Vannevar Bush (1890–1974) was an American engineer, inventor, and p...
This letter, dated November 17, 1944, is President Franklin D. Roos...
> "In the last 40 years life expectancy in the United States has in...
> "Notwithstanding great progress in prolonging the span of life an...
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the endless frontier
75
th
Anniversary Edition
VANNEVAR BUSH
Reprinted in celebration of the National Science Foundation’s 70th anniversary
1950-2020
Book cover photo: © Arnold Newman Collection via Getty Images
SCIENCE
THE ENDLESS FRONTIER
A Report to the President
by
VANNEVAR BUSH
Director of the
Oce of Scientic Research and Development
July 1945
Foreword by France A. Córdova, 14th Director of NSF
Reissued by the National Science Foundation in celebration of the agency’s
70th anniversary and the 75th anniversary of Science—the Endless Frontier
CELEBRATING NSF’S 70th BIRTHDAY
By France A. Córdova, 14th Director of NSF
“...basic research is the pacemaker of technological progress.”
That statement is as relevant today as it was in 1945 when Vannevar Bush wrote
it in his landmark tract, Science—the Endless Frontier. In the report, submitted
to President Harry S. Truman, Bush made the case for creating a new agency
that he and others felt was needed to support the underlying basic research
essential for combatting disease, ensuring national security, and increasing the
standard of living, including supporting new industries and jobs.
Bush drew an important lesson from directing the Ofce of Scientic Research
and Development during World War II: “The most important ways in which
the Government can promote industrial research are to increase the ow of
new scientic knowledge through support of basic research and to aid in the
development of scientic talent.” Bush desired that the benets of scientic re-
search realized during the war could have even wider application postwar. He
advocated for government funding of basic research in universities, colleges,
and research institutes because that’s where the talent was. He admired the
freedom of inquiry he experienced as an administrator at MIT. Bush lauded
curiosity-driven research with people working on “subjects of their own choice.”
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Additionally, he voiced the need to support training a new generation of sci-
entic talent. The committee advising him on this issue held that opportunity be
provided to all: “that there be no ceilings, other than ability itself, to intellectual
ambition... every boy and girl shall know that, if he shows that he has what it
takes, the sky is the limit.”
Five years later, Congress created NSF. The long gap between Bush’s proposal
and the start of the new agency gave other federal agencies—notably the
Atomic Energy Commission, the National Institutes of Health, and the Ofce of
Naval Research—the opportunity to expand their portfolios. Thus, the new NSF
did not become the funder of all basic research across the federal government
that Bush had envisioned. Yet in many ways, the report had the impact Bush
sought, and his inuence on science policy continues to be enormous. Today,
NSF’s basic science and engineering portfolio ranges farther and wider than
any other agency; its support of academic research is profoundly felt in our
nation’s colleges and universities; and development of a talented scientic
workforce continues to be a dominant focus. Bush’s noble arguments in favor
of basic research continue to resonate today. We can hear their echoes in
powerful statements about the value of basic research made by members of
Congress, presidential administrations, NSF, the National Science Board, and
science and engineering leaders around the world.
Over the decades, NSF’s portfolio evolved in response to various presidential
and congressional policies, as well as those made by NSF and the National
Science Board, which establishes the policies of the Foundation. The shifting
tides of public and political opinion, at scales large and small, shaped the
emphases of NSF’s programs and awards, spurring changes not originally
envisioned by Bush.
What has changed?
The portfolio of the agency has grown and evolved since NSF took shape in
1950, transformed by the interests of various stakeholders over the intervening
seven decades. Here, I highlight some of the changes.
Evolving scientic structures:
• An image on NSF’s History Wall in its Alexandria, Virginia, headquarters
memorializes the agency’s rst grants. NSF’s very rst grant, for $10,300,
was in the biological sciences and went to the Institute for Cancer Research.
In writing his prescription in 1945 for a new agency devoted to the progress
of science, Vannevar Bush emphasized the need for government support
of basic research in “medicine and the underlying sciences” for “the War
Against Disease.” Yet, in the ve years between the publication of Bush’s
report and the establishment of NSF by Congress, the National Institutes
| iv
of Health expanded its research scope and funding. NSF thus focused on
research designed to understand underlying principles and mechanisms that
manifest in living systems, from molecules to ecosystems, including basic re-
search in neuroscience and other areas relevant to human health. Indeed,
many NSF-funded discoveries in physics and biology have resulted in novel
detectors and technologies for medicine. Today’s biological sciences portfo-
lio includes studies on genomics and epigenetics, plant biology, organismal
systems, ecology and biodiversity. The recent advent of Big Data is cap-
tured in biology’s rst large facility—the National Ecological Observatory
Network, completed in 2019. This new, continental-scale facility is designed
to collect long-term, open-access ecological data to understand the living,
changing environment.
• NSF created a social sciences division in 1957 (at the urging of Vice President
Nixon who saw its defense benets) and it became a stand-alone direc-
torate in 1992. This was not in Bush’s original plan; yet over time, its tie
to pressing national needs became increasingly recognized. In 1968, Con-
gress explicitly added support for social science to NSF’s mandate. NSF’s
social science directorate collaborates now, more than ever, across direc-
torate boundaries, recognizing that “convergence” of disciplines is relevant
to many urgent issues of the day. In addition, economists funded by the
directorate dominate the roster of Nobel prizes awarded in that discipline.
The applications of their work have demonstrated the social sciences’ broad
impact on decision making and quality of life throughout the world.
• Since the origin of NSF, the portfolio of the geosciences directorate has
expanded signicantly. Over the decades that followed its creation, NSF
became one of several federal science agencies that funded research on
the interactions between oceans, the atmosphere, land, and human activity.
Those interactions make up what is now seen as the whole Earth system.
New tools and computational modeling helped researchers make important
breakthroughs in understanding how catastrophic weather and climate
affect human life and property and how human activity affects the Earth’s
climate. Arctic-focused research documented accelerating environmental
changes and associated feedback cycles that affect the entire planet. This
work continues to stimulate national conversation and motivate ground-
breaking new research. The geosciences directorate also has oversight
for the nation’s Antarctica program—a critically important geo-political
responsibility—whose facilities and unique terrain continue to deliver
scientic breakthroughs in our understanding of the planet and the cosmos.
• Over time, engineering has taken on more prominence at the Foundation.
Where basic research in science produces insights on the world that we have,
basic research in engineering produces vital knowledge about how to build
the world that we want. Since 1973, engineers have facilitated dynamic
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NSF-funded partnerships with government, academia, and industry. While
Bush’s original document would have focused the agency on basic research
alone and left more applied research to industry, NSF has gone on to fund
many programs with technology transfer in mind, including the Engineering
Research Centers and the more recent Innovation Corps. These efforts build
faster tracks to tangible outcomes, have produced many startups, and have
earned approval from the Administration and Congress. Since its origin in
1981, the engineering directorate has created value in many ways, from
more effective methods of disaster response, to additive manufacturing, to
new medical devices and more.
• Computer and information science and engineering became its own
directorate in 1986. This would have pleased Bush, who was in the
vanguard of those who saw the potential of computers to change every
aspect of life. Even Bush could not have envisioned the digital revolution that
was about to happen, nor could he have envisioned NSF’s role in expanding
the Internet, funding high-performance supercomputers, and creating the
means for multiple generations of researchers to access unprecedented
computational power. He would have been surprised, perhaps, to see the
depth and richness of computation and its increasing ability to handle large
quantities of data, offering more discovery potential to every discipline.
He would have delighted in today’s discussions of the heady promise of
articial intelligence, and the need to create a safe, transparent, fair and
ethical framework for it.
• The education and human resources directorate’s portfolio has expanded
from funding only graduate student fellowships in 1952 to now including
support for primary, secondary and undergraduate education, as well
as informal learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM). In increasingly fast and complex informational environments, basic
research on education transforms how science is taught and can produce
massive improvements in what students learn. While debates about science
curricula continue, particularly in the primary and secondary school context,
a broad set of stakeholders remains committed to Bush’s ideal of raising
the prole of STEM education nationally. Today, the education and human
resources directorate engages partners from academe, industry, nonprots
and other federal agencies to fund dynamic new inquiries in how to improve
STEM teaching and learning.
• It is noteworthy that math and the physical sciences formed the kernel of
NSF at its beginnings and have not changed much in structure. Math and
physical sciences activities continue to draw strong public and political sup-
port. These programs’ path-breaking results leverage innovative research
designs, large high-tech facilities, and access to new levels of computational
power to advance science and inspire audiences worldwide. In recent years,
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for example, just in the eld of astrophysics, NSF-funded scientists have
produced pristine images of solar systems in the making, have made the
rst detection on Earth of gravitational waves from merging black holes and
merging neutron stars, have detected high-energy neutrinos from an active
galaxy called a “blazar,” and have imaged a massive black hole at the
center of a far-off galaxy. These discoveries resolve century-old questions
about the formation of our solar system, the origin of gravitational waves
and the origin of cosmic rays. They also demonstrate the discovery potential
of sophisticated new tools. Bush would have been thrilled.
Expanding diversity:
A key element of NSF’s work through the years has been to expand diversity and
broaden participation in science. Bush argued that funding awards should be
done based on competitive merit alone. NSF has expanded the pool of human
capital able to propose meritorious work by encouraging people from all walks
of life—regardless of identity, geographic location, or career path—to pursue
the advanced scientic training needed to satisfy NSF’s high standards.
NSF has had a longstanding commitment to broaden the participation of women
and underrepresented minorities in science and engineering. In response, all of
NSF, particularly the education and human resources directorate, has spawned
programs for promoting access and learning opportunities to underrepresented
students with an interest in STEM. NSF’s INCLUDES program will broaden the
participation of all underrepresented people in STEM by instituting programs
nationwide and networking them together to scale up this effort.
Moreover, in response to congressional concerns about the concentration of
research funding in a small number of states, NSF became the rst federal
agency to found the EPSCoR program (Experimental Program to Stimulate
Competitive Research) in 1979. The EPSCoR program has demonstrated that
an investment in building broad institutional capacity encourages innovation
nationwide and helps to draw more underrepresented participants into science
and engineering. Recognizing its longstanding nature, the “E” in EPSCoR was
changed to mean “Established” rather than “Experimental” in 2018.
The agency has become more sensitive to career diversity as well. Today, more
graduating STEM students are choosing non-academic careers. This trend has
motivated NSF and academia to reexamine STEM training, particularly at
the graduate level, with an eye to making science curricula more relevant to
a broader variety of jobs. As the demand for STEM skills continues to grow
throughout the economy, NSF, with the backing of the National Science Board,
is putting additional focus on developing the skilled technical workforce. This
focus includes training and retraining workers at all levels of education for not
only today’s skilled jobs, but the jobs envisioned in the industries of the future.
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Industry has responded with new partnerships with NSF to help STEM educators
and institutions provide critical and relevant scientic information with increasing
effectiveness.
Science in the national interest
NSF’s mandate was designed from the rst moment to serve the national interest;
Bush made a point of that in his report, and it is in the agency’s authorizing
charter. How that mandate is to be interpreted and what programs are to be
specically funded have been open to vigorous discussion and vulnerable to
differing priorities since NSF was created.
Throughout NSF’s history, up to the present, various congressional “wastebooks”
have called out proposals whose ends are not clear or apparently useful. Yet
reports from the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine
continue to cite examples in which curiosity-driven research that had no
particular application in mind when rst begun yielded breakthroughs that over
time advanced the national interest in profound and lasting ways. The American
Association for the Advancement of Science, a strong advocate for science
and science communication, annually sponsors the Golden Goose awards to
spotlight benecial outcomes from curiosity-driven research whose ends did not
seem obvious at rst. This is all as Bush anticipated when he wrote, “Many of the
most important discoveries have come as a result of experiments undertaken
with very different purposes in mind.”
NSF’s continuing ability to enable benecial impacts is a result of many factors,
but none more important than its commitment to merit review. This process, which
discerns the most promising research, has been a hallmark of NSF’s value-
proposition since its inception. With 70 years of history now in hand—including
the agency’s support of more than 230 Nobel Prize winners at some point in
their careers—it is clear that the Foundation’s merit review system generates
a vast array of research designs that produce remarkable discoveries—
discoveries that advance science, advance the national interest, and improve
the quality of life for our citizens.
Also in “Science—The Endless Frontier”
There are many sections of Bush’s famous report that are not usually empha-
sized in reviews but are relevant to today’s scientic enterprise. I mention them
here to highlight the breadth of Bush’s thinking, which embraced international
collaboration, public service, and even a specic institutional design for a new
agency.
For example, Bush talked about removing the barriers imposed on scientic
research during wartime and recovering “freedom of inquiry and that healthy
| viii
competitive scientic spirit so necessary for the expansion of the frontiers of
scientic knowledge.” There were international scientic competitors of that day,
chiey in Europe. In fact, the U.S.’s growing ability to compete globally hinged
on its commitment to the free ow of scientic information, which encouraged an
inux of talent from around the world. Bush recognized that strength and said,
“The government should take an active role in promoting the international ow
of scientic information.” He argued that scientic knowledge, when conducted
at a single university or research institute, could become discrete and isolated.
By contrast, broad engagement provided a better means for a country to stay
competitive scientically. For this reason, he called for coordination of programs
among the science agencies and allied governments.
Bush also advocated scholarships and fellowships for students who would be
enrolled in a national science reserve. This reserve would be called “into the
service of the government” in time of crisis and would be accompanied by
the lifting of security restrictions postwar to advance science more rapidly. He
sought progress and insight by cultivating engagement and openness at critical
times.
The nal chapter of the report (“Means to the End”) is Bush’s detailed proposal
for the new agency, including the mechanism for its creation, its organization
into specic divisions, the function of the “Members of the Foundation,” advice
on patent policies, and special authorities that the agency should contain. He
offered specic advice on budgets for the divisions. He emphasized that most
important were “The Five Fundamentals,” the underlying principles for creating
the new agency. Among these principles were stability and continuity of funding,
administration of grants by citizens with deep understanding of scientic
research and education, refrain of the agency from operating laboratories of
its own, control of the grant environment by universities and research institutes,
and accountability to the president and Congress. Although NSF, as stood up
by Congress ve years later, differed somewhat from this proposal—notably
in the appointment of the Director by the President rather than by the National
Science Board—it sustained the stated purposes of supporting basic research
and developing America’s scientic talent.
The heart of the matter
Science—the Endless Frontier was a remarkably prescient treatise. It retains
much of its original vision and relevance today. One might argue with Bush’s
singular devotion to basic research and who should be the purveyor and
supporter of it. Bush wrote, “Basic research is a long-term process—it ceases
to be basic if immediate results are expected on short-term support.” Yet the
dividing line today between basic and applied research is not as clear as it
was when Bush wrote his report. Many university investigators are engaged in
the full spectrum of research, from fundamental discovery to application, and
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are blind to a division between these phases of research development. Today,
use-inspired basic research and curiosity-driven basic research motivate many
young scientists and engineers. There is an increased emphasis in all sectors on
technology transfer and return on investment, which this has been adopted by
academia as well as the private sector. New “accelerators” funded by both
private entities and the government strive to bring research and new ideas to
fruition faster.
Information technology has been a powerful stimulant for these changes, creat-
ing opportunities for exchange of research, data, and ideas that would have
been hard to envision in the aftermath of World War II. These changes allow
for new forms of scientic communication and exchange. Today at NSF, these
opportunities manifest in many ways—particularly in our commitment to the Big
Ideas. The Big Ideas build on Bush’s vision by motivating researchers from many
disciplines to work together at all stages of the scientic process on topics that
are critical to science and to the nation.
Serving the nation remains the agency’s core mission, and today NSF works
with many other agencies to advance the national interest. Interagency re-
lationships have evolved in important ways. Bush wrote in 1945, “We have
no national policy for science.” Today, the Ofce of Science and Technology
Policy and the President’s National Science and Technology Council work with
the full range of science-oriented agencies to coordinate activities, and NSF’s
National Science Board maintains an active role in informing national science
policy. These efforts help NSF and other agencies convert federal investments
in science into transformative public value.
