This is a recording of, The World As I See
It, By Albert Einstein
This book is available, on the public domain,
as well as, here, on Youtube and other websites!!!
This is, The World As I See It, By Albert
Einstein
Preface To Original Edition
Only individuals have a sense of responsibility.
Nietzsche
This book does not represent a complete collection
of the articles, addresses,
and pronouncements of Albert Einstein; it
is a selection made with a definite
object namely, to give a picture of a man.
To day this man is being drawn,
contrary to his own intention, into the whirlpool
of political passions and
contemporary history. As a result, Einstein
is experiencing the fate that so
many of the great men of history experienced:
his character and opinions are
being exhibited to the world in an utterly
distorted form.
To forestall this fate is the real object
of this book. It meets a wish that has
constantly been expressed both by Einstein's
friends and by the wider public.
It contains work belonging to the most various
dates the article on "The
International of Science" dates from the year
1922, the address on "The
Principles of Scientific Research" from 1923,
the "Letter to an Arab" from
1930 and the most various spheres, held together
by the unity of the
personality which stands behind all these
utterances. Albert Einstein believes
in humanity, in a peaceful world of mutual
helpfulness, and in the high mission
of science. This book is intended as a plea
for this belief at a time which
compels every one of us to overhaul his mental
attitude and his ideas.
J. H.
Introduction To Abridged Edition
In his biography of Einstein Mr. H. Gordou
Garbedian relates that an
American newspaper man asked the great physicist
for a definition of his
theory of relativity in one sentence. Einstein
replied that it would take him
three days to give a short definition of relativity.
He might well have added
that unless his questioner had an intimate
acquaintance with mathematics and
physics, the definition would be incomprehensible.
To the majority of people Einstein's theory
is a complete mystery. Their
attitude towards Einstein is like that of
Mark Twain towards the writer of a
work on mathematics: here was a man who had
written an entire book of
which Mark could not understand a single sentence.
Einstein, therefore, is
great in the public eye partly because he
has made revolutionary discoveries
which cannot be translated into the common
tongue. We stand in proper awe
of a man whose thoughts move on heights far
beyond our range, whose
achievements can be measured only by the few
who are able to follow his
reasoning and challenge his conclusions.
There is, however, another side to his personality.
It is revealed in the
addresses, letters, and occasional writings
brought together in this book.
These fragments form a mosaic portrait of
Einstein the man. Each one is, in a
sense, complete in itself; it presents his
views on some aspect of progress,
education, peace, war, liberty, or other problems
of universal interest. Their
combined effect is to demonstrate that the
Einstein we can all understand is no
less great than the Einstein we take on trust.
Einstein has asked nothing more from life
than the freedom to pursue his
researches into the mechanism of the universe.
His nature is of rare simplicity
and sincerity; he always has been, and he
remains, genuinely indifferent to
wealth and fame and the other prizes so dear
to ambition. At the same time he
is no recluse, shutting himself off from the
sorrows and agitations of the world
around him. Himself familiar from early years
with the handicap of poverty
and with some of the worst forms of man's
inhumanity to man, he has never
spared himself in defence of the weak and
the oppressed. Nothing could be
more unwelcome to his sensitive and retiring
character than the glare of the
platform and the heat of public controversy,
yet he has never hesitated when
he felt that his voice or influence would
help to redress a wrong. History,
surely, has few parallels with this introspective
mathematical genius who
laboured unceasingly as an eager champion
of the rights of man.
Albert Einstein was born in 1879 at Ulm. When
he was four years old his
father, who owned an electrochemical works,
moved to Munich, and two
years later the boy went to school, experiencing
a rigid, almost military, type
of discipline and also the isolation of a
shy and contemplative Jewish child
among Roman Catholics factors which made a
deep and enduring
impression. From the point of view of his
teachers he was an unsatisfactory
pupil, apparently incapable of progress in
languages, history, geography, and
other primary subjects. His interest in mathematics
was roused, not by his
instructors, but by a Jewish medical student,
Max Talmey, who gave him a
book on geometry, and so set him upon a course
of enthusiastic study which
made him, at the age of fourteen, a better
mathematician than his masters. At
this stage also he began the study of philosophy,
reading and re reading the
words of Kant and other metaphysicians.
Business reverses led the elder Einstein to
make a fresh start in Milan, thus
introducing Albert to the joys of a freer,
sunnier life than had been possible in
Germany. Necessity, however, made this holiday
a brief one, and after a few
months of freedom the preparation for a career
began. It opened with an
effort, backed by a certificate of mathematical
proficiency given by a teacher
in the Gymnasium at Munich, to obtain admission
to the Polytechnic Academy
at Zurich. A year passed in the study of necessary
subjects which he had
neglected for mathematics, but once admitted,
the young Einstein became
absorbed in the pursuit of science and philosophy
and made astonishing
progress. After five distinguished years at
the Polytechnic he hoped to step
into the post of assistant professor, but
found that the kindly words of the
professors who had stimulated the hope did
not materialize.
Then followed a weary search for work, two
brief interludes of teaching, and
a stable appointment as examiner at the Confederate
Patent Office at Berrie.
Humdrum as the work was, it had the double
advantage of providing a
competence and of leaving his mind free for
the mathematical speculations
which were then taking shape in the theory
of relativity. In 1905 his first
monograph on the theory was published in a
Swiss scientific journal, the
Annalen der Physik. Zurich awoke to the fact
that it possessed a genius in
the form of a patent office clerk, promoted
him to be a lecturer at the
University and four years later in 1909 installed
him as Professor.
His next appointment was (in 1911) at the
University of Prague, where he
remained for eighteen months. Following a
brief return to Zurich, he went,
early in 1914, to Berlin as a professor in
the Prussian Academy of Sciences
and director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
for Theoretical Physics. The
period of the Great War was a trying time
for Einstein, who could not conceal
his ardent pacifism, but he found what solace
he could in his studies. Later events brought
him into the open and into many parts of the
world, as an
exponent not only of pacifism but also of
world disarmament and the cause of
Jewry. To a man of such views, as passionately
held as they were by Einstein,
Germany under the Nazis was patently impossible.
In 1933 Einstein made his
famous declaration: "As long as I have any
choice, I will stay only in a country
where political liberty, toleration, and equality
of all citizens before the law are
the rule." For a time he was a homeless exile;
after offers had come to him
from Spain and France and Britain, he settled
in Princeton as Professor of
Mathematical and Theoretical Physics, happy
in his work, rejoicing in a free
environment, but haunted always by the tragedy
of war and oppression.
The World As I See It, in its original form,
includes essays by Einstein on
relativity and cognate subjects. For reasons
indicated above, these have been
omitted in the present edition; the object
of this reprint is simply to reveal to
the general reader the human side of one of
the most dominating figures of our
day.
The World As I See It
The Meaning of Life
What is the meaning of human life, or of organic
life altogether? To answer
this question at all implies a religion. Is
there any sense then, you ask, in
putting it? I answer, the man who regards
his own life and that of his
fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely
unfortunate but almost
disqualified for life.
The World as I see it
What an extraordinary situation is that of
us mortals! Each of us is here for a
brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not,
though he sometimes thinks he
feels it. But from the point of view of daily
life, without going deeper, we exist
for our fellow men in the first place for
those on whose smiles and welfare all
our happiness depends, and next for all those
unknown to us personally with
whose destinies we are bound up by the tie
of sympathy. A hundred times
every day I remind myself that my inner and
outer life depend on the labours
of other men, living and dead, and that I
must exert myself in order to give in
the same measure as I have received and am
still receiving. I am strongly
drawn to the simple life and am often oppressed
by the feeling that I am
engrossing an unnecessary amount of the labour
of my fellow men. I regard
class differences as contrary to justice and,
in the last resort, based on force. I
also consider that plain living is good for
everybody, physically and mentally.
In human freedom in the philosophical sense
I am definitely a disbeliever.
Everybody acts not only under external compulsion
but also in accordance
with inner necessity. Schopenhauer's saying,
that "a man can do as he will, but
not will as he will," has been an inspiration
to me since my youth up, and a
continual consolation and unfailing well spring
of patience in the face of the
hardships of life, my own and others'. This
feeling mercifully mitigates the
sense of responsibility which so easily becomes
paralysing, and it prevents us
from taking ourselves and other people too
seriously; it conduces to a view of
life in which humour, above all, has its due
place.
To inquire after the meaning or object of
one's own existence or of creation
generally has always seemed to me absurd from
an objective point of view.
And yet everybody has certain ideals which
determine the direction of his
endeavours and his judgments. In this sense
I have never looked upon ease
and happiness as ends in themselves such an
ethical basis I call more proper
for a herd of swine. The ideals which have
lighted me on my way and time
after time given me new courage to face life
cheerfully, have been Truth,
Goodness, and Beauty. Without the sense of
fellowship with men of like mind,
of preoccupation with the objective, the eternally
unattainable in the field of art
and scientific research, life would have seemed
to me empty. The ordinary
objects of human endeavour property, outward
success, luxury have
always seemed to me contemptible.
My passionate sense of social justice and
social responsibility has always
contrasted oddly with my pronounced freedom
from the need for direct
contact with other human beings and human
communities. I gang my own gait
and have never belonged to my country, my
home, my friends, or even my
immediate family, with my whole heart; in
the face of all these ties I have never
lost an obstinate sense of detachment, of
the need for solitude a feeling
which increases with the years. One is sharply
conscious, yet without regret,
of the limits to the possibility of mutual
understanding and sympathy with one's
fellow creatures. Such a person no doubt loses
something in the way of
geniality and light heartedness ; on the other
hand, he is largely independent of
the opinions, habits, and judgments of his
fellows and avoids the temptation to
take his stand on such insecure foundations.
My political ideal is that of democracy. Let
every man be respected as an
individual and no man idolized. It is an irony
of fate that I myself have been the
recipient of excessive admiration and respect
from my fellows through no
fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause
of this may well be the desire,
unattainable for many, to understand the one
or two ideas to which I have
with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless
struggle. I am quite aware
that it is necessary for the success of any
complex undertaking that one man
should do the thinking and directing and in
general bear the responsibility. But
the led must not be compelled, they must be
able to choose their leader. An
autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion,
soon degenerates. For force
always attracts men of low morality, and I
believe it to be an invariable rule
that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels.
For this reason I have
always been passionately opposed to systems
such as we see in Italy and
Russia to day. The thing that has brought
discredit upon the prevailing form of
democracy in Europe to day is not to be laid
to the door of the democratic
idea as such, but to lack of stability on
the part of the heads of governments
and to the impersonal character of the electoral
system. I believe that in this
respect the United States of America have
found the right way. They have a
responsible President who is elected for a
sufficiently long period and has sufficient
powers to be really responsible. On the other
hand, what I value in
our political system is the more extensive
provision that it makes for the
individual in case of illness or need. The
really valuable thing in the pageant of
human life seems to me not the State but the
creative, sentient individual, the
personality; it alone creates the noble and
the sublime, while the herd as such
remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.
This topic brings me to that worst outcrop
of the herd nature, the military
system, which I abhor. That a man can take
pleasure in marching in formation
to the strains of a band is enough to make
me despise him. He has only been
given his big brain by mistake; a backbone
was all he needed. This
plague spot of civilization ought to be abolished
with all possible speed.
Heroism by order, senseless violence, and
all the pestilent nonsense that does
by the name of patriotism how I hate them!
War seems to me a mean,
contemptible thing: I would rather be hacked
in pieces than take part in such
an abominable business. And yet so high, in
spite of everything, is my opinion
of the human race that I believe this bogey
would have disappeared long ago,
had the sound sense of the nations not been
systematically corrupted by
commercial and political interests acting
through the schools and the Press.
The fairest thing we can experience is the
mysterious. It is the fundamental
emotion which stands at the cradle of true
art and true science. He who
knows it not and can no longer wonder, no
longer feel amazement, is as good
as dead, a snuffed out candle. It was the
experience of mystery even if
mixed with fear that engendered religion.
A knowledge of the existence of
something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations
of the profoundest
reason and the most radiant beauty, which
are only accessible to our reason in
their most elementary forms it is this knowledge
and this emotion that
constitute the truly religious attitude; in
this sense, and in this alone, I am a
deeply religious man. I cannot conceive of
a God who rewards and punishes
his creatures, or has a will of the type of
which we are conscious in ourselves.
An individual who should survive his physical
death is also beyond my
comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise;
such notions are for the fears or
absurd egoism of feeble souls. Enough for
me the mystery of the eternity of
life, and the inkling of the marvellous structure
of reality, together with the
single hearted endeavour to comprehend a portion,
be it never so tiny, of the
reason that manifests itself in nature.
The Liberty of Doctrine à propos of the Guntbel
Case
Academic chairs are many, but wise and noble
teachers are few;
lecture rooms are numerous and large, but
the number of young people who genuinely thirst
after truth and justice is small. Nature scatters
her common
wares with a lavish hand, but the choice sort
she produces but seldom.
We all know that, so why complain? Was it
not ever thus and will it not ever
thus remain? Certainly, and one must take
what Nature gives as one finds it.
But there is also such a thing as a spirit
of the times, an attitude of mind
characteristic of a particular generation,
which is passed on from individual to
individual and gives a society its particular
tone. Each of us has to do his little
bit towards transforming this spirit of the
times.
Compare the spirit which animated the youth
in our universities a hundred
years ago with that prevailing to day. They
had faith in the amelioration of
human society, respect for every honest opinion,
the tolerance for which our
classics had lived and fought. In those days
men strove for a larger political
unity, which at that time was called Germany.
It was the students and the
teachers at the universities who kept these
ideals alive.
To day also there is an urge towards social
progress, towards tolerance and
freedom of thought, towards a larger political
unity, which we to day call
Europe. But the students at our universities
have ceased as completely as their
teachers to enshrine the hopes and ideals
of the nation. Anyone who looks at
our times coolly and dispassionately must
admit this.
We are assembled to day to take stock of ourselves.
The external reason for
this meeting is the Gumbel case. This apostle
of justice has written about
unexpiated political crimes with devoted industry,
high courage, and
exemplary fairness, and has done the community
a signal service by his
books. And this is the man whom the students,
and a good many of the staff,
of his university are to day doing their best
to expel.
Political passion cannot be allowed to go
to such lengths. I am convinced that
every man who reads Herr Gumbel's books with
an open mind will get the
same impression from them as I have. Men like
him are needed if we are ever
to build up a healthy political society.
Let every man judge according to his own standards,
by what he has himself
read, not by what others tell him.
If that happens, this Gumbel case, after an
unedifying beginning, may still do
good.
Good and Evil
It is right in principle that those should
be the best loved who have contributed
most to the elevation of the human race and
human life. But, if one goes on to
ask who they are, one finds oneself in no
inconsiderable difficulties. In the
case of political, and even of religious,
leaders, it is often very doubtful
whether they have done more good or harm.
Hence I most seriously believe
that one does people the best service by giving
them some elevating work to
do and thus indirectly elevating them. This
applies most of all to the great
artist, but also in a lesser degree to the
scientist. To be sure, it is not the fruits
of scientific research that elevate a man
and enrich his nature, but the urge to
understand, the intellectual work, creative
or receptive. It would surely be
absurd to judge the value of the Talmud, for
instance, by its intellectual fruits.
The true value of a human being is determined
primarily by the measure
and the sense in which he has attained to
liberation from the self.
Society and Personality
When we survey our lives and endeavours we
soon observe that almost the
whole of our actions and desires are bound
up with the existence of other
human beings. We see that our whole nature
resembles that of the social
animals. We eat food that others have grow,
wear clothes that others have
made, live in houses that others have built.
The greater part of our knowledge
and beliefs has been communicated to us by
other people through the medium
of a language which others have created. Without
language our mental
capacities wuuld be poor indeed, comparable
to those of the higher animals;
we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our
principal advantage over the
beasts to the fact of living in human society.
The individual, if left alone from
birth would remain primitive and beast like
in his thoughts and feelings to a
degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual
is what he is and has the
significance that he has not so much in virtue
of his individuality, but rather as a
member of a great human society, which directs
his material and spiritual
existence from the cradle to the grave.
A man's value to the community depends primarily
on how far his feelings,
thoughts, and actions are directed towards
promoting the good of his fellows.
We call him good or bad according to how he
stands in this matter. It looks at
first sight as if our estimate of a man depended
entirely on his social qualities.
And yet such an attitude would be wrong. It
is clear that all the valuable
things, material, spiritual, and moral, which
we receive from society can be
traced back through countless generations
to certain creative individuals. The
use of fire, the cultivation of edible plants,
the steam engine each was
discovered by one man.
Only the individual can think, and thereby
create new values for society nay,
even set up new moral standards to which the
life of the community conforms.
Without creative, independently thinking and
judging personalities the upward
development of society is as unthinkable as
the development of the individual
personality without the nourishing soil of
the community.
The health of society thus depends quite as
much on the independence of the
individuals composing it as on their close
political cohesion. It has been said
very justly that Græco Europeo American culture
as a whole, and in
particular its brilliant flowering in the
Italian Renaissance, which put an end to
the stagnation of mediæval Europe, is based
on the liberation and comparative
isolation of the individual.
Let us now consider the times in which we
live. How does society fare, how
the individual? The population of the civilized
countries is extremely dense as
compared with former times; Europe to day
contains about three times as
many people as it did a hundred years ago.
But the number of great men has
decreased out of all proportion. Only a few
individuals are known to the
masses as personalities, through their creative
achievements. Organization has
to some extent taken the place of the great
man, particularly in the technical
sphere, but also to a very perceptible extent
in the scientific.
The lack of outstanding figures is particularly
striking in the domain of art.
