Einstein

[North Star]

Here are some excerpts from the Einsteins book " The world as I see it", which oregionally contain essays on relativity and cognate subjects, which are ommitted here in order to reveal only the human side of one of the greatest personalities on this face of earth. Here, some letters of Einstein are also included, besides the book, which will (I suppose) help further to elaborate his ideology and philosophical outlook.


The Meaning of Life

What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer
this question at all implies a religion. Is there any sense then, you ask, in
putting it? I answer, the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow-creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost
disqualified for life.

The World as I see it

What an extraordinary situation is that of us mortals! Each of us is here for a
brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he
feels it. But from the point of view of daily life, without going deeper, we exist
for our fellow-men--in the first place for those on whose smiles and welfare all
our happiness depends, and next for all those unknown to us personally with
whose destinies we are bound up by the tie of sympathy. A hundred times
every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labours
of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in
the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. I am strongly
drawn to the simple life and am often oppressed by the feeling that I am
engrossing an unnecessary amount of the labour of my fellow-men. I regard
class differences as contrary to justice and, in the last resort, based on force.

I also consider that plain living is good for everybody, physically and mentally.
In human freedom in the philosophical sense I am definitely a disbeliever.
Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance
with inner necessity. Schopenhauer's saying, that "a man can do as he will, but not will as he will," has been an inspiration to me since my youth up, and a continual consolation and unfailing well-spring of patience in the face of the
hardships of life, my own and others'. This feeling mercifully mitigates the
sense of responsibility which so easily becomes paralysing, and it prevents us
from taking ourselves and other people too seriously; it conduces to a view of
life in which humor, above all, has its due place.

To inquire after the meaning or object of one's own existence or of creation
generally has always seemed to me absurd from an objective point of view.
And yet everybody has certain ideals which determine the direction of his
endeavors and his judgments. In this sense I have never looked upon ease
and happiness as ends in themselves--such an ethical basis I call more proper
for a herd of swine. The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time
after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth,
Goodness, and Beauty. Without the sense of fellowship with men of like mind,
of preoccupation with the objective, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific research, life would have seemed to me empty. The ordinary
objects of human endeavor--property, outward success, luxury--have
always seemed to me contemptible.

My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always
contrasted oddly with my pronounced freedom from the need for direct
contact with other human beings and human communities. I gang my own gait
and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my
immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties I have never lost an obstinate sense of detachment, of the need for solitude--a feeling which increases with the years. One is sharply conscious, yet without regret, of the limits to the possibility of mutual understanding and sympathy with one's fellow-creatures. Such a person no doubt loses something in the way of geniality and light-heartedness ; on the other hand, he is largely independent of the opinions, habits, and judgments of his fellows and avoids the temptation to take his stand on such insecure foundations.

My political ideal is that of democracy. Let every man be respected as an
individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and respect from my fellows through no
fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire,
unattainable for many, to understand the one or two ideas to which I have
with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware
that it is necessary for the success of any complex undertaking that one man
should do the thinking and directing and in general bear the responsibility. But
the led must not be compelled, they must be able to choose their leader. An
autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. For force
always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule
that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels. For this reason I have
always been passionately opposed to systems such as we see in Italy and
Russia to-day. The thing that has brought discredit upon the prevailing form of democracy in Europe to-day is not to be laid to the door of the democratic
idea as such, but to lack of stability on the part of the heads of governments
and to the impersonal character of the electoral system. I believe that in this
respect the United States of America have found the right way. They have a
responsible President who is elected for a sufficiently long period and has sufficient powers to be really responsible. On the other hand, what I value in
our political system is the more extensive provision that it makes for the
individual in case of illness or need. The really valuable thing in the pageant of
human life seems to me not the State but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.

This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of the herd nature, the military
system, which I abhor. That a man can take pleasure in marching in formation
to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been
given his big brain by mistake; a backbone was all he needed. This
plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed.
Heroism by order, senseless violence, and all the pestilent nonsense that does
by the name of patriotism--how I hate them! War seems to me a mean,
contemptible thing: I would rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such
an abominable business. And yet so high, in spite of everything, is my opinion
of the human race that I believe this bogey would have disappeared long ago,
had the sound sense of the nations not been systematically corrupted by
commercial and political interests acting through the schools and the Press.

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental
emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who
knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good
as dead, a snuffed-out candle. It was the experience of mystery--even if
mixed with fear--that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of
something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest
reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in
their most elementary forms--it is this knowledge and this emotion that
constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a
deeply religious man. I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes
his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls. Enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvellous structure of reality, together with the
single-hearted endeavour to comprehend a portion, be it never so tiny, of the
reason that manifests itself in nature.


Good and Evil

It is right in principle that those should be the best loved who have contributed most to the elevation of the human race and human life. But, if one goes on to ask who they are, one finds oneself in no inconsiderable difficulties.

