Books
KOHN, HANS
Books Some Guides for the Perplexed By HANS KOHN HOW TO THINK ABOUT WAR AND PEACE. By Mortimer J. Adler,, New York: Simon & Schuster. 1944. 308 pp. $2.50. A PREFACE TO PEACE. By Harold...
...Miss Schultz warns us of being again frightened of chaos in Germany...
...ha* reached the highest level la history...
...The durable peace after the second war will above all depend upon the avoidance of this grievous mistake...
...We spent 25 years making concessions to the Germans because of that fear...
...He knows enough of German history and mentality to know that "freedom" means something entirely different to Germans than to western people...
...If this should involve permanent diminution of Germany's predominant industrial power in Europe, that would not necessarily be tragic for Europe or for Germany herself...
...There is danger of an agricultural slump after this wsr ss there waa after World War I—a recurrence of the eld boom bust cycle...
...Price* for farm product* h*v* doubled elace 1989...
...The truce after the first German war waa so short snd ¦o unstable because those whose combined forces had with a supreme effort barely foiled Germany's plsns in 1917/18 allowed Germany after 1919 to work and press for their material and moral disarmament...
...General Sikorski violently opposed PilsudskiS dictatorship and Colonel Beck's attempts to arrive at "peace" with Germany...
...It is this which has lent permanence to British power...
...We envisage this time Hitler often in the position in which 26 years ago the Kaiser was, and veil carefully• the fact that both wars have been provoked by, and are fought, primarily against Germany's power of aggression which produces her will to aggression...
...William I. Myers, Dr...
...Uo/o-tunately, this guide for the perplexed will leave the reader as perplexed as he was before opening the book...
...The famous Polish-German agreement of January, 1934, was recognised by Sikorski aa an attempt "to isolate Poland and directing her attention to unrealizable Eastern conquests...
...A bill for Federal regulation of real eetatc • price* and to levy a 98 per cent tax on speculative ¦alee of land is being frsmed la Washington...
...Now it I* being used, with older machinery, to print a weekly newspaper in the Amharic tongue, Addi* leman, the official gazette Nagarit 0'attta, and various other publication...
...Net farm income in the ISA...
...The problem will be to induce *• democratic countries, always prone to forgive and *"*et after ware, to retain the physical power and the 'l*»ai'T*adinesie to prevent by force any effort by Germany to rearm...
...It would be proof of evident ill-will not to recognise that neither the French nation nor th* French army have any aggressive intentions towards other countries...
...Some may object that the three great empires will use that power ia their interests...
...bonder points out that the Germans will always be •"Satisfied, because the Gorman mind "dislikes limits boundaries and this may account for theTadmiration •? Power that breaks through barriers, even iRwugh it **T end in breaking Germany...
...Callender knows that this cannot b* Otherwise...
...At the first sign of weakness on our part, they will try it again...
...An English language paper, Ethiopian Herald, is also being issued under the editorship of Mr...
...In 1814, Germany was well-on the way towards the great-•st prosperity ever known, in 1939 Germsny had re-**ired immense territorial concessions (partly because there were still persons left in England and America who believed that the Versailles Treaty was not considerate "*W8h for the Germans)—and yet in 1914 and 1939 **• Germans went to wsr, surs of easy victory, confident •mt their army was tha best in the world snd their ¦dvtrsaries much inferior in military organisation...
...Otherwise many will again turn, as in 1919 and 1920, from responsible vigilance to the mirages of easy optimism...
...At ita end Profesor Adler agrees that though we cannot establish permanent peace after tbiawar, intelligent men cau make a long lasting •trace," Unfortunately where real and hard thinking should begin, namely in the discussion of the concrete conditions of a long lasting truce after this war, Professor Adler dismisses us with a few well-meaning and entirely meaningless generalities...
...Callender, an experienced American foreign correspondent, has seen much of the world in the last twenty years, and lie has observed thoughtfully political conditions and popular aspirations...
...Daring 1942 end 1948 the average net income for farmers increased by s greater percentage above the 19191914 level than did the net Income of othere...