Painting and music have definitely degenerated
and largely lost their popular
appeal. In politics not only are leaders lacking,
but the independence of spent
and the sense of justice of the citizen have
to a great extent declined. The
democratic, parliamentarian regime, which
is based on such independence,
has in many places been shaken, dictatorships
have sprung up and are
tolerated, because men's sense of the dignity
and the rights of the individual is
no longer strong enough. In two weeks the
sheep like masses can be worked
up by the newspapers into such a state of
excited fury that the men are
prepared to put on uniform and kill and be
billed, for the sake of the worthless
aims of a few interested parties. Compulsory
military service seems to me the
most disgraceful symptom of that deficiency
in personal dignity from which
civilized mankind is suffering to day. No
wonder there is no lack of prophets
who prophesy the early eclipse of our civilization.
I am not one of these
pessimists; I believe that better times are
coming. Let me shortly state my reasons for
such confidence.
In my opinion, the present symptoms of decadence
are explained by the fact
that the development of industry and machinery
has made the struggle for
existence very much more severe, greatly to
the detriment of the free
development of the individual. But the development
of machinery means that
less and less work is needed from the individual
for the satisfaction of the
community's needs. A planned division of labour
is becoming more and more
of a crying necessity, and this division will
lead to the material security of the
individual. This security and the spare time
and energy which the individual will
have at his command can be made to further
his development. In this way the
community may regain its health, and we will
hope that future historians will
explain the morbid symptoms of present day
society as the childhood ailments
of an aspiring humanity, due entirely to the
excessive speed at which
civilization was advancing.
Address at the Grave of H. A. Lorentz
It is as the representative of the German
speaking academic world, and in
particular the Prussian Academy of Sciences,
but above all as a pupil and
affectionate admirer that I stand at the grave
of the greatest and noblest man
of our times. His genius was the torch which
lighted the way from the
teachings of Clerk Maxwell to the achievements
of contemporary physics, to
the fabric of which he contributed valuable
materials and methods.
His life was ordered like a work of art down
to the smallest detail. His
never failing kindness and magnanimity and
his sense of justice, coupled with
an intuitive understanding of people and things,
made him a leader in any
sphere he entered. Everyone followed him gladly,
for they felt that he never
set out to dominate but always simply to be
of use. His work and his example
will live on as an inspiration and guide to
future generations.
H. A. Lorentz's work in the cause of International
Co operation
With the extensive specialization of scientific
research which the nineteenth
century brought about, it has become rare
for a man occupying a leading
position in one of the sciences to manage
at the same time to do valuable
service to the community in the sphere of
international organization and
international. politics. Such service demands
not only energy, insight, and a
reputation based on solid achievements, but
also a freedom from national
prejudice and a devotion to the common ends
of all, which have become rare in our times.
I have met no one who combined all these qualities
in himself so
perfectly as H. A. Lorentz. The marvellous
thing about the effect of his
personality was this: Independent and headstrong
natures, such as are
particularly common among men of learning,
do not readily bow to another's
will and for the most part only accept his
leadership grudgingly. But, when
Lorentz is in the presidential chair, an atmosphere
of happy co operation is
invariably created, however much those present
may differ in their aims and
habits of thought. The secret of this success
lies not only in his swift
comprehension of people and things and his
marvellous command of
language, but above all in this, that one
feels that his whole heart is in the
business in hand, and that, when he is at
work, he has room for nothing else in
his mind. Nothing disarms the recalcitrant
so much as this.
Before the war Lorentz's activities in the
cause of international relations were
confined to presiding at congresses of physicists.
Particularly noteworthy
among these were the Solvay Congresses, the
first two of which were held at
Brussels in 1909 and 1912. Then came the European
war, which was a
crushing blow to all who had the improvement
of human relations in general at
heart. Even before the war was over, and still
more after its end, Lorentz
devoted himself to the work of reconciliation.
His efforts were especially
directed towards the re establishment of fruitful
and friendly co operation
between men of learning and scientific societies.
An outsider can hardly
conceive what uphill work this is. The accumulated
resentment of the war
period has not yet died down, and many influential
men persist in the
irreconcilable attitude into which they allowed
themselves to be driven by the
pressure of circumstances. Hence Lorentz's
efforts resemble those of a doctor
with a recalcitrant patient who refuses to
take the medicines carefully
prepared for his benefit.
But Lorentz is not to be deterred, once he
has recognized a course of action
as the right one. The moment the war was over,
he joined the governing body
of the "Conseil de recherche," which was founded
by the savants of the
victorious countries, and from which the savants
and learned societies of the
Central Powers were excluded. His object in
taking this step, which caused
great offence to the academic world of the
Central Powers, was to influence
this institution in such a way that it could
be expanded into something truly
international. He and other right minded men
succeeded, after repeated
efforts, in securing the removal of the offensive
exclusion clause from the
statutes of the "Conseil." The goal, which
is the restoration of normal and
fruitful co operation between learned societies,
is, however, not yet attained,
because the academic world of the Central
Powers, exasperated by nearly
ten years of exclusion from practically all
international gatherings, has got into
a habit of keeping itself to itself. Now,
however, there are good grounds for hoping
that the ice will soon be broken, thanks to
the tactful efforts of
Lorentz, prompted by pure enthusiasm for the
good cause.
Lorentz has also devoted his energies to the
service of international cultural
ends in another way, by consenting to serve
on the League of Nations
Commission for international intellectual
co operation, which was called into
existence some five years ago with Bergson
as chairman. For the last year
Lorentz has presided over the Commission,
which, with the active support of
its subordinate, the Paris Institute, is to
act as a go between in the domain of
intellectual and artistic work among the various
spheres of culture. There too
the beneficent influence of this intelligent,
humane, and modest personality,
whose unspoken but faithfully followed advice
is, "Not mastery but service,"
will lead people in the right way.
May his example contribute to the triumph
of that spirit !
In Honour of Arnold Berliner's Seventieth
Birthday
(Arnold Berliner is the editor of the periodical
Die
Naturrvissenschaften.)
I should like to take this opportunity of
telling my friend Berliner and the
readers of this paper why I rate him and his
work so highly. It has to be done
here because it is one's only chance of getting
such things said; since our
training in objectivity has led to a taboo
on everything personal, which we
mortals may transgress only on quite exceptional
occasions such as the
present one.
And now, after this dash for liberty, back
to the objective! The province of
scientifically determined fact has been enormously
extended, theoretical
knowledge has become vastly more profound
in every department of science.
But the assimilative power of the human intellect
is and remains strictly limited.
Hence it was inevitable that the activity
of the individual investigator should be
confined to a smaller and smaller section
of human knowledge. Worse still, as
a result of this specialization, it is becoming
increasingly difficult for even a
rough general grasp of science as a whole,
without which the true spirit of
research is inevitably handicapped, to keep
pace with progress. A situation is
developing similar to the one symbolically
represented in the Bible by the
story of the Tower of Babel. Every serious
scientific worker is painfully
conscious of this involuntary relegation to
an ever narrowing sphere of
knowledge, which is threatening to deprive
the investigator of his broad
horizon and degrade him to the level of a
mechanic.
We have all suffered under this evil, without
making any effort to mitigate it.
But Berliner has come to the rescue, as far
as the German speaking world is
concerned, in the most admirable way: He saw
that the existing popular
periodicals were sufficient to instruct and
stimulate the layman; but he also
saw that a first class, well edited organ
was needed for the guidance of the
scientific worker who desired to be put sufficiently
au courant of
developments in scientific problems, methods,
and results to be able to form a
judgment of his own. Through many years of
hard work he has devoted
himself to this object with great intelligence
and no less great determination,
and done us all, and science, a service for
which we cannot be too grateful.
It was necessary for him to secure the co
operation of successful scientific
writers and induce them to say what they had
to say in a form as far as
possible intelligible to non specialists.
He has often told me of the fights he
had in pursuing this object, the difficulties
of which he once described to me in
the following riddle: Question : What is a
scientific author? Answer: A cross
between a mimosa and a porcupine.* Berliner's
achievement would have
been impossible but for the peculiar intensity
of his longing for a clear,
comprehensive view of the largest possible
area of scientific country. This
feeling also drove him to produce a text book
of physics, the fruit of many
years of strenuous work, of which a medical
student said to me the other day:
"I don't know how I should ever have got a
clear idea of the principles of
modern physics in the time at my disposal
without this book."
Berliner's fight for clarity and comprehensiveness
of outlook has done a great
deal to bring the problems, methods, and results
of science home to many
people's minds. The scientific life of our
time is simply inconceivable vzthout
his paper. It is just as important to make
knowledge live and to keep it alive
as to solve specific problems. We are all
conscious of what we owe to
Arnold Berliner.
*Do not be angry with me for this indiscretion,
my dear Berliner. A serious minded man enjoys
a good laugh now and then.
Popper Lynhaus was more than a brilliant engineer
and writer. He was one
of the few outstanding personalities who embody
the conscience of a
generation. He has drummed it into us that
society is responsible for the fate
of every individual and shown us a way to
translate the consequent obligation
of the community into fact. The community
or State was no fetish to him; he
based its right to demand sacrifices of the
individual entirely on its duty to give
the individual personality a chance of harmonious
development.
Obituary of the Surgeon, M. Katzenstein
During the eighteen years I spent in Berlin
I had few close friends, and the
closest was Professor Katzenstein. For more
than ten years I spent my leisure
hours during the summer months with him, mostly
on his delightful yacht.
There we confided our experiences, ambitions,
emotions to each other. We
both felt that this friendship was not only
a blessing because each understood
the other, was enriched by him, and found
ins him that responsive echo so
essential to anybody who is truly alive; it
also helped to make both of us more
independent of external experience, to objectivize
it more easily.
I was a free man, bound neither by many duties
nor by harassing
responsibilities; my friend, on the contrary,
was never free from the grip of
urgent duties and anxious fears for the fate
of those in peril. If, as was
invariably the case, he had performed some
dangerous operations in the
morning, he would ring up on the telephone,
immediately before we got into
the boat, to enquire after the condition of
the patients about whom he was
worried; I could see how deeply concerned
he was for the lives entrusted to
his care. It was marvellous that this shackled
outward existence did not clip
the wings of his soul; his imagination and
his sense of humour were
irrepressible. He never became the typical
conscientious North German,
whom the Italians in the days of their freedom
used to call bestia seriosa. He
was sensitive as a youth to the tonic beauty
of the lakes and woods of
Brandenburg, and as he sailed the boat with
an expert hand through these
beloved and familiar surroundings he opened
the secret treasure chamber of
his heart to me he spoke of his experiments,
scientific ideas, and ambitions.
How he found time and energy for them was
always a mystery to me; but the
passion for scientific enquiry is not to be
crushed by any burdens. The man
who is possessed with it perishes sooner than
it does.
There were two types of problems that engaged
his attention. The first forced
itself on him out of the necessities of his
practice. Thus he was always thinking
out new ways of inducing healthy muscles to
take the place of lost ones, by
ingenious transplantation of tendons. He found
this remarkably easy, as he
possessed an uncommonly strong spatial imagination
and a remarkably sure
feeling for mechanism. How happy he was when
he had succeeded in making
somebody fit for normal life by putting right
the muscular system of his face,
foot, or arm! And the same when he avoided
an operation, even in cases
which had been sent to him by physicians for
surgical treatment in cases of
gastric ulcer by neutralizing the pepsin.
He also set great store by the
treatment of peritonitis by an anti toxic
coli serum which he discovered, and
rejoiced in the successes he achieved with
it. In talking of it he often lamented the
fact that this method of treatment was not
endorsed by his colleagues.
The second group of problems had to do with
the common conception of an
antagonism between different sorts of tissue.
He believed that he was here on
the track of a general biological principle
of widest application, whose
implications he followed out with admirable
boldness and persistence. Starting
out from this basic notion he discovered that
osteomyelon and periosteum
prevent each other's growth if they are not
separated from each other by
bone. In this way he succeeded in explaining
hitherto inexplicable cases of
wounds ailing to heal, and in bringing about
a cure.
This general notion of the antagonism of the
tissues, especially of epithelium
and connective tissue, was the subject to
which he devoted his scientific
energies, especially in the last ten years
of his life. Experiments on animals and
a systematic investigation of the growth of
tissues in a nutrient fluid were
carried out side by side. How thankful he
was, with his hands tied as they
were by his duties, to have found such an
admirable and infinitely enthusiastic
fellow worker in Frälein Knake! He succeeded
in securing wonderful results
bearing on the factors which favour the growth
of epithelium at the expense of
that of connective tissue, results which may
well be of decisive importance for
the study of cancer. He also had the pleasure
of inspiring his own son to
become his intelligent and independent fellow
worker, and of exciting the
warm interest and co operation of Sauerbruch
just in the last years of his life,
so that he was able to die with the consoling
thought that his life's work would
not perish, but would be vigorously continued
on the lines he had laid down.
I for my part am grateful to fate for having
given me this man, with his
inexhaustible goodness and high creative gifts,
for a friend.
Congratulations to Dr. Solf
I am delighted to be able to offer you, Dr.
Solf, the heartiest congratulations,
the congratulations of Lessing College, of
which you have become an
indispensable pillar, and the congratulations
of all who are convinced of the
need for close contact between science and
art and the public which is hungry
for spiritual nourishment.
You have not hesitated to apply your energies
to a field where there are no
laurels to be won, but quiet, loyal work to
be done in the interests of the
general standard of intellectual and spiritual
life, which is in peculiar danger
to day owing to a variety of circumstances.
Exaggerated respect for athletics,
an excess of coarse impressions which the
complications of life through the
technical discoveries of recent years has
brought with it, the increased severity of
the struggle for existence due to the economic
crisis, the brutalization of
political life all these factors are hostile
to the ripening of the character and
the desire for real culture, and stamp our
age as barbarous, materialistic, and
superficial. Specialization in every sphere
of intellectual work is producing an
everwidening gulf between the intellectual
worker and the non specialist,
which makes it more difficult for the life
of the nation to be fertilized and
enriched by the achievements of art and science.
But contact between the intellectual and the
masses must not be lost. It is
necessary for the elevation of society and
no less so for renewing the strength
of the intellectual worker; for the flower
of science does not grow in the
desert. For this reason you, Herr Solf, have
devoted a portion of your
energies to Lessing College, and we are grateful
to you for doing so. And we
wish you further success and happiness in
your work for this noble cause.
Of Wealth
I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in
the world can help humanity
forward, even in the hands of the most devoted
worker in this cause. The
example of great and pure characters is the
only thing that can produce fine
ideas and noble deeds. Money only appeals
to selfishness and always tempts
its owners irresistibly to abuse it.
Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus, or Gandhi
armed with the money bags of
Carnegie?
Education and Educators
A letter.
Dear Miss Blank,
I have read about sixteen pages of your manuscript
and it made
me smile. It is clever, well observed, honest,
it stands on its
own feet up to a point, and yet it is so typically
feminine, by
which I mean derivative and vitiated by personal
rancour. I
suffered exactly the same treatment at the
hands of my teachers,
who disliked me for my independence and passed
me over
when they wanted assistants (I must admit
that I was somewhat
less of a model student than you). But it
would not have been
worth my while to write anything about my
school life, still less
would I have liked to be responsible for anyone's
printing or
actually reading it. Besides, one always cuts
a poor figure if one complains about others
who are struggling for their place in the
sun too after their own fashion.
Therefore pocket your temperament and keep
your manuscript
for your sons and daughters, m order that
they may derive
consolation from it and not give a damn for
what their teachers
tell them or think of them.
Incidentally I am only coming to Princeton
to research, not to
teach. There is too much education altogether,
especially in
American schools. The only rational way of
educating is to be an
example of what to avoid, if one can't be
the other sort.
With best wishes.
To the Schoolchildren of Japan
In sending this greeting to you Japanese schoolchildren,
I can lay claim to a
special right to do so. For I have myself
visited your beautiful country, seen its
cities and houses, its mountains and woods,
and in them Japanese boys who
had learnt from them to love their country.
A big fat book full of coloured
drawings by Japanese children lies always
on my table.
If you get my message of greeting from all
this distance, bethink you that ours
is the first age in history to bring about
friendly and understanding intercourse
between people of different countries; in
former times nations passed their
lives in mutual ignorance, and in fact hated
or feared one another. May the
spirit of brotherly understanding gain ground
more and more among them.
With this in mind I, an old man, greet you
Japanese schoolchildren from afar
and hope that your generation may some day
put mine to shame.
Teachers and Pupils
An address to children
(The principal art of the teacher is to awaken
the joy in creation
and knowledge.)
My dear Children,
I rejoice to see you before me to day, happy
youth of a sunny and fortunate
land.
Bear in mind that the wonderful things you
learn in your schools are the work
of many generations, produced by enthusiastic
effort and infinite labour in
every country of the world. All this is put
into your hands as your inheritance
in order that you may receive it, honour it,
add to it, and one day faithfully
hand it on to your children. Thus do we mortals
achieve immortality in the
permanent things which we create in common.
If you always keep that in mind you will find
a meaning in life and work and
acquire the right attitude towards other nations
and ages.
Paradise Lost
As late as the seventeenth century the savants
and artists of all Europe were
so closely united by the bond of a common
ideal that co operation between
them was scarcely affected by political events.
This unity was further
strengthened by the general use of the Latin
language.
To day we look back at this state of affairs
as at a lost paradise. The passions
of nationalism have destroyed this community
of the intellect, and the Latin
language, which once united the whole world,
is dead. The men of learning
have become the chief mouthpieces of national
tradition and lost their sense of
an intellectual commonwealth.
Nowadays we are faced with the curious fact
that the politicians, the practical
men of affairs, have become the exponents
of international ideas. It is they
who have created the League of Nations.
Religion and Science
Everything that the human race has done and
thought is concerned with the
satisfaction of felt needs and the assuagement
of pain. One has to keep this
constantly in mind if one wishes to understand
spiritual movements and their
development. Feeling and desire are the motive
forces behind all human
endeavour and human creation, in however exalted
a guise the latter may
present itself to us. Now what are the feelings
and needs that have led men to
religious thought and belief in the widest
sense of the words? A little
consideration will suffice to show us that
the most varying emotions preside
over the birth of religious thought and experience.
