SUPPLEMENT Y L it rip"' Dm14ii SUPPLEMENT VOL. LXI, No. 42 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1950 PAGE NINE Kc o Tomorrow: s *Ir Phoenix History' Reflects Growth Of Student Ideal War Memorial Dedicated to Guest For Peaceful Use of Atomic Energy The beginning of the student Phoenix Project fund drive to- na',-rrow will mark the end of Ka four year cycle. The drive, which will be the final one in a series of drives throughout the nation, will end with students what started with students. When the final campus collections are made Dec. 15, student Phoenix workers hope to have the material means to begin turning into reality the idea for a living war memorial that first took shape in 1946. IT WAS DEC. 18, 1946 that the Student Legislature approved the idea of establishing a functional war memorial here, and laid ;tentative plans for a fund-raising Harnessed for Humanity 1,200 Workers Will Participate Every Student Asked To Pledge $30 In Four-Week Campus Campaign By VERNON EMERSON The student fund-raising drive for the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project will begin tomorrow as more than 1,200 volunteer student workers begin the mammoth job of contacting every student in Ann Arbor for oontributions. The drive will last until Dec. 8, and the pledges collected will go toward fulfilling the $6,500,000 goal of the Phoenix campaign. DRIVE CHAIMAN Mary Lubeck, '51, said he hopes that his crew of canvassers will personally meet with every student attending the University whether they live in an organized house group or not. "The purposes of the campaign are twofold," according to Lubeck. "First we want to educate students in the history and objectives of the Project. Second, we want to raise money to take care of the student share of the % U' Serves As Atomic StudyCenter Panels on Atom Began Here in'23 By BOB SOLT Since a group of scientists met 27 years ago to hold the first atom- Ic panel discussion on the cam- pus, the University has been a lead- er in the study of how the atom can be made to serve man in peace. However, it's probable that the scientists at the panel discussion in 1923 had no idea that their con- ference was to be the first step toward "Phoenix Project-1950." 4 * * THE FIRST conference was so successful that scientists attend- ing the panel decided that much about the atom could be learned more quickly if the panels were made a yearly affair. As a result, Prof. Harrison M. Randall, chairman of the Phy- sics department, asked the Board of Regents in 1928 to invite sci- entists from all over the world to visit the campus each summer to institute a permanent and combined effort to study the atom. The Board of Regents agreed, and from 1929 to the outbreak of war in 1941, and after the war ended, the campus has served as a summertin~ headquarters for hundreds of ding experts in the field of nuclear fission. HAD THE conferences not been organized, its possible that many scientists who came from all parts of the world to attend the ses- sions would not otherwise have come to this country and made it possible for the United States to be a leader in the field of atomic de- velopment. Among the many outstanding physicists attending the panels have been Pauli of Switzerland, Dirac of England, Bohr of Den- mark, Fermi of Italy, and Law- rene, Oppenheimer, Condon, Saunders, and Compton of this country. No less important was the role played-in the development of in-, formation at the sessions by many, University scientists.- AMONG THEM are Professors, George E. Uhlenbeck and Samuel1 A. Goudsmit, first expounders of; the electron spin theory; Prof.; Kasimer Fajans, one of the first to define problems of radioactive isotopes; and Prof. David M. Den- nison, who has been hailed by the government for his important top secret war contributions. The funneling of knowledge about the atom to the campus made it possible for the Univer- tiv t tae an earlv Ia in A- campaign. The Board of Regents ac- cepted the idea the following September and named a facul- ty-Student war memorial com- mittee. Under the chairmanship of Dean Erich A. Walter, the committee was made up of Prof. Robert An- gell; Regent Roscoe O. Bonisteel, Arthur R. Derderian, Prof. Wil- liam Haber, Christian Matthews, Vice-President Marvin L. Niehuss, Arthur M. Rude, Virginia Smith and Jacqueline Adams. At the request of the Alumni Association the group worked to- ward the idea of making the me- morial something more than a "mere mound of stone the purpose of which would soon be forgotten." * * * BUT THE IDEA of an atomic research center came from outside the committee. The suggestion that the memorial be used to tame the wild power of the atom came from a New York publisher and one time University student, Fred J. Smith. Smith called the idea a con- structive solution