Bush’s visionary statement on science’s role in society contains many elements
that still ring true today. For example, Bush wrote, “Science has been in the
wings. It should be brought to the center of the stage—for in it lies much of
our hope for the future.” Science, which underlies almost all of our modern
conveniences and medical and defense infrastructures, and which has made so
many new industries possible, is still not center-stage. Until it is, Bush’s document
will stand as a beacon for the hope it provides. It reminds us that investments in
potentially transformative science, and rigorous multi-faceted engagement with
the world of science, are the keys to keeping our nation vibrant, competitive,
and strong. There is risk and reward to be had on the frontiers of science.
| x
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
Letter of Transmittal..........................................xiii
President Roosevelt’s Letter .....................................xv
Summary of the Report ........................................ 1
1. Introduction:
Scientic Progress is Essential ................................... 7
Science is a Proper Concern of Government ....................... 8
Government Relations to Science—Past and Future .................. 8
Freedom of Inquiry Must be Preserved ........................... 9
2. The War Against Disease:
In War ................................................... 11
In Peace ................................................... 11
Unsolved Problems .......................................... 12
Broad and Basic Studies Needed ............................... 12
Coordinated Attack on Special Problems ......................... 13
Action is Necessary .......................................... 13
3. Science and the Public Welfare:
Relation to National Security................................... 15
Science and Jobs ............................................ 16
The Importance of Basic Research .............................. 17
Centers of Basic Research ..................................... 17
Research Within the Government ............................... 18
Industrial Research........................................... 19
International Exchange of Scientic Information.................... 20
The Special Need for Federal Support .......................... 20
The Cost of a Program ....................................... 21
4. Renewal of our Scientic Talent:
Nature of the Problem ....................................... 23
A Note of Warning .......................................... 23
The Wartime Decit.......................................... 24
Improve the Quality.......................................... 25
Remove the Barriers ......................................... 25
The Generation in Uniform Must Not be Lost ...................... 26
A Program ................................................. 26
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Chapter Page
5. A Problem of Scientic Reconversion:
Effects of Mobilization of Science for War ....................... 29
Security Restrictions Should be Lifted Promptly .................... 29
Need for Coordination .......................................30
A Board to Control Release.................................... 31
Publication Should be Encouraged .............................. 31
6. The Means to the End:
New Responsibilities for Government ............................ 33
The Mechanism ............................................. 34
Five Fundamentals ........................................... 35
Military Research............................................ 35
National Research Foundation ................................. 36
I. Purposes ............................................... 36
II. Members ............................................... 37
III. Organization............................................ 37
IV. Functions ............................................... 38
V. Patent Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
VI. Special Authority......................................... 40
VII. Budget................................................. 42
Action by Congress .......................................... 42
Appendices
1. Committees Consulted..................................... 45
2. Report of the Medical Advisory Committee,
Dr. W. W. Palmer, Chairman................................ 49
3. Report of the Committee on Science and the Public Welfare,
Dr. Isaiah Bowman, Chairman............................... 77
4. Report of the Committee on Discovery and Development of
Scientic Talent, Mr. Henry Allen Moe, Chairman...............151
5. Report of the Committee on Publication of Scientic Information,
Dr. Irvin Stewart, Chairman................................213
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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
1530 P STREET, NW.
WASHINGTON 25, D. C.
JULY 5, 1945.
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:
In a letter dated November 17, 1944, President Roosevelt requested my recom-
mendations on the following points:
(1) What can be done, consistent with military security, and with the prior ap-
proval of the military authorities, to make known to the world as soon as possible the
contributions which have been made during our war eort to scientic knowledge?
(2) With particular reference to the war of science against disease, what can be done
now to organize a program for continuing in the future the work which has been done
in medicine and related sciences?
(3) What can the Government do now and in the future to aid research activities
by public and private organizations?
(4) Can an eective program be proposed for discovering and developing scientic
talent in American youth so that the continuing future of scientic research in this
country may be assured on a level comparable to what has been done during the war?
It is clear from President Roosevelt’s letter that in speaking of science he had in
mind the natural sciences, including biology and medicine, and I have so interpreted
his questions. Progress in other elds, such as the social sciences and the humanities,
is likewise important; but the program for science presented in my report warrants
immediate attention.
In seeking answers to President Roosevelt’s questions I have had the assistance of
distinguished committees specially qualied to advise in respect to these subjects.
e committees have given these matters the serious attention they deserve; indeed,
they have regarded this as an opportunity to participate in shaping the policy of the
country with reference to scientic research. ey have had many meetings and have
submitted formal reports. I have been in close touch with the work of the committees
and with their members throughout. I have examined all of the data they assembled
and the suggestions they submitted on the points raised in President Roosevelt’s letter.
Although the report which I submit herewith is my own, the facts, conclusions, and
recommendations are based on the ndings of the committees which have studied
these questions. Since my report is necessarily brief, I am including as appendices the
full reports of the committees.
A single mechanism for implementing the recommendations of the several com-
mittees is essential. In proposing such a mechanism I have departed somewhat from
the specic recommendations of the committees, but I have since been assured that
the plan I am proposing is fully acceptable to the committee members.
e pioneer spirit is still vigorous within this nation. Science oers a largely unex-
plored hinterland for the pioneer who has the tools for his task. e rewards of such
xiii |
exploration both for the Nation and the individual are great. Scientic progress is one
essential key to our security as a nation, to our better health, to more jobs, to a higher
standard of living, and to our cultural progress.
Respectfully yours,
S V. BUSH, DIRECTOR.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
e White House,
Washington, D. C.
| xiv
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S LETTER
THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington, D. C.
November 17, 1944
DEAR DR. BUSH: e Oce of Scientic Research and Development, of which
you are the Director, represents a unique experiment of team-work and cooperation
in coordinating scientic research and in applying existing scientic knowledge to the
solution of the technical problems paramount in war. Its work has been conducted
in the utmost secrecy and carried on without public recognition of any kind: but its
tangible results can be found in the communiques coming in from the battlefronts all
over the world. Someday the full story of its achievements can be told.
ere is, however, no reason why the lessons to be found in this experiment cannot
be protably employed in times of peace. e information, the techniques, and the
research experience developed by the Oce of Scientic Research and Development
and by the thousands of scientists in the universities and in private industry, should
be used in the days of peace ahead for the improvement of the national health, the
creation of new enterprises bringing new jobs, and the betterment of the national
standard of living.
It is with that objective in mind that I would like to have your recommendations
on the following four major points:
First: What can be done, consistent with military security, and with the prior ap-
proval of the military authorities, to make known to the world as soon as possible the
contributions which have been made during our war eort to scientic knowledge?
e diusion of such knowledge should help us stimulate new enterprises, provide
jobs for our returning servicemen and other workers, and make possible great strides
for the improvement of the national well-being.
Second: With particular reference to the war of science against disease, what can be
done now to organize a program for continuing in the future the work which has been
done in medicine and related sciences?
e fact that the annual deaths in this country from one or two diseases alone are
far in excess of the total number of lives lost by us in battle during this war should
make us conscious of the duty we owe future generations.
ird: What can the Government do now and in the future to aid research activ-
ities by public and private organizations? e proper roles of public and of private
research, and their interrelation, should be carefully considered.
Fourth: Can an eective program be proposed for discovering and developing sci-
entic talent in American youth so that the continuing future of scientic research
in this country may be assured on a level comparable to what has been done during
the war?
New frontiers of the mind are before us, and if they are pioneered with the same
vision, boldness, and drive with which we have waged this war we can create a fuller
and more fruitful employment and a fuller and more fruitful life.
xv |
I hope that, after such consultation as you may deem advisable with your associates
and others, you can let me have your considered judgment on these matters as soon
as convenient—reporting on each when you are ready, rather than waiting for com-
pletion of your studies in all.
Very sincerely yours,
S FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT.
DR. VANNEVAR BUSH,
Oce of Scientic Research and Development,
Washington, D. C.
| xvi
SCIENCE
THE ENDLESS FRONTIER
“New frontiers of the mind are before us, and if
they are pioneered with the same vision, boldness,
and drive with which we have waged this war we
can create a fuller and more fruitful employment
and a fuller and more fruitful life.”
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT.
November 17, 1944.
xvii |
SUMMARY OF THE REPORT
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS IS ESSENTIAL
Progress in the war against disease depends upon a ow of new scientic
knowledge. New products, new industries, and more jobs require continuous ad-
ditions to knowledge of the laws of nature, and the application of that knowl-
edge to practical purposes. Similarly, our defense against aggression demands
new knowledge so that we can develop new and improved weapons. This es-
sential, new knowledge can be obtained only through basic scientic research.
Science can be effective in the national welfare only as a member of a
team, whether the conditions be peace or war. But without scientic progress no
amount of achievement in other directions can insure our health, prosperity, and
security as a nation in the modern world.
For the War Against Disease
We have taken great strides in the war against disease. The death rate for
all diseases in the Army, including overseas forces, has been reduced from 14.1
per thousand in the last war to 0.6 per thousand in this war. In the last 40 years
life expectancy has increased from 49 to 65 years, largely as a consequence
of the reduction in the death rates of infants and children. But we are far from
the goal. The annual deaths from one or two diseases far exceed the total
number of American lives lost in battle during this war. A large fraction of these
deaths in our civilian population cut short the useful lives of our citizens. Approx-
imately 7,000,000 persons in the United States are mentally ill and their care
costs the public over $175,000,000 a year. Clearly much illness remains for
which adequate means of prevention and cure are not yet known.
The responsibility for basic research in medicine and the underlying sciences,
so essential to progress in the war against disease, falls primarily upon the
medical schools and universities. Yet we nd that the traditional sources of
support for medical research in the medical schools and universities, largely
endowment income, foundation grants, and private donations, are diminishing
and there is no immediate prospect of a change in this trend. Meanwhile, the
1 |
cost of medical research has been rising. If we are to maintain the progress in
medicine which has marked the last 25 years, the Government should extend
nancial support to basic medical research in the medical schools and in uni-
versities.
For Our National Security
The bitter and dangerous battle against the U-boat was a battle of scientic
techniques—and our margin of success was dangerously small. The new eyes
which radar has supplied can sometimes be blinded by new scientic develop-
ments. V-2 was countered only by capture of the launching sites.
We cannot again rely on our allies to hold off the enemy while we struggle
to catch up. There must be more—and more adequate—military research in
peacetime. It is essential that the civilian scientists continue in peacetime some
portion of those contributions to national security which they have made so
effectively during the war. This can best be done through a civilian-controlled
organization with close liaison with the Army and Navy, but with funds direct
from Congress, and the clear power to initiate military research which will sup-
plement and strengthen that carried on directly under the control of the Army
and Navy.
And for the Public Welfare
One of our hopes is that after the war there will be full employment. To
reach that goal the full creative and productive energies of the American peo-
ple must be released. To create more jobs we must make new and better and
cheaper products. We want plenty of new, vigorous enterprises. But new prod-
ucts and processes are not born full-grown. They are founded on new principles
and new conceptions which in turn result from basic scientic research. Basic
scientic research is scientic capital. Moreover, we cannot any longer depend
upon Europe as a major source of this scientic capital. Clearly, more and
better scientic research is one essential to the achievement of our goal of full
employment.
How do we increase this scientic capital? First, we must have plenty of men
and women trained in science, for upon them depends both the creation of new
knowledge and its application to practical purposes. Second, we must strength-
en the centers of basic research which are principally the colleges, universities,
and research institutes. These institutions provide the environment which is most
conducive to the creation of new scientic knowledge and least under pressure
for immediate, tangible results. With some notable exceptions, most research
in industry and in Government involves application of existing scientic knowl-
edge to practical problems. It is only the colleges, universities, and a few re-
search institutes that devote most of their research efforts to expanding the
frontiers of knowledge.
Expenditures for scientic research by industry and Government increased
| 2
from $140,000,000 in 1930 to $309,000,000 in 1940. Those for the colleges
and universities increased from $20,000,000 to $31,000,000, while those for
the research institutes declined from $5,200,000 to $4,500,000 during the
same period. If the colleges, universities, and research institutes are to meet
the rapidly increasing demands of industry and Government for new scientic
knowledge, their basic research should be strengthened by use of public funds.
For science to serve as a powerful factor in our national welfare, applied
research both in Government and in industry must be vigorous. To improve the
quality of scientic research within the Government, steps should be taken to
modify the procedures for recruiting, classifying, and compensating scientic
personnel in order to reduce the present handicap of governmental scientic
bureaus in competing with industry and the universities for top-grade scientic
talent. To provide coordination of the common scientic activities of these gov-
ernmental agencies as to policies and budgets, a permanent Science Advisory
Board should be created to advise the executive and legislative branches of
Government on these matters.
The most important ways in which the Government can promote industrial
research are to increase the ow of new scientic knowledge through support
of basic research, and to aid in the development of scientic talent. In addition,
the Government should provide suitable incentives to industry to conduct re-
search, (a) by clarication of present uncertainties in the Internal Revenue Code
in regard to the deductibility of research and development expenditures as
current charges against net income, and (b) by strengthening the patent system
so as to eliminate uncertainties which now bear heavily on small industries and
so as to prevent abuses which reect discredit upon a basically sound system. In
addition, ways should be found to cause the benets of basic research to reach
industries which do not now utilize new scientic knowledge.
WE MUST RENEW OUR SCIENTIFIC TALENT
The responsibility for the creation of new scientic knowledge—and for most
of its application—rests on that small body of men and women who understand
the fundamental laws of nature and are skilled in the techniques of scientic
research. We shall have rapid or slow advance on any scientic frontier de-
pending on the number of highly qualied and trained scientists exploring it.
The decit of science and technology students who, but for the war, would
have received bachelor’s degrees is about 150,000. It is estimated that the
decit of those obtaining advanced degrees in these elds will amount in 1955
to about 17,000—for it takes at least 6 years from college entry to achieve
a doctor’s degree or its equivalent in science or engineering. The real ceiling
on our productivity of new scientic knowledge and its application in the war
against disease, and the development of new products and new industries, is
the number of trained scientists available.
The training of a scientist is a long and expensive process. Studies clearly
show that there are talented individuals in every part of the population, but
3 |
with few exceptions, those without the means of buying higher education go
without it. If ability, and not the circumstance of family fortune, determines who
shall receive higher education in science, then we shall be assured of constantly
improving quality at every level of scientic activity. The Government should
provide a reasonable number of undergraduate scholarships and graduate
fellowships in order to develop scientic talent in American youth. The plans
should be designed to attract into science only that proportion of youthful tal-
ent appropriate to the needs of science in relation to the other needs of the
nation for high abilities.
Including Those in Uniform
The most immediate prospect of making up the decit in scientic personnel
is to develop the scientic talent in the generation now in uniform. Even if we
should start now to train the current crop of high-school graduates none would
complete graduate studies before 1951. The Armed Services should comb their
records for men who, prior to or during the war, have given evidence of talent
for science, and make prompt arrangements, consistent with current discharge
plans, for ordering those who remain in uniform, as soon as militarily possible,
to duty at institutions here and overseas where they can continue their scien-
tic education. Moreover, the Services should see that those who study over-
seas have the benet of the latest scientic information resulting from research
during the war.
THE LID MUST BE LIFTED
While most of the war research has involved the application of existing sci-
entic knowledge to the problems of war, rather than basic research, there has
been accumulated a vast amount of information relating to the application of
science to particular problems. Much of this can be used by industry. It is also
needed for teaching in the colleges and universities here and in the Armed
Forces Institutes overseas. Some of this information must remain secret, but most
of it should be made public as soon as there is ground for belief that the ene-
my will not be able to turn it against us in this war. To select that portion which
should be made public, to coordinate its release, and denitely to encourage
its publication, a Board composed of Army, Navy, and civilian scientic mem-
bers should be promptly established.
A PROGRAM FOR ACTION
The Government should accept new responsibilities for promoting the ow
of new scientic knowledge and the development of scientic talent in our
youth. These responsibilities are the proper concern of the Government, for
they vitally affect our health, our jobs, and our national security. It is in keep-
ing also with basic United States policy that the Government should foster the
| 4
opening of new frontiers and this is the modern way to do it. For many years
the Government has wisely supported research in the agricultural colleges and
the benets have been great. The time has come when such support should be
extended to other elds.
The effective discharge of these new responsibilities will require the full at-
tention of some over-all agency devoted to that purpose. There is not now in the
permanent Governmental structure receiving its funds from Congress an agen-
cy adapted to supplementing the support of basic research in the colleges,
universities, and research institutes, both in medicine and the natural sciences,
adapted to supporting research on new weapons for both Services, or adapt-
ed to administering a program of science scholarships and fellowships.
Therefore I recommend that a new agency for these purposes be estab-
lished. Such an agency should be composed of persons of broad interest and
experience, having an understanding of the peculiarities of scientic research
and scientic education. It should have stability of funds so that long-range
programs may be undertaken. It should recognize that freedom of inquiry must
be preserved and should leave internal control of policy, personnel, and the
method and scope of research to the institutions in which it is carried on. It
should be fully responsible to the President and through him to the Congress
for its program.
Early action on these recommendations is imperative if this nation is to meet
the challenge of science in the crucial years ahead. On the wisdom with which
we bring science to bear in the war against disease, in the creation of new
industries, and in the strengthening of our Armed Forces depends in large
measure our future as a nation.
5 |
| 6
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Scientic Progress Is Essential
We all know how much the new drug, penicillin, has meant to our grievously
wounded men on the grim battlefronts of this war—the countless lives it has
saved—the incalculable suffering which its use has prevented. Science and the
great practical genius of this nation made this achievement possible.
Some of us know the vital role which radar has played in bringing the United
Nations to victory over Nazi Germany and in driving the Japanese steadily
back from their island bastions. Again it was painstaking scientic research
over many years that made radar possible.
What we often forget are the millions of pay envelopes on a peacetime
Saturday night which are lled because new products and new industries have
provided jobs for countless Americans. Science made that possible, too.
In 1939 millions of people were employed in industries which did not even
exist at the close of the last war—radio, air conditioning, rayon and other
synthetic bers, and plastics are examples of the products of these industries.
