economic warfare shall have been ended, therefore, it will be highly important to consider the more perma- nent and the broader measures necessary to prevent economic wars in the future. The World Economic Conference has recognized this need by the division of its economic work between two com- mittees, the committee for immediate measures and the committee

for permanent measures. 296 �[Page 297]WORLD ADVANCE 297

In order to achieve permanent world economic peace and world economic unity four far-reaching improvements in world organization seem necessary:

1. A world gold standard, with the Bank for Internatio” | Settlements as the gold reserve depository and the bank of issue for a world currency.

2. A gradual approach to the free flow of commodities, in- vestments, funds and labor throughout the world.

3. World-wide establishment of fair terms of competition.

4. The necessary degree..of world politicai unity to make possible the three preceding improvements.

A WORLD CURRENCY

While it is practically certain that the leading nations of the world will sooner or later put an end to the present wild fluctua- tions of their currencies and will, at one level or another, return to the gold standard, this standard itself in its normal working has proved itself very unsatisfactory for the achievement of economic peace among the nations. As was stated in last month’s article, the gold reserve of each nation has been made the basis of a super- structure of currency and credit of ten or more times its amount. As, under the present situation of isolated national monetary sys- tems, gold is the only acceptable medium for the settlement of in- ternational balances, its necessary shipment from time to time from one nation to another is a constant source of anxiety, of economic friction, frequently of insinuations of malicious intent, of politi- cal friction, and of bad blood. The anxiety can be readily under- stood, when it is realized that every gold shipment necessitates a ten-fold larger restriction in the currency and credit structure of the shipping country, if it desires to maintain the existing ratio of gold reserve against its credit liabilities. This credit, however, is the life-blood of the commerce of the nation, and its restriction, by means of the necessary raising of discount rates, everywhere ham- pers business and produces ill-will. Hence each nation strives with �[Page 298]29S WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

might and main to obtain a “favorable” balance of trade by export: ing more than it imports, which of course, for all the nations taken as a whole, is a mathematical impossibility. Since a favorable balance cannot possibly be obtained by every nation, the devious methods of high finance are used by each nation in order to force such a balance in its own case, by means of tariff restrictions, quotas, preferences or embargoes on imports; by bounties on exports, shipping sub- sidies, dumping abroad below domestic prices, etc., all of which methods cause economic friction and sow the seeds of war.

The final solution of this problem seems to be, to make the world a monetary unit, by making the Bank for International Settlements the banker for the central banks of all nations, con- centrating the gold reserve of the central banks on deposit with this world bank, and having the Bank for International Settlements made the issuing bank for a world currency against this world gold reserve. The various central banks would, of course, then have large credit balances with the world bank, and international trade balances would be settled simply by book entries on the books of the world bank, just as intra-national trade balances are now settled hy entries on the books of the central bank of each nation. Tem- porary or seasonal excessive payments by any nation would be taken care of by its central bank making a seasonal loan from the world bank until the return flow of trade balances should again cancel the excessive outward movement. The gold would remain in the vaults of the Bank for International Settlements, there would be much less need for restrictions of credit or manipulations of dis- count rates by the central banks of the various nations, the basis for the world currency would at all times remain intact, and a degree of stability would be given to all the monetary phases of the world’s business which is impossible under the present system.

Toward Freedom of Trade, Investment and Travel

Economists with a practically unanimous voice have insisted, ever since the science or political economy began, that the great beneficial principle of the division of labor should be logically �[Page 299]WORLD ADVANCE 299

applied as well to the division of production among the various parts of the earth, in accordance with their superior endowment by nature for various products. By the free exchange of commodities between regions specially productive in each commodity all parts of the world are in possession of a greater amount of goods as the re- sult of their labors. While statesmen have never been broad-minded enough to accept in its entirety this principle of the free flow of goods, investments and labor, the hampering governmental restric- tions have in the past few years become so great as not only to threat- cn the economic welfare of all the nations, but also so great as to cause the utmost economic friction and political animosity among nation , threatening the world’s peace. As explained in our last month’s article, these measures are the inevitable result of the im- possibly large payments among nations resulting from the world war. They have been intensified by the excessive nationalism which has resulted from the war, and which has driven the statesmen of every nation to seek complete economic independence of other nations, so as to be in the best possible position to sustain any fu- ture war.

The argument for ‘‘autarchy,” or self-containment, is one that economists have not attempted to answer. It is simply that, not- withstanding the necessary national sacrifices and the greater cost of procuring domestically certain commodities during peace time, these sacrifices and this extra cost are necessary as war preparation measures. Economics, like politics, has stopped at the water’s edge. The only answer to the ‘‘autarchy” argument is the removal of the danger of war, to which we will address ourselves in the fourth point mentioned above.

