D653 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DDDDSllbin (* <^^ %^ <*'' o ♦.,,.- .0' -^^ '>^ }?-nK .^'% : %/ •^"" \/ ''^^'' ^- '^ * rcS:^t^-».*^ o ^ %-^f.'!>.o*" \^'^!^^y.^ %-..^.^^', ^°^t. -J ' /% • : '^^0^ i ^s^Ho^ RECONSTRUCTION FOUR SUNDAY LECTURES By REV. DR. SAMUEL H. GOLDENSON Before The Rodef Shalom Congregation PITTSBURGH. PA. PITTSBURGH, PA. NATIONAL PRINTING COMPANY 1919 Copyrighted 1919 'REV. DR. SAMUEL H. GOLDENSON OCT 24 [919 (n)C!,A5(3 5 451 ^V^ ^JU The Meaning of Reconstruction NOVEMBER 17, 1918. The Scope of Reconstruction NOVEMBER 24, 1918. The Lines and Guarantee of Reconstructi'on DECEMBER 1, 1918. Justice— The Goal of Reconstruction DECEMBER «. 1918. The Meaning of Reconstruction. The Meaning of Reconstruction. We are on the threshold of a new era, an era that will be known to future histor- ians as the period of the reconstruction. In the same manner as the historians speak of the Renaissance, the Reformation, they will speak of the Reconstruction. Wherever the ward reconstruction will appear in capitals without qualification, without an adjective to limit it in one way or another, the children of the future will know that that particular reconstruction refers to the era of this time, the period immediately following the Great War. And it will be so known not because, I take it, that this particular work of recon- stituting society follows directly upon the war, the most stupendous, the most destructive war of all times, but because of the twofold char- acter of this particular reconstruction. The present attempt to reconstruct the world will be distinguished from all others in two ways; in its extensive character and in its intensive [3] RECONSTEUCTION nature. Extensively this reconstruction, before its impulse will have spent itself, will un- doubtedly touch the very uttermost ends of the inhabited world. No part of the world, however remote, will escape its influence. Every continent, every nation, every people will be affected by it. The changes that it will bring" about will be felt by every nation- ality and every tongue. Its force will not be spent until the entire human world will in some fashion, at least, be made over. That is its extensive character. Intensively, too, it will be distinguished from all other periods of reconstruction in its deliberateness, in its self-consciousness, and in its thorough-going character. Every reconstruction period in former times was more or less without thought. It was simply a natural process and the term reconstruction applied to it was usually adopted by later generations. Later generations, later historians, later thinkers be- gan to realize the meaning of the former period. This particular reconstruction differs from all the rest in that we are entering upon it with a great deal of consciousness, with a great deal of deliberate thought and deliber- [4] RECONSTRUCTION ate effort, and that never in the history of the world have there been so many men and wo- men of so man}^ different persuasions, nation- alities, points of view, interests, strata of so- ciety thinking of reconstruction. It is this fact of the multiplicity of interests and the common conviction that some changes must be wrought that gives the present reconstruc- tive effort its intensive character and makes it specially significant. Extensively it covers a wide area ; intensively, it takes hold of the hearts and minds of men as never before. And by reason of these two qualities this particu- lar reconstruction will be known as the great, the all inclusive and all sincere attempt, I hope, to so change the world that the things' vre have suffered in recent years we shall not suffer again. That, then, is the meaning of this recon- struction upon the threshold of which you and I stand at this time. But just because the word has been on the tongue of every think- ing citizen of today, just because we take it for granted that something will be changed in the way of reconstituting society, it is neces- sary for you and me to think very clearly upon the meaning of what should take place, [5] RECONSTRUCTION in order that we might properly share in the direction of the movement. Just because re- construction will be an effort in which so many of us will participate, so many of us wall be expected to cooperate, it is necessar}^ that you and I should know definitely and understand thoroughly whence the will to reconstruct originates, what its meaning is and what are its purposes. Reconstruction in the mind of the average person is usually connected with war only, and it is necessary for us to understand this, be- cause from this misconception arises many of the evils directly or indirectly connected with war. Most persons think of reconstruction as a period of change that takes place only after some war, and indeed there is some rea- son for that belief, for historically, reconstruc- tion in its more or less conscious quality has followed mostly upon wars. History has al- ways spoken of great human changes as aris- ing from war, and the reason is that history has been in earlier days a record of war causes and war results. As the earlier historians busied themselves with the inter-relations of nations as separate and mutually exclusive sovereignties and with the acts of dynasties [6] i EECONSTRUCTION it was quite natural tiiat wars should, furnish the points of demarcation and departure. All politics began with war, led up to war and ended with war and all the changes were occa- sioned by the redistribution of powers made necessary by war exigencies or anticipations. The periods of universal history have been di- vided by certain outstanding wars so that quite necessarily reconstruction was thought of as connected almost exclusively with war. When we regard the past we see that as a matter of fact reconstruction of peoples did take place after great and important wars. If we glance over Greek history we find that its period of reconstruction, its period of re- birth and culture and a sense of responsibility did follow after the great Persian war. The fifth and fourth centuries in Athens are the centuries of literature and of art. In that time the Greeks attempted to change societ.y to a more democratic form and endeavored to bring about a federation of states and all this was prompted by their experiences in their conflict with the Persian Empire. And when we think of Biblical history, when we regard the changes and movements in the history of Israel, we see there, too, that war [7] EECONSTRUCTION brought about certain very beneficent results. The rise of literary prophecy is unquestion- ably due to experiences and threats of war. The writings of Amos and Hosea, Micah and the first Isaiah were inspired by the things that they began to realize through Israel's conflict with Assyria. The fine insights of Jeremiah and the noble penetration of the latter Isaiah were surely informed by the spirit bred in the struggle with Babylon, and the vision gained of the transcendence of spir- itual over material realities, universal over national values, was itself the triumph of free moral worth, even in a condition of subjection to foreign material power. The body of Is- rael was exiled but the spirit through this very vision remained free to dream of a day when righteousness shall triumph and become the permanent basis of security and peace. In American history the term reconstruction is applied to the three or four decades of in- tra national readjustment that followed the Civil War. There is, therefore, some reason for the common belief that war and recon- struction go together, for the connection is well nigh universal. Yet, there is no justifi- cation to assume that because there is a re- [81 EECONSTEUCTION lationship between the two that this connec- tion is, therefore, an exclusive one, that is, that war alone supplies the occasion for recon- structing the social order. There is probably no greater mistake made about the causes of human progress and about the factors of hu- man development than this. It is because men have so long believed that reconstruction re- quires a war as its occasion and justification that this particular war has come about. The war literature, and we may well add much of the peace literature of the Teutonic peoples, is permeated with this view. They believed that the world cannot be changed, that evolu- tion cannot be brought about unless men ex- perience a great and consuming war. The doctrine of evolution to them was predicated primarily upon the fact of struggle. With- out a struggle men would remain stationary, they would not progress, they would not un- derstand the meaning of culture, or civiliza- tion or science. It was their belief that char- acter itself could not be realized and achieved except through a discipline occasioned by ex- periences or anticipations of war. To the Ger- man then the evils of war were discounted as mere incidents in the making of character, the [9] EECONST RUCTION development of culture, arts and sciences. Holding such a view, w^ar to them was not only inevitable in the process of human devel- opment but eminently desirable. Now, friends, is it true that reconstruction is the one and necessary outcome of war and that w^ar is the mother of the arts and sciences, of character, and of the virtues that men have learned to prize? Is it true that man will not move forward unless he be lashed by a war whip? What of man's mind, what of his nor- mal emotions and w^hat of life itself? Is not reconstruction of the verj^ nature of living? Reconstruction is a characteristic, an attri- bute of living. The very fact of living means the capacity and the necessity to change in the direction of a more abundant life. There is nothing more basic to human life, I might say further, nothing more basic to any life whatsoever than the need and the power to re- construct. The difference between an animate and an inanimate being is just in this, that when you strike an inanimate object it does not strike back of its own accord. It simply receives the blow and if in its very nature it can resist and remain whole, it does so, and if it cannot, it breaks up and tlie parts remain [10] EECONSTRUCTION where they fall. Not thus with a living thing. A living thing is an organism and its organic character resides in the fact that when some- thing happens to it, a kind of self assertive resiliency takes place, the power to recupe- rate is stirred and the effort is made to rees- tablish itself. This is of the wery nature of life itself in any organism, not to speak of a human being only. All life seeks to restabilize itself, to regain power, to withstand obstacles, to prevent new difficulties, and to go on in. spite of the hindrances that obstruct and often because of these very impediments. To rise above the thwarting experiences is a quality of life itself and certainlj^ of human life. Those who say, therefore, that we need a war in or- der that we might have the occasion and the stimulus to reconstruct society forget the basic and most fundamental quality of living. This very morning we had a slight occasion for re- construction. We rose and found it raining. Now rain is an obstacle to some extent. It certainly tended to dampen the ardor of some to come to services but many of us seemed to have overcome this particular hindrance. We circumvented the obstacle by using rubbers and umbrellas and raincoats. Every effort [11] KECONSTEUCTION that we make, every thought that we think is generated by some kind of an impasse, so that it is not necessary artificially to create ob- stacles, difficulties, and possible disasters in order to stir our will to progress and improve- ment. The extent of this war and the intense horror of it is due largely to this unhappy mistake of linking up reconstruction with war as its necessary condition. So long as men do not think of life itself as giving the ground and supplying the problem for reconstruction and for progress, so long will they require the stimulus of international hatred and enmity and belligerence to stir them to discipline themselves and so long will they welcome the combat in order to furnish the justification of changes in society. As the individual reconstructs himself daily in order to achieve the needs of his life so does society as a whole. It, like the individual, is organic in character. As in the individual every member of the body must coordinate with every other and function with the view of maintaining the whole, so in society every class and interest must regard other classes and interests and also what is known as the general welfare. Herein we find a still [12] EECONSTEUCTION greater reason for the Heedlessness of war to stimulate progress, for