With primitive man it is
above all fear that evokes religious notions
fear of hunger, wild beasts,
sickness, death. Since at this stage of existence
understanding of causal
connexions is usually poorly developed, the
human mind creates for itself
more or less analogous beings on whose wills
and actions these fearful happenings depend.
One's object now is to secure the favour of
these beings
by carrying out actions and offering sacrifices
which, according to the tradition
handed down from generation to generation,
propitiate them or make them
well disposed towards a mortal. I am speaking
now of the religion of fear.
This, though not created, is in an important
degree stabilized by the formation
of a special priestly caste which sets up
as a mediator between the people and
the beings they fear, and erects a hegemony
on this basis. In many cases the
leader or ruler whose position depends on
other factors, or a privileged class,
combines priestly functions with its secular
authority in order to make the
latter more secure; or the political rulers
and the priestly caste make common
cause in their own interests.
The social feelings are another source of
the crystallization of religion. Fathers
and mothers and the leaders of larger human
communities are mortal and
fallible. The desire for guidance, love, and
support prompts men to form the
social or moral conception of God. This is
the God of Providence who
protects, disposes, rewards, and punishes,
the God who, according to the
width of the believer's outlook, loves and
cherishes the life of the tribe or of
the human race, or even life as such, the
comforter in sorrow and unsatisfied
longing, who preserves the souls of the dead.
This is the social or moral
conception of God.
The Jewish scriptures admirably illustrate
the development from the religion of
fear to moral religion, which is continued
in the New Testament. The religions
of all civilized peoples, especially the peoples
of the Orient, are primarily
moral religions. The development from a religion
of fear to moral religion is a
great step in a nation's life. That primitive
religions are based entirely on fear
and the religions of civilized peoples purely
on morality is a prejudice against
which we must be on our guard. The truth is
that they are all intermediate
types, with this reservation, that on the
higher levels of social life the religion
of
morality predominates.
Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic
character of their
conception of God. Only individuals of exceptional
endowments and
exceptionally high minded communities, as
a general rule, get in any real sense
beyond this level. But there is a third state
of religious experience which
belongs to all of them, even though it is
rarely found in a pure form, and which
I will call cosmic religious feeling. It is
very difficult to explain this feeling to
anyone who is entirely without it, especially
as there is no anthropomorphic
conception of God corresponding to it.
The individual feels the nothingness of human
desires and aims and the
sublimity and marvellous order which reveal
themselves both in nature and in the world
of thought. He looks upon individual existence
as a sort of prison
and wants to experience the universe as a
single significant whole. The
beginnings of cosmic religious feeling already
appear in earlier stages of
development e.g., in many of the Psalms of
David and in some of the
Prophets. Buddhism, as we have learnt from
the wonderful writings of
Schopenhauer especially, contains a much stronger
element of it.
The religious geniuses of all ages have been
distinguished by this kind of
religious feeling, which knows no dogma and
no God conceived in man's
image; so that there can be no Church whose
central teachings are based on
it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics
of every age that we find men who
were filled with the highest kind of religious
feeling and were in many cases
regarded by their contemporaries as Atheists,
sometimes also as saints.
Looked at in this light, men like Democritus,
Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza
are closely akin to one another.
How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated
from one person to
another, if it can give rise to no definite
notion of a God and no theology? In
my view, it is the most important function
of art and science to awaken this
feeling and keep it alive in those who are
capable of it.
We thus arrive at a conception of the relation
of science to religion very
different from the usual one. When one views
the matter historically one is
inclined to look upon science and religion
as irreconcilable antagonists, and
for a very obvious reason. The man who is
thoroughly convinced of the
universal operation of the law of causation
cannot for a moment entertain the
idea of a being who interferes in the course
of events that is, if he takes the
hypothesis of causality really seriously.
He has no use for the religion of fear
and equally little for social or moral religion.
A God who rewards and
punishes is inconceivable to him for the simple
reason that a man's actions are
determined by necessity, external and internal,
so that in God's eyes he cannot
be responsible, any more than an inanimate
object is responsible for the
motions it goes through. Hence science has
been charged with undermining
morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's
ethical behaviour should be based
effectually on sympathy, education, and social
ties; no religious basis is
necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way
if he had to be restrained by
fear and punishment and hope of reward after
death.
It is therefore easy to see why the Churches
have always fought science and
persecuted its devotees. On the other hand,
I maintain that cosmic religious
feeling is the strongest and noblest incitement
to scientific research. Only those
who realize the immense efforts and, above
all, the devotion which pioneer
work in theoretical science demands, can grasp
the strength of the emotion out of which alone
such work, remote as it is from the immediate
realities of
life, can issue. What a deep conviction of
the rationality of the universe and
what a yearning to understand, were it but
a feeble reflection of the mind
revealed in this world, Kepler and Newton
must have had to enable them to
spend years of solitary labour in disentangling
the principles of celestial
mechanics! Those whose acquaintance with scientific
research is derived
chiefly from its practical results easily
develop a completely false notion of the
mentality of the men who, surrounded by a
sceptical world, have shown the
way to those like minded with themselves,
scattered through the earth and the
centuries. Only one who has devoted his life
to similar ends can have a vivid
realization of what has inspired these men
and given them the strength to
remain true to their purpose in spite of countless
failures. It is cosmic religious
feeling that gives a man strength of this
sort. A contemporary has said, not
unjustly, that in this materialistic age of
ours the serious scientific workers are
the only profoundly religious people.
The Religiousness of Science
You will hardly find one among the profounder
sort of scientific minds without
a peculiar religious feeling of his own. But
it is different from the religion of the
naive man. For the latter God is a being from
whose care one hopes to benefit
and whose punishment one fears; a sublimation
of a feeling similar to that of a
child for its father, a being to whom one
stands to some extent in a personal
relation, however deeply it may be tinged
with awe.
But the scientist is possessed by the sense
of universal causation. The future,
to him, is every whit as necessary and determined
as the past. There is nothing
divine about morality, it is a purely human
affair. His religious feeling takes the
form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony
of natural law, which reveals
an intelligence of such superiority that,
compared with it, all the systematic
thinking and acting of human beings is an
utterly insignificant reflection. This
feeling is the guiding principle of his life
and work, in so far as he succeeds in
keeping himself from the shackles of selfish
desire. It is beyond question
closely akin to that which has possessed the
religious geniuses of all ages.
The Plight of Science
The German speaking countries are menaced
by a danger to which those in
the know are in duty bound to call attention
in the most emphatic terms. The
economic stress which political events bring
in their train does not hit
everybody equally hard. Among the hardest
hit are the institutions and
individuals whose material existence depends
directly on the State. To this
category belong the scientific institutions
and workers on whose work not merely the well
being of science but also the position occupied
by Germany
and Austria in the scale of culture very largely
depends.
To grasp the full gravity of the situation
it is necessary to bear in mind the
following consideration. In times of crisis
people are generally blind to
everything outside their immediate necessities.
For work which is directly
productive of material wealth they will pay.
But science, if it is to flourish, must
have no practical end in view. As a general
rule, the knowledge and the
methods which it creates only subserve practical
ends indirectly and, in many
cases, not till after the lapse of several
generations. Neglect of science leads
to a subsequent dearth of intellectual workers
able, in virtue of their
independent outlook and judgment, to blaze
new trails for industry or adapt
themselves to new situations. Where scientific
enquiry is stunted the
intellectual life of the nation dries up,
which means the withering of many
possibilities of future development. This
is what we have to prevent. Now that
the State has been weakened as a result of
nonpolitical causes, it is up to the
economically stronger members of the community
to come to the rescue
directly, and prevent the decay of scientific
life.
Far sighted men with a clear understanding
of the situation have set up
institutions by which scientific work of every
sort is to be kept going in
Germany and Austria. Help to make these efforts
a real success. In my
teaching work I see with admiration that economic
troubles have not yet
succeeded in stifling the will and the enthusiasm
for scientific research. Far
from it! Indeed, it looks as if our disasters
had actually quickened the
devotion to non material goods. Everywhere
people are working with burning
enthusiasm in the most difficult circumstances.
See to it that the will power
and the talents of the youth of to day do
not perish to the grievous hurt of the
community as a whole.
Fascism and Science
A letter to Signor Rocco, Minister of State,
Rome.
My dear Sir,
Two of the most eminent and respected men
of science in Italy
have applied to me in their difficulties of
conscience and
requested me to write to you with the object
of preventing, if
possible, a piece of cruel persecution with
which men of learning
are threatened in Italy. I refer to a form
of oath in which fidelity
to the Fascist system is to be promised. The
burden of my
request is that you should please advise Signor
Mussolini to spare the flower of Italy's intellect
this humiliation.
However much our political convictions may
differ, I know that
we agree on one point: in the progressive
achievements of the
European mind both of us see and love our
highest good. Those
achievements are based on the freedom of thought
and of
teaching, on the principle that the desire
for truth must take
precedence of all other desires. It was this
basis alone that
enabled our civilization to take its rise
in Greece and to celebrate
its rebirth in Italy at the Renaissance. This
supreme good has
been paid for by the martyr's blood of pure
and great men, for
whose sake Italy is still loved and reverenced
to day.
Far be it from me to argue with you about
what inroads on
human liberty may be justified by reasons
of State. But the
pursuit of scientific truth, detached from
the practical interests of
everyday life, ought to be treated as sacred
by every
Government, and it is in the highest interests
of all that honest
servants of truth should be left in peace.
This is also undoubtedly
in the interests of the Italian State and
its prestige in the eyes of
the world.
Hoping that my request will not fall on deaf
ears, I am, etc.
A. E.
Interviewers
To be called to account publicly for everything
one has said, even in jest, an
excess of high spirits, or momentary anger,
fatal as it must be in the end, is yet
up to a point reasonable and natural. But
to be called to account publicly for
what others have said in one's name, when
one cannot defend oneself, is
indeed a sad predicament. "But who suffers
such a dreadful fate?" you will
ask. Well, everyone who is of sufficient interest
to the public to be pursued by
interviewers. You smile incredulously, but
I have had plenty of direct
experience and will tell you about it.
Imagine the following situation. One morning
a reporter comes to you and
asks you in a friendly way to tell him something
about your friend N. At first
you no doubt feel something approaching indignation
at such a proposal. But
you soon discover that there is no escape.
If you refuse to say anything, the
man writes: "I asked one of N.'s supposedly
best friends about him. But he
prudently avoided my questions. This in itself
enables the reader to draw the conclusions."
There is, therefore, no escape, and you give
the
following information: "Mr. N. is a cheerful,
straightforward man, much liked
by all his friends. He can find a bright side
to any situation. His enterprise and
industry know no bounds; his job takes up
his entire energies. He is devoted
to his family and lays everything he possesses
at his wife's feet. . . "
Now for the reporter's version : "Mr. N. takes
nothing very seriously and has
a gift for making himself liked, particularly
as he carefully cultivates a hearty
and ingratiating manner. He is so completely
a slave to his job that he has no
time for the considerations of any non personal
subject or for any mental
activity outside it. He spoils his wife unbelievably
and is utterly under her
thumb. . ."
A real reporter would make it much more spicy,
but I expect this will be
enough for you and your friend N. He reads
this, and some more like it, in the
paper next morning, and his rage against you
knows no bounds, however
cheerful and benevolent his natural disposition
may be. The injury done to him
gives you untold pain, especially as you are
really fond of him.
What's your next step, my friend? If you know,
tell me quickly, so that I may
adopt your method with all speed.
Thanks to America
Mr. Mayor, Ladies, and Gentlemen,
The splendid reception which you have accorded
to me to day puts me to the
blush in so far as it is meant for me personally,
but it gives me all the more
pleasure in so far as it is meant for me as
a representative of pure science. For
this gathering is an outward and visible sign
that the world is no longer prone
to regard material power and wealth as the
highest goods. It is gratifying that
men should feel an urge to proclaim this in
an official way.
In the wonderful two months which I have been
privileged to spend in your
midst in this fortunate land, I have had many
opportunities of observing what a
high value men of action and of practical
life attach to the efforts of science; a
good few of them have placed a considerable
proportion of their fortunes and
their energies at the service of scientific
enterprises and thereby contributed to
the prosperity and prestige of this country.
I cannot let this occasion pass without referring
in a spirit of thankfulness to
the fact that American patronage of science
is not limited by national frontiers.
Scientific enterprises all over the civilized
world rejoice in the liberal support
of American institutions and individuals a
fact which is, I am sure, a source of
pride and gratification to all of you.
These tokens of an international way of thinking
and feeling are particularly
welcome; for the world is to day more than
ever in need of international
thinking and feeling by its leading nations
and personalities, if it is to progress
towards a better and more worthy future. I
may be permitted to express the
hope that this internationalism of the American
nation, which proceeds from a
high sense of responsibility, will very soon
extend itself to the sphere of
politics. For without the active co operation
of the great country of the United
States in the business of regulating international
relations, all efforts directed
towards this important end are bound to remain
more or less ineffectual.
I thank you most heartily for this magnificent
reception and, in particular, the
men of learning in this country for the cordial
and friendly welcome I have
received from them. I shall always look back
on these two months with
pleasure and gratitude.
The University Course at Davos
Senalores boni viri, senatus autem bestia.
So a friend of mine, a Swiss
professor, once wrote in his irritable way
to a university faculty which had
annoyed him. Communities tend to be less guided
than individuals by
conscience and a sense of responsibility.
What a fruitful source of suffering to
mankind this fact is! It is the cause of wars
and every kind of oppression,
which fill the earth with pain, sighs, and
bitterness.
And yet nothing truly valuable can be achieved
except by the unselfish
co operation of many individuals. Hence the
man of good will is never happier
than when some communal enterprise is afoot
and is launched at the cost of
heavy sacrifices, with the single object of
promoting life and culture.
Such pure joy was mine when I heard about
the university courses at Davos.
A work of rescue is being carried out there,
with intelligence and a wise
moderation, which is based on a grave need,
though it may not be a need that
is immediately obvious to everyone. Many a
young man goes to this valley
with his hopes fixed on the healing power
of its sunny mountains and regains
his bodily health. But thus withdrawn for
long periods from the will hardening
discipline of normal work and a prey to morbid
reflection on his physical
condition, he easily loses the power of mental
effort and the sense of being
able to hold his own in the struggle for existence.
He becomes a sort of
hot house plant and, when his body is cured,
often finds it difficult to get back to normal
life. Interruption of intellectual training
in the formative period of
youth is very apt to leave a gap which can
hardly be filled later.
Yet, as a general rule, intellectual work
in moderation, so far from retarding
cure, indirectly helps it forward, just as
moderate physical work does. It is in
this knowledge that the university courses
are being instituted, with the object
not merely of preparing these young people
for a profession but of stimulating
them to intellectual activity as such. They
are to provide work, training, and
hygiene in the sphere of the mind.
Let us not forget that this enterprise is
admirably calculated to establish such
relations between members of different nations
as are favourable to the
growth of a common European feeling. The effects
of the new institution in this
direction are likely to be all the more advantageous
from the fact that the
circumstances of its birth rule out every
sort of political purpose. The best
way to serve the cause of internationalism
is by co operating in some
life giving work.
From all these points of view I rejoice that
the energy and intelligence of the
founders of the university courses at Davos
have already attained such a
measure of success that the enterprise has
outgrown the troubles of infancy.
May it prosper, enriching the inner lives
of numbers of admirable human
beings and rescuing many from the poverty
of sanatorium life!
Congratulations to a Critic
To see with one's own eyes, to feel and judge
without succumbing to the
suggestive power of the fashion of the day,
to be able to express what one
has seen and felt in a snappy sentence or
even in a cunningly wrought
word is that not glorious? Is it not a proper
subject for congratulation?
Greeting to G. Bernard Shaw
There are few enough people with sufficient
independence to see the
weaknesses and follies of their contemporaries
and remain themselves
untouched by them. And these isolated few
usually soon lose their zeal for
putting things to rights when they have come
face to face with human
obduracy. Only to a tiny minority is it given
to fascinate their generation by
subtle humour and grace and to hold the mirror
up to it by the impersonal
agency of art. To day I salute with sincere
emotion the supreme master of this
method, who has delighted and educated us
all.
Some Notes on my American Impressions
I must redeem my promise to say something
about my impressions of this
country. That is not altogether easy for me.
For it is not easy to take up the
attitude of an impartial observer when one
is received with such kindness and
undeserved respect as I have been in America.
First of all let me say
something on this head.
The cult of individual personalities is always,
in my view, unjustified. To be
sure, nature distributes her gifts variously
among her children. But there are
plenty of the well endowed ones too, thank
God, and I am firmly convinced
that most of them live quiet, unregarded lives.
It strikes me as unfair, and even
in bad taste, to select a few of them fur
boundless admiration, attributing
superhuman powers of mind and character to
them. This has been my fate,
and the contrast between the popular estimate
of my powers and
achievements and the reality is simply grotesque.
The consciousness of this
extraordinary state of affairs would be unbearable
but for one great consoling
thought: it is a welcome symptom in an age
which is commonly denounced as
materialistic, that it makes heroes of men
whose ambitions lie wholly in the
intellectual and moral sphere. This proves
that knowledge and justice are
ranked above wealth and power by a large section
of the human race. My
experience teaches me that this idealistic
outlook is particularly prevalent in
America, which is usually decried as a particularly
materialistic country. After
this digression I come to my proper theme,
in the hope that no more weight
will be attached to my modest remarks than
they deserve.
What first strikes the visitor with amazement
is the superiority of this country
in matters of technics and organization. Objects
of everyday use are more
solid than in Europe, houses infinitely more
convenient in arrangement.
Everything is designed to save human labour.