It should be noted here, however, that the very economic war measures mentioned, by ruthlessly destroying channels of trade long encouraged and long established, tend to produce the very friction and the very danger of war against which they are taken. The ending of all economic restrictions would in itself be the most cffective measure possible to eliminate the danger of war.

We may note here, also, that the world-wide freedom of �[Page 300]309 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

trade, investment and travel would establish a world level of prices which would give far greater stability to business and cm: ployment everywhere than is possible under the present restrictive. nationalistic system. The wider the unrestricted market, the gentler and more gradual will price changes be, and the more easily can business absorb them without distress, contraction and unemploy- ment. While a few carloads of fruit or vegetables arriving in a small-town market flood the market and demoralize prices, in a great metropolitan market many more carloads will cause scarcely a ripple in prices. Stability of business is the foundation of pros- perity. Fair Terms of World Competition

While the force of free competition in world trade is in the main extremely beneficial to mankind, in that it tends to bring to consumers everywhere products of the highest quality at the low- est possible prices, and so to promote the welfare of all people; there are certain methods of unfair and harmful competition which are productive not only of great suffering to vast numbers of workers and which tend to bankrupt enterprises conducted on de- cent and honorable lines, but which are also productive of the deepest resentment among nations and are the cause of many irri- tating economic discriminations, of great economic and political friction, and of grave danger of wars.

The principal unfair methods pursued by one nation to cap- ture the home or the world markets of a competing nation are the permission of unreasonably long hours of labor in its industries, the permission of the exploitation of the labor of little children, the depression of wages below a minimum sufficient for decent living conditions, and the permission for the export of adulterated products or otherwise deceptively unfair quality in its exported com- modities.

If permanent world economic peace is to be established, it is necessary that a world code of fair competition should be estab- lished and enforced in all commerce crossing national boundaries. �[Page 301]WORLD ADVANCE 301

The method by which the League of Nations or a World Economic Conference may achieve this necessary objective is being illustrated at this very time by the law recently passed in the United States for the elimination of unfair competition and the establishment of codes of fair competition. The American method is to permit the employers and the workers of each industry to agree by majority vote upon a code of fair competition, covering maximum weekly hours of labor, maximum weekly hours of running machinery, min- imum weekly wages, and such other fair terms of competition re- garding honest qualities, honest advertising representations, etc., as they may deem desirable. After this code has been approved by the governmental authorities, it becomes the law for that industry, and the unfair minority which would be disposed to capture business by undercutting the standards set and thus forcing the whole in- dustry by their unfair competition to adopt its harmful sweatshop methods and starvation wages is compelled by law to live up to the standard code, to stop its ruinous practices, and to play the game of competition in a fair and sportsmanlike manner according to the rules. World Economic Peace Demands World Political Or ganizaztion

It must be obvious, even to the casual reader, that the basis of world economic peace here outlined cannot be achieved without materially strengthening the League of Nations. What nations will entrust its gold reserve to the Bank for International Settle- ments until the League is furnished with a world police force of unquestioned superiority over any military force by which a mem- ber state might seize the world gold reserve? What nation will disarm economically, by removing its tariffs and other restrictions on trade and permitting key industries and agriculture to find the parts of the world where they can be carried on to the best advan: tage, until it has full security against military attack or economic discrimination against its commerce? :

It is evident, therefore, that the Permanent Court of Inter- national Justice and the machinery of the League for arbitration or �[Page 302]302 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

conciliation of disputes must be backed up by a world police force, especially a naval and air force, incontestably superior to any forces that could obstruct it in enforcing the decrees of justice issued by the Court or the League Council. We will outline in our next article a plan for the disarmament of the states members of the League through contributing their forces over a period of years to the world police force of the League, thus assuring the member states of full security against aggression, while at the same time making it unnecessary for the League to support more than a com: paratively moderate world police force in order to command com: pliance with justice everywhere without fighting.

The second improvement of the League that seeems obviously necessary, if the nations are to disarm economically and have ade- quate assurance against discrimination or hampering restrictions touching their export business, is that binding decisions of the As- sembly of the League shall be made by majority vote, subject to no further ratification, instead of the present impotent method of unani- mity with its constant deadlocks. And this, in turn, requires that the representation and weight of the nations in the Assembly shall bear a true relation to theit population and importance, while still safeguarding the small nations against domination by a few large and populous states. Long experience in many countries of the world has shown that these requirements are best met by a federal form of Assembly, in one chamber of which states vote equally as sovercign units, while in the other representation and votes are apportioned according to the population of the member states, de- cisions being made by a majority vote of beth branches.

