Humanism, A World Movement A NEW WORLD movement was launched last summer at Amsterdam in Holland. From America came delegates of the American Humanist Association and the American Ethical Union, who were joined there by delegates from the English Ethical Union, the Humanist Association of Holland, and the Vienna Ethical Society-groups originally convening the congress. On the final day of the congress, with delegates from additional national groups, they agreed to form the International Humanist and Ethical Union, returning their proposals to the several associations for ratification and appointment of directors. The additional groups are the Belgian Humanist Association; Humanitas, an organization of Dutch social workers; the German Union of the Free Spirit (Deutscher Volksbund fur Geistesfreiheit); the Humanistich Thuisfront of Holland; the Radical Humanists of India (Renaissance Institute); the Indian Institute of Culture. Greetings from the Chinese Humanist Association in Formosa were read, but we have as yet little information on this group. Edwin H. Wilson Editor of The Humanist One is not able, in a few words, to measure the inherent value to the participants or to foretell the outcome of the congress. The efficient conduct of the meetings, the sizable and unexpectedly sustained attendance, the skill with which language barriers were overcome, are all important parts of the story. Dr. Julian Huxley, president of the congress, in the opening address, spoke for great numbers of people who cannot any longer believe the creeds that are based on claims of supernatural revelation, but who respect man as a spiritual and moral being. There are indeed many people who will share Dr. Huxley's statement that a faith in man and life is needed. Such people-properly called Humanists-seek to live an ethical and creative life worthy of their status in the evolutionary scheme. new They look to this world here and now, to their existence this side of the grave, as the place in which to lead the good life. But most often such people do not have a label for that faith by which they live, nor do they yet see the need to organize and thus share it with others. That need is to be found in the 12 widespread defeatism of the old faiths, in the enticements offered by authoritarianisms to give up the human enterprise and take flight from responsibility. In behalf of those who are seeking an alternative on the one hand to totalitarian political systems, and on the other to dogmatic revealed religion -the International Humanist and Ethical Union has been formed. It will seek, chiefly through member organizations, to rally the forces of this new faith, forces that are already developing spontaneously and separately in many parts of the world. The main task of this first international meeting was to clarify our intellectual position, but the congress was not merely theoretical, as is clearly indicated by the summary of the resolutions. The concluding statement of the congress was the result of three full days of study that had been carefully planned. Some twenty Humanist and Ethical thinkers of various countries had prepared papers which, printed in advance, formed the basis of discussion. It seemed to me that the most valuable yet rather intangible— part of the congress was on the human side. There was the meeting of many people from so many different lands, possessing the same or at least similar spirit; they also brought their unique personal and national differences to contribute breadth and richness to the new International Humanist and Ethical Union. ex On one afternoon I found myself amid a circle of bright students from several nations-students of law, medicine, political science, engineering who pressed their hope that they might correspond with Humanists from universities in other countries and have a student Humanist branch of the international student movement. The present task is to rally men of good will and competence to the cause of man through expanding international organizations and through more Humanist associations on the national level. The International Humanist and Ethical Union has issued a call to groups and individuals who share such a faith to associate themselves in this new world movement for the advancement of man. The faith is, in practice, the working conviction of hundreds of thousands of high-minded devoted men and women. It is vitally important both for intellectual progress and for international understanding-important consequently for the establishment of world peace-that there be such an organization, and those in sympathy with it become members of one of the national groups that form the union. So we say, in the spirit of Walt Whitman: "Whoever you are, come journey with us. . . . Quotes Of The Day William L. Shirer: I find that most true happiness comes from one's inner-life; from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a good inner-life is difficult to achieve, especially in these trying times. It takes reflection and contemplation and self-discipline. One must be honest with oneself, and that's not easy. Dr. Harold Taylor: Unless we give part of ourselves away, unless we can live with other people and understand them and help them, we are missing the most essential part of our own human lives. Gen. Omar Bradley: We have too many men of science; we have too few men of God. We have solved the mystery of the atom; we know too little about the Sermon on the Mount. We know how to make war; we do not know how to make peace. General Dwight D. Eisenhower: When people speak to you about preventive war, tell them to go and fight it. After my experience I have come to hate war. It settles nothing. Lin Yutang: The Chinese believe that when there are too many police-men there can be no individual liberty, when there are too many lawyers there can be no justice, and when there are too many solliers there can be no peace. J. Richard Sneed: America must have a new birth of freedom from within the hearts of her people; a new demonstration of prejudices abandoned, of defeatism overcome, and of ill-will terminated. Christopher Morley: In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibration of beauty. I can imagine no more fascinating privilege than to be allowed to ransack the desks of a thousand American business men, men supposed to be hard-headed, absorbed in brisk commerce. Somewhere in each desk one would find some hidden betrayal of that man's private worship. . . . It might be some old newspaper clipping, perhaps a poem that had once touched him. . . . It might be a photograph of children playing in the surf. Quotes Of The Ages Bernard Shaw: This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one: the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap-heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. William James: No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better. With mere good intentions, hell is proverbially paved. Lao Tzu: Open your hand and show no weapon, Bare your breast and find no foe. But as long as there be a foe, value him; Respect him, measure him, be humble toward him; Let him not strip from you, however strong he be, Compassion, the one wealth which can afford him. "Der Quaker" published in Berlin: And when force sits helplessly on the ruins, surveying her handiwork, like a naughty child who has torn her doll to bits-when at last the bloodshed ceases, reconciliation is waiting, ready to forget all, to forgive all, to make a new beginning. Thomas Jefferson: It is the refusing toleration to those of a different opinion which has produced all the bustles and wars on account of religion. Pearl S. Buck: I have seen wars again and again and every time I am filled with the same wonder at the incredible folly of man. I speak my wonder freely and keep silence only in the presence of the marred and battered wrecks of young men, who have been sacrificed. In mercy they must be allowed the illusion that the sacrifice was worth something at least. Confucius: If one tries to end strife by strife, there will be strife for ever. Forbearance alone can end strife, and this is truly a precious law. |