HOLLYWOOD INDEPENDENT CITIZENS COMMITTEE

OF THE ARTS, SCIENCES AND PROFESSIONS

1575 CROSS ROADS OF THE WORLD • HOLLYWOOD 28, CALIFORNIA • HOLLYWOOD 6325

NOV 5 1945 REC'D

Dr. Linus Pauling

Director, Gates and Crollin [sic]

Chemical Laboratories

California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, California

Enclosed is an analysis of the May-Johnson Bill, which is one of the best we've seen. I hope it will be useful in helping to shape any final statement.

I enjoyed my talk with you immensely, and as a result of it feel that our objectives can be successful, if we do not delay. I will call you Tuesday and in the meantime intend to contact other scientists and educators at UCLA

With kindest regards,

Sincerely,

George Pepper

Executive Secretary

GP:as

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL • • • Larry Adler • Robert Andrews • George Antheil • Jean Arthur • Margaret Bennett • Ted Bliss • William Blowitz • Edwin Blum Humphrey Bogart • Charles Boyer • Irving Brecher • Sidney Buchman • George Burns • Abe Burrows • Reuben W. Borough • George Campbell Eddie Cantor • Morris Cohn • Marc Connelly • Norman Corwin • Joseph Cotten • Norval Crutcher • Olivia De Havilland • Albert Dekker • D. A. Doran Ted Ellsworth • Dr. Franklin Fearing • Joan Fontaine • Thomas Fizdale • John Garfield • Ira Gershwin • Paulette Goddard • Howard J. Green John Green • Louis Harris • Don Hartman • Rita Hayworth • Arthur Hornblow • John Houseman • Walter Huston • Rex Ingram • George Jessel Charles Jones • Atty. Gen. Robert Kenny • Jerome Kern • Evelyn Keyes • Edwin Knopf • Howard Koch • Cal Kuhl • Harry Kurnitz • Jesse Lasky Emmet Lavery • John Howard Lawson • Sol Lesser • Kenneth MacGowan • Thomas Mann • Mary C. McCall • Dr. Fraser McDonald • Lewis Milestone Sam Moore • Jack Moss • Prof. Walter Muelder • Ona Munson • Ernest Pascal • Gregory Peck • Nat Perrin • Irving Pichel • William Pomerance Everett Riskin • Earl Robinson • Edward G. Robinson • Al Rogell • Artur Rubinstein • Arthur Schwartz • Artie Shaw • Douglas Shearer • Vincent Sherman Herman Shumlin • Mrs. Milton Sperling • Marian Spitzer • Stewart Sterling • Gloria Stuart • Edward Sutherland • Jo Swerling • Dalton Trumbo Mrs. Harry Tugend • Frank Turtle • Charles Vidor • Bob Wachsman • J. K. Wallace • Walter Wanger • Franz Waxman • Larry Weingarten • Orson Welles Virginia Wright • Mrs. William Wyler • Victor Young • Sam Zimbalist.

Dinner at Banquet of Russian-American Club

Los Angeles. November 5, 1945

Ladies and Gentlemen: It has been a great pleasure to me to be here tonight, and to think again of some of the great Russian scientists - of Lomonosov, whom Professor Epstein will talk about tomorrow, Mendeleieff, who brought undreamed-of order into the whole field of chemistry, Federov, whose imagination and energy illuminated the science of crystallography, and such great contemporaries as Kapitza, who combines physics and engineering in a masterful way. And I hope that the world unity which characterizes the spirit of pure science will extend into human relationship generally. I am reminded of a comment of our youngest son Crellin. My wife said "I am going to study formal logic, to learn how to carry on an argument." Crellin, who is 8 years old, said "I know how to do that - you say 'Yeah?' 'Oh yeah.' 'Yeah?' 'Oh yeah.' 'Yeah?' 'Oh yeah!'"

