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[Page 73]WORLD UNITY INTERPRETING THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, Editor HORACE HOLLEY, Managing Editor

CONTENTS

Vol. IX NOVEMBER, 1931 No. 2

Baroness Bertha von Suttner — Frontispiece The Leaders Face Realities — Editorial Why East and West Are Different. I. — Grover Clark Apostles of World Unity XXXII. Ludwik L. Zamenhof — Lidja Zamenhof International Language — Helen S. Eaton The League of Nations and the U. S. III. — Elizabeth Bassett Orient and Occident. II. — Hans Kohn The Novel of the War Years. I. — Evelyn Newman World Citizenship and Allegiance — Carl A. Ross The Disarmament Conference — Alfred E. Guest The American Peace Movement — Russell M. Cooper The Peace Leaders Reply Round Table

(Contents indexed in the International Index to Periodicals)

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE is published by WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORA JON. 4 East 12th Street, New York City: MARY RUMSEY MOVIUS, president: HORACE HOLLEY, vice-president: FLORENCE MORTON, treasurer: JOHN HERMAN ANDALL. secretary. Published monthly, 25 cents a copy, $2.50 a year in the inited States and in all other countries (postage included). THE WORLD UNITY UBLISHING CORPORATION and its editors welcome correspondence on articles slated to the aims and purposes of the magazine. Printed in U. S. A. Contents opyrighted 1931 by WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION. [Page 74]

BARONESS BERTHA VON SUTTNER

Apostle of World Unity [Page 75]

EDITORIAL

EVER since the Hoover Moratorium went into effect last June there have been increasing signs that at last political leaders, face realities. The grave exigencies of the world's economic depression, growing more and more serious as the summer advanced, have forced political theories and nationalistic ambitions more and more into the background as the economic realities have assumed supreme importance. Whatever else results from President Hoover's action last June there is no doubting the fact that our traditional policy of "splendid isolation" has once for all been abandoned.

For ten years under the Harding, the Coolidge and the Hoover administrations we have pretended that the United States could remain forever aloof, and that Germany, France, England and all the rest of Europe could stew in their own juices so far as we were concerned. Foreign affairs were to be none of our business. The League of Nations was anathema, it was a matter of indifference whether we joined the World Court or not. We might send "official observers" to occasional conferences, but Europe would have to solve her own problems quite apart from us. As Thomas L. Chadbourne has phrased it, "The chief trouble with the United States--the prime cause of the evils that have befallen us--is a very definite Colonial complex. Our so-called leaders all act as if they had just returned from hearing George Washington deliver his Farewell Address, and our policies have been based upon the quaint [Page 76]assumption that there has been nothing new in economic relations since the days of Daniel Boone."

All this, however, now belongs to a past that is gone. When Secretary of State, Mr. Stimson, and Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Mellon, went to Europe this summer, they went without any disguise whatever, and admitted frankly and without any embarrassment that they were doing official business for their country. Let us admit it frankly—we are back in Europe officially because our interests drove us there. We no longer dare to let Europe stew in its own juices because we know that the fate of Europe is inextricably bound up with the fate of the United States. All intelligent men know that our selling capacity is absolutely dependent upon the buying power of a prosperous Europe.

Following the Moratorium came the report of the Wiggin Commission, later endorsed by the Financial Commission of the League, in which it was recommended among other things that the whole matter of allied indebtedness, of reparations and of high tariff policies be carefully considered as these were the immediate obstacles to an economic recovery. The financial crisis in England and the decision to suspend the gold standard, at least temporarily, only forced the realities more clearly into the foreground. Then followed the visit of Premier Laval and M. Briand to Berlin, and the resulting Franco-German Commission for Economic Cooperation. In October came the "important announcement" from the White House, after consultation with political and business leaders, that aims to widen credit and release frozen assets in this country, with the further announcement that this is only the beginning and that "international problems" are being considered pending the forthcoming visit of Premier Laval to Washington the last of October. And now we are informed that Dino Grandi, Foreign Secretary for Italy, is to visit Washington early in November. That these conferences with the official representatives of France and Italy are to deal directly with debts, reparations and disarmament, goes without saying, and from them we can only hope for practical results that shall lead to a rationalization of the present world disorders on a more solid foundation.

J. H. R. [Page 77]

WHY EAST AND WEST ARE DIFFERENT

GROVER CLARK Consultant on Far Eastern Ada

“East is East and West is West”—true enough. But it by no means follows that “never the twain shall meet.” They are meeting now, and have been, with steadily increasing complexity and intimacy of contact, for a century or more. For good or ill, whether we like it or not, steam and electricity have cut away the barriers of distance which through the long past have kept apart the two main streams of developing civilization. The mutual isolation was not complete, it is true; but, except for essentially incidental contacts here and there, until comparatively recent times, each half of the world went its own way. Now these two channels of civilization are becoming one—and as a result of that fusion, a new civilization in terms of the world as a whole will develop.

If we are intelligently to direct the development of that civilization, to shape mankind’s future as we would like it to be, we must understand not simply what the differences are between East and West but also why these differences have arisen. This will require long and careful study, from many different angles, in many different fields. In this article I attempt no more than to suggest one possible approach to that study.

II

Of fundamental importance in any civilization is the relative position of the single person and the group. Each of these is a distinct element in any society, and both are essential. But the balance [Page 78]of power between the group and the single person varies from one civilization to another.

At just this point, in fact, appears one of the fundamental differences between the East and the West. In the East, the group is the basic social unit; in the West, the individual holds that place In the East, the single person has had to buy his right to live by conforming to the group's dictates; in the West, the group has had to buy the allegiance of the individual by giving him a large measure of freedom.

Conditions of life, such as the possible food supply, the methods used in getting food and relative congestion of populations, continuing more or less unchanged over thousands of years, caused this difference between the positions of the group and the single person. Long before written history began, almost diametrically opposite types of persons were socially most useful among the ancestors of the peoples who have made the present civilizations of the East and the West. Only within the past century or two has any really significant change in the fundamental conditions of life even begun to develop.

Generation by generation for thousands of years, human breeding in the East and the West was along divergent lines. This divergence was determined and maintained not primarily by physical heredity but rather by the continuing pressure of relatively stable but fundamentally different environments. In the circumstances, and since the selective processes continued over so many generations, it is small wonder that what seem to be differences of racial heredity should be developed—though it is easy to over-emphasize these hereditary differences.

III

What, then, was the fundamental difference between the conditions of life of the ancestors of the makers of our present eastern and western civilization? Put in the briefest possible form, and leaving detailed illustration until later, the answer is: the people of the East got their food by farming; those of the West by hunting. [Page 79]

WHY EAST AND WEST ARE DIFFERENT

Agriculture was the predominant occupation in the East. The agricultural peoples also had their arts and crafts; they hunted; they tought; they traded. But tilling the soil was and still is the chief occupation and the means of feeding the people.

In this respect, the people of China and India were, of course, like those who created the early civilization of the Mediterranean basin and, apparently, like the creators of the Inca and Aztec civilizations. It is not surprising, therefore, that there should be many close parallels between what we call "eastern civilization" and the civilizations of these other regions.

In contrast to these agricultural peoples, the races of northern Europe, whose descendants in comparatively recent times have created modern western civilization, lived chiefly by hunting. Through the thousands of years during which their basic mental and physical characteristics were being stamped upon them they were hunters, fighters, rovers, in the main, not people settled and ried to single plots of land-even though they did have a primitive sort of agriculture. They had little of what we would call civilization; but they did have fairly well marked forms of social organization and ways of dealing with the kinds of problems which they faced.

Their ways of life and organization, too, were much like those of peoples elsewhere who lived by essentially the same means-the hunting and pastoral peoples in northern Asia and the American Indians, for example.

In fact, instead of speaking of eastern and western civilization, we more properly should refer to the civilizations produced by the descendants of farmers and of hunters. Conditions of living, not geography, brought about the differences. Nevertheless, as the world is laid out today, it is convenient to speak of "eastern" and "western" as abbreviations for "those parts of the world in which the present-day civilization was created by people who were chiefly agriculturalists or their descendants" and "those parts of the world in which the present-day civilization was created by people who were chiefly hunters or their descendants." [Page 80]There have been contacts between these two main sorts of peoples. Most of the foundations of art and philosophy and technology on which the descendants of the hunters have built modern western civilization, too, were laid in agricultural lands—being the products of the cultured leisure which the few could secure because there were so many available to produce the necessary food and do the necessary work.

In spite of these contacts, however, the distinction remains legitimate and vital, between the agricultural peoples who for thousands of years dominated China, India and the eastern end of the Mediterranean basin, and the hunting peoples who for an equally long time before they even began to be civilized occupied northern Asia and most of Europe as far south as the Alps. The farmers of the East produced one sort of civilization; the hunters of the West, another sort. We, here, are concerned with the reasons for the differences between those civilizations.

In passing, it seems worth while to remark that the essential differences are not affected by the fact that in recent centuries the settled farmer increasingly has come to be the typical European rather than the roving fighter and hunter—nor by the further fact that the last century has seen enormous changes in the methods of life of the ordinary people as a result of the development of modern industry and the coming of the "machine age." These changes already are beginning to have profound influence toward the reshaping of forms of social organization and the ways of thinking in the West. But these changes are too relatively recent as yet to have had much effect on the fundamental make-up and attitude toward life which were bred into the Northern European hunters through thousands of years.

IV

One characteristic agricultural and hunting regions have in common: the tendency always is for the population to increase up to the limit of the food supply.

This is of considerable significance in determining the differences between the hunting and the agricultural peoples, since it [Page 81]

WHY EAST AND WEST ARE DIFFERENT

bears directly on the further point of the relative congestion of population.

The degree of congestion of population-whether the people live in large or small communities, whether there are more people than are needed to do the work or not enough, whether the food-producing units are large or small-has in large measure determined the forms of social organization which have been developed, and also fixed the relative position of the group and the single person.

It is obvious that many more people per square mile can get a living by farming than by hunting. This means that in a given large area an agricultural population will be much more thickly settled than a hunting. It also means that the farmers will live and work in more and larger single communities than the hunters.

A population of three hundred per square mile, for example, is by no means unusual in long-settled agricultural countries like China or India. But as many as fifty per square mile is extreme congestion in a region where the people are hunters or nomads, such as Arabia or Mongolia, today, or northern Europe a thousand years ago. A city of half a million, too, is not particularly large in India or China; but a permanent settlement of five thousand was practically unknown until relatively recently in northern Europe.

V

One of the direct and important results of the relative congestion of population in an agricultural country is this: the single person as such is of comparatively little importance.

If three or four, or even a dozen or two, died in a farming village community of five hundred (a small village, in China), for example, the amount of food produced was not affected. The farming got done just the same. In fact, these deaths sometimes were an advantage, for they removed just so many mouths to feed and left that much more food for the rest.

If a thousand or two were killed out of an army of a hundred thousand-a comparatively small army in the history of India or China-it did not matter much. The fighting strength of the army [Page 82]was not materially reduced; and plenty more soldiers were to be had. Where, too, there were many persons eagerly seeking governmental positions, it did not matter much if the Emperor had officials beheaded for minor infractions of his whims. The places thus vacated could be filled quickly.

In the agricultural lands with their congested populations, in brief, the single person as such had no significance whether in producing food, in doing the work of the country, in fighting, in government administration, or in any of the countless other activities If he did his work well, if he conformed to the rules and fitted himself carefully into the scheme of things, the single person might be allowed to live. Otherwise he was killed or thrown out of the group and he was not particularly missed; except, of course, in the hearts of the few to whom he may have been personally dear

It is not at all surprising, therefore, that the idea of individual rights, of the value of the individual as such, should not have developed in the thickly-settled agricultural East; nor that the group rather than the single person should have come to be the basic social unit.

Among the hunters, conditions were reversed. Of necessity the groups were small, for the simple reason that this was the only way in which food enough could be secured.

The hunting bands—i.e. the food-producing units in North Europe for thousands of years seldom contained more than half-dozen people. A single self-contained unit-group (not a conglomeration of such groups that might, taken as a whole, form a "tribe") which could send out as many as a score of hunters ic that could have twenty food-producers at work at the same time—was large. Contrast this with the three or four hundred working farmers in the typical agricultural food-producing unit.

Among the hunters, moreover, a fighting band of one hundred effectives was a large army in the ordinary course of things. The Vikings, who spread such terror along the shores of the North Sea, frequently went in parties of a single boat load of fifteen or twenty men. [Page 83]

WHY EAST AND WEST ARE DIFFERENT

On very special occasions, when a large number of tribes united in a common cause, as in some of the wars against the Romans, as many as twenty-five or thirty thousand fighters might be assembled. But such unions were rare, and never lasted long. More than these numbers were involved in such mass movements as those of the Huns and the Vandals down into southern Europe, it is true. But these were not movements of a single, united army under a unified command; they were migrations of a mass of small, completely or partially independent bands which happened to be moving more or less together because they were stirred by the same impulses. Even the authority of such leaders as Ghenghis Khan and Tamburlaine was of the vaguest except over their immediate followers.

