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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 15, 1951)
(Editor’s Note: The Emerald editorial itage is honored today to step aside for what we consider one of the truly great • messages of our time. It's a commence •nent speech which was delivered at Yale U niversity by Erwin D. Cunhani. editor of The Christian Science Monitor, and re printed in the Monitor’s magazine sec tion.) LET me tell you my thesis bluntly at the outset. It is that the struggle for the salvation of free society in our time will be lost un less we in the West and particularly we in the United States awaken to and pre lect the fact that we are the great revolu tionaries in world history, and that our rev olution is basically a spiritual one which we i ave already proved in action. We have let most of the world think that the American achievement is primarily ma terialistic. This is the great gap between ourselves and those who yearn for much more than materialism. And we are the first victims ourselves of the misunder tanding. Key to the Future . .. The misunderstanding concerning Ameri ■a which is so pervasive in the world today is the key to the future of western society. Cor, as Dr. Charles Malik. Minister of Lebanon to the United States, has well said: “To the superficial observer who is unable to penetrate to the core of love and truth which is still at the heart of the West, there is little to choose between ihe soulless materialism of the West and the militant materialism of the East.” And. as Dr. Malik further told us in the West: “If your only export in tnese realms is the silent example of flourishing political institutions and happy human relations, you cannot lead. If your only export is a dis tant reputation for wealth and prosperity and order, you cannot lead. “Nor can you ready lead if you send forth to others only expert advice and technical assistance. To be able to lead and save •-ourself and others, you must, above every thing else, address your mind and soul. Your tradition, rooted in the glorious Graeco-Roman-Hebrew-Christian- Western European humane outlook, supplies you with all the necessary presuppositions for teadeiship. All you have to do is to be the deepest you already are.” There is the challenge of the hour. It is •ot a challenge requiring the postulating of new fundamentals. It calls for no pana ceas. It is a call to awakening and to articulation. The basic need is to under stand and to proclaim the truth. The West must find its voice. Revolution vs. Reaction ... Let us, therefore, ask ourselves a few fundamental questions. Let us proclaim the iruth on the issues which confront the world. Mankind today is being told it must ;hoose between revolution and reaction. It is told that communism represents revolu We stand in human history as the great est revolutionaries of all time. Not just we Americans—but all of us in the western world. tion, and that our system—which is oppro briously called capitalism—represents re action. In such a confrontation, there would be joo choice. Mankind must go forward. But ihis statement of the issue is an explicit • eversal of the truth. The fact is that communism—like totali tarianism in any form — represents the blackest of reactions. The fact is that the free system, of which capitalism is only a mall and modified part, represents the authentic revolution not a subversive rev olution, but a revolution which sets men free. We in the western world are the true standard-bearers of a great and emanci pating doctrine. But we have allowed our selves to be thrust into the indefensible position of seeking to protect the status quo. The free system is by no means the same thing as the status quo. Our tradi tion is not static, but is constantly dy namic. Our tradition strikes off chains. Totalitarianism would put them back on again. The stirring battle cry which ends the Communist Manifesto is itself a delusion. Marx and Engels wrote: “The proletarians have nothing to Ids'e tMf theii’diaifi^. They have a world to win.’’ Where Are Chains? ... Whore, in today's world, are most people in chains? Is it in the United States, where what is perhaps the most enlightened labor contract in history was recently signed by our largest industrial corporation and one of our largest trade unions? Or is it in the world's most extensive Communist state, the Soviet Union, where tragic millions, suffering and dying, are bearing the literal chains of slave labor? Is it in Britain, where labor's own govern ment is in power and is carrying through the most extensive peaceful and gradual social revolution in history? Where are the chains today? Where are the mental chains? Are they in the free universities and the free churches of the western world? Or are they In the Communist states, where man's right to think is now denied on hehnlf of the omnipotent state, and free science or free religion has ceased to exist ? II riphese are among the facts to which we must awaken. Bit* let us come at our task in an orderly way. Let us first ask ourselves, in the most searching possible fashion, what are the chief claims of communism, and let us confront these statements with the best tiuth we know. Then let us examine the two doctrines - communism and western democrary in ac tual practice, to test their words by their works. And. finally, let us chart a plan of campaign in this great battle of truth against falsehood. First, what are communism's basic postu lates ? The Claims of Communism .. . The primary claim of communism the foundation stone on which it rests is that of dialectical materialism. It is the asser tion that ultimate reality lies in matter, and in matter alor.e. But the truth as we know it is that superior to matter in every way is the reality of mind and of spirit. In our time an awakening to the meta physical bankruptcy of materialism is be ginning to sweep over thoughtful mankind. The awakening is most striking among the natural scientists. They are finding, in the realm of the very little and of the very large of the infinitesimal and of the in finite—that old materialistic assumptions are no longer valid. Reality is now by them recognized to be related to consciousness. Time and space are seen to be dependent upon consciousness, Reality is emerging more and more to today’s thinker as the basic essence which lies behind and beneath the material manifestation. In short, not the chair of wood and wicker, but the idea of chair existing in consciousness, is seen to come closer to ultimate reality. There is an even more striking and topi cal proof of the bankruptcy of materialism. Men have wrought the most powerful en gines in their experience: from gunpowder and steam and electricity they have prog ressed to atomic power. And yet they now see that the power to help or harm mankind lies not in the atom itself, not in the uranium or plutonifim or tritium, but in the thinking that motivates the finger which does or does not push the button that does or does not set off these fearful engines of destruction. In the words of a great Yale natural scientist, Dr. Ed mund VV. Sinnott, "Man, not matter, is the chief problem of mankind today.” Second Great Lie ... The second great lie of communism walks hand in hand with the first. It is that there is no God. Today we have the opportunity of knowing as never before that there is indeed a God, who is the loving father of all mankind. We do not necessarily have to identify God namely with the single three-letter name, G-o-d. Perhaps it is useful to rede fine God as the central Principle of the universe. Perhaps it helps to think of Him as eternal truth and life and love. These things cannot be denied. We know the universe is orderly. We know that it works according to established rules and principles, some of which we have beerr able partially to define. It seems to me rationally impossible to recognize the reality of an order ly universe attd to deny God. Still further to disprove Communist ‘di'aledd, take the a'ssAritidrfsi that there is tro objective and eternal truth, and that The Authentic Revolution only th»> transient anil the temporal exist. I am sure Unit we in the western world can readily prove to our satisfaction that there is truth, and that it is transcendent. Agajn we can prove it in the working laws of the universe. Or we can prove it tn the vast and noble reaches of the mind and heart. There is abundant evidence of the values. These are accessible to mankind through a humble search for understanding. They come through the path of reason as well as down the road of revelutlon. They lift mankind out of its own confusions and perversities. They are to be confirmed not only in the religious convictions and teach ings of mankind, but in the positive phtloso phical traditions of Plato and Aristotle, of Hegel and Whitehead. Another Falsehood ... Finally we come to another great Com munist falsehood: that the individual ex ists for the sake of society and the state. This lie follows logically from the asser tion of materialism and the denial of eternal truth and order. It is specific doc trine which enslaves mankind. And yet the truth as wo know it and prove it in action daily is that the state and society exist for the sake of the individual. It is this Communist lie which stifles the spirit of man. It is totalitarian. It is contrary to nature and to man. Again in the eloquent W'ords of Dr. Malik: “That the state, the mere organ of government anil order, is the source of every law, every truth, every norm of con duct, every social and economic relation ship; that no science, no music, no eco nomic activity, no philosophy, no art, no theology, is to be permitted except if it is state-licensed and state-controlled: all this is so false, so arrogant, so autocratic ami tyrannical that no man who has drunk deep from the living waters of the western Platonic-Christian tradition can possibly accept it. "The State does nut come in first place; it comes in tenth or fifteenth place. The t'niversity is higher than the State; the tradition of free inquiry Is higher than tile State; the Church is higher than the State; the family is higher than the State; natural law Is higher than the State; God is higher than the State; with in limits, free economic activity is higher than tlie State.” It is good that Dr. Malik should have recognized not only the spiritual import ance of Church and University and family, but of. free economic activity as well. For this brings us to the crux of our problem today. It is the free economic activity of the West which is most under fire in the con temporary world. It is this free economic activity which is used by those who hate it or misunderstand it to brand the West with the stigma and curse of materialism. The need, therefore, is for an awaken ing to the spiritual obligation and heritage of the free economic system. Ill Let us, then, proceed to the Becond of our main points: an examination