The Hell-bom

By DYSON CARTER

"ate hear everybody talking to-
day about the H-bomb, and
& great deal is being written
about it. What is the truth?

We can’t discuss it the way nuc-
tear experts do, but we can grasp
Some of the essentials, including
the most vital points ignored by
the scientists, Like the A-bomb,
the H-bomb is an atomic weapon.
Contrary to what President Tru-
Man and most of the “experts”
are trying to tell us, the atomic
Processes using hydrogen are not
useful only for butchering mil-
lions of people. The peacetime
uses of hydrogen atomic energy
are of historic importance.

When an ounce of plutonium
{the kind of atoms used in the
A-bomb) breaks up in the atomic
_ Process, it gives enough energy
to supply all the electricity need-
®d by 75,000 homes for a whole
day. An ounce of hhyrdogen atoms
of the kind used in the H-bomb,
Sives just about the same amount
of energy.

Then why do they tell us that
H-bombs are fearfully more de-
structive than A-bombs? Because
an A-bomb (using plutonium at-
ms) can’t be made bigger than
® certain size. Beyond that size
it Would “go off by itself,” before
it could even be loaded into a
bambing plane.

There is no such size limit to
the H-bomb. It could be made
far bigger than, A-bombs, prob-
ably about 10 to 100 times bigger.

Now that the United States is
committed to a mad effort to
build a stockplie of H-bombs,
Many silly stories have appeared
in the daily papers. Some report-
ers say the H-bomb is a “sun
bomb.” It isn’t, The sun probably
Sets its energy from hydrogen
atoms, but by a long process very
different to what scientists are
developing on earth. °

A special form of double-atom
hydrogen, called “deuterium” is
the basis of hydrogen atomic en-
ergy. (It would have been better
‘oO name the new weapon the D-
bomb.) If you can get D-atoms,
“and make them extremely hot,
they will undergo atomic change
82d give out much energy.

We can certainly get D-atoms—
from ordinary water, We can also

make them extremely hot by mix-

five years after-

® Idiroshima.
wards.

ing them, in a special way, with
the atoms in an A-bomb. The
A-bomb will “touch off” D-atoms.

But this isn’t all. Scientists
know they could use plutonium
and D-atoms, together with a
metal called lithium, to get tre-
mendous atomic energy. They
could also use the plentiful met-
al beryllium. They could even use
cheap boron.

In other words, using a little
plutonium, with D-atoms and cer-
tain metals, we can get unlimited
amounts of atomic energy, Cy

Up to now the U.S. monopolies,

through their military control, |’

have stopped the development of
hydrogen energy, because they
feared its effect on crumbling
capitalist economy and because,
in their brass hat stupidity, they
believed Soviet science wouldn’t
have even the A-bomb for years
to come. :

Now they realize what has hap-
pened. Science under prospering
socialism has overtaken science
chained to dying capitalism.
There is considerable evidence to

show that the Soviet Union prob-

b must be

ably has hydrogen atomic pro-
cesses working already.

In fact, the recent Soviet atom-
ic explosions probably were tests
of hydrogen energy using some
new atomic material such as plu-
tonium deuteride or lithium deu-
teride. Quite likely Soviet phys-
icists are far beyond the A-bomb
now, and have solved the prob-
lem of getting atomic energy
from hydrogen without:the use
of violent atomic explosion.

So we see how ridiculous is the
talk about the so-called self-con-
fessed spy, Klaus Fuchs, giving
the H-bomb secret to the Soviet
Union, ,

Several. American _ scientists
have for years stated that basic
atom research in the USSR is
well ahead of research in the U.S.
and Britain. Dr. Irving Langmuir,
top scientist of General Electric,
three years ago made a carefully
guarded statement on Soviet re-
search that went unheeded by
the brass-brained U.S. senators.

Langmuir, as an invited guest,
had visited Soviet laboratories.

anned

He saw a research station work-
ing on “liquefied gases” with
equipment that amazed him;
things that did not exist in any
other country, This kind of a
plant is needed to produce deu-
terium, for hydrogen atomic pro-
cesses!

Of course, with the Soviet Un-
ion leading the “armed forces of
peace,” it is encouraging to know
that the warmakers in Washing-
ton have no monopoly on H-
bombs. But it would be a terrible
mistake for us to sit back and
sigh with relief. Just because the
socialist power that is working
for peace can make H-bombs is
no guarantee that H-bombs will
not be dropped.

The H-bomb is a billion dollar
weapon, made by tens of thous-
ands of workers in many indus-
tries. It has to be carried by an
air force. Hell-Bombs cannot be
hurled at the world without some
measure of public support, inside
and outside America.

