Tomorrow and Tomorrow
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Stanwood Cobb, Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1951, bahai-library.com.
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TOMORROW
and

TOMORROW

by
STANWOOD COBB

CD COjJ'yrigh t, J 95 J, By Staml'ood Cobb
Fourth Printing, 1970
Printed in United States of Anlerica

BAHA'i PUBLISHING TRUST
Wilmette, Illinois
TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I:
What Will Tomorrow Bring?                                       I

CHAPTER  II:
There Was a Man _                                              8

CHAPTER III:
A World at Peace __                                           15

CHAPTER IV:
A New World Order __ _                                        21

CHAPTER    V:
Solution of the Economic Problenl __ _                        29

CHAPTER VI:
Prejudice Must Go_

CHAPTER VII:
One World-One Language ___ ___ _                      _______ 48

CHAPTER   VIII:
Science and Religion _ ________________ __________________ _ 55

CHAPTER IX:
Education ________ ____ _ ___ ____________________ ___________ 63

CHAPTER  X:
"This Century of Radiance" ______________________________ 75
CHAPTER 1

Wliat Will Tomorrow Bring?
What will tomorrow bring? That is the anxious
thought which rules in every mind. It is the vital
question which absorbs not only this country, but
every country in the world.
What the morrow will bring lies in the power of
humanity itself to effect. The future lies within the
province of our will. But what is our will? A will
to peace, or a will to war? A will to international
anarchy, or a will to world unity and international
organization?                                   .
In its New Year's Letter of 1949 the Whaley-Eaton
Service proclaims this message: "There is one undisputed fact-that the old world is gone, never to return.
A new world must be built with new objectives and
new methods of reaching these objectives. What kind
of a new world? Where are we at, and whither are we
drifting?"

""The atlirmative attitude [the will-to-progress] can
produce of itself only a partial and imperfect civilization," says Albert Schweitzer. * "Only if it becomes inward and ethical can the will-to-progress which results from it possess the requisite insight to distinguish
the valuable from the less valuable, and strive after a
civilization which does not consist only in achievements
of knowledge and power, but before all else will make
*Ollt of My Life and Thought. Albert Schweitzer; Holt, 1949.
2              Tomorrow and Tomorrow

men, both individually and collectively, more spiritual
and more ethical-" [and, Schweitzer might have
added, more felicitous and happy].
This is a profound statement. It goes to the
root causes of that chaos which now pervades our
war-torn world. Humanity's will-to-progress-now preponderantly secular and materialistic in its expressions-has arrived at a cul-de-sac. Progress is halted,
detoured, threatened with extinction before the fated
and fatal struggle of the masses the world over-both
within and without the Iron Curtain-for greater privilege and prosperity.
This struggle-erratic and illusioned as it may be
in many of its manifestations-is basically an ethical
one, the quest of underprivileged and exploited humans
for equity.
But since the curse of the age is its secularism,
the urge for equity on the part of the masses is led
down the wrong road. It has become an intense struggle for power. This errant route leads to no solution.
Struggles for power will end only in still more chaos,
still more inequities on the part of one side or the other.
Schweitzer gives us the right diagnosis and the right
solution. The judgments and activities of world leadership must be exercised from the plane of ethics. The
motivation must be spiritual. Then its expressionspractical, and beneficial on the material plane-will
suffer no collapse from the struggling and combative
wills of human groups.

Does it sound unpractical to state that resurging
waves of spiritual motivation must pervade, buoy up
and move forward the collective human activities upon
What Will Tomorrow Bring?                  3

this planet before the will-to-progress can operate again
on secure and stable lines? What is needed is a spiritual
renaissance to usher in that material millennium of
planetary peace and prosperity which has now become
the fond and hopeful dream of humanity.
And where is such a spiritual renaissance to come
from, save from the world's leaders? Tolstoi in his
"The Kingdom of God" wisely points out that in order
to attain to that world pattern of loving fellowship and
peace which is the concrete and ultimate goal of Christian effort it is not necessary to wait until all hunlans-or even the major portion of them-become
spiritually motivated. All that is necessary is for the
preponderance of world leadership to become consecrated to this goal, and the masses will follow their
lead as they have always followed inspired leadership
throughout historic and epochal movements of humanity.

It is the leadership that has the responsibility. The
commoners have no recourse but to depend upon their
leaders. Even in our own highly literate and voluble
democracy we can do nothing save through leadership.
The wisest of us, as private citizens, can only shield the
vote or agitate. We have neither the experience, nor
expert and often secret knowledge, upon which to base
wise judgments and actions. Even Congress itself is
now dependent more and more upon the research of
staffs of specialists connected with its committees or
organized under the Library of Congress for Congressional research and aid.
Even when we dissent from our political leaders
and seek to establish popular movements for the correction and improvement of their decisions, we have to
rely upon leaders to so organize.
4             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

If such dependence upon leadership is evident in
this advanced civilization of America, how much more
evident is it in those countries where the masses are
illiterate, ignorant and uninformed? They must perforce both submit to leadership and rely upon it to
bring them that equity toward which they dumbly
or vociferously aspire.

Inspired leadership can mould whole nations, as
it did our own in the critical and formative years of
the forging out of that constitution and federal government which stands today as a model for the whole
world.
Creative leadership, year in and year out, evolves
and establishes within each nation new modes, practices and arts that advance its civilization. Sometimesand this is desperately needed today-the influence
of such leadership oversteps national boundaries and
emanates an expansive inspiration over all humanity.
This is especially the nature and province of those
great spiritual leaders whose messages tend to be universal and whose influence is planetary. These worldwide proclaimers of truth and righteousness envisage
all humanity as their a:.Jdience, and the entire planet
as the theatre of their action. Their vision is cosmic
and their message universal. Like Isaiah, they have
preached a gospel of peace and brotherhood for the
whole world; and like him they have looked forward
to a time when "the knowledge of God shall cover
the earth, as the waters cover the sea."

The influence of all leadership is forward-looking
and progressive. But the influence of the world's great
What Will Tomorrow Bring?                  5

spiritual leaders is not only futureward but even prophetic. They feel the pulse of humanity itself, to which
their gre~t hearts are dedicated in a love that is almost
superhuman; and they sense, with a sensitivity that
divides truth from error, the Cosmic Purpose which
would prevail in the affairs of humanity as it prevails in
the development of the entire cosmos. They see, as it
were, the Blueprints of Destiny, to the fulfillment of
which they dedicate their every energy and will.
It is not given to many humans, this power of planetary leadership. But the forward-looking vision and
the dedication of one's will and ability and efforts to
the improvement of humanity-this is a gift and privilege open to all men. One can tune oneself to those
Cosmic vibrations which play upon humanity for its
inspiration and advancement; and one can receive-in
proportion to one's abilities-a power of leadership,
small or great, for the benefit of an ailing world.
We might ask-as the writer has often done-is
progress inherent in the universe? We have yet to receive from men thus queried an answer of negation.
Do we not indeed all live and move in this faith, that
existence is inherently progressive? Progressive not
only for the material universe but also for human beings, both individually and collectively.
Yet if we further inquire as to how this Cosmic
Will-to-Progress can infringe upon and effect the movements of humanity, we shall be forced to conclude that
it can be only through the power of inspired leadership.
Man has been given a will of his own and can move
forward only under his own volition.
The Creative Will does not reveal Itself to the
human world through messages blazoned on the sky;
or through stentorious proclamations piercing the interstellar voids. No. It is the Still Small Voice that
guides humanity, through the instrumentality of those
who have the gift of cosmic hearing. "Those that have
6             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

ears, let them hear!" This is the eternal way of the
Eternal. And throughout all time there have been those
who have responded and taken upon themselves the
colossal task of relaying to humanity divinely inspired
guidances for its benefit and crescent welfare.
Only thus can progress come to the living, sentient,
thought-endowed mass of humanity. Our physical evolution is unconscious. But our cultural evolution is conscious-the result of conscious inspired leadership and
of conscious and effective response to this leadership.
That is the way humanity moves forward. That is the
way of the past, as it will be the way of the future.
What a great responsibility, then, rests upon those
humans who have the gift of leadership and the call
to exercise its power! "Feed my sheep," was Christ's
last injunction to his disciples. For we are indeed as
sheep, and we have to be led if we are to reach the
promised land.
Today the call and need for leadership is greater
than at any time in history. Every people, the world
over, labor under great dislocations and dilemmas that
threaten national disaster. They are looking bewilderedly for leaders to guide them to security and plenty.
But the problems of individual nations are as nothing
compared to the problems of the world itself, as the
arena of a planetary struggle which calls for planetary
solutions. Particularistic solutions are not enough. No
nation now can live unto itself. Solutions must be universal.
And as each national group is seeking desperately
for leadership, so is the planet as a whole calling aloud
for planetary leaders endowed with vision and with
power of influence great enough to move the whole
planetary mass of humanity forward out of its dilemma
of chaos into a future of order and security, of peace
and fellowship, of universal equity and love.
What Will Tomorrow Bring?               7

Such a leader arose in the Nineteenth Century with
a message both of secular and of spiritual progressprofoundly spiritual yet eminently practical-which has
subsequently evolved into a world movement.
CHAPTER II

TIl ere Was a Man
Baha'u'llah is the most extraordinary spiritual figure,
and the greatest progressive, that the nineteenth century produced. His life story is dramatic. He was born
in Teheran, Iran, in 1817, scion of a noble and wealthy
family. His father was a Minister of State under the
Shah.
He was a brilliant youth, with an extraordinary
power of attraction that was felt by all. He never
attended school or college, receiving the mere rudiments of education in the home. He was, neverthe~
less, early in life distinguished by extraordinary wisdom
and knowledge as well as by a universal kindliness and
generosity.
Baha'u'llah, as the oldest son, was expected to follow the family career of statesmanship. He chose instead that path of religious and humanitarian reform
which eventuated in a great world movement; but
which led also along a thorny path of persecution, exile
and life imprisonment. The corrupt Islamic clergy of
I ran did not relish the powerful blasts of reform which
Baha'u'llah directed toward them; and possessing control both of the church and of the law they were able
to effect the banishment of the prophet to the Turkish
penal colony of Acre, Palestine. In that city whose
pestilential climate few prisoners could long survive
Baha'u'llah was held a prisoner from 1868 to 1892-
confined at times in a foul dungeon, at times in a
residential compound. * When Baha'u'llah died in
1892, 'Abdu'l-Baha the eldest son, became by Baha'u'-
llah's designation the leader and expounder of the newly
born Baha'i World Faith, the teachings of which reached
There Was a Man                          9

this country for the first time in 1893 at the Conference
on World Religions held at the World's Fair in Chicago.
'Abdu'l-Baha remained also a prisoner at Acre until
1908, when the Turkish Revolution freed him. In
1912 he spent a year in this country in a missionary
tour from coast to coast. t

The central core of Baha'u'lIah's universal message
was peace and world unity. This, before 1860, was
something that neither Europe nor America was awake
to, far less the Orient. Religious leaders everywhere
had no conception that peace was the most crying need
of the world. But Baha'u'llahhad a prophetic conviction that world peace was the will of God for humanity in this age; and that as such it would be achieved, regardless of human obstructions and in spite of human
weaknesses.
The development of this vision led Baha'u'llah to
make further pronouncenlents in delineation of subsidiary factors of a great }vorld civilization which would
be the culminating achievement of a humanity at last
come of age-mature enough to follow a planetary
program, and to construct the long-dreamed-of edifice
of world brotherhood which prophets have forecast,
philosophers discussed and poets dreamed of.
*Baha'u'Ihlh had such a power of winning the love of the
Turkish governors of Acre that they had to be changed frequently by the Sultan. To one of these governors who became
friendly Baha'u'llah presented a pen that had been the humble
instrument of revelation. This governor's son, Professor Fikret
Bey of Robert College, Constantinople, showed me this pen,
in 1908, as one of his most cherished possessions.
tThe writer had the privilege of visiting 'Abdu'l-Baha in
February, 1908, while he was still a prisoner, and again in
1910, when he was at last a free seul and residing at a more
wholesome elevation on the slopes 01 Mt. Carmel-spending on
the first occasion three days as his guest" and on the second, a
week. Later on the privilege of close intimacy with this great
10            Tomorrow and Tomorrow

He chose the rulers of the western world as the
recipients of this peace message. To them individually
and collectively were addressed epistles of appeal and
great authority, calling them in the Name of God to
cease from war and to establish world peace, world
federation and world brotherhood. Warnings were repeatedly sounded of the complete disintegration and
collapse of the contemporary civilization unless the bedrock of Divine standards of morality were reestablished
as the basis of human society.
The wealth of subject matter, the sublime dignity
of these epistles is an illuminating searchlight on the
path of history from the nineteenth century through today. A fragmentary excerpt may serve as an indication
of the tenor of this message:
"Fear God, 0 Kings of the earth . . . . Observe the
injunctions laid upon you in His Book. . . . Tread ye
the path of justice. . . . Compose your differences and
reduce your armaments, that the burden of your expenditures may be lightened. . . . Heal the dissensions
that divide you and ye will no longer be in need of
any armaments except what the protection of your
cities and territories demandeth . . . . "
"0 Banks of the Rhine! We have seen you covered with gore inasmuch as the swords of retribution
were drawn against you; and you shall have another
turn. And we hear the lamentations of Berlin, though
she be today in conspicious glory."
To the rulers of Great Britain, Russia, Turkey, Iran,
France, Germany, Austria, the United States and to the
Pope, this Prisoner addressed messages from Adrianople, and continued to do so even after the final
incarceration in 1868 placed Bahi'u'lhlh behind the
seven-feet thick walls of the ancient fortress-prison of
spiritual leader-who seemed the very essence of wisdom and
love-was renewed in Paris, Washington, Boston and New
York.
There Was a Man                        11

Acre in Palestine, famous throughout centuries as
Acca of the -Crusades. Each missive was safely delivered into the hands of its august recipient, and the
tone of authority was weakened not one iota by reason
\.)f the author having penned these messages from behind prison bars. *
At the time of Baha'u'lhih's imprisonment, Acre was
notable as a pestilential fever-ridden spot where the
chances of survival were slight. Baha'u'lhih and family
and disciples, numbering about eighty-four people,
were imprisoned in the arm~l barracks in dirty and
crowded conditions. Malaria and dysentery soon broke
out, and some died. Two years were spent in the
barracks and seven in a house that at first was almost
as bad as the barracks.
Yet not only were the messages to the world's rulers
completed in this dreadful spot. But also a wealth of
teachings on education, economics, sociology, evolution, immortality; beatitudes, meditations, prayers and
prophecies,-all poured from Baha'u'llah's inspired
pen, creating a design and standard for a spiritualized
one-world society.

