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Show EDITORIAL: The Age Of II. G. Wells The commotion following the arrest of Klaus Fuchs, British scientist accused of giving away atomic research information which "might be useful to an enemy," aptly illustrates the fear complex that besets the world today. ' No sooner does the atom bomb scare die down a little than science comes up with the hydrogen bomb, said to be a thousand times more destruc-. destruc-. tive than the A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It is claimed the new bomb could obliterate a town the size of New York, London, or Moscow. People everywhere ev-erywhere are fearful of another war that may wipe out civilization civili-zation as we know it. Never before have the nations na-tions of the world been so security se-curity conscious. The age of H. G. Wells is beginning. The outcome of future wars may be dependent on technical and scientific sci-entific know-how the nation with the most advanced weapons weap-ons can carry everything before be-fore it, even civilization. Realizing' Realiz-ing' this. East and West have no other choice but to engage in a blind armaments race. Neither can know what the other is doing, do-ing, but each must continue to outstep its rival, technologically. People in the United States live in fear of possible attack by Russia. Many think that Russia is too weak yet to think of war, that she cannot possibly have recovered yet from the last one; but the iron curtain prevents anyone from knowing just how far Russia has advanced ad-vanced materially and scientifically scientif-ically since the war's end. We know the Soviets have exploded explod-ed the atom bomb, and are now working on the even deadlier hydrogen bomb. President Truman has called for production of the hydrogen bomb, and ordered that all necessary ne-cessary precautions be taken against information leaks to Russia. For her own safety, America must keep ahead of Russia, technologically. So Americans are in a state of fear. What if this country can't keep ahead of Russia? What then? No one knows the answers; but all vow revenge on Communist and Russian sympathizers sympa-thizers in this country. But this type of reaction leads to mob fanaticism and mass hysterics. hys-terics. Civil rights are threatened threat-ened when one attempts to draw a close line between who is and who is not a Communist. Recently Alger Hiss, a former state department official, was convicted of perjury. A few 'months ago several professors at the University of Washington were ousted as Communist sympathizers. sym-pathizers. If really guilty, Hiss got what was coming to him. What really smells in his case is that Whit-taker Whit-taker Chambers, a confessed former Communist, was not also brought to trial. Surely his record rec-ord is as bad or worse than thai of Alger Hiss. The professors were dismissed dis-missed without trial. They were not accused of teaching Communism Com-munism in their classes. Some had once been members of the Communist party; others were suspected of leaning toward Communism. Yet they were released re-leased on this circumstantial evidence. GWH |