Evening star., 1949-05-26
LiIienthaI Called Man
To Keep AII-ImportanI
Job as Acc Head
Joint Committee Probe
Should Develop System
OF Checking Materials
By David Laurence

atmosphere. Hence any charge
that the big secret" or any in
finitesimal part Of the valuable
material used In making bombs
has been lost is bound to produce
excitement and perhaps a bit ol
hysteria. No secrets, however
have been given away or stolen
The facts about David Lilien-
thai, chairman Of the all-impor-
tant Atomic Energy Commission
are the same today rs when he
was the subject Of controversy
before being confirmed. He Is q
loyal American and is as devoted
to the preservation of secrets as
anybody else who could be named
But the new controversy doesn't
concern itself with matters OF
loyalty. They go to the question
of efficiency. Mr.. Lilienthal can
not be expected personally TO
police all the plants where prof.
ects of the Atomic Energy Com
mission are being handled. He
can, however. be expected to hire
and supervise officials who Will
see that the work is efficiently
done.
Delegated Authority.
When MIR. Lilienthal was the
head of the Tennessee Valley
Authority, 1t was his habit to
delegate to the general manager
the Job Of administration. He
has been doing virtually the same
thing now in much larger
project. The question has arisen
whether tile Job Of administration
can be delegated entirely to sub
ordinates and whether 1t doesn't
involve the chairman himself IN
administrative responsibilities OF
Q concrete nature.
But to raise this issue is not
to indict Mr.. Lilienthal or to JUS
tify the calls that have been made
for his resignation. On the con-
trary. it is healthy to have the
Joint committee Of the Senate
and House and the public made
fully aware, through occasional
public hearings, Of the delicate
problems involved in policing the
commission's work.
MIR. Lilienthal admits that er-
rors have been made. He speaks
of them as human errors" This
means merely that mistakes can
occur and such mistakes as have
happened are by no means
dangerous in themselves. They
indicate the possibilities If the
project Is not carefully admins
tered.
The fact that a test Of security
was made and that two bars
Of uranium were. Alphabetically
stolen and retained for, three
months by a security officer is a.
subject OF real anxiety. It has
been argued that only an insider
could have had access to the ura-
mum, but the theory behind Sc
curity precautions is that only in
siders would ever have an oppor-;
tinity to, do any stealing anotnk
Checking System Needed =
The idea Of the test came from
inside the commission itself. What
seems unfortunate is that the abb
sence Of the two bars of ura-
MUM was not discovered promptly.
This apparently was because no
adequate system Of keeping track
Of materials of this kind has yet
been devised. It takes a compli-
Gated bookkeeping and checking
system to make sure that money
isn't stolen from a bank and the
wonder is that any is ever stolen
but 1t is, even under the most
elaborate system Of precautions.
What is needed is some kind Of
system of checking materials in
constant use that is absolutely Sc
cure. To get such q system in the
Atomic Energy Commissions set
UP would not perhaps have been
possible without the recent pub
licity. Incidentally, the actual
amount of uranium said to have
been really lost probably will turn
out to be negligible. and 1t may
develop that 1t was never stolen at
all, but wasted.
There remains the question OF
fellowships to scientists. OBJ
yiously any known Communists
shouldn't get any fellowships or
help or anything else from the
Government or any of its prof.
ects. The specious cry OF the
Communists that they are merely
q political party and that they
are being punished for their politi-
cal beliefs seems fantastic indeed
when leading Communists have
announced that in the event OF
war with Russia they would not
fight the Russians.
But even this issue is not as
simple as it appears. The scien-
lists are a group peculiarly inter-
ested in seeing that other scientists
are told what they discover. That
is their training and background.
To get the wholehearted cooper
alton Of good scientists it is neces-
sary to win their confidence.
Hitler lost the confidence Of his
scientists and thereby lost the
war. Some Of those same scien-
fists helped the Allies. It is Inn
p~tant not to discourage the
scientists and this is not q prob
lem that can be handled by
politicians.
David Lilienthal Is the man to
keep on with this difficult job
and being checked constantly by
a. vigilant congressional commit
tee will help him to do . better
job.
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