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World Unity Volume 13, Issue 1

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WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

Volume XIII, October, 1933

The Clue to World Strife Editorial

World Citizenship Carl A. Ross

The International Language: English or Esperanto Henry W. Hetzel

World Advance Oscar Newfang

The Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation Harry W. Pfund

Individualism vs Character and Unity Glenn M. Clarke

Society without Social Science T. Swann Harding

The World of Reality Ruhi Afnan

Notes on the Present Issue

Advertisements [Page ii]

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

HORACE HOLLEY, Editor

THE aim of WORLD UNITY is to reflect the movement of the spirit of the age.

Under the impact of that movement, the conditions of human life have been transformed throughout the world. Ancient customs and habits of thought, long-established institutions, political and economic doctrines, religious beliefs-all have been subjected to a process of transmutation the final outcome of which is not yet discerned.

But it is now gently recognized that the present generation stands between two worlds-the past, in rapid disintegration, and the future, whose character and form imply at least a world order, a universal civilization, based upon conscious acceptance of the brotherhood of man.

To serve that fundamental moral principle of unity; to uphold the possibility of a new and greater era of human advance; to pass over mere rationalizations of former customs; to quicken the vital powers of faith and to give substance to confident hope this is the effort of World Unity Magazine, an effort dependent upon the loyal support and goodwill of those who share the same conviction because they also have been touched by the spirit of the age.

EDITORIAL OFFICE

4 EAST 12TH STREET, NEW YORK CITY

Contents Copyrighted 1933 by World Unity Publishing Corporation [Page 1]

EDITORIAL

THE Social attitude summed up in the word liberalism seems to have run its course. The view now commanding attention asserts that civilization is divided into two or three competitive economies which, because they are irreconcilable and in fact mutually exclusive, are foredoomed to a final struggle for power. In the face of this world trend, hope for improvement by gradual evolution has become useless and hence absurd. This post-war period has no place for a middle party seeking to hold the balance between extreme parties identified with fascism, communism and capitalism. Essentially hostile and competitive, their acceptance of the coming struggle draws battle lines between which would-be neutrality finds no possible protection. Since the time has come to "liquidate" these long-maturing oppositions, the occasion for an umpire or mediator does not exist. The stark realism of the situation, according to this view, compels the abandonment of the entire liberal technic of parliamentism and the employment of the instruments suitable for direct economic action.

Analysis of this position, based upon what is asserted to be the reality of history itself, has become a matter of paramount importance to all who have not yet committed themselves to the righteousness or to the logical finality of either party to the swiftly approaching strife. Any peace policy, or theory of internationalism, incapable of meeting this position on its own grounds, is a beggar's dream of riches in a too-wakeful world. Until the real clue to world strife has been uncovered, there can be no promotion of world peace outside the realm of self-delusion.

It must first of all be clearly understood that in repudiating the liberal attitude, the realistic position abandons the very structure [Page 2]ture of political democracy; in abandoning this political structure it abandons the function of deliberation, involving decision by a majority, the basic social principle, for authoritative action, a function of will. This new realism can only be recognized as the triumph of will over intelligence. Here, in truth, is no choice between two rational social philosophies, nor between two alternative forms of political structure; the issue as raised is in essence the exaltation of will and the suppression of reason.

Once that fact is grasped, the staggering confusion of the present international scene clears as by the lifting of fog. It becomes possible to deal with matters in their simple reality, in their true universal classifications, rather than in their changing appearance, in their bewildering multiplicity. Rightly employed, this analysis supplies the clue to our world strife.

For the triumph of realism (direct action) over liberalism (deliberation) means that among a significant mass of people the social personality has crystallized and set in a rigid mold. Open-minded discussion, thoughtful inquiry, respect for others' opinions—all this hard-won technic of democratic society is denounced and thrust away, a too-passive handling of issues that have reached the condition of war. The vital social problems are no longer debatable; the resolution of irreconcilable forces can only be made by the imposition of superior force.

But the place of will in the development of personality is significant. It represents the final stage, the culmination, of development; the assertion of values deemed ultimate, unique and supreme. The hour of irrevocable decision, for groups as for individuals, is the point at which utter hope or utter despair hardens the mold of life. Before that crucial point, further thought or altered feeling can determine the will and maintain its flexibility; after that point, the power of will governs thought and feeling alike, confirming its own vision and constituting itself its own experience.

Thus an age which sacrifices intelligence to will, discarding deliberation for action, is an age committed to irrevocable de- [Page 3]

THE CLUE TO WORLD STRIFE

cision. Its supreme value has been consciously chosen and made the sole object of will; its thought is concentrated upon the means of attainment of that object; its feeling is transmuted into loyalty for that on which attainment depends. By the act of choosing, all other values have been eliminated from consciousness, and being rejected for the self they are rejected as values for others.

The probability of world strife, not merely its possibility, is implicit in the fact of social decision. A fixed and concentrated will feels itself identical with fulfillment. It is separated from fulfillment merely by a series of actions. For human beings are aware of a reality beyond thought and feeling, but are aware of no reality beyond wili. Will is the boundary of human reality. Direct action, therefore, is the sign and proof that an individual or a group has made supreme assertion of will.

To find the consequences proceeding from a state of will, it is necessary to examine the nature of the essential experience constituting the mold that has become hardened and set. A form of ideal fulfillment represents the will in its projection upon the field of action. The ideal fulfillment, in turn, carries the shape and contains the substance of that essential experience which inspired the utter hope or utter despair that must needs be completely resolved.

What, then, are the values that so completely claim the loyal devotion of modern society as to be worth the cost of world strife? What essential experience has created a common meeting place for groups great enough to exercise the initiative upon the whole course of civilization? What burden of historic hope or historic despair has conditioned the social personality of our crucial age?

Behind this modern assertion of social will, three distinct images of fulfillment may be discerned. These three dominant ideals are: communism, fascism, democracy. In considering them as manifestations of will, their rationalized philosophy or program is less important than their origin in essential experience and their nature as aspects of human reality. [Page 4]Communism arose from conviction that justice does not exist among men. Rights are gained and held only by force. The bitter lesson learned by people demanding justice of their regional overlords was repeated on a larger scale for the classes demanding economic justice of their employers. The view became established as a realistic principle that since justice never has existed, justice can never exist. But the rights sought under the demand for economic justice were no such visible, concrete matters as undisturbed possession of a peasant's farm or access to the ballot box. Hence developed an economic doctrine which abolished the concept of justice along with the concept of liberty, which repudiated political instruments designed to deal with questions of justice and liberty, and based its social plan upon a foundation eliminating those questions entirely. The unsolved and apparently unsolvable problem of justice and liberty was met by denying the principle of personal ownership—source of the problem for which the post-feudal nations were developed. Upon this basic economic doctrine was forged a system of compulsory relationships which represented the transfer of valid hope from human nature to the state. The social experience of which Marx and his successors are the spokesmen produced the conviction that society can never be a system of voluntary relationships because human beings will never voluntarily meet the needs of the weak and dispossessed. By a form of order imposed from above in accordance with predetermined, involuntary relationships, a society is to arise in which none will be weak because all are helpless, none are dispossessed because all are dispossessed.

The doctrine of collectivity as true solution of the social problem is a notion emanating from the realm of will, however it may be rationalized or even religionized after the original, intuitive conviction that man is essentially unjust. Behind this doctrine stands generations of mute human beings betrayed by factory owners to the point of desperation—betrayed likewise by the deliberative political bodies established for protecting property rights secured by the overthrow of the feudal order. The human meaning of [Page 5]communism is that it represents a concentration of social will fused in the fire of a typical historical experience: the suffering of the man whose life was bound in the prison of inadequate wage. Private ownership had always been (and hence would always be) the cause of this shameful suffering—ownership, then, was the enemy to be destroyed.

This doctrine of collectivity came to the masses as the one weapon by which they could remove the very source of their disability and transmute their weakness into conquering strength.

The factory owner (the enemy personified) stood socially justified and legally innocent in the simple fact of his title deed and civil possession. The wage earner vainly sought social leverage and moral reinforcement in the post-feudal institutions of his society—legislation, culture, philosophy, religion, science. He sought in vain. His society functioned for him only when he retired broken from the unequal fight. The more that justice failed the more charity he invoked. For to produce cheaply was the principle of survival for the factory owner, enmeshed in a competitive economy which flowed through the constitutional structure like water through a screen. Therefore the factory owner stood firm upon his legality, and the wage earner, social outcast and personally helpless, turned at last to those who taught him his supreme duty to create within the dead society a new, living society whose sanctions would reverse the sanctions of this hostile world.

The rapid development of that new society is the key note of European history in the nineteenth century. Communism is the assertion of those who ate their own flesh in the shadow of the walled palace of the rich. It is the crystallization of a type tragedy—a vast, group agony that first lamented, then pleaded, but at last became implacably grim.

The European war interrupted the movement, only to give it renewed stimulus. For in its after effects, the war combined a number of conditions and circumstances supremely favorable to the projection of that collective will into the theatre of events by revolutionary action. The Marxian criticism of the course of [Page 6]"capitalism" was apparently vindicated by destiny itself. The suffering of the masses increased to the breaking point. Those who had been wage earners, and survived compulsory service in the war, found themselves graduates of the school of struggle in its perfect and final form. The last hope in a democracy of good will, able by deliberation to adjust the balance in a disordered society, fell shattered when the most democratic nations threw armies into Russia at the very hour when the Russian people might have found their racial soul.

The second image of fulfillment, fascism, projects the experience of the factory owner, as communism projects the experience of the man who worked for wage.

The fascist doctrine is the counter-revolution, elaborating in theory and in practise the position of the group which felt itself seriously undermined. At root this doctrine also crystallizes a human attitude. The struggle between the owner and the dispossessed advanced steadily throughout the nineteenth century from the status of simple personal conflict through ever-enlarging circles. As industry became more intricate under the influence of science and technology, the struggle assumed new forms. For a long period both parties worked within the existing constitutional state, seeking to control legislation and write as much of their programs as possible into statute and law. The conflict eventually transcended the national boundary, and the forces of opposed will satisfied themselves by creating each its own characteristic society and sovereign state. Their present status, attained after gradual development through stages of local violence which clarified the fundamental issues and confirmed the original attitudes, sets up a degree of irreconcilability which can release the greatest violence the troubled history of the race has ever witnessed. That is why people are aware of a sense of profound crisis, realizing rationally or intuitively that the climax of civilization is now at hand.

Before dealing with the third image of ideal fulfillment in modern society, two very significant aspects of communism and fascism must be explained. [Page 7]It had been confidently expected that the Marxian society would first be established upon the breakdown of a highly developed industrial society. The fact that it has on the contrary been developed among an agricultural people has profound importance. For this fact reveals the true psychological nature of the doctrine. Communism repudiates a principle of human nature on one level of development. This repudiation of moral responsibility attached to ownership is acceptable only to a childish people who have not yet reached that level-a people whose individuality is yet weak and uncertain-or to individuals whom fatigue and discouragement make willing to prefer security at any cost. Collectivity is not a modern project, but the return of a social principle which was normal among peoples ages ago, when awareness was social rather than individual. Outgrown by all peoples who left that stage of evolution behind, it will be outgrown again by any people whose laggard march or racial youth makes them suffer its imposition as an arbitrary doctrine today.

Similarly, fascism makes use of a form which repeats from the past. The corporative state is nothing more than a civil equivalent of the Roman Church. It is possible to parallel their structures and their offices, as well as their basic attitudes, and reduce both these organizations to the same value. That value, of course, is the type of government developed by the Roman Empire after the spirit of democracy had decayed and the problem of social survival could only be solved by the imposition of power from above. As in the case of communism, fascism is an historical doctrine which has current influence and sanction only so long as it corresponds to a special condition and exemplifies a psychological predisposition. Its origin at the beginning of our era was in the nature of a desperation, and its elaborate development in terms of the Roman Empire postponed a revolution but insured its eventual success. What became a typical social experience once will always repeat itself through the same stages of the cycle.