In the case of political, and even of religious, leaders, it is often very doubtful
whether they have done more good or harm. Hence I most seriously believe
that one does people the best service by giving them some elevating work to
do and thus indirectly elevating them. This applies most of all to the great
artist, but also in a lesser degree to the scientist. To be sure, it is not the fruits of scientific research that elevate a man and enrich his nature, but the urge to understand, the intellectual work, creative or receptive. It would surely be absurd to judge the value of the Talmud, for instance, by its intellectual fruits.

The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure
and the sense in which he has attained to liberation from the self.


Society and Personality

When we survey our lives and endeavours we soon observe that almost the
whole of our actions and desires are bound up with the existence of other
human beings. We see that our whole nature resembles that of the social
animals. We eat food that others have grow, wear clothes that others have
made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our knowledge
and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through the medium
of a language which others have created. Without language our mental
capacities wuuld be poor indeed, comparable to those of the higher animals;
we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the
beasts to the fact of living in human society. The individual, if left alone from
birth would remain primitive and beast-like in his thoughts and feelings to a
degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual is what he is and has the
significance that he has not so much in virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human society, which directs his material and spiritual
existence from the cradle to the grave.

A man's value to the community depends primarily on how far his feelings,
thoughts, and actions are directed towards promoting the good of his fellows.
We call him good or bad according to how he stands in this matter. It looks at
first sight as if our estimate of a man depended entirely on his social qualities.And yet such an attitude would be wrong. It is clear that all the valuable things, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive from society can be traced back through countless generations to certain creative individuals. The use of fire, the cultivation of edible plants, the steam engine--each was discovered by one man.

Only the individual can think, and thereby create new values for society--nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the community conforms. Without creative, independently thinking and judging personalities the upward development of society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community.

The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close political cohesion. It has been said very justly that Græco-Europeo-American culture as a whole, and in
particular its brilliant flowering in the Italian Renaissance, which put an end to
the stagnation of mediæval Europe, is based on the liberation and comparative
isolation of the individual.

Let us now consider the times in which we live. How does society fare, how
the individual? The population of the civilized countries is extremely dense as
compared with former times; Europe to-day contains about three times as
many people as it did a hundred years ago. But the number of great men has
decreased out of all proportion. Only a few individuals are known to the
masses as personalities, through their creative achievements. Organization has to some extent taken the place of the great man, particularly in the technical sphere, but also to a very perceptible extent in the scientific.

The lack of outstanding figures is particularly striking in the domain of art.
Painting and music have definitely degenerated and largely lost their popular
appeal. In politics not only are leaders lacking, but the independence of spent
and the sense of justice of the citizen have to a great extent declined. The
democratic, parliamentarian regime, which is based on such independence,
has in many places been shaken, dictatorships have sprung up and are
tolerated, because men's sense of the dignity and the rights of the individual is no longer strong enough. In two weeks the sheep-like masses can be worked up by the newspapers into such a state of excited fury that the men are prepared to put on uniform and kill and be billed, for the sake of the worthless aims of a few interested parties. Compulsory military service seems to me the most disgraceful symptom of that deficiency in personal dignity from which civilized mankind is suffering to-day. No wonder there is no lack of prophets who prophesy the early eclipse of our civilization. I am not one of these pessimists; I believe that better times are coming. Let me shortly state my reasons for such confidence.

In my opinion, the present symptoms of decadence are explained by the fact
that the development of industry and machinery has made the struggle for
existence very much more severe, greatly to the detriment of the free
development of the individual. But the development of machinery means that
less and less work is needed from the individual for the satisfaction of the
community's needs. A planned division of labor is becoming more and more
of a crying necessity, and this division will lead to the material security of the
individual. This security and the spare time and energy which the individual will have at his command can be made to further his development. In this way the community may regain its health, and we will hope that future historians will explain the morbid symptoms of present-day society as the childhood ailments of an aspiring humanity, due entirely to the excessive speed at which
civilization was advancing.


Of Wealth

I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity
forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The
example of great and pure characters is the only thing that can produce fine
ideas and noble deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and always tempts
its owners irresistibly to abuse it.

Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus, or Gandhi armed with the money-bags of
Carnegie?


To the Schoolchildren of Japan

In sending this greeting to you Japanese schoolchildren, I can lay claim to a
special right to do so. For I have myself visited your beautiful country, seen its cities and houses, its mountains and woods, and in them Japanese boys who had learnt from them to love their country. A big fat book full of coloured
drawings by Japanese children lies always on my table.

If you get my message of greeting from all this distance, bethink you that ours is the first age in history to bring about friendly and understanding intercourse between people of different countries; in former times nations passed their lives in mutual ignorance, and in fact hated or feared one another. May the spirit of brotherly understanding gain ground more and more among them.

With this in mind I, an old man, greet you Japanese schoolchildren from afar and hope that your generation may some day put mine to shame.