Labour is expensive, because
the country is sparsely inhabited in comparison
with its natural resources. The
high price of labour was the stimulus which
evoked the marvellous
development of technical devices and methods
of work. The opposite
extreme is illustrated by over populated China
or India, where the low price
of labour has stood in the way of the development
of machinery. Europe is
half way between the two. Once the machine
is sufficiently highly developed it
becomes cheaper in the end than the cheapest
labour. Let the Fascists in
Europe, who desire on narrow minded political
grounds to see their own
particular countries more densely populated,
take heed of this. The anxious
care with which the United States keep out
foreign goods by means of
prohibitive tariffs certainly contrasts oddly
with this notion. But an innocent visitor
must not be expected to rack his brains too
much, and, when
all is said and done, it is not absolutely
certain that every question admits of a
rational answer.
The second thing that strikes a visitor is
the joyous, positive attitude to life.
The smile on the faces of the people in photographs
is symbolical of one of
the American's greatest assets. He is friendly,
confident, optimistic,
and without envy. The European finds intercourse
with Americans easy and
agreeable.
Compared with the American, the European is
more critical, more
self conscious, less goodhearted and helpful,
more isolated, more fastidious in
his amusements and his reading, generally
more or less of a pessimist.
Great importance attaches to the material
comforts of life, and peace,
freedom from care, security are all sacrificed
to them. The American lives for
ambition, the future, more than the European.
Life for him is always becoming,
never being. In this respect he is even further
removed from the Russian and
the Asiatic than the European is. But there
is another respect in which he
resembles the Asiatic more than the European
does: he is lest of an
individualist than the European that is, from
the psychological, not the
economic, point of view.
More emphasis is laid on the "we" than the
"I." As a natural corollary of this,
custom and convention are very powerful, and
there is much more uniformity
both in outlook on life and in moral and æsthetic
ideas among Americans than
among Europeans. This fact is chiefly responsible
for America's economic
superiority over Europe. Co operation and
the division of labour are carried
through more easily and with less friction
than in Europe, whether in the
factory or the university or in private good
works. This social sense may be
partly due to the English tradition.
In apparent contradiction to this stands the
fact that the activities of the State
are comparatively restricted as compared with
Europe. The European is
surprised to find the telegraph, the telephone,
the railways, and the schools
predominantly in private hands. The more social
attitude of the individual,
which I mentioned just now, makes this possible
here. Another consequence
of this attitude is that the extremely unequal
distribution of property leads to
no intolerable hardships. The social conscience
of the rich man is much more
highly developed than in Europe. He considers
himself obliged as a matter of
course to place a large portion of his wealth,
and often of his own energies
too, at the disposal of the community, and
public opinion, that all powerful
force, imperiously demands it of him. Hence
the most important cultural functions can
be left to private enterprise, and the part
played by the State in
this country is, comparatively, a very restricted
one.
The prestige of government has undoubtedly
been lowered considerably by
the Prohibition laws. For nothing is more
destructive of respect for the
government and the law of the land than passing
laws which cannot be
enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous
increase of crime in this
country is closely connected with this.
There is also another way in which Prohibition,
in my opinion, has led to the
enfeeblement of the State. The public house
is a place which gives people a
chance to exchange views and ideas on public
affairs. As far as I can see,
people here have no chance of doing this,
the result being that the Press,
which is mostly controlled by definite interests,
has an excessive influence over
public opinion.
The over estimation of money is still greater
in this country than in Europe, but
appears to me to be on the decrease. It is
at last beginning to be realized that
great wealth is not necessary for a happy
and satisfactory life.
As regards artistic matters, I have been genuinely
impressed by the good taste
displayed in the modern buildings and in articles
of common use; on the other
hand, the visual arts and music have little
place in the life of the nation as
compared with Europe.
I have a warm admiration for the achievements
of American institutes of
scientific research. We are unjust in attempting
to ascribe the increasing
superiority of American research work exclusively
to superior wealth; zeal,
patience, a spirit of comradeship, and a talent
for co operation play an
important part in its successes. One more
observation to finish up with. The
United States is the most powerful technically
advanced country in the world
to day. Its influence on the shaping of international
relations is absolutely
incalculable. But America is a large country
and its people have so far not
shown much interest in great international
problems, among which the
problem of disarmament occupies first place
today. This must be changed, if
only in the essential interests of the Americans.
The last war has shown that
there are no longer any barriers between the
continents and that the destinies
of all countries are closely interwoven. The
people of this country must realize
that they have a great responsibility in the
sphere of international politics. The
part of passive spectator is unworthy of this
country and is bound in the end
to lead to disaster all round.
Reply to the Women of America
An American Women's League felt called upon
to protest against
Einstein's visit to their country. They received
the following answer.
Never yet have I experienced from the fair
sex such energetic rejection of all
advances; or, if I have, never from so many
at once.
But are they not quite right, these watchful
citizenesses? Why should one open
one's doors to a person who devours hard boiled
capitalists with as much
appetite and gusto as the Cretan Minotaur
in days gone by devoured luscious
Greek maidens, and on top of that is low down
enough to reject every sort of
war, except the unavoidable war with one's
own wife? Therefore give heed to
your clever and patriotic women folk and remember
that the Capitol of
mighty Rome was once saved by the cackling
of its faithful geese.
Politics and Pacifism
Peace
The importance of securing international peace
was recognized by the really
great men of former generations. But the technical
advances of our times have
turned this ethical postulate into a matter
of life and death for civilized mankind
to day, and made the taking of an active part
in the solution of the problem of
peace a moral duty which no conscientious
man can shirk.
One has to realize that the powerful industrial
groups concerned in the
manufacture of arms are doing their best in
all countries to prevent the
peaceful settlement of international disputes,
and that rulers can achieve this
great end only if they are sure of the vigorous
support of the majority of their
peoples. In these days of democratic government
the fate of the nations hangs
on themselves; each individual must always
bear that in mind.
The Pacifist Problem
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very glad of this opportunity of saying
a few words to you about the problem of pacificism.
The course of events in the last few years
has once
more shown us how little we are justified
in leaving the struggle against
armaments and against the war spirit to the
Governments. On the other hand,
the formation of large organizations with
a large membership can of itself bring
us very little nearer to our goal. In my opinion,
the best method in this case is
the violent one of conscientious objection,
with the aid of organizations for
giving moral and material support to the courageous
conscientious objectors
in each country. In this way we may succeed
in making the problem of
pacificism an acute one, a real struggle which
attracts forceful natures. It is an
illegal struggle, but a struggle for people's
real rights against their governments
in so far as the latter demand criminal acts
of the citizen.
Many who think themselves good pacifists will
jib at this out and out
pacifism, on patriotic grounds. Such people
are not to be relied on in the hour
of crisis, as the World War amply proved.
I am most grateful to you for according me
an opportunity to give you my
views in person.
Address to the Students' Disarmament Meeting
Preceding generations have presented us, in
a highly developed science and
mechanical knowledge, with a most valuable
gift which carries with it
possibilities of making our life free and
beautiful such as no previous
generation has enjoyed. But this gift also
brings with it dangers to our
existence as great as any that have ever threatened
it.
The destiny of civilized humanity depends
more than ever on the moral forces
it is capable of generating. Hence the task
that confronts our age is certainly
no easier than the tasks our immediate predecessors
successfully performed.
The foodstuffs and other goods which the world
needs can be produced in far
fewer hours of work than formerly. But this
has made the problem of the
division of labour and the distribution of
the goods produced far more difficult.
We all feel that the free play of economic
forces, the unregulated and
unrestrained pursuit of wealth and power by
the individual, no longer leads
automatically to a tolerable solution of these
problems. Production, labour,
and distribution need to be organized on a
definite plan, in order to prevent
valuable productive energies from being thrown
away and sections of the
population from becoming impoverished and
relapsing into savagery. If
unrestricted sacro egoismo leads to disastrous
consequences in economic
life, it is a still worse guide in international
relations. The development of mechanical methods
of warfare is such that human life will become
intolerable
if people do not before long discover a way
of preventing war. The
importance of this object is only equalled
by the inadequacy of the attempts
hitherto made to attain it.
People seek to minimize the danger by limitation
of armaments and restrictive
rules for the conduct of war. But war is not
like a parlour game in which the
players loyally stick to the rules. Where
life and death are at stake, rules and
obligations go by the board. Only the absolute
repudiation of all war is of any
use here. The creation of an international
court of arbitration is not enough.
There must be treaties guaranteeing that the
decisions of this court shall be
made effective by all the nations acting in
concert. Without such a guarantee
the nations will never have the courage to
disarm seriously.
Suppose, for example, that the American, English,
German, and French
Governments insisted on the Japanese Government's
putting an immediate
stop to their warlike operations in China,
under pain of a complete economic
boycott. Do you suppose that any Japanese
Government would be found
ready to take the responsibility of plunging
its country into such a perilous
adventure? Then why is it not done? Why must
every individual and every
nation tremble for their existence? Because
each seeks his own wretched
momentary advantage and refuses to subordinate
it to the welfare and
prosperity of the community.
That is why I began by telling you that the
fate of the human race was more
than ever dependent on its moral strength
to day. The way to a joyful and
happy state is through renunciation and self
limitation everywhere.
Where can the strength for such a process
come from? Only from those who
have had the chance in their early years to
fortify their minds and broaden
their outlook through study. Thus we of the
older generation look to you and
hope that you will strive with all your might
to achieve what was denied to us.
To Sigmund Freud
Dear Professor Freud,
It is admirable the way the longing to perceive
the truth has
overcome every other desire in you. You have
shown with
irresistible clearness how inseparably the
combative and
destructive instincts are bound up with the
amative and vital ones
in the human psyche. At the same time a deep
yearning for that
great consummation, the internal and external
liberation of mankind from war, shines out
from the ruthless logic of your
expositions. This has been the declared aim
of all those who
have been honoured as moral and spiritual
leaders beyond the
limits of their own time and country without
exception, from
Jesus Christ to Goethe and Kant. Is it not
significant that such
men have been universally accepted as leaders,
in spite of the
fact that their efforts to mould the course
of human affairs were
attended with but small success?
I am convinced that the great men those whose
achievements,
even though in a restricted sphere, set them
above their
fellows are animated to an overwhelming extent
by the same
ideals. But they have little influence on
the course of political
events. It almost looks as if this domain,
on which the fate of
nations depends, had inevitably to be given
over to violence and
irresponsibility.
Political leaders or governments owe their
position partly to
force and partly to popular election. They
cannot be regarded as
representative of the best elements, morally
and intellectually, in
their respective nations. The intellectual
èlite have no direct
influence on the history of nations in these
days; their lack of
cohesion prevents them from taking a direct
part in the solution
of contemporary problems. Don't you think
that a change might
be brought about in this respect by a free
association of people
whose work and achievements up to date constitute
a guarantee
of their ability and purity of aim? This international
association,
whose members would need to keep in touch
with each other by
a constant interchange of opinions, might,
by defining its attitude
in the Press responsibility always resting
with the signatories on
any given occasion acquire a considerable
and salutary moral
influence over the settlement of political
questions. Such an
association would, of course, be a prey to
all the ills which so
often lead to degeneration in learned societies,
dangers which
are inseparably bound up with the imperfection
of human nature.
But should not an effort in this direction
be risked in spite of this?
I look upon the attempt as nothing less than
an imperative duty.
If an intellectual association of standing,
such as I have
described, could be formed, it would no doubt
have to try to
mobilize the religious organizations for the
fight against war. It
would give countenance to many whose good
intentions are
paralysed to day by a melancholy resignation.
Finally, I believe that an association formed
of persons such as I have described,
each highly esteemed in his own line, would
be just the thing to
give valuable moral support to those elements
in the League of
Nations which are really working for the great
object for which
that institution exists.
I had rather put these proposals to you than
to anyone else in the world, because you are
least of all men the dupe of your desires
and because your critical judgment is supported
by a most
earnest sense of responsibility.
Compulsory Service
From a letter
Instead of permission being given to Germany
to introduce compulsory
service it ought to be taken away from everybody
else: in future none but
mercenary armies should be permitted, the
size and equipment of which
should be discussed at Geneva. This would
be better for France than to have
to permit compulsory service in Germany. The
fatal psychological effect of the
military education of the people and the violation
of the individual's rights
which it involves would thus be avoided.
Moreover, it would be much easier for two
countries which had agreed to
compulsory arbitration for the settlement
of all disputes arising out of their
mutual relations to combine their military
establishments of mercenaries into a
single organization with a mixed staff. This
would mean a financial relief and
increased security for both of them. Such
a process of amalgamation might
extend to larger and larger combinations,
and finally lead to an "international
police," which would be bound gradually to
degenerate as international
security increased.
Will you discuss this proposal with our friends
by way of setting the ball
rolling? Of course I do not in the least insist
on this particular proposal. But I
do think it essential that we should come
forward with a positive programme;
a merely negative policy is unlikely to produce
any practical results.
Germany and France
Mutual trust and co operation between France
and Germany can come about
only if the French demand for security against
military attack is satisfied. But
should France frame demands in accordance
with this, such a step would certainly be
taken very ill in Germany.
A procedure something like the following seems,
however, to be possible. Let
the German Government of its own free will
propose to the French that they
should jointly make representations to the
League of Nations that it should
suggest to all member States to bind themselves
to the following:
(1) To submit to every decision of the international
court of arbitration.
(2) To proceed with all its economic and military
force, in concert with the
other members of the League, against any State
which breaks the peace or
resists an international decision made in
the interests of world peace.
Arbitration
Systematic disarmament within a short period.
This is possible only in
combination with the guarantee of all for
the security of each separate nation,
based on a permanent court of arbitration
independent of governments.
Unconditional obligation of all countries
not merely to accept the decisions of
the court of arbitration but also to give
effect to them.
Separate courts of arbitration for Europe
with Africa, America, and Asia
(Australia to be apportioned to one of these).
A joint court of arbitration for
questions involving issues that cannot be
settled within the limits of any one of
these three regions.
The International of Science
At a sitting of the Academy during the War,
at the time when national and
political infatuation had reached its height,
Emil Fischer spoke the following
emphatic words: "It's no use, Gentlemen, science
is and remains international."
The really great scientists have always known
this and felt it passionately, even
though in times of political confusion they
may have remained isolated among
their colleagues of inferior calibre. In every
camp during the War this mass of
voters betrayed their sacred trust. The international
society of the academies
was broken up. Congresses were and still are
held from which colleagues
from ex enemy countries are excluded. Political
considerations, advanced
with much solemnity, prevent the triumph of
purely objective ways of thinking
without which our great aims must necessarily
be frustrated.
What can right minded people, people who are
proof against the emotional
temptations of the moment, do to repair the
damage? With the majority of intellectual
workers still so excited, truly international
congresses on the grand
scale cannot yet be held. The psychological
obstacles to the restoration of the
international associations of scientific workers
are still too formidable to be
overcome by the minority whose ideas and feelings
are of a more
comprehensive kind. These last can aid in
the great work of restoring the
international societies to health by keeping
in close touch with like minded
people all over the world and resolutely championing
the international cause in
their own spheres. Success on a large scale
will take time, but it will
undoubtedly come. I cannot let this opportunity
pass without paying a tribute
to the way in which the desire to preserve
the confraternity of the intellect has
remained alive through all these difficult
years in the breasts of a large number
of our English colleagues especially.
The disposition of the individual is everywhere
better than the official
pronouncements. Right minded people should
bear this in mind and not allow
themselves to be misled and get angry: senatores
boni viri, senatus autem
bestia.
If I am full of confident hope concerning
the progress of international
organization in general, that feeling is based
not so much on my confidence in
the intelligence and high mindedness of my
fellows, but rather on the
irresistible pressure of economic developments.
And since these depend
largely on the work even of reactionary scientists,
they too will help to create
the international organization against their
wills.
The Institute for Intellectual Co operation
During this year the leading politicians of
Europe have for the first time drawn
the logical conclusion from the truth that
our portion of the globe can only
regain its prosperity if the underground struggle
between the traditional
political units ceases. The political organization
of Europe must be
strengthened, and a gradual attempt made to
abolish tariff barriers. This great
end cannot be achieved by treaties alone.
People's minds must, above all, be
prepared for it. We must try gradually to
awaken in them a sense of solidarity
which does not, as hitherto, stop at frontiers.
It is with this in mind that the
League of Nations has created the Commission
de coopération
intellectuelle. This Commission is to be an
absolutely international and
entirely nonpolitical authority, whose business
it is to put the intellectuals of all
the nations, who were isolated by the war,
into touch with each other. It is a
difficult task; for it has, alas, to be admitted
that at least in the countries with
which I am most closely acquainted the artists
and men of learning are
governed by narrowly nationalist feelings
to a far greater extent than the men
of affairs.
Hitherto this Commission has met twice a year.
To make its efforts more
effective, the French Government has decided
to create and maintain a
permanent Institute for intellectual co operation,
which is just now to be
opened. It is a generous act on the part of
the French nation and deserves the
thanks of all.
It is an easy and grateful task to rejoice
and praise and say nothing about the
things one regrets or disapproves of. But
honesty alone can help our work
forward, so I will not shrink from combining
criticism with this greeting to the
new born child.
I have daily occasion for observing that the
greatest obstacle which the work
of our Commission has to encounter is the
lack of confidence in its political
impartiality. Everything must be done to strengthen
that confidence and
everything avoided that might harm it.
When, therefore, the French Government sets
up and maintains an Institute
out of public funds in Paris as a permanent
organ of the Commission, with a
Frenchman as its Director, the outside observer
can hardly avoid the
impression that French influence predominates
in the Commission. This
impression is further strengthened by the
fact that so far a Frenchman has also
been chairman of the Commission itself. Although
the individuals in question
are men of the highest reputation, liked and
respected everywhere,
nevertheless the impression remains.
Dixi et salvavi animam naeam. I hope with
all my heart that the new
Institute, by constant interaction with the
Commission, will succeed in
promoting their common ends and winning the
confidence and recognition of
intellectual workers all over the world.