Several results followed from the relative smallness of the groups among the hunting peoples.

For one thing, the loss of one effective hunter or fighter was a serious matter. When the food of the group depended on the hunting ability of three or four men, instead of on the farming efforts of three or four hundred men, women and children, the death or defection of one of these food-producers materially reduced the supply of food. When the entire fighting force was fifteen or twenty, the loss of even one fighter easily might spell the difference between victory and defeat—between survival and extermination for the whole group.

For another thing, among the hunters there was every possible incentive to individual initiative and inventiveness. The man who could invent a new weapon, or a new hunting device, or a new bit of labor-saving machinery, was socially extremely useful because he increased the working effectiveness of the group.

Furthermore, just because the numbers were few, the premium was on all-round ability. A certain amount of specialization was inevitable and necessary. But the man who could hunt and fight as well as give wise council and invent new tools or strategies, was socially far more useful than the one who could do only one or two of these things. [Page 84]

XXXII—LUDWIK L. ZAMENHOF

by LIDJA ZAMENHOF

IN the wall of a small wooden house in the street, called formerly Zielona, now Zamenhof Street, in the city of of December, 1859 in this house was born Dr. Ludwik I Zamenhof, author of the international language Esperanto. Bialystok is situated in the Eastern part of Poland, where at that time as even now, many races were mixed together, but not welded into one whole. There were Poles and Russians and Lithuanians and Germans and Jews each of them speaking a different language and hating those who spoke differently than they did A true Tower of Babel with all its evil right in the center of a civilized world. How much hatred merely because of lack of understanding! Couldn't it be done away with, if a means of mutual understanding were given to those people?

Such an idea penetrated the mind of the young boy, Ludwik L. Zamenhof, who studied in a school in Bialystok. This idea did not leave him, when together with his family he moved to Warsaw in 1873 and entered the middle school there. The thought of an artificial language became the dominating idea of his school years But how to set to this work, how to overcome thick volumes of dictionaries, difficulties of grammar? A kind of revelation came upon him, when once he remarked in the street an inscription "Shvayzarskaia" (porter's lodge) and nearby "Conditorskaia (confectionery). These skaia showed him, how the suffixes and prefixes could just like rays of the sun melt the hard difficulties [Page 85]

LUDWIK L. ZAMENHOF

of dictionaries. In many languages they are used blindly and unsystematically, as the waters of a cataract, where unlimited powers, able to illuminate the world, are hidden.

When he was in the last class of his middle school, an outline of an artificial language—still very unlike the later Esperanto—was drawn. Some of his school fellows stood by him, but later, as they "grew up," they began to ridicule the young linguist, who soon found himself deserted. Some other people too, his father's friends, advised the latter to take care of his son, lest he get lost in his chimeras and ruin all his future career. And Zamenhof was compelled, when proceeding to his University studies in Moscow in 1870, to put aside his beloved work—for a time. His books and notes were orderly packed and tied and left under his father's care.

Hunger and misery filled his student's years. The humanitarian ideals did not leave his heart, but the promise of postponing them, given to his father, was as a heavy burden on it. For a time the Zionist movement interested him, but it did not satisfy him—he could not limit his feelings to merely one nation.

In summer 1881 he came back to Warsaw to continue there his studies. He asked for his notes—this was a holiday and he wanted to use them for his beloved work. But they were no more there. The careful hand of his father had turned them to ashes; let not his son busy himself with his vain ideas! The blow was hard, yet not deadly. In fact he remembered nearly everything, and soon the whole structure was rebuilt. It took him six years more to perfect and polish his language, before it was ready to be presented to the world. He did not believe grammar and words to be enough to make up a language; it ought to have a spirit, a melody of its own.

At that time he learned of an artificial language, Volapük, invented some years ago by Rev. Schleyer. He rejoiced: so he was free, his work having been done by another! But Volapük perished. It was too hard to learn and so difficult, that not even its author could speak it fluently. So Volapük perished, and his own artificial language had to be presented to the world. But together with Volapük's failure the world's trust in the possibility of the [Page 86]creation of an artificial language was extinguished. Nobody would risk his money for the issue of a new language. At that time the young physician married. His family father-in-law, unlike other merchants, had some sentiment for Zamenhofs work, and though not rich himself, helped in the publication of the first book.

" It appeared modestly in an inconspicuous form, in 188-. the birthdate of the new language. It was entitled simply "Lingvo Internacia, its author hiding beneath the pseudonym of "Dr. Esperanto." which in his language meant "the one who hopes." Hence the name of Esperanto, later on applied little by little to the language itself. "Ho mia kor. ne batu maltrankvile"-Oh, heart of mine, don't beat so anxiously-wrote he, when those poor little booklets went to face the scepticism and indifference of the world After all these years shall he not vanquish? Shall not the work of his life overcome the impression of Volapük's failure and the negligence of those, who satisfied with what they have, deem even effort for the improvement of the world a folly?

Those little books were as seeds, thrown into the ground They disappeared underneath, and may have seemed to be lost for a time, but the rains came, the sun shone-and out of the black earth there peeped the green color, the color of Esperanto. People began to take interest in the new language, letters were sent, disciples began to gather around the master.

But the young language needed a careful nursing that it migh grow. Money was wanted.

At that time Zamenhof moved from city to city, trying to establish himself. Together with his wife and two little childre he was near to misery. Nevertheless he did not refuse to be the editor of the first Esperanto newspaper. "La Esperantisto," founded a year previously in Nuremberg. Still financially it was beyond his reach: no rich people were then in the movement to support the paper. "La Esperantisto" would most probably perish and perhaps all the fruits of his efforts would be buried for ever! In this difficult moment there came a friend, W. H. Trompeter, whose name will forever be dear to the Esperantists. From his poor salary he helped [Page 87]

LUDWIK L. ZAMENHOF

the publication, supporting its existence for some years more. And when some years later financial difficulties reappeared and finally put an end to the first Esperantist paper, the fallen standard was soon picked up in anothe: place.

After 1898 Zamenhof lived in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, in the street which now is called Zamenhof Street. His practice as a physician began among the poorest people, whom he treated often for nothing, his name thus getting known as a benefactor. His office was crowded more and more. He spent his days bent over the sick and blind eyes of his patients, while in the evenings he worked to open the spiritually blind eyes of mankind, unable to see a fellow being in one whose lips spoke a different language. The chief works of the world's literature were translated. His translation of the Old Testament into Esperanto is considered to be one of the best.

But the promoting of the international language was always for him rather a means, than an aim. His own feelings and ideas found their expression in the little bookiet "Homaranismo" (from the word "homarano"-member of the human family). It is a teaching of world-patriotism, superior to all narrow national sentiment, of largest tolerance, respecting everybody's religious feelings, t is a teaching of pure humanity and absolute interracial justice and equality. This work was published anonymously. The author of Esperanto did not wish his own ideas to be taken as the official program of Esperanto, since 1905 described as a movement aiming exclusively to the promoting of the international language, while all the hopes and ideas, that anyone might connect with it, should be considered as his private affairs. Yet the ideas of Zamenhof, though unforced by him, permeated the movement, and nowadays there are few Esperantists, who do not approve of the "inner idea of Esperanto."

The life of Zamenhof was so connected with the history of Esperanto, that it is impossible to separate one from the other. All the blows the international language had to suffer, were blows he himself suffered. All its successes were his successes. When the Ird Congress in 1907 was held in Cambridge, the enthusiastic [Page 88]students unharnessed the horses and carried him in a carriage all over town. The French cross of the Legion of Honor and the Spanish one of Isabela the Catholic were conferred on him. He accepted all these honors, because he saw in them tributes paid to Esperanto, personally feeling always rather embarrassed. He loved his co-workers as a father loves his children, and the memory of the "Master" is always dearly cherished by them. Since 1905 the International Congresses of Esperanto have been held regularly every year, the great family has grown, the green army of peace gone onward, till in August, 1914 it started for Paris, where the Xth Congress was to be held. But that time the peaceful hymn of Esperanto did not rise to heaven; it was drowned by the roar of guns.

With greatest difficulties Zamenhof came back to Warsaw through the Scandinavian countries and St. Petersburg. The Great War spread its red over the world, walls thicker than ever stood between the nations. Only ravens soared above them with their funereal news. Such and such a dear friend was killed, then another perished, and still another fell. He learned from newspapers of the death of his youngest brother in the Russian army. Where were his hopes of the unity of mankind, of interracial amity? His heart did not endure. . .

Zamenhof died on the 14th of April, 1917.

A very small party of his followers accompanied him to the place of his eternal rest. Wires brought the sad news abroad causing hearts to ache and eyes to shed tears, but few friends were able to tell their last farewell to him.

The night of humanity passed. The green standard is raised once more and the army of Esperantists continues its march. There is a monument of gray Scotch granite on Zamenhof’s grave erected by the Esperantists; there is another and more enduring monument erected in their hearts. [Page 89]

INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

by HELEN S. EATON Linguistic Research Associate and Airtant Executive Secretary to the International Auxiliary Language Association

WITH the growth of the international community the problem of language becomes an increasingly difficult one. Since the time of Leibnitz there have been attempts to solve it and people throughout the years from time to time have sensed the lack and have tried to remedy it. In the fifty or so years before the war, when international conferences were "few and far between," the problem was not so pressing but with the rate of increase of such meetings and the expansion of the international world it is today of vital importance that we look the facts in the face and that we recognize the unnecessary burden which is being inflicted on this world and which is one of the causes of its being hampered in becoming the really satisfactory community it could be.

What are the facts?

Science is international in its applications and scientific discoveries should be at once made available to mankind. We find that the Social Science Abstracts which cover 3000 periodicals in 20 odd languages have information which is available only to those who read English. The same is true of the Engineering Index of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers which covers 1400 periodicals in 16 languages. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry badly needed a journal. However, no two languages could be agreed upon; publication in three made the cost prohibitive; so the idea had to be abandoned. Results of research in medicine which are beneficial to mankind are often not available [Page 90]in translations for years. Under the exchange of professors system at present in vogue educational life, frequently the best man in his particular field must be passed over and a second or third best chosen because the latter is able to lecture in the language of the country to which he is going.

In commercial affairs the situation is the same in its need of a means of international communication. Foreign correspondence catalogues, and advertising must all be done in several different national languages if the field is to be covered.

In governmental business the misunderstandings and misinterpretations due to the extreme difficulty of absolutely accurate rendering of phrases from one language to another may lead to strained relations. Even when only two languages are official as in the League of Nations, the burden of translating and the impossibility of holding the interest of participants in meetings through the repetition of speeches in two or more languages are serious factors which work against the smooth running of the machinery of such gatherings. The language difficulties are stressed in the reports of many international conferences of which there are now an average of over 300 a year.

Traveling would be made easier and of more benefit and interest if tourists had an easy means of communication with nationals of countries they are visiting. The hard feelings sometimes engendered through lack of understanding would also be avoided

Radio and talking moving pictures have the opportunity to be of great value in interpreting the life and thought of a people to others. But how can they avail themselves of this opportunity if there is no common speech?

One could continue enumerating the different phases of our modern international life that are prevented from attaining their logical development because of the lack of an international means of communication. It would seem that no one who gives a thought to the situation could deny the need.

Among those who are keenly aware of the need are some who advocate the choice of a national language as the common auxiliary tongue. Some of their arguments are excellent in their logical con [Page 91]clusions but, when we look at the psychological and the intellectual aspects, it seems as if these very arguments were the most conclusive against the use of a national idiom.

In this day of sensitiveness of national feelings it is difficult to imagine a government officially accepting as its auxiliary language one native to another country. Even if this obstacle were surmounted a practical difficulty arises. There are comparatively few people who learn to possess a second language to such an extent that they feel at no disadvantage when speaking it with someone to whom it is the mother-tongue. The emotional connotations of a language are so many and so varied that no one can acquire them unless he has lived for a fairly long period surrounded by the atmosphere of the language. In international communication the absence of emotional connotation is a distinct advantage—there is much less danger of ambiguity. Over and over again one hears expressed the fact that in international gatherings certain valuable ideas have become lost through the difficulty on the part of the speaker in making them clear in an alien tongue.

These obstructions in the use of a national language are all obviated in an artificially constructed one. The chance for ambiguity is negligible and what national language exists of which that can be said? In the first telephone conversation between England and the United States the question was asked: "Are you through?" To the English operator this meant: "Is the connection established?" To the American it meant: "Have you finished?" If that happens in an ordinary sentence between peoples who are supposed to have the same mother-tongue, it is easy to see that the possibilities of misunderstanding are limitless when foreigners are using the language.

