INTEGRATION OF EUROPE
THE WAY TO RECONSTITUTE THE STATES OF EUROPE AS AN ORGANIC SOCIETY IN A NEW WORLD ORDER
DISARMAMENT – FEDERATION – COMMUNAL CREDIT
LONDON, 1931.
NEW EUROPE GROUP – International House, 55 Gower Street, W.C.I.
ENGLAND AND EUROPE
The educated public of England is keenly conscious of the European problem. That public is the greatest advocate of the League of Nations, and maintains a considerable movement of information and propaganda in its support. Owing to its island safety, prosperity, and humanitarian spirit, the public of England has always been disinclined to give in to the idea that war is a necessary institution of international life; and pacifism in its various forms is better understood and organized here than elsewhere.
Nevertheless, the attitude of England is not conducive to the achievement of European Federation ; no one in England has yet ventured publicly to propose it; and for England to identify her destiny with that of Europe would necessitate a radical change of outlook.
In order to make this clear, let us briefly consider the position of Europe in the world, and in the present crisis of history.
The continent of Europe (excluding, for the time being, the question of European Russia) comprises those nations which have, together, the fullest consciousness of humanity and the paramount interest in world affairs. In Europe, the intellect and co-ordinating mind of the human race is centred, in a clear and obvious sense. It is in this group of small and now independent States that mankind has chosen to come to world consciousness. Europe discovered and explored the world; the charts and inventories of all human life are in her keeping ; and she, too, was first in the field with the technical means for its practical organization. This historical-cultural centre of the world cannot be superseded by the civilizations of Asia and America.
Thus Europe now confronts this supreme crisis, the very hour of her most glorious potency. Now she must choose to play the part for which all history has made her, in the world that she herself has brought into one sphere. Why is it, then, that this' moment finds her most irresolute, most devoid of vision ? Her statesmen think only of saving the lives of their separate States. But if they had no fear, not only would they not be lost, but they would gain the larger life. By Federation they would attain their true world-power and their full signifi¬cance in history.
No such possibility can exist unless there be Europeans who see their cultural heritage as a definite human value. By culture we do not mean merely philosophy, art, and literature. We mean a style of life and a sense of values. Europe is the continent in which humanity has attempted, more strenuously than elsewhere, to achieve the society of individuals. Individuation is the triumph of this civilization, as its negative phase; mere Individualism and mere Nationalism its curse. It has now reached the nemesis of democratic disintegration.
But if a spirit of renascence should stir towards political and social synthesis, the movement will, by necessity of its action and method, awaken the most aristocratic spirits that still remain to work for a new standard of life—a modern and enlightened version of our historic culture. It is in the nature of the case that the integration of Europe must originate in the action of individuals—of individuals, moreover, who will consider and study the problems of re-integrating these historic peoples as a value for human evolution.
The work of these " originators " is itself a part of the very conception of Europe : and by facing the whole problem in idea, as they must grapple with its parts in practice, they will be able to discern its essential form.
Europe is a highly complex entity. Its complexity—the rich variety of human life that it comprises—is almost its highest value. Those who face the problem of its integration must not be schematic Utopians, aspiring to unify by obliterating all differences in the frame of a ready-made constitution. They must take the view of the sociologists who have shown us that society is organic, and not mechanical in its nature.
Thus the areas of common language and customs, which we call nations, will be treated as organs, constituting altogether the body of Europe, Each will be liberated and indeed stimulated by the others to develop its own resources of every kind, human and material. Only in such freedom can they look to their common life as a European Federation for a higher fulfillment to which they wish to contribute. It cannot be imposed upon them as a super-national police force by which they are to be constrained.
The new conception, then, is a higher Nationalism. Each nation must be first enabled and then taught to regard its con¬tribution to the Federation as its highest glory as a region. The very real forces of regional pride and patriotism must be thus diverted from imperialistic exploitation to mutual development.
In a spiritual sense, it is true, the whole conception is the first necessity. There must be persons who whole-heartedly desire this unity and are consciously working for nothing short of it. A number of citizens must be found, in each State, who perceive the necessity of this step towards world-order; who resolve, in advance of their age, that Europe shall become one integrated whole. These persons, who are united in their ultimate aim, can then safely work towards it by a series of stages and of partial reforms. And these partial reforms will then be of such a nature as to conduce towards the total realization, and not to obstruct it.
Indeed, the total conception of European unity is of such a nature that the parts are logically contained within it. Rightly to conceive the goal of Federation is, in itself, to perceive the stages by which we must approach it, and something of the form it will assume.
Yet no one dares seriously to begin it. All present-day politicians are Nationalists perforce. And they are well aware that the Federation of Europe demands the acceptance of a new thought and a new feeling by all their peoples. In short, it demands a general psychic change. That is a greater matter than all the vast and grave physical problems which this project, in all conscience, must involve.