But these things do not mark the end of progress—they are but the beginning
if we make full use of our scientic resources. New manufacturing industries
can be started and many older industries greatly strengthened and expanded
if we continue to study nature’s laws and apply new knowledge to practical
purposes.
Great advances in agriculture are also based upon scientic research. Plants
which are more resistant to disease and are adapted to short growing seasons,
the prevention and cure of livestock diseases, the control of our insect enemies,
better fertilizers, and improved agricultural practices, all stem from painstaking
scientic research.
Advances in science when put to practical use mean more jobs, higher wages,
7 |
shorter hours, more abundant crops, more leisure for recreation, for study, for
learning how to live without the deadening drudgery which has been the bur-
den of the common man for ages past. Advances in science will also bring
higher standards of living, will lead to the prevention or cure of diseases, will
promote conservation of our limited national resources, and will assure means
of defense against aggression. But to achieve these objectives—to secure a
high level of employment, to maintain a position of world leadership—the ow
of new scientic knowledge must be both continuous and substantial.
Our population increased from 75 million to 130 million between 1900 and
1940. In some countries comparable increases have been accompanied by
famine. In this country the increase has been accompanied by more abundant
food supply, better living, more leisure, longer life, and better health. This is,
largely, the product of three factors—the free play of initiative of a vigorous
people under democracy, the heritage of great natural wealth, and the ad-
vance of science and its application.
Science, by itself, provides no panacea for individual, social, and economic
ills. It can be effective in the national welfare only as a member of a team,
whether the conditions be peace or war. But without scientic progress no
amount of achievement in other directions can insure our health, prosperity,
and security as a nation in the modern world.
Science Is a Proper Concern of Government
It has been basic United States policy that Government should foster the
opening of new frontiers. It opened the seas to clipper ships and furnished land
for pioneers. Although these frontiers have more or less disappeared, the fron-
tier of science remains. It is in keeping with the American tradition—one which
has made the United States great—that new frontiers shall be made accessible
for development by all American citizens.
Moreover, since health, well-being, and security are proper concerns of Gov-
ernment, scientic progress is, and must be, of vital interest to Government.
Without scientic progress the national health would deteriorate; without sci-
entic progress we could not hope for improvement in our standard of living or
for an increased number of jobs for our citizens; and without scientic progress
we could not have maintained our liberties against tyranny.
Government Relations to Science—Past and Future
From early days the Government has taken an active interest in scientic mat-
ters. During the nineteenth century the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Naval
Observatory, the Department of Agriculture, and the Geological Survey were
established. Through the Land Grant College Acts the Government has support-
ed research in state institutions for more than 80 years on a gradually increasing
scale. Since 1900 a large number of scientic agencies have been established
within the Federal Government, until in 1939 they numbered more than 40.
| 8
Much of the scientic research done by Government agencies is interme-
diate in character between the two types of work commonly referred to as
basic and applied research. Almost all Government scientic work has ultimate
practical objectives but, in many elds of broad national concern, it commonly
involves long-term investigation of a fundamental nature. Generally speaking,
the scientic agencies of Government are not so concerned with immediate
practical objectives as are the laboratories of industry nor, on the other hand,
are they as free to explore any natural phenomena without regard to possible
economic applications as are the educational and private research institutions.
Government scientic agencies have splendid records of achievement, but they
are limited in function.
We have no national policy for science. The Government has only begun to
utilize science in the nation’s welfare. There is no body within the Government
charged with formulating or executing a national science policy. There are no
standing committees of the Congress devoted to this important subject. Science
has been in the wings. It should be brought to the center of the stage—for in it
lies much of our hope for the future.
There are areas of science in which the public interest is acute but which
are likely to be cultivated inadequately if left without more support than will
come from private sources. These areas—such as research on military prob-
lems, agriculture, housing, public health, certain medical research, and research
involving expensive capital facilities beyond the capacity of private institu-
tions—should be advanced by active Government support. To date, with the
exception of the intensive war research conducted by the Ofce of Scientic
Research and Development, such support has been meager and intermittent.
For reasons presented in this report we are entering a period when science
needs and deserves increased support from public funds.
Freedom of Inquiry Must Be Preserved
The publicly and privately supported colleges, universities, and research in-
stitutes are the centers of basic research. They are the wellsprings of knowl-
edge and understanding. As long as they are vigorous and healthy and their
scientists are free to pursue the truth wherever it may lead, there will be a ow
of new scientic knowledge to those who can apply it to practical problems in
Government, in industry, or elsewhere.
Many of the lessons learned in the war-time application of science under
Government can be protably applied in peace. The Government is peculiarly
tted to perform certain functions, such as the coordination and support of
broad programs on problems of great national importance. But we must pro-
ceed with caution in carrying over the methods which work in wartime to the
very different conditions of peace. We must remove the rigid controls which
we have had to impose, and recover freedom of inquiry and that healthy com-
petitive scientic spirit so necessary for expansion of the frontiers of scientic
knowledge.
9 |
Scientic progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intel-
lects, working on subjects of their own choice, in the manner dictated by their
curiosity for exploration of the unknown. Freedom of inquiry must be preserved
under any plan for Government support of science in accordance with the Five
Fundamentals listed on page 35.
The study of the momentous questions presented in President Roosevelt’s let-
ter has been made by able committees working diligently. This report presents
conclusions and recommendations based upon the studies of these committees
which appear in full as the appendices. Only in the creation of one over-all
mechanism rather than several does this report depart from the specic recom-
mendations of the committees. The members of the committees have reviewed
the recommendations in regard to the single mechanism and have found this
plan thoroughly acceptable.
| 10
CHAPTER 2
THE WAR AGAINST DISEASE
In War
The death rate for all diseases in the Army, including the overseas forces,
has been reduced from 14.1 per thousand in the last war to 0.6 per thousand
in this war.
Such ravaging diseases as yellow fever, dysentery, typhus, tetanus, pneu-
monia, and meningitis have been all but conquered by penicillin and the sulfa
drugs, the insecticide DDT, better vaccines, and improved hygienic measures.
Malaria has been controlled. There has been dramatic progress in surgery.
The striking advances in medicine during the war have been possi-
ble only because we had a large backlog of scientic data accumulated
through basic research in many scientic elds in the years before the war.
In Peace
In the last 40 years life expectancy in the United States has increased from
49 to 65 years largely as a consequence of the reduction in the death rates of
infants and children; in the last 20 years the death rate from the diseases of
childhood has been reduced 87 percent.
Diabetes has been brought under control by insulin, pernicious anemia by
liver extracts; and the once widespread deciency diseases have been much
reduced, even in the lowest income groups, by accessory food factors and im-
provement of diet. Notable advances have been made in the early diagnosis
of cancer, and in the surgical and radiation treatment of the disease.
These results have been achieved through a great amount of basic research
in medicine and the preclinical sciences, and by the dissemination of this new
scientic knowledge through the physicians and medical services and public
11 |
health agencies of the country. In this cooperative endeavour the pharmaceu-
tical industry has played an important role, especially during the war. All of
the medical and public health groups share credit for these achievements; they
form interdependent members of a team.
Progress in combating disease depends upon an expanding body of new
scientic knowledge.
Unsolved Problems
As President Roosevelt observed, the annual deaths from one or two diseases
are far in excess of the total number of American lives lost in battle during this
war. A large fraction of these deaths in our civilian population cut short the
useful lives of our citizens. This is our present position despite the fact that in the
last three decades notable progress has been made in civilian medicine. The
reduction in death rate from diseases of childhood has shifted the emphasis to
the middle and old age groups, particularly to the malignant diseases and the
degenerative processes prominent in later life. Cardiovascular disease, includ-
ing chronic disease of the kidneys, arteriosclerosis, and cerebral hemorrhage,
now account for 45 percent of the deaths in the United States. Second are the
infectious diseases, and third is cancer. Added to these are many maladies (for
example, the common cold, arthritis, asthma and hay fever, peptic ulcer) which,
though infrequently fatal, cause incalculable disability.
Another aspect of the changing emphasis is the increase of mental diseases.
Approximately 7 million persons in the United States are mentally ill; more than
one-third of the hospital beds are occupied by such persons, at a cost of $175
million a year. Each year 125,000 new mental cases are hospitalized.
Notwithstanding great progress in prolonging the span of life and in
relief of suffering, much illness remains for which adequate means of pre-
vention and cure are not yet known. While additional physicians, hospitals,
and health programs are needed, their full usefulness cannot be attained
unless we enlarge our knowledge of the human organism and the nature
of disease. Any extension of medical facilities must be accompanied by an
expanded program of medical training and research.
Broad and Basic Studies Needed
Discoveries pertinent to medical progress have often come from remote and
unexpected sources, and it is certain that this will be true in the future. It is
wholly probable that progress in the treatment of cardiovascular disease, re-
nal disease, cancer, and similar refractory diseases will be made as the result
of fundamental discoveries in subjects unrelated to those diseases, and per-
haps entirely unexpected by the investigator. Further progress requires that
the entire front of medicine and the underlying sciences of chemistry, physics,
anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, bacteriology, pathology,
parasitology, etc., be broadly developed.
| 12
Progress in the war against disease results from discoveries in remote
and unexpected elds of medicine and the underlying sciences.
Coordinated Attack on Special Problems
Penicillin reached our troops in time to save countless lives because the Gov-
ernment coordinated and supported the program of research and develop-
ment on the drug. The development moved from the early laboratory stage
to large scale production and use in a fraction of the time it would have taken
without such leadership. The search for better anti-malarials, which proceeded
at a moderate tempo for many years, has been accelerated enormously by
Government support during the war. Other examples can be cited in which
medical progress has been similarly advanced. In achieving these results, the
Government has provided over-all coordination and support; it has not dictat-
ed how the work should be done within any cooperating institution.
Discovery of new therapeutic agents and methods usually results from basic
studies in medicine and the underlying sciences. The development of such ma-
terials and methods to the point at which they become available to medical
practitioners requires teamwork involving the medical schools, the science de-
partments of universities, Government and the pharmaceutical industry. Gov-
ernment initiative, support, and coordination can be very effective in this de-
velopment phase.
Government initiative and support for the development of newly dis-
covered therapeutic materials and methods can reduce the time required to
bring the benets to the public.
Action is Necessary
The primary place for medical research is in the medical schools and uni-
versities. In some cases coordinated direct attack on special problems may be
made by teams of investigators, supplementing similar attacks carried on by
the Army, Navy, Public Health Service, and other organizations. Apart from
teaching, however, the primary obligation of the medical schools and universi-
ties is to continue the traditional function of such institutions, namely, to provide
the individual worker with an opportunity for free, untrammeled study of na-
ture, in the directions and by the methods suggested by his interests, curiosity,
and imagination. The history of medical science teaches clearly the supreme
importance of affording the prepared mind complete freedom for the exercise
of initiative. It is the special province of the medical schools and universities to
foster medical research in this way—a duty which cannot be shifted to govern-
ment agencies, industrial organizations, or to any other institutions.
Where clinical investigations of the human body are required, the medical
schools are in a unique position, because of their close relationship to teaching
hospitals, to integrate such investigations with the work of the departments of
preclinical science, and to impart new knowledge to physicians in training. At
13 |
the same time, the teaching hospitals are especially well qualied to carry on
medical research because of their close connection with the medical schools, on
which they depend for staff and supervision.
Between World War I and World War II the United States overtook all other
nations in medical research and assumed a position of world leadership. To a
considerable extent this progress reected the liberal nancial support from
university endowment income, gifts from individuals, and foundation grants in
the 20’s. The growth of research departments in medical schools has been very
uneven, however, and in consequence most of the important work has been
done in a few large schools. This should be corrected by building up the weaker
institutions, especially in regions which now have no strong medical research
activities.
The traditional sources of support for medical research, largely endowment
income, foundation grants, and private donations, are diminishing, and there
is no immediate prospect of a change in this trend. Meanwhile, research costs
have steadily risen. More elaborate and expensive equipment is required, sup-
plies are more costly, and the wages of assistants are higher. Industry is only to
a limited extent a source of funds for basic medical research.
It is clear that if we are to maintain the progress in medicine which has
marked the last 25 years, the Government should extend nancial support
to basic medical research in the medical schools and in the universities,
through grants both for research and for fellowships. The amount which
can be effectively spent in the rst year should not exceed 5 million dollars.
After a program is under way perhaps 20 million dollars a year can be
spent effectively.
| 14
CHAPTER 3
SCIENCE AND THE PUBLIC WELFARE
Relation to National Security
In this war it has become clear beyond all doubt that scientic research is
absolutely essential to national security. The bitter and dangerous battle
against the U-boat was a battle of scientic techniques—and our margin
of success was dangerously small. The new eyes which radar supplied to our
ghting forces quickly evoked the development of scientic countermeasures
which could often blind them. This again represents the ever continuing battle
of techniques. The V-1 attack on London was nally defeated by three devices
developed during this war and used superbly in the eld. V-2 was countered
only by capture of the launching sites.
The Secretaries of War and Navy recently stated in a joint letter to the
National Academy of Sciences:
is war emphasizes three facts of supreme importance to national
security: (1) Powerful new tactics of defense and oense are developed
around new weapons created by scientic and engineering research;
(2) the competitive time element in developing those weapons and
tactics may be decisive; (3) war is increasingly total war, in which the armed
services must be supplemented by active participation of every element of
civilian population.
To insure continued preparedness along farsighted technical lines, the
research scientists of the country must be called upon to continue in peacetime
some substantial portion of those types of contribution to national security
which they have made so eectively during the stress of the present war * * *.
There must be more—and more adequate—military research during
peacetime. We cannot again rely on our allies to hold off the enemy while
15 |
we struggle to catch up. Further, it is clear that only the Government can
undertake military research; for it must be carried on in secret, much of it has
no commercial value, and it is expensive. The obligation of Government to sup-
port research on military problems is inescapable.
Modern war requires the use of the most advanced scientic techniques.
Many of the leaders in the development of radar are scientists who before
the war had been exploring the nucleus of the atom. While there must be in-
creased emphasis on science in the future training of ofcers for both the Army
and Navy, such men cannot be expected to be specialists in scientic research.
Therefore a professional partnership between the ofcers in the Services and
civilian scientists is needed.
The Army and Navy should continue to carry on research and development
on the improvement of current weapons. For many years the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics has supplemented the work of the Army and Navy
by conducting basic research on the problems of ight. There should now be
permanent civilian activity to supplement the research work of the Services in
other scientic elds so as to carry on in time of peace some part of the activi-
ties of the emergency war-time Ofce of Scientic Research and Development.
Military preparedness requires a permanent independent, civilian-con-
trolled organization, having close liaison with the Army and Navy, but
with funds directly from Congress and with the clear power to initiate mili-
tary research which will supplement and strengthen that carried on directly
under the control of the Army and Navy.
Science and Jobs
One of our hopes is that after the war there will be full employment, and
that the production of goods and services will serve to raise our standard of
living. We do not know yet how we shall reach that goal, but it is certain that
it can be achieved only by releasing the full creative and productive energies
of the American people.
Surely we will not get there by standing still, merely by making the same
things we made before and selling them at the same or higher prices. We will
not get ahead in international trade unless we offer new and more attractive
and cheaper products.
Where will these new products come from? How will we nd ways to make
better products at lower cost? The answer is clear. There must be a stream of
new scientic knowledge to turn the wheels of private and public enterprise.
There must be plenty of men and women trained in science and technology for
upon them depend both the creation of new knowledge and its application to
practical purposes.
More and better scientic research is essential to the achievement of our
goal of full employment.
| 16
The Importance of Basic Research
Basic research is performed without thought of practical ends. It results in
general knowledge and an understanding of nature and its laws. This general
knowledge provides the means of answering a large number of important
practical problems, though it may not give a complete specic answer to any
one of them. The function of applied research is to provide such complete
answers. The scientist doing basic research may not be at all interested in
the practical applications of his work, yet the further progress of industrial
development would eventually stagnate if basic scientic research were long
neglected.
One of the peculiarities of basic science is the variety of paths which lead to
productive advance. Many of the most important discoveries have come as a
result of experiments undertaken with very different purposes in mind. Statis-
tically it is certain that important and highly useful discoveries will result from
some fraction of the undertakings in basic science; but the results of any one
particular investigation cannot be predicted with accuracy.
Basic research leads to new knowledge. It provides scientic capital. It cre-
ates the fund from which the practical applications of knowledge must be
drawn. New products and new processes do not appear full-grown. They are
founded on new principles and new conceptions, which in turn are painstakingly
developed by research in the purest realms of science.
Today, it is truer than ever that basic research is the pacemaker of techno-
logical progress. In the nineteenth century, Yankee mechanical ingenuity, build-
ing largely upon the basic discoveries of European scientists, could greatly
advance the technical arts. Now the situation is different.
A nation which depends upon others for its new basic scientic knowl-
edge will be slow in its industrial progress and weak in its competitive
position in world trade, regardless of its mechanical skill.