What the H-bomb realy means
is Ban the Bomb.

HO in the United States
owns the atom-bomb?

The question is clearly an-

8wered by the table which re-

Yeals the ramifications of the

sion,

The first commission to elab-
Crate a scheme for the control
’ Of atomic energy and its devel-
“pment in the military and in-
dustrial spheres was composed
°f eight men; five of these, in-
cluding Henry Stimson (then
Secretary for war) and James
F. Byrnes (them secretary of
_ State), were either already top
men in firms belonging to the
House of Morgan or later be-
came so,

This, then, was the dominat-
ing influence in the first stages
of atomic development. Other
8reat firms soon also had their
finger in the pie. Du Pont de
Nemours was one of the three
firms operating the atomic
bomb plants, while the equip-
ment for these plants was built
by Mellon’s Westinghouse and
|__Morgan’s General Electric.

U.S. Atomic Energy Commis-

‘Who in the U.

The initial installation and
experimental stages of energy
development were extremely
costly and not commercially
profitable. So the Morgan in-
terests agreed to government
control of a kind which has
handed all, except financing
and security regulations, over,
to private industry.

The U.S. Atomic Energy
Commission and its sub-com-
mittees include three Morgan
men, three Rockefeller men,
and one man each from Mellon,

’ pu Pont, Shell Oil and Inter-
* jational Nickel on the Indus-
‘rial Advisory Committee; and
six Morgan men and one each
from Dillon, Read and Inter-
national Nickel on the Advisory
Committee on Mines and Ex-
_ ploration. ;

A few private corporations
have thus succeeded in becom-
ing experts’ in atomic technol-
ogy while at the same time
earning profits from the sale
of equipment to atomic plants
and pocketing fat management
oe copigvanl Bink, alined at

S.

controlling world atomic de-
velopment, both military and
industrial, was produced by
Bernard Baruch, who began in
a Morgan ‘company;-F. Searls
of Morgan’s Newmont Mining
Sompany; Eberstadt, former
partner in Dillion Read now
ipecializing in chemicals.

In 1942 Harry Truman, then
a senator, denounced as “treas-
on” the lack of steel and oil
due to the protection of mono-
polies by companies such as
the Du Ponts of General Mo-
tors, the Rockefellers of Stand-
ard Oil, the Morgan partners
of United States Steel. ;

_ The long-standing connection
between Du Ponts and the Ger-
man I, G. Farbenindusttrie is
well known to all. Less well
known is the fact that the Dil-
lon Read banking house (of
which the late James G. For-
restal was a director) was in-
strumental in financing the
German Steel Trust (Vereinigte
Stahlwerke).

At that time the vice presi-

dent of Dillon Read was a cer-

owns the A-bomb?

tain well-known Germanophile,
Paul Nitze, who not long ago
became chief of the U.S. state
department’s policy staff,

. One of the offshoots of the
Steel Trust is the Deutsche
Bank. Among its leading fig-
ures is Herman Abs, who so
recently visited the U.S. to’ con-
sult with American bankers
(including Dillon Read) on the
subject of U.S, investment in
the Ruhr. Another of the
Deutsche Bank’s leading fig-
urés is the Chancellor for
Western Germany, Konrad Ad-
enauer.

But by an apt coincidence
Adenauer’s wife, born Zisser, is
first cousin to Ellen, wife of
General McCloy, U.S. High
Commissioner in West Ger-
many (also born Zisser).. Her
sister, Peggy, is strangely
enough, married to Lewis W.
Douglas, U.S. Ambassador to
Britain who is, in addition, vice
president of a powerful chemi-
cal firm and also director of
Mutual Life Assurance — a
Morgan company. ;

The brother of Ellen and

Peggy, and first cousin of Gus-
sie Adenauer, is John Sharman
Zinsser—director of a couple
of chemical firms and also di-
rector of J. P. Morgan and
Company.

It is a pity that President
Truman seems to have forgot-
ten Senator Truman’s distrust
of monopolies by the great cor-
porations, . . . For the result
of President Truman’s policies
is that not only the atom bomb,

but all policy on atomic energy
within the U.S. and abroad, is

firmly controlled today by the
House of Morgan, the most
voracious of the Wall Street
giants, which, in addition, is
closely linked with the interests
of the industrial trusts of

Western Germany.

@ Reprinted from the magazine
In Defense of Peace, pub-
lished by the World Peace

Committee.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 24, 1950 — PAGE 5