THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

We have reviewed actual events. We have considered them not
from the outside in terms of appearance, capturing an infinitely varied
spectacle of particular and individual cases, but we have considered
them from within in their relations, their causes, their
backgrounds, the conditions which have determined them. To catalog
the facts, to clarify them, to retain from among them what
is essential, to link one to another, to follow them towards more general
facts and then to others yet more general still, such has
been the task we have proposed if not accomplished. We have
constantly asked ourselves if a point of view exists from which we
can embrace all the facts, from which they will take on a synthetic
character ... There is indeed an international sociology the outlines
of which we have been able to trace and partially fill out We have
amply justified the existence for it of a particular objective. It has,
therefore, from the theoretical point of view, a principle capable of
synthesising all data, and from the practical point of view, a problem
in the solution of which the data can find their application. 11
The following year Otlet published a detailed study of
the World Constitution he had been proposing as the basis for
a Society of Nations. 12 Five editions of the Constitution or
Charter appeared during these years including several English
ones. 13 Theodore Marburg, formerly American Minister
to Belgium and active in the League of Nations movement in
the United States, was sent a copy of an English translation in
1917. He was rather sceptical of its value:
It proposes to establish sanctions by which the States will be compelled
not only to submit their disputes — both conflicts of political policy
and questions of law — to the Council of Conciliation or to the
Court, as the case may be—but likewise to enforce the decisions.
It plans to violate not only the neutrality guaranteed in the ordinary
way by international law, but that of specially neutralised States.
How can we expect a prospective belligerent to have any respect whatever
for the neutrality of a neighbouring state if he knows beforehand
that the League will not respect that neutrality? It would make
an end of neutrality.
It sets up an international parliament to govern the world, provides
that its acts shall be binding, except as to certain optional legislation,
without requiring the ratificatioin by the States of the League,
manifestly contemplates admitting all States who may seek admission
to it, refers to delegating legislative power though ineffectively,
would give separate representation to nationalities independently of
the State that governs them, and would empower parliament to fix
the maximum and minimum armies and navies, all of which I regard
as impractical in our day, some of it ill-advised at any time. 14
On further reflection Marburg did acknowledge that Otlet's
suggestion that half the membership of the Society of Nations
should be official representatives of States and half drawn
from «transverse sections of society representing international
associations and unions», was novel and should be «noted» for
it ensured that «the interests of labor, capital, education,
science, etc. are... represented as a whole». 15 There is little evidence
to suggest that, though the framers of the League of
Nations' Covenant were aware of Otlet's plan, they were influenced
by it.
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