{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_66973/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_66973","id":"gutenberg_66973","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66973","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","International cooperation","Nobel Prizes in Literature"],"text":"INTERNATIONAL\n                                THOUGHT\n\n                                  BY\n                            JOHN GALSWORTHY\n\n\n                               CAMBRIDGE\n                         W. HEFFER & SONS LTD.\n                                 1923\n\n\n      _All profit from the sale of this pamphlet will be given to\n                  the League of Nations Union_.\u2015\u2015J.G.\n\n_PRICE SIXPENCE NET._\n\n\n\n\n                        INTERNATIONAL THOUGHT.\n\n\n          \u201cThe exchange of international thought is the only\n                   possible salvation of the world.\u201d\n\nTo those who, until 1914, believed in civil behaviour between man and\nman, the war and its ensuing peace brought disenchantment. Preoccupied\nwith the humaner pursuits, and generally unfamiliar with the real\nstruggle for existence, they were caught napping. The rest of mankind\nhave experienced no particular astonishment\u2015\u2015the doing-down of man by\nman was part of daily life, and when it was done collectively they\nfelt no spiritual change. It was dreadful but\u2015\u2015in a word\u2015\u2015natural.\nThis may not be a popular view of human life in the mass, but it is\ntrue. Average life is a long fight; this man\u2019s success is that man\u2019s\nfailure; co-operation and justice are only the palliatives of a basic,\nand ruthless, competition. The disenchantment of the few would not have\nmattered so much but for the fact that they were the nerves and voice\nof the community. Their histories, poems, novels, plays, pictures,\ntreatises, sermons, were the expression of what we call civilisation.\nAnd disenchanted philosophers, though by so much the nearer to the\ntruths of existence, are by that much, perhaps, the less useful to\nhuman nature. We need scant reminder of a truth always with us, we need\nrather perpetual assertion that the truth might with advantage be, and\nmay possibly with effort become, not quite so unpleasant. Though we\nought to look things in the face, a fine afflatus is the essence of\nethical philosophy.\n\nIt is a pity, then, that philosophy is, or has been, draggle-tailing\u2015\u2015art\navoiding life, taking to contraptions of form and colour signifying\nnothing; literature driven in on itself, or running riot; science more\nhopeful of perfecting poison gas than of abating coal-smoke or curing\ncancer; that religion should incline to tuck its head under the wing of\nspiritualism; that there should be, in fact, a kind of tacit abandonment\nof the belief in life. Sport, which still keeps a flag of idealism\nflying, is perhaps the most saving grace in the world at the moment,\nwith its spirit of rules kept, and regard for the adversary, whether the\nfight is going for or against. When, if ever, the fair-play spirit of\nsport reigns over international affairs, the cat force which rules there\nnow will slink away and human life emerge for the first time from\njungle.\n\nLooking the world in the face, we see what may be called a precious\nmess. Under a thin veneer\u2015\u2015sometimes no veneer\u2015\u2015of regard for\ncivilisation, each country, great and small, is pursuing its own ends,\nstruggling to rebuild its own house in the burnt village. The dread\nof confusion-worse-confounded, of death recrowned, and pestilence\nrevivified, alone keeps the nations to the compromise of peace. What\nchance has a better spirit?\n\n\u201cThe exchange of international thought is the only possible salvation\nof the world,\u201d are the words of Thomas Hardy, and so true that it may\nbe well to cast an eye over such mediums as we have for the exchange\nof international thought. \u201cThe Permanent Court of International\nJustice\u201d; \u201cThe League of Nations\u201d; \u201cThe Pan-American Congress\u201d; certain\nsectional associations of this nation with that nation, tarred somewhat\nwith the brush of self-interest; sporadic international conferences\nconcerned with sectional interests; and the recently founded P.E.N.\nClub, an international association of writers with friendly aims,\nbut no political intentions. These are about all, and they are taken\nnone too seriously by the peoples of the earth. The salvation of a\nworld in which we all live, however, would seem to have a certain\nimportance. Why, then, is not more attention paid to the only existing\nmeans of salvation? The argument for neglect is much as follows: Force\nhas always ruled human life\u2015\u2015and always will. Competition is basic.\nCo-operation and justice succeed, indeed, in definite communities\nso far as to minimise the grosser forms of crime, but only because\ngeneral opinion within the ring fence of a definite community gives\nthem an underlying force which the individual offender cannot\nwithstand. There is no such ring-fence round nations, therefore no\ngeneral opinion, and no underlying force to ensure the abstention of\nindividual nations from crime\u2015\u2015if, indeed, transgression of laws which\nare not fixed can be called crime.\n\nThis is the average hard-headed view at the moment. If it is to remain\ndominant, there is no salvation in store for the world. \u201cWhy not?\u201d\nreplies the hard-head: \u201cIt always has been the view, and the world has\ngone on?