The needed change, first and foremost, is psychic, for it is a change of view. We need the courage to use our higher intelligence, to see the facts in a wholly different aspect. As a fact, Europe is mainly one in culture; in economics it is one disaster, and in every respect it is one political tangle. The nations of Europe are related in many ways, but we only recognize these relations, one by one, as if they were accidents, or even as regrettable entanglements. But they are expressions of a natural unity to which our whole history, geography and anthropology bear witness, and which would save our situation if we recognized and took control of it.
Federation would not involve the renunciation by any nation of its legitimate autonomy, much less its territory, culture, language or customs. It certainly would, however, involve the abolition of mutual aggression, both military and economic, by these nations now clinging to their dwindling powers of separate sovereignty, and endangering each other by mutual conspiracy.
So united has Europe always been in history, culture, and political origins—and so much more now, by constant interchange of life—that its wars are in the nature of civil war. But bad as the War itself was the peace which followed it: for it was concluded in the same spirit in which the struggle had begun. It was a jealous re-division of frontiers and powers. It healed no wound, pacified no enemies. And the years that have followed — in spite of much reconstructive effort — have been the darkest that the Continent has known for centuries.
A tedious, painful time of waiting for something intolerable to change or pass away —such is the story of the post-War years; a time of deepening debts, and of social disintegration. Armaments are greater and far more deadly than before. The people's state is more insecure: crime, suicide and insanity increase among them. No European nation has any longer any forward policy it can believe in, but only defensive designs for saving itself against its neighbours and from disasters that threaten all alike because of their division. No leader commands our allegiance. Neither gold nor tariffs nor armaments can save us.
And yet the potential power and splendour of this continent is not less than before the War. Insolvent, and still suffering for their millions slain, diminished altogether as a group of world powers, the nations of Europe have one thing which they have not had for centuries. And that is the dawning consciousness of a common predicament. They begin to know, in the ruins of their bloodiest rivalry, that the hour has come when, if they cannot live together they must go together to a worse downfall.
That which arises in the average English mind, at the first suggestion of European orientation, is, of course, the question of the Dominions. England has made her own power in the world by founding the largest of Colonial Empires. Attempts have been lately made, in certain quarters, to raise the cry of definite severance from Europe and concentration upon close unity with the Colonies. But England is well aware that the difficulty of this so-called "Imperial unity" is great and growing ; that the Colonies are outgrowing her strength to sustain them from her own centre, and that a purely Colonial policy is useless as an alternative to a European alliance.
Far from being opposed to her Colonial leadership, Federation with Europe would give the greatest hopes of being able to maintain it. For the position of England would be immeasurably stronger, both politically and economically. She would not need to oppress any of her Colonies financially, as she has lately oppressed Australia, and her prestige in the Dominions would be increased. Moreover, by her greater solidarity with the sources of her own traditions, England would be able to transmit stronger cultural forces to the self-governing Colonies ; which are at present culturally starved or following the inadequate lead of America far more than that of the mother-country.
If she follows her true interest, and with her own political sagacity, England must undoubtedly come to this consciousness of her position, and take up her responsibility of leading the way to federation of the States of Europe. Her present hesitancy does not signify refusal: but the danger is that the decision may come too late. For the crisis is great, and whatever course may be taken—towards Europe, towards America, or towards her own Empire—the first step will be decisive, both for her own fate and for the future of mankind.
If she should finally refuse, it is most unlikely that Western Europe can live for long as a chief world-power, and doubtful if the British Empire can long survive. The world will be divided between two dynamic forces of the Soviet States and of America. If she will but act, the crime of the Great Wrar will be expiated —for history will then bestow upon that War the new meaning of having been the pangs of the re-birth of Europe.
The initiation of this first clear political movement towards world-organization depends upon individuals. And it depends, in a definite and practical sense, upon individuals in England.
The " originators " of this European Socialism will be those who prepare and take action in each region and in their own groups, in the three spheres of culture, politics and economics, thus directed and co-ordinated by the same conception.
THE ORGANIC CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE
The reforms which will bring about the new State will have to be initiated in all three spheres at once. They may be briefly outlined as follows: —
ECONOMICS
The idea of an economic federation of the States of Europe has already been advertised in influential quarters. Any such idea should, of course, be strongly supported. But it should also be shown to be vitally dependent upon corresponding movements in politics and culture. Conceived by itself, as an immediately practical step, economic federation might become little more than the control of the finances of the whole continent by the present financial houses, only acting in closer concert and in even greater independence of political control. To this there are the gravest objections. The present private control of credit is largely, if not wholly, responsible for our present inability to consume more than a fraction of the abundant wealth which is available. The concentration of financial powers controlling a larger area by the same methods would be quite likely to make matters worse.
The true basis of economic organization is not in finance itself—the balancing and distributive mechanism which should be made strictly instrumental—but in production and con¬sumption. It is the workers of the State—from the most mechanical to the most cultured—whose organizations are the source of wealth, and whose demands are the goal and cause of its creation.
