Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-11-06
Sputnick II

II
1 have watched with in
creasing concern the rash Of
attempts to bolster our lag
ging national pride in the
light of the successful Rus
sian satellites. First came Of
cial statements of unconcern,
then a sudden flood of news
of successful land sometimes
not so successfully tests Of
missiles and rockets; all of
this accompanied by reamS
of newspaper lineage and edi-
torial comment. Most of the
latter, while showing some
concern, tend to maximize
our own achievements in this
field. From several points of
view, nothing could be worse.
Like a spoiled child. or like
the stereotyped and frequent
ly hypothetical oriental, we
have given birth to a multi
tude of inconsistencies de-
signed to save face. With all
the world watching, we are
exposing our pettiness in a
situation which calls for
determination and largess;
largess in admitting that the
Russian achievements are
both considerable from a
scientific and chronological
point of view and significant
from a military standpoint;
determination to seek with
increasing vigor to convince
or to entice the Soviets into
an enforceable scheme of
control of nuclear weapons
and their means of delivery;
determination to plan to
pacify the world as we would
like to see it pacif1ed; deter
mination not to let ourselves
be borne along in an uncon-
trolled stream of events.
reacting to each as the whims
of the moment require.
We can and should-if it is
not too late-consider put
ting a significantly larger
fraction of our national in
come into increasing the
present and potential produc-
tivity of the free world,
thereby making it less vul-
nerable to Russian influence.
There should be no question
in the minds of the Soviet
leaders that it is not only
the Americans who are deter
mined to prevent the spread
of totalitarianism.
The time to propose in
ternational space and missile
control is now when Russian
confidence is probably high.
1t may also be profitable to
stop reacting to each of their
proposals with a stuffy in
sistence on working out all
the details prior to obtaining
an agreement from which
they could not easily recede.
thereby giving the Russians
the excuses they seem to want
for not concluding enforce
able disarmament agree
ments. Civilization may not
wait for an end to Rus
sian intransigence and our
bungling.
Elliot Charney.
The strength of a democ-
racy is in its people; EVIL
IDENTIFY the President has not
given us the leadership we
had a right to expect and
cannot evade his RESPONSE
bility in the face of Russian
successes. But we should sup
port him in any construc-
tive acts to avert this threat
to our welfare.
You cannot create a SCI
enlist or engineer overnight.
You cannot rush logical
thinking under pressure
which destroys free thought;
calm, reasoned approaches
are required. One of the pres
ent troubles is improper or
inept management; using en-
gineers with design ability
as administrators instead of
paying creative engineers
enough to allow them to re-
main engineers. Promotion
to them is administration.
Appoint Trevor Gardner as
special consultant to the
President or as head of a
missile and space agency to
cut the administrative tan
gle. Eliminate so-called civil
service procedures - assign
responsibility and allow ex-
ecutives in Government to
hire whoever they want at
the salary they want to pay
within a total budget limit.
and be charged with respon-
sibility to do the job.
Having seen bungling, mis-
management and general
stupidity. it is not strange to
me the efficient Russians are
beating us at this game.
Reader.