The other vital fact is that both communism and fascism, when asserted as universal doctrines and not arrived at normally by [Page 8]peoples in a certain stage of evolution, are in essence anti-social. They crystallize a typical experience which may have been suffered by large numbers of people, but was suffered by thein as individuals and not as a community. In projecting an ideal fulfillment representing a mere physical enlargement of one personality, they falsify every social problem they deal with. Fascism and communism, outside a restricted psychological area, are arbitrary assertions having no true social substance. Even though these doctrines create what seem to be nations and empires, they do not and can not create human communities. They are, in the modern world, the temporary dominion of the many by the one, a psychic captivity corresponding to the sway of a Napoleon, an Attila, whose personal will exercised the weight of law.

Legal structure, embodying logical distributions of one sovereign power residing outside the people, is not a community. It requires the continual presence of an army to be established and maintained. Divert the constant pressure of power from above and the artificial society, at root no more than a system, dissolves into a mass of individuals. A tyranny of doctrine is infinitely subtler than a tyranny of person, but it lives under the same inexorable doom. Benevolent intention is beside the point.

A community, a society large or small, is not the projection of any ideal personal fulfillment but a series of voluntary relationships binding individuals of every possible variety of type. Every true society is an organism whose nervous system is constant deliberation. Remove this nervous system, substitute an arbitrary will for the organic will arrived at by due process of majority decision, and the society disintegrates. The life of a society is wholly spiritual in its essence, a permeating spirit whose presence in each individual is marked by an identity of faith.

The third image of fulfillment in the modern world is not completely defined by use of the word democracy. It is a general longing for a society in which individuals may be fulfilled not merely as economic units but also as rational, cultural and religious beings. Democracy, to this ultimate aim, as yet offers only the [Page 9]

THE CLUE TO WORLD STRIFE

structure of deliberation and the habit of trusting a consensus of opinion. The penetrating spirit, the identity of universal faith, the sustaining life that supplies sanctions for the variety of individualities under the supreme sanction for the unity of the community, is yet to be attained. With this unfulfilled ideal in mind, it is possible to examine every applied authoritarian doctrine and find that its actual practise belies, in many details, its basic contention. Upon every group operates, at all times, an instinctive need for a spiritual society. Under the very shadow of tyranny in the hour of its unchallenged power, evidences of democracy are always to be found. History may appear to be nothing more than the successive rise and fall of tyrannies, the successive betrayal and repudiation of the longing for united community, but this view is incomplete. The last word will be spoken by man in his spiritual and not in his materialistic expression.

One further comment on communism and fascism is desirable. The typical experience from which these assertions of will departed, to divide the modern world into two hostile, armed camps—the clash of wage earner and factory owner—has been given a predominantly economic emphasis, but the situation itself was primarily a moral problem. Each of the two participants had to overcome in himself the claim of humanity and repudiate part of his own conscious nature before he could assert that the strife had nothing more than economic significance. The science of economics, in all its ramifications, reduces to a simple root situation resting upon a false premise. A situation has economic content only when its larger human and spiritual implications are denied. The application of economics to any problem brings no solution in terms of permanent human values but merely postpones the solution to the point of major social crisis. The factory owner and the wage earner were human beings, and not abstractions of economic science.

Thus a wholly unsuspected weakness and fatality attaches to this modern clamor for world conquest to enthrone any legalistic doctrine. Physically, the struggle can and assuredly will ravage [Page 10]countries and continents; spiritually, it concludes a cycle of human history so enmeshed in evil that it lost capacity to survive. Both fascism and communism, like all tyrannies, carry the illusion of power because they are opposed. Let either dogma prevail, and its lack of social principle makes it collapse from within. What is heralded, then, as an imminent struggle for power is in reality but the final disclosure of inherent weakness. If neither doctrine can prevail, their eventual clash will be mutual destruction.

No obligation rests upon any human being to commit his soul to the destroyers of the world. The fundamental task of humanity is to create a social order constituting an environment for souls as well as for physical bodies. It may be that this sacred task requires a period of catastrophe so bitter as to purify the race. It may be that the mighty institutions which represent the culmination of unspiritual attitudes must be given opportunity to destroy themselves. But whether the outcome is by war or by revolution, the true human value at this crucial time consists in attaining conscious freedom from the false doctrines which poison the age; in thinking through illusion to reality; in taking an impregnable position upon the laws of life which derive from no artificial science but are in fact the laws of God.

The real peril in the present international condition is that sheer pressure from the two opposed camps shall intimidate or deceive the truly democratic people into a course of action sacrificing their fundamental social values. It is around the vague concept of capitalism that this peril revolves. For the issues are not between three parties, communism, fascism and capitalism, as so many believe, but between the first two as materialistic conceptions of life, with the spiritual implications of democracy constituting in reality a neutral party because these implications have no definite economic doctrine. If the people capable of entering into a true society lose their vision, and assume that they must protect capitalism as their characteristic social virtue, the result will be the degradation of democracy and its extinction in fascism. The antithesis may be [Page 11]

II

suggested by identifying fascism and communism with the past, and democracy with the future.

Our hope is that the people capable of community will remain true to their highest possibilities, and preserve absolute neutrality in the coming struggle. They must preserve a center of civilization unravaged by the international conflict; maintain a conscious attitude of faith unbetrayed from within and unravished from without. Their destiny, if they rise to it, is to form the nucleus of the future world order, when the social and religious capacities of men are fulfilled by union in the task of extending the political and economic states to embrace the whole of mankind.

The capitalism so unfortunately and erroneously made identical with democracy is not a fixed doctrine, not a rigid legalistic code, but merely one step in a long process serving to bring men and community into balance. To defend merely temporary practises as if they were ultimate values is to join those who sink their humanity in the illusion of an all-powerful state. The sole means by which even material welfare can be maintained is by preservation of the democratic, the human ideal. Modern democracy can readily defend itself from every serious encroachment of the concept of irresponsible ownership carried over from the post-feudal era by simple extension of standards of decent conduct. No revolutionary change of organic structure is required, but what is urgently required is a far firmer grasp of the spiritual reality involved in all social problems.

There may be promise of security and evidence of efficiency apart from true community; but apart from true community there can be no joy of heart, no spontaneous release of self, no creative human relationships, no development along the path leading to the real aims of man's life on this earth.

H. H. [Page 12]

WORLD CITIZENSHIP

by CARL A. ROSS Lawyer

IV. An Historical Remedy for the Depression: Exchange-Gold-Prices

In our last article we came to the a priori conclusion that the economic thought of today is united in the opinion that the adoption of three world wide economic reforms-a single currency, a single banking system and a refunding of national war debts into one-would do much to reestablish public and private credit and to end our depression. We also found that history teaches that these three reforms, to attain success, should be based on a government, world wide in scope, embracing a reasonable majority of the leading nations of the world united on the dual allegiance principle of World Citizenship. The early history of the United States furnishes the historical justification for this position and we have in our earlier articles endeavored to demonstrate the soundness of the constitutional changes involved.

This history also supports our current economic thought that these reforms would re-establish our credit; but let us go farther and examine the processes of reasoning of our economists. Do the teachings of our economists support these reforms?

When we go to text books of economists of high standing we find very little in direct support of our thesis, because we are changing those very practices which the economist makes the bases of his reasoning. Our sixty national currencies, our sixty national budgets, our banking system based on sixty national laws, our sixty gold reserves and our war debt funded by sixty nations respectively, these facts the economist assumes as bases for his reasoning; these are the premises from which he draws conclusions. In this [Page 13]respect the economist is a realist, he sticks to facts; the status quo is binding on him; he has never written a text book on economics based on our assumed status of one joint currency for the world, one joint Reserve Banking System and one joint war debt to be liquidated by uniform taxes throughout the World Union. Nor shall we attempt to write such a text book on this new and assumed basis, rather we shall merely attempt to illustrate how our economists reason from the old established legislative facts leaving the reader to judge whether a simplification of these bases, this old established legislation, is a matter that should be undertaken in this economic crisis before conditions develop too far along the road to disintegration.

We propose to quote from a recent work on economics a few selected passages that illustrate how the economist reasons by taking as his premises our sixty national currencies, sixty national budgets, sixty national banking systems, our sixty funded national war debts, and the like. As you read these passages from Slichter's recent book, "Modern Economic Society," keep ever in mind the three reforms we are advocating under the principles of World Citizenship.

"In order to understand the fluctuations of the value of a currency in terms of foreign currencies, it is necessary to understand what determines the value of currencies in terms of other currencies. When all countries are on the same metallic standard (gold, for example), the explanation is very simple. One British pound contains as much gold as 4.8665 American dollars. As long, therefore, as the British and American governments do not restrict the exportation (or importation) of gold, the value of the pound in terms of dollars will not fluctuate from 4.8665 by much more than the cost of shipping gold between Great Britain and the United States. The reason is obvious. Suppose that large imports into Great Britain relative to exports from Great Britain create a large demand by British importers for drafts (exchange) on New York. The British banks are able to meet this demand in part by buying from British exporters bills drawn against American importers. [Page 14]But British exports are not sufficient to meet the entire demand for drafts payable in dollars. Naturally the price of drafts on New York goes up. But it does not go up beyond the cost of shipping gold from London to New York for the simple reason that banks (or anyone else) can replenish balances in New York simply by shipping gold.

"Suppose, however, that Great Britain is not on the gold standard as it was not during the war—and that British banks I will not pay out gold to their depositors and that the British government will not permit the exportation of gold from the country. Suppose that heavy imports compel British buyers to make large payments in dollars and that British exports do not furnish sufficient drafts on New York to meet the demand. What happens to the dollar in terms of the pound? Obviously it goes up just as any price goes up when the article becomes scarce in relation to demand. But in this case the rise does not stop when it has increased to the cost of shipping gold—for the simple reason that the refusal of the banks to pay gold and the refusal of the government to permit exportation make it impossible, for anyone to make payments in the United States by shipping gold. Under the circumstances, the only alternative for those having obligations to meet in the United States is to bid for drafts payable in dollars. The large demand for dollars (the result of large imports into Great Britain) and the small supply (the result of small exports from Great Britain) may cause the price of dollars, in terms of pounds, to rise very high. In fact, although one British pound will buy about $4.866 in United States currency, there were times during the war when the dollar was so valuable relative to the pound that one pound would buy less than four dollars. And for some years after the war (before the pound was stabilized in 1925) a pound would purchase less than $4.50.

"It is obvious that the ability of British exporters to sell drafts payable in dollars at a high price in pounds tends to make exporting more profitable. It is likewise obvious that the necessity of importers paying a high price in pounds for dollar exchange tends [Page 15]

WORLD CITIZENSHIP

to make importing less profitable. The rise of the dollar in terms of pounds, by discouraging imports and encouraging exports, tends to bring the demand for dollar exchange into equilibrium and to check a further increase in the price of the dollar in terms of pounds.

"As long, however, as gold cannot be exported, there is no telling how low the domestic currency may fall in terms of foreign currencies. That depends upon the relationship between imports nd exports. The impossibility of predicting the value of the domestic currency in terms of foreign currencies is the worst handicap imposed upon foreign trade by the absence of a common meta 'lic standard. It makes foreign trades hazardous speculation for both importers and exporters."

We believe a critical study of this passage will disclose the correctness of our contention that these legal facts, legislative or constitutional enactments, are the basis upon which the economist builds up his teaching. "Fluctuations of the value of a currency in terms of foreign currencies," "when all countries are on the same metallic standard," "one British pound contains as much gold as 4.866 American dollars," "as long, therefore, as the British and American governments do not restrict the exportation of gold," these are the premises from which the economist reasons; then he lays down a rule, "the value of the pound in terms of the dollar will not," etc., etc. By changing his premises to apply when Britain is "off" the gold standard, he lays down another rule as to the value of the pound in terms of dollars. This reasoning involves other facts, it is true, the exports of Britain and of the United States, their balances of trade, exchange, prices, etc., but in turn these facts presume two unitary systems, one for Great Britain and one for the United States.