after all, society as a whole is not altogether like an individual. The parts of the body are knit together more close- ly and at no time can carry on a separate life, while in the social order classes and individ- uals have their own purposes, temporarily, and at those times, that is, when they pursue their private ends in disregard of general well- being, there grow up differences and antagon- isms. Here then, we have within society al- ways the problem of overcoming differences, antagonisms and surmounting obstacles. Reconstruction then being of the very es- sence of life itself and also made more neces- sary by the quite natural differences that de- velop in human intercourse, what then shall we say should be its temper and spirit? How shall we think of it? Shall we regard it, as so many do, from the standpoint of its literal meaning and conceive of it as a mechanical process? Is reconstruction merely to build up again the structures which by one cause or an- other had been destroyed, or shall we view re- construction as the readiness to heed to the basic yearnings and the attempt to summon the latent powers and idealisms of man in or- [13] EECONSTEUCTION der to make life better? There is a profound difference between these two points of view. There are some who think of reconstruction in a literal fashion and accordingly would bring back the old conditions, would replace them to Avhat they are pleased to say is the normal condition of life. The normal condi- tion to them seems to be the way things were five years ago, — a world divided into a num- ber of nations, great and small, one consider- ing the other its natural and inevitable enemy and the problem for each Avas to assert its own sovereignty, by itself if possible, or in league with some other nation who stands in fear of the same fate through the same chan- nels. Insofar as you regard reconstruction from this literal, superficial, so-called normal standpoint, you are missing the very purpose and meaning of this particular reconstruction that is about to begin for us. The world will not be reconstructed in a way that will satisfy a human heart and mind so long as men wish to recall the very conditions that have caused the suffering and agonies of these last four years. The war came upon us because those conditions were not normal, that is, they were not up to the norm, up to the standard [14] EECONSTRUCTION of the life that human beings should live, the life of justice and of truth, of honor and mutual respect. The war arose out of abnor- mal inter-relationships. Powers were not ad- justed righteously. Ideas were not under- stood and digested. Such noble and beneficent doctrines as evolution were misconceived and consciously misinterpreted in order to create anticipatory justifications for suspicion and hatred and aggression. The notion that a cer- tain people had a monopoly of culture and the sole right and obligation to impose such cul- ture upon the rest of the world could not but issue in war, and to their misguided thinking such a war was a necessary clearing process in the upbuilding of a better society. It gave them, therefore, a sense of virtue and the be- lief that they were engaged in a most laudable and holy cause. Such were some of the ideas that operated in the minds of men in the years before the war. Though the Teutonic people were, of course, most obsessed of these notions, yet who would say that no other nation did not possess some of these ideas in those days, at any rate, the belief that war is necessary as a disciplinary experience and as a stimulus to a more masculine moral life. [15] KECONSTEUCTION Over and over again I hear men say that this is going to be a hard time. We are faced by hard conditions, and when one inquires why it will be hard, we are told that it will be so difficult to get things back to the normal condition. I hope it will be hard. I hope it will never be brought back to that con- dition. In order to satisfy the ideals that have been stirred and in order to answer to the so- called compensations that have been generated during the war, the present reconstruction will have to be along the lines of the causes that have brought the world disaster. It will have to be preventive of the same factors and the same underlying motives that have operated to bring it about. It seems simple to say this, it seems obvious and yet how many there are, how many in this very country of enlightment, who shrug their shoulders and turn away from such a program which they claim human na- ture cannot achieve. They are even impatient with our President, who, they say, would make society a one grand and impossible Utopia. They do not like so much talk about righteous- ness and certainly not of mercy. They want to bring back the world with its old inequali- ties, with that old conception of individual- [16] RECONSTRUCTION ism predicated upon poAver. The righteous- ness that is informed with the spirit of mercy is a righteousness they cannot trust. They prefer to put their confidence in a righteous- ness that is indignant and a justice that is punitive. They only have one passion and that is to punish the enemy. Then automati- cally the world will right itself, it will come back to its past status and all will be well. I say as long as we think in these terms we miss the great opportunities, the deepest sat- isfactions of our lives. Let me remind you that in order that reconstruction be genuine it will have to be of the same nature of the earliest reconstruction that you and I as -Jews know. It may possibly have never occurred to you that the ten commandments that I read to 3^ou this morning seems to be the first, the most conscious and deliberate attempt made in the world's history to reconstitute life. Else what is the meaning of the first sentence of the ten commandments? Why should the Lord have insisted that the Children of Israel should know that He it was who brought them out of the land of Egypt. ^'I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt." The purpose of this reminder, it [17] EECONSTRUCTION seems, was to make them recall their hard lot, their sufferings among the Egyptians and the great war that they had to wage. ''Because you, the Children of Israel/' the thought seems to run, "have known hardship, known slavery, knoAvn injustice, known hatred, known ex- ploitation, therefore, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not covet," etc. The ten commandments were given to Is- rael, not that Israel might in its turn give them to Egypt only, but that it should take heed of them among themselves and also teach them to the rest of the world. This basic law of Israel aims to reconstruct society by puri- fying most of the primary relationships among men and even extends to the animal world. In the observance of the Sabbath the law- giver does not stop with the man and his family only but goes on to insist that provis- ion must be made even for the ox and the ass. The special explicitness with which the com- mandment ''Thou shalt not covet" is given marks the realization on the part of the an- cient teacher. How often is this seen; how many of the ills of society are rooted in it! Agsression and exploitation are nothing more [18] EECONSTRUCTION than national covetousness justified by so- called culture and civilization. So then, friends, that to me is the meaning of reconstruction. I pray that you will think more carefully about the era that we are now entering. We Jews especially, who through- out our own historj^ have suffered so often by reason of the prevalence of false notions and ideas, should take to heart the most recent experiences of mankind and seek to contrib- ute out of the storehouse of our spiritual treas- ures the purposes and ideals that shall help men to reconstruct society along the lines laid down by our sages and lawgivers and proph- ets. It is for us now to redeem the professions that we have made throughout the centuries, — that we have been preserved for the spiritual end of teaching the doctrine of the one God and of uniting all mankind in His name, by emphasizing and reemphasizing only those principles that unite and those beliefs that are based upon a righteousness rooted in genu- ine and sympathetic understanding of the forces and problems of life. [19] The Scope of Reconstruction. The Scope of Reconstruction. In- our talk last week we viewed Reconstruc- tion from the standpoint of its meaning. We inquired into its essential significance and sought to point out that Reconstruction is not a process that follows exclusively upon wars, but that it is of the very essence of life itself. Life, in any form, from the most rudimentary to the most complex phase is reconstructive in character. When life ceases to move in the direction of acquiring ever greater strength and poise, the organism in Avhich it resides ceases to live. Life is self -recovery ; it is a self-renewing process. In social life the prin- cipal problem always is to restabilize, to incor- porate within itself the experiences of former times in such a way as to meet the newer situ- ations or perhaps to create them. The func- tion of intelligence is to become auxiliary to this central process hy throwing its light upon experiences that may affect this movement in some favorable fashion. Intelligence aims [23] EECOXSTEUCTION -to separate in all complex situations tlie things that are evil from the things that are good, discarding the evil influences and promoting and furthering the useful ones. This morning we shall view the problem of Reconstruction from the standpoint of its scope. Where shall we say should Reconstruc- tion begin and what are its natural limits? The obvious answer is that as life is of one piece, so the reconstructive process should cover all and every phase of human endeavor. To limit the process is to stop short at some point artificially created and at that point there is sure to be generated a new crop of problems to overcome in the future. The out- standing illustration in the minds of all of us at this time, I believe, is in the disasters that have befallen Germany in attempting to re- construct and to develop its own life by set- ting arbitrary limits to human interests and by assuming a monopoly upon culture and even upon the right to life. The chief crime on the part of Germany was to conceive of its life as privileged and sepa- rate from the life of all other nations. It is this very conception that led it to use the forci- ble and savage methods to establish these ex- [24] RECONSTRUCTION elusive ends. May we not find in this a sugges- tion and a warning with regard to the limits of Reconstruction? As Germany's sin against humanity was due to the attempt to construct a national life in disregard of the interests of other nations, so it seems quite obvious that the Reconstruction, forced hy the disaster that Germany brought upon itself and upon other peoples, must not be allowed to follow the same lines of exclusively national interests and purposes. In a word Reconstruction, to be effective, healing and far-reaching, must be international in character. There are, however, certain difficulties in getting men and women to appreciate the necessarily international scope of social and political readjustment. These difficulties do not altogether spring from deliberate and in- tentional rejection of the claims of other peo- ples. There is unfortunately something in the very habits of our thinking that makes us provincial. All our thinking is in response to personal needs and wants and these arise within specific areas of experience and rela- tionship. It is because of these limited situa- tions out of which thought arises that we ac- quire the habits of regarding things in terms [25] EE CONSTRUCTION of personal interests, of family claims, of pro- vincial purposes. It requires, therefore, a very great effort on the part of a man at any time to transcend and to overcome- the habits of mind engendered by private and personal experiences. It is, indeed, hard to think in- ternationally because few of us have had in- terests that called for international relation- ships. The difficulty is to overcome a very natural psychological conservatism. One does not willingly and consciously try to be con- servative; one is so by reason of attachment to limited experiences and circumscribed in- terests. What is needed is to make us realize the scope of our own interests, how they be- come secure by understanding; that they are interpenetrated with the interests of others. We need to be educated in the knowledge of the expansiveness of human interests and thus to take the broader and graduated view of the problems that seem to be exclusi\ely our own. This