Abstract
DR. NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER has been protest ing, in an address delivered at Columbia University's summer session convocation on August 7, against the absurdity of treating the world problems of our time as if they were unprecedented as if there had been no tests in the past of theories and ideals of social, economic and political life as applied to con ditions fundamentally similar. Between 1776 and 1789, the thirteen American States faced every single problem which the nations of the world face’ to-day. What those sovereign States were doing then, in dulging in internecine tariff wars, boycotts, export prohibitions, pandering to short-sighted prejudices and particularist passion, the sovereign nations of the world are doing now. The substantial identity of the problems and of the futile tactics with which it was sought to circumvent them are illustrated by passages quoted from the works of F. S. Oliver and John Fiske and from State papers. It was Alexander Hamilton who, combining an acute intelligence, assiduous study, varied experience, indomitable courage, tenacity of purpose, persuasive eloquence and whole-hearted devotion to ideals, saved the States from the ruin towards which they were drifting, and it is by the application of the spirit of his policies to the needs of the nations of the world to-day that these may yet be saved from the world chaos with which we are threatened. The title of the address is “The World needs another Alexander Hamilton”.
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Present and Past World Problems. Nature 134, 602 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134602a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134602a0