of com munism and tiie free economic system as they reveal themselves in action. Don't Belittle Soviets ... It is not necessary, first of all, to belittle the actual achievements of the Soviet state. Historic objectivity requires us to recall the importance of the transition from Czar dom, the achievement of partial industriali zation in the face of two wars. In a certain narrow framework the Soviet state has accepted a large obligation to the individuals who make it up. It has gone a long way toward harmonizing the diverse interests of widely separated and scattered racial and cultural groups. In World War II the Red Army under Marshall Stalin help ed greatly in resisting and defeating a powerful aggressor. It Is important to recognize, also, that we have to live with the Russians, and many of the things we find dangerous in the present Soviet state are traits and trends which long antedate communism. We must find ways of adjusting ourselves to life with ail awakened Eurasian con tinent. It is, perhaps, a blessing for mankind that the !awakeuing and industrialization of this vast area has come about under a ‘We Are the Qreat Revolutionaries . . . And Our Revolutionds a Spiritual One’ by ERWIN D. CANHAM Editor, The Christian Science Monitor system which inevitably handicaps and limits its potential achievement. Sometimes one is appalled at the uggrcsslve possi bilities of a Russian empire organized with the efficiency and power of Industrialized Britain In the nineteenth century or tho United States in the twentieth century. A greut natural scientist, Dr. Merle Tuve, recently remarked that the greatest single discovery of World War II was the effici ency of the free system. That kind of efficiency coupled with the natural re sources and the immense racial dynamism of the people now under the hammer and sickle would make a world force of incal culable potential. More Stifling than Liberation^ Communism has partly liberated and partly stifled this great capacity. On bal ance, at the point of the midcentury, there is far more of stifling than there is of liberation. When, as I believe to be inevi table, the Russian peoples are finally and “The State does not come in first place; It comes ir tenth of fifteenth place. Tho University is higher than the State; the trudition of free Inquiry Is higher than the State; the Church Is higher than the Stutc; natural law is higher than the State; natural law is higher than the State; God Is higher than the State; with in limits, free economic activity is higher than the State."—Dr. Charles Malik. genuinely liberated, we must be ready with a universal system of peace and order. Otherwise, they will be an explosive force against which today's communism will bo a pallid squib. Fortunately, there is also in the Russian people a great and magnificent spiritual and universal yearning. The free Russian soul, in all its exuberance, longs for human brotherhood and bears a heavy burden of anguish for tho spiritual failure of human kind. These deep impulses have helped to sup port communism. They would be far more effective in support of a free system wrought for the benefit of all mankind. The Russian need for religion has partially and temporarily accepted communism as a religion. When the Russian spirit is ulti mately freed, it must find its way fully into the spiritual pastures of the great western tradition of truth and love. Otherwise, Russia might remain the world's great challenge for long and tutjn lent years far more dangerously than-in our own time, when Russia js self-curbed by a hopelessly Inefficient and inhibiting sys tem. Kven under the present limitations, it is unnecesary to add that the Russian achievement is considerable. Chains and Slavery ... But on balance the system remains one of the chains and of slavery. The fact is that communism in its works is both spiritually and materially sterile. It is fundamentally a failure, because it is unable to utilize more than the merest fraction of the forces which are available. It is the most profligate destroyer of human resources. Its concentration camps and its mass graves are filled with the richest of human talent. Those who survive are denied the immense productive force of free inquiry, of objective experiment, and of full self-analysis. Against all this, contrast the actual achievement of the free system of the West. The American economy—derided and attacked by its enemies—is today holding the line against world collapse. With all the faults which we know full well lie within our society ,,nd in its eco nomic organization, the fact remains that the world today would he in chaos out the stability and productivity of tho United States. I am not here seeking to put a halo around the profit motive: far from it. The first and most important thing to say about the free economic system is that it can survive only to the degree that the Individuals and com binations that make It up accept their social obligation. Capitalism Differs Elsewhere. . Moreover, there is considerable difference between much of the economic organization that passes by the name of capitalism in soinr parts of the world and the best of the frr' economic system which enlightened leadership lias brought Into being in the United .States and elsewhere. Jn muny places overseas, when we defend capitalism we defend a feudal or a cartelist com:-pt which would appall the thoughtful American business enterpriser. In hamr places, it is true, a sense of social obligation