FILTERS AND SPUTNIKS

Morgan, Edward P.

Filters and Sputniks by EDWARD P. MORGAN This article is adapted from one of Mr. Morgan's nightly commentaries on the news sponsored by the AFL-CIO—in our judgment one of the most distinguished...

...The Russians have hoisted two chunks of metal into outer space, but that good old reliable American scientific know-how has come up with a filter that gives you the perfect smoke...
...Under those chromium-plated circumstances, I ask you, what in the world have we got to worry about...
...But we can redress this balance quickly with the proper use of all the human and material resources at our command—though it won't be cheap, and what we'll have then if we attack this rivalry only from the military side is merely a re-establishment of the uneasy stalemate in weapons of total destruction...
...It is admittedly a danger we cannot long tolerate to be strategically inferior, militarily weaker than the Russians...
...The greatest challenge in cigarette history," cried an excited voice which went on breathlessly to inform me that the challenge had been bravely met with the development of a perfect filter...
...Whereupon there was an arresting fanfare of trumpets and drums and I had the dizzy feeling that somehow the upcoming commercial was going to answer Moscow with the revelation that we were about to start paying passenger flights to the moon...
...triumphs that I have recently noted...
...Army's rocket research team, Heinz Koelle, predicted flatly that "in four or five years, Russia will be able to launch a one-ton satellite carrying enough reconnaissance equipment to spy on America...
...The newscast I was tuned to led off with the story, gave a few recorded beeps of the satellite's strange staccato voice, and added that a live dog was aboard...
...Morgan's nightly commentaries on the news sponsored by the AFL-CIO—in our judgment one of the most distinguished programs of news analysis on any network.—The Editors...
...The first Sputnik took the outer air just as rocket experts from all over the world were gathering for a conference in Barcelona...
...We may not have a Sputnik girdling the globe yet, but the 1958 Ford has just traveled around it in the most grueling road test ever given any new car, according to the double-page ads...
...Perhaps we'd better put that sobering fact in a perfect filter cigarette and smoke it...
...Since life began man has been reaching toward the stars...
...Well, there you have it...
...I managed to ration my jubilation among other made-in-the-U.S.A...
...There is an urgent question of military capacity involved...
...What a bitter irony that the Columbuses of outer space today are not "free men," as we so proudly call ourselves, but minions of the Communist system...
...We'll have more details about Sputnik II," the broadcaster said, "right after this special announcement...
...The answer, of course, is plenty...
...A leading British scientist hails Russia's successful satellites as "the greatest human discovery of our age...
...Our own satellite program has been rocking along on a three-year budget of $198,000,000 but a quarter of a billion dollars, the motor car publicists tell us proudly, went into the research behind the creation of the new Edsel...
...A member of the U.S...
...It would seem to this humble layman a mistake to turn our scientific competition with the Russians into a kind of interplanetary track meet, concentrating only on matching them missile for missile, satellite for satellite...
...We are, I think, off balance in a larger way...
...T IKE MANY other Americans, I learned about the existence of Russia's second earth satellite while eating my Sunday breakfast...

Vol. 21 • December 1957 • No. 12


 
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