After reading about these two currencies, two banking systems, the gold standard as affected by these two currencies and banking systems, and all the other reactions due to the existence of these two systems, after noting that not only foreign trade but domestic trade is greatly influenced by these two national systems, [Page 16]then please remember that instead of just two to deal with we have sixty such separate systems to harmonize, each reacting on each of the others respectively. Surely this financial machinery is delicate and complicated. How much of this reasoning, sound as it may be, would be left if you simplified its basis by wiping out the sixty system basis and substituted the reforms we advocate, namely, one unitary system instead of the sixty? Under these three reforms there would no longer be any question of the value of United States currency in terms of British currency, so that the complicated reactions ably described by Slichter could not follow. Furthermore, the history of the reactions of these three reforms after their adoption by the United States in 1789, gives rise to no apprehensions that new and serious complications would follow. We contend that the only way legislation can control or prevent "fluctuations of the value of a currency in terms of foreign currencies," is by enacting the legislative and constitutional changes necessary to establish one currency in place of the many.

Still keeping in mind the "hazardous speculation," let us try another quotation from Slichter describing price levels.

"The levels of prices in different countries are not the same, but they are clearly interdependent. Suppose that the prices in the United States became high in relation to prices abroad. Buyers would find it advantageous to purchase abroad but sellers would find difficulty, because of their high costs, in selling abroad. Soon we should be exporting gold to pay for our excess of imports. The decrease in quantity of gold would reduce the resources of the banks and compel them to curtail loans. The decrease in the number of both money and credit dollars would diminish domestic demand for goods and cause prices to fall. Much of the gold sent abroad would be added to the reserves of foreign banks and would become the basis of an expansion of credit. The result would be a tendency for prices abroad to rise. As prices decreased in the United States and advanced in other countries, domestic buyers would find less advantage in purchasing abroad and domestic sellers would find it easier to sell abroad. Consequently, our im- [Page 17]

WORLD CITIZENSHIP

ports would gradually decrease and our exports would increase. Eventually the price level here would be brought into equilibrium with the price levels of other countries and the exportation of gold would cease. If prices in the United States were to fall too low in relation to prices elsewhere, the process which we have described I would be reversed.

We do not in any way question the soundness of Professor Slichter's economic reasoning, but we do wish to emphasize how the basic difficulties he points out would be done away with by the reforms we advocate. We would like to ask Professor Slichter or some other economist to abandon the status quo consisting of sixty governmental systems and, beginning his reasoning upon the basis of our three reforms, re-write a text book on economics. We realize economists never speculate in such a fashion, this task is left for "novices." Let us not assume that doing away with sixty currencies and adopting one joint currency would automatically bring prices in all nations to the same level. Let us assume that tariffs, transportation costs and the like would prevent this so that price levels would remain different in different nations; still there would be no national currencies to be affected, no national budgets to be upset, and how could any difference in price levels result in gold shipments, how could it affect the joint bank, how could it cause the ups and downs in trade, since there would be only one gold reserve for one bank?

If an importer had credit at the Reserve Bank in his country he could buy and pay without disturbing any delicate national currency or any other national conditions.

Taking another excerpt from Slichter's book, we will also assume that he is sound in describing how a nation's currency is stabilized by the balancing of the national budget and so curing inflation and this would apply to the new joint currency, the new joint budget must be kept in balance-a problem we will consider in some later article-but read this remembering the adoption of our three reforms, reforms which take away the sixty clashing national systems, the foundations of his reasoning and lay down three basic foundations that have the sanction of history. [Page 18]"A long step towards stabilizing the currency of a country would be taken by the government's balancing its budget and thus ceasing to issue paper money in one form or another. This would end the rapid rise of internal prices and eliminate the worst evils of inflation. It would not, however, prevent more or less substantial fluctuations in the value of the currency in terms of foreign currencies, and these fluctuations would seriously handicap foreign trade. In order to assist in the restoration of foreign trade, it is important that currencies be given a definite value by being convertible into gold or relatively stable foreign currencies at a definite rate of exchange."

How about "foreign exchange," how about being "convertible. . . at a definite rate of exchange?" By joint action our three reforms have done away with "foreign currencies," except those of the minority nations failing to join the Union and so failing to adopt the new currency. For those sixty nations in the Empire, the joint currency of the "exporter" would be the same joint currency of the "importer." Likewise what would become of "exchange?" Under these reforms in the World Federation, gold at par of the joint currency could be had in any nation of the Union by going to the Reserve Bank of that nation so that "exchange" would disappear. No longer would the price of gold depend on the national currency and the gold supply of the "importer" country. In what other way can legislation affect exchange? Given sixty national currencies, exchange is inevitable as a means of equalizing them, while under our three reforms trade would be largely on the basis of trade between citizens of New York and California; for instance, if the "exporter" in New York was doing business with an "importer" in California (or Germany) who had established his credit with his Reserve Bank in California, the transaction could readily be closed in any way the New York "exporter" desired, he could get gold at par by taking the draft or check he received to his New York Reserve Bank or to any other branch Reserve bank. [Page 19]

THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

ENGLISH OR ESPERANTO?

by HENRY W. HETZEL President, Esperanto Association of North America

A RECENTLY made talking film, entirely in Esperanto, a product of the Paramount Company and already exhibited in at least seventeen countries of the world, is one indication of the extent to which the use of the International Language has progressed since the war. To those of us who think that English is destined to become the world speech, if indeed it has not already achieved that distinction, this news item may not appear significant. Such persons have often told us that “everywhere you go you find English.” Granted that in every foreign place visited you can find some folks who talk our native speech, does this mean that, in every situation in which the traveler finds himself, his English will be enough? The writer’s experience in several European trips would answer this by a decided negative. Let Lyons, France (a big enough city and on a main line of travel too) furnish the example. Here in the main railway station neither the ticket seller, the baggage checker, nor the official in the information office knew English (or could get somebody who did know it), in a prominent hotel nearby neither of the clerks and not one of the waiters in the dining room spoke it. Having to go to a bank the writer could use nothing but his very faulty French in getting a check cashed, and in getting about the city his English was of absolutely no use in the ears of tram conductors. Here were at least seven different kinds of contacts, quite typical in every tourist’s experience, in which English failed absolutely.

Even had the writer found his native tongue to be sufficient in each of these cases, what would it have proven? Merely that in [Page 20]the simple matters of supplying our bare needs of locomotion and nutrition we can "get along" on the "business English" of people notoriously better linguists than ourselves. But who wants to limit his conversation to porters, waiters, and ticket sellers? Those who talk as though "getting along" is all that there is (in a linguistic sense) to foreign travel have a childish idea of what is required by a highly evolved, widening civilization. The peoples of the world, even against their will are being brought together in contacts increasingly numerous and intimate. Problems in statecraft, science, education, industry and commerce are arising which only the united, cooperating intelligence of the world can solve. Due to the rapid increase in the means and efficiency of modern thought-communication, a social philosophy or economic doctrine (good or bad) born in one country may be, almost over night, transplanted to and find congenial soil in far distant countries. The promotion of culture, the stabilizing of peace and even the saving of civilization itself are all involved in this question of complete understanding and close cooperation. The word "cooperation" necessarily brings up for serious thinking that modern phenomenon, the international conference. Whether for diplomatic, religious or commercial interests, for professional or sociological purposes, these world gatherings have become increasingly frequent and important. It has been counted up that at least four hundred of these have taken place in 1931 in Europe alone. In such conferences is found the acid test of language applicability and sufficiency. Here particularized speech is all-important and technical terms must be handled with precision.

Since the middle ages when Latin was the language of culture there has never been held a single world congress, truly international, in which any national tongue, not even English, was used solely. The single exception is, of course, diplomacy, but here French and not English has been the language used. When educators, business men, scientists and religious workers get together they seem to forget that "every educated man speaks English"; and although they may represent the best product of the world's univer- [Page 21]

THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

sities and be known for high scholarship, they seem never to have known that "English has become the world language," but instead, each perversely insists upon speaking his own mother tongue. This makes necessary the employment of interpreters with serious losses of time and temper as the notorious result. If indeed our English has already become the international speech, our teaching of French, German and Spanish loses much of its value. (I am, of course, not referring to the study of foreign literatures and distinct national cultures). And yet there never was a greater demand than now for instruction in these languages. In several countries, Japan for example, English is the first foreign language studied. Yet do not overestimate the significance of this. In our own country French is undoubtedly the most studied foreign tongue; ask the language schools! In the New York public schools there are more pupils talking French than there are students of Latin, German, Spanish and Italian put together. But none of us here will admit that French is becoming thereby the International Language, much as it may seem so to Gallic eyes and ears. In the absence of any generally recognized common tongue, a person aspiring to a broad culture must, first of all, be a linguist, and it is a commonplace observation that eminence in scholarship, science, commerce and technology does not run on all fours with linguistic talent. A busy man of affairs simply has no time to perfect himself in the mere handling of the tools of verbal expression.

Let us not make the mistake of supposing that the language problem is simply: How may Englishman and American talk with other peoples? If, when we go abroad, foreigners have to talk to us in English, this is no proof that our language is conquering the rest of the world. Even if Frenchmen and Germans, recognizing, as it is claimed, the "inevitability" of English, do use our language in their dealings with us, it must not be forgotten that as every triangle has three sides, these Frenchmen and Germans sometimes have occasion to speak or write to one another. In such cases, will anyone contend that English is their common tongue? When Russian talks to Italian or Spaniard talks to Pole, is it our speech that [Page 22]is used? To the extent that foreigners do actually use English in our absence and across their mutual frontiers, the argument for English as the already-arrived international language is a strong one. Instances of such use of English are, however, significantly rare, or else those whose argument would profit by their being mentioned are strangely silent about the fact.

It is too often assumed that a Swede and a Chinaman, for instance, who can talk to us in English, can also use the same tongue between themselves. This seems as axiomatic as "Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other;" but it overlooks the patent fact that neither party to the conversation uses our language with exactness, especially in that last-to-be-acquired accomplishment, the pronunciation. Slight errors made in speaking either by the Swede or the Chinaman are quite tolerable to us, for they hardly confuse the meaning. But English from the mouth of a Swede in the ear of a Chinaman, well, that's another matter! Here's a good illustration: A French friend of the writer attended a Scientific Cur ference in Stockholm,-just such an occasion when language sufficiency is put to its most exacting test. Although in the beginning both English and German were recognized as the official tongues, nearly everyone at first spoke English,-after a fashion. All except those from Great Britain and America had more or less difficulty in comprehension. After many a phrase had to be repeated or retranslated for better understanding, confusion greatly subsided when more and more speeches were made in German, and it was into this language that most of the proceedings were put in the closing days of the Conference. The simple reason was that perfection and consequently, uniformity in pronunciation, as this Frenchman himself declared, were more easily acquired in the case of German.

Compared with this case, typical because every world-gathering of the usual kind experiences the same linguistic chaos a congress of Esperantists stands out in refreshing and inspiring contrast. There have been twenty-three of these gatherings since 1905, attended by from six hundred to five thousand delegates, repre- [Page 23]

THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

senting as many as forty-three different national tongues. During the whole of the eight days the International Language is the only one heard and no interpreters are seen or needed although the program includes such diverse things as business discussion, scientific and travel lectures, religious services, theatricals, radio broadcasts and, as in the case of the two most recent congresses, a talking film, to say nothing of many excursions, social gatherings and café conversations. Many of the participants have come literally from the ends of the earth, having learned their Esperanto entirely from a text book without so much as a phonograph record to give the pronunciation, and yet here is complete and immediate understanding! And to cap the climax of this linguistic paradise, so uniform is the pronunciation that it is practically impossible to tell the nationality of the speaker, so far as his speech alone is any indication. Laughable mistakes in guessing at one another's fatherland are commonplace happenings.