These permanent measures for world economic peace, it must be admitted, are rather a large order and will require ample time for their full consideration by the League authorities or a proper League committee, but if the object of the World Economic Con- ference is not merely to end the present economic warfare, but to establish such conditions as will prevent future economic wars, some such permanent and far-reaching ineasures must in the end be adopted. The League of Nations must be developed into an organic federation of nations. �[Page 303]EFFICIENT SOCIALISM by GEORGE YEISLEY RUSK

Dean, School of Human Relations, New York City

ONVENTIONAL socialism, men are convinced, does not lay sufficient responsibility upon every citizen to insure his doing his work with the greatest possible efficiency. Con- temporary capitalism, we all can observe, provides no means:- (1) for enabling workers to buy all the goods that mod- ern industry can produce, resulting in periods of vast unemploy- ment and suffering, and (2) for enabling capitalists to estimate how much of their incomes they should invest in production-goods (for the good of industry and their own future security) and how much in consumption-goods, wages of servants and charity. Statistics could be compiled showing what proportion of the various classes of incomes were invested in production-goods in periods of solid prosperity. Then if a law were passed permitting persons to invest, say, 5% less of their incomes in production-goods than was done in the periods of solid prosperity and that this 5% must be given to such projects as slum-reclamation, improvement of public education to secure emotional balance, self-control and initiative, as well as technical proficiency, for the whole popula- tion, and like projects in which the money would be swiftly spent for permanently valuable consumption-goods, prosperity would not only be maintained, but greatly increased. It would actually be increased because (1) productive machinery would be kept working nearly at peak; (2) needless competition could be elim- inated as all efficient businesses would be doing well; and (3) workers would be in demand and therefore be able to secure good wages and so again increase consumption.

303 �[Page 304]304 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

If it were found that 5% of his investments were too large an amount to require everyone to give to charity, to insure an excellent market for producers, the percentage could be lowered. If too little, it could be raised.

In order to compensate those who pay the 5% to charity, for the loss in security which would result, a certain percentage of their gifts should be paid back to them yearly if their incomes decreased below a certain level,—in which case the refunds would be spent on consumption-goods and so not overload industry with the ma- chines of production as would have been the case if they had been invested originally.

The fact that the 5% of investment ienvaed to charity would be spent on great social projects of permanent value such as model apartments and schools instead of added to the wages of individual workers by whom it might be squandered and could not be spent wholesale, would mean that the workers would get far more for their money than they would if it had been paid to them individ- ually. Those who gave the money would be interested to see that it was spent in the wisest way possible, not wasted by politicians as might be the case if it were paid to the government as taxes. However, there should be general governmental definition of the sort of projects to which the 5% of investments might be devoted.

If, in addition to the maintenance of selling-power by the means suggested above, a 30-hour week and old-age, unemployment and sickness insurance were established in industry, all of the practical benefits of socialism would gradually be secured and yet sufficient competition be maintained to insure that everyone would be in- duced to do his best work at all times. Continued economic tragedy would be eliminated from the experience of the poor, and sudden reversals from that of the rich. All would know economic security as the just reward for the faithful labor. �[Page 305]THE WORLD OF REALITY by

RuHI AFNAN

I]. THE PROPHETS

God, the Divine Essence, and obtain a direct communion

with Him. The realization of such a hope is absolutely

denied to man. To that transcendental Being neither hu- man intellect nor man’s feelings and experience can ever approach. All that we may think or experience are imaginings of our own, creations of our own mind and passions and, therefore, fundamen- tally unlike His true nature. But God through His infinite bounty has not left His people in a condition of absolute deprivation. He has manifested His attributes in the Prophets and made the attain- ment unto Their presence the attainment to the presence of the Divine Essence Itself. Moreover, according to Baha'u'llah, God and His creatures, the eternal and the temporal worlds, the Abso- lute and the contingent could not be so completely and eternally separated. A link had to exist, and this link is the Word or Divine Will, which is the reality of the Prophets who have appeared throughout the ages.

The Prophets perform this function because they bear ele- ments in common with God on the one hand and with man on the other. Their reality is the manifestation of the Word of God or the Divine Will and their outward appearance is human. Baha- u'llah explains these two aspects of their nature as follows:

“He has created this Pure Soul and Heavenly Reality from two clements: an outward element of clay and an inward Divine Na- ture. He is thus endowed with two stations; one is the station of

30$

T« highest quest of the mystics has always been to attain �[Page 306]306 ° WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

reality, of ‘He does not utter save about God His Lord,’ which con. forms to the tradition ‘I have many conditions, with God I am He and He is I, save I am I and He is He.’ Similarly He says: ‘There is no distinction between you and They save They are your ser- vants.’ Their other station is human. Thus He says: ‘I am not save a human like you. Say praise be to God my Lord, am I other than a human messenger ?’”’