A Farewell
A letter to the German Secretary of the League
of Nations
Dear Herr Dufour Feronce,
Your kind letter must not go unanswered, otherwise
you may get
a mistaken notion of my attitude. The grounds
for my resolve to
go to Geneva no more are as follows: Experience
has,
unhappily, taught me that the Commission,
taken as a whole,
stands for no serious determination to make
real progress with the task of improving international
relations. It looks to me far
more like an embodiment of the principle ut
aliquid fieri
videatur. The Commission seems to me even
worse in this
respect than the League taken as a whole.
It is precisely because I desire to work with
all my might for the
establishment of an international arbitrating
and regulative
authority superior to the State, and because
I have this object
so very much at heart, that I feel compelled
to leave the
Commission.
The Commission has given its blessing to the
oppression of the
cultural minorities in all countries by causing
a National
Commission to be set up in each of them, which
is to form the
only channel of communication between the
intellectuals of a
country and the Commission. It has thereby
deliberately
abandoned its function of giving moral support
to the national
minorities in their struggle against cultural
oppression.
Further, the attitude of the Commission in
the matter of
combating the chauvinistic and militaristic
tendencies of
education in the various countries has been
so lukewarm that no
serious efforts in this fundamentally important
sphere can be
hoped for from it.
The Commission has invariably failed to give
moral support to
those individuals and associations who have
thrown themselves
without reserve into the business of working
for an international
order and against the military system.
The Commission has never made any attempt
to resist the
appointment of members whom it knew to stand
for tendencies
the very reverse of those it is bound in duty
to foster.
I will not worry you with any further arguments,
since you will
understand my resolve yell enough from these
few hints. It is not
my business to draw up an indictment, but
merely to explain my
position. If I nourished any hope whatever
I should act
differently of that you may be sure.
The Question of Disarmament
The greatest obstacle to the success of the
disarmament plan was the fact that people
in general left out of account the chief difficulties
of the problem. Most
objects are gained by gradual steps: for example,
the supersession of absolute
monarchy by democracy. Here, however, we are
concerned with an
objective which cannot be reached step by
step.
As long as the possibility of war remains,
nations will insist on being as
perfectly prepared militarily as they can,
in order to emerge triumphant from
the next war. It will also be impossible to
avoid educating the youth in warlike
traditions and cultivating narrow national
vanity joined to the glorification of
the warlike spirit, as long as people have
to be prepared for occasions when
such a spirit will be needed in the citizens
for the purpose of war. To arm is to
give one's voice and make one's preparations
not for peace but for war.
Therefore people will not disarm step by step;
they will disarm at one blow or
not at all.
The accomplishment of such a far reaching
change in the life of nations
presupposes a mighty moral effort, a deliberate
departure from deeply
ingrained tradition. Anyone who is not prepared
to make the fate of his
country in case of a dispute depend entirely
on the decisions of an
international court of arbitration, and to
enter into a treaty to this effect without
reserve, is not really resolved to avoid war.
It is a case of all or nothing.
It is undeniable that previous attempts to
ensure peace have failed through
aiming at inadequate compromises.
Disarmament and security are only to be had
in combination. The one
guarantee of security is an undertaking by
all nations to give effect to the
decisions of the international authority.
We stand, therefore, at the parting of the
ways. Whether we find the way of
peace or continue along the old road of brute
force, so unworthy of our
civilization, depends on ourselves. On the
one side the freedom of the
individual and the security of society beckon
to us, on the other slavery for the
individual and the annihilation of our civilization
threaten us. Our fate will be
according to our deserts.
The Disarmament Conference of 1932
May I begin with an article of political faith?
It runs as follows: The State is
made for man, not man for the State. And in
this respect science resembles
the State. These are old sayings, coined by
men for whom human personality was the highest
human good. I should shrink from repeating
them, were it not
that they are for ever threatening to fall
into oblivion, particularly in these days
of organization and mechanization. I regard
it as the chief duty of the State to
protect the individual and give him the opportunity
to develop into a creative
personality.
That is to say, the State should be our servant
and not we its slaves. The State
transgresses this commandment when it compels
us by force to engage in
military and war service, the more so since
the object and the effect of this
slavish service is to kill people belonging
to other countries or interfere with
their freedom of development. We are only
to make such sacrifices to the
State as will promote the free development
of individual human beings. To any
American all this may be a platitude, but
not to any European. Hence we may
hope that the fight against war will find
strong support among Americans.
And now for the Disarmament Conference. Ought
one to laugh, weep, or
hope when one thinks of it? Imagine a city
inhabited by fiery tempered,
dishonest, and quarrelsome citizens. The constant
danger to life there is felt as
a serious handicap which makes all healthy
development impossible. The
magistrate desires to remedy this abominable
state of affairs, although all his
counsellors and the rest of the citizens insist
on continuing to carry a dagger in
their girdles. After years of preparation
the magistrate determines to
compromise and raises the question, how long
and how sharp the dagger is
allowed to be which anyone may carry in his
belt when he goes out. As long
as the cunning citizens do not suppress knifing
by legislation, the courts, and
the police, things go on in the old way, of
course. A definition of the length
and sharpness of the permitted dagger will
help only the strongest and most
turbulent and leave the weaker at their mercy.
You will all understand the
meaning of this parable. It is true that we
have a League of Nations and a
Court of Arbitration. But the League is not
much more than a meeting hall,
and the Court has no means of enforcing its
decisions. These institutions
provide no security for any country in case
of an attack on it. If you bear this
in mind, you will judge the attitude of the
French, their refusal to disarm
without security, less harshly than it is
usually judged at present.
Unless we can agree to limit the sovereignty
of the individual State by all
binding ourselves to take joint action against
any country which openly or
secretly resists a judgment of the Court of
Arbitration, we shall never get out
of a state of universal anarchy and terror.
No sleight of hand can reconcile the
unlimited sovereignty of the individual country
with security against attack.
Will it need new disasters to induce the countries
to undertake to enforce
every decision of the recognized international
court? The progress of events
so far scarcely justifies us in hoping for
anything better in the near future. But everyone
who cares for civilization and justice must
exert all his strength to
convince his fellows of the necessity for
laying all countries under an
international obligation of this kind.
It will be urged against this notion, not
without a certain justification, that it
over estimates the efficacy of machinery,
and neglects the psychological, or
rather the moral, factor. Spiritual disarmament,
people insist, must precede
material disarmament. They say further, and
truly, that the greatest obstacle to
international order is that monstrously exaggerated
spirit of nationalism which
also goes by the fair sounding but misused
name of patriotism. During the last
century and a half this idol has acquired
an uncanny and exceedingly
pernicious power everywhere.
To estimate this objection at its proper worth,
one must realize that a
reciprocal relation exists between external
machinery and internal states of
mind. Not only does the machinery depend on
traditional modes of feeling
and owe its origin and its survival to them,
but the existing machinery in its turn
exercises a powerful influence on national
modes of feeling.
The present deplorably high development of
nationalism everywhere is, in my
opinion, intimately connected with the institution
of compulsory military service
or, to call it by its less offensive name,
national armies. A country which
demands military service of its inhabitants
is compelled to cultivate a
nationalistic spirit in them, which provides
the psychological foundation of
military efficiency. Along with this religion
it has to hold up its instrument, brute
force, to the admiration of the youth in its
schools.
The introduction of compulsory service is
therefore, to my mind, the prime
cause of the moral collapse of the white race,
which seriously threatens not
merely the survival of our civilization but
our very existence. This curse, along
with great social blessings, started with
the French Revolution, and before
long dragged all the other nations in its
train.
Therefore those who desire to encourage the
growth of an international spirit
and to combat chauvinism must take their stand
against compulsory service. Is
the severe persecution to which conscientious
objectors to military service are
subjected to day a whit less disgraceful to
the community than those to which
the martyrs of religion were exposed in former
centuries? Can you, as the
Kellogg Pact does, condemn war and at the
same time leave the individual to
the tender mercies of the war machine in each
country?
If, in view of the Disarmament Conference,
we are not to restrict ourselves to
the technical problems of organization involved
but also to tackle the psychological question
more directly from educational motives, we
must try
on international lines to invent some legal
way by which the individual can
refuse to serve in the army. Such a regulation
would undoubtedly produce a
great moral effect.
This is my position in a nutshell: Mere agreements
to limit armaments furnish
no sort of security. Compulsory arbitration
must be supported by an executive
force, guaranteed by all the participating
countries, which is ready to proceed
against the disturber of the peace with economic
and military sanctions.
Compulsory service, as the bulwark of unhealthy
nationalism, must be
combated; most important of all, conscientious
objectors must be protected
on an international basis.
Finally, I would draw your attention to a
book, War again To morrow, by
Ludwig Bauer, which discusses the issues here
involved in an acute and
unprejudiced manner and with great psychological
insight.
The benefits that the inventive genius of
man has conferred on us in the last
hundred years could make life happy and care
free if organization had been
able to keep pace with technical progress.
As it is, these hard won
achievements in the hands of our generation
are like a razor in the hands of a
child of three. The possession of marvellous
means of production has brought
care and hunger instead of freedom.
The results of technical progress are most
baleful where they furnish means for
the destruction of human life and the hard
won fruits of toil, as we of the older
generation experienced to our horror in the
Great War. More dreadful even
than the destruction, in my opinion, is the
humiliating slavery into which war
plunges the individual. Is it not a terrible
thing to be forced by the community
to do things which every individual regards
as abominable crimes? Only a few
had the moral greatness to resist; them I
regard as the real heroes of the Great
War.
There is one ray of hope. I believe that the
responsible leaders of the nations
do, in the main, honestly desire to abolish
war. The resistance to this essential
step forward comes from those unfortunate
national traditions which are
handed on like a hereditary disease from generation
to generation through the
workings of the educational system. The principal
vehicle of this tradition is
military training and its glorification, and,
equally, that portion of the Press
which is controlled by heavy industry and
the soldiers. Without disarmament there can
be no lasting peace. Conversely, the continuation
of military
preparations on the present scale will inevitably
lead to new catastrophes.
That is why the Disarmament Conference of
1932 will decide the fate of this
generation and the next. When one thinks how
pitiable, taken as a whole,
have been the results of former conferences,
it becomes clear that it is the
duty of all intelligent and responsible people
to exert their full powers to
remind public opinion again and again of the
importance of the 1932
Conference. Only if the statesmen have behind
them the will to peace of a
decisive majority in their own countries can
they attain their great end, and for
the formation of this public opinion each
one of us is responsible in every
word and deed.
The doom of the Conference would be sealed
if the delegates came to it with
ready made instructions, the carrying out
of which would soon become a
matter of prestige. This seems to be generally
realized. For meetings between
the statesmen of two nations at a time, which
have become very frequent of
late, have been used to prepare the ground
for the Conference by
conversations about the disarmament problem.
This seems to me a very
happy device, for two men or groups of men
can usually discuss things
together most reasonably, honestly, and dispassionately
when there is no third
person present in front of whom they think
they must be careful what they say.
Only if exhaustive preparations of this kind
are made for the Conference, if
surprises are thereby ruled out, and an atmosphere
of confidence is created
by genuine good will, can we hope for a happy
issue.
In these great matters success is not a matter
of cleverness, still less of
cunning, but of honesty and confidence. The
moral element cannot be
displaced by reason, thank heaven ! It is
not the individual spectator's duty
merely to wait and criticize. He must serve
the cause by all means in his
power. The fate of the world will be such
as the world deserves.
America and the Disarmasnent Conference
The Americans of to day are filled with the
cares arising out of economic
conditions in their own country. The efforts
of their responsible leaders are
directed primarily to remedying the serious
unemployment at home. The sense
of being involved in the destiny of the rest
of the world, and in particular of the
mother country of Europe, is even less strong
than in normal times.
But the free play of economic forces will
not by itself automatically overcome
these difficulties. Regulative measures by
the community are needed to bring
about a sound distribution of labour and consumption
goods among mankind; without them even the
people of the richest country suffocate. The
fact is that
since the amount of work needed to supply
everybody's needs has been
reduced through the improvement of technical
methods, the free play of
economic forces no longer produces a state
of affairs in which all the available
labour can find employment. Deliberate regulation
and organization are
becoming necessary to make the results of
technical progress beneficial to all.
If the economic situation cannot be cleared
up without systematic regulation,
how much more necessary is such regulation
for dealing with the problems of
international politics! Few people still cling
to the notion that acts of violence
in the shape of wars are either advantageous
or worthy of humanity as a
method of solving international problems.
But they are not logical enough to
make vigorous efforts on behalf of the measures
which might prevent war, that
savage and unworthy relic of the age of barbarism.
It requires some power of
reflection to see the issue clearly and a
certain courage to serve this great
cause resolutely and effectively.
Anybody who really wants to abolish war must
resolutely declare himself in
favour of his own country's resigning a portion
of its sovereignty in favour of
international institutions: he must be ready
to make his own country amenable,
in case of a dispute, to the award of an international
court. He must in the
most uncompromising fashion support disarmament
all round, which is actually
envisaged in the unfortunate Treaty of Versailles;
unless military and
aggressively patriotic education is abolished,
we can hope for no progress.
No event of the last few years reflects such
disgrace on the leading civilized
countries of the world as the failure of all
disarmament conferences so far; for
this failure is due not only to the intrigues
of ambitious and unscrupulous
politicians, but also to the indifference
and slackness of the public in all
countries. Unless this is changed we shall
destroy all the really valuable
achievements of our predecessors.
I believe that the American nation is only
imperfectly aware of the
responsibility which rests with it in this
matter. People in America no doubt
think as follows: "Let Europe go to the dogs,
if it is destroyed by the
quarrelsomeness and wickedness of its inhabitants.
The good seed of our
Wilson has produced a mighty poor crop in
the stony ground of Europe. We
are strong and safe and in no hurry to mix
ourselves up in other people's
affairs."
Such an attitude is at once base and shortsighted.
America is partly to blame
for the difficulties of Europe. By ruthlessly
pressing her claims she is hastening
the economic and therewith the moral collapse
of Europe; she has helped to Balkanize Europe,
and therefore shares the responsibility for
the breakdown
of political morality and the growth of that
spirit of revenge which feeds on
despair. This spirit will not stop short of
the gates of America I had almost
said, has not stopped short. Look around,
and look forward.
The truth can be briefly stated: The Disarmament
Conference comes as a final
chance, to you no less than to us, of preserving
the best that civilized humanity
has produced. And it is on you, as the strongest
and comparatively soundest
among us, that the eyes and hopes of all are
focused.
Active Pacifism
I consider myself lucky in witnessing the
great peace demonstration organized
by the Flemish people. To all concerned in
it I feel impelled to call out in the
name of men of good will with a care for the
future: "In this hour of opened
eyes and awakening conscience we feel ourselves
united with you by the
deepest ties."
We must not conceal from ourselves that an
improvement in the present
depressing situation is impossible without
a severe struggle; for the handful of
those who are really determined to do something
is minute in comparison with
the mass of the lukewarm and the misguided.
And those who have an interest
in keeping the machinery of war going are
a very powerful body; they will
stop at nothing to make public opinion subservient
to their murderous ends.
It looks as if the ruling statesmen of to
day were really trying to secure
permanent peace. But the ceaseless piling
up of armaments shows only too
clearly that they are unequal to coping with
the hostile forces which are
preparing for war. In my opinion, deliverance
can only come from the peoples
themselves. If they wish to avoid the degrading
slavery of war service, they
must declare with no uncertain voice for complete
disarmament. As long as
armies exist, any serious quarrel will lead
to war. A pacifism which does not
actually try to prevent the nations from arming
is and must remain impotent.
May the conscience and the common sense of
the peoples be awakened, so
that we may reach a new stage in the life
of nations, where people will look
back on war as an incomprehensible aberration
of their forefathers!
Letter to a Friend of Peace
It has come to my ears that in your greatheartedness
you are quietly
accomplishing a splendid work, impelled by
solicitude for humanity and its
fate. Small is the number of them that see
with their own eyes and feel with their own
hearts. But it is their strength that will
decide whether the human
race must relapse into that hopeless condition
which a blind multitude appears
to day to regard as the ideal.
O that the nations might see, before it is
too late, how much of their
self determination they have got to sacrifice
in order to avoid the struggle of
all against all! The power of conscience and
the international spirit has proved
itself inadequate. At present it is being
so weak as to tolerate parleying with
the worst enemies of civilization. There is
a kind of conciliation which is a
crime against humanity, and it passes for
political wisdom.
We cannot despair of humanity, since we are
ourselves human beings. And it
is a comfort that there still exist individuals
like yourself, whom one knows to
be alive and undismayed.
Another ditto
Dear friend and spiritual brother,
To be quite frank, a declaration like the
one before me in a
country which submits to conscription in peace
time seems to
me valueless. What you must fight for is liberation
from universal
military service. Verily the French nation
has had to pay heavily
for the victory of 1918; for that victory
has been largely
responsible for holding it down in the most
degrading of all forms
of slavery. Let your efforts in this struggle
be unceasing. You
have a mighty ally in the German reactionaries
and militarists. If
France clings to universal military service,
it will be impossible in
the long run to prevent its introduction into
Germany. For the
demand of the Germans for equal rights will
succeed in the end;
and then there will be two German military
slaves to every
French one, which would certainly not be in
the interests of
France.
Only if we succeed in abolishing compulsory
service altogether
will it be possible to educate the youth in
the spirit of
reconciliation, joy in life, and love towards
all living creatures.
I believe that a refusal on conscientious
grounds to serve in the
army when called up, if carried out by 50,000
men at the same
moment, would be irresistible. The individual
can accomplish
little here, nor can one wish to see the best
among us devoted to
destruction through the machinery behind which
stand the three great powers of stupidity,
fear, and greed.
A third ditto
Dear Sir,
The point with which you deal in your letter
is one of prime
importance. The armament industry is, as you
say, one of the
greatest dangers that beset mankind. It is
the hidden evil power
behind the nationalism which is rampant everywhere.