education is not easy at first because it means a breaking a"way from the natural habits of thought and also because it demands the yielding up of so-called advantages and cherished ideas and ideals. It is easier to re- [26 1 EECONSTRUCTION main at the bottom of the mountain than to rise up to its pinnacle, but when one has risen to the top the view is greater, the vistas are larger and the horizon opens out new points of contact between heaven and earth. But unhappily most of us live in the valleys. The very mountains, upon the top of which lie freedom and peace, hedge us around, obstruct our view and paralj^ze our wills. We usually live upon the level of what we choose to call "everyday facts," hardly realizing that these facts are kept stale and commonplace largely by keeping out of them the fresh experiences and invigorating life of new and open con- tacts with other worlds. Thus it is that the great difficult}^ to international thinking lies in our disposition to take a personal or pro- vincial view of the claims and problems of life. Another reason why we seem to be unable to think internationally is found in the fact that organized religion, as it finds itsolf ex- pressed in the church theology, has for the most part emphasized personal morals and relationships. Religion itself which should have supplied the major stimulus to inclusive and over-personal thinking has often rein- forced private and provincial outlooks. For- [27] KECONSTEUCTION tunately, we Jews have been free from this limiting and cramping religious standpoint. But yet, our life has been influenced by the general trend and control of things in the Western world where the chief business of religion has been that of soul saving. Organ- ized and official life has after all been in the hands of those who subscribe to the dominant religion. That religion has for ages regarded the person in his private capacity and con- ducted a limited business with him. He in turn acquired the habit of thinking of religion only in terms of his personal soul life. The things that engaged his attention on the common days of the week were made secular and acquired a secondary place in his religious life, if any place at all. The force of the church was spent in keeping the first day of the week sacred to the Lord and when Monday arrived the puplit and the pews had exhausted their religious energies. Thus it is that these days were left to shift for themselves. It is for this reason that religion has been so impotent in this great crisis in the world's life. Had religion taught mankind to think socially instead of personally and about everyday affairs without divorcing life into two mutually unrelated parts, the [28] EECONSTEUCTION secular and the sacred, the world catastrophe would hardly have come upon us and if it had the religious teachers and instrumentalities would have exercised some influence in bring- ing about a recognition of the enormity of the crime and of putting an end to it much sooner. It is because religion has specialized upon man's soul rather than applied itself to the solution of the problems of man's moral and social life in its entirety that there have grown up so many different standards of ethics, each one necessarily partial and limited and con- trolling in its own field. In the fifteenth cen- tury, when the world was dominated by the church much more than today, Machiavelli wrote his famous and very influential book on "The Prince." These lectures were de- signed to train the young man in the art of statecraft and in the principles of diplomacy. This book is the direct result of the separa- tion of church and state morality, of divorcing personal from national ethics. Disaster, in- trigue and indirection are openly and frankly preached by this instructor as permissible, if not desirable methods of dealing between na- tions. He conceived that the nation did not have a soul as the individual has and that, [29] EECONSTRUCTION therefore, the morals that applied to a soul- possesshig person did not need to apply to a soulless entity. This teacher but ex- pressed what must have been felt by a great many, — that the state is a law unto itself; that methods of conducting its business and especially when that business touched the in- terests of other states, are different from those rules of conduct evolved in personal life. It was quite possible, under the religious con- ceptions that operated in the minds of men in those days, to be a perfectly respectable ruler through the arts of chicanery and intrigue, and at the same time a loyal and pious man. Official and institutionalized religion required certain observances at stated times. These being discharged, the church had no further interest. It was a simple conception of relig- ion based upon equally simple legalistic notions, of ideas of well-defined obligations within a restricted area. It is for this reason that so many find it difficult to carry over their moral notions into international questions and claims. Religion has not taught the major portion of humanity to think of the need of applying spiritual principles to international 30] RECONSTRUCTION bounclar.Y lines, economic interdependences, freedom of the seas and the like. The negative notion of the soulless charac- ter of the state would not be so dangerous were it not connected with the mischievous conception of its self-sufficiency. In the seven- teenth and eighteenth century there was de- veloped the idea of the state as a gigantic entity boasting of its independent life and dis- claiming any obligations that would in the re- motest manner tend to curtail its right to con- duct its own affairs. This right to absolute non-interference is the doctrine of state sov- ereignty Avhich turns out to be nothing more than individualism applied to state life. The state is to have unlimited power in its own do- mains and absolute freedom from interference from those outside of the state. In a \ery in- teresting article which came to me recently, written b}^ H. G. Wells, he gives us vvhat he considers the leading obstacle to international- ism. He calls it ''the great power theory." What he seems to mean by ''the great power theory" is state sovereignty predicated upon power, — power to the utmost, power self-suf- ficient and without responsibility to anything outside of itself. Few of us realize that all [31] RECONSTEUCTION this lies behind the word power when asso- ciated with nations. We often speak of great nations as great powers, but rarely appreciate that when we use this term in this eulogistic manner, we indicate our acceptance of the doctrine that the aim of the state is to possess as much power as possible and to use it as a means of self-advancement. I doubt whether any of us would speak of an individual as a power except in connection with some definite sphere. We speak of a human being as a power here or a power there, in this walk of life or in that, but never without some quali- fication. But when it comes to a state we are perfectly ready to accord it power, without questioning its use or need. When a human being acts through power merely he remains an individual, but when he uses that same power out of a sense of respon- sibility^, he thereby achieves personality. An individuality, acting through sheer power, em- phasizes merely the things whereby he differs and always keeps others aloof. A personality how^ever, acting purposefully and responsibly, attracts others towards him and includes them in some form of mutual life. So long, there- fore, as we think of a nation in terms of mere [32] KECONSTRUCTION power and exalt its influence on the basis of its physical force, so long will national life in itself differ in moral quality from the life of men and women in all other forms of associa- tion. Then, there is an economic reason why some in America find themselves lukewarm to Re- construction upon an international scale. Those of you who have pondered at all on re- cent events will have noticed, I am sure, that there is growing up in our midst two well de- fined and differing attitudes to the problems of Reconstruction. There is the internation- ally minded man who reacts to idealism and there is also the nationalistic individual whose outlook is limited by private and personal in- terests. There is no reason for us to blink the fact this morning. No problem is ever solved by disregarding it. On the one hand, I find in the life of Ameri- ca the men who think of this country from the standpoint of its physical and material re- sources. They believe in America not so much as a place where certain institutions and ideals are to be developed, but rather as a place where there are stored up the necessary and sufficient means of livelihood for a certain num- [33] E E C O N S T R U C T I O N ber of human beings. It is a hard headed point of view. It is the view of the man who sees no reason why he should risk any of the things that may prejudice his interests when there is really no need for such a speculative at- tempt. It is the eminently practical stand- point. This land is bountiful; it is rich; its mineral and vegetable resources are without limit. Why enter into an international scheme when there is really no need for it! It is the speech of unmoralized riches. This is nothing more than economic selfishness. It is material- ism, justifjring a stay-at-home attitude to world problems. Then, too, there is the so-called patriotic obstacle to internationalism. From time im- memorial, the sentiment of patriotism has had more or less of a negative and exclusive flavor. The average patriotic speech is not satisfied to inculcate love of institutions and ideals of one's own country, but somehow by implica- tion tends to reflect upon other nations. It is rare when a patriotic address does not abound in superlative boasts. Our young have been brought up in this notion of the superi- ority of all things American, but the real mis- chief in this kind of patriotic self-exaltation [34 1 KECONSTKUCTION lies in the fact that often but a very fine line divides a sense of superiority from exclusive- ness. Because many of us have been brought up in this notion of shallow patriotism, we fear international points of view and arrangements. We seem to confuse internationalism with cos- mopolitanism. A cosmopolitan is supposed to be a person who loves every nation alike, but the peculiar thing about him is that he tends to love the other nations more than his own. The cosmopolitan has no genuine lo3^alty. He is perpetually on the go, if not physically, certainly mentally. He never stays in one place long enough to become naturalized, that is, to develop certain sentiments, afi:*ections and obligations toward his home land. Of course, when we think of internationalism in this way it becomes to us a kind of free love which we quite naturallj^ fear. The mischief in free love is not that an individual has a capacious heart but a fickle one. A man who cannot develop a sufficient love for a person to make him a reliable and responsible agent in the upbuilding and the development of hu- man life is certainly not a safe spouse. But internationalism does not mean fickleness or [35] EECONSTRUCTION interchangeableness of national loyalties. It in no way negates a patriotic sentiment. On the contrary, it purifies and ennobles one's patriotism. The internationally minded also have a jealous regard for their own country. The standpoint, however, is one of service, of function in the economy of the world rather than of self aggrandizement and of acquisi- tion of power or of glory for one's own na- tion. When one so loves his nation as never to want it in the wrong in any conflict, that is internationalism. ''My country, right or wrong," is a nice sounding phrase, but it is finer to say and to feel that my country is right, and still finer to do everything possible to keep the country in the right. There is, there- fore, a nationalism of internationalism and that is the nationalism of service, of righteous- ness and of love of humanity as a whole. What now are some of the direct and posi- tive arguments for internationalism? It may be well to start with an appeal to facts. It is important sometimes to turn to actualities. What are the facts of life? What are the facts of human experience with reference to the sphere in which life itself is cast ? Let us look over the world and see what we find there. [36] RECONSTRUCTION There are differences of seasons, differences of climate. Seasons and climate combine to produce certain things that men, in the course of time learn to use and to enjoy. There is no land upon the face of the earth, not even America, that produces all the goods that men enjoy daily. When you