By Robert J. Kerner, Ph. D., Professor of Modern European History, University of Missouri
. . . . . The New Man, homo Europaeus, will be the result not merely of external politics, but principally of internal.
The political task of the democratic reconstruction of Europe must be attained and actually made possible by a moral reeducation of the nations—either democracy or dynastic militarism, either Bismarckism or rational and honest politics, either force or humanity, either matter or Spirit!—T. G. Masaryk: The New Europe (The Slav Standpoint) 1918.
Unless an unlooked for catastrophe intervenes, a new Europe should slowly rise from the ruins of the World War. It will in all probability not be a Bolshevik Europe. It will not be a reactionary Europe. It will very likely be a New Europe, rejuvenated from within and without.
Whence will come the ideas and the leadership which should inspire the reconstruction? Who will it be, who will chart in a firm, but practical, manner the as yet untravelled seas of necessary social and economic reforms and of progressive world politics? Who will it be, who will popularize these ideas in a declining Europe caught between destructive radicalism and stagnating reaction? Who will it be who will try to solve the eternal problem of the freedom of individuals, classes, and nations in the chaos left behind in the World War?
These questions occur to numerous observers as they anxiously scan the European horizon. They are questions in which all those who study international relations should be vitally interested. On the answers to these undoubtedly hangs the fate of Europe. If leaders who have a realizable vision and who are resolved to tread the path of sound social reform are found, the task will be accomplished. But can they be found? And having been found, will they have an opportunity to put their policies into practice?
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