Too much of international negotiation is of the "Oh Yeah" type - and too often it leads to combat. We must all strive for that great goal of world union - of perpetual amity between nations. And the goal is, I believe, in sight. Just because there have always been wars does not mean that there always will be wars. History is following the characteristic natural curve: increasing acceleration, and then asymptotic approach to the goal. History is now on the steep part of the curve; all that remains now is for the final steps to be taken, the steps that lead to union of the great powers, and the world will be safe forever, and we shall see the beginning of a new era of continuing peace and happiness.

New York

11 November

Sugar-plum yourself

So junketing around California in your station-wagon again, eh? It's becoming quite a habit before long your poor children will be continually deserted while you cavort.

My trip over was not bad I found enough female passengers to avoid boredom. The trip back was worse with 2600 troops aboard I felt like staying in my room it was that or be trampled underfoot. And the weather was uninterestingly bad for 90% of the time not bad enough to be exciting, and we had only one day in which to enjoy the deck that was in the English Channel and it was awfully nice to see green England a couple of miles away.

The BABT stands for Brooklyn Army Base Terminal, and the OTD for Oversees Transportation Dept, I think. It makes sense, anyway.

I'm having a terrible time with the Christmas problem in fact I had just about decided to eschew gifts completely until Reba I got me started. As it is I'll have only one shopping day. She was very sweet and gave me a bottle of port for holiday season.

The prospect of this long voyage to India is as uninviting as one can imagine. Especially since we have little or no time to investigate the ports we put into. I'm investing $15 or more in books The Mirsky's emulated you by recommending Gibbon. And plenty of Russians, of course. My choice so far has been for short story Anthologies ( I don't know why that A turned out to be capital).

I'm also investing $30 or so in liquor to sell to the homecoming troops for 400 to 600% profit. The only chance to lose is if someone gets nosy and decides to be puritan and legal but I'm adept at hiding the hooch in fool boxes, etc. Some of the guys last trip made quite a respectable sum. My conscience doesn't bother me because the troops have been getting all they could from the populace of the country they were in, so they're heavy with ill-gotten gain.

As far as my Christmas goes I can think of nothing I need except shoes and War Bonds. The former only I can get, anyway. I think it's about time you and I started saving money for clothes when and if I can get out.

By the way, my $10 band is cancelled too much book keeping for the personnel of Paula.

I'm not certain that I'll be able to find presents for everyone; if I do fail I'll leave the situation for you. It's not necessary to be complete, I suppose, but it's nice. Did you see the article in the Nov. 10 Satevpost [Saturday Evening Post] about the man that goes around befriending Nisei soldiers? Apparently he's made quite a reputation for himself .

Well, mom, I'll probably write again before leaving. If I don't I'll write from overseas, and when I get back in the middle of January.

All my love to you and Dad and the little ones.

Linus

November 15, 1945

To the Members of the Senate Committee on Commerce and the Senate Committee on Military Affairs

Gentleman:

We have a feeling of deep concern regarding the pending legislation on Federal aid to science. We share the belief of the sponsors of this legislation that expansion of our scientific work can yield returns of great benefit to the Nation.

The manner in which this aid is administered is vital to the success of any program undertaken. We have studied this matter, and we transmit to you our considered opinion on the two administrative plans which you now have under discussion.

It is our belief that the top authority in the proposed National Research Foundation should rest in a Board or Commission of scientists and laymen chosen by the President on the basis of interest in and capacity to promote the purposes of the Foundation, and not in a Director who would be aided by a board with only advisory duties. The responsibilities of the top authority will be so great and the fields to be covered are so extensive that only a broad and representative board of most able men could effectively assume this responsibility and authority.

We believe that the Foundation can achieve its objectives better by grants to institutions for the support of broad fields of scientific research and scientific education than by contracts for research on specified and closely limited problems.