It has been adequately demonstrated that a constructed language built on the lines of those at present in successful use is very much easier to learn than a natural one. This is due to the absolute regularity, the minimum of grammar, the use of international (European) elements, and the absence of idioms and national psychological connotations. As the elements of thought are the basic words in these artificial languages there is no limit to the [Page 92]possibility of expansion of the vocabulary as needed, due to the method of making different combinations of elements.

Among the artificial languages in use we might mention Esperanto, Nov-Esperanto, Ido, Occidental and Novial. Let anyone interested choose the one best suited to his taste. If he learns one he will be able to understand them all and to make himself intelligible to the speakers of the others.

Incidentally there is distinct educational value to be derived from the study of such a language. For anyone who does not care to go deeply into the study of philology, etymology, or several different languages, it gives a language sense; it shows the correlation between the national languages; it teaches in an easy manner different grammatical concepts; it tends to give a more accurate and fundamental knowledge of the meaning of words in the mother tongue as well as in foreign languages.

It is interesting to note that of late years at various international meetings not especially concerned with the promotion of the international language idea, the managers, recognizing the difficulty of choosing languages to be the official ones of the conferences have hit upon the plan of allowing each speaker to use his own tongue and to have for all talks only one language of translation namely: Esperanto, which is the most widely known of the international artificial languages. This has been most successful and strangely enough, has aroused no special comment from the participants. The same idea has been carried out by the Paris Chamber of Commerce which now prints its bills of lading in French followed by Esperanto.

Within this country it is true that the need for an international language does not make itself widely felt. But Americans are participating more and more extensively in the life of the international community in spite of the aloofness of the government On these individuals, who have themselves seen the complications arising through lack of a common international means of communication, and on those with less experience but with vision and a desire to help make that community a real one, devolves the op [Page 93]portunity and the responsibility of overcoming the apathy of the general public.

The International Auxiliary Language Association with national headquarters at Box 118, 525 West 120th Street, New York, is engaged on three different lines of research, investigating the whole question of auxiliary language. There is a division for educational research which is endeavoring to prove or disprove the various claims made for the beneficial effects on subsequent language learning of an initial course in a Latin-derived artificial language. There is a division for linguistic research which is studying the structure of certain chosen European languages, national and international, in an effort to find common material for an ideal structure for an auxiliary language. And finally there is a sociological research division which is ferreting out information concerning specific needs for an international language. The directors and advisors of this research are men prominent in their particular fields. The work is carried on in a strictly scientific and neutral spirit.

The thieth modern movement presented by WORLD UNITY in its department "The World We Live In "

[Page 94]

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE UNITED STATES

by ELIZABETH W, BASSETT Teacher of History, Washington Irving High School, New York

III

THAT has been the League's economic history since 1920 and what has been our participation in this field?

In 1914 the American Federation of Labor adopted proposals for the reestablishment of fraternal relations and the protection of workers. This was the starting point of a whole series of similar resolutions. In compliance with these proposals the Peace Conference set up a Committee on Social Legislation with Gompers as President. They drafted Part 13 of the Treaty. Wilson often referred to this as the "Magna Carta of Labor." The purpose is not to standardize labor conditions but to establish an international minimum. The Washington Conference in 1919 was the manifestation of the activities of the International Labor Organization. The United States has offered scientific collaboration, not legislative, because here the cost of production is based on dear labor and cheap raw material and there, just the reverse. Mr. R. Brookings pointed out that "the only source of economic improvement is the increase of productivity per capita. If Europe would follow our example of industrial efficiency by adopting labor-saving devices and standardizing mass production, and our economic democracy of a relatively high wage through which to distribute equitably among the workers, the resulting increased production per capita, they would soon find their economic well-being greatly improved." In 1923 at the suggestion of the Economic Committee the League called a Conference on cas [Page 95]

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toms formalities and an invitation went to the United States. "No," sand our Government, "this is not a subject of an international convention." After consultation between Berne and Geneva, two experts from the Treasury Department, one from the Commerce Department, and one from the Tariff Commission, were sent. In their desire to inspect the customs formalities of other countries, they forgot their objections to have their own inspected. In connection with this general move to simplify the transit and communication facilities as a prerequisite to economic betterment, the League requested the United States to assign someone to act as arbiter in the distribution of shipping on international rivers, particularly, on the Rhine and the Danube. Mr. W. Hines was sent in 1922. As the result of his experience he expressed the thought that we do not adequately realize that the existence of the League has developed an ever strengthening international sentiment. In reference to the abolition of import and export prohibitions and restrictions, Mr. Hugh Wilson stated that the American Delegation always opposed a reservation with regard to raw materials when such reservation would constitute a virtual monopoly. It is the opinion of many inside and outside the League that some system of international rationing must be arranged so as to assure adequate supplies of imported foods and raw material, where needed. Back in 1925 an International Control Board was set up in connection with raw opium. This was the first attempt to set up machinery for an international control of a raw material. Unfortunately the United States withdrew; but the attempt represents the evolution of this new approach to this most vital of economic problems. The discussions at the World Economic Conference and those that have followed, show that Europe is growing more and more aware of the advantages of large scale production which secures access to large markets; so well illustrated by the American producer. The economic advantage it offers promises the raising of the standard of living of millions of the people of Europe.

In still other lines have American citizens in a private capacity given their wholehearted cooperation to the varied problems of the League. Mr. A. Elkus was one of the Rapporteurs in the [Page 96]Aaland Islands case; Mr. N. Davis served as Chairman of the Special Commission set up by the Council to arrive at conclusions covering the points at issue in the Memel Controversy; and Mr D. H. Miller served in the Upper Silesian Boundary Settlement The Greek Refugee Settlement was greatly aided by Mr. Morganthau and Mr. C. Howland. It was Mr. Root's work on the Committee of Jurists that made the Statute of the World Cour possible, since he suggested the formula reconciling the conflicting interests of large and small states, both requiring representation Dr. B. Moore sat among the first judges to be elected by the League Mr. Wickersham was working with the Committee for the progressive codification of international law. In the financial field Mr. Jeremiah Smith superintended the financial reconstruction of Hungary and the Dawes Commission took the reparations question out of the field of European politics so that the League had better sailing and France began to show a more truly League spirit. D: Parker Gilbert then occupied the important position of Agent-General for reparations payment under the Dawes Plan until the Young Plan was substituted for it. This plan of Mr. Owen D. Young and his Committee, contains two outstanding features; it fixes the total of German Reparations and what is more significant of the time it establishes an International Bank.

Henri Berenger says, "This Bank is as necessary now as national banks were a century ago, for nations have become mere provinces." That this Bank is as muc anathema in the United States as is the League of Nations, may be seen in Secretary Stimson's declaration that the Government would not permit any officials of the Federal Reserve System, eithe themselves to serve or to select any American representative a member of the proposed International Bank. Mr. Gates McGarra was recently appointed to the position of President of the Bank

Although the United States is not a mandatory power, the mandate system cannot be overlooked when dealing with our participation in League problems. It was Wilson who said in 1918 that "the former German colonies and the subject peoples of the Turkish Empire, should be declared the common property of the League and administered by the small nations. The resources of [Page 97]

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all the colonies, should be available to all members of the League." He did not win his point about the administration by small nations but he did prevent their annexation. "There is a feature about this Covenant which to my mind, is one of the greatest and most satisfying advances that have been made. We are done with annexation of helpless peoples. We recognize in the most solemn manner that the helpless and undeveloped peoples of the world, being in that condition, put an obligation upon us to look after their interests primarily, before we use them for our interest." He was again doomed to disappointment when the Senate in June 1920, by a vote of 23 to 52 declined to give the President permission to establish an American mandate over Armenia. George Beers was one of Wilson's most indefatigable coworkers in evolving this system.

The League's efforts along the line of Intellectual Cooperation, have not brought much coordination into their results. Dr. Milliken and Dr. Duggan, to mention but a few prominent names, are devoting much of their thought and time to the furtherance of this phase of the activities. And lastly we have Dr. Shotwell's untiring efforts to awaken public opinion here and abroad, to a state of world mindedness that will be able to accept his Geneva Protocol and will be able to make out of the Paris Pact more than a gesture of goodwill. When we as Americans hope for a truly great America, it is to these men that we may turn for inspiration and say with Thomas Huxley—"Size is not grandeur, and territory does not make a nation. The great issue is what are you doing with these things."

It is fitting before closing this subject to look briefly into the question—How much does the United States as the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world today, retard world progress by its non-membership in the League? Mr. Root believes that no nation in the world needs more information and training in international affairs than we do. We have been engaged for so many years in the building up of an empire in this vast continent, and have until very recently thought but little and known but little about international affairs. There can be no doubt that membership in the League, an excellent international training school, would [Page 98]gradually relieve us of some of our conservative provincialism M. Lechartier says that our membership "would afford that body immeasurable and decisive moral strength and confer on us as an arbiter in eventual conflicts, a unique opportunity to maintain the dearly acquired and actually too fragile peace of the world." Mr Harris of the London Daily News does not want the United States to enter however, until at least 75% of its population convinced that it is the right course to take.

But let us turn to more concrete matters. One of the knotty problems is the world's food resources. Mr. A. E. Taylor gives an excellent resumé of the situation when he writes, "that the Great War effected a decline of production in Europe and in Russia and a distortion of production elsewhere. The first direct war injury in belligerent countries to agriculture, was the destruction of workers. War inflcted a heavy reduction in the world herds of domestic animals. The heave European importation of bread grains since the war has been necessary in part, because the domestic areas have supplied relatively less to the cities and used relatively more in subsistence, either directly or in the form of animal products. Disorganization of markets throughout the world has contributed to reduction in the effective utilization of food resources. Countries refuse to relinquish war born industries that have made them less dependent on foreign goods. The world relations of creditor and debtor countries have been fundamentally changed, with enormous growth in international obligations."

What has this to do with us? What is our reaction to this situation? As the creditor nation we are demanding the payment of these debts. In the name of self-preservation we are raising our immigration barriers and our tariff barriers higher than ever before. And yet economic and financial collaboration between the American continent and the European has become the indispensable condition for the reestablishment of the economic equilibrium of the world. As far back as 1921 Wilson made it clear in his veto of the Emergency Tariff Bill that this is clearly no time for the erection of high trade barriers. He indicated that "they would strike a blow at the large and successful efforts which have been made by many of our great industries to place [Page 99]

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themselves on an export basis; that they would stand in the way of the normal readjustment of business conditions throughout the world, as vital to the welfare of this country as to all the other nations."

s." The United States once held to reciprocity and now stands by the policy of the most-favored-nation treatment. Our rates are so high, our policy of protection so all-embracing, so inclined to extension to every blessed article on the demands of each interested group of producers, that our policy amounts to universal severity and universal ill-treatment. Removal of duties on foodstuffs and on fundamental raw materials and moderate protection on manufactured goods, would seem imperative. Even those among us who say most about holding aloof from European complications say much about the maintenance of friendly relations with all and the promotion of mutual good feeling. Why not put into our tariff policy some element of real favor and genuine friendliness? Closely linked with this policy is our handling of the debt settlement. Mr. A. G. Gardiner holds with many others that these expenditures on the war were incurred for a common object and should not have the same binding force as they would have in the more material relations of commerce. It is his opinion that America is not contributing her share to the comity of nations, and we cannot forget, he continues, that "it was her refusal to agree to the Covenant that is responsible for our present troubles, for the chaos and confusion which have characterized European Diplomacy since 1919. It is impossible to lay a permanent foundation for peace among nations when the greatest nation of them all remains aloof."

The extent of her wealth, the quantity and quality of her population, her superb geographical position, and her great pacific traditions, have all conspired to give America a unique position of predominance among nations. That position carries with it great privileges but it also involves great responsibilities. "Even from the narrowest material point of view, she cannot afford to be indifferent to European political and economic chaos. She must become vitally interested in the stability of European institutions as she continues to amass large holdings of property there. Perhaps the most disquieting results of the debt settlements the world over, [Page 100]lies in the impetus that fixed international payments seem to give to the development of offensive and defensive controls of production and commerce." The Stevenson Act, the Cartels and the proposed United States of Europe are in this category. If national sovereignty continues to violate the principle of international justice or adopts a policy of isolation, there must always exist an atmosphere of futility surrounding any international conference.

As a state-member we should be learning another great lesson along with those powerful states that have accepted the grave responsibility of controlling and educating the backward races who are unable to stand alone in the strenuous conditions of the modern world. We might abandon the idea that methods and policies found suitable to ourselves are necessarily the best suited to the evolution of backward peoples and peoples of an alien race. We might avoid the humiliating experience of being faced with the question—Why does America distrust Geneva? Why does America refuse to support the efforts to organize an American League at Santiago? Is it because Washington clings to a policy of aggressive imperialism and is therefore disinclined to submit its conduct to the judgment of the world? There is one more item that bears consideration. How can the League operate fully under its sanctions or the Pact of Paris be upheld, if the signatories cannot depend upon the interpretation the United States may choose to put upon their acts. If a blockade is in force will she stand for her full right as a neutral? Would she, in fact could she be neutral in case of a flagrant violation of the Peace Pact? In the last analysis, we may quote the words of an English observer—"The United States will be brought into the League of Nations and the World Court, not by appeals on the score of duty or humanity, but by the inexorable logic of events. In the end enlightened self-interest will lead us where impassioned eloquence cannot persuade us to go."

