Topics for Debate
1. A scheme of universal arbitration should be substituted for the League of Nations.
2. The United States should call another conference to effect an international agreement for the reduction of armies.
CHAPTER XXXII
POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss some present-day problems of world democracy.
Why the people are now thinking new thoughts.
The War and the New Era.—The world has spent the years since the war in a condition of political and economic unrest. This is not surprising because this herculean contest rocked the foundations of civilized society. It let loose the primitive passions of men, hurled monarchs from their thrones, turned industry upside down, drew millions of men out of life’s normal routine, and wasted as much wealth as the whole world can create in twenty or thirty years. Small wonder it is that people should ask themselves whether a social order which permitted all this to happen is in reality the best type of organization for the civilized countries of the world. Self-examination usually takes place among men and nations after a great disaster. Things which have been assumed to be true are inspected; old traditions are overhauled, and new proposals receive a more ready welcome than at other times.
THE GRADUATE. By Edwin H. Blashfield
From a Copley Print, copyright by Curtis & Cameron, Boston. Reproduced by permission.]