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[Page 77]

WORLD UNITY

C. F. ANSLEY W. W. ATWOOD MARY AUSTIN

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

JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, Editor HORACE HOLLEY, Managing Editor HELEN B. MACMILLAN, Business Manager

Contributing Editors

A MENDELSOHN BARTHOLDY BARON BAUDRAN L. F. DE BEAUFORT GERRIT A. BENEKER PIERRE BOVET EDWIN ARTHUR BURTT HARRY CHARLESWORTH No POON CHEW RUDOLPH I. COFFEE BAYARD DODGE GEORGES DUHAMEL ANNA B. ECKSTEIN HAVELOCK ELLIS AUGUSTE FOREL C. F. GATES V. SCHULZE GÄVERNITZ HELLMUTH VON GERLACH HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS KAHLIL GIBRAN CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN JOHN W. GRAHAM LUCIA AMES MEAD MARJA GRUNDMANN-KOSCIENSKA KARIN MICHAELIS FRANK H. HANKINS A. EUSTACE HAYDON WILL HAYES YAMATO ICHICHASHI RUFUS M. JONES MORDECAL W. JOHNSON DAVID STARR JORDAN SAMUEL LUCAS JOSHI ERNEST JUDET VLADIMIR KARAPETOFF P. W. K Jo RICHARD LEE HARRY LEVI ALAIN LOCKE GEORGE DE LUKÁCS LOUIS L. MANN SIR JAMES MARCHANT VICTOR MARGUERITTE R. H. MARKHAM ALFRED W. MARTIN F. S. MARVIN KIRTLEY F. MATHER HERBERT A. MILLER FRED MERRIFIELD DHAN GOPAL MUKERJI IDA MULLER HARRY ALLEN OVERSTREET DEXTER PERKINS JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, JR. CHARLES RICHET FORREST RIED TH. RUYSSEN WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD MARY SIEGRIST ABBA HILLEL SILVER ISIDOR SINGER AUGUSTUS O. THOMAS GILBERT THOMAS RUSTUM VAMBÉRY WALTER WALSH HANS WEHBERG M. P. WILLCOCKS FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Editorial Office:-4 East 12th Street, New York City

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE is published by WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPO- RATION, 4 East 12th Street, New York City: MARY RUMSEY MOVIUS, president; HORACE HOLLEY, vice-president; FLORENCE MORTON, treasurer; JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, secretary. Published monthly, 35 cents a copy, $3.50 a year in the United States, $4.00 in Canada and $4.50 in all other countries (postage in- cluded). THE WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION and its editors do not invite unsolicited manuscripts and art material, but welcome correspondence on articles related to the aims and purposes of the magazine. Printed in U. S. A. Contents copyrighted 1928 by WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION. [Page 78]

What Art Is

Civilizations rise, culminate, and fall, in a wave whose period, as Sir William Flinders Petrie has shown, is about 2000 years.

The Spirit "yearns to mix himself with clay." First comes the miraculous time of the impregnation, accompanied by many miracles, and even by the greatest, a personal incarnation. This is followed by a long period of gestation, the Dark Age: then the birth. The material mechanical Dark Age is inspired from within: the great cycle begins.

The process may be seen in the history of Christian Architecture, where the last stage of the Classical Period, the bones of Rome, was inspired by the rising wave, took on life, became Romanesque (in its various shapes of Byzantine, Anglo-Norman, etc.), culminating in the 13th Century in France and England; then, as the giant roller went by, sank gradually to its original,—the Renaissance we call it: it was really old age.

The order of the progress is always the same, always from the heavier to the lighter,—from Architecture and Sculpture to Painting, from Painting to Poetry, from Poetry to Music. The Spirit at first moves the rock, we have building and sculpture, then the earths, and we get painting, then language (poetry) and lastly the air (music). The Spirit is now free and flies away. The medium has become too light to hold it. Matter goes on with a galvanic and rational motion of its own. The age of Music is followed by the age of Engineering.

The state of the world now rapidly becomes apparently desperate; men seek in all directions for a cure, and find none, using all that is left them, their destructive reason. It is at this stage that the new impulse is given.

—OLIVER W. F. LODGE [Page 79]

DEMOCRACY FACES THE WORLD

FOR all that democracy has established a higher ethical standard among the masses, it has not yet succeeded in overcoming the primitive morality which justifies a different attitude toward strangers than that felt toward one's own kind. Foreign policy is still a subject of indifference to the average voter-except in emergencies; its administration is still practically a privilege the dominant classes; its application still represents that psychological area most of us jealously retain for explosions of unsatisfied ambition or unexpiated hate. Modern democracy is an organism functioning with two minds.

A two-minded state, like a divided individual, seems to live in a dual world. Each outlook reveals a corresponding set of conditions and necessities, re-action to which projects the dualism into fact and confirms the logic of the initial decision. Not until its culmination in catastrophe can the dual outlook, whether personal or social, be corrected by reference to a reality which must eventually be heeded because it can never be overcome.

The duality between democratic ideals at home and conquest abroad-whether the aim of conquest be political, economic, cultural or religious mastery-is the vast and terrible peril which all the nations, apparently, have voluntarily accepted at the present time.

Nothing is more urgent than that ordinary people become aware of the inevitable outcome. Our political status today depends upon foreign relations rather than upon domestic issues. Foreign policy, in fact, is the mirror which most accurately reflects the degree of democracy actually being applied at home. Domestic issues, by force of habit, create acceptable pretences that [Page 80]democracy has more than one way to be served; an unjust foreign policy strips all sham away and deals with the fundamentals of life and death.

The reality which can never be overcome is that humanity is one blood, one organism, one kind. Single-mindedness, integrity, can only be attained in public affairs if we eliminate the old tribal sense of permanent and inevitable distinction between "our people" and all other men. Denial of this oneness through injustice abroad invariably establishes injustice at home—whereby, sooner or later, we shall learn the sanctity and universality of spiritual law.

Granted the apparently insuperable difficulties in the way of a foreign policy compelled to deal with political institutions representing different degrees of ethical development and psychologized by the myriad bitternesses of the past; the fact remains that there is no more "foreignness" between the two most widely separated nations than between two or more classes in any one nation. A wider chasm yawns between Mayfair and Whitechapel, or between Wall Street and the coal workers of Pennsylvania, than between the average Englishman and the average Hindu, or between the average American and the average Frenchman, German or Chinese. Just as much religious fanaticism can be engendered between Protestants, Catholics and Jews in one European or American city as between Christian, Muhammedan and Hindu in the larger community of the world.

We live in a universe, not in a chaos. The living issue capable of associating all people of goodwill, irrespective of race, creed or class, in one final struggle for true civilization will sooner or later be crystallized. What humanity needs is a hero acceptable to East and to West. [Page 81]

RELIGIOUS UNITY

1. BY CHARLES PARKER CONNOLLY Church of the Christian Union, Rockford, Illinois

WHEN we come to the word 'unity' we may imagine that we have simplicity, but I suspect that there are metaphysical depths here beyond the diving power of our sturdiest intellects. Perhaps these metaphysical difficulties are the unperceived foundation of much of the confusion we have concerning religious unity. We have not been able to unite minds. The very essence of thinking seems to consist in independence and variety which make absolute unity unthinkable. The French clock-maker who tried to make all his clocks run alike went mad. Any attempt in the name of religious unity to make minds, far more sensitive than clocks, run alike probably awaits the French clock-maker's fate.

Though we cannot define either the word religion or unity, we can very profitably consider what the functions of desirable religion and desirable union are. Let us then ask, "What should religion do for us? What should a desirable religious union do for all the race?"

First, Religion should make men honor, love, speak and live the truth. We cannot get onward one inch in the realm of science, one inch in the realm of art, or one inch in that realm of a noble spiritual life in general, without essential, downright veracity. The trouble today is, most people think that truth isn't a thing to get enthusiastic over—that would be too much like glowing over a multiplication table. They are wrong. When men are not eagerly seeking and speaking the truth so far as they are able to do so they are not in a position to work together to advantage. They are like men trying to build in the dark. Their first prayer must logically be the divine prayer of Genesis, "Let there be [Page 82]light. We have not had enough light, enough of the actual illumination of truth to understand religion or to get together.

The second function of a desirable religion: It should create in us a love for and enthusiastic allegiance to goodness. The importance of morals is so obvious and generally conceded by religionists, at least in theory, that I shall not dwell upon this second requisite.

Finally, comprehensively and supremely, the function of religion is to make us love. It makes us love not only our duty, but our fellowmen, all of them, and whatever we conceive as the divine in the Universe. Jesus made that the essence of the first and second great commandments which fulfilled all the glory of the Hebrew religion, and he made it the very substance of his third and new commandment, "Love one another, even as I have loved you."

Unable to trace the roots of religion which stretch far out into the infinite, we have judged it by its three great fruits—truthfulness, goodness, love. These I would say constitute the irreducible minimum of religion and at the same time the unsurpassable maximum of noble human life. They speak the last word of idealism, of optimism, of nobility. I add those statements because in the interests of peace and compromise men sometimes whittle down movements to almost a vanishing point, but when we have reduced religion to these three we have reduced it to its naked, unhampered self and thus disencumbered and released it from all that ecclesiastical millinery, feudalistic armor, and metaphysical trumpery that have muffled and bound it for centuries. It is enough if a religion will make us truthful, good and loving. Thence arises usefulness and peace. Thence every other individual and social blessing. Thence irresistible momentum toward practical unity.

Having seen the function of desirable religion we now turn to the function of desirable unity. It is to keep us living together in such a way that the truth, goodness and love of all men are thus expanded and enriched; in other words, that life may be larger, happier, finer. Individualization and socialization must be the [Page 83]

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result of this vital union. Precisely how that is to be achieved in practice I am not prepared to say. I do not feel that I am either wise or good enough to do so. Furthermore I am convinced that the achievement is still very remote. But however distant we need to realize its direction for proper striving.

Though perfect unity is now impossible the world is challenging us for a better religious harmony and cooperation than now prevail. This is essential for many reasons, of which the most impressive are these: First, to counteract the insidious materialism of the times. Second, to resist the militaristic peril.

Matter was never before transformed into such articles of beauty, use and speed as at present. All these things are serviceable and noble when we make them the servants of vitalizing religion, but when we crown matter as our queen and put her above the considerations of truth, goodness and love, then we succumb to materialism, the worship of things rather than ideals, Mammon rather than God. Then the spirit of man is crushed under the weight of the finery he gains and covets, and the speed he worships may only succeed in getting puppets to useless destinations in the quickest time on record!

The last great war should have convinced all religionists everywhere that we needed an immediate parliament of religions to face the common foe militarism, with a common sense of brotherhood and peril. But alas! there were international diplomatic and economic leagues before there was talk of an international religious conference truly representative of humanity and its danger. Thus religious organizations lag behind instead of leading and emancipating men. It is a deeply and painfully significant fact that H. G. Wells, in discussing the peril of another great war and the possibility of preventing it, does not allude to religion as a deliverance. "It is a race," you recall he said, "between education and catastrophe." He did not say between religion and catastrophe. Did he believe that educators might unite but that religionists will not?

Certainly the religionists have not felt that their insignificant differences should be forgotten in the presence of a colossal and [Page 84]loathesome peril. Militarism, having plunged us into the last great war, having taught us clearly the result of competing armaments which by breeding fear, envy and suspicion inevitably breed war, is now again plunging us into the bottomless pit of competition in armaments under the specious piea of self-defence. An insidious materialism and a ruthless militarism are blindly threatening the bodies and souls of our youth, and yet we find the religious resistance of the world in what condition? Pitifully disorganized. A multiplicity of religions not on speaking terms. The very religion that boasts of its civilized achievements powerless to prevent the most cruel war of history and now seemingly supine when confronted by the peril of another. We think of the history of that religion. It started in the heart of Jesus as a genial atmosphere without barriers or bonds, seeking to encompass with human benevolence all mankind. But this seemed too vague and ethereal and unintellectual a spirit. It was therefore first Hellenized and we had a Hellenized Christianity, then Romanized, Protestantized, Prussianized, Anglicized, and finally, as someone has aptly observed, Balkanized. Balkanized Christianity, a thing of insignificant divisions!

We must recognize that there remain some honest convictions making a desirable union at present impossible and attempts therefore undesirable.

Manifestly there must be real repentance—an actual change of mind—somewhere before unity under such conditions is feasible. Any premature mergers of denominations before our hearts and minds are actually ready for them will delay and not accelerate the coming of a desirable unity.

In order to prepare ourselves and the world for that ultimate desirable unity, and meanwhile to facilitate such partial mergers as are beneficial, there are certain things which we should do.

First, we should avoid the failures of the past. The first one was ignored by the recent Lausanne Conference and presages its doom. I refer to the effort to secure creedal union. The effort of the Roman Catholic Church to secure unity in a rigid dogmatism failed. It caused sterile intellectualism. It resulted inevitably in [Page 85]

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Protestantism. Creedal shibboleths exclude many religionists. They are not unifying. We must reverse the old emphasis. Our fathers were so eager to exclude the unworthy that they failed to include all the worthy. Eager to include all that deserve admission, we must be willing to include some that are questionable. We should at last honor the example of Jesus who did not exclude Judas from the disciples.

The effort to unite all Christians by denominationalism has failed and we must cease to have faith in it. Denominational invitations are always the lion's sincere invitation to the lamb, to sacrifice union by the method of disintegration, assimilation and incorporation. The lamb becomes lion, and the lamb loses its identity.

