Evening star., 1953-05-03
. Short of He'll

voice to an exceptionally Somber and eloquent
commentary on the most ugly subject short
of hell" Although it has gone virtually un-
noticed in the welter of other news, the COM
mentary-a speech delivered recently at Man
haitian College in New York City-is so full of
meaning in terms of the continuing life or the
sudden death of the whole of mankind that
it should have everybody's earnest attention.
To begin with, warning against the wide
spread 'lethargy about the colossal arms race
in which this Nation is now engaged" Mr..
Murray has declared, in tone of urgency, that
action ought to be taken without delay to
meet the average Americans "crying need a..
to know more of the facts of atomic life and
their implications for the near future of the
world" While acknowledging that certain of
those facts must still be kept secret, he has
hit hard against "a peculiar form of indiffer-
ence that leads to the dangerous conclusion
leave it to the experts" In contrast to De-
tense Secretary Charles E. Wilson-who seems
to be in favor of making security restrictions
even severer than they are at preSent-he has
strongly suggested that the wraps should be
removed from a lot of things in order to educate
all of us to the terrible portentousness Of our
super scientific age.
Thus, in support of his argument against
excessive, ignorance-breeding secrecy Mr.. Mur-
ray-who is uniquely we'll informed on this
subject-has asserted that 1--WE now find Ameri-
can democracy fashoning domestic and foreign
policy with faulty vision, blind or unaware of
the great bearing that the atomic arms race
ought to have on wise policy making. 1t seems
clear to me, as one of the so-called experts,
that the effects of this abandonment of the
normal functioning of public opinion-this
refusal to face the facts of atomic life-can be
disastrous Life and death of humanity
at large must not become dependent on the
actions of a few-of very small group of
people. The frightening aspect of our present.
day existence must be clearly understood and
recognized by the general public. am
convinced that broad base of informed and
interested civilians is essential to survival -.
The problems are of such cosnic significance
that they cannot safely be left to the experts"
What is it that has impeled Mr.. Murray
to speak in these rather sepuchral terms?
What is it that has put so much somberness
in his mind and filled him, obviously, with an
extraordinary sense of urgency Let his own
words explain the thing: II cannot emphasize
enough that this particular test that you saw
on your television" in March (the "smalszed"
Nevada atomic blast equivalent to $4,000 tons
of TNT "was but token of the destructive
power this country can now loose in a single
fall, out in the Pacific at our testing station at
Eniwetok you would have no doubt that man.
kind no1U has Uithin the range OF his grasp
means to erterminate the human race" (The
italics are supplied here to emphasize that this
seems closer than any top Acc official has yet
come to confirming that the United States has
produced the hydrogen bomb-a weapon that
can be at least as deadly as 20 million tons
of TNT)
Having in mind such magnitudes of de-
ss-destructiveness that could wipe
out all life on our planet-Mr. Murray has
solemnly warned that "it may be the incom-
prehenSible and the inscrutable will of God
to make the goth century closing time for the
human race" But he has also observed that
the atom can be harnessed to create bright
new era throughout the globe and that men
and nations everywhere have an "inescapable
and compelling obligation" to the Creator to
"stay alive as long as possible" and to do their
best to keep the peace and reject the assump-
ton that war is inevitable-a despairing as
sumption whose inherent immortality is
matched only by the folly of the noticeable
unconcern about an atomic future which is
darker than man has ever faced before"
AS far as the United States is concerned
Mr.. Murray has declared that it should pray
build up its armed strength and exercise pru-
dence to avoid another global war And he has
recommended, to that end, that "the climate of
ignorance" regarding atomic power should be
swept away in America. The same holds true
for Russia. In effect, the substance of his most
timely message is that if the world is to avoid
a hell of its own making, peoples everywhere
must be let in on some of the awful secrets
that only small groups of men now know.
After all, this planet belongs to the whole
human race, and the human race is therefore
entitled to information that could spell the
difference between its survival and annihilation.