Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1941, Side 136

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LE NORD
or inventor died of starvation, and our compassion shall not be
lacking, but we have to live, preferably as well and comfortably
as possible, so go on. The spiritual life which detaches itself
from the materialistic, or to put it bluntly from money, in fact
from the economic world, is admirable, of course; but one must
have time for that sort of thing, and we have no time for it.
What is the use of speculations on such matters?
But there are signs and portents, both in the press and in
politics, that the disruption of the old order which is now upon
us is beginning to shake people properly. We find contributions
in the direction here suggested from the most unexpected quarters.
New political parties and new newspapers grow up, not clari-
fied but founded on a feeling that the foundations of the old
order are crumbling, and that something new must be found.
But clipped as they are because they do not understand the very
fundamentals their energy can only find an outlet by, so to
speak, flapping the wings. The purpose of this study, therefore,
has been to explain, by starting from irrefutable facts, where the
revolution comes from: the industrialisation of the East which
little by little deprives Europe of the reserve on which it might
have gone on living for centuries, thereby making it impossible
for our continent to go on living on the hitherto fundamental
principle of the free play of forces. Once this is realised our
thoughts are gradually reconciled with the conception that in
the economic life of the future the state will play a different
part compared with the past. How this state is to be organised
is yet another question, which shall not be dealt with here. Only
one thing: Whatever the system may be it must be such as to
enable the people to get rid of its government by peaceful means.
But there is still one comforting view on the balancing of
the old against the new which should be considered in conclusion,
because it is very important and may be based on the unques-
tionable facts, to which we have tried to keep all the time.
What would be the inevitable end of the highly admired cul-
ture of the West if it were allowed to run the full course along
the line indicated by the free play of forces: viz. the reduction
of the state to a legal order and a police force to maintain it?
The answer is not difficult to give.
We know that the economic problem which mankind has
had to solve since the beginning of all time: to procure con-
tinually more numerous and varied goods for increasing popu-