and I were children we played many guessing games and the commonest one played the world over, I think, is the game in which the company sent a person out of the room and then decided upon a given object wiiich that person upon his return was to guess. The object chosen to test the imagina- tion was, as you will recall, as remote and ab- struse as the joint minds could seize upon. But we remember, too, that even as children we learned the process of elimination. We learned to classify all the objects of nature in two or three great divisions. We used to begin questioning the compam^ in this fashion: "Does the object belong in the vege- table kingdom: does it belong in the mineral kingdom; does it belong in the animal king- dom?" By this means we narrowed the field of things to the fewest general classes. [37] RECONSTRUCTION Now, where is the vegetable kingdom or the mineral kingdom or the animal kingdom? Does America or England or France or Italy have a monopoly upon any one of these king- doms? Even as children we knew that each one of these kingdoms is a cross section of ele- ments that are distributed the world over; that there is no part on the face of the earth that has not some share in these kingdoms. These are facts, and facts that testified, even to us as children, that no country exhausts any department of the earth's values. In our guessing games we learned as children to use our physical geography of the entire earth in our search for the object in the minds of our playmates. In those early days we caught a glimpse of the internationalism of the world's goods. When you go home this noon you will par- take of your average Sunday meal, and if you would take the time to investigate into the origin of the things that you eat and the utensils you use, you will see, I think, that it is actually an international banquet that is being served you. This banquet is produced hj the international forces and agencies. One dish comes from one country ; another from [38 1 KECONSTEUCTION the second; another from the third and still another from a fourth and so on. As with this simple meal, so with almost every single thing that we enjoy in the world. Every ar- ticle is a composite whose elements have been gathered from all the four corners of the earth. When these things were brought to- gether does not matter. The building up pro- cess may have taken a longer or a shorter time. The fact remains that the thing is a world product. That is what I mean when I call your attention to an actuality. In the face of that, how absurd is nationalistic arrogance ! How do you oi' I know what tomorrow may bring forth and what land or what hidden spot of the earth may not bring forth some new value, some undreamed elixir of life. Ra- dium was discovered a short time ago. Was it found in Pittsburgh? How would you like to be cut off from the use of radium just be- cause it is not a Pittsburgh product? Ridicu- lous, you say! It is not any more ridiculous than many another notion that comes from our inappreciation of the interdependence of life and of values. As the physical thing or the article of food is the product of international action, so and [39] RECONSTRUCTION to a greater degree, perhaps, is our intellectual food. If you read any essay with a view of tracing the thoughts and sentiments of the writer, where would you find the limits of his sources? Does the essay possess any cultural value, — then it must itself be the product of cultural development and when did that be- gin and who was the originator? If the es- say is written in English, who would dare to claim that the ideas are all English, or Ameri- can, and if not all English, what part? Take any history of civilization. What do we find at the outset? Does it deal with a particular country? It may, but only to point out a par- ticular contribution, but that contribution it- self is the outcome of contact with other peo- ples. Thus it is that history is never finished ; it is always written and rewritten from the standpoint of a deeper appreciation of sources and of mutual influence. If we were asked to name a dozen of the leading personalities of the world, the masters of thought, the men who have in some out- standing way changed the direction of human thinking, who would these men be? Would they be all Americans, all Englishmen, all Frenchmen? Would we not name such men [40] EECONSTRUCTION as Plato and Aristotle, Greeks; Moses and Isaiah, Jews ; Galilei, an Italian ; Copernicus, a Pole; Descartes and Rousseau, Frenchmen; Kant and Hegel, Germans; Hobbes and Locke, Englishmen ; Emerson and Lincoln, Americans. All these men together have played important parts in the production of what we call human culture or civilization. Every one of these men wrote with due reference to his predeces- sors and without arbitrarily limiting the sources of his information or inspiration. For that reason, these men became great and are today our teachers and yet we keep on prat- ing of national achievements as if they were really exclusively national. Is not this after all the great mistake that Germany made? It is, indeed, hard to understand how a nation so cultivated and so thoroughly cognizant of the interdependent nature of human culture could substitute its own exclusive brand, spelled with a *'K" for that which is inter- human and international. The only explana- tion is that this substitution was artificially superinduced on the people by the nationalis- tic arrogance of the Prussian state. Now, as to morals! Are morals national in character? Is there such a thing as American [41] EECONSTEUCTION righteousness, English truth, French justice, Italian fairness or Russian honor? We need only to attach these labels to the moral cate- gories to show the absurdity of such notions. When a man seeks to be righteous, what hap- pens to him ? Does he not in that very attempt transcend his own private and exclusive self and arise to such an idea as will enable him to comprehend the interests of others as well as his own? Is not his righteousness marked by this very ability to treat the other person as if he were part of himself? Every moral endeavor leads to the fusion of selves, that is, to such realization of mutual interests as will enable the two selves to remain in har- mony as if they were one. This is what we mean when we say that nothing is settled per- manently unless it is settled right, for the wrong settlement will cry out until a new ad- justment will be made. The fact is, and this must not be lost sight of, that a wrong set- tlement means a settlement in which human beings are made to suffer unjustly and it is these human beings who will and must for- ever fight until the world does them justice. And what of religion? Is religion national or international? By religion I do not mean [42 1 Rlil CONSTRUCTION institutionalized theologies. I mean the senti- ment that flows directly from the conscious- ness of God and seeks to apply that conscious- ness to human life and problems. I read to you for our Scripture reading today from the Book of Malaehi. When it comes to the great crises of life, when it comes to the attempt to solve important human situations, we are happy that we can go back to Scripture for inspiration and guidance Said Malaehi more than two thousand years ago "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? Why then does one man deal treacher- ously with his neighbor?" When religion is referred to God as its inspirer and not to some ecclesiastical order, some church practice or teaching, some particular creed, then invari- ably and inevitably the outcome is a vision of human interdependence, of brotherhood, of relationship of country with country, of man with man no matter what the conditions of origin, of language, or of nationality. If the religious teachers of the world could rise to this conception of the oneness of God as the sanction of and compulsion to moral life, then religion would play a really important part in the life of mankind, instead of carrying on [43] RECONSTRUCTION a shadowy existence amid such stern and bit- ter realities. These, friends, are the thoughts that have come to me about internationalism. I sought to give you the obstacles and to explain them away and to point out at the same time the permanent grounds and arguments for inter- national mindedness. How shall we bring this about? It is one thing to be able to dis- cuss why things should be such and such, but unhappily it is another thing to call them into being. The problem is usually one of will. If men really want to become international in their conceptions and interests, they must learn to pay the price and that is to sink per- sonal and private and exclusive ends. We must learn to think of America as a great in- strument, as a function, as a servant, even as Israel began more than twenty-five hundred years ago to think of itself as a servant, as a kingdom of Priests. If America wishes ta rise to that conception of responsible steward- ship, America can and will find the way and will lead, I believe. She is doing it today and through a man who, through his knowledge of history and through his native instincts for what is just and fair and righteous, is [44] KECONSTRUCTION pointing to a grander and nobler patriotism, — patriotism of democracy, patriotism of service, of the love of American Ideals. But let us realize that no one man, however high his station or great his power, can achieve what in the nature of things must lie within the power of an entire nation. So then, let each one of us learn to think of internationalism as a religion, as a moral necessity, as something that will save mankind and redeem us all and make life safe and secure for all time. 45 J The Lines and Guarantee of Reconstruction. The Lines and Guarantee of Reconstruction. It is our purpose this morning to discuss Reconstruction from the standpoint of the lines and guarantees that shall make it stable, effectual and progressive. In our first talk we warned against regarding Reconstruction too literally. "We referred particularly to the first syllable of the word, the syllable which means a return to or a reversion to some for- mer ways or conditions. To attempt to recon- struct society so as to regain the status quo before the war would be a too literal interpre- tation cf our problem and would lead to the reestablishment of those very conditions out of which, in part at least, the war has arisen. This morning I wish to give voice to another warning and that is that we should not regard reconstruction too literally from the stand- point of the meaning of the word "con- struct." The word belongs to an order of ex- perience where men deal with physical things [49] EECONSTRUCTION as fixed material for the production of definite instrumentalities. These physical objects are employed as means of creating the things de- sired and these desired agencies or tools or articles can be used only after they are com- pletely manufactured. It is very unwise, quite impractical and often altogether impos- sible to live in a building that has not yet been completely erected. We make a building and after it is finished we equip it and move into it. We manufacture a vehicle, as a wagon or an automobile ; we make an instrument, as a violin or a piano, but would not think of using these before their essential parts have been joined and organized in such a fashion as to enable them to function for our purpose. Social reconstruction, however, is not quite that kind of manufacture. It does not belong in the world of industry where processes re- quire substantial completion before any use or enjoyment of the object is possible. It is necessary to have this in mind for unless we do certain misunderstandings are bound to arise. History abounds in illustrations of the misunderstandings that arise from the confu- sion of reconstruction that belongs in the physical and material world with that that [50] KECONSTRUCTION operates in the social and spiritual spheres. The outstanding example of this confusion lies behind orthodox socialism which for two score of years has taught the doctrine that the reconstruction of the world must wait for a thorough-going and wholesale establishment of a new state based upon the complete ac- ceptance and incorporation of its doctrines. This thought of theirs led quite inevitably to the complementary doctrine of the necessity of a sudden social revolution as a means of bringing this new order about. Since the new regime was not to be brought about piecemeal and by easy and gradual changes, there was really no other way by which it could be achieved than by a sudden transformation of society. This accounts for the fact that many socialists have