We believe that the Foundation should not supervise or direct research activities of other Government agencies, and should not have the duty of surveying these activities, but should arrange for suitable interchange of information between Government agencies and research men carrying on work with the support of the Foundation; and that officers of other Government agencies should serve ex officio on certain advisory panels of the Foundation, such as an Advisory Panel to the Division of National Defense, but that no such ex officio members should serve on any Board or Commission of this Foundation to which authority is delegated.

Recognizing the great need of study of human relationships, we believe that the Foundation should provide suitable support for the social sciences and humanities as well as for the medical and natural sciences, that the social sciences and humanities should be suitably represented in the membership of the Board or Commission, and that provision should be made for scholarships and fellowships in the social sciences and humanities as well as in the medical and natural sciences.

It is our considered opinion that the Bill S.1285, which was introduced by Senator Warren G. Magnuson and is based on the report "Science: The Endless Frontier" made to President Truman by Dr. Vannevar Bush, conforms more closely to the requirements stated above than does the Bill S.1297, which was introduced by Senator Harley M. Kilgore, and we urge that you recommend passage of the Magnuson Bill S.1285 (Committee Print of October 12, 1945), in order to achieve the maximum benefit from scientific research for all of the people.

Yours Sincerely,

[Linus Pauling and many other co-signers]

AIR MAIL

November 16, 1945

Dr. W.A. Noyes, Jr.

National Defense Research Committee

1530 P Street, NW

Washington, D.C.

Reference: Your No. 10-151, OEMsr-103

13 October, 1945

Dear Dr. Noyes:

Listed below with mention of their respective contributions are the personnel who are employed under Contract OEMsr-103, and Supplement No. 1 thereto, entitled "Development of an instrument for the rapid determination of particle-size distribution of smokes".

1. Professor Linus Pauling, Official Investigator throughout the life of the contract, was asked by Dr. J.B. Conant in a letter dated June 13, 1941, to give his attention to the "old problem of measurement of particle size and particle-size distribution, .... particularly along the lines of portable instruments which might be developed for the particular purpose of testing smoke clouds." Professor Pauling relied on June 18, 1941 by proposing the type of instrument which became the subject of Contract OEMsr-103. The subsequent work followed closely along the path outlined in this original discussion.

2. Professor J.H. Sturdivant was responsible for the supervision of the experimental work and the detailed design of the instrument throughout the period of the contract.

3. Mr. William N. Lipscomb, Jr., employed from June 7, 1942 to June 30, 1943, contributed greatly to the development of the instrument. He produced multidisperse, stable smokes for testing the instrument, compared several arrangements for charging the particles, investigated with the electron microscope the separation of particle sizes by the instrument, and examined the precipitation process mathematically.

[2]

4. Dr. Thor R. Rubin, employed from February 23 to September 30, 1942, studied unidisperse smokes for testing the instrument, assembled and put into operation the first instrument, and improved the airflow through it to obtain a steady pencil of smoke.

5. Dr. Eugene H.Eyster, employed October 1 to December 31, 1941, searched the literature, uncovered the parallel experiments of Rohmann, and prepared a vacuum-tube electrometer for use in the instrument.

6. Dr. Austin L. Wahrhaftig, employed December 1, 1941 to February 28, 1942, constructed the power supply for charging and deflecting the smoke stream.

7. Dr. Charles D. Wagner, employed August 20 to September 20, 1941, assisted in preliminary measurements.

8. Mr. George Standart, employed part time between November, 1942, and May, 1943, assisted Mr. Lipscomb.

The work of Contract OEMsr-103 covered the design and investigation of an instrument in which the particles in a smoke stream could be charged electrically and precipitated on a collector at positions correlated with the sizes of the particles. A theoretical analysis showed that the function relating locus of precipitation to particle size is double-valued; the distribution is turned back upon itself in such a way that the smallest particles precipitate with the largest. The agreement between theory and experiment is fairly good, but the range of sizes of the particles precipitated at a given point is rather large. It was concluded that possible the precipitation apparatus could be developed into a usable laboratory instrument, but that it could hardly be perfected for field use.

