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P.O. Box 1418 Atlanta, Georgia

Nov. 6, 1946

Dear Mr. Johnston:

Sometime ago, in a radio address, you outlined your views of the motion picture medium as a vehicle in public enlightenment.

The idea stuck root with surging power.

I hesitated to write you until now, mindful of the fact that you must be the recipient of countless letters from sincere persons besieging you with suggestions.

May I presume in this instance to invite your attention to the awesome implications of your proposal in respect to our nation's preoccupation with atomic energy!

Like other sources of energy, atomic energy takes its place among our nation's resources. We must use it well. Therein, the public's understanding is strategic. Orderly thinking must be substituted for the welter of detail which assails the public by press and radio. Dynamic interest on the part of the public may never be possible once the deadening stereotypes set in.

Careless thinking can never make this nation carefree. How better to overcome the causative factors in Professor Urey's real "fear" than to dramatize the facts of atomic energy via the multiple sense appeal of the motion picture?

In your radio address, you spoke of the effectiveness of the motion picture in combatting prejudice, intol-erance, and niggardly thinking so ever present. Would you not agree, sir, that your medium has undreamed of possibilities in arousing the public's awareness of issues growing out of our transition into an atomic era?

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