shown little or no interest in the improvements that have been gradually made, and have often gone so far as to oppose these betterments; their reason evidently be- ing that these improvements tend to stay and to allay the desire for total and radical changes. There is another reason why men tend to postpone reconstruction. Strangely enough that reason finds its roots in an altogether dif- [51] RECONSTRUCTION ferent sphere of human interest. While the postponement that we have just spoken of arises from superimposing upon the social world experiences of an industrial nature, ex- periences taken from the materialistic world, the postponement that I now have in mind arises from so-called spiritual and religious conceptions. There aie many men who believe in reconstruction as the rest of us do, but they hold that it does not lie within man's nat- ural powers to bring it about. They believe in outside agencies that must operate by the intervention of supernatural powers. In a word, that theory is millenial in character. This Utopian reconstruction is to come, to be sure, but the date is a thousand years hence. Man in the present is not worthy of such a Kingdom of Heaven; he is not good enough; his life has not merited such a paradise and moreover he is not equal to the task of bring- ing it about. And if he were today to be ushered into it, he would not be intelligent enough to appreciate it. Hence, why not let well enough alone and wait. Is it not strange that the writer of Deuter- onomy, whose observations we read this morn- ing, seemed to have foreseen this attempt on [52] EECONSTRUCTION the part of man to postpone the ethical and spiritual reconstitution of society on the ground of his natural human limitations. I must make this confession. The other lectures in this series were introduced by a scriptural reading and this whole week I wondered where in the Bible there was anything that would give a Biblical justification and a basis for im- mediate and direct reconstruction along demo- cratic lines. There is much about justice in the Bible, but where in the Bible is there an appeal to democratic power and responsibil- ity? But suddenly it occurred to me that in the 30th chapter of Deuteronomy there is a most direct and pertinent discussion of the very point that we have in mind. You remem- ber that God spoke to the children of Israel about personal responsibility and about the possibility that lies in the life of each man to control his own destiny. ''I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that I have set before thee life and death, the bless- ing and the curse, therefore choose life that thou mayest live." It is for you, O man, to determine which path you will choose. An- ticipating, however, that men might argue, as do the latter day opponents of the new social [53] RECONSTKUCTION order, the scriptural speaker warns his hearers : "For this commandment which I com- mand thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say: 'Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?' Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say: 'Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we m.ay do it?' But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." Here we have the anti-millenial theory of social and individual reconstruction. The law of God is not in heaven, it is not beyond the seas, it requires no definite lapse of time or some specially appointed intermediary but it is in the heart of every man and woman to under- stand and to obey. "The word of the Lord," said the scriptural writer, "is very nigh unto thee ; in thy mouth and in thy heart that tliou mayest do it." This is the very basis of democracy which believes in the capacity of the average man to appreciate finer values and to realize his own personal responsibility in the creation and the preservation of them. [54] RECONSTRUCTION Reconstruction, then, is to take place all the while. One need not wait for a millenium to enjoy any of the fruits that can and should be created by the inherent goodness and generosit}^ of the common man. The fruits are always and immediately the result of every simple attempt to change the world and to make it better and finer. There is no man who puts forth the slightest effort to bring more beauty or truth or happiness in the world that does not by so much enrich life and reconstruct it to that degree. Of course, if there are more men who engage their energies in serious efforts to make life better and to understand more clearly the issues and the problems of life, the more quickly will there be brought about greater, more far-reaching and more abiding improve- ments, but the fact is that progressive and re- constructive changes can be brought about at any time and through every person. Still certain general lines must be observed, if we would make the process effectual and sound. In general we shall gather these prin- ciples under the single term of "Democracy," but let me say at the outset that democracy is a much misunderstood term. Men generally re- gard it as a word that belongs primarily, if [55] RECONSTBUCTION not exclusively, in the field of politics or goy- emment. To many it signifies a theory of gov- ernment as opposed to that which is known as autocrac}^ We think of democracy in con- nection with monarchy, autocracy and oli- garchy and assume that all that is necessary to bring about a democratic state of society is to overthrow the other forms of political control. From this standpoint democracy is conceived as a residual state that automatically follows upon the rejection of the others. Democracy, however, is more than that. It is a positive and an affirmative factor in the upbuilding of new and finer relationships be- tAveen man and man It is a religion; it is a faith in human beings; it is a belief that man and the world stand in a relationship that is ethical in character. To me it seems that the first fundamental basis for democracy is in the conviction that the earth is the common possession of the human family. The world is the inheritance of mankind. I know no one else upon earth who could claim a better title to the world and its goods than man. Man's title to it is based upon his belief in the Crea- tor, his striving to realize the will of the Crea- tor and his ability to appreciate the purposes [561 KECONSTEUCTION and the values of created things. ''The earth is mine and the fulness thereof" is an insistence which, to the Jewish consciousness, spells an ethical warning that men should not regard it as the private and irresponsible possession of particular individuals. When we think of the earth as the sum-total of values created by man in his long struggle with its indeterminate powers and capacities evolved by him, then we feel all the more that this earth is the possession of the entire human family. The earth is plastic. We cannnot tell one day what on the next day we will find it capable of and who will be the finder. Our forefathers would find the world changed to- day and we shall find it much changed a gen- eration hence. A richer world will greet our children and grand-children and as men learn to cooperate more and to coordinate their efforts, human progress will grow ever more swiftly and truly. In insisting upon laying the world open to the action of many minds, we do not mean to imply that the important thing is in the fact of the numher of minds. We do not treat of human minds numerically, that is, from the standpoint of quantities. We do not think of [57] EE CONSTRUCTION the world as a fixed mass whose weight cannot be carried or moved by a given number and, therefore, demands additional muscular energy to move it, just as we add more horsepower in moving heavy boulders or beams. The im- portant thing about many minds is that they are different minds, and that their difference in quality tends to bring out different values in the world. This, then, is an additional ground for democracy. Just as the external world itself is in part an undisclosed region of values, so within human life there lie hidden differences of abilities, of outlooks, of purposes and all these are needed to make experience rich, stimulating, interesting and satisfying. When we realize the need and the value of human differences, we arrive at the last and most basic ground for democracy. It is for every one of us, therefore, to put faith in the sin- cerity, to trust in the intelligence and morality of the average human being to produce some- thing and to add something to the sum total of human values. Democracy is a belief in the capacity of the average normal man or woman to contribute to the goods of life. If we have no such belief, then we can entertain no demo- cratic ideal. There is nothing that so enriches [58] RECONSTRUCTION life as to believe that one does not possess a monopoly of truth or of knowledge, of sin- cerity, of generosity, of idealism; that these virtues are shared by others and that if the world of men and women were given the right- ful opportunity, they would themselves be able to achieve the same standard of excel- lence. What, now, are these principles in their re- lation to the world that is to be reconstructed? Remember that the first thought of democracy is that the whole world is the common posses- sion of every one of us and because there are diverse possibilities and interests we need an orderly conduct of affairs in order that we might be able to bring about the finest and most varied results. This orderly conduct of the world should be made possible by a govern- ment capable of appreciating the manifold values that lie dormant all about us. It is be- cause of our common interest in this common world, enriched by diverse points of view and purposes and outlooks that we must determine upon certain orderl}^ and laAvful ways of con- duct. But these rules and methods of conduct, to be effectual and to achieve their purposes, must be based upon the intelligent will and [59] EECONSTEUCTION the consent of all those engaged in the common enterprise. What would you think of a society that invited you to become a member or ex- pected you to subscribe to its purposes and to further its life when, at the same time, it con- ducted its affairs out of your sight and in secret? In the simplest organization of our day, we have what is known as the reading of the minutes of previous meetings. What is thb meaning of this practice? Is it not simply an expression of the belief that members who arc associated in a common undertaking and are expected to discharge duties common to them all are entitled to complete and correct know- ledge of all the things that pertain to the life of the society? And yet such a simple thing, a rule practiced in the most insignificant of as- sociations, is rarely observed sufficiently in national life and almost never in interna- tional relationships. The first condition of an orderly and intelligent life in the world, whether it be national or international, is to overcome secrecy in the conduct of governmen- tal affairs. The very essence of democratic practice and security for its continuance lies in open discussion and free determination of the modes of life and action of the people. [60] EECONSTRUCTION No democracy is possible where there is se- crecy. Secrecy has always been the hand- maiden of crime, deceit and selfishness. A man is rarely eager to keep in secrecy the purposes that are generous and helpful, unsel- fish and honorable. The only rightful motives for secrecy are modesty and humility, but these motives certainly do not call for secrecy when our conduct is militating against the well-being of others. Whenever men are im- patient with methods that are open and free and seek rather indirection, we may be sure that it is not a virtue that they are hiding, that it is not a matter of truth and of right- eousness that is being kept from the people. It is always something that will not bear the light of day. Society cannot be reconstructed aright so long as men resort to secrecy in the arrangement of the social order. In our country we have found that whenever a crisis arose, a great conflict sprang up be- tween the parties that dominate our govern- ment or when a new high purpose was gen- erated that it inevitably resulted in investi- gations that disclosed secrets and in disgorging ill-gotten gains or unfair advantages. The publication of contributions to political parties [611 EECONSTRUCTION was a notable example. We felt that when this law passed that there was a genuine triumph over one of the obstacles that stood in the way of democratic control of political situations. We felt^ and rightly so, that so long as contri- butions were allowed to be made to any amount