From "Notes From a Subterranean Library in Oregon," a compilation of Ray Peat's newspaper letters and columns, compiled by T3Uncoupled (2023). Originally published 1985.

Ray Peat, "Money or morality?", p. 52

People working on the “Riverfront Park” project realize that military research might be done there, but claim that this is not an appropriate area for political or moral concerns. Richard Hersh, former university vice president for research, said that it was an “oversight” that the project’s directors were selected without a public announcement, and that “it never entered” his mind that the board is politically biased; but he admitted believing that Democrats are not “successful in business in this town.” According to The Register-Guard (7/19), university administrators oppose extending the ban on classified research to the Riverfront Research Park: They are “reluctant to impose morals on a commercial enterprise.” The vice president for research, John Moseley, says “there would not be a Riverfront Park” without classified research. Forty years ago, many of the people who worked on the Manhattan Project realized that weapons-related science has a moral aspect. Hans Bethe, for example, now actively opposes the Strategic Defense Initiative, which is designed to give the illusion that the bombs can be used without fear of retaliation. The moral and political questions involved in secret weapons or “defense” research are now clearer than they were when work was begun to produce the first nuclear bomb. Our universities have always found it easier to work in the interests of big corporations than to support the interests of workers and ordinary people, because even state funds are influenced by business people. But when it openly becomes a choice between money and morality, President Olum should boldly take a stand against prostitution of the university.