SECURITY NATIONAL BANK SAVINGS AND TRUST COMPANY EIGHTH STREET BETWENE OLIVE AND LOCUST ST. LOUIS 1, MO J. LIONBERGER DAVIS CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

January 23, 1947

Dr. Albert Einstein, 112 Mercer Street, Princeton , New Jersey.

Personal Again this morning I received a letter dated January 22, 1947, apparently with your name signed as the writer, asking me for a contribution to the $1,000,000 educational fund, which is being raised to arouse understanding and insistence of the peoples of the World in connection with atomic energy. This is the second letter I have received since I made my small contribution last month. I hesitate to be critical; but, frankly, I think someone in the office of the Emergency Committee is spending postage, wasting paper and annoying prospective givers by sending letters helter-skelter. I had somewhat the same feeling yesterday when I wrote you, but I believe in the principle of the great American ball game-two strikes are bad but a third strike puts the batter out! I like to help, to the limit of my ability, movements for a common good, but I hesitate to give my money to an organization which is inefficient, because, if one is inefficient in little things, he may be inefficient in larger things. Please accept this letter in the spirit in which it was written. I am satisfied that you as a great scientist and great citizen of the World-one who knows what relativity means, which I do not-also understands, as I do, that all things are relative and hat what little money we have to give these days will be given to those organizations which do their work intelligently and efficiently, and that we shall not give our money to organizations which apparently fumble and waste their own time and resources, and the time of those to whom they appeal. With every good wish for the success of the cause, and hoping you will be able to perfect the tools which you must use, I am Very cordially, J. Lionberger Davis