The people's voice., 1957-12-13
Is Biqqer Missile the Essential Ingredient

TO war with Russia.
The longer we put off finding a
common ground the tougher it's
going to be to find. Russia has tre-
mendous resources, and her people
have great willingness to work
and strong love of country.
Leave Russia alone, let her deal
with her economic theories and prac-
tices-time would have a big effect
on these. But to build places all
around them from which we can
launch bombs and missiles gives that
nation a solidarity that it would not
have if they didn't feel the Western
World was plotting to destroy them.
SO I take the declaration of these
155 top scientists seriously. I think
that any man who refuses to respond
to that approach is lacking in wis
dom, and not serving the best inter-
ests of the United States.
think the more contact we have
between people of the two nations
the quicker we'll realize we are all
human, with weaknesses, with limi-
tations, and that for better or for
worse we had better agree not to
annihilate each other. Either we'll
live together or we'll perish to-
gether. I'd like to see constant ex-
changes between scientists, educa-
tors, artists, people of the two
countries.
We're faced with a condition,
whether we like it or not, in which
Russia has all the instruments of
modern war, and it just doesn't make
sense to continue that kind of an
armaments contest. This is the time
for anyone who feels this way to
speak up.
l think you'll find the average busi-
nessman, connected with industry,
realizes as keenly as 1 do that World
War III would be the destruction of
mankind.
This is the great time for people
to speak up, and those who can't be
suspected of susceptibility to a bribe
or to flattery. It's an awful reflection
on our country to suggest that if we
mix freely with the Russians we'll
abdicate everything we believe in,
everything we stand for.
A few days ago I saw Norman Cou-
sins, who recently got back from a
trip on which he met Albert Schweit-
zer in Africa The first thing Schweit-
zer asked, said Cousins, was "What
at Pugwash?"
What should be the mechanics of
our answer to the Soviet proposal?
This depends on the scale, on whether
a few scientists or a large group will
be involved. Perhaps we'd have to
have it under the auspices of a gov
ernment, but this inevitably carries
stigma with it. We can't hold it in
the United States, because the United
States won't allow representatives
from Red China. This is a policy
like barring newsmen to China-in
which it's hard to find any intelli-
gence. It's a madness that suggests
a lack of wisdom in our handling of
these fateful problems.
1t would probably be held in Can
ada, the West Indies or India. The
Russians, Poles, Slavs are
al willing to go to Canada, and that
perhaps is the place to have it.
All indicates willingness on the
part of scientists to do their part
,oward cooling the passions of states
men.
think the more conferences we
have under as many auspices as
possible, taking in people with no
axe to grind-and scientists are
probably as disinterested as you
can find-the better.
It's certainly something colleges
md universities can back. Certainly
anyone who is a capitalist ought to
70 for it-because in war all the
material accumulations of the past
would go. One hydrogen bomb would
ay this great city in rubble.
Il
Never before have the penalties of
ollies been so great.
We need a spell of humility. To us,
me of the most SOLDERING thoughts
must be that all the men who pro-