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

The Moral Crisis of Our Age True Progress and Real Security Found in Principles of Universal Morality, Sarnoff Says in Accepting Notre Dame Honorary Degree T J-H -HE moral LAW has become the law of survival. Brig. General David Sarnoff, Chairman of the Board of RCA. declared in an address on Sept. 30 at the University of Notre Dame, where he received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science. "Many more people now sense the need of a moral compass to steer by, if only because they recognize that today a single blundering act may prove fatal to our civilization, if not to the continuance of the race of man," he said. General Sarnoff delivered the principal address and received the honorary degree at a special Notre Dame convocation marking the dedication of WNDU-TV, the University's new television station. He was cited as "an American genius of public communications" whose "contributions to the twentieth century wonders of radio and television have put our country and the world im- measurably into his debt." Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Notre Dame president, conferred the degree at exercises in the University Drill Hall attended by more than 3,000 persons. "In a simpler past, people and nations could afford to treat 'good will toward men' as an adornment of existence — desirable but not imperative," General Sarnoff said. "The penalties for failure to adhere to this ideal were harsh but within tolerable limits. There was, at worst, always a second chance. Today, the realization grows upon many of us that the ideal has ceased to be a luxury and has become an absolute necessity. Today, in a literal sense never before so apparent, the moral law has become the law of survival." Says Crisis of Our Time is /Moral Stressing that the crisis of our time "is not political, or economic, but moral," General Sarnoff declared: "The problems with which nations are so concerned — problems of boundaries, governments, trade, reduc- tion of armaments — are, in the last analysis, symptoms rather than causes. Temporary solutions and delaying expedients may be found, but they cannot be dependable or enduring as long as the moral ailments from which the problems derive remain and fester. "Most of these problems, of course, are related to the great struggle now under way between the Soviet- ized and the relatively free worlds. Outwardly that struggle involves issues of power and territory and con- trasting economic systems. But under the surface it is a deep-reaching contest between our Judeo-Christian civilization and a Godless way of life and thought. "It is not the Communist economic theories or the Soviet political theories which threaten us. These we regard as false, but they do not engage our emotions. Our fears are engendered, in the final analysis, by the essential immorality of the Soviet system — by its open renunciation of truth, justice, kindness and other values we cherish. Our compassion is aroused for the victims of systematized brutality and the suppression of simple human rights." Cites Kremlin's Denial of God "It is the Kremlin's denial of God in words and in terrifying actions, that we recognize as the real menace. The great Russian writer and spiritual leader, Leo Tolstoy, once said that he feared the rise of 'the savage with the telephone.' He meant, of course, the moral savage armed with the tools of modern Science. Un- happily his prophetic image has turned into grim reality in his own country and the countries under its iron heel. "To us, human life is sacred and inviolable. To the Communists, the individual is a cipher; people are so much brick and mortar for the construction of their soulless Utopia. They demolish a human community as nonchalantly as if it were an ant hill. "That, I believe, is why the Church has been fighting Communism, courageously and consistently, refusing to compromise on essentials in the name of expedience. It is not an accident that totalitarian states, whether uniformed in Black, or Brown, or Red, find themselves in stubborn conflict with Religion. If the issues be- tween them were merely political or economic, some modus vivendi might be found. But the overriding issue is always moral — the value of human rights, the sacredness of the individual soul — and therefore not subject to compromise in formulas of coexistence. Yes, the crisis of our time is fundamentally moral." Without minimizing the need for military strength and an alert civil defense, General Sarnoff said that "the only real protection remaining is the spirit of man. Consequently we cannot afford to compromise with moral principles." Continuing, he said: RADIO AGE 3