Thus being Divine and connected with the world of the Ab- solute on the one hand, and human and in touch with the world of creation on the other, the Prophets occupy a position of peculiar significance and importance. It is through them that God reveals His powers to man, and man on his part comes to an understanding of the will of his Lord. It is through their teachings that we attain our highest good and comprehend the nature of the true ethical life.

“And know that the proceeding of the Word the Holy Spirit from God, which is the proceeding and appearance of manifesta- tion, must not be understood to mean that the Reality of Divinity has been divided into parts, or multiplied, or that it has descended from the exaltation of holiness and purity. God forbid! If a pure, fine mirror faces the sun, the light and heat, the form and the image of the sun will be resplendent in it with such manifestation, that if a beholder says of the sun which is brilliant and visible in the mirror: “This is the sun’ it is true.”

These Prophets who bear such a close relation with God do not manifest the Divine Essence, in the sense that a part of the Divinity resides in them. From the Baha’i point of view it would be sheer blasphemy to maintain that the Absolute Essence has come down from its exalted position and taken a material form. The eternal cannot become subject to the temporal even if that tem- poral is the exalted person of a Prophet. The Prophets reveal only the Divine Attributes and never the Essence. We should bear this point in mind for it constitutes one of the basic features that dis- tinguish the. Baha’i teachings from mystic philosophy.

The principal part the Prophets play in the universe is that of creating the ethical and spiritual atmosphere in which man has to �[Page 307]THE WORLD OF REALITY 307

develop and acquire perfections. They are the creators of the world of values in that through them we attain a true conception of what is good and evil. In this connection Baha'u'llah says:

“Know that God has united all essences and meanings and all attributes and names and explanations in a woven cloth and cov- ered with it that Holy and Divine Person, that he may in that gar- ment represent the Beloved Joseph. If you desire to have the sub- ject presented to you with greater clarity and basic proof, know that the station of this Divine letter is similar to a lamp. Should it be kindled in a lantern, the light would shed its rays upon the whole surrounding regions. Similarly the ancient letter ‘H’ (which stands for the Divine Essence) were it to be lighted in the lamp of the letter “W’ that is, the eternal temple, it will brighten the heavens with names and attributes, and all that is considered a thing—from the highest forms of creatures to the lowest forms of mentioned beings—all things will reflect this bright lamp in this lantern of Unity to the extent of their station and capacity.”

With their appearance the Prophets breathe a new life into the world. Everything is thereby rejuvenated but the share of man is still greater. These messengers of God create for us the ethical and spiritual atmosphere in which we have our being. It is they who give birth to the civilizing power in history. They are the fountain heads from which spring all moral precepts so funda- mental to the welfare of man. In ‘Some Answered Questions,” and the “Mysterious Forces of Civilization,” ‘Abdu’l-Baha definite- ly shows how, as the creators of our spiritual and ethical life, the Prophets have founded the greatest civilizations that history records.

We cannot reasonably maintain that this relation between the Absolute and the contingent, that is God and man, was sufficiently achieved in the history of the world with the earthly life of a single Prophet. To say that this connecting link appeared once and shall never again be made manifest is an affront to all idea of law and continuity. The only proper principle to maintain is that such mani- festations of the Divine Attributes and such appearances of the �[Page 308]308 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

Prophets of God are in conformity with the working of a basic and immutable law operating in the universe. We have to maintain that from the beginning for which there was no beginning, until the end for which there is no end, such Prophets have appeared and will appear in the world; and this is a basic principle of the prophetic cycles which the Bab, Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu'l-Baha con- stantly reiterated in their writings.

These uniting links between God and man, these great edu- cators of humanity, appear when the need for them is the greatest, when the result of the disruption seems to be most devastating. As ‘Abdu'l-Baha says:

“This infinite bounty and great chance shall end and this bril- liant morn shall change into a dark night. When you find the world in this condition know and be sure that the morn of certainty has neared and the rising of the Manifestation of the Merciful from the horizon of the world of possibility and the coming of the Lord in the darkness of the clouds is at hand.”

It is only when the cold of the winter has spent itself that the spring time is ushered in and all being is given new life. In the Bayan the Bab definitely states that the appearance of a new Prophet depends primarily upon the condition of society. It is the crying need of man that causes the sea of Divine Mercy to surge. Speaking generally, however, Baha'u'llah says in the Igqan that “once about a thousand years shall this city be renewed and adorned.”

