Sept. 3, 1987

To The Editor:

On Independence Mall Sunday evening, August 9, 1987, with over three hundred World Federalists from 20 countries, I signed the "Declaration of Philadelphia" requesting our home governments to consider doing what was done 200 years ago in the "City of Brotherly Love". At that time 12 of our sovereign states signed the Constitution and created the United States of America. The "Declaration of Philadelphia 1987" adopted the same principle of federation, and called upon people all over the world to create a United States of the World. It was the Federalist's conviction that Philadelphia 1787 should teach Philadelphia 1987 the same lesson of federation.

World Federalists believe that peace is not possible without justice; that justice is not possible without law; and that law is not possible without government. They believe that to assure peace and abolish war, an international world authority or government needs to be created with an international legislature, properly weighted in its voting, with an international court of justice and an international peace force. Few people can fault this rational approach to peace and to sane global relations, but there are many who contend it is impossible. One should remember George Washington's appeal to the delegates in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 made after three and one-half months of fruitless meetings: "It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If to please the people we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let me raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hands of God." Less than 2 weeks later a compromise was reached and the constitution signed!

Albert Einstein said "the bomb changed everything except man's way of thinking." Perhaps circumstances today are changing the minds of men, for M. Gorbachev, General Secretary of the U.S.S.R., recently said "We will either live together or die together", and at the Geneva Conference in 1985 it was agreed that "a nuclear war can never be fought and can never be won." There are no victors in a nuclear war! It is common knowledge today that both the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. each possess approximately 10,000 nuclear warheads, each one possessing more destructive capacity than the combined power fired by both sides in World War II.

If you feel that the superpowers do not have the moral right to imperil us and the rest of the world, call 1-800-HATE WAR.

Charles E. Jacobson Jr., M.D.

45 Wyllys St.

Manchester, CT