World Unity/Volume 13/Issue 4/Text

←Previous

World Unity Volume 13, Issue 4

Next→

Return to PDF view Proofread once

[Page 193]

III. The Nature of the Age

WHEN one realizes how many important differences exist in the character of historic epochs, like, for example, the era of feudalism and that of the factory or industrial era, it becomes evident that many generations take up their responsibilities as ignorant of the nature of their age as mariners embarking on an unknown sea.

For the possibility of life under feudalism, so distinct in its direction and emphasis from the possibility developed under industrialism, did not simply offer no guidance for the solution of problems confronted by the post-feudal generations, but actually served to mislead those on whom the problems of industrialism were to fall. This misguidance was inherent in the culture achieved by the feudal ages in their effort to establish a working balance between the individual and his society-a culture which, in the form of education, training, discipline and also leadership, tended to suppress the possibility of science and invention as influences destructive to that dynamic balance.

The first phase of each era is consequently critical and destructive of the inherited values, as an increasing number of individuals feel more or less instinctively the urge to respond to new powers and develop new resources. Only when the epoch draws to its close have the constructive forces ever formally defined themselves and impressed their character upon the various facets of social activity and individual character. But already the stream of life has flowed on, and the hour of cultural unity and social fruition is the hour of inward change and repudiation of the dominant past.

Most epochs, however, despite the general social changes they compel, are but superficially different from the epochs they [Page 194]displace. The industrialist replaces the soldier in dominance and leadership, or the explorer's achievement outruns that of the scholar recluse in its historic significance, but the major beliefs and the fundamental institutions continue after modification and adjustment has taken place.

But at longer intervals there arises an era compelling not merely adjustment or reformation, but transformation-an era which concludes one age and inaugurates another age. Such eras are marked by the fact that they raise to a supreme issue no relatively minor matter such as what dynasty shall rule, or what nation shall become dominant, or what class shall hold the reins of power, but the fundamental and essential problem, what is the the nature and purpose of human life?

That fundamental and essential question has only become the issue when the world is confronted by the prophet.

The prophet, for all his meekness and his complete lack of material power and social authority, constitutes a challenge to the people of his age a challenge which persecution only serves to intensify and confirm. But that challenge arises not from the prophet's action or intent-it is the attitude created by those who resent and fear the existence of a standard of truth. Within those who welcome an unquestionable standard of reality, the effect of the prophet's life and teaching is to inspire faith and rekindle the flame of the inner life. This rekindled flame burns away the attributes acquired from society and reveals a new and higher possibility of human harmony which becomes the source of a new civilization. It cannot be denied historically that the major epochs have derived directly from Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. The stream of life flowed wider and deeper from their mission, ultimately sweeping away whatever had asserted opposition and denial to their claim.

There is no more unexpected and convincing proof that civilization arises from faith in a prophet than the clear fact that the European Renaissance had its roots in the influence of Muhammad as expressed in the culture of the Saracen world. European civilization since the Renaissance has been an unconscious response to the influence of one whom the official Christian church denounced [Page 195]

THE NATURE OF THE AGE

as anti-Christ. It may even be asserted that the basis of European militarism, now the scourge of humanity, was laid in the sanctions given the Crusades as a "Holy" War.

The years since 1914 have been the successive abandonment of efforts to define the nature of the present age. Its supreme issue at first seemed to be political, and the establishment of the League of Nations was accepted as the solution of the current world problem. Later the supreme issue was regarded as economic, and the age is still hampered by the prevalent conviction that proper economic measures will bring final relief and repose.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, long before the outbreak of the European War compelled analysis of the nature of the age, declared that the supreme issue is spiritual and not material in character. He spread far and wide, in the East as well as in the West, a clear and vivid interpretation of the forces which we fear as destructive because they have so rapidly swept old landmarks away, but he acclaimed and reverenced as a renewal of life and a vast extension of social possibility.

The age of freedom, he said, has become fulfilled. The age of human unity has dawned. In the unity of mankind lies the supreme freedom, the freedom of loyalty to the laws of God. It seemed as though the full consciousness of human unity found in him a perfect expression, a direct reflection of that light of which we perceive only the threatening shadows we ourselves throw because we are turned away from the source. Those shadows are the wars and revolutions that occur and will continue to occur until the world has taken the step of true faith.

Behind all effective constitutional measures and enactments, he taught, there must be a vital bond of unity and cooperation felt as responsiveness to the divine law. To rid the world of its traditional prejudices of race, creed, nation and class; to open the minds and hearts to a true conception of the oneness of God; to bring a pure, calm light into the darkened self, that men may know themselves in reality—this was a mission of one who anticipated all the starkest tragedy of these years, but held firmly to the vision that the day of spiritual illumination has dawned, and the power of the [Page 196]Sun can not forever be denied.

"From the beginning to the end of his life man passes through certain periods or stages each of which is marked by certain conditions peculiar to itself.... Similarly there are stages in the life of the world of humanity, which at one time was passing through its degree of childhood, at another its time of youth, but now has entered its long presaged period of maturity, the evidences of which are everywhere visible and manifest. Therefore the requirements and conditions of former periods have changed and merged into exigencies which distinctly characterize the present age of the world of mankind. ... Man must now become imbued with new virtues and powers, new moralities, new capacities. . . . Heavenly teachings applicable to the advancement in human conditions have been revealed in this merciful age. The reformation and renewal of the fundamental reality of religion constitute the true and outworking spirit of modernism, the unmistakable light of the world, the manifest effulgence of the Word of God, the divine remedy for all human ailment and the bounty of eternal life to all mankind.

"In our solar system, the center of illumination is the sun. Through the will of God this central luminary is the one source of the existence and development of all phenomenal things.... Likewise in the spiritual realm of intelligence and idealism there must be a center of illumination, and that center is the everlasting, ever-shining Sun, the Word of God. Its lights are the lights of reality which have shone upon humanity, illuminating the realm of thought and morals, conferring the bounties of the divine realm upon man....The Sun of Reality is one Sun but it has different dawning-places, just as the phenomenal sun is one although it appears at various points of the horizon. . . . Reality is not divisible it does not admit multiplicity. All the holy Manifestations of God have proclaimed and promulgated the same reality. They have summoned mankind to reality itself, and reality is one.... Until the heavenly civilization is founded, no result will be forthcoming from material civilization, even as you observe."

H.H. [Page 197]

THIS CRISIS IN HISTORY

by ARCHIE M. PALMER Associate Secretary of the Association of American Colleges

THE third annual Women's Conference on Current Problems, held under the auspices of the New York Herald Tribune at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York on October 12 and 13, was an event of far-reaching social significance. The occasion brought together more than three thousand representatives of women's clubs, educational associations, colleges, and universities from all parts of the country.

Built about the general theme, "This Crisis in History," the conference was divided into four sessions, each treating a phase of the larger theme. The first session was on the subject of "The World Outlook;" the second, "Youth Movements in the Present Crisis;" the third, "The Crisis in Education;" and the fourth, "Peace and the Crisis." Through a well balanced series of constructive addresses by more than forty speakers prominent in various fields-government, economics, education, international relations, social work-a penetrating analysis was made of the pressing problems of these times.

The dominant spirit of the entire conference was its appeal to youth. In her address of welcome, Mrs. Ogden Reid, Vice-President of the New York Herald Tribune, called attention to the fact that "the matured, dynamic minds back of government, back of education, back of everything, in fact, agree that the future, its welfare and the solution of its problems, whether they are problems of capital or labor, education, peace or war, really rest in the hands of the youth of today." The social responsibility of adequately educating youth to meet contemporary situations in the world of affairs was a point recurrently emphasized by the speakers.

Walter Lippmann opened the first session with a discussion of "World Trends" in which he sounded the keynote of the whole [Page 198]conference when he declared that "the heart of the crisis is in the will and purpose of men," and that "the secret of the American attack on this crisis lies... in the revival of the American spirit through the conquest of fear." Taking full cognizance of the dangers which beset us in this "very dark moment in the history of mankind," Mr. Lippmann expressed the conviction that only through "an indomitable faith in the victorious power of reason and good will" and the moral unity of those nations seeking to preserve peace, liberty, and human decency, can the forces of order prevail over the forces of chaos.

Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen, United States Minister to Denmark and Iceland, broadcast from London a message on "The Place of Women in the Pres Crisis." in which she declared that the two hopeful signs on the horizon today are the influence of youth and the influence of women. These two groups, she felt were the most powerful existing forces for the abolition of war. The first woman to serve in a President's Cabinet, Miss Frances Perkins, United States Secretary of Labor, reviewed the activities of her department and of other governmental agencies, in industrial recovery and relief programs, and urged the cooperation of women in the pro- gress of this work.

In a discussion of "The Economic Outlook," Professor Neil Carothers, Director of the College of Business Administration at Lehigh University, expressed the reassuring opinion that while in all countries progress, improvement, and drastic change would come out of this crisis, there would be no permanent radical re- construction of the economic order in this country. Countess Mar- gharita Sarfatti in "A Message for Columbus Day," sent from Italy, voiced a call to youth in overhauling, re-adjusting, and remaking our political and economic mechanisms.

Other speakers at this session of the Conference were Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, former governor of the Philippine Islands and Porto Rico, who delivered an address on "Problems of Our For- eign Possessions;" William Hard, well-known as a political corre spondent, who spoke brilliantly on "Changed Viewpoints in Inter- national Relations;" Mrs. F. Lewis Slade, former president of the [Page 199]League of Women's Voters and Director of the Women's Work in the A.E.F.; and representatives of several state and local women's clubs.

In opening the second session with a paper on "Creative Youth and World Leadership," Professor Harold Rugg of Teachers College, Columbia University, presented a dramatic picture of the situation which confronts youth today and urged that steps be taken to bring about a cultural reconstruction, to mobilize the talents and creative energies of American youth. The youth movements abroad have demonstrated that "it is possible to create a dynamic movement among the youth of the world, a movement which combines the idealism and enthusiasm of the old youth movement, with the self-imposed rigid discipline and the goal of plain living and hard work characteristic of the new movements, and focuses these definitely upon the problem of the rebuilding of society."

During this session impressive messages were brought to the Conference by several representatives of the younger generation and by leaders of organizations that seek to aid young people. Among the former were Miss Ishbel MacDonald, who broadcast from London an address on "Young England;" Miss Mary G. Close, a student of New York University, who pledged her generation to go into training for its task of remaking the world; James Frederick Green, a 1932 graduate of Yale, chairman of the Intercollegiate Disarmament Council, who spoke on "Youth's Plea for Peace;" Hartley Howe, a 1933 graduate of Harvard, who gave an analysis of youth movements in England; and Miss Augusta Trimble, who, though she is in her very early twenties, has been active in the movement for prohibition reform and is a member of the liquor control commission of the State of Washington.

An arresting feature of this session was the broadcast of two messages, one from Madame Marie Curie in France and the other from Arthur Henderson, president of the World Disarmament Conference, then on the eve of convening in Geneva. Both of these speakers offered strong pleas for international understanding and world peace. Mr. Henderson proposed a world recovery act similar [Page 200]to our national recovery act, with international codes to facilitate world organization for peace. Mobilization for peace, he said, should be as deliberate and as thorough as the former universal organization for war. "It should be the task of this generation," he said, "to see that we have peace in our time, to see that all the sacrifices are made that are necessary to insure the final triumph of the reign of law over international anarchy."

Madame Curie presented a statement of the work of the International Committee of Intellectual Cooperation. This group, created by the League of Nations to serve the cause of peace through stimulating a better understanding among the existing centers of thought and intellectual effort all over the world, seeks to promote, through schools, libraries, museums, and the facilitation of the international exchange of students and teachers, the ideal of moral disarmament.

Other speakers at this session were Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Girl Scouts of America, and Mrs. John G. Pratt, President of the Junior Leagues of America, who told of the present-day services of their organizations; Francis Harmon, General Secretary of the International Y.M.C.A., who expressed the conviction that "the youth of the world is coming to recognize more and more clearly the essential interdependence of all the nations, the unity of all mankind;" Colonel Henry Breckenridge who, in presenting "The Case for Youth in the Present Crisis," emphasized the need for individual character and individual judgment, and declared that youth was America's great insurance against the problems and perils of the future; and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in an address on "Young America" declared her faith in the courage and enthusiasm of youth and of the young in spirit of any age to surmount the present crisis.