I hope that this letter provides the information you desire for the history of Division 10 activities. Please let me know if further details on OEMsr-103 are needed.

Yours sincerely,

Linus Pauling

LP:pr

November l6, 1945

Dr. Frank Aydelotte

Institute for Advanced Study

Princeton, New Jersey

Dear Frank:

I am writing to ask for suggestions about personnel in connection with a plan being developed by the faculty at the California Institute of Technology.

The members of our faculty are very deeply interested in world affairs at the present time. This interest, and the feeling that scientists should take far more than the normal part in decisions about world affairs, are of course the result of the development of atomic power and the atomic bomb, culminating the accelerating contributions of science to the factors determining the nature of the modern world.

It has been proposed that we add to the staff of the California Institute of Technology a man who is spending all of his time in the study of world affairs, and particularly the nature and causes of war, or methods of keeping the peace. Perhaps it will be possible to invite several men with interests of this sort to Pasadena for a few lectures, with a decision to be made later as to whether any one of them should be asked to come for a year or more. I think that the presence on our faculty of men, such as Tolman, Oppenheimer, Lauritsen, who have been involved in the recent developments of science and technology might interest the students of world affairs, in the job at this Institute.

I shall be grateful to you for any suggestions that you have to make, and information about the people whom you propose.

Cordially yours,

Linus Pauling

New York

17 November [1945]

Dearest Mom

Yesterday I manage to get mailed a package containing a few Christmas items, all wrapped ( at least they were when I put them in the box) a birthday present for you, and a stray book I thought Pop might like to see. My gift selection isn't' exactly perfect, but at least I managed to get everyone's name down on a card. One or two are entire family things.

A couple of nights ago I got a USO ticket to Up in Central Park, which I thought was lousy. But lasts night I paid $5.40 for a very good seat for Bloomer Girl, which I liked very much. In fact it kept my attention better than Oklahoma did. But it doesn't have to many good songs. But I enjoyed it immensely. I wish I had been seeing more of these shows.

This afternoon we depart it doesn't make me at all happy.

I'm mailing around a few Christmas cards and I'm realizing that I'm liable to get into trouble by writting [sic] someone. That would be bad if the someone found out.

Our mail situation is snafu no letters since October. That irritates me.

All my love, Mom.

Linus

PROPOSED FEDERAL AID TO RESEARCH IN SCIENCE AND MEDICINE

By Linus Pauling

November 17, 1945

The great contributions to the war effort made by scientists during the past five years have mad ethe public aware that the welfare of the Nation depends upon adequate support of research in science and medicine. Moreover, we are beginning the postwar period with a great deficit - not only a deficit of trained scientific personnel, resulting form the interruption of the education of the 165,000 men who, except for the war, would have received scientific or engineering degrees during the war years, and were prevented from receiving these degrees, but also a deficit in the body of fundamental scientific knowledge. The contributions made by scientists during the war years were very largely based on fundamental discoveries made before the war. Further progress in industrial development and in medicine will be possible only if proper support is provided for basic scientific research.

It has been clear that the sources of funds drawn upon in the past for support of basic scientific research will not be adequate in the immediate future. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on November 17, 1944 sent to Dr. Vannevar Bush, Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, a letter quoted in full below, in which he said "The information, the techniques, and the research experience developed by the Office of Scientific Research and Development and by the thousands of scientists in the universities and in private industry, should be used in the days of peace ahead for the improvement of the national health, the creation of new enterprises bringing new jobs, and the betterment of the national standard of living and in which he asks for recommendations about the part that the Federal Government could play in fostering scientific medical research for the good of the people.

The reply to this request was made by Dr. Bush in a report "Science, The Endless Frontier" sent to President truman on July 19, 1945. this report was prepared with the aid of four advisory committees, dealing respectively with medical research, research in the natural sciences, the discovery and development of scientific talent in American youth, and the publication of information about the contributions to scientific knowledge which have been made during our war effort.

