The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-09-28
Self Preparation In An Atomic Age

In all parts of the country the schools are
opening during the month Of September, follow
ing a summer season which future historians-if
there are to be any such--will certainly set down
as one Of the most fateful summers since the dawn
of time. Between the END Of the past semester
and the start of this rev one--a time that used
to be the season Of fishing poles and summer
camps and lazy days--two tremendous bombs
have exploded on the other side of the earth to
usher in the atomic age in a frightful and i'll
omened manner.
To the rear = tremendous gap has been
blown In the route Of msrrh Of the human race
since tia public schools closed last MAJ. The
roadway is opened and yswning behind US now.
There Is no furnins back. Our military and p-
liiicsl leaders made this decision when they
dropped the first bomb on Hiroshima. In terms
of our capacity for producing raw energy and
terrible explosive power. we stand today at a
greater distance from Nav 20 than we stood on
May 20 with respect to the days of the ancient
Greeks and Romans. Our mesi powerful e-
plosives last summer were only one. half again as
powerful ss the black nunpowder thrt was
known in the days of Feudslism. But In one
80 WAA AAe q Va
we had entered an ace when eleven pounds of
uranium could be turned into a heliish blast
equal to 10000 tons of TINT.
What is this terrible capacity for hatred and
fratricide in the human race that should unveil
this incredible principle of atomic mastery upon
the stage of history with no more promising back
ground than two burned and blasted cities and a
hundred thousand dead? Why was il impossible
for us or some other nation to have developed
this principle in times Of peace for the purpose
of releasing human destiny from some of its
heavy bondage, rather than to kill and burn? Why
is it that men must be at the height of their IN
genuity in the diabolical framework of war, and
so fumbling and unsuccessful with the tasks Of
living at peace? We had better begin to unlock
the answer to this grim riddle, to seek il as fierce
ly as we sought the secret Of atomic power, or
else we shall turn upon one another with atomic
bombs in robot rockets and blast ourselves and
our kind off the face of the earth.
About a century ago. in a Europe torn by un-
rest, there appeared a mar named Bakunin who
developed a philosophy which asserted that, since
there was so much corruption of the courts, the
politicians and the people. the principle of destruc-
ton was good and creative in its own right. This
was the principle which became known as Nj
hilism-or 'nothingness.' One runs across such
characters in the French and Russian novels OF
that dav. The proponents of the principle thought
the world was utterly and hopelessly corrupt,
and that there was nothing to do but destroy the
whole works, themselves included. Out of the
barren earth, they hoped, would grow a new
life and a new world freed from the sins and
miseries Of the old.
This principle of nihilisn has been obsolete
for generations. and most historians have thought
that it was long ago laughed eff the stage, But
suddenly we enter a world of such tremendous
and suicidal possibilities for all peoples. that
one begins to wonder now whether or not the
shades of the old Nihilists are laughing back at
us in their eternal night. For L may be that in
our ignorance and pride we have been drifting
blindly toward the very destiny Of world destruc-
ton that they madly advocated.
If it Is moi true that we have suddenly
become afraid of our power 10 destroy ourselves.
and of our own morsl and intellectual weak
ness; if ii is moi true that we have begun TO
look upon ourselves as weak and irresponsible
children toying with matches and a world