Evening star., 1946-05-26
The Ultimate Reality

oSoiCe 1louolIlS III tIle Cdpltdl.
The Ultimate Reality
The past few years have brought
forth so many marvels-most of
them grim-that mans capacity to
be astounded seems to be nearing
exhaustion. In prewar days the
average American would have been
excited or startled to hear q man
like General Spaatz, chief of the
Army Air Forces, declare that the
AAF was getting ready to operate
planes capable of carrying atomic
bombs on nonstop flights of 10000
miles. Yet we know now that the
bombs are an actuality, and his
comment the other day on the B-36,
the coming successor to the B-29,
makes clear that the day of the
super-superbomber is at hand. Still
we take the news calmly, without
any great feeling of wonder or sur
prise, and we do this because spectac-
ular developments, following swiftly
one upon another. have become
more or less commonplace in our
time.
1t is the same with the report that
the Navy has developed a new weap-
on as deadly as the Abomb if not
deadlier. The report, which stemmed
from hint dropped in Congress
few hours after General Spaatz's
remarks on the B-36, may be some
what exaggerated, but the fantastic
has merged so much with the real
these days that there is good reason
TO believe that such weapon, what
ever 1t may be, actually exists. It
Is worth remembering in this con-
nectlon that the process of nuclear
hSSlon yields great quantities of
lethal byproducts and that many
experts envision the prospect of
radioactive poison gases every bit
as devastating as the bomb itself.
Moreover, it is significant that last
November's historic Truman-Attlee-
King statement on the international
control of atomic energy specifically
warned of the possible DEVELOPMENT
OF other" mass-destruction contriv-
ances, and there have been frequent
guarded references to the immense
danger of archaeological warfare.
Electronics. atomic energy, bacte-
biological science. planes with a
l0,00O-mlle range, guided missiles,
tranSoceanlc rockets of supersonic
speed, jet-propulSion, space ships"
these are some of the things. ac-
tual or potential, that have accus-
toned all of us to take the fantastic
for granted. Very little seems beyond
the limits of mans genius any more.
The heart OF nature has been probed
10 It's most mysterious depths, and
not much remains in it that is still
secret. So, in our age of marvels, we
lind ourselves discovering and in
venting and developing instruments
containing within themselves that
duality of character-that mixture
OF enormous good and enormous evil
that theologians and philosophers
have pondered for centuries in an
effort to explain the meaning and
direction of the worlds life.
The subject is no longer academic
as 1t used to be, for now, with the
nations at last capable of literally
destroying themselves, it calls ur-
gently for action far wiser and much
more sweeping than any which man
mas taken up to this time. II civili-
cation is to be safe, an international
atomic control commission will not
be enough to protect it. War itself
must be done away with forever. and
peoples and governments must work
unt1aggingly to that end, adopting
IN unison whatever drastic meas
ures may be necessary to attain it.
otherwise. given another major test
OF arms, the world as we know it.
together perhaps with two-thirds of
Its inhabitants, must be lost. This
is the ultimate fantastic reality Of
our age. and no human being can
ever afford to ignore it from now on