HOW TO BECOME A WORLD CITIZEN

To become a good world citizen, it is not necessary to distribute oneself by travel everywhere—although travel is most valuable—any more than it is absolutely necessary for a worthy citizen of the United States to cross the continent or have homes in both California and New York, desirable as that may be.

Nor would one lose any interest in his nation—remembering that only a bigoted and selfish nationality does harm; and that even in a federation of the nations of the world each individual nation, like each individual State in the Union, would have its own interests and would have to do its part towards expressing the life of the whole.

Of course with the realization of a federation of the world in the future, there would be public world citizens as well as private world citizens, just as there are public and private citizens in every nation; and the public world leaders should necessarily have a higher training, a wider experience and a broader travel than the private world citizen, judging from the standpoint of leadership alone.

But independent of these things it should be remembered that every man—private or public—can acquire full world citizenship by learning to think in world terms and developing the world consciousness which makes you feel that you are a necessary part of all that exists. And this can be done by developing an unprejudiced love for humanity, by persistently opposing war, by keeping in touch with world statesmen and reading world literature, by acquiring a love for nature and the seas which comes from a faith in God, by helping to unify the world's languages and religions, by advocating constantly a central world government for the nations, by traveling when one can and by making it as easy for people to travel as possible, by attending all public meetings that deal with international movements, by never losing sight—especially in the hour of perplexity, ridicule and hardship—of the world vision which is championed on these pages and by becoming sanely religious so that you will feel that the same good spirit throbs in your breast that quickens the whole universe into harmony and beauty as well as every flower and living thing on the globe.

Here are some of the exceptional world citizens. Hear them talk in their own words:

Whitman:

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Browning's Christian Creed:

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Emerson—

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And so the star that shines from above moves on, calling all noble souls to move out by sea and land—with the God who shepherds us with His love and joy everywhere as the guide—to the grandest work of human history, the work of essentially unifying the globe. And as they go forward with this stupendous task, they will not forget to pluck the flowers by the wayside, look into the faces of children and take the hand of their fellows; but rather they will do it with a grander simplicity and a better humanity.

THE KEY TO THE VISION

The very last and most important thing that must be said on the subject of world consciousness is that man himself is the key to the vision—is that man is the fullest expression of God and that man can conquer nature and build nations, republics and a world democracy. The immanence of God in man is the secret of sanity and balance in the study of this question and also the power that is going to make the vision a reality.

And I have purposely refrained from saying anything about the superb position that man holds in this mighty work in order that you might feel the grandeur of the world vision through the power of the seas; might feel the awful majesty of the vision, its divine glory—in order that people might be arrested and caught up in its mighty enthusiasm—before discovering that the secret of bringing it to pass is the wholesome secret of a simple human life. O wonder of wonders, the simple key that balances our thought and puts our feet on the earth in this hour of tremendous vision is in man himself; is right here in our own lives—is in the engineer, the educator, the missionary, the preacher, the financier, all of whom can rise superior to nature and gain dominion over the earth. Let me express what I mean in the following on "Balboa" who is so intimately associated historically with the Panama canal and with the Pacific ocean, as its discoverer:

BALBOA

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A NEW INSPIRATION FOR LITERATURE

A new inspiration for literature is at hand. The times, with its mighty impetus for world movements, more than ever demands a class of literature that has at its heart the world consciousness. And the man that is to write the literature, it seems to me, must familiarize himself with three master-minds:

Walt Whitman, who chatted in terms of world democracy and whose spirit was as readily attuned to the earth as to the dew drop and flower.

Homer, the blind bard of Greece, the masterful interpreter of the power of the oceans, who talked about the seas as easily as the ordinary man converses about village events.

Christ, the child-like but universal minded Leader of the human race, who has quickened men to move toward the essential unity of the races and nations.

Literature can now come to its own as never before. Writers of fiction now have a new and superb opportunity of introducing a majestic back ground to their stories. Men everywhere feel the lure of a new inspiration. They want to talk and write in grander terms, bringing new glory to the simple and common place. And they are sure to break forth in the song of a better literature, orchestral with the spirit of world consciousness and broadly sympathetic with the yearning for essential world democracy. Commerce, science and religion are active in world movements, and what a mighty help it will be toward the realization of the ideal when many writers of fiction and poetry, as well as of history and politics, begin to take advantage of this opportunity. I can think of no higher calling that can engage the attention of man than that of trying to express the inspiration of these days in a worthy literature; which shall be majestically spiritual, and will tell what the unscaled eyes see, microscoped and telescoped to find the message of nature and history thrilling with a divine life.

And when the masses who have not had the opportunity to travel, catch the spirit of a world patriotism and learn to think and talk in world terms—interested not only in their city, their state, their nation, but also in their world movements,—then a world government unifying the nations will be more easily formulated. I say, when the people once glimpse the vision of world peace, world harmony (or democracy) in its full grandeur, a spirit will be aroused that all the warring kings and illegitimate trusts on earth cannot check! David Starr Jordan well says in a most capable and thorough series of articles on "How to End War" that "people under the stress of immediate excitement might vote for war, especially if told of some vicious aggression." How true that is! And we should also add that there is a cure, a substitute for this false excitement. For the excitement about war is only coarse vaudeville in comparison with the noble passion that takes hold of men's lives when they become interested in the struggle and movements that make for world harmony.

And to create this higher enthusiasm—which can never be quenched when once it is kindled in a man's heart—the constructive workers need the co-operation and help of the deepest and clearest visioned men of letters in every nation. The task of reconstruction will be so stupendous that the orator, the press, the writer, must be enlisted to bring the vision to the people so that they and their rulers can be more readily led by the constructive international statesman into essential world democracy.

And it is the uniting of the two hemispheric seas that so irresistibly suggests the essential union of the nations. There never was an Exposition held, nor ever will be, affording such a vision of world unity; not only because of the union of these two oceans associated with this event, but also because of the world war, which cannot avoid being interpreted by some of the most penetrating thinkers as the darkness before the dawn. Any man of clear vision who stands with Goethals at the mingling of the two hemispheric bodies of water looking through the clouds of war cannot help but speak prophetically. The world has been brought together geographically. It will also be brought into essential harmony politically and racially. The new proximity of the nations created by the canal demands it. And above all, it is the inevitable drift of things. Blessed then are the people that have the vision! And twice blessed are those who give it to others! And above all, blessed are the men who are laboring to make the vision a reality!