Evening star., 1947-07-04
On the Record %'S's~' ii
Leaders Must Heurken
To New Atom Warning
Divided Warmakins Power Means
Annihilation, Scientists Stress

By Dorothy Thompson
On June 80, the Emergency Committee OF
Atomic Scientists issued another warning to-
the peoples of the world. The essence Of it
repeatedly has been stated in this column since
the first atomic bomb fell on the city of
Hiroshima: Divided warmaking power means
war; divided warmaking power in the atomic
age means humiliation.
Politics never has been an exact SCIENCE
and politicians muddle along in the hope that.
they are on an uneven but ascending spiral.
An exception is the Soviet Union which is,
the prisoner Of theory. born in the nine,
teenth century, thst the world moves toward
q predetermined end-world communism. This
theory holds that only when that occurs
after q series Of unavoidable civil and interna-
tional struggles-wiu total peace be estab-7
ushed. -
The atomic bomb did not enter into the
considerations Of Karl Marx or Lenin. Its
discovery, along with many other secrets OF
scientific destruction, has thrown out the va-
lidity Of the Marxist philosophy. The planet
may be destroyed or reduced to ungovernable,.
chaos before the Messianic dream Of the Com
munists Is realized or is in the course of its
realization. Nor will the halfway methods Of
muddling compromise save the western democ-
races
Right" to Wage War Ended.
When Einstein enunciated the purely mathe- :
matical thesis that energy equals mass multi )
piled by the speed Of light squared not 1000"
persons in the world had any notion that q
revolution had started to dwarf all previous
revolutions, and that physical law had been
established requiring radically new ways Of :
LIE Tor peoples and nations. The law Of
Einstein as demonstrated at Oak Ridge wipedS
out In one blow the validity of previous in.a
ternational law, which included the right to :,
wage war as the ultima ratio" of politics. :.
There is no reasoning that can affirm the
right to blow up the planet. nor create con-
ditions under which reason cannot function sd,
All "ideologies" were put into totally diff
ferent category Of priority by Einstein's law.
Representative democracy, communism, the
economy of Adam Smith-or whatever ideas
may engage the passions Of men-became sec-
ondary to the apocalyptic fact that man was in .
possession Of the means to intervene directly.
with nature and end all or most of human
life in the course of few weeks time settings
in motion possible reactions which even the
atomic scientists cannot predict. ~ %
Nobody knows what the effect of a serieS
Of atomic explosions in deep waters, or on =;
land possibly containing uranium, might be- '
No one even can say definitely whether the
disastrous weather events in Britain, the =
United States and elsewhere that have occurred
since the Japanese explosions and the Bikini
tests bear any relation to these.
The only ideas that unquestionably have.
weathered the Einstein revolution is that life
Is better than DEATH and Christ's dictum that
we are all Observation-Disclosures our "ideologies.p
Great Yes to Life. -.
The leaders of the world must recognize
that all nations must live under law; that
there must be one single legitimate army in
the world-an army to enforce, not peace. =
but law-and without atomic bombs and that
national sovereignty Of warmaking power is
as antediluvian as Neanderthal man. Other
wise, another race of Neanderthals evolving
through cons some day will discover skulls OF
the strange creatures now called homo :
sapiens." '"5
The United Nations world-the world Of me-
gations-has to give way to great yes to LIE
The Soviet people and all others must be told
that that governments repeated emphasis on
sovereign rights is blithering nonsense, as
well as hypocritical tactic.
Furthermore, our leaders must know that no
one can be elected President in l948 who does
not take an unequivocal stand for using every
ounce of American power for the abolition
of the sovereign right to keep warmaking
powers. ~
released by the Bell Syndicate, Inc) 4