Evening star., 1949-10-30
The Aces Vindicution

mittee on the atom, Senator Hickenlooper
created q sensation of sorts when he
accused the Atomic Energy Commission OF
incredible mismanagement" and called
upon the President to ask for the resig
nation of Chairman David E. Lilienthal.
In effect, in saying this, Mr.. Hicken-
looper gave the impression that our A
weapons program was in very bad state,
that it was wide open to subversion and
espionage, and that the security of the
American people was being imperiled.
So sweeping and serious were these charges
that the joint committee, under the chair
manship Of Senator Mcmahon, thereupon
launched full-scale investigation during
which itheld forty-five public and private
meetings to question an impressive array
of expert witnesses and weigh all the
evidence, pro and con.
Early this month, on the basis OF what
it had learned at these meetings, the COM
mittee's Democratic majority issued
report confirming what seemed evident
almost as soon as MIR. Hickenlooper under
took to substantiate his charges. The
report-eighty seven pages long-is avail
able for all Americans to read. 1t reviews
in detail the salient facts that had full
newspaper coverage during the course of
the hearings. Looked at effectively, those
facts can hardly be interpreted as mean
ing anything but this: That Mr.. Hcken-
looper's original attack was unjustifled and
immoderate in the extreme.
The majority, it is true, found certain
shortcomings The Acc, for example,
showed poor judgment in awarding, in
non-secret field, an atomic fellowship to
an admitted Communists loose policy
which 1t has since corrected. More i'm
portantly, according to the majority, the
commission % has not moved fast enough
to rid itself Of the distracting task Of run
ming the towns of Los Alamos, Oak Ridge
and Richland, (2) has not done as much
as it should to encourage greater private
industrial participation in the project and
60 has been "over slow" in developing
nuclear reactors for military purposes,
such as for the propulsion of submarines.
But the Acc, in the words of the major
ity, directs an industry that extends
through forty-one States, occupies more
land than the whole of Rhode Island, does
business with over one thousand con-
tractors and thousands Of suppliers and
spends a billion dollars yearly. When
Mr.. Lilienthal and his colleagues took
over this vast enterprise in 1947, they
found it in disturbingly rundown con-
dition. Since then, though still far from
perfect, 1t has been rejuvenated 50 much
that the shortcomings of the commissions
administration are relatively insignificant
when measured against its achievements.
Thus, as the majority report convincingly
sets forth, our stockpile of A-weapons has
been greatly improved upon since 1947,
and the weapons themselves are consider
ably more effective. Similarly, safeguards
against subversion and espionage are not
merely adequate today but are actually
better than they were two years ago. In
sum, far from being imperiled by "incred-
ible nismanagement," the overall atomic
security of the Nation-though still not
as good as 1t should be-has been notably
enhanced by the operations Of the Acc.
In answer to all this Mr.. Hickenlooper
and five other Republicans on the COM
mittee have within the past week issued
a dissenting minority report of two and
one half pages. It is not really report.
Significantly failing to repeat the original
Hickenlooper charges-a failure which in
effect vindicates Mr.. Lilienthal and the
Acct is merely statement Of feeble
generalities. Vague, insubstantial and
self-contradictory, 1t says that the COM
mission has been too indecisive and lei
surely, calls for more secrecy, and urges
"bolder, speedier and more effective"
atomic program-an objective which would
seem to require decreased rather than
increased secrecy.
Compared to the Democratic majority
report, this weak and murky Republican
minority dissent seems to be little more
than an awkward attempt to retreat as
gracefully as possible from Mr.. Hicken-
looper's extremism Of last May. One can
only hope that the party-line split on the
issue does not mean that the Joint congress
sional committee is getting ready to play
politics with the atom. That could be
fatal. After ALL as DR.. Harold E. Urey and
other authorities have warned, Russia is
fully capable of getting ahead Of us, in
the next year or two unless we do better
than we have been doing to maintain and
increase our present lead-a task demand
ing wisdom, vigor and the complete absence
of partisanship.
Certainly, although the Aces record to
date is commendable one, 1t does not
warrant complacency. The whole under
misunderstanding the restrictive law gov
erning it-needs to be reviewed from time
to time, and prodding must be done when
ever necessary. If the Nations security
is to be well served, however, Congress
must perform this vital task in thor
oughly non-political manner.
The Truth Comes Out
No one who has reached that point in
life at which memory becomes more of an