Seattle 5, May 23, 1946

Prof. Albert Einstein; Chairman, Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, Princeton, New Jersey

My dear Sir:

  For some reason not quite clear tome your message was telephoned to me this morning from the Western Union Telegraph office.  And I hasten to send you my check for $25.oo to help in the effort you are making to hold up this mad rush to destruction.   It is not clear yet that we can stop it.   Causes have been operating for a long time to bring this situation to pass, and even yet we do not seem to realize that as long as society is under the dominion of the profit motive we shall have these recurring crises.  For many years I have been trying to remotivate society by various suggestions and plans, including the consumer cooperatives, which by and large carry into the field of action the idealism of the churches, the teachings of Jesus.  It is a slow process, however, and seen against the background of the immense problem we face we might get discouraged but I still remember that the immense power that is realized in an explosion is stored in a microscopic space, and so assure myself that the smallness of the consumer movement is not necessarily its weekness since the power is their to transform society once it is released.