Religion and Science

Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the
satisfaction of felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this
constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their
development. Feeling and desire are the motive forces behind all human
endeavour and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may
present itself to us. Now what are the feelings and needs that have led men to religious thought and belief in the widest sense of the words? A little
consideration will suffice to show us that the most varying emotions preside
over the birth of religious thought and experience. With primitive man it is
above all fear that evokes religious notions--fear of hunger, wild beasts,
sickness, death. Since at this stage of existence understanding of causal
connexions is usually poorly developed, the human mind creates for itself
more or less analogous beings on whose wills and actions these fearful happenings depend. One's object now is to secure the favour of these beings
by carrying out actions and offering sacrifices which, according to the tradition handed down from generation to generation, propitiate them or make them well disposed towards a mortal. I am speaking now of the religion of fear.

This, though not created, is in an important degree stabilized by the formation
of a special priestly caste which sets up as a mediator between the people and the beings they fear, and erects a hegemony on this basis. In many cases the leader or ruler whose position depends on other factors, or a privileged class, combines priestly functions with its secular authority in order to make the latter more secure; or the political rulers and the priestly caste make common cause in their own interests.

The social feelings are another source of the crystallization of religion. Fathers and mothers and the leaders of larger human communities are mortal and fallible. The desire for guidance, love, and support prompts men to form the social or moral conception of God. This is the God of Providence who
protects, disposes, rewards, and punishes, the God who, according to the
width of the believer's outlook, loves and cherishes the life of the tribe or of
the human race, or even life as such, the comforter in sorrow and unsatisfied
longing, who preserves the souls of the dead. This is the social or moral
conception of God.

The Jewish scriptures admirably illustrate the development from the religion of
fear to moral religion, which is continued in the New Testament. The religions
of all civilized peoples, especially the peoples of the Orient, are primarily
moral religions. The development from a religion of fear to moral religion is a
great step in a nation's life. That primitive religions are based entirely on fear
and the religions of civilized peoples purely on morality is a prejudice against
which we must be on our guard. The truth is that they are all intermediate
types, with this reservation, that on the higher levels of social life the religion of morality predominates.

Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic character of their
conception of God. Only individuals of exceptional endowments and
exceptionally high-minded communities, as a general rule, get in any real sense beyond this level. But there is a third state of religious experience which belongs to all of them, even though it is rarely found in a pure form, and which I will call cosmic religious feeling. It is very difficult to explain this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.

The individual feels the nothingness of human desires and aims and the
sublimity and marvellous order which reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of thought. He looks upon individual existence as a sort of prison
and wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole. The
beginnings of cosmic religious feeling already appear in earlier stages of
development--e.g., in many of the Psalms of David and in some of the
Prophets. Buddhism, as we have learnt from the wonderful writings of
Schopenhauer especially, contains a much stronger element of it.

The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of
religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man's
image; so that there can be no Church whose central teachings are based on
it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with the highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as Atheists, sometimes also as saints.
Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza
are closely akin to one another.

How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to
another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In
my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this
feeling and keep it alive in those who are capable of it.

We thus arrive at a conception of the relation of science to religion very
different from the usual one. When one views the matter historically one is inclined to look upon science and religion as irreconcilable antagonists, and for a very obvious reason. The man who is thoroughly convinced of the
universal operation of the law of causation cannot for a moment entertain the
idea of a being who interferes in the course of events--that is, if he takes the
hypothesis of causality really seriously. He has no use for the religion of fear
and equally little for social or moral religion. A God who rewards and
punishes is inconceivable to him for the simple reason that a man's actions are determined by necessity, external and internal, so that in God's eyes he cannot be responsible, any more than an inanimate object is responsible for the motions it goes through. Hence science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear and punishment and hope of reward after death.

It is therefore easy to see why the Churches have always fought science and
persecuted its devotees. On the other hand, I maintain that cosmic religious
feeling is the strongest and noblest incitement to scientific research. Only those who realize the immense efforts and, above all, the devotion which pioneer work in theoretical science demands, can grasp the strength of the emotion out of which alone such work, remote as it is from the immediate realities of life, can issue. What a deep conviction of the rationality of the universe and what a yearning to understand, were it but a feeble reflection of the mind revealed in this world, Kepler and Newton must have had to enable them to spend years of solitary labour in disentangling the principles of celestial mechanics! Those whose acquaintance with scientific research is derived chiefly from its practical results easily develop a completely false notion of the mentality of the men who, surrounded by a sceptical world, have shown the way to those like-minded with themselves, scattered through the earth and the centuries. Only one who has devoted his life to similar ends can have a vivid realization of what has inspired these men and given them the strength to remain true to their purpose in spite of countless failures. It is cosmic religious feeling that gives a man strength of this sort. A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people.

