The Twentieth Century Crusade at Home and Abroad

THE HONOURABLE G. HOWARD FERGUSON: Gentlemen: My duty to-clay is a real pleasure. It is to introduce in the flesh one whom we all know by voice and perhaps by spirit. I know my family household sits up late at night waiting to hear John Collingwood Reade tell which way the world is turning and how the fortunes of the various nations are developing. We have learned to regard his broadcasts, his commentaries, I might say, as the best we get, and they have in them that cheery, grim and gay confidence that Churchill talks about, and we all go to bed, prepared to sleep the sounder for having had the benefit of his comments on the situation. He has had a remarkable career himself. I will not go over it in detail--I don't know enough about it-but he has tried a whack at the sea, he has done something in literature and he has spoken before a great many other organizations. At any rate, he has had an opportunity of making contact with a great variety of influences which I think tend to round out one's character and give one a broader outlook on life. From what we hear ourselves from him, I am quite sure that he has made good use of the opportunities that have presented themselves to him. I have thought so frequently, when I have heard him, that I can trace the Clive blood that still runs through his veins. You all remember what Clive did in India--he laid the foundations for British Imperial organization in India. The Collingwoods were among the great Admirals on the sea and today we have traced down through generations, some few hundred years, one of the offspring, who now, I am sure, will entertain and inform us in a very interesting way. (Applause.)

Mr. JOHN COLLINGWOOD READE: Gentlemen: These are very stirring times. As we sit here today, there is going on throughout the world, not only a great war, which before it is finished will involve much more of the world than did the war of 1914-1918, but also a social revolution which began at the time of the depression of 1929 and will not be finished until some time of ter peace has been restored. The world is now dividing itself into three great camps: the Axis combination of Germany, Italy and Japan; the Democracies, or what is left of them; and Russia.

I suppose we can agree that the underlying causes of this conflict are essentially matters of economic organization; that it is to say, there would have been a great conflict of interests in any case, but this conflict would have been settled amicably had it not been for the arrogant temperament of the present rulers of Germany and Italy. We are witnessing the last stages in the transition of society from one in which capital was predominant to one in which the ordinary man is to be predominant.

In different periods of the world's history, humanity has set different classes of people in authority. Before there was any system of social order under a national government, the warrior was the most important person in the community. Warrior chieftains became knights in medieval Europe and were rewarded with grants of land for their services to the King. From this was developed the feudal system, in which the Lord of the Manor parcelled out the land to be worked among the serfs and demanded military service in return.

In other periods of the world's history, the priests held the reins of power. Having the monopoly of education, they were the sole dispensers of. a culture for which the people were beginning to yearn. Then the merchant princes sat in the high places. They controlled and manipulated the supply of gold and silver, established connections abroad, built fleets of ships and dealt in spices, fruits, leather and hides, exchanging the natural products of the Occident for the spices and silks of the Orient.

Then came mechanical power. The merchant princes were dethroned, and the industrialists reigned in their stead. The use of power on a larger and larger scale created a great demand for capital. The world had to save and invest in order to equip itself with gigantic engines, tools and building-things which were not consumed, in order that they could multiply their output of things that were to be consumed. That was the day of the financier-industrialist.

Now, to a large extent that era has passed as well. Depressions of glut are our portion, and not of scarcity. An economy which was adapted to the encouragement of thrift in order to provide support for those engaged in producing capital goods, plant and machinery, had been found ill-adapted to secure the distribution of the plethora which that machinery could make. Since 1929 we have seen a progressive departure from the orthodox practices which governed the administration of finance before the last war.

And if that has been true in the science of national housekeeping, it has been even more true in the external dealings of nations. The last war had altered the balance of international indebtedness. Where, before, the producers of raw materials were in debt to the great manufacturing nations and were always able to satisfy their obligations by delivering materials, the last war hastened the industrialization of the new world and transferred the balance of indebtedness across the Atlantic.

The new world, anxious to preserve the industrial empires which had newly arisen and shield itself from the competition of nations living on a lower standard, tried to keep out the industrial products of Europe and Asia and, at the same time, collect its debts. The channels of international trade became blocked, and the only commodity which could jump the tariff walls was gold. Gold fled from Europe, currencies became deflated and rose on exchange. America found it increasingly difficult to sell abroad except by dumping excess products at prices lower than the prevailing domestic price. Some nations, notably Germany, were compelled to abandon all pretence of adhering to international financial practices and began to deal amongst themselves on a barter basis. A cleavage was made between the barter nations and the free currency nations.

There was such a degree of paralysis in the world's commercial system that poverty and insecurity were everywhere to be found. And it was man's search for some measure of security which promoted the growth of these strange state religions such as Naziism and Fascism. They seemed to be the easy way out of a perplexing dilemma. They provided a symbol and an ideal upon which the people could fix their emotions in a drab and sordid commercial world. They offered a rationalization of the people's desires. They provided a purpose toward the attainment of which the people could apply their energies. In the Fascist or Nazi state, there was a place for everyone. There were no unwanted men and, as all work was directed toward the greater glory of the state, self-respect was restored to the people.