Meanwhile the churches to prepare for ultimate unity and better fellowship should discard all their non-essentials. As Michael Angelo ted that "Art is the purgation of superfluities," so the prophet of the coming religious unity insists that true religion is the purgation of superfluities—all of these superfluities of creed and ceremony which needlessly divide us.

Next we should all dream the great dream of one great church, not merely because of its economies and efficiencies, and certainly not because of any rigid, regimented thinking precluding all desirable individualism, but because of the glory of its humanity and the motivation of its charm. See it in your imagination towering above all these present little insignificant sects and denominations. A mighty cathedral of the city towering high above every temple of trade and pleasure, attracting not the first fruits of the fields and flocks as the ancient Jewish temple did, but the first fruits of human genius, the noblest architecture, the best orchestras, singers, oratory, painting, sculpture. All there to give fitting expression in wonder and beauty to the glory of a lovely, lively religion. To devote, as at present, our best music, art, architecture and sculpture to temples of trade and pleasure; is that consistent with the demands of a religion needed by humanity?

There are today men and women of different colors, race, [Page 86]tongue, and faith who seek the true, the good and the loving in varied ways. These men are in fundamental accord and constitute an invisible and unconscious fellowship. The unity of all such kindred spirits in some conscious fellowship to destroy their common enemy war, and promote their common projects in an organization elastic enough to include them all, open enough to let the light of heaven fall upon every one, wide enough to let all nations house them, is a consummation devoutly to be wished. Any notion of foreigners or of patriotism which makes us ignore or disdain this silent fellowship of the men and women of good will in all lands has blinded us to the actual presence here on the earth of our brothers and sisters.

This is the tragic failure of the churches and of the race. It has not learned of the great Master the supreme lesson of love. It has not with him humanized religion. It has actually preferred the insignificant prejudices, the devastating vices, the ghastly wars to all the joys, sanities and glories of love. Such a small amount of love in the world, and yet here is the vast capacity of the human mind and heart calling for oceans of it and given but a few refreshing drops. This is our great racial heresy, and our great international crime, the essence of all our folly—our lovelessness.

2. BY G. GEORGE FOX

South Shore Temple, Chicago, Illinois

The recent encyclical of the Pope on the "Supremacy of the Catholic" must have stirred many a breast which harbored the hope that the time was approaching when some sort of unity might be arrived at among the various religious divisions. Particularly must this have been true of those who did not understand the insistence of the Church on nullam salutem ex ecclesia. There seems to have been a tendency of late to assume that the Pope has become more lenient, and therefore more friendly, to those who have left the confines of the Church of Rome. But that has now been dissipated—and the attitude towards the English High Church party, and this last word of the Pope have left no doubt [Page 87]as to where the Catholic Hierarchy stands. And let it be said for the Pope, that even though his attitude is disliked, he is eminently consistent. For to the Church there is only one religion, and those who are outside of it are heretics who can be recognized only insofar as there is any possibility of winning them back to the fold.

Another disappointment that must have shaken the faith of many, was the withdrawal of the Greek Catholic delegation from the conference at Lausanne. It will be remembered that at the beginning of the meeting there seemed to be an indication that all would be peaceful and harmonious, but it soon became evident that dogmatic differences could not be ironed out, and the withdrawal of the Eastern Church followed. And in this I believe they were consistent. If the Greek Catholic Church has only the truth, then it cannot be a part of any conference on church unity that does not contain its truth.

It seems to me that the lesson that we who believe in the unity of religious bodies can learn from these events is, that those who feel the urge of this unity must frankly admit that there are differences, and that prior to any kind of unity, there must be a frank recognition of two things: First, that no one body of religious men have all and the only truth; and second, that these differences must be sincerely and honestly recognized. It seems to me that unless these two fundamental conceptions become a possession of the religious forces, there will never be—because there never can be—unity among the religious bodies of the civilized world.

I am not interested in any movement which has for its immediate objective the unification of the world’s forces in the sense of making them uniform. I can’t believe in uniformity in religious expression. Our psychological investigations have advanced far enough to show us that it is impossible to stuff religion down the throats of those who are temperamentally sterile to certain particular types of religion which do not appeal to them. Sociological investigations have shown us that there are types of groups that are unresponsive to certain types of organized [Page 88]religion. Philosophy has shown long ago that human thought will make definite intellectual differentiations that are inhospitable if not hostile to certain types of religious demands. And surely science with its tremendous pull against certain theological impossibilities will not permit any universal iron-clad unchangeable religious discipline. Uniformity in religion is as impossible as uniformity in any other field of human behavior.

But the frank recognition of differences; the recognition that each religious group may contribute something to the sum total of human values; the recognition that certain groups can respond best to certain types of religion; and then a sincere determination to work together for a higher and a greater human good, that is, I take it, something altogether different. And to such an end, every religious leader who has a modern mind, ought to give a willing assent. I can't quite understand how one who comprehends and appreciates the meaning of religion, and I mean the use of that word in its wider application,—can be averse to any arrangement by which the forces of organized religion might be able to effect to a greater extent, the good which they are trying to do. It is inconceivable to see how anyone who looks at mankind sub specie coeli would object to a modus operandi under which every great religious group would give the best that it has, to a world that is so sadly in need of social improvement and religious betterment.

I do not overlook the fact that there are certain eternal verities that are common to all great religions. I do not forget that there are certain ethical ideals without which any of the great religions would be simply superstructures of superstition and stupidity. Yet while it is true that the roots of all religions lie imbedded deep in ethical conceptions, it is equally true that many moderns forget this, disregard it, or minimize its importance. And the combined "pull" of the united forces of those faiths that are not chained to the rock of St. Peter, could work inestimable good for a wider ethical application to the workaday life. It is not necessary in these days, when the effectiveness of large combinations is so patent, to argue that a half dozen good [Page 89]

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forces combined, are much more effective than the same half dozen working independently.

I want an understanding of our differences, and respect for them. I want a frank determination to learn to know each other’s virtues, and to evaluate them properly. I want men to understand that disagreements do not necessarily involve hostilities. I feel that the time has come when those of us who are yearning for social salvation must understand that there is no one road that leads to it. I want a breadth of view that will include the other man’s "doxy" without necessarily jarring his own. Though if it does, the worse for him. I want an understanding between religious folk that will stimulate thoughtfulness, increase human warmth, intensify human fellowship, create new and fine human values, and bring godliness a little closer to earth. I want a religious fellowship based on conduct more than on dogma; on life here rather than hereafter; on mutual goodwill for the sake of a more exalted human sympathy; I want men to be able to look into other men’s souls through a transparency which a higher religious conception will create,—I do not want a religious attitude which will create a wall of opaqueness. I want different religious groups to get accustomed to travel their particular paths—those which they know best and love best—to the ultimate goal of human perfection. But I do not want them to throw stones and hurl insults at those who travel by other paths. I want a new religious mind, one which can vision the ultimate goal of human striving for all religions, or at least those which are willing to work together. I want an attitude which will, with friendliness and with reverence, say: Let others walk in their faith—I will walk in mine, until we meet in the sanctuary of human fellowship and social love. I believe that Unity in Religion, with the conditions that I have mentioned, will make out of this mundane and tear-stained sphere, a paradise fit for those to live in who have been made in the image of the Almighty. [Page 90]

3. BY ALBERT W. PALMER

First Congregational Church, Oak Park, Illinois

At first glance nothing seems much more divided or, possibly, divisive than religion. Christianity, Muhammedanism and Buddhism are all divided into more or less widely separated and even hostile sects.

But just about in proportion as the student of religion attains a tolerant and sympathetic attitude toward religion in all its various forms there grows upon him an understanding of certain fundamental and basic unities. Some of these are within each religious family and some of them, by a sort of cross-reference, unite similar sects in different religious groups.

All religions, for example, are united in a recognition that something in life is holy and that that which is regarded with reverence is the authoritative factor in our daily living. In this connection I was much interested in hearing Stanton Coit of London quote McCabe, the secularist, to the effect that "our gods are the things we fear but dare not hate and the things we love but dare not caress." All religions bow before some aspect of the infinite mystery and in recognition of that in the universe which is beyond man and yet which man cannot disregard or defy.

Out of this unity of psychological origin, this common recognition of mystery, grows another interesting unity underlying the various expressions of religious emotion in worship. The early Roman Catholic missionaries were more than astonished to find Buddhism equipped with altars, candles, stoles, rosaries, bells, processions and many other properties of the Roman ritual. They ascribed it to the ingenuity of the devil in counterfeiting the true church. Of course it was only the independent action of the human spirit in developing appropriate expressions of religious emotion, or else the forgotten inheritance of Christian ritual from Nestorian missionaries and the survival and development of these forms because they someway satisfied universal spiritual needs and cravings.

I spoke of a certain cross-reference type of unity. One sees this quite readily in Buddhism and Christianity. Buddhist sects [Page 91]

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seem to have crystalized along emotional, temperamental and intellectual lines very much as Christianity itself has stratified. You have high-church and low-church Buddhism. The Nicheren sect in Japan is sometimes spoken of as having a somewhat emotional Salvation Army type of approach while the Zen sect is more intellectual, cool, and philosophical-Congregational or Presbyterian in temperament-and so on.

There is great value in recognizing this underlying common ground of all religions in their response to basic emotional hungers because it inevitably opens the door of understanding and creates the attitude of tolerance. There are some things which unite all religions against the utterly secular, materialistic, non-religious attitude toward life. A devout Buddhist kneeling before his altar in the presence of the giant trees on Koyasan, or a devout Muhammedan prostrate in prayer within his white and austere mosque, or even a blindly superstitious worshipper at a Hindu shrine, has something profoundly in common with the most high-brow modern Christian listening to Harry Emerson Fosdick over the radio. As over against the mechanistic materialist, for example, they are all in the same camp for they all believe in some sort of a spiritual interpretation of the universe and of man's life within it.

To recognize this common kinship of all religions is to enlarge our spiritual fellowship. Last summer as I came out of Chartres Cathedral an American college girl said to me: "That was so wonderful it makes me wish I were a Catholic!" "So you are, my dear," I replied-being my own daughter, I was privileged to say "my dear!"-"for as a good Congregationalist you belong to the Church Universal which is an invisible fellowship of all who love and serve in loyalty to spiritual ideals. These people just now in charge of this cathedral may not know it and probably would not recognize it, but in a very real sense it belongs to us--at least it does so far as we can appreciate it, gain spiritual inspiration from it and make it a dwelling place for our souls."

And then I quoted the famous little quatrain written by Edwin Markham: [Page 92]"He drew a circle that shut me out— Heretic, he called me, and a thing to flout; But love and I had the wit to win— We drew a circle that took him in!"'

But, someone may ask, isn't this recognition of the underlying unities beneath all religions a very dangerous thing? Won't it cut the nerve of foreign missions? Doesn't it logically break down all distinctive loyalty to one's own religious communion?

Of course the answer is that, if the unities were all there is, it would. But any facing of the facts of religion, any view which is real and not merely sentimental, must recognize that there are differences between religions as well as unities beneath them. And these differences have their values—and their dangers. I am a Christian and not a Buddhist or a Muhammedan because I find in Christianity certain great spiritual truths better emphasized and more effectively upheld, in my judgment, than in any non-Christian religion. I am a Congregationalist and not a Roman Catholic because I find in Congregationalism a spiritual freedom the Roman Church cannot, or at least will not, afford me. Nature's way of progress is ever by differentiation and if all religion were held to a uniform dead-level how could it go forward?

But if differences have their values, they also have their dangers—very obvious ones like intolerance and persecution and more subtle ones like the development of a superiority complex. The problem of religious unity seems, therefore, to be one of balance and proportion how to preserve freedom and opportunity for all possible variant quests for truth, how to keep the roads open to all sorts of religious experience, and at the same time preserve the tolerant spirit and understanding heart toward all other seekers after God.

How shall this be done? The first and most obvious solution, at least so far as those within each of the great religious groups is concerned, would be by organic union. Let all the Christians, for instance, get together into one organization, with one creed, one ecclesiastical government, one unified program. [Page 93]

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The answer is, fortunately, that it can't be done! I say, fortunately, because if it were done, even with the best intentions and under the happiest auspices, it would unquestionably turn out, sooner or later, to have created a great machine which could have only one of two results; a reduction of everything to a very low-level common denominator or a setting up of rigid standards which would make rebellion not only inevitable but highly desirable. There is no use setting up any kind of external ecclesiastical uniformity. The Protestant Reformation would only have to be done over again! But there will be no such necessity. The old uniform medieval Catholic Church is gone forever. Those who seek an external mechanical organic unity of Christendom are exploring a blind alley. Certain great families like the Presbyterians or Methodists may get together but complete organic unity would mean an ecclesiastical machine which is neither possible nor desirable.

What then? Tolerance, appreciation, recognition of the need of different types of thought and ritual to meet varying religious needs, and then cooperation and federation to prevent wasteful competition in local work—these humble and prosaic paths are the methods to which our church leaders must return after the more dramatic dream of organic union has faded into the light of the realities of human nature.

Perhaps, precisely because unity is a thing of the spirit, we shall have more of it the more we keep it in the freedom of the spirit and the less we seek to force it into organic form.