Possibly something might be gained by nationalization.
But it is
extremely hard to determine exactly what industries
should be
included. Should the aircraft industry? And
how much of the
metal industry and the chemical industry?
As regards the munitions industry and the
export of war material,
the League of Nations has busied itself for
years with efforts to
get this horrible traffic controlled with
what little success, we all
know. Last year I asked a well known American
diplomat why
Japan was not forced by a commercial boycott
to desist from
her policy of force. "Our commercial interests
are too strong,"
was the answer. How can one help people who
rest satisfied
with a statement like that?
You believe that a word from me would suffice
to get something
done in this sphere? What an illusion! People
flatter me as long
as I do not get in their way. But if I direct
my efforts towards
objects which do not suit them, they immediately
turn to abuse
and calumny in defence of their interests.
And the onlookers
mostly keep out of the light, the cowards!
Have you ever tested
the civil courage of your countrymen? The
silently accepted
motto is "Leave it alone and don't speak of
it." You may be sure
that I shall do everything in my power along
the lines you
indicate, but nothing can be achieved as directly
as you think.
Women and War
In my opinion, the patriotic women ought to
be sent to the front in the next
war instead of the men. It would at least
be a novelty in this dreary sphere of
infinite confusion, and besides why should
not such heroic feelings on the
part of the fair sex find a more picturesque
outlet than in attacks on a
defenceless civilian?
Thoughts on the World Economic Crisis
If there is one thing that can give a layman
in the sphere of economics the
courage to express an opinion on the nature
of the alarming economic
difficulties of the present day, it is the
hopeless confusion of opinions among
the experts. What I have to say is nothing
new and does not pretend to be
anything more than the opinion of an independent
and honest man who,
unburdened by class or national prejudices,
desires nothing but the good of
humanity and the most harmonious possible
scheme of human existence. If in
what follows I write as if I were clear about
certain things and sure of the truth
of what I am saying, this is done merely for
the sake of an easier mode of
expression; it does not proceed from unwarranted
self confidence or a belief
in the infallibility of my somewhat simple
intellectual conception of problems
which are in reality uncommonly complex.
As I see it, this crisis differs in character
from past crises in that it is based on
an entirely new set of conditions, due to
rapid progress in methods of
production. Only a fraction of the available
human labour in the world is
needed for the production of the total amount
of consumption goods
necessary to life. Under a completely free
economic system this fact is bound
to lead to unemployment. For reasons which
I do not propose to analyse
here, the majority of people are compelled
to work for the minimum wage on
which life can be supported. If two factories
produce the same sort of goods,
other things being equal, that one will be
able to produce them more cheaply
which employs less workmen i.e., makes the
individual worker work as long
and as hard as human nature permits. From
this it follows inevitably that, with
methods of production what they are to day,
only a portion of the available
labour can be used. While unreasonable demands
are made on this portion,
the remainder is automatically excluded from
the process of production. This
leads to a fall in sales and profits. Businesses
go smash, which further
increases unemployment and diminishes confidence
in industrial concerns and
therewith public participation in these mediating
banks; finally the banks
become insolvent through the sudden withdrawal
of deposits and the wheels
of industry therewith come to a complete standstill.
The crisis has also been attributed to other
causes which we will now
consider.
(1) Over production. We have to distinguish
between two things here real
over production and apparent over production.
By real overproduction I
mean a production so great that it exceeds
the demand. This m4y perhaps
apply to motor cars and wheat in the United
States at the present moment, although even
that is doubtful. By "over production" people
usually mean a
condition of things in which more of one particular
article is produced than
can, in existing circumstances, be sold, in
spite of a shortage of
consumption goods among consumers. This condition
of things I call apparent
over production. In this case it is not the
demand that is lacking but the
consumers' purchasing power. Such apparent
over production is only another
word for a crisis, and therefore cannot serve
as an explanation of the latter;
hence people who try to make over production
responsible for the crisis are
merely juggling with words.
(2) Reparations. The obligation to pay reparations
lies heavy on the debtor
nations and their industries, compels them
to go in for dumping, and so harms
the creditor nations too This is beyond dispute.
But the appearance of the
crisis in the United States, in spite of the
high tariff wall protecting them,
proves that this cannot be the principal cause
of the world crisis. The shortage
of gold in the debtor countries due to reparations
can at most serve as an
argument for putting an end to these payments;
it cannot be dragged in as an
explanation of the world crisis.
(3) Erection of near tariff walls. Increase
in the unproductive burden of
armaments. Political in security owing to
latent danger of war. All these things
add considerably to the troubles of Europe,
but do not materially affect
America. The appearance of the crisis in America
shows that they cannot be
its principal causes.
(4) The dropping out of the two Powers, China
and Russia. This blow to
world trade also does not touch America very
nearly, and therefore cannot be
a principal cause of the crisis.
(5) The economic rise of the lower classes
since the War. This, supposing
it to be a reality, could only produce a scarcity
of goods, not an excessive
supply.
I will not weary the reader by enumerating
further contentions which do not
seem to me to get to the heart of the matter.
Of one thing I feel certain: this
same technical progress which, in itself,
might relieve mankind of a great part
of the labour necessary to its subsistence,
is the main cause of our present
troubles. Hence there are those who would
in all seriousness forbid the
introduction of technical improvements. This
is obviously absurd. But how can
we find a more rational way out of our dilemma?
If we could somehow manage to prevent the
purchasing power of the
masses, measured in terms of goods, from sinking
below a certain minimum, stoppages in the
industrial cycle such as we are experiencing
to day would be
rendered impossible.
The logically simplest but also most daring
method of achieving this is a
completely planned economy, in which consumption
goods are produced and
distributed by the community. That, in essentials,
is what is being attempted in
Russia to day. Much will depend on what results
this mighty experiment
produces. To hazard a prophecy here would
be presumption. Can goods be
produced as economically under such a system
as under one which leaves
more freedom to individual enterprise? Can
this system maintain itself at all
without the terror that has so far accompanied
it, which none of us
"westerners" would care to let himself in
for? Does not such a rigid,
centralized system tend towards protection
and hostility to advantageous
innovations? We must take care, however, not
to allow these suspicions to
become prejudices which prevent us from forming
an objective judgment.
My personal opinion is that those methods
are preferable which respect
existing traditions and habits so far as that
is in any way compatible with the
end in view. Nor do I believe that a sudden
transference of the control of
industry to the hands of the public would
be beneficial from the point of view
of production; private enterprise should be
left its sphere of activity, in so far
as it has not already been eliminated by industry
itself in the form of
cartelization.
There are, however, two respects in which
this economic freedom ought to be
limited. In each branch of industry the number
of working hours per week
ought so to be reduced by law that unemployment
is systematically abolished.
At the same time minimum wages must be fixed
in such a way that the
purchasing power of the workers keeps pace
with production.
Further, in those industries which have become
monopolistic in character
through organization on the part of the producers,
prices must be controlled
by the State in order to keep the creation
of new capital within reasonable
bounds and prevent the artificial strangling
of production and consumption.
In this way it might perhaps be possible to
establish a proper balance between
production and consumption without too great
a limitation of free enterprise,
and at the same time to stop the intolerable
tyranny of the owners of the
means of production (land, machinery) over
the wage earners, in the widest
sense of the term.
Culture and Prosperity
If one would estimate the damage done by the
great political catastrophe to
the development of human civilization, one
must remember that culture in its
higher forms is a delicate plant which depends
on a complicated set of
conditions and is wont to flourish only in
a few places at any given time. For it
to blossom there is needed, first of all,
a certain degree of prosperity, which
enables a fraction of the population to work
at things not directly necessary to
the maintenance of life; secondly, a moral
tradition of respect for cultural
values and achievements, in virtue of which
this class is provided with the
means of living by the other classes, those
who provide the immediate
necessities of life.
During the past century Germany has been one
of the countries in which both
conditions were fulfilled. The prosperity
was, taken as a whole, modest but
sufficient; the tradition of respect for culture
vigorous. On this basis the
German nation has brought forth fruits of
culture which form an integral part of
the development of the modern world. The tradition,
in the main, still stands;
the prosperity is gone. The industries of
the country have been cut off almost
completely from the sources of raw materials
on which the existence of the
industrial part of the population was based.
The surplus necessary to support
the intellectual worker has suddenly ceased
to exist. With it the tradition which
depends on it will inevitably collapse also,
and a fruitful nursery of culture turn
to wilderness.
The human race, in so far as it sets a value
on culture, has an interest in
preventing such impoverishment. It will give
what help it can in the immediate
crisis and reawaken that higher community
of feeling, now thrust into the
background by national egotism, for which
human values have a validity
independent of politics and frontiers. It
will then procure for every nation
conditions of work under which it can exist
and under which it can bring forth
fruits of culture.
Production and Purchasing Power
I do not believe that the remedy for our present
difficulties lies in a knowledge
of productive capacity and consumption, because
this knowledge is likely, in
the main, to come too late. Moreover the trouble
in Germany seems to me to
be not hypertrophy of the machinery of production
but deficient purchasing
power in a large section of the population,
which has been cast out of the
productive process through rationalization.
The gold standard has, in my opinion, the
serious disadvantage that a shortage
in the supply of gold automatically leads
to a contraction of credit and also of the
amount of currency in circulation, to which
contraction prices and wages
cannot adjust themselves sufficiently quickly.
The natural remedies for our
troubles are, in my opinion, as follows:
(1) A statutory reduction of working hours,
graduated for each department of
industry, in order to get rid of unemployment,
combined with the fixing of
minimum wages for the purpose of adjusting
the purchasing power of the
masses to the amount of goods available.
(2) Control of the amount of money in circulation
and of the volume of credit
in such a way as to keep the price level steady,
all special protection being
abolished.
(3) Statutory limitation of prices for such
articles as have been practically
withdrawn from free competition by monopolies
or the formation of cartels.
Production and Work
An answer to Cederström
Dear Herr Cederström,
Thank you for sending me your proposals, which
interest me
very much. Having myself given so much thought
to this subject I
feel that it is right that I should give you
my perfectly frank
opinion on them.
The fundamental trouble seems to me to be
the almost unlimited
freedom of the labour market combined with
extraordinary
progress in the methods of production. To
satisfy the needs of
the world to day nothing like all the available
labour is wanted.
The result is unemployment and excessive competition
among
the workers, both of which reduce purchasing
power and put
the whole economic system intolerably out
of gear.
I know Liberal economists maintain that every
economy in
labour is counterbalanced by an increase in
demand. But, to
begin with, I don't believe it, and even if
it were true, the
above mentioned factors would always operate
to force the
standard of living of a large portion of the
human race doom to
an unnaturally low level.
I also share your conviction that steps absolutely
must be taken to make it possible and necessary
for the younger people to take
part in the productive process. Further, that
the older people
ought to be excluded from certain sorts of
work (which I call
"unqualified" work), receiving instead a certain
income, as having
by that time done enough work of a kind accepted
by society as
productive.
I too am in favour of abolishing large cities,
but not of settling
people of a particular type e.g., old people
in particular
towns. Frankly, the idea strikes me as horrible.
I am also of
opinion that fluctuations in the value of
money must be avoided,
by substituting for the gold standard a standard
based on certain
classes of goods selected according to the
conditions of
consumption as Keynes, if I am not mistaken,
long ago
proposed. With the introduction of this system
one might
consent to a certain amount of "inflation,"
as compared with the
present monetary situation, if one could believe
that the State
would really make a rational use of the windfall
thus accruing to
it.
The weaknesses of your plan lie, so it seems
to me, in the sphere
of psychology, or rather, in your neglect
of it. It is no accident
that capitalism has brought with it progress
not merely in
production but also in knowledge. Egoism and
competition are,
alas, stronger forces than public spirit and
sense of duty. In
Russia, they say, it is impossible to get
a decent piece of
bread. Perhaps I am over pessimistic concerning
State
and other forms of communal enterprise, but
I expect little good
from them. Bureaucracy is the death of all
sound work. I have
seen and experienced too many dreadful warnings,
even in
comparatively model Switzerland.
I am inclined to the view that the State can
only be of real use to
industry as a limiting and regulative force.
It must see to it that
competition among the workers is kept within
healthy limits, that
all children are given a chance to develop
soundly, and that
wages are high enough for the goods produced
to be consumed.
But it can exert a decisive influence through
its regulative function
if and there again you are right its measures
are framed in an
objective spirit by independent experts.
I would like to write to you at greater length,
but cannot find the time.
Minorities
It seems to be a universal fact that minorities
especially when the individuals composing
them are distinguished by physical peculiarities
are treated by the
majorities among whom they live as an inferior
order of beings. The tragedy of
such a fate lies not merely in the unfair
treatment to which these minorities are
automatically subjected in social and economic
matters, but also in the fact
that under the suggestive influence of the
majority most of the victims
themselves succumb to the same prejudice and
regard their brethren as
inferior beings. This second and greater part
of the evil can be overcome by
closer combination and by deliberate education
of the minority, whose
spiritual liberation can thus be accomplished.
The efforts of the American negroes in this
direction are deserving of all
commendation and assistance.
Observations on the Present Situation in Europe
The distinguishing feature of the present
political situation of the world, and in
particular of Europe, seems to me to be this,
that political. development has
failed, both materially and intellectually,
to keep pace with economic
necessity, which has changed its character
in a comparatively short time. The
interests of each country must be subordinated
to the interests of the wider
community. The struggle for this new orientation
of political thought and
feeling is a severe one, because it has the
tradition of centuries against it. But
the survival of Europe depends on its successful
issue. It is my firm conviction
that once the psychological impediments are
overcome the solution of the real
problems will not be such a terribly difficult
matter. In order to create the right
atmosphere, the most essential thing is personal
co operation between men of
like mind. May our united efforts succeed
in building a bridge of mutual trust
between the nations!
The Heirs of the Ages
Previous generations were able to look upon
intellectual and cultural progress
as simply the inherited fruits of their forebears'
labours, which made life easier
and more beautiful for them. But the calamities
of our times show us that this
was a fatal illusion.
We see now that the greatest efforts are needed
if this legacy of humanity's is
to prove a blessing and not a curse. For whereas
formerly it was enough for a man to have freed
himself to some extent from personal egotism
to make him
a valuable member of society, to day he must
also be required to overcome
national and class egotism. Only if he reaches
those heights can he contribute
towards improving the lot of humanity.
As regards this most important need of the
age the inhabitants of a small State
are better placed than those of a great Power,
since the latter are exposed,
both in politics and economics, to the temptation
to gain their ends by brute
force. The agreement between Holland and Belgium,
which is the only bright
spot in European affairs during the last few
years, encourages one to hope
that the small nations will play a leading
part in the attempt to liberate the
world from the degrading yoke of militarism
through the renunciation of the
individual country's unlimited right of self
determination.
Germany 1933
Manifesto
As long as I have any choice, I will only
stay in a country where political
liberty, toleration, and equality of all citizens
before the law are the rule.
Political liberty implies liberty to express
one's political views orally and in
writing, toleration, respect for any and every
individual opinion.
These conditions do not obtain in Germany
at the present time. Those who
have done most for the cause of international
understanding, among them
some of the leading artists, are being persecuted
there.
Any social organism can become psychically
distempered just as any
individual can, especially in times of difficulty.
Nations usually survive these
distempers. I hope that healthy conditions
will soon supervene in Germany,
and that in future her great men like Kant
and Goethe will not merely be
commemorated from time to time, but that the
principles which they inculcated
will also prevail in public life and in the
general consciousness.
March, 1933.
Correspondence with the Prussian Academy of
Sciences
The following correspondence is here published
for the first time in its
authentic and complete form. The version published
in German
newspapers was for the most part incorrect,
important sentences being omitted.
The Academy's declaration of April I, 1933,
against Einstein.
The Prussian Academy of Sciences heard with
indignation from the
newspapers of Albert Einstein's participation
in atrocity mongering in France
and America. It immediately demanded an explanation.
In the meantime
Einstein has announced his withdrawal from
the Academy, giving as his reason
that he cannot continue to serve the Prussian
State under its present
Government. Being a Swiss citizen, he also,
it seems, intends to resign the
Prussian nationality which he acquired in
1913 simply by becoming a full
member of the Academy.
The Prussian Academy of Sciences is particularly
distressed by Einstein's
activities as an agitator in foreign countries,
as it and its members have always
felt themselves bound by the closest ties
to the Prussian State and, while
abstaining strictly from all political partisanship,
have alwa58 stressed and
remained faithful to the national idea. It
has, therefore, no reason to regret
Einstein's withdrawal.
Prof. Dr. Ernst Heymann,
Perpetual Secretary.
Le Coq, near Ostende, April 5, 1933
To the Prussian Academy of Sciences,
I have received information from a thoroughly
reliable source
that the Academy of Sciences has spoken in
an official statement
of "Einstein's participation in atrocity mongering
in America and
France."
I hereby declare that I have never taken any
part in
atrocity mongering, and I must add that I
have seen nothing of
any such mongering anywhere. In general people
have contented
themselves with reproducing and commenting
on the official
statements and orders of responsible members
of the German
Government, together with the programme for
the annihilation of
the German Jews by economic methods.
The statements I have issued to the Press
were concerned with
my intention to resign my position in the
Academy and renounce
my Prussian citizenship; I gave as my reason
for these steps that
I did not wish to live in a country where
the individual does not enjoy equality before
the law and freedom to say and teach what
he likes.
Further, I described the present state of
affairs in Germany as a state of psychic distemper
in the masses and also made some
remarks about its causes.
In a written document which I allowed the
International League
for combating Anti Semitism to make use of
for the purpose of
enlisting support, and which was not intended
for the Press at all,
I also called upon all sensible people, who
are still faithful to the
ideals of a civilization in peril, to do their
utmost to prevent this
mass psychosis, which is exhibiting itself
in such terrible
symptoms in Germany to day, from spreading
further.