\u201d Quite true! But the last few years have brought a startling\nchange in the conditions of existence\u2015\u2015a change that has not yet\nbeen fully realised. _Destructive science has gone ahead out of all\nproportion._ It is developing so fast that each irresponsible assertion\nof national rights or interests brings the world appreciably nearer to\nruin. Without any doubt whatever, the powers of destruction are gaining\nfast on the powers of creation and construction. In old days a thirty\nyears\u2019 war was needed to exhaust a nation; it will soon be (if it is\nnot already) possible to exhaust a nation in a week by the destruction\nof its big towns from the air. The conquest of the air, so jubilantly\nhailed by the unthinking, may turn out the most sinister event that\never befell us, simply because _it came before we were fit for it_\u2015\u2015fit\nto act reasonably under the temptation of its fearful possibilities.\nThe use made of it in the last war showed that; and the sheep-like\nrefusal of the startled nations to face the new situation, and\nunanimously ban chemical warfare and the use of flying for destructive\npurposes, shows it still more clearly. No one denies that the conquest\nof the air was a great\u2015\u2015a wonderful\u2015\u2015achievement; no one denies that it\ncould be a beneficent achievement if the nations would let it be. But\nmankind has not yet, apparently, reached a pitch of decency sufficient\nto be trusted with such an inviting and terribly destructive weapon.\nWe are all familiar with the argument: Make war dreadful enough, and\nthere will be no war. And we none of us believe in it. The last war\ndisproved it utterly. Competition in armaments has already begun,\namong men who think, to mean competition in the air. Nothing else will\ncount in a few years\u2019 time. We have made by our science a monster\nthat will devour us yet, unless by exchanging international thought,\nwe can create a general opinion against the new powers of destruction\nso strong and so unanimous that no nation will care to face the force\nwhich underlies it.\n\nA well-known advocate of the League of Nations said the other day: \u201cI\ndo not believe it necessary that the League should have a definite\nforce at its disposal. It could not maintain a force that would keep\nany first-rate power from breaking the peace. Its strength lies in the\nuse of publicity; in its being able to voice universal disapproval with\nall the latent potentiality of universal action.\u201d\n\nCertainly, the genuine publication of all military movements and\ndevelopments throughout the world, the unfathoming and broadcasting\nof destructive inventions and devices, would bring us nearer to\nsalvation than any covenant can do. If the world\u2019s chemists and the\nworld\u2019s engineers would hold annual meetings in a friendly spirit,\nfor the salvation of mankind! If they could agree together that to\nexercise their ingenuity on the perfecting of destructive agents for\nthe use of governments was a crime; to take money for it a betrayal\nof their species! If we could have such exchange of international\nthought as that, then indeed we might hear the rustle of salvation\u2019s\nwings. And\u2015\u2015after all\u2015\u2015why not? The answer to the question: Is there\nto be happiness or misery, growth or ruin for the human species, does\nnot now lie with governments. Governments are competitive trustees\nfor competitive sections of mankind. Put destruction in their hands\nand they will use it to further the interests of those for whom they\nare trustees; just as they will use and even inspire the spiritual\npoison gas of pressmen. The real key to the future is in the hands of\nthose who provide the means of destruction. Are scientists (chemists,\ninventors, engineers) to be Americans, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans,\nJapanese, Russians, before they are men, in this matter of the making\nof destruction? Are they to be more concerned with the interests of\ntheir own countries, or with the interests of the human species? That\nhas become the question they have to answer now that they have for the\nfirst time the future of the human race within their grasp. Modern\ninvention has taken such a vast stride forward that the incidence of\nresponsibility is changed. It rests on Science as it never did before;\non Science, and on\u2015\u2015Finance. There again the exchange of international\nthought has become terrifically important. The financiers of the world,\nfor instance, in the light of their knowledge, under the pressure of\ntheir difficulties, out of the motive of mutual aid, could certainly\ndevise some real and lasting economic betterment of the present\nruination, if only they would set to work steadily, not spasmodically,\nto exchange international thought.\n\nThe hard-head\u2019s answer to such suggestions is: \u201cNonsense! Inventors,\nchemists, engineers, financiers, all have to make their living, and\nare just as disposed to believe in their own countries as other men.\nTheir pockets and the countries who guarantee those pockets, have first\ncall on them.\u201d Well! That has become the point. If neither Science nor\nFinance will agree to think internationally, there is probably nothing\nfor it but to kennel-up in disenchantment, and wait for an end which\ncan\u2019t be very long in coming\u2015\u2015not a complete end, of course, say\u2015\u2015a\ngeneral condition of affairs similar to that in the famine provinces of\nRussia.\n\nIt is easy to be pessimistic, and easy to indulge in cheap optimism;\nto steer between the two is hard. We still have a chance of saving\nand improving such civilisation as we have; but this chance depends\non how far we succeed in exchanging international thought in the next\nfew years. To some the word international has a socialistic, even\ncommunistic, significance. But, as here used, it has nothing whatever\nto do with economic theories, class divisions, or political aims. The\nexchange of international thought which alone can save us, is the\nexchange of thought between _craftsmen_\u2015\u2015between the statesmen of the\ndifferent countries; the lawyers of the different countries; the\nscientists, the financiers, the writers of the different countries.