[North Star]

The Religiousness of Science

You will hardly find one among the profounder sort of scientific minds without
a peculiar religious feeling of his own. But it is different from the religion of the
naive man. For the latter God is a being from whose care one hopes to benefit
and whose punishment one fears; a sublimation of a feeling similar to that of a
child for its father, a being to whom one stands to some extent in a personal
relation, however deeply it may be tinged with awe.

But the scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation. The future, to him, is every whit as necessary and determined as the past. There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair. His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire. It is beyond question closely akin to that which has possessed the religious geniuses of all ages.

Greeting to G. Bernard Shaw

There are few enough people with sufficient independence to see the
weaknesses and follies of their contemporaries and remain themselves
untouched by them. And these isolated few usually soon lose their zeal for
putting things to rights when they have come face to face with human
obduracy. Only to a tiny minority is it given to fascinate their generation by
subtle humour and grace and to hold the mirror up to it by the impersonal
agency of art. To-day I salute with sincere emotion the supreme master of this method, who has delighted--and educated--us all.

A Farewell

A letter to the German Secretary of the League of Nations

Dear Herr Dufour-Feronce,

Your kind letter must not go unanswered, otherwise you may get
a mistaken notion of my attitude. The grounds for my resolve to
go to Geneva no more are as follows: Experience has,
unhappily, taught me that the Commission, taken as a whole,
stands for no serious determination to make real progress with the task of improving international relations. It looks to me far more like an embodiment of the principle ut aliquid fieri videatur. The Commission seems to me even worse in this respect than the League taken as a whole.

It is precisely because I desire to work with all my might for the
establishment of an international arbitrating and regulative
authority superior to the State, and because I have this object
so very much at heart, that I feel compelled to leave the
Commission.

The Commission has given its blessing to the oppression of the
cultural minorities in all countries by causing a National
Commission to be set up in each of them, which is to form the
only channel of communication between the intellectuals of a
country and the Commission. It has thereby deliberately
abandoned its function of giving moral support to the national
minorities in their struggle against cultural oppression.

Further, the attitude of the Commission in the matter of
combating the chauvinistic and militaristic tendencies of
education in the various countries has been so lukewarm that no
serious efforts in this fundamentally important sphere can be
hoped for from it.

The Commission has invariably failed to give moral support to
those individuals and associations who have thrown themselves
without reserve into the business of working for an international
order and against the military system.

The Commission has never made any attempt to resist the
appointment of members whom it knew to stand for tendencies
the very reverse of those it is bound in duty to foster.

I will not worry you with any further arguments, since you will
understand my resolve yell enough from these few hints. It is not
my business to draw up an indictment, but merely to explain my
position. If I nourished any hope whatever I should act
differently--of that you may be sure.


The Question of Disarmament

The greatest obstacle to the success of the disarmament plan was the fact that people in general left out of account the chief difficulties of the problem. Most objects are gained by gradual steps: for example, the supersession of absolute monarchy by democracy. Here, however, we are concerned with an
objective which cannot be reached step by step.

As long as the possibility of war remains, nations will insist on being as
perfectly prepared militarily as they can, in order to emerge triumphant from
the next war. It will also be impossible to avoid educating the youth in warlike
traditions and cultivating narrow national vanity joined to the glorification of
the warlike spirit, as long as people have to be prepared for occasions when
such a spirit will be needed in the citizens for the purpose of war. To arm is to
give one's voice and make one's preparations not for peace but for war.
Therefore people will not disarm step by step; they will disarm at one blow or
not at all.

The accomplishment of such a far-reaching change in the life of nations
presupposes a mighty moral effort, a deliberate departure from deeply
ingrained tradition. Anyone who is not prepared to make the fate of his
country in case of a dispute depend entirely on the decisions of an
international court of arbitration, and to enter into a treaty to this effect without reserve, is not really resolved to avoid war. It is a case of all or nothing.

It is undeniable that previous attempts to ensure peace have failed through
aiming at inadequate compromises.

Disarmament and security are only to be had in combination. The one
guarantee of security is an undertaking by all nations to give effect to the
decisions of the international authority.

We stand, therefore, at the parting of the ways. Whether we find the way of
peace or continue along the old road of brute force, so unworthy of our
civilization, depends on ourselves. On the one side the freedom of the
individual and the security of society beckon to us, on the other slavery for the individual and the annihilation of our civilization threaten us. Our fate will be according to our deserts.


Letter to a Friend of Peace

Dear Sir,

The point with which you deal in your letter is one of prime
importance. The armament industry is, as you say, one of the
greatest dangers that beset mankind. It is the hidden evil power
behind the nationalism which is rampant everywhere.…
Possibly something might be gained by nationalization. But it is
extremely hard to determine exactly what industries should be
included. Should the aircraft industry? And how much of the
metal industry and the chemical industry?

As regards the munitions industry and the export of war material,
the League of Nations has busied itself for years with efforts to
get this horrible traffic controlled--with what little success, we all
know. Last year I asked a well-known American diplomat why
Japan was not forced by a commercial boycott to desist from
her policy of force. "Our commercial interests are too strong,"
was the answer. How can one help people who rest satisfied
with a statement like that?

