December 8, 1967

Hon. Charles Gubser
house of Representatives
Washington, D. CU.

Dear Nr. Gubser:

If I may, let me start this letter by reminding you of a brief meeting
that we had, perhaps a year ago, at Stanford Medical School. One of the
topics of discussion was the need to convey to the public at large the
importance of a solid base for medical research if we were to continue to
deserve the dedication of federal funds for this. I was also pleased to
see the report that you read into the record concerning the international
medical project that Mr. Klein was involved in recently.

At that time we did discuss briefly the columus that I have been
writing weekly for the Washington Post and brought up the possibility that
you might be able to introduce the matter to the Editor of the San Jose
Mercury. Editors are eo busy and operate on such a hectic echedule that
I have found it quite difficult to attract their interest to consider a
question like this without the benefit of some personal intervention, which
is not to say that I would ask for any strong recommendation about what
kind of decision they should reach. If, however, you have had occasion to
read these columns at all as they appeared in the Washington Post for the
last year, where they are printed every Saturday, you may be in a position
to tell the Editor something about it.

I am particularly eager to have an outlet for this column in my own
home area since I have so many friends who I believe are deeply interested
in a chance to see them on a regular basis. At the present time, there are
about a half a dozen newspapers throughout the world that carry it but
paxadoxically none of them right around here.

Besides my personal interest in having a local outlet, our home
community must be one of the best educated and one of the most interested
in the human impact of science and technology of any anywhere in the world
in view of the concentration of Stanford University and the industrial
research laboratories in this district. It therefore may even be a small

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Page Two
December 3, 1967
Hon. Charles Gubser

public service to have this kind of commentary made available to such a
community.

At any rate, I would be very grateful to you for any good offices
you can do in this matter without putting yourself to any undue trouble.

Sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

JL li