ROBERT A. MILLIKAN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 05/10/1939 - HFSID 16663

ROBERT A. MILLIKAN. Typed Letter signed: "Robert A. Millikan", 1p, 7¼x10½. On letterhead of California Institute of Technology. Pasadena, California, 1939 May 10. To Robert Cowan, Los Angeles, California. In full: "A remarkable dinner was held at the Ambassador Hotel on March 15 on behalf of Boys' Clubs in Southern California and throughout the nation. The addresses of Herbert Hoover, Sanford Bates and Joe E. Brown were enthusiastically received. They emphasized the need of work for boys growing up in congested centers of our larger cities and there is no doubt that the audience was convinced of the worthiness of the work which Boys' Clubs are doing throughout the nation. The national organization, of which Herbert Hoover is Chairman of the Board of Directors, is engaged in stimulating the establishment of Boys' Clubs in the crowded areas of cities where there is need for more supervised leisure-time activity for thousands of underprivileged boys. The greater portion of the budget of the Boys' Clubs of America is donated by the national board of directors-splendid citizens who give to the cause much of their time as well as their liberal contributions. You will appreciate, however, that the demands for the national organization's services are so extensive it must depend upon voluntary contributions of many friends throughout the nation for sound growth. If you have not already done so, we hope you will interest yourself in the work being carried on by the Boys' Clubs in our own local cities, and also that you will wish to assist us in reaching more of these underprivileged boys by making a modest contribution up to $25.00, payable to the Boys' Clubs of America, Inc. Your assistance will be greatly appreciated by the organization and by me. Sincerely yours." Physicist Robert A Millikan determined the charge on the electron (1909), then confirmed Einstein's quantum photoelectric equation. For his work he won the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1925, he coined the term "cosmic rays". Fine condition.