4. BY FRED MERRIFIELD

University of Chicago

How can anyone who looks facts full in the face have the temerity to believe that religion can ever be one? For there are all kinds of people in this old, old world of ours; and very few of them will readily consent to yield much of the tradition in which they happened to be nurtured. They never stop to think, most of them, that had they been brought up some other way, they would have stood just as ardently for the tenets of that other faith. The [Page 94]purely accidental nature of the average man's conceptions of truth never dawns upon the vast majority of the race. They seem to hold implicitly that Heaven selected them as the sole authorized recipients of the most holy faith. Consequently they go blindly on, believing in their own superiority and in the worthlessness of the other's views of life.

A course of reading in comparative religion is a liberal education in itself. For when one frankly looks at the splendid discoveries and the heart-breaking yearnings for further light as expressed in the nobler writings of the various religions, he is quite likely to feel like the poor tax-gatherer of whom Jesus spoke so feelingly: he will have little room or inclination to criticize his fellow worshipper; and most of his energy will be taken up in searching for the truth and in making sure that his brother man enjoys the same great blessing.

Inasmuch as our best literature is, after all, simply impressions of actual life caught by some earnest soul at some fortunate moment in this whirl of existence, why do we not seek first-hand experience in the communion with friend and neighbor? Thousands of lives lie open for our reading and enjoyment if we will take the trouble to come to them with the interpretative key of friendliness. Our careers are needlessly barren and uninspired because we refuse to bestir ourselves enough to find the treasured good in those next to us. And now, with the growing literature and the daily experience of every people over the world at our disposal, we are surely less than human if we shut our minds against the influences which they might exert for good were we to entertain them in hearty fashion.

Of course it is easy to point to the disruptive forces in all parts of the world, and it is not difficult to persuade ourselves that people fall victim to the insidious propaganda of hatred much more readily than they can be won to a constructive program of activities. Until the race is considerably farther along the road to intelligent cooperation, there is far more likelihood that we shall from time to time slip from our toilsome path of progress than that we shall advance with steady stride. [Page 95]

RELIGIOUS UNITY

Yet even in face of the persistent groups in Europe who, in a spirit of desperate dissatisfaction, are sowing broadcast the seeds of suspicion and war; even with so many of the fine young Chinese regarding "the once friendly America" with looks of disgust, quite persuaded that we have lost all of our former interest in their independence and progress; and notwithstanding the frightful tendency on the part of many thousands of our young people to lose all faith in the finer qualities of life, with the natural result that they are taking their lustful fling at fate; yet, I say, only the shortsighted fool will consider the day as lost.

The religious struggle is not an easy one. If it were, it would scarcely enlist the splendid energies of so many noble fighters against odds. Is it not true that most of this present discouragement is the very natural accompaniment of an age of change and unrest? There is nothing intrinsically new in present-day tendencies. The old world has witnessed many an overturn in its time quite like the one which disturbs our equanimity. It is doubtless true that we are pursuing rainbow gold at a pace never hitherto equalled. It seems true that we never before have had so many conveniences and so much freedom for going to the devil, if we were so disposed. The old restraints of Church and State were never before so little heeded.

But consider the hopeful side for a moment. Life is so finely balanced, that the sight of men sowing seeds of disruption invariably arouses to action some heroic souls who still count the hard gains of the race too precious to be given up at the impatient whim of unbalanced natures. The heroic has by no means died out of the heart of humanity. Many a time do we witness the fact that even the so-called indifferent and careless respond to the call of human need and demonstrate their inherent worth when the cause seems to them sufficiently compelling.

In other words, there is enough latent power in human nature to make this a world of real brotherhood. One trouble with the program of previous decades has been that we have been so enamoured with the idea that the moral battle would soon be won, or that some supernatural forces would at an early day be unleashed [Page 96]to do what was so clearly our own task to do, that we have leaned back upon our Gods in their complacent heavens and let our energies be sapped by by-play and trivial detail.

Look the facts clearly in the face. How many of our religious leaders really know what they are trying to do? How many of them see their religious tasks in the perspective of history, in the full light of human experience? They blunder along and confuse the issue for multitudes because they are blinded by cheap ecclesiastical tradition. They have not the clarity of mind possessed by a Jesus or an Amos or a Confucius. They are still doling out mint and anise and cummin, and have no time left for the weightier matters of social justice, personal integrity, moral initiative, and world-interest. And if so many of our leaders in the various religions of the day do not know what is expected of them, how can the unthinking multitudes be expected to yield intelligent response to the call of the crying problems of the time?

I have unbounded faith in the responsive goodness of the great masses of our human brothers, if only they be faced with compelling issues and a fair opportunity to utilize their unsuspected powers in some simple human cause. I have faith that if our leadership in the various religions could itself gain an intelligent view of human progress and failure, and respond to the urgent call of the great ethical leaders of history—not forgetting that we have with us right now some very clear-sighted path-makers in all walks of life—the rank and file of all nations would enter upon a crusade of plain human cooperation such as time has never before witnessed.

Most of us are utterly sick of human misunderstandings, encouraged by the few. We see no useful purpose served by these tragic struggles between nations, and amongst the brethren within any given nation. We are wearied, like the God of Malachi, with the priestly mutterings and the prophetic platitudes of the men who should have their ears at the ground of real race needs and attuned to the high call of the divine within their sensitive natures. We lack intelligent and fearless leadership today. We should clarify the issues in religion with a prophetic heroism [Page 97]

RELIGIOUS UNITY

which would even count sect slogans and creeds and denominational interests as nothing before the common good of the human race. We are stubborn cowards, most of us. We are what the honored prophets of old designated as stiffnecked and calloused hypocrites, knowing better than we speak, and certainly capable of hearing higher notes in the message of God to the race than those which we so monotonously stress from day to day. How can men sit in Lausanne councils with any complacency when deep in their own hearts they are as stubbornly set on preserving the old lines of action as are the political statesmen who play the war game around the supposedly peaceful tables at Geneva! How can our spokesmen in high religious circles kee up this everlasting prattle about universal peace and brotherhood, when their own creedal beliefs and their divisive rituals stand like an entrenched army between them and their supposed ideals!

No, this dear old world can have unity any day it is willing to pay the price. But it must not let politicians in so-called high-places—whether of State or Church—cleverly block the game. Better sink the divisive creeds with our battleships, and the precious heritage of all religious custom with our pride, rather than lose this all-desirable human oneness for which the most carnest hearts have cried out for many generations.

Our ancient Dream will begin to come true when enough devoted souls in all nations get together in the determination to overcome all obstacles to friendly understanding and to realize the Will of Heaven, as we have so long called our ultimate Ideal, conscious that the burden of this task rests squarely upon our own human shoulders and nowhere else. Let the Councils of Understanding be called in the leading cities of the world. New prophets worthy of our greater day will not be wanting when the hour strikes for assembling! [Page 98]

THE WORLD WE LIVE IN

Men live less and less in geographical and more and more in spiritual communities. The involuntary elements of existence tend to be limited to the regional area, the voluntary elements find increasing opportunity of self-expression through association of likeminded people selected out of the entire population by identity of interests and ideals. In this department, World Unity Magazine will publish each month a brief description of some important modern movement, voluntary in character and humanitarian in aim, believing that knowledge of these activities is not only essential to the world outlook, but also offers the true remedy for the sense of isolation and loneliness which has followed the breakdown of the traditional local neighborhood.

INTELLECTUAL WORLD COOPERATION

by LUCIA AMES MEAD Author of "Swords and Ploughshares", etc.

No more pregnant lesson was ever taught on the fundamental doctrine of the need of cooperation and interdependence than the ever-absorbing romance of Robinson Crusoe on his desert island. We live and move and have our being effectually only as others labor and we enter into their labors and inherit and share their thoughts. It was to be expected that, after over fifty nations had laid the foundations for world federation and cooperation, they should provide not only for matters relating to peace, to health, to labor, to care for the backward and abused peoples, but also for doing in the intellectual world essentially what the International Institute of Agriculture in Rome, a product of American origin, is doing for the producers and consumers of agricultural products.

Like the World Court at the Hague, the location of the International Institute for Intellectual Cooperation is outside Geneva—the prime center of world organization. Hardly a stone's throw from the Magazin du Louvre where Paris fashions allure throngs of shoppers, in a corner of the Palais Royale of Louis XIV, one enters the palatial corridors and rooms allotted by the French government to the Institute. We ascend spacious staircases [Page 99]where the bewigged and furbelowed grandees of two hundred and fifty years ago lived while they danced attendance on Le grand Monarque. Those were the days before modern coal smoke had turned gray the white exterior. In these lofty rooms, with gilded cornices and in the ballroom, rich with huge crystal chandeliers, one revives memories of Napoleon, and the ubiquitous "N" is richly engraved on elaborate doorlocks. The shelves rising to the ceiling are beginning to be filled with books and pamphlets gathered from the universities, and the numerous employes working in different languages are busily engaged in making the place a clearing house of information for those engaged in research.

The French government, besides supplying the building, donates 2,000,000 francs annually for expenses. As this sum amounts to only $80,000, it is evident that the employes are woefully underpaid. The Russian lady who speaks five languages and who showed us about, I was told receives ten dollars a week for her skilled service. The Institute has now been established for two years and is beginning to report results to the Assembly of the League, where science, politics, and scholarship are finding for the first time in the world a common center.

The International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation is composed of fifteen men and women representing Holland, Great Britain, Norway, Poland, Germany, Brazil, Switzerland, Japan, and India. The representatives best known to Americans are Gilbert Murray, Einstein, Madame Curie, Bose—the biologist of India and Professor R. A. Millikin of the United States. The governing body consists of seven and meets every two months. National committees have been formed in thirty-two different countries, and thirty-five countries have appointed official delegates to the Institute. Mr. Zimmern of Great Britain has been appointed Deputy Director of the Institute. The Institute has six sections:

University Relations Section

This is concerned with exchange of professorships and students, equivalence of degrees and kindred matters and with the publication of the University Relations Bulletin. [Page 100]

Artistic Rations Section

This is preparing for the first Congress of Popular Arts. This is to be held at Prague and the Czecho-Slovakian government has undertaken to defray a large part of the expenses. Preparation has brought specialists in each branch of popular art into contact with the Institute.

Scientific Relations Section

This has concluded agreements for the coordination of the bibliography for economic science, classical antiquity and biology; agreements regarding national and international year books of intellectual life.

Literary Relations Section

This is making statistical investigations regarding translations and publishers.

Section of Information and Reference

This is concerned with Press Associations, Schools of Journalism and publication of lists of the recent best books in the different countries.

Legal Service Section

This deals with questions of copyright and scientific property and kindred matters. It publishes a small monthly Bulletin.

A Coordinating Committee

This consists of twenty-one major international associations interested in the problems of education and international understanding and has been formed in addition to the regular sections.

Perfect equality of treatment between all nations is insured.

The feature which is likely to interest Americans, especially those who are supporters of our entrance into the League, is the work which a subcommittee of experts has undertaken for the instruction of children and youth in the aims and objects of the League of Nations. Thus far the work, hardly begun in 1925, is a surveying of the immense field which is to be harrowed and planted.

With some of the most important matters the Institute can do little until further funds are available. At present, the League has none to provide for it and only Poland and Czecho-Slovakia have added a few thousand dollars to the $80,000 donated by [Page 101]

INTELLECTUAL WORLD COOPERATION

France. May it not be hoped that one of our multi-millionaires looking for a wise investment for human welfare may follow the example of the Rockefeller Foundation which is aiding the Health Department of the League and supply an endowment that shall put the Foundation on a living basis and enable it to do in the future a far-reaching work in passing on the rich intellectual treasures of the West to the awakening and revolting East and at the same time give such an understanding of its life and art and aspirations as shall avert the racial conflicts that threaten the crowded world a century hence?

More than half the eighteen hundred million people on the globe are still illiterate, shut out entirely from the treasured wisdom of the race. The next hundred years could overcome that appalling deprivation were it not for the lack of a common auxiliary language. Mexican peasants sit on the ground and listen to lessons on farming sounding through the radio. The radio is bound to be a quick medium for wholesale enlightenment of illiterates as soon as an easy and simple language is standardized by linguistic experts and through the aid of such an agency as the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation made the instrument of all teachers who grapple with the multifarious dialects of the illiterate world. The recent assembly at Prague of over four hundred educators from many lands put itself on record as urging the widespread use of Esperanto. Whether this particular auxiliary tongue which has had a wonderful start, or some improved form of it, be finally accepted by experts, is not the main issue. The $4,000,000 pledged for the Tunney-Dempsey prize fight might have provided for the teaching in every normal school in the world this easy, quick method of bringing intellectual cooperation to the myriads of minds that now are in darkness and which contain, no one can say how many thousands of mute, inglorious Franklins, Horace Manns, Florence Nightingales, and Mazzinis. The Institute has no funds or plans at present for the undertaking of this work. There is sufficient scientific knowledge in the world to turn it into a heaven on earth within two generations were ideas made to fructify through the wise [Page 102]expenditure of unearned increment applied to that intellectual cooperation which spreads understanding and good will. Mr. Hoover has pointed out fifteen ways in which our business world wastes through its stupid management, costing our country millions of dollars daily. When the idea of intellectual cooperation gets beyond questions that chiefly affect only the privileged class and we face its largest problems we shall apply our energies to removing the intellectual wastes which are even more devastating than those economic ones which industry and commerce suffer.

