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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-

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“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—