Editorials

Mankind has entered upon the year 1934 with renewed hope. The economic situation shows a definite improvement in very many countries. The worst of the depression seems to be behind us. An exaggerated optimism would be unfounded, and there are reasons to hope that recovery in the interest of the people may not be too quick so that the lessons of the depression may not be too quickly forgotten. The United States and Great Britain, where the economic crisis first made its appearance, seem leading towards recovery.

But if the economic outlook for 1934 seems brighter than in any of the three preceding years, the general political horizon is deeply clouded. In 1934 twenty years will have passed since the first World War broke out. The reason for its oubreak was the emotional grip which nationalism had taken of the peoples in Europe. The atmosphere in Europe was so tense at that time with national aspirations and passions that an outbreak seemed sooner or later inevitable. The spark which kindled the fires into explosion was the deed of a passionate nationalist, a Servian student who killed a man who to him was the symbol of a hated political system, which as he thought, frustrated the fulfilment of the national aspirations of his people.

Today the atmosphere of Europe is as tense with national passions as it has been in 1914 or perhaps even much more so. And nationalism has reached byond Europe and taken hold of the imagination of the people all over the earth, in both Americas (where a war between Bolivia and Paraguay has been going on for many months notwithstanding many energetic efforts at conciliation) and in Asia and Africa. As the assassination of the Roumanian Prime Minister Duca proves, the passionate nationalists (most of those idealistic fanatics are to be found among the students) have not died out in Europe.

The governments of Hitler in Germany and of Mussolini in Italy try to strengthen and increase, by all educational means at the disposal of the modern state, the nationalistic spirit among the youth. But it is not the governments or some governments in Europe which are forcing the nationalistic spirit upon the peoples and preparing them for war, the peoples themselves are full of the spirit of nationalism and even very liberal governments build strong navies or adhere to economic nationalism. Thus the political outlook for 1934 seems very obscure.

Nevertheless the year will pass in all probability without any largescale war breaking out because the governments are afraid of the possible consequences and of the unknown outcome of a modern war and do not wish to take the risk. Therefore they will try to restrain their peoples. This breathing space will allow those who believe in peaceful cooperation as the aim of human development to strengthen all their efforts to replace the at present dominant national ideals of this people by loftier ideals and emotions which will augur better for the future of mankind. But this is necessarily a work of many years and therefore we must welcome meanwhile every effort to keep the preacarious peace of the world, precarious as it is, to allow us to lay the foundations for coming years which may open to us an outlook less full of anxiety and animosities than the present period has been.