It would have been an easy matter for the
Academy to get hold
of a correct version of my words before issuing
the sort of
statement about me that it has. The German
Press has
reproduced a deliberately distorted version
of my words, as
indeed was only to be expected with the Press
muzzled as it is
to day.
I am ready to stand by every word I have published.
In return, I
expect the Academy to communicate this statement
of mine to
its members and also to the German public
before which I have
been slandered, especially as it has itself
had a hand in slandering me before that public.
The Academy's Answer of April 11, 1933
The Academy would like to point out that its
statement of April
1, 1933. was based not merely on German but
principally on
foreign, particularly French and Belgian,
newspaper reports
which Herr Einstein has not contradicted;
in addition, it had
before it his much canvassed statement to
the League for
combating anti Semitism, in which he deplores
Germany's
relapse into the barbarism of long passed
ages. Moreover, the
Academy has reason to know that Herr Einstein,
who according
to his own statement has taken no part in
atrocitymongering, has
at least done nothing to counteract unjust
suspicions and
slanders, which, in the opinion of the Academy,
it was his duty
as one of its senior members to do. Instead
of that Herr Einstein
has made statements, and in foreign countries
at that, such as, coming from a man of world
wide reputation, were bound to be
exploited and abused by the enemies not merely
of the present
German Government but of the whole German
people.
For the Prussian Academy of Sciences,
(Signed) H. von Ficker,
E. Heymann,
Perpetual Secretaries.
Berlin, April 7, 1933
The Prussian Academy of Sciences.
Professor Albert Einstein, Leyden,
c/o Prof. Ehrenfest, Witte Rosenstr.
Dear Sir,
As the present Principal Secretary of the
Prussian Academy I
beg to acknowledge the receipt of your communication
dated
March 28 announcing your resignation of your
membership of
the Academy. The Academy took cognizance of
your
resignation in its plenary session of March
30, 1933.
While the Academy profoundly regrets the turn
events have
taken, this regret is inspired by the thought
that a man of the
highest scientific authority, whom many years
of work among
Germans and many years of membership of our
society must
have made familiar with the German character
and German
habits of thought, should have chosen this
moment to associate
himself with a body of people abroad who partly
no doubt
through ignorance of actual conditions and
events have done
much damage to our German people by disseminating
erroneous
views and unfounded rumours. We had confidently
expected
that one who had belonged to our Academy for
so long would
have ranged himself, irrespective of his own
political sympathies,
on the side of the defenders of our nation
against the flood of lies
which has been let loose upon it. In these
days of mud slinging,
some of it vile, some of it ridiculous, a
good word for the
German people from you in particular might
have produced a
great effect, especially abroad. Instead of
which your testimony
has served as a handle to the enemies not
merely of the present
Government but of the German people. This
has come as a
bitter and grievous disappointment to us,
which would no doubt
have led inevitably to a parting of the ways
even if we had not received your resignation.
Yours faithfully,
(signed) von Ficker.
Le Coq sur Mer, Belgium, April 12, 1933
To the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin.
I have received your communication of the
seventh instant and
deeply deplore the mental attitude displayed
in it.
As regards the fact, I can only reply as follows:
What you say
about my behaviour is, at bottom, merely another
form of the
statement you have already published, in which
you accuse me
of having taken part in atrocity mongering
against the German
nation. I have already, in my last letter,
characterized this
accusation as slanderous.
You have also remarked that a "good word"
on my part for "the
German people" would have produced a great
effect abroad. To
this I must reply that such a testimony as
you suggest would have
been equivalent to a repudiation of all those
notions of justice
and liberty for which I have all my life stood.
Such a testimony
would not be, as you put it, a good word for
the German nation;
on the contrary, it would only have helped
the cause of those
who are seeking to undermine the ideas and
principles which
have won for the German nation a place of
honour in the
civilized world. By giving such a testimony
in the present
circumstances I should have been contributing,
even if only
indirectly, to the barbarization of manners
and the destruction of
all existing cultural values.
It was for this reason that I felt compelled
to resign from the
Academy, and your letter only shows me how
right I was to do
so.
Munich, Aril 8, 1933
From the Bavarian Academy of Sciences to Professor
Albert Einstein.
Sir,
In your letter to the Prussian Academy of
Sciences you have
given the present state of affairs in Germany
as the reason for
your resignation. The Bavarian Academy of
Sciences, which
some years ago elected you a corresponding
member, is also a
German Academy, closely allied to the Prussian
and other
German Academies; hence your withdrawal from
the Prussian
Acadeiny of Sciences is bound to affect your
relations with our
Academy.
We must therefore ask you how you envisage
your relations with
our Academy after what has passed between
yourself and the
Prussian Academy.
The President of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
Le Coq sur Mer, April 21, 1933
To the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich.
I have given it as the reason for my resignation
from the Prussian
Academy that in the present circumstances
I have no wish either
to be a German citizen or to remain in a position
of
quasi dependence on the Prussian Ministry
of Education.
These reasons would not, in themselves, involve
the severing of
my relations with the Bavarian Academy. If
I nevertheless desire
my name to be removed from the list of members,
it is for a
different reason.
The primary duty of an Academy is to encourage
and protect
the scientific life of a country. The learned
societies of Germany
have, however to the best of knowledge stood
by and said
nothing while a not inconsiderable proportion
of German savants
and students, and also of professional men
of university
education, have been deprived of all chance
of getting
employment or earning their livings in Germany.
I would rather
not belong to any society which behaves in
such a manner, even
if it does so under external pressure.
A Reply
The following lines are Einstein's answer
to an invitation to associate
himself with a French manifesto against Anti
Semitism in Germany.
I have considered this most important proposal,
which has a bearing on
several things that I have nearly at heart,
carefully from every angle. As a
result I have come to the conclusion that
I cannot take a personal part in this
extremely important affair, for two reasons:
In the first place I am, after all, still
a German citizen, and in the second I am a
Jew. As regards the first point I must add
that I have worked in German
institutions and have always been treated
with full confidence in Germany.
However deeply I may regret the things that
are being done there, however
strongly I am bound to condemn the terrible
mistakes that are being made
with the approval of the Government; it is
impossible for me to take part
personally in an enterprise set on foot by
responsible members of a foreign
Government. In order that you may appreciate
this fully, suppose that a
French citizen in a more or less analogous
situation had got up a protest
against the French Government's action in
conjunction with prominent German
statesmen. Even if you fully admitted that
the protest was amply warranted by
the facts, you would still, I expect, regard
the behaviour of your fellow citizen
as an act of treachery. If Zola had felt it
necessary to leave France at the time
of the Dreyfus case, he would still certainly
not have associated himself with a
protest by German official personages, however
much he might have
approved of their action. He would have confined
himself to blushing for his
countrymen. In the second place, a protest
against injustice and violence is
incomparably more valuable if it comes entirely
from people who have been
prompted to it purely by sentiments of humanity
and a love of Pew This
cannot be said of a man like me, a few who
regards other Jews as his
brothers. For him, an injustice done to the
Jews is the same as an injustice
done to himself. He must not be the judge
in his own case, but wait for the
judgment of impartial outsiders.
These are my reasons. But I should like to
add that I have always honoured
and admired that highly developed sense of
justice which is one of the noblest
features of the French tradition.
The Jews
Jewish Ideals
The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake,
an almost fanatical love of justice,
and the desire for personal independence these
are the features of the Jewish
tradition which make me thank my stars that
I belong to it.
Those who are raging to day against the ideals
of reason and individual liberty
and are trying to establish a spiritless State
slavery by brute force rightly see
in us their irreconcilable foes. History has
given us a difficult row to hoe; but
so long as we remain devoted servants of truth,
justice, and liberty, we shall
continue not merely to survive as the oldest
of living peoples, but by creative
work to bring forth fruits which contribute
to the ennoblement of the human
race, as heretofore.
Is there a Jewish Point of View?
In the philosophical sense there is, in my
opinion, no specifically Jewish
outlook. Judaism seems to me to be concerned
almost exclusively with the
moral attitude in life and to life. I look
upon it as the essence of an attitude to
life which is incarnate in the Jewish people
rather than the essence of the laws
laid down in the Thora and interpreted in
the Talmud. To me, the Thora and
the Talmud are merely the most important evidence
for the manner in which
the Jewish conception of life held sway in
earlier times.
The essence of that conception seems to me
to lie in an affirmative attitude to
the life of all creation. The life of the
individual has meaning only in so far as it
aids in making the life of every living thing
nobler and more beautiful. Life is
sacred that is to say, it is the supreme value,
to which all other values are
subordinate. The hallowing of the supra individual
life brings in its train a
reverence for everything spiritual a particularly
characteristic feature of the
Jewish tradition.
Judaism is not a creed: the Jewish God is
simply a negation of superstition, an
imaginary result of its elimination. It is
also an attempt to base the moral law
on fear, a regrettable and discreditable attempt.
Yet it seems to me that the
strong moral tradition of the Jewish nation
has to a large extent shaken itself
free from this fear. It is clear also that
"serving God" was equated with
"serving the living." The best of the Jewish
people, especially the Prophets and
Jesus, contended tirelessly for this.
Judaism is thus no transcendental religion;
it is concerned with life as we live it
and can up to a point grasp it, and nothing
else. It seems to me, therefore,
doubtful whether it can be called a religion
in the accepted sense of the word,
particularly as no "faith" but the sanctification
of life in a supra personal sense
is demanded of the Jew.
But the Jewish tradition also contains something
else, something which finds
splendid expression in many of the Psalms
namely, a sort of intoxicated joy and amazement
at the beauty and grandeur of this world,
of which, man can
just form a faint notion. It is the feeling
from which true scientific research
draws its spiritual sustenance, but which
also seems to find expression in the
song of birds. To tack this on to the idea
of God seems mere childish
absurdity.
Is what I have described a distinguishing
mark of Judaism? Is it to be found
anywhere else under another name? In its pure
form, nowhere, not even in
Judaism, where the pure doctrine is obscured
by much worship of the letter.
Yet Judaism seems to me one of its purest
and most vigorous manifestations.
This applies particularly to the fundamental
principle of the sanctification of
life.
It is characteristic that the animals were
expressly included in the command to
keep holy the Sabbath day, so strong was the
feeling that the ideal demands
the solidarity of all living things. The insistence
on the solidarity of all human
beings finds still stronger expression, apd
it is no mere chance that the
demands of Socialism were for the most part
first raised by Jews.
How strongly developed this sense of the sanctity
of life is in the Jewish
people is admirably illustrated by a little
remark which Walter Rathenau once
made to me in conversation: "When a Jew says
that he's going hunting to
amuse himself, he lies." The Jewish sense
of the sanctity of life could not be
more simply expressed.
Jewish Youth
An Answer to a Questionnaire
It is important that the young should be induced
to take an interest in Jewish
questions and difficulties, and you deserve
gratitude for devoting yourself to
this task in your paper. This is of moment
not merely for the destiny of the
Jews, whose welfare depends on their sticking
together and helping each
other, but, over and above that, for the cultivation
of the international spirit,
which is in danger everywhere to day from
a narrow minded nationalism.
Here, since the days of the Prophets, one
of the fairest fields of activity has
lain open to our nation, scattered as it is
over the earth and united only by a
common tradition.
Addresses on Reconstruction in Palestine
Ten years ago, when I first had the pleasure
of addressing you on behalf of
the Zionist cause, almost all our hopes were
still fixed on the future. To day
we can look back on these ten years with joy;
for in that time the united
energies of the Jewish people have accomplished
a splendid piece of
successful constructive work in Palestine,
which certainly exceeds anything
that we dared to hope then.
We have also successfully stood the severe
test to which the events of the last
few years have subjected us. Ceaseless work,
supported by a noble purpose,
is leading slowly but surely to success. The
latest pronouncements of the
British Government indicate a return to a
juster judgment of our case; this we
recognize with gratitude.
But we must never forget what this crisis
has taught us namely, that the
establishment of satisfactory relations between
the Jews and the Arabs is not
England's affair but ours. We that is to say,
the Arabs and ourselves have
got to agree on the main outlines of an advantageous
partnership which shall
satisfy the needs of both nations. A just
solution of this problem and one
worthy of both nations is an end no less important
and no less worthy of our
efforts than the promotion of the work of
construction itself. Remember that
Switzerland represents a higher stage of political
development than any
national state, precisely because of the greater
political problems which had to
be solved before a stable community could
be built up out of groups of
different nationality.
Much remains to be done, but one at least
of Herzl's aims has already been
realized: its task in Palestine has given
the Jewish people an astonishing degree
of solidarity and the optimism without which
no organism can lead a healthy
life.
Anything we may do for the common purpose
is done not merely for our
brothers in Palestine, but for the well being
and honour of the whole Jewish
people.
We are assembled to day for the purpose of
calling to mind our age old
community, its destiny, and its problems.
It is a community of moral tradition,
which has always shown its strength and vitality
in times of stress. In all ages it
has produced men who embodied the conscience
of the Western world,
defenders of human dignity and justice.
So long as we ourselves care about this community
it will continue to exist to the benefit of
mankind, in spite of the fact that it possesses
no self contained
organization. A decade or two ago a group
of far sighted men, among whom
Herzl of immortal memory stood out above the
rest, came to the conclusion
that we needed a spiritual centre in crder
to preserve our sense of solidarity in
difficult times. Thus arose the idea of Zionism
and the work of settlement in
Palestine, the successful realization of which
we have been permitted to
witness, at least in its highly promising
beginnings.
I have had the privilege of seeing, to my
great joy and satisfaction, how much
this achievement has contributed to the recovery
of the Jewish people, which
is exposed, as a minority among the nations,
not merely to external dangers,
but also to internal ones of a psychological
nature.
The crisis which the work of construction
has had to face in the last few years
has lain heavy upon us and is not yet completely
surmounted. But the most
recent reports show that the world, and especially
the British Government, is
disposed to recognize the great things which
lie behind our struggle for the
Zionist ideal. Let us at this moment remember
with gratitude our leader
Weizmann, whose zeal and circumspection have
helped the good cause to
success.
The difficulties we have been through have
also brought some good in their
train. They have shown us once more how strong
the bond is which unites the
Jews of all countries in a common destiny.
The crisis has also purified our
attitude to the question of Palestine, purged
it of the dross of nationalism. It
has been clearly proclaimed that we are not
seeking to create a political
society, but that our aim is, in accordance
with the old tradition of Jewry, a
cultural one in the widest sense of the word.
That being so, it is for us to solve
the problem of living side by side with our
brother the Arab in an open,
generous, and worthy manner. We have here
an opportunity of showing what
we have learnt in the thousands of years of
our martyrdom. If we choose the
right path we shall succeed and give the rest
of the world a fine example.
Whatever we do for Palestine we do it for
the honour and well being of the
whole Jewish people.
I am delighted to have the opportunity of
addressing a few words to the youth
of this country which is faithful to the common
aims of Jewry. Do not be
discouraged by the difficulties which confront
us in Palestine. Such things
serve to test the will to live of our community.
Certain proceedings and pronouncements of
the English administration have
been justly criticized. We must not, however,
leave it at that but learn by
experience.
We need to pay great attention to our relations
with the Arabs. By cultivating
these carefully we shall be able in future
to prevent things from becoming so
dangerously strained that people can take
advantage of them to provoke acts
of hostility. This goal is perfectly within
our reach, because our work of
construction has been, and must continue to
be, carried out in such a manner
as to serve the real interests of the Arab
population also.
In this way we shall be able to avoid getting
ourselves quite so often into the
position, disagreeable for Jews and Arabs
alike, of having to call in the
mandatory Power as arbitrator. We shall thereby
be following not merely the
dictates of Providence but also our traditions,
which alone give the Jewish
community meaning and stability.
For that community is not, and must never
become, a political one; this is the
only permanent source whence it can draw new
strength and the only ground
on which its existence can be justified.
For the last two thousand years the common
property of the Jewish people
has consisted entirely of its past. Scattered
over the wide world, our nation
possessed nothing in common except its carefully
guarded tradition. Individual
Jews no doubt produced great work, but it
seemed as if the Jewish people as
a whole had not the strength left for great
collective achievements.
Now all that is changed. History has set us
a great and noble task in the shape
of active cooperation in the building up of
Palestine. Eminent members of our
race are already at work with all their might
on the realization of this aim. The
opportunity is presented to us of setting
up centres of civilization which the
whole Jewish people can regard as its work.
We nurse the hope of erecting in
Palestine a home of our own national culture
which shall help to awaken the
near East to new economic and spiritual life.
The object which the leaders of Zionism have
in view is not a political but a
social and cultural one. The community in
Palestine must approach the social
ideal of our forefathers as it is laid down
in the Bible, and at the same time
become a seat of modern intellectual life,
a spiritual centre for the Jews of the
whole world. In accordance with this notion,
the establishment of a Jewish
university in Jerusalem constitutes one of
the most important aims of the Zionist organization.
During the last few months I have been to
America in order to help to raise
the material basis for this university there.
The success of this enterprise was
quite natural. Thanks to the untiring energy
and splendid self sacrificing spirit
of the Jewish doctors in America, we have
succeeded in collecting enough
money for the creation of a medical faculty,
and the preliminary work isbeing
started at once. After this success I have
no doubt that the material basis for
the other faculties will soon be forthcoming.
The medical faculty is first of all to
be developed as a research institute and to
concentrate on making the country
healthy, a most important item in the work
of development. Teaching on a
large scale will only become important later
on. As a number of highly
competent scientific workers have already
signified their readiness to take up
appointments at the university, the establishment
of a medical faculty seems to
be placed beyond all doubt. I may add that
a special fund for the university,
entirely distinct from the general fund for
the development of the country, has
been opened. For the latter considerable sums
have been collected during
these months in America, thanks to the indefatigable
labours of Professor
Weizmann and other Zionist leaders, chiefly
through the self sacrificing spirit
of the middle classes. I conclude with a warm
appeal to the Jews in Germany
to contribute all they can, in spite of the
present economic difficulties, for the
building up of the Jewish home in Palestine.