Centers of Basic Research
Publicly and privately supported colleges and universities and the endowed
research institutes must furnish both the new scientic knowledge and the trained
research workers. These institutions are uniquely qualied by tradition and by
their special characteristics to carry on basic research. They are charged with the
responsibility of conserving the knowledge accumulated by the past, imparting
that knowledge to students, and contributing new knowledge of all kinds. It is
chiey in these institutions that scientists may work in an atmosphere which is rel-
atively free from the adverse pressure of convention, prejudice, or commercial
necessity. At their best they provide the scientic worker with a strong sense of
solidarity and security, as well as a substantial degree of personal intellectual
freedom. All of these factors are of great importance in the development of
new knowledge, since much of new knowledge is certain to arouse opposition
because of its tendency to challenge current beliefs or practice.
17 |
Industry is generally inhibited by preconceived goals, by its own clearly de-
ned standards, and by the constant pressure of commercial necessity. Satisfac-
tory progress in basic science seldom occurs under conditions prevailing in the
normal industrial laboratory. There are some notable exceptions, it is true, but
even in such cases it is rarely possible to match the universities in respect to the
freedom which is so important to scientic discovery.
To serve effectively as the centers of basic research these institutions must
be strong and healthy. They must attract our best scientists as teachers and
investigators. They must offer research opportunities and sufcient compensa-
tion to enable them to compete with industry and government for the cream of
scientic talent.
During the past 25 years there has been a great increase in industrial
research involving the application of scientic knowledge to a multitude of
practical purposes—thus providing new products, new industries, new invest-
ment opportunities, and millions of jobs. During the same period research
within Government—again largely applied research—has also been greatly
expanded. In the decade from 1930 to 1940 expenditures for industrial re-
search increased from $116,000,000 to $240,000,000 and those for scientic
research in Government rose from $24,000,000 to $69,000,000. During the
same period expenditures for scientic research in the colleges and universities
increased from $20,000,000 to $31,000,000, while those in the endowed
research institutes declined from $5,200,000 to $4,500,000. These are the
best estimates available. The gures have been taken from a variety of sources
and arbitrary denitions have necessarily been applied, but it is believed that
they may be accepted as indicating the following trends:
(a) Expenditures for scientic research by industry arid Govern-
ment—almost entirely applied research—have more than doubled
between 1930 and 1940. Whereas in 1930 they were six times as
large as the research expenditures of the colleges, universities, and
research institutes, by 1940 they were nearly ten times as large.
(b) While expenditures for scientic research in the colleges and
universities increased by one-half during this period, those for the
endowed research institutes have slowly declined.
If the colleges, universities, and research institutes are to meet the rapidly
increasing demands of industry and Government for new scientic knowl-
edge, their basic research should be strengthened by use of public funds.
Research Within the Government
Although there are some notable exceptions, most research conducted within
governmental laboratories is of an applied nature. This has always been true
and is likely to remain so. Hence Government, like industry, is dependent upon
the colleges, universities, and research institutes to expand the basic scientic
| 18
frontiers and to furnish trained scientic investigators.
Research within the Government represents an important part of our total
research activity and needs to be strengthened and expanded after the war.
Such expansion should be directed to elds of inquiry and service which are of
public importance and are not adequately carried on by private organizations.
The most important single factor in scientic and technical work is the qual-
ity of personnel employed. The procedures currently followed within the Gov-
ernment for recruiting, classifying and compensating such personnel place the
Government under a severe handicap in competing with industry and the uni-
versities for rst-class scientic talent. Steps should be taken to reduce that
handicap.
In the Government the arrangement whereby the numerous scientic agencies
form parts of larger departments has both advantages and disadvantages.
But the present pattern is rmly established and there is much to be said for it.
There is, however, a very real need for some measure of coordination of the
common scientic activities of these agencies, both as to policies and budgets,
and at present no such means exist.
A permanent Science Advisory Board should be created to consult with
these scientic bureaus and to advise the executive and legislative branch-
es of Government as to the policies and budgets of Government agencies
engaged in scientic research.
This board should be composed of disinterested scientists who have no con-
nection with the affairs of any Government agency.
Industrial Research
The simplest and most effective way in which the Government can strengthen
industrial research is to support basic research and to develop scientic talent.
The benets of basic research do not reach all industries equally or at the
same speed. Some small enterprises never receive any of the benets. It has
been suggested that the benets might be better utilized if “research clinics”
for such enterprises were to be established. Businessmen would thus be able to
make more use of research than they now do. This proposal is certainly worthy
of further study.
One of the most important factors affecting the amount of industrial research
is the income-tax law. Government action in respect to this subject will affect
the rate of technical progress in industry. Uncertainties as to the attitude of the
Bureau of Internal Revenue regarding the deduction of research and devel-
opment expenses are a deterrent to research expenditure. These uncertainties
arise from lack of clarity of the tax law as to the proper treatment of such costs.
The Internal Revenue Code should be amended to remove present
uncertainties in regard to the deductibility of research and development
expenditures as current charges against net income.
Research is also affected by the patent laws. They stimulate new invention
and they make it possible for new industries to be built around new devices
19 |
or new processes. These industries generate new jobs and new products, all of
which contribute to the welfare and the strength of the country.
Yet, uncertainties in the operation of the patent laws have impaired the
ability of small industries to translate new ideas into processes and products of
value to the nation. These uncertainties are, in part, attributable to the difcul-
ties and expense incident to the operation of the patent system as it presently
exists. These uncertainties are also attributable to the existence of certain abus-
es, which have appeared in the use of patents. The abuses should be corrected.
They have led to extravagantly critical attacks which tend to discredit a basi-
cally sound system.
It is important that the patent system continue to serve the country in the man-
ner intended by the Constitution, for it has been a vital element in the industrial
vigor which has distinguished this nation.
The National Patent Planning Commission has reported on this subject. In ad-
dition, a detailed study, with recommendations concerning the extent to which
modications should be made in our patent laws is currently being made under
the leadership of the Secretary of Commerce. It is recommended, therefore,
that specic action with regard to the patent laws be withheld pending the
submission of the report devoted exclusively to that subject.
International Exchange of Scientic Information
International exchange of scientic information is of growing importance.
Increasing specialization of science will make it more important than ever that
scientists in this country keep continually abreast of developments abroad. In
addition a ow of scientic information constitutes one facet of general inter-
national accord which should be cultivated.
The Government can accomplish signicant results in several ways: by aiding
in the arrangement of international science congresses, in the ofcial accredit-
ing of American scientists to such gatherings, in the ofcial reception of foreign
scientists of standing in this country, in making possible a rapid ow of technical
information, including translation service, and possibly in the provision of inter-
national fellowships. Private foundations and other groups partially fulll some
of these functions at present, but their scope is incomplete and inadequate.
The Government should take an active role in promoting the international
ow of scientic information.
The Special Need for Federal Support
We can no longer count on ravaged Europe as a source of fundamental
knowledge. In the past we have devoted much of our best efforts to the ap-
plication of such knowledge which has been discovered abroad. In the future
we must pay increased attention to discovering this knowledge for ourselves
particularly since the scientic applications of the future will be more than ever
dependent upon such basic knowledge.
| 20
New impetus must be given to research in our country. Such new impetus can
come promptly only from the Government. Expenditures for research in the
colleges, universities, and research institutes will otherwise not be able to meet
the additional demands of increased public need for research.
Further, we cannot expect industry adequately to ll the gap. Industry will
fully rise to the challenge of applying new knowledge to new products. The
commercial incentive can be relied upon for that. But basic research is essen-
tially noncommercial in nature. It will not receive the attention it requires if left
to industry.
For many years the Government has wisely supported research in the agri-
cultural colleges’ and the benets have been great. The time has come when
such support should be extended to other elds.
In providing Government support, however, we must endeavor to preserve as
far as possible the private support of research both in industry and in the col-
leges, universities, and research institutes. These private sources should continue
to carry their share of the nancial burden.
The Cost of a Program
It is estimated that an adequate program for Federal support of basic
research in the colleges, universities, and research institutes and for nancing
important applied research in the public interest, will cost about 10 million
dollars at the outset and may rise to about 50 million dollars annually when
fully underway at the end of perhaps 5 years.
21 |
| 22
CHAPTER 4
RENEWAL OF OUR SCIENTIFIC TALENT
Nature of the Problem
The responsibility for the creation of new scientic knowledge rests on that
small body of men and women who understand the fundamental laws of nature
and are skilled in the techniques of scientic research. While there will always
be the rare individual who will rise to the top without benet of formal educa-
tion and training, he is the exception and even he might make a more notable
contribution if he had the benet of the best education we have to offer. I
cannot improve on President Conant’s statement that:
“* * * in every section of the entire area where the word science may prop-
erly be applied, the limiting factor is a human one. We shall have rapid or
slow advance in this direction or in that depending on the number of really
rst-class men who are engaged in the work in question. * * * So in the last
analysis, the future of science in this country will be determined by our basic
educational policy.”
A Note of Warning
It would be folly to set up a program under which research in the natural sci-
ences and medicine was expanded at the cost of the social sciences, humanities,
and other studies so essential to national wellbeing. This point has been well
stated by the Moe Committee as follows:
“As citizens, as good citizens, we therefore think that we must have in mind
while examining the question before us—the discovery and development of
scientic talent—the needs of the whole national welfare. We could not sug-
gest to you a program which would syphon into science and technology a
23 |
disproportionately large share of the nation’s highest abilities, without doing
harm to the nation, nor, indeed, without crippling science. * * * Science can-
not live by and unto itself alone.”
* * *
“e uses to which high ability in youth can be put are various and, to a
large extent, are determined by social pressures and rewards. When aided by
selective devices for picking out scientically talented youth, it is clear that
large sums of money for scholarships and fellowships and monetary and other
rewards in disproportionate amounts might draw into science too large a
percentage of the nation’s high ability, with a result highly detrimental to the
nation and to science. Plans for the discovery and development of scientic
talent must be related to the other needs of society for high ability * * * ere
is never enough ability at high levels to satisfy all the needs of the nation;
we would not seek to draw into science any more of it than science’s propor-
tionate share.”
The Wartime Decit
Among the young men and women qualied to take up scientic work, since
1940 there have been few students over 18, except some in medicine and
engineering in Army and Navy programs and a few 4-F’s, who have followed
an integrated scientic course of studies.
Neither our allies nor, so far as we know, our enemies have done anything
so radical as thus to suspend almost completely their educational activities in
scientic pursuits during the war period.
Two great principles have guided us in this country as we have turned our full
efforts to war. First, the sound democratic principle that there should be no fa-
vored classes or special privilege in a time of peril, that all should be ready to
sacrice equally; second, the tenet that every man should serve in the capacity
in which his talents and experience can best be applied for the prosecution of
the war effort. In general we have held these principles well in balance.
In my opinion, however, we have drawn too heavily for nonscientic purposes
upon the great natural resource which resides in our trained young scientists
and engineers. For the general good of the country too many such men have
gone into uniform, and their talents have not always been fully utilized. With
the exception of those men engaged in war research, all physically t students
at graduate level have been taken into the armed forces. Those ready for
college training in the sciences have not been permitted to enter upon that
training.
There is thus an accumulating decit of trained research personnel which will
continue for many years. The decit of science and technology students who,
but for the war, would have received bachelor’s degrees is about 150,000.
The decit of those holding advanced degrees—that is, young scholars trained
to the point where they are capable of carrying on original work—has been
estimated as amounting to about 17,000 by 1955 in chemistry, engineering,
geology, mathematics, physics, psychology, and the biological sciences.
| 24
With mounting demands for scientists both for teaching and for research,
we will enter the post-war period with a serious decit in our trained
scientic personnel.
Improve the Quality
Confronted with these decits, we are compelled to look to the use of our
basic human resources and formulate a program which will assure their con-
servation and effective development. The committee advising me on scientic
personnel has stated the following principle which should guide our planning:
“If we were all-knowing and all-wise we might, but we think probably not,
write you a plan whereby there might be selected for training, which they oth-
erwise would not get, those who, 20 years hence, would be scientic leaders,
and we might not bother about any lesser manifestations of scientic ability.
But in the present state of knowledge a plan cannot be made which will select,
and assist, only those young men and women who will give the top future
leadership to science. To get top leadership there must be a relatively large
base of high ability selected for development and then successive skimmings of
the cream of ability at successive times and at higher levels. No one can select
from the bottom those who will be the leaders at the top because unmeasured
and unknown factors enter into scientic, or any, leadership. ere are brains
and character, strength and health, happiness and spiritual vitality, interest
and motivation and no one knows what else, that must needs enter into this
supra-mathematical calculus.
“We think we probably would not, even if we were all-wise and all-know-
ing, write you a plan whereby you would be assured of scientic leadership at
one stroke. We think as we think because we are not interested in setting up
an elect. We think it much the best plan, in this constitutional Republic, that
opportunity be held out to all kinds and conditions of men whereby they can
better themselves. is is the American way; this is the way the United States
has become what it is. We think it very important that circumstances be such
that there be no ceilings, other than ability itself, to intellectual ambition. We
think it very important that every boy and girl shall know that, if he shows
that he has what it takes, the sky is the limit. Even if it be shown subsequently
that he has not what it takes to go to the top, he will go further than he would
otherwise go if there had been a ceiling beyond which he always knew he
could not aspire.
“By proceeding from point to point and taking stock on the way, by giving
further opportunity to those who show themselves worthy of further opportu-
nity, by giving the most opportunity to those who show themselves continu-
ally developing—this is the way we propose. is is the American way: a man
works for what he gets.”
Remove the Barriers
Higher education in this country is largely for those who have the means. If
those who have the means coincided entirely with those persons who have the
25 |
talent we should not be squandering a part of our higher education on those
undeserving of it, nor neglecting great talent among those who fail to attend
college for economic reasons. There are talented individuals in every segment
of the population, but with few exceptions those without the means of buying
higher education go without it. Here is a tremendous waste of the greatest
resource of a nation—the intelligence of its citizens.
If ability, and not the circumstance of family fortune, is made to deter-
mine who shall receive higher education in science, then we shall be as-
sured of constantly improving quality at every level of scientic activity.
The Generation in Uniform Must Not Be Lost
We have a serious decit in scientic personnel partly because the men who
would have studied science in the colleges and universities have been serving
in the Armed Forces. Many had begun their studies before they went to war.
Others with capacity for scientic education went to war after nishing high
school. The most immediate prospect of making up some of the decit in scien-
tic personnel is by salvaging scientic talent from the generation in uniform.
For even if we should start now to train the current crop of high school gradu-
ates, it would be 1951 before they would complete graduate studies and be
prepared for effective scientic research. This fact underlines the necessity of
salvaging potential scientists in uniform.
The Armed Services should comb their records for men who, prior to or
during the war, have given evidence of talent for science, and make prompt
arrangements, consistent with current discharge plans, for ordering those
who remain in uniform as soon as militarily possible to duty at institutions
here and overseas where they can continue their scientic education. More-
over, they should see that those who study overseas have the benet of the
latest scientic developments.
A Program
The country may be proud of the fact that 95 percent of boys and girls of
fth grade age are enrolled in school, but the drop in enrollment after the fth
grade is less satisfying. For every 1,000 students in the fth grade, 600 are lost
to education before the end of high school, and all but 72 have ceased formal
education before completion of college. While we are concerned primarily
with methods of selecting and educating high school graduates at the college
and higher levels, we cannot be complacent about the loss of potential talent
which is inherent in the present situation.
Students drop out of school, college, and graduate school, or do not get
that far, for a variety of reasons: they cannot afford to go on; schools and
colleges providing courses equal to their capacity are not available locally;
business and industry recruit many of the most promising before they have
nished the training of which they are capable. These reasons apply with par-
| 26
ticular force to science: the road is long and expensive; it extends at least
6 years beyond high school; the percentage of science students who can obtain
rst-rate training in institutions near home is small.
Improvement in the teaching of science is imperative; for students of latent
scientic ability are particularly vulnerable to high school teaching which fails
to awaken interest or to provide adequate instruction. To enlarge the group of
specially qualied men and women it is necessary to increase the number who
go to college. This involves improved high school instruction, provision for help-
ing individual talented students to nish high school (primarily the responsibility
of the local communities), and opportunities for more capable, promising high
school students to go to college. Anything short of this means serious waste of
higher education and neglect of human resources.
To encourage and enable a larger number of young men and women
of ability to take up science as a career, and in order gradually to reduce
the decit of trained scientic personnel, it is recommended that provision
be made for a reasonable number of (a) undergraduate scholarships and
graduate fellowships and (b) fellowships for advanced training and fun-
damental research. The details should be worked out with reference to the
interests of the several States and of the universities and colleges; and care
should be taken not to impair the freedom of the institutions and individu-
als concerned.
The program proposed by the Moe Committee in Appendix 4 would provide
24,000 undergraduate scholarships and 900 graduate fellowships and would
cost about $30,000,000 annually when in full operation. Each year under this
program 6,000 undergraduate scholarships would be made available to high
school graduates, and 300 graduate fellowships would be offered to college
graduates. Approximately the scale of allowances provided for under the ed-
ucational program for returning veterans has been used in estimating the cost
of this program.