As a member of the Medical Advisory Committee. I had an opportunity to see how great an effort has been made to find a way of providing the needed Federal aid to research in science and medicine without invoking the evils such as political influence and mediocrity of performance which so often characterize government activities. It is my opinion that the recommendations made by Dr. Bush are sound and that the Nation will benefit greatly if they are followed.

These recommendations have been embodied essentially in a Bill, S.1285, which was introduced by Senator Warren G. Magnuson. this Bill and an alternative Bill, S.1297, introduced by Senator Harley M. Kilgore, are now under consideration by the Senate Committee on Commerce and the Senate Committee on Military Affairs. The Bills have been discussed by many members of the staffs of the California Institute of Technology, the Mount Wilson Observatory, and the Huntington Library at an informal weekly seminar on world affairs which is now being held under the chairmanship of Professor Earnest C. Watson, and a statement about the opinion of this group has been formulated and sent to the members of the two Senate Committees and to the Senators and Representatives from California. this statement is presented below. In addition, a national committee of forty-three members, the "Committee Supporting the Bush Report" has sent to President Truman a letter in which closely similar recommendations are made; this Committee includes four members of the staff of the California Institute of Technology, Professor Carl D. Anderson, Professor Carl Niemann, Professor G.W. Beadle, the new Chairman of the Division of Biology of the Institute, and myself.

I recommend that you read the Bush report, in order to obtain a sound basis for an opinion as to the possibilities of future progress in research in science and medicine and of the need for support from the Federal Government. This report can be obtained from the Government Printing Office for thirty cents.

November 20, 1945

Dr. Willis R. Whitney

The Farm Niskayuna

R. F. D. No. 1

Schenectady, N.Y.

Dear Dr. Whitney:

I was glad to get your letter. If you are not planning to visit California again soon, perhaps I can look forward to coming to see you sometime in Schenectady.

It is hard to believe that nine years have passed since the death of Dr. Noyes. We continue to miss him greatly. Thomas Hunt Morgan has been under the weather for a few days, with the stomach trouble which bothers him, but he seems to be recovering rapidly and to be feeling very lively again. It is wonderful to be able to talk to him from time to time.

I have just been working on some manuscripts describing an instrument which we developed during the war, and which is now no longer confidential. I am sending you a report about it (under separate cover) because I think that you might be interested to see how simple it is to manufacture an oxygen meter. The instrument depends for its operation on the extraordinary magnetic properties of molecular oxygen.

You may be interested in an idea which I have been thinking about recently. It is that many diseases (arthritis, nephritis, rheumatic fever) cause trouble by a precipitation or agglutination of red cells in the blood, and that this might be prevented by chemicals. The use of sodium salicylate in the treatment of acute rheumatic fever suggests that other things should be tried. I am hoping to do something about this.

Cordially yours,

Linus Pauling

LP:gw

WESTERN

UNION

SA20 NL PD 4 EXTRA= TDS HOLLYWOOD CALIF NOV 25 2945

LINUS PAULING= 1945 NOV 26 AM 8 46

CAL TECH PASADENA CALIF= NOV 26 1945 REC'D

AMERICA'S MOST DANGEROUS WEAPON MAY BECOME AMERICA'S GREATEST DANGER UNLESS PROPER INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION IS SET UP FOR THE CONTROL OF ATOMIC ENERGY. THAT IS THE BELIEF OF THE FEDERATION OF ATOMIC SCIENTISTS. NEWLY FORMED BY THE SCIENTISTS AND LEADERS WHO PROVIDED THE WEAPON THAT SMASHED HIROSHIMA. THE HOLLYWOOD INDEPENDENT CITIZENS COMMITTEE OF ARTS-, SCIENCES AND PROFESSIONS IS CALLING A CONFERENCE ON "ATOMIC POWER AND FOREIGN POLICY" FOR MONDAY EVENING DECEMBER 3, 8 P.M. TOWN HOUSE, TERRACE ROOM. WE ASK THAT YOUR ORGANIZATION SEND DELEGATES TO CONSIDER A PROGRAM CALLING FOR BROAD INTERNATIONAL UTILIZATION OF ATOMIC ENERGY WHICH HAS ALREADY BEEN APPROVED AND SIGNED BY THOUSANDS OF CALIFORNIA AND NATIONAL SCIENTISTS AND EDUCATORS. PLEASE ADVISE HOLLYWOOD 6325, TO CONFIRM YOUR DELEGATES= HOLLYWOOD INDEPENDENT CITIZENS COMMITTEE OF THE ARTS SCIENCES AND PROFESSIONS GEORGE PEPPER EXECUTIVE SECRETARY.