Were such gatherings confined to long-haired language idealists merely, to Esperantists as such, they would hardly have significance enough to merit our attention. Long ago interlinguists have abundantly shown that it is easy for a group of language "sharps" to formulate a lingual code, even a spoken one, for their own amusement, to jabber at one another to the glory of themselves and their hobby, but the world rightly does not regard such a "stunt" as cause for excitement or enthusiasm. But it is quite a different thing when, as can easily be shown, Esperanto has acquired a use in conferences of educators, scientists, religious workers, commercial and professional people,—practical language users in their respective activities and not mere dreamers of millennia. For that is precisely what has come to pass in a sorely-vexed world!

The writer has been fortunate enough to attend, here and in Europe, at least a dozen of such gatherings, including the "Interreligious Congress for Peace" (The Hague, 1930) to which he was a delegate. Should you step into one of these you may be fairly drenched by geysers of technical terms, and it would be evident from the start that every speaker uses his Esperanto with [Page 24]an ease and readiness that is only parallel where all use the same mother-tongue. Above all, you would be struck by the absolute neutrality of the language used. You would find no "favored nations" and none obviously under a linguistic humiliation. That which no national tongue, however widely used, has ever been able to bring about,—the unilingual international conference—is today among those using Esperanto only a commonplace.

Let us mention again Japan. A few years ago the Third Pan Pacific Science Congress met in Tokio under the auspices of the National Research Council. Its President, Dr. Joji Sakurai in welcoming the delegates to Japan, referred to some of the troubles which confronted the Council, in part as follows: "In the first place, there is the difficulty of language, which by itself is enormous; or should I say, insurmountable?" (Someone should kindly tell the learned Doctor that "every scientist speaks English"). At the opening of the Congress its Chairman, as was expected, ruled that all speeches should be in English—a news item which was given big headlines in American newspapers. But what was not even mentioned a y or two later was the significant fact that this decision aroused the protest of seventeen professors of the University of Tokio who signed a "round robin" in favor of the admission of Esperanto as "a neutral language of world culture." The Chair's ruling was reversed and several speeches were made in the international tongue.

Esperanto, the creation of Dr. Ludwig Zamenhof of Warsaw (died 1917) was given to the world in 1887. Although not the first project which had been devised to meet the world-need, it at once attracted an attention which was more than academic and in a few years it had far outdistanced its competitors, both as to the extent of its literature and the number of its adherents. Its root words, prefixes and suffixes were selected on the basis of "maximum internationality" and so easy and logical is the formation of derivatives that only a few hundred primary words need be learned. An Esperantist actually coins words as he goes along, and, even by a person who may never have heard such words before, he is [Page 25]

THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

instantly and precisely understood. A phonetic spelling and the fact that the tonic accent is always on the next to the last syllable make it possible for perfect pronunciation to be acquired in a half-hour. The whole grammar is stated in sixteen simple rules (without an exception) which many people have actually learned in an hour or two! So easy is the language that a translation will hardly be needed for the following specimen:

"Simpla, fleksebla, belsona, vere internacia en siaj elementoj, la lingvo Esperanto prezentas al la mondo civilizita la sole veran solvon de lingvo internacia; char, tre facila por homoj nemulte instruitaj, Esperanto estas komprenata sen peno de la personoj bone edukitaj. Mil faktoj atestas la meriton praktikan de la nomita lingvo."

Far from being a "universal" language in the sense of attempting to displace existing national tongues for home use, Esperanto as an auxiliary language has a record of accomplishment that has long ago lifted it above the level of a mere project. It has become, say its advocates, an every-day, practical means of communication between thousands of people in all parts of the world. Correspondence in it is a commonplace, all the way from stamp-collecting and the mere exchange of picture postcards up to high-brow discussions of philosophy, scientific matters and world politics, as may easily be seen by anyone who cares to glance through the correspondence columns of the journals (now about 125 of them) published in the language in all parts of the world. Text books for instruction have appeared in (by actual count) fifty languages including such little known ones as Catalonian, Finnish, Japanese, Croatian, Arabic, Icelandic, Welsh and Persian. Limitations of space prevent all but a reference to the literature of Esperanto. That it is rapidly growing and already extensive (now numbering nearly seven thousand titles) both in translated works and originals, in prose and poetry, covering practically every possible use of the printed word, is a statement that can easily be verified. Quite in line with one of its objectives, Esperanto is of considerable help to the tourist. Thousands have visited foreign shores [Page 26]and journeyed through distant countries where by the aid of the International Language and the "Universala Esperanto-Asocio" whose nearly two thousand delegates or consuls are practically everywhere, they have had their travels made more pleasant and profitable than could otherwise have been. To the Esperantist alone belongs the joy of meeting foreigners, well educated and intelligent, as many as one has time to see in any journey or visited city—and of conversing with a freedom and on a linguistic equality that is never experienced when a national tongue is the medium. In at least thirty-five cities of Europe there are Esperantist policemen specially trained (in the case of several, specially compensated) to be of service to the visiting foreigner who has already taken the little trouble to meet the world on the linguistic middle ground. Thanks to the system in use among Esperantists, the visitor is assured of a hearty welcome and friendly guidance which no mere tourist agency can supply. The testimony is unanimous that the fine spirit of helpfulness thus displayed is due to a bond of union stronger than the mere possession of a language in common, it is the idealistic faith in the possibility of a better world to complete mutual understanding. A conversation in which even the well-educated person must be content merely to "get along" is a poor sample of Twentieth Century efficiency. Moreover, on account of the language difficulty, continually reminding each participant of their separate nationalities, it is out of harmony with the lofty idealism which characterizes the forward movements of the world. Has our boasted educational system nothing better to offer?

Perhaps Esperanto is not the last word in the evolution of a neutral tongue for all the world. It nevertheless has given convincing proof that such a priceless boon for humanity is possible and practical. No longer may the idea be stigmatized as a utopian dream, "too good to be true." Already, to hundreds of thousands using the International Language, the word "foreigner" is an almost meaningless term, for to them and between them the sense of nationality has disappeared and is all but forgotten. [Page 27]

A WORLD ADVANCE

A Monthly International Review by OSCAR NEWFANG Author of "The Road to World Peace," etc.

DISARMAMENT THROUGH CO-ARMAMENT

As the Disarmament Conference called by the League of Nations will probably convene during the current month, this article will briefly review the unsuccessful efforts that have been made by the League since its organization in 1920 to achieve the measure of disarmament which its Covenant states is indispensable to permanent world peace, and it will suggest a plan for disarmament which has been historically applied and has proved successful.

Article 8 of the League Covenant affirms that "members of the League recognize that the maintenance of peace requires the reduction of national armaments to the lowest point consistent with national safety and the enforcement by common action of international obligations. The Council, taking account of the geographical situation and circumstances of each state, shall formulate plans for such reduction for the consideration and action of the several governments."

The Treaty of Versailles, in the preface to the article which drastically reduced the armament of Germany, stated that this disarmament was enforced in order to enable the allies correspondingly to reduce their own armaments.

Notwithstanding the command of the Covenant and the plainly implied obligation of the allies assumed in the Treaty, all efforts to achieve disarmament during the entire thirteen years of the League's existence have been fruitless. Disarmament has made [Page 28]no progress whatever. The one apparent success in the limitation of armament, the Washington Naval Conference,-resulted merely in a limitation at the extreme high point of armament; and the United States and Japan are at the present time building naval equipment with might and main, in order to build up to the limits set for them. Furthermore,-Japan has stated that she is not satis- fied with the 5-5-3 ratio established at Washington, and it is there- fore probable that in 1933 the treaty will lapse and a naval arma- ment race between Britain, America and Japan will begin.

Futile Attempts at Disarmament Since 1920

Let us briefly review the efforts made by the League since 1920 to carry Article 8 of the Covenant into effect. In 1920 a "Temporary Mixed Commission" was appointed to formulate the disarmament recommendations on behalf of the League Council. In 1921 the Assembly urged this Commission to make proposals in the form of a draft treaty. In 1923 the Temporary Mixed Com- mission reported a Draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance to the Assembly. Only eighteen member states of the fifty-odd League members approved this Draft Treaty even "in principle." On October 2, 1924, an attempt was made in the so-called "Geneva Protocol for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes" to enforce arbitration of all international disputes as a preliminary to general disarmament. Great Britain killed the Protocol. In 1925 and 1926 the "Locarno Agreement" between Germany and France was effected and Germany was admitted to the League, all this in order to remove French apprehension and make disarmament pos- sible. In 1927, however, France was still apprehensive and wanted greater speed in the mutual assistance to be rendered a victim of aggression, and she therefore offered a plan that would "enable the Council to take such decisions as may be necessary to enforce the objects of the Covenant as expeditiously as possible." Nothing came of that. [Page 29]

World Advance

On September 26th, 1925, the Council appointed a "Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference." This Commission was engaged in "preparatory" work from 1925 until the present year, and the Disarmament Conference was finally called together thirteen years after the efforts toward disarmament began. Its meetings during the Spring months yielded no results, and the convening of the Economic and Monetary Conference caused its adjournment until Fall, probably after the regular September meeting of the Assembly of the League has adjourned. The only tangible plan for limitation of armaments that is before the suspended Disarmament Conference is the British plan for the limitation of land forces. This plan allots two hundred thousand soldiers to Germany and to France, respectively, but allows France an additional two hundred thousand men for colonial duty. It is a safe prediction that this arrangement will be rejected by Germany.

Meanwhile Germany, after pressing for reductions in four different Assembly meetings, has served definite notice on the leading League members that, unless they promptly fulfill their implied obligation to reduce to her level, she will re-arm to their level. And, as stated above, Japan and the United States are feverishly increasing their naval forces, in order to "build up" to the extreme limit permitted by the Washington Naval Conference, and Japan has served notice on the other two leading naval powers that she will not, after the 1933 expiration of the Washington Treaty, rest content with the 5-5-3 ratio for the United States, Great Britain and Japan. The attitude of Great Britain under these circumstances may be easily forseen. Britain has always felt that she logically requires the strongest navy in the world, and until the Washington Treaty she insisted upon having a navy equal to the combined navies of her two nearest competitors. Meanwhile the Geneva Naval Conference, which was in session from June 20th until August 4th, 1927, was unable to reach any definite decisions, since "some states wanted tonnage fixed without specifying vessel uses; others wanted the size of vessels fixed and the total tonnage determined." [Page 30]In view of this failure and of the prospect of a competitive naval armament race in 1935 the leading newspaper of France, the Paris Temps, has recently stated, that France could not at this time consider any land force reduction whatever.

A Practical Method by which Disarmament Has Been Achieved Historically

The prospect of achieving disarmament by the method of simple agreement has failed ever since the organization of the League and is therefore hopeless. The security of nations must first be absolutely assured before they can afford to disarm. In what manner can this security be assured?

All the experience of history points to a single method by which this can be done. Individuals in every civilized community in the world have been disarmed as soon as, but not before, n adequate central armed police force for the whole community has been established. As soon as their security of life and property has been assured, individuals in these communities have voluntarily disarmed.

The states of the United States; the states of Germany; the divisions of Great Britain, England, Scotland and Wales; the departments of France; the cantons of Switzerland,—these have all been disarmed through precisely the same method; that is, by the assurance of security which they have received through the establishment of an adequate central, national force to protect them against external aggression and from internal aggression by any of their neighboring states, divisions, departments or cantons.

The nations of the British Empire have been disarmed by the identical method,—the provision of absolute assurance of security against attack, through the establishment of an adequate general navy. The security afforded by this central force makes Canada, Australia and South Africa willing to forego the possession of a separate national naval force for each of these commonwealths. [Page 31]It is the general verdict of history, that disarmament of political units can be effected only by a union of these political units and by the establishment of a general central force which provides absolute security against attack for those individual political units.

Disarmament of League Members Possible only by the Establishment of an Adequate Central Force Controlled by the League of Nations

Applying this clear lesson of history to the states members of the League of Nations, it is evident that the only method by which disarmament of the nations can be achieved is by the establishment under the control of the League of Nations of a World Police Force adequate to protect all the member states from aggression from without the League and from attack by any of the other member states. France has seen this logical necessity from the beginning of the League's organization, and her statesmen at that time strongly urged that the proposed League of Nations should have forces sufficient to make its writ run throughout the world; but France at that time was overruled by the idealism of President Wilson and by the fear of a strong League on the part of Great Britain.