...The average for farmers wss a boat $689, while the avers(e for non-farm perse a* wa* $1,288...
...Behind Bismarck, William II, and Hitler, the masses of Germany, with very few exceptions, have stood faithfully and fought heroically for Germany's aim...
...3.60...
...Poland would be very naive not to see in it the prologue of her own downfall...
...Ita weakening might open flood gates of measureless consequences in Europe, might break the dike and let th* boundless deep down upon far-off cities while they dance or dream...
...Kehn ia the author of The Idea of Nationalism...
...Jiooks lik* that are welcome...
...That it is not easy reading, would not speak against the book...
...The only cause of war is anarchy...
...Now the Germans have brought fear and agony to every country within their long reach...
...Callentier's suggestion for peace seem essentially ¦¦•a and moderate...
...The problem is not to talk about a just peace (Hitler does thst tool nor about too*,*ration (Hitler has from the beginning sought the coopers I ion of all kinds pf people everywhere > but to tell us how to 4*pply the principles of liberty and welfare in the confused and Contradictory win Id picture Which we are facing...
...Callender and Miss Schultz sre discussing wsr and pesce ss thinkers and observers with a knowledge gained in the crucial years since Hitler started the second German war for the world...
...mffDERN WARFARE...
...Speculation la land ia greater than it waa even in 1819...
...the road ahead of us will not be easy, it will demand great patience, hard thinking, searching self-criticism, and an understanding of the history and mentality of foreign peoples...
...Intended to guard sgaiaat the boom-bast threat...
...Truly a strange array of helper* for Germany...
...He might therefore welcome a guide with a didactic and somewhat pretentious title "How to Think About War a.u Peace...
...And yet that very thing waa done by well-meaning Britiah and American liberals, by Polish reactionaries snd by Communist propagandist...
...It contains much of pertinent information, though it doea not claim to reveal much that is new...
...Then let us concentrate on helping the emaciated people in Germany's neighboring countries, the innocent victims of pan-Germanism...
...Hoy Simpson...
...Farm Boom Threatens Agriculture Depression IF ARM ECONOMICS, pabllshed by Cornell College of Agriculture, war na that a faru land boom baa stsrted...
...By Harold Callender...
...Agricultural economists almost unanimously •gree that ah agricultural depression I* coming-¦ales* • high level of employment and consumer income ran be maintained, the present boom checked, and farmers practice *triet thrift...
...Too many books about war and peace get the reader easily confused...
...Callender with his balanced restraint is eminently fair to the Germans and tries to understand them...
...They constitute the moot serious guarantee for a lasting truce in Europe...
...For it was exercised on the whole for the good of the smaller nations of Europe whom integrity became a British interest...
...By General W lady law Sikoreki, Sew York: Roy Publiehere, 1843, 288 pp...
...Callender's book is not exciting reading...
...He is hopeful about the future if the three leading empires of the twentieth century, America, Russia, Britain, will use their power with the same sens* of moderation and restraint which the British showed when they alone were called upon to play the same role in the nineteenth century...
...The second German war for the world became only possible because after the first war British and Americans undermines the peace treaty and allowed Germany to try it again...
...Professor Adler believes that this may be achieved in about 600 years time...
...General Sikorski pointed out that the Polish-Gorman Treaty weakened the Polish alliances (with France) and put into action all the means of moral disarmament capable of isolating the adversary...
...Anarchy occurs wherever men or nations try to live together without each surrendering their sovereignty...
...W* want to help...
...General Sikorski was a practical statesman and military leader who long before the wsr wrote his study of modern warfare "to serve as salutary warning and in a small way to help in creating that strength which alone would insure permanent peace...
...3.00...
...The domination of Kurope, and, backed by Europe's resources, that of the world, seemed a feasible goal...
...HISTORIC IRONY One windfsll for the Ethioplsns after the expulsion of the Italians was a considerable amount of printing machinery which had been brought in by Mussolini's "colonists" and set up in Addis Ababa...
...Mr...
...Fsrm land value* roe* 21 per cent in the paat fear yeara and are now rising II per cent annually...