A very much needed agency for international understanding will be the new Institute of International Relations which opened in 1927 in Geneva, affiliated with the University of Geneva and having the brilliant and able rector of the University, Dr. Rappard, as one of its six directors. This has for a beginning an income of about $50,000, half of this coming from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Foundation and the remainder from the Swiss and cantonal governments. The recent gift of $2,000,000 from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., for a library for the League or Nations will add to the resources which are soon to make Geneva a center which will draw every month of the year the scholars and statesmen of the world and make it even more than it already is the capital of the world of intellectual and political cooperation. Other gifts are bound to add to the funds allotted by the League for international work. These amount at present to about $5,000,000—one third of the cost of one single cruiser! A recent private gift to the Paris Institute is for an International "Who’s Who" biographical and bibliographical list of the chief notabilities of the world. An International House like the splendid ones bestowed by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., on university students in New York and in Berkeley, California, should some day enrich Geneva and provide headquarters for the increasing body of thoughtful students who find no spot on earth so intellectually stimulating and inspiring. [Page 103]

THE INTERACTION OF EUROPE AND ASIA

by WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD Department of History, Columbia University

VI. "Two Strong Men Stand Face to Face"

AFTER having surveyed the East and West, and noted the manner in which the Eastern ways in Western lands and Western ways in Eastern lands and reciprocity of thought have been operative during the past five hundred years, we observe as the net outcome of it that the two types of civilization have been brought into a marked unanimity of conduct. Out of the relationship that has thus been established in a semi-millennium between the Orient and the Occident, there have appeared, very broadly speaking, four concepts leading to action. Most briefly stated we may call them: Imperialism; Nationalism; World Consciousness; and the Sense of a Common Humanity.

On an earlier occasion, when studying the introduction of Western ways and Western thoughts into Eastern lands, I attempted a definition of Imperialism. Reiterating at this point I may say it is nothing more than the expenditure of surplus energy by a nation or people upon another nation or people who have not themselves a surplus energy to expend.

Nationalism is to all intents and purposes an assertion of a right not merely to full independence, but of a right to utilize those forces which are engendered by the nation's own development for the betterment of the people subject to its rule. That means that in operation Nationalism is employing its energies thoroughly at home and is aggressively intolerant of influence from abroad. It might be said that when the Nationalism overflows, and therefore seeks and finds an outlet for its surplus energy, [Page 104]it becomes Imperialism. That is not necessarily true. The mere spirit of adventure, before Nationalism has attained to anything like a full development, may lead to journeys abroad, may bring on all sorts of new responsibilities which react upon the Nationalism at home and quicken it.

It might be said that Nationalism and Imperialism are simply two phases of the same thing. Nationalism is the term that applies to that which goes on in a given area among a given people and Imperialism is what that particular people are doing outside of the original boundaries. The motives and the methods in many cases are much alike.

Because of the reciprocal operation of Nationalism at home and Imperialism abroad, and without attaching an opprobrium to either, there has come about necessarily a consciousness of the world at large that never would have been possible before. Both those to whom Nationalism is communicated—those who feel the impact of it—and those who themselves are spreading imperialistic ideas and institutions over the earth, become increasingly aware of the existence, one of the other.

So long, obviously, as Europe was in ignorance of the rest of the globe, there could not be such a thing either in Europe or elsewhere as an idea of world consciousness. Only when this relationship has been made intimate, with the advent of steam, electricity and airplanes can we say that not only knowledge of the rest of mankind has come about but also a consciousness that we dwell in a common world. And along with that comes not only the notion of dwelling in a common world but also an increasingly intense realization of the fact that we are all part and parcel of a common humanity, which suggests a corresponding action on the part of all concerned to render that consciousness effective.

It has been notably the case since the latter part of the eighteenth century that what is called the New Imperialism brought forth an enormous number of books and treatises showing that men of the Western and Eastern world are thinking more and more about these contacts and what they have signified. [Page 105]

TWO STRONG MEN STAND FACE TO FACE

Under various names, such as "World Politics," "Colonization," "Imperialism," "Expansion," and all the rest of it, the whole process of the communication of European ideas, institutions and commodities to mankind at large, and the working back of the impacts upon the European men and conditions themselves, the whole process, I say, has been examined from a large number of viewpoints. The economic side of things, economic determinism, if you like, is in all mankind. Is it not fitting and proper that those who have surplus energy in finance, commerce and industry should endeavor to have that surplus energy applied in effective fashion?

Does it conduce to benefit, or does it conduce to injury?

So in some fashion, what has been the struggle for the last five hundred years along ocean lines, is that one particular race or people or group of mankind is endeavoring to spread its ideas and institutions to other peoples with the idea of stimulating themselves to a greater or less extent.

Is that beneficial or derogatory?

The thought arises also, it is not merely a struggle for a place at the feeding trough, but a struggle of races, peoples, castes and classes. There is also the struggle among political groups, a sort of effort to attain, a survival of the fittest among those who are politically assembled within a particular area that we call a nation. Then there also has arisen a discussion as to just how moral this whole process is.

Does there exist such a thing as an innate conception of right? Is there such a thing, indeed, as innate right at all?

Because people have inhabited the New World and their ancestors have done so for untold ages, are they entitled to remain there forever, undisturbed, unhindered, unafraid, simply because their forebears occupied it?

Is it fitting and right and proper that those who have made distinct progress—intellectual, moral, artistic and otherwise—should remain forever cramped in relatively narrow areas, and that they should be compelled to feed literally upon themselves, when other areas, inhabited by a more or less sparse population, [Page 106]backward in many respects, but teeming with natural wealth untouched, remain untouched? So we have a moral issue, discussed very actively, as to the extent to which those possessed of power and those possessed of ambition, should use that power and ambition. And on the other hand, how far may those who have neither power nor ambition remain entitled forever to living their own local and narrow lives.

And finally there is a rational way of looking at things. We may be brutally grasping on one side or mawkishly sentimental on the other side. One is just as reprehensible as the other, as is perfectly manifest. In carrying out a distinctly humanitarian sentiment, we may become mawkishly sentimental and declare that Australia, South Africa, North and South America at large should never have been interfered with at all, that they should have remained the wilderness haunts of roaming savages up to the present time; and that phases of civilization, distinctly European for the last five hundred years, should remain wholly European. But they never would be what they are if they had remained European.

The breath of civilization has been deadly to the aborigines: but in the infinite scheme of things into which we cannot penetrate very far with our finite consciousness, it seems better for mankind at large that the New World has become an abode for Europeans primarily, and that other parts of the world are, no longer subject wholly to the ignorant, the backward and benighted.

On the other hand, when you remember the vast continent of Asia with its civilization, and the map of Europe, and that it has become more or less subject to European control or fallen under the sway of European influences, a somewhat different question presents itself. Then we may ask ourselves with a far greater degree of justification to what extent may the European go in forcing his impact upon the non-European whose civilization antedates his own and in some respects is quite equal if not superior to it.

Though there is no completely satisfactory answer, the difficulties of the present situation are very suggestive. [Page 107]

THE THREE PROBLEMS OF THE EAST

There have developed, from the standpoint of political and economic imperialism, a number of questions in the Orient which have had a very serious repercussion indeed upon Europe proper.

We call them, for the sake of historical convenience, the Near Eastern Question, the Middle Eastern Question, and the Far Eastern Question.

The great problem with which the medico-political practitioners of Europe occupied themselves during a long time in the nineteenth century, was what to do with the "Sick Man of Europe"—the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, as Czar Nicholas I of Russia facetiously dubbed him: what would be the best means of performing his amputation.

As the nineteenth century advanced, before the Eastern question was at all settled, there arose the Middle Eastern Question, namely, which of the two European States—Great Britain or Russia—should be dominant in India, Persia and the approaches to them both? Those were the days of the "Bear that walked like a man," that kept many British statesmen awake at night.

And then there arose finally, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the question which is today far from being settled, namely, the Far Eastern situation.

When we study these various questions which have taken mainly a political and economic turn, we are impressed more and more, not so much with the nature and seriousness of the problems themselves, as with their repercussion upon Europeans. These are not and really never have been questions for the Near East, the Middle East and the Far East themselves; they have been fundamentally problems that concern European international relations and as such constitute the clearest piece of evidence of the reaction upon European life and thought of conditions and happenings purely in Asia.

Now the more the West has spread its ideas, institutions and commodities into Asia, the more it has quickened the process through many mechanical devices, the more evident has become [Page 108]a distinct reaction among the Asiatic folk. In proportion as the Europeans and their opinions are imperialist, to the same extent, or in greater or less degree, does the manifestation of a national consciousness reveal itself in the Orient. That which we call Oriental nationalism, be it Turkish, Indian, be it Japanese, Chinese, Javanese or any other, is not born in Asia, is not derived from Asiatic conditions. I fail to find anything in the historical antecedents of Asia which would justify us in believing what we call nationalism is an Asiatic product at all. It is a reaction to the influence of European ideas and institutions. Nationalism born of European conditions and antecedents has been trans- planted inevitably to Asiatic lands. And one reason why the Asiatics find it so extremely difficult to assimilate this European product is that they have had nothing fundamentally like it in their whole historical experience. Accordingly when speaking about Japanese, Turkish or Chinese nationalism, bear in mind what we are really talking about.

An exotic of Europe, planted in Asia, no wonder it produces a greater or less degree of political, economic and social indiges- tion, very much as many political, economic and social customs introduced from Asia into Europe might have, and in fact have had, a very similar effect.

It is sometimes asserted by the advocates of various kinds of Oriental nationalism, that Europea religion, intellectual life, customs, everything that has to do with the presence of the European human contacts, as well as purely mechanical contacts, --that the results of the World War have conduced to the arrival of a day when the Asiatic will shake off the control of the Euro- pean. They point with a great deal of pride to the fact that these white masters have started falling upon one another, decimating one another, while the Asiatics have refrained from the destruc- tion of each other to any great degree. It is shown how Japan has freed itself from European control and has even become imperial- istic after the manner of Europeans. The Turks instead of being subjected entirely to European control have dared to shake off that European control, and created a republic, all since 1923. [Page 109]

TWO STRONG MEN STAND FACE TO FACE

Why have they strengthened themselves in their republican ideas and institutions: call it republican for the sake of discussion? With what agencies of power have they provided themselves, to ward off any possible danger of future European aggression? By Europeanizing themselves, doing in the last six or seven years precisely what the Japanese have been doing for fifty or sixty years, recognizing thoroughly that if they want to preserve that which is Turkish and become Europeanized, they must proceed to adapt and adopt themselves European ways and thoughts likely to preserve Turkish nationality.

And the same thing is becoming increasingly true of the others: all these being nothing but clear evidence of the powerful working of European infiltration. It did not arise spontaneously from the East.

It is asserted also that the World War was productive of a race issue; and there has been a veritable flood of books turned out within the last ten or fifteen years on the great danger of the future race conflict; that there has been looming a fearful Yellow Peril, sometimes attenuated with brown and black; that the white race is slowly but surely sinking to its doom, and there is rising the shadow of the Orient, typified by Yellow and Brown.

Well, as to the remedy, here is where the missionaries come to the fore. The missionaries declare the only thing to prevent the replacement of the white by yellow or black, is the spread of Christianity.

In reply to all this, one may say, were it possible to convey spiritual Christianity without material Christendom along with it, to the Orient that apparently may be threatening the dominance of the European, that assertion might have validity. The real distinction between the spiritual truth and beauty of what in itself is an Oriental faith, and the unspiritual ugliness and falsity visible in the conduct of many of those who profess Christianity—or at all events are assumed to form part of Christendom, that distinction is not one always appreciated by Christians themselves and still less by the Oriental people concerned. What both of us alike know and have been made repeatedly to [Page 110]understand is that Christianity as a faith is accompanied only too often by practices that are most unchristian. These practices history shows in the Orient and in other parts of the world do not remove so much as they tend to enhance bigotry, prejudice, intolerance, fear, greed, envy and racial or national hatred. There is no historical reason—here I may sound dogmatic but I am able to substantiate that statement—there is no present set of circumstances sufficient, in my opinion, to show that Asiatics as a body or even a great majority, will ever accept Christianity. The Muhammedans, who know it best of all, are the ones who reject it utterly. And lands inhabited chiefly by Muhammedans are the least susceptible to European civilization. In general they accept it only when force enters, as in the case of Turkey under Kemal.

That Christianity alone can accomplish or prevent, where every other human thought or device has failed, is a pious notion, not susceptible of proof, historical or otherwise.

How about this race war matter? In point of fact, there never has been such a thing in the entire history of mankind as an international race war, of colors, and there is not a single precedent in the past or a single indication in the present which would render it at all probable that a world struggle begun and pursued on a purely chromatic basis, with every other hue of the human skin arrayed against that which passes for white,—there is not the remotest likelihood of it.

The trouble is that whereas we of the so-called white races are presumed to have a differentiating eye for shades that are not white, we are quite uncertain at times where the white begins or ends.

The idea of an inevitable struggle of a material sort, of a resort to a war between two civilizations, between Asia and the Western world, for the mastery of the earth, is at best a dream for a remote future, or rather a nightmare for an uneasy present. The extent to which it ever becomes true will depend obviously on the outcome of the influences of the West as imported to Asia in modern times. [Page 111]

III

There is an old Latin saying, "Ex Orienta lux"-out of the East comes light. Asia must teach again, says Count Keyserling, the Western world. It must show us how to synthesize the best elements in the vastness of our knowledge about the physical universe into a few simple lines of energy and direct them toward a recognition of all of the great values. Then too, we of the West must learn to superimpose upon our world of machinery and material progress the teachings and the methods of spiritual recognition as the Hindus and other Oriental peoples know it.