and in secret that somehow the well springs of democracy were being poisoned and we knew that the only safeguard against it was to let the public know who the benefactors were of our parties and of our leaders. Closely allied to the need of open methods of governmental action is the requisite of free speech. This is equally fundamental. If we believe, as we ought, that the average man is intelligent and is upright, why then, should we not be willing to give him a free oppor- tunity to speak his thoughts about political affairs and governmental purposes? There is no belief in a man unless one has faith in his intelligence and in his integrity and there is no surer way of showing that one entertains such a belief than to give a man a respectful hearing. Not only is free speech necessary as a med- ium for intelligence, but it is also required as a stimulus and a determining influence in the [62] EECONSTRUCTION development of thought. Speech is an inter- course of thought between persons and in the process of expression one either developes one 's ideas or finds them inadequate. All of this is certainly important if we would have rational and purposeful social relationships. But you ask : * ' Are there any limits to the freedom of speech? Shall a man be given absolute free- dom to say whatever he has in his mind at any time and under any conditions?" Cer- tainly not! There is nothing in the world that has absolute sway. All the forces and powers and factors in life operate under given conditions and have their limits. There are, therefore, certain natural boundaries to free speech also. A library is a storehouse of the fruits of intelligence and is designed to dis- seminate knowledge and truth. But even there, speech has no unlimited sway. What we limit in this case, is not, of course, the content of speech, but the manner. We object to any speech when it becomes so noisy as to be a disturbance. The limits are set by the im- portance of the things to which the library is dedicated. It is necessary for us to read and think and consequently it is important that we must be free from interruption. In a word, we [63] RECONSTKUCTION should say that free speech may be curtailed whenever either the physical fact of speaking or the ideas expressed disturb men in their task of creating values that contemplate gen- eral well-being. The significant value of free speech is that it is a means of determining and of furthering worthful lines of action. When, however, men have come to the conclusion and have decided upon a given line of action, then such free speech as will interfere with the ful- fillment of the object is irresponsible speech and bound to be injurious. Before the war it was necessary and right that we should have had all the freedom of discussion possible about the advisability of entering into the war. Having decided deliberately and officially to enter the war, the only discussion that there- after became pertinent was that which had to do with the successful and speedy termination of the war. For once having entered the war sacrifices were beginning to be made ; under- takings of very serious character were set in motion and great disasters would have come to us and to the world if suddenly a breaking in our efforts and a cessation in our endeavors had taken place. Loyalty changes with con- ditions. Before the war one's loyalty should [64] KECONSTEUCTION have prompted the free use and complete devotion of one's thoughts and energies to attain a proper attitude to the question of national duty. During the war, entered into by regulated and ordered authority, loyalty should have expressed itself in obedience to the organized will and personal contributions to the successful outcome. Now that the war is over, the restraints upon free speech must be removed, particularly since the reconstructive process demands above every- thing else the joint mentality and idealism of the entire people. The forums of discussion must be opened ; the columns of the press free, for only an idea can counteract an idea. The policeman's club may be able to silence the tongue but it usually drives the thought in- ward to become possessed b}^ the person with greater tenacity and to be believed in with greater fervor. The result is that the idea so repressed ceases to be entertained as a pure idea on the basis of its intrinsic value but be- gins to foment through hatred and bitterness and finally explodes in some destructive fash- ion. Often in dealing with our children we forget this simple truth about the ways of intelligence [65] RECONSTRUCTION and the life of ideas. li we happen to have a child whose mind is restless, interrogative, original, we treat it as if it were possessed by some devilish bent We exert authority and pressure. Little do we realize that we are simply driving the thought inward and con- vincing the child of the impotence of the adult to meet his thought squarely. We force the boy or girl to seek life in the byways, in in- direct and devious channels and sooner or later our child will come out of these hidden regions with a crop of notions whose alarming and disquieting character will startle and stag- ger us, little realizing that these are in great part the work of our own hands. Democracy means self-determination. It does not mean determination of a person from the outside. There is something in every man which is much deeper and wiser than the knowledge any other man or any number of men may be able to have about him. Generally speaking, we know our interests better than others can possibly know them. Our conver- sation is after all a sheer guessing of what is in the minds and hearts of the other. So that self-determination is a surer way and means of [G6] KECONSTRUCTION self-fulfillmeDt. The best description of a thing is its own self. In order to guarantee that reconstruction shall follow along these lines of democratic con- trol there is one thing necessary above every- thing else and that is to make education as wide and as diversified as possible. Democracy is at once the result of education and its cause. Give a man the opportunity to do anything whatsoever and the doing is a means of educa- tion and development. Man learns by doing; man discovers himself by doing and the fear that some have that this or that group is not capable of self-government is, I suspect, born of a wish rather than of a conviction. There are, indeed, great differences between the few superior intelligents and the many of average endowments. But among the many the differ- ences are not so great as to justify the as- sumption that one section of the many is al- together unfit for self-government while anoth- er is. These are but mere prejudices and can easily be overcome by a little direct and honest thinking and by the application of educative methods, not only to others, but to our own selves. [67] RECONSTRUCTION ThiS; friends, is indeed a great project and an important enterprise. The aim of recon- structing society in a manner that shall de- velop the individual as an important and re- sponsible factor in the common life is the grandest ideal that men have ever set before them. Let none of us say the thing is too diffi- cult, the matter is too hard. Let us again think of the warning of our ancient scriptural reader when he said: ''For this commandment which I command thee this day is not too hard, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven re- quiring some intermediary to bring it to us ready made, fully developed, but it is within our own hearts and minds. It is very nigh unto everyone of us and we need only our wills and our minds to brine: it about." [68 1 Justice — The Goal of Reconstruction RECONSTRUCTION Justice— The Goal of Reconstruction. Thus far we have considered the problem of Reconstruction from three standpoints, — first, its meaning, then its scope, and lastly its lines or method. Our purpose this morning- is to discuss the goal. What is its object ; what does it aim to achieve? Of all the phases of recon- struction, this is perhaps the most difficult to discuss. It offers difficulties for two reasons, — first of all it is always hard to determine in concrete fashion any human goal of an ideal nature. Life changes and in the very changes there are modifications of the purpose toward which it moves. Life is manifold and its diver- sified character renders it impossible to be fixed in representation or in idealization. There are many points of view and many in- terests. These are constantly shifted and by contact with life acquire new significance and ever assume new character. To envisage an ideal, therefore, as a fixed goal is in itself to [711 RECONSTRUCTION negate certain of the essential elements of life itself. Life breaks through what seems final and fixed ; it bursts through the rocks and sets at naught the mass and weight of all obstruct- ing and cramping finalities. It is difficult, moreover, to advocate any ideal goal because men generally want to hear the discussion only from the standpoint of their own preconceived notions and prepos- sessions. The diversities of human character and the varieties of interests become conscious and deliberate factors in the determination of life's progress. It may be that because our readers and listeners have their own preju- dices concerning the problems under discus- sion that the writers and speakers tend to choose the abstract method of dealing with them. Not only is the abstract method forced upon us by the varied situations and manifold differences that obtain in human experience, but it enables us to satisfy some one or other since the word in the abstract is capable of many interpretations. It is more hazardous to make one's thought concrete and to give a personal application to the actual conditions of life than to allow the idea to remain sus- pended in the air. But despite the difficulty, [72] KECONSTEUCTION I beg of you to bear with me in my feeble ef- fort to answer this supreme question, namely, what is the goal of reconstruction? After I put to m3^self this question I kept thinking and thinking and then came to the conclusion that I could not name the goal by any better term than the fine old comprehensive word in morals and ethics, particularly the one that has so often engaged the attention of the Jewish law- givers and prophets and sages and that is Justice. This morning I wish to discuss, if I may, some of the implications of justice. And even as I give voice to my purpose I find myself beset at the very outset with very great diffi- culties. For after all justice, too, is one of those abstract terms. It has been coined out of the manifold experiences, struggles, hopes and yearnings of mankind. To define it in a fixed manner is not only impossible but if it could be done would defeat our very purpose. Yet some concrete representation of it must be given in order that we shall know at least the kind of thought and activity that would lead to a condition of life that we would be apt to describe as just. I know that many of you are not satisfied [73] EECONSTRUCTION with such a hazy statement of our purpose. I know that you look for a very definite de- scription of what justice is, but, unfortunately, that is quite impossible. Certainly we cannot delineate it in a manner that would satisfy every one of us in the same way as a descrip- tion of some visible entity enables us to recog- nize it under any and all conditions. If you ask me what a book is, I make bold to say that I could give a fairly adequate definition of it. If I said that it is a number of sheets of paper bound together for the purpose of writing or printing, no one would seriously doubt that that fairly represents that object. Such a defi- nition one could give to any child who had learned the meaning of the words "paper, bound, writing and printing." But if you wish a definition of Justice in such a way that you will be able to recognize it in a complex situ- ation of life with the same certainty as you recognize a book or a table or a chair, I fear you will be doomed to disappointment. Very recently a young person came to my study greatly perturbed and anxious about a situation that was developing in the family. Hardly had the young woman taken her seat before she uttered forth these words : * ' Before f 74. ] RECONSTRUCTION anything else, doctor, what is duty?" I could not but smile at the question. I saw that the young lady was troubled. I was eager to be of assistance but I knew how helpless I was to solve her problem from the standpoint in- dicated by her first question. I said to her: *'What if I told you what duty is; how would that help you? Suppose I defined for you that duty is to do what one ought to do. Would