to the patho- logical fog created in the minds of the people of the world by the advent of atomic warfare. The memorial committee receiv- ed the plan enthusiastically in October, 1947. Prior to their de- cision~on Smith's scheme, they had scanned and turned down scores of other proposals from the coun- try over. * * * THE IDEA OF establishing a center to harness the atom for peace came to Smith, then an Associate Editor of the United Nations World, after hearing a French official criticize America for devoting all its energy toward creating the atom bomb to win the war, while doing nothing to aid humanity through the tremendous discovery.' The former University student decided he would prove the Frenchman wrong, but after in- vestigation found that there really had been little effort to use the new energy for peaceful purposes. When he learned of the Univer- sity's search for a memorial idea, Smith suggested that a research project the scope of the Man- hattan project be set up here. Smith even suggested that the phoenix bird be used as symbol for the project. FROM THERE the memorial committee took over. Legal sour- ces at the University were con- tacted to see just how far the Project could go into the secrets of the atom. The experts reported that the Atomic Energy, Commis- sion should be contacted before any definite action was taken. So in February, 1948 Dean Walter, Dean Ralph Sawyer, of the School of Graduate Studies, and Dr. Fred Hodges, University radiologist, went to Washington tp confer with AEC officials. After hearing the plans for the Project, the AEC gave its solid backing to the proposed peace- tip -+fnmie. .re.sar chce,.ntr cost of the Memorial" Lubeck explained that the cam- paign will be a once-in-a-life- time affair. "The four-week per- iod of the drive is the only time students will be asked to contrib- ute either as students or alum- ni." * NO OVERALL goal has been set for the drive. Phoenix commit- tee members are asking each stu- dent to set an individual goal of $30 for himself. Pledges will be paid over a. three-year period be- ginning in 1951. The campaign chairman point- ed to results of last spring's senior fund-drive as a good ex- ample of student giving. The brief campaign netted $26,000 in cash and pledges. For nearly 600 gifts the average donation was $50. "The low number of gifts was due to limits of time and working personnel," Lubeck noted."We on- ly contacted one-sixth of the grad- uating class." * * * BUT LUBECK and his execu- tive committee are confident more than that fraction of the student body will be contacted in the com- ing drive. For the past four weeks the standing Phoenix student com- mittee has been getting ready for tomorrow's kickoff. First, voluntary workers had to be rounded up. Most of these had listed their names as prospective workers at registration earlier this fall. Then extensive training of the enlarged Phoenix crew was car-' ried out. Now the new workers are ready to travel the campus area telling students of Phoenix. * * * IN FACT some house group con- tacts have already been made. But the major portion of the work remains to be done. "We hope to have most of the work done in the next two weeks," Lubeck said. "That would leave us a couple of weeks to clean up in." Project speakers or a special' Phoenix sound film strip will be available for any house group that requests them. This may be done through the individual. house Phoenix chairman. Lubeckhex- plained. In this way each house will be contacted. THE JOB OF reaching students living in private homes and rooming houses will be a little tougher. Biggest job in organiz- ing the campaign so far has been filing names of these people into separate areas. Each of these areas will be turn- ed over to a Phoenix worker who will contact the students in it. Workers will be given areas in which they live so that they will be contacting- people they know for the most part. T bihar krn in dnA c nt tha t Global Drive Nets Million For Phoenix Closing Date Set For End of Month As the student Phoenix drive begins tomorrow, other fund- raising campaigns will be rushing to a close throughout the nation. The drive here will be only part of a larger, world-wide campaign to raise $6,500,000 for the Me- morial. * * * THREE SEPARATE large-scale drives and many smaller ones are now in progress. The biggest drives are the international alum- ni, special gifts and faculty cam- paigns. The special gifts drive, under the direction of George Mason, '13, began last spring. Mason and his crew of volunteer work- ers have since been busy con- tacting alumni, foundations and industrial leaders who might make large contributions to the Project. To date the special gifts committee has not an- nounced any donations over $20,000 but there are hopes that gifts of around the