We should, however, bear in mind that every thing we at- tribute to the Prophets applies to all of them irrespective of what time they appeared or by what name they were known. All the Prophets are manifestations of the Divine Powers and Attributes and belong to the world of the Divine Will. Christ termed Him- self Son of God, Mohammed called Himself Messenger of God, but they both reflected the same reality and occupied the same position in the Divine plan. As these Prophets appear in different periods and under different circumstances, they have to satisfy different needs. Sometimes what society lacks is purely spiritual teachings; �[Page 309]THE WORLD OF REALITY 309

at other periods the needs of man are also social and political. The message of these Prophets always conforms to the requirements of the day. In fact it is the existing needs of society that determine the laws and principles that the Prophet establishes. If, therefore, one Prophet reflects one certain power and Divine Attribute more than another, it means that the need of the day requires that the emphasis be laid on this specific phase of human life and activity. For example, as the Bab was the precursor of Baha'u'llah and came to prepare the world for Him, His teachings are more emphatic upon the need of demolishing the idols of the past, while Baha- ‘u'llah who came to bring about the reign of Peace which previous Prophets foretold, stresses more the need for unity and brother- hood. They were both manifestations of the Divine Will but dif- ferent circumstances required the first to lay more emphasis upon demolishing old institutions and practices, and obliged the latter to teach international peace and goodwill. It is the difference of the environment in which they appear and of the ills they come to remedy that is the basis of the difference we find in their teachings.

Every previous Prophet announces His own return or the ad. vent of another messenger from God and makes a covenant with His followers to believe in His message and obey His laws. The appearance of the succeeding Manifestation is therefore a day of judgment for the followers of the previous dispensation, inasmuch as every person is judged by his acceptance of the new Prophet, whether or not he has remained true to that covenant and faithful to his promise. This is the significance of Christ’s saying: ‘For judgment I am come into the world.”

The appearance of a Prophet is also termed the Day of Resur- rection. As already mentioned, man can never attain a true knowl- cdge of the Absolute or reach His transcendent realm; that goal is tor ever barred unto him. Insofar as the Prophets are perfect Manifestations of the Divine Attributes, to know Them is to know God, to come into Their presence is to come into the presence of God, to obey Them is to obey God. Whenever, therefore, the �[Page 310]310 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

Scriptures mention the Day of Re-union the meaning is the day of the appearance of the Prophets in the world when man is given the chance to attain Their Holy Presence which is the presence of God Himself. In the Iqan Baha'u'llah says:

“These Prophets and chosen ones of God are the recipients and revealers of all the unchangeable attributes and names of God. They are the mirrors that truly and faitinfully reflect the light of God. Whatsoever is applicable to them is in reality applicable to God Himself who is both the visible and the Invisible. The knowl- edge of Him who is the origin of all things, and attainment unto Him is impossible save through knowledge of, and attainment to, those luminous Beings who proceed from the Sun of Truth. By attaining, therefore, to the presence of these Holy Luminaries, the presence of God Himself is attained .... Attainment unto such a presence is possible only in the Day of Resurrection, which is the day of the rise of God Himself through His all-embracing revelation.”

Similarly, the Day of Resurrection means the dawn of a new dispensation; for the Holy Spirit which the Prophet breathes into the world, awakens man from his slumber and a new era is thereby inaugurated in the life of society. Previously man was spiritually dead; now he comes 'to life again. His mind is stimulated, there- fore he can discover and comprehend more of the mysteries that exist around him, his spirit is revived, and therefore he can achieve greater deeds and attain higher stages of material development and spiritual perfections.

The question arises as to how we can distinguish the Prophets from other men and be sure that their claim is true. “The works that I do in my Father’s name they bear witness of me.” From their fruit ye shall know them. Do the teachings they bring and the spirit they manifest in their life prove that they are in contact with the Absolute Source of all knowledge? Does Their insight into the moral life and needs of man establish Their claim to be the source of goodness and of the ethical principles needed for the betterment of society and for the advancement of our spiritual �[Page 311]THE WORLD OF REALITY 311

life? It is not sufficient that They should claim the divine authority, They have also, through Their life and teachings, to vindicate that claim and establish Their authority.

III, THE WORLD OF CREATION

The world of creation, as we have already seen, is not the Divine Reality assuming another form but a totally new reality that has from relative non-existence cc.ne into existence. It has the same relation to God that speech has to the speaker and a table has with the carpenter.

When we say that this world is a creation of God we do not mean that there was a time when it did not exist and then came into being. Such a conception would subject eternal attributes to the category of time. It would mean that at a certain period God was not a creator and did not possess His Divine Powers. Such affirmations are blasphemous for they deny to God the eternity of His attributes. In “Some Answered Questions” ‘Abdu’l-Baha says:

“Therefore, as the Essence of Unity, that is the existence of God, is everlasting and eternal—that is to say it has neither be- ginning nor end—it is certain that this world of existence, this end- less universe, has neither beginning nor end. Yet it may be that one of the parts of the universe, one of the globes for example, may come into existence, or may be disintegrated, but the other endless globes are still existing, the universe would not be disordered, not destroyed; on the contrary, existence is eternal and perpetual.”