The third session, on "The Crisis in Education," was opened by Chancellor Harry Woodburn Chase, of New York University, with a scholarly presentation of the problems now facing the educational world. After tracing the background of our American philosophy of education and defining the critical situation of our educational institutions, he declared that "the sort of civilization [Page 201]that lies before us will be determined... by what we do about education." Under present conditions, there are only three alternatives for the youth of our country, "we must either provide education for them, build up a great conscript army, or let them drift." Both of the latter two being unthinkable, "our only recourse is to our educational institutions in a program squarely based on the realization of our social responsibility to youth. It is either that or chaos."

President John Erskine of the Juilliard Foundation, who spoke next, painted a brilliant albeit caustic picture of the schools of today in his discussion of "Knowledge, Information, and Opinion." This paper, which in characteristically brilliant and amusing vein destroyed old values in education and set up new ones, possessed the stimulating quality of being highly controversial. With his statement, "Culture... has grown a bit nebulous, perhaps unimportant," the next speaker, Professor Irwin Edman of Columbia University, vigorously took issue in a paper entitled "Tradition and Revolt," contending that culture opened doors of imagination and treasure houses of knowledge.

In consideration of the "Present Perils for the Education of Women," Dean Virginia C. Gildersleeve of Barnard College, emphasized the need for "education that develops character" and defended the higher education of women which she urged should not be allowed to decline during this period of economic stress. She voiced the plea that young women of superior talents receive, equally with their brothers, "that sound general education which develops the mind and spirit and which must underlie professional training."

Professor William Starr Myers of Princeton University, in a paper on "Placing Responsibility," stressed the need for rugged individualism in the intellectual field, while Professor Thomas Nixon Carver of Harvard University, in presenting "A Social Theory of Education," declared that "of all social needs of the present, none is so acute as the need for a solution of the problems of poverty... if we succeed in this field, we shall have made the most important contribution ever made to civilization." According [Page 202]to Samuel S. Drury, Rector of St. Paul's School, "Our Great Omission" in education is the recognition of social responsibility for the religious life of the adolescent, "the understanding of hidden things."

Toward the close of this program, Governor John H. Winant of New Hampshire, who was scheduled to appear at the session the day before on "The World Outlook" but who was delayed by state matters, discussed "State Government and the Opportunities of the Depression." He assailed selfish individualism and made an appeal for cooperation with the various governmental authorities in the recovery program. Governor Winant's very earnest, intelligent, and sincere presentation, closing with a reading of Glenn Frank's "Prayer for Those in Government," was one of the unforgettable features of the conference.

In a report entitled "Facing the Facts," Professor John K. Norton, Chairman of the Joint Commission on the Emergency in Education, of the National Education Association, presented a realistic picture of the distressing effects of the depression on the school systems of various states, but ended with encouraging references to signs of the beginning of an educational renaissance.

The final session, on "Peace and the Crisis," was opened by Professor James T. Shotwell of Columbia University. The present crisis he described as "no mere incident of history. History has no parallel to it. It does not fit into the recurring cycles of prosperity and depression." After presenting a cogent analysis of the grave world situation, he concluded upon a hopeful note: "The world community is still a long way from realization, but we have turned the corner so that we can see its distant outlines in the far perspective. Against its realization lie prejudices from the past and doubts for the present and future. Nevertheless, the forces of history are on the side of peace."

President Mary Woolley of Mount Holyoke College, only woman delegate to the World Disarmament Conference at Geneva, delivered what was clearly one of the outstanding addresses of the conference on the subject, "Educating for Peace." Many earnest advocates of peace go no further than the pronouncement of gen- [Page 203]

THE CRISIS IN HISTORY

eralities and the formulation of ideals, but she presented a practical program. "Preparation for war," she said, "has not been left to chance; it is only preparation for peace that has been treated in haphazard fashion." She then went on to outline very clearly how preparation for peace might be effected: "through education, especially through internationally minded teachers, most needed where least often found, that is in the lower grades," for the hundreds of thousands of children who never go beyond the grades must receive there or nowhere the influences which make for international understanding. Dr. Woolley believes that the colleges are realizing their opportunities in making students "world conscious" and in helping to bring about moral disarmament, but can carry their work in this field infinitely further. In conclusion, she offered a creed: "I believe in preparedness, preparedness by education for peace."

Other speals on this phase of the program were William R. Castle, Jr., former Under Secretary of State, who in a paper on "The Outlook for War," expressed a profound belief in democracy; Dean Roscoe Pound of the Harvard Law School, who, speaking on "Our Living Constitution," praised its stabilizing influence and also its flexibility to meet the demands of the hour without sacrificing any of our fundamental principles of government; and Hamilton Fish Armstrong, editor of Foreign Affairs, who in a discussion of "Anarchy," attributes to economic instability much of the responsibility for many of the recent political overturns and urged that in order to insure future peace, nations "pool their sovereignty in the enforcement of their mutual will for peace."

The final address of the conference was a carefully worded message from President Roosevelt, broadcast from his study in the White House. The President condemned imperialistic greed for expansion and domination as a menace to world peace and advocated the right sort of education and the stressing of the ideals of peace as basic remedies for false national ambitions. He declared that the United States, having no urge toward territorial expansion and being as a nation overwhelmingly against war, affords no threat to the peace of the world. He stated further that, as the only [Page 204]assurance for world peace lies in education, "we must make infinitely better the average education, which the average child receives" and through this education instill into the coming generation a realization of the part it must play.

The conference was brought to a conclusion by Ogden Reid, President of the New York Herald Tribune, who reminded the audience that while the conference had not attempted to solve any problems, it had produced much material upon which to build and should serve as an inspiration for further study and work among the organizations represented. Through this conference, the third of its kind to be held, the officers of the New York Herald Tribune, and particularly Mrs. William Brown Meloney, who planned the conference and presided over its sessions, have made a genuine contribution to social thinking. The complete proceedings of the conference will be made available in pamphlet form, both for permanent reference and for the benefit of educational institutions, women's organizations, and others interested in launching a successful attack on our current social problems.

The thirty-ninth modern movement presented by World Unity in its department "The World We Live In." [Page 205]

RACE CONFLICTS IN TODAY'S WORLD

by HANS KOHN

THE recent legislation by the German government directed against all members of the non-Aryan race has drawn the attention of the public to the importance of the race question as one of the determining factors in world politics. It is an old factor although the name is a new one. As Alexander the Great set out on his campaign to conquer the world, his teacher, Aristotle, advised him to treat the Greeks as a leader and a friend, but the barbarians, whom he set out to conquer, as a tyrant and king. Alexander the Great did not follow his advice. He treated Greeks and barbarians alike. He married, and had his generals marry, Oriental princesses, and he did all in his power to bring about an amalgamation of the conquerers and the conquered. The result of his policy was a great cultural movement which we know as Hellenism, which dominated the last five centuries of the ancient world, and which prepared the soil for the spreading of Christianity as a supra-national and supra-racial spiritual force. Aristotle had, in the first chapter in his book on politics, developed the teaching that slavery was an institution imposed and sanctified by nature, as there were human races born to be slaves and others who were born masters. Therefore, slavery was not only a moral institution, but it was even in the interests of the slave races themselves as, by their own nature, their well-being demanded the master's hand over them.

This theory by Aristotle was, of course, not confined to Aristotle or to the ancient Greeks. It was brought forth as a justification of the pre-eminence of one race over another wherever one race dominated another. Nothing appeals so much to the most primitive instincts of man as an appeal to his race, for the race is the strongest expression of the group instinct, and is bound [Page 206]together with the mystery which surrounds birth, and which gave rise always to theological and mythological speculation. Even today, theological and mythological speculations are clinging to all discussions about race. Ancient philosophers overcame this primitive race mythology by the creation of the conception of philanthropia, the Greek word for love of your fellow-men or humanity, a word which is the origin of our word philanthropic, or humanitas, the Latin word for humanity, which meant both a human relation and a humane relation of man toward man. Christianity went a step further; it did not recognize the natural man as he was born into his race, be he Greek or Jew, but only the spiritual man reborn by Christ. The philosophy of the Roman empire which culminated in the teachings of Seneca and the Stoa, and the theology of Christianity both proclaimed the equality of man independent of his race or the status of his birth. Modern philosophy broadened even this view, the liberal thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries tried to draw the political and social conclusions out of this equality, and the American and French revolutions wished to transform them into reality.

It was only in the nineteenth century that the theory of Aristotle on the inequality of the human races was revived. It was a Frenchman, the Count Gobineau, who published in the years 1853-5 the four volumes of his treatise on the inequality of human races in which he propounds a theory that it is the German race which alone is a creative race, and which alone has a peculiar gift for political wisdom and guidance. It is necessary to point out that Count Gobineau, himself a member of the French aristocracy, did not consider the actual Germans the true Germans, but a mixture of Germans, Slavs and Celts, which had lost, through this mixture, their creative faculties, whereas only the members of the French aristocracy were true Germans, as they had invaded, in the fifth century, the Roman-Celtic Gaul, and had established their rule there without mixing with the native population. We can point out here one of the most important elements of all theories of race inequality. There are always produced by the members of the race which believes itself superior, and these theories are therefore very [Page 207]flattering to the people on whose behalf they are set forth. They are meeting one of the elemental weaknesses of the human make-up. Count Gobineau's theories were not accepted in France, but were in Germany, with, of course, a characteristic alteration. An Englishman, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, took them up, replacing the French aristocracy by the actual German people as the most creative race of the world. During the last months, this theory has received official recognition in Germany and has been made the basis of all the teachings in the new German State. But the importance of this theory reaches far beyond Germany. Similar beliefs are held in many lands. They mean the destruction of the theory of the equality of man, of the brotherhood of man, on which both Christianity and modern liberalism are based. In that way, race theories in the modern sense are a challenge to Christianity and to liberalism, and both will have to take up this challenge if they wish to survive as spiritual forces moulding the destinies of humanity.

The political and social importance of the modern race theory is not less far-reaching than its intellectual implications, for this theory is bound to awaken the fiercest race conflicts in a historic situation where the race question assumes dimensions unknown up to now. Race conflicts do not become acute until the race kept in the inferior position is animated by the tendency to change its status and to strive for equality with the race deemed superior. We witness today a world-wide movement of this kind. Fifty years ago the world accepted the supremacy of the white race without question. Today the spread of education and of modern technical equipment throughout the world, the bringing together of all human races by the new rapid means of communication and transportation, have destroyed forever this unquestioned order, and have introduced a new, dynamic element which makes itself felt not only in the revolt all over Asia, about which Mr. Fenner Brockway addressed you last week, but as well in similar movements for political and social emancipation outside of Europe which have reached their crises during the past few years in all Latin American republics, where even the long silent and suffering Indian race is awakening to a claim of its due position in its own ancient lands. [Page 208]Throughout Africa the Negro is stirring, a phenomenon which would have appeared entirely out of question a very few decades ago. There is a great forward movement on the part of all the non-white races which we called, only a few years ago, backward races, and who are today trying hard, and sometimes, as Japan proves, very successfully, to adopt for themselves the cultural and social standards of the white race. They strive not only for political emancipation but for a social advancement of their masses to participate in the progress of humanity toward a better world.

I believe that all lovers of humanity will welcome this common effort of all human races toward a new world. It is, for the first time in world history, that such a common effort binds different and even the most distant parts of the world together. The basis of world unity is being created. In such a moment a new emphasis upon race and race inequality in many countries must have especially disastrous effects. It will tend to aggravate all race conflicts and therefore act as chief obstacle to world peace. No conflicts are as devastating as racial conflicts, no hatred as degrading as racial hatred, because they appeal to the most primitive and most ferocious instincts of man and are apt to bring out the worst sides of his nature. We very often witness the fact that a normally good-natured and reasonable man acts most brutally as soon as race prejudice or race instincts are involved. Through centuries we have striven to arrive at the recognition of personality, not of birth or race, as a standard of the value of man. The race theory means a regression from a spiritual point of view to a biological point of view.

Liberalism believes that man can be changed and improved by education and by social influences, race theory believes, that a man has to continue as he has been born. Therefore race theories in the present form are not only dangerous for world peace and humanity at large, but as theories of despair bid us to accept man and races as they are and to give up every idea of their improvement. The theory of racial inequality will therefore not only precipitate us into endless race conflicts, but make a combined human effort to create a new world futile!

Radio Address

A radio address delivered October 19, 1933 under the auspices of the National Student Federation of America. [Page 209]

THE STATUS OF THE LITTLE ENTENTE IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

by JOSEPH S. ROUCEK Department of Sociology, Pennsylvania State College

THE Little Entente has played a very important rôle in the post-war policies of Europe; but none of its activities have produced an interest equal to that called forth by the recent announcement at Geneva (February 16, 1933) of the new status of the Little Entente, which unifies the foreign policies of the three Central European States-Czechoslovakia, Roumania and Yugoslavia. This unification amounts to an outstanding international event, the consequences of which will be felt before long.