The plan is, further, that all those who receive such scholarships or fellowships
in science should be enrolled in a National Science Reserve and be liable to
call into the service of the Government, in connection with scientic or technical
work in time of war or other national emergency declared by Congress or
proclaimed by the President. Thus, in addition to the general benets to the
nation by reason of the addition to its trained ranks of such a corps of scien-
tic workers, there would be a denite benet to the nation in having these
scientic workers on call in national emergencies. The Government would be
well advised to invest the money involved in this plan even if the benets to
the nation were thought of solely—which they are not—in terms of national
preparedness.
27 |
| 28
CHAPTER 5
A PROBLEM OF SCIENTIFIC RECONVERSION
Effects of Mobilization of Science for War
We have been living on our fat. For more than 5 years many of our scientists
have been ghting the war in the laboratories, in the factories and shops, and
at the front. We have been directing the energies of our scientists to the devel-
opment of weapons and materials and methods, on a large number of relative-
ly narrow projects initiated and controlled by the Ofce of Scientic Research
and Development and other Government agencies. Like troops, the scientists
have been mobilized, and thrown into action to serve their country in time of
emergency. But they have been diverted to a greater extent than is generally
appreciated from the search for answers to the fundamental problems—from
the search on which human welfare and progress depends. This is not a com-
plaint—it is a fact. The mobilization of science behind the lines is aiding the
ghting men at the front to win the war and to shorten it; and it has resulted
incidentally in the accumulation of a vast amount of experience and knowledge
of the application of science to particular problems, much of which can be put
to use when the war is over. Fortunately, this country had the scientists—and the
time—to make this contribution and thus to advance the date of victory.
Security Restrictions Should Be Lifted Promptly
Much of the information and experience acquired during the war is conned
to the agencies that gathered it. Except to the extent that military security
dictates otherwise, such knowledge should be spread upon the record for the
benet of the general public.
Thanks to the wise provision of the Secretary of War and the Secretary of
the Navy, most of the results of war-time medical research have been pub-
29 |
lished. Several hundred articles have appeared in the professional journals;
many are in process of publication. The material still subject to security classi-
cation should be released as soon as possible.
It is my view that most of the remainder of the classied scientic material
should be released as soon as there is ground for belief that the enemy will
not be able to turn it against us in this war. Most of the information needed by
industry and in education can be released without disclosing its embodiments in
actual military material and devices. Basically there is no reason to believe that
scientists of other countries will not in time rediscover everything we now know
which is held in secrecy. A broad dissemination of scientic information upon
which further advances can readily be made furnishes a sounder foundation
for our national security than a policy of restriction which would impede our
own progress although imposed in the hope that possible enemies would not
catch up with us.
During the war it has been necessary for selected groups of scientists to
work on specialized problems, with relatively little information as to what other
groups were doing and had done. Working against time, the Ofce of Scientic
Research and Development has been obliged to enforce this practice during
the war, although it was realized by all concerned that it was an emergency
measure which prevented the continuous cross-fertilization so essential to fruit-
ful scientic effort.
Our ability to overcome possible future enemies depends upon scientic
advances which will proceed more rapidly with diffusion of knowledge
than under a policy of continued restriction of knowledge now in our pos-
session.
Need for Coordination
In planning the release of scientic data and experience collected in connec-
tion with the war, we must not overlook the fact that research has gone forward
under many auspices—the Army, the Navy, the Ofce of Scientic Research
and Development, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, other de-
partments and agencies of the Government, educational institutions, and many
industrial organizations. There have been numerous cases of independent dis-
covery of the same truth in different places. To permit the release of informa-
tion by one agency and to continue to restrict it elsewhere would be unfair in
its effect and would tend to impair the morale and efciency of scientists who
have submerged individual interests in the controls and restrictions of war.
A part of the information now classied which should be released is pos-
sessed jointly by our allies and ourselves. Plans for release of such information
should be coordinated with our allies to minimize danger of international fric-
tion which would result from sporadic uncontrolled release.
| 30
A Board to Control Release
The agency responsible for recommending the release of information from
military classication should be an Army, Navy, civilian body, well grounded in
science and technology. It should be competent to advise the Secretary of War
and the Secretary of the Navy. It should, moreover, have sufcient recognition
to secure prompt and practical decisions.
To satisfy these considerations I recommend the establishment of a
Board, made up equally of scientists and military men, whose function
would be to pass upon the declassication and to control the release for
publication of scientic information which is now classied.
Publication Should Be Encouraged
The release of information from security regulations is but one phase of the
problem. The other is to provide for preparation of the material and its pub-
lication in a form and at a price which will facilitate dissemination and use. In
the case of the Ofce of Scientic Research and Development, arrangements
have been made for the preparation of manuscripts, while the staffs under
our control are still assembled and in possession of the records, as soon as the
pressure for production of results for this war has begun to relax.
We should get this scientic material to scientists everywhere with great
promptness, and at as low a price as is consistent with suitable format. We
should also get it to the men studying overseas so that they will know what has
happened in their absence.
It is recommended that measures which will encourage and facilitate the
preparation and publication of reports be adopted forthwith by all agen-
cies, governmental and private, possessing scientic information released
from security control.
31 |
| 32
CHAPTER 6
THE MEANS TO THE END
New Responsibilities for Government
One lesson is clear from the reports of the several committees attached as
appendices. The Federal Government should accept new responsibilities for
promoting the creation of new scientic knowledge and the development of
scientic talent in our youth.
The extent and nature of these new responsibilities are set forth in detail in
the reports of the committees whose recommendations in this regard are fully
endorsed.
In discharging these responsibilities Federal funds should be made available.
We have given much thought to the question of how plans for the use of Fed-
eral funds may be arranged so that such funds will not drive out of the picture
funds from local governments, foundations, and private donors. We believe
that our proposals will minimize that effect, but we do not think that it can be
completely avoided. We submit, however, that the nation’s need for more and
better scientic research is such that the risk must be accepted.
It is also clear that the effective discharge of these responsibilities will require
the full attention of some over-all agency devoted to that purpose. There should
be a focal point within the Government for a concerted program of assisting sci-
entic research conducted outside of Government. Such an agency should furnish
the funds needed to support basic research in the colleges and universities, should
coordinate where possible research programs on matters of utmost importance
to the national welfare, should formulate a national policy for the Government
toward science, should sponsor the interchange of scientic information among
scientists and laboratories both in this country and abroad, and should ensure that
the incentives to research in industry and the universities are maintained. All of the
committees advising on these matters agree on the necessity for such an agency.
33 |
The Mechanism
There are within Government departments many groups whose interests
are primarily those of scientic research. Notable examples are found within
the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, and the Federal Security
Agency. These groups are concerned with science as collateral and peripher-
al to the major problems of those Departments. These groups should remain
where they are, and continue to perform their present functions, including the
support of agricultural research by grants to the Land Grant Colleges and Ex-
periment Stations, since their largest contribution lies in applying fundamental
knowledge to the special problems of the Departments within which they are
established.
By the same token these groups cannot be made the repository of the new
and large responsibilities in science which belong to the Government and which
the Government should accept. The recommendations in this report which re-
late to research within the Government, to the release of scientic information,
to clarication of the tax laws, and to the recovery and development of our
scientic talent now in uniform can be implemented by action within the existing
structure of the Government. But nowhere in the Governmental structure receiv-
ing its funds from Congress is there an agency adapted to supplementing the
support of basic research in the universities, both in medicine and the natural
sciences; adapted to supporting research on new weapons for both Services; or
adapted to administering a program of science, scholarships and fellowships.
A new agency should be established, therefore, by the Congress for the
purpose. Such an agency, moreover, should be an independent agency de-
voted to the support of scientic research and advanced scientic education
alone. Industry learned many years ago that basic research cannot often be
fruitfully conducted as an adjunct to or a subdivision of an operating agency
or department. Operating agencies have immediate operating goals and are
under constant pressure to produce in a tangible way, for that is the test of
their value. None of these conditions is favorable to basic research. Research is
the exploration of the unknown and is necessarily speculative. It is inhibited by
conventional approaches, traditions, and standards. It cannot be satisfactorily
conducted in an atmosphere where it is gauged and tested by operating or
production standards. Basic scientic research should not, therefore, be placed
under an operating agency whose paramount concern is anything other than
research. Research will always suffer when put in competition with operations.
The decision that there should be a new and independent agency was reached
by each of the committees advising in these matters.
I am convinced that these new functions should be centered in one agency.
Science is fundamentally a unitary thing. The number of independent agencies
should be kept to a minimum. Much medical progress, for example, will come
from fundamental advances in chemistry. Separation of the sciences in tight
compartments, as would occur if more than one agency were involved, would
retard and not advance scientic knowledge as a whole.
| 34
Five Fundamentals
There are certain basic principles which must underlie the program of
Government support for scientic research and education if such support is to
be effective and if it is to avoid impairing the very things we seek to foster.
These principles are as follows:
(1) Whatever the extent of support may be, there must be stability of funds
over a period of years so that long-range programs may be undertaken.
(2) The agency to administer such funds should be composed of citizens
selected only on the basis of their interest in and capacity to promote the work
of the agency. They should be persons of broad interest in and understanding
of the peculiarities of scientic research and education.
(3) The agency should promote research through contracts or grants to
organizations outside the Federal Government. It should not operate any
laboratories of its own.
(4) Support of basic research in the public and private colleges, universities,
and research institutes must leave the internal control of policy, personnel, and
the method and scope of the research to the institutions themselves. This is of
the utmost importance.
(5) While assuring complete independence and freedom for the nature,
scope, and methodology of research carried on in the institutions receiving
public funds, and while retaining discretion in the allocation of funds among
such institutions, the Foundation proposed herein must be responsible to the
President and the Congress. Only through such responsibility can we maintain
the proper relationship between science and other aspects of a democratic
system. The usual controls of audits, reports, budgeting, and the like, should,
of course, apply to the administrative and scal operations of the Foundation,
subject, however, to such adjustments in procedure as are necessary to meet the
special requirements of research.
Basic research is a long-term process—it ceases to be basic if immediate
results are expected on short-term support. Methods should therefore be
found which will permit the agency to make commitments of funds from current
appropriations for programs of ve years duration or longer. Continuity and
stability of the program and its support may be expected (a) from the growing
realization by the Congress of the benets to the public from scientic research,
and (b) from the conviction which will grow among those who conduct research
under the auspices of the agency that good quality work will be followed by
continuing support.
Military Research
As stated earlier in this report, military preparedness requires a permanent,
independent, civilian-controlled organization, having close liaison with the Army
and Navy, but with funds direct from Congress and the clear power to initiate
military research which will supplement and strengthen that carried on directly
35 |
under the control of the Army and Navy. As a temporary measure the National
Academy of Sciences has established the Research Board for National Security
at the request of the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy. This
is highly desirable in order that there may be no interruption in the relations
between scientists and military men after the emergency wartime Ofce of Sci-
entic Research and Development goes out of existence. The Congress is now
considering legislation to provide funds for this Board by direct appropriation.
I believe that, as a permanent measure, it would be appropriate to add to
the agency needed to perform the other functions recommended in this report
the responsibilities for civilian-initiated and civilian-controlled military research.
The function of such a civilian group would be primarily to conduct long-range
scientic research on military problems—leaving to the Services research on
the improvement of existing weapons.
Some research on military problems should be conducted, in time of peace
as well as in war, by civilians independently of the military establishment. It is
the primary responsibility of the Army and Navy to train the men, make avail-
able the weapons, and, employ the strategy that will bring victory in combat.
The Armed Services cannot be expected to be experts in all of the complicated
elds which make it possible for a great nation to ght successfully in total war.
There are certain kinds of research—such as research on the improvement of
existing weapons—which can best be done within the military establishment.
However, the job of long-range research involving application of the newest
scientic discoveries to military needs should be the responsibility of those civil-
ian scientists in the universities and in industry who are best trained to discharge
it thoroughly and successfully. It is essential that both kinds of research go for-
ward and that there be the closest liaison between the two groups.
Placing the civilian military research function in the proposed agency would
bring it into close relationship with a broad program of basic research in both
the natural sciences and medicine. A balance between military and other re-
search could thus readily be maintained.
The establishment of the new agency, including a civilian military research
group, should not be delayed by the existence of the Research Board for Na-
tional Security, which is a temporary measure. Nor should the creation of the
new agency be delayed by uncertainties in regard to the postwar organiza-
tion of our military departments themselves. Clearly, the new agency, including
a civilian military research group within it, can remain sufciently exible to
adapt its operations to whatever may be the nal organization of the military
departments.
National Research Foundation
It is my judgment that the national interest in scientic research and scientic
education can best be promoted by the creation of a National Research Foun-
dation.
I. Purposes.—The National Research Foundation should develop and pro-
| 36
mote a national policy for scientic research and scientic education, should
support basic research in nonprot organizations, should develop scientic tal-
ent in American youth by means of scholarships and fellowships, and should by
contract and otherwise support long-range research on military matters.
II. Members. —1. Responsibility to the people, through the President and the
Congress, should be placed in the hands of, say, nine Members, who should be
persons not otherwise connected with the Government and not representative
of any special interest, who should be known as National Research Foundation
Members, selected by the President on the basis of their interest in and capac-
ity to promote the purposes of the Foundation.
2. The terms of the Members should be, say, 4 years, and no Member should
be eligible for immediate reappointment provided he has served a full 4-year
term. It should be arranged that the Members rst appointed serve terms of
such length that at least two Members are appointed each succeeding year.
3. The Members should serve without compensation but should be entitled to
their expenses incurred in the performance of their duties.
4. The Members should elect their own chairman annually.
5. The chief executive ofcer of the Foundation should be a director ap-
pointed by the Members. Subject to the direction and supervision of the Foun-
dation Members (acting as a board), the director should discharge all the
scal, legal, and administrative functions of the Foundation. The director should
receive a salary that is fully adequate to attract an outstanding man to the
post.
6. There should be an administrative ofce responsible to the director to
handle in one place the scal, legal, personnel, and other similar administrative
functions necessary to the accomplishment of the purposes of the Foundation.
7. With the exception of the director, the division members, and one execu-
tive ofcer appointed by the director to administer the affairs of each division,
all employees of the Foundation should be appointed under Civil Service reg-
ulations.
III. Organization.—1. In order to accomplish the purposes of the Foundation
the Members should establish several professional Divisions to be responsible
to the Members. At the outset these Divisions should be:
a. Division of Medical Research.—The function of this Division should be to
support medical research.
b. Division of Natural Sciences.—The function of this Division should be to
support research in the physical and natural sciences.
c. Division of National Defense.—It should be the function of this Division to
support long-range scientic research on military matters.
d. Division of Scientic Personnel and Education.—It should be the function of
this Division to support and to supervise the grant of scholarships and fellow-
ships in science.
e. Division of Publications and Scientic Collaboration.—This Division should
be charged with encouraging the publication of scientic knowledge and pro-
moting international exchange of scientic information.
37 |
2. Each Division of the Foundation should be made up of at least ve mem-
bers, appointed by the Members of the Foundation. In making such appoint-
ments the Members should request and consider recommendations from the
National Academy of Sciences which should be asked to establish a new Na-
tional Research Foundation nominating committee in order to bring together
the recommendations of scientists in all organizations. The chairman of each
Division should be appointed by the Members of the Foundation.
3. The division Members should be appointed for such terms as the Mem-
bers of the Foundation may determine, and may be reappointed at the dis-
cretion of the Members. They should receive their expenses and compensation
for their services at a per diem rate of, say, $50 while engaged on business of
the Foundation, but no division member should receive more than, say, $10,000
compensation per year.
4. Membership of the Division of National Defense should include, in addi-
tion to, say, ve civilian members, one representative designated by the Secre-
tary of War, and one representative of the Secretary of the Navy, who should
serve without additional compensation for this duty.
IV. Functions.—1. The Members of the Foundation should have the following
functions, powers, and duties:
a. To formulate over-all policies of the Foundation.
b. To establish and maintain such ofces within the United States, its territo-
ries and possessions, as they may deem necessary.
c. To meet and function at any place within the United States, its territories
and possessions.
d. To obtain and utilize the services of other Government agencies to the
extent that such agencies are prepared to render such services.
e. To adopt, promulgate, amend, and rescind rules and regulations to carry
out the provisions of the legislation and the policies and practices of the Foun-
dation.
f. To review and balance the nancial requirements of the several Divisions
and to propose to the President the annual estimate for the funds required
by each Division. Appropriations should be earmarked for the purposes of
specic Divisions, but the Foundation should be left discretion with respect to the
expenditure of each Division’s funds.
g. To make contracts or grants for the conduct of research by negotiation
without advertising for bids.
And with the advice of the National Research Foundation Divisions concerned—
h. To create such advisory and cooperating agencies and councils, state,
regional, or national, as in their judgment will aid in effectuating the purposes
of the legislation, and to pay the expenses thereof.
i. To enter into contracts with or make grants to educational and nonprot
research institutions for support of scientic research.
j. To initiate and nance in appropriate agencies, institutions, or organiza-
tions, research on problems related to the national defense.
k. To initiate and nance in appropriate organizations research projects for
| 38
39 |
which existing facilities are unavailable or inadequate.
l. To establish scholarships and fellowships in the natural sciences including
biology and medicine.
m. To promote the dissemination of scientic and technical information and
to further its international exchange.
n. To support international cooperation in science by providing nancial aid
for international meetings, associations of scientic societies, and scientic re-
search programs organized on an international basis.
o. To devise and promote the use of methods of improving the transition
between research and its practical application in industry.