(Concluded). [Page 101]ORIENT AND OCCIDENT by HANS KOHN Doctor Jun, Uniternty of Prague

The Struggle for Freedom

The clash between the Orient and the Occident continued during the Nineteenth Century to a time when the mighty realms of the Orient—the Ottoman Empire, the domain of the Great Moguls in India and the Chinese Empire—were for decades in a state of political disintegration and cultural torpidity. Through family dissensions, corruption and the administration of harem favorites, the once powerful dynasties which had produced distinguished ruling personalities, were broken up and weakened. Thus they offered only a feeble resistance to the advance of the West. Even the smaller states in North Africa and Asia presented the same picture.

At the beginning of the Twentieth Century the form of government in every country of the Orient was an autocracy—whether the autocracy of a native court, as in Morocco, Turkey, Persia or China, or the autocracy of a foreign bureaucracy like the British in India or the Russian in Central Asia. A voluntary or involuntary alliance of both these forms was entered into in many instances, whereby the European autocracy guaranteed the native an undisturbed, even if very limited, exercise of authority. This was the case in Morocco after the declaration of the protectorate, in Egypt, in Bokhara, and in the native principalities of British India and the Dutch East Indies. The struggle against absolutism began in the Twentieth Century in the most important countries of the Orient under the influence of western ideas of [Page 102]democracy and popular participation in legislation and administration, with the simultaneous growth of a national consciousness. This national consciousness was as firmly rooted in the instinctive aversion to every form of foreign rule (and to the menace to traditional ways of living, which this rule entailed) as it was in the acceptance of European ideas which, for the first time, raised the obscure group-feeling to a definite consciousness. The struggle was not everywhere a struggle against foreign rule, but even in those countries where it was directed against their own royal houses it was also a struggle motivated by fear in the presence of a foreign rule to which the corruption and incompetence of the domestic autocracy seemed to open the gates.

In the course of twenty years this struggle has completely changed the political structure of oriental governments. This has occurred most noticeably in both great oriental cultural spheres—in Turkey for the Western-Islamic sphere and in China for the eastern Orient. Richard Hartmann’s statement that "twenty years ago the Ottoman Empire was a super-national autocracy founded on a religious basis; today Turkey is a national democratic republic." and his expression, "a jump out of the Middle Ages into the Twentieth Century," are true, in all essentials, for China as well. The Chinese leaders have "exchanged medieval-oriental for modern western thought," just as the Turkish have. The Turkish leaders, it is true, have advanced considerably over other peoples in this matter. The Hatt-i-Sherif of 1839, and still more the Hatt-i-Humayun of 1856, were already steps in the transformation of the medieval-religious basis of the government. But they remained faint-hearted attempts at reform from above, which hardly affected the social life. Even among the intelligentsia there was as yet no corresponding national consciousness which could have become the motive force behind governmental reforms. In the 70’s the weight of western ideas began to permeate, for the first time, the Turkish intelligentsia; but the thirty-year period of Abdul Hamid’s reign raised a dam against them. The administration feared, and rightly, a dissolution of the empire (founded on a religious, super-national basis) and of the absolute power of the sovereign, which was here [Page 103]an even stronger unifying bond than in the similarly formed governments of Austria-Hungary and Russia. In the first decade of the Twentieth Century the movement of the Turkish intelligentsia, which originated, characteristically enough, in the European centers of the empire—in Salonika and Constantinople—succeeded at last in overthrowing the autocracy by force. But the Ottoman Empire was destined to go to pieces in any event on the internal conflicts evoked by the nationalism of the young Turks and the corresponding but opposed nationalism of the Christian and Arabic population. The final reorganization and renovation followed as a matter of course, no longer from Constantinople but in the struggle with Constantinople, focussed in Angora, the center of the Anatolian homeland of the Turkish people. The new Turkey has not even the name in common with the old Ottoman empire, any more than the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics has with the empire of the czars. A lay republic has taken the place of the religious autocracy in Turkey in the same way as in Russia and China. For all the shrinkage of her provinces Turkey is again, for the first time in one hundred and fifty years, mistress in her own house. What she has lost in extent, through nationalism, she has gained in concentration and intensity.

The Turkish Revolution, in its beginning, affected Egypt and Persia also. In Egypt the first flare of an Egyptian national consciousness under Arabi Pascha was as much concerned with the struggle against the autocracy of the local prince as with the struggle against the foreign rule which threatened the land in the form of British occupation of the country for the safeguarding of the Khedive’s authority. When the Egyptian movement for freedom awakened to new life under Mustapha Kamel’s leadership in the first decade of the present century its effort was directed, above all else, against the British occupation, as the far more dangerous pattern and prop of every autocracy. But when this effort passed into its decisive phase after the termination of the World War the Egyptians, in their movement for freedom, found themselves opposed again and again to an alliance between the native court and aristocracy on the one hand and foreign rule on the other. The [Page 104]autocracy of the corrupt court in Persia, reduced to a tottering condition by the revolution in the second lustrum of this century, was likewise sustained by Russia. Not till after the World War was it possible even here to overthrow and banish the dynasty and to win from within full independence for the country. Elsewhere circumstances were different, as in Japan, Siam and Afghanistan, where the autocratic rulers were strong personalities who recognized the situation and on their own initiative carried out the necessary reforms, thus holding out successfully against the struggle of their states for independence of foreign influences.

In British India the struggle against the British bureacracy was further aggravated by all the animosities inevitably evoked by a race-contrast, already great in itself, which was sometimes accentuated by the English. Here also, the effort previously restricted to the intelligentsia passed into a new phase after the World War, when it was possible to enlist the great masses in it. The most difficult problem presented itself in the reorganization of the colossal realm of the millions of Chinese. Here, as in Turkey, the struggle went on against dynasty and foreign rule simultaneously, but with the fall of the dynasty it was still undecided, and rose for the first time to its full intensity. The Chinese chaos easily intimidated the observer, who pointed in the face of it to the ordered peace in French Indo-China or in Korea under Japanese subjection. But the peoples of the Orient, awakening to a national consciousness, were exactly like the European peoples: they preferred self-government to a good government, even though the self-government be purchased at the price of less order and greater suffering. The transition of vast European areas from one cultural stage to another took place in a similar manner under great disorders, often accompanied by enormous outrages. So it was at the time of the Thirty Years' War, the consequences of which weighed heavily upon Germany for a half-century longer; and at the time of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars; and so it is today in the provinces of the Soviet Union. Many great countries of the Orient must still go through a turmoil of this kind before the new order can appear within them, unless a superior statesmanlike wisdom and a sympa [Page 105]thy which understands and anticipates the inner nature of historical processes combine to carry on the contest against acquired interests.

Capitulations

The struggle for freedom among oriental peoples expresses itself in the endeavor to gain recognition of perfect equality of rights with western nations. Until the end of the World War this recognition was accorded to only one government, Japan. All other oriental governments were limited in their sovereignty, if not actually subjected to Europe according to the terms of a protectorate or some other dependence. Limitation of sovereignty assumed, first of all, the form of capitulations. Hence the struggle for their removal-a struggle in which the attitude of the Soviet Union against oriental governments rendered important aid. The treaties which were concluded by the Bolshevists with China, Persia, Afghanistan and Turkey after the Russian Revolution meant a revolutionization in the negotiations of European powers with Asiatic governments, since they renounced all privileges and concessions and recognized the oriental peoples as having full and equal rights in the new world-wide, self-evolving community of nations.

On March 16, 1921, Russia concluded a treaty with the government of Angora, in the preamble of which was the following: "Both parties recognize the common purpose of the national movement for freedom in the East and the struggle of the industrial population of Russia for a new social order, and proclaim most emphatically the right of the peoples of the Orient to freedom and independence and a form of government in conformity with their desires."

On February 26, 1921, the treaty with Persia was concluded, in which the following was set forth: "In the desire to see the Persian people independent, prosperous and in full possession of the free disposal of their properties, the government of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic declares the agreements, treaties, stipulations and settlements signed by the czarist government with Persia and intended to reduce the rights of the Persian people, null and void and of no effect" In addition to this, Russia declared the debt obligations of Persia on earlier loans cancelled, and surrendered without [Page 106]compensation the roads, railways, harbor facilities and telegraph lines built by the earlier Russian government in northern Persia. Russian Orthodox religious propaganda in Persia was prohibited, and the property of the missions of the Russian Church in Persia fell to the Persian people. By the terms of the treaty Russian citizens in Persia were made subject to the jurisdiction of Persian courts, in accordance with Persian law. The treaties which Russia concluded with Afghanistan on February 28, 1921, and with China on March 31, 1924, were made in a similar spirit. Thus it came about, too, that the great leader of the Chinese people, Sun Yat-Sen in his manifesto before his death in March, 1925, referred to the Soviet Union as an ally in the struggle for the liberation of oppressed peoples of the world.

The repeal of capitulations is a symbol for oriental states not only of their admission as equally entitled members of the commonwealth of civilized nations, but also of the final step in the transition from medieval to modern governmental and legal procedure. Capitulations in accordance with which the European in the Orient enjoys the benefit of extra-territoriality and is subject neither to local laws nor to local justice, and often not even to the taxing power of the oriental state, are a remnant of medieval international polity, when the stranger had no legal status in a foreign country or in foreign territory according to territorial law, but was treated according to his own personal law. Exclusion from the territorial common law was originally a disregard of the foreigner who was evidently unworthy to share in the religious or tribal community in the midst of which he found himself. The life of the foreigner in the Orient, in his own quarter of the city, in conformity with his own law, under his own government and with his own budget, was indeed consistent with the character of the loose governmental organization of the Middle Ages. The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power granted to French subjects (at first in 1535) and then to subjects of other governments the right, in Turkey, of free settlement and judicial and taxational autonomy. Similar treaties were then forced upon other oriental countries—China, Japan, Siam, Persia and others—by European powers. Event- [Page 107]

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ually, as oriental states began to transform themselves in the Nineteenth Century under the influence of modern imperialism, they had a feeling that capitulations were not only a fetter on their legal and economic development but were also an outward and visible sign of their inferiority. The authority of various foreign states within the governmental jurisdiction of another state has always offered, conceivably, the opportunity for a continuous interference with the sovereignty of the latter and has led to numerous abuses. What was once (in an international legal arrangement of a bygone historical stage) normal, and accorded on the ground of a voluntary understanding, had been converted into an abnormal law of exception which could be maintained only by force. A succession of oriental governments have already won a complete victory in their struggle against capitulations. The capitulations accorded in Japan in 1854, which the island empire had striven to have removed since 1872, were repealed after the triumph of Japan over China in 1894. After the World War it was possible for the kingdom of Siam to conclude treaties with the capitulatory powers, according to which, after the completion of the new Siamese code, even the last remnants of extra-territoriality for foreigners will disappear. In the peace treaty at Lausanne, on July 24, 1923, Turkey obtained recognition of the repeal of capitulations. Persia recalled her capitulations in 1928 and placed all foreigners under the jurisdiction of Persian courts. The struggle against capitulations continues in only two countries, China and Egypt. It is clear that the European-American foreign colonies are standing fast on the retention of priviliges so valuable. But the course of history in the Orient, is working against them. Constitutional government in the Orient, centralized and rationalized after the European pattern, must demand recognition of its territorial sovereignty, and equalization before its state-sovereignty of natives and foreigners living within its jurisdiction.

(To be continued) [Page 108]

THE NOVEL OF THE WAR YEARS

by EVELYN NEWMAN Professor of English, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida

I

If the group of writers of the immediate years of the War. Henri Barbusse, Georges Duhamel (Denis Thévenin). and Roland Dorgelès hold first place for vivid and sympathetic narration of actual life in the trenches, and immediately behind the fighting front. Fritz von Unruh, Leonhard Frank, and Herbert Eulenberg would come nearer comparison with these French authors for the German material in point of time. E. M. Remarque's more recent book Im Westen Nichts Neues (1926) is similar in actual material. It will be discussed later because of its method of treatment. From the English side. Wilfrid Ewart's Way of Revelation, C. E. Montague's Rough Justice, Ford Madox Ford's Trilogy,-especially the last two of the books-No More Parades and A Man Can Stand Up-and Edward Thompson's These Men, Thy Friends would be comparable. though they, too, were written much later and have a plot-structure and developed character delineation in the manner of the novelist's traditional style. Anthony Bertram's The Sword Falls depicts the first days of war, the mobilization, excitement and enthusiasm in London, and all the froth of passion that foamed those first months everywhere.