Before considering the new agreement binding the members of the Little Entente, let us glance over the past period of development of this body. Strictly speaking, the Little Entente is composed of Czechoslovakia, an entirely new state, formed at the end of the World War (though it existed as the Kingdom of Bohemia in the past), of Roumania, an enlarged state, formed of former and smaller Kingdom of Roumania, and of Yugoslavia, formed of the Kingdom of Serbia by adding several other provinces inhabited by the Yugoslavs. The main fact is that the present territorial status of these three states is made up of the territories acquired from the smouldering ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It must be noted, at the same time, that these countries do not see eye to eye regarding their individual foreign policies excepting Hungary. Yugoslavia as well as Roumania have their interests in the Balkan region, and especially in keeping Bulgaria to her post-war settlements. Czechoslovakia, on the other hand, is very little interested in the Balkans. Roumania, however, wants to have her possession of Bessarabia guaranteed, which is a matter of some indifference to the two other members of the alliance. Yugoslavia has its bitterest opponent and possible enemy in Italy; but that does [Page 210]not mean very much to Prague and Bucharest, whose chancellories are anxious to keep Rome more or less in good humor.

But Hungary, with her irreconcilable policy of protestations that she would never acquiesce in the new state of affairs, expressed in the little prayer that the children of Hungary repeat before the crucified Hungary—“Nem, nem, soha!” (No, no, never!), provides a common object of interest to each capital of the Little Entente. Voilà l’ennemi! As a unit the members of the Little Entente hem Hungary on three sides as in a vice. Thus the post-war period has seen the unification of interests of these states in the matter of keeping Hungary in order, leading to an appreciation of the utility of joint action. Occasionally, we must note, their joint cooperation concerned extraneous circumstances, such as the proceedings of the League of Nations or the interests of the agrarian states of Central and South-Eastern Europe; sometimes they correlate their policies regarding Bulgaria. But in all respects, they remained three separate states, of different tendencies, different social structures, and different foreign policies.

The actual beginnings of the Little Entente are based on the sense of self-preservation. After the World War, post-war hysteria dominated that part of the world. In 1920 the Polish armies had to defend their new country against the Soviet soldiers at the very gates of Warsaw. Hungary was offering her troops to the Allies for use in that struggle. Suddenly Emperor Charles the Last, the Habsburg, returned to Hungary during Easter Week in 1921. This thoroughly scared the states which were to form the Little Entente, as his coronation oath bound him to take up the lost cause of restoring the integral Magyarland to her place in the sun, because his former Act of Abdication was not legal. On August 14, 1920, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia had signed the first treaty of the Little Entente, whose purpose was to maintain the Treaty of Trianon. The first attempt of Karl brought the Roumanian Government to a final decision, and the Roumanian and Czechoslovak Treaty was signed on April 23, 1921, identical with the Czechoslovak-Yugoslav document. A Yugoslav-Roumanian understanding was yet to come, because both states had been at odds over [Page 211]boundary delimitations in the Banat section. But the intolerant and threatening activity of Hungary and the fear of a restoration of the Habsburgs outweighed their differences, and a treaty of defensive alliance was signed on June 7, 1921, on the model of the Czechoslovak-Yugoslav convention, though its scope had its reference not only to the Treaty of Trianon but also to the Treaty of Neuilly, both Roumania and Yugoslavia having received territorial concessions at the expense of Bulgaria.

This was the groundwork of the Little Entente.

The actual test of the strength of the new agreements came soon. Karl made another attempt to regain his Hungarian throne the same year, and on October 20, 1921, accompanied by the ex-Empress Zita (who, by the way, still hopes to seat her son Otto on the same throne), flew by aeroplane from Dubendorff, the Zurich aerodrome, at midday on October 20, 1921, and landed in Hungary. The Little Entente, led by Beneš, forced Hungary and the Allies to remove Karl from Hungary.

This and another circumstance have strengthened the structure of the Little Entente. The defensive conventions, concluded originally for two years only, were renewed in 1922; they were renewed again on May 21, 1929, and supplemented by a general, tripartite pact of conciliation and arbitration.

Up to the present time we can discern five stages of development of the Little Entente. The first period covers the months when this group had to organize its defence against Hungary, from the conclusion of the treaties of 1920-1921 to the passing of the Habsburg danger. The second stage was initiated in 1922 at the Conference at Genoa, in which the purely defensive character of the Little Entente, directed against Hungary, was modified by an active positive policy for the economic consolidation of Central Europe and a vigorous effort to carry through the problem of security upon a general European basis as indicated by the Geneva protocol. The Little Entente approved the Hungarian negotiations for a loan; but it announced in the matter of relations with Russia that the Little Entente would "leave liberty of action to each of its [Page 212]members in order to allow them to take account of the circumstances of the moment and of their own special situation."

The third period began with the signing of the Locarno pacts, and considerations whether the Locarno system could be extended to Central and South-Eastern Europe. Furthermore efforts were made to settle the outstanding questions between Hungary and the Little Entente; some progress in this direction was materialized by the signing of the Briand-Kellogg Pact and by the reparations and optants' settlements at the beginning of 1930.

The fourth period was characterized by the attempts of the Little Entente to put the economic relations among the three states on sound foundations and on the basis of cooperation, without, however, much success.

We come to the present, fifth period, which supersedes all the previous attempts in the direction of the consolidation of the foreign relations of all the three countries.

But we must notice regarding these last two periods that though even today the Little Entente tries to put an economic raison d'être under the structure of its organization, a careful examination of the economic relations of the individual partners shows that the Little Entente is primarily a political body, and that its economic aspects are negligible and disappointing. A superficial observation would suggest that the industries of Czechoslovakia would be balanced by the agricultural predominance of Yugoslavia and Roumania. But such is not the case and the trade figures among the three countries show that the trade with Hungary, Austria, Italy and Germany is much more important, in general, than the trade among the three allies. Czechoslovakia can absorb very little of the agricultural imports from Yugoslavia and Roumania. Furthermore, the two latter countries now foster their own industrial development, which competes seriously with the Czechoslovak industrial goods. In fact Czechoslovakia could boast of no tariff treaties with either Roumania or Yugoslavia until 1930. Roumania has very little trade with Yugoslavia, and her exports to Czechoslovakia rank after those to Austria and Hungary. Czechoslovakia in 1927, for example, exported to Roumania (and the year, notice, [Page 213]

THE LITTLE ENTENTE

can be considered as a normal year) 14.24 per cent of the total Roumanian exports. In 1929, the Roumanians exported to Czechoslovakia only 2.75 of their total exports, while Czechoslovak exports to Roumania rose but to 3.71 of her own aggregate. Yugoslav exports in 1926 to Czechoslovakia amounted to 12.01 per cent and to Roumania to 10 per cent of the total exports of the country, while the imports to Yugoslavia in the same year amounted to 18.70 per cent from Czechoslovakia and 4.35 per cent from Roumania.

Considering the last, that is, the present development of the Little Entente, the communiqué issued on February 15, 1933, jointly by the three Foreign Ministers of the Little Entente members, namely Jeftic for Yugoslavia, Titulescu for Roumania, and Dr. Beneš for Czechoslovakia, indicates the principles upon which the new Pact of Reorganization will rest. The signers "came to the conclusion that the urgency of organizing peace and of intensifying the economic relations with all nations generally, and with those in Central Europe in particular, made it imperative for the three States concerned to comply with the new international conditions and to place their existing mutual relations of friendship and alliance upon an organic and stable basis." (Report in The Central European Observer, March 3, 1933, p. 75).

The measures adopted for this purpose are of three kinds. From the statutory viewpoint a permanent council of the Foreign Ministers of the three countries as the directing organ of their common international policy was formed. The Council will be composed of a permanent secretariat located at Geneva and of an Economic Council to coordinate the progressive economic interests of the three countries among themselves and in relation to other powers. The Permanent Council will meet at least three times a year. One of these regular meetings will take place in turn in one of the three capitals, the second will be called at Geneva on the occasion of the annual meeting of the League of Nations; and the third meeting will be decided upon according to the needs of the moment. From the political standpoint the Little Entente is transformed into an international body possessing a distinct [Page 214]international personality, marked by the fact that from this time on every unilateral agreement of one of the three partners changing the relations of this partner with an outside power, as well as any economic arrangement entailing some political consequences, will require the unanimous consent of the Permanent Council. In the same way all the existing political treaties which the individual members of this group may have concluded with states lying outside the limits of the Little Entente will be gradually unified. To pacify public opinion of the world, it was decided that the common international policy of the Permanent Council will be "inspired, in its general lines, by the spirit of all great international documents signed after the War such as the Covenant of the League of Nations, the Paris Pact, the General Pact of Arbitration, the Locarno Pact, and any convention or treaty that may result from the present Disarmament Conference." All the previous treaties of alliance among the members of the Little Entente are renewed for an unlimited period. Thus all the documents creating the status of the Little Entente are rendered permanent and they form one sole legal document. Decisions were also taken regarding economic matters concerning the improvement of Danube navigation, railway transport, aeronautics, postal service, telegraphs, telephones, wireless, preferential treatment of goods exchanged between the three countries and some other questions of trade policy. The National Banks of Prague, Bucharest and Belgrade will be approached to agree on a plan of financial collaboration.

---

The whole situation, however, can be understood only in relation to the general European situation. Time has at length brought the nations of Europe face to face with their most pressing problems. Has a revision of the post-war treaties become necessary? Are the boundaries created after the war to be changed or are they to be retained? Is Europe to remain divided into two groups s of nations, one strong and one weak, or is a greater degree of equality to prevail? These are perilous, dangerous questions. They must be answered, and the Little Entente is very much concerned. It fears the new wave of nationalism which swept Germany [Page 215]

THE LITTLE ENTENTE

and put Hitler into power. This fear terrifies France and her Eastern Allies, who are bent on keeping the post-war European status quo, just as Hitler is determined to change the settlements of 1919-1920. It was quite natural, therefore, that the Little Entente was drawn into the orbit of the Great Powers. Thus France signed treaties of alliance with Czechoslovakia in 1924 and 1926; with Roumania in 1926; and with Yugoslavia in 1927. A look at the map of Europe will illustrate the policy of France. Her aim is to keep the settlements of the war intact, and the alliances with the Little Entente provide a ring around Germany. France, her allies (Poland and the Little Entente) have the same identical aims. These status quo nations feel that once a single territorial revision has been made, the whole post-war structure will tumble. And to the members of the Little Entente this would mean a danger to their existence as national entities. As the revision movement has gained momentum during recent months, the Little Entente has done everything possible to solidify its position. Quite obviously the new treaty knitting more closely the ties which bind these states together was signed in order that they may stand firmly together against any attempt which may be made to alter their present territorial status.

These principles have received further expressions since the signing of the Pact of the Little Entente in February, 1933. On March 25, 1933, the Little Entente protested against the Four-Power Pact, signed at Rome on July 15. But it became reconciled to it on the strength of French assurances that the pact will affect only questions in which the four signatory powers (Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany) and no others are interested. The threat of the greater powers combining to exercise pressure on the Little Entente for treaty revision is thus removed and the Little Entente is convinced that the pact has been robbed of the sting conferred on it by Premier Mussolini and Chancellor Hitler.

The next step was taken during the conference of the Little Entente, which ended at Prague on June 1, 1933. The conference decided at its final session to create an economic council composed of three sections, one for each country and each with five members [Page 216]and technical advisers. Its first object will be to devise a preferential tariff system for the Little Entente countries and to investigate how a contingent system could be employed to increase the exchange of goods among the three states. The council is to meet at least four times a year sitting in the three capitals alternately. According to the statutes drawn up for the body, it will consolidate the new Little Entente unity that was created by the pact. The Council is to deal with general commercial policies, agriculture, industry, credits, banking and finance and transportation. The council is to set up a special committee immediately to "normalize" all branches of commercial and industrial life. "This normalization process will naturally extend to all branches of military equipment."

