Letters Received, no date

I suppose that Barker did not last long after I called you in New York. You thought at that time he could not live more than about two days. I was terribly sorry to be too late to see him and it still pains me very much to think that it was his misfortune to succumb to his work with radium to which he had devoted the better part of his life. I trust that the man you got from Missouri is working out satisfactorily. He had had such good experience under Dr. Schlundt that I have no doubt about it. There is one matter that I will mention which may interest you. A number of years ago, possibly before your connection with the United States Radium Corporation, they employed at my sugges- tion an Austrian physicist, Victor F. Hess. Dr. Hess attained quite a good position and salary during his connection with the Company, and I have no doubt but what his services were very valu- able. He was a man full of ideas and later attained great dis- tinction by winning the Nobel Prize in 1936 for his work on cosmic rays. He resigned from your Company a number of years ago to go to Austria where he was made Professor of Physics at the University of Graz, Tyrol, Austria. His step-son, John V. Breisky of Baltimore, who, I believe, is an American citizen writes me that owing to Hitler taking over Austria, Hess has lost his position in the University and would like to return to America. I am not writing to recommend that you consider him, but merely to call him to your attention in case you already did not know of his previous connection with the Company. If you intended to branch out in any new lines or needed a physicist with original and constructive ideas, you might be able to use him to advantage.