Creation is a continuous process involving constant and eternal activity on the part of the creator. It means that God is the original cause or impetus who brings into being all the different objects in the universe and controls their life and development through His laws which are the guiding principles that He has himself devised. Creation is, therefore, not an act done at a definite period in the history of the universe, but a mode of causation to which the very existence of the universe is due. In this process of becoming the first ubject that came into existence was the crude matter out of �[Page 312]¢ 312 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

which all things are made. Just as all numbers trace themselves back to the original unit, so all things existing in the universe are moulded from one primitive raw material. Ail different objects that we perceive are forms into which this primitive matter has been moulded.

“Then it is evident that in the beginning matter was one, and that one matter appeared in different aspects in each element; thus various forms were produced, became permanent, and each ele- ment was specialized. But this permanence was not definite, and did not attain realization and perfect existence until after a very long time. Then these elements became composed, and organized and combined infinite forms; or rather from the combination and composition of these elements innumerable beings appeared.”

In this universe of ours, therefore, there is one single primitive matter, and all the different objects we see are the different forms into which the origina! matter has been moulded. But this com- position is not accidental, it is the result of God’s infinite powers and wisdom. It is He who has caused such different compositions and guided these laws of evolution.

“From this it is evident that it is the creation of God, and is not a fortuitous composition and arrangement. This is why from every natural composition a being can come into existence, but from an accidental composition no being can come into existence. For example, if a man of his own mind and intelligence collects some elements and combines them, a living being will not be brought into existence, since the system is unnatural.”

Thus with the different kinds of composition we obtain dif- ferent species of being. These species were, however, «ot the te- sult of a sudden fiat, nor did they all appear at the same time. It was a gradual process, and the last to appear on the scene was man, the highest and most perfect being in this terrestrial sphere.

“Thus it is evident and confirmed that the development and growth of man on this earth, until he reached his present perfec- tion, resembled the growth and development of the embryo in the womb of the mother, by degrees it passes from condition to con- �[Page 313]THE WORLD OF REALITY 313

dition, from form to form, from one shape to another for this is according to the requirement of the universal system and Divine law.”

This passage should not mislead us into the belief that ‘Abdu’l- Baha sanctioned the prevailing theories of the origin of species. Even though man developed from a primitive form, yet even in that primitive state he was of the species of man. Man is a different order of being distinct from the animals with an origin peculiar to himself. The importance of man is in his spiritual life. His mind and intellect as well as the spiritual taculties he possesses are of such importance that his physical structure becomes of little significance. How could we, therefore, ignore this basic spiritual reality, and considering only his outward form, classify him with other mammals?

“As man in the womb of the mother passes from form to form, from shape to shape, changes and develops, and is still the human species from the beginning of the embryonic period—in the same way man, from the beginning of his existence in the matrix of the world, is also a distinct species, that is, man, and has grad- ually evolved from one form to another.”

The reality of man resides in his spiritual element which Baha- ‘wllah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha call the rational soul. Our physical body is only the tool which our soul uses in making contact with this physical plane of existence. The part that benefits from our ex- periences and as a result develops is our rational soul which hears through our ears, speaks through our tongue and thinks through our mind.

As the rational soul is a creation of God, that is a totally new reality created by that source of all being, it has had a beginning. Were we to consider it otherwise we would have two eternal realities both co-existent and absolutely distinct, namely the spirit of God and the spirit of man. With this conception of “creation” that ‘Abdu’l-Baha presents us we have to consider man as subject to time, and conceive for him a beginning, otherwise we would fall into an essential dualism which is contradictory to the teachings �[Page 314]314 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

of true religion. On this subject ‘Abdu’l-Baha says: “The physical condition will certainly become decomposed, but the condition of the rational soul, though it has a beginning, has no end: nay, it is endowed with everlasting life.” As we shall see later, on this point of the pre-existence of the rational soul we part company with the mystic philosophy which maintains that our spirit was, previous to its present life on earth, existing in God in an undifferentiated form. Every object in the world reveals some one of God's infinite powers save man, in whom resides the capacity of reflecting them all. This potentiality remains dormant until he comes in contact with the spirit and teachings of the Prophets. It is only then that his understanding of the true moral life is developed, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, he can reflect the Divine Attributes in his own life. Such healthy growth of man’s rational soul can be obtained only under the laws and precepts that the Prophets es- tablish in the form of religion. It is only in the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit that man’s capacities can unfold themselves and pro- duce their highest fruits. Stimulated by the Holy Spirit, diffused by the Prophets, and conforming to their religious laws, man must lead an active life, for it is only by acquiring experiences that his rational soul develops. Constant activity in a social and spiritual environment created through the bounty of God is indispensable for the uplift of man and the development of his rational soul. “The wisdom of the appearance of the spirit in the body is this: the human spirit is a Divine Trust, and it must traverse all conditions; for its passage and movement through the conditions of existence will be the means of acquiring perfections. .. . It is the same when the human spirit passes through the conditions of exist- ence: it will become the possessor of each degree and station. Even in the condition of the body it will surely acquire perfections.” — Through acquiring experiences the spirit of man develops and his potential capacities begin to reveal themselves. These ex- periences begin in this world when the rational soul through the senses and intellectual powers, comes in contact with this physical p!ane and starts on its road to infinite progress. Every handicap he �[Page 315]THE WORLD OF REALITY Z15