At the meeting of the Disarmament Conference this Spring France again urged a central armed force under the control of the League as a necessary preliminary to that reduction of national armaments which the Covenant recognized as essential to permanent world peace. Her representatives made the very sensible suggestion, that the modern aggressive weapons of warfare should be turned over to the League, while the older, defensive weapons should be retained by the individual member states for the preservation of internal safety. This proposal is now before the Conference for consideration.

Great Britain has suggested the internationalization of all aircraft; more, however, for the purpose of facilitating commerce than as a means of furnishing the League of Nations with a force [Page 32]which would enable it to afford member states the security necessary in order to persuade them to reduce their armaments. While the British suggestion, as a commercial and economic measure, is wise, and its adoption will eventually be found necessary, since it is absurd to regulate nationally aircraft that in a few hours' flying pass over the territories of two or three of the small nations of Europe; this internationalization will not greatly help the cause of disarmament. If the British suggestion could be so modified that all military aircraft of the member states should be placed under the control of the League of Nations, this would afford the League the most powerful and efficient method of policing the world and of enforcing its decrees against any recalcitrant nation.

When these proposals to arm the League receive careful consideration by the Disarmament Conference, as they deserve, it will immediately become clear that a World Police Force that can be brought into action only after a unanimous vote of all the members of the League would be paralyzed and condemned to inaction by this impossible method of control. Police or military action requires instant decisions, and these cannot be made under the rule of unanimity. Unanimity must be replaced by majority decisions, in order to get the promptness indispensable for armed action.

So much being admitted, it is inevitable that the great nations, which would naturally furnish the bulk of the World Police Force and the funds needed in its operation, will object to a majority control of this force in the League of Nations, if every nation, great or small, is to have an equal vote. A prerequisite, therefore, to the transfer of armament from the individual member states of the League is a proper representative body to control the armed joint forces. Representation must be proportionate to the population and importance of the various member states.

After this prerequisite has been met, it would seem to be the proper course, in view of the tremendous size of the undertaking, to arrange for the gradual, decennial transfer to the League of a fixed percentage of each national armament, say 10%. This gradual armament of the League and disarmament of the individual [Page 33]nations would not only give the League authorities time to work out methods to absorb and assimilate the forces placed under their control, but it would at the same time have the signal merit of maintaining throughout the period of transfer precisely the existing ratio of strength among all of the member states. Within a very few decades the armament of the League would reach such preponderant strength, that no nation or group of nations would dare to defy the decisions of the Permanent Court of International Justice or the decisions of the League Council. The growing strength of the League forces, furthermore, would soon assure the member states of that security against attack which would make them glad to be relieved of the heavy burden of national armaments and willing to reduce their armaments to the minimum required for internal policing.

A World Federation

This is the only method of achieving disarmament among the world's nations which has proved successful in the actual history of disarmament among individuals, among city republics, among the political units comprising modern nations, and among modern nations comprising a great empire. The adoption of this method means the gradual development of the League of Nations into an organic federation of nations, by the evolution of the three embryonic organs of the League into the three recognized essential functions of modern government: the development of the League Assembly into a World Legislature with power to make laws; the development of the Permanent Court of International Justice into a World Court with compulsory jurisdiction in all international disputes; and the development of the Council into a World Cabinet equipped with adequate forces, land, sea and air, and properly financed through powers of direct taxation.

Herbert Spencer, whom historians of the future will probably rank as the greatest philosopher of the present age, at the close of his masterly and exhaustive "Principles of Sociology," comes to [Page 34]this conclusion: "We may infer that the primary process of evolution-integration-which up to the present time has been displayed in the formation of larger and larger nations, will eventually reach a still higher stage and bring yet greater benefits. As, when small tribes were consolidated into great tribes, the head chief stopped inter-tribal warfare; as, when small feudal governments became subject to a king, feudal wars were prevented by him; so, in time to come, a federation of the highest nations, exercising supreme authority (already foreshadowed by occasional agreements among the "powers"), may, by forbidding wars between any of its constituent nations, put an end to the re-barbarization which is continually undoing civilization. When this peace-maintaining federation has been formed, there may be effectual progress toward that equilibrium between constitution and conditions-between inner faculties and outer requirements-implied by the final stage of human evolution." [Page 35]

THE CARL SCHURZ MEMORIAL FOUNDATION

by HARRY W. PFUND Member of Executive Committee

One of the most recently established organizations for the promotion of cultural relations between the United States and a foreign people is the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation with national headquarters in Philadelphia. The early history of this Foundation goes back to the days soon after the World War when the great relief work of the Quakers for starving German children received magnanimous support financially and through personal services from Americans of German and other ancestry. The personal friendships that were formed in the years of this great labor of love prepared the way for a plan continuing work along similar lines for the better interpretation of the spiritual and thought life of the German-speaking nations of Europe to the people of the United States and vice versa. The actual idea of founding a national organization with this end in view was first conceived by the well-known philanthropist, Ferdinand Thun, of Reading, Pennsylvania, and was carried out with the moral and financial support of some 150 founder members from all walks of professional and business life in the spring of 1930. The Foundation was dedicated to the memory of the greatest German-American, the statesman Carl Schurz, whose 100th birthday had been celebrated in the previous year. Ferdinand Thun was chosen as President and Dr. Wilbur K. Thomas, former chairman of the Friends Relief Committee for Child-Feeding, as the Executive Director.

After careful thought and examination during the first year, it was decided to plan the work of the Foundation along the following lines: [Page 36]1. The granting of stipends and awards should enable certain Americans in public life and in the arts and professions, who have achieved a measure of distinction in their field of endeavor, to go to Germany and Austria for the purpose of study and research, so that with the experiences gained abroad they might be better able to benefit the American people.

2. Similarly, stipends are to enable prominent Germans to come to this country for the purpose of study and research.

3. The exchange of students and professors between the United States and German-speaking countries should be supported.

4. Valuable literature concerning America should be distributed as gifts among libraries in Germany, and, similarly, publications on German life, literature and art should find an outlet in this country. The founding of a magazine in the United States, which will serve as a further medium of interpretation, is envisaged.

5. An exchange of outstanding personalities of both countries should be arranged, who can interpret the intellectual and spiritual problems of their own people to the other people in a tactful and non-political manner.

Each of these five lines of endeavor represents, as it were, a department of the Foundation, although some of them still lack the necessary means for the desired expansion on a large scale. The aims described under the first division have been realized in an ideal manner by the munificent gift of one million dollars from Gustav Oberlaender, of Reading, in the spring of 1931. This constitutes the Oberlaender Trust. In the deed of gift it is stipulated that the capital and income of this fund must be spent within a period of 25 to 40 years. The expenditure is limited to awards and grants to American citizens, who are actively engaged in work that concerns the public welfare, with the American people as the primary objective. The donor is especially desirous that candidates be chosen who have a genuine understanding of the significance of international problems and are qualified to interpret their findings to the American people in an able manner.

The Oberlaender Trust is administered as an integral part [Page 37]

CARL SCHURZ MEMORIAL FOUNDATION

of the Foundation. During the two years since its establishment 65 men and women have accepted invitations or have been chosen from applicants to go to Germany. Only a few facts about the many-sided activities of these first emissaries can be cited here. A dozen editors and journalists have been given the opportunity to acquaint themselves with political, social and economic questions in post-war Germany. Their impressions have been and are being published in extensive newspaper reports, which give evidence of genuine admiration of the German people and sympathetic understanding of their many problems. No pressure has been brought to bear upon these representatives of the press to report favorably or unfavorably on current developments in Germany. While it is the policy of the Foundation to choose its delegates with extreme care, it places implicit confidence in those whom has chosen.- The director of a hospital for communicable diseases was given opportunity to study German methods in the control of such diseases, with special relation to the public control of scarlet fever. An eminent music scholar was enabled to complete research work for a book on the chamber music of Brahms.-Various institutions for public hygiene and child welfare, family clinics, the relation of the hospital to the community, legal aid, the folk high school, sanitary dairying, forestry, the relationship between industrial and academic professionals especially in chemistry, Austria's economic situation, the modern German theater are other problems in many fields in which experts were chosen. A group of 17 high officials from typical American cities are touring Germany this summer (1933) for the purpose of studying municipal administration in Germany. Considerable publicity was given to the lecture trip of Dr. Robert A. Millikan, who returned an earlier visit to America of Professor Albert Einstein, and spoke at eighteen German universities. Other prominent recipients of awards were Dr. Thomas S. Baker, Dr. Walter Williams, Dr. Alice Hamilton, George N. Shuster and Dr. Howard Hanson.

Activity along the four other lines of endeavor outlined has been financed for the present out of a common fund of several [Page 38]hundred thousand dollars pledged by the founder members over a period of five years. But here, too, the success of the work has been relatively significant. Twelve German lecturers have been brought to the United States, About 150,000 Americans have been addressed by them. Administration expenses have been granted to the Institute of International Education for sending 209 American students to German universities and for bringing 199 Germans and Austrians to the United States. Several thousand dollars were given to German universities for the purchase of works by American authors. A traveling exhibition of modern German art has been exhibited in 52 schools and colleges over a total of 80 weeks. The Foundation was instrumental in arranging many Goethe celebrations and a national student essay contest during the Goethe Centenary Year 1932. During the last academic year (1932-33) Max Montor, reader and dramatic impersonator, gave recitals from German dramatic and lyrical works in the original and in translation at over 100 different places, mainly at colleges and universities.

These facts and figures give some notion of the idealism in which the Foundation was conceived and of the firmness of purpose with which the work is being carried forward by skillful administrators and advisors. This idealism and this determination have helped it to survive stresses and strains of many kinds which have beset it during the three years it has functioned. They augur well for the future, when it is earnestly hoped that it will be able to expand its activities in the directions indicated and bring together more and more closely the two great peoples whom it serves.

The World We Live In

The thirty-eighth modern movement pro ed by World Unity in its department "The World We Live In." [Page 39]

INDIVIDUALISM vs. CHARACTER AND UNITY

by GLENN M. CLARKE State Teachers College, Whitewater, Wisc.

ONE does not have to be an optimist to look forward to the time when all nations will be linked so closely together that a pain to one will cause pain to all, and the joys of each will be joys to the rest.

We are approaching our goal every day, thanks to World Unity, but there are some things that are retarding our progress. One of those things is faulty education. To achieve unity of religion, race, and of nations, we must educate our school children right so they will see the need for unity. Those children must have character.

Character is the outstanding purpose of education, and the basic principle of character education is cooperation. We hardly need show the added amount of accomplishment that the use of this principle has given us. However, it is our duty to discard any influence that is in direct opposition to our plan. Let us look, for a moment, at the opposite principle of cooperation, namely individualism.

Individualism may be expressed in many different ways. We see its expression in the egotistical, self-centered person. We see its representation in the granting of rights, and in the disrespect for duty. It is expressed in the desire for selfish ends, in competition, in private and public business, politics, love, and war. It does not recognize obligation, and it is opposed to the practices of cooperation. Each and every one of these types of individualism is expressed in our present-day situation.

The most harmful type of individualism is that of competition. Does it seem any wonder that its practice has caused many a [Page 40]nation's downfall, when it is used in educational systems as the fundamental principle of motivation? In reality we are preaching cooperation and practicing competition.

Too many of our students study hard for the sole purpose of getting a high grade, or defeating their classmates, or winning the approval of the teacher. They know their achievements only in these terms. They know how much they have learned by the number of classmates they have defeated, not by their accomplishment of something that is worth while in itself.

Is not the fact that we resort to principles which are basicly native and instinctive, a confession of our inability to make the tasks of education show their real quality? Because we are born with the trait, individualism, does it necessarily follow that it is a good quality and that it should be developed? Do we not possess traits that must be suppressed in order to insure and safeguard the lives of our people?

