Evening star., 1939-06-04
Need Of Spiritual Force
Emerges From Turmoil
Effect On Nations Sought
AS Means of Remaking
Modern System
Bv James Waldo Favceff.

The movement for Moral Re-Arm-
ament is only one year old, but al
ready it has assumed aspects of
worldwide significance. Launched
by DR.. Frank N. D. Buchanan in
London on May 20, 1888, the cam
paign seeks to develop spiritual
forces equal to the needs of hu-
J mainly in a period of unprecedented
confusion and turmoil
DR.. Buchanan diagnosed the dis
ease and suggests the cure in these
words: The worlds condition can
not but cause disquiet and anxiety.
Hostility piles up between nation
and nation, labor and capital, class
and class. The cost of bitterness
and fear mounts daily. Friction and
illustration are undermining our
homes. The remedy may lie in a
return to those simple home truths
that some of us learned at our moth
erS' knees, and which many of us
have forgotten and neglected-hon-
esty, purity, unselfshness and love"
1t is the founders conviction that:
"The crisis is fundamentally a moral
one" Therefore, he urges the ma
tons to "rearm morally" Security
cannot be achieved in any other
way. Also. moral re-armament is
necessary for moral recovery" as
'the forerunner of economic recov-
cry"
AS to the method for attaining the
ideal, DR.. Buchanan explains: The
secret lies in that great forgotten
truth that when man listens, God
speaks; when man obeys, God acts;
when men change, nations change.
-. God has plan, and the COM
bined moral and spiritual forces Of
the nation can find that plan We
can, we must, and We will generate
a moral and spiritual force that is
powerful enough to remake the
world"
Parties in Action.
The founders original exposition
of his philosophy was widely re-
ported in the British and Conti-
mental press, with the result that
during the summer Of 1888 a series
of meetings was arranged for the
further discussion of the proposal
A dinner at the House of Commons
brought DR.. Buchanan into contact
with many members of Parliament,
and shortly afterwards representa-
tives of three different political
parties joined in public statement,
in part, as follows:
Democracy has always prlded it
self on attaining the due proportion
of freedom and discipline. But if
freedom becomes license and dis
cipline is rejected as contrary to
freedom, that essential proportion
must be lost. Danger lies in paying
lip-service to democratic principles
and refusing to pay the full price
of freedom. Democracy without
high character and the discipline
of purpose disintegrates, and free
institutions can no longer safeguard
their freedom by remaining on the
defensive. Nor is it enough to be
the self-appointed judge of other
systems.
Whence. then, can come that in
ner quickening that is SO greatly
needed? May the answer not be
found in reawakening of the
fundamental values on which
democracy was built; in re-
dedication of our people to those
elementary virtues of honesty, un-
selflshness and love, which so many
of us have allowed to take sec
ondary place; in the subjection,' as
the foreign secretary once reminded
us, of every part of our being to
the service of Gods will? In an
age when lowered moral standards
have become a breeding ground for
destructive forces. is it not time for
democracy to seek again the sources
of her strength. and to demonstrate
to the world the power of moral
principles?"
Signers of Plea.
The signatories to this challeng-
Ing manifesto, 33 in number. in
cluded Rear Admiral Sir Murray F.
Sueter, Maj. Sir John Wardlaw-
Milne. Sir George Broadbridge, Col
Sir George Courthope, Sir Francis
Fremantle, Sir Robert Cover, Sir
Patrick Harmon, Sir George Harvey,
Sir John Haslam, Sir Joseph Leech,
Sir Cooper Rawson, Sir Robert
Young, 1t. Col. George Doland, Capt.
Arthur Evans, Comdr Arthur Mars
den, the Right Hon. Viscount VOL
mer, the Right Hon. j. R. Clynes
and Arthur Henderson, secretary of
state for home affairs in the Mac
donald government and Nobel Prize
winner.
Publication of the statement with
such names attached created SEN
sation, but the excitement was sur
passed on September 10, when, in an
open letter to the London Times.
Earl Baldwin of Bewdley and 16
other distinguished signers declared:
Policy, foreign as well as domestic,
Is for every nation ultimately de-
termined by the character of her
people and the inspiration of her
leaders, by the acceptance in their
lives and in their policy of honesty,
faith and love as the foundations on
which new world may be built.
Without these qualities the strong
est armaments, the most elaborate