Community Civics and Rural Life Part 13

Increased opportunity for travel, better means of communication, and more widespread education have greatly increased the understanding among peoples and nations, and have disclosed to view common purposes and ideals in spite of differences. The fact that large numbers of people from every part of the globe have come to the United States to live together as one nation has contributed to the same result.

Give ill.u.s.trations from your own experience and reading to show that differences in dress, language, race, and customs make sympathetic understanding difficult.

What is meant by "America, the melting-pot"?

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

As the peoples of the world have become better acquainted, individuals and groups have tended to a.s.sociate themselves together, regardless of national boundaries, for the promotion of common interests.

One example of this is the common movement of organized labor which has overstepped national boundaries.

There is an International Inst.i.tute of Agriculture, with headquarters at Rome, and representing 56 countries, the purpose of which is to promote better economic and social conditions among agricultural populations of the world. Some of its publications are published in five languages.

Literature and art bind all the world together, and science knows no national boundary lines. Christianity is one of the greatest influences for a "brotherhood of man." Differences in religious belief have presented most difficult barriers to overcome, but there has been a steadily increasing tolerance of one religious faith toward others.

These are only a few of hundreds of ill.u.s.trations that might be given.

SERVICE OF THE RED CROSS

We have all become familiar, during the war, with the work of the Red Cross. No other organization has done more to extend the feeling of common brotherhood in the world and the spirit of world service. During the war a Junior Department of the Red Cross was organized, enrolling in its members.h.i.+p about twelve million American boys and girls and organizing them for practical service to war-stricken Europe and Asia. Since the war, the Junior Red Cross, whose headquarters are at Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., has undertaken to use its organization to promote correspondence among boys and girls of different lands, and an exchange of handiwork, pictures, and other things ill.u.s.trative of their interests. The American School Citizens.h.i.+p League (405 Marlboro Street, Boston) is encouraging the same idea, and there is a Bureau of French- American Education Correspondence for a similar purpose, with headquarters at the George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tenn.

THE MOVEMENT FOR WORLD PEACE

Numerous INTERNATIONAL PEACE CONGRESSES have been held, the first one as early as 1843, and in the United States and other countries organizations exist for the promotion of friendly relations among the nations, and especially for the subst.i.tution of arbitration for war as a means of settling international disputes.

Among such organizations in the United States are the League to Enforce Peace, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the American Peace and Arbitration League, the American Peace Society, the World Peace Federation, the Church Peace Union.

What may be gained by correspondence between the young people of different lands?

Report on the following (see references):

The work of the Pan-American Union.

The work of the Red Cross in war and peace.

PAN-AMERICAN UNION

One of the most successful experiments in international cooperation is that of the North and South American republics. The first Pan-American Conference, attended by delegates from the twenty-one American republics, was held in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., in 1889. As a result of this Conference the Pan-American Union was established, with permanent headquarters in Was.h.i.+ngton. Its purpose is "the development of commerce, friendly intercourse, and good understanding among these countries."

INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENT

To secure anything like effective teamwork among the nations for the common interest and to subst.i.tute arbitration for war as a means of settling differences, there must be some kind of international organization, and rules to which the governments of the nations will agree. Civilized nations have always had their official means of dealing with one another through their governments, such as the diplomatic and consular services.

Alliances have, from time immemorial, been made between nations, treaties have been solemnly agreed to, and a body of international law has gradually grown up. But treaties and international law have frequently been violated, and no international government has existed with sufficient authority or power to force nations to observe the law or to keep their agreements. As a result of two peace conferences held at The Hague in Holland, in 1899 and 1907, an international Court of Arbitration was established at The Hague (The Hague Tribunal), before which disputes might be brought by nations if they desired to do so. But there was no way by which a nation could be compelled to appeal to the court.

NATIONALITY AND SOVEREIGNTY

Nations have a strong sense of their NATIONALITY, and are extremely jealous of their SOVEREIGNTY, which is the supreme power claimed by every nation to form its own government and to manage its own affairs without interference by other nations. It is this that has prevented the development of anything like a real international government that could control the conduct of national governments, or that could require a nation to submit its grievances to any judge other than itself. This has perhaps been the chief weakness of the world community.

A LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Many people have long believed that the self-governing nations of the world must sooner or later unite, in the interest of world peace, in some kind of federation or league, with a central organization to which all would agree to submit their differences.