you be ready to go forth and apply that defini- tion to the problem that is confronting you? Would you know what to do? Am I not re- peating the same idea in other words, the dif- ference being that I am substituting the word ought for duty. But what ought one do? The answer is duty. We can forever keep moving in this verbal circle and never come out of it into the actual situation which has created the desire to know what ought one to do. What is one's duty? The point that my ques- tioner was really troubled about was not to find a definition of duty but to learn what in her troubled situation was the proper thing to do. Having told me the conditions and cir- cumstances I was able to indicate what to me seemed her duty toward those dependent upon her. [75] RECONSTRUCTION In the same manner men seek to arrive at the meaning of justice by inquiring in some abstract fashion what it indicates. To such an inquiry the most common answer is that justice is when one gives a man what is his due. That seems quite an adequate concep- tion but it is as formal as the definition of duty that we have just spoken of. It creates for us a similar circle in which our thought revolves without getting us out into the world of life and action. Justice is giving one what is his due. What is his due? The definition itself gives us no hints and no helps. The inadequacy of such a treatment of justice is especially realized when one thinks of the manner in which the problem of justice is treated in the world today. When we think of the discussions that are going on with ref- erence to a just reconstruction of the world, we find that this abstract notion of justice seems to be operating in the minds of men to their confusion. They take it for granted that all other wants are determined in this world of fixed relationships and that the only thing that is left is simply to decide upon the things that are due one another. The discussion it- self takes place betAveen two sides. On the [76] RECONSTEUCTION one hand there are those who are blessed with the world's goods and are quite satisfied with the conditions of life. They find no fault with the status quo. On the other hand there are those to whom life has not been so gener- ous, whose lot is not satisfactory, who desire changes, — changes real and vital. Thus the conflict rages between these two parties. Now, if there are no other standards, conceptions and materials upon which one or the other of these sides or both could predicate their think- ing, how could they ever hope to come to- gether upon some satisfactory solution of the problem of justice? Those that are satisfied with the world fall back upon fixed arrange- ments of the social order and seek to determine what is due for the other class by the aid of these political and economic principles which they regard as final. To them, what is due the masses is really nothing more than what they have been receiving through the opera- tion of these fixed laws and principles of the industrial and commercial world. The answer that comes to them is very, very simple. It is ready-to-hand for them. It comes out in their thinking as an automatic and mechanical result. [77] RECONSTRUCTION I cannot but think that this conception is embodied in the classic picture of Justice which every one of us has seen at one time or another. You have all seen the statue of Jus- tice in which the figure of a woman with stern, serious mien and solemn countenance is sitting and holding a pair of scales in her hands. Her eyes are blind-folded in order that she may not be distracted or influenced by any consid- erations that Avould turn her aside from her main object which is to mete out to each party exact justice. While the purpose of having one's eyes shut in determining the things that are due, is to make certain unprejudiced and impartial judgment, yet I cannot but feel that in the main the conception is too mechanical. It conceives the act of determining justice as one of "meting out," that is, measurement. As all processes of measurement take place by the aid of fixed rules and weights and lines, so this act of assessment, too, is made possible by fixed values and weights. Insofar, there- fore, as one uses fixed objects and weights upon a scale that operates freely and truly and, moreover, does not have any personal in- terest in the parties to the dispute, there is no reason for keeping one's eyes open to watch [78] E E C N S T R TT C T I O N the process. In fact the business of weighing seems fairer in the hands of a blind-folded person. In the conflict that is going on between the two major parties that are trying to rearrange the social order so that a more just distribu- tion of the world's goods shall be achieved, there is an unfortunate tendency to resort to the mechanical conception of justice portrayed in this picture. The assumption seems to be that we do have unquestioned and unquestion- able weights and measurements, principles and methods of determining the things that are fair and just for every party. Those that are pleased with the world as they find it quite naturally appeal to the fixed modes of conduct in the industrial, social and political world that have enabled them to achieve their measure of success or to inherit from their forbearers some of the world's treasures or advantages which they enjoy. Their point of view is contractual in character. They refer always to conventions and modes and laws as they are and demand that all adjustment be made with reference to their fixed and pre^ determined character. Those that are discontented, however, will [79] RECONSTRUCTION not have justice meted out to them by this method of taking for granted that the laws and the conventions and the principles that have operated in former days are to remain fixed for all time. They question these very weights and measurements that are used in the process of assessment. They feel the need of finer principles, of laws that shall take into account the newer world. They demand meth- ods that shall be elastic enough to adjust themselves to more humane purposes and ideals. We see, therefore, how shadowy and formal the notion of justice is which conceives it as the mere giving of what is one's due and which seeks to determine the question by a re- sort to methods which obtain only in the physi- cal and mechanical world. The problem of justice is not that of sheer weighing; it is rather how to secure an open mind for the study of human deserts. By an open mind we do not mean one that shall be neutral and dis- interested, but capable of ever fresher in- sights into human conditions, problems, needs and ideals. While, therefore, I find myself unable to define justice in the same manner as I would [80] KECONSTKUCTION define a physical and material object, yet I may be able to do a much more important thing for our purpose and that is to describe something of its method and its spirit. What we are all interested in above everything else is to arrive at justice, and if we can ascertain some of the processes and methods of proced- ure that may lead us towards our desired goal, that is after all our chief, if not our sole pur- pose. Justice is that action that follows when a free and fresh intelligence, plus a sympathetic imagination, plus a moral will are applied to the problems of life and human inter-relationships. It is a mouthful to say. It seems complex and requires a good deal in the background. But justice is a good deal. It is the grand, if not the supreme ideal of human life and no such goal could be reached by any other method than by the consecration of our noblest quali- ties, essential powers and endowments. We are viewing justice in our statement not as anything fixed, but as an outcome of certain desirable and appropriate methods of thinking and feeling. Given the right feeling and the right thinking and justice is the ine- vitable result. We are, therefore, interested [81] RECONSTRUCTION primarily in going behind the thing to that which makes it possible and sure to make it what it is and what it ought to be. We are giving so to speak, the ingredients. Having these, the article of food is made certain. The first ingredient is a free and fresh intelli- gence. By a free intelligence I mean the ca- pacity to use one's own mind freshly, that is, to see things as if they were altogether new and through the perspective of ideals that are uncontaminated and unadulterated by preju- dices, prepossessions and foregone conclusions. I mean the ability to think anew and to per- ceive new values and to grasp hidden impli- cations in those situations of life that for the most part have seemed commonplace and fixed, if not altogether beyond question. Let me illustrate what I mean definitely. In the economic world, in the spheres of com- merce and industry, men conduct their affairs by the aid of many principles. Those of you who have studied economics surely recall some of the simple laws, and the merchants among us surely know that one of the commonest rules of commerce that has been invoked for many generations as a sound guide for success, ' ' Buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dear- [82] EECONSTRUCTION est." That seems sane as a method of busi- ness; it is fine and excellent when one can fol- low it and is sure to lead to success. There is nothing in this statement to indicate that one should be interested in the question as to why certain markets are cheaper than others. What makes a market cheap does not fall within the sphere of interest of the one Avho is simply buying and selling merchandise. If he is forced to answer at all, he will invoke an- other economic fetish and that is supply and demand, and if you ask him what regulates supply and demand, whether behind it are human needs or capacities that determine the things to be produced he will hardly un- derstand, or he will have ready to hand a third ideal which seems to fit with his scheme of things better than an independent inquiry into human purposes and needs. It is compe- tition. All this gives us some of the principal pillars of the economic structure. They seem adequate and, indeed, have led to success on the part of many men. In many ways these principles have been the means of developing the resources of nature and the capabilities of individuals, but justice is interested in some- thing finer. Its primary passion is for human [83] RECONSTRUCTION beings and when one seeks to apply a free in- telligence with a view of attaining justice to these principles of industry and commerce, one cannot but find that they hide behind them, if they do not positively create, some of the causes of the maladjustment from which great masses of men are suffering. To buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest seems wise and is practical so long as you deal with things, but when one finds that this commer- cial maxim is made to apply to human beings whose labor is the only hold they have upon the world for their means if sustenance, then the iniquity of the principle becomes thorough- ly patent. No justice is possible between man and man so long as one man looks upon another as a thing or a tool. We can talk about princi- ples and methods and purposes and ideals from now till doomsday, but as long as such a con- ception of human beings prevails, all these high-sounding terms are so much verbiage. You and I know perfectly well that here in this free America of ours the same notion of labor as a commodity has been entertained for many years. The industries of America have scoured the nooks and corners of Europe for cheap labor; brought men and women over as [841 RECONSTRUCTION cattle and exploited them as all tools and things are exploited. All the while the justi- fication has been found in economic principles and laws, forces and what not. Every year with the exception of very re- cent times, we witness armies of men and wo- men seeking employment, that is, a means by which to sustain their lives, and the explana- tion for this phenomenon is found in supply and demand. Perhaps this principle would not be as iniquitous if it really Avere allowed to operate freely, but who does not know that supply and demand are artificially and arbi- trarily created? The result is that not only are human beings treated as things, but they have not even the advantage of the unob- structed operation of the principles and laws under which they are so regarded. Competition, we are told, is the life of trade. It is the method and stimulus of the develop- ment of things and persons. It is urged that we must have it as a condition of progress and of the development of human beings. Those who believe in free competition offer the greatest opposition