Letters Sent to S. Kjaer, May 3, 1929

May 3rd,1929. Mr. S. Kjaer, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S, Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. Dear Mr. Kjaer: I have before me your letters of April 20th and April 29th. The delay in answering has been caused by my absence from the office when your first letter was received. It is true that with an object to aid you all that we possibly could in your investigation I told you that we would give the radium content of the various grades of Undark Luminous Material which we manufacturd. I have just checked this question informally with a number of our Directors and, they are opposed to officially giving this informa- tion since it is so vital a part of our commercial operations. You can see by this that I an placed in an embarrassing position and, of course, iust abide by the decision of our Directors who have final say in all such matters. There is a way around the situation, however, which we believe will give you substantially what you want. We have revealed in general terns the radium content of our various grades and this information was pub- lished in an article by Dr. Fredrick B. Flinn of the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University, issued under date of December 18,1926 in The Journal of the American Eedical Association - copy of which we are pleased to enclose herewith. This fairly accurately covers the situation on the grades of material generally used previous to 1925, the date in which you are inter- ested. It is true that our higher grades of material contain a greater radium content than the article indicates, but these higher grades were used very little previous to 1925 and, only during the past two or three years has the use of higher grade material on expensive wribs watch dials been used to any extent and, even now the total amount is suall in comparison to the lower grades. There is also the additional point, and that is that the present practice is such that no operator has any appreciable amount of material before her at any given time. The information contained herein, while not specifically what you desire, we hope is sufficient for your purposes and will enable you to make an essentially correct report. We also fully realize that you will handle the information in such a manner that if cannot be directly traced to any purchasor or user, unless someone not fully understanding this situation should violate a confidence willingly given. Sincerely yours, CBLee:RH enclosure President.