ATOMIC ENERGY AS A HUMAN ASSET—-COMPTON Wigs) 
There remains, happily, a valuable place for the individual research 
man who masters and advances his own limited field of study. His 
specialty, however, is of little value except as a part of a broader field. 
More and more we find that even in a limited field a team of men with 
different specialties working together does the most effective work. 
New thoughts develop in their discussions. More refined techniques 
are available. A team which thus supplies a combination of origi- 
nality and special skills is the pattern toward which research is 
moving. 
Cooperation is thus the very life blood of a society based on science 
and technology. Such a society is necessarily made up of specialists, 
not only scientists and engineers, but skilled laborers, salesmen, ad- 
ministrators, educators, and legislators. Working alone such spe- 
cialists are useless. When their work is coordinated they form a so- 
ciety of enormous strength. It is a major source of our Nation’s 
vitality that we have so many diverse elements in our population. 
Each has its place among the many specialties. What the society of 
an atomic age cannot permit is the development of antagonisms be- 
tween these groups that will prevent effective cooperation. To love 
our neighbors is becoming the condition of survival. And our neigh- 
bors with whom we work are to be found in all divisions of society 
throughout the entire world. 
As the second evident effect of technclogy on society, consider the 
need for ever-increasing training and education. It is because of the 
mechanical skill of many millions of workers, the know-how of our 
many technical men, and the administrative skill of our industrial 
and military leaders that our country has come out ahead in this 
war as in the last. It is no disparagement of the American engineers 
who have done these great tasks to point out that most of the new 
wartime developments that have led to victory, such as radar, sub- 
marine detection, rockets, and the atomic bomb, have had to be led 
by men whose scientific knowledge is far in advance of that supplied 
by our technical schools and industries in the training of engineers. 
To compete in the modern world more people need more training. 
Nor is technical training all that is required. Of greater importance 
is more education for leadership. In a democratic society that is 
forced into a position of world prominence, our citizens as well as 
our leaders need to understand the problems and human needs of all 
the nations. 
This pressure for more training and education applies at all levels. 
Automatic machinery performs an increasing number of routine jobs. 
The demand for skilled mechanics to make the machines is thus in- 
creasing while that for unskilled labor falls off. The growing com- 
plexity of society multiplies rapidly the demand for all kinds of 