Furthermore, the new pact of unity among the states composing the Little Entente was the immediate cause of Russian rapprochement. A pact between Russia and the Little Entente, in which a definition of an aggressor is laid down according to the Politis formula of May of 1933 on the basis of the suggestion put forward by the Soviet delegation, signed at London at the beginning of July, represents one of the most valuable international instruments for consolidation and peace. In fact, the pact represents the most positive contribution to the work of pacific reconstruction since the time of the Briand-Kellogg Pact. Roumania, one of the most exposed countries on the European continent is freed from the fear of war, and the document has banished two spectres which had been haunting Roumania for years—the fears of Russian seizure of Bessarabia and of the promotion of a peasant bolshevist revolution.

Our analysis of the new agreement shows us several surprising points.

In the first place, the economic nationalism of the Danubian states in the post-war period has led to desperate economic distress throughout that part of Europe, with trade choked by embargoes and currencies tottering. The political considerations, such as those forming the Little Entente, have prevented any materialization of an economic agreement. If we recall Premier Tardieu's suggested Danubian Federation, offered in March, 1932, its proposal being the climax of more than ten years' work toward Euro- [Page 217]

THE LITTLE ENTENTE

pean union (as proposed in the political Pan-Europa of Coudenhove-Kalergi, and the European Economic Union offered by the late Briand), we notice that the present agreement of the Little Entente includes only three countries, instead of all five of the Succession States. Hungary and Austria are left out. From the political viewpoint the economic consideration have again been IT out, and subordinated to the political outlooks. But from another wpoint, we can discern here the first hesitating step toward the realization of a Danubian Union, if, in the future, the political considerations will become subordinated to the economic considerations, and other states allowed to join.

From the viewpoint of international relations this new development is a significant departure. The Little Entente states have voluntarily and contractually curtailed their respective national sovereignties in so far as their international policies are concerned. This is something quite contrary to the present trend in the world, espacially if we note the anxiety with which the member Dominions of the British Empire assume their independence in foreign affairs. Thus the Little Entente is the first regional agreement for ensuring a higher degree of security and stability in one of the da rerous parts of the world.

oForming, from the same viewpoint, one unit, the Little Entente will have a considerable weight in all the decisions of European affairs. This weight will be supported by 47 millions of Czechoslavaks, Yugoslavs and Roumanians, settled on an area of 264,820 square miles, this being the largest united body in Europe except Russia. Germany alone is stronger in population with her 64 millions.

But several important problems will have to be settled by the Little Entente before its present experiment will be considered a success. Any international agreement depends on the question whether it can be handled in a manner satisfactory to the interests of each state. The primary purpose of the Little Entente is to watch Hungary. But the Little Entente has three great powers for its neighbors: Germany, Italy and Soviet Russia. The weight of its neighborhood is so divided that it is always one of its three [Page 218]members whose interests either political or economic or both in one of the three great powers are particularly strong and vital as compared with the somewhat smaller radius of attraction that regulates the relationship between the other two members of the Little Entente group on one side and the great power concerned on the other. Will, therefore, all the three states always agree easily on their policies toward Russia, Germany, Bulgaria and Italy? Will the Little Entente, for example, take sides in a quarrel between Yugoslavia and Italy? Will it continue to be swung by its sentiments for France, its natural protector? Will the internal forces within each state favor external, and especially economic cooperation?

An old maxim of politics reappears here. What good sense and rationalism cannot accomplish, fear and hate—the most powerful unifying forces possible—do. For that reason, once the fear of revision disappears, a matter of life and death for the Little Entente, the bonds of the Little Entente will weaken. But they will also strengthen with future attempts to overthrow the present order.

In a nut-shell the present policy of the Little Entente (and of the whole group allied with it for the preservation of the status quo), is the thesis that the elimination of possible conflicts and wars is more important to Europe than any arguments for the modification of the post-war order, which can be done, according to Prague, Bucharest and Yugoslavia, only by force. The opposing group, headed by Hungary—as far as the Little Entente is chiefly concerned—claims that a change of the new order is necessary for the preservation of the peace, whether by peaceful or forceful means. The Little Entente insists that the maintenance of the status quo implies the maintenance of peace. This claim is supported by the fact that the Covenant of the League of Nations and the Pact of Paris exclude war as an instrument of national policy and place upon the nations the solemn obligations to keep the peace. Hungary claims that peace cannot be kept under repression, and that dissatisfaction will always make it threatened. Only a modification of the peace treaties can provide a permanent basis of peace. It cannot be expected, of course, that Hungary would acknowledge openly now that the use of force is planned. [Page 219]

THE LITTLE ENTENTE

So the viewpoints stand opposed, and a wider gulf cannot be imagined. It is true that the present policy of the Little Entente is to keep the peace in the strict sense of the world. Its success will depend on the fact of how long it will be able to keep the peace -without giving in to the demands of the revisionists.

In conclusion let us notice that the United States is indirectly aligned with the position of the Little Entente. Under the Stimson policy the United States is committed in advance not to recognize any modification of the peace treaties by the use of armed force. Is it consistent with our belief in the principle of "no entangling alliances?" [Page 220]

JACQUES NOVICOW

by JOHN RICHARD MEZ University of Oregon

During the last decade of the nineteenth century, when the political developments in Europe gradually shaped themselves towards the disaster which was to follow in 1914, the organized peace movement was engaged in a struggle as heroic as it was uneven, against the rising tides of militarism and nationalism. In every country, small groups of forward-looking men and women had banded themselves together in peace societies in order to oppose, as best they could, the growing burden of armaments, and to forestall war by advocating international conciliation, arbitration and disarmament. But their influence remained weak, partly because the peace literature in those days was not very rich, and sadly lacking of a scientific basis.

The direction in which this scientific approach to the problem of world unity was to be found, was in a certain sense, first shown in the writings of the Russian, Yakov Aleksandrovich Novicow. In 1894 appeared his brilliant volume "La guerre et ses prétendus bienfaits" ("War and its alleged benefits"). Soon thereafter he wrote a, no, the first book with the prophetic and unheard of title "La federazione Europea"—advocating and predicting nothing less than "the federation of Europe," or, as he explains, ultimately of the world.

These books were followed by a dozen others, equally stimulating, and dashing, all dedicated to the great problem of this generation, namely the substitution of international cooperation, association, and federation, for militarism, war and spoilation, as the chief foundation of happiness, economic welfare and morality.

Novicow was born on September 17, 1849 at Kadeniki on the Bosporus, across from Constantinople. His father was Russian, his mother was Greek. From 1849 until his death in 1912 he re- [Page 221]

JACQUES NOVICOW

sided at Odessa in Southern Russia as educator and writer in sociological subjects; for thirty years he acted as a member of Odessa’s city council; twice he was candidate for election to the Russian Duma, but both times he was defeated.

From his early boyhood, he traveled with his mother through Europe. He resided at Florence, Naples, and Geneva where he studied history and law. He continued his studies at Odessa, and spent some time in Germany. From cultural history his interests gradually gravitated towards the social sciences. In 1894, he presided over the First Sociological Congress held in Paris; for several years he was vice-president of the International Sociological Institute. The last two decades of his life were dedicated altogether to an active participation in the peace movement; Novicow attended nearly all the peace congresses held from 1896 to 1907, including the Hague Conferences. Usually he acted as chairman on the committee of current problems.

Although born in Asia Minor, Novicow, through his education had become thoroughly westernized. Bertha von Suttner who met him at the Hague, describes him in her "Memoirs" as an "elegant man of the world, the jolliest of companions, far too youthful for his 49 years, full of wit and entrain in his conversations." Novicow travelled widely, he spoke seven languages; most of his books were written in French. He took part in many progressive movements, such as free trade, woman’s suffrage, international language, but his main interest was the cause of world peace through federation. His works are very voluminous, full of brilliant flashes of thought, beautiful in style and of profound scholarship. He shows no mercy to the glorifiers of war, the "worshippers of manslaughter" or "adorers of murder," as he calls the militarists or "social Darwinists" who defend war by means of a half-scientific and distorted use of Darwin’s phrases of the "natural law of struggle," the "survival of the fittest," or the "fight for existence." His outstanding works deal with this phase of the peace problem. "Les luttes entre les societes humaines," (1901), ("The struggles among human societies"), "La Critique du Darwinisme sociale," (1916—"Criticism of social Darwinism"), a masterly refutation of the [Page 222]philosophy of militarism. Others of his best known works are "La Justice et l'expansion de la vie," showing how the application of justice among both individuals and nations, leads to the expansion of life, to greater abundance and happiness, a theme which he further elaborates in "La Morale et l'Interêt" and "Le Problème de la misère," two later volumes wherein world unity is elevated to the plane of a moral postulate, in that the solution of the social problem, the conquest of poverty, and the foundation of human betterment, are inseparably bound to the consummation of world federation.

His many works have been given but scant recognition in the Anglo-Saxon world. Only his "War and its alleged benefits" has been translated into English, (Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1911, out of print). English edition with introduction by Norman Angell. Four of his works were translated into German by A. H. Fried.

WAR AND HUMAN PROGRESS

Among Novicow's outstanding contributions is his refutation of the surprisingly large number of authors who defend war as the cause of human progress, especially the sociologists who claim that civilization has been produced by the wars waged in the past. Thus Auguste Comte, the father of sociology, contends that "war, at the beginning was the most simple means of securing a subsistence." Herbert Spencer believes war to have been "a good thing in the past, because it has forced men to cooperate, and without cooperation there would be no civilization." Lester F. Ward, the famous American sociologist, calls war "the chief and leading condition of human progress" (Pure Sociology, page 238), and elsewhere he defends war on the grounds that "without war there would have been no slavery, and without slavery there never would have been any industry. The first step in the whole process of society is the conquest of one race by another, the conquered race was reduced to slavery, slaves were compelled to work, and labor in the economic sense begins here."

"All civilized men realize the horrors of war," Ward con- [Page 223]

JACQUES NOVICOW

tinues, "and if sociology has any utilitarian purposes, one of these is certainly to diminish or mitigate these horrors. But pure sociology is simply an inquiry into the social facts and conditions, and has nothing to do with utilitarian purposes. In making this objective inquiry it finds, that, as a matter of fact, war has been the chief cause and leading condition of human progress. This is perfectly obvious to anyone who understands the meaning of the struggle of the races. When races stop struggling, progress ceases. They want no progress and have none. For all primitive and early undeveloped races certainly the condition of peace is a condition of social stagnation. We may enlarge to our soul's content on the blessings of peace, but the facts remain as stated, and cannot be successfully disproved."

Similarly, Professor Franklin Giddings, the late American author of a standard text on sociology says that "the need for defense is the only factor that made people in the early days cooperate," and thus he too looks upon war as "the main cause of human association, cooperation and political integration." Numerous similar quotations can be made from sociological writers.

But all such ideas Novicow opposes vigorously, with sharp logic, and with an unending flow of sarcasm and common-sense. The belief that war has caused human progress he calls a "declamation of childishness." While admitting that sociology, like all science, has no utilitarian purpose, he insists that at least it has the task of establishing truth. In the very name of sociology he makes a formal denial that civilization has been produced by war. "The falsity of this contention arouses in me a profound indignation and an irrepressible feeling of revolt." "I maintain exactly the opposite. Never has mass-murder been the cause of human progress. This idea is absolutely false. Too long has science been permitted to defend human slaughter. True science leads to federation. All we can say is this: there have been wars in the past, and there has been progress, but this does not prove any causal connection between the two!"

"A grave responsibility rests with the sociologists who disseminate such obvious errors in the name of their science," says [Page 224]Novicow. "Science is the most sublime thing to be found in the world, there is nothing above it. To the public mind it is the highest goddess, the supreme authority for guidance in life. As such it is the source of rational political behaviour.... Human progress is in direct proportion to the sum total of truth discovered. To free mankind from such errors is the true task of the sociologist!" These few sentences will suffice to give an idea of Novicow's position.

WAR AND THE ORIGIN OF THE STATE

Another of the benefits attributed to war is that it has founded great nations like England, France or German, This belief Novi- cow scorns as "a fallacy more monstrous than all the others." "It is so foolish and devoid of logic, that it is hard to see how it can be maintained for more than a day." The exact opposite it true, in Novicow's opinion, nations originate when they compose their differences within the country and organize a government. The national unity of France, for example, means that forty million Frenchmen have found a way to adjust their differences through means other than brutal murder which was employed only a few centuries ago. Nowadays the cities of Paris, Lille, or Toulouse, no longer wage war against each other; it they should do so, France's unity would instantly cease. National unity is therefore established on the day on which war ends.

THE ALLEGED ANTIQUITY OF WAR

A widely accepted view is that at the beginning of human history there prevailed a state of universal warfare, a "war of all against all, as Hobbes has termed it. Early man of the primitive ages is figured to be a bloodthirsty savage and early society is con- ceived as being in a continuous condition of universal slaughter. Warfare among primitive people is taken for granted by militarists and anti-militarists alike, and the evolution of society is interpreted as a gradual getting away from fighting through the substitution of cooperation and law.