This attitude is in contrast to the idea of an inevitable struggle between the Eastern and Western world for material mastery.

So far as the European may be held responsible for the present situation in Asia, for the nationalism, and the display of anti-foreign sentiment there, it would be both untrue and unjust to declare that Western ways of acting and thinking have always been evil in their operation; that they have ever been invariably selfish, cruel, tyrannical, predatory, imperialistic, and all the rest. On the contrary, assuming the existence of what is bad, one cannot deny the presence of the good as well. In other words, the man of the West, European or transplanted European, has behaved like a human being, and like any other human being, including the Asiatics themselves, would have behaved under similar circumstances. With his ways and with his thoughts, he has made his influence paramount in Asia, until the Asiatic has become so permeated with this European influence that he is beginning also himself to behave like a human being in that he is resentful of the control of the foreigner, in that he is anxious to strike out for himself, in that he is fearful lest this Western power become too strong and thereby make him lose his own soul, make him lose everything that is distinctive in his own experience. Moreover, since Europeans and their descendants have made their particular outlook on life dominant in the Orient, there seems to be no good reason why Asiatics should not strive to make their ways of acting and thinking-not necessarily dominant in the West, but blended with what is useful from the West-dominant in the East. [Page 112]

THE NEAR EAST

Now illustrating these points by reference to the various geographical areas of the Orient beginning with the Near East: You realize, of course, that vast region we call the Near East stretching from Northern Africa all the way across Western Asia into the uttermost confines of Persia, is easily the most romantically historic spot in the world. Within its limits are found all of the great Empires known to classical antiquity,-the Egyptian, the Hittites, the Sumerian, the Akkadian, the Babylonian, the Assyrian, the Phenician, the Hebrew, the Greek, the Macedonian and the Roman Empires: that in itself is an astonishing thing. Just let your fancy travel for a moment on what that signifies.

True, the span of life is relatively short: and yet, within the period of a comparatively few thousands of years there have arisen great empires, flourished and fallen, and their dust is found everywhere in that Near Eastern region, and beneath its surface are found temples and shrines and palaces and towers and many of the material evidences to constitute a great pagan civilization which has transmitted, nevertheless, the best of its elements to posterity. It has something, however, vastly more than an historic interest. Its strategic position is all important. The Near East is the bridge between the further East and Europe. It is the bridge over which, during countless centuries past, ideas, institutions and commodities have been transmitted to the Orient, and from which originally even a richer supply has come from the Orient itself to Europe. Over that vast bridge ran two enormous arteries,-one artery of water, to be called the Suez Canal; and the other an artery of steel, the Baghdad Railway, running from Constantinople to the Persian Gulf. It is of most extreme interest to Asiatics and Europeans alike that that bridge shall be kept clear.

At the present time it is variously held, under mandates of Palestine and Arabia to Great Britain, the mandate of Syria to France. The great region of Arabia, nominally independent, is more or less subject to British influence; and the only portion of [Page 113]

TWO STRONG MEN STAND FACE TO FACE

the Near East today that can be called genuinely independent is the Republic of Turkey; and even that is to a very great extent Europeanized.

When we consider the strategic significance of the whole region, and the historical background of it, teeming with so much that has been called great and glorious and best in human records, we must add something else. It is a region that at one time blossomed like the rose, when the cedars of Lebanon looked down upon smiling valleys tenanted by untold millions of the human race, a marvelous monument to posterity; yet today a desert. Supplied with modern methods of irrigation and cultivation, it is capable of arising once more to a position of great importance in the economic, social and political life of the world. It has a variegated population, given to social and religious bickerings and dissensions, largely responsible in the past for their own undoing. And yet, if the Asiatics and the Europeans, as the joint keepers of that Near Eastern bridge, know how to cooperate, how to pool their efforts, the time may not be far distant when the Near East will be resurgent.

THE FAR EAST

Moving further eastward to India: here as you know are found upward of 320 millions of the human race more or less under the domination of a single European state. The dominance of this European state,-social, moral, intellectual, economic and political, has been to arouse among the Indians themselves (or certainly among those who are their leaders) a desire to attain, if not complete independence, at least autonomy, a position of equality with the other great British dominions, albeit those other great British dominions are tenanted almost wholly by Europeans. It is therefore one of the most profoundly interesting political, economic, social questions before the world today. Is it possible to conceive that a great Asiatic people, the foundations of whose civilization reach back through thousands upon thousands of years can, in the nature of things, become an autonomous part of a European empire? Isn't it more logical to suppose [Page 114]that fortified, strengthened, invigorated, by ideas or institutions derived from the East, that India will rather imitate the example of Japan and be truer to itself than if it were to become independent on a plan like that of Canada or South Africa, to say nothing of Ireland?

We turn now to the case of Japan.

You realize that at the time the Japanese people, under the direction of a paternal government, undertook the process of Europeanization, there were three kinds of Europeanization available, the three types of European culture which blended into one we call distinctively and peculiarly European in its outlook upon life: (1) Greco-Roman; (2) The Christian or Medieval; and (3) Modern technical, scientific and mechanical.

By the Greco-Roman I mean the general framework of society in law, transmitted onward from Greece and Rome to the Medieval European world and thence drawn onward to the present time.

By the Christian or Medieval I mean the religious and moral ideas that are intimately bound up with the religion we call Christianity.

And by the modern scientific, technical and mechanical culture, I mean all of those things that have arisen out of the industrial revolution and which have constituted the differences that exist between us and our eighteenth century ancestors.

Now of those three the Japanese have taken over in part the Greco-Roman, with reference to legal and governmental and judicial concerns.

Of the Christian and Medieval element in European civilization they have taken virtually nothing, for reasons I will explain.

The third they have incorporated almost bodily because they recognize that in the mechanical, technical and scientific elements, there the Europeans have developed their greatest strength; and that greatest strength would be accordingly serviceable for the Japanese as for the whole human race.

What motives had Japan in Europeanizing itself?

We seem to discover four motives,-two defensive and two [Page 115]

TWO STRONG MEN STAND FACE TO FACE

offensive. The two defensive motives were those associated first with assuring Japanese independence at a time when the Europeans were pressing hard upon the East coast of Asia. And not only to preserve Japanese independence as the first motive, but above all to preserve the Japanese type of civilization itself; in other words, all those things of mind and soul and spirit and body and usage which render the Japanese as a folk, distinct from other folk; to keep their psychology, their inwardness, free from the influence of the West. That was the defensive motive, and that is the reason why the Japanese did not take over the Medieval and Christian; for that is what penetrates into the soul, spirit, conscience, inward self; it is that which turns and molds and transforms psychology; that and that alone.

Only the merest handful of Japanese ever became Christians, or ever probably will.

Then they had two offensive motives. One was to secure for Japan a position of importance in the world, the position of at least an equal among other nations, if not a primacy. And the second object of an offensive nature was to assure to Japan the same rewards for expansion of its own influence, institutions and commodities, as the Europeans themselves have had.

Japan's situation is much more difficult than that of any other Asiatic nation. It has a scarcity of natural resources in the shape of things that have built up our present mechanical, technical, scientific civilization, namely, coal and iron; and it has an enormously increasing population, with between 65 and 70 millions of people crowded in an area the size of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania and New Jersey—four hundred odd folk to the square mile, in contradistinction to thirty-five to the square mile in the United States. China is almost a desert in comparison with Japan, with only one hundred to the square mile, yet China has more than 400 millions.

That sort of thing can not go on forever: this population of Japan is increasing 1.3 per cent per year, a more rapid rate of increase than any country on the face of the globe. There is no birth control in Japan. Very well. What solutions may Japan adopt? [Page 116]She has just two and no more. She may export the surplus population. Whither? There is no welcome for her surplus population in Australia, Canada, the Pacific Coast of North America, Europe, North Africa; or even in Central and South America it is not welcome, broadly speaking. There may be Central and South American countries—Brazil for instance may welcome them: but the United States, the American people, view with grave disapproval and apprehension the entry of considerable numbers of Japanese into the New World. Incidentally there is brought out of its repository and carefully dusted and set up where everybody can see it, the Monroe Doctrine.

So Japan is blocked, and blocked all along the line. They can go to Formosa; but Formosa is in the tropics, and they don't want to settle in the tropics. The Japanese live in the Temperate Zone. They can go to China; but if they go to China they will probably be starved out by the Chinese, who are much cleverer than they are.

Then what are they to do?

They will industrialize themselves; become a second United States or Germany or Great Britain; will grow like Great Britain into another insular industrial kingdom. Then too in order to industrialize themselves, the Japanese must secure iron and coal. Where? In China? Yes, but the coal of China is of poor quality. The best coal belongs to the European states. With what can Japan pay for that coal? China does not produce any good grades of iron. With what can Japan pay for iron and steel available in European lands? With goods manufactured with that coal and iron. And thus, if they manufacture goods with coal and iron, what chance has it to compete unless their labor is so cheap it underbids the European in the world market? Do you think that is going to add to the gaiety of nations? Do you think the Europeans will hesitate one moment to raise the tariff barriers so high the Japanese can not crawl over them?

What are the Japanese to do? What is their role? Are they to be harmonizers between the Orient and the Occident? Regardless of these solutions are they to be a buffer between the Orient and [Page 117]

TWO STRONG MEN STAND FACE TO FACE

Occident to protect the rest of Asia from the rapacity of the Europeans?

Now with reference to China: the real issue in China today as I view it, is not the matter of the evils of European imperialism, it is not a question of unequal, unjust treaties, it is not a matter of extraterritoriality and other opportunities enjoyed by Europeans through its tariff of 5, 6, 10, 40 per cent: no, it is something quite different. It is the natural and inevitable consequence of the process of Europeanization which has been going on in China since about 1840, which has produced a most extraordinary concatenation of circumstances.

Europe had the time during five centuries to undergo a series of revolutions, happily spread over a considerable period. You have the so-called commercial revolution, namely, the utilization of the ocean as an agency for transportation in contradistinction to the narrow seas and lakes through which commerce tortuously had made its way in the Middle Ages and in ancient times. The ocean became the great highway of commerce and that unquestionably effected the commercial revolution of the sixteenth century. Then in the seventeenth century came the financial revolution whereby on account of the enormous influx of silver and gold from the New World the whole economic basis of European life underwent a change. Then there came in the years succeeding that, the second half of the eighteenth century, the industrial revolution which worked its way along slowly and took nearly one hundred years before its effects were really felt to any great degree.

In the sixteenth century then, we had the commercial revolution; then also in the sixteenth century, its effects being felt later, came the religious revolution; then came the financial revolution; then the industrial revolution at the end of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century a political revolution, but taking between five and six hundred years for five or six great fundamental changes in the life and thought of Western Europe.

Poor China is having thrust upon it all at once, within a [Page 118]period of about eighty years, all six revolutions, introduced by the Europeans.

Far deeper forces are at work there. All the power, force, energy, which the Europeans have been storing, as a result of the successive revolutions—commercial, religious, financial, industrial and political—suddenly pouring into China within a period of eighty years, was bound to produce extraordinary results, and it can not be supposed that this country, having a civilization so old, having customs and manners so conservative, will all of a sudden adapt itself and assimilate with surprising readiness all of these huge transformations.

That I think is where we find the real explanation of what is going on in China.

So far as the leaders have any program at all—I am not speaking of the military leaders,—all of those who have definite ideals apart from personal objects, they are summed up in three people's principles laid down by the late Dr. Sun-Yat-Sen, viz., political freedom for the Chinese people; economic elevation of the Chinese workers; international cooperation and equality for China and the Chinese with other peoples.

INTERDEPENDENCE OF EAST AND WEST

Universal peace and the effective equality of human groups are concepts not possible of realization as yet. Inherently peoples are not more equal than individuals are. There must be leadership; and just as among individuals, so among nations, leadership flows inevitably to the most efficient. I am not using that word in the limited sense of machinelike action: I mean that which is accomplishing the greatest good for the greatest number, be it moral, religious, political, economic or anything else. Up to the present time the test of human efficiency has been force at arms. The future may make it instead the force of ideas and principles. Whether it does or not will depend upon the extent to which the men and women who know and think, and who can and do express both their knowledge and their thoughts, succeed in a vast campaign of education throughout their several countries, [Page 119]

TWO STRONG MEN STAND FACE TO FACE

working against the international anarchy and chaos of today, for and toward an international cooperation that may be the promise of tomorrow.

In the truest sense the contact of Asia with the Western world means that in the ceaseless course by which the divergent streams of humanity tend to unite, no nation that will live and prosper can remain passive, whether that nation be Chinese or Indian or any other; for the mighty flood of human progress will tear it from its moorings unless it contribute its share to the general progress and the perfection toward which humanity is striving, its share toward hastening the disappearance of prejudices based on race, religion, nation, caste and class, toward hastening the arrival of an era when divergence of individual opinion shall be the sole effective test of the separateness of mankind.

Stress therefore upon the approximation of thought and goodwill, upon what has been mutually given and mutually received between the two great centers of civilization,,East and West, serves to emphasize the interdependence of mankind which lies at the root of world unity.