Normally character is a matter of growth, unconscious growth. That growth originates in very early childhood. We learn that by putting our finger on the hot stove, we suffer, and that by running too swiftly, we fall. Later, however, we find that it is not necessary to experience to learn. We learn from other people. We are inspired by great personalities that surround us, personalities of men of high character. We have instilled in us a desire to live a good life because we know the happiness and contentment that it has brought to those who possess it. We may reason, therefore, that the teachers who do not daily practice the best that is in them, will not accomplish much in the field of character education.

It is fundamentally important, then, that the teachers of our children should possess the highest types of character.

The economic and social situation of today makes us ask whether we must learn to cooperate or perish. The task of the public school is to show the child that society is based on cooperation, and to give him that practice in cooperation which shall fit him to take and enjoy his place in society. [Page 41]

SOCIETY WITHOUT SOCIAL SCIENCE

by T. SWANN HARDING Author of "The Degradation of Science," etc.

THESE days the world moves at a rapid pace. It fairly leaves us breathless. Even since the first article of this symposium appeared in print absolutely revolutionary changes have taken place in the form and functions of the American Government. Nor is it extraordinary that such great changes appear with such phenomenal rapidity, because we have for many years rather disdained the problem of adjusting our social and economic systems in order that they might, by being modernized, correlate properly with the accelerated progress of science. It is this intensity and rapidity of scientific progress that has, in last analysis, compelled the present administration at Washington to proceed in the manner that it has.

For a long time various far-sighted individuals have dimly felt that science somehow menaced the so-called profit system. More than a decade ago an engineer named Smyth wrote on this subject and described the rule of technically trained men which he advocated by the coined term, "Technocracy." The brilliant chemist, Soddy, was examining our credit structure and finding it inadequate. Major Douglas was considering the same problem from a somewhat different angle and other engineers, like the brilliant Walter N. Polakov of this country, freely discussed the disaster that must overtake us if we permitted the fruits of scientific research to be preempted by the few, as happens under unrestrained capitalism in a profit economy. The Technocrats, so-called, did no more than fuse these ideas together into front page material, while the liberal social scientists who supply the brain power for the New Deal at Washington are putting as much of this philosophy actively to work as the public will permit at this time. [Page 42]It seemed very strange to many people that science tended to disrupt our traditional social and economic system. Was not science, as has been shown in this World Unity symposium by various contributors, naturally internationalist in character? How could an international agency like science possibly tend to break down our economic system? Yet a moment's thought shows that progress in physical and biological science has necessarily changed the physical environment of Government and of the economic and social systems completely, even though we have in this country remained wedded to the idea that these social and economic systems and our traditional form of government could somehow or another adjust to the progress of research by their own esoteric efforts and everything would finally come out all right.

That could not be. Consider only what in Europe is called "rationalization" and what Polakov would refer to as power production. It is possible today not only to increase production by adding man power, by working longer hours, or by investing in new machines; increased production also becomes possible by an increased use of power (of solar energy, stored away through geological epochs that is) or by a mere arrangement of the machinery in a factory or the rerouting of goods through that factory. One factory may actually produce several times as much of the same product as another would, simply by the superior use of technology. This means several important things.

It means that the distribution of wages to mere producers can not longer possibly effect such a distribution of purchasing power as to enable the public to consume all the products made by the machines. That is because human labor is dispensed with as machine labor is expanded and machines are not paid wages. It means further that while the capital investment in these machines is large, they are not always used to capacity and they often stand idle for long periods. Yet the cost of those machines goes into the overhead included, along with labor, dividends; and the cost of raw material, in the price of the manufactured goods sold.

Obviously this price must be far more than is distributed to [Page 43]

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labor as wages and to those who provide capital as interest on their investment; this is patently true because the price includes not only these charges but the overhead, and the overhead is essentially a matter of collecting the cost of machines and buildings from consumers on the installment plan. But the whole scheme stands on the foundation provided by the progress of science, the researches of patient, ill-paid men, who form a sort of communistic fraternity the world over, and whose brains make all this fantastic mechanical proliferation possible.

So today machines make goods, and machines are not paid wages, their cost is instead derived from consumers. Power increases production and power is cheap and long-suffering. The rearrangement of machines in factories or the rerouting of goods through them will increase production, this without the expenditure of a single additional dollar and therefore without the distribution of a single additional dollar of purchasing power. Meanwhile the scientists in their laboratories continue their interrogations of Nature, wrest her secrets from her by their own third-degree technic and, alas, pay altogether too little attention to the utilization of their discoveries.

Scientists meet in large groups, like Rotary clubs. There is high talk of science as a universal fellowship, international in character and basically communal in that all its possessions—the precious knowledge acquired by each scientist-are shared freely among the brethren. There are speeches which voice the beauty of fraternity and the kindly love that animates all scientists, crosses national boundaries and makes the entire world its province. But the problem of the social and economic utilization of scientific discoveries is ignored.

Meanwhile each progressive discovery of science becomes a hammerlike blow which renders the citadel of our traditional social and economic systems constantly more insecure. Each step in "rationalization," in the more effective and efficient utilization of scientific knowledge and in the wise use of superior technology, tends to tear down a traditional system which was evolved in a [Page 44]pre-scientific age, and served well enough to rule the social, political, and economic affairs of the pre-mechanistic period.

Meanwhile since it is so obvious that the price of an article includes not only the cost of labor but various other charges, and that sufficient funds can not be distributed as dividends, salaries, interest, and wages to enable the public at large to buy and consume the products of machine manufacture, credit becomes increasingly necessary. Since consumers can not buy and pay cash; since they can not have accumulated funds because their incomes have so long been either most uncertain or actually non-existent, an increasingly complex credit system has come into being and added its menace. This credit system is founded upon banks.

Banks are institutions that buy and sell debt. Debt is a drawing upon future wealth. All production is tied to the monetary system, hence it is not enough that materials and labor exist for production to take place. Money must enter the picture and, since large projects can not be financed on cash, it is customary to borrow funds from bankers who then write figures down in books and later buy and sell them as if they were real, material wealth, whereas they are only symbols of debt which is the negative of wealth, and which is materialized out of thin air and can easily be dematerialized into its parent element when occasion arises. The increasing progress of science makes it momentarily increasingly profitable for various shrewd people to go into business on credit in order to exploit the discoveries of research.

Since the banks find it profitable to deal in debt, speculators enter the picture. A stock market has been created. It was originally brought into being for a perfectly legitimate purpose that of acting as a reservoir of credit for the financing of large enterprises. Those who wanted to start the enterprise could issue stock therein which would be listed on the exchange and sold for a price that bore a close relation to the actual or projected value of the enterprise. But in time we got away from all that.

It is, for instance, a matter of actual record that there never was a time when there was a flow of value from the stockholders of [Page 45]the steel trust to that trust. There was no business here of certain people buying stock in order to accept interest as their rightful share of adventuring in a financial risk game; not at all. The common stock of the steel trust was issued and sold for and to the profit of the bankers who organized the trust in the first place. The price of that stock, and of all other stocks today, was and is purely artificial and represents neither a flow of value from the buyer of the stock to the industry, nor a "security" representing something of fixed value in the industry. The industry succeeds, if it does so, as the steel trust did, by its own efforts as a sound economic and technological institution, and the stock prices enrich the bankers who empty the stock upon the market, and the more fortunate speculators who know when to buy and when to let go.

Meanwhile the glamor of science—the possibility of making products based on X-rays, on radium emanations, on cosmic rays, on vitamins, on glandular products, on new alloys, and on a thousand and one other spectacular scientific developments—constantly gives impetus both to the increasing credit burdens and to pure speculation by offering the glittering possibility of getting rich quick on some new process. But the traditional economic system was incapable of adjusting to such powerful forces and creaked its way along to disaster. That disaster hit us in 1929 and we have not yet recovered.

The new administration at Washington has quite daringly and admirably sought to put into operation those ameliorative forces that leading liberal economists have advocated ever since disaster struck us. It is still a question whether or not the dilatory tactics of the previous administration have permitted our traditional system to get in such bad straights that it can not recover. It is certainly obvious as these lines are written that selfish individualists are all too quick to run to Government for succor in their distress, but tend to fight the wise and intelligent measures Government seeks to put into effect when there is the slightest apparent recovery in trade.

In the present instance the individualists have almost certainly [Page 46]seen a mirage. The speculative market as usual put on a show. This was a pre-discounting of what the administration hoped to accomplish by the enforcement of the Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment program. It ended for the moment in the spectacular market decline of July 19, 1933, which tended to let the synthetic value out of many super-inflated stocks. Meanwhile many partisans of laissez faire, bemused by what they regarded as industrial recovery, tend to hark back to old selfish habits and to sniff contemptuously at the Government's sincere efforts to circumvent the inevitably tragic results of their own stupidity.

For we have witnessed as yet no real trade revival. If the blind will not see it they should be told orally that the capitalistic system is dead, at least as we knew it. Dr. Rexford G. Tugwell brought all this out in his speech to the Federation of Bar Associations of Western New York at Rochester, June 24, 1933. Competition can no longer be assumed to be an inherent part of democracy and a good for its own sake. That view was carried so far that it began to be supposed that forces which menaced competition were therefore undemocratic. "What was sound and economically necessary was branded as wrong legally," said Tugwell. But we have passed from an era of development to one of maintenance.

Today the government must intervene in many ways to conserve and maintain the industrial system. This is now a proper governmental function. "The jig is up. The cat is out of the bag. There is no invisible hand. There never was. If the depression has not taught us that, we are incapable of education. Time was when the anarchy of the competitive struggle was not too costly. Today it is tragically wasteful. It leads to disaster. We must now supply a real and visible guiding hand to do the task which that mythical, non-existent, invisible agency (the invisible hand which beneficently guided warring business-men to the production of the general welfare) was supposed to perform, but never did." That is the sort of thing the federal Government is attempting today in order to rehabilitate the traditional system, thoroughly to modernize it, strip it of stark competitive individualism, and render it [Page 47]

SOCIETY WITHOUT SOCIAL SCIENCE

capable if selfish profiteers will permit of using science and the progress s of research in the most enlightened social manner. It is time we had progress in the social sciences in this country. We have too long iniquitously abused the power and the knowledge with which science has equipped us. We have had too much of this business of sheep being killed in Oregon and fruit rotting in a thousand orchards, or food being thrown into harbors, in order to create artificial scarcity, while thousands dived into garbage cans in the great cities for their meager sustenance. We must set our faces towards a future that will enable us to use science sensibly and sanely for the benefit of the public at large.

We can not look to the past for a plan of settling our social and economic problems. New economic, social, and political doctrines must be evolved from the present events and data at our disposal. Such theologies as that of communistic Marxianism must not deter us, however much they can certainly enlighten us on many points. Nor has bankrupt capitalism of the old standard variety any philosophy of salvation to offer us. The controversy between minor schools of economic thought and their unimportant schisms are barren and fruitless. Such controversy is even premature. For we do not as yet know what the final effect of science upon industry itself will be, to what extent, that is, we shall depend supinely upon machine technology and in what measure we shall preserve the endowment of the true artisan. After that problem is settled it will become necessary to make broad social and economic adjustments.

Consider a basic subject like agriculture. We have roughly 6,000,000 farmers engaged in this industry today, most of them arrant individuals. It seems rather certain that 2,000,000 highly intelligent and well-equipped farmers could produce far more agricultural products than we need in this country on considerably less acreage than is now cultivated. It should always be remembered that farming is a complex occupation that, for its successful prosecution, requires intelligence that is much above the average. For the farmer must not only be a good business man; he must have [Page 48]a considerable mastery of physical and biological science as well as of technology. When this is remembered we should be surprised that farmers are today as well off as they are, not that their estate is so unfortunate.