Novicow challenges this theory at great length. The notion that primitive people were bloodthirsty savages and engaged in [Page 225]

JACQUES NOVICOW

continual warfare is at best a guess, and probably a myth, in his opinion. It is just as likely that the cave dwellers in the stone age were engaged in peaceful production for thousands of years. There are no records nor evidences that primitive races were eminently warlike. Most of the implements of the stone age are utensils used for cooking, farming or fishing, some are merely ornamental, very few are weapons and most of these were used for hunting or in defense against wild animals. Primitive people which have survived until today in Mexico, Africa or Australia are not, generally speaking, warlike. Their intense struggle for a living, for food, shelter or clothing, consumes most of their time and energy, peaceful production must always have taken precedence over fighting and war which may at best have occurred as an abnormal and temporary interruption of these peaceful activities. It is impossible here to summarize all of the arguments adduced by Novicow in his voluminous books and the reader must be referred to the original.

FEDERATION AND WORLD PEACE

National sovereignty, although generally regarded as an essential attribute to a state, Novicow considers to be more metaphysical than real, and moreover most detrimental in its implications and results, because it is the chief obstacle to world federation. Ultimately nations will retain only the administrative functions and transfer all sovereign authority upon the federation. The power of a nation would then become futile just as in the case of "States" within a nation, such as Ohio or Quebec, where all power is gone, and disarmament has become complete. Finally even self determination and secession would make no difference, everybody might secede. Then a natural selection among commonwealths will take place: those offering the greatest opportunities, the lowest taxes, the most heathful conditions and other attractions will be the "victorious" countries and survive and gain the greatest number of adherents.

Novicow bases his arguments for European federation on the growing economic interdependence. At the time when he wrote, [Page 226]in 1895 these thoughts were novel and far less current than today. If an individual isolates himself from the rest of society, Novicow argues, if he grows his own food and makes his own clothes, we would call him medieval, but in international relations, nations still use the old-fashioned oil lamp and try to live in isolation. World trade cries for world law and government, law and order provide the only foundation for human happiness, for a perfect and harmonious civilization and a new ethical life. Precisely because it is the primary function of the nation, to protect its citizens, their life and property, against attack and spoliation by other nations, it is imperative for each nation to enter into international federation. Security cannot be had by war or preparedness. War never settles anything, war is the chief danger for the citizens and a balance or preponderance of power is at best a temporary and treacherous expedient as a means to attain security. The only sane way to peace is through federation, for only thereby can individual nations be prevented from making war at will. Such are some of the arguments advanced by Novicow. The delay in the perfection of world unity is due to the false notions about the social value of armies and navies, and of war and conquest. Once the people will be educated to realize that the doctrine of the economic and politic value of war and spoliation is the most deadly illusion which has ever obsessed the human mind, then federation will result immediately and mankind will be spared endless misery.

International relations and social progress depend on a proper understanding of the mechanism of association, according to Novicow. Spoliation and conquest, even victory, are destructive principles, trade and exchange are the sources of all life in the economic sense. Exchange leads to association; it has been far more potent an agency in the making of nations than war. Most international agreements relate to exchange, to the post offices, railways, shipping or radio, etc. Commerce is far more a cause of human solidarity than of conflict. Conquest is never conducive to greater happiness in that it does not increase the sum total of wealth. War and conquest are therefore based on an illusion, and utterly unscientific. The cessation of this illusion, Novicow thinks, would be [Page 227]

JACQUES NOVICOW

followed by an amount of human happiness undreamed of.

In his last book "La morale et l'interêt" Novicow demonstrates how the true and enlightened interests of individuals and nations alike must lead to cooperation, and how fundamental is unification of the world into one organized whole as the essential condition to greater welfare, as well as to a more ethical international conduct. In the last paragraph of this book, published two years before the world war, Novicow makes this prophetic statement: "The era of ferocious and irreconcilable international relations is drawing to its close. We have begun to realize that the happiness and prosperity of each one of us is in direct relation to the gradual achievement by the nations of their international juridical organization. Humanity has become conscious of its goal. We have come to see clearly that the end to be attained is the union of our species, a concept which is identical with that of the universal triumph of morality."

Novicow died on May 21, 1912 in Odessa. He was a pioneer in the struggle for a better world, a great and original thinker. This was a lonely fight in a hostile world. His ideas were two generations ahead of his time. Some day, when social reformers, economists and sociologists will better understand to what extent the poverty and misery of the world are inherent in our international anarchy, our isolationism with the subsequent waste of wars, armaments and pensions, then the great heritage of thought and ideas left by Novicow will be better appreciated. I believe that his name will live for generations to come as one of the greatest aposties of world unity. To him world federation was not an end in itself, but only the beginning, the sine qua non, of the liberation of wretched humanity from its misery.

The thirty-eighth article in the series "Apostles of World Unity" begun in October, 1927. [Page 228]

AMERICA AND RUSSIA: THE RECONCILIATION OF CAPITALISM AND COMMUNISM

by OSCAR NEWFANG Author of "The Road to World Peace," etc.

AMERICA has recognized Russia. The protagonist of capitalism has been reconciled to the protagonist of communism. The two largest republics in the world, embracing together a population of almost 300,000,000 (about one-sixth of the world's population) and an area of about 11,932,000 square miles (more than one-fifth of the land surface of the earth), have clasped hands in friendship, after an estrangement of sixteen years.

In order to appreciate the significance of this reconciliation it is necessary to review the strife, the rioting and the civil warfare caused in many parts of the world by the clash between the two economic systems of individualism and collectivism. In Hungary the communist party under Bela Kun caused a chaotic period of violence bordering upon civil war and almost overthrowing by violence the government of that country. Bavaria, the largest German state with the exception of Prussia, was for a time so largely controlled by communism that its secession and the disruption of the German Nation were threatened. In Chile communism caused a very extensive condition of civil warfare which resulted in untold economic and political damage in that country. In Italy the communist party had proceeded to the extent of seizing a very considerable number of factories and of beginning the establishment of soviets in the factory towns, when the political riots and strikes were stopped by the energetic action of Mussolini.

In the life and death struggle between capitalism and communism in Germany during the present year communism probably reached its high-water mark in the violent attempts to force its [Page 229]system upon the world. The communist party in Germany numbered fully six millions; and while its suppression by Hitler has been ruthless, communism itself invited this ruthless treatment by its own creed of violence, bloodshed and extermination of opponents. In Austria the clash between the two systems is still going on; but it does not seem likely that communism will be able to overthrow that government, which will be more inclined to swing to the opposite extreme of-Fascism. In China an open civil war between capitalism and communism has been going on for several years, with untold loss of life and destruction of human welfare, and the end of that warfare is not yet in sight.

Considering this record of the violent clash between capitalism and communism throughout the world, it is evidently an event of profound significance when the two great champions of the opposing systems agree to disagree and shake hands in friendship. The basis on which these two great nations have agreed to live in harmony and cooperation has been so fully and carefully laid down in the conversations between Commissar Litvinov and President Roosevelt that there is no possibility of violent attempts by either upon the economic life or the governmental institutions of the other without the grossest breach of good faith.

In the first place, each government pledges itself to refrain from all propaganda in the territory of the other, and to forbid such propaganda by any organization within its territory which it directly or indirectly controls, or which receives any direct or indirect assistance from the government. Each government further pledges itself not to harbor or to suffer in its territory any organization or group which is plotting violence against the governmental institutions of the other, and each agrees not to abet or encourage in any way such plotting against the other government. Each government agrees not to aid, directly or indirectly, any organization agitating against the economic or political life of the other. These are comprehensive and complete pledges, and if they are kept in good faith by each nation, they will give full assurance that neither of the two governments will do anything that can in any way be harmful to the existing economic structure or the [Page 230]existing governmental institutions of the other.

In plain English, the intention is that Russia will abandon, as far as American is concerned, her plans for the overturn and the sovietization of other governments and the forcible imposition upon their peoples of the system of communism prevailing in Russia; and further, that she will not use the subterfuge of the communist party (which is practically identical with the Russian Government) or the Third Internationale for these purposes.

Three additional agreements have been made by the two governments in connection with Russian recognition; first, that the citizens of either country resident in the other shall be given complete religious freedom; second, that the citizens of either country resident in the other and accused of any crime shall have a fair trial, with the privilege of counsel of their own nationality; and third, each agree to facilitate as far as possible a mutually advantageous commerce between the two countries.

Regarding the mutual benefits of the last-named agreement no comment is necessary. Litvinov stated at the London Economic Conference that Russia is in the market for a billion dollars of purchases, largely in the field of machinery and the heavy industries. With the known preference of the Soviet Republic for machinery of American manufacture it is hoped that fully one-half of these orders may be received by American manufacturers; and as it is precisely in the field of heavy manufacture that the American National Recovery program is most seriously in need of stimulation, the effect of these orders in lifting America out of her prolonged depression should be very great. And as Russia is still in great need of heavy machinery to complete her plans for the industrialization of the country, the benefit of the trade should be fully as great to that country.

The greatest benefits of the recognition, however, are the promotion of the cause of world peace and the establishment of a condition which will permit an unhampered experience of both the merit and the defects of the system of collectivism, which has hitherto been untried on a national scale. A policy of peace has been solemnly proclaimed by both of these greatest republics in [Page 231]the world, and the records of both prove the sincerity of their avowed declarations. If these two peace-loving nations can secure the cooperation of Britain and France, international peace throughout the world can be commanded by these four great nations. japan, the Prussia of the East, can be forced to refrain from "war for the solution of international controversies, renouncing it as an instrument of national policy," and to act in accordance with her promise made to all the other nations under the Peace Pact that "the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts, of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means." These four great powers, acting together in harmony in a policy of keeping the world's peace, can also restrain Germany, the only other great nation of the world at present in a chauvinistic and aggressively warlike mood; for Germany, too, has signed the Kellogg Peace Pact and the Locarno Pact in addition; and it is not likely that, when she sees the four principal powers of the world opposed to her sabre-rattling, she will again attempt to treat a solemn treaty as a scrap of paper.

The second great advantage of the reconciliation between Russia and America, the opportunity which it will afford for a prolonged and unhampered trial of both modern socialism and modern capitalism, free on the one hand from blockades, boycotts or embargoes, and on the other hand, from political strikes, riots and violent agitation, will enable the world in due time to determine which form of economic structure and of political institutions is better fitted to promote the general welfare of the masses. The question cannot be satisfactorily and finally settled in any other way. As John Stuart Mill, one of the greatest of economists, has said: "We are too ignorant of what individual agency in its best form, or socialism in its best form, can accomplish, to be qualified to decide which of the two will be the ultimate form of human society." ("Principles of Political Economy," Book 2, Chapter 1.) The result of this free and unhampered trial of the two systems of capitalism and communism will doubtless be, as it has already been in some measure, the gradual adoption by each system of the [Page 232]best features of the other system, a process which will gradually bring the two systems nearer to agreement in an "ultimate form of human society" which will doubtless prove more effective than either of them for the achievement of human welfare. Capitalism has in all countries nationalized its armed forces, has suppressed private wars and mercenary troops; it has taken out of private hands the coinage of money and the issue of currency and conducts these functions socially. It operates the postal service nationally. In almost all countries the education of youth is carried on by the community rather than by private agencies; in many such countries the railroad and telegraph lines have been nationalized; in some, even certain industries, such as tobacco, liquor and salt, are carried on by the nation.

in communist Russia, on the other hand, it has been found necessary, even during its short career, to adopt a number of features that are essentially capitalistic. After a brief trial of the labor-ticket method of distribution it was found necessary to restore the capitalistic device of money wages. Later it was found necessary to abandon the communist principle of equal pay for all workers and to restore the capitalistic method of varying the payment according to the merit of the individual worker. In order to do this effectively, communist Russia further adopted the capitalistic method of piece work payment, a typical device of individualism. The capitalistic principles of allowing the workers to receive interest on their savings deposited with the state savings bank, and of itself issuing domestic loans bearing interest or lottery gains, have been further adoptions by the Soviet of parts of the capitalistic system which it found necessary to furnish the needed stimulus to the workers.