2. The Divisions should be responsible to the Members of the Foundation for—
a. Formulation of programs and policy within the scope of the particular
Divisions.
b. Recommendation regarding the allocation of research programs among
research organizations.
c. Recommendation of appropriate arrangements between the Foundation
and the organizations selected to carry on the program.
d. Recommendation of arrangements with State and local authorities in re-
gard to cooperation in a program of science scholarships and fellowships.
e. Periodic review of the quality of research being conducted under the
auspices of the particular Division and revision of the program of support of
research.
f. Presentation of budgets of nancial needs for the work of the Division.
g. Maintaining liaison with other scientic research agencies, both govern-
mental and private, concerned with the work of the Division.
V. Patent Policy.—The success of the National Research Foundation in promot-
ing scientic research in this country will depend to a very large degree upon
the cooperation of organizations outside the Government. In making contracts
with or grants to such organizations the Foundation should protect the public
interest adequately and at the same time leave the cooperating organization
with adequate freedom and incentive to conduct scientic research. The pub-
lic interest will normally be adequately protected if the Government receives
a royalty-free license for governmental purposes under any patents resulting
from work nanced by the Foundation. There should be no obligation on the
research institution to patent discoveries made as a result of support from the
Foundation. There should certainly not be any absolute requirement that all
rights in such discoveries be assigned to the Government, but it should be left
to the discretion of the director and the interested Division whether in special
cases the public interest requires such an assignment. Legislation on this point
should leave to the Members of the Foundation discretion as to its patent policy
in order that patent arrangements may be adjusted as circumstances and the
public interest require.
VI. Special Authority.—In order to insure that men of great competence and
experience may be designated as Members of the Foundation and as mem-
bers of the several professional Divisions, the legislation creating the Founda-
| 40
tion should contain specic authorization so that the Members of the Foundation
and the Members of the Divisions may also engage in private and gainful
employment, notwithstanding the provisions of any other laws: provided, how-
ever, that no compensation for such employment is received in any form from
any prot-making institution which receives funds under contract, or otherwise,
from the Division or Divisions of the Foundation with which the individual is con-
cerned. In normal times, in view of the restrictive statutory prohibitions against
dual interests on the part of Government ofcials, it would be virtually impos-
sible to persuade persons having private employment of any kind to serve the
Government in an ofcial capacity. In order, however, to secure the part-time
services of the most competent men as Members of the Foundation and the
Divisions, these stringent prohibitions should be relaxed to the extent indicated.
Since research is unlike the procurement of standardized items, which are
susceptible to competitive bidding on xed specications, the legislation cre-
ating the National Research Foundation should free the Foundation from the
obligation to place its contracts for research through advertising for bids. This is
particularly so since the measure of a successful research contract lies not in the
dollar cost but in the qualitative and quantitative contribution which is made to
our knowledge. The extent of this contribution in turn depends on the creative
spirit and talent which can be brought to bear within a research laboratory.
The National Research Foundation must, therefore, be free to place its research
contracts or grants not only with those institutions which have a demonstrated
research capacity but also with other institutions whose latent talent or creative
atmosphere affords promise of research success.
As in the case of the research sponsored during the war by the Ofce of
Scientic Research and Development, the research sponsored by the National
Research Foundation should be conducted, in general, on an actual cost basis
without prot to the institution receiving the research contract or grant.
There is one other matter which requires special mention. Since research does
not fall within the category of normal commercial or procurement operations
which are easily covered by the usual contractual relations, it is essential that
certain statutory and regulatory scal requirements be waived in the case of
research contractors. For example, the National Research Foundation should
be authorized by legislation to make, modify, or amend contracts of all kinds
with or without legal consideration, and without performance bonds. Similarly,
advance payments should be allowed in the discretion of the Director of the
Foundation when required. Finally, the normal vouchering requirements of the
General Accounting Ofce with respect to detailed itemization or substantia-
tion of vouchers submitted under cost contracts should be relaxed for research
contractors. Adherence to the usual procedures in the case of research contracts
will impair the efciency of research operations and will needlessly increase
the cost of the work to the Government. Without the broad authority along
these lines which was contained in the First War Powers Act and its imple-
menting Executive Orders, together with the special relaxation of vouchering
requirements granted by the General Accounting Ofce, the Ofce of Scientic
41 |
Research and Development would have been gravely handicapped in carry-
ing on research on military matters during this war. Colleges and universities
in which research will be conducted principally under contract with the Foun-
dation are, unlike commercial institutions, not equipped to handle the detailed
vouchering procedures and auditing technicalities which are required of the
usual Government contractors.
VII. Budget.—Studies by the several committees provide a partial basis for
making an estimate of the order of magnitude of the funds required to imple-
ment the proposed program. Clearly the program should grow in a healthy
manner from modest beginnings. The following very rough estimates are given
for the rst year of operation after the Foundation is organized and operat-
ing, and for the fth year of operation when it is expected that the operations
would have reached a fairly stable level:
Action by Congress
The National Research Foundation herein proposed meets the urgent need
of the days ahead. The form of the organization suggested is the result of
considerable deliberation. The form is important. The very successful pattern
of organization of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which has
promoted basic research on problems of ight during the past thirty years,
has been carefully considered in proposing the method of appointment of
Members of the Foundation and in dening their responsibilities. Moreover,
whatever program is established it is vitally important that it satisfy the Five
Fundamentals.
The Foundation here proposed has been described only in outline. The ex-
cellent reports of the committees which studied these matters are attached as
appendices. They will be of aid in furnishing detailed suggestions.
Legislation is necessary. It should be drafted with great care. Early action is
imperative, however, if this nation is to meet the challenge of science and fully
utilize the potentialities of science. On the wisdom with which we bring science
to bear against the problems of the coming years depends in large measure
our future as a nation.
| 42
APPENDICES
43 |
| 44
APPENDIX 1
COMMITTEES CONSULTED
QUESTION
“With particular reference to the war of science against disease, what can
be done now to organize a program for continuing in the future the work which
has been done in medicine and related sciences?”
Committee
Dr. W. W. Palmer, chairman; bard professor of medicine, Columbia University;
director of medical service of Presbyterian Hospital, New York City.
Dr. Homer W. Smith, secretary; director, physiology laboratory, School of
Medicine, New York University.
Dr. Kenneth B. Turner, assistant secretary; assistant professor of medicine,
Columbia University.
Dr. W. B. Castle, professor of medicine, Harvard University; associate director,
Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Boston City Hospital.
Dr. Edward A. Doisy, director, department of physiology and biochemistry,
St. Louis University School of Medicine (recipient of Nobel Award).
Dr. Ernest Goodpasture, professor of pathology, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt
University.
Dr. Alton Ochsner, professor of surgery and head of the department of surgery
at Tulane University School of Medicine.
Dr. Linus Pauling, head of the division of chemistry and chemical engineering
and director of the chemical laboratories at the California Institute of
Technology.
Dr. James J. Waring, professor of medicine, University of Colorado School of
Medicine.
45 |
QUESTION
“What can the Government do now and in the future to aid research activities
by public and private organizations? The proper roles of public and of private
research, and their interrelation, should be carefully considered.”
Committee
Dr. Isaiah Bowman, chairman; president of Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. J. T. Tate, vice chairman; research professor of physics, University of
Minnesota.
Dr. W. Rupert Maclaurin, secretary; professor of economics, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Dr. Oliver E. Buckley, president of the Bell Telephone Laboratories.
Dr. Walter C. Coffey, president of the University of Minnesota.
Mr. Oscar S. Cox, deputy Administrator of the Foreign Economic Administration.
Col. Bradley Dewey, president of Dewey & Almy Chemical Co.
Dr. Clarence A. Dykstra, provost of the University of California at Los Angeles.
Dr. C. P. Haskins, director of Haskins Laboratories.
Dr. Edwin H. Land, president and director of research, Polaroid Corporation.
Dr. Charles E. MacQuigg, dean of the College of Engineering, Ohio State
University.
Dr. Harold G. Moulton, president of the Brookings Institution.
Rev. J. Hugh O’Donnell, president of the University of Notre Dame.
Dr. I. I. Rabi, professor of physics, Columbia University (recipient of Nobel Award).
Dr. Warren Weaver, director for natural sciences, Rockefeller Foundation.
Dr. Robert E. Wilson, chairman of the board, Standard Oil Co. of Indiana.
Dr. William E. Wrather, director, U. S. Geological Survey.
QUESTION
“Can an effective program be proposed for discovering and developing
scientic talent in American youth so that the continuing future of scientic
research in this country may be assured on a level comparable to what has
been done during the war?”
Committee
Dr. Henry Allen Moe, chairman; secretary-general of the John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation.
Mr. Lawrence K. Frank, secretary.
Mr. Henry Chauncey, assistant secretary.
Dr. Henry A. Barton, director of the American Institute of Physics.
Dr. C. Lalor Burdick, special assistant to the president, E. I. du Pont de
Nemours & Co.
| 46
Dr. J. B. Conant, president of Harvard University; chairman of the National
Defense Research Committee.
Dr. Watson Davis, editor and director of Science Service.
Dr. R. E. Doherty, president of the Carnegie Institute of Technology.
Dr. Paul E. Elicker, executive secretary, National Association of Secondary
School Principals.
Mr. Farnham P. Grifths, lawyer, San Francisco.
Dr. W. S. Hunter, professor of psychology at Brown University.
Dr. T. R. McConnell, dean of the College of Science, Literature, and Arts at the
University of Minnesota.
Mr. Walter S. Rogers, director of the Institute of Current World Affairs.
Dr. Harlow Shapley, director of the Harvard College Observatory.
Dr. Hugh S. Taylor, dean of the Graduate School, Princeton University.
Dr. E. B. Wilson, professor of vital statistics, Harvard University School of Public
Health.
QUESTION
“What can be done, consistent with military security, and with the prior
approval of the military authorities to make known to the world as soon as pos-
sible the contributions which have been made during our war effort to scientic
knowledge?”
Committee
Dr. Irvin Stewart, chairman; executive secretary of the Ofce of Scientic
Research and Development; director of the Committee on Scientic Aids to
Learning of the National Research Council.
Mr. Cleveland Norcross, secretary; executive assistant to the executive secretary
of the Ofce of Scientic Research and Development.
Dr. J. P. Baxter III, president of Williams College; historian of the Ofce of
Scientic Research and Development.
Dr. Karl T. Compton, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
chairman of the Research Board for National Security; member of the
National Defense Research Committee.
Dr. J. B. Conant, president of Harvard University; chairman of the National
Defense Research Committee.
Dr. A. N. Richards, vice president of the University of Pennsylvania in charge
of Medical Affairs; chairman of the Committee on Medical Research of the
Ofce of Scientic Research and Development.
Dr. M. A. Tuve, director, applied physics laboratory, Johns Hopkins University;
staff member of the department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington.
Mr. Carroll L. Wilson, executive assistant to the Director of the Ofce of Scientic
Research and Development.
47 |
| 48
APPENDIX 2
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL ADVISORY
COMMITTEE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Letter of transmittal ............................................ 51
Members of the Committee ...................................... 52
Summary..................................................... 53
Recommendations .............................................. 55
Part I. Considerations on which the recommendations of the Committee
are based ................................................. 57
1. The record of medicine in World War II ...................... 57
2. The Committee on Medical Research of the Ofce of Scientic
Research and Development ................................ 58
3. Effect of war on medical research ........................... 58
4. The need for continued medical research ..................... 58
5. Importance of fundamental research to the progress of medicine .. 60
6. The place of medical schools and universities in medical research .. 61
7. Medical research under State sponsorship in Great Britain ....... 62
8. The need for Federal aid to medical research ................. 63
9. How nancial aid should be supplied ........................ 64
10. Estimated cost of program ................................. 65
11. The need of an independent agency ......................... 66
12. Compensation ........................................... 67
13. Patent rights ............................................ 68
Part II. Fundamental principles governing the use of Federal funds
for medical research ......................................... 69
49 |
Page
Part III. Recommendations outlining the establishment of a “National
Foundation for Medical Research” as an independent Federal agency . 71
1. Composition of the Foundation ..............................71
Board of trustees ........................................ 71
Technical board ......................................... 72
Ofce of the executive secretary............................ 73
2. Functions of the Foundation................................. 74
Financial Aid ............................................ 74
a. General research funds ................................ 74
b. Fellowships .......................................... 75
c. Grants-in-aid ........................................ 75
Coordination and initiation of research ....................... 76
3. Reports ................................................ 76
4. Authority to modify procedure .............................. 76
| 50
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
DR. VANNEVAR BUSH, Director,
Oce of Scientic Research and Development,
1530 P Street NW., Washington 25, D. C.
APRIL 25, 1945.
MY DEAR DR. BUSH: It is my privilege to submit herewith the report of the
Medical Advisory Committee appointed by you in January of this year to answer the
second question in President Roosevelt’s letter of November 17, 1944, which was
worded:
With particular reference to the war of science against disease, what can be done
now to organize a program for continuing in the future the work which has been done
in medicine and related sciences? e fact that the annual deaths in this country from
one or two diseases alone are far in excess of the total number of lives lost by us in battle
during this war should make us conscious of the duty we owe future generations.
In preparing this report, the Committee has consulted some 350 representatives
from 73 of the 77 medical schools of the United States, from the Services, from var-
ious research institutions, from the pharmaceutical industry, and from philanthropic
foundations; it has conferred in joint meeting with the Committee on Medical
Research and it has received written comment and advice from many leaders in
medicine and allied sciences throughout the country.
e report, which is preceded by a summary, is in three parts: (1) Considerations
on which the recommendations of the Committee are based, (2) fundamental prin-
ciples governing the use of Federal funds for medical research, (3) recommendations
outlining the establishment of a National Foundation for Medical Research as an
independent Federal agency.
e Committee recognizes a great and urgent need for the expansion and reno-
vation of medical school laboratories. However, our study has taken no account of
this requirement, pertinent as it is to medical research, since a building program was
considered outside the scope of our assignment.
is report has the unanimous approval of my Committee and I submit it with
the conviction that it has, almost without exception, the endorsement of the many
individuals to whom the Committee is so deeply indebted for freely given and
valuable advice.
Respectfully yours,
WALTER W. PALMER, Chairman,
Medical Advisory Committee
51 |
MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE
Dr. Walter W. Palmer, chairman, bard professor of medicine, Columbia
University; director of medical service of Presbyterian Hospital, New York City.
Dr. Homer W. Smith, secretary, director, physiology laboratory, school of
medicine, New York University.
Dr. Kenneth B. Turner, assistant secretary, assistant professor of medicine,
Columbia University.
Dr. William B. Castle, professor of medicine, Harvard University; associate
director, Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Boston City Hospital.
Dr. Edward A. Doisy, director, department of physiology and biochemistry,
St. Louis University School of Medicine (recipient of Nobel Award).
Dr. Ernest Goodpasture, professor of pathology, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt
University.
Dr. Alton Ochsner, professor of surgery and head of the department of
surgery, Tulane University School of Medicine.
Dr. Linus Pauling, head of the division of chemistry and chemical engineering,
director of the chemical laboratories at the California Institute of Technology.
Dr. James J. Waring, professor of medicine, University of Colorado School of
Medicine.
| 52
SUMMARY
Impressed by the contributions medicine has made in the present world struggle,
President Roosevelt asked what could be done by the Government in the future
to aid “the war of science against disease.”
Recognition of the brilliant record of medicine in World War II has brought
comfort to thousands of families with members in the armed forces. Compared
to World War I the death rate for all diseases in the Army, including overseas
forces, has fallen from 14.1 to 0.6 per 1,000 strength. Penicillin and the sulfon-
amides, the insecticide DDT, better vaccines, and improved hygienic measures
have all but conquered yellow fever, dysentery, typhus, tetanus, pneumonia,
meningitis. Malaria has been controlled. Disability from venereal disease has
been radically reduced by new methods of treatment. Dramatic progress in
surgery has been aided by the increased availability of blood and plasma for
transfusions.
Much of the credit for these advances is properly assignable to the Committee
on Medical Research of the Ofce of Scientic Research and Development.
In 3 years this organization has developed penicillin and DDT; supported
blood fractionation studies resulting in serum albumin as a blood substitute and
immune globulin as a new countermeasure against infections; and standardized
the effective treatment of malaria with atabrine now used by the armed forces.
Up to July 1944, this program had cost $15,000,000, a modest outlay for the
saving in suffering and lives.
These dramatic advances in medicine during the war have been the result of
developmental rather than fundamental research, and have come through the
application, to problems of wartime importance, of a large backlog of scientic
data accumulated through careful research in the years prior to the war.
In the meantime, sorely needed additions to basic knowledge have been
prevented. The war has forced us to set aside fundamental research to
a large extent. Our capacity to carry out research in the future has been
impaired by the curtailment of medical education, the absorption of physicians
into the armed forces, the prohibition against training draft-eligible men in the
basic medical sciences, and the diversion into developmental problems of those
scientists who were able to remain in their laboratories.