million dollar mark may be forthcoming from some industrialists. Atom Day, the first of last month, was the kickoff for the overall campaign. Following the gigantic network of Atom Day rallies from coast to coast, Ches- ter H. Lang, '15, and a crew of 10,000 alumni volunteers began the month-long talk of contacting every person on record as gradua- ting from the University. * * * IN FACT the job of telling 120,- 000 people the story of the Phoe- nix Project turned out to be so great that Lang had to extend the closing date of the drive until the end of this month. Up to now the drive has net- ted nearly $1,000,000, and Lang has announced that 150 to 200 pledges a day are being received, Atom Day served as opening day for numerous other drives also. Special drives are in progress cov- ering students' parents, University employes and - Ann Arbor busi- nesses. And alumnae are conducting a drive of their own to set up a cancer research foundation within the Project in memory of Dean Alice Lloyd, long-time Dean of Women who died last March. One of the busiest sections of the alumni campaign is its over- seas branch,WilliamsA. David- son, '12, has the job of seeing that nearly 4,000 alumni in 32 for- eign countries are told about the memorial. ATOMIC ENERGY UNLEASHED-Pictured above is the awesome smoke which towered more than 20,000 feet high above Nagasaki Aug. 10, 1945. This same tremendous energy will be harnessed by the Phoenix Project to aid, rather than destroy, man. 'BRIGHT POINT OF FUTURE': Phoenix Project Hailed by Leaders Throughout the country the Phoenix Project has been hailed by the nation's leaders as one of the brightest points in the future of atomic research. From the time that the Project was announced in 1948, compli- ments have been flowing in. OFFICIAL government blessing was given the Memorial at the out- set. The Atomic Energy Commis- sion and the Office of Naval Re- search sent their congratulations to the student body for hitting up- on the idea of a living memorial dedicated to furthering research in the peaceful uses of atomic energy even before the Project was offi- cially announced. Since t h e n an unending stream of praise has been heap- ed on the Project. In Congress Michigan's Sen. Ferguson has told the story of the research project in glowing terms. by the government over atomic in- formation. Lilienthal's successor as boss of AEC, Gordon Dean, has con- tinued to give AEC sanction to Phoenix. "We wholeheartedly welcome Michigan's lead toward more pri- vately financed atomic energy re- search in unclassified fields," Dean has said. "This is basic to speedy progress." COMMENTING on the proposed studies of the social implications of atomic energy, Dean said, "We are gratified by Michigan's strong, support for objective studies of the social, economic and ethical prob- lems-thethuman problems-sur- rounding the development and use of this force for defense against aggression, and for bettering our material standards of living." Dean hailed the Project as a contribution to progress over and beyond the primary service of the biggest job in the lives of the people of America-the battle for freedom. "You are engaging in a world- wide contest that is seemingly endless in duration. "We must count and husband all of our resources, whether they be the product of our hands or our hearts," he said, in addressing University alumni and students at the start of the national Phoenix campaign last month. ergy research is national security," he said. He explained that Congress members are waiting for the ad- vice of such projects as the Phoenix Memorial on many of the problems facing them. "My mail shows that the peo- ple are afraid of the atom; do not see its potential benefits," Sen. Ferguson said. "Phoenix can aid in answering the age-old question of how to get good for all." He noted that an expanded * * * atomic research is a tremendously AROUND THE WORLD the important evploitation of our nat- Voice of America has sent the mes- ural resources. soge of Phe i a n thesp es- "Few causes are more urgent to- sage of Phoenix. And the spokes- day and more worthy of your sup- man for the United States in the port. I commend you for your in- meeting place of the world, War- terest in it, because I believe that, ren Austin of the United Nations, in war or peace, the atomic re- has said that the Phoenix Project search being done at the Univer- sity of Michigan, and at many is the most exciting enterprise in other centers of learning, will university research that he has strengthen America through better ever encountered. utilization of its natural resources. "This idea is a grand testimonial i-juoec remn. Iu e su ens i- - a- the 'idea for the Memorial origi- And the faculty is being fully nated with them. "This makes the covered by Prof. William Haber, i