Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

Challenges and Opportunities of Today Sarnoff, Accepting Humanitarian Award, Says Men Must Learn to Live in Unity or Perish—He Urges Greater Understanding Among All Peoples TT \^ RGING greater understanding among the peoples of the world to meet the challenges and opportunities of this age, Brig. General David Sarnoff, Chairman of the Board of the Radio Corporation of America, told a Philadelphia audience on March 3 that either all men will learn to live and work together in unity, or all men will perish together. General Sarnoff was the guest of honor and prin- cipal speaker at a dinner at which he was presented the 1954 Humanitarian Award of the Golden Slipper Square Club. "The activities of the Golden Slipper Square Club are to be commended precisely because they express the living spirit of American democracy, in terms of free- dom, good citizenship, neighborliness, tolerance and fair play," he said. "You help teach your growing community—not by words but by example—that it is blessed for brethren to dwell together in peace and unity. "It behooves us to learn that lesson quickly because the pace of modern life is so swift. In recent years we have acquired immense new knowledge and developed new means that can destroy civilization. Unless we learn to harness those new powers for useful and bene- ficient purposes, we shall find ourselves the victims of our own progress, trapped by our own genius. "That is the great challenge to man if he is to sur- vive—not merely in the physical but in the spiritual sense. Otherwise, like the patient in the popular story, we may die of improvements. Either all men will learn to live and work together in unity, or all men will perish together as the sun sets over the hills of Time." Science and Religion Declaring that there is no contradiction between science and religion, General Sarnoff continued: "Since the dawn of civilization these have been partners in humanity's continued efforts to learn the truth about itself and the universe, and to convert that truth into human values. Science and invention, far from denying the divine mystery of life, have made us more aware of it. "The communion of sun, moon and stars, the winds and the rains, reveals the wonders of Nature working together in unity and harmony. The invisible electrons and atoms alike are parts of a harmonious pattern. But humanity, too, is a vast universe of forces which call Brig. General David Sarnoff for unity. These mortal forces—social, political, eco- nomic—must be brought into a pattern of harmony if we are to live in peace and prosper, if we are to come closer to the divine in man. "Our new knowledge of Nature and the modern discoveries of science require, more than ever before, that man advance spiritually as fast as he strides forward technologically. Only by such dual progress can we hope to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world. To achieve a harmonious blending of material and spiritual powers, man will do well to ponder the teachings of religion, not only the lessons of science." Taking the electron—the tiniest thing in the uni- verse—to illustrate how unity leads to achievement in the field of science. General Sarnoff pointed out that the electron accomplishes little by itself, but multiplied and working in harmony with other electrons, it has created the Electronic Age. He added: "An atom, by itself, is meaningless. But when its nuclear energy is released in unison with countless other atoms, there is a chain reaction that can influence the course of the world for peace or war. "Within the past decade we have all entered the Electronic and Atomic Age—as apprentices. We are (Cnntiniied on page 52) 6 RADIO AGE