Milford chronicle., 1957-08-16
THE MEANING oF CLEAN, BONES

THE MEANING OF CLEAN BOMBS
Many of us missed the real significance
of the announcement from the White House
that u. S. scientists had developed method
to produce "clean" nuclear bombs. 1t is re-
ported that our scientists are now able to
develop a nuclear bomb that is ninety-six per
cent "cean"
This means that nuclear bombs can be
used in wartime without spreading devasta-
tion over great areas and causing huge civil
ian casualties because. of the radioactive
fall out H-bombs can now be pinpointed on
military targets, and while they are utterly
devastating, they need not spread death
through the skies and misery over the coun-
try in the form of huge totals of civilian cas-
uaties-such as those which occurred in
Japan because of the radioactive fallout
from atomic bombs.
This really means that there is greater
chance that nuclear weapons will be used in
the next war than there had been previously.
Whether they will actually be used or not, no
one can say, although it seemed that as long
as these bombs produced radioactive fall
ou. so destructive for the civilian population,
no country would risk their use.
Now, there is a distinct possibility that
the various governments will decide to use
only "clean" nuclear weapons if they use
them at all. A small and "clean" nuclear
weapon. used as a tactical weapon on the
battlefield, seems to have better chance of
usage now than it did only few months ago.
Since the United States is supposed to have
the lead in the production and possession Of
I. niIclear weapons. the discovery of a p1etf7od
of producing "clean" bombs is of the utmost
Importance to the United States.
"A world convention should inevitably
result from this discovery, leading to gen
eral agreement not to use unclean nuclear
weapons-so on the order of the
worldwide agreement not to employ poison
gas in wars-a prohibition which was gen.
orally observed in both World War ii and
the Korean War. It-would be even better, of
course, if neither clean nor unclean bombs
were allowed.
WHEN WILL WORLD WAR II END?
More and more people-including MEM
bers of a considerable number of state legis-
latures-are trying to find out when the
emergency created by World War II can be
expected to end
This is because of the 'wartime-only" ex-
else taxes on transportation, which amount
to three per cent on freight shipments and
10 per cent on passenger fares. They were
designed to discourage unnecessary travel
and shipping at time when all the carriers
were overloaded with war traffic, as well as
to raise war revenue. The war ended about
II years ago. The taxes are still on the
books.
So far, the legislatures of IA states have
formally asked Congress to get rid of these
taxes. 1t is pointed out that the taxes even
discourage seeing America first, in that
they apply to travel within the United States
but not to foreign countries And they are
a heavy burden on shippers-especially those
whose products move long way to market.
For instance, the tax on a carload shipment
of apples from Washington State to New
York is $25. .57--as against tax of $8O4 on
a carload going from Virginia to New York.
On many items, the taxes are multiplied
time after time, in that they apply to ship
ments of raw materials as well as the final
finished products. They are thus strong in
hationary influence, felt by all consumers, at
a time when imitation is again a serious
problem.
They are special, discriminatory taxes
not regular taxes. They are taxes on the
users of the commercial transportation SER
vice-not on the services themselves. They
are kind of tax which is defensible only
when the country must deal with real enner-
gency, such as war; When will Congress de-
eide that the World War III emergency has
at last ended?
WASHINGTON HAS TAKEN OVER
Publisher Tom Anderson of Farm and
Ranch magazine points out that "In 1914
state and local government spent 20 per
cent of all money spent by government. Now
20 per cent is spent by Washington bureau
Gratis" Then, to make bad matter worse,
"a big part of our tax money never comes
back to us in seryices-but is lived up by
the .swarms of bureaucrats whose hands it
goes through"
President Eisenhower has proposed that
The states assume responsibility, in whole
or in part, for many projects now handled
on the federal level If the states will do
that, the taxpayers will find ihst they will
oet more and better seIvice--and for less