10, net Need of Unity Held Stronger Now Than Ever Before III ap We Are, It Is Maintained, Fighting a War, Not as Individual Nations Alone for Our Own d Advantage, but in a Cooperative Effort for a Better World S e The writer of the following letter has take it, is this: We are not dominated theen Professor of Philosophy at Har- liances in Europe and the Japanese al- by any one among us; nor are we "ard University since 1912. He is the liances in Asia are forced; the alliance merely striking a set of separate bar- ) ruthor of many books on philosophy between Germany and Japan is oppor- gains, in which each gives to each in "and is a former chairman of the Amer- tunistic. In each regional sphere col- equal amounts. We are drawn to a Lican Philosophical Association. He has laboration is unilateral; it is not collab- new center. We measure services and been for some time chairman of the oration at all, but naked conquest. achievements by the success of the American Defense, Harvard Group. In Europe, it is true, the conqueror whole. We are not pro-American, or 3 uses bribes as well as threats; but the To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES: pro-British, or pro-Russian, or pro- bribe which he gives to one he must At this writing differences among Chinese-but pro-United Nations. take away from another, with the re- the United Nations are momentarily All in One Boat sult that Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, eclipsed by the sense of success, and We of the United Nations are in one Rumania and Bulgaria are ready to by the evidence of a unified strategy. boat together. There is the gravest fly at one another's throats when the By a master stroke of diplomacy and danger of shipwreck. Only the maxi- hand of the conqueror is removed. force we are now in a position to count mum of effort on the part of all can As for the remainder of these two France again among our friends. There avert disaster. It makes not the slight- regional orders, "order" means nothing is a well grounded hope that Italy may est difference why we came aboard or whatsoever except the destruction of soon be added. It is a good time to how much fare we paid, or which of us the power to resist. The will to resist, deepen and cement our unity so that has the most spacious accommodations. and the resolve to resist, are only it may withstand the reaction that will Every other consideration is subordi- strengthened. surely come, whether through reverses nate to two supreme considerations: As between Germany's order and and disappointments or through the first, how can we keep the boat afloat; Japan's order there is no order, except nearer approach of the grave problems second, how can we bring it to its desti- a temporary division of the labor of the peace. nation. None of us can reach that des- conquest, to be followed by a division Applied to world affairs, democracy tination without the rest. of the spoils, and then, perhaps, by a means that the aggregate of mankind Like our forefathers who migrated period of quiescence during which they shall be so organized as to create for to the continent, we are pledged not are both content to digest what they each man the maximum opportunity of only to the ship, the voyage and the have so greedily devoured. growth in accordance with the dictates destination, but to the settlement of This, I submit, is not an order of the of his own genius and aspiration. It does the new country where we land. Like world jointly desired and jointly not prescribe how any group of men shall our forefathers, we have converted an achieved. It is not a constructive solu- live except that they shall contribute by escape from persecution into a voyage tion of the problem of human relations. self-restraint and by cooperation to the of discovery. We have subordinated It is not even an experiment in that lives of other men. Precisely how re- our several goals to this one goal. direction. It is not a cause to which strictive this condition must be, nobody It is, then, false to say that each is the several nations of mankind, and knows. The democratic purpose for seeking it for his separate self. We the men and women who compose mankind means pressing steadily in a are all seeking it for all ourselves. Only them, can devote themselves with an certain direction, boldly and cautiously enlightened conscience. when this unity of purpose dominates -going forward but learning as one our thinking and our feeling can we Hope for Forward Step goes, claiming and conceding freedom, afford to discuss the apportionment of We, on the other hand, have such a but renouncing and withdrawing it, if our shares and obligations. And once cause. It is true that we are fighting necessary, when "live" violates "let we have really acquired that unity of to save our skins and to avoid the fate live." purpose, we shall then be less inter- which has before our eyes overtaken Cause to Be Remembered ested in claiming shares for ourselves that portion of mankind which has To the United Nations this is the or in complaining of our fellow-voyag- been overrun by the enemy, or has ers. When the ship enters the port common cause. To remember this foolishly sought to make terms with and we are engaged in the creation of cause-never for a moment to let it be an implacable conqueror. It is true a new world, each of us will care only forgotten-is of immediate vital im- that the enemy is at our doors and has whether he has or has not contributed portance. The winning of the war is already breached our defenses, leaving his utmost to the success of the com- us no alternative but total submission not a military matter in any narrow mon enterprise. or armed resistance. It is true that we sense. The common cause is not some- When we commit ourselves to the are animated by the instinct of self- thing to be brought out and reverently ship, we must trust the ship's officers. preservation, and by the combative contemplated on solemn occasions. It It is their business to know more of is not a pious sentiment reserved until emotions which prompt high-spirited the technique of engineering and navi- men to fight or die rather than Mose the war is won. It is not merely what gation than we can know or ought to their liberty. we fight the war for, it is at the same know. But we all have a voice in the But at the same time that we save time what we fight the war with-it is destination of the ship. a part of the actual fighting, and will our lives and our self-respect we hope have played a major part in the win- Unity a Duty to take a step forward. We hope not only to avert the destruction of civiliza- ning of victory. In this present enterprise of war and peace it is our right and duty to in- tion, but to improve upon that condi- This is a plain and inescapable fact, sist on the destination and the ultimate tion which exposed civilization to de- and should need no argument. There is, as everybody knows, a psychologi- goal. It is our right and duty to dif- struction. We hope that the outcome of cal or moral warfare waged with sym- fuse a spirit of unity and of determina- the war will be not a mere salvaging of bols and ideas, and touching men's tion. It is not our right or duty to in- the remnants of the past but a con- minds rather than their bodies; and sist that there shall be a second front struction of something better than the that warfare is going on now It to save Russia, or a second front to world has yet known. is