Science: THE UNEASY SCIENTISTS

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Most vehement about the capricious operation of the security system was Dr. Vannevar Bush, President of the Carnegie Institution and wartime chief of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. "I feel," said Bush, "that the way in which our security system is working at the present time is driving a wedge between the military and the scientific people of the country, and is doing great harm . . . The whole air of suspicion is just not such as to produce . . . the kind of ... collaboration between the mili tary men and the scientific community that we very much need . . ."

To the worried scientists, the Christian Century offered its sympathy. "The unhappiness of our American scientists is increasing as they perceive how exposed is the position of one who is, in the last analysis, a tool of the Government. It may be necessary for scientists ... to live under the eye of the FBI, but it is not pleasant.

"Our public has been taught to think of him [the scientist] as a mental colossus and a moral paragon—austere, dedicated and all but beyond human vanities in his pursuit of the truth . . . To this assumption of the scientist's moral superiority there has suddenly been added the social pre-eminence a society accords its workers of magic.

"Under such conditions one might expect the scientist to be the most secure man in our society. He holds almost ultimate power—the power of life or death. But many an American scientist is ... in moral torment. He has watched his science move from theory to human holocaust . . .

"Again many an American scientist is troubled because he finds himself dragged willy-nilly into a partisan conflict . . . The scientist discovers that he is no longer the austere and impartial figure of popular legend and his own desires. Instead he is a partisan in a relentless battle for power . . . The scientist who is engaged in atomic research for the Government has no stomach for such power struggles—but he cannot avoid becoming involved in them ... To protect his sanity he disavows moral responsibility for the consequences of his work. But does he convince himself?"