Yak-Ac

The Oak Ridge (Tenn.) High School, which grew up by the light of the atom bomb, had a visit from atomic chemist Charles Coryell one day last fall. He told the students: "Unless the atom bomb is controlled for peace, one out of three persons in this auditorium will probably die of the effects of atomic energy." The Oak Ridge school kids, soberly shocked, organized a Youth Council on the Atomic Crisis (which they promptly nicknamed "Yak-Ac").

An editorial in the Oak Leaf, the school paper, explained what they were up to: "We do not want to die a useless death. We cannot be indifferent. We are alarmed that this terrible menace has not been generally recognized. . . . Our fathers [mostly scientists or workers in the A-bomb development] have told us that the atom bomb can wreck the world, and we believe them."

Last week s.even members of Yak-Ac visited Philadelphia as guests of the Philadelphia Record and the United Nations Council of Philadelphia (chairman: retired Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts). In five days the three girls & four boys spoke to an estimated 21,000 students and parents at eleven schools, a luncheon, a church, the Town Hall, three radio audiences. Sample speech (by Mary Lane, 17): "We think there must be a world organization if we are to survive in the atomic age. And we believe that education is the first step."

Sharpest disagreement among Yak-Acs: whether the U.S. was justified in using the A-bomb on Japan. Most girls thought no; most boys, yes.

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