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de Vries, John E., November 18, 1946.
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PR November 18, 1946
Thank for [suggestion?] on how to reach [people?] through [illegible]
Prof. Albert Einstein, Princeton N.J.
Dear Professor Einstein,
It is with the utmost interest that I read in this morning's paper the forming of a committee by you and your fellow-scientists, to make the public more concious of the destructive potentialities of atomic warfare, against which there is no defense. May I begin to enclose $5.- as my donation toward the million dollar goal which your committee has set for itself to make it's cause better known. I wished I could give more, but hope that there are 200.000 people who on the average feel the same way about this problem as I do. As a further contribution I should like to present the following thought for your committee's consideration.
Realising that the problem is of sufficient urgency to keep it consantly before the public, I should like to suggest a method of presentation, which though maybe boring to the more lofty mind like yours and that of your committee's, works effectively with the masses. Proof: "I'd walk a mile for a Camel." etc. etc. Repetition has proven to be the medium to drive a point home with the mass of people. And it is in the surging of the ever moving mind of the masses that policy is born. It is from the constant interplay between the thoughts and emotions of the masses and the leadership that events are shaped for good or for evil. If we therefore condition the mass-mind on a high plane, a policy will probably evolve that is on a high plane. The problem thus seems to be to condition this mind in the abhorrance of war.
I believe that the greatest piece of advertising, to use a popular expression, against atomic warfare up to date is John Hershey's "Hiroshima." But unfortunately it only reached a limited number of people in printed form. It was heard by many over the radio, but I am afraid it was heard and forgotten. If however this type of human interest terror could be kept before the public constantly and above all in repetitious form, it would have a better chance to sink in.
It is with this in mind that the cooperation of a number of newspapers and radiostations should be sollicited. Through human interest