But they sold their birthright for a mess of pottage. They seized upon the obvious comforts. Tired of the weary quest for a just way of life, exhausted by the tedious struggle to discharge their personal responsibilities and make their own adjustment to society, they gladly relinquished to the state their responsibility as individuals.

The Democracies have gone about it otherwise. They, too, have yearned for economic security. They, too, have sickened of the sordid struggle for advantage. They, too, have realized that a new set of standards and a new social morality are required. They, too, have realized that the struggle with Nature to wrest from her the means of subsistence is nearly over, and that the fruits of that conquest are available in abundant measure. Extreme poverty is an anachronism and because it is no longer necessary, it has become a social vice.

But the democratic people will not, to win security, surrender their responsibilities nor their freedom of choice. They will find their security through their own efforts. Voluntary association for the better accomplishment of their purposes and a just temper in distributing the products of their energy--these are the means through which they will find peace and plenty.

Fascist and Communist states, all-powerful and all-demanding, reduce the human entity to a mere cipher and place in the hands of the rulers a power greater than weak mortals can use with wisdom and justice, and a responsibility too heavy for frail shoulders to bear. Even if men of unusual greatness are found in the beginning to direct the destinies of the totalitarian states, the problem of finding successors of equal stature is one which has never been solved. Power so concentrated and so absolute breeds an appetite for power. Because the modern state is so complex, it is departmentalized. In the totalitarian states, only an infinitesimal fragment of the whole is either seen by, or revealed to, any person or group of persons. Functions, responsibilities and authority pyramid gradually toward the top. Men become marionettes, with the strings that control their every movement passing up through the curtain to be gathered together in one hand-the hand of the man who is their god, to whom they must look and whom they must obey, because he alone can co-ordinate the thousands of complex functions and give them meaning.

This way of life is not acceptable to us. It terrifies us. We know that once human society loses its flexibility, it can no longer evolve and develop. Men, like the ants and bees, would go about their daily tasks blindly and with no personal purpose, behaving from the day of their birth to the clay of their death according to some pre-arranged pattern. A dismal prospect!

One of the most terrible features of a totalitarian state is the fact that it produces of necessity a set of sanctions all its own. One has only to read excerpts from news papers in Germany and Russia to realize how radically different their mode of thought, their attitude of mind, their means of expression are from our own. No longer do they reason with their people. They exhort them, they inflame their passions or they restate the articles of belief to which they must subscribe. It is impossible, therefore, for the totalitarian powers to negotiate or arbitrate with powers who are not similarly constituted. They cannot compromise. For them, truth is absolute, right is positive, wrong is positive, and all these values are tested against their own dogma, which is a bundle of superstitions and beliefs concocted to rationalize their own unspoken desires and to serve their present purposes.

When Mr. Churchill talks about "those wicked men", about "the Nazi pestilence driving Europe toward a new Dark Age", this is what he is talking about. He is talking about a form of social organization that has made ciphers of men; that has monopolized information so that it may suppress those facts and those ideas which do not coincide with its doctrine. He is talking about an order of things which, to preserve itself, must destroy the critical faculty, substitute indoctrination for education, awe for respect, fear for love. And, because it cannot live at peace in a community of nations which does not worship the same gods or cling to the same beliefs, it must set about subjugating them or perish itself.

Mr. Winston Churchill, that man of vision who has come at last into his own, has said, and said rightly, that Hitler's plan is to make of all Europe one drab uniform and regimented Boche Land. That indeed is Hitler's plan, because bigotry and utter servility to any dogma and any creed knows no other method of survival than to suppress all that are not in agreement with it. This is what the British Empire is fighting, together with its Allies that have escaped from the lands that have been overrun by the Germans and are fighting now at Britain's side.

Before the time shall come when the social life of the world can be established on a just and sure foundation, we must rid the world of this pestilence of totalitarianism. When that task is done-when the war is finished-we must reconstruct the organization of our daily lives. We must reapportion duties and rewards. We must recognize the rights of all men. We must cease to measure success in terms of monetary returns. We must take a nobler view of human destiny. We must trade with each other out of our abundance and not bargain with each other on the basis of artificial scarcity. The economic resources of the world must be made available to all nations.

The old order changeth, giving place to the new. When the hour of victory shall have come, the terms of peace must be dictated in a different spirit. The last peace was a peace of rewards and punishments. The allied nations set a price upon their services and were rewarded with grants of territory and by the creation of buffer states to protect them from their enemies-states which were created for no other purpose and were not founded on the needs of the people who occupied them who, themselves, were not consulted. The Central Powers were punished and forced to pay reparations which ruined them and finally brought the victors down with them to a common economic catastrophe.