Of the French trio, Barbusse is the oldest (born 1871). He had done some writing before the War. Sensitive and passionate. he was one of the pre-war socialistic intellectuals. He has much of the technique and the quality of Zola's school. Duhamel, born 1884, had written poetry and some drama and criticism, Dorgelès [Page 109]

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had done essay and newspaper work. They all took part in the war from the first days. Duhamel was in the medical corps, as he had studied medicine but had deserted its practice for literature some years before.

Le Feu (1916) by Barbusse-in spite of certain propaganda chapters-stands out in time and merit as one of the finest of the early stories of the world war. Its dedication is "To the memory of comrades who fell by my side at Crouy and on Hill 119, January, May and September, 1915." He makes these comrades live for us in comprehensively tender and graphic description. The book opens with a Prologue reminiscent of Thomas Mann's novel, Der Zauberberg, as the scene is in a tuberculosis sanatorium within the vicinity of Mont Blanc. The patients discuss the news of the war dispassionately, since they are far removed from actual life at the time. The German declares, "I hope Germany will be beaten!" "Austria's act is a crime," cries the Austrian. "France must win," says the Englishman. Another clairvoyant thinks of the fighters- "thirty millions of soldiers-two armies at death grips-that is one great army committing suicide." "It should not have been," says the deep and hollow voice of the first in the line of beds. But another says, "It is the French Revolution beginning again." "Let thrones beware!" says another in undertone. A third, "Perhaps it is the last war of all." Heads shake in dissent. "Stop war? Impossible! There is no cure for the world's disease." A storm gathers with the night upon Mont Blanc. In fancy the sick men behold the thirty millions of soldiers "blinded, borne down in the world conflict, yet in the end lifting their faces from the mud and filth of war to reveal a new will that would make a future transformation of a warring world into one of peace."

This effective introduction in a background of scenic beauty and intellectual tolerance sets the stage for Le Feu, the story of a squad of common soldiers and their day-by-day experiences in action and behind the line. Barbusse shows the forces that helped to make that comradeship which was the great solace of the fighting men. It is also the sustaining interest of the great bulk of wartime literature, this sublimated friendship of men in mortal danger. [Page 110]holding the plot of the stories together as does the romantic love-interest in peace-time fiction.

We see Barbusse's soldiers: Cocon, Volpatte, Lamuse, Bertrand the sensitive soul. Cocon the mathematician is for ever giving figures about the army: "On the French side about 10,000 kilometres of trenches, and as much again on the German side. And the French front is only about one-eighth of the whole war-front of the world."

"Thus speaks Cocon. . . . 'In all that lot, you see what are, us chaps?'"

Says Lamuse of the soldiers: "Mustn't take them too seriously, these men,.... they're only kids."

They acknowledge their fear and have little hate in general. Says Tirloir: "We talk about the dirty Boche race; but as for the common soldier, I don't know if it's true or whether we're codded about that as well, and if at bottom they're not men pretty much like us."

We hear of their disgust at their own civilian groups of wealthy and important men visiting the trenches in personally officer-conducted groups, their hatred of the war-profiteer and slacker, their amusement at the stories with which the newspapers deceived the civilian population in all lands.

"One is so comfortable there (in the trenches) with water and gas laid on, and shower-baths at every step. The only drawback is that it is rather too hot in winter." They mock thus upon reading the home news.

Their rock-bottom commonsense, humor, and humanness make Birbusse's men tell us themselves of their tragedies and simple joys. The way the French village folk behind the lines made money at the expense of even their own soldiers billeted between attacks at the front, excited bitterness: "We deserve nothing. We only risk our skins." The innocent tale of a little boy, son of a village merchant, reveals the ignoble business found in every fighting country-that of the war-profiteer. Asks one of the soldiers of the child: "Your papa, he says, doesn't he say, 'let's hope the war goes on." [Page 111]

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III

"Of course," says the child... "because we're getting rich. He says, by the end of May, we shall have got fifty thousand francs. "... he said it to mamma. Papa wished it could be always like that. Mamma, sometimes, she isn't sure, because my brother Adolphe is at the front. But we're going to get him sent to the rear, and then the war can go on."

Nor are the black colonials and their share in this white men's war entirely omitted. Several times their shadow falls. Here is an especially good picture:

"Through the twilight comes the rolling hum of tramping men.... "Africans!""

"They march past with faces red-brown, yellow, or chestnut ... greatcoats yellowish-green, and their muddy helmets sporting the crescent in place of our grenade. Those and the 75-gun we can take our hats off to. They're everywhere sent ahead at big moments, the Moroccan Division. One of the sharpshooters overhears our talk as he passes. He looks upon us, laughs abundantly . . . and repeats our words with significant shakes of his head: "Pas Kam rad, non pas Kam'rad, never. Cut head off!"

There are contrasts of beauty in scenic descriptions-a springtime period spent by the men reprieved for their little time from the trenches: "In the sunshine of air and of earth we hear the bees, as they work and make music (in deferance to the poets). and the cricket which, in defiance of the fable, sings with no humility and fills Space by himself."

The plan of the vast army organization given by Cocon, the squad's statistician, is much like that of Lieutenant Tietjens in Ford Madox Ford's No More Parades. Says Cocon summing up: For the whole French Army that holds the lines to go by--I'm not speaking of those who are fixed up at the rear, where there are twice as many men again, and services like the ambulance that cost nine million francs and can clear you seven thousand cases a day to see them go by in trains of sixty coaches each, following each other without stopping, at intervals of a quarter of an hour. at would take forty days and forty nights." [Page 112]Volpatte sums up the condition the surviving soldiers will find themselves in at the end of the war: "And you hear ’em discussing the battles, for they’re closer in touch than you with the big bugs and with the way the war’s managed; and afterwards, when you return, if you do return, it’s you that’ll be wrong in the middle of all that crowd of humbugs, with the poor little truth that you’ve got."

In Chapter X, we have the description of the shooting of a soldier under court martial order such as Dorgelès recounts with such power in Les Croix de Bois, and Montague and Bertram in Rough Justice and The Sword Falls. The sergeant speaks: "He was a decent sort, like ourselves. . . . He was in the front line from the beginning. . . There was the whole ceremonial. . . the colonel on horseback, the degradation; then they tied him to the little post, the cattle stoup."

The end of the fierce slaughter is discussed. The work of the future will be to wipe out the present. . . like something abominable and shameful. And yet—this present—it had to be!

Shame on military glory. ... shame on the soldier’s calling. "Yes, shame. That’s the true word. . . It’s true in eternity, but it’s not yet true for us... In our time of today, in these moments. this truth is hardly more than a fallacy."

And so the book runs on to its closing chapters of indictment against the Church, State, Patriotism and Society. I shall close with the conversation among some wounded waiting to be taken to the hospital. An aviator, terribly burned, talks of what he has seen looking down upon both contending armies. He describes a Sunday service: "I could make out two crowds, one among the Boches and one of ours, in these parallel lines that seemed to touch each other.... There were two religious services... the altar, the padre. and all the crowd of chaps. The more I went down the more I could see that the two things were alike. . . I made out the two voices from the earth that made up the one—'Gott mit uns!’ and ’God is with us!’— and I flew away...

"It’s the truth of things that’s mad."

Les Croix de Bois by Roland Dorgelès is also the story of a squad of soldiers, heterogeneous in class, age and occupation [Page 113]Sulphart, the flaming-headed, nimble-tongued Paris factory worker, is companion in wit and power to Volpatte in Le Feu. Gilbert, the sensitive and refined law student may be compared to Bertrand, Jacques Larcher the writer (Dorgelès in disguise) to Barbusse (in disguise).

Sulphart's satire about the rear depôts may be compared to Volpatte's exclamation when he saw one of them: "I'd never have believed there'd be so many men in chairs while war was going on."

The men's repugnance towards searching even their own dead for identity medals and last pitiful belongings, the awful food, the mud and filth of billets-usually a shed or barn filled with damp straw and manure piles-the vermin, the flies, the rats, the constant fear of front line attacks: all these things are presented vividly.

Sulphart is spokesman of the squad: "What really sticks in my gizzard... is going to have my mug split just to take three rotten fields of beet that are no good to anybody... What do you suppose they're going to do with their silly little bit of wood that lies in a hollow? It's just for the pleasure of knocking folk over."

Sulphart's indignation may be compared to that of many other characters in the writings of Sir Philip Gibbs, Ford Madox Ford, George von der Vring, and Bernard Kellermann-especially to those in Kellermann's story of the General who forced many attacks upon a useless hill at Verdun, until a whole regiment was lost.

Yet there are some pleasant times, some kindly people in villages and farms. The squad often has a good meal foraged by the ever-resourceful Sulphart and his aids. Bourland the musical member, has made a violin from a cigar box and strings he got from Paris and plays the Symphonie Pathétique and Ase's Death, or an aria from Bach or Méditation de Thais, and everything of the present is annihilated until a wounded man is brought in or a shell falls near enough to shake them from their dream of beauty. Letters that came to a fallen comrade were destroyed by Gilbert "rather than returned with the brutal announcement of death in the corner: The Addressee cannot be found." "Over the regulation soldier's tomb he "scattered the petals of the letters, so that the dead man might at least sleep under words from his own folk." [Page 114]Again there is an account of the shooting of a man by his own officer's orders: "Is it a soldier, that blue heap? . . "Oh to be obliged to look on that, to keep for ever in the memory his wild cry in which we felt both terror and horror and supplication "You know what he had done? "The other night, after the attack, he was put forward for the patrol. As he had already been out the night before, he refused There you are... He was a fellow from Cotteville. He had two boys."

Gilbert, one of the leading characters, is killed on the battle field. Sulphart, the other, survives. He returns to find that his wife has left him, taking every thing of value with her. When he looked in the barracks to recover his civilian effects left there in August 1914, the sergeant-major told him that vermin had got into the bundles of clothing left, and they had to burn the lot. At his lodgings, when he tried to talk to the concierge, she cried: 'Don go on telling me tales about the trenches; we've had our ears burs in with them!' Out of a cupboard he pulled some dusty old papers In one of these he found an article by a "Member of the Academy. "We have contracted a debt of gratitude to our poilus that we shall never forget," said the writer. "We are their debtors for all the suffering that we have not gone through."

Sulphart carefully treasured this article in his note book. All that he had for comfort was that he had come out of the war with his life.

Dorgelès apostrophises his dead friends at the end: "Oh, m dead, my dear dead, my poor dead... I think I see you wandering forlornly... seeking in the ever lasting night all those ungratefu living folk that are forgetting you already. "You were so young, so confident, so strong, my comrade ... you should not have died."

German authors who were writing at about the same perio were expressing thoughts concerning the war similar to those of Barbusse and Dorgelès. Fritz von Unruh's Opfergang is earlies in date. It was written in the field in the spring of 1916. It is th story of a company's attack on Verdun. Seargeant Hillbrand, the [Page 115]schoolmaster Clemens, Captain Werner, Heinz the cadet, and Preis the drummer are the leading characters. Clemens expresses sentiments of international longing: "Friends, . . . give me a flag, visible as the sky, and I swing it over the earth, till arms are stayed and men reach one another their hands again."

The night is described in vague dream-like fashion. Hillbrand goes out to reconnoitre. He meets Preis who declares that all of them (soldiers) are "little screws turned out by threes and fours and sixes and millions." Morning and the march start together. An actor in the company is amusing the men. The captain tells them that their play is Verdun. Hillbrand who is thinking of his wife and unborn child goes into the church. There he meets the lieutenant who cries out: "But when the Babel of our fleshly life was built, our senses were confounded, so that there is no more understanding; today we have a French God, a German God, a Russian, an English, and so on."

Outside anti-aircraft guns are shooting at French biplanes. Clemens the schoolmaster goes to the churchyard, enters the mortuary chapel. There, in this place of decay, he questions the figure of the Saviour as to the reason of the captivity of the Christ idea---a captivity equal to that of the soldiers compelled to fight. He implores for the breaking of such captivity and marvels at the madness of the world that allows no fraternity save to dead men.

A soldier-waiter goes mad and is held in the hospital. When the captain comes to see him, he can only utter the word Verdun. The captain takes a paper from him on which is written: "A hundred and twenty-one pay offices, forty-six ambulance companies, two hundred and eighty-five thousand woolen blankets, thirteen thousand tons of coal, three hundred and twenty-six thousand two hundred and fifty sleeping bags, three thousand tools. . . Every day forty miles of barbed wire, eight thousand nails... Yes, the dragon of Verdun swallows that all alone! But the men..."

The captain throws the paper into the stove with a bitter laugh.

The curate must address the storm troop and wonders if Verdun is worth the young blood to be spilled. He asks the men if they will be faithful, telling them: [Page 116]"If a man throttles us, so that we get no more air, we resist since a man must have air to breathe. A people, too, must have air to live. You know what I mean?"

The captain wonders about the great conflagration in Europe and hopes that the "dross of madness" will burn away.