Today, however, the proper relationship between machine and animal power on the farm has not been worked out. It is certain that small farmers have been persuaded to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of machine equipment in many instances when it would have been to their economic advantage to have used animal power. A tractor can not be used efficiently if it is under used, i.e., if it is used on a farm too small to extend its powers. We have the same situation in manufacturing industry. There too we have yet to work out the proper relationship between the artisan and the mere machine workers, as well as between our demands for standardized machine products and for products of more artistic workmanship.

Since price rather than service has been the keyword of our existing economic system we have simply pitched in and abused science, degrading it in the process, as I attempted to show in my Degradation of Science. The minute a scientific discovery appeared to have been made commercial bagmen rushed in to "apply" it, to foist upon the public some presumed application of the scientific discovery, some product in which the essence of that discovery was embodied. The result has been the cluttering of our markets with objects the sale of which has been predicated upon an artificial demand produced by the forced draft of high-pressure advertising and selling talks.

The endeavor to solve all the problems of our society at once, particularly those problems that arise by reason of the impact of science upon industry, is always fraught with menace. Russia has sought to do this by using quite biblically an idealistic economic system described in a book published many years ago. Her qualified successes are rather a tribute to the energy and elan of her people than to her attempt to hold all progress within the bounds [Page 49]

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of an ancient doctrine. If Russia succeeds she will do so in spite of rather than because of Marx.

For the economic system must be dynamic, not static. It must be evolved while we face our problems committed to no political dogma which we feel must be vindicated with fanatical fervor and at all costs. We must have the freedom enjoyed by scientists that will enable us to adopt any hypothesis, method, or principle, irrespective of its origin, which appears to conform closely to our needs and is useful under the existing circumstances. It is therefore most important that we must not become sectarian economists or quarreling theologians, thrashing about in a sea of logomachy.

It is obvious that traditional social theories, even those long in good standing and in constant use, can not be expected to hold in a world changed by science. Thus the very facility of transport that science has given us produces medical and hygienic problems with which our old social theories were unfitted to deal. An entire new scheme of health regulations had to be evolved to cope with these problems. In the same way our traditional profit and price system worked well enough in less complex days, but since science has enabled us to undertake mass production, and since we can now produce by machine technology—not more than we want, but far more than we are able effectually to distribute under the price and profit system, something has to be done to remedy that situation.

In a broad, general sense our social and economic life is not composed of material like potter's clay that can be moulded at human will. That life is closely integrated with biology and physical science. As progress occurs in science our economic and social systems must undergo mutation or growth. For sociology and economics are, properly viewed, "part of the great biological world and therefore develop from inner urges which produce variations and mutations that selection lays hold of to insure progress," to borrow the words of Arthur D. Cromwell in the Nation of August 16, 1933. All life is a biological and therefore an irreversible [Page 50]process. We feel ourselves homeless in a jungle of machines today because we have tended to let traditional economic and social dogmas guide us instead of attempting to discover the social laws now in operation.

In George Washington's time the laws that govern steam and electrical means of transportation existed. They were not utilized. What was utilized was what was then necessary. Then the laws governing transportation by means of sail boats and horse-drawn vehicles were supremely important. Consequently the social and economic laws then in operation were knit into the life of that day. Today the laws governing steam and electrical means of transportation not only exist, they are utilized. While those governing transportation by sail boats and horse-drawn vehicles, though also existing, remain relatively unutilized. We have the intelligence to make that necessary distinction, but what we have lacked so far is the perspicacity to go forth and discover the actual social and economic laws which must operate in such a steam and electrical age as ours, to codify these laws, and to govern ourselves accordingly.

It is our good fortune to live today in one of the most stimulating eras of American history. After business and political government separately fumbled with an epochal depression for several years and failed utterly to mend things, a new Administration appeared at Washington which, at least for the time, unified the political and the economic governments of the country. This Administration has made careful use of science. It has predicated its actions, so far as possible, upon authentic scientific knowledge. Will it succeed? Complete success is impossible because science does not stand still. New discoveries will constantly come out of our scientific laboratories and new industrial applications thereof will appear. We must continually adjust our social and economic theories to the broad, general condition of affairs produced by such scientific progess. But if we learn that our social and economic theories must be dynamic and never static we shall have gone far. For we shall have given science greater freedom to serve humanity throughout the world. [Page 51]

THE WORLD OF REALITY

By RUHI AFNÁN

V. THE CIRCLING COURSE OF THE DIVINE LIFE-PROCESS

"THERE from the embrace of the Father and Son and the outflowing of the spirit in 'waves of endless love,' all created things are born; and God, by His grace and His death, recreates them, and adorns them with love and goodness, and draws them back to their source. This is the circling course of the Divine life-process 'from goodness, through goodness, to goodness,' described by Dionysius the Areopagite." (Ruysbrook, by E. Underhill P. 63.)

This circle of the Divine life-process is the basic tenet of mysticism. According to it the spiritual element in man, which is a spark of the Divine Essence, originally existed in an undifferentiated form in God. Then proceeding from that spiritual realm, and being joined to material elements which are essentially non-being and unreal, it entered the stage of separation and differentiation. But this was not to be its final goal. Being essentially Divine the spiritual reality of man had to complete its circular course and be rejoined to the Divine Essence. This last stage in which man loses his self and material aspect to regain his true reality is termed the "Mystic Way," the "path" or the "valleys" that the traveler has to tread in the course of his spiritual advancement. Let us now consider this life-process in greater detail and see in what points it differs from the Bahá’í teachings.

The first question to deal with is the pre-existence of all things in God in a synthetic form. This theory can be maintained on two grounds:

(1) If the reality in man was a particle of the Divine Essence, before it assumed the physical form, it undoubtedly existed [Page 52]in God in an undifferentiated form. In other words the doctrine of incarnation implies this higher form of existence of man before its present earthly life. In His Tablet to Salmán Bahá’u’lláh refers to this Sufi belief and quotes one of them saying: "The reality of things was in His exalted Essence in a nobler form, then He sent it forth." Then Bahá’u’lláh proceeds to say that the Sufis "cannot consider the giver of a thing to be deprived of that thing."

(2) The theory of knowledge that the Sufis maintained necessitated this pre-existence of the world of creation in the mind of God. Explaining this point Jili says: "The way to the illumination of the Name, Al-Qadim, (the eternal) is through a Divine revelation whereby it is shown to any one that he existed in the knowledge of God before the creation, inasmuch as he existed in God's knowledge through the existence of that knowledge, and that knowledge existed through the existence of God: the existence of God is eternal and the knowledge is eternal and the object of knowledge is inseparable from the knowledge and is also eternal, inasmuch as knowledge is not knowledge unless it has an object which gives to the subject the name of Knower. The eternity of existent beings in the knowledge of God necessarily follows from this induction, and the (illumined) man returns to God in respect of His Name, the Eternal. At the moment the Divine Eternity is revealed to him from his essence, his temporality vanishes and he remains eternal through God, having passed away from (consciousness of) his temporality." (Studies in Islamic mysticism p. 128)

The Bahá’í teachings refute both of these forms of reasoning in denying to the spirit of man a previous life which is superior to our earthly existence:

(1) In as much as the world of creation is neither an incarnation nor a manifestation of the Divine Essence there is no logical necessity to uphold the theory that man had a pre-existence in God. The rational soul as well as the other material objects in the universe are evidences of creation, in other words they have a reality absolutely different from the Divine Essence and therefore had no existence in God. [Page 53]

THE WORLD OF REALITY

(2) It may be that for human understanding a conceptual existence of the object in the mind of man is indispensable, it may be true that we ought to have the idea of the object already existing in our mind if we desire to comprehend the thing we perceive but we cannot be justified in attributing such human forms of understanding to God without falling into the grave errors of creating our God in our own image. In discussing this whole theory ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in "Some Answered Questions" (p. 337) ends by saying:

"Briefly, with regard to this theory that all things exist by the Unity, all are agreed-that is to say, the philosophers and the Prophets. But there is a difference between them; the Prophets say: 'The knowledge of God has no need of the existence of beings, but knowledge of the creature needs the existence of things known; if the knowledge of God had need of any other thing, then it would be the knowledge of the creature and not that of God.' For the pre-existent is different from the phenomenal, and the phenomenal is opposed to the pre-existent; that which we attribute to the creature that is the necessity of contingent beings-we deny for God; for purification, or sanctification from imperfections, is one of the necessary properties."

Not only do the Bahá’í teachings refute such form of reasoning but both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá definitely state that the rational soul, which is the name they give to the spirit of man, is phenomenal and therefore is preceded by a cause, that even though its future is of an infinite duration and therefore, eternal, it had a definite beginning. In a Tablet addressed to ‘Abdu’l-Wahhab, Bahá’u’lláh says that the existence of man is "a contingent existence and not an essential existence, because contingent existence is proceeded by a cause while essential existence is not. This latter pertains only to God." This belief in the phenomenal existence of man is the result of Bahá’u’lláh's doctrine of "creation." If man is created by God, that is, if he has a reality which is totally new and created by God, he would naturally have a beginning in his Cause, which is God's creative power, but not such a beginning as [Page 54]the reality of the Prophets who are manifestations, and have Their origin in the Divine Essence. Just as much as manifestation implies a pre-existent and essential being, the idea of creation involves a beginning and therefore a phenomenal existence.

The same principle is maintained by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in "Some Answered Questions" (p. 173) where He says: "Know that, although the human soul has existed on the earth for prolonged times and ages, yet it is phenomenal. As it is a divine sign, when once it has come into existence it is eternal. The spirit of man has a beginning, but it has no end; it continues eternally."

The rational soul is the result of a gradual growth. It exists as a potentiality until a certain stage in the matrix when that reality emerges into an actuality. This second stage is so superior to the first stage that we can rightly consider it as the dawn of the individual life. In His Tablet to Ra’is, Bahá’u’lláh says: "The soul which is common to all the people, comes into existence after the interaction of things and their maturity. It is like the child in the matrix which after its development to its destined stage, God reveals in it the soul which previously was hidden in it."

This conception of the sudden emergence of the rational soul from an inferior stage of existence differs substantially from the Sufi idea that "the reality of things was in His exalted Essence in in a nobler form and then He sent it forth." The first expresses an evolution from an inferior potential existence towards perfection while the second implies a circular course from a perfect state to imperfection and then back to perfection.

THE MYSTIC PATH

In due course we shall consider in detail the basic difference between the mystic and the Bahá’í interpretation of the doctrine of unity with God. It suffices to state here that whereas the former conceives it as an existent union-of a part merging again into the whole the latter interpret it as a mere moral conformity of our will with the will of the Prophets who are the vicegerents of God upon the earth. The circling course of the Divine life-process [Page 55]logically necessitates that man's spirit which originally emerged and was separated from the ocean of the Divine Essence, of which he was a part, should again flow into It and thus repair to his real Home. The mystic Path would, threfore, be the course man should follow for attaining that existent unity with God. It would entail stages of development whereby the causes of separation are over-come and an inner esential likeness with God is established.

"If we are to allow that the mystics have ever attained the object of their quest," Underhill says, (Mysticism p. 502) "I think we must also allow that such attainment involves the transmutation of the self to that state which they call, for want of exact language, 'Deified.' The necessity of such transmutation is an implicit of their first position: the law that 'we behold that which we are and are that which we behold.' Eckhart, in whom the language of deification assumes its most extreme form justifies it upon this necessity: 'If,' he says, 'I am to know God directly I must become completely He and He, I: so that this He and this I become and are one I.'"

As Bahá’u’lláh denies the possibility for man's spirit to merge into the ocean of the Divine Sea and considers the goal of human progress a moral conformity with the spirit and teachings of the Prophets, the purpose of His path or Seven Valleys substantially differs from the mystic interpretation. The object of the road which the traveler is to tread is not to enable his mergence into the ocean of the Essence but an easier and fuller recognition and acceptance of the messengers of God once they appear upon the earth. The truth of this distinction will gradually dawn upon us as we proceed with our discussion of the different stages of the mystic path and then, as a contrast mention the Seven Valleys which Bahá’u’lláh says the wayfarer has to tread to attain the Valley of Baqá or Abiding, which is union with God.

