Summary
SUMMARY A GRAPH of 1929 would doubtless stress the calm of relatively universal peace. If we except a few countries-Mexico, China, Syria-wherein some kind of armed conflict is normal, there has...
...Aviation aspired to do this, but to date aviation has been a financial failure, which fact may have contributed more than a little to the general collapse of security values...
...Italy and Russia survive as the leading examples of modern dictatorial governments, and doubtless their isolation in the first case as a form of rule, in the second as a social order will compel an increase of nationalist sentiment...
...On the other hand, the crash in stocks has reduced industrial valuations in almost all countries and has greatly weakened confidence in the future...
...We believe, therefore, that 1929 has been an exceptionally dramatic year, many of the scenes enacted during which will retain no little meaning for historians of tomorrow...
...In the main the drift toward better international understanding has been pronounced...
...One circumstance is peculiarly noteworthy...
...The British empire is only beginning to realize the dimensions of the Gandhi movement, which has set in motion currents of idealistic nationalism so strong that they may eventually do more than upset the Labor government or necessitate a measure of home rule in India...
...What of the more basic and lasting values of Christendom...
...Economics is the world of earnings and their distribution...
...Spiritual forces have, for their part, either been involved in the political or economic enterprises or have confronted new antagonisms...
...Here again it would be a mistake to say that the end of controversy had been reached...
...Yet hope is surely a virtue, and much has been done in the twelvemonth to justify confidence in the gradual triumph of reason over the instincts of the race...
...The Young planf tentatively settling the difficult problem of war-finance obligations, was not only signed but ratified by a German plebiscite...
...It seems apparent that quantities of money have been poured into very speculative ventures...
...More generally speaking, two important events have added memorable dates to the history of the Church...
...The first is the settlement of the Roman question, through the signing of a treaty and a concordat...
...that in not a few instances potential productivity has been confused with actual production...
...Conditions in Mexico are still far from settled, and it is a brave man who will venture to speak with unrestrained optimism about days to come...
...The balance sheet of the year includes such favorable circumstances as an improved French monetary situation, progress in the science of aviation and (so far as the United States is concerned) a demonstration of the soundness of the banking system...
...Within the domain of economics, western capitalism has been striving to attain control of factors making for social misery and thus also for a recrudescence of communism...
...But though this marks the close of a dispute more than half a century old, one must not fail to note that disagreement between the Papacy and the leaders of Fascismo continues, and not infrequently engages issues of the utmost gravity...
...Though friction between the United States and Latin America continues, many problems have been forced into the open where discussion may help to solve them, and at least a palliative has been found for the Mexican disease of unrest...
...The result of this sudden and well-nigh catastrophic injection of pessimistically garnered realism has been a considerable increase in unemployment...
...The campaign against mechanistic theories of life and nature has progressed, and the return of the spirit to philosophy is clearly marked...
...Intelligent preparation has virtually assured everybody of the success of the London Conference...
...No vast new industry has been developed, as the automotive and motion-picture industries were built up less than twenty years ago, to absorb an army of workers...
...On the other hand, nationalistic feeling has been exceedingly bitter in southwestern Europe, where Croatian, Serbian, Tyrolese and other groups have frequently clashed with their foes...
...Several well-known European journals have ceased publication...
...Stresemann and Clemenceau died almost at the same time, but the first lived to see his country restored to an independent diplomatic position quite unhoped for even three years ago, and the second said adieu to a France undoubtedly more genuinely secure, in every sense, than it has been since before 1870...
...In the political order, nationalism has been definitely and characteristically arrayed against internationalism...
...One may report a gradual increase in popular understanding of the true meaning of science...
...On the other hand, there has been something of a decline of religious cultural activity in all western countries...
...If we except a few countries-Mexico, China, Syria-wherein some kind of armed conflict is normal, there has been practically no military activity...
...Let us view these in their order, hoping so to arrive at a tentative inventory...
...Viewing them reflectively one realizes again by what slow stages, and how precariously, mankind arrives at betterment...
...and that, under pressure, the errors of mismanagement have sometimes been revealed as fairly lurid...
...The time has been rife with dramatic oppositions...
...And yet it is clear that the major issues of world society have been hotly contested, with uneven success...
...and in the United States the disarray which affects all literature continues to qualify Catholic and Protestant expression...
...The second event is the restoration of religious peace in Mexico...
Vol. 11 • January 1930 • No. 10
