BY WILLIAM BATESON For cost of A-bomb dangers of atomic energy could be probed Se. atomic energy will replace other forms of power. So mankind is likely to be increasingly bombarded by the damaging rays produced in the releasing of atomic forces. We already get minute doses from naturally active minerals and from cosmic rays. More and more these will be supplemented by radiation from man’s products. What harm is it likely to do? The answer to this question will soon concern everybody. X-rays are similar in their biological effects to the various types of atomic radiation and they have been more intensely studied. In very high doses they will kill all living cells, includ- ing germs. When only part of the body is treated in this way the regenerating tissues will often produce cancer as a secondary result. In lower doses they prevent growth. In a grown man or wo- man there is continuous growth in certain parts. Our skin is continually growing to make up for wear and tear. The healing of wounds is due to growth of new cells. Our blood cells are continuously wearing out and have to be replaced by growth of cells in our bone mar- rows. So X-iradiation at faily high doses will prevent the healing of wounds; cause the skin to fall off; produce anaemia which eventual- ly results in death; and will ster- ilize us. As cancer is due to growth of Br tt tt Oe ee Soviet achievement — “THE SHOCK of the announce- ment of the Soviet hydrogen ex- plosion may have at least one good effect in drawing attention to a development in the Soviet Union which is much more im- portant than any weapon. ..That is the degree of success already achieved there in bringing out and using the resources of the intelligence of the people through the teaching and application of science,” writes Prof. J. D. Ber- nal in the December issue of the Labor Monthly. Pet fre ty tn ee malignant cells a similar dose of X-rays will cure cancer. The most sensitive test known for the ill- effects of X-rays is a reduction in the blood cells. At much lower doses X-rays pro- duce permanent changes in the germ cells which will appear in later generations as hereditary diseases. Medical workers have tried to work out the maximum doses that can be allowed for workers likely to be exposed to danger. These are based on the minimum dose which will produce measurable changes in our blood. But such doses could still do irreparable harm by way of in- ducing hereditary diseases. Very little is known about the magni- tude of these dangers. At Britain’s Harwell and Can- ada’s Chalk River plants great precautions are taken to protect the workers. In contrast are the dangers to uranium miners, and gold . min- ers too, for the ore they dig con- tains uranium. Statistics show a great deal of cancer among the miners. In Czech mines, before the war, 90 percent of the cancer was lung cancer — obviously produced by radio-active dust. We need to know a lot more about the biological hazards of atomic energy. Animals vary a great deal in their tolerance. The tiny fruit fly, Dosophila, will stand 150 times as much X-radiation as will kill a monkey and probably, a man also. If the cost of one atom bomb was invested in research into the more subtle dangers of atomic energy we would find out all we needed to know. \ Wall Street’s dream of empire “a This is U.S. Business Week's diagram of the “American sphere to be created under a 25-vear plan to take over the entire mar remaining to the capitalist world. The area between the white lines covers Africa, the Middle East, Australia, as well as the U.S., Can , and Latin America. In includes virtually all British Empire mark Story was published in the Pacific Tribune for December 4. He remembers Churchill J.L., Pitt Meadows, B.C.: It is many years since I first heard of Winston Churchill. It was back in the nineties in ‘Manchester, when he was first elected to par- liament. I was a newspaper kid CRANIUM GENUINE, JAWBONE FAKED ‘Museum shows Piltdown remains LONDON E British public can now judge for itself the evidence on which three scientists re- cently decided that the lower jaw of the Piltdown Man was an elaborate fake. The Natural History Museum at South Kensington, London, which for years exhibited plaster casts of the finds of Piltdown (Sussex) as_ belong- ing to an ape-jawed man, has now rearranged its Piltdown exhibit. The original Piltdown re- mains, which for years had been kept in a safe at the Natural History Museum, are now on display in the public gallery for all to see. The Piltdown brain-case is still treasured as a genuine fossil of great value. It was the discovery that the lower jawbone ‘was that of a modern ape that upset all previous theories. The jawbone, stained brown to conform with the color of the cranium, is now exhibited alongside the jawbone of a modern ape. The resemblance can be clearly seen. It is also possible to see how the two molar teeth have been ground down to:resemble that of man. Enlarged photographs of drillings taken from fossil- ised skull fragments and the fake jawbone show that they differ considerably. @ TOP. Dr. Kenneth Oak- ley (right) and Dr. L. E. Per- sons examine the “jawbone” from the skull of Piltdown Man. 5 @ BOTTOM LEFT: Prof. W. E. LeGross of Oxford Uni- versity who played a leading part in exposing the hoax. in those days, peddling papers outside the Free Trade Hall, where he held his big election meetings. I didn’t know what the excitement was about; my chief interest was in selling my papers and not bothering the cops too much. Churchill was elected as a good Free Trade Liberal. It was his second attempt to enter parlia- ment. The first time he ran as a Conservative on a Protectionist platform, but was defeated. A little thing like a change in program did not bother Churchill. He wanted a political job and he got it. But it did not help the working stiff in Manchester or Lancashire very much. Two years later, at the age of 12, I became available for the labor market, and I learned the tune the bells of the cotton mills played, calling their “worship- pers” to work 10% hours a day: “Horrockes men work or clem (starve), 18 bob for married men.” Ten years later I landed in Toronto with 12 shillings,’ or about $3 (then) in my pocket. I heard of Churchill again in 1917, when he tried to smash the workers’ government in Russia; and in 1926, when he helped break the General Strike in Eng- land. These events come to mind when reading his story in the Vancouver Sun. He tells of how he brought “peace to Greece.” How was this achieved? By butchering the Greek workers. ATONE BY =~ CHRISTMAS SEALS And now the latest chapter rs the Churchill story, the happe ings in Nairobi, Kenya, and. 5 evidence of the British office who “thought the army co kill anyone in a prohibited an without questioning.” It gruesome story. have it on TV next. An done under the Churchill & ernment. Books on Doukhobors MIKE MAKORTOFF, Nelson B.C.: I am enclosing a review J. F. C. Wright’s book, The st if: of the Doukhobors, which appe ed in the Pree Press Prairie Fs re: er on November 27, 1940. The view says, in part: ' pe “In time of war there MY t! some lack of sympathy Wg pacifist group. But the SP nese record made by the few © people who have had the ul opportunfty of Canadian Co, tion and the practical achl ments of the whole peoP’© farmers, means that they real citizens who may make * elon” contribution to Canada’s 4e¥ ment.” \ It should be noted that the The was condemned by the D? tions bors because of the contradie a it contained. But it does te of bit of an example of the y Doubhobors in Canada. k, Messa9e 5, Doukhobors, which was 0 ed in 1912, After reading was realizes that the problem the prob pretty much the same aS anti lem now: not solved oF ” will to be solved. If you see pact loan this book to the a I have a_ boo Tribune for review P your readers might find © esting. You got a gripe? NO BUCKS, Nakusp. oar know a guy says he knows at would bet a buck, got no buck, that you guys get service from time Electric one heck of 4 ie gel before we Kootenay pa prosperity from ga ‘a guys think you got a eriP ah vane? eee PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 11, 1953 he * put ; ave.