It must be realized that Baha'u'llah did not elaborate
this world plan. It came, it was distinctly stated, as a
revelation. Neither the spiritual nor the world-organization teachings of Baha'u'llah were mere syntheses of
past or contemporaneous thought. Baha'u'llah pre-
*Where today are the dynasties whose heads received those
missives? Russia? Germany? Austria? France? Turkey? Iran?
Only in Great Britain, in spite of major upheavals, the same
dynasty still reigns. Queen Victoria was the individual member to receive the message. Her grand-daughter, Marie of
Roumania, was later to write of Baha'u'lhih's Faith: "It gathers
together all those who have searched for words of hope. The
germ of eternal Truth which lies at the core cannot but take
root and spread."
12            Tomorrow and Tomorrow

sented this World Reform movement not as a philosopher, but as a Prophet; not in an advisory and hortatory
capacity, but as a compulsive agent of Destiny. It was
not from personal desire, but from a definite spiritual
conviction that this mission to reform humanity was
accepted. In the epistle to the Shah of Iran Baha'u'lhlh
states: "0 King, verily I was as anyone among mankind, slumbering upon my couch. The gales of the
All-Glorious passed by me and taught me the knowledge
of what hath been. . . . And He bade me proclaim
between the earth and the heaven. . . . I have not
studied those sciences which men possess, nor have I
entered colleges. . . . This is a leaf which the breezes
of the Will of thy Lord have stirred . . . causing me
to speak for His Celebration amidst the nations .... "
What did this extraordinary personage look like?
We owe the description of Baha'u'lhlh's appearance
to the only Occidental who ever visited the Prophet,
Professor Browne, famous Orientalist of Cambridge
University, England. This visit was made in 1890,
two years before Baha'u'lhlh's passing. Professor
Browne wrote: "The face of him on whom I gazed I
can never forget. Those piercing eyes seemed to read
one's very soul; power and authority sat on that ample
brow .... No need to ask in whose presence I stood,
as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a
devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors
sigh for in vain."
And what did Baha'u'llah say to Professor Browne?
A brief statement, pregnant with hope and assurance to
this war-ravaged planet, was quietly voiced in 1890 to
this scholar from England-like a benediction upon a
humanity that had shown Baha'u'llah little but scorn,
cruelty, imprisonment and impoverishment.
"We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations. That all nations should become
one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of
There Was a Man                      13

affection and unity between the sons of men should be
strengthened; that diversity of religions should cease,
and differences of race be annulled. What harm is there
in this? Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these
ruinous wars shall pass away, and the Most Great
Peace shall come .... Is not this that which Christ foretold? . . . These strifes and this bloodshed and discord
must cease, and all men be as one kindred and one
family. . . . Let not a man glory in this, that he loves
his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves
his kind."

Baha'u'llah died at the age of seventy-five in 1892.
The Prophet's tomb at Bahji is already a place of world
pilgrimage. His teachings since then have become spread
throughout the world. Especially publicized are the
great principles for a one-world social consciousness
and organization, which may be summarized as follows:-
Unity of all religions
Oneness of the human race
Independent investigation of truth
Religion must be the cause of unity
Freedom from prejudice of all kinds-national,
political, racial, religious and class
Equality of men and women
Universal education
Reconciliation of science and religion
A universal auxiliary language
Solution of the economic problem, spiritually and
practically
A universal tribunal for settlement of international
problems
World Peace
14            Tomorrow and Tomorrow

These principles are not new today, but they were
very new in the 1860's. Now they have impregnated
the thinking and actions of all progressives the world
over. Baha'u'lhlh breathed the spirit of this age, which
is the dawn of the age of the Commonwealth of Man.
Tolstoy once wrote to a friend, "We spend our lives
trying to unlock the mystery of the universe, but there
was a Turkish prisoner, Baha'u'llah, in Akka, Palestine,
who had the key."
Baha'u'llah's followers are numbered from every race
and religion. Organized groups exist in over two hundred countries. Baha'i literature has been translated into
over one hundred languages, and is at present being
translated into many more additional languages.
This world movement has demonstrated a unique
ability to draw into its fold followers not only from
every nation but also from every race and religion.
And it has won from many world leaders words of
sympathetic praise. The following chapters are designed to bring to the general reader a brief description
of the chief factors of Baha'u'llah's New World Order.
CHAPTER III

A World at Peace
"As in other centuries, a world choice is again compelled-and again possible," says Adolf A. Berle, Jr.,
in "Natural Selection of Political Forces." "If selection
now is made well, our children may enjoy a plateau of
kindly peace enduring longer, spiritually more serene,
than any history has yet known. Multitudes are in the
valley of decision-but in the words of Joel, the day
of the Lord is near in the valley of decision."
The miracle of the rapid growth of a will-to-peace
throughout the world is directly concomitant with the
development of new and terrifying death-dealing military weapons. War on the ground had always been
tragically destructive. But war from the air, on the
scale recently attained, is too devastating for humanity
to endure.
Each of the two World Wars has left as its most
important result the formation of an organization to
end war. These organizations have been feeble, but
they have been sincere. The latter, known as the United
Nations-due to the great and growing dread of war
amongst humanity-has been able to win greater allegiance, support, and sincere effort on the part of all the
peoples of the world than did its precursor, The League
of Nations.
I t is a striking fact that the founder of each of these
peace organizations was familiar with the writings and
message of Baha'u'lhlh, who from as early as 1870 began to summon humanity to the white throne of peace.
In messages to the leading rulers of the world (including the President of the United States) sent from
Adrianople and from the prison-fortress of Acre,
16             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Baha'u'lhih summoned them in the name of God to
call a world conference in which steps should be taken
to abolish war and to organize a supernational world
government. At the time there was no significant willto-peace in the world. On the contrary the leading
nations were employing warfare-minor or major in
degree-as a means to national aggrandizement, wealth
or empire-building. Warfare had always been so employed in the past.
Therefore the world, in 1870, gave little heed to
the proclamations of Baha'u'lhlh. But it overlooked
one item which would eventually induce a desperate
search for permanent peace. Baha'u'llah foretold that
the instrumentations of warfare would become so deadly
and all-destructive as to eventually compel humanity to
desist from war entirely. World events have proved
the truth of this prognostication. Sadly enough, it is
not idealism which is at last inducing humanity to outlaw war. It is not the moral sense but the fear of race
annihilation which-under entirely new and unexpected
conditions-forces governments to entertain new and
unexpected convictions and plans.
Human nature may not greatly change, as the cynics
maintain. But the directives of human activity often
change, and never more potently than today. So that
now there exists that which did not exist in 1870-
a universal will to avoid war which is equivalent to a
universal will-to-peace.

A very important factor in bringing about world
peace is the linking together of the East and West.
The kind of peace which we envision is not the mere
cessation of war, but a close working union and cordial
cooperation of the hitherto sundered peoples of the
earth. Especially is this true of the Orient and Occident.
A World at Peace                     17

From ancient times when unity was attained only by
conquest, Europe and Asia were never amalgamated.
Alexander, invading Asia to its very center, was prevented by a premature death from carrying out his
grandiose scheme of uniting these two disparate civilizations. He had a great vision of world unity. But
even had he lived, could he have brought his dream to
success? Probably not, for the time was not yet ripe.
Rome, even at the height of her power, was never
able to penetrate Asia further than the Near East.
Consequently the Graeco-Roman civilization, the greatest unitary civilization the world has yet known, was
confined to the Mediterranean and its hinterlands.
Twice China, at rare heights of military power and
ambition, advanced her conquering armies westward in
a gesture toward Europe, but without success. Ghenghis
Khan overran almost all of Asia and Europe but left
no permanent unifying influence.
Ultimately Europe-with its rising technology, energy
and military power-was to bring Asia under sub ..
jection. But this subjection has not brought about
unity. Quite the contrary, Asia, passive in her impotence, nurtured deep resentments which gave birth
as soon as opportunity was offered to a wave of successful nationalism. Only in this present epoch, therefore, can Asia in true independence and equality take
her place in the family of nations and share sincerely
in the movement toward world unity. It is a fact of
great significance that India and Indonesia now play a
part in the United Nations together with other Asiatic
nations which had previously maintained or secured
independence.
N ow for the first time in the history of the planet the
stage is set for the actual union, on equal terms, of the
East and the West. Baha'u'lhih laid great emphasis on
the supreme importance of such a union. Each of these
two planetary partners has inestimable treasures to
18            Tomorrow and Tomorrow

confer upon the other. And a true fellowship and effective harmony between them will cause the world's
civilization to advance by leaps and bounds.
"The East is in need of material progress and the
West is in need of a spiritual ideal," said 'Abdu'l-
Baha, * speaking in Paris in 1911. "It would be wen
for the West to turn to the East for illumination, and
to give in exchange its scientific knowledge. There
must be this interchange of gifts. The East and the
West must unite to give to each other what is lacking.
This union will bring about true civilization where the
spiritual is expressed and carried out in the material.
Receiving thus, the one from the other, the greatest
harmony will prevail, all people will be united, a state
of great perfection will be attained, there will be a firm
cementing, and this world will become a shining mirror
for the reflection of the attributes of God."

The world longs for peace. But none of its respective
nations, not even this country, is prepared to relinquish
nationalism to the extent which Baha'u'llah pointed out
would be necessary in an effective world organization.
Two mandatory considerations are still withheld from
fulfillment in the United Nations. The first is the relinquishment of national sovereignty to the point of accepting without right of veto the adjudications of a
world court. The second inevitable requirement of
stable peace is national disarmament down to the point
of internal security only, and the establishment of an
international police force.
The world is not yet ready for these two momentous
steps. Nor can they be accomplished without due cau-
*'Abdu'l-Baha, son of Baha'u'llah, became in 1892 the
leader and expounder of the Baha'i World Faith.
A World at Peace                    19

tion. The writer heard 'Abdu'l-Baha, in Washington in
1912, make a significant reply to a lady who in her
passion for peace asked if we should not set an example
by disarming first. He answered that it would not be
safe for one country to disarm while others were still
armed; this must be a simultaneous procedure.
One may ask, what will ever be able to bring about
such a simultaneous procedure? The answer is, events.
For events have a miraculous power to change and
freshly motivate human action. One need only point to
World Wars I and II as examples of this, in impelling
the League of Nations and the United Nations. And
events in Korea caused the establishment of a token
international police-force with a speed that parliamentary deliberation could never have brought about.
Baha'i's, the world over, look to unseen events of
the future to precipitate actions in fulfillment of
Baha'u'llah's New World Order such as humanity at
this date of writing is neither ripe for, nor even able
intelligently to conceive and plan.
These coming events may not seem, at the time when
they occur, to be beneficent. But their impact, however calamitous, will at least have the result of precipitating humanity into a durable peace and world order.
World peace is not merely a matter to be arranged
between governments by treaties. It is the concern of
every citizen of this one-world-home of humanity. This
is the point of exercising our free will to avoid that
nullification of progress, that race annihilation that
threatens us.
If only we had as ardent a zeal for peace propaganda
as we exhibit for war propaganda!
It was to this ideal that Baha'u'llah exhorted humanity in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The
abolition of prejudice of all kinds from each citizen's
consciousness is a cardinal principle of Baha'u'llah's
teaching. His words "and by the Will of God the Most
20            Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Great Peace shall come" imply the birth of such a zeal
for peace in our social consciousness. For the Will of
the Creator can be expressed in human affairs only
by the agency of human will.
Loyalties are a tender subject, and a shifting or
new orientation is always anticipated with fear and
apprehension. It took over thirty years for our thirteen
founding colonies to achieve some semblance of unity
in the larger loyalty from state to federation. We
must not expect, therefore, that the citizens of the
various countries of the world can now react any differently or any faster to the momentous project of world
federation. The scale is much larger and the relationships much more complex than was the case in the
founding of the United States.
How can we be expected to achieve loyalty to humanity as first, and our particular country as second?
"Let not a man glory in that he loves his country;
let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind,"
wrote Baha'u'lhih eighty years ago.
This is a larger order. But the will to do so can
devise the means. This must be understood: love of
humanity first and foremost no more undermines a
healthy pride in making our nation the most worthy
unit we possibly can in the aggregate of a one-world
society than did the principle of federalism undermine
the healthy growth of the thirteen states into a nation.
"Ye are all the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of
one branch."
CHAPTER IV

A New World Order
The abolition of war is to be only the first step in
a colossal plan for a world organized in effective unity,
fully functioning as a federated unit, and dedicated to
the establishment of a universal civilization founded on
justice and good will and expressing itself in forms
of prosperity, beauty, and joy-of-living more glorious
that even the world's great poets and seers have hitherto
conceived.
"All men were created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. . . . Soon will the present Order
be rolled up and a new one spread out in its stead. . . .
"The world's equilibrium hath been upset through
the vibrating influences of this most great, this N e\v
World Order. . . ."