As one of the soldiers goes on his rounds through the night he imagines himself talking to his wife in their home. He tells he that humanity is sick, and that the war is an operation that must be performed. Heinz the cadet dreams of his mother. As the artillery opens fire, the general thinks of his attack forty years before and of that victory: "And over the battlefields rode ou beloved King with Moltke, with Bismarck."

The old man dreams of "Emperors, paladins, halls of mirrors glory of colours, bridal days of the German land."

Then he awakens to the thought: "Between then and now the bridges are down... What will come now?"

The General orders "no retreat." Only forty of the compan are left. The captain is killed. The curate has both his eyes pu out and cries for death. In the village church, used as a dressing station, the actor, having had both his feet frozen off, calls out "Had I but feet! I would run from door to door and play you the comedy of Vaux!"

The mad waiter climbs into the pulpit and takes the crown o thorns from the image of Christ. He calls: "Look here, you san: people. I cut the barbed wire off the Saviour... Wasn’t I righ to do it?... You sane people, why do you put up with it so long

Heinz the cadet and Preis the drummer go through a symbol ceremony of burying the Crucifixion. Clemens the schoolmaste and Kox the pioneer, lead the company "forward out of the trenc more than three yards." So ends the book.

Leonhard Frank’s Der Mensch ist gut (1918) and Herbert Eulenberg’s Der Bankrott Europas (1920) may be compared somewhat the same way as Barbusse’s Le Feu and Dorgelès Cro de Bois. Herr Frank’s book is a series of episodes, the unity which is made by the Waiter as a connecting link for all the othe characters, who gather about him with their mishaps and sorrows [Page 117]

THE NOVEL OF THE WAR YEARS

The episode of The Mother presents her dreaming of the French mother whose son is about to be shot by her own son. She cries out to him that he must not shoot. But when she hears his hieutenant commanding "Shoot or you'll be shot," she begs her boy to obey, even though he kills the French lad. Her son also dreams on the battlefield. In his dream: "Such a wonderfully fair, indescribably sweet music vibrating through the universe, the son had never heard. Whoso heard it became good. The headsman threw his axe away, went on his knee to the murderer kneeling by the block, and neither any longer understood their earlier life.

The son asked the good Lord who had led him into the unceilinged hall, roofed blue by the starry sky, who had written the music.

The good Lord with the sad eyes whispered: "This music would have been written by a soldier who has fallen.""

Then he sees a fair city which he is also told would have been built by a fallen soldier. He begins reading a great book which young poet fallen in battle would have written.

"To what nation did these dead belong?" asks the son. "The good Lord tells him speaking by his weeping eyes: "That no one knows."

The War Cripples is the story of the Brigade Surgeon who is constantly sawing the bones of war victims. "Into this butcher's house no newspapers come. Here the interest is for the limbs sawn off."

"The men weep, calling: 'My leg! Give it me!"

"But the tired orderly makes a mistake and brings a wrong leg from the tub."

In The Hospital Train, another episode, the Brigade Surgeon thinks: "On all the tracks the hospital trains are bringing the cripples into the land. . . And the peasant in bed knows that he will never plough again since he has only one leg left."

And when all is over there will be unemployment for hundreds of thousands of disabled soldiers. "In the Labor Offices tablets hang on which is to be read: 'For these jobs only strong uninjuried men can be considered.*" [Page 118]The book closes with the meeting of the Brigade Surgeon and the Waiter. They organize a great procession of cripples. This procession turns into a revolution. There is a suggestion of the presence of the Man Christ: "The uniform vanishes out of the world. Freedom and Love come into the land."

Eulenberg's Der Bankrott Europas is a collection of thirty short stories. Some of the best are: The Wreckage—A philosopher who had served the State by raising higher the soul of the Fatherland refuses to be a serf in the compulsory military serfdom. He shoots himself.

The Army Chaplain—A chaplain feels he must go into the fight as do the men to whom he gives "soft words." He does and yields to primitive instincts in the front line. After killing many, he himself is killed.

Der Tetanus—A schoolmaster treasures his father's last letter written in the war of 1870, while he was among the wounded in a French chateau. It reads: "And I tell you war is the most awful. the most debasing, the most bestially hateful misfortune that can come on mankind... Never forget that, my only son, as my holiest legacy to thee! If you have children—I tremble at the thought which once was so dear to me—do not give them any warlike toys. no books about war. Teach them to honour peace as the only possibility of raising us above the beasts."

Among the sketches is a brief appreciation of Alfred Nobel. the ammunition millionaire. "In him mankind grew above itself, for its greatest destroyer became also one of its greatest benefactors."

As will be seen even from these brief summaries, Opfergang and Der Mensch ist Gut are frequently phantasmagorial in character; reality and dream merge tuch an extent that the line is scarcely discernible. Thei cers are not living personalities but types expressing the au sentiments and philosophy. Their books are examples of expressionism and were written when that particular phase of literary and artistic technique was at its height—the immediate war years.

(To be continued) [Page 119]

WORLD CITIZENSHIP AND ALLEGIANCE

by CARL A. Ross Attorney

UR list of peace institutions is a long one. May we not learn something by trying to find out why there are so many of them? The League of Nations must have lacked something. The Geneva Protocol may be considered as an attempt to supply a lack in the League; so may Arbitration Treaties, Locarno, the World Court and the Kellogg Pact. Seemingly the farther we go the more we need, as all these peace institutions have proven inadequate; do we not seek to "implement" them, one and all?

In view of this universal weakness of our peace institutions, can we point to some one thing that all lack, such a thing that, should they possess it, they would no longer need "implementing?" It does little good to say that they lack power without being more specific. No one in any country seems to want the League, or any other peace institution, to have the whip hand over their fatherland; yet the need of "sovereignty" on the part of the League is often pointed out. "Sovereignty" is a proud word. Is this what is lacking; will "sovereignty" do the needed "implementing?"

Surely sovereignty, though much discussed, connotes confused thinking today. Reading from addresses of any leading journalist or statesman, we find apparent unanimity that the nation to which the journalist or statesman owes allegiance, cannot yield an iota of its national sovereignty, and consequently the only differences of opinion occur between those who contend that adherance to some one or other of our present day peace plans would limit national Sovereignty and those who contend that it would not limit national [Page 120]sovereignty. Let us review a few recent utterances. A prominent French statesman: "The conception of European cooperation should tend towards this essential end; a federation built not upon the idea of unity but of union: that is to say, sufficiently supple as to respect the independence and national sovereignty of each of these States."

From official League publications: "The general regulation concerning unanimity is, of course, the recognition of national sovereignty. The League seeks solution by consent and not by dictation. Sovereign States are not ready to be bound by majority decisions of other States and successful international action, whether in League meetings or in inter-League Conferences, requires general consent."

A leading American statesman: "Adherence to that court by the United States has been earnestly recommended by every one of our Presidents and every one of our Secretaries of State leaving since its inception. They have found no entanglement or limitation of the independence of the United States by safeguarded membership in it."

On the other hand, numerous thoughtful writers like Henry Brailsford startle us when they begin to analyze the problem of national sovereignty as applied to our peace problem. "The abandonment of the belligerent powers during the war of their full sovereignty was but a recognition, in a sudden flash rather of practical than of theoretic insight, of the fact that in the modern world the sovereign state, as history has known it, has itself become obsolete. The fiction survives that all sovereign states are equal, and in the League Assembly they enjoy equal voting rights. In fact they are graded in a species of social hierarchy. The Great Powers alone are fully independent in the sense that they are active forces in the world. To them, and in the full sense to them alone, belongs the luxury of framing and executing a world policy. They propose they consent; they, in effect, decide. The Powers of the second rank gain consequence only as the satellites and allies of the greate: Powers. The tie is not merely one of paper and sentiment, the Great Power is the furnisher of their munitions and the dispense: of credit. As for the little national states of the third rank-the Baltic Republics, for example-they are merely the outworks of [Page 121]

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the European system, and little can happen within them without the consent of the Great Powers which, in effect, dowered them with independence and control their economic life by their ability to give or withhold credit. In this dangerous world, a state of the second or third rank can count on maintaining its independence, especially if it possesses territory to which a stronger Power has a claim, only if it adheres to some armed group or to some overshadowing Great Power strong enough to protect it. To speak of any state which is in this case, as fully independent or sovereign, is to misuse words."

What is this thing, "The State," "The Nation?" Why is there such a wide variation in "sovereign" States or Nations? Where does the Nation get "sovereignty?" How may "sovereignty" be transferred? Do the people transfer it, or do nations surrender it, or how is the transfer accomplished? What would a transfer of "sovereignty" to the League involve? May we not say that sovereignty is the result or product of allegiance? Sovereignty is a phenomenon lacking any quantitative character, it cannot be exhibited en mass, while allegiance can be enmassed. The joint allegiance of the many citizens enmassed as in a large nation produces power, strength, a strong nation, while the joint allegiance of the few citizens in a small nation produces little power, a weak nation, although the quality of sovereignty is the same in both nations. Sovereignty is a thing that, in our opinion, cannot be divided, it is possessed in entirety or not at all. We would go further and assert that sovereignty is a state or quality that can be possessed only by individuals, since it presupposes a capacity to think, to act, to command. A fictitious creation, like a State, a Nation, lacks any such mental capacity. It is true the State can "exercise" sovereignty, but it does not "possess" sovereignty any more than the motor "possesses" electricity, the power that makes the motor go. Much confusion arises, however, when the word "State" or the word "Nation" is used to designate, not the political entity, but when it is used in the place of or when it implies and stands for, the collective body of enfranchised citizens; only when it thus connotes the individual citizen, can the State possess sovereignty. [Page 122]Woodrow Wilson once wrote, "the forms of government do not affect the essence of government." Nearly all our peace institutions have the form of government, but, judged by their efficiency, they lack the essence of government. What is this essence that is lacking; is it sovereignty or is it allegiance? This question involves the objectives of our peace institutions. A Peace Institution in Chicago to curb the warlike activities of the racketeers is one thing, a Peace Institution in the United States to curb industrial strikes is another thing, so is a Peace Institution to curb war in the world a far different thing.

Two primary observations may be made relative to the objectives of all Peace Institutions; first the objectives have some territorial limits, different in each of the instances cited. This is merely saying that a government naturally has territorial limits and our Peace Institutions are to effect a world-wide government, while the industrial racketeer peace movements would be limited in extent to one country or to one city. The observation regarding the objectives of Peace Institutions has to do with the class of thing or object to be governed. Chicago racketeers are generally individuals, industrial strikers differ in this regard, the objective is to curb the malicious activities of individual strikers surely, but something more, since strikes imply concerted action of individuals, often the collective body of individuals composing a Union. There is thus involved the control of the voluntary association or corporation. Now when we come to the world-wide Peace Institution we meet a still more complicated situation in this regard, because, while the objective of world peace still involves the activities of individuals, it also involves the concerted action of individuals associated, not in "Unions," of a social or business nature, but the concerted action of individuals associated in their varying and conflicting political character. Racketeers are individuals owing an allegiance, either natural or acquired, to some one government; strikers are likewise individuals owing a like allegiance to some one government but also an allegiance, somewhat similar, to their Association or Union. However, in practical affairs this makes little difference since their Association or Union is also subject to the same one government. [Page 123]

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Soldiers are individuals and to curb war we need to govern them. Surely if we can govern all soldiers we can curb war, but the trouble today is these soldiers do not all owe allegiance to one government. To wage war-not rebellion-takes at least two governments with soldiers owing allegiance to each, consequently the popular notion is that to control war there must be a super-government to control the two governments threatening to go to war. Here is where World Citizenship steps in and simplifies the matter by a simple change in allegiance. Some would call it a change in sovereignty, and while this is true in a limited sense, we prefer to look at the allegiance side of sovereignty and assert that World Citizenship merely requires a change in allegiance, not a change in sovereignty.

(To be continued) [Page 124]

THE DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE

by ALFRED E. GUEST Undergraduate, Amherst College

Nations, like individuals, often make arrangements and unwritten agreements in dealing with other nations, with little thought of possible consequences. It is only natural to make promises which are not to be fulfilled until some future date, especially when they may secure tangible gain for the immediate present. It is as the result of this natural tendency of making promises that has indirectly resulted in the calling of a disarmament conference in February. Germany has been in a state of comparative disarmament since 1918 while France has increased armaments to unprecedented high levels. Germany naturally enough remembers a promise which allied nations made in the Versailles treaty to the effect that within some ten or fifteen years, all nations would take steps to disarm. Attempts to disarm have been almost absolute failures, and now Germany asks for a show-down. She feels that she is no longer obliged to remain in a state of disarmament and when other nations make little actual progress towards disarmament. It is up to the conference to decide whether the nations increase armed forces or whether the saner policy is not to reduce taxes and lighten the burden placed on every individual by cutting out completely the expense of armaments.