The universities are the chief contributors to pure science, for research thrives
best in an atmosphere of academic freedom. It is to the universities that we
must turn to train more men for research and to provide the information that
will enable us to solve the problems of cancer, degenerative disease and the
ageing process, neuropsychiatric disorders, peptic ulcer, asthma, and even the
common cold.
University funds that can be used for medical research are decreasing as
research costs rise. Income from endowment is steadily shrinking, while endow-
ment itself is no longer being increased by large new gifts. Medical schools
must continue to meet relatively xed expenses of teaching and overhead from
smaller budgets, with the result that less money is left for research.
53 |
Medical research will continue in the future, regardless of any adverse
circumstances. The Government, however, has an opportunity to play an
important role in supplementing the depleted research budgets of medical
schools. Federal aid will increase the volume of medical research; it will
strengthen the promise of important discovery and speed its fulllment; it
will encourage and develop the nancially weaker schools now at a serious
disadvantage; and it will enable the United States to maintain its position of
world leadership in medical research in competition with the nations of Europe
where State funds have long been available for scientic research. When a
government wisely invests the people’s money in medical research, the people
receive huge dividends in the form of better health and longer lives.
If Federal funds are to be used to aid medical research, they should be
provided in three forms:
Funds should be made available as unrestricted grants, with no portion
earmarked for a specic purpose, to supply technical help and materials; to
enable a limited number of young people to obtain research experience during
their regular course in medicine; to build up research in institutions where, for
nancial reasons, it is not now well-developed; and to cover a multitude of
research requirements within each institution. The administration of these funds
should be decentralized to the fullest possible extent, allowing full play to the
wisdom and experience of medical school faculties and administrators. If a
central agency were to attempt to underwrite a program of this sort item by
item, the costs of administration would be prohibitive, and the organization
would be too rigid and ponderous to meet the numerous, diverse, and some-
times rapidly varying needs of the institutions.
Funds should be made available to support fellowships in order that young
people with aptitude for research may be selected, trained, and given an
opportunity to carry on research.
Funds should be made available to support special projects of considerable
magnitude and importance by grants-in-aid.
The Federal agency should receive its funds by such means as to permit it to
favor long term grants, up to 10 years.
Federal aid should be initiated modestly. Funds exceeding the capacity of
the Nation’s research institutions to utilize them effectively would do harm by
encouraging mediocre work and by driving away university and foundation
support. The responsible agency must remain free from political inuence and
resistant to special pressures. Its policies must be determined by scientists who
bring sympathetic understanding to the problems of research. The agency must
have the necessary exibility to modify its procedures in the light of experience.
From available information it is estimated that approximately 5 to 7 million
dollars annually could be used effectively in the immediate postwar period. As
the research program develops a larger sum may be required.
| 54
Recommendations
The Committee recommends that Government aid be provided for medical
research through the creation of an independent Federal agency to be called
the National Foundation for Medical Research. The Foundation would consist
of a board of trustees, a technical board, and the necessary administrative
organization.
The board of trustees would consist of ve eminent scientists appointed by
the President with the approval of the Senate for terms of 5 years, and in such
a way initially as to secure rotation by the retirement of one member each
year. The trustees would serve on a part-time basis, be paid for their work,
and be appointed without regard to civil-service laws. Meetings of the trustees
would be held monthly with one meeting annually in each of six geographical
regions. The trustees would determine the policies of the Foundation and act on
all requests for funds.
The technical board would consist of 12 scientists, representing special elds
of medical science, appointed by the trustees for terms of 3 years, and in such
a way initially as to secure rotation by the retirement of 4 members each year.
Technical board members would serve on a part-time basis, be paid for their
work, and be appointed without regard to the civil-service laws. Members of
the technical board would have the necessary aides and ad hoc committees
to assist them in the performance of their duties. The technical board would
forward all requests for funds to the trustees with recommendations for appro-
priate action, follow the progress of work supported by the Foundation, and
prepare reports or appraisals requested by the trustees.
The nancial and other business affairs of the Foundation would be in charge
of a full-time executive secretary responsible to the trustees.
The Foundation would not engage in research but would initiate and
coordinate research in existing institutions and maintain liaison with interested
domestic and foreign agencies.
55 |
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PART I
CONSIDERATIONS ON WHICH THE
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ARE BASED
1. The Record of Medicine in World War II
We believe that at no time has superior medical and surgical care been
available to the public generally than is now received by our armed forces
even in the most remote parts of the world. Public knowledge of the excel-
lence of this care has brought comfort to thousands of anxious families and has
strengthened the morale of our ghting men.
The magnicent records of the medical departments of the Army and Navy
are directly attributable to two factors: (1) The training men received before
the war in American medical schools and teaching hospitals was the best in the
world, and, when war came, large reserves of superbly trained physicians and
surgeons were available for the armed forces. (2) Medical progress had been
rapid before the war and was continued at an accelerated rate during the
war under the stimulus of the Committee on Medical Research and the Army
Epidemiology Board.
The results are spectacular. Between World War I and World War II, the
death rate for all diseases in the Army, including overseas forces, has been
reduced from 14.1 to 0.6 per 1,000 strength. Dysentery, formerly the scourge
of armies, has become a minor problem. Tetanus, typhoid, paratyphoid, cholera,
and smallpox have been practically eliminated. As a result of a potent vaccine
and improved mosquito control, yellow fever has not appeared in the Army or
Navy. The prompt arrest of the Naples epidemic of typhus by means of the
insecticide DDT is a dramatic example of preventive medicine.
The use of the sulfa drugs has lowered the death rate from lobar pneumonia
in the Army from 24 percent in World War I to less than 1 percent at present.
The death rate from meningitis has been reduced to one-tenth of that in World
War I.
Penicillin is one of the great triumphs of modern therapeutics. By its use death
rates and disability from infections due to the staphylococcus, streptococcus,
pneumococcus, and anthrax bacillus have been greatly reduced. It has also
proved to be a most effective weapon in limiting infection and in accelerating
healing of wounds and burns. As a result of treatment with penicillin the days
per man per year lost from active duty in 1944 because of venereal disease
were one-third of those for 1940. The temporary disabling complications of
gonorrhea have been cut in this period to one twenty-fourth.
57 |
Advances in surgery have been scarcely less dramatic. Despite devastating
antipersonnel munitions, the fatality rate among the wounded has been as low
as in any war in history. Prolonged and difcult operations are performed suc-
cessfully in eld hospitals close to the front. Surgical skill has been aided by the
availability of large quantities of plasma and whole blood for the treatment
of severely wounded men.
2. The Committee on Medical Research of the Ofce of
Scientic Research and Development
In the summer of 1940, the advice of the Division of Medical Sciences of the
National Research Council was sought by the Surgeons General in many elds
of medicine and surgery. Ultimately 13 committees and 43 subcommittees were
set up in aviation medicine, chemotherapy, convalescence and rehabilitation,
drugs and medical supplies, industrial medicine, medicine including malarial
studies, infectious diseases, nutrition, tropical disease, tuberculosis, venereal
diseases, etc., neuropsychiatry, pathology, sanitary engineering, shock and
transfusion, surgery, and the treatment of gas casualties.
In June 1941, the Committee on Medical Research was organized under the
Ofce of Scientic Research and Development, to “initiate and support scien-
tic research on medical problems affecting the national defense.” The existing
committees of the National Research Council acted in an advisory capacity to
the new organization.
As of December 1, 1944, 496 research contracts had been executed by the
Committee on Medical Research with 120 different institutions. Over 95 percent
of these contracts were with universities or teaching hospitals. The personnel
represented in this work numbered about 2,670, of whom 553 were physicians.
These investigators have studied dysentery, bubonic plague, cholera, gas
gangrene, inuenza, tuberculosis, hemolytic streptococcal disease, encephalitis,
primary atypical pneumonia, airborne infections, venereal diseases, infected
wounds, burns, neurosurgery, X-rays, surgical sutures, shock, blood substitutes,
treatment of gas casualties, convalescence and rehabilitation, insect and rodent
control, antimalarial drugs, and the development and use of penicillin.
Among the most conspicuous achievements of this program are the following:
a. The acquisition, in civilian hospitals and laboratories of sufcient
knowledge of the therapeutic value of penicillin to warrant its ofcial adoption
by the medical divisions of the Army and Navy; and to provide the impetus for
the great production program that has made this remarkable drug available
in large quantities for both military and civilian use.
b. Developments in insect repellents and insecticides, particularly DDT,
important in guarding troops against insect-borne diseases such as typhus and
malaria.
c. The study of human blood plasma which has led to use by the armed
forces of serum albumin as a blood substitute, of immune globulins to combat
infections, and of brin foam to stop bleeding.
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d. The improvement and standardization of the treatment of malaria by
atabrine.
e. The determination of the relative usefulness of sulfonamide drugs in the
treatment of wounds and burns.
f. The physiological indoctrination of our airmen and the development
of devices which enable them to endure the rigors of high altitudes without
disastrous loss of ghting capacity or life.
It is fair to say that without the Ofce of Scientic Research and Development
or its equivalent few or none of the investigations listed above would have been
carried out with the same speed and thoroughness. This research program to
June 30, 1944, had cost over $15,000,000. Private funds were not available
to nance this work.
3. Effect of War on Medical Research
Despite this imposing record of practical achievement, the war has seriously
retarded the long-range development of medicine in ways perhaps not
immediately apparent to the uninformed, but nevertheless with effects that will
be longlasting. Because those physicians and scientists who have remained in
their laboratories have, for patriotic reasons, devoted themselves to special
problems raised by the exigencies of war, essential fundamental research has
decreased to an extent which can only be viewed with grave concern.
Our hospitals and medical schools have suffered serious depletions of staff in
order to supply the armed forces with needed physicians. Medical education
has been hurried and impaired by the accelerated program, and the advanced
training of young men has been in practically complete abeyance throughout
the war. This diversion of physicians, coupled with an effective prohibition
against graduate training in the ancillary sciences has left the elds of medical
science barren and without the seed to produce a new generation of investigators.
It will be many years before medicine fully recovers.
4. The Need for Continued Medical Research
It must be emphasized that nearly all that was good or apparently new
in war medicine had its roots in civilian medicine. The pressure of war served
chiey to accelerate the development and large scale application to military
needs of previously known facts. Medicine must consider now how to attack the
medical problems of peace.
As President Roosevelt noted, the annual deaths in this country from one or
two diseases alone are far in excess of the total number of lives lost by us in
battle. This is true even though notable progress has been made in civilian
medicine during the past three decades. Diabetes has been brought under con-
trol by the discovery of insulin; pernicious anemia by the use of liver therapy;
and the once widespread deciency diseases have been almost eradicated,
even in the poorest income groups, by the discovery of accessory food factors
59 |
and the improvement of the diet. Notable advances have been made in the
early diagnosis of cancer, and in the surgical and radiation treatment of this
dreaded disease.
In the period of 1900 to 1942, the average life expectancy of the American
people increased from 49 to 65 years, largely as a result of the reduction in
the death rates of infants and children. In the last two decades, the death rate
from diseases of childhood has been reduced 87 percent. Deaths from scarlet
fever have been reduced 92 percent, from whooping cough 74 percent, and
from measles 91 percent. The death rate from diphtheria among children (5
to 14) is only one eighteenth what it was two decades ago. Only one fourth
as many children die today from tuberculosis and pneumonia as would if the
mortality rate of 20 years ago still prevailed. The death rate among children
between the ages of 5 and 14 from all causes combined was cut 57 percent
between 1922 and 1942. For every three children who die under current con-
ditions, more than seven would have died if the death rate of two decades ago
had continued.
This reduction in the death rate in childhood has shifted the emphasis in
medicine to the middle- and old-age groups, and particularly to the malig-
nant diseases and the degenerative processes which are prominent in the later
decades of life. Cardiovascular disease, including chronic disease of the kidneys,
arteriosclerosis, and cerebral hemorrhage, now accounts for 45 percent of the
deaths in the United States. Second in importance are the infectious diseases,
and third is cancer. Added to these are many maladies (for example, the
common cold, arthritis, asthma and hay fever, peptic ulcer) which, though
infrequently fatal, cause incalculable disability.
Another aspect of the changing emphasis in clinical medicine is the increasing
incidence of mental disease. Approximately 7,000,000 persons in the United
States are mentally ill. More than one-third of the hospital beds in this country
are lled with such persons at a cost of $175,000,000 annually. Each year
nearly 125,000 mentally ill new patients are hospitalized.
In short, despite notable progress in prolonging the span of human life and
in alleviating suffering, adequate methods of prevention and cure are not yet
available for many diseases. Additional hospitals, physicians, and mechanisms
for dispersing knowledge, however useful, cannot supply a complete solution.
We simply do not know enough, and increased facilities for medical care will
not supply the missing answers. The basic task faced by medicine is continued
exploration of the human organism and the nature of disease. This exploration
has only begun.
5. Importance of Fundamental Research to the Progress of
Medicine
Research in medicine may be carried out effectively in two ways: First, by a
coordinated attack on a particular disease; or second, by independent studies
of the fundamental nature of the human body and its physiological mecha-
| 60
nisms, of the nature of bacteria, viruses, and other agents of disease, and of
the inuence of environment on both. An example of the rst method is the
attack on malaria carried out under the Army, Navy, Public Health Service, the
National Research Council, and the Ofce of Scientic Research and Develop-
ment. The discovery of penicillin is an example of the second method: Fleming
noted that a common mold, Penicillium notatum, inhibited the growth of a culture
of bacteria in which it appeared as a contaminant. Thus an incidental observa-
tion in the course of studies unrelated to chemotherapy furnished the basis for
the ultimate development of the most valuable chemotherapeutic agent known.
Discoveries in medicine have often come from the most remote and
unexpected elds of science in the past; and it is probable that this will be
equally true in the future. It is not unlikely that signicant progress in the treat-
ment of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, cancer, and other refractory
conditions will be made, perhaps unexpectedly, as the result of fundamental
discoveries in elds unrelated to these diseases.
To discover is to “obtain for the rst time sight or knowledge of some fact or
principle hitherto unknown.” Discovery cannot be achieved by directive. Further
progress requires that the entire eld of medicine and the underlying sciences
of chemistry, physics, anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, bacte-
riology, pathology, parasitology, etc., be developed impartially.
6. The Place of Medical Schools and Universities in Medical
Research
The medical schools and universities of this country can contribute to medical
progress by carrying on research to the limit of available facilities and per-
sonnel, and by training competent investigators for an enlarged program in
the future.
In some cases coordinated direct attacks will be made on special problems
by teams of investigators from the medical schools, supplementing similar direct
attacks carried on by the Army, Navy, Public Health Service, and other orga-
nizations. However, the main obligation of the medical schools and universities,
in addition to teaching, will be to continue the traditional function of these
institutions—that of providing the individual worker with an opportunity for
the voluntary and untrammeled study in the directions and by the methods
suggested by his imagination and curiosity. The entire history of science bears
testimony to the supreme importance of affording the prepared mind complete
freedom for the exercise of initiative. The special duty and privilege of the
medical schools and universities is to foster medical research in this way, and
this duty cannot be shifted to Government agencies, industrial organizations, or
any other institutions.
Because of their close relationship to teaching hospitals, the medical schools
are in a unique position to integrate clinical investigation with the work of the
departments of preclinical science, and to impart new knowledge to physicians
in training. Conversely, the teaching hospitals are especially well organized to
61 |
carry on medical research because of their close relationship to the schools, on
which they depend for staff and supervision.
Not all our medical schools are equally developed. Because of inadequate
nancial support or lack of trained personnel, some of them can contribute little
to medical research. A great increase in the resources of the Nation would be
achieved by stimulating research in these less favored schools. It is imperative
that we employ all possible methods of improving the research facilities and
research staffs of our present medical schools before considering the establish-
ment of new institutions.
7. Medical Research Under State Sponsorship in Great Britain
Although Federal aid for medical research was brought about in the United
States largely under pressure of war, Government support of research has
been general in Europe for many years. As a rule this support has been del-
egated to organizations separate from the ordinary Government bureaus in
order to remove it as far as possible from political inuence and to place the
administration of funds in the hands of men experienced in research.
In Great Britain as early as 1911 the promotion of medical research was
explicitly recognized as a responsibility of the State by the establishment of the
Medical Research Committee, which became the Medical Research Council in
1920. The Council has administrative autonomy with general responsibility to a
committee of ministers in the Privy Council. It receives money from both Parlia-
ment and nongovernmental sources specically for furthering medical research
and has no connection with any system of medical care or health insurance.
The Medical Research Council has continued to play an increasingly important
and eminently successful role in its eld. Through its Government support for
medical research and the aid of medical science to the Government are
assured.
Medical research in Great Britain also receives indirect Government aid
through the University Grants Committee, a Standing Committee of the Treasury.
Its members are independent experts of acknowledged repute and thoroughly
familiar with the problems of university administration. The Committee’s terms
of reference are “To inquire into the nancial needs of university education in
the United Kingdom, and to advise the Government as to the application of
any grants that may be made by Parliament toward meeting them.”