Nothing in the universe stands still; and history is
the study of this motion in human affairs. But the pace
of the motion in the eighty years since Baha'u'lhlh
wrote the above words has been as a whirlwind in comparison to the development of former epochs.
Ten to fifteen centuries passed as society proceeded
from the family to clan status, the clan to the tribe,
tribes to feudal states, feudal states to nations. Each
transition was marked by upheaval; but relative order
followed relative chaos in the various parts of the globe
as civilization progressed.
Then in fifty years the miracle of the annihilation
of space and time on the planet occurred.
22            Tomorrow and Tomorrow

From Roman times until about 1840 A.D. travel
had remained at the same pace. In Queen Victoria's
reign it still took thirteen days to go from Rome to
London, just as it had when Rome ruled England.
By 1924 land travel was six times as fast, water travel
four times as fast. Today flight around the world can
be accomplished in just over three days.
In the same period, communications have leaped
from days and weeks for letters to reach their destia
nation to few minutes for a radiogram to go anywhere
in the world.
Our planet home has shrunk proportionately; and
within the last few years we have been forced to realize
that under these conditions human affairs must be administered as a one-world society. A New World Order
is inevitable.
We cannot live under twentieth century conditions
guided by eighteenth century concepts. Most of our
present-day problems can be laid to the door of our
unwillingness to make a correspondingly swift change
in our thinking and consciousness as citizens of this oneworld order. The pace has "upset our equilibrium."
Planetary civilization will emerge from the wreckage
of nationalism, just as nationalism emerged from the
wreckage of feudalism. Old forms have to break up
before new ones can evolve. Nationalism has run its
course but is loath to relinquish its prerogatives. Nothing short of experiences such as world wars, world
depressions, world revolutions can convert a nationalistic psychology into an international psychology. Under·
the duress of such events, however, we are witnessing
this very change take place before our eyes.
The present picture brings little comfort to most
people struggling under this duress. Living through
world events today is similar to undergoing major surgery for a critical disease. How the patient goes through
it and how he recovers depends in great measure upon
A New World Order                      23

the faith he has in his skilled surgeon. If he doubts
that the operation will cure him or that his surgeon
has the ability to successfully operate, his fears will
put him through a hell of suffering in addition to his
physical pains; and the fright is as likely to kill him as
the disease itself. Assurance that the operation lvill
cure and that the surgeon is entirely worthy of his confidence will pull him through the crisis on a tide of
hope and confidence that actually controls his physical
recovery. Psychoson1atic science confirms this.
It is apparent that if we are to survive today and
carry for\vard civilization to the only development possible in its evolution-a one-world society-we must
undergo son1e surgical operations in our thinking and
behavior as citizens.
Baha'u~nah did not offer this World Order plan as
a philosophic treatise. His viewpoint is not that merely
of a sociologist. He spoke with spiritual authority and
founded a religion dedicated to the service of a oneworld civilization. He had a definite and concrete faith
that the necessary spiritual dynamics had been divinely
released into the consciousness of humanity to bring
about this New World Order.

Some of the features of Baha'u'lhih's structure for
world civilization-as restated in 1936 by Shoghi
Effendi, the present world leader of the Faith Bah~i'u"­
nah established--can already be discerned en1erglng
from the conflicts and upheavals of today!

"The unity of the luonan race, as envisaged by
Bahd'u'lldh, implies the establishnlent of a H'orld C0I11-
mOfllvealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes
are closely and perfnanently united, and in H'hich the
24            Tomorrow and Tomorro~v

autonomy of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them
are definitely and completely safeguarded."
Within the last thirty years, the commonwealth has
superseded the empire. Britain established the British
Commonwealth of Nations, granting autonomy to its
members; Holland followed suit recently; and the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics displaced the empire of the tsars. A United States of Europe has been
proposed. Capping the arch of such world-spanning
organizations is the United Nations-containing actual
provisions toward a world commonwealth.

II

"This commonwealth must, as far as we can visualize it, consist of a world legislature, whose members will, as the trustees of the whole of mankind, ultimately control the entire resources of all the component nations, and will enact such laws as shall be
required to regulate the life, satisfy the needs and adjust the relationships of all races and peoples."
It may be a far cry to visualize world legislative
control of the world's resources. Yet, if the possession
and control of economic resources is to recurrently
plunge the world into war, as modern history evidences,
hunlanity may be forced to adopt such measures. The
safeguarding of the interests and personal freedom of
every individual in the component nations sharply distinguishes this world-commonwealth ideal from any
characteristics of a world police state.

III

"A world executive, backed by an international
Force, will carry out the decisions arrived at, and apply
the laws enacted by, this world legislature, and will
safeguard the organic unity of the whole commonwealth.
A   New World Order                   25

A world tribunal will adjudicate and deliver its cornpulsory and final verdict in all and any disputes thaT
may arise between the various elements constituting this
universal system."
We have had two attempts within our lifetime to
establish such a tribunal; but both the League of N ations and the United Nations Council suffer the same
frustration of purpose by reason of the lack of force
to implement their decisions. This is an exan1ple of
our reluctance to change our standards to conform to
the inevitable march forward of progress of civilization.

IV

"A mechanism of world inter-communication 'will
be devised, embracing the whole planet, freed frorn
national hindrances and restrictions, and functioning
with marvellous swiftness and perfect regularity."
The mechanism of this world inter-communication
we already have, but its freedom from national hindrances and restrictions is far from realization, and
again evidences our reluctance to relinquish old habits.

V

"A world metropolis will act as the nerve center
of a world civilization, the focus towards which the
unifying forces of life will converge and from which
its energizing influences will radiate."
This follows as a corollary of a one-world government, but the phraseology implies something far more
than a magnificent architectural collection of buildings
with all the appurtenances. Buildings do not radiate
"energizing influences." We can only infer that this
means a spiritually orientated legislative, executive,
humanitarian and educational organism inhabiting such
a metropolis. No lesser power could possibly exert the
26              Tomorrow and Tomorrow

potency which would be demanded as the energizing
influences for the population of the whole planet.
VI
HA world language will either be invented or chosen
from among the existing languages and will be taught
in the schools of all the federated nations as an auxiliary to their mother. A world script, a world literature,
a uniform and universal system of currency, of weights
and measures, will simplify and facilitate intercourse
and understanding among the nations and races of mankind."
The tragic debacle over currency today cries aloud
for this solution· of a "uniform and universal system
of currency." World trade demands a unified system
of weights and measures. A universal language is a
sine-qua-non for the achievement of a universal civilization.
VII
((In such a world society, science and religion, the
two most potent forces in human life, will be reconciled, will co-operate, and will harmoniously develop.
The press will, under such a system, while giving full
scope to the expression of the diversified views and
convictions of mankind, cease to be mischievously
manipulated by vested interests, whether private or
public, and will be liberated from the influence of contending governments and peoples."
We are all aware today of the colossally evil power
of propaganda, the deadliest weapon of them all. But
the above goes further than political manipulation of
the press and upholds true freedom from mischievous
manipulation "by vested interests, whether private or
public." This goes to the very depths and lengths of
the matter, for it would be a vastly different press indeed if granted this comprehensive freedom.
A New World Order                      27

VIII

"The economic resources of the world will be organized, its sources of raw materials will be tapped and
fully utilized, its markets will be coordinated and developed, and the distribution of its products will be
equitably regulated."
Sub-committees of United Nations have already begun analytical work along these lines, and the agitation to remove trade barriers, and the abolition of
such among European countries are steps toward this
ideal.

The remainder of Shoghi Effendi's statement carries
us forward with a sweeping vision of what we may
hope to expect as this one-world emerges from the
wreckage of nationalism. It may not happen in our
era, but rather evolve through its upheavals into the
kind of world we would wish our children to inherit.
"N ational rivalries, hatreds and intrigues will cease,
and racial animosity and prejudice will be replaced by
racial amity, understanding and cooperation. The
causes of religious strife will be permanently removed,
economic barriers and restrictions will be completely
abolished, and the inordinate distinction between classes
will be obliterated. Destitution on the one hand, and
gross accumulation of ownership on the other, will
disappear.
"The enormous energy dissipated and wasted on war,
whether economic or political, will be consecrated to
such ends as will extend the range of human inventions and technical development, to the increase of the
productivity of mankind, to the extermination of disease, to the extension of scientific research, to the raising of the standard of physical health, to the sharpen-
28              Tomorrow and Tomorrow

ing and refinement of the human brain, to the exploitation of the unused and unsuspected resources of the
planet, to the prolongation of human life, and to the
furtherance of any other agency that can stimulate the
intellectual, the moral, and spiritual life of the entire
human race.
"A world federal system, ruling the whole earth and
exercising unchallengeable authority over its unimaginably vast resources, blending and embodying the ideals
of both the East and the West, liberated from the curse
of war and its miseries, and bent on the exploitation of
all the available sources of energy on the surface of
the planet, a system in which Force is made the servant of Justice whose life is sustained by its universal
recognition of one God and by its allegiance to one
common Revelation-such is the goal toward which
humanity, impelled by the unifying forces of life, is
moving."*

Our own will to achieve this millennium is the only
retarding factor in its realization. Progress is inherent in the universe and in human affairs. Nothing can
withstand it. As Baha'u'lhih said to Professor Browne,
"By the Will of God the Most Great Peace shall come."
The world, dark though today's picture may be, is
nearing constantly the fulfillment of that benediction.

*hA Pattern for Future Society"-Shoghi Effendi,   1936,
Baha'i Publishing Trust.
CHAPTER V

Solution of the Economic Problem
It may be that the chief motivations, as well as the
chief earthly needs of human beings, are economic.
Certainly the economic problems of the world have
taken front page position today. And owing to the
extraordinary ideological cleavage of the world's peoples today along lines of economic theory and practice,
even such major problems as world peace and world
federation are subject to the prior solution of the
economic conflict.
The idea of bringing spiritual values into a discussion
of a remedy for our economic predicament would seem
far-fetched to most economists. Yet, in the thousands
of strikes that have harassed the industrial \vorld in the
last half century, what has been the demand of the
strikers? Justice. And what is Justice but a moral, or
spiritual quality? In economics it expresses itself in the
proper distribution of life's necessities and comforts in
return for work or services performed. Recently, in
discussing some world problems with a brilliant lawyer
and public relations expert in Washington, I suddenly
asked him, "If you were asked to select one word, one
single principle that would solve all humanity's problems, what would it be?" He reflected a moment and
then said, "Justice!"
Marxism accuses religion of betraying the masses.
Yet from what source save religion spring our concepts of such moral principles as Justice? Science
makes no pretense of inculcating such principles into
the human consciousness. But religion does and has
always done so. However, until our era no religion
has explicitly entered the field of economics. But in-
30            Tomorrow and T omorrOl1)

eluded in the voluminous teachings which Baha'u'lhih
bequeathed to the world some eighty years ago are
certain basic principles of a global economic pattern.
The principles enunciated by Baha'u'llah were: (1)
social security; (2) graduated income tax; (3) indu~trial profit sharing.
( 1) When the Persian sage announced these principles in 1870, the concept of social security was hardly
existent. Baha'u'lhih declared that it is a responsibility
of the State to concern itself with the livelihood of its
individual citizens. No person should be left the prey
to dire poverty. Where and when employment is not
available, the laborer must receive minimum support.
It took the Great Depression of the '30's to bring
the world to this same conviction. Government had not
hitherto considered that its function had anything to do
with the livelihood of the individual citizen. Property
it must support and protect. But human living must be
left to chance or to charity.
Such rapid advances have been made in the concept and practice of social security that today no government could stand which callously announced that the
livelihood of its citizens was of no concern to it. On
the contrary, governments today are rising and falling
on the strength of their apparent concern for the welfare of their citizens, not only collectively but as individuals.
So it appears that this first great principle of
Baha'u'llah-the welfare and economic normalcy of
the individual-is being established once and for all
as a world-accepted idea.
This consummation is, of course, not due only to
the annunciations of Baha'u'lhih. His followers would
say that it is due to the same planetary inspirations
which poured so powerfully through their prophet. It
is a part of the Spirit-of-the-Times, like world peace and
world federation. A vital necessity in the evolution of
Solution of the Economic Problem            31

humanity as an organized whole, it has at last received
intelligent recognition and practice.