3 8 P.M. 6325.

WILL APPRECIATE SUGGESTIONS FROM ITS PATRONS CONCERNING ITS SERVICE

[stationery from The Commodore "New York's Best Located Hotel"]

[Monday night]

Dear love:

My trip was uneventful. On getting off the Superchief I saw Sorenson, who had arrived on a slow train; I offered to sell him half of my bedroom on the 20^th Century, so he turned in his berth and came with me. He went alone to the diner- I ate my rolls and cheese (I still have some). On arrival I checked in my room, and went to the meeting, which was interesting. I phoned Moe, and at 4:30 went to the Club (Century) with him to meet Dudley Easley, legal asst to Bush. Tate and Larry Frank were there. I'm working now on rewriting part of our committee report. I think that before going to bed, I'll go across the street to the newsreel movie.

I've received a letter from Addis, with lots of advice for the Committee.

Moe asked about you.

Love to you and the [indecipherable]

Paddy

November 26, 1945

Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer

Linus Pauling

Nuclear Advisory Committee

I have sent you separately the account of a meeting of a nuclear committee (a very informal one, with no official standing at the Institute), and a report made to this committee.

A confidential report was also made. I shall give you a copy of this report later.

If there is any information that you, as the Chairman of the new Nuclear Advisory Committee formed by action of the Executive Committee of the Institute would like to have, please let me know.

Professor Yost has recommended that Gerhart Friedlander of Los Alamos be invited to visit the Institute, in order that he might be considered for appointment. Would it be possible for your Nuclear Advisory Committee to consider this recommendation? I enclose the letter sent to me by Professor Yost.

Linus Pauling

LP:gw

enc:

26 November 1945

Dearest Mom

I got a couple of your letters just before sailing.

Tomorrow morning we arrive at Port Said. We plan a short tour of Cairo, if there's no epidemic of plague.

The voyage has been interesting one day out of N.Y. the storm got to bad we had to heave to for a day we that's one day lost. The weather was bad until the Azores, when the ocean calmed down and the sun came out. We saw Portugal, a welcome sight after a week of water. Then, half a day later, Spain and Africa dove into view, and we sailed past Cape Trafalgar and Cape Spartel, and finally, Gibraltar.

The Mediterranean is absolutely beautiful. We skirted the coast as far as Tunis, so there was wild, rough, hilly, golden land to contrast with the deep blue sea. And the sunsets and sunrises are gorgeous.

The chances are 50-50 that we'll continue around the world to Seattle, I'll know when we get to Karachi.

All my love to you and the family, Mommikins.

Linus

INTER - DEPARTMENT COMMUNICATION

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

PASADENA

DATE November 26, 1945

TO Dr. J. H. Sturdivant

FROM Linus Pauling

SUBJECT

In Chemical Abstracts 39, 4274 (bottom of the page) there is a Russian paper about superstructure lines for potassium chloride, potassium bromide, potassium iodide, sodium chloride, caesium bromide, gold, silver, and platinum. Crystals freshly made from the melt do not show the superstructure lines, and these crystals of the alkali halides show a higher heat of solution. The authors think that the stable crystals have a superstructure. This might be worth looking into.

Linus Pauling

LP:gw

[Handwritten addition]

Dr. Pauling: Photostats have been ordered.