...QtMMASY WILL TRY IT AGAIN...
...His warning was not * heeded, not only not in the Anglo-Saxon countries where his book remained unknown, but even in Poland herself...
...worthwhile books, if thev really wish to teach and enlighten, must be exacting, exacting for atithoi and reader alike...
...SlNTE Bismarck centralised German power, the Germans have been convinced that they were the strongest nation in Europe, strategically situated, imbued with unique military and disciplinary virtues, and better led and equipped than any other nation...
...Profeospr Adler's purely lational scheme does in no way take into account the lealitief of'the human situation and of the internalional con-igu ration...
...Our contribution towards real world peace is to keep on guard Unremittingly...
...General Sikorski has arrived st th* same eoncluaion...
...It will above all demand a discarding of popular cliches, if we wish to avoid a repetition of 1920...
...But if they wield ^hsir powtr as fairly as Britain has done, the lesult, while falling short of Utopia, will be one that every state should welcome...
...Now York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1844, 288 pp...
...Mr...
...Genersl Sikorski's' Untimely death in 1943 was one of the great blows to the cauae of the United Nations, for he was one of the few progressive and realistic Polish loaders ef hia period, Ia 1931, Churchill warned in the Hoase'of Commons that "the French army at tha present moment is a stabilising factor...
...Though the book ia neither original nor well organited, it carries an important message and should not be overlooked by the British and American public who need books like these to be awakened to an understanding of reality...
...While hie general position is neither new nor original, this prophesy, though cautious and possibly true, will net be very helpful "to my sons and theirs," to whom (he book is dedicated...
...Frank A. Pearson, all of Cornell, declare that "Tk* moot effective wsy of avoiding tk* disastrous results of inflation and deialion is through using increased income to pay debts and to build a financial reserve in war bond*.'' The welfare of future farmer* will be determined by the relationship between the price Ihey pay for land aad the price they get for farm product*, daring the period they pay off Ike mortgage...
...Later on she became an American journalist and broadcaster in Germany, thoroughly acquainted with language and people...
...from her experience she has now written a book warning us of German preparations for a third German world war...
...Thus 4he creation of a world government would end war...
...But Britiah and American liberals as Polish fsscists bad weakened or rejected alliances and opened the gates to moral disarmament...
...The ether three books are by far less pretentious but much more concrete...
...It might tend towards a better balance in Europe, though the immediate effect would be to reduce the aggregate productive capacity of Europe...
...Sigrid Schultz, American born, of Norwegian descent, was taken to Germany by her parents just before the first war and lived there through it...
...for that it ia too sane, wise and moderate...
...Sylvl* F. Porter of the New York Pool report* thst "The drive to tax beevily abort-term profit* am real estate ia gaining powerful support both among the economists and in Coagrea...
...We cannot assume that great nations will at once become pure altruists...
...Every sensible Pole understands that the consolidation of the western frontier of his country in s condition sine qua 11011 of ita independence...
...Whoever tries today to diaarm France, is working consciously or unconsciously for the eventuality of a new war...
...Professor Adler, Mr...
...When we shall hsve a world govern-mcpt, a world atate, then war among states will bees*** impossible...
...Professor Adler, undoubtedly one of our original and thought-provoking teachers, deAnes war as a conflict between sovereign states, caused by the absence of a government or enforced law above the'states...
...V. B. Hart, and Dr...
...Nothing Would be more disastrous than the widespread fallacy that the Germans can be made into free and peace-f*l men by prosperity or territorial concessions...
...With the Germans it •em not mean individual rights, personal responsibility ¦ad self-determiBation, but selfless renunciation and freely accepted service for the State, "freedom in obedi-«**»•" Veblen thought that the Prussian system was ^beneath the human dignity of a free man," but that it wss a source of strength to the German State...
...Th* book will be found most useful and adequate for the purpose, for which it is designed for the average American who has rarely the time to integiate the various news coming to him from newspaper headlines, radio quarter hours, and news-reels...
...By gigrid Schultt.New York: Reynal & Hitcktptk, 1844, 238 pp...
Vol. 27 • August 1944 • No. 34
