The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)-an M. I. T.-based organization of Boston-area scientists-will sponsor a two-day conference on scientific responsibility and arms control as part of a national March 4 program.
"We believe we are in a critical stage in the escalating arms race," Lee Grodzins, professor of Physics at M. I. T. and UCS chairman, said yesterday. "If ABM is funded now, it will probably mean that the whole system will be built."
Grodzins said that the two-day program-Tuesday at Sanders Theatre and Wednesday at M. I. T.'s Kresge Auditorium-will focus on the ABM (anti-ballistic missile) and CBW (chemical-biological warfare) as problems of arms control.
Speakers
Speakers include Representative Richard B. McCarthy (D.-N. Y.), one of the original fighters against CBW, Jerome Wiesner, provost of M. I. T., Joseph C. Clark, president of the World Federalists, on Tuesday, and I. F. Stone, publisher of the radical journal I. F. Stone's Bi-Weekly, on Wednesday.
Last year's March 4 program-held to symbolize "a dedication on the part of scientists to positive action on the social and political problems in which our science is involved"-featured a talk by George Wald, Higgins Professor of Biology.
The UCS, a Boston chapter of the Federation of American Scientists, was started a year ago as a group of M. I. T. faculty, Grodzins said, and "is concerned with the uses to which science is put."
"We must continue the efforts begun last year to bring a real understanding of the issues to our fellow citizens and our Congress," Wiesner said in a recent public address. "You must all help with this. Stop MIRV and ABM."
Law and Order
During the conference, Wiesner will speak on problems and prospects of arms control in an address titled "International Law and Order."
McCarthy will discuss action against CBW as a segment of arms control, and Clark, who started the CBW issue when he was a Senator from Pennsylvania, will talk on "The Arms Race and International Government."
The conference will also circulate and support a petition-started by Matthew S. Meselson, professor of Biology, and several Harvard and M. I. T. students-asking Congress to ban all herbicides and irritant gases.
Similar March 4 Programs will be held at Yale. Northwestern. Syracuse, and Berkeley, Grodzins said.
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