It is very significant that this conference is coming at a time when the economic and financial stability of the world is being severely tested. The conference could actually help alleviate the depression. Let us point out the difficulties which confront the conference. France, the one nation that is really a stumbling block in any attempts to disarm, is not hard hit by the universal depression [Page 125]

YOUTH DEMANDS PEACE

since it holds the key position in financial Europe. Hence, the expense of armaments is by no means of paramount concern to her. Other nations on the continent and in America, seem only too anxious to proceed along the lines of a concurrent and universal disarmament. France realizes her powerful position and would like to keep the upper hand. She continually veils her armament policy behind a cloak of so-called security.

In the consideration of naval disarmament, undoubtedly progress will be made. Satisfactory progress has been made in the past, but at no time has the problem of land armaments been adequately handled. Whenever one hears the word "disarmament," one immediately thinks in terms of naval disarmament for naval limitation is much more feasible and less complicated than land limitation. It is impossible, then, to make any reasonable optimistic guesses based on land disarmament of the past, since no steps have been made in this direction. We now have a brief survey of the setting of the conference.

As to the chances of some positive and tangible success of the conference, we have only to take this situation and compare it with past experiences of a similar nature to feel a little pessimistic. We can find many reasons for feeling that the chances for success of the conference are slim. The element of security, about which we hear so much, is likely to provide the first problem. France says that the only way to create peace is through security. She feels that if she can build up a large enough armed force, she can be secure from attacks of other nations. In other words, her armed forces are purely for purposes of defense. In the past, although nations have armed themselves with this idea of security and defense as their aim, in the end they have had to employ this armed force. France, in truth, fears Germany and Italy. Since Germany is in a stage of almost total disarmament France is scarcely justified in her arguments for armaments as security against Germany. France insists on certain political guarantees from Germany if she is to reduce armaments for she is afraid of Germany economically, and through political guarantees, hopes to produce the same or even more powerful influence than fear of arms might produce. This seems entirely [Page 126]unjustifiable. Germany is in wretched shape now, mainly through the refusal of France to grant any sort of long term credit. France hopes to keep Germany in the tight spot she is in now and will yield little in the coming conference. It is a question with France of continued arms or positive political guarantees.

The other difficulty lies in the faithlessness nations have in a gentlemen's agreement. Immediately, some one may say it is altogether too idealistic to talk about gentlemen's agreements in such serious subjects as disarmament. To be sure, it is idealistic but since all other less idealistic methods have failed, all the more chance for its success. In the past, the countries have always been bound by numerous alliances, guarantees and indemnities. These different policies have not stopped war, rather they have eventually increased the chances for war. For a time, alliances seemed to be a system of checks and balances against the possibilities of war. They have been built up in the interests of some sort of security. And in every instance have they failed. Now that every sort of guarantee has failed, is it not time to try something new, something a little more appealing, closer to the people. Instead of considering the diplomats, the politicians, consult the desires of the people. Disagreeable as the policy of France may seem, it does not represent the ideals nor the wishes of the people of that country. The desires of the individuals of all countries are the same. The average American, no more than the average man of any country, likes neither war nor high taxes. The same is true of the average Frenchman or German. He does not care to fight and die for his country if there is the alternative of internal and external peace. The average individual wants to eliminate armies and navies and all that pertains to war. He, however, can not do this alone. The purpose and aim of the conference should then be to agree to eliminate armies and navies. If this is too drastic a measure to expect at one sweep, an agreement to cut in half the expenditures made for armaments would suffice for a time. Let us see just what cutting armaments in half would mean to all the nations concerned. Germany would remain as she is, virtually disarmed; Italy would add millions to her revenue and so would all nations which have a distinct arm- [Page 127]

YOUTH DEMANDS PEACE

ament program. France would have nothing to fear which could possibly upset her desire for security. Since nearly eighty per cent of taxes go to the War Office, taxes would be cut by nearly fifty per cent. The money which goes towards building boats for the navy is a huge waste, since the life of a battleship is but com- aratively few years and the upkeep of one represents over thirty millions of dollars. At the present time all the major nations have a program of boat building of considerable size, and exactly when these countries are struggling with high taxes, unemployment and poverty.

At a conference of international scope, the representatives are sent to come to agreements, but they cannot act exactly as they feel. They have their office to consider for if they were to overstep the bounds of their restrictions they might find themselves without a job upon their return. Delegates are always bound too much by custom and politics.

What probably takes place in a conference was clearly demon- strated last March at a Model League of Nations' Assembly at Wellesley where students representing every country in the League of Nations at Geneva, came together. The Assembly proceeded rationally enough until discussions arose about mandates, minor- ities and war guilt, involving France and Germany. Then, instead of arguing logically with some definite settlement in view, the delegates blew up and spent the rest of the period in disagreeable mud-slinging. No country would yield for fear of appearing to be in the wrong by showing any weakness. A little logical compromise would have brought about a friendly settlement. As it was, the delegates of France and Germany left the conference wider apart than they were before the assembly gathered.

In any international conferences, nations are just so unlikely to change opinions. Before the conference is called, it is possible to line up the different factions of the problem and for the most part these line-ups remain the same throughout. But the time has come and never have people realized it more clearly before, when a definite understanding must be linked with a frank desire and mutual consent to have peace. This means that some nations will, [Page 128]on paper, be making more sacrifices than others. In the end all nations will benefit.

A consideration of the desires and interest of the people, rather than the clever and strategic screening of politicians and diplomats, will provide the only hope of success. And so we come to the part ing of the ways. If the old road is taken, the world will have to start agitating once again for all that is so nearly in its grasp. Peace lies just around the corner and let us hope that its vision will not be blotted out by petty squabbling over a few thousands of tons of naval tonnage nor a certain number of men dressed up in military uniform.

The second contribution to a symposium conducted by undergraduates of Amherst College. [Page 129]

CURRENT PLANS AND ACTIVITIES

by RUSSELL M. COOPER Graduate School, Columbia University

THE amazing growth of the peace movement in America is one of the outstanding phenomena of our time. Smothered as it was until the close of the World War, it sprang up again with the Peace Conference and has developed until today it is assuming the proportions of a veritable crusade. Long established organizations have added secretaries of international goodwill to their staffs, and new societies have arisen by the score. It often happens, however, that ardent members of one peace organization are hardly aware of the progress of their kindred societies; very few persons can visualize the movement as a whole. A clearing-house for information and ideas clearly is needed. It is to this end, therefore, that World Unity is dedicating this section of its magazine. We shall endeavor to chronicle from month to month the most interesting and significant projects which come to our attention. In order to make the survey the most adequate possible, it will help greatly if our readers will send in reports of the activities in which they are engaged. Only with the widest cooperation can this service achieve its intended purpose.

All eyes are turned now toward the World Disarmament Conference which is scheduled for next February. While several organizations are continuing their agitation on War Debts and the World Court, there has been a decided shift of emphasis toward the issues of the forthcoming conference. The groups differ somewhat in the percentage of armament reduction which they advocate; many insist upon total disarmament as the only solution. All unite, [Page 130]however, in urging that the United States take the lead in the revision downward.

In order more adequately to coordinate their efforts, the national peace organizations have formed an Inter-Organizational Council on Disarmament. Representatives of about sixty groups meet in New York City every two weeks to plan next steps in the disarmament program. They have undertaken two projects in common. The first is the establishment of a store on Fifth Avenue, New York, where peace posters, pamphlets, and books are being exhibited and sold. The public thereby has ready access to the best material available in this field. The other joint project of this group of national agencies is the promotion of Armistice Day meetings across the country. In seventy-five of the major cities of the United States local committees are working in close conjunction with this national group preparing for huge mass meetings to press the cause of the Disarmament Conference. Other activities, also, are in process of materialization.

Undoubtedly the most outstanding piece of mass education attempted recently was the World Tomorrow Week, October 26 to 31. With the theme, "How May another War be Averted? mass meetings were staged in 150 cities in the United States and Canada. The World Tomorrow magazine sponsored the meetings supported by a committee of 275 distinguished peace leaders under the chairmanship of Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick and Dr. George C. Pidgeon.

Outstanding leaders in the United States and Canada discussed the five major proposals—disarmament, world organization, removing the causes of hostility, war resistance, and education fo peace. The focus of attention, in nearly every case, was disarmament. At every meeting enthusiasm ran high. Several cities repor an attendance of over 5,000 persons, and in two or three cases nearl 10,000 were assembled. About 200 statesmen, clergymen, and educators contributed their services on the platform, while many more served on local sponsoring committees. On Thursday afternoon October 29, a national broadcast on disarmament was sent out from [Page 131]

THE AMERICAN PEACE MOVEMENT

the N.B.C. Studios in New York City. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Zona Gale, and W. E. B. DuBois delivered a joint appeal to the nation to back the president in a program of radical reduction. One can not estimate the number of people reached directly by the World Tomorrow Week program, but the total would go well over 100,000. In each city the mass meeting was considered just the beginning of an intensive campaign. Local follow-up committees are cooperating with the National Council for the Prevention of War and other peace societies to conserve the enthusiasm aroused and to consolidate it into an active force making for peace.

On October 10, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom delivered its Disarmament Petition to President Hoover. Miss Jane Addams, Mrs. Helen Taft Manning and Miss Catherine Blake, accompanied by 500 representatives from each of the forty-eight states, presented the document signed by over 150,000 persons in the United States. The following day, October 11, the Women's International League held a mass meeting at the Belasco Theater, in Washington, at which addresses were delivered by the Hon. James G. Rogers, Assistant Secretary of State, and by the women who led the caravan across the continent.

This caravan left Hollywood, California, at the close of the annual convention of the Women's International League, June 21. An automobile with literature concerning the Disarmament Conference and bearing the disarmament petitions, traveled from state to state, disseminating information, gathering sentiment, and securing signatures. At each state border a delegation of women met the car and escorted it to the principal cities, forming a caravan for peace. The ladies spoke at dinners, churches, theaters, mass meetings, and clubs. They report that everywhere they were accorded a most hearty reception.

The petition, which was delivered to President Hoover, is identical with the petition circulated by the Women's International League in forty different countries. In Japan nearly a million people have signed it, and in Great Britain the total is over that number. The petition reads as follows: [Page 132]"The undersigned men and women, irrespective of party, are convinced that competition in armaments is leading all countries to ruin without giving security; that this policy renders future wars inevitable and that these will be wars of extermination; that governmental assurances of peaceful policy will be valueless as long as those measures of disarmament are delayed which should be the first result of the pact for the renunciation of war.

"They therefore ask for total and universal disarmament and request their government formally to instruct its delegates to the International Disarmament Conference, meeting in February, 1932 to examine all proposals for disarmament that have been or may be made, and to take the necessary steps to achieve real disarmament."

In addition to the Women's International League caravan there were ten peace caravans of college students who toured various states during the summer under the auspices of the American Friends Service Committee. The student speakers were trained at the two weeks institute held at Haverford College in June.

The League for Industrial Democracy has published an emergency magazine called Disarm! With articles by Norman Thomas, Heywood Broun, Paul Blanshard, A. J. Muste, John Nevin Sayre, Kirby Page, and many others, the magazine is a sweeping, graphic assault on war, war psychology, and armaments. Copies have not been placed on news stands, but have been turned over to unemployed men to sell on the streets. The price is ten cents.

The National World Court Committee has launched a nationwide drive for ratification by the United States Senate of the pending World Court proposal. Everett Colby, chairman of the executive committee, announces that the drive has the active support of sixty national labor, church and women's organizations. Plans are being made for a campaign in a number of states for the purpose of crystallizing public sentiment in favor of the new protocols now in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. [Page 133]

THE AMERICAN PEACE MOVEMENT

More than 40,000 clubwomen in Westchester County, New York, are participating in a six-weeks intensive study of selected national and international questions. This is in preparation for the Westchester County World Affairs Institute scheduled to be held in White Plains on November 17 and 18. The four subjects used for discussion are: the world economic crisis, limitation of armaments, American relations in Latin America and the Pacific, and international education. The project is a joint enterprise of the women's organizations of Westchester County.

The recent annual meeting of the National Council for Prevention of War marked the tenth birthday of that organization. The Council met at the Friend's Meeting House, Washington D.C., on October 20, 21, and 22. The main attention of the meeting was directed toward the Disarmament Conference, its implications and possibilities. Other topics discussed were: debts and reparations, Philippine independence, our Latin American policies, the Macintosh Decision, and military training.

Prominent peace workers from many sections of the country were in attendance, and the occasion was one both of stock-taking of the past and preparation for an even more extensive program in the future.

The foregoing illustrations indicate some features of the peace movement that is sweeping across the nation. As the Disarmament Conference approaches, the activity should become even more tense-but more of that in our next issue. [Page 134]

THE PEACE LEADERS REPLY

George H. E. Smith's article on "The Twilight of the American Peace Movement," published in our August issue, has brought forth a number of interesting comments, excerpts from which are now published as evidence of the real strength of the peace ideal at this time. This correspondence reveals the fact that important efforts are being made to coördinate the activities of the different peace organizations, and also to create a more effective contact with the general public-the aims sought by Mr. Smith.

