NOV 2 3 1962 CASS CANFIELD |" 49 EAST 33RD STREET NEW YORK I{6,N.Y. MURRAY HILL 3-1900 November 19, 1962 Professor Joshua Lederberg Medical Center Stanford University Department of Genetics Palo Alto, California Dear Professor Lederberg: Cm &, It is a pleasure to send you a copy of the ''Declarartion = on Population Pressure vs. International Development" signed ~~ by yourself and other distinguished Americans. As I indicated ~ . : : ; : CR in my earlier letter, circulation of the Statement for signature a was limited to a carefully selected group. It now carries the Sy endorsements of 19 Nobel Laureates and 25 representatives of business and industry. The Cuban crisis substantially altered our original plan for release of the Statement. Aside from making it available to the press, we had intended to place a full-page announcement in The New York Times on October 24, You will recall how that turned out to be the day when Russian merchant ships first en- countered U.S, Naval vessels in the Caribbean. We felt that undue emphasis on the announcement of our Declaration at such a precarious moment might have been greeted as a rather grim joke -- when in everyone's mind loomed the chance that the population crisis might be solved by sudden catastrophe. There- fore the initial public announcement was cancelled except for a perfunctory press release. The primary purpose of the Declaration is to help induce a shift of Government policy toward the provision of research and assistance in world-wide fertility control. In addition the State- ment can help greatly to arouse and educate the public on the population problem and the need for much more concerted action. Considering these two objectives together, we have formulated a new plan for use of the Statement during the next few weeks: Prof. Joshua Lederberg -2- November 19, 1962 We hope to present it formally, via a small delegation of signers, to Secretary General U Thant, and we shall also send it directly to President Kennedy. We want to present it to Mr. U Thant immediately before the subject of population comes up for discussion at the General Assembly as it is slated to do. Therefore our timing depends somewhat on the course of business at the United Nations. At the same time, we hope to place major announcements in such journals as the Scientific American, Harper's and the Saturday Review. And we shall distribute the Declaration widely to scientists, businessmen and other leaders. Finally, it is my personal expectation that the Statement itself will become a most useful instrument in bringing about the "formation of a strong union between leaders in the sciences and the humanities and leaders of business and industry'! to stimulate adequate action on the population crisis. Mr. Donald Straus, my successor as Chairman of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America - World Population Emergency Campaign, is equally enthusiastic. When Dr. Shockley and Professor Kendall presented the Statement at our October 22 conference, it was greeted by an immediately enthusiastic response among business leaders and scientists in attendance, Thanks so much for your participation in this project. Of course we shall keep you posted on its development -- and most certainly we shall seek your continued aid and counsel. Sincerely, “ofl 3 f CASS pL! Cass Canfield CCere Enclosure A DECLARATION ON POPULATION PRESSURE vs. INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BY U. S. NOBEL LAUREATES AND BUSINESS LEADERS THE BEST CHANCE FOR ECONOMIC PROGRESS Two years ago, a number of us joined with citizens of other nations in calling attention to the gravity of the world population problem. We urged programs of international action to avert a Dark Age of human misery, stemming from the pressure of burgeoning populations on available resources. Since then more than one hundred million people have been added to the world's popula- tion total. Fortunately some nations and peoples are beginning to take steps against the impending disaster. Most recently, the United Arab Republic and the Republic of Korea have adopted affirmative policies on population limitation. In many Latin American countries, public officials, medical authorities and experts on economic affairs are becoming increasingly concerned with the crippling effects of continued rapid population growth. In Asia, the leaders of several nations are keenly aware of the need for action, and governmental as well as private programs are being expanded. In addition, a modest but hopeful expansion of biological, demographic and sociological research in fertility control has taken place. The great reli- gious groups of our nation, including the Roman Catholic Church, have achieved a deeper understanding of the population problem. The United States Government has begun to clarify its approach and has announced that it will respond affirmatively to requests from other nations for certain kinds of demographic assistance in this field. These steps and others of a similar nature are positive and welcome; but the urgency of the problem calls for much faster progress. Increasing evidence from around the world adds emphasis to the grim warn- ing issued last year by Mr. Eugene Black, in his capacity as President of the World Bank: 'Population growth threatens to nullify all our efforts to raise living standards in many of the poorer countries....Unless population growth can be restrained, we may have to abandon for this generation our hopes of economic progress in the crowded lands of Asia and the Middle East." Clearly, the urgent, indisputable need today is for intensified action to de- celerate world population growth. Population trends must become a central consideration in all national and international plans for health, economic development and world peace. Therefore, as Americans, we most strongly urge the United States Govern- ment to adopt forthright policies which will permit the resources and skills of our nation to be concentrated on the population problem. Our government should assist other nations which request help on voluntary population con- trol, and should intensify research for improved methods of regulating fertility - methods acceptable to peoples of diverse cultures, creeds and ways of life. And we strongly urge that the United Nations take the lead in world-wide programs to cope with overpopulation. -2- In recent decades, the partnership of industry and science has contributed immeasurably to many fields of human activity; it is time that this partner- ship address itself squarely to the population dilemma. We therefore urge formation of a strong union between leaders in the sciences and humanities and leaders of commerce and industry, to the end that action may be stimu- lated on a level commensurate with the magnitude of the problem. The actions we suggest require that the timidities and conflicts of the past be cast aside. We appeal to all men to have faith that existing differences can be resolved, so that rapid progress can be made in checking excessive population growth, and so that children everywhere may grow up in a world that offers the prospect of peace and progress. November, 1962 SIGNERS NOBEL LAUREATES John Bardeen Felix Bloch Edward A. Doisy Joseph Erlanger William F. Giauque Donald A. Glaser Edward C. Kendall Polykarp Kusch Joshua Lederberg Hermann J. Muller John H. Northrop Edward M. Purcell Dickinson Richards William Shockley Wendell M. Stanley Harold C. Urey Selman A. Waksman Thomas H. Weller G. H. Whipple BUSINESS ENDORSERS Frank W. Abrams Russell H. Bennett Harry A. Bullis Henry B. Cabot Cass Canfield, Sr. Will Clayton Randolph P. Compton Lammot duP. Copeland John Cowles, Sr. William H. Draper, Jr. Marriner S. Eccles Leland Hazard F. Peavey Heffelfinger Hans W. Huber Walter Johnson Thomas S. Lamont David E. Lilienthal Thomas McCabe Fowler McCormick Hugh Moore John Nuveen Charles H. Percy Elmo Roper Sidney A. Swensrud The Hon. Willlam H. Vanderbilt