When we of the West become thoroughly conscious of our indebtedness to the Orient for many of the essentials of our culture, and when they in the East acknowledge in like manner what has come from the Occident to put them abreast of the life that betokens the modern age with its mighty conquest of the forces of nature, then and then only notions of respective superiority and inferiority will yield to a concept of potential equality. This in its turn will make clear to all of us that actual differences between human beings are primarily those peculiar to individuals, and are determinable by the larger or smaller opportunities each may have to rise in the scale of useful achievement. Ours indeed is a realm of spiritual endeavor replete with possibilities, unlimited. If turned to effect they may cause the noble words of Edith Cavell-"Patriotism is not enough"-to take on the meaning that the fact of a common humanity transcends the bounds of states, diffusing over earth in its entirety a consciousness of meaning never attained before. [Page 120]

UNITY AND DISUNITY IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

Edited by DEXTER PERKINS Department of History and Government, University of Rochester

Steps Toward the Outlawry of War

Since the 28th of last December a most important discussion has been carried on by the Secretary of State of the United States, on the one hand, and by Aristide Briand, the French minister of Foreign Affairs, upon the other. It has to do with the fundamental problem which is often described as the outlawry of war.

The origin of this discussion is to be found in a speech of M. Briand's made more than a year ago in which he proposed that the French and American governments agree as between themselves to outlaw war. A formal proposal for the drafting of such a treaty was made by the French government in June, but for some time negotiations made little headway. And then, in December, Secretary Kellogg opened a vigorous discussion with his note of the 28th. This note was written only after consulting the members of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate, and especially Senator Borah. It is, indeed, to be assumed that in every step of the exchanges of view which have taken place since that time, the Secretary of State is proceeding in close contact with Mr. Borah, if he is not in large measure actually guided by his advice.

The note of the 28th of December proposed, in place of a mere agreement between the United States and France, a general declaration of the principal nations of the world renouncing war as an instrument of national policy, and suggested a common [Page 121]

STEPS TOWARD THE OUTLAWRY OF WAR

effort of the two governments to bring such a declaration into being.

This note was answered by the French government on the 5th of January. From the very beginning of the discussion down to the present day the Quai d’Orsay has approached the problem from a slightly different angle than the government of the United States, though, as will be seen, it is not to be inferred that the differences between them are irreconcilable. The essence of the difference lies in the fact that France is bound by the terms of the Covenant of the League of Nations, and by certain other special engagements which must be taken into consideration by the directors of her policy. Under the Covenant, armed action is in some instances permissible. In particular, such action is permissible against a nation which has broken the promises of Articles 12 or 13 to submit its disputes with other states either to arbitration, judicial inquiry, or a process of conciliation before resort to war. Indeed, the underlying conception of this great international compact is that such a law-breaking state will have turned against it the economic force, and if necessary, the military force, of some or all of the members of the League.

To the French mind, and indeed to the Continental mind in general, this idea of punitive action is of considerable importance. A mere promise to abstain from war, so the argument runs, is worthless. In some fashion the state which breaks such a promise must be punished. Provision must be made for some kind of action against it. And such action may be military action, defensible as a measure of international police rather than as war in the exact sense of the term. In following out this idea, the French government has subscribed to the treaties of Locarno, which contemplate war against an aggressor nation, and by these treaties it is bound as well as by the terms of the Covenant. The great question at issue in the Franco-American negotiations is whether the French and American points of view on the question of coercive action against a wantonly aggressive state can be harmonized. France, and indeed the European nations in general, will probably show a very luke-warm interest in a mere [Page 122]engagement not to resort to war; they will view in a very different fashion an engagement not to resort to war to which some kind of machinery of enforcement is attached.

Viewed in another light, what is at stake in the discussions now going on is whether the United States will, in any degree or in any manner, assist in maintaining world peace. Is it ready to help in some way, (not necessarily in a military way, but in some fashion or other) in preventing war? The momentous character of such a question is obvious.

To return to the Franco-American negotiations, the French government, mindful of its obligations under the Covenant and the treaties of Locarno, answered Mr. Kellogg's communication of the 28th of December with the announcement that it was willing to unite in an agreement to renounce all wars "of aggression." This phrase the American Secretary of State found highly unsatisfactory in his note of January 11, and it seemed for a little as if the chances of a real accord were very remote. That France would or will consent to any emasculation of the Covenant of the League or to the surrender of the security afforded her by the treaties of Locarno, is hardly to be expected.

But the discussion was not dropped. Indeed it has continued down to date, and at this writing the French and American governments have agreed to approach in common the other principal governments of the world. M. Briand still makes certain important reserves, but the differences between him and Mr. Kellogg are apparently not considered sufficiently serious to constitute a bar to further action.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the whole matter is the support which Senator Borah is giving to the negotiations. On him, as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate, devolves a great responsibility, and with him rests the power to cripple or to advance the activities of the State Department. He has obviously been pursuing the latter course.

Consider, for example, the question of reconciling such an agreement as Mr. Kellogg proposed with the terms of the Covenant of the League. To meet this difficulty Senator Borah has [Page 123]

STEPS TOWARD THE OUTLAWRY OF WAR

suggested the following ingenious conception. If one of the states signatory to the proposed treaty should violate it, that would automatically release all the others from their engagement with respect to it. Under such circumstances, then, the signatory states which were also members of the League would be free to fulfil their obligations, even to resort to force against the aggressor. There is, then, no real incompatibility between the State Department proposal and the European treaties above referred to. This interesting concept has been promptly appropriated by M. Briand in his last note to the American government. In this note, in which in general he expresses his willingness to proceed to negotiate the proposed treaty, he stipulates specifically that violation by one of the parties shall release the others from its terms as against the violator.

Even more interesting, however, as illustrating Mr. Borah's thought, is the statement published in the Sunday New York Times on March 25. In an interview given to Mr. Kirby Page, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee expresses the opinion that, in the case of the breach of such a compact as is under discussion, it is "inconceivable" that the United States would not take some measures to punish such an aggressor. What those measures should be must be determined, says the Senator, by the United States itself. But complete acquiescence in the wanton ignoring of the obligations thus imposed is not to be expected for a moment.

Such a statement brings the French and American views into closer contact than ever before. In expressing these sentiments Senator Borah is advancing materially the prospects of a successful negotiation. His views will doubtless influence Mr. Kellogg very materially, and the knowledge of his attitude will encourage the Secretary of State to proceed toward constructive action.

It is entirely possible, therefore, that something quite important will come out of the Briand-Kellogg negotiations. It may be that the way is being paved for an agreement, outside the Covenant of the League, which will none the less align the United States with the other great nations of the world in [Page 124]renouncing war, and in providing an effective machinery for punishing the aggressor.

On the other hand, a false optimism is dangerous. In an election year, when timid counsels almost universally prevail, progress on a conception so large as that of the outlawry of war, is bound to be slow. And, more important still, there is no telling what the Senate of the United States will do to a general treaty of the kind proposed if the matter ever comes to that stage. The tactics of the enemies of all peace agreements in the Senate is always the same. It is to emasculate such measures by numerous reservations. Such reservations require only a majority vote, and can be drawn in such an attractive form as to command the support of many members. Yet, by such means, many an international engagement for peace has been made illusory, in practical fact.

It is something, however, that the United States has again entered into an international discussion aimed at the destruction of the war-system. In their implications the Kellogg-Briand negotiations are as far-reaching as any that have been attempted by the American government in many a year. Their success, like that of most other projects in politics, will probably depend in large measure upon just how vigorous is the interest, and how tenacious the purpose, of the people of this country. [Page 125]

THE BHAGAVAD-GITA

WE COME now to the fifth of the various types of literature found in the sacred scriptures of Hinduism, the mystical,-embodied in a work more dearly beloved by modern Hindus and more influential upon their life than any other-the Bhagavad-Gita. So ennobling are its dominant ideas and so beautiful is the form in which they have been expressed that no other Indian religious work holds a place by its side unless it be the Upanishads. "The pearl of great price in the ocean of Brahmanical teaching"; "The supreme ethical and religious product of post-Buddhistic thought"; "The song celestial"-such are some of the phrases in which enthusiastic admirers have described the Bhagavad-Gita. William von Humboldt, the distinguished philologist, once remarked "I thank God I have lived long enough to meet with this poem, the most beautiful and the only philosophical poem in the literature of the world."

If the greatness of a book be measured by its influence over human lives then is the Gita a great book. For two thousand years it has swayed with ever-growing power the mind and heart of Hindu India. Millions have heard it, read it, taught it, found in it a range of hope, comfort, inspiration, telling, as it does, of the consecration of life to a wholly unselfish purpose and of an Infinite Love that forever and everywhere pours forth its illimitable grace upon all who seek it. [Page 126]This widespread appeal of the poem is accounted for, in part at least, by the very variety of ideas it contains even as is the case with the Christian Bible. As in the New Testament so in the Gita every kind of religious opinion has been given expression. Here the Vedantist finds his Brahma-Atman; the Sankhya philosopher, his "flux" theory; the Theist, his personal God; the Pantheist, his All-Existent-One. By whatever way a man thinks salvation is to be had, the Gita gives it endorsement. In other words, the strength of the Bhagavad-Gita is its adaptability to meet every sort of spiritual need. It has an argument in support of every ancient Hindu doctrine. As Dorothea Stephen in her excellent monograph, "Studies in Early Indian Thought," says:

"If the necessity for action is to be urged, we have the following verse: 'Do thou always perform action For action is better than inaction; Without action even bodily life can not be secured." (III.8)

Or if we are to understand the essential unreality of the self, we read, "When it is deceived by egoism, the self thinks 'It is I who act.'" (III.27)

If ordinary morality is to be practised, there is the whole of the sixteenth discourse with its continuation in the seventeenth and eighteenth discourses. If it be a plain rule of life that is wanted, then the whole book is an exhortation to follow the rule of caste. If convention is to be put aside and search made for the one ultimate reality, we have only to realize that the book itself is a concession made to the partly-enlightened and that there is a yet higher way possible where its standards do not apply. If the seeker demands a personal God, we meet with the assertion again and again that such a being exists and that he manifested himself as Krishna, that he knows and watches the lives of all men, is their judge, their saviour, and is sometimes even said to love them. [Page 127]If, on the other hand, anyone rebels against the limitations incident to such a conception, he can take refuge in some remoter existence of which nothing can be said except "that it is and that it is unchangeable, self-existent, eternal, infinite."

The authorship of the poem is unknown, but apparently it is of composite origin. The higher criticism is still at work on the problem of sources and results to date point to the presence of four or five hands in the production of the work. Like the Pentateuch, or the Book of Isaiah, the Bhagavad-Gita would seem to be the work of many minds and many centuries. A goodly number of additions and interpolations have been incorporated with the original. Indeed the poem might well be published after the manner of the "Polychrome" Bible, with the original text in black type and the supplemental parts in as many other type-colors as there are authors.

To unprepared readers who, hearing of its fame, take up the poem to find the secret of its power, it proves as difficult and forbidding as the Koran. Confused, repetitious, self-contradictory, a jumble of illogical subtleties and pedantry, a complex of conflicting ideas, standing in unmediated juxtaposition; such are some of the terms in which the unprepared have described it.

The Bhagavad-Gita, though constituting the sixth book of the great epic, the "Mahabharata," is yet a story by itself, complete in itself, and it exists in more than one hundred editions. Many of them are published in India for free distribution by organizations similar to our American Bible Society, which annually distributes thousands of copies of the New Testament, free of charge.

The poem may be described as the Bible of Vishnuism or Krishnaism, the best known of the many sects of modern Hinduism, claiming one hundred and fifty million adherents and differentiated from other religious societies chiefly by two beliefs. The first of these is that "the creator and preserver of all mankind" is Vishnu. He was originally one of the gods of Vedic Pantheism but he has here been raised to isolated supremacy. No longer is he a personified nature force as in the Rig-Veda; nor [Page 128]an impersonal metaphysical abstraction, as in the Upanishads, but an anthropormorphic deity.

The other distinctive feature of Vishnuism is the belief that this god has again and again been incarnated, and once in the year of 300 B.C. in the person of Krishna "to quicken flagging devotion to righteousness." Who was this Krishna in honor of whom the poem is entitled "The Song of the Blessed One"? We meet him first in the Mahabharata where he functions as champion of the Pandavas in their feud with the Kurus, their cousins.

In the sixth book (The Bhagavad-Gita) of this great war epic, Krishna is seen on the battlefield where the two armies are arrayed for fratricidal combat. Here Krishna has assumed the guise of charioteer for Arjuna, greatest of the princes of the Pandavas, a sort of Sir Galahad,-"sans peuret sans reproche." A long dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, dealing with duty, deity and destiny constitutes the greater part of the poem.

Besides Krishna and Arjuna, two other persons are presented: a blind old king, Dritarashtra, brother of Pandu, and Sanjaya, a clarivoyant who acquaints the sightless king with the progress of the battle, being enabled with his inner or spiritual eye to see all that transpires and is hidden from the king who sits with him in his palace, cager to know how it fares with his sons and their cousins. Sanjaya tells Dritarashtra that the five brothers, sons of Pandu, are under the leadership of Arjuna who is charioteer for Vishnu-Krishna. As the chariot starts into action, Arjuna suddenly says to his god-charioteer:

"O Mandava (title of Krishna) I pray you to stop the chariot Before the contending armies. I do not wish to damn my soul By killing anyone in battle."