You believe that a word from me would suffice to get something
done in this sphere? What an illusion! People flatter me as long
as I do not get in their way. But if I direct my efforts towards
objects which do not suit them, they immediately turn to abuse
and calumny in defence of their interests. And the onlookers
mostly keep out of the light, the cowards! Have you ever tested
the civil courage of your countrymen? The silently accepted
motto is "Leave it alone and don't speak of it." You may be sure
that I shall do everything in my power along the lines you
indicate, but nothing can be achieved as directly as you think.


Women and War

In my opinion, the patriotic women ought to be sent to the front in the next
war instead of the men. It would at least be a novelty in this dreary sphere of
infinite confusion, and besides--why should not such heroic feelings on the
part of the fair sex find a more picturesque outlet than in attacks on a
defenseless civilian?

[North Star]

Thoughts on the World Economic Crisis

If there is one thing that can give a layman in the sphere of economics the
courage to express an opinion on the nature of the alarming economic
difficulties of the present day, it is the hopeless confusion of opinions among
the experts. What I have to say is nothing new and does not pretend to be
anything more than the opinion of an independent and honest man who,
unburdened by class or national prejudices, desires nothing but the good of
humanity and the most harmonious possible scheme of human existence. If in
what follows I write as if I were clear about certain things and sure of the truth of what I am saying, this is done merely for the sake of an easier mode of expression; it does not proceed from unwarranted self-confidence or a belief in the infallibility of my somewhat simple intellectual conception of problems which are in reality uncommonly complex.

As I see it, this crisis differs in character from past crises in that it is based on an entirely new set of conditions, due to rapid progress in methods of
production. Only a fraction of the available human labour in the world is
needed for the production of the total amount of consumption-goods
necessary to life. Under a completely free economic system this fact is bound
to lead to unemployment. For reasons which I do not propose to analyse
here, the majority of people are compelled to work for the minimum wage on
which life can be supported. If two factories produce the same sort of goods,
other things being equal, that one will be able to produce them more cheaply
which employs less workmen--i.e., makes the individual worker work as long
and as hard as human nature permits. From this it follows inevitably that, with
methods of production what they are to-day, only a portion of the available
labour can be used. While unreasonable demands are made on this portion,
the remainder is automatically excluded from the process of production. This
leads to a fall in sales and profits. Businesses go smash, which further
increases unemployment and diminishes confidence in industrial concerns and
therewith public participation in these mediating banks; finally the banks
become insolvent through the sudden withdrawal of deposits and the wheels
of industry therewith come to a complete standstill.

The crisis has also been attributed to other causes which we will now
consider.

(1) Over-production. We have to distinguish between two things here--real over-production and apparent over-production. By real overproduction I mean a production so great that it exceeds the demand. This m4y perhaps apply to motor-cars and wheat in the United States at the present moment, although even that is doubtful. By "over-production" people usually mean a condition of things in which more of one particular article is produced than can, in existing circumstances, be sold, in spite of a shortage of consumption-goods among consumers. This condition of things I call apparent over-production. In this case it is not the demand that is lacking but the consumers' purchasing-power. Such apparent over-production is only another word for a crisis, and therefore cannot serve as an explanation of the latter; hence people who try to make over-production responsible for the crisis are merely juggling with words.

(2) Reparations. The obligation to pay reparations lies heavy on the debtor nations and their industries, compels them to go in for dumping, and so harms the creditor nations too This is beyond dispute. But the appearance of the crisis in the United States, in spite of the high tariff-wall protecting them,
proves that this cannot be the principal cause of the world crisis. The shortage of gold in the debtor countries due to reparations can at most serve as an argument for putting an end to these payments; it cannot be dragged in as an explanation of the world crisis.

(3) Erection of near tariff-walls. Increase in the unproductive burden of
armaments. Political in security owing to latent danger of war. All these things
add considerably to the troubles of Europe, but do not materially affect
America. The appearance of the crisis in America shows that they cannot be
its principal causes.

(4) The dropping-out of the two Powers, China and Russia. This blow to world trade also does not touch America very nearly, and therefore cannot be a principal cause of the crisis.(Well, I cannot say anything for Russia, but for China, I think he underestimated something)

(5) The economic rise of the lower classes since the War. This, supposing it to be a reality, could only produce a scarcity of goods, not an excessive supply.

I will not weary the reader by enumerating further contentions which do not
seem to me to get to the heart of the matter. Of one thing I feel certain: this
same technical progress which, in itself, might relieve mankind of a great part
of the labour necessary to its subsistence, is the main cause of our present
troubles. Hence there are those who would in all seriousness forbid the
introduction of technical improvements. This is obviously absurd. But how can
we find a more rational way out of our dilemma?