Do you suppose it would be worthwhile to subscribe to some Russian journals? Ten years from now people might be reading them.

[stationery from The Commodore “New York's Best Located Hotel"]

[Tuesday evening]

Dearest love:

We continued our meeting today, very effectively- things are coming into order. We kept going steadily until 5, & after a rest (I in my hotel room) we had a good dinner together, as guests of Palmer, in the University Club. [Waring] told about the surgeon who cut an inch gash in the aorta of a patient while performing a pneumonectomy- blood spurted into his face- he sewed up the gash and the woman lived (the case was reported in the literature). The surgeon was [Ochsner], who is on our committee- he said the patient is still alive! [Ochsner] is an extraordinary man- he pretty well runs things in New Orleans, I judge.

Bill Castle told about an interesting episode in the life of Chauncey Depeu.

We had a big group of witnesses today, but no one that you and I know (except the MacNider- an old boy in the Academy). At the Club I saw Gasser and DuVigneaud. Gasser mentioned my series of talks at the Institute- where at the end of each I predict what will be discovered for the next one.

Tomorrow night we go in a body to Washington.

Love from

Paddy

[postcard]

[postmarked]

11-27-45

Dear Folks:

Enjoying Port Said. This is statue of F. de Lesseps.

Linus

Talk on

ATOMIC ENERGY AND WORLD GOVERNMENT

before the members of the Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions at the Hollywood-Roosevelt Hotel

8:15 PM Friday Nov. 30, 1945

By Linus Pauling

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is the atomic bomb which is responsible for my being here tonight - just as the atomic bomb may be responsible for our all not being here a few years from now. Like most other scientists, I have in the past stuck pretty close to my work, and paid little attention to politics and to world affairs, perhaps even less than the average citizen. Now, however, scientists have made a discovery which truly revolutionizes the world. No one understands how great is the significance of atomic energy and the atomic bomb to the world so well as do the scientists, and this understanding has forced them into activity, has caused them ,individually and in groups such as the Federation of Atomic Scientists, to begin a campaign of talking, of presenting the facts about the atomic bomb, in the hope that everyone, as he begins to understand the possibilities of the future, will be horrified by them, and will pledge himself to take the individual action which is necessary to save the world.

I have never seen an atomic bomb explode, but several of my friends have, and have told me about it. The limited experience which I have had during the war with ordinary explosives has not been of much help to me in appreciating the power of atomic explosives, because ordinary explosives are hardly worth mentioning in the same breath with fissionable atoms. And yet we used to think of nitroglycerine and TNT and RDX and PETN as pretty powerful substances, worthy of respect: a pound of TNT, in the form of a shaped charge, can blow a hole through six inches of armor plate; a hundred pounds, which might be carried into this room by one man, could kill everybody in the room; a few tons, which might be dropped as a bomb, could destroy this building or devastate a whole block of houses.

TNT and similar molecular explosives are powerful because the atoms in their molecules are combined in such a way that a large amount of energy is stored up, which can be suddenly released as a detonation wave causes the atoms in the molecules to rearrange themselves into new product molecules, which fly apart with great velocity, impinging on surrounding molecules and producing the shattering shock wave which spreads out from the center of explosion.

The energy of TNT is stored up between the atoms in the molecule, and not within the atoms. Only six years ago was it discovered that there is stored up in the minute nuclei of heavy atoms themselves an almost unbelievably great amount of energy which can be released at the will of man. These heavy nuclei are themselves unstable, in the same way that molecules of TNT are unstable; under the influence of neutrons these nuclei can split in two, with the evolution of an incredible amount of energy, which causes the split products to fly apart with terrific velocity.