Arjuna was a pacifist and Krishna instructs him in the ethics of war, and more especially with reference to the following three considerations:

(a) Arjuna was born into the warrior caste and therefore [Page 129]

THE SACRED SCRIPTURES OF HINDUISM

has no alternative but to fight, for duty according to the code of that time and place was determined by the caste into which one is born. "Valor, heroic temper, steadfastness in strife, these are the warriors' proper works. Only as he devotes himself to his proper work does he attain salvation. Bound by thine own nature-born work, O son of Kunti, that which from confusion of thought thou seekest not to do, thou perforce shalt do."

(b) 'Tis a just war, inasmuch as the very existence of his clan is at stake, hence it is a defensive, not an aggressive, war. Moreover, every form of conciliation has been attempted in vain so that no alternative remains for Arjuna but to do battle valiantly. Says Krishna: "To a knight there is nothing more blessed than a lawful fight. Happy those knights, O son of Kunti, who find such a strife coming to them unsought as an open door to paradise."

(c) The essential self-hood of Krishna cannot be slain or slay, for there is a fundamental distinction between the self and the not-self, or between the material, tangible, visible self and the immaterial, intangible, invisible self. Therefore, let Arjuna dispel his doubts as to the propriety of killing relatives and friends. Let him manfully enter the fight and do the duty which the All-Existent-One has laid upon him by creating him a warrior. Again says Krishna: "Remember that these finite bodies of ours belong to an indestructible spirit. They who think it can kill, and they who think it can be killed, are both wrong. Changeless, eternal, it is not slain when the body is slain. Weapons cannot cleave, nor fire burn it. There is none who can make to perish this changeless being. Knowing this, O son of Pritha, thou shouldst not hesitate, nor grieve."

Once more, in the second chapter, Krishna subdues the scruples of Arjuna over killing his enemies by the following Upanishadic utterance:

"If the slayer think to slay, If the slain himself slain, Both these understand not. This one slays not nor is slain." (Katha II.19) [Page 130]Here we are irresistibly reminded of Emerson’s poem "Brahma" in which he contemplates the fascinating thought that prevades the Gita:

"If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again.

"Far or forgot to me is near; Shadow and sunlight are the same; The vanished gods to me appear; And one to me are shame and fame."

Thus the immediate purpose of the Gita was to extol the duties of caste above all other obligations including the ties of friendship and affection, and at the same time to show that the practice of these duties is compatible with all the self-mortification and other austerities enjoined by the Yoga philosophy, as well as with the deepest devotion to the Supreme Being of whom Krishna is the incarnation. The purpose of the Gita, in other words, was the removal of obstacles that blind one to a sense of his duty by uprooting the seeds of ignorance and planting the ever-green palm of knowledge, knowledge of caste and of duty and of one’s essential self-hood.

And when Krishna has ended his appeal and pronounced his final benediction on those who are dear to God, Arjuna rises, rejoicing, for his hesitation has been banished, his despondency vanquished, he is eager to engage in the fight that will bring him still nearer to his lord and to salvation. Arjuna says: "My delusion is destroyed and I have regained my memory, through thy grace, O changeless One, I stand firm with doubts dispelled. I will do thy word." (XVIII.73). [Page 131]

THE NEW HUMANITY

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

Edited by MARY SIEGRIST Author of "You that Come After", etc.

BECAUSE of its spirit of search, poetry, like all art that is vital, holds in itself the "mighty hopes that make us men." The poet's path is one of seeking. He searches for the wisdom of the heavenly gates-for the "peace of great doors. At the panel oblongs he waits for the great hinges." He is the cup-bearer, the flame-bringer, the unweariable pilgrim seven times wounded but joyous, out on the endless journey. Imprisoned in our stifling days and nights, this madman of divinest sense seeks a "door into larger days and nights." A true child of earth, he searches for the pulse of the life-song among the roots and in the good dirt of the earth. He would unlock every cave of every rock. His thoughts are wings and bear him through infinite regions. To the dark tarn of earth he would somehow bring the light of his star. He comes to "cities of stone with news of the city of dreams." If in these cities of stone he finds the hearts of stone, he finds no less the living hearts of flame.

The mood of smart flippancy, of subtle defeatism and frustration does not disturb him overmuch. He knows that the seeds of decay are already in it; that it must eventually die of its own malnutrition-of the poisonous husks it feeds upon. In his dream of love and brotherhood is life.

A LOFTIER RACE

These things shall be: a loftier race Than ere the world hath known shall rise [Page 132]With flame of freedom in their souls, And light of knowledge in their eyes. They shall be gentle, brave and strong To spill no drop of blood, but dare All that may plant man's lordship firm On earth, and fire, and sea, and air.

Nation with nation, land with land, Unarmed shall live as comrades free: In every heart and brain shall throb The pulse of one fraternity.

New arts shall bloom of loftier mould And mightier music fill the skies, And every life shall be a song, And all the earth a paradise.

JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS

CRY OF THE PEOPLE

Tremble before yours chattels, Lords of the scheme of things! Fighters of all earth's battles, Ours is the might of kings!

Guided by seers and sages, The world's heart-beat for a drum, Snapping the chains of ages, Out of the night we come!

Lend us no ear that pities! Offer no almoner's hand! Alms for the builders of cities! When will you understand?

Down with your pride of birth And your golden gods of trade! A man is worth to his mother, Earth, All that a man has made! [Page 133]

THE NEW HUMANITY

We are the workers and makers. We are no longer dumb! Tremble, O Shirkers and Takers! Sweeping the earth-we come! Ranked in the world-wide dawn, Marching into the day! The night is gone and the sword is drawn, And the scabbard is thrown away!

JOHN G. NEIHARDT

SEW THE FLAGS TOGETHER

Great wave of youth, ere you be spent Sweep over every monument Of caste, smash every high imperial wall That stands against the new World State, And overwhelm each ravening hate, And heal and make blood brothers of us all.

Nor let your clamor cease Till ballots conquer guns. Drum on for the world's peace Till the Tory power is gone.

Envenomed lame old age Is not our heritage, But Springtime's vast release, and flaming dawn.

Peasants, rise in splendor And your accounting render, Ere the lords unnerve your hand!

Sew the flags together, Do not tear them down. Hurl the worlds together Dethrone the wallowing monster And the clown.

Resolving only that shall grow In Balken furrow, Chinese row That blooms and is perpetually young, [Page 134]

Vachel Lindsay

That only be held fine and dear That brings heart-wisdom year by year And puts the thrilling word upon the tongue: "The United States of Europe, Asia and the World."

"Youth will be served," now let us cry. Hurl the referendum. Your fathers, five long years ago, Resolved to strike, too late, Now Sun-crowned crowds Innumerable, Of boys and girls Imperial, With your patchwork flag of brotherhood On high, With every silk In one flower-banner whirled,- Rise, Citizens of one tremendous state, The United States of Europe, Asia and the World.

The dawn is rose-dressed and impearled. The guards of privilege are spent. The blood-fed captains nod. Lo Saxon, Slav, French, German, Rise, Yankee, Chinese, Japanese, All the lands, all the seas, With blazing rainbow flag unfurled, Rise, Rise, Take the sick dragons by surprise, Highly establish, In the name of God, L The United States of Europe, Asia and the World. [Page 135]

THE RISING TIDE

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

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

Peace the Condition of Survival

'N A WORLD torn between the force of ruthless business enterprise, so shrewd and so blind, and slowly awakening masses, so weak and so strong, it is a brave man who can preserve his faith in reason and justice and cooperative intelligence.

It is very difficult these days to observe the state of international affairs and retain one's liberalism. The uninformed can still dream of world organization; the knowing grow cynical or despair. Hence it is refreshing to find that one of the ablest British observers of men and nations can look the facts squarely in the face and still formulate a program for world-government. Henry Noel Brailsford's Olives of Endless Age, which bears the sub-title "a study of this distracted world and its need for unity," breathes throughout the clear and calm spirit of the best traditions of British liberal thinking. Will the world have the wit, he asks, to develop a political form which can assure peace, organize economic unity, and impose change when change is due? When Europe was facing a similar impossible situation, torn by the unreasoning strife of religious warfare, few dared hope for a way out; yet the solution of religious toleration finally won general acceptance. Mr. Brailsford does not despair; instead he labors carnestly at a program that will appeal to those sick of our present strife.

Olives of Endless Age, by Henry N. Brailsford. Harper and Brothers. [Page 136]To Mr. Brailsford’s objective intelligence, our confusion is worthy of Candide redivivus. Our prejudices and our politicians have involved us in paradoxes that would have delighted and saddened Voltaire. "Our post-war political world is riddled with contradictions. It professes principles which it does not and dare not apply. Its equal, sovereign, national states are neither national nor sovereign nor equal. They enjoy the most varied degrees of effective independence. It is hardly too much to say that only the Great Powers possess that actual ability to act and move of their free choice, which truly constitutes independence. They possess too much good sense to respect in deeds the doctrine of non-interference which they profess in words. And very wisely apply the anarchic doctrine of self-determination only when it suits their interests. The world has outgrown these individualistic principles."

The main lines of Mr. Brailsford’s analysis of the cause of our trouble are not original: they are known to every intelligent man. "The political form of the world has ceased to correspond to its economic needs. The problem of our generation is to find this form. Will it come first of all by continent groupings? Will it come through the triumphant dictation of internationally-organized capital? Will it be imposed by a Muscovite revolution? Ot will it steal upon us gradually through the development of the League of Nations? However it comes, it must impose modesty on the sovereign state, and erect above it a supra-national government which will dare to limit its freedom to injure its neighbors, whether by economic or political unwisdom. The penalty of failure we all know in our hearts. . . . But of failure we will not and dare not think. The most powerful of all our instincts seconds the impetus which is driving us, sometimes consciously and often without our knowledge, toward international government. Our instinct for self-preservation will not let us rest until we have solved this central problem of our age. It calls for all our powers. Only by hard struggle and critical thinking shall we crown ourselves with olives of endless age.

Mr. Brailsford believes that the dictatorship of either capital [Page 137]

PEACE THE CONDITION OF SURVIVAL

or labor, or the conquest of the world by a great empire like the United States, is possible only at the expense of a war that would ruin civilization. The only alternative that a liberal can contemplate is therefore the development of some form of international government, and he accordingly attempts to work out the conditions of such an authoritative federal government. "The guiding thought is that in the modern economic world nationalism is the enemy of civilization; it has its legitimate work only as the guardian of inherited culture. The tradition of the sovereign national state has become an anachronism which thwarts our national progress, and incessantly threatens peace. The task of our time is to give to the Great Society of mankind a political form which fits the facts of our economic and cultural interdependence." Mr. Brailsford believes that the League of Nations contains the germs of such a form, and that there is a palpable drift among things toward an internationalism that will force the reconstruction of its present organization.

The League appears in all its weakness and inadequacy to Mr. Brailsford. It was founded to guarantee the settlement of Paris, and that settlement was concluded on two main principles, to give France supreme military power on the continent of Europe and to give Britain the mastery of Asia and Africa. The chief defects of the League are its lack of control over international economic policies and its acceptance of the principles of national sovereignty and self-determination. It has intervened with success only against small powers; it has been unable to control even Poland, and its eyes are closed to civil war in China, even to revolts in its own mandates, like Syria. It provides no means for peaceful change, and much of the peace settlement must be changed, to say nothing of further readjustments. If it is to perform the necessary functions of an international government, it must be drastically reconstructed. It must be given legislative functions. It must be able to control the allocation of raw materials. It must direct the flow of populations beyond frontiers. Its supervision of mandated areas must be more effective, and must be extended to all undeveloped regions. It must develop an [Page 138]independent system of colonial administration with an international staff. It must assume jurisdiction in all international trade disputes. To do these things effectively, it must be capable of genuine legislative action, impossible as long as Liberia has an equal vote with Great Britain. Nations must be represented in its assembly in accordance with population, and delegates must be able to vote as individuals, so that economic groupings can cut across national lines. Mr. Brailsford considers these proposals in detail, for unlike most advocates of the League he has no illusions as to its present efficacy or its promise without drastic modification.

What are the chances that sufficient sentiment for international organization will develop to make such a program possible? Mr. Brailsford is sceptical of any proposals for such organization on less than a world-wide basis. The American continent, to be sure, is already an economic and for all practical purposes a political unity: it is dominated by the United States. But a Pan-Europa is too deeply divided in political institutions, and too far implicated in extra-European interests, ever to form a unit except as part of a world federation. Fascism has dug a deep trench across Europe; Communism has set a wall to the East. Asia has never been unified; if she can unite, it must be under the influence of modern and alien ideas, with some intrusive power as the engineer of the combination. Mr. Brailsford is most provocative in his treatment of this problem of Asiatic unity. It is already taking place, he believes, as a common hatred of Europe; and such a unified Asia, inevitably led by Communist Russia, would only make world unity the more difficult and breed untold wars. Only a world government can forestall such a Eurasian combination against the rest of the world; and to make that possible Asia must undergo a religious revolution. "If the new attitude to life should undermine the crystallized religions of the East, one would count their decay a gain for humanity. One questions whether the populations of India will ever unite for effective social action, until rationalism has made a bold and open assault on Islam and the Hindu faith alike. Whether one thinks of the economic advancement of India, [Page 139]

PEACE THE CONDITION OF SURVIVAL

or of raising its women and its lower castes from their present degradation, its prime need is the smashing of its superstitions. Any effective international organization, must be world-wide. Anything less would pave the way for still more destructive conflicts. Can we hope that men will accept it? When conditions force it upon them, men will respond, as is evidenced by the development of international mindedness among the staff at Geneva; and industrialism is forcing it. "Finance and industry are, so soon as they achieve their ideal in organization, a solvent which causes frontiers to crumble and national sovereignty to decay. . What has happened is that the political form of the world has ceased to correspond to the economic reality. The flags and frontiers, which proclaim that we live in a world of sovereign States, as numerous as they are distinct, have begun to lie. Numerous these States may be, but they are neither sovereign nor distinct. They are penetrated by an infinity of the most subtle ties and relationships, and cooperation replaces competition as the rule even of industry and trade. Among material things, among machines and shop counters, the drift is toward internationalism. The changes in our economic environment tell in favor of the Great Society. One might almost say, in the dying words of the younger Pitt, as one surveys the triumphant march of the Trusts across the frontier—"Roll up the map of Europe: it will never be needed again."