If we could somehow manage to prevent the purchasing-power of the
masses, measured in terms of goods, from sinking below a certain minimum, stoppages in the industrial cycle such as we are experiencing to-day would be
rendered impossible.

The logically simplest but also most daring method of achieving this is a
completely planned economy, in which consumption-goods are produced and
distributed by the community. That, in essentials, is what is being attempted in
Russia to-day. Much will depend on what results this mighty experiment
produces. To hazard a prophecy here would be presumption. Can goods be
produced as economically under such a system as under one which leaves
more freedom to individual enterprise? Can this system maintain itself at all
without the terror that has so far accompanied it, which none of us
"westerners" would care to let himself in for? Does not such a rigid,
centralized system tend towards protection and hostility to advantageous
innovations? We must take care, however, not to allow these suspicions to
become prejudices which prevent us from forming an objective judgment.

My personal opinion is that those methods are preferable which respect
existing traditions and habits so far as that is in any way compatible with the
end in view. Nor do I believe that a sudden transference of the control of
industry to the hands of the public would be beneficial from the point of view
of production; private enterprise should be left its sphere of activity, in so far
as it has not already been eliminated by industry itself in the form of
cartelization.

There are, however, two respects in which this economic freedom ought to be limited. In each branch of industry the number of working hours per week
ought so to be reduced by law that unemployment is systematically abolished.
At the same time minimum wages must be fixed in such a way that the
purchasing power of the workers keeps pace with production.

Further, in those industries which have become monopolistic in character
through organization on the part of the producers, prices must be controlled
by the State in order to keep the creation of new capital within reasonable
bounds and prevent the artificial strangling of production and consumption.

In this way it might perhaps be possible to establish a proper balance between production and consumption without too great a limitation of free enterprise, and at the same time to stop the intolerable tyranny of the owners of the means of production (land, machinery) over the wage-earners, in the widest sense of the term.


Culture and Prosperity

If one would estimate the damage done by the great political catastrophe to
the development of human civilization, one must remember that culture in its
higher forms is a delicate plant which depends on a complicated set of
conditions and is wont to flourish only in a few places at any given time. For it to blossom there is needed, first of all, a certain degree of prosperity, which
enables a fraction of the population to work at things not directly necessary to the maintenance of life; secondly, a moral tradition of respect for cultural
values and achievements, in virtue of which this class is provided with the
means of living by the other classes, those who provide the immediate
necessities of life.

During the past century Germany has been one of the countries in which both
conditions were fulfilled. The prosperity was, taken as a whole, modest but
sufficient; the tradition of respect for culture vigorous. On this basis the
German nation has brought forth fruits of culture which form an integral part of the development of the modern world. The tradition, in the main, still stands; the prosperity is gone. The industries of the country have been cut off almost completely from the sources of raw materials on which the existence of the industrial part of the population was based. The surplus necessary to support the intellectual worker has suddenly ceased to exist. With it the tradition which depends on it will inevitably collapse also, and a fruitful nursery of culture turn to wilderness.The human race, in so far as it sets a value on culture, has an interest in preventing such impoverishment. It will give what help it can in the immediate crisis and reawaken that higher community of feeling, now thrust into the background by national egotism, for which human values have a validity independent of politics and frontiers. It will then procure for every nation conditions of work under which it can exist and under which it can bring forth fruits of culture.


Production and Purchasing Power

I do not believe that the remedy for our present difficulties lies in a knowledge
of productive capacity and consumption, because this knowledge is likely, in
the main, to come too late. Moreover the trouble in Germany seems to me to
be not hypertrophy of the machinery of production but deficient purchasing
power in a large section of the population, which has been cast out of the
productive process through rationalization.

The gold standard has, in my opinion, the serious disadvantage that a shortage in the supply of gold automatically leads to a contraction of credit and also of the amount of currency in circulation, to which contraction prices and wages cannot adjust themselves sufficiently quickly. The natural remedies for our troubles are, in my opinion, as follows:--

(1) A statutory reduction of working hours, graduated for each department of industry, in order to get rid of unemployment, combined with the fixing of minimum wages for the purpose of adjusting the purchasing-power of the masses to the amount of goods available.

(2) Control of the amount of money in circulation and of the volume of credit in such a way as to keep the price-level steady, all special protection being abolished.

(3) Statutory limitation of prices for such articles as have been practically withdrawn from free competition by monopolies or the formation of cartels.


Production and Work

An answer to Cederström

Dear Herr Cederström,

Thank you for sending me your proposals, which interest me
very much. Having myself given so much thought to this subject I
feel that it is right that I should give you my perfectly frank
opinion on them.

The fundamental trouble seems to me to be the almost unlimited
freedom of the labour market combined with extraordinary
progress in the methods of production. To satisfy the needs of
the world to-day nothing like all the available labour is wanted.
The result is unemployment and excessive competition among
the workers, both of which reduce purchasing power and put
the whole economic system intolerably out of gear.