A modern State, such as England, is an interwoven organism of many groups of workers, in crafts, industries, culture and organization. To each of these must be given freedom and incentive to develop in self-governing order, so that they support their common state and organization from an overflow of life and wealth, instead of being constrained by poverty and militaristic taxation. Much greater regional autonomy is needed within England, in order that we may be able to lead in the greater regional conception of Europe.
The essential character of European Socialism lies in such an organic conception of the State, as the regulative unity of freely contributing bodies, regional and functional.
PRODUCTIVE CORPORATIONS
The new type of industrial organization, which must be the basis of European economic life, is the Corporation, or associa¬tion of all the workers in each given industry—manual workers, managers, staff and accountants—National Corporations com¬prising all the workers of their kind in each country. Thus, all the mining concerns throughout Europe will be members of the same guild ; and so also will engineers, agriculturists, and others. National Corporations would be retained for con¬venience, since the technique of certain trades is different in different countries.
These Corporations will delegate members to a General Economic Council of the Federation, which will be a body in permanent session apportioning work and credit, and regulating the co-operation of the different industries. This Council will also include the delegates of the banks.
The relation of the Banks to the General Economic Council is the crucial problem of the economic federation, upon which its whole success depends. Without attempting to forecast its exact nature, we can clearly define the leading principle which must govern it.
The tendency of modern economic thought has been, for a long time, towards limiting money to its pure function as the lubricant of distribution and exchange. The best recent literature on finance—that of such writers as Douglas, Soddy, Kitson, McKenna, and of Silvio Gesell in Switzerland—contains construc¬tive proposals for using the banking faculty as the passive instrument ot production and consumption. The right exercise of this faculty is in pure accountancy—the balancing of pro¬duction with consumption throughout the State. The present organization of finance under which we live results, by its inherent mechanism, in what is unwisely called over-production. Its reform must enable that which is produced to be distributed.
This distribution of the income of the State is partly a political and cultural concern; experience has shown that it can never be left, and in practice it never is left, to the operation of economic expediency alone. The General Economic Council will therefore be so constituted that it must meet the claims of the political budget, and of the special recommendations of the body of culture for the endowment of higher education, research, etc.
POLITICS
The political organization of a European Federation will be necessarily more complicated than that of any of its present constituent States, but its principles and its scope will be much simplified by the presence of a well-integrated economic life. The present political parliaments are harassed and absurdly overburdened by work which is not in their true province, especially by economic and financial forces which they must endeavour to control, but which in fact control them. The true sphere of politics is to balance the rights of the individuals and groups in the State upon general human con¬siderations. The relations between the different States and language areas—the different nationalities of the Federation— therefore come within its authority. The existing parliaments of European States, adequately reformed, will be the natural basis of the Federal Parliament, with the aid, probably, of further devolution by the appointment of smaller councils of more local authority. The General Parliament of the Federation will be elected by all the regional parliaments, so that it can be relied upon to show a full respect for local autonomies.
CULTURE
A Cultural Assembly will be a necessary feature of Federated Europe, which ought to be founded upon similar assemblies in each national division. These assemblies will be formed by appointment, from each and all of the bodies with a recognized responsibility for education, health, and recreation, as well as from science, philosophy and art.
In the State of the future all cultural activities, including general education, will claim complete autonomy, and inde¬pendence of political and economic interference. Not being State-organized nor State-controlled, these bodies of workers will be free to combine with similar workers, and indeed they will be constrained to do so for mutual support. But the spirit of culture is naturally co-operative. Even now, there is much international organization in this sphere of life, there are many congresses of workers in science, religion and art. No great fantasy is needed, then, to envisage the formation of an assembly representative of culture generally.
The function of this assembly will be principally the co-ordination of work in its own sphere of action. But it will be also in a position to advise the other two estates upon many questions which demand the highest expert knowledge. Certain problems, such as those of population, of regional and racial deterioration, of the waste or misuse of natural and human resources and of genetics, will be no longer left to the blind decision of fate. The time has come when the human race not only may, but must take more intelligent control of its destiny. Such control implies co-ordination, as yet unheard of, of cultural workers in many departments.
Naturally, the three general assemblies of the Federation would never sit and work together. Upon certain issues, however, they will need to confer together, in which case they will do so in the persons of specially elected delegates.
The program of European Federation is the progressive organization of these three estates, to be approached by teaching and propaganda in each of the three spheres of actual, present-day European life which they severally represent. The work of the "invisible" fourth estate — which has already been described as that of the " originators," is not only the beginning of the whole, but is the progressive, continuous duty of all who have minds to understand it. They will have, not only to contribute, but to maintain the fundamental, human, undifferentiated understanding of the unity which the three estates will comprise.
That which has been outlined above is not a Utopia, but a statement of principles, of the fundamental principle of statecraft as applied to the most urgent political problem in the world of to-day. Still more concrete necessities can be deduced from their application, when the work indicated is fairly begun. But this question of the beginning is linked with that of the policy of England, and, still more intimately with the present attitude of English people.