The war made it seem even more necessary. Accordingly, the Peace Conference at Versailles at the close of the war included in the treaty of peace a Covenant (or const.i.tution) for a League of Nations. The treaty, including the Covenant, has been ratified (March, 1920) by four of the five great nations a.s.sociated against Germany (France, England, Italy, and j.a.pan; the United States being the exception), besides several other nations. While the President of the United States strongly advocated the treaty with the Covenant, the Senate did not approve of its ratification.

Those in our country who opposed the Covenant did so for a variety of reasons, but chief among them were: first, the fear that the Covenant would cause us to depart from the principles laid down by Was.h.i.+ngton and Monroe; and, second, the fear that the powers conferred upon the international government would deprive our national government of some of its sovereign powers. The friends of the Covenant denied that either of these things would be true.

Whether or not the United States should enter the League [Footnote: The Council of the new League of Nations held its first meeting January 16, 1920, the United States, of course, not being represented.] we shall have to leave for the statesmen to decide; and whether or not the League will accomplish the desired ends, time alone can prove. But two or three things may safely be said with regard to any really effective world government.

MIGHT DOES NOT MAKE RIGHT

When people live together in communities, each person has to sacrifice something of his personal freedom in order that all may enjoy the largest possible liberty. The same is true of families in a neighborhood, of communities in a state, of the states in our nation. There is no reason why it should not be true of nations which are neighbors to one another. No nation has any more right to do as it pleases than a person or a family has, IF WHAT IT PLEASES TO DO IS UNJUST TO ITS NEIGHBORS. The only thing, however, that a nation can properly be asked to give up IS BEING UNJUST TO ITS NEIGHBORS. We saw in Chapter IV that government and law increase rather than decrease the individual citizen's freedom, and that it is only the "ill-mannered" who feel the restrictions of a wise government. So, when we finally get a world government that is good, it will be one that will increase the freedom of all "good-mannered" nations, restricting only those that are "ill- mannered."

WHAT "AMERICA FIRST" MEANS

Moreover, when we finally get a league of nations that will really secure friendly cooperation among the nations for their common interests, it will be brought about, not by sacrificing nationality and national patriotism, but by STRENGTHENING them.

What is required is not less loyalty to one's nationality, but more sympathetic understanding of nationalities and national ideals different from one's own, combined with a recognition of the fundamental interests ... which unite them to each other.

[Footnote: "Thoughts on Nationalism and Internationalism," in History Teachers' Magazine, June 1918, p. 334.]

The only way to be sure of a perfect neighborhood is first to see to it that the homes of the neighborhood are strong and whole some. No person can really be loyal to his neighborhood who is not first of all loyal to his home. Thoroughly efficient towns.h.i.+ps and counties and cities are essential to a thoroughly efficient state; and no citizen is loyal to his state who is not loyal to his towns.h.i.+p, county, and city. The strength of our nation depends upon the strength of the states that compose it, and real national patriotism cannot well exist in the heart of a citizen who is disloyal to his state. The first essential step toward an effective WORLD government is to see that our national government is efficient and at the same time JUST. The first and best service that a citizen can perform for the world community is to be loyal to AMERICAN IDEALS, which are becoming the ideals of an ever- increasing part of the world's population.

THE NEW TYPE OF PATRIOT NO LONGER CRIES, "MY COUNTRY AGAINST THE WORLD," BUT "MY COUNTRY FOR THE WORLD." [Footnote: Stuart P.

Sherman, American and Allied Ideals, p. 14.]

Topics for investigation:

The Hague Tribunal. Disputes that have been settled by it. Why the dispute that led to the recent war was not settled by it.

The meaning of "nationality." Of "sovereignty."

Has a government any more right to be dishonest than an individual?

Both sides of the argument over the ratification by the United States of the treaty of peace with the Covenant for the League of Nations (see references).

The truth of the statement that "the only way to be sure of a perfect neighborhood is first to see to it that the homes of the neighborhood are strong and wholesome."

The meaning of the statement in the quotation at the end of the text above.

READINGS

In Long's AMERICAN PATRIOTIC PROSE:

Was.h.i.+ngton, "Farewell Address," pp. 105-124.

Was.h.i.+ngton, "Proclamation of Neutrality," pp. 143-146.

"The Monroe Doctrine," pp. 148-149.

John Quincy Adams, "The Mission of America," pp. 149-150.

George F. h.o.a.r, "A Warning Against the Spirit of Empire," pp. 244- 247.