(2) The concept of graduated income-tax, when
annunciated by Baha'u'lhlh, was not formulated or
practiced anywhere in the world. This idea began to
emerge with the dawn of the twentieth century and
by now has found general acceptance and practice. It
is founded on Justice. Its limits have perhaps not yet
been reached. As practiced in conjunction with social
security, it tends to remove the vast gulf which has
hitherto existed between the miseries and tragedy of
extreme poverty and the glamour of colossal wealth
with its futile and wasteful luxuries. This new equity
the awakened consciousness of humanity is everywhere
demanding.
Baha'u'llah gave no intimation of how far the leveling
process was to go. This would be left to future governments. But as later expounded by 'Abdu'l-Baha, the
aim and result would be to reduce large incomes and
to insure to all humans at least a sufficiency for the
daily needs. The right of human competence to win
superior financial rewards, incomes, and luxuries would
still be preserved.
The practice of graduated income-tax is today entrenched in all countries of the world. It is irksome
to people of large incomes. Few people of any income
welcome it. The fact is, the public as a whole has not
yet awakened to the vast importance of income-taxation
as a balancer of fortune, a pledge to social justice and
a supreme duty of the modern citizen.
When the day comes that income-tax will be contributed with spiritual motivation, as suggested by
Baha'u'llah, the millennium will have arrived! Speaking
to this point in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Baha stated that citizens
32             T onl0rrow and Tomorrow

of the future would voluntarily and with a sense of
spiritual responsibility join in the principle of wealth
sharing. Oliver Wendell Holmes demonstrated this attitude in his bequest of personal wealth to his nation.
By the proper administration of graduated income
and inheritance tax, economic justice will be assured.
This economic equilibrium is but one of the detailed
applications of the great law of Justice with which it
was Baha'u'llah's self-imposed mission to impregnate
the individual and collective life of humanity.
(3) Highly important to a successful economic pattern is an adjustment of the respective interests of
capital and labor in such a way as to secure industrial
harmony and stability. The convulsions, the cataclysmic
adjustments, the revolutions violent or peaceful which
are taking place over the planet concern mainly this
problem. And if this problem can be solved, once and
for all, the rest of the world's economic problems can
be peacefully and sanely solved by wise international
effort.
The problems of international trade, of technological
utilization of the planet's natural resources, of increase
in agricultural productivity,-all of these are less obdurate than the problem of capital and labor. The
former problems, important as they are, the world is
tackling with reasonable hope of solution. It requires
only time and patience-in a humanity consecrated to
peace-to put solutions into effect.
But as between capital and labor there is no universally agreed-upon solution. All the troubles in the world
today spring from the world's major crisis,-the awakening of the masses to their power, and their demand
for an equitable adjustment of the factors of production
wages and consumption.
In January, 1947, Theodore Helme wrote in the
"New Age Interpreter": "The workers of the world are
in rebellion, and rebellion arises out of an instinct
Solution of the Economic Problern             33

deeper than they themselves recognize. It springs from
their social rating as a commodity to be bought and sold
in the highest labor market. But workers are not a
con1modity; they are human beings endowed with
spiritual impulses which for their natural expression
require a freedom not existent within the material and
psychological limitations which the present class status
imposes upon them.
"It is inevitable that this spiritual repression and resultant inner lack should be felt most keenly by those
whose life has become the most machine-like. In our
industrial civilization they constitute a vast number.
They have grown into a mighty power. In the terminology of the class struggle they are the proletariat. In
the American scene they make up what we call Labor.
Within this massive grouping a sort of spiritual ferment
is taking place."

Rudolph Steiner, occult sociologist, has stated:-
"the destiny of world history for the present and the
immediate future depends on what is going through the
heads of this modern proletari~t. For the proletariat
is striving for power, for control by means of the
majority, and it is to be considered in its actions as we
consider the results of the necessary course of nature,
of elemental occurrences. . . . It must be judged by its
actions somewhat as we judge an earthquake, or the
spring tide of the sea.
"The old formulas will accomplish nothing toward
solving the labor riddle. It will simply be a continuation of the see-saw enactments designed to keep two
irreconcilable elements from getting out of hand and
going on a rampage of national sabotage. The corrective measures necessary must be taken on more fundamental levels.
"In order to do this, labor cannot be treated as an
isolated problem. It must first of all be dealt with
34            J'ornorrow and Tomorrow

in relation to the social whole. A reorganization of
our social structure must be effected in such a way
that no man will henceforth be relegated to a class
status, but integrated into the social organism in such
a way that whatever his work may be, he will in sonle
way participate creatively in the economic, political and
spiritual life of the collective body of which he is a
part.
"This is not possible in the present one-fold structure of society. It can come to pass only when the
three prirrlary departments of life-namely the eeo--
nomic, the political and the spiritual-will be so constituted as to function autonomously, each according
to their o\vn inherent natures, yet coordinated into a
unified whole."

What shall be the answer? Communism makes its
clainls. Socialism experiments. Free capitalistic enterprise tries to hold to its ancestral pattern of production. And a myriad of varied theories range between
these extremes.
T a find the answer is ifnportant. For this is not an
academic problem. It is a problem which is being
fought }vith "blood and iron" the world over. The
economic factor is the very life-pulse of humanity. A
stable and successful pattern must be found, or civilization nzay collapse in the class struggle.
Labor unionism is not the answer to the problem
of capital and labor, and it never can be. The organization of labor, as at present constituted. is for the purpose of industrial warfare-if and when necessaryto gain its desired ends. Therefore the present industrial situation is one in which industrial warfare constantly impends.
This statement is not intended as a condemnation
of unionism, or a condemnation even of its use of warfare to attain its ends. The industrial situation being
Solution of the Economic Problem               35

what it has been-past to present-labor has had no
other way of attaining what it considers to be its just
dues. And the history of unionism is, in the main, the
history of significant benefits to labor, attained through
arduous and dangerous struggle.
Nevertheless, a condition of chronic warfare is not
a stabilized or advantageous condition for society. This
economic warfare can be as disastrous to humanity as
that warfare between nations which is now so generally
condemned by the intelligence and conscience of mankind.
What, then, is the solution? It must be one which
renders justice to both the employer and the employee;
and which assures such mutual advantages as to permanently stabilize the labor situation.
Mutuality, the key to stability in all human relations,
can be as effective in the labor problem as it is in
other problems of life. Any situation or arrangement
between two parties, in which each stands satisfactorily
to gain, is a stable situation; for neither party would
desire to disrupt it. This holds for all relationships of
life,-whether as between man and wife, householder
and servant, seller and buyer, employer and employee.
A mode of expressing industrial mutuality and democracy was included by Baha'u'lhih in the general
economic pattern. It was to be an obligatory principle.
Its effective operation would solve once and for all
the problem of labor and capital; would secure stability
and economic success to the system of free enterprise;
and would ultimately bring a great enhancement of
general prosperity and welfare. This fnagic solution of
the industrial capital-labor problem is profit-sharing.

At the time when Baha'u'llah enunciated this economic fiat, profit-sharing was not anywhere being practiced as a definite and conscious economic principle.
I n the late eighties it was tried in France, in the nineties
36             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

spread to England and Belgium, and during the first
quarter of the present century attained to noteworthy
success in a few industrial concerns in this country.
The progress of this econonlic movement, slow and
spasmodic, was disastrously affected by depressions,
especially by the Great Depression of the '30's. (The
major crux in the application of any theory of profit
sharing is not so much how to share existent profits as
what to do when there are no profits!)
True profit-sharing, as intended by Baha'u'lhih and
as defined in economic theory today, is the apportionment of a pre-determined share of the net profits to
labor. Under this definition, the bonus system is not
profit-sharing; nor is that system which encourages
labor to buy stock in an enterprise it is engaged in; nor
any system which leaves entirely to the judgment of
management what profit-division it will grant to labor
at the end of the year. True profit-sharing guarantees
at the beginning of the employed term what percentage
of net profit shall accrue to labor.

* * *
Profit-sharing as an economic movement has had
a hard up-hill climb because it has been opposed both
by labor and by management.
Labor has opposed profit-sharing for several reasons, chiefly because it is suspicious of it as a disguised
method of stepping-up production. The bonus system
has been used for this purpose to the disadvantage of
labor. Labor must first be convinced of the utter sincerity of both motive and practice before it would even
consider any application of profit-sh':lring to the industrial problem.
Also there are obvious self-interested motivations in
unionism which have caused it persistently and historically to oppose profit-sharing.
Solution of the Economic Problem             37

On the part of the industrialist, profit-sharing is
viewed with disapprobation because of the technical
difficulties involved in applying it to any large enterprise; because of the lack of any satisfactory solutions
for periods in which there are no profits; because
profit-sharing inlplies access on the part of labor to the
books in the nation's industries, in some of which not
even the stock holders are allowed to be cognizant of
\vhat are the true net profits.
Nevertheless, in spite of these staggering obstacles
profit-sharing in one form or another is forging ahead
and definitely demonstrating a remarkable success in
producing harmony between employer and employee;
increasing production within a hunlane and practicable
degree; and so enlisting the interests of labor in the
attainment of annual profits as to increase at every
point efficiency both in management and production
and a concomitant reduction of wastes.
oJ·
* *     ','

Profit-sharing, where sincerely applied, produces such
marked advantages to labor that in all such enterprises
the problem of labor adjustments is lifted entirely out
of the strike-warfare field and an era of permanently
stable labor relations ensues.
On the part of the industrialist, profit -sharing presents an appeal because of its promise of peaceful and
harmonious solution of the labor problem, insuring also
such gains in economy of production as to largely if not
entirely offset the share of capital-profits awarded to
labor.
I t should be here emphasized, however, that profitsharing, as intended by Baha'u'lhlh, is not a mere
economic device to harmonize the relations of capital
and labor. It is a further application of the great worldprinciple of Justice. It is to ensure a socially equitable
division-as between labor and capital-of the profits
38            Tomorrow and Tomorrow

earned under their mutual enterprise and endeavor. As
designed by Baha'u'lhih, profit-sharing is a mandatory
measure for industrial justice; and it is to be applied
regardless of whether or not it steps up production
sufficiently to insure industrialists and shareholders
against any net deprivation.
Strikes, in such an economy, would be eliminated.
In case of radical dispute between management and
labor the courts would have jurisdiction. And in this
same connection, early in this century 'Abdu'l-Baha
spoke of the necessary responsibility of the law and the
government to maintain industrial peace:-"The interference of courts of justice and of the Government
in difficulties pending between workmen and manufacturers cannot be compared with ordinary affairs between private persons, which do not concern the public,
and with which the Government should not occupy itself. In reality, although they appear to be matters between private persons, these difficulties between patrons
and workmen produce a general detriment; for commerce, industry, agriculture and the general affairs of
the country are all intimately linked together. If one
of these suffers an abuse, the detriment affects the mass.
Thus the difficulties between workmen and manufacturers become a cause of general detriment."

* * *
In modern terminology, Baha'u'llah's economic pattern may be considered to be that of a limited, equitable
humanitarian system of capitalistic free enterprise.
'Abdu'l-Baha in his public' addresses in this country,
pointed out the impossibility of any success in attempting to establish economic equality. He stated-"Absolute equality is impossible. For absolute equality in
fortunes, honors, commerce, agriculture, industry would
end in a want of comfort, in discouragement, in disorganization of the means of existence, and in universal
Solution of the Economic Problem             39

disappointment. The order of the community would be
quite destroyed." ... A glimpse behind the Iron Curtainwill verify this statement!
Although for practical purposes the economic pattern of the New World Order of Baha'u'lhih is treated
in this separate chapter, it should be realized that in
actual practice economics in the Baha'i World State
would not exist as an isolated factor. This vast and
potent field of human endeavor would merge into the
overall pattern of a great civilization, spiritually motivated and resting on foundations of supreme justice.
As is apparent today from the ideological and military conflicts going on all over the world, what is needed
is unity to take the place of the current chaos-unity
between labor and production within each country, and
economic unity between all the countries of the world.
Eventually, from all these economic experiments, a
uniform pattern of perfection will arrive. But the
Baha'is claim this necessary goal cannot be achieved
without spiritual motivation and guidance. Supreme
justice must permeate every economic relationship upon
the planet. Only an awakened spiritual conscience can
accomplish this. The leaders both of production and of
labor must be inspired to aim at justice rather than at
self-interest.
"The secrets of the whole economic question are
spiritual in nature," 'Abdu'l-Baha declared, "and are
concerned with the world of the heart and spirit. . . .
The disease which afflicts the body politic is lack of
love, and absence of altruism. In the hearts of men
no real love is found, and the condition is such that
unless their susceptibilities are quickened by some
power so that unity, love and accord develop within
th~m, there can be no healing, no relief among mankind. Love and unity are the needs of the body politic
today. ,~
40             T 01norrow and T omorro~'

In the area of economics-as in the greater area
of world peace and federation-spiritual forces are
deemed necessary to inspire, guide and stimulate humanity toward vitally needed planetary goals. The
problem is not a secular one. It is at the bottom a
spiritual one. Spiritual potencies released in individuals
and in groups are essential to the effective organization
of world unity, including both its political and its economic factors.
Never before has a religion so entered into the economic field, ultimately to dominate it. Some religions in
the past have exerted an influence in economic fields,
as for example Judaisnl-the laws of which tended to
preserve a simple agricultural economy, with individual
ownership of land. (Cf. the author's "Security for a
Failing World," p. 13.) Christianity brought in its train
a wave of charitable' institutions unknown to the contenlporaneous pagan \vorld, subsequently to be expanded into an intrinsic feature of the great Christian
civilization. Islam in its early stages showed, like
Judaism, a sincere concern for the welfare of the individual and a strong support for simple justice in his
defense.
But in all these religions, as the primitive zeal and
springtime fervor died out, the intended and designated
patterns of justice for the common lnan succumbed to
exploitation on the part of those in high places. It
was such exploitation that Christ attacked in many of
His preachments. This, and not His moral preachments,
led to His crucifixion.
Baha'u'lhih, at all times, brings the great power of
Spirit to bear upon man's mundane affairs. Nothing
in human activity--either individual or collective-is
to be purely secular. l-lis pattern for a Ne\v World
Solution of the Economic Probleln              41