It is in the nature of this reaction, its dependence upon a supply of neutrons, that it proceeds slowly if there are not too many fissionable atoms around -- uranium 235 or plutonium -- but that it proceeds explosively, in a millionth of a second, whenever more than a certain amount, a pound or two, of the material is brought together. Suppose that we had two pieces of plutonium, each shaped like half of a golf ball and weighing perhaps a pound (the density of plutonium is very great -- about twenty times that of water), and a mechanism for suddenly clapping them together: this would be an atomic bomb, like that which devastated Nagasaki, and if it were to explode here, it would destroy Hollywood.

This, then, is an atomic bomb -- the smallest that we know how to make now -- a couple of pounds of plutonium, equal to forty million pounds of TNT, and capable of wiping out a city ten square miles in area, and killing hundreds of thousands of people. Yesterday Harold Urey testified that three such bombs exploded in Washington could cause our Federal government to vanish. And these are little atomic bombs, the smallest that will explode -- a big one, which the atomic bomb scientists say could be made, could flatten the whole of New York and kill its millions of inhabitants.

We must not think that because only three atomic bombs have been exploded there are only a few in existence. I can make a guess about this, on the basis of the order-of-magnitude figures quoted in the Smyth report -- and my guess is that there are perhaps a hundred or two in existence -- enough to kill perhaps fifty million people, if each were dropped on a different city -- and by next year there may be five hundred. My colleague Robert Oppenheimer, whose opinion is based on knowledge of the situation, has stated that he expects tens of thousands possibly to be used if there is an atomic war.

Nor must we think that atomic warfare will be expensive. The atomic bomb program cost two billion dollars, and only two bombs were dropped on Japan -- but Oppenheimer has said that in mass production these bombs would cost no a billion dollars apiece, but only a million dollars. This is terribly cheap -- a million-dollar atomic bomb has the power of forty million pounds of TNT, which in bombs would cost perhaps one hundred million dollars. For a given amount of money we can do a hundred times as much damage to the enemy as in pre-atomic days. The next war should be a real one, indeed; perhaps it will be equal to one hundred like the one we have just gone through.

Offensive action will be easy and cheap, but defensive action will be hard and expensive. No good means of defense exists, and it seems inconceivable that an effective one will be found.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the danger now facing the world. What can be done to avoid it? Scientists discovered the basis of the atomic bomb and the atomic scientists on the bomb project have had a longer time to think about the problem it poses than other people have had. They believe, and I believe, that there is only one way to avoid world disaster -- and that is to abolish war, to have effective international control of the atomic bomb, and, as soon as possible, to form a world government to which the nations of the world give up their sovereignty in matters which serve as causes of war. The Federation of Atomic Scientists has formulated a statement to this end, urging "that the President of the United States immediately invite the governments of Great Britain and the Soviet Union to a conference to prevent a competitive armaments race, to plan international control of mankind's most devastating weapons, and jointly to initiate international machinery to make available to all peoples the peacetime benefits of atomic energy." This statement has been signed by hundreds of workers at Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos, and by many hundreds of other scientists in Southern California and elsewhere on the Pacific Coast and throughout the nation.

I believe that the only hope for the world is to prevent war, and that war can be prevented only by a sovereign world government to which individuals are directly responsible. Talk about a world government has always been considered visionary -- even now there seems to be a feeling, especially among editorial writers, that the practical people of the United States will never consent to this nation's giving up its sovereignty. But is not the formation of a world government, abolishing war, the practical thing to do? Would it not be more realistic, more practical for the United States and other nations to give up some of their sovereignty, that relating to waging war, to a world government than for these nations to retain all their sovereignty and to be destroyed? It is not more realistic, more practical to use the gifts of nature, as discovered by science, for the good of all the people of the world, considering them as brothers, than for death and destruction? I believe that the discovery of atomic power will be recognized as necessitating world unity, and that the goal of a continually peaceful and happy world, which a few years ago was hardly visible in the greatly distant future, will be achieved within our generation.

[Note: included in file are hand-written copy of speech, typescript with hand-written notes in the margins, and additional typescript with requested deletions from Capt. Robert W. Kirkman, Intelligence officer of Manhattan District.]