IKE the old woman who lived
in a shoe, General Gruenther,
top-ranking U.S. military boss in
Europe, has so many problems
he doesn’t know what to do.

His reluctant heroes of the At-
lantic War Pact are complaining
bitterly at the ever-increasing
drain of armaments and armies
ealled into being at the com-
mand of their U.S. masters. A
little soothing syrup is called
for.

So General Gruenther, aided
and abetted by various other
apologists of the Atlantic Pact,
talks widely and grandly about
new weapons.

Nothing very specific is said
about these new weapons, because
of the needs of “security”—and
“security” has become very im-
portant to these. military bank-
rupts these days.

Once upon a time it was the
atom bomb which was going to
win the third world war for the
US.

Then the Russians calmly an-
nounced that they not only had
atom bombs, but that they had
tested them.

immediately everyone had to be

reassured. Just an ordinary piece

of brown paper would spare you
some of the’ worst horrors and a
decent cellar was all the most
nervous would require. —

New

weapons.
old

stories

By FRED PATEMAN

The H-bomb replaced the’ A-
bamb as America’s ace-in-the-hole.
Soothing syrup was once more
on the menu.

Then there was another atomic
explosion in the USSR. The So-
viet Union not only had A-bombs,
it had H-bombs as well.

So far the Americans have not
announced just how many sheets
of brown paper will be required
to give full protection from this
variety, but it should not be long
now before the publicity boys re-
cover from the shock.

However, some substitute must
be found for the H-bomb, and
military chiefs talk soothingly of
“new weapons”—too hush-hush to
mention specifically.

' That was very clever of them,
because if you did not say what
the new weapons were, then the
Russians could not upset your
applecart by_letting one off.

But the trouble came from an-
other quarter.

_ As General Gruenther told a
public meeting in Denmark re-
cently, the finance ministers of
his hard-pressed satellites wanted
to know: “To what extent will
new weapons lessen financial re-
quirements?”

This was a bit of a facer for the

General, but he was specially chos-
en for this job on the strength of
his ability to answer difficult
questions.

Keeping his face quite straight
he replied: ‘“We do not yet have
a satisfactory answer to that ques-
tion. It is a difficult question in-

volving the projection of strate--

gic thinking about four years in
advance.”

And to underline the point, he
went on to explain that even if
the ‘new weapons” meant fewer
men “this would not necessarily
mean lower costs, because most
of the new weapons were very
expensive.”

Indeed, there is nothing in this
talk of new weapons to make the
slightest difference to the bur-
dens of armament. Nor is there
anything to relieve the natural
anxieties of the peoples of West-
ern Europe.

Hitler, for instance, was a great
talker about new weapons, par-
ticularly in the later stages of
the war.

The people of London lived un-
der the constant threat of them—
buzz-bombs, Vis and V2s. 4

They killed hundreds of women
and children, but they did not
win the war.

All kinds of weapons, old and
new, explosive and disease-bear-
ing, have been used against the
people of Korea. In spite of them
the U.S. could not win the war.

Nor will new weapons do more
than make war more destructive
than ever, should General Gruen-
ther and his friends succeed in
forcing another one on the world.

What is needed is not new
weapons, but a new attitude.

It is General Gruenther himself

/- who told the U.S. Senate Appro-

priations Committee: ‘I do not
think war is ever going to come.”
That was in July.

Yet the whole burden of his
latest speeches is that war is im-
minent. That more and more
men, more and more guns, more
and more money must be found
at once.

He and his like are still lok-
ing for a third world war and a
weapon to win it.

By using their-own united
strength the people can force the
capitalist powers to enter into
negotiations with the Soviet Un-
ion and People’s China. Their
strength is the new weapon which
will win the peace.

The Case of the Heavier Hen

_ bor.

By Donald Mitchie

ARDENERS: and _horticul-

turists all over the world
use grafting to improve the
quality of their plants. Apples,
for instance, sometimes ac-
quire useful characteristics
from the wild stock on to
which they are grafted.

Unfortunately, these im-
provements are not normally
transmitted through the seed
to the next generation.

But in the last ten years or

so methods of grafting have.

been developed by Soviet bio-
logists of the Lysenko school
by which the acquired charac-
teristics can be transmitted in
heredity.

This raises the exciting
prospect of applying to ani-
mals the new methods and

ideas which have been so suc-
cessful in plants.