to any conscious and delib- erate I'eadjustment of society. Anything that would interfere with the free action of these [85] EECONSTKUCTION economic principles is to them socialistic. Ask them what is their chief objection to socialism and they will say that it is not in accordance with human nature. Social- ism, they claim, would make human beings alike. If you would arrange the social order so that everybody would get the same opportunities and the same allotment of earth's treasures, it would take but a very short time before differences would again appear and classifications of those who have and those who have not would spring up. That is their con- tention and it is no doubt based upon actual facts. But I am interested in pointing out that one cannot hold two contrarj^ opinions at the same time. If it is true, as it undoubtedly is, that human endowments and capacities and wants differ, then, we cannot in such a world demand a free and untrammeled competition, that is, if we would have the world humane and just. There must be regulations and these regulations must be based upon these very inequalities in life. Suppose as we left this temple this morning and on the way to our homes we came upon a scene where a great big boy of eighteen or twenty was fighting with a bo3^ of ten or twelve, what would we [8G] EECONSTRUCTION find our natural instinct to be? Would we not say to this big boy, ''Why not take a boy of 3^our size?" And if this boy did not desist who would not feel perfectly justified to take sides with the little fellow? That is the natural instinct of justice. We do not like to see unequals in a free and unregulated conflict and contest. We want the game so played that both sides will have as we say ''a fighting chance" of success. Now, take this very simple instinct of jus- tice into the industrial and commercial world and see how very infrequently it finds exempli- fication. Everywhere the powerful seem un- ashamed to contest with the weak. Great com- binations have been built up by the mere act of swallowing up the little ones. No wonder that the greatest exponents of unrestrained industrial and commercial life are the success- ful survivors in this struggle for existence. The law of the jungle suits them perfectly. What is needed in the industrial world is the application therein of very simple experi- ences had in every family. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have children and who observe them know how rarely it is that we find even one's own children possessed with [87] EECONSTKUCTION equal strength, — physical, mental or moral. We need not be told by any scheme of eco- nomics that men and women are not equal. Every mother feels it, every father knows it. What do the average parents do when they see the difference between their offspring? How anxious they are for the weak child and as soon as they perceive the weaknesses in their children, how often they preach to the others of the family to be at the side of the w^eak one in order to protect him. Moreover, they seek to make such provisions as lie within their own power directly to make up for the deficiencies of nature. Would any normal parent, seeing these differences of ability and of energy, of health, mentality and moral strength among the children, have them com- pete freely as if they all could have an equal chance? And yet in the face of what is the most common knowledge to human beings, knowledge attained in every home, men dare to attempt to order life in the industries and commerce along lines of irresponsible and mer- ciless competition. What we need in this world of ours is to learn to bring into the streets and market places the lessons and the experiences taught us in our homes. We [88] KECONSTRUCTION should strive to make the virtues of the home the virtues of the street, the shop, the court room, the office, the halls of state and of gov- ernment. The second ingredient is sympathetic imagi- nation. It is the imagination shot through vi^ith the sympathies of the heart. The psalm- ist speaks of the understanding heart, not the intellect as a machine that grinds out thoughts and ideas, logical entities but the intellect that is informed with emotions, sentiments and ideal purposes. Sympathetic imagination as a prerequisite to the solution of the problem of justice is such an insight into conditions of human life as enables one to grasp the causes of men's disabilities, failures, disappointments and sorrows. I am sure that everyone of you thought of the charitable disposition the mo- ment I mentioned sympathetic imagination. That, indeed, is what I have in mind, but it is only part. We Jews, thank God, are charit- able, but it is well to be reminded that charity is not justice and that benevolence is not right- eousness. To apply an understanding heart to the condition of "'he poor is to experience and live through, as if one were a member of their family, the handicaps and the hardships [89] EECONSTEUCTION that beset them at every point. It sometimes occurs to me that it is a real luxury to live in poverty. It is a luxury to be poor for the very simple reason that almost everything that the poor man buys costs him more than it costs the rich man. If the price of any article makes it luxurious, then the price of almost every article that the poor man needs and uses belongs in the world of luxuries. Does it not seem to you that a man actually cannot afford to be poor? It costs the poor man much more to buy coal than it does the rich, and what is true of coal is true of bread and butter, meat and clothes and houses and everything else. The rich man fills his ample bins with coal in April and ]\Iay. He buys in the cheapest mar- ket in great quantities ; the poor man buys coal by the barrel or bucket, not in April or May but beginning with the first frost in November and then in December, January and February. We wonder why the poor men lose heart and hope, why they seek companionship in the warm saloons. The ansvv^er may be the price of coal, of air and of space. All of these, friends, a sympathetic imagination brings out clearly and unmistakably. You know, do you not, that outside of commercial property, no [90] EECONSTRUCTION real estate pays as well as tenement houses and homes in the slum district. Thus the poor man pays more for floor space than the rich, and when in trouble and forced to get professional service, he pays more for what legal or medical assistance he requires than do others. And so it is that there is hardly a phase of his life where the luxury of poverty does not force itself upon him. Again we say that it is a sympathetic imagi- nation that we need. As I walked through the streets of the city to get acquainted with my new environment, it suddenly came upon me that here in this great metropolis of ours that boasts of the amount of money that our banks handle, which is equal to that of many other large cities in this Federal Reserve district, three things stand out, — very ugly slum dis- tricts, palatial residences and fine churches. The suggestion is very clear. Where have the churches been and what have they achieved and to what uses are men in this community putting the great wealth created in part at least by the men who live in the slums? You put these questions to the leaders of our com- munity and especially to the men of the pulpit and they shrug their shoulders. Indeed, these [91] RECONSTRUCTION things have not sufficiently occurred to them. They have been too busy with guarding the Lord's day while the things that sympathetic imagination reveals have been created on Mon- day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and the rest of the week days. The third ingredient is moral will. Having found out by the use of intelligence what some of the principles of life are and having used our sympathetic imagination to penetrate into the conditions that control the life of men, one more thing is necessary to bring about jus- tice and that is moral will. Justice, you will remember, is an act; it is not a thought; it is not a mere idea ; it is not an abstract proposi- tion; it is an action that is the result of in- telligent, sympathetic and moral outlooks. Be- ing an act, it needs will power to bring it about and being an act, moreover, in which certain ideals are to be expressed, the will that is necessary is a moralized and spiritualized will. Justice requires courage; it requires self-control; it requires above everything else the capacity to make sacrifices. No pious wish- ing and no mere talking about what ought to be will ever bring a just thing into the world. What is indispensable is readiness to pay the [92] KECONSTRUCTION price for the ideal that we profess to believe* As soon as the men in authority, men in the high places, learn that justice is not a me- chanical matter that will automatically be brought about by the institution of new meth- ods but rather by the consecration of one's own will power to human welfare, will sub- stantial justice be done in the world. It is not an easy task. It is much easier for men in the industries to make themselves feel that they are being fair to their employees by pay- ing the common wage, which turns out for the most part to be the minimum wage, than to rise to the higher standard of paying the uncommon wage in order to be just and fair to men and women and children. It is hard, too, to rise to such ideas of moral action be- cause it needs the courage to face one's own colleagues in a particular business. Men do not like to be considered different, visionary and idealistic, particularly when they are sup- posed to be engaged in a practical enterprise. They do not like to separate themselves from their group interests and group points of view. The experience of Henry Ford with his own fellow-employers is an outstanding illustration of the difficulty in striking out upon a new [93] KECONSTRUCTION and higher path. I well remember with what scorn his scheme of higher pay was met by other men in like industries. It was a foolish thing to pay more than the market required, but he went on and a little later the market caught up to him, but it takes strength to do all this and idealism and a will to be moral. Since his day the great question of the mini- mum wage has taken on new meaning and we have become somewhat ashamed of the old significance that was attached to it. The mini- mum wage originally meant a wage upon which men could live, that is, exist. Now, we are beginning to think of the minimum wage as a compensation that shall enable a man to live as a human being, capable of thought, of feeling, of dreaming, of idealizing, of becom- ing a personality made in the image of God and but a little lower than the angels. What, then, is justice? It is the outcome in action of a free intelligence combined with a sympathetic imagination and with a moral will when these are applied to human problems and situations. It is as inevitable as night follows day that when such use of one's heart and one's mind and one's will is made in behalf of human beings that the result will be that [94] RECONSTRUCTION which all men will be able to recognize as Justice. I am glad to say that in thinking of scrip- tural lessons for this morning's talk I was im- pressed with the wealth of thought and of inspiration on this theme that is stored up m the Bible. I read you Micah and he is but one of the dozens of men in the Bible whose cen- tral passion has been for a world in which justice is embodied. Justice is the corner-stone of our religion. I have but tried to express m modern language that which is found in al- most every chapter of the Bible. If you and I mean anything when we say that we are Jews, and when we emphasize the religious aspect of our Judaism, then it is for us, each one of us in his special field, to think carefully and truly and selfsacrificingly about the con- ditions that make human adjustment neces- cary and reconstruction imperative. We must stand ready to contribute out of the stock of our knowledge and out of our natural instincts and perceptions of moral values those ideas and ideals that shall help to bring about a better state of society, more humane, more righteous, more just. [95] W92 «•"<»' ^^"^ o • • ^°-n^. • *•./.•' aO n, *'^ O^ •••^ ^> *'*** *> Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. ^ - Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide ^ ^ * Treatment Date: mj^ 2011 m * c,^^/^ - PreservatlonTechnologies .^0^ ,v A WORLD LEADER (N PAPER PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive r:ranh«rrv Tnw/nRhin PAIROfifi *^ \;> .^'\ iliSi«i ^:„^ iliiilliiiliifpiiiSi^^Sirf iii iiliipi^isi ,.„ lliliiiiliiiPiiiiiiiiiiiiSiiiiiiiH iiaiiPMliiiilliisi