As time goes on each system will doubtless adopt further features from the other. Just at present America is making an interesting experiment in the unification of whole industries under a single code regulated by governmental authority. In this unification it is easy to see a movement from individualism toward collectivism. In Italy the further step is now being taken of constituting representatives of these unified industries as a branch of the national government; and between this form of an "Industrial [Page 233]

WORLD ADVANCE

"Chamber" and the Russian form of soviet representation in the All-Russian Soviet Assembly the difference seems to be rather slight.

The question remains, will America and Russia sincerely fulfill the agreements upon which the reconciliation has been based? Comment abroad, especially in England, is somewhat cynical on this point. The British press points out that the Russian Government made precisely the same promises to England, but that the Arcos incident proved afterward that the facilities afforded by recognition were used by the Third Internationale as vantage grounds for violent propaganda and plotting against the British Government; and when the violation was brought to the attention of the Russian Government, the Officials disclaimed all responsibility for the acts of the Third Internationale and denied that they could in any way control that organization, although the head of the Russian Government was also the head of the Third Internationale and the management of the government and of the internationale was largely in the hands of the same men. In America the disposition seems to be to wait and see: time will tell.

In favor of the faithful keeping of the Russian pledges the fact may be cited that Stalin has taken the view that communism can be established in a single country; while Trotzky, who took the opposite view that it cannot be permanently maintained without a world revolution, has been banished from Russia; and Bukharin, who in his work on Imperialism and World Economy did not shrink from the idea of world-wide civil warfare to force the establishment of communism, has been relegated to a position of minor importance. The responsible officials of the Russian Government find that the problem of constructing a socialist state will require all of their energies for an indefinite time to come, without dissipating their resources in foreign propaganda.

America is watching the communist experiment with keen interest and does not regard it as a menace to her institutions at the present time. Intelligent statesmen, both in Russia and in America, are beginning to realize that, while communism may be suited to the Russian mind with its age-long experience with the Mir and other collective arrangements, the system is wholly alien to the [Page 234]intensely independent and individualistic American mind.

The reconciliation between the two greatest federations of states in the world comes just at a time when the League of Nations is losing two of its most powerful member states, and when Italy hesitates between a demand for the League's reorganization and her withdrawal from it. May this not be a fit moment for these two great federations to call the League's attention to their definite, proven experience that the federal structure is the only one that is strong enough to keep the peace between a large number of autonomous states and to preserve harmony among a large number of different races and nationalities? May they not fitly suggest to the League of Nations the strengthening and the development of that organization into a World Federation, in which both America and Russia might eventually find their places as federal members? [Page 235]

WORLD CITIZENSHIP

by CARL A. ROSS Lawyer

VI. CREDIT-TAXATION

THE American community as it existed at the close of the Revolutionary War faced problems very like those facing the World community today. The constitutional solution then worked out for the thirteen states—which we advocate should be applied again today to the sixty nations comprising the World community—was followed by three fiscal reforms, a single currency, a federal bank and a federal refunding of the war debts of the participating thirteen nations. These reforms involved a federal system of taxation with new taxes replacing the old quota system of the Confederation. The result was that the government overhead, interest carrying charges on this debt, were materially reduced for the people of America and the individual states were relieved of all responsibility for this debt and also for needed defensive armaments. We have pointed out that World Citizenship principles, were they adopted by the sixty nations comprising the World community today, should work a like reduction in taxes by lowering the interest overhead on the war debts of the charter member nations and by drastically cutting national armaments. While we would not belittle the direct benefit of world wide lower taxes, at the same time we contend that this course, as in 1789, would effect an indirect benefit perhaps still greater by establishing sound public credit not only for the Word Union and the nations participating in the new Union, but by reestablishing sound private credit in the United States and other creditor nations. As we read history it was this restoration of public credit that led the way out of the post war depression of the 1780's. [Page 236]Let us look at credit conditions from the depression point of view. In colonial times private bank credit transactions involving so-called self-liquidating loans, had not developed to embrace 90% of business as they have in the twentieth century, but public credit was extensively used and was no less important and basic than it is today. The commercial value of the promise of the different states before 1789 to pay out of taxes varied with the soundness of their taxes, and so long as state budgets were well balanced public credit was high. Before the coinage act of 1785 virtually no money was coined by the states or by the Continental Congress, consequently there was no American currency to be upset by an unfavorable balance of American trade. The following from John Fiske gives an illuminating picture of currency conditions.

"It is worth while to observe what this specie was, the scarcity of which created such embarrassment. Besides the ninepence and fourpence-ha'-pennies, there were bits and half-bits, pistareenes, picayunes, and flips. Of gold pieces there were the johannes, or joe, the doubloon, the moidore, and pistole, with English and French guineas, carolins, duckats, and chequins. Of coppers there were English pence and half-pence and French sous; and pennies were issued at local mints in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The English shilling had everywhere degenerated in value, but differently in different localities; and among silver pieces the Spanish dollar, from Louisiana and Cuba, had begun to supersede it as a measure of value. In New England the shilling had sunk from nearly one-fourth to one-sixth of a dollar; in New York to one-eighth; in North Carolina to one-tenth. During the period of the Confederation, the chaotic state of the currency was a serious obstacle to trade, and it offered endless opportunities for fraud and extortion. Clipping and counterfeiting were carried on to such length that every moderately cautious person, in taking payment in hard cash, felt it necessary to keep a small pair of scales besides him and carefully weigh each coin, after narrowly scrutinizing its stamp and deciphering its legend."

Thus in practice, the country was on a metallic standard basis [Page 237]

WORLD CITIZENSHIP

and the volume of the currency was represented by foreign coins in circulation plus the due bills issued by the different states and the Confederation representing the public debt. A short quotation from Bolles' "Financial History" indicates how public credit in the form of due bills was freely used during the Revolutionary War in place of currency.

"The indebtedness incurred by the States was very varied. One form of indebtedness, however, was common to all of them, namely, bills of credit. In regard to the other State obligations, they varied much in the several states. In Massachusetts half-pay notes had been issued to the widows and orphans of deceased officers, and certificates for the interest due on them, besides balances stated from the books of the commissioners for settling with the Continental army. The Connecticut debt consisted of notes payable to the army, and others issued by special Act of the Assembly, notes issued for remounting dragoons, new ones issued in place of old notes reloaned, certificates for interest on State debt, unpaid balances of orders payable from a specific tax, State bills emitted in 1780, pay-table orders, and old emissions created before the war."

There is no place in this picture for bank loans to manufacturing or mecantile industry to grubstake labor's wages during the period of production till the laborer repays the producer by purchasing the product of his own labor. The depression of the 1780's could not have been caused by any contraction of this sort of private credit. It follows that a contraction of the currency inducing lower prices, such as we speak of today, could be traced to a hoarding or export of foreign coins and to an unwillingness of the people to accept these government due bills, and paper money should be classed as a due bill. It seems that both of these things happened, coin was exported after the close of the Revolutionary War for rehabilitation purposes, and attempts by the various states to provide a circulating medium to replace this coin by printing paper money collapsed and with it the credit of the Confederation, and the credit of all the states so that due bills could no longer be used. Public credit was not restored till Hamilton's three reforms effected a reduction of government overhead and relieved the states from [Page 238]their debts and taxes. These due bills issued in payment of supplies and services during the war were considered property by the holders and likely were hoarded till they could collect for the goods and services sold or till they could trade these due bills for other goods. However, it appears that merchants would take them only at a large discount since they in turn could only hoard them in the safety deposit vaults of that day.

Safety deposit boxes and other hoarding places the world over are bulging with like defaulted bonds today, or, if some of these bonds are not in default, they are selling at a great discount and no bank will loan on them as collateral. If owned by a bank or insurance company they cannot be sold without charging off a large proportion of their book value. A few years ago the credit of many of the owners of these bonds was good for a bank loan without any collateral, but today their credit is not good even with these bonds as collateral. These bonds are no longer a substitute for money as they do not command cash. This is true even of that large class of bonds known as public securities and payable out of taxes. From the credit point of view the world depression can be said to have started co-incident with taxes becoming so high relative to commodities in some countries that the taxes were not paid and thereby the tax income actually collected was insufficient to pay the interest on the public securities representing the national debt and hoarding places began to be clogged with defaulted and unliquid tax bonds. This tax income failure reflected an unsound business condition in the issuing country, likely the price level was low relative to taxes, and one would suspect that the national budget was out of balance and that gold was leaving the country.

Whether taxes were too high and commodity prices too low because business was unsound or whether business was unsound because taxes were too high and commodities too low may be a hard question to determine. The smaller and weaker countries were the first to crumble. When their tax bonds went bad so that these bonds did not command cash, they worked a contraction of the national currency, the bonds stayed in vault boxes and could not be sold or used as collateral, commodity prices fell farther and local credit [Page 239]collapsed even though much of the loss in these bonds fell on investors abroad where there was no collapse of credit. Following the development of the depression from the credit point of view, we find that as one after another of these weaker nations defaulted on their tax bonds, currency contraction became wide spread and acute and credit conditions in the strong, investing nations began to weaken. Each time a weak nation defaulted so many more millions were frozen in private vaults in the investing countries. This contraction of credit currency resulted in falling prices of commodities in these investing nations, and when enough nations lacked tax income and the defaulted bonds of investors in these wealthy nations mounted large enough, the depression spread to these creditor nations even though their domestic tax income remained large enough to maintain their national tax bonds.

The investing nations like the United States, Great Britain, France and some others have withstood a serious drain on their currency, that is their credit currency, by the freezing of these vast government credits still in private vaults and it is a matter of felicitation that the credit standing of their respective national bonds has remained high. Looking at our depression from the point of view of credit, all these things have happened and the "Sunday New York Times" recently gave figures showing the resultant credit changes in the United States as a whole.

"The importance of credit is strikingly illustrated when we note that normally the total amount of bank credit outstanding is well over $50,000,000,000, whereas the total amount of money in circulation usually is around $5,500,000,000. On October 4, 1929, the total amount of credit outstanding in the United States in the form of loans and investments by banks was almost $59,000,000,000. (Investments, which are loans to corporations, differ from other loans only in that they are represented by bonds instead of promissory notes or commercial paper, that they are made for longer terms and that they do not possess the self-liquidating character of ordinary commercial loans). By June 30, 1933, this credit had shrunk to $32,000,000,000, a decline of $17,000,000,000, of nearly 30 per cent, in the four years of depression."

A breakdown of public credit has always occurred when taxes [Page 240]got so high relative to commodities that people failed to pay taxes. Under these circumstances private credit too has invariably been lacking in such tax district. We do not wish to be dogmatic and draw, from these facts or any others, the broad conclusion that general credit conditions and prosperity depend solely on the soundness of a nation's public securities, but, still speaking from the point of view of credits, we feel we can safely assert that private credit, as distinguished from government credit, will not be restored in any nation before its tax income is sufficient to make its national bonds and due bills prime negotiable paper. We would go one step farther and assert our belief that general credit conditions cannot be restored in the strong investing nations of the world so long as public credit in the rest of the world is bad. Is sound public credit cause or effect? Do "high prices" or sound taxes have the most effect on credit confidence? How important are unsound tax conditions in one nation in their effect on the finances of other nations? These academic questions may be discussed pro and con, but we contend that our history teaches that sound tax conditions the world over and resultant sound values of public securities which justify copious supplies of credit currency and credit wealth, would do more in overcoming our world wide depression than "high prices," whatever may be meant by this elusive term. It seems impossible to conceive that the depression will end in countries now bankrupt before their public credit returns, but one can conceive that the depression could end before "high prices" return. It also appeals to us that high prices of basic commodities and wages in one nation without a restoration of public credit not only in that nation but in the large majority of commercial nations by lowering taxes relative to commodities, would be useless and more likely dangerous to all and possibly calamitous to some of the nations involved. We know of no example in modern times when good private credit conditions in a nation existed alongside of weak public credit, irrespective of whether prices were "high" or "low." We admit modern history exhibits instances where good public credit existed alongside of poor private credit, but in all such circumstances the good public credit was supported by a balanced [Page 241]

WORLD CITIZENSHIP

budget backed by adequate reserves of metallic money so that the national currency was sound. The sixty nations comprising our World community exhibit almost continuously varying degrees of currency soundness and credit soundness and we must remember that the control of both these matters is now lodged in each nation as it was lodged in each of the thirteen states before 1789 and was out of control of sister nations or states. The centralization of credit currency control in our federal government was one of the prime factors in the rapid development of the United States although this centralization policy was not exercised consistently. However, the lapses from this policy to a modified form of state control of credit and of the circulating medium through state banking and large issues of state bank notes, only serves to establish the soundness of our centralized credit and currency control. Could any of our thirteen original states have survived, could our western states have survived, had economic nationalism been left in control and they each been left to depend on a currency of their own or on foreign currencies? Could Texas, Kansas, California, Oklahoma or any of our states recently pioneer, have maintained such a balanced budget as to support state credit and a strong state currency during their early struggle? Surely American financial history supports our contention that the world needs a single currency, surely the history of state banking with their wild issues of state bank notes does not support our current world system of sixty national currencies. Possibly some of our states could not alone maintain a state currency today. Did it "cost" the United States anything to extend its currency to these pioneer states? Did it "cost" the industrial states of the eastern seaboard, the investing nations of our commonwealth, anything, or did they profit by acquiescing in the federal government extending its currency to these raw states? Many yankees never went west but their money did and earned large incomes. Could these new states have had the benefits of our United States currency had our federal government lacked the right given by our constitution to tax the individual directly so as to maintain a balanced budget and support our dollar?