overcomes, every difficulty he surmounts, every lesson of human behavior he learns, every good act he performs, leave an imperish- able trace upon his rational soul and add to his store of experiences. And on the other hand, every unkind act he performs and every difficulty he fails to surmount are chances he has lost and a pro- gress he has failed to achieve.

This progress is, however, infinite. There is no limit to our spiritual advancement. The higher we go in the realm of good- ness the more we find fields yet unexplored. In this stage of our being, in this physical world of ours we only start to grow. Death does not impair our upward movement, it only transfers it from a physical to a spiritual plane. Baha'u'llah says that after this world there are many worlds through which the spirit of man has to develop. As to how that progress is achieved no one knows. Just as the child which is still in the matrix can never picture the form of progress it can make after its birth, so none of us can con- ceive how we shall continue to grow in the world to come, and what shall be the nature of our experiences.

(Te he continued) �[Page 316]BOOK NOTES by JosEPH S. ROUCEK

Department of Sociology, Pennsylvania Stats College

Great Moral Leaders, by Alfred W. Martin. The International Press, Gregory Weinstein, 121 Varick Street, New York, 1933. Pp. 124. $1.50. The addresses in this volume were delivered by the late Alfred W. Martin before the Societies for Ethical Culture, the New York League for Political Education, and elsewhere. It re- quires both scholarship and imagination to piece together the ex- tant bits of information into full length portraits of Jeremiah, Socrates, St. Francis of Assisi, Erasmus, Carlyle and Sartor Resar- tus, and Emerson. While not profound, the work provides an il- luminating prelude to an understanding of the leaders studied, and should be a fountain of inspiration especially for younger students.

How to Restore Values, by Ambrose W. Benkert in collabora- tion with Earle Harding. The John Day Pamphlets, 1933. No. 23. 25 cents, We have already mentioned other ‘John Day Pamphlets’ in our reviews. This work is written—like others in this series— in terms understandable to everybody, and the presentation is clear and logical. It is interesting to note that the present policies of our administration coincide with the author's suggestion that the only feasible solution is suspension of specie payment and adequate depreciation of currency, if the evils of continued de- flation are to be avoided.” (p. 29).

Toward Planetism, by Roger R. Hawkins. San Yu Press, Pet- ping, China, 1933. Pp. 33. 25 cents. We can offer an obvious explan- ation for the present vogue of “jig-saw puzzles.” The world is so disorganized and puzzling that the people feel an urge to put something together. It would be more profitable, however, if more ot us would worry about having something done about the various

alt �[Page 317]BOOK NOTES 317

human world-wide problems. We favor, therefore, the present work, which aims to do just such a thing. Professor Hawkins of Oberlin Shansi Memorial School, Taiku, Shansi, China, has set out to discover in an original and a new way a “looking at, think- ing about, and acting upon our planetary life so that everybody, individually and collectively, might find it more worthwhile.” He favors ‘‘the feeling of cooperative responsibility for the happiness of all mankind based on an intelligent sensitiveness to human problems and aspirations.” The pamphlet is only for the thought- ful; it is packed with facts, and it has to be read slowly and care- fully to get its full meaning. But it should be read. Copies can be obtained from the author’s father (36 Wayne Place, Nutley, N. J.).

League of Nations. International Institute of Intellectual Co- operation, 1932. Boston: World Peace Foundation, 1933. Pp. 147. $0.50. The promotion of intellectual cooperation has a definite role in international life. The scheme of this new form of collabora- tion within the purposes of the League of Nations is set forth here, and the operation of its machinery in all its forms is described. This kind of work has now been officially designed under the title of Moral Disarmament (p. 5.). The treatment is popular in man- ner, and it should remind the general reader of much that he takes for granted. Those who have never found time to go through other books on the League of Nations will doubtless learn from it much that they never knew.