Order is everywhere suffused with Spirit. He declared,
in fact, that without the power of Spirit this civilization
could not come to pass. He foresaw, also, that without
much travail and suffering humanity would not arrive
at such a prevalence of Spirit in human motivation. He
foresaw the valley of the shadow of death through
which mortals would have to pass in order to attain the
sunlit fields of world peace and security. We are in
. this dark valley now; from which, the Baha'is declare,
we shall emerge only through the guidance and power
of Spirit.
CHAPTER VI

Prejudice M lIst Go
Harmony and fellowship between peoples and nations is a necessary foundation for universal peace and
world federation. So important, in fact, is this factor of
friendship that Baha'u'lhih in all preachments concerning the New World Order insisted on the elimination
of prejudices of all kinds-whether religious, racial,
patriotic or political.
"All warfare and bloodshed in human history have
been the outcome of prejudice," declared 'Abdu'l-
Baha in 1912, in an address on the World Faith of
Baha'u'llah to the Metaphysical Club of Boston. "This
earth is one home and one nativity. God has created
mankind with equal endowment and right to live upon
the earth. Racial prejudice or separation into nations
proceeds from human motives or ignorance. Why
should we be separated by artificial and imaginary
boundaries? This is one globe, one land, one country."
Wherever the Bahai World Faith spreads, it harmonizes and unites its adherents. There is no consciousness or distinction of race or color. Actually
there is being formed here the beginnings of a nelV
race; which is the hUlnan race, freed from all those
divisions that have accunlulated through thousands of
)'ears of trial and error upon this sad old earth.
We might look back to see why and how these
divisions have grown up. But it is better to look forward to the glad day when these unnecessary and destructively hampering separations and antagonisms no
longer exist. Such is the hopeful vision which stimulates
the epochal activities of Baha'is, the world over.
Prejudice Must Go                    43

The roots of prejudice are deep seated in man's
biological and emotional nature. Primitive man shares
with the animals an instinctive aversion to everything
different and foreign. Civilization has broadened the
horizons of men's minds and consciousness and has
gradually brought all areas of the world into contact,
so that foreignness per se" is almost a thing of the past.
H

But civilization by merely secular means has not
proved itself capable of eliminating prejudice. As one
source of prejudice dies down another source may
spring up as the interests and desires of various groups
come into apparent conflict with one another. Indeed,
the alarming fact is apparent that virulent prejudice
can be very rapidly spread by indoctrination, as under
Nazi-ism and Communism.
Yet if humanity is to attain to organizational unity,
to that "One World" which we are beginning to envision
as not only a desirable but an inevitable goal if humanity
is to survive, then somehow prejudice ll1USt be disposed
of.
On the credit side we have the laudable achievement
of the United Nations in evolving, for the first time in
history, a Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This in itself proves the awakened consciousness of
the world on the question of prejudice. Morally and
legally fifty-eight countries of the world have adopted,
after several years work, a basic statement of the justice
and protection under national and international law
which are the inalienable right of every human being on
earth. The first part of Article 2 of this Bill of Rights
hits immediately at prejudice. "Everyone is entitled to
all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration,
without distinction of any kind, such as race, color,
sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."
44             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

All of the fifty-eight nations have pledged themselves
to support and carty out the articles of this Declaration. There are innumerable difficulties yet to be
overcome; and how far, in the final analysis, such
protection of human rights could be enforced is a
moot question indeed. Earnest endeavors are being
made, and will continue to be made, to activate these
human rights. But there are the ever-present "intangibles" of social customs in each country which no other
power outside of that country could possibly interfere with; and there are, as between masses of peoples, the ever-dangerous currents of nationalism.

Since prejudice is a negative quality, a weed flourishing in sour soils, what is needed is a positive and
constructive treatment. Those things which conduce
to unity will of themselves drive out prejudice. A
fuller understanding of the economic and cultural interrelationship and interdependence of various nations
and areas of the \vorld will help to stinlulate the
a\vareness of the need of world unity. In this field we
see not only an increase in effort, but an increase in results.
The natural field for developing a wholesome
enl0tional attitude is in youth. Adults have to be reconverted, reconditioned. It is a slow and difficult
process. But youth can more easily be educated into
new channels of perception and emotional reaction.
And the earlier such education begins the more stable
and advantageous the results.
Consequently Baha'is lay great importance upon the
training of their children in the broad and universal
doctrine of the oneness of humanity. Baha'u'lhih declared the first requisite to world unity and world
Prejudice Must Go                    45

federation to be this new consciousness of oneness.
The study of mathematics and sciences and languages
rate, in Baha'i consideration, as secondary in importance to this great humanized area of oneness.
Hitler indoctrinated hate. The Baha'is indoctrinate
a vitalizing love for all humanity. Mere absence of
prejudice will not suffice. What is needed is the presence
of an ardent constructive force such as only love can
contribute. The opposite of hatred is not the absence
of this quality, but the activating presence of love.
Nothing else will suffice.
Baha'u'lhih's utterance to Professor Browne in 1890
brings this to sharp focus: -"Close your eyes to racial
differences and welcome all with the light of oneness.
We desire but the good of the world and the happiness
of nations; that all nations should become one in faith
and all men be as brothers; that the bonds of affection
and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race annulled. . . . Is not this that which
Christ foretold?"
Bonds of affection and unity are not established by
governments or legislative agencies of any kind. Even
cultural reciprocity-while it nurtures enlightenment
and dispels that fog of ignorance which has been stated
to be the densest of all matter-does not engender
affection.

During his tour of the United States in 1912, 'Abdu'l-
Baha in a certain lecture made the statement that "the
disease which affects the body politic is absence of
love and altruism. We declare that love is the cause of
the existence of all phenomena and that the absence
of love is the cause of disintegration or nonexistence.
. '. ."
46             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

And at another time he said, "Love is the highest
law in this great universe of God. Love is the la,,,
of order between simple essences, whereby they are
apportioned and united into compound substances in
this world of matter. Love is the essential and magnetic
power that organizes the planets and the stars which
shine in infinite space. . . . Love is the highest honor
for all the nations of men. . . ."
In thus tracing the power of this attraction, love,
as the cohesive and creative force in the universe, it
can more readily be understood what was meant by
the statement that "'the disease which affects the body
politic is absence of love and altruism." It is this cosmic
power of love that Baha'u'lhih enjoined in the words
Hthat the bonds of affection and unity between the
sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of
religion should cease, and differences of race annulled."

This is a power far beyond the lukewarm attitude
of tolerance. This is the active ingredient to be injected into human consciousness once again in pristine
fervor to annihilate the canker of prejudice.
To take all the world to one's bosom is frequently
accounted a ridiculous impossibility. So it is, measured solely by the equations of intimate personal terms
that characterize our immediate relationships. An inlpersonal love is hard to define, harder still to grasp.
But that quality of spirit that resents deep-seated inequities, exploitations and social cruelties as keenly .fis
if perpetrated on one's kin and that cannot remaIn
apathetic about victims of prejudice,-this social attitude approaches the power of love as a universal
force. "Love thy neighbor as \hyself" carries a worldwide connotation today, so close have our relationships
Prejudice Must Go                   47

in a one-\vorld family beCOlTIc. That is one reason \vhy
prejudice affects more deeply the body politic than
even in bygone ages. We know we must achieve understanding or perish. Understanding is the preliminary
step towards achieving those bonds of affection and
unity between the sons of tnen, foundation of the welfare of nations.
Baha'u'lhih constantly stressed the consciousness of
oneness. "Let not a man glory in that he loves his
country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his
kind." I t is this transcendent love that is the antidote
for prejudice. And it is this standard of citizenship for
a one-world society that must be striven for by each
citizen.
This is not an affair within the realm of executive
government. The conquest of prejudice is the job and
responsibility of all of us. Diversity there will always
be. For diversity is legitimate. It is a prime asset of
human relationships; it gives the color, beauty and interest to all our cultural life; it provides the range of
talent necessary to carryon the world's work. To
dislike people because they are "different" and do not
conform to the pattern of our own social customs is
ridiculous and tragic. Pressing upon us from every
aspect of life today, enforcing our realization of its
truth and the urgency of its application, is the simple
sublimity of Baha'u'lhih's utterance eighty years ago-
"This handful of dust the earth is but one home ~
let it be in unity."
CHAPTER VII

One Warid-One Language
Whether or not it all began with man's vain effort
to storm the gates of Heaven from the Tower of Babel,
there are now some eight hundred different languages
in use in the world today. Most of the world's inhabitants are bound within the barriers of their native
tongue. Only the cultured few acquire means of communication with other nationals by the study of languages.
Most fields of human activity today are organized on
a world scale. The conferences and conventions of
all kinds of scientists, artists in many fields, educators,
service and welfare organizations, cultural interests
of all kinds, in addition to official and governmental
agencies, now meet constantly with fellow members
from all over the world.
After World War I the Versailles C--'onference had
to have each proposed part of the peace treaties and
all preliminary debates thereon translated thirty-six
tin1es. United Nations was faced with a similar linguistic obstacle, more effectively met by reduction to five
official languages-with still further reduction to three
(English, French, and Spanish) for simultaneous earphone translation.
The growing interchange of students and the vastly
increased output of scientific textbooks in every field
present another immense translation task.
We can now realize the import of Baha'u'lhlh's
advocation of a world auxiliary language, to be taught
universally. "The day is fast approaching when all the
peoples of the world will have adopted one universal
language and one common script. [And when this is
One World-One Language                    49

achieved] ~'to whatsoever city a man may journey,..
it shall be as if he were entering his own home. These
things are obligatory and absolutely essential. It is
incumbent upon every man of insight and understanding
to strive to translate that which hath been written
into reality and action . . . . "
The machinery for the adoption and inculcation of
the auxiliary language, as outlined by Baha'u'lhlh almost a century ago, is extremely simple. All that is
required for this planetary achievement is that the
nations of the world by delegated conference should
agree either upon an existing language, or an artificial
language such as Esperanto, and then require it to be
taught in all the schools of the world. Thus in a
single generation the universal language would be in
effecti ve use.

It is not solely or chiefly for practical reasons that
Baha'u'llah proclaimed the necessity for establishing a
universal language. It is the psychological and spiritual
influences that give to a universal language, in the purpose of Baha'u'llah, its primary importance. World
rulers have always realized the effectiveness of language
as a means of unity. The Turks enforced such unity of
language by forbidding the use of any subordinate
languages, in written form at least, within their Empire.
The written use of Bulgarian, Armenian and other
languages languished among its subject peoples. Not
until the Nineteenth Century did dictionaries exist
of such languages, and these were compiled by American missionaries. This ruler-psychology of the Turks
appears justified by the fact that the restoration of these
national languages actually did create an aroused sense
of nationalism among the conquered peoples, a national-
50            T ornorrow and Tomorrow

ism which eventually expressed itself in revolutionary
movements.
The United States of America presents a striking
example of the power of language to unite various
racial strands. Had the colonies continued separate
linguistic cultures on the part of British, Swedes, and
Dutch; then adding to this confusion of Babel the
languages of subsequent masses of immigrants: Italians,
NOfweigans, Poles, Jews, Mexicans, etc.,-there never
would have been successfully achieved that national
unity which gives both prosperity and .potency to this
country. The existence of our literate, monolanguaged
people of one hundred and fifty millions is something
unique in all history. Unity of language has been one of
the most important factors in our advance of education, of invention, of standards of living; in fact, of
all that goes to make up the American civilization.
Thus, if language can help to create a sense of nationalism, it can equally well help to create a sense
of internationalism.
'Abdu'l-Baha en1phasized this viewpoint in a talk
given to Esperantists in 1912 in Washington: ~'Unless
the unity of language is realized, the 'Most Great Peace'
and the oneness of the human world cannot be effectively organized and established; because the function of
language is to portray the mysteries and secrets of
hunlan hearts. The heart is like a box and language
is the key. We can open the box by using the key,
and observe the gems it contains. Therefore the question of an auxiliary international tongue has the utnlost
importance. Through this means, international education and training become possible; the evidence and
history of the -past can be acquired. The spread of the
kno\vn facts of the human world depends upon language. The explanation of divine teachings can only
be conveyed through this medium. As long as diversity
of tongues and lack of comprehension of other lan-
One World-One Language                   51

guages continues, these glorious aims cannot be realized.
Therefore the very first service to the world of man
is to establish this auxiliary international means of
communication. It will become the cause of the tranquility of the human commonwealth. Through it,
sciences and arts will be spread among the nations, and
it will prove to be the means of the progress and development of all races. We must endeavor with all our
powers to establish this international auxiliary language
throughout the world. It is my hope that it may be
perfected through the bounties of God, and that intelligent men may be selected from the various countries
of the world to organize an international congress whose
chief aim will be the promotion of this universal medium
of speech."