\nWe have the mediums of exchange (however inadequately made use of)\nfor the statesmen and the lawyers; but the scientists (inventors,\nchemists, engineers) and the financiers, the two sets of craftsmen\nin whose hands the future of the world chiefly lies, at present lack\nadequate machinery for the exchange of international thought, and\nadequate conception of the extent to which world responsibility now\nfalls on them. If they could once realise the supreme nature of that\nresponsibility, the battle of salvation should be half won.\n\nComing to the exchange of international thought in my own craft, there\nseem three ways in which writers, as such, can help to ease the future\nof the world. They can be friendly and hospitable to the writers of\nother countries\u2015\u2015and for this purpose exists the international P.E.N.\nClub, with its many and increasing branches. They can recognise and\nmaintain the principle that works of the imagination, indeed all works\nof art, are the property of mankind at large, and not merely of the\ncountry of their origin; that to discontinue (for example) during a\nwar with Germany the reading of German poetry, the listening to German\nmusic, the looking at German pictures, was a harmful absurdity which\nshould never be repeated. Any real work of art, however individual and\nracial in root and fibre, is impersonal and universal in its appeal.\nArt is one of the great natural links (perhaps the only great natural\nlink) between the various breeds of men, and to scotch its gentling\ninfluence in time of war is to confess ourselves still apes and tigers.\nOnly writers can spread this creed, only writers can keep the door open\nfor art during national feuds; and it is their plain duty to do this\nservice to mankind.\n\nThe third and greatest way in which the writer can ease the future is\nsimply stated in the words: Fair Play. The power of the Press is a good\nthird to the powers of Science and Finance. If the Press, as a whole,\nnever diverged from fair report; if it refused to give unmeasured\nservice to party or patriotic passion; if it played the game as Sport\nplays it\u2015\u2015what a clearance of the air! At present, with, of course,\nmany and distinguished exceptions, the Press in every country plays the\ngame according to rules of its own which have too little acquaintance\nwith those of sport.\n\nThe Press is manned by a great crew of writers, the vast majority of\nwhom have in private life a higher standard of fair play than that\nfollowed by the Press ship they man. They would, I believe, be the\nfirst to confess that. Improvement in Press standards of international\nand political fair play can only come from the individual writers who\nmake up the Press. And such reform will not come until editors and\njournalists acquire the habit of exchanging thought internationally,\nof broadening their minds and hearts with other points of view, of\nrecognising that they must treat as they would themselves be treated.\nOnly, in short, when they do as they would, most of them, individually\nchoose to do, will a sort of word-miasma cease to breed international\nagues and fever. We do not commonly hold, in private life, that ends\njustify means. Why should they be held to justify means in Press\nlife\u2015\u2015why should report so often be accepted without due examination\nwhen it is favourable to one\u2019s views; rejected without due examination\nwhen it is unfavourable; why should the other side\u2019s view so often be\nburked; and so on, and so on? The Press has great power and professes\nhigh ideals; it has much virtue; it does great service; but it does\ngreater harm when, for whatever reason, it diverges from truth, or from\nthe principles of fair play.\n\nTo sum up, Governments and Peoples are no longer in charge. Our fate is\nreally in the hands of the three great Powers\u2015\u2015Science, Finance and the\nPress. Underneath the showy political surface of things, those three\ngreat Powers are secretly determining the march of the nations; and\nthere is little hope for the future unless they can mellow and develop\non international lines. In each of these departments of life there\nmust be men who feel this, as strongly as the writer of these words.\nThe world\u2019s hope lies with them; in the possibility of their being\nable to institute a sort of craftsman\u2019s trusteeship for mankind\u2015\u2015a\nnew triple alliance, of Science, Finance and the Press, in service\nto a new idealism. Nations, in block, will never join hands, never\nhave much in common, never be able to see each others\u2019 points of view.\nThe outstanding craftsmen of the nations have a far better chance of\nseeing eye to eye; they have the common ground of their craft, and a\nlivelier vision. What divides them at present is a too narrow sense\nof patriotism, and\u2015\u2015to speak crudely\u2015\u2015money. Inventors must exist;\nfinanciers live; and papers pay. And, here, Irony smiles. Though\nScience, Finance and the Press at present seem to doubt it, there is,\nstill, more money to be made out of the salvation of mankind than out\nof its destruction; a better and a more enduring livelihood for these\nthree Estates. And yet without the free exchange of international\nthought, we may be fairly certain that the present purely national\nbasis of their livelihoods will persist, and if it does the human race\nwill not, or at least so meagrely that it will be true to say of it, as\nof Anatole France\u2019s old woman: \u2018It lives but so little!\u2019\n\n\n         Printed by W. Heffer & Sons Ltd., Cambridge, England.\n\n\n\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Notes:\n\n \u2015\u2015Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).\n\n \u2015\u2015Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.\n\n \u2015\u2015Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.","title":"International Thought","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":2760}