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Independent Times
SIR: TIME, NOV. 14, SAYS THE ST. PETERSBURG "TIMES" is OWNED BY MY COMPETITOR, BRITISH
PRESS LORD ROY THOMSON. THE ST. PETERSBURG "TIMES" is ONE OF FEW U.S. NON-CHAIN NEWSPAPERS OWNED BY A WRITING EDITOR WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO MY EXECUTORS TO KEEP IT THAT WAY.
NELSON POYNTER EDITOR-PRESIDENT ST. PETERSBURG TIMES ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.
Sir: The St. Petersburg Independent is a member of the Thomson Group. Incidentally, the Independent is the only newspaper in the world which gives away free papers when the sun fails to shine. In 50 years the first edition has been given away free 211 times.
LOYAL PHILLIPS St. Petersburg Independent St. Petersburg, Fla.
A Quiet American
Sir: I was very much moved by your Oct. 31 story of Mark Higgins and his death in the Congo. He did a brave and wonderful thing in refusing to accept the "set pattern" by choosing to work in Africa with Missionary Albert Schweitzer.
MARY D. EDWARDS New York City
The Nuclear Argument
Sir: I note the judgment of Professor I. I. Rabi, member of the President's Science Advisory Board (TIME, November 14th), that I am "not technically qualified to discuss such questions" as I raised in my two open letters to the Presidential candidates on the issue of nuclear tests. Professor Rabi apparently means that, since I am not a nuclear physicist, I am incompetent to discuss issues of public policy with regard to the development of nuclear technology. This is an absurd and arrogant judgment.
In January, 1951, just after President Truman had issued his directive to determine the technical feasibility of a thermonuclear weapon, I was appointed to the Atomic Energy Commission. I recall that Professor Rabi and some of his confreres on the General Advisory Council were profoundly wrong at that time, both in their scientific estimates about the feasibility and practicability of the new weapon. It turned out later that the Soviet Union was no more than six months behind us in nuclear technology. Their thermonuclear or H-bomb test was made, in fact, only about six months after ours.
I am aware of Professor Rabi's strongly emotional opposition, and that of a segment of the scientific fraternity, to the resumption of nuclear tests. In my judgment Professor Rabi and his confreres are wrong again. Their technical qualifications as nuclear physicists do not guarantee the validity of their views on public policy.
I note also that Dr. Hans Bethe, Professor of Physics at Cornell University, commented that I was attempting "to divert public opinion from the real issue: to get a treaty that could lead to disarmament." On the contrary, I was attempting to divert public opinion to the real issue, which is the technological progress of the U.S. For two years our advance in nuclear technology has been stopped by the moratorium on tests. Meantime the progress of the Soviet Union—so one must assume, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary—has continued unchecked and uncontrolled.