We come now to the important question of what
language would or should be selected for this purpose.
Plainly an existing language would be more economical
than an artificial one. For one of the major existing
languages, if selected, would be already a going concern and would have a large and rich literature immediately accessible to all the peoples of the world.
The chief obstacles to the selection and acquisition
of an existing language are nationalistic jealousies and
inertias. Language, as has already been shown, has
been an important factor of imperialism. It has also
been conceived as a potent weapon of economic and
cultural nationalistic penetration. Thus while the selection of an existing language would greatly simplify the
establishment of linguistic unity, the obstacles to such
a selection are almost insuperable at present.
It was with this point in view that Zamenhof conceived the idea, over half a century ago, of creating
an artificial language based on the major European
languages, which he named Esperanto ( one who
52             T omorrOl-V and l'omorro~v

hopes). A humble school teacher, this ardent linguist
devoted his spare time to creating and perfecting his
auxiliary language-to which he devoted his whole life
and his modest professional income with great zeal and
sacrifice. Zamenhof's chief motive in the creation of
this universal language was the factor so strongly emphasized by Baha'u~llah-the establishment of unity
and friendship between all the peoples of the world.
Zanlenhof did a good job on his Esperanto, so good
that no subsequent attempts at the creation of a universal language have taken the lead from Esperanto. The
International Auxiliary Language Association, in a recent scientific study of the various competitive artificial
languages, came to the conclusion that Esperanto, because of its simplicity and its long priority in the field,
had an important lead over all other artificial languages.
It is claimed that Esperanto can be learned in six
weeks and acquired with fluency in six months. Its
vocabulary, being based on the Latin, Teutonic, and
Slavic derived languages, is especially easy of acquirement by Western people. And its grammar is reduced
to almost nothing.
Esperanto made great progress in the decades subsequent to the first World War, reaching the point of
being prescribed in secondary schools of some European
nations and allowed as optional in others. The rise of
Hitlerism and the second World War proved a setback
to its progress. Meanwhile new competitives have appeared in the field-such as Novo Latino, Ido, Esperantido, and Simplified English.
After due consideration of all these artificial candidates for planetary usage, one's mind reverts to the
great advantages of an existing language, if one could
be harnl0niously selected. Any artificial language would
be lacking in that aesthetic charm which has accrued
through centuries of usage to the world's historic languages.
One World-One Language                   53

Quite dispassionately, one may cite several advantages of English as a candidate for world usage.
First, by reason of trade, travel and political influence,
English has already encompassed the world. Secondly,
either in original composition or in translation, there
exists a larger body of literature in English than exists
in any other one language; larger in volume, perhaps,
including translations, than all the other literatures of
the world put together. Thirdly, English grammar is
more simplified than that of any other of the existing
languages. Against the easy acquisition of English is
its abominable variations in spelling and pronunciation.
This lamentable weakness would have to be renledied
for world usage. It may happen, indeed, that English
will promote its own usage so rapidly that, by the time
the world is ready to make a selection, English will be
a "fait accompli."
Historically, there have been brilliant cultural epochs
which flourished under the advantage of a common
cultural language. In the Roman Empire Latin was
the universal official and cultural language. Throughout
the great Islamic Culture which flourished from India
to Spain, Arabic was the universal language of learning, of culture and of science. In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, Church Latin becanle the universal language, facilitating the Church Learning and universalizing its culture in all European countries. History thus
proves the truth and logic of Baha'u'lhih's advocacy of
an international auxiliary language for a world that is
rapidly approaching a single orbit-the orbit of the
Commonwealth of Man.

From looking backward it is possible to look forward and envisage what a truly universal auxiliary
54             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

language would mean to the expansion and enrichment
of everyone's life, and to the facilitation of governmental, trade, scientific and industrial activity.
If, as Baha'u'lhih advocated, the countries of the
world should by conference select one of the existing
languages or an artificial language and require its study
in all the schools of the world, within a single generation thereafter the auxiliary language would be a going
concern. Then indeed wherever one travelled it would
be "as if entering one's own home," for we should be
able to understand all those about us, wherever we went.
Trade and travel would be both stimulated and
aided by the universal language. The availability of
the whole world as a unit for the exercise of vocational
and professional abilities would undoubtedly accentuate
the flow of cultural and physical wellbeing everywhere.
The benefits of a world language understandable by all
seem so obvious that one wonders why radio and movie
magnates, aviation and other travel companies do not
begin to promote the idea, if only from the viewpoint of
practical and business advantage.
The great dynamics of the plan, however, are essentially dedicated to the spiritual and cultural advancement of the race. "The proper understanding
of man is man." Language is the sole agency of that
understanding in most of human relationships. It surely
is essential to a one-world society, that men should
have one common means of expressing that understand-
Ing.
CHAPTER VIII

Science and Religion
The steady, victorious advance of science has
tended not only to technologize but also to secularize
the life of humanity. This has proved an advantage
from one point of view, in that it has freed man's mind
and man's creative activities from the chains and trammels o~ religious creed and tradition. Human beings
are no longer burned at the stake for proclaiming
scientific truth.
But the secularization of all human activities and
affairs on the planet has been fraught also with tragic
consequences. Man is a being-as differentiated from
aninlals-with capacity for spiritual perception and
spiritual motivation. Science, detouring the life of humanity from these precious and necessary goals, has
almost completely stultified man's spiritual powers-so
far as daily living is concerned. The result is a secular
civilization of shallow roots and sour soil; what Sorokin
describes as a sensate culture; the kind of civilization
which Toynbee finds, from his study of history, always
to have culminated in collapse.
And despite all the efforts of religionists to infuse
life with spiritual zeal and understanding, science continues to increase its devastating hold upon the human
mind and soul. For science now controls the training
of mental powers and the forming of human intelligence
throughout our vast and powerful educational system.
Indeed there is every sign that the whole world is
growing not less but more secular daily; not more
spiritual but less spiritual as the years pass by. Modernism, with its magic and magnetic power of applied
science and technologization, is revolutionizing old cul-
56               Tomorrow and Tomorrow

tures, sweeping away ancestral moorings and leading
the peoples of the world adrift on a sea which becomes
more stormy and dangerous with each ensuing year.
Traditional religion has nowhere in the world proved
its ability to stem this vast flood of scientific secularization. On the contrary the enormous influence of Science-with its power to both know and do, to combat
ignorance and inertia, and to create higher standards of
living-is devastating the vitality of all the world's ancient religions. Not one of these-not even Christianity,
the religion under which this modern science has
arisen-is able to regain its waning influence and power
of nl0tivation.
To recapture the imagination and character of man,
religion must first make terms with science; not by surrendering to science one jot of truth or principle, but
by restating spiritual truth in terms compatible with
the known and accepted truths of science. There must
be a reconciliation between science and religion. Both
are needed by humanity.

About the time when theologians of the ~~en­
lightened" west were battling with scientists over
Darwin's "Origin of Species," and with geology's findings that millions of years and not six days were absorbed in the creation of the earth, a clarion call of
reason and clarification sounded from the Near East.
It was unheeded, overwhelmed by the clamor and
excitement of the contentions. Baha'u'lhih made the
reconciliation of science and religion one of the cardinal
points of the Baha'i teachings. He upheld the authority
of science. "Knowledge is like unto wings for the
being of man, and is as a ladder for ascending. To
acquire knowledge is incumbent on all, but knowledge
Science and Religion                   57

of those sciences which may profit the people of the
earth, and not of such sciences as begin in mere words
and end in mere words. The possessors of sciences
and arts have a great right among the people of the
world." That the progress of the race was dependent
upon the aspect of truth revealed by science and as
well as by the aspect of truth revealed by religionwas unequivocably upheld.
In 1912 Baha'u'lhih's son, 'Abdu'l-Baha, told an
American audience that science and religion were the
two wings upon which civilization must fly.
"We may think of science as one wing and religion
as the other; a bird needs two wings for flight, one alone
would be useless. Any religion that contradicts science.
or that is opposed to it, is only ignorance .... Religion
which consists only of rites and ceremonies of prejudice
is not the Truth .... Much of the discord and disunion
of the world is created by these man-made oppositions
and contradictions. If religion were in harmony with
science . . . much of the hatred and bitterness now
bringing misery to the human race would be at an
end. I say to you: Weigh carefully in the balance of
reason and science everything that is presented to you
as religion. If it passes this test, then accept it, for it
is Truth. If, however, it does not so conform, then reject it, for it is ignorance. It is impossible for Religion
to be contrary to science, even though some intellects
are too weak or too immature to understand truth. God
made religion and science to be the measure, as it
were, of our understanding. Take heed that you neglect
not such a wonderful power. Weigh all things in this
balance. Put all your beliefs into harmony tvith science,
there can be no opposition, for truth is IJne. When
religion, shorn of its superstitions, traditions and unintelligent dogmas, shows its conformity with science,
then will there be a great unifying, cleansing force in
the world, which will sweep before it all wars, disagree-
58             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

rnents, discords and struggles, and then }'vill mankind
be united in the power of the love of God."
In promulgating the teachings of Baha'u'lhih to the
West, 'Abdu'l-Baha frequently stressed the point that
for the first time in history the founder of a major
religion championed the cause of science and clarified
the interdependence of each in the path of progress.
"'~1ankind hath been created to carry forward an ever
advancing civilization," stated Baha'u'lhih. When speaking at Leland Stanford University in 1912, '.i\.bdu'l-
Baha called science the '~the illunlination of the world of
humanity." He stated:
'··The greatest attainrnent in the \vorld of humanity
has ever been scientific in nature. It is the discovery
of the realities of things .... The highest praise is due
to Inen \vho devote their energies to science; and the
noblest center is a center wherein the sciences and arts
are taught and studied. Science ever tends to the
illumination of the \vorld of hutnanity . . . . "L\ll human
discoveries were once secrets and mysteries sealed and
stored up in the bosom of the material universe until
the mind of man which is the greatest of divine effulgencies penetrated them and made them subservient to his
will and purpose."

As in all conflicts, a mutual understanding of the
role of each contestant would elilninate the struggle
for power over nlen's minds. If science needs guidance for the fruits of its work, religion can supply that
guidance by its influence. If religion understands physical \vell-being and an ever-expanding knowledge of our
environment to be part of the Creator's plan for human
evolution, it can look to science to nurture that wellbeing.
Science and Religion                59

George Sarton, professor of Science History at Harvard University, stated the need for this wider understanding comprehensively and beautifully in his book
"The Life of Science."
"The greatest story which cries to be told is that
of the rhythm of the mutual inter-relations between
science, art and religion. The story is very difficult to
tell because it is not a story of progress like the history of science, but of vacillations and vicissitudes,
harmony followed by chaos, beauty mixed with horrors . . . the story of man's sensitiveness to the fundamental problems and the main values of life."
In delineating the four epochs of the history of
science, Sarton brings out in astonishing manner how
strong the rhythm has been. The foundations of science
were laid for us by the Mesopotamian civilizations,
whose scholars and scientists were their priests; and
to them we owe the foundations of medicine, navigation,
astronomy and some mathematics. The second development came through the Greeks, as taught in the traditional way in our schools and colleges. The third
stage of development, however, is to be credited to the
meteoric rise of Islam, whose Abbassid caliphs drank
avidly at the fountain of the ancient Persian and Hindu,
as well as Greek sources of knowledge. For nearly four
hundred years Islam led the scientific world as frOIll
one end of Islam to the other, from Spain to India,
the great body of past knowledge was exchanged between her scholars and the torch carried forward with
new discoveries. Scholars of Christendom from about
the eleventh century, were mainly occupied for over
two hundred years in re-translating from Arabic into
Latin the same knowledge that had been denied them
when the church closed its doors on pagan Greece.
Thus Islam paved the way for the Renaissance, which
in turn led to science's fourth great development in our
modern western world.
60            Tomorrow and Tomorrow

In two out of the four epochs it was the stimulus of
religion that fostered science.

As if anticipating the needs of future generations born
in a golden age of science, Baha'u'lhih left a statement
concerning God which seems keyed to the understanding
of a scientific mind.
"Unity in its true meaning is that God should be
realized as the one power which animates and dominates all things which are but the manifestations of
its energy."
The careful avoidance here of any definition of God
is striking. The \\lords are "should be realized," as
if, envisioning the great scientific age dawning, all
scientific exploration of that energy could be encompassed entirely within that realization. For the words
"all things" include mental energy and the vast field of
man's inspired intellectual accomplishments.
The statement does not stop there. It is prefaced
by the words "Unity in its true meaning is." What
unity? Unity of thought between science and faith on
truth, obviously. Also unity between religious systems, whose basic teachings could find only confirmation in the statement. With basic unity realizable between religions on their most fundamental point-the
existence of God-and unity on basic truth established
between science and religion, we arrive at an approach
to unity in all other fields.
Like the British mathematician who confessed to
me that if he had not faith in a marvellous moral order
in the universe life would not be worth living, there
are millions of intelligent people who find church creeds
incredible, but long for the bread of a reasonable faith.
Even an agnostic scientist, however, would find sympa-
Science and Religion                  61

thetic insight into his attitude of mind in many statements of Baha'u'lhih concerning the Deity and concerning the utter inability of the human mind to comprehend God.
Baha'u'llah reasonably points out that we do not
know even the inner reality of our own selves nor of
our fellowmen. We know what makes us tick physically-at least, we almost know-and our investigations
into the human mind and lately the study of psychosomatic medicine have opened up the beginnings of our
understanding of emotions and mental processes. But
there are realms of consciousness in us far beyond that;
and we do not even know the wellspring of the spark of
physical life.
Our researches into psychology have started us on
an understanding of what Baha'u'llah terms "characteristics and attributes." The characteristics or attributes
of all things are the standards by which we recognize
them, including ourselves. This, then, would be the
only manner in which we might apprehend the existence
of the Diety-the evidences of divine attributes. Thus
that theology professor was correct who accepted the
majesty, beauty and grandeur of creation as an evidence of the energy of that "single power that animates
and dominates all things."
Truth, wisdom, love, mercy, knowledge, etc., are
likewise attributes of that Power, infinitely greater than
anyone human being or all humanity together, but
in which we all share and understand as something
nearer the divine and far beyond our physical, animal
being.
These characteristics and their inspiration for the
human mind and soul are the study of what "Abdu'l-
Baha referred to as "divine science" as distinct from
material science. Here is another point of reconciliation between science and religion. Just as humanity
has benefited immensely from the intelligence of the
62             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

scientists, so the scientist will find protection for his
work by harnessing his intelligence to this "one power
which animates and dominates all things."
Faith in the divine attributes of truth, wisdom, love,
mercy, knowledge, beauty, power, and the endeavor to
practice them, enabled us to build the ladder of our
ascent from jungle man to where we are today.
This is the only "creed" Baha'u'llah taught :-to
resuscitate these attributes in each individual conscience
and to bring their healing power to the cure of our
maladjustments, our prejudices, our ignorance, for the
establishment of that unified, peaceful, one-world society which is the only possible step forward that the
march of human progress can take on this planet.
What quarrel could be left between science and
religion on such a basis for active faith?
~
CHAPTER IX

