The New York herald., 1921-04-11
INDIAN PICKED AS
GREATEST OF MEN
Gandhi. Leader of Reyolu-
tion in India. Gets Title
From DR.. Holmes.
is PUT BESIDE CHRIST
Close Race With Lenine,
is PUT BESIDE CHRIST
Close Race With Lenine,
Placed in Class of NapO-
leon and MOhammed.
LOUD CHEERS FOR DEBS
Sermon in Lyric Theatre Dis
cards All at Versailles,
Except SHUTS.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi In
dian ascetic and leader of the revolution
for Indian independence in a campaign
OF non-violence and non-cooperation, de-
serves the title. said DR.. John Haynes
Holmes, who sought In his sermon IN
the Lyric Theatre yesterday to answer
the question. "who is the greatest man
in the world to-day?" The theatre was
filled with a cosmopolitan audience.
Applause greeted the mentioning OF the
name of Eugene V. Debs while DR..
Holmes was discussing Gandhl
DR. Holmes considered also Roman
ROLAND, French litterateur and Socialist,
and Nicolai Lenine as great enough 10
be capable of candidacy" but each fell
be; w the preachers standard of man
universal. eternal, infinite ROLAND.
he said, is essentially an artist and
idealist; Lenine, a realist, one OF COM
pany that might Include Napoleon Bona
parte. Mohammed and Cromwell, men
who have done things. men who have
rocked the world, men who have builded
a new society, and have gone down to
ruin because they failed to recognize the
realist thing in the world--the law OF
morality"
With the exception of Gen. Jan Chris
tian SHUTS, DIR. Holmes threw into the
discard at the outset every one or the
makers and signers of the Treaty OF
Versailles. "They failed TO meet the
supreme tests of peace" he said.
II call Gandhi the greatest man in the
world. He is pure in life; he is the
organizer of revolution; he Is as much
a realist as Lenine. but at the same time
he rises to the beauty and sublimity OF
the idealism of Roman ROLAND.
Here we have a universal man, a
man touching the heights, a man dwell
ing In the spirit, not the founder of
new state, but the founder Of re-
ligion.
IT have said that when I think OF
ROLAND / think Of Leo Tolstoi; that
when l think of Lenine | think OF Ma
poleon Bonaparte; l say now that when
/ think OF Gandhi ] think OF Jesus
Christ"
The so-called strikes for which
Gandhis name is almost synonymous.
DR.. Holmes said were strikes with a
difference. Instead of striking the hard
er when the opposition is in dire need.
Gandhi directs his followers to do the
opposite thing. In the twenty years
which he spent in South Africa work
ing for the liberation of the Indians. DR.,
Holmes said that Gandhi conducted his
strikes as long as the Government was
able to care for itself. When II was
endangered, as in the Boer War or dur
ing periods Of famine and pestilence. he
called his Indians to the aid Of the Gov
ernment he was fighting
"He argues that no violence is right" /"
continued DIR. Holmes. How well 1t
would be for Lenine! 1t is not only
right, but he thinks that ii is the only
thing that can be effective. When the
Prince of Wales came to visit India,
Gandhi instructed every one of his fol-
lowers to turn away and refuse to be
seen In public. That is what he means
by the paralysis Of England.
He seeks inside his non-cooperation
movement to build a new India that
will not tolerate difference of caste or
religious differences. He dreams a
dream of new India spiritually united
by love, whose life will be the model Of
every nation, and whose beginning shall
be the beginning of the brotherhood OF
men,"
Turning to discuss Lenine. DR.. Holmes
described him as "the great man who
sits in the shadow of the Kremlin and
holds in his hand more power than any
other thinking man since the passing
Of Napoleon Bonaparte."
He stands at the centre of the world !
activities" DR.. Holmes continued. And
| wonder how many realize that when
the history OF the world is written at
some later date this period OF tho
aftermath of the war will be known as
the period of Nicolai Lenine.
He has builded a new democracy. the
democracy of the workingmen. He Is
the intellectual giant of our time All
the other statesmen of our day stand
as pygmies with this little man