155 Whitney Avenue Editors-in-Chief Caryl P. Haskins Hugh S. Taylor

New Haven, Connecticut 06510

Associate Editors Edgar J. Boell D. Allan Bromley

203 624 2566 Irving L. Janis A. Lee McAlester

Peter P. Wegener
Managing Editor Jane V. Olson

American |
Scientist

18 December 1970

Professor Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
School of Medicine
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305

Dear Joshua:

Thanks for returning your BW piece so promptly and so cleanly
prepared. We are scheduling it for our next issue (March, that is).

I do hope you will discuss the editorial policy of this journal with
Dr. Haskins when you next see him. It really is not so surprising

that the Sigma Xi Society is not first of all a politically active
group, when you consider its tradition. Since many political points

of view are represented in the Society, the journal could hardly
espouse any one political position and continue to pursue its primary
goals. I think I speak for the present Board of Editors when I say
that we are indeed interested in publishing articles that have a solid
bearing on political and social problems, and we have been and will
continue to publish in the Views section articles of opinion based on
special knowledge, by qualified authors. This is not to say that BW
and CW are not more important than anything else we might publish: our
bimonthly science journal simply has other aims than directly stimulating
political action. There are other media where that sort of article is
more appropriate--and more effective.

As for tax-exempt status, I believe it all depends on how "lobbying" is
defined. Obviously pointing to the probable effects of nuclear bombing
is not a political statement, though it may obviously lead to one.

The question of whether or not you would do a regular column for us had
nothing to do with politics. The Board's decision was not to have any
regular contributor--even Evelyn Hutchinson's Marginalia we include only
occasionally. But we might have had problems on that score if we had gone
ahead with a regular column by you, if that was your understanding of what
the content was to be!
Professor Joshua Lederberg page two

We hope you will eventually do an article on biological engineering
for us; and in the meantime, you may expect proofs on the BW piece
sometime in January.

Sincerely ,
Jane Olson

JO:sec