All human beings are in a state of separation but only a few, according to the mystics, are conscious of it, and are desirous of achieving true unity with the Absolute from which they originated. The preponderant majority of the people are immersed in their [Page 56]material pursuits and blind to their own true reality. Were they to forget and discard their selfish desires and rend asunder the veils that blind them they would behold their Divine origin and bear remembrance of their original state of union with their Beloved.

Such a consciousness is not, however, awarded to every person. It is only a very few who due to some past experience or gradual inner fermentation are awakened to this glorious feeling, and begin their journey on what the mystics term the Path or Valleys. Almost no two mystics fully agree as to the stages of this path that the pilgrim has to tread. Even though like a Persian Sufi he may have a Pir or teacher, he will never be able to follow a path except one that his inner feelings trace for him. As the purpose is to free his reality from his self, and the final goal is unity with the Godhead, there is nevertheless a certain general similarity that characterises the Path of all mystics both Eastern and Western. Considering such similarities Underhill gives the following arbitrary classification of the different stages that form the mystical life: (1) Conversion (2) Purgation (3) Illumination (4) The dark night of the soul (5) Union.

(1) “When man first feels upon his soul the touch of the Divine Light, at once and in a moment of time, his will is changed; turned in the direction of Reality and away from the unreal objects of desire. He is, in fact, ‘converted’ in the highest and most accurate sense of that ill-used word.” (Ruysbroek, p. 79.)

This awakening of man which we term conversion is in most cases sudden. An experience or a thought suddenly assails our imagination, leaves a lasting impression on our mind and operates as a turning point in our life. Sometimes the change is very gradual and man grows to appreciate the reality of his spiritual calling. Be it sudden or gradual this awakening of the self is due to some previous change in our subconscious life. A tendency that has already existed in us, but of which we were not aware emerges without conscious preparation into our field of consciousness and we feel its presence. As Underhill says: “It is a disturbance of the equilibrium of the self, which results in the shifting of the field” [Page 57]of consciousness from lower to higher levels, with a consequent removal of the centre of interest from the subject to the object now brought into view: the necessary beginning of any process of transcendence." (Mys. p. 213.)

In some of His writings among them His Tablet to the Shah of Persia, Bahá’u’lláh mentions such a sudden awakening which he experienced while in prison in Teheran. Explaining its true significance ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says in "Some Answered Questions" (p. 97):

"We come to the explanation of the words of Bahá’u’lláh when he says: 'O King, verily I was like any other man sleeping upon my couch; breezes of the Most Glorious passed over me, and taught me the knowledge of all that has been. This is not from me, but from the Powerful, the Wise.' This is the state of manifestation; it is not sensible, it is an intellectual reality, exempt and free from time, from past, present and future; it is an explanation, a simile, a metaphore, and is not to be accepted literally; it is not a state that can be comprehended by man. Sleeping and waking is passing from one state to another. Sleeping is the condition of repose, and wakefulness is the condition of movement, sleeping is the state of silence, wakefulness is the state of speech; sleeping is the state of mystery, wakefulness is the state of manifestation...

"Briefly, the Holy Manifestations have ever been and ever will be, Luminous Realities; no change or variation takes place in their essence. Before declaring their manifestations they speak and are illumined, like one who is awake."

On another occasion, referring to the same subject, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says: "Verily from the beginning that Holy Reality is conscious of the secret of existence, and from the age of childhood signs of greatness appear and are visible in Him. Therefore how can it be that with all these bounties and perfections He should have no consciousness?" ("Some Answered Questions" p. 178.)

If by conversion is meant an awakening to a reality that already exists in us, this experience of Bahá’u’lláh may rightly be called conversion. But this experience involves other truths that I can in no wise be attributed to the act of Divine Revelation. [Page 58]Whereas conversion can be psychologically explained as the emergence of a feeling from the subconscious across the threshold into the conscious life and is due "to a sudden disturbance in the equilibrium of our self," the other is the revelation of a truth hidden in the Prophet and which appears in accordance with a Divine law far beyond the mental activities of His person. In the life of the Prophets this awakening is in accordance with the law of spiritual cycles which as we have already mentioned depends upon the condition of society and its need for spiritual guidance. It depends upon objective reasons and not upon purely subjective activities of his mind.

The psychological experience which the mystics explain as the awakening of the self or conversion may be very true, but it can in no wise be associated with that act of manifestation of which Bahá’u’lláh or any of the Prophets may speak. Referring to humanity at large, conversion, according to the Bahá’í teachings, means the full consciousness of the station and teachings of the Prophet of that age. The experience that the mystics term conversion may be a true and potent factor in the moulding of our life and the awakening of our soul, but it differs substantially from the Bahá’í view of conversion.

Man's paramount position among God's creatures is due to his moral and spiritual life which he owes entirely to the Prophets of God. They are the creators of all his higher standards of behavior. It is only by entering under the rays of the Holy Spirit they shed upon the world that man begins to appreciate the truly good and noble things in life. It is only when man accepts their authority and follows their precepts that he steps from the sphere of animality and enters a spiritual and moral atmosphere. This entrance into the spiritual and moral life created by the Prophets is what Bahá’u’lláh terms a rebirth and what we consider as conversion, irrespective of any psychological experience that may or may not accompany it. [Page 59]

NOTES ON THE PRESENT ISSUE

Mr. T. Swann Harding's article concludes our symposium on "The Substance of World Cooperation," the contribution of scientists and engineers to structural world unity.

The editorial announcement defined the symposium as follows: "Recent international events, in the opinion of many thoughtful people, have served to give exaggerated and wholly undue importance to the political element in human affairs, at the expense of the scientific factor represented by the new industrial structure. . . . Our political policies reflect the conditions of an earlier commercial and trading era, while the achievements of the scientist and engineer have already established a new set of conditions making those policies not only obsolete but dangerous. Under these conditions it seems advisable and necessary to call attention to the positive contributions being made, despite so many political and economic difficulties, by the free and unbiased intelligence of the scientific worker to a civilization capable of leaving nationalism and class struggle behind. The more these contributions are understood—the more their momentous and eventual triumph is realized—the sooner will our racial emotions adapt themselves to life in an adult, responsible world community."

Twelve articles have now appeared, representative of American industry and science. The final impression made upon the non-technical reader no doubt is that technological advance demands a new social philosophy neither subservient on the one hand to so-called capitalism nor on the other to any of the radical doctrines which arose to oppose capitalism in its earliest and harshest manifestation. The many threads of modern life have not yet been woven, as far as the public is concerned, into one homogenous fabric.

Prof. Hetzel makes it clear that English can not be assumed as destined to be the international language, unless present conditions [Page 60]tions undergo some radical change. Americans are least interested in this subject of international language, and least aware of its vital importance in any comprehensive plan of world cooperation. As it happens, however, there is one important group-the scientists and technicians to which multiplicity of language is a constant problem. Members of this group, to keep abreast of their profession, must follow current literature in one or two languages other than their own.

World Unity makes this suggestion to American Esperantists: that they concentrate their resources upon the publication of a monthly or quarterly review, in Esperanto, containing translations of such important articles appearing in French, German, Spanish and other languages that it would become highly useful, if not indispensable, to an influential if not large section of the American public. No doubt the selection of articles would be assisted by suggestions gladly offered by the more thoroughly organized technical societies. The rendering of actual service is more effective than tons of idealistic propaganda.

It is of interest to mention that here and there throughout the country groups are using Ruhi Afnán’s series of articles on mysticism as subject matter for study and discussion. A year ago, as readers will recall, we published a suggestion that "World Unity Discussion Groups" be informally established, using the magazine as source of interesting and valuable material. At present, in addition to the series on "The World of Reality", both the Carl A. Ross and the Oscar Newfang series offer material of the highest current value.

It is to be hoped that The Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation will steadily pursue its program, undiscouraged by what appears to be unfavorable political conditions. Human beings have a permanent value and significance quite apart from movements in the society of which they are part. [Page 61]"IN OUR DARK WORLD OF WORK." A GREAT AND BENEFICENT PIECE -JOHN HAYNES HOLMES

THE BIOSOPHICAL REVIEW

(formerly THE SPINOZA QUARTERLY) "Devoted to Character and Peace Education" Editor: DR. FREDERICK KETTNER

"A million interested subscribers digesting the 'food' you offer would change the thought of the world"-writes a subscriber.

THE BIOSOPHICAL REVIEW offers to its readers contributions from the foremost thinkers throughout the world.

The current issue of THE BIOSOPHICAL REVIEW is a special Peace Number which offers a keen and comprehensive analysis of the peace situation today. Among its contributors are Prof. Albert Einstein, Dr. John Haynes Holmes, Prof. Nicholas Roerich, Dr. Mary E. Woolley, Dr. Philip L. Seman, Leon Dabo and Mary Siegrist.

WHAT IS BIOSOPHY ?*

"Biosophy" is the science of life which follows from the realization of our substantial nature as the basis for individual character improvement and ethical-social fellowship. (From Spinoza the Biosopher, by Dr. Frederick Kettner.) It is the science of group life based on ethical-social principles such as are revealed in the lives and works of the great world-leaders in the various fields of human endeavor: ethics, economics, politics, philosophy, religion, literature and art.

From the Greek: bios (life) + sophia (wisdom)

THE BIOSOPHICAL REVIEW 310 RIVERSIDE DRIVE NEW YORK

Dear Sirs: Enclosed please find $1.00 (foreign $1.25) for which please send me THE BIOSOPHICAL REVIEW for 1 year, beginning with the special Peace Issue.

Name.. Address City State [Page 62]

BOOKS ABROAD

An International Quarterly of Comment on Foreign Books Issued by the University of Oklahoma Press Norman, Oklahoma ROY TEMPLE HOUSE KENNETH C. KAUFMAN Editors

IN THE OCTOBER ISSUE

Italy and the Incubus of the Novel SAMUEL PUTNAM Montaigne, 1533-1933 LOUIS CONS As Others See Us HOWARD MUMFORD JONES Modern Art and the Spanish Literature of "Vanguardia" A. M. DE LA TORRE Modern Estonian Literature ANDREW PRANSPILL Some Manuscripts of Alfred de Vigny GEORGE N. HENNING A Budapest Adventure ARPAD STEINER

and reviews by such prominent critics as A. Eustace Haydon, Sidney B. Fay, James F. Muirhead, George N. Shuster, Fidelino de Figueiredo, Arthur Mendel, Albert Guerard, etc.

BOOKS ABROAD is an effective advertising medium. For rates apply to the Business Manager, TODD DOWNING University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma $1.00 per year 35 cents per copy [Page 63]

WORLD UNITY MEMORIAL To DAVID STARR JORDAN

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

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

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

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

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

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

WORLD UNITY MEMORIAL TO DAVID STARR JORDAN JANE ADDAMS 4 East 12th Street, New York City (Sponsored by Mrs. David Starr Jordan)

COMMITTEE HAMILTON HOLT, Chairman SIR NORMAN ANGELL SALMON O. LEVINSON MANLEY O. HUDSON BARON Y. SAKATANI BRUCE BLIVEN JOSEPH REDLICH HANS WEHBERG [Page 64]

LECTURES BY DR. HANS KOHN

Dr. Hans Kohn, known to World Unity readers by his remarkable series on "Orient and Occident" (published monthly from October, 1931 to October, 1932) is available for lectures during the coming season.

His subjects are: German Events in 1933; The Austrian Problem: Past and Present; France and Germany: A Study in Nationalism; The Transformation of the Russian Character through the Revolution; Race Conflicts and the Future of Humanity, etc.

Address inquiries to Institute of International Education, 2 West 45th Streets, New York City.

ETHOCOPOLITAN FOUNDATION

For the realization in the United States first, and ultimately in other nations, of a three-fold commonwealth in which ethics, economics and politics will be in synthesis, making possible:

A continuous functional economy, uninterrupted by wars, panics and depressions;

A more equitable distribution of goods and services;

The pervasion of politics and economics by a higher type of ethics.

For further information, write to World Peaceways, Hotel Roosevelt, New York City.