Description:

Einstein Albert 1879 - 1955 Albert Einstein neat signature cut on light card stock, dated in the pivotal year 1945



A lovely scarce Albert Einstein neat signature cut on light card stock, 3.25" x 1.5", affixed to a double layer scrap of paper, 6" x 2", with small pencil notes noting provenance that this was given to M.S. Taylor .

A dated Einstein signature cut from a significant year in history, one in which he drew a correlation to his world of physics, with the events of how science impacts humanity. Albeit science played a large part in the successes of World War II, but at a social price, and with that price comes the need to understand the responsibility scientists can or should interject into society. Although Einstein didn't work on the bomb, he had signed a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging him to procure uranium and accelerate nuclear research. Below are some excepts of Einstein's important speech at the Fifth Nobel Anniversary Dinner where Einstein draws a comparison between contemporary physicists and the founder of the Nobel Prize, who invented dynamite.

Physicists find themselves in a position not unlike that of Alfred Nobel himself. Alfred Nobel invented the most powerful explosive ever known up to his time, a means of destruction par excellence. In order to atone for this, in order to relieve his human conscience, he instituted his awards for the promotion of peace and for achievements of peace. Today, the physicists who participated in forging the most formidable and dangerous weapon of all times are harassed by an equal feeling of responsibility, not to say guilt. And we cannot desist from warning, and warning again, we cannot and should not slacken in our efforts to make the nations of the world, and especially their governments, aware of the unspeakable disaster they are certain to provoke unless they change their attitude toward each other and toward the task of shaping the future.

But Einstein says he is troubled by what he sees in the months following World War II.

The war is won, but the peace is not. The great powers, united in fighting, are now divided over the peace settlements. The world was promised freedom from fear, but in fact fear has increased tremendously since the termination of the war. The world was promised freedom from want, but large parts of the world are faced with starvation while others are living in abundance. The nations were promised liberation and justice. But we have witnessed, and are witnessing even now, the sad spectacle of "liberating" armies firing into populations who want their independence and social equality, and supporting in those countries, by force of arms, such parties and personalities as appear to be most suited to serve vested interests. Territorial questions and arguments of power, obsolete though they are, still prevail over the essential demands of common welfare and justice.

Einstein concludes by calling for "a radical change in our whole attitude, in the entire political concept." Without doing so, he says, "human civilization will be doomed."

His period may have been close to 80 years ago, but he spoke the same truths that still are relevant today. Perhaps peace both then and now, and will always be an unattainable goal.

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