
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 11, 1992                   TAG: 9203110329
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

U.S. WORK ETHIC DIDN'T PRODUCE ATOMIC BOMB

SEN. HOLLINGS' ethnic "joke" concerning the atomic bomb, told at the expense of the Japanese, is callous and repugnant. Further, its references to the American work force, supposedly the justification for the joke, are completely off base.

The atomic bomb was not significantly the product of the talents of the American work force. On the contrary, it was envisioned and brought to fruition by a cadre of foreign-born scientists of British, Danish, Dutch, German, Hungarian and Italian origin. These men volunteered their services to the United States because they were appalled by the prospect of a world at the mercy of Nazi Germany.

However, the contributions of the American work force of that day to the overall war effort were significant. Their work ethic was tempered and honed by the rigors of the Great Depression. They were educated in schools that taught instead of providing de facto day care for the delinquent and the disruptive. In short, these workers were equipped and they performed splendidly.

Can we really say that the current work force, born out of Woodstock and Haight-Ashbury, educated in mediocrity, compares with their predecessors? No way! EMERY A. WHITE SALEM

by CNB