"It may be that our own generation is stumbling into the period of world-government with little consciousness of its direction. Blind economic forces drive us into ever closer association. Governments feel constrained to concern themselves, now by blunt speech, and again by active intervention, with what happens on the territories of their neighbors. We attempt, in a constant succession of consultative conferences, to achieve by negotiation and consent, what eventually will have to be imposed by legislation. We grope after methods of settling our disputes by arbitration, shutting our eyes all the while to the need for creating a central authority, which can dictate to the world a solution of the problems that give rise to these disputes. . . . [Page 140]"The Great Society, which is all humanity, both is and is not. No hands have built its house; no parchment bears a record of its charter. To create the non-existent is the task of our generation. And yet, in the most reassuring of sense, the Great Society exists. It exists because humanity, in its finer moments of instinctive emotion, has built with sympathy and concern the house which is stronger than any fortress. Most of us have long outlived the limitation of sympathy which confined fellow-feeling to family or clan, to race or nation, and even in the strange features of Negro or Mongolian we recognize a reflection of ourselves. . . . When civilization has reached this stage of development, when its cultural life and its economic existence have both overflowed national frontiers, the building of the visible and legal structure of the Great Society is no more than a problem of organization. The emotional change has been wrought within us. We have answered from within, as men must while they live, to the outward change in our economic environment. The pace and ease of our advance will now depend solely on the skill and the resolution which the more progressive among us display, in overcoming within ourselves and in the minds of our more backward fellows, the atavism which still clings to the jealousies and the narrownesses of nationalism. . . . The Society which cannot adapt itself promptly to the rapid changes of its environment is doomed to perish. Peace is no longer in the modern world a lofty ideal. It is the condition of our survival."

US [Page 141]

WORLD UNITY FORUM

Certain questions confronting thoughtful people today are not merely important—they are unescapable. If they are not solved rationally, they will solve themselves by the very pressure of events, good or ill. Perhaps the outstanding need of the times is something in the nature of an international forum in which minds of different countries, races and religions can meet on common ground for an exchange of views promoted for the sake of truth and the enrichment of experience. While civilization is gathering its forces together to produce new institutions based on mutual confidence and goodwill, every effort, however slight and unassuming, put forth as an appeal to the international mind, will have value at least for the individuals concerned. In this department the readers of World Unity Magazine are invited to express their opinions on matters which reflect the restless, experimental nature of the age.

IS THERE A PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTOR IN THE "INDUSTRIAL CYCLE"?

The increase of gratifiable wants is the substance on which modern industry feeds, the nourishment which has given commerce titan strength. To gratify the insatiate desires of families throughout the West, we have created an intricate machine for the production and distribution of goods scarcely less amazing than the fertility of earth itself. But while nature periodically rests, the machine knows no winter of quiet slumber except the artificial quiet of strike, depression or war.

What is the limit of gratification—gratification by all these material things? How long will human nature strain to the breaking point for the thrill of purchase and the pride of use? Much has been written about a so-called industrial cycle—the term in which the moon of prosperity alternately waxes and wanes. From sun spots to crops, from surplus population to overproduction, every conceivable factor has been studied except the sources of gratification and fulfilment in human minds and hearts. The fever of tropic August must be followed by the drawn-in calm of December. Has the time already drawn near when industry will be compelled to cut the working day to six hours, that human nature may re-cultivate the roots of desire? [Page 142]

NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

In this issue, reluctantly, we conclude Prof. Shepherd's work The Interaction of Europe and Asia which has so thoroughly outlined the successive steps by which the mutual interpenetration of the two hemispheres has been proceeding since medieval times. The six articles have given more than temporary and limited value to the current issues of WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE; together with Prof. Mather's articles on Science and Religion, incidentally, they reveal the quality of the program arranged by the INSTITUTE OF WORLD UNITY advertised in the present number.

Readers who take more than an abstract interest in the ideals which this magazine is endeavoring to uphold can learn how the principles of world unity are being promoted in the concrete by acquiring a copy of the prospectus recently published by the World Unity Foundation, sent on request.

More and more are journals of vital opinion, or rather, of conviction, constructing bridges which connect them with current events and give their editorial staff closer contact with sympathetic groups and individuals than is always afforded by the printed page. This tendency we have observed most notably in THE WORLD TOMORROW, THE NATION, THE MENORAH JOURNAL and THE STANDARD.

In the case of WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE, the active public contact preceded rather than followed the establishment of the magazine itself. As set forth in the prospectus, the first activity associated with the concept "world unity" consisted in a series of local meetings, afterward extended, during a period of two years, to about thirty cities in this country and Canada. In the summer of 1927 the local WORLD UNITY CONFERENCES were reinforced by the INSTITUTE OF WORLD UNITY, a summer school held at Green Acre, Eliot, Maine.

A literary expression of the movement became inevitable, the first intention being to publish the addresses delivered at the CONFERENCES in an annual volume. The project of a monthly magazine, however, seemed to offer a medium capable of greater adaptability and wider range; and WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE appeared October first the same year.

This threefold instrument covered a field of effort too large for the original informal committee, and WORLD UNITY FOUNDATION came into existence in January, 1928, by charter from the State of New York.

Such a bare record means nothing unless we see in it the rapid development of an ideal through the stages leading from concept to cooperative [Page 143]

NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

action. The record belongs on these pages because it reveals the significant background from which WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE sprang and the influences by which it is privileged to grow. The ideal of world unity is definitely taking root in the public consciousness, as a source of loyalty capable of renewing the enthusiasms withered by the failure of the older, sectarian and provincial ideals.

The present issue marks a definite beginning on a subject particularly important in the view of the editors—the problem of religious unity. Since religion connotes at once the most essentially voluntary activity of man, the most intimate of human experiences and the ultimate source of all social and other outward-pointing attitudes, religion is the basis upon which world unity must be established. Until men can meet in the inner world of faith, and be penetrated by one spirit of devotion to God and civilized by one knowledge, their contacts in the world of action must be casual, incomplete and temporary. External pressure will never produce more than an episode in the epic of man's return to the One. In every external pressure, whether it be political, economic or psychological; whether it be exercised by government, the diffused power of money or by a church, the element of reaction we call rebellion, strike or heresy is ever inherent. True faith is the only form of "balanced pressure"—pressure operating equally upon the inner and outer man: pressure at once voluntary and involuntary in nature available in the world of humanity.

While each successive step marking the progress of religious unity may appear insignificant when judged by material values, it is in these steps nevertheless that we possess the true measure of the new civilization.

It may be permitted here to remark, in passing, that the problem of religious unity is something more than the task of bringing churches together or selecting a common creed. These are the internal responsibilities confined to those who have professionalized religion away from life. Religious unity, if it means anything, is the unity of human hearts and minds in one mutual spiritual experience. Not until we face the actual issue are we likely to adjust methods to ends. The fact that the religious leaders contributing to the Symposium in this issue all take practically the same ground is positive assurance that the churches and synagogues are facing humanity rather than a subjective creed. [Page 144]

SHIPS IN SAND—OR Airplanes in the Sky?

FORTUNATE the man who is able to respond freely to the spirit of his own age—a ship trimmed to the favoring West wind, an airplane leaving the earth behind.

In him a larger mind moves to the understanding of every problem and opportunity; a stronger will reaches forth to attainment; an adventurous heart radiates the thrill of deeper effort and overflows with the satisfaction of more secure success.

Without resentment, without fear, he marches under a golden banner to the general victory of humanity, content with that reward which can be shared with every fellowman.

How tragic that in this age of supreme achievement, so many people should still be burdened with the motives and ideals of a long dead past, suspicious, discontented, restless without real motion—ships made fast in sand!

There is a stimulus in the movement for World Unity which reveals the reinforcing dynamic of the spirit of the age. Let World Unity Magazine open new and larger horizons for your inner life, and bring you richer impulses for the day's work and recreation.

WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION, 4 EAST 12TH STREET, NEW YORK.

Please enter my subscription to World Unity Magazine. I enclose $3.50. (In Canada, $4.00; other countries, $4.50. Indicate whether subscription is to begin with October, 1927, or current issue.) [Page 145]G. E. Stechert & Co., New York Akad. Verlagsgesellschaft, Leipzig Nicola Zanichelli, Bologna Renascença Portuguesa, Porto David Nutt, London Feliz Alcan, Paris Ruis Hermanos, Madrid The Marusen Company, Tokyo

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THE ONLY review, therefore, which, while of immediate interest to students of statistics, demography, ethnography, economics, law, the history of religions and sociology in general, by its numerous and important articles and reports relating to these sciences, enables the reader to know, in summarised and synthetic form, the chief problems of all other branches of knowledge.

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For thirty-five years the leading quarterly in its field, The International Journal of Ethics numbers among its contributors the foremost writers in America and Great Britain.

Its province is both the central field of ethical knowledge and practice, and the bordering fields of law, politics, economics, literature, and religion. Promoting the study of ethics and of other sciences in so far as they bear directly upon conduct, the Journal is a common ground for the interchange of views between students of law and students of ethics and the social sciences.

Published quarterly in the months of October, January, April, and July Subscription $3.00 per year. Single copies 75 cents THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS [Page 146]THE STANDARD ORGAN OF THE ETHICAL CULTURE SOCIETIES Published Nine Times a Year ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, ONE DOLLAR.

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CONTENTS FOR APRIL

CECIL DELISLE BURNS (Glasgow University) The Fascist Doctrine

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HENRY NEUMANN Thomas Hardy's Reply to the Challenge of Life

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GEORGE E. O'DELL Modern Humanists

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Religion Among College Men

A CRITICAL REVIEW of the conference of university and college presidents and professors and headmasters on the state of religion among college men, at Princeton University, February 17-19.

Articles and Reviews by HENRY SLOANE COFFIN, Union Theological Seminary, MARTYN KEELER, Yale, RUFUS M. JONES, Haverford College, GEORGE C. ST. JOHN, Choate School, CLYDE E. WILDMAN, Syracuse, BERNARD I. BELL, St. Stephen's College, CHARLES T. BURNETT, Bowdoin, A. HERBERT GRAY, London, England, JOHN WALKER MCCAIN, Jr., Univ. of North Carolina, ROBERT LOWRY CALHOUN, Yale, J. S. BIXLER, Smith, B. M. CHERRINGTON, Univ. of Denver, CHARLES M. BOND, Bucknell, F. ERNEST JOHNSON, Federal Council of Churches.

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To Educators and Students:

We want you to know THE WORLD TOMORROW, a monthly journal edited by Kirby Page. This magazine concentrates on international, economic, racial and political questions. In its treatment of these problems it goes down to the roots and is fearless in presenting facts and opinions. We do not always agree with its point of view. That is one of the reasons why we like to read it. This stimulating publication should be made available to all libraries and reading rooms. You will be abundantly repaid if you send in a dollar for an eight-month subscription.

Presidents: Sincerely yours, GLENN FRANK, Wisconsin DANIEL L. MARSH, Boston D. J. COWLING, Carlton WILLIAM A. NEILSON, Smith MARY E. WOOLLEY, Mt. Holyoke TULLY C. KNOLES, College of the Pacific WILLIAM J. HUTCHINS, Berea

To Our Fellow Ministers and Friends:

We are doing an unusual thing in calling your attention to THE WORLD TOMORROW, "a monthly journal looking toward a social order based on the religion of Jesus," edited by Kirby Page, because we are of the opinion that you will find it informing and stimulating.

We do not always agree with the point of view expressed in its articles and editorials. Indeed, we could not, because this journal makes a practice of presenting various sides of a given question. Its columns are filled with valuable information and illustrations. Its insistent challenge that we take Jesus more seriously in our group relations, as well as in our personal lives, is a constant spur. We are of the opinion that you would do well to send a dollar for a trial subscription.

Sincerely yours, HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK S. PARKES CADMAN FRANCIS J. MCCONNELL DANIEL A. POLING JOSEPH FORT NEWTON CHARLES W. GILKEY

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(On joint offers for Canada add soc to above prices; foreign $1.00) (Books may be sent to one address and magazine subscriptions to another.) [Page 148]

Reading List of CURRENT BOOKS on WORLD UNITY

By JOHN H. RANDALL, JR. Review Editor, World Unity Magazine

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE Reprint No. 1. Ten cents a copy postpaid In quantity, five cents

THE FOUNDATIONS of WORLD UNITY

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

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Vol. I October 1927 to March 1928

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