The union times., 1945-10-27
OnTheScene
 In Washington
By Travis K. Hedrick
ARMS RACE ONP

ARMS RACE ON?
 A recent visitor to the White House has related an account of a conference with Pres. Harry s. Truman that will make believers in world peace wonder a little what all the shooting has been about.
 The visitor must remain anony- nous, of course, but Federated Press has typed account of the conversation and knows that the individual is not given to exaggera- ton. His appointment was made by a US. Senator.
 It was recalled early in the conver- Sation with Truman that his message to Congress Oct stated that civili- zation's hope rested in international arrangements looking to the renuncia- tion of the use and development of the atomic bomb and that "the alter native to overcoming these difficulties, however, may be a desperate arma- ment race which might we'll end in disaster"
 HOW LONG?
 The White House visitor said scientists agreed that U. s. could not long keep the secret of the bomb, and Truman admitted that it was true that other nations could develop it but that they could not match the U. s, in industrial capacity; that only the U. s. has the physical resources and the organizational skill to de- velop it. He recalled that the bomb cost this country $2 billion.
 Next the visitor laid out a copy of the Washington Post, with the headline: ''U. s. To Keep Bomb Secret, Truman Says" Then, the document goes on to say ''I called his (Truman's) attention to the statement by Dr. Irving Langmuir on the front page alongside the Presidents statement that Russia is headed to surpass the US. in the development of the atomic bomb. And that we have probably 10 years in which we might possibly keep ahead of Russia
 "The President nodded, indicat- ing that he was familiar with that statement. l said, Then, Mir. Presi- dent, what it amounts to then is this: that the armament race is on. is that right?' His reply was yes but he added that we would stay ahead"
 After drawing from Truman the statement that he relied on the ad- vice of Dr. Vannevar Bush, who di- rected the work on the bomb in the Office of Scientific Research & De- velopment from the end of 1941, the conversation changed to world gov ernment The following is taken from the visitor s manuscript of the con- erence.
 INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM
 ssThe President then proceeded to state that world government was only theory; that this nation was one of the few in which individ- uals enjoyed any freedom. I be- lieve that he said that possibly in Great Britain and Belgium and France before the war, I am not quite sure about the other coun- tries he mentioned. He then pro- ceeded to refer to the vast popu- lation of India, l have forgotten the figure he mentioned, and to the 400 million Chinese who are incapable, he said, of discharging the responsibility world govern ment would entail. He said that in Russia there was no individual freedom. At that point interrupted to state that I had not of course been to Russia and again knew only what I had read, but that had the idea that by raising the lot of the masses of the people in Russia, those in the bottom strata of society, it resulted in the enjoy ment of very large degree of in- dividual freedom in Russia.
 REAL PROCLAMATION
 "The President said that maybe we could get world government in thousand years or something like that, but that it was nothing more than theory at the present time. I told him l did not share that view.
 ". 1 said that in the production of the atomic bomb there had been compressed scientific development that normally would have taken decades; that this was done under the pres sure of war, great danger and ur- gency; that I felt that if civilization is to be saved from disaster it will be by the compression of political de- velopment in a comparable period that somehow or other we must find the way to do this by arousing public opinion.
 "The President again expressed the thought that world government was out of the question:
 -. "ThereupOn l again thank ed the President and left. He was alert, smiling and gracious. His at- titude appeared to be that of a man who has made up his mind and was serenely confident of the correctness of the decision which he had made"