The History of the Balkan Peninsula, by Ferdinand Schevill, «ith the collaboration of Wesley M. Gewehr. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1933. Pp., vit, 614. $4.00. The Balkan Peninsula has always been a busy cross-road, where the most diverse influ- ences from Europe and Asia have met, fought, and coalesced. Here the conflagration of the World War flamed up in 1914; here, through the intervention of Turkey and Bulgaria the greatest tragedy of history was prolonged; and the problem of Turkey kept Europe agitated for four more years after the signing of the Peace; and here, the periodical difficulties arising from the exchanges of the Greek and Turkish populations have until very recently re- �[Page 318]318 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

quired the attention of statesmen and of the League of Nations, Such considerations certainly justify the appearance of this revised edition of Professor Scheviil’s work. The story begins with the Greeks and covers a span of about three thousand years—from the Hellenic period to the present day. One must admit that, histori- cally speaking, this is an excellent book; it provides an illuminating prelude to any study of present-day events or to any examination of the causes and events which have brought chaos to Europe. Dr. Schevill, Professor of Modern European History in the University of Chicago, and Dr. Gewehr, Professor of History in American University, have written an honest book; it is also a textbook with- out dryness, which may be cordially recommended to students as well as to the general public.

Is Christianity True? by C.E.M. Joad and Arnold Lunn. J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadel phia, 1933. Pp. 386. $2.50. There is some- thing healthy in this question, though it is full of dangers. Every religion considers itself as “true’’ one. Such concepts are the driv- ing forces of missionary efforts and have been determining our history. Consider, for example, the past struggles between Chris- tianity and Mohammedanism. The book contains numerous, though not all, arguments for and against the question expressed by the title of this volume. Mr. Lunn defines, and Mr. Joad an- swers, those criticisms of orthodox religious belief which are heard on every side. It is hard to avoid the reactions of our convictions when we read, let us say, Mr. Lunn’s opinion that “faith once de- livered to the saints” is “a unique revelation,” not done away with by science, psychology and modern history, but actually supported by this contemporary knowledge. Mr. Joad, an equally distin- guished opponent, does not hesitate to denounce Christianity as an enemy of progress. Frequently the debate becomes exciting and entertaining. Occasionally it is funny (though the authors are evi- dently not aware of it); thus we find on page 185 that “it is time to define what we mean by Christianity?” Evidently both scholars debated 184 pages without agreement on their terms. There ts no doubt that the book will be read; some chapter-headings will ‘“‘get” �[Page 319]BOOK NOTES 319

the causual reader (for example, Chapter XXVI: “The Middle Ages Again: More on Sex.”’). And the question of religion is so important to the proponents of “world unity” that we recommend it to our readers.

The China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture. Seventh Report. December, 1932. Peiping. Printed by the San Yu Press, Peiping, Pp. 112. In 1908, the Government of the United States returned a portion of the Boxer Indemnity to China. With this fund, the Chinese Government founded the Tsing Hua College in Peking (which has recently developed into the Tsing Hua University), and also the Chinese Educational Mission in America which has supported thousands of Chinese stu- dents in their studies in America. In 1924, the 68th Congress of the United States passed a joint resolution providing for the re- mission of the remaining portion of the Indemnity to China, amounting to approximately $12,545,000.00 in gold. The China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture was es- tablished to take charge of this fund and “‘other funds or gifts, for the purpose of custody, management and application to those ob- jects for the promotion of which the Foundation was organized.” The various activities of the Foundation are described in the present report (which can be obtained from 22 Nan Chang Chieh, Pei- ping, China). �[Page 320]NOTES ON THE PRESENT ISSUE

An Italian translation of Mr. Newfang’s editorial department, “World Advance,” is appearing regularly in La Vita Internaztonale, published at Milan. Through his firm philosophic grasp of the essential principle of world order, and his close study of economic and political trends, Mr. Newfang is enabled to trace the signif- cant pattern in which current events have meaning over and above their sensational journalistic importance.

A friend who heard Dr. Hayes deliver his address on Histori- cal Backgrounds for the Contemporary Problem of Relig:ous Lib- erty in America was deeply impressed by the enthusiastic response it received from an audience representing many racial and also church interests in the United States. We are grateful for the kind privilege of adding this valuable study to the international litera- ture selected and distributed by World Unity.

A month containing many remarkable long distance airplane flights lends interest of the highest order to the presentation of the engineer's relation to the world community by Profs. Barton and Graham. Our Symposium by engineers and scientists, as many readers remark, adds the vital dimension of action to the move- ment for world peace.

Ruhi Afnan, whose article on “The World of Reality” presents one aspect of the universal religious teaching established in the latter half of the nineteenth century by Baha’u'llah, and carried to America by ‘Abdu’l-Baha in 1912, is ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s grandson and resides at Haifa, Palestine. He is a graduate of the ooRnee Uni- versity, Beirut.

Less than ten complete sets of World U nity—from October, 1927 to date—are now available. We believe that these issues con- tain a unique wealth of material on present world conditions.

320 