The Nation (American magazine)/Volume 123/3194/The United States of Europe
The United States of Europe
This interesting book, first published in 1923, has now been brought out in an American edition with a rather noncommittal introduction by President Butler of Columbia University and a supplementary chapter in which the author sketches the progress of the Pan-European movement during the intervening three years. As the book, although well known in Europe, will probably be new to most American readers, the thesis which it develops may properly be outlined.
Count Kalergi, who is the official head as well as the moving spirit of the Pan-European Union at Vienna, believes that if Europe, meaning thereby the western and central Continental states and their colonial dependencies, is to enjoy peace and independence, its present disunited nationalism must give way to a federation somewhat analogous to the Pan-American Union. In his view, the World War has not only altered fundamentally the relations of the European states to each other but has also relegated them to a place of dangerous inferiority and helplessness in the face of the world Powers. Of the world Powers, the two whose destined expansion is of most serious concern are Russia and Great Britain. Russia, as Count Kalergi sees it, has practically ceased to be a European state, and must henceforth be regarded as the head of a new Asiatic federation. Its influence is already being felt strongly in China, and it is laying the foundations of an accord with Japan. With Germany, however, it has a large community of interest, and if, because of political ambition or some provocation of war, it should decide to try conclusions with the West, its conquering march would not stop until it had reached the Rhine. What was left of Europe after the Russian advance had ceased would be little more than the area over which Rome once exercised control.
Great Britain, on the other hand, although bound to the Continent by many ties, is seen by Count Kalergi as more and more engrossed with imperial concerns, and in particular with the solidification of its interests in the Far East of which the new Singapore base is symbol and seal. Its natural alliance in the future, in spirit if not actually in form, will be with the United States, the world Power from which Europe has economically the most to fear. Between the English-speaking peoples on the one side and the Russian Asiatic federation on the other, western Europe, if it continues to cling to the nationalism and particularism which have been its historical portion, will be overrun if not obliterated. For the moment, Count Kalergi sees the key to the future as held mainly by Germany and France, and upon the success of Germany's efforts to effect a reconciliation with France, and of the efforts of Frenchmen of the Poincaré type to prevent it, hangs the question of whether "the day" shall be hastened or postponed.
The Pan-Europe which Count Kalergi envisages is not, apparently, an organic union, but a loose federation somewhat akin to the former German Zollverein, while embodying on its governing side the American principle of representation of states and population. The first and greatest object, however, is peace. The next war, for which the author believes that the leading nations are all preparing, promises to be an orgy of destruction in comparison with which the World War will seem hardly more than a skirmish. Against such a calamity the League of Nations, whose illogical organization and general ineptitude Count Kalergi dissects without mercy, seems to him to afford no protection. The only preventive of war is a European federation, excluding Great Britain and Russia, with security pacts and compulsory arbitration. What shall be added after this consists principally, it would seem, of a modification and unification of customs duties and the encouragement of English as the obvious universal language.
Count Kalergi's analysis of the world situation, with its recognition of something like a destiny which awaits the West, contains a good deal that will remind the reader of Spengler's political philosophy. What has been done since 1923 to spread the idea of a Pan-Europe appears, from the supplementary chapter, to be mainly a propaganda of discussion, and the idea itself is obviously still in the domain of theory. As an exposition of political tendencies, however, and of the grave predicament in which Europe has been left by the blind and perverse framers of the peace treaties, the book is an impressive performance, well worthy of attention whatever one may think of the way in which ultimate salvation may best be attained. William MacDonald
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1938, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 86 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse