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The future of war

By CLAY HOMER

HYSICIST Max Born is a
world contemporary of the
late General MacArthur.

In Korea, old pro Mac gam-

bled his years of military lore
on a grandiose plan to invade
Northern China. with A-bombs,
500,000 Chiang Kai-shek “vol-
unteers” and a no man’s land
of radioactive cobalt. He was
recalled before he could trig-
ger a third world war.

Prof. Born was _ prominent

among the 18 West German.

scientists who demanded in
1957 that the Adenauer govern-
ment renounce the development
,or possession of atomic weap-
Ons.

In the April Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists Dr. Born
writes, “What Is Left to Hope
For?” — the summary of a 60
year career in nuclear physics.

In World War I he worked
as a physicist on an artillery
ranging project in Berlin. The
work was rejected as a trifle
by German industry, but the
British developed and put to
effective use the same sound
ranging techniques.

Dr. Born drives a_ stake
through the idealist attitude of
pre-war German universities —
the pursuit of knowledge was

| On the
labor front

EMINENT SCIENTIST'S

good in itself: evil could never

- result from the search for truth.

To this attitude he attributes
the war work of the chemist,
Fritz Haber, who saved Kaiser
Wilhelm’s shortsighted general
staff from early defeat by in-
venting a way to take nitrogen
from the air to make explosives.
(They had planned to import
more nitrate ore from Chile.)

Haber’s next contribution was

ses

VIEWS

hands with the inventor of
chemical warfare.” (Only six
years later Dr. Einstein warned
FDR that attainment of nuclear
fission was probable.)

. Of World War I Dr. Born
says, “The male youth were
sacrificed in a battle that was
actually decided by the hinter-
land’s technology and supply of
raw materials. I began to under-
stand that henceforth not hero-

aN

“It is very likely that tomorrow not the pacifists but the bellicose

we

‘for modern war:

_ @ World War I—10 millions,
soldiers 95%, civilians 5%. ;
@ World War II—50 millions,
soldiers 52%, civilians 48%.
@ The Korean War—9 - mil-
lions, soldiers 16%, civilians
84%.

“The only thing that can save
us is an old dream of the hu-
man race: world peace and

will

be regarded as fools, for the experiences of the last 50 years have left.an

impact on the minds of men.”

~

—Dr. Max Born, distinguished leader of modern physics, University of Goettingen
1921 to 1933, University of Edinburgh 1936 to 1953.

the invention of chemical war-
fare — an attempt to end the
trench war stalemate by dosing
troops with chlorine, phosgene
and mustard gases.

Even as a refugee from the
Nazis, Haber was unwelcome in
British scientific circles.

Born recounts how Lord
Rutherford, the founder of nu-
clear physics, refused to meet
Haber in 1933 at- Cambridge:
“—he did not want to shake

ism but technology had become
decisive in war, and that in hu-
man society, technology and
war were incompatible.”

Chemical warfare Dr. Born
characterizes as: “—a decisive
moral defeat for humanity ...
under the influence of tech-
nology, the parties at war have
gone so far as to deliberately
extermine the civilian popula-
tion and justify this as right.”

This is the death toll he gives

world organization ... a con-
dition for the survival of the
human race.” This is Max Born
on the future of war.

Speaking for the nuclear
scientists, he says, ‘Since then
(Hiroshima), we have realized
that through the results of our
own work we are completely
entangled with human life, its
economy and politics, with the
social struggle for power among
the states, and that we there-

fore bear a great resp? :

Z Bo!
At Gottingen, Dr. ©
many of the physicist
work led to nucleat ‘th
admits that ng a
were droppe bis
responsibility of sclet
fully clear to him. 30!
alized this in the 199”
haps not so many ®
would have been ye
operate on the atom

‘There are ee man
ists at work for
who haven't heard ee:
suit of science is # ent
with social consed
with social respons!”
invent new devices —
Vietnamese civilians:

The hope in the es
article Max Born de)"
moving force.”

nd

Which is you 4" . f
the world. Though it #
able in some circle
human hope as 008. og
modity to be explo!
look at the USA 2?
cision to cut dow?
ing of nuclear bom!
This we have done
I offer, my small § ai
to physicist Max
82nd year, and ee
courageous scientis””
us that the only §
atomic war is peace

A program for automation |

By WILLIAM KASHTAN

O WHAT extent is auto-
mation developing in
industry? This question

is of great concern to the
working class because while
much has been written and
said about its social and hu-
man consequences, very few
facts have been available on
the speed of development of
automated processes in in--
dustry so far,

-Last week some facts were
made available showing that
as of March of this year 538
computer systems were in
operation in Canada — al-
most double the number
which operated as of Jan. 1,
1962.

So far,, these advances in
automation have affected
chiefly clerical workers, but
one should not conclude from
this that industry, both manu-
facturing and primary, will
not be affected.

It is anticipated that with-
in the next two years indus-
try will go over to various
forms of automation or pro-
duction controls on a fairly
wide scale. Many of the big

- corporations have already
_ prepared the blue-prints for
such “conversions” and in
many cases. have begun the
preliminary work in that
direction. eas

Many of the technological
improvements in industry in
the recent period are actually
part of this process, awaiting
the final touches to fit the jig
saw pieces into place.

The awareness of this ex-
plains why the trade union
movement is focussing in-

creasing attention on_ this

problem.

One of the decisions of the
recent convention of the Can-
adian Labor Congress was a
request that a grant of $5,-
000,000 be made available to

the .Economic Council so

that it could study the prob-
_ lem. This is a useful propos-
al, but what is needed is a
fundamental attack on the
problem which goes beyond
the framework of collective
bargaining.
This is not to suggest that
collective bargaining can ‘play

no role in dealing with auto- —

-mation. But the very nature
and widespread consequences
of. automation make it clear
that collective bargaining by
itself cannot possible cope
- with it. Government action is
required and on a massive
scale.

It is anticipated that by
1974, as a result of automa-
tion on one hand and a grow-
ing labor force on the other,

about 314. million Canadians
will be unemployed.

Can collective bargaining
alone resolve this problem?
Can it come to grips with the

demand that advance notice
be given unions before auto-
mated equipment is installed
in plants? Can collective bar-
gaining alone solve the prob-
lem of retraining workers at
regular wages? Can it win
a guaranteed annual wage,
with drastically reduced hours
of work and increased take
home pay? Can it achieve the
kind of economic policy to-
day’s_ scientific revolution
calls for?

‘Clearly, what automation
makes necessary is a combi-
nation of collective bargain-
ing and legislative and poli-
tical action, all directed to
ensure that automation will
serve the interests of society,
not the profits of monopoly.

For this reason the trade
union movement cannot
evade the issue of democra-
tic public control over auto-
mation which is organically
tied in with its collective bar-

gaining program) a
evade demanding 44
rights and that

extended all dow®

The demand i
in the a

have a voice on 4
sues is in fact 4 p
deed, a very im 4
— of the demam
rights of the ™
movement be exte
that “management _
curbed.

The questio
automation will bé
or a curse is H&
success in this § :

n of

front and in t
and political actiO? a.
union movement }¥

dertake.

In view of the
the CLC convent
to various circums™ |
not have the time ©
out a comprehensi
both on the colle
gaining front and

pect to legislative
‘in light of aut?
would be a very. y
if the CLC were
a conference of
to develop such 4
And the sooner th?”

- May 22, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—