(To be continued) [Page 242]

THE WORLD OF REALITY

by RUHI AFNÁN

V. THE CIRCLING COURSE OF THE DIVINE LIFE-PROCESS

"Union—The Goal of the Mystic Quest"

The circling course of the Divine life-process which began with the individuation of man and his separation from the sea of the Divine Essence, and then led to his existence in this physical world of differentiation, has logically, according to the mystics, to complete its course and bring man back into the source from which it originally sprang. The drops of water that emerge from the sea may follow a varied course but ultimately they will return to the sea from which they were separated. This return to the original home is termed Union, or deification of man.

"The Christian mystics justify this dogma of the deification of man, by exhibiting it as the necessary corollary of the Incarnation—the humanizing of God. They can quote the authority of the Fathers in support of this argument. 'He became man that we might be made God,' says St. Athanasius." (Mysticism, by E. Underhill, p. 502).

The logical conclusion of the mystic belief regarding the pre-existence of man in God and the doctrine of Incarnation is that were man’s reality, which is a Spark of the Divine Essence, to be freed from the limitations of self he would immediately regain his pristine divinity and merge back into the sea of the Essence from which he originally came. The cause of his individuality and separateness is the shell of self in which his reality has been imprisoned. Let man through effort break away from that shell and he would immediately find himself again a part of the sea, sharing in that universal life which forms his real abode. [Page 243]

THE WORLD OF REALITY

"If we are to allow that the mystics have ever attained the object of their quest, I think we must also allow that such attainment involves the transmutation of 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'." (Mysticism, by Underhill, p. 502).

When the mystic gains that state of Unity he does not feel a stranger but a traveler that has returned to his home. "The mystic in the unitive state is living in and of his native land; no exploring alien, but a returned exile, now wholly identified with it, part of it, yet retaining his personality intact." (Mysticism, by E. Underhill, P. 502).

Even though all mystics, due to the logic of their argument, are bound to maintain a certain degree of deification or becoming part of the sea of the Divine Essence, they differ considerably amongst themselves as to the measure and kind of deification that is achieved. A complete annihilation of individuality and personality, as some of the more advanced mystics of the East believe, necessitates the logical conclusion of pantheism and tend to destroy the benefit of a moral life, for if all men, virtuous and non-virtuous alike would end by being again indistinguishable parts of God what would be the reward of a virtuous life? The course that a drop of water has passed through make little difference when it has become again part of the sea. If on the other hand, we consider that both individuality and personality will be retained, then the conception of Unity which is the goal of mysticism will be impaired and the circling course of the Divine life-process will remain incomplete. A natural and reasonable compromise would be to distinguish between individuality and personality and maintain that even though the latter is lost the former is kept and enhanced.

"The first thing which emerges from these reports, and from the choice of symbols which we find in them, is that the great mystics are anxious above all things to establish and force on us the truth that by 'deification' they intend no arrogant claim to identification with God, but as it were a transfusion of their selves by His [Page 244]Self: an entrance upon a new order of life, so high and so harmonious with Reality that it can only be called divine. Over and over again they assure us that personality is not lost, but made more real." (Mysticism, by E. Underhill, p. 503).

Nicholson expressing the view of the Eastern mystics says: "Does personality survive in the ultimate union with God? If personality means a conscious existence distinct, though not separate, from God, the majority of advanced Moslem mystics say 'No' as the raindrop absorbed in the ocean is not annihilated but ceases to exist individually so the disembodied soul becomes indistinguishable from the universal Deity." (Mystics of Islam, p. 167).

The mystics are caught between two conflicting tendencies; the tendency of making man a part of God and the tendency of keeping him separate. On the one hand, desirous to be loyal to their reasoning, they have to make man complete the circle of his individual life with his return to God as an indistinguishable part of Him; and on the other hand they fear the absurdities involved in the complete deification of man.

As we have considered in detail, the Bahá’í teachings deny the pre-existence of man in God, the doctrine of Incarnation, and the existence of a Divine Spark in man which being originally separated from God, will of necessity have to return and become part of him again. Hence we are not involved in a logical necessity to deify man and make him to become an indistinguishable part of the Absolute. We are not entangled in such discussions as to the persistence of personality or complete annihilation of man in God.

Whereas the mystics define Union as an existent fact involving a merging of the individual in the Essence, the Bahá’ís conceive it solely as a moral conformity with the will or spirit and teaching of the Prophets. To be united with God, therefore, means to obey their commands and be infused with the Holy Spirit which they shed upon the world. In His Tablet to Salmán Bahá’u’lláh says:

"Through His word all that is in the heavens and earth have been created, and from utter not-being brought into the realm of being. How is it possible that a creature who has been created by a word ascend to the Essence of pre-existence. O Salmán! To the [Page 245]pre-existent Essence the path of every one is closed. Through His bounty and blessing He has manifested among men the Rising Suns of the horizon of Oneness (i.e. the Prophets) and made the knowledge of these Holy Souls the knowledge of Himself. He who knows them knows God, and he who has heard their words has heard the words of God."

Such is the true meaning of the Union that the mystics hope to achieve in this world. Not a partaking of the Divine Nature but a conformity with the will of the Prophets that represent that Divine Nature in the world. Even in the world to come the unity with the Essence is not obtained. Man's rational soul will, as an individual, distinct spirit continue to progress through worlds we cannot conceive and conditions far beyond our comprehension, ever achieving more perfections and acquiring more of the Divine Attributes. But all this development is conditioned upon a moral union with the Prophet of that cycle, and that is attained by a conforming to His precepts and reflecting His spirit.

VI. THE SEVEN VALLEYS OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

Such being the Bahá’í point of view on the basic mystic conceptions, how are we to interpret the significance of the Seven Valleys which seems so mystic both in form and language. In those pages Bahá’u’lláh surely traces for His disciples a definite path which every soul has to tread in the process of his spiritual development. He also calls it the "Seven Valleys," a term so familiar to the Sufis, and quotes many poems peculiar to their literature.

Sufism has played such an important part in the literature of Persia and has produced so many poets and religious philosophers of note, that its terms have been adopted in high literary style. Were therefore, a student to be guided by these expressions, he would soon find himself committing the most glaring errors in classifying the different thinkers. He has to penetrate beyond the actual form to the beliefs expressed to discover the Sufi tendencies of any writer.

Both the Persian "Seven Valleys" and the Arabic one—which [Page 246]is more detailed and clearer but less known among the Bahá’ís—were written by Bahá’u’lláh prior to His declaration in Bagdad. The Báb had been martyred after promising His followers the advent of "He whom God would make manifest," a Manifestation for which He was the Precursor. The followers of the Báb, at least those consciencious seekers among them, were therefore anxiously awaiting the Promised One. Bahá’u’lláh who was the center around which this small and persecuted band of followers clustered, constantly counselled them to be firm and to prepare for the acceptance of the coming Manifestation.

Both texts on the "Seven Valleys" which date with that period are written with that spirit of arousing the people to search for the Beloved. By Beloved He meant not the Divine Essence which is beyond human reach, but Himself who was a Manifestation of the Attributes as well as the Promised One of all the past dispensations. Being written to persons who were mystically bent He chose that form to express His theme.

As previously considered, the goal of mysticism is unity with the Absolute, while the object of the Bahá’í Path is acceptance of and conformity with, the spirit and teachings of the Prophet of the day. The coming Prophet of this cycle was Bahá’u’lláh, therefore, the goal of the Path He traced for His followers was the acceptance of His message and conformity to His law. Having not yet declared Himself He set His followers searching, lest when the day of His proclamation came they would fail to perceive His reality or having perceived it linger behind and refuse His guidance.

To clarify this I could do no better than quote from the Persian "Seven Valleys," especially those parts wherein He expresses in definite terms the object of each stage.

"The course the way-farer has to tread while proceeding from his earthly abode to the Divine Realm has been divided into seven stages. Some have called them seven valleys, others have termed them seven cities. They have maintained that unless the traveler forsakes his self and traverses these journeys he will never attain the sea of nearness and union nor taste from that peerless wine.

"First is the valley of search and its steed is patience. In this [Page 247]

THE WORLD OF REALITY

journey, without patience, the traveler will never reach his destination nor attain his goal. He should never be disheartened. He should not be discouraged even though after a thousand years of constant search he fail to behold the beauty of the Beloved.... It is incumbent upon such souls to cleanse their heart, that is the treasure-house of God, from all imaginings and imitations which are traces left by their forebears. They should close the doors of love and hate towards all the people of the world. The traveler should in this journey reach a station where he will find all beings in search of the Beloved. . . . The seeker will never attain this goal except by sacrificing all that exists, that is, all that he has seen, or heard or comprehended.... (This signifies abolition of prejudice).

"The traveler in this journey should live in every land and seek from every countenance the beauty of the Beloved. He should search in every city to find his Friend. He should sit with every group and converse with every soul, perchance he will discover in some heart the secret of the Beloved, or behold in some face the beauty of His countenance. Were he in this journey, through the help of God, to find a trace from the traceless Friend and inhale the fragrance of the lost Joseph from the Divine Messenger, he would immediately step into the valley of love, and burn in its fire.... (This means constant search until we find the Prophet).

"The steed for this valley is suffering, without it this journey would never end. . . . The fire of love should burn the veils of the satanic self, that the spirit may be cleansed to comprehend the station of its Lord....

"If the lover, through the bounties of God, emerge safe from the clutches of love, he would enter the realm of knowledge and his doubts would be changed into assurance . . . . With the inner and outward eye he would see in the worlds of being and in the souls of men, the mysteries of the Return.... (The seeker would recognize the Prophet as the return of the previous ones.)

"This is the station of the travelers in this and the previous valley. They consider the first the same as the last. They behold Him who is without beginning or end. The people of the city of eternity who are residents of the Verdant Garden do not even [Page 248]behold a first and a last. They fly away from the first and are at war with the last, for they have traversed the worlds of names and have passed like a dart through the world of the Attributes—for it is said "The perfection of unity is the negation of all attributes from Him—they have sought refuge under the shadow of the Essence."

Having sought for his Beloved in all the world and after such suffering and patience found Him and being consumed in his love, the traveler would comprehend the mystery of the Return; that is he would understand that the Prophets are in reality one and the same; the time in which they appear, the name they assume, the circumstances under which they reveal their mission would no more blind him who has attained the valley of knowledge. He would see them all as mirrors reflecting the light and beauty of God, the Divine Essence, who is behind Them all, spiritualizing man through Their medium.

"The way-farer, after traversing the valley of knowledge, which is the last station of limitation, will reach the first stage of Unity"....After understanding the reality of all the Prophets, the position they occupy, and the existence of God behind them all, the traveler would observe unity in all creation. He would see all things reflect the power and beauty of God. The greater the spiritual capacity, the more resplendent would be the effulgence of that Divine Light. But Bahá’u’lláh guards us from attributing to this conception any mystic interpretation. He proceeds saying:

"Be careful not to interpret these words to mean incarnation or the descent of the worlds of God to the station of creatures; for the Divine Essence is exalted above ascent or descent, ingress or egress. It has ever been, and will ever be sanctified from the attributes of the creature. No one has ever known Him, and to His Essence no soul has found an access. All gnostics have erred in the valley of His knowledge and all 'Walis' (i.e. mystics) are confused in their desire to comprehend His Essence. He is exalted above the comprehension of every man of discernment and sanctified from the gnosis of every gnostic. 'Every road is blocked, every demand is refused. His proofs are His words and His being is His confirmation.' . . . What has been mentioned concerning the" [Page 249]stages of knowledge pertains to the knowledge of the revelations of that Sun of Truth which is reflected in the mirrors. . . . Thus it has become evident that even for the Revelators there is no egress or ingress, how much more for that Essence of Being and Desired Secret...."

