OSKAR MORGENSTERN. MATHEMATICA

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD ~~ INCORPORATED

June 12, 1973

Professor Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics

Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford, California 94305

Dear Professor Lederberg:

Iam very happy that you are interested in my paper on the "Thirteen
Critical Points of Contemporary Economic Theory" and I am enclosing a
reprint. If you have any comments, I shall be very grateful for them. Un-
fortunately, I did not deal with the question which seems to interest you most,
namely, the production of wants. I agree with you that this is a very serious
matter, both for theory as well as for practical politics,

I was particularly interested in the enclosure of your testimony before
the Subcommittee on Public Health. Iam at present trying to get a number
of persons together who will write down on just one to two pages at most the
chain that leads from a fundamental basic scientific discovery to various un-
expected practical applications. I have received such statements from NASA.
Some friends of mine in physics doing similar things, e.g., the derivation
of the transistor from solid state physics etc. I wonder whether you wauld
be willing to send me a similar statement regarding some important medical
matters. The reason for all this is that we want to present these documents,
which are to be in a simple manner so that a comparative layman, that is to
say, a high government official can actually understand them and see their
significance. Iam greatly disturbed about the reduction in support and
continuing support of basic sciences in this country. I want to go with these
documents to Secretary Shultz who is a former student of mine and with
whom I can talk frankly. I have already discussed these things quite openly
with Mr. Ash, the head of the Office of Management and Budget. Of course,
the Watergate case paralyzes the whole government and one may have to
wait until things have gotten into some shape again. Nevertheless, the
effort must be made and I hope you will be good enough to support me.

With best regards.
Very sincerely yours,
OM;hhc OMorprte
Enclosure

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