The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-12-30
pARLIAMENT OF
PARLIAmENTS TO
RESTORE PEACE
Prof. Felix Adler Suggests
4 Meeting of Representa-
Il tives of all Nations.
ALL CLASSES TO
BE REPRESENTED
Looks Askance at Proposals
Of Disarmament and
The Like.

OF Disarmament and
The Like.
Prof Felix Adler, head of the Eth
cal Culture Society proposes in the
current number. Of the Standard, the
establishment bf "a Parliament of Par
1iaments. representative body Of the
people of ali nations, as a means of
arriving at the desired goal Of world
peace He examines and rejects the
plan for League. to Enforce Peace as
unavoidable. The proposal Of the
League, Professor Adler says, would
be virtually the. same as that of Fried
rich Naumann, the German pastor,
who suggested that the world divide
into two great. economic groups, each
atspeace within-but likely to be hos
tile to the other, The League, with its
compact to enforce peace, would sim
ply mean, he continues, gigantic war.
4 Professor Adler writes, under the
7 title, What Shall Be the Great Role
of.the United States After the War p"
H& states his subject thus:R r
EOf the various ill-defined PROPOSE
tions which. have already been put be-
foe us same seem to me to be es-
sehtially mischievous. My purpose
hs B is first to subject to criticism
on such iproposal-that America af-
te the war shall combine with the ma
It'd IS of Europe in keeping the lid on
tn s preventing a further explosion.
I'll ia shall indicate my own thought,
TIL the great role of the United States
sh uld be to stand for the creation of
4 . lew kind Of parliament, a Parlia-
unent OF Parliaments--and to encour-
age thereby those forces in Europe
which make for free government, but
are at present kept in check by the
governing classes, and especially by
those who are in control of the worlds
foreign policy The commercial and
nilitarist classes are the great OBJ
stacle to- the development of. popular
goverLment in Europe 1t should be
our aim to help the movement towards
putting the people in charge of their
relations to one another, thereby en-
Garging and giving grandeur to their
Lnind--to speed democracy in Europe,
rather than to combine with monar-
cIists, with cars. and kaisers, merely
to- punish some unruly member Of the
European group who seeks to make
I trouble. The great thing is to pre-
pare the true foundation for peace,
and this must be sought in the control
Of the people over international rela-
ltions.
Thinks Disarmament Unlikely.
In regard to disarmament and the
proposal of an International police
( poVer, Professor Adler says:
tBtt the disarmauea which is pre-
supposed by the police view; So far
from being brought nearer by the Eu-
ropean war, has actually been. remov-
/ ed to a greater distance. It is much
less likely to-day that there will be
disarmament than it was before the
war began. Meanwhile, League
to Enforce Peace, based on the idea
ola small body policing the world. is
impossible without disarmament Now
IT Isl the mutual disrust of the nations
that. prevents disarmament, and until
distrust can, be removed by. the pro-
gress Of popular government, popular
sovereignty, as against the do1nina-
ton of commercial and militarist
4 groups, there is no possibility Of dis
u armament" an
Professor Adler then summarizes
4 Pastor Naumann's suggestion for the
great economic groups, and returns
once more to the proposal for a Lea
que. He cannot imagine, he says,
that all the great Powers will agree
to com within a league. Hersayst ~
1.-THE difference in civilization, in in
terests. in economic and political de-
velopment is such that, If a league
were formed it would merely be bound
by rope Of sand, and would pres
emily fall apart The history Of lea
cues shows that they are temporary
a1ignments, and that great underlying
I forces control the formation Of these
alliances
Tho world court, for the submission
fof disputes, Professor Adler thinks,
would be unavoidable, because of in
ternational distrusts. Similarly, the
public opinion of the world, counted
upon to exercise moral suasion no
nation would dare to flout, he thinks
to be impossible of ascertainment.
Coming finally to an exposition of his
plan for parliament of parliaments,
Professor Adler writes:
The Proposed Parliament.
'"The picture that I have drawn
SCClItS UldCh CuOu6u. DuI INlC OIliy
genuine idealism is that which fully
faces the facts, even the blacklist of
them, and, then tries to see a way out
Now, it does seem to me that there
is light in one direction. These COM
peting economic interests, these plans
for expansion and ACKNOWLEDGMENT are
really due to the commercial aid mill
tarist groups, and the interests of the
nations, even their economic interests
are not really inharmonious and in
compatible. 1t is only the tempo
rary interests of the controlling groups
in each nation that are Incompatible
groups that profit by concessions
and special favors-While, as a mat
ter of fact, the permanent interests
of the people are sacrificed to the tenn
.porary interests of the exploiting
groups see light in drawing this
distinction and keeping it in mind--the
distinction between the actual inter
ests Of the peoples, which are not mu-
tua1ly exclusive, and the temporary in
terests of the groups, which are. JUS
4 tce can be done to the Russian people
and to the German people, while JUS
tice cannot be done-or, rather, let us
say justice is not involved-as between
the exploiting classes in France and
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