Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-10-21

WOTlu agreement OH IldltlI1S ny
drogen bomb tests. He said the
tests cause the human race "un-
measured damage"
Some scientists, working on
Government projects, were chary
of getting into the controversy (
But the Stevenson speech
brought this reaction from va
rious circles in the atomic en-
ergy field:
Hailed by Smyth
Henry De Wolfe Smyth. for
mer Atomic Energy Commits
sioner, who wrote the "Smyth
Report" the first official pub
LEGATION on the atom bomb, sent
this telegram to Mr.. Stevenson:
Your clear and objective /
statement on the desirability Of
stopping large H-bomb tests by
international agreement is a
service to the country transcend
ing the partisanship of the cur
rent compaign"
Five nuclear scientists at the
Argonne National Laboratory at
Lemont, H., told Mr.. Stevenson
in a wire:
Your efforts to bring the H
bomb question before the Ameri-
can people are appreciated. We,
as nuclear physicists firmly be-
lieve your plan. far from being
catastrophe nonsense, is work
able, wise and in the best inter-
ests Of the United States"
Rebuke to Nixon
The signers were Charles NJ.
HuddleSton, Lywood Lee, Sol
Raboy, Carroll c. Trail and H. E.
Stanton.
Vice President Nixon had used
the term Catastrophe nom
sense" in describing Mr.. Ste
venson's proposal.
Ten nuclear scientists at the
California Institute Of Technol-
ogy. declaring they spoke as in
dividuals, issued a statement
saying:
1t appears to us that Mr.. Ste
venson's proposal might be a
useful way to get the negotia-
tions con the nuclear arms race |
out of the deadlock stage by
taking a step which would not
endanger our security :"
Signing the statement were
Carl D. Anderson. Harrison
Brown, Robert F. Christy, Jesse
w. M. Dumonde. Robert v. Lang
muir, Thomas Lauritsen, Charles
r. Mckinney, Matthew Sands,
John M. Teen and Robert L. /
Walker.
Though the 10 listed no po-
htical affiliation. a spokesman for
the Stevenson Kefauver cam
paign headquarters in Los An
geles had notified editors the
statement would be Forthcoming
ScOrned as Political
Albert B. Murdoch, chairman
of the Caltech board of trustees.
declared the statement of the 10 (
was clearly political in char
acter." He said it did not repre-
sent any official position by the I
institute, its officers. trustees or
faculty as a whole.
DR.. Lee A. Dubridge, Caltech
president. expressed regret at /,
what he called a partisan
stand" by the scientists. DR.. 1
Dubridge added:
The principal technical uues-
ton involved in the present de-
bate is whether large-scale tests
are an important part of our
weapons research.
Those in responsible charge
of the program assure us that
they are and that their discon-
tinuance, therefore, should fol-
low and not precede enforceable
international agreements.
I'm my own official Govern /
ment contacts l have become
convinced this is the case"
Columbia SavantS Agree
In New York, IL members Of
the physics faculty at Columbia
University, which President Eli
senhower once headed. sided
with Mr.. Stevenson on the H
bomb question.
They signed statement say
ing they "see merit in the pro-
posal Of the Democratic nominee
for President to seek interna-
tional agreement TO ban the test
Ing of very large nuclear wea-
pons."
They said arguments thus
far advanced against the pro-
posal are not convincing"
The signers included DR.. Poly
karp Kusch. who won the 1855
Nobel prize in physics jointly
with Dr. Willis E. Lamb of STAN
ford University.
On Wednesday, DR.. Shields
Warren of Boston. former med
zeal research chief of the Acc, /
took issue with Stevenson's ex-
pressed fears of "strontium CO.,
a poison contained in radioac-
tive fall-outs.
DR., Warren. in a telegram to
Acc Chairman Lewis L. Strauss,
said he believed Mr.. Stevenson's
statement regarding dangers of
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