Holton Claims U.S. Needs Will to Survive

To produce a constructive plan of disarmament, America must first regain its will to survive, Gerald J. Holton, associate professor of Physics, told a United Nations Council forum last night.

Speaking before an Emerson Hall audience of over 100, Holton said that America must return to the Roosevelt era, when the prevailing belief was to trust and help one another. His remarks were part of a panel discussion on "Science-Toward World Peace" which included Bart J. Bok, Robert Wheeler Wilson, professor of Applied Astronomy, Kirtley F. Mather, professor of Geology, and Eugene G. Rochow, professor of Chemistry. Leonard K. Nash, associate professor of Chemistry, served as moderator.

Holton began his talk by stating there is little chance for world peace if there is no Baruch plan, and that hopes for such a plan being enacted now are slim.

"When I came to this country during the Roosevelt era," Holton said, "the statement heard most frequently from everyone was 'It's agree country, ain't it?"' The mission of this era, he continued, was to make this world a fit place to live in.

Bok, expanding on the work of UNESCO, said that this group has used science to work for peace by providing scientists from different nations with symposia to discuss common problems, through international projects.

Rochow, like Bok, dealt primarily with the positive efforts made by science towards world improvement. He especially praised science's ability to tap the resources of the earth and provide the raw materials for industry. "Science has mastered the material universe," Rochow concluded, "but has yet to master predatory man."