has dawned. We are not neces sarily committed to the task of putting Hurnpty Dumpty together again. But it is essential for us to put the im portance of social obligation first, and not pile e ourselves In the position of advocating the return of industrial or financial feudal ism. IV fpilE free economic system in the United States, and measurably in many other paits of the world - Including, particularly, the smaller states where neutrality and or COO|>cration have supported much real equal ity and high standards of living cun be ob jectively left to stand or fall en its own mer its it stands. It stands because it has given more op portunity to the individual than any other system ever tried. It HtandH because it is perfectible. It is not dogmatic or should not be. It should always recognize the imperativeness of self-criticism and of change, it should remember the parftmountcy of human values. But these are not values of social se em ity alone. Shortcomings in Security ... There are serious shortcomings in the idea of security, taken as an ultimate value. No society which enshrined security as an end in itself was able long to continue the march of progress. Dissatisfaction, adversity, risk these are the imperatives of progress. Furthermore, to enshrine security as an end In itself, and to place its procurement and maintenance in the hands of the state, is to say that the state is above the indi vidual. That is the road of slavery: of social suicide. He must keep the individual and the In dividual-ha ed forms of organization as our primary values: man and church and school, along with family and free econom ic activity. The state owes nobody a living. At the same time, it is necessary and ef fective to organize through the state the various functions which the individual or private organizations cannot accomplish It goes without saying that insurance barriers against the hazards of the economic system old uge or unemployment arc accepted and legitimate parts of collective responsi bility. That form of social security can be kept in its proper place. But the increasing sense of dependence of the individual upon the state is not the ob verse of the needful recognition of social ob ligation. It is, however, often the result of the failure of free enterprise to recognize its social obligation. In an industrial society, dominated by mass production, the individual is peculiarly insecure. He will seek the means of survival through collective action. iFLOREHl For the laborers and artisan, protection comes through unions and government. Sometimes it comes through a co-operative relationship with his employer, which is best of all. For the employer, protection also comes through collective action, sometimes private and sometimes in governmental laws and procedures. Have Made Progress ... But we have made great progress in evolv ing forms which are consistent both with free enterprise and with the special hazards of an industrial society. And again I must emphasize that these forms work best when they are founded up on a voluntary and perceptive acceptance of social obligation. That is the final and in dispensable bulwark of the free system. The fruits of the system are expressed in material and spiritual terms. Altogeth er too often we have remembered only the material rewards. We boast of our stand ard of living, and when we go abroad the dollars clink in our pockets. W’e are some times obsessed with material gain and with unrestrained, selfishness. W'e have been our own worst salesman, for we have convinced most of the rest of the world that we are money-mad materialists. But the greatest fruitage of the free sys tem is spiritual. It stands in the recognition of the essential dignity of man which is im plicit in equality of opportunity. It lies in the concept of legitimate service. Perhaps you will understand me when I say, not too whimsically, that the American filling station is a very good illustration of the triumph of the free system. IT is not the mechanical excellence of the filling station which is its chief virtue. It is its spirit. There are an enthusiasm and a self-re "Man, not matter, is the chief problem of mankind today.” —I)r. Edmund W. Sinnott sped which have infused the filling station and made it one of the most successful of our various institutions. I do not altogether know why this is so. I merely point out that our free economic system at its best has gone a long way to ward the enshrining of human values and the attainment of a genuinely democratic relationship between server and served. I do not think anyone will deny that this is a spiritual value. Something of the same achievement was illustrated the other day by the words of a German editor who recently had an oppor tunity to visit the United States. He was taken to a small eastern city as the guest of a local newspaper. I asked him how he liked it and what he had learned. He put it in these words: “The best thing was that they introduced me to everybody, and they introduced me to the lift-boy just the same way they intro duced me to the mayor." Awareness of Individual. .. Awareness of the individual importance of man is our greatest achievement. It lies at the heart of the matter: Recognizing the significance of individual men, we have been able to mobilize and uti lize the vast and still uncounted and un countable resources of the human spirit. This is an accomplishment of revolution ary importance. It springs from the circum stances under