November 22, 1968

The Hon. Fred Harris
United States Senator
Senate Office Building
Washington, D. C.

Dear Senator Harris:

I have purposely waited bringing this up until you had time to rest from
an arduous campaign.

I was gratified by the very strong position that you took in the Senate,
even if it was unsuccessful, in fending off the incalculable damage that
has been wrought by the cut in the NSF appropriation. I know that I do
not have to persuade you that this is a high priority item, and that it
will already have commanded your interest in laying plans for next year.
I do hope that you will continue to be as energetic and eanstructive as
you have in the past in ventilating the problems of national investment
in science through the hearings of your Senate sub-committee. The only
small item that I feel able, possibly, to add to your thinking is to
enlist the New York Academy of Sciences in planning hearings on this sub-
ject. President Minoru Tsutsui has been working very energetically to
produce a carefully documented report on the difficulties that last year's
retrenchment in science has generated, and this report is intended to be
published by the first week in December. TI hope I am not too forward in
suggesting that you follow up this documentation by’ hearings of your sub-
committee at the earliest feasible time and that you enroll the effort
that Dr. Tsuteui has already set in motion.

I am also enclosing a transcript of some very informal remarks that I made
in a telephone conversation criticizing too narrow a statement about the
desired policy of a "15% growth rate” for science. I hope that the New
York Academy final report takes account of my comments, but in any case I
would like to communicate them to you.

Good luck to all of us for the next administration.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

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