Education

Education is one of the most important factors in
the evolution of humanity. There is only one department of life more potent, and that is religion.
In epochs characterized by religious zeal and piety,
religion and education work hand in hand. Together
they constitute a single unifying, inspirational, guiding
force which coordinates all human thought and expression within a traditionally accepted pattern. In such
periods education serves what is in reality its most
basic purpose-the training of character.
In general this pattern makes for progress. But
toward the end of every great epoch a crystallization
takes place-a civilizational sclerosis which is antiprogressive. Then, for the sake of progress, long established patterns with their strong authoritative hold
upon the reverence and loyalty of mankind have to be
broken up. It is the day of the iconoclast, a period of
confusion and chaos.
Such is the era in which we live today. Old landmarks have disappeared. Signposts unquestioningly
followed for ages have decayed and fallen. All authorities, all loyalties are subject to questioning. Apart
from devotion to science and to technological progress,
there is no central idea or common loyalty to guide
humanity and to channel its expressions and activities.
Thus it happens that there is for this generation no
definite unifying goal toward which with definite assurance we can progress.
64             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

In such an age of confusion education is also confused. It is impotent to operate with that influence
upon society of which it is in reality capable. And
because it has become entirely dissociated from and
even suspicious of religion, education today almost
entirely lacks those character-building influences which
it has always exerted in strongly religious periods.
This is a tragic failure! For education, especially
when harmoniously yoked with religious inspirations
and loyalties, has an immense power to mold character,
to inspire consecration to lofty goals and to point and
lead the way to human progress.
Such is far from being the case today. The educators themselves are too much a part of the confusion
of the age to be capable of leading humanity out of
the bondage of technological materialism. It is a case
of the blind leading the blind. In fact, education today is more an expression of the sociological "mores"
than it is a regulator of these "mores."
Yet even in the midst of this disintegrating age we
have seen some potent examples of the power education
has to mould youth. Tragically enough, this influence
has been evil and illusionary. Hitler, in less than a
generation, made Naziism a powerful dynamic and
reduced to impotence those whom he could not enlist
in its loyalties. He was able to do this because he could
induce, by one means or another, education to be unitary and single-visioned along the lines of an ideology
which, while anti-religious, yet managed to induce in
its followers those loyalties and zeals which characterize
religion. COll1munism, where it is ardent,· presents a
similar phenomenon.
It is far easier, of course, to motivate loyalties to
egocentric ideologies than to self-sacrificing ones; easier
Education                      65

to arouse and guide a brutalizing process in humans
than to induce a serviceable and noble development.
In other words, men more easily become devils than
they become saints. The wonder is that saints and
saintliness have exerted such influences as they have
throughout the history of an unregenerate humanity.

As might be expected, Baha'u'lhih gave great prominence to education in delineating the structure of the
future World Society. It is chiefly through educative
influences that. we must build up an ideology and loyalty
consecrated to the goal of world peace. Only through
education of youth and adult can the adverse and
chaotic elements which now compose human society
be guided and fused into that dynamically functioning
world unity which we now have come to believe is
the keystone of the arch of human progress.
Bahci'u'lldh had two great world aims:-to build
up a spiritually regenerate humanity, and to establish
a functionally united world. To both of these aims
education is intrinsic.
Primary in the Baha'i educational program, as the
first step toward an intelligent and unified humanity, is
the overcoming of illiteracy. Baha'u'llah specified the
need for universal education. Illiteracy and ignorance
must be eliminated from the planet. To fail in this is
a sin before God; and parental carelessness must be
safeguarded by governmental provision (a dictum especially needed in the Orient).
"Man is the supreme Talisman. Lack of a proper
education hath, however, deprived him of that which he
doth inherently possess."
At the time Baha'u'llah, around 1870, gave to the
world the pattern for a universal civilization, the con-
66             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

cept of universal free education existed in only a few
countries and functioned only partially there. Since
then more countries have established the means for
universal education. And in the most advanced countries, universal primary education, free secondary education and the growing practice of college attendance
have made a dynamic change in the educational pattern,
with distinct sociological consequences. We observe
here a notable rise in the level of man's culture and an
amazing progress in technological fields. Certain it is,
as Baha'u'llah said, that education can awaken and
disclose precious values in man.
Yet still, as of today, education in three-quarters
of the globe is used to uphold and crystallize the traditional caste system, rather than to universalize literacy
and the development of intelligence.
Only within the last two decades have all nations
given at least lip service to the goal of universal literacy,
until it has at last become an established part of the
\\'orld's ideology. No government, however insincere
it may still be in its devotion to mass education, would
dare to openly proclaim a callous indifference to the
education of even its humblest citizen.
Thus it seems likely that before the end of this
century, one of Baha'u'lhlh's major goals for world
civilization will have been attained. The world's citizenry will at least be able to read and write.

But literacy is only the barest foundations for education-not education itself. What would be the important factors in such a curriculum as Baha'u'llih
indicated?
First and foremost, as a means toward world unity
and world-federation, youth must be trained in wider
Education                       67

and nobler values than at present. As Baha'u'lhih
pointed out, the loyalities to family, clan, tribe and
nation which have gradually evolved in human society
are not enough to satisfy the wider horizons and needs
of today.
As stated in the requisites for "World Peace and
World Federation," there must be a new and more universal loyalty to mankind itself as a whole, a "oneworld" zeal and dedication. Loves of family, of clan, of
nation are praiseworthy and will continue to hold their
legitimate place in the social pattern. But unless and
until a greater love is bred in humans-love of one's
world-a United Nations cannot successfully function.
Baha'i parents all over the world inculcate in their
children from infancy, as a spiritual law, the unprejudiced attitude that they are members of one human
family. The first loyalty is to God; the next is to
humanity; and then follows national and family loyalties.
It is an all-inclusive attitude, containing the lesser and
particular, rather than a particular working toward
selective exclusion.
Textbooks and courses in social sciences of the future
will reveal the oneness of human life upon the planet.
They will aim to develop a sincere appreciation of other
CUltures, religions and folk-aspirations. The beauty and
value of variety will be stressed. Prejudices of color,
race, religion will be eliminated by spiritual as well as
intellectual indoctrination.

The rise of science as a usurper of men's loyalties
and the secularization of education are two of the
most notable factors of modern civilization. These two
factors are causally connected. It was because religion
challenged and opposed at every hand the findings of
68            Tomorrow and Tomorrow

science that intellectuals revolted from the Church and
from Church influence in education.
Conversely, it may be stated that no system of education in the future will satisfactorily spiritualize its
curriculum until it is able to harmonize religion with
science. This is so important and pressing a need for
humanity that Baha'u'lhih made it one of the major
principles of the New World Order, as described in the
previous chapter. He envisaged, as we have seen, this
harmonization taking place, and the spiritual factors of
human existence being taught in a scientific way.
A deep respect for law will be engendered in each
citizen by inculcation of spiritual values. In fact, lalv
itself rests ultimately upon spiritual foundations. Had
we no spiritual training we should be unaware of
Justice, Mercy and Wisdom. The very prerequisite of
formulating laws to govern society is an understanding
of these spiritual qualities. Had we no concept of
right and wrong we would have no criterion of Justice
upon which to base law. Did we not realize what
mercy is, our application of law would deny humane
consideration or extenuating circumstances for a wrongdoer. If wisdom were not our spiritual endowment the
formation and application of laws would be short sighted
and restricted.
Our juvenile delinquency problem, our divorce problem, our crime problem, all witness the lack of stress in
spiritual character building in our educational systems.
When in 1913 the writer was in Paris in connection
with a travel school for boys, he was invited to call
upon 'Abdu'l-Baha, leader of the Faith, who was residing there for a few months. In the course of the conversation he was asked what subjects I taught. "Algebra,
Geometry and Latin," was the reply. Fixing his deeply
luminous eyes upon his visitor, 'Abdu'l-Baha gravely
asked, "Do you teach the spiritual verities?" The writer,
embarrassed how to explain why spiritual subjects were
Education                       69

not on the college preparatory curriculum, answered
briefly, "No, there is no time for that."
'Abdu'l-Baha made no comment. He did not need
to. The writer, out of his own mouth, had condemned
himself and his generation. "No time for spiritual
truth!" Time for everything else,-for science in all
its broad scope; for culture such as could be absorbed
by youth; for amusement and recreation. But no time
for the spirit!
Baha'u'llah's emphasis on the spiritual foundations
of citizenship would correct this fatal lack in modern
education. By such spiritual training a character would
be formed more capable of meeting the strains and
temptations of life; more resolute in enterprise; more
fertile in creative imagination; more responsible to
the calls of duty; more worthy and capable as a true
citizen of world democracy.

In various utterances on education Baha'u'llah
strongly upholds the value of the intellect-"The
brightest gem in the reality of man." Our intellectual
capacity has raised us to the summit of existence physically. We have not only freed ourselves from limitations imposed by nature; we have even conquered nature
and become ruler over it-over everything except ourselves and our animal inclinations. We are monarchs
with immense power, but without a sufficiently regal
nature to rightly use that power.
The proper orientation of our intellectual powers,
like our behavior as citizens in other fields of endeavor,
is achieved by the upholding of moral standards in our
educational curriculum. It is the primary goal of the
education Baha'u'llah advocated.
70             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

His suggested curriculum was even more practical
and more vocational in aspect than the most progressive
of modern colleges:-"Teach not those subjects that
begin in words and end in words, but those subjects
that pertain to human welfare."
There is a growing tendency now to eliminate much
dead wood in modern curricula-less attention to traditional classic education and greater stress on physical
and social sciences. Language study will be great1y
simplified in course of time by the development of a
universal auxiliary language. Then, everywhere in the
world, only one other language than the native tongue
will need to be studied. This auxiliary language, begun
in primary grades, will be so thoroughly mastered as to
open to the student all the world's important cultural
and scientific literature.
But education is not complete until each student is
prepared by such training to earn a livelihood. This
practical slant is very strong in the teachings of Baha'u'-
llah. Work done in the right spirit is considered equivalent to worship-i.e., it is a service to God as well as to
man. Consequently, all must be equipped for a vocational or professional career, some trade or science
or art. To be idle when one is able to work is a sin.
"Verily the most despised of men before God is he
who sits and begs." Any type of economic parasite is
thus denounced. For youth to emerge from secondary
schools or colleges unequipped for a career is a formidable error, according to Baha'u'llah's educational program.

Perhaps the most revolutionary statement coming when and where it did of Baha'u'llah regarding
education was the advocation of the education of
women. For an Oriental to propound such a prin-
Education                      71

ciple, and at a time when the Occident was barely
aware of its soundness, was extraordinary. His reasons are widely different from and far more fundamental than the reasons that since then have brought
educational opportunity even to western women.
Baha'u'lhih stated that equal educational rights
should be given to women because they are the mothers of future citizens. Unless the mothers of the race
are enlightened citizens, we cannot expect the world's
citizenry to be enlightened. Basic education, largely concerned with the spiritual and moral values, is the
responsibility of the mother to the child, long before
school age. The ancient sanctity of motherhood thus
assumes its place in a re-statement keyed to an age
where universal education is a must in social progress.
The Orient cannot afford to lag behind the Occident in education, and the plan of Baha'u'llah offers
it to Oriental women on a basis perhaps more acceptable than the fashion in which the Occident
predicates its achievement in the education of women.
Perhaps also, this new evaluation of motherhood is
something which the Occident has to re-realize. Thus
Baha'u'llah was more modern than the moderns when
he said, eighty years ago, that education must be supplied by the parents, but that if the support of the
parents should be lacking, then the state must assume
the education of the children, and if preference had to
be exercised on economic grounds, then the preference
must be given to the girl, the future mother of tomorrow's citizen!

Baha'u'lhih's explanation of the psychological and
spiritual factors involved in man's acquisition of knowledge brings a new understanding of epistemology. The
mystery has never yet been fully solved, of how sensa-
72             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

tions and perceptions coming to us through our nervous
system can be transformed into memories and concepts. Still less explicable is our marvelous ability to
cognate, to generalize, to form abstract ideas: a creative
power which lifts us completely above the animal
world and enables us to both comprehend and rule
the world of nature to which, if we were mere animals,
we would be conditioned and obedient.
What is the full extent of these powers we have still
to learn. It is certain, however, that a more spiritual
psychology would be a great stimulus to the unfolding
of new and marvelous creative powers in the human
race.
Man's creative powers would then enlist, much more
than at present, that strange faculty of ours which
is variously designated intuition, inspiration, the subconscious. This inspirational phenomenon, according to
Baha'u'lhih, is in reality the power of the soul, which
can endow man's mind with a more immediate contact
with the Universal Mind. Such, briefly, is the Baha'i
explanation of that strange power of intuition which
plays such an extraordinary part in the inspirations
and achievements of genius.
It is this power shining through the mind which gives
it a light capable of illuminating dark and perplexing
areas of thought; of solving the most conlplex problems; and of creating dazzling achievements in art and
.
SCIence.
Intuition is one of the three chief qualities of genius,
one of the three great factors of the creative processof which the other two are sensitivity and conceptual
power.
By fostering the sensitivity of children; by enlisting
spiritual motivations and aids for the development
of conceptional power; and by opening up a whole
Education                         73

new field of theoretical and practical science revolving
around a study of intuition,-the creative power of
humanity will be greatly enhanced.
No longer will educational institutions be abhorred
by the genius as something to be escaped from. For
the first time in the history of the human race the educational system will seek to understand genius; to aid
it in its avid thirst for knowledge and power; and to
make of the school a place where individuals of creative
vision will feel at home.