FLORENCE BREWER BOECKEL

Education Director, National Council for Pretention of War

I agree with Mr. Smith that educational work for peace ac- cepted the post-war drie against war as if it were based on a reasoned understanding instead of on an emotional reaction, but I do not find anywhere in his article, except in a quotation which he makes from Norman Angell, a suggestion as to just what the re- sulting mistake in education has been. Norman Angell points out that the peace societies have not directed their educational efforts toward showing clearly the change in the structure of human so- ciety, "of revealing the process, of showing the how and why of the futility of military force." To anyone who has attended successive peace conferences during the last ten years, such for instance as the conferences on the Cause and Cure of War, there can be no doubt that the kind of educational work for peace which has been carried on has met with a considerable degree of success. The leaders, na- tional, state and local, of the various organizations interested in the promotion of peace are today well informed and intellectually alert on current peace problems.

As a matter of fact within the last two years there has been a notably increased effort in peace literature to build up such a new [Page 135]

THE PEACE LEADERS REPLY

conception of the world and to reach larger audiences. An economic survey of the United States has been made by sections, states and cities in which world interdependence is stated in terms of local products and occupations so that the fact of interdependence can be brought home to the individual in terms of his own pocketbook. This survey has recently been taken up by a western university and graduate students are basing their theses on detailed studies along this line of their own states.

Financially and numerically the peace movement was never stronger. Consider, for example, the National Council for Prevention of War which was organized ten years ago this autumn. Its first year's budget was twenty thousand dollars, its budget last year was one hundred and seventy thousand dollars.

Many of those who are watching the peace movement closely believe that the present campaign in support of reduction of armaments marks a new phase in peace activity. The need for concentration and haste is tending to coördinate peace programs.

PHILIP C. NASH

Director, The League of Nations Association, Inc.

Frankly, it is my opinion that the peace forces of the world are far from being in eclipse. They have never been so strong in the history of mankind as they are today. Fifteen years ago even the calling of a disarmament conference was out of the question, the dream of only a few idealists. A few years ago a caravan of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom would have been met by stones and cabbages; now it is being met by governors and mayors. A few years ago Frederick Libby was prevented from talking in many places in the country because he was a pacifist. That does not happen now. I have just returned from an 11,000-mile trip around the country, speaking everywhere to adequate and at least respectful audiences. All the publicity accorded to this trip was either enthusiastically favorable or simply non-committal, with the exception of the Hearst press in the state of Washington. Their tirade rather served to increase the prestige of my visit than to diminish it. [Page 136]As you know, about sixty national civic organizations are grouped together as a National World Court Committee and the same sixty are also loosely united in a conference for the study of disarmament, which is seeking to build up a public opinion behind the administration in its disarmament program. Never before in the history of the world or in the history of this country has there been such cooperation in behalf of effective peace measures and such public interest in them.

DOROTHY DETZER

Executive Secretary, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

That immediate projects have absorbed the energies of most of the workers in the Peace Movement over the past ten years has been true, no doubt, but this has been true not because the educational processes and needs have been forgotten, but because funds have definitely limited activities—and immediate objectives such as stopping the war with Mexico, the World Court campaign, etc.. which he cites, seemed too important to let slide when they became or were made by the Movement actual issues before the country. The few projects which have been accomplished have taken the united efforts of all. It may have been a mistaken technique—but it was not blindness on the part of the leaders.

What Professor Smith does not take into account is that the Peace Movement includes on its fringe such groups as the Federation of Women's Clubs. Their governing boards would not use material, for example, prepared by us. Is it waste for them then to prepare literature for their own group rather than to give their people none at all? On the other hand, this is not the case among Peace organizations as such, and more and more we use each other's material though this has its definite drawbacks. For example, the W.I.L. has produced nothing in the way of literature on the World Court because there was such splendid material in the field from other organizations.

That the Peace Movement needs further coördination and plan is doubted, I believe, by one one—that definite steps are being taken in the direction of coördination happens to be a fact—work on the [Page 137]

THE PEACE LEADERS REPLY

World Court campaign, the London Naval Conference, the coming Geneva Conference has been undertaken under a joint plan of all the organizations working for Peace. Analysis of needs and how to supply them is also being made. Where there isn't cooperation on given plans and projects, it often is not the fault of the national leaders who see the advantage of such joint undertakings but rather from the local committees.

In any adequate plan, this long educational process could best be assumed, it would seem to me, by organizations whose funds are permanent and stable, such as the foundations and not by the groups who live on the fifty cent pieces of their members.

No nation ever entered a war on reason. The great moments and events of our personal lives are not guided by logic but by emotion. The Movement now needs psychologists more than it needs technicians. It has as yet found no adequate equivalent for the drama, the color, the trappings of militarism. The Peace Movement has no formulas which create automatic emotional responses such as "the protection of home"-the "flag," etc. Surely such emotional patterns can be developed.

CLARENCE E. PICKETT

Executive Secretary, Americas Friends Service Committee

I have read with very keen interest Mr. Smith's article on "The Twilight of the American Peace Movement." I think he overplays a good point. In my judgment the most important kind of peace work in this country is that which attempts to consistently inform large movements of the American public in a dispassionate fashion on international affairs. Generally speaking, America is still operating on the psychology and eronomics which were feasible in George Washington's time. Then we were a small and insignificant country in world affairs. Now we are a great and powerful nation brought up on the theory of isolation but dependent upon cooperation for our prosperity, consequently we often act in ways that cause other nations to feel that we are actuated by ill will when really it is ignorance and lack of understanding that is our difficulty. [Page 138]

RICHARD R. WOOD

Secretary, Peace Committer of the Religious Society of Friends of Philadelphia and Vicinity

While we agree that the peace movement should lay great stress on education, we have discovered two difficulties which Mr. Smith does not mention. In the first place, nobody is quite sure what the effective methods of education are, and those who are surest command the least confidence. This is probably a good thing in the long run, because the forces that are seeking to educate in what I believe to be the direction opposed to peace are at present better financed and better located than are what I consider the peace forces. When one thinks of the connections between the Army and Navy and the moving-picture organizations, one can sense the tremendous forces that can be used in education against peace, if it were finally known how to educate.

Another difficulty about education is the result of the proper desire of this country to keep propaganda out of our public education. Therefore the peace movement can not, on any large scale, carry on an educational program that is much ahead of the thinking of the community. Work with adults therefore seems to have to go on side by side with work for children.

Finally, the suggestion is very appealing that a comprehensive program for the peace movement be worked out. This, again, is easier said than done. The peace movement includes people with many different philosophies and convictions. There are people who honestly believe in provision for arbitration and international cooperation, but who feel that if they are to be effective they must have behind them provision for coercion, by a strong and righteous nation, e.g., the United States or France, or by an international police-force. There are others who fail to see how coercion can be applied on an international scale by any means except means that are in effect war, and who are by firm conviction opposed to war under any name. Such people can work together on definite issues, but find it utterly impossible to agree on a comprehensive program.

DAVID M. EDWARDS

Executive Secretary, Indiana Council on International Relations

Unless peace organizations make their activities more [Page 139]fundamentally educative than they have been, the results will be increasingly smaller.

The Indiana Council on International Relations has mapped out a program for the coming year's activities which we hope will, in a measure at least, remedy this defect.

We are putting on a two day Disarmament Institute on October 2-3. We have secured the best informed persons that we know of as speakers. We are inviting to this Institute, people of leadership capacity from a large number of communities. We hope as a result, that one hundred local Disarmament Institutes will be held in the state of Indiana during the next twelve months.

We are making every effort possible to connect up with the public schools of the state encouraging education in world-mindedness through the medium of the schools. Our work in this capacity is mostly cooperative with the national efforts, such as The National Student Forum for Study of the Kellogg Pact, etc.

C. THWING

Editor, Harmonist

The tone of the essay seems to be sufficiently—and properly—critical, but I do not find much constructive offering of a practical nature. The efforts at cooperation often lead to such compromise as to weaken the efforts at unity. Where there are diverse aims and programs, varying from xtreme left to remote right, it is hard to find common ground sufficient width for all to occupy to advantage. In politics as in religion the creeds and programs are limited in so far as they are common.

CHARLES L. CARHART

Washington Council on International Relations

I venture to think that the policy to be favored is for each to proceed as far and as rapidly as he may "without tarrying for any." The policy that has not heretofore been extensively advocated and tried out is that of the war resisters. I should be glad to see their numbers greatly multiplied. Meanwhile, those who cannot go so far or are solicitous about the laggards need not slacken their efforts. [Page 140]

ROUND TABLE

World Unity joins the host of magazines and newspapers which have paid homage to Dr. David Starr Jordan the scientist, the educator and the valiant soldier in the noble army of world peace. It is a proud privilege to record here the debt owed by this publication to Dr. Jordan's encouragement, advice and full-hearted cooperation. Even before the first number of World Unity appeared, Dr. Jordan responded warmly to the statement of purpose sent to a few representative people in America and abroad. His union of scientific intelligence and spiritual motive appears more and more in these days of international confusion and depression to be the one human quality on which a true and enduring civilization can be based.

The breadth of appeal made by World Unity among its readers is well interpreted by the series of letters, the fifth of which appears this month. Two letters which have recently been received, however, vividly express the extent to which the ideal of the magazine has penetrated. From the Secretary of the Bureau International d'Education, Geneva, Switzerland: "I should like to say that the International Bureau of Education has always found the World Unity Magazine extremely interesting and useful. The current issue of this magazine is always on view in our permanent exhibition on 'The Teaching of Peace and International Collaboration.' Further, the general Secretary of the Bureau has on many occasions referred to certain articles in this magazine in her lectures, and constantly recommends it to visitors at the Bureau. During the recent Summer Course for Teachers, organized by the Bureau, one of the lectures was largely based on articles which had from time to time appeared in World Unity."

From a village in British Columbia: "Herewith is draft to pay my subscription to World Unity for another year. That article by [Page 141]

ROUND TABLE

Norman Angell was the best thing I have read for a long time. When I have read your magazine I send them on to a friend, who lives thirty miles from here and comes to the railroad about twice a year. After this I am going to send them, when he has read them, to a friend 120 miles from the railroad. Since the beginning of 1931 I have made $300. That is pretty good so far but it may be all for the year. Next winter the clothes may be old, and sometime the eats be scanty, but I shall have the reading that will keep me in remembrance that I am part of the great world that is going through the birth pains of a better civilization and paying the price of human progress in human suffering, than which no other price can be paid."

Such a response is more than a vital encouragement, precious though it be, to our own aims and daily work: it is the very substance of world progress and betterment, the animating spirit that in time will overcome the heartless mechanisms of a competitive order and make possible an economy reflecting the ideal of cooperation ever latent in mankind.

The tragic emergency in Manchuria brings up the whole problem of East and West in a form not inviting but compelling the best resources of Western thought. Hans Kohn, in "Orient and Occident" gives us the whole background of political, cultural and economic evolution required for a sound understanding of the present conflict. Grover Clark, by a remarkable philosophic insight, makes at last comprehensible what appears to be the impassible differences between human beings who happen to be born in the East and those who happen to be born in the West.

A new editorial department established to chronicle the current plans and activities of the American Peace Movement, enables the magazine to keep its readers in closer touch with important developments frequently not even mentioned in the public press outside the few largest cities. The first contribution in this month's issue presents Russell M. Cooper as a highly appreciated member of the Staff of Contributing Editors. [Page 142]

A UNIVERSITY OF LIFE

Letters from World Unity Readers-V

It may be that "there is nothing new under the sun." But the knowledge, the appreciation, and the use made of successive revelations of that which is has ever ushered in a "new day."

The World Unity Magazine mirrors forth to its readers the many and varied aspects of the present genesis of such a new age which is sensed more or less consciously by those in the several worlds of economics, politics, science, philosophy, religion, and art.

The World Unity Magazine is in itself a veritable university of life giving to its enrolled "honor students," its responsible readers, the astounding discoveries in the universe of matter; presenting the stimulating programs and platforms offered by the "creative workers" of the world to accelerate the evolution of a "humanized civilization;" and relating the earnest efforts of progressive members of differing colors and creeds which have indeed promoted that true civilization dependent upon and resulting in appreciation and sympathy for all.

Never has there been such a universally minded faculty of leaders consecrated to the uplift and advance of a universal civilization based upon the realization of the oneness of the family of man.

This universalized consciousness of the Jew, the Christian, the Oriental, the scientist, the artist, etc. as expressed by their scholarly spokesmen in this World Unity Magazine will hasten into actuality that ideal but practical condition on earth which the Seers of all ages have foretold as the inevitable goal of humanity.

Therefore it seems to me that the earnest reader of this World Unity Magazine must cherish its noble service to humanity in constructively hastening the world's progress towards its ideal—a "humanized civilization."

MARIE B. MOORE Progressive Education Teacher New York City [Page 143]

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