Show a A a 0 atomic war could force return to primitive life by news analyst and aid commentator mid june welcomes a gathering to washington which will deal with a subject more important to you f and me than anything I 1 can think of the meeting la Is described as an institute on the control of atomic energy ne r gy 11 A at I 1 bout about the same fame time the united nations commission on atomic energy will be meeting too the institute in washington authorities will explain just what effect atomic energy cart can have on your ufa life it if you are one of those who arent going to be destroyed by it I 1 was going to say one of the lucky ones but you wont be ba lucky if atomic warfare starts even tf if you are among those whose lives are pared we have all heard a lot of dire prophecies about what the atom bomb can do if it once gets on the loose also what wonders atomic energy can perform in building a better world 11 it is confined to peaceful and productive activity but by far the most impressive footnote on the subject came to ms me in the repeated words of a scientist speaking not scientifically or for quotation but very intimately of his own private thoughts and his own personal plans he has lectured a great deal on the subject of atomic energy and Is one of those intimately concerned with its development suddenly one day he realized that he had better make some personal plans to prepare tor for the future in this atomic age of which he had spoken so much ills his work Is near one of the several prime targets of any enemy bombs that would be dropped no refuge from A bomb so he began to consider should he try to get transferred to some smaller institution located in a little town that he considered would not help much he has a farm but he Is not a farmer should he move onto the farm immediately learn as much as he ha could about farming find and plan to live there where he would be comparatively sale safe the farm is far from any large city tucked in the hills then he be started planning lie ile would have to learn leara a lot more than farming lie ile would have to learn to card wool for instance his wife would have to learn to spin to weave to make soap to fabricate all the things you buy in stores lie he would have to lay in tools nd enough other supplies to last him the rest of his lifetime well perhaps all that could be done then he realized that even at that he be sale safe he would have to build barbed wire en tangle ments and obtain machine guns and other weapons with which to defend himself tor for with the refugees who escaped starving from the cities the few who had food would be at the mercy of the hungry mobs if I 1 hind had heard those statements from a lecture platform or read them in a magazine I 1 might have passed them by as sens sensationalism rationalism but the statements in a magazine or spoken from a platform they were said over the luncheon table in the quiet corner of a club the speaker trying to sell his ideas to anybody he trying to persuade anybody to do anything or to get publicity he was thinking out loud about abort what he considered an acute personal problem in the end it left him baffled there Is no defense the only hope Is to make the united nations work I 1 heard this story and was moved by it I 1 was already pretty well stirred up ua because I 1 had just learned of w what hat deep concern this question is to more than three thousand people who wrote me asking tor for a pamphlet I 1 had mentioned in one of my broadcasts that Is an interesting story too that I 1 want to pass on one day I 1 received a little pamphlet among the several bushels of handout material which is the grist of the publicity mills dumped on press and radio desks all over the country every day this pamphlet caught my eye md had held it it was a reprint from look magazine entitled your last chance you may have seen it it moved we me to 10 much that I 1 just help talking about it en an the air and offering to pay for or the first pamphlets requested providing a stamp was enclosed I 1 limited the requests to people in the following categories insurance men salesmen real estate men teachers clergymen mechanics utilities workers scientists and merchants I 1 did this first because I 1 wanted to limit the number of applicants and second because the article contained specific instructions instruction as to what the people in the groups named could do to help prevent a cataclysmic war I 1 blandly overlooked the fact that somebody had to address envelopes insert the tha pamphlets mail them out public interested in prevention requests began to arrive so go I 1 called up the national committee on atomic information which is near the washington office of the tha western newspaper union ordered the pamphlets and had the nerve to ask the committee to mall mail them out I 1 know it then but it costs the committee which is ot of course a nonprofit non profit organization and skimps along on a handful of small cash donations tour four cents for the pamphlet a cent and a half for the tha stamp two cents to address the envelope another cent to insert seal and maill mail eight and a halt half cents altogether my generous gesture toward preserving civilization had turned out to be rather lame but that was only the beginning an avalanche began to descend ci on me at last count the requests reached over three thousand the committee know what to do the letters came from rom such an intelligent tell igent and earnest set of people who cereso were so anxious to do something that the committee hated to disappoint them twice I 1 begged the public to hold oft off but the committee Is still filling th the requests while its funds hold out or more donations come to in which is what happens when you ge get t a an n atom by the tail questions popularity of rail nationalization s just after the bulletin came in over the news ticker in my office announcing that the government intended to take over the railroads a railroad man happened to can call me up about another matter I 1 congratulated him on his ne new w lob job with uncle sam he very enthusiastic he speculated on whether or not the men would go back to work if the government ordered them to do so the miners you recall refused to ohey obey government orders when the government took over the soft coal mines during the war everybody ought to go on strike in the country he said if it gets bad enough it may get better we vie mentioned the he possibility of permanent government ownership of the railroads my aly friend reminisced a little on the days when he was an empl employee ayee of uncle sam once before in a world war 1 I when the government did to its sorrow take over the railways lie he said what happe happened ped then was that a man would come up to the ticket window and demand a drawing room sorry there were no more drawing rooms well do you know who youre working for and who I 1 am via im senator claghorn and something something well get the passenger out of that drawing room and put me in itt my friend said he think the people would like it it if the government took over of course we dont like the black berth market now either time and again every pullman seat or berth will be reserved by the they hold them up to the last minute and it if they cant sell at a premium they cancel just before the train leaves half empty the chesapeake and ohio ran an advertisement recen recently t begging the public to refuse to pay the premium and help get a regulation through which will provide tor for cancellation of reservations a eions within a reasonable time |