THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION 49 WEST 49th STREET, NEW YORK 20 SEf'25 1944 Rc.c'~ September 21, 194L+. Dear Linus: I am sorry that there `has been so r;uch deiay in answering your letter oi' August 12th. I am still spending all oi' w time on riar xora, ad Frank tinson and I accord.ingly ;=et very lit.tle op~~ortunity to taik things over. Xe have talked about your letter several times, hobiever, and I ~oulo lir,e to give you a wholly informai and ge~sonal reaction to it. First oi a1.l , let de say at once tilat tne 2roblelcs you have in ILind seem to us to be of absolutely first-rate importance. It seems to us one Oi the fields in ,Bilic:; r;e ought to have a speciaiiy active interest. Furt:lermore, it seeI!s t.0 me in~~ort.ant trl;i.t -,~t? trjr to carry over into peace-time research SOiiie of the ways of working together whicn have been found so effective during the rYar. On th other hand, I must confess to a good deal of skepticism as to ahether it is either possible or desirable to carry over, into peace-time i7E!5i-&rCh, nany of the elements of organization and control which prog.erljj and inevitaoly c;i-racterize 72r-tiiae xork. There is anotiier mat.ter which gives me a little concern- The proposal of your letter is based, at least in part, on the gres-mptionthat alarge nutiber of INell-trained scientists will be looking for employment when the ;iar comes to at end. I agree tklst there iNil be a large num&r of the younger .~en :;ho All be shifting their emploflent; but I cannot persuade Li;rSfiX txt it is going to be verjr %ClSj' to get able ancl Fell-trained men. I xou.Lci anticipate that, to take care ol the accumu- lated backlog, and under the stimulus of Federal support, the undergraduate registra- tion in our colieges and universities y*fould be verjr high indeed. Tiiis {Cl make a great demand for teachers, and particul~rl 3r for younger tetiche1.s and elementary sue- jects. I should suppose t:Et the demand for tC?LChi.~lg aesistarits could :Je a very active one. Therefore it does not seem to me either realistic or proy;er or necessary to think of ;your proposal as, in any ;iay, a way oi taking up slack. L al sure t1lkt you, yourself', did not intend it so. But I aou>l nave been less aisturbed if y'ou had raxirked that it ~ioulo probably oe vEry_aifficult to get .the men ,you ::anted but t'hat . the problem ;7as so important and the opport7mi.Q SC attractive that you nevert.?leleos thougilt JOU could succeed. I hope you ii?ili not interpret trie tone oi tl& letter as unduly critical or discouraging. I mean to be neither. As I said at tne beginni:li;, t!ie problemi Seems to me one of com;Jeilin~ interest and im~>ortance. I am :1ot at all sure t3c:t ce aould be pre.oared to consider support on quite so large a scale as you propose, but I xouid certainiy be i:itersested to have your Coxmt3nts zs to the probable relative effective- ness of pr-ograms of different sizes. I :'iou~& also like to nave: your reaction:, to the comments oi' thi.-, letter. I thini; it souli be entirely feasible foln us ?..o dive active consideration to sucn a situation at the present time. Intie'sd, ii tile scheme could be set up tiith sufficient flexibility to adjust itseli to events, I ;~oula ratner ho:le that. if we .ivere in fact going to iiia'ce any proposal to our Trustees at all., WC could -2- mke it, at the Deceti:ber meetin this year. This, ii2 tlzn, woul:i make it nec- essary t&t the proposal be pretty <