Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-08-02
SPIRES OF THE SPIRIT
A Ship With a Spire
BY DIR. FREDERICK BROWN HARRIS, DID.
Chaplain Of the United States Senate

race discoveries are more i'm
portant than dates. It is some
new advance in mans prog
ress as he carries out the
divine mandate. Have do
minion," which lifts a date
into Immortality.
The year 1919 stands out
because the SIS Savannah
was the first steamship to
cross the Atlantic. This pio-
neer of the great liners now
blowing the oceans was pro-
PEELED by a 90-horsepower,
single-cylinder engine.
The year 1859 marks a
notable achievement in the
commerce Of the seas in the
launching Of the MS Savan-
nah, the worlds first nuclear-
powered, passenger cargo
ship. On July 81, amid the
plaudits of thousands and in
the presence of a distin-
guished group representing
Government. science and
business, this thrilling en-
blem Of "Atoms for Peace"
was christened by the wife
Of our Chief Executive. It
was President Eisenhower
who, in 1855, in a New York
City speech, first proposed
the building of an atom
powered merchant vessel as
a harbinger of United States
determination to put the
fearful power of the atom to
peaceful purposes.
AS at the shipbuilding
yards in Camden, N. j., the
new Savannah majestically
glided down the ways to be
embraced by the waiting
waters of the Delaware, while
the bands played God Bless
America" there was a lump
in many a throat and tears
Of proud joy in many an
eye. The launching took place
almost within sight of the
sacred hall in Philadelphia
from which the bell rang as
independence was proclaimed
and the American ship of
state was launched. With our
national ship now tossing on
mountainous international
seas, it is literally true, as
in Longfellow's lines, that
Humanity. Nth all its fears,
With all its hopes OF future
years,
Is hanging breathleSS on its
fate.
And so on the banks of
the same stored river which
saw the birth of the Nation,
the hour had come to COM
NIT to the water a vessel
which is not to a fear
haunted world the prophetic
symbol of potential deStruc-
ton, but one harneSsed as
the willing servant of the
gentle and benevolent forces
that uplift and relieve and
make to blossom wildernesses
of want and woe. Truly, this
scene was arched by a rain
bow of radiant hope.
For a dozen years and more
now this column has been
dedicated to the exaltation
of spiritual and moral values
and veritieS - the eternal
things which alone give
worth and meaning to life.
Surely in this time of shud-
dering dread when the crude
boss of the Kremlin is
breathing out dire threats of
the devastation atomic
bombs in ruthless Commu-
nistic hands can now bring to
the teeming cities of the
free world, when shelters
against such a holocaust and
the death-dealing fallout are
even now being prepared in
our America, the launching
of a ship to use this same
power for life, instead of
death, for blessing instead
of the curse, is a spire of the
spirit tall enough to be seen
with Joy by those who realize
that awful instruments of
terror and havoc, held with
out moral control and ig-
nited by human hate, may
scourge the planet which is
mans home and melt into
brittle glass the fruitful
earth.
At the impressive launch