Evening star., 1936-06-20
EVENING WASHINGTON c. SATURDAY, JUNE 90

hold conventions to decide what to do
with this Superfuous matter. Some
say 1t ought to be plowed under, de-
stroyed in embryo, and others say that
foreigners ought to be paid to cart it
of. But the foreigners insist on pay
ing to haul the garbage, saying that
otherwise their economies are de-
stroyed Either system Of dealing with
the problem is advanced as maintain
ing the price level and assuring pros
perity.
Then the Atom.
In practical life, it is clear, matter
is solid stuff. You eat it, wear it,
spend it, are 1t. The business Of the
world consists of holding on to it,
exchanging it, adding to it, fighting
for it, and occasionally sharing 1t.
This Is the concern of practical men.
But there is on the planet strange
race to whom matter has a different
aspect. This too, too solid world,
animal, vegetable and mineral, is to
them but an aggregation of hypo-
thetical bodies called atoms. And
these men peep at us out of the
pages of the news, too.
They are engaged in waging a war
against atoms. The fortress they
would take is more incredibly forti-
fed than any frontier. For the nuclei
they would assault in the miniature
solar system Of the atom are protected
by electrical particles against which
other electrified particles bounce OF
as against armor plate. Then they
discovered neutrons which passed
through the electrical Notifications
of the atom like ghosts through
solid wall. To charge the walls they
have pulled down lightnings from
heaven and marshalled projectiles
of radium. And the walls are waver-
ing, already the enemy is inside.
Already, by splitting methods,
the active properties of radium can
be given to a range of common ell
ements. What was yesterday the most
precious element on earth, present
in microscopic quantities in certain
ores-of which Belgium had practi-
cally a monopoly-will be available
tomorrow in its essential properties
from many sources and the knowl-
edge of the experimental physicists
combined with the knowledge Of the
psychologists may work to make over
mankind incidentally a monopoly
will be broken-without a plank in
any platform.
Laymen Ignore 1t.
The Curie-Joliot findings have been
front-page news, along with British
rearmament and Italian conquest, but
the layman passes over it, only
vaguely comprehending. For such
news reads like dispatch from Mars.
Who are these men and women who
slowly make over the world? Do they
meet in convention, sing Dixie" and
listen to The Road to Mandalay?"
They are perhaps the last true and
functioning International.
Their names are Rutherford and
Cockroft. Walton, Oliphant, Bottle,
Szilard Goldheber, Curie, Joliot. Ros-
setti, Rosenblum, Gamow, Heisenberg,
Pegram. Urey, Oppenheimer, Ferni,
Leitner. Lawrence, Rabi. They are
English, French, Italian, German,
American, Russian. They are Chris
tains and Jews. They are male and
female. They work in democratic
America, Soviet Russia, Nal Ger
many. They engage in an interna-
tional conspiracy for the search after
truth. They speak an Esperanto un-
ineligible except to the initiate. If
you doubt it, try to read THE Physi-
cal Review"
War Against the Gods.
They work in passionate competi-
ton and sublime collaboration. While
little men with the busyness of ants
try to organize the world to serve their
own interests, they are exploding the
universe in a quiet war against the
gods
Nobody puts them in prison as dan
gerous revolutionaries. They have
never been denounced by the D. A. r.
But they are the most dangerous as
sailants of the social order. For from
time to time they cast into the laps
of ordinary people, like you and like
me, new sources of energy. new mines
of wealth, and open peep-holes
through which our eyes, fascinated
and disturbed, glimpse a new world.
And We do not know how to use
what We already have.
Copyright, 1850