This is not a matter of charity, but
an enterprise which concerns all Jews and
the success of which promises to
be a source of the highest satisfaction to
all.
For us Jews Palestine is not just a charitable
or colonial enterprise, but a
problem of central importance for the Jewish
people. Palestine is not primarily
a place of refuge for the Jews of Eastern
Europe, but the embodiment of the
re awakening corporate spirit of the whole
Jewish nation. Is it the right
moment for this corporate sense to be awakened
and strengthened? This is a
question to which I feel compelled, not merely
by my spontaneous feelings but
on rational grounds, to return an unqualified
"yes."
Let us just cast our eyes over the history
of the Jews in Germany during the
past hundred years. A century ago our forefathers,
with few exceptions, lived
in the ghetto. They were poor, without political
rights, separated from the
Gentiles by a barrier of religious traditions,
habits of life, and legal restrictions;
their intellectual development was restricted
to their own literature, and they
had remained almost unaffected by the mighty
advance of the European
intellect which dates from the Renaissance.
And yet these obscure, humble
people had one great advantage over us each
of them belonged in every fibre of his being
to a community m which he was completely absorbed,
in which
he felt himself a fully pnvileged member,
and which demanded nothing of him
that was contrary to his natural habits of
thought. Our forefathers in those
days were pretty poor specimens intellectually
and physically, but socially
speaking they enjoyed an enviable spiritual
equilibrium.
Then came emancipation, which suddenly opened
up undreamed of
possibilities to the individual. Some few
rapidly made a position for
themselves in the higher walks of business
and social life. They greedily
lapped up the splendid triumphs which the
art and science of the Western
world had achieved. They joined in the process
with burning enthusiasm,
themselves making contributions of lasting
value. At the same time they
imitated the external forms of Gentile life,
departed more and more from their
religious and social traditions, and adopted
Gentile customs, manners, and
habits of thought. It seemed as though they
were completely losing their
identity in the superior numbers and more
highly organized culture of the
nations among whom they lived, so that in
a few generations there would be
no trace of them left. A complete disappearance
of Jewish nationality in
Central and Western Europe seemed inevitable.
But events turned out otherwise. Nationalities
of different race seem to have
an instinct which prevents them from fusing.
However much the Jews adapted
themselves, in language, manners, and to a
great extent even in the forms of
religion, to the European peoples among whom
they lived, the feeling of
strangeness between the Jews and their hosts
never disappeared. This
spontaneous feeling is the ultimate cause
of anti Semitism, which is therefore
not to be got rid of by well meaning propaganda.
Nationalities want to pursue
their own path, not to blend. A satisfactory
state of affairs can be brought
about only by mutual toleration and respect.
The first step in that direction is that we
Jews should once more become
conscious of our existence as a nationality
and regain the self respect that is
necessary to a healthy existence. We must
learn once more to glory in our
ancestors and our history and once again take
upon ourselves, as a nation,
cultural tasks of a sort calculated to strengthen
our sense of the community. It
is not enough for us to play a part as individuals
in the cultural development of
the human race, we must also tackle tasks
which only nations as a whole can
perform. Only so can the Jews regain social
health.
It is from this point of view that I would
have you look at the Zionist
movement. To day history has assigned to us
the task of taking an active part
in the economic and cultural reconstruction
of our native land. Enthusiasts,
men of brilliant gifts, have cleared the way,
and many excellent members of our race are
prepared to devote themselves heart and soul
to the cause. May
every one of them fully realize the importance
of this work and contribute,
according to his powers, to its success!
The Jewish Community
A speech in London
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is no easy matter for me to overcome my
natural inclination to a life of quiet
contemplation. But I could not remain deaf
to the appeal of the O.R.T. and
O.Z.E. societies*; for in responding to it
I am responding, as it were, to the
appeal of our sorely oppressed Jewish nation.
The position of our scattered Jewish community
is a moral barometer for the
political world. For what surer index of political
morality and respect for
justice can there be than the attitude of
the nations towards a defenceless
minority, whose peculiarity lies in their
preservation of an ancient cultural
tradition?
*Jewish charitable associations.
This barometer is low at the present moment,
as we are painfully aware from
the way we are treated. But it is this very
lowness that confirms me in the
conviction that it is our duty to preserve
and consolidate our community.
Embedded in the tradition of the Jewish people
there is a love of justice and
reason which must continue to work for the
good of all nations now and in the
future. In modern times this tradition has
produced Spinoza and Karl Marx.
Those who would preserve the spirit must also
look after the body to which it
is attached. The O.Z.E. society literally
looks after the bodies of our people.
In Eastern Europe it is working day and night
to help our people there, on
whom the economic depression has fallen particularly
heavily, to keep body
and soul together; while the O.R.T. society
is trying to get rid of a severe
social and economic handicap under which the
Jews have laboured since the
Middle Ages. Because we were then excluded
from all directly productive
occupations, we were forced into the purely
commercial ones. The only way
of really helping the Jew in Eastern countries
is to give him access to new
fields of activity, for which he is struggling
all over the world. This is the grave
problem which the O.R.T. society is successfully
tackling.
It is to you English fellow Jews that we now
appeal to help us in this great enterprise
which splendid men have set on foot. The last
few years, nay, the
last few days, have brought us a disappointment
which must have touched you
in particular nearly. Do not gird at fate,
but rather look on these events as a
reason for remaining true to the cause of
the Jewish commonwealth. I am
convinced that in doing that we shall also
indirectly be promoting those
general human ends which we must always recognize
as the highest.
Remember that difficulties and obstacles are
a valuable source of health and
strength to any society. We should not have
survived for thousands of years
as a community if our bed had been of roses;
of that I am quite sure.
But we have a still fairer consolation. Our
friends are not exactly numerous,
but among them are men of noble spirit and
strong sense of justice, who have
devoted their lives to uplifting human society
and liberating the individual from
degrading oppression.
We are happy and fortunate to have such men
from the Gentile world among
us to night; their presence lends an added
solemnity to this memorable
evening. It gives me great pleasure to see
before me Bernard Shaw and H. G.
Wells, to whose view of life I am particularly
attracted.
You, Mr. Shaw, have succeeded in winning the
affection and joyous
admiration of the world while pursuing a path
that has led many others to a
martyr's crown. You have not merely preached
moral sermons to your
fellows; you have actually mocked at things
which many of them held sacred.
You have done what only the born artist can
do. From your magic box you
have produced innumerable little figures which,
while resembling human
beings, are compact not of flesh and blood,
but of brains, wit, and charm.
And yet in a way they are more human than
we are ourselves, and one almost
forgets that they are creations not of Nature,
but of Bernard Shaw. You make
these charming little figures dance in a miniature
world in front of which the
Graces stand sentinel and permit no bitterness
to enter. He who has looked
into this little world sees our actual world
in a new light; its puppets insinuate
themselves into real people, making them suddenly
look quite different. By
thus holding the mirror up to us all you have
had a liberating effect on us such
as hardly any other of our contemporaries
has done and have relieved life of
something of its earth bound heaviness. For
this we are all devoutly grateful to
you, and also to fate, which along with grievous
plagues has also given us the
physician and liberator of our souls. I personally
am also grateful to you for
the unforgettable words which you have addressed
to my mythical namesake
who makes life so difficult for me, although
he is really, for all his clumsy,
formidable size, quite a harmless fellow.
To you all I say that the existence and destiny
of our people depend less on
external factors than on ourselves remaining
faithful to the moral traditions
which have enabled us to survive for thousands
of years despite the heavy
storms that have broken over our heads. In
the service of life sacrifice
becomes grace.
Working Palestine
Among Zionist organizations "Working Palestine"
is the one whose work is of
most direct benefit to the most valuable class
of people living there namely,
those who are transforming deserts into flourishing
settlements by the labour
of their hands. These workers are a selection,
made on a voluntary basis,
from the whole Jewish nation, an élite composed
of strong, confident, and
unselfish people. They are not ignorant labourers
who sell the labour of their
hands to the highest bidder, but educated,
intellectually vigorous, free men,
from whose peaceful struggle with a neglected
soil the whole Jewish nation
are the gainers, directly and indirectly.
By lightening their heavy lot as far as
we can we shall be saving the most valuable
sort of human life; for the first
settlers' struggle on ground not yet made
habitable is a difficult and dangerous
business involving a heavy personal sacrifice.
How true this is, only they can
judge who have seen it with their own eyes.
Anyone who helps to improve the
equipment of these men is helping on the good
work at a crucial point.
It is, moreover, this working class alone
that has it in its power to establish
healthy relations with the Arabs, which is
the most important political task of
Zionism. Administrations come and go; but
it is human relations that finally
turn the scale in the lives of nations. Therefore
to support "Working Palestine"
is at the same time to promote a humane and
worthy policy in Palestine, and
to oppose an effective resistance to those
undercurrents of narrow nationalism
from which the whole political world, and
in a less degree the small political
world of Palestine affairs, is suffering.
Jewish Recovery
I gladly accede to your paper's request that
I should address an appeal to the
Jews of Hungary on behalf of Keren Hajessod.
The greatest enemies of the national consciousness
and honour of the Jews
are fatty degeneration by which I mean the
unconscionableness which comes
from wealth and ease and a kind of inner dependence
on the surrounding
Gentile world which comes from the loosening
of the fabric of Jewish society.
The best in man can flourish only when he
loses himself in a community.
Hence the moral danger of the Jew who has
lost touch with his own people
and is regarded as a foreigner by the people
of his adoption. Only too often a
contemptible and joyless egoism has resulted
from such circumstances. The
weight of outward oppression on the Jewish
people is particularly heavy at the
moment. But this very bitterness has done
us good. A revival of Jewish
national life, such as the last generation
could never have dreamed of, has
begun. Through the operation of a newly awakened
sense of solidarity among
the Jews, the scheme of colonizing Palestine
launched by a handful of devoted
and judicious leaders in the face of apparently
insuperable difficulties, has
already prospered so far that I feel no doubt
about its permanent success.
The value of this achievement for the Jews
everywhere is very great. Palestine
will be a centre of culture for all Jews,
a refuge for the most grievously
oppressed, a field of action for the best
among us, a unifying ideal, and a
means of attaining inward health for the Jews
of the whole world.
Anti Semitism and Academic Youth
So long as we lived in the ghetto our Jewish
nationality involved for us
material difficulties and sometimes physical
danger, but no social or
psychological problems. With emancipation
the position changed, particularly
for those Jews who turned to the intellectual
professions. In school and at the
university the young Jew is exposed to the
influence of a society with a definite
national tinge, which he respects and admires,
from which he receives his
mental sustenance, to which he feels himself
to belong, while it, on the other
hand, treats him, as one of an alien race,
with a certain contempt and hostility.
Driven by the suggestive influence of this
psychological superiority rather than
by utilitarian considerations, he turns his
back on his people and his traditions,
and considers himself as belonging entirely
to the others while he tries in vain
to conceal from himself and them the fact
that the relation is not reciprocal.
Hence that pathetic creature, the baptized
Jewish Geheimrat of yesterday
and to day. In most cases it is not pushfulness
and lack of character that have
made him what he is, but, as I have said,
the suggestive power of an
environment superior in numbers and influence.
He knows, of course, that
many admirable sons of the Jewish people have
made important contributions
to the glory of European civilization; but
have they not all, with a few
exceptions, done much the same as he?
In this case, as in many mental disorders,
the cure lies in a clear knowledge of
one's condition and its causes. We must be
conscious of our alien race and
draw the logical conclusions from it. It is
no use trying to convince the others
of our spiritual and intellectual equality
by arguments addressed to the reason,
when their attitude does not originate in
their intellects at all. Rather must we
emancipate ourselves socially and supply our
social needs, in the main, ourselves. We must
have our own students' societies and adopt
an attitude of
courteous but consistent reserve to the Gentiles.
And let us live after our own
fashion there and not ape duelling and drinking
customs which are foreign to
our nature. It is possible to be a civilized
European and a good citizen and at
the same time a faithful Jew who loves his
race and honours his fathers. If we
remember this and act accordingly, the problem
of anti Semitism, in so far as
it is of a social nature, is solved for us.
A Letter to Professor Dr. Hellpach, Minister
of State
Dear Herr Hellpach,
I have read your article on Zionism and the
Zurich Congress and
feel, as a strong devotee of the Zionist idea,
that I must answer
you, even if it is only shortly.
The Jews are a community bound together by
ties of blood and
tradition, and not of religion only: the attitude
of the rest of the
world towards them is sufficient proof of
this. When I came to
Germany fifteen years ago I discovered for
the first time that I
was a Jew, and I owe this discovery more to
Gentiles than Jews.
The tragedy of the Jews is that they are people
of a definite
historical type, who lack the support of a
community to keep
them together. The result is a want of solid
foundations in the
individual which amounts in its extremer forms
to moral
instability. I realized that the only possible
salvation for the race
was that every Jew in the world should become
attached to a
living society to which the individual rejoiced
to belong and
which enabled him to bear the hatred and the
humiliations that he
has to put up with from the rest of the world.
I saw worthy Jews basely caricatured, and
the sight made my
heart bleed. I saw how schools, comic papers,
and innumerable
other forces of the Gentile majority undermined
the confidence
even of the best of my fellow Jews, and felt
that this could not
be allowed to continue.
Then I realized that only a common enterprise
dear to the hearts
of Jews all over the world could restore this
people to health. It
was a great achievement of Herzl's to have
realized and
proclaimed at the top of his voice that, the
traditional attitude of
the Jews being what it was, the establishment
of a national home or, more accurately, a
centre in Palestine, was a suitable object
on which to concentrate our efforts.
All this you call nationalism, and there is
something in the
accusation. But a communal purpose, without
which we can
neither live nor die in this hostile world,
can always be called by
that ugly name. In any case it is a nationalism
whose aim is not
power but dignity and health. If we did not
have to live among
intolerant, narrow minded, and violent people,
I should be the
first to throw over all nationalism in favour
of universal humanity.
The objection that we Jews cannot be proper
citizens of the
German State, for example, if we want to be
a "nation," is based
on a misunderstanding of the nature of the
State which springs
from the intolerance of national majorities.
Against that
intolerance we shall never be safe, whether
we call ourselves a
"people" (or "nation") or not.
I have put all this with brutal frankness
for the sake of brevity,
but I know from your writings that you are
a man who attends to
the sense, not the form.
Letter to an Arab
March 15, 1930
Sir,
Your letter has given me great pleasure. It
shows me that there is good will
available on your side too for solving the
present difficulties in a manner
worthy of both our nations. I believe that
these difficulties are more
psychological than real, and that they can
be got over if both sides bring
honesty and good will to the task.
What makes the present position so bad is
the fact that Jews and Arabs
confront each other as opponents before the
mandatory power. This state of
affairs is unworthy of both nations and can
only be altered by our finding a via
media on which both sides agree.
I will now tell you how I think that the present
difficulties might be remedied;
at the same time I must add that this is only
my personal opinion, which I have
discussed with nobody. I am writing this letter
in German because I am not
capable of writing it in English myself and
because I want myself to bear the entire responsibility
for it. You will, I am sure, be able to get
some Jewish
friend of conciliation to translate it.
A Privy Council is to be formed to which the
Jews and Arabs shall each send
four representatives, who must be independent
of all political parties.
Each group to be composed as follows:
A doctor, elected by the Medical Association;
A lawyer, elected by the lawyers;
A working men's representative, elected by
the trade unions;
An ecclesiastic, elected by the ecclesiastics.
These eight people are to meet once a week.
They undertake not to espouse
the sectional interests of their profession
or nation but conscientiously and to
the best of their power to aim at the welfare
of the whole population of the
country. Their deliberations shall be secret
and they are strictly forbidden to
give any information about them, even in private.
When a decision has been
reached on any subject in which not less than
three members on each side
concur, it may be published, but only in the
name of the whole Council. If a
member dissents he may retire from the Council,
but he is not thereby
released from the obligation to secrecy. If
one of the elective bodies above
specified is dissatisfied with a resolution
of the Council, it may repiace its
representative by another.
Even if this "Privy Council" has no definite
powers it may nevertheless bring
about the gradual composition of differences,
and secure as united
representation of the common interests of
the country before the mandatory
power, clear of the dust of ephemeral politics.
Christianity and Judaism
If one purges the Judaism of the Prophets
and Christianity as Jesus Christ
taught it of all subsequent additions, especially
those of the priests, one is left
with a teaching which is capable of curing
all the social ills of humanity.
It is the duty of every man of good will to
strive steadfastly in his own little
world to make this teaching of pure humanity
a living force, so far as he can. If
he makes an honest attempt in this direction
without being crushed and
trampled under foot by his contemporaries,
he may consider himself and the
community to which he belongs lucky.
This is THE END OF, The World As I See It,
By Albert Einstein
Thanks for listening. Please subscribe, if
you liked this video, other videos, or would
like to be made aware of future uploads.
When subscribing, you may also want to remember
to set your subscription settings to email
every time a new video is uploaded. I believe
that you are not instantly notified unless
you have set up that option in your account.
So, be sure to do that.
Also, I would appreciate any donation that
you can make to the channel and New Wellness
Living, Personal Wellness and Green Living
Advocacy. The donation link is included in
every video description. any contributions
would be appreciated.
I love to do these videos, increase wellness
for people around the world, and share information
that can help transform our lives. I also
like to get other people involved and be active
in the global community, working with people.
New Wellness Living appreciates every contribution
that supports the time and energy taken to
make resources, like this, available to people,
who are continually searching for more.
Lets keep the wealth circulating, growing,
sharing, and living the best life possible,
knowing that when we give, we allow the free
flow of receiving.
Thank you so much, and I appreciate the opportunity
to interact with you.
