Detroit evening times., 1945-08-21
PAUL
NlALLON
The News

WASHINGTON, Aug. 90
w Calamity howlers are still
wailing that the discovery oil
atomic energy means the sui
eide OF civilization or world
socialism -
| beg to report not neces-
sarily
Those are not the alterna-
tiveS with which the world IS
confronted
There is a third course visible
a plain and simple one, AL
though no. one seems TO be men,
tioning II
Every time man develops
new and possible horrible un-
known quantity, all lmagina-
tions. wild or tame guess what
the world is coming 10, and IL
never has gone there.
This time the more serious
seers are trying 10 guess
whether il will he utter-deSuuc-
ton by fire At long last as
prophets promised, or an atomic
Wonderland of great conStruc-
tive advancement in ciViiiza'
ton
All we know is this govern
ment has som Q hing which
would certainly have destroyed
Japan when we developed full
production but after that, all
is theory.
nNEY a few months back we
" all rocked in horror and
tremhled leditorialy al leasO
because the rocket bomb dis
covered by the Germans was to
wreck civilization.
Truth is, nothing military has
been discovered in this war eN-
cept methods of expansion OF
fields of destruction.
A few short centuries ago a
man on a horse had an advan-
tage. enabling him wider field
of destruction in war than a
man afoot.
Then the advantage went TO
the man with armor plate, but
eventually il was pierced by A
lance, and the man with the
lance was the most powerful
destructive force on earth.
Bigger armor. better iances
gave way, degree by degree to
artillery, then TO planes, then
tanks, bigger bombs and now
the atomic bomb.
NEVER has there been dis
" covered a weapon for which
there was no adequate defense.
The scientific aim Of offense
has been beStirred most in man.
He always has discovered
first greater weapons of at
tack. but in time these have
never failed to develop neces-
sites for-and therefore the
inspiration TO conceive-an ade-
Quate method of defense.
The offensive discoveries are
really effective only while they
are new. and before defense has
found the answer.
A proper answer TO the
atomic bomb is not only 10 be
expected, but is the logical next
step.
So much for the military
angle.
The net result on that phase
is the expansion of war from
a battle line or field which may
be far from civilization.
The world has become a sim
gle battlefield.
AS for the rest of il tc
come-the commercial use oi
atomic energy you can LEI
your imagination skip along
where n will. because no one
knows.
Dynamite, you know, first
blew up tree trunks and cleared
land, and it moved mountains
for road construction in the
service of man.
The constructive use Of the
atomic energy theory depends
on our future ingenuity
1t may Supplant or challange
the use of coal, steam, fuel oil
gasoline, water power and elec.
trical energy. but | am always
Skeptlcal of vast prophecies
from unknown factors. -
We thought beforehand this
war would develop along tho
lines of poison gaSSeS and whole
sale scattering of pestilence with
germs as a weapon.
II took a different line of de.
velopment we could not foresee
the use of liquid fire. for in.
stance. which incid dentall '
seems TO me little less inhumar
in ethical and moral theory
than the atomic bomb or what
we thought the war might be
BY this | mean the future
will bring us a different con-
ception Of the atomic energy
theory than any now held.
DEWARE of one immediate
- use of the bomb develop
ment-the political use. Those
who do not wish man 10 be free
say he cannot he free with such
agencies Of destruction present
in the world
II may make navieS and even
armies more obSolcSCent. along
with universal" military train
inc tthc youth draft and the
international Setup for peace by
a security council directing
armies jointly tmaybe all We
a