I know Liberal economists maintain that every economy in
labour is counterbalanced by an increase in demand. But, to
begin with, I don't believe it, and even if it were true, the
above-mentioned factors would always operate to force the
standard of living of a large portion of the human race doom to
an unnaturally low level.

I also share your conviction that steps absolutely must be taken to make it possible and necessary for the younger people to take
part in the productive process. Further, that the older people
ought to be excluded from certain sorts of work (which I call
"unqualified" work), receiving instead a certain income, as having
by that time done enough work of a kind accepted by society as
productive.

I too am in favour of abolishing large cities, but not of settling
people of a particular type--e.g., old people--in particular
towns. Frankly, the idea strikes me as horrible. I am also of
opinion that fluctuations in the value of money must be avoided,
by substituting for the gold standard a standard based on certain
classes of goods selected according to the conditions of
consumption--as Keynes, if I am not mistaken, long ago
proposed. With the introduction of this system one might
consent to a certain amount of "inflation," as compared with the
present monetary situation, if one could believe that the State
would really make a rational use of the windfall thus accruing to
it.

The weaknesses of your plan lie, so it seems to me, in the sphere
of psychology, or rather, in your neglect of it. It is no accident
that capitalism has brought with it progress not merely in
production but also in knowledge. Egoism and competition are,
alas, stronger forces than public spirit and sense of duty. In
Russia, they say, it is impossible to get a decent piece of
bread.…Perhaps I am over-pessimistic concerning State
and other forms of communal enterprise, but I expect little good
from them. Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work. I have
seen and experienced too many dreadful warnings, even in
comparatively model Switzerland.

I am inclined to the view that the State can only be of real use to
industry as a limiting and regulative force. It must see to it that
competition among the workers is kept within healthy limits, that
all children are given a chance to develop soundly, and that
wages are high enough for the goods produced to be consumed.
But it can exert a decisive influence through its regulative function
if--and there again you are right--its measures are framed in an
objective spirit by independent experts.

I would like to write to you at greater length, but cannot find the
time.

[North Star]

Addresses on Reconstruction in Palestine

Ten years ago, when I first had the pleasure of addressing you on behalf of
the Zionist cause, almost all our hopes were still fixed on the future. To-day
we can look back on these ten years with joy; for in that time the united
energies of the Jewish people have accomplished a splendid piece of
successful constructive work in Palestine, which certainly exceeds anything
that we dared to hope then.

We have also successfully stood the severe test to which the events of the last few years have subjected us. Ceaseless work, supported by a noble purpose, is leading slowly but surely to success. The latest pronouncements of the British Government indicate a return to a juster judgment of our case; this we recognize with gratitude.

But we must never forget what this crisis has taught us--namely, that the
establishment of satisfactory relations between the Jews and the Arabs is not
England's affair but ours. We--that is to say, the Arabs and ourselves--have
got to agree on the main outlines of an advantageous partnership which shall
satisfy the needs of both nations. A just solution of this problem and one
worthy of both nations is an end no less important and no less worthy of our
efforts than the promotion of the work of construction itself. Remember that Switzerland represents a higher stage of political development than any
national state, precisely because of the greater political problems which had to be solved before a stable community could be built up out of groups of
different nationality.

Much remains to be done, but one at least of Herzl's aims has already been
realized: its task in Palestine has given the Jewish people an astonishing degree of solidarity and the optimism without which no organism can lead a healthy life.

Anything we may do for the common purpose is done not merely for our
brothers in Palestine, but for the well-being and honour of the whole Jewish
people.

II

We are assembled to-day for the purpose of calling to mind our age-old
community, its destiny, and its problems. It is a community of moral tradition,
which has always shown its strength and vitality in times of stress. In all ages it has produced men who embodied the conscience of the Western world,
defenders of human dignity and justice.

So long as we ourselves care about this community it will continue to exist to the benefit of mankind, in spite of the fact that it possesses no self-contained
organization. A decade or two ago a group of far-sighted men, among whom
Herzl of immortal memory stood out above the rest, came to the conclusion
that we needed a spiritual centre in crder to preserve our sense of solidarity in difficult times. Thus arose the idea of Zionism and the work of settlement in
Palestine, the successful realization of which we have been permitted to
witness, at least in its highly promising beginnings.

I have had the privilege of seeing, to my great joy and satisfaction, how much this achievement has contributed to the recovery of the Jewish people, which is exposed, as a minority among the nations, not merely to external dangers, but also to internal ones of a psychological nature.

The crisis which the work of construction has had to face in the last few years has lain heavy upon us and is not yet completely surmounted. But the most recent reports show that the world, and especially the British Government, is disposed to recognize the great things which lie behind our struggle for the Zionist ideal. Let us at this moment remember with gratitude our leader Weizmann, whose zeal and circumspection have helped the good cause to success.

