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intellectual workers still so excited, truly international congresses on the grand

scale cannot yet be held. The psychological obstacles to the restoration of the
international associations of scientific workers are still too formidable to be
overcome by the minority whose ideas and feelings are of a more
comprehensive kind. These last can aid in the great work of restoring the
international societies to health by keeping in close touch with like-minded
people all over the world and resolutely championing the international cause in
their own spheres. Success on a large scale will take time, but it will
undoubtedly come. I cannot let this opportunity pass without paying a tribute
to the way in which the desire to preserve the confraternity of the intellect has
remained alive through all these difficult years in the breasts of a large number
of our English colleagues especially.
The disposition of the individual is everywhere better than the official
pronouncements. Right-minded people should bear this in mind and not allow
themselves to be misled and get angry: senatores boni viri, senatus autem
bestia.
If I am full of confident hope concerning the progress of international
organization in general, that feeling is based not so much on my confidence in
the intelligence and high-mindedness of my fellows, but rather on the
irresistible pressure of economic developments. And since these depend
largely on the work even of reactionary scientists, they too will help to create
the international organization against their wills.
The Institute for Intellectual Co-operation
During this year the leading politicians of Europe have for the first time drawn
the logical conclusion from the truth that our portion of the globe can only
regain its prosperity if the underground struggle between the traditional
political units ceases. The political organization of Europe must be
strengthened, and a gradual attempt made to abolish tariff barriers. This great
end cannot be achieved by treaties alone. People's minds must, above all, be
prepared for it. We must try gradually to awaken in them a sense of solidarity
which does not, as hitherto, stop at frontiers. It is with this in mind that the
League of Nations has created the Commission de coopration
intellectuelle. This Commission is to be an absolutely international and
entirely nonpolitical authority, whose business it is to put the intellectuals of all
the nations, who were isolated by the war, into touch with each other. It is a
difficult task; for it has, alas, to be admitted that--at least in the countries with
which I am most closely acquainted--the artists and men of learning are
governed by narrowly nationalist feelings to a far greater extent than the men
of affairs.
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Hitherto this Commission has met twice a year. To make its efforts more
effective, the French Government has decided to create and maintain a
permanent Institute for intellectual co-operation, which is just now to be
opened. It is a generous act on the part of the French nation and deserves the
thanks of all.
It is an easy and grateful task to rejoice and praise and say nothing about the
things one regrets or disapproves of. But honesty alone can help our work
forward, so I will not shrink from combining criticism with this greeting to the
new-born child.
I have daily occasion for observing that the greatest obstacle which the work
of our Commission has to encounter is the lack of confidence in its political
impartiality. Everything must be done to strengthen that confidence and
everything avoided that might harm it.
When, therefore, the French Government sets up and maintains an Institute
out of public funds in Paris as a permanent organ of the Commission, with a
Frenchman as its Director, the outside observer can hardly avoid the
impression that French influence predominates in the Commission. This
impression is further strengthened by the fact that so far a Frenchman has also
been chairman of the Commission itself. Although the individuals in question
are men of the highest reputation, liked and respected everywhere,
nevertheless the impression remains.
Dixi et salvavi animam naeam. I hope with all my heart that the new
Institute, by constant interaction with the Commission, will succeed in
promoting their common ends and winning the confidence and recognition of
intellectual workers all over the world.
A Farewell
A letter to the German Secretary of the League of Nations
Dear Herr Dufour-Feronce,
Your kind letter must not go unanswered, otherwise you may get
a mistaken notion of my attitude. The grounds for my resolve to
go to Geneva no more are as follows: Experience has,
unhappily, taught me that the Commission, taken as a whole,
stands for no serious determination to make real progress with
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the task of improving international relations. It looks to me far
more like an embodiment of the principle ut aliquid fieri
videatur. The Commission seems to me even worse in this
respect than the League taken as a whole.
It is precisely because I desire to work with all my might for the
establishment of an international arbitrating and regulative
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authority superior to the State, and because I have this object
so very much at heart, that I feel compelled to leave the
Commission.
The Commission has given its blessing to the oppression of the
cultural minorities in all countries by causing a National
Commission to be set up in each of them, which is to form the
only channel of communication between the intellectuals of a
country and the Commission. It has thereby deliberately
abandoned its function of giving moral support to the national
minorities in their struggle against cultural oppression.
Further, the attitude of the Commission in the matter of
combating the chauvinistic and militaristic tendencies of
education in the various countries has been so lukewarm that no
serious efforts in this fundamentally important sphere can be
hoped for from it.
The Commission has invariably failed to give moral support to
those individuals and associations who have thrown themselves
without reserve into the business of working for an international
order and against the military system.
The Commission has never made any attempt to resist the
appointment of members whom it knew to stand for tendencies
the very reverse of those it is bound in duty to foster.
I will not worry you with any further arguments, since you will
understand my resolve yell enough from these few hints. It is not
my business to draw up an indictment, but merely to explain my
position. If I nourished any hope whatever I should act
differently--of that you may be sure.