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Bain, Reed, January 24, 1947
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MIAMA UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY Jan. 24, 1947
Dear Professor Einstein:
I wish I could give you a million dollars instead of ten. I can think of no project upon which many millions could be so profitably spent as the prevention of the use of atomic energy for military purposes. It is obvious that we cannot succeed in this unless we can prevent war itself. Unless this can be done, it is more or less pointless to spend money on anything else.
Hence, I am greatly depressed when I think of the number of people who could give you a millions more easily that I can give you ten who will not give you a dime; and when I see the Government spending taxes by the billions to defeat the work you and your associates are trying to accomplish. However, I suppose a moral man must act as if his action were efficacious in the achievement of the goals in which he believes. I have little hope that the Atomic Scientists can reach enough people in the right way, even if they could get five millions, soon enough, to prevent Atom War I. If the United States were to spend Five Billion under the direction of competent social scientists in the next five-to-ten years (if the War can be postponed that long), we might have a fighting chance to make war impossible.
A much more fundamental and world-wide program is required than merely telling people that atomic war may well destroy civilisation. This is based upon the assumption that mankind is a rational animal. He is not. It is also based upon the assumption that the best social control device is fear. It is not. Neither will administrative tinkering with the UN save us. These are all superficial and trivial. We have got to deal with more basic and fundamental factors. I dealt briefly with some of these factors in " Sociopathy and World Organization", Amer. Sociol. Rev. April 1944
Nothing has happened since then to make me any more hopeful that I was then; the situation has deteriorated, if anything.
I think we will fail, but we must fight on anyway.
Sincerely, Reed Bain