One World or None/in the Name of Sanity

THE integrity and devotion of the scientists who produced the atomic bomb are matched only by the zeal with which they seek to undo its consequences. In One World or None they strive valiantly to waken the people. They have done a stirring job.

In this slim, paperbound volume, edited by Dexter Masters and Katherine Way, fifteen scientists, with General H. H. Arnold and Walter Lippmann. explain in simple terms the stark challenge: there is no defense against the atomic bomb and there is no secret about its manufacture. A nation like Russia can produce it in about six years — perhaps fewer. Only a sufficient degree of world government, or its equivalent in the enforcement of law on the individual, can prevent the bomb from blasting civilization.

In very brief chapters, each scientist develops the phase of the subject he knows best. Some of them write with great brilliance and eloquence. All of them are utterly convinced that the new weapon must create “radical and profound changes in the politics of the world.” Here is their own summary: —

Atomic energy . . . will bring death to the society that produced it if we do not adapt ourselves to it. . . . The nations can have atomic energy, and much more. But they cannot have it in a world where war may come. . . . No program is sound unless it recognizes the special duties of the United States, unless it is built upon the principle that our insight and our patience must be greater than that of all the others. The bombs are marked “Made in the U.S.A.” . . . No program for solution which does not contain steps to be taken at once has recognized the nature of the problem. There is not much time.

Raymond Swing has taken much the same material, used it in his Friday evening broadcasts, and integrated it in his new book. In the Name of Sanity. Here, with cool persuasiveness, is the case for world control of atomic energy, stated as it came to one able thinker week by week from the time of Hiroshima. It is an undeniable case, driven home with stark and undenied facts.

The nuclear physicists have been shouting their warning ever since last August. Raymond Swing speaks to millions of Americans every week. Yet where do we stand today? Do Americans have an adequate awareness of the world’s peril? And of the need for starting immediate action toward creating a measure of world government?

It is much to be feared that they do not. Too many of us have gone back to sleep. Out of sight is out of mind. We are a nation of indomitable escapists. But we must not seek to escape this responsibility, and we cannot escape the consequences. The time for action has come, and there is no better chart than the clear and urgent words of these heavy-hearted men.

ERWIN D. CANHAM