Perhaps it is well that France collapsed. Perhaps it is well that upon the British Empire alone rests the awful responsibility of cleansing Europe from the scourge. The British Government now represents a cross-section of humanity. Differences of class and interest have been sunk. Pride and prejudice have fled. Victory has been won on the home front in Britain, and because she has won at home, she will be victorious abroad. (Applause.) The great days of Merry England have returned under a great Elizabethan, Winston Churchill, and noble and yeoman, banker and miner, have sunk their differences, put their grievances behind them and joined hands to share together the greatness which has come upon them all. The Knights of St. George are on their last Crusade. The terms of the new peace will be devised by the British, and I think we may hope by the British alone. (Applause.) I think that most of us will agree that it would be much better, both for the people of the United States and for the people of Europe, if the kindly understanding, the willing co-operation, the general community of effort which has already been established between the two governments remains on the basis upon which it has already been established. The terms of this new peace then, will in all probability be devised by the British, a people who have no continental ambitions, no Allies to reward, no powers to palliate, a people who have purged their own hearts and minds of greed and hate.

I would like to conclude what I have to say by recalling to your memory the ringing challenge and faithful promise of Winston Churchill in that epic speech on Monday afternoon to the French people: "Good night, then. Sleep to gather strength for the morning, for the morning will come. Brightly will it shine on the brave and the true-kindly on all who suffer for the cause-glorious upon the tombs of heroes. Thus will shine the dawn. Vive la France! Long live also the forward march of the common people in all the lands toward their just and true inheritance and toward the broader and fuller age."

That age to which the British Prime Minister referred has nothing to do with military victory but is concerned with the far more difficult task which will face the British people when the time comes, when they shall have to decide for the world what is to be the basis upon which peace shall be established. Thank you. (Applause-prolonged.)

THE HONOURABLE G. HOWARD FERGUSON: Gentlemen, I am sure all of you would like me to express on your behalf, as well as my own, our very warm gratitude to Mr. John Collingwood Reade for coming here today and dealing with this situation in perhaps what is a novel method to most of us, giving us an historic review, a sort of picture of the development of the conditions that have brought about the situation that prevails in the world today. I think perhaps there has been too little understanding of the causes which developed the very nationalistic spirit that has led to friction and conflict and the outrageous situation that exists in Europe at the present time.

I think we all will agree with him, too, in what is the inevitable conclusion of what he says, that it is a good thing that Britain and Britain alone has assumed the responsibility of carrying on this fight to secure liberty for everybody in the world. (Applause.) When the day comes, after the enemy is crushed and resistance overcome, it will want a combined, a single purpose, it will want a nation with power and influence and strength, a combination of peoples such as prevail in the British Empire, with the prestige they have, with the long history for the betterment and improvement of man-it will require a people like that, not only to negotiate but to a large extent to dictate upon what terms the enemy shall be allowed to continue, if at all, as a national unit.

When one reads history one cannot- help feeling that this is a phase of it that is not at all new. We have gone through these things in years gone by and in every case, right eventually has prevailed-and right, re-enforced, stimulated and led with all the advantage and power that is behind it today in the British outlook on the world, must inevitably prevail in this case.

Anybody who has got any doubts about it-I think there are few people that have-have only to listen daily, or read in the newspapers daily, to determine which is the great characteristic of the most insignificant and humble of the Britishers. Jerry can't get us down, and that is the spirit that prevails all over the British Empire today. We feel that just as strongly, I believe, in this country, among the large majority of the people here, but because we are not immediately in contact, seeing day after day the revolting sights of promiscuous destruction of property, of the murder of innocent women and children, we don't feel it as they must feel it over there.

I have, and no doubt many of you have, the privilege of receiving occasional letters from over there. My wife gets a great many letters and notwithstanding the tone of horror and shock and sorrow, running through it all is a vein of confidence and the power of endurance. They are looking with confidence to the outcome.

In tracing, as Mr. Reade has so well and eloquently done, the causes that led up to the present situation, he came through the different phases of evolution in British life. He didn't emphasize as much as he might have, all the influences that made for character among the English people, and after all character is a thing that counts in the world, whether it is in private life, business life, social activity or public service.

When you go through England you wonder why there is a church at every crossroads. That, Gentlemen, in my belief, is at the very basis of English character and English life. Their whole social structure, and I hope ours as well, is founded upon the broad and sound doctrine of the brotherhood of man and the right of the individual to act and talk and worship as he may, abstaining from impinging upon the rights of others to do the same. Out of that situation, stimulated by that historic background, we have developed a social system upon which our whole life is based and if reverse should come to the arms of Britain at the present time the whole foundation and structure of modern life and freedom would be destroyed. That is recognized the world over.

I apologize--I got up here to thank Mr. Reade for what I thought was a most delightful address. I am not attempting to supplement it. I do very, very sincerely, Sir, thank you for coming here and giving us this delightful review, in an historical way, of the position of the various nations involved and the influences directing the situation of today. (Applause.)