Conant Warns Of Atom War In Waco Talk

President Conant reiterated his plea for a "spirit of hard-headed idealism" as an approach to the atomic age yesterday morning when he paused midway through a two week tour of Texas to address the student body of Baylor University at Waco.

In a 10 o'clock chapel meeting previous to the granting of an honorary LL.B. degree, he underscored the "extreme gravity of the threat to Western civilization inherent in the atomic bomb." He asked Americans to recognize the nature of the grim problem facing them without incurring "hysterical reactions by dwelling exclusively on the devastating effects of atomic war."

International Control

Since no country would agree to a ban on all atomic development, President Conant emphasized that the other alternative, an international control of nuclear fuels, would hold "great promise as a road to lasting peace." The proposed control agency would have to be provided with the power of inspection over mines and potential mines, and direction of the plants for producing uranium.

Basing his remarks on ex-Secretary of War Stimson's recent article in Harper's Magazine, President Conant discussed the military requirements which forced the use of the bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "Nothing would have been more damaging to our effort to obtain surrender than a warning or demonstration followed by a dud--and this was a real possibility. We had no bombs to waste," he said.