Francis Bacon said, "I take all knowledge to be
my province." As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century Thomas Jefferson could assert a similar broad goal. But the prevailing opinion today is
one of despair of anyone person's power to grasp
the wealth of knowledge-spreading out into so many
departments-that science has by now brought into
existence. This is the age of specialization, and humanity suffers from disparateness resulting from such a
training. Are we to go on with greater and greater
specialization so that there will arise classes of scientists
as distinct in their mental workings as are the classifications of science under which they operate?
This is not necessary. Let it be stated with certainty
that humanity cannot build up a body of knowledge
which it is not capable of understanding. Every man
has it within his power to comprehend all of phenomenal existence. This is a power innate in man but as
yet undeveloped.
In the present state of vast complexity of knowledge, a unitary concept of being can be arrived at
only through the aid of the intuition. If the intuition
is understood to be a power of the soul-more im-
74             Tomorrow and Tomorrow

mediate in its operation than man's ordinary mental
powers-then it follows that through adequate use of
the intuition man may grasp, in essence though not in
detail, the reality of any and all fields of knowledge
which man can create.
It may therefore be expected that there will arise a
new type of thinker, capable of grasping intelligently
the realities of all fields of knowledge; not by specialization in them but by a survey of all fields with the aid
of the intuitional powers. Such scientific synthesizers
or philosophers will be used as directors of education,
of science, and of human affairs.

Ultimately a single curriculum will characterize education all over the world-cementing world unity by
means of the great cohesive force of common ideals, a
common body of knowledge, a unified objective and a
moral and spiritual harmony.
The work of UNESCO (United Nations Educational
Scientific & Cultural Organization) quietly proceeds
toward the dissemination of the cultural and scientific
knowledge among students of all member nations, and
eventually this common body of knowledge will help
to develop a universal curriculum.
The effect upon society of this new grasp of totality,
this new awareness and cognition of the unity of knowledge will be immense. It will work as a more intelligent
directive for human progress and happiness. It will
inspire art and enrich culture. And it will confer a
new breadth and dignity on all human enterprise and
association.
CHAPTER X

"This Century of Radiance"
The whole world is astir with new ideas, new aspirations and new strivings. The ideals and necessary principles of a world civilization such as Baha'u'lhih proclaimed are dawning everywhere in the consciousness
of humanity. Many of these ideals-universal education, equal rights of men and women, social security,
the abolition of poverty-are already being achieved in
part, and are moving on rapidly toward complete fulfillment. Other ideas-such as a universal auxiliary
language; a world monetary system; abolition of racial,
religious and national prejudice; the harmonization of
science and religion-are realized as essential to world
unity.
How long will it take for universal acceptance
and a fairly effective universal achievement of these
important and essential elements of a new world order?
It does not need a clairvoyant to answer this question. Sociologists, through their science of statistics,
are frequently able to prognosticate with remarkable
fidelity situations a few decades ahead. This they
do by plotting the past curve of progress of any particular trend, and continuing this curve into the future.
This can even be done mathematically, and this process
is called "extrapolation."
A careful study of all the above mentioned trends,
tracing their curve of progress from 1850 on, would
give a rather definite assurance of universal success
before the end of the present century.
This optimism was frequently voiced by 'Abdu'l-
Baha in his public addresses in this country near the
beginning of the century. He called the twentieth cen-
76            Tomorrow and J'omorrol'V

tury the century of light, the century of radiance, the
century in which humanity would come of age and
establish world unity. "Verily the century of radiance
has dawned, minds are advancing, perceptions are
broadening, realizations of human possibilities are becoming universal, susceptibilities are developing. . . .
From every standpoint the world of humanity is undergoing are-formation . . . is in the throes of evolutionary activity indicating the passing of old conditions
and the advent of the new age of reformation."
'Abdu'l-Baha declared emphatically that the twentieth century would bring the consummation of all this
evolutionary activity, and witness the dawn of world
unity and peace. And he described the teachings of
Baha'u'lhlh as being "the very healing of the sick world,
the remedy for every need and condition. In them
may be found the realization of every desire and aspiration, the cause of the happiness of the world of humanity, the stimulus and illumination of mentality,
the impulse for advancement and uplift, the basis of
unity for all nations, the fountain-source of love
amongst mankind, the center of agreement, the means
of peace and harmony, the one bond which will unite
the east and the west." *
As 'Abdu'l-Baha is believed by Baha'is to have
had a prophetic power in wearing the mantle of his
father, a general faith and optimism prevail within their
ranks. In fact, a prominent government official-not
himself a Baha'i-recently remarked, "The Baha'is are
the only optimists left in the world."

Regarding the continuance and successful culmination of these cultural and humanitarian trends already
*The Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 434-35. From
an Address given in New York, November 17. 1912.
"This Century of Radiance"                77
mentioned, there can be on the part of all thinking
people-as we pointed out at the beginning of this
chapter-a general though not a specific assurance. But
one field of human aspiration remains blocked and
obstacled in such degree as to cause a prevailing despair. And this despair is deep indeed because the aspiration referred to, that of world peace, is essential to
the successful achievement of all the other aforementioned aspirations of humanity. Among all humanitarian and progressive ideals world peace has priority.
Unless it can be achieved, we may well despair of
achieving anything of stable value upon the planet!
And disappointingly we find that no method of
sociological or statistical prognostication can give us
here that measure of assurance that our hearts desire.
There are too many unforeseen, uncontrollable and
incalculable factors here, in this field of war and peace,
to permit of assured forecasts.
All we can say is that the world is in crying need
of peace; as a whole wishes peace; and in fact, is
committed with all its heart to this great desideratum.
We can go further and say that war is too dreadful, that
humanity cannot survive if it continues, and that a way
must be found to eliminate it from this planet!
We can say all this, but still have little faith. In
fact, we are today at the very nadir of our confidence
as regards the possibility of achieving, within any
recognizable period, that ultimatum to Mars which we
have, through the late weary years, so longed to make
effective.

But the Baha'is have faith even in this field of
blood and darkness. Two main concepts lift them
78              Tomorro}v and Tomorrow

above discouragement in the face of whatever perils
threaten. First, they believe that destiny operates in
human affairs; and that, as Baha'u'lhih said, it is
the will of God that war should cease. They believe
that a great Cosmic Force is available as a leverage
to world peace-a Force able to help humanity to
overcome all obstacles. Secondly, they accept with
complete faith 'Abdu'l-Baha's repeated assurances that
world peace and world unity will be achieved within
this century.
The Baha'is have faith. But they are also realists.
They do not expect this apogee of the star of world
peace until after still greater darkness and world perturbations. It will be these perturbations-rather than
any general trend of idealistic progress-that \vill force
humanity to end war and establish peace once and for
all.
These cataclysmic calamities are near at hand, it
is believed. So foretold 'Abdu'l-Baha. And so warns
their present world leader, Shoghi Effendi. A decade
or more of immense suffering lies before humanity,
the world over. A suffering which will bear fruit in a
universal and successful devotion to the tenets and practice of world peace.
This planetary ordeal will be brief. It will be in
fulfillment of all the Biblical prophecies. The best
preparation any individual can make is to increase the
attachment of his heart to God and strengthen his
spiritual forces. This will both enable hinI to endure,
and to teach others the way of endurance and of final
escape. There is no escape for humanity from its
dilemma, the Baha'is believe, save through turning to
God and learning how to spiritualize those human
institutions which are no,,, so proudly and so wantonly
secular; so ridden by termites of evil that they are ripe
for fall.
"This Century of Radiance"                 79

The structure of world unity and world federation
must be erected on spiritual foundations. This, in a
word, is the message of the Baha'i World Faith.
Nothing short of this will endure. Religion has always
been a cohesive force, capable of unifying diverse
cultures and habits. On the intellectual plane human
beings will always differ; and this is as it should be, for
the intellect is essentially an analytical instrument.
Only on the spiritual plane can complete harmony of
aim and action be achieved-under devotion to a common truth, a common cause, and to goals accepted as
spiritually mandatory.
Therefore, although the beginnings of world unity
and the inauguration of world federation may be
achieved through secular means, the Baha'is believe
that this noble experiment must be strengthened and
supported by a fast-growing and universal spiritual consciousness that will yield complete fealty to the concept
and practice of oneness in human affairs.
Certainly all the great world religions can, and
actually do unite in loyalty to this program of peace
and unity. It is the splendid goal, glittering from afar,
to which the earliest Christians dedicated their livesthe establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.
Every religion, in fact, preaches such a brotherhood.
But the dynamic power to mold human wills and
control human affairs has somehow died out; leaving the Church in all lands less effective than the dollar,
the laboratories of science, or the sword.
Will a new and vital spiritual inspiration seize hold
of humanity and bestow upon it the mind and will to
live more nobly? The Baha'is believe so. They dedicate their lives and all their abilities to this great
goal-of a spiritualized humanity banded together in
80              Tomorrow and Tomorrow

love and harmony, building noble institutions within the
pattern of a federated world.

The greater the darkness that envelops the world
the nearer is the dawn. That is the faith that upholds
Baha'is in both thought and action. And certainly
it is true for all of us, that no activities are ineffective
that are directed toward the achievement of these world
goals. The dread of futility is apt to paralyze action.
But we can be assured that no effort is futile that is
spent in the direction of destined and inevitable goals.
Everything that pertains to human progress as a
whole pertains to each individual as a necessary fae-·
tor of this progress. Let us repeat what we said at the
beginning of this book, the world of tomorrow will be
what we choose and work to make it.
Therefore the greater the obstacles that menace
world peace the greater must be our devotion and
zeal for this object. What the world needs in this
transitional epoch is a supreme and spiritualized dedication to these planetary goals that are in reality
spiritual in essence.
As the writer bade farewell to Ernest Gross and
wished him Godspeed in his new work as alternate
delegate to the United Nations Gross remarked soberly,
"Secular means are not enough!" "You mean that
spiritual means are needed?" "Yes!" was his terse
reply.
The Baha'is would say "Amen!" to this. And they
rejoice at every contribution to world unity on the
part of any individuals or movements. They are keen
to discern progress or even sincere efforts toward the
goals they envision; and they hold to their faith even
when world disasters obstruct and endanger these goals.
"This Century a/Radiance"                81

Josiah Royce, greatest philosopher Harvard has
produced, gave an inspiring message to the world in
his little booklet, "The Philosophy of Loyalty." Unlike most of his writings this can easily be understood.
In it he says that man as an individual does not reach
maturity until he finds a cause to which he can devote
himself and in which he can lose himself. Then his
individual life is raised above those perturbations which
daily annoy or threaten tranquility. For he lives not
in and for himself, but in and for a great movement
which can defy the years and seenlingly outlast Time
itself. Man is mortal but Truth is immortal. Man as
an individual is feeble; but as a loyal adherent to a
Great Cause he partakes of an infinite courage and
strength.
Such has been the history of loyalty. Perhaps it
is this that Christ had in mind when He said, "He
who would save his life shall lose it"-that is, never
attain to real maturity. "But he who shall lose his life
for My sake (for Truth's sake), shall find it unto life
eternal."
As we look around us today and study the movements which so strenuously occupy humans in every
part of the world, we can easily perceive that where
these movements are effective they are movements of
loyalty.
It is not difficult for us to see what goals today
are worthy of our striving. What is needed is not only
choice but dedication; not only wise effort but spiritual
potency. In the great exigencies of humanity today
no man can be lukewarm; no man can remain neutral.
We TIlust take sides. We must assume loyalties.
That movement which enlists and holds the greatest
loyalty will ultimately prevail. Numbers alone do not
count. Mathematics are less than spirit. Obstacles
82              Tomorrow and T Qmorrow

will yield to devotion and zeal. We are in reality dealing, at this present crisis of the world's existence, with
intangibles. And the sooner we realize that we are
dealing with intangibles, the sooner will we hew a
path to success. Outer force may be rallied to meet
outer force. But it is the side that can enlist the greatest
amount of intangible force that will win in the end.
Of these intangible forces, shall it be said that the
Force of Evil can outweigh the Force of Good? Never
has it been so in the history of the universe, and never
will it be so. The Force of Good will outweigh the
Force of Evil, and order will prevail over disorder.
But goodness, as mere goodness, cannot win the battle.
To goodness must be added force. And then evil, of
itself, will galvanize into successful action this force ot
goodness.
On the planet Earth, in this day and generation,
goodness means world peace; and the force of good is
equivalent to that power of a federated world which
can guarantee this peace.
Let all of us who pray and work for this great end
hold fast to that noble vision of endeavor which Browning voiced:

"One who never turned his back but marched
breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break
Never dreamed, though right were worsted,
wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake."
-- Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Used by permission of the curator)