*

I recently had the good for-
tune to meet in Rumania a
distinguished biologist who is
working on just this possibili-
ty. He is trying to change
the heredity of chickens. by
methods similar to the graft-
ing of plants.»

He began taking the egg-
yolk of one breed of hens and
putting it into the incubated
eggs of another breed. He
also put duck’s yolk and
goose’s. yolk into hen’s. eggs.
In all cases the eggs were in
the third or fourth day of in-
cubation. -

Since the unhatched chick
is growing rapidly it is forced
to assimilate various  sub-
stances from the foreign yolk.

According to the orthodox
theory of genetics these sub-

stances should have no effect
on the heredity of the chick,
for the theory says that only
the chromosomes which are
handed down in the sex cells
are important in heredity.

But the chicks which had
already received the _ yolk-
treatment grew up to be big-
ger than the chicks from un-
treated eggs. Their offspring
were bigger still. This in-
crease is size has, now per-
sisted over three generations,

without having to repeat the >

yolk-treatment.
viii

Professor Memches now has
a flock of over 200 hens of the
new type, averaging more than
two pounds heavier than the
original Leghorn strain, and
laying bigger eggs. This ach-
ievement has won him a prize
from the Rumanian govern-

. ment.

His process is in many ways
similar to ordinary sexual
crossing. When we cross/un-
related individuals we get big-
ger and sturdier offspring than
if we continue to breed from
close relatives.

Professor Memches got his
biggest hens by the use of
goose or duck yolk. This is

like making a distant sexual
cross.

When he used yolk from
Plymouth eggs for treating
Leghorn eggs the results were
not so good. The poorest re-
sults came from taking yolk
from Leghorns and putting it
into the eggs of other Leg-
horns.

Professor Memches points
out that the ideas behind his
experiments are not new.
They all stem from the work
of Darwin.

_ wish he’d step on

MEL —
COLBY

LSIE the Cow put aside.

newspaper she was Teal
and called over to her ne
‘Did you know, my deen
there’s been some sort of ©
psychologist spying on ¥§
weeks now?”

answered the nei
some looking Guernsey; —
getting so a girl hasn't any PF
vacy at all these days.’ ;
Elsie picked up the news
again. “It’s a fellow name”
W. M. Schiein. He’s beem
serving dairy cows.”
“Schiein, Schiein,” mused
sie’s neighbor. “I used 1
for a farmer named Sch
dear, he had the coldest 2?
“This Schiein™ is Dr.
of the Louisiana Agri¢
perimental Station,”
her primly. ‘‘He’s JU
telling the American I
Biological Sciences that fig
can discover why COWS 7,
may explain why nation ~
war.”
“Heaven’s-to-Betsy!” 8°
the neighbor, “If science
to find out vn tro ;
world why doesn’t } ‘
inspection down to the va
ter Dulles’ gang ‘and 208
cows alone.” :
“Listen to this,
will really make you ©
cud. Dr. Schiein ayn ind
be that there is some’
ly biological—somethine |
physiological make-UP ip
mands struggle and ¢ t
and sometimes outrigh
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Elsie’s neighbor switel”
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hate my cousin just beet
lives in the Soviet une
“The one who won Ns
production record 8% ,
asked Elsie. ‘‘She’s CU “t
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she irritates me some col!
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farm she works ot oe Be
We get, along well. y
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tinued, “says he’s %
habits of 163 dairy
“Has he examined a
that Ike’s friends Bax,
the Koréan war? *
neighbor irritably-
“It doesn’t say, 9
sie, referring to
“But Dr. Schiein doe of
seen 5,000 differences fro?
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lowering threats to va t
of butting and —
fights.” “ >
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bull who’s just jo’ 6,
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times on the way ved 2
“He’s sweet,” Pury

my tle

“When you're 4 i
the neighbor tol his
“you'll learn that tasts
good looks doesn’t r
I was saying, one we:
I will give him 4 eT )
does that mean ae
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china?” 1 pi
““Then you doR’ 9
human _ beings ant
anything i es :

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the neighbor. | wigtt
milk and the maJ® what
being like to drink ¥ ino
but there’s a small d
are so ornery t gE
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uick profit. .
ee them instead
isn’t Bossy who
the Bomb, if you
mean.”

cp

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 9% a