In this passage Bahá’u’lláh removes any misunderstanding, concerning the true significance of the Seven Valleys, which its outward form might have created. In clear and unmistakable language He repudiates three of the cardinal principles underlying mystic teachings. He denies the doctrine of the Incarnation and therefore of a Divine Spark in man; He renounces any theory that may claim our comprehension of God, the Divine Essence; and lastly asserts that knowledge of the Prophets, who are the manifestations of the Divine Attributes, constitutes the highest possible attainment of human understanding.

After reaching the stage of Unity, the way-farer proceeds to the Valley of Detachment, Astonishment, the passing away of self and abiding in God. Having already explained in detail the true significance of Detachment and Poverty, we need not mention them further. It suffices to say that they together with these other last mentioned valleys are the result of knowledge and communion with the Prophets, especially Bahá’u’lláh Himself, rather than stages of development in the process of losing one’s individuality to be merged in the sea of the Divine Essence. Once man attains the promised Manifestation he would no more be attracted by worldly objects. He would marvel at God’s work, forsake all other pursuits save the service of his Lord and abide for ever under His Sovereignty. Having conformed to all these the traveler would enter the City of the Heart which is the goal of all his quest and the greatest reward for all his strivings.

"The traveler could traverse, with God’s help and the assistance of the ‘wali’ of command, all these seven stages—for which no end might be seen in the world of Time—in seven strides, nay with seven breaths, nay with one breath,—should God so desire."

(To be continued) [Page 250]

NOTES ON THE CURRENT ISSUE

Many readers will no doubt be surprised on learning how universal was the outlook of the late Jacques Novicow on the question of international peace. As Dr. Mez quotes from his writings, the English speaking world has in this peace worker a treasure of thought and profound feeling which should be made available in adequate translation. It is to be hoped that if no publisher can be found to undertake American or English editions of this important work, one of the endowed Foundations will render this service to the cause of Peace.

We are indebted to Mr. Archie M. Palmer for his admirable report of the sessions of the significant Conference recently held at New York under the auspices of the "Herald Tribune," which indicates how rapidly public opinion is being organized as the international crisis continues without adequate action by any official and responsible body. When such voluntary groups rally their support around some concrete proposal like that of World Federation, the peace movement will enter a new and much more effective era.

Dr. Hans Kohn's radio address sounds a clarion call to all enlightened people for appreciation of the dangerous situation caused by resurgence of race prejudice. Americans, however, cannot sit in judgment upon the actions of any other people until they have risen to an awareness of their own vital race problem. What Dr. Kohn implies with reference to Europe has even greater application to ourselves.

Students of international politics know that the European War was precipitated by unstable conditions in the Balkan region, and that the same region is still a source of general risk in the post-war world. Prof. Roucek, an authority on the subject of Balkan politics, shows how the new nationalities are endeavoring to solve their own problems and thus eliminate the pressure formerly exerted by the larger Powers in their struggle for the Balance of Power.

The recognition of the Soviet government by the United States [Page 251]provided Mr. Newfang with a current subject whose background he has already carefully studied and in fact thoroughly explored in his book: "Capitalism and Communism-A Reconciliation" published Putnam in 1932. That work is highly commended to all who desire a thoughtful study of the two great opposed economic systems from the point of view of their mutually peaceful development in a unified world. Unlike most discussions of capitalism and communism, Mr. Newfang's volume holds the balance fairly between both systems, contrasting, point by point, what elements are good and what are evil in each.

World Unity is glad to call attention to the Third Annual Seminar in the Caribbean, announced in a letter received from Mr. Hubert C. Herring, Executive Director, The Committee on Cultural Relations with Latin American, 112 East 19th Street, New York City.

"May we, through your columns, draw the attention of your readers to the Third Annual Seminar in the Caribbean, to be held in Cuba from March 7th to 14th, 1934, under the auspices of The Committee on Cultural Relations with Latin America?

"We believe that, especially in view of recent developments, it is of increasing importance that a growing number of Americans should have insight into the problems, culture and lives of the Cuban people. The Seminar in Cuba, like our annual Seminar in Mexico, is designed to bring its members into contact with the plans, projects and beliefs of the leaders of all sectors of opinion in the country. The Seminar will begin with lectures on shipboard enroute from New York to Havana.... The faculty of the Seminar, leading its discussions and perfecting its contacts with Cuba and Cubans, will include Dr. Ernest Gruening, Miss Elizabeth Wallace, Dr. Chester Lloyd Jones and Mr. Hubert C. Herring." [Page 252]

EDUCATION FOR WORLD ORDER AND PEACE

A GENERATION with its back to the wall, struggling with inadequate weapons against ever-changing combinations of social disaster, must choose between education and revolution. With startling swiftness the old, apparently ordered basis of life has been removed and civilization has become an unceasing conflict to determine what will be the nature of order in the next era. Life has thrust every individual into the full responsibility of taking sides in a combat none can fully understand.

This oppressive continuance of violence in the outer world more and more unsettles the inner world of thought and emotion—hence the rise of fanatical revolutionary movements imbued with the fierce will of an Attila, whose hordes would overrun and oppress the earth.

If we would maintain the inner calm of reason and the conviction of faith, the need arises for some enduring, well-founded outlook which can perceive at least the outlines of purpose in a world war which now has raged for twenty years, kindling fires which no power has been able to quench.

This need led six years ago to the founding of World Unity—a magazine enabling students of world affairs, representing different creeds, to conduct a public forum for the investigation of the social problem from every important angle, at whose discussions interested people might be present as readers of World Unity and benefit by the privilege of participating in these monthly sessions of a "league of international minds."

During this period of six years, World Unity has arrived at certain definite conclusions which appear to conform to the fundamental nature of the world problem in its modern complexity.

1. That this epoch has brought not merely a "greater" war and a "greater" economic depression but a profound social transformation going to the very roots of man's conscious life.

2. That this transformation represents a major turning point in human evolution—the development from the law of competition to the law of cooperation. [Page 253]

EDUCATION FOR ORDER AND PEACE

3. That the first demand is upon the individual's capacity of vital faith, to adjust consciously and voluntarily to the new spirit of peace which overrides the antagonism of creeds and classes as well as of nations and races.

4. That the social equivalent of this new spirit is a world federation-a union of the national states in one representative world state which can alone establish true justice and stability in the social realm.

5. That the chaos and confusion now causing such dire suffering for the large majority of human beings has a historic purpose: first, to destroy or modify the instruments of competition still ruling the world, and second, to create in the race a spiritual capacity to respond to the new possibilities of life in an ordered world.

Around these convictions World Unity each month endeavors to create a literature of distinct interest and value to the matured men and women unwilling to remain selfishly individualistic on the one hand, or blindly partisan and parochial on the other. The articles, whether dealing with political philosophy, international law or religion, carry the spirit of universality which can make life richer and fuller, whatever the individual's daily occupation may be.

This brief statement solicits no subscriptions, but accepts the challenge that World Unity lives up to its intention by offering to send a complimentary copy on request. Read that copy and then judge of the value of this magazine for yourself. For those wishing to subscribe, the rate is $2.50 per year; to Libraries, $2.00.

4 EAST 12TH STREET WORLD UNITY HORACE HOLLEY, Editor NEW YORK, N. Y. [Page 254]

AMERICA

Devere Allen Minne E. Allen Brent Dow Allinson Paul Russell Anderson C. F. Ansley W. W. Atwood Robert W. Bagnall Alice A. Bailey Gerrit A. Beneker Ernest M. Best Louise Boyle Raphael Buck Edwin Arthur Burtt Harry Charlesworth Grover Clark Rudolph I. Coffee Russell M. Cooper John J. Coss Horace Donald Crawford Merle Eugene Curti John Dewey Frank Doane D. D. Droba E. B. Driedrich Sumner B. Ely Royal W. France Richard Glenn Gettell Herbert Adams Gibbons James Gordon Gilkey Charlotte Perkins Gilman Benjamin Ginsburg Frances R. Grant James Wilson Grasam Philip Leonard Green Alfred E. Guest C. E. Grunsky W. N. Guthrie Maurice C. Hall Frank H. Hankins T. Swann Harding L. A. Hawkins A. Eustace Haydon Paul Hinner David Hinshaw Hubert C. Herring Horace Holley Marion Holley Arthur E. Holt Hamilton Holt J. B. Holt Clarence V. Howell Manley O. Hudson Mary Hull Walter Woodburn Hyde Alfred P. James Mordecai W. Johnson Chester Lloyd Jones Rufus M. Jones Ernst Jonson David Starr Jordan Vladimir Karapetoff John C. Krants, Jr. John William Kitching Edwin H. Krieg Kenneth S. Latourette Harry Levi Harold Beryl Levy Alain Locke Clifford L. Lord Robert Moras Lovett Harley Farnsworth MacNair Harold Mager Louis L. Mann Alfred W. Martin Kirtley F. Mather Edwin D. Mead Lucia Ames Mead Fred Merrifield Herbert A. Miller Parker T. Moon Mary Rumsey Movius Gorham Munson Oscar Newfang Evelyn Newman H. O. Overstreet Archie M. Palmer Dexter Perkins Warren H. Pillsbury John Herman Randal John Herman Randall, Jr. M. D. Redlich Charles Henry Rieber Carl A. Ross Joseph S. Roucek Donald Richberg George Yeisley Rusk James Theron Rood Moises Saenz Henry Schmidt, Jr. Nathaniel Schmidt Maynard Shipley Smith Simpson Mary Siegrist Abba Hillel Silver Isador Singer Henry H. Stebbins, III. Robert C. Stevenson Glen Levin Swiggett George M. Stratton Helen Thoburn Norman Thomas Augustus O. Thomas Robert Whitaker Wallace W. Willard Helene Wittmann R. E. Wolseley Amy Woods Hugh McCurdy Woodward Frank Lloyd Wright C. W. Young

EUROPE

George de Lukas Sir James Marches Victor Margueri R. H. Markham F. S. Marvin Karin Michaelis Ida Muller Emanuel Radl Forrest Reid Paul Richard Charles Richet Th. Ruyssen Gilbert Thomas George Townshend Rustum Vambery Frank Walser Hans Webberg M. P. Willcocka Lidja Zamenhof

THE ORIENT

Rabi Afnán Norman Bentwich Ramananda Chatter James H. Cousine Taracknath Das Bayard Dodge C. F. Gates Yamato Ichihashi S. L. Joshi Younghill Kang Hendrik Christian Anderson Hans Kohn Norman Angell Giovanni Baldarzi A. Mendelson Bartholdy L. F. de Beaufort Albert D. Belden Pierre Bovet J. Tyssul Davis Anna B. Eckstein John W. Graham M. Grundmann-Koscienska Will Hayes Ernest Judet Richard Lee Ernest Ludwig Kiang Kang-Hu P. W. Kuo Dhan Gopal Male Yone Noguchi S. C. Fandit Frank Rawlinson Syngman Rhee Stanley Rice Nicholas Roerich Daljit Singh Sadar A. J. Saunders David G. Stead J. Vijaya Tunga [Page 255]

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 January, 1934 issue:

CONTEMPORARY SPAIN: LEGEND AND REALITY ... E. Allison Peers A CRISIS IN GERMAN PUBLISHING? ... Herbert Scheffler PUERTO RICAN WOMEN WRITERS ... Muna Lee HUNGARY'S LAUREATE ... Alice Stone Blackwell JULIEN BENDA, INDEPENDENT ... Wilbur Frohock LE SOUVENIR DE RENE BOYLESVE ... Aaron Schaffer YIDDISH WRITING IN AMERICA ... A. A. Roback ROUMANIAN LITERATURE, 1930-1933 ... Joseph S. Roucek PROPHETS OF DESPAIR (First Installment) ... Gustav Mueller

and reviews by such prominent critics as Rudolph Schevill, Samuel Putnam, Albert Guerard, Z. Osiecki, Edward Larocque Tinker, Sidney B. Fay, Marion T. Whitney, Guy Endore, etc.

BOOKS ABROAD is an effective advertising medium- $2.00 per year For rates apply to the Business Manager, Todd Downing, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. 50c per copy [Page 256]

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

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

COMMITTEE

HAMILTON HOLT, Chairman JANE ADDAMS SIR NORMAN ANGELL BRUCE BLIVEN MANLEY O. HUDSON SALMON O. LEVINSON JOSEPH REDLICH BARON Y. SAKATANI HANS WEHBERG