Evening star., 1944-07-30
The Neqv Books
Primer Of the Coming World

By leopold Schwarzschild.
Translated from the German
By Norbert Guterman. fKnOpfJ
OF books on the coming world"
fashionable as their composition Is,
one can say only that at the mo-
ment they seem to fall into two
classes-those written from the close
view of the doctrinaire and those
written from the long view of the
philosophical student OF history.
The former are usually the more
complete. The man with theory
can tell you with righteous posi-
tiveness what should be done with
the most minute details of admins
tration in the most remote Eskimo
village-and does. The student Of
history. as compared to him. is dull
and unimaginative. He will merely
examine the case in the light of
what seems possible, and remember
ing that history is, after all, the his
tory of a peculiarly inconsistent
creature, the human being, will be
cautious even about the possibilities.
Consequently you find no dazzlingly
complete blueprints dashing from
his pen. Yet it is in the works of
such thinkers that the common
sense of planning is to be found
to date.
The present book has called forth
these reflections because it turns out
to be an unusually pure example of
the philosophical school. Leopold
Schwartzschild. a German journal
ist and editor, has the personal rea-
son for emotion toward the peace
which is common in German ex-
patriates-with a price on his head
he was driven out of his homeland
by Naziism But he writes detach-
edly. Moved obviously by the spec
tacle of the hysteria which sur
rounds the idea of the peace settle
ment, he has cast some important
first principles into the simplest pos
sible form to serve as a reminder
that after all these are the realities
with which the peace delegates will
have to deal They are, in the main,
the very points which the doctri-
naires forget or choose to forget.
There will be no new world, says
Mr.. Schwartzschild. apologetically
admitting his lack of lyric strain.
There will be no new era in inter-
national relationships. There can be
no assurance against future wars.
There can be no effective world
authority supercentralization
OF which the sick and frightened at
present dream. that political mother
complex-unless 1t is invested with
force sufficient to overwhelm any
nation or group of nations which
might defy it. and that is unthink-
able. Nor can there be an economic
preventive of war, sure road to
peace by making raw materials ac-
cessible to every power, since his
tory shows that wars have not been
started for the sake of raw materials
anyway. And there can be no pana-
cea through socialism if we can
judge by the conduct of the social
ist powers, Germany being the great
agressor and Russia having agrees
sively crossed six frontiers in the last
five years. There will just be the
old balance of power again and it
will hold up as long as the partici-
pating nations want it to and no
longer.
One hope for peace. however, Mr..
Schwarzs,hild does allow. That lies
in the complete disarmament of
Germany. She has made war and
will make it, If permitted, though
not for need of markets or colonies
or materials, but from lust for
power. She must be completely
stripped of war materials, there
fore, and occupied by a strong
United Nations force for the next
go years. This one practical means
to peace, he adds, will probably not
be applied, since memories are short
and the Germans apt at deception.
Further, Mr.. Schwarzschild holds
that peace will not be helped by
making the settlement vehicle for
universal reform, according to the
ideas of the delegates as to what
constitutes reformation. These fine
sweeping generalities, he feels. will
only turn into dynamite if sweep
ingly applied His advice, in effect,
is to make the settlement strong,
tough and simple, and after that
keep our powder dry.