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Eergency Committee of Atomic Scientists

I received your appeal for money for the Emergency Committee and I am enclosing a check for $10.00. I am very happy to be able to contribute to an educational fund to enable people to understand atomic energy and its social and economic implications. The regretable situation created by the use of the newly release atomic energy for military proposes requires more than ever, the promotion of free scientific intercourse between all nations.

Two dangerous concepts have been strengthened in peoples minds as a result of recent atomic energy developments and it is imperative that these be eradicated. First of all, people not be frightened off from carrying on scientific research because of the possibility of military application. IT was tradgically significant that many a scientist who, during the last war, worked on atomic energy, wished that their experiments might fail. It must be demonstrated that there is no such thing as bad or dangerous discoveries, bad or dangerous science. There are only bad and dangerous people who use science for evil purposes.

Moreover, the idea must be uprooted that wars are necessary for the making of large discoveries. In fact, only recently one of the greatest American scientists stated that, as long as the use of chain reaction in the way was not definitely assertained, the government's interest in the work was purely casual. No international cooperation in the field of atomic energy can be sucessful unless it will substantially contribute to making atomic science as great a power in peace as it was in war.