The difficulties we have been through have also brought some good in their
train. They have shown us once more how strong the bond is which unites the Jews of all countries in a common destiny. The crisis has also purified our
attitude to the question of Palestine, purged it of the dross of nationalism. It
has been clearly proclaimed that we are not seeking to create a political
society, but that our aim is, in accordance with the old tradition of Jewry, a
cultural one in the widest sense of the word. That being so, it is for us to solve the problem of living side by side with our brother the Arab in an open,
generous, and worthy manner. We have here an opportunity of showing what
we have learnt in the thousands of years of our martyrdom. If we choose the
right path we shall succeed and give the rest of the world a fine example.


III

I am delighted to have the opportunity of addressing a few words to the youth of this country which is faithful to the common aims of Jewry. Do not be discouraged by the difficulties which confront us in Palestine. Such things
serve to test the will to live of our community.

Certain proceedings and pronouncements of the English administration have
been justly criticized. We must not, however, leave it at that but learn by
experience.

We need to pay great attention to our relations with the Arabs. By cultivating these carefully we shall be able in future to prevent things from becoming so dangerously strained that people can take advantage of them to provoke acts of hostility. This goal is perfectly within our reach, because our work of construction has been, and must continue to be, carried out in such a manner as to serve the real interests of the Arab population also.

In this way we shall be able to avoid getting ourselves quite so often into the
position, disagreeable for Jews and Arabs alike, of having to call in the
mandatory Power as arbitrator. We shall thereby be following not merely the
dictates of Providence but also our traditions, which alone give the Jewish
community meaning and stability.

For that community is not, and must never become, a political one; this is the
only permanent source whence it can draw new strength and the only ground
on which its existence can be justified.


Working Palestine

Among Zionist organizations "Working Palestine" is the one whose work is of
most direct benefit to the most valuable class of people living there--namely,
those who are transforming deserts into flourishing settlements by the labour
of their hands. These workers are a selection, made on a voluntary basis,
from the whole Jewish nation, an élite composed of strong, confident, and
unselfish people. They are not ignorant labourers who sell the labour of their
hands to the highest bidder, but educated, intellectually vigorous, free men,
from whose peaceful struggle with a neglected soil the whole Jewish nation
are the gainers, directly and indirectly. By lightening their heavy lot as far as
we can we shall be saving the most valuable sort of human life; for the first
settlers' struggle on ground not yet made habitable is a difficult and dangerous business involving a heavy personal sacrifice. How true this is, only they can judge who have seen it with their own eyes. Anyone who helps to improve the equipment of these men is helping on the good work at a crucial point.

It is, moreover, this working class alone that has it in its power to establish healthy relations with the Arabs, which is the most important political task of Zionism. Administrations come and go; but it is human relations that finally turn the scale in the lives of nations. Therefore to support "Working Palestine" is at the same time to promote a humane and worthy policy in Palestine, and to oppose an effective resistance to those undercurrents of narrow nationalism from which the whole political world, and in a less degree the small political world of Palestine affairs, is suffering.


Letter to an Arab

March 15, 1930

Sir,

Your letter has given me great pleasure. It shows me that there is good will
available on your side too for solving the present difficulties in a manner
worthy of both our nations. I believe that these difficulties are more
psychological than real, and that they can be got over if both sides bring
honesty and good will to the task.

What makes the present position so bad is the fact that Jews and Arabs
confront each other as opponents before the mandatory power. This state of
affairs is unworthy of both nations and can only be altered by our finding a via media on which both sides agree.

I will now tell you how I think that the present difficulties might be remedied;
at the same time I must add that this is only my personal opinion, which I have discussed with nobody. I am writing this letter in German because I am not capable of writing it in English myself and because I want myself to bear the entire responsibility for it. You will, I am sure, be able to get some Jewish
friend of conciliation to translate it.

A Privy Council is to be formed to which the Jews and Arabs shall each send
four representatives, who must be independent of all political parties.

Each group to be composed as follows:--

• A doctor, elected by the Medical Association;
• A lawyer, elected by the lawyers;
• A working men's representative, elected by the trade unions;
• An ecclesiastic, elected by the ecclesiastics.

These eight people are to meet once a week. They undertake not to espouse
the sectional interests of their profession or nation but conscientiously and to
the best of their power to aim at the welfare of the whole population of the
country. Their deliberations shall be secret and they are strictly forbidden to
give any information about them, even in private. When a decision has been
reached on any subject in which not less than three members on each side
concur, it may be published, but only in the name of the whole Council. If a
member dissents he may retire from the Council, but he is not thereby
released from the obligation to secrecy. If one of the elective bodies above
specified is dissatisfied with a resolution of the Council, it may repiace its
representative by another.

Even if this "Privy Council" has no definite powers it may nevertheless bring
about the gradual composition of differences, and secure as united
representation of the common interests of the country before the mandatory
power, clear of the dust of ephemeral politics.


On deployment of first atom bomb

If only I had known,I would have become a watchmaker instead.