New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-24
By CHARLES FERGUSON
NATOLE FRANCE. spes

hope of peace. LAYS aside the
self-riehtcousncss of rationslism and
confcsscs that tho cause Of the wal
is obscure. He thinks that "aftef
many years Of psinstaking and I'M
partial Investigations wise men may
De able to find out what Europe has
been fighting about. He suggests
that in The meantime peace should
be established somehow.
This brave. bcwildered humans;
speaks. a. We should have expected,
like a true nan Of letters. He de-
serves the esteem of the world for
MS simplicity and sincerity Yet he
IS probably in error in supposine
that peace can be established while
The cause Of the war remains in
doubt. On the contrary, the shortest
and surest road to peace seems to be
through the discovery Of the disease
hat has thrown the world into con-
WILSON'S.
Accordingly. one may beg consid-
GRAFTON for the opinion that the war
WAS caused b. false and preposter-
Gus development Of 'he worlds
working system.
Il appears that the Distinguishing
characteristic Of the age we live IN
is the rise of a new world power
10 wit-the modern international
structure Of production and eX-
change. In this unprecedented
world Of work, the government Is
lodged not in the old centres Of po-
litical authority, but in quite new
centres.
The dramatic antithesis Of our
time. awaiting advertisement and
understanding. is the pull and haul
Of the old centres formed for the
administration Of justice against
the new centres formed-tentatively
and imperfectly, indeed for the
administration Of credit. This latter
kind Of government-which is per
haps destined 70 supersede the old
kind-may he covered under the
general head-Finsnce.
Modern Finance deserves a phi
losophy. But its Hobbies, Hegel
Locke. Rousseau or Montesquieu has
not yet appeared, No Bacon or
Aristotle has imagined a world-so-
ciety in motion-under the spur Of
electricity and steam. No Jefferson
or Hamilton has conceived Of q non
static. a dynamic civil polity, cross
ing frontiers and modifying nations
Tor the advancement of the arts and
the mastery Of elemental forces.
It is not strange, therefore, that
Universal Finance, as it stood in the
carly summer of 1914. did not in tho
least understand itself-and was moi
understood in any European Cabinet
The war, submit, is due to
general misunderstanding of th'
nature and normal operation Of thi
. new and Transforming power.
In effect the worlds finance wa
inverted, and this inversion ha
turned the world upside down.
Finance refused 70 operate as
new and independent power. IL per
sisted in thinking Of itself as a mere
dependency Of the old political powel
the taxing power. Il did not real
ne its mission as administrator OF
the creative capacities of the race.
To explain how it came to pass
that the administration OF credit haC
grown into its ill-sorted subservienc'
10 the police power through the ter
generations Of its modern develop
ment would require the writing Of q
history that needs indeed TO be writ
ten. The nearest approach 10 such
a history-presenting. however, Z
sdelong view Of the subjects the
study Of the German economist Som
hart. concerning the relation Of the
Jew and the Hebraic mentality &c
the growth Of capitalism. But, OF
course. IL is not altogether the fault
Of the Jewish people that Western
Europe and America have "Hebra-
ized'-as Matthew Arnold might
have said-in their financial think
'nF
Il is no doubt due 10 a menta! per
versity or disability profoundly af-
fecting the general culture OF West
ern nations that we stick so stub
bornly % static terms in our social
thinking and find such difficulty in
dynamic terms. We are forever
thinking Of government or the de
vices Of social control as an ar
rangement TO keep things fixed
while the fact is that this new world
power. the business system, cannot
he understood otherwise than as "a
going concern"-an arrangement OF
agencies and responsibilities to keep
Things moving.
Now the trouble with our actual
business system is that IFS constitu-