National Academy of Sciences 
OFFICE OF THE HOME SECRETARY 
2101 CONSTITUTION AVENUE 
WASHINGTON 25, D. C. 
March 10, 195^ 
Dear Dr. Wetmore: 
If moans and groans are reverberating around Western Panama, and 
such phenomena are disturbing your birds, let us make hasty explanation. 
The unhappy utterances are emmanating from two bewildered little girls 
in your office (?) at 2101 Constitution Avenue. We hereby give, devise, 
and bequeath fair warning that if ever you depart again at this time of 
year and leave us at the mercy of the current administration — need we 
say morel 
To bring you down to date, we have managed to send forth the fol¬ 
lowing: 
Preliminary Announcement - 195^> streamlined model. 
Call for papers 
Hotel accommodation requests 
Biobibliographical material, ballots, etc. 
In response to the above sendings, we have received forty titles, 
are housing sixty-some members, and have in our possession approximately 
300 ballots. Dr. Berkner has kindly told us that he will have a sym¬ 
posium on the Geophysical Year. We are in the dark concerning the other 
three planned symposia but our antennae pick up faint signals of a sym¬ 
posium on nucleic acid being arranged by Linus Pauling, and another on 
high energy particle accelerators, arranger unknown. We have been told 
that it is not necessary for us to have information on the symposia. 
Therefore, we are clutching our abstracts; others are guarding the highly 
mysterious symposia. We only hope that somewhere along the line the gears 
will mesh rather than gnash. 
We are having a very heartening bit of success in the way of response 
to the letters to members requesting autobiographical material. 
Volume 28 of the Biographical Memoirs suffered a three-month delay— 
— the time required to extract Dr. B.'s O.K. to print as set. It will be 
finished about April 1, but even then will be persona non grata in the 
President's eyes. 
Today the bombshell fell!I While trying to get the abstracts to 
"Science", write the letters to committee chairmen for trust fund reports, 
prepare the members’ program, to say nothing of the attendance card and 
other little duties, we were told to assemble the manuscript for the 1951- 
1952 Annual Report. The 1950-51 Report is still in page proof, as it was 
last spring. The theory must be that if two moulder together they season 
better. 
At the moment we feel like two little tugboats going up the stream 
against tremendous odds. The most we can say right now is that thus far 