which Europeans first came to the New World: it is based upon the po litical and ideological and spiritual roots of our society. It is genuine democracy. Established in the midst of the natural resources of a continent, it has enabled us to become a material and spiritual bastion for the safeguarding of western civilization. We have been able to achieve the adequate blending of natural and human resources, and while we have wasted natural resources often in profligate manner, we have come to utilize human resources within enterprising humane bounds. But I would not gild the lily. There are plenty of dark spots in our human experi ence. They are part of the challenge, part of the incentive, part of the unfinished busi ness without which we would decline and perish. V A nd that brings us to our third point: a plan of campaign in the war of ideas. The first necessity is manifestly self-awak ening. We must rediscover the ideas by which we live. The ideology of communism is well known and widely proclaimed. It is passionately be lieved by many of those who proclaim it. This awareness and intensity is integrated and guided. There is no comparable intensity or co ordination of ideas among those who be lie ve in thft freft system. There will not be until we look at our heritage in fundamen tal terms and arouse ourselves to its revo lutionary import today. The obligation of every citizen, of every leader, is to awaken himself and to awaken his fellow man to the significance of today’s challenge. The second necessity, after the awaken ing, is the voice. Already there are various small voice* from the free nations- voices seeking to penetrate the void of human thinking. They must rise to full articulation. We possess to day mighty machines for disseminating ideas to every corner of the globe. But we have not yet learned what we have to say. In fact, the message we must say is the same old message of truth down the ages: the significance of man under God, of his brotherhood, of his birthright of free dom. Demonstrate Freedom ... The third necessity, along with the awak ening and the voice, is the fuller demonstra tion of the free system in action. There is contagion in falsehood. Some of the lies of totalitarianism and materialism have penetrated into our own thinking. We must not let them stay there. In this unhealthy atmosphere of no peace, no war, we have wielded some citadels to the enemy. .Some have sought to weaken or destroy the free spirit of injuiry and of teaching in our schools and universities. Happily, enough have seen the truth clearly and have prevented the sabotage of our edu cational institutions. In these bewildering times we have yield ed to distrust of human charcter, and the cloud of suspicion—often of slander—hang® heavy over the human spirit. We must learn again to (.rust character, because free insti tutions depend upon respect for fellow man. We must spurn the corrosive doubts which do far more harm to our body politic than the dangers to which they pertain. We must, as I have said earlier, manifest social respon sibility throughout our economic system. We must make swifter progress toward the removal of racial and religious barrier® which prevent true community. These arn but a few of our items of unfinished busines® —of our ways of proving in action the truth by which alone we live. And, finally, let us regain perspective, let us cast off the inferiority complex with which communism has bemused us, let us reaffirm a consciousness of our birthright. We stand in human history as the great est revolutionaries of all time. Not just we Americans—but all of us in the western world. We are the guardians of a sacred and dynamic heritage. We have com- a long "ay- We have a long way to go. We have discovered long since the eter nal truth of love and peace and brother hood. We have discovered and in a mea sure applied the enormous potency of the free man. "'e have lifted part way the heavy bup« den of toil that has crushed humanity down through the years, and more glori ously we have begun to lift the curtain of ignorance which has blanketed the human mind. We are on the march. > And today we are challenged. For the challenge we may be infinteljf grateful. Because our society today faces adversity. There is a hill up which we must climb. WS will not decline in slothful ease. We will pfc ourselves against the lies which in our tim* assault the deep foundations of truth. These lies cannot prevail, even to th* extent of setting civilization into a relapse if we are worthy of our heritage. And we can and will be worthy of that! heritage if and as we waken. The voice of na one of us is powerful enough to awaken aS the slumberers in today's world. Duty to Think ... It is our individual and collective duty t» think these things through for ourselves, an* in our free way to help our brother man ta his needful awareness. Let us pass along the message of freedom* One day it will reach critical mass and a chain reaction will begin. Meantime, we must preserve the physical defense of the western world by keeping mil itary aggression at bay; we nrust strengthea the economic sinews and the stability of tha free world; we must lead our civilization t» higher plateaus of demonstrated freedom, and achievement. And from the valley below, those who haVa accepted the false doctrines of totalitarian ism of the right or the left will one day sea the heights which we have ascended and wfl| join us on the continuous pathway ahead, j