Evening star., 1954-04-13

again for over 10 years. I had
learned a great, deal in my stu
dent days about the new phys
les; I wanted to pursue this my
self, to explain it and to foster
its cultivation.
Offered Many Posts.
I had had many invitations to
university positions, one or two
in Europe, and perhaps 10 in the
United States. I accepted con-
current appointments as assist
ant professor at the California
Institute of Technology in Pasa-
dena and at the University of
California in Bergeley. For the
coming IL years T was to devote
my time to these two faculties.
Starting with a single gradu-
ate student in my first year in
Berkeley, we gradually began to
build up what was to become the
largest school in the country of
graduate and post-doctoral study
in theoretical physics. so that as
time went on We came to have
between a dozen and 20 people
learning and adding to quantum
theory, nuclear physics, relativ-
ity and other modern physics.
AS the number of students in
creased, so in general did their
quality: The men who worked
with me during those years hold
chairs in many of the great CEN
ters OF physics in this country:
they have made important con-
tributions to science, and in
many cases to the atomic energy
project. Many of my students
would accompany me to Pasa-
dena in the spring after the
Berkeley term was over, so that
we might continue to work
together.
Knew Little of Outer World.
My friends, both in Pasadena
and in Berkeley, were mostly
faculty people, scientists, classi-
ciSts and artists. I studied and
read Sanskrit with Arthur Rider.
I read very widely. but mostly
classics. novels, plays and poetry;
and I read something of other
parts of science. I was not in
terested in and did not read
about economics or politics
was almost wholly divorced from
the contemporary scene in this
country.
I never read a newspaper or
a current magazine like Time or
Harper's; I had no radio, no tele-
phone; ! learned of the stock
market crash in the fall of 1929
only long after the event; the
first time I ever voted was in
the Presidential election of 1896.
To many of my friends. my in
difference to contemporary af-
fairs seemed bizarre, and they
often chided me with being too
much of highbrow. I was in
tereSted in man and his expert
ence; I was deeply interested in
my science; but / had no under
standing of the relations of man
to his society.
spent some weeks each sum-
mer with my brother Frank at
our ranch in New Mexico. There
was a strong bond Of affection
between us. After my mothers
death, my father came often,
mostly in Berkeley. to visit me;
and we had an intimate and
close association until his death.
Influenced by Depression.
Beginning in late 1896, my in
terests began to change. These
changes did not alter my earlier
friendships. my relations to my
physics: but they added some
thing new. I can discern in re-
Prospect more than one reason
for these changes.
had had a continuing. smol-
dering fury about the treatment
Of Jews in Germany. I had rela-
tives there. and was later to help
in extricating them and bringing
them to this country.
saw what the depression was
doing to my students. Often they
could get no jobs, or jobs which
were wholly inadequate. And