2/14/47
Dear Dr. DuBridge:
In connection with our application to the Rockefeller Foundation for a large grant to support research over a period of fifteen or twenty years in those aspects of physics, chemistry and biology that we feel are essential to the solution of the basic problems in biology, Warren Weaver has raised the question of just how far the Institute plans to go in supporting this program.  We feel confident that if the Institute can give reasonable assurance that it will carry a fair share of the financial burden in this venture, the Foundation will go a long way in providing the several million dollars we have indicated will be necessary for the kind of all-out attack we have in mind.  We should like to suggest two ways in which the Institute could contribute.
The first is to undertake to raise the funds required for the physical facilities needed to see the enterprise through on the projected scale.  We estimate that this would involve a sum of one or two million dollars.
The second is to commit the income, and perhaps such parts of the principal as may be necessary, of the Mrs. Henry M. Robinson Fund to a part of the proposed program.  We feel strongly that in any event the use of the Robinson Fund in this way to make possible advances in our knowledge of those physical chemical and biological phenomena that are basic to an understanding of the nature of cancer is the wisest possible course consistent with the intent of the donor.  As you know, the American Cancer Society has recently greatly broadened its attack on the cancer problem and it is now providing substantial financial support for investigations in the fields of plant growth and differentiation, cellular physiology, human and experimental genetics, cytology, morphogenesis, virology, enzymology, protein structure, cytochemistry, endocrine physiology, nutrition, steroid metabolism, chemotherapy, isotope tracer work, biophysics and others. It is our belief that in fields such as these, which are clearly basic to an understanding of cancer as well as to that of the normal processes of growth, differentiation and metabolism, the Institute can make really worth while contributions.
The program we proposed to the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis includes almost all of these fields.  The use of the Robinson Fund to support work in them would therefore represent a direct contribution to the overall program already contributed to by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and now before the Rockefeller Foundation.  At the same time it would provide for the use of the Robinson Fund in a manner in complete agreement with the intent of the donor as we understand it.
If you agree that it is wise to follow these suggestions, we believe it would be well to urge action by the Board of Trustees as soon as possible so that the Rockefeller Foundation can be fully informed of our plans in this respect.
Perhaps it would be worth while for you to talk to Warren Weaver by telephone so that you can have first hand information as to how he feels about our proposal in general and about the Institute's contribution to it.
We shall of course be glad to discuss this with you in more detail if you desire to do so.
Linus Pauling
G. W. Beadle