Although the University Grants Committee does not give direct grants for
specic medical research projects, it holds that research is one of the primary
functions of a university and an indispensable element in the work of university
teachers. Grants to the institutions are in the form of unrestricted funds with no
portion earmarked for a specic purpose. Through a recent act of Parliament
whereby this Committee is enabled to award $4,000,000 annually to medical
schools and $2,000,000 to teaching hospitals, this indirect support of medical
research by the Government has been substantially increased.
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8. The Need for Federal Aid to Medical Research
Between World War I and World War II the United States overtook the
other nations in medical research and forged ahead to a position of world
leadership. If this leadership is to be maintained, some form of Government
nancial aid to the medical schools will be necessary. This view is accepted by
the Committee and by nearly all whom the Committee has consulted.
Dr. A. N. Richards, Chairman of the Committee on Medical Research, reported
to the Subcommittee on Wartime Health and Education of the Committee
on Education and Labor of the United States Senate that, in connection with
medical research, “The experience of the Ofce of Scientic Research and
Development has proved that none of the universities which were called
upon for Ofce of Scientic Research and Development work could afford to
undertake it on the scale which the emergency demanded at the expense of
its own resources. Hence, if the concerted efforts of medical investigators which
have yielded so much of value during the war are to be continued on any
comparable scale during the peace, the conclusion is inescapable that they must
be supported by government.”
At the same hearing, Dr. Lewis H. Weed, Chairman of the Division of Medical
Sciences of the National Research Council, stated “* * * Much of medical
research will necessarily have to be abandoned in the private and semiprivate
institutions of the country unless Government subsidy is made available in some
form for the general support of medical research.”
Without Federal support American medical research will not stop, but
without it our opportunities to advance medical knowledge cannot fully be
exploited, and our objectives will be reached more slowly.
It has been computed that the annual budgets of the 77 medical schools
in the United States total about $26,000,000. The portion of this sum spent
for medical research cannot be determined accurately. Income from tuition
amounts to $8,000,000, leaving a decit of $18,000,000 annually. To meet
this decit the schools, apart from those connected with State universities and
nanced by the respective States, draw upon many sources.
A substantial part comes from university endowment, but during the past
10 years the amount of new endowment to medical schools has greatly
diminished. At the same time the income from present endowment has been cut
by one-third. With continued high taxation it is improbable that large gifts and
bequests for scientic work can be expected in the future.
In many instances funds are allocated to the medical schools from tuition fees
derived from other departments of the university.
Another source of research funds is the foundations, but, as in the case
of the universities, the income from foundation endowment is decreasing.
Moreover, the foundations in general favor short-term grants to projects which
carry promise of yielding immediate results.
Industry is a potential source of funds, but gifts from this source are usually
for specic problems of a developmental nature. University alumni associations
63 |
contribute only relatively small sums. Direct gifts from individuals are a substan-
tial aid at times, but the medical schools must compete with all charities and
churches for these funds. Furthermore, it is estimated that gifts from individuals,
while perhaps more numerous, are far smaller in total than the large contribu-
tions of individual donors in the past.
When the funds available to a medical school are cut, the institution usually
retrenches by curtailing the portion used for research. Overhead and teaching
expenses must be met, and research becomes a luxury.
Finally, while research funds are decreasing, the costs of research are steadily
rising. More elaborate and expensive equipment is required, supplies are more
costly, and the wages of assistants are higher.
9. How Financial Aid Should be Supplied
Federal nancial aid to the medical schools should be provided in three
forms: General research funds, fellowships, and grants-in-aid.
General research funds.—It is the Committee’s opinion that unrestricted grants,
with no portion earmarked for specic purposes, and with administration del-
egated to local research boards, would be the most valuable and productive
form in which Government support could be given.
A medical school consists of a dozen or more semi-autonomous departments,
each with its own budget. In the schools favored with a large endowment,
research projects are constantly in progress in all departments; in nancially
weaker schools, the budget of a department may be too small to supply as
much as a secretary for the department head, and research is, of course, a
nancial impossibility. Even in the most favored departments, the quality and
quantity of research would be greatly increased if it were possible to employ
an extra technical assistant or two, to purchase additional supplies or a nec-
essary piece of equipment, to improve or enlarge animal quarters, or to meet
other countless small nancial requirements that may arise suddenly and may
be of a temporary nature. In departments with small budgets such requirements
are even more pressing. Many medical schools at present have small likelihood
of securing grants-in-aid because they have neither personnel nor equipment
to conduct successfully the type of research project appropriately nanced by
this method.
If a central agency were to attempt to meet item by item these many
requirements by means of specic grants, the administrative costs would be
prohibitive. The amount needed for each item is small, but the total amount
needed by an institution may be relatively large.
Furthermore, a central agency would lack the exibility to meet the rapidly
varying and often temporary research needs that arise in the medical schools.
A promising lead in research may prove patently false within a month or two. It
is equally important that the project should then be stopped, and its personnel
and equipment promptly diverted to more productive work, as it is that the
project should have been given a trial.
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A special use for general research funds would be to provide “junior
fellowships” which would allow a medical student to interrupt his course, usually
between the preclinical and clinical years, and to devote himself full-time to
research for a year or two. The chances in this country for medical students to
gain research experience prior to graduation are few, and as a result much
research ability goes undiscovered. Candidates for these fellowships would
be unknown to a central agency, which would have to rely entirely upon the
judgment of the local research board for their selection. Hence it would be
proper and economical to provide these fellowships from the general research
funds administered by the local board.
The provision of funds as block grants to local research boards would exercise
to greatest advantage the principle of decentralization of control of research;
would eliminate costly overhead; would create a exible mechanism to meet
rapidly varying needs; would allow full play to the wisdom and experience of
medical school faculties and administrators, whose knowledge in aggregate
and whose particular knowledge of local needs must always exceed that of a
central agency; would promote research in laboratories where it is now poorly
developed; would foster investigations of an exploratory nature; and would
provide the greatest and most effective stimulus to medical research.
Fellowships.—Federal funds should be used to support fellowships, extending
over periods up to 6 years, to be awarded by the Government agency to
enable selected men to obtain training in research, to learn techniques in elds
other than those of their basic scientic education, or to undertake research
on a full-time basis. Since 1921 the fellowship program, supported by the
Rockefeller Foundation and administered by the Medical Fellowship Board
of the National Research Council, has made an important contribution to the
advance of medical science and to the training of teachers and investigators
in the United States. An increase in the number of such fellowships is greatly
needed.
Grants-in-aid.—A limited number of important research projects, both of
immediate and long-range consequence, will require special grants-in-aid. On
occasion, through grants-in-aid, support should be given to medical schools,
hospitals, or nonprot scientic institutions to enable a senior investigator to
develop the problems of his interest more rapidly and effectively.
10. Estimated Cost of Program
No nal statement on costs is possible at this time. From information received
from the deans of medical schools, from the expenditures of the Committee on
Medical Research, and from other sources, it is estimated that approximately 5
to 7 million dollars annually can be used effectively in the immediate postwar
period. A larger sum may be required when the program is fully under way.
This estimate does not include the possible assumption of present commitments
of the Ofce of Scientic Research and Development. A more denite state-
ment would require prolonged study.
65 |
11. The Need for an Independent Agency
Advances in medical science have come and will continue to come prepon-
derantly from medical schools or science departments of universities. Therefore
the problem of improving medical research and of training more top-ight
investigators is primarily one of aiding the medical schools and universities to
utilize their research and educational facilities to the fullest extent.
In the Committee’s opinion, medical research could best be promoted by the
creation of an independent Federal agency.
This new organization would not conict with the medical interests of existing
Government agencies, none of which is primarily concerned with developing
the basic medical sciences or with training personnel, both of which are func-
tions of the universities. Some duplication of investigation would occur in prob-
lems in which civilian investigators and one or more Government agencies were
mutually interested. However, it cannot be too strongly emphasized that, far
from being wasteful, duplication is imperative in medical research, where each
new discovery can be accepted only after repeated conrmation by indepen-
dent observers approaching the problem from different points of view. The du-
plication is more apparent than real, as the results of independent investigators
working on a common problem rarely agree exactly, and the differences are
frequently the basis for new discoveries.
Rather than conicting with existing agencies, the proposed body would
supplement the research activities of these agencies in a valuable manner.
Only through the efforts of such a body can our Government agencies be
supplied with the necessary increase in numbers of expert personnel and
with the all-important increase in basic scientic knowledge on which medical
advance depends.
As the function of the proposed agency is broadly conceived, as it must be
concerned not only with research but with the training of personnel required
by all existing agencies, and as it must operate through non-Governmental
education institutions, the future of which rests heavily upon private endow-
ment or support by the States, it is the Committee’s conviction that the Federal
agency concerned with medical research should be created de novo and
be independent of all existing agencies, none of which is sufciently free
of specialization of interest to warrant assigning to it the sponsorship of a
program so broad and so intimately related to civilian institutions.
12. Compensation
The Committee believes that better effort will be put into the work of the
agency by members if they are paid. The question of adjustment of salary from
parent institutions should be left to the parties concerned.
It is estimated that members of the board of trustees and technical board,
as proposed below, will be called upon to give an average of one-third of
their time to the work of the agency. One-half the time of the aides may be
| 66
required. This includes time devoted by members to the work of the agency at
their ofcial stations and in traveling.
Over the past 25 years there has been an increasing draft of expert per-
sonnel from the medical schools to meet the demand for scientists in activities
related to the national welfare, until at present, even discounting the increased
demands of war, many teachers and investigators are unable to discharge
their responsibilities to the institutions which pay their salaries. A further
increase in this borrowing of personnel without compensation can inict only
injury upon the medical schools.
Moreover, many competent investigators in medicine and surgery draw a
negligible fraction of their income as salary, depending nancially upon clinical
practice. Participation in the work of the agency may interrupt this practice and
the resulting loss of income may exclude such persons from service.
13. Patent Rights
The practice in regard to patent rights on discoveries and inventions bearing
on human health varies in different medical institutions in this country. The
Committee has made no effort to codify them, or to arrive at a generally
acceptable policy.
It seems to the Committee that under the present patent laws the principle of
patenting certain types of discoveries and inventions to exclude misuse is sound.
Since perhaps the majority of institutions do not capitalize their patent privileges,
and since such practice would be incompatible with Government sponsored
research, it is suggested that, where a patent be granted on research which
has been sponsored by Government in whole or in part, the ownership of the
patent remain in the inventor, and that the Government receive, in addition to a
royalty-free license, the power to require the licensing of others.
67 |
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PART II
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES GOVERNING
THE USE OF FEDERAL FUNDS FOR MEDICAL
RESEARCH
As stated above, the Committee is convinced that Federal aid is necessary
to ensure maximal progress in the development of medical science. It is also
convinced that this aid, if misdirected, may do serious harm. It believes that
among the major principles which should govern the application of Federal aid
to medical research are the following:
a. Until experience has indicated the best plan of organization and proce-
dure, the Federal agency created to aid medical research should be kept as
exible as possible. One of our colleagues has written “The common history of
social organizations has been their creation in response to an idea, their owering
under the inuence of the idea, their loss of the idea, and their perpetuation
for the maintenance of the prestige of the ofce-holder.” Only if authority to
experiment with organization is written into its charter will an agency designed
to aid medical research escape this fate.
b. The administration of Federal aid to medical research must be free from
political inuence and protected against special pressures.
c. Men who are experienced in research and who understand the problems
of the investigator should administer the agency and determine its policies.
Since the agency will be concerned primarily with basic scientic research in,
and scientic training and policies pertinent to, endowed or State supported
civilian institutions, and since the armed forces, the Public Health Service, and
other existing Governmental services have specialized interests, the Committee
believes that it is as improper for any one of these services to hold the power of
vote in matters pertaining to the proposed new agency as it would be for one
or more members of the agency to vote in the medical councils of the services.
d. The agency should not attempt to dominate or regiment medical research
but should function by creating greater opportunities and more freedom for
investigation, and by aiding in cooperative efforts. It should not attempt to
inuence the selection of personnel, the conditions of tenure, the salary level, or
other internal affairs of the institutions to which it gives aid.
e. Any program of Federal aid to medical research should be modestly
initiated in terms of actual needs and conservatively increased as the capacity
of the medical schools to utilize additional funds is demonstrated. If the
Government spends too much in medical research, other funds will be driven
out and the Government will be the sole source of support. The schools should
69 |
remain free to elect the potential donor to whom they wish to apply. As Senator
Pepper has stated, “Government can not, and must not, take the place of
philanthropy and industry in the sponsorship of research.”
f. The establishment of life-time research professorships, or of protracted
research fellowships, at the expense of Federal funds is considered unwise.
In exceptional instances, as for example when an investigator demonstrates
unusual ability, or it is desirable to relieve a senior and experienced person
from academic or clinical responsibilities in order to free him for research,
support should be obtained from general research funds or through a grant-
in-aid.
g. A grave danger in any effort to accelerate discovery is the ease with
which the quality of the work can be lowered by encouraging men to undertake
research who are inadequately prepared or untted for the task. Mediocre
research work in medicine is not only apt to be useless, but may prove dangerous
by misleading medical practice and by fostering false hopes in the public. This
danger must be guarded against by constantly encouraging conrmatory work
or “challenging investigations.”
h. The agency should not serve merely as a mechanism for disbursing funds
for particular research projects, but should always attempt to maintain a broad
view of the needs of the whole eld of medical research.
i. It is believed that it would be unwise for a national body concerned with
medical research to give prizes or otherwise to dispense praise or blame. It
is also believed that this agency should avoid even the semblance of scientic
authority. What is acceptable or unacceptable in medicine must be established
by tested methods of examination and not be made to appear as such because
of the imprimatur of a national body.
j. The agency should come to share in the leadership of medical investigation
by encouraging individual initiative and freedom of research, and with a
careful avoidance of coercion and regimentation, which might lead not only to
mediocre work but to disastrous impairment of the spirit of cooperation, and of
research itself. Individual scientic curiosity, community of interest and regard
for the common weal must in peace replace as a cohesive force the patriotism
of war.
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PART III
RECOMMENDATIONS OUTLINING THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF A “NATIONAL
FOUNDATION FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH”
AS AN INDEPENDENT FEDERAL AGENCY
It is recommended that an independent agency of the Federal Government
be established, to be known as the National Foundation for Medical Research.
1
1. Composition of the Foundation
The Foundation is to be composed of (a) a board of trustees, (b) a technical
board, and (c) an executive secretary’s ofce.
Board of Trustees
The board of trustees is to consist of ve persons appointed without regard
to the Civil Service Laws by the President of the United States and subject to
conrmation by the Senate. They are to be chosen on the basis of scientic
achievement and leadership, wide knowledge of medical problems, capacity
for administration and organization, and with reasonable regard for geo-
graphical representation. The board of trustees is to elect its own chairman.
A member of the board of trustees is to serve on a part-time basis for a term
of 5 years and is not to be eligible for reappointment. A member appointed to
a vacancy caused by death or resignation is eligible for reappointment for a
full term providing his short term has been less than 2 years. No two members
serving simultaneously shall be chosen from the same institution. The successor
to a retiring member shall not be chosen from the same institution except in
unusual instances.
The original members of the board of trustees are to be appointed for 2,
3, 4, 5, and 6 years, respectively, in order to assure continuity and rotation.
Whenever a vacancy occurs or is to occur, the chairman is to transmit to the
President of the United States for his information a list of suitable candidates. In
preparing this list, the chairman is instructed to seek the advice of the President
of the National Academy of Sciences.
The chairman is to represent the Foundation in matters affecting medical
research where the interests of other Government agencies are involved.
1
Wherever used, the term “medical research” is intended to include related aspects of dentistry,
veterinary medicine, biology, entomology, protozoology, and similar elds.
71 |
The board of trustees is to meet not less than once each month. At least one
regular meeting each year is to be held in each of the following geographical
areas: North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Central, South Central, Rocky
Mountain, and Pacic coast areas.
The board of trustees is to determine the broad policies of the Foundation.
It is to appoint members of the technical board and is to have the authority
to approve or disapprove all recommendations of the technical board. It may
request the chairman and other members of the technical board to sit with it
whenever necessary.
The board of trustees is to establish necessary liaison ofces to insure a free
exchange of information with all domestic and foreign agencies or services
interested in medical research. It is to invite the Surgeons General of the Army,
the Navy, the United States Public Health Service, the Air Force, or responsible
ofcers of other domestic or foreign organizations as may be indicated, to
appoint appropriate liaison ofcers to sit with it during deliberations of interest
to those agencies. Liaison ofcers are not to have the power of vote.
Remuneration.—Each member of the board of trustees is to be paid a salary
of seventy-ve hundred dollars ($7,500) per annum for that portion of his time
which he devotes to the services of the Foundation. In accordance with Govern-
ment regulations, a member is to receive travel expenses and suitable per diem
to cover other costs when traveling.
Technical Board
A technical board, composed initially of 12 persons, is to be appointed,
without regard to the Civil Service Laws, by the board of trustees. The members
of the technical board are to be chosen on the basis of their knowledge and
experience in special elds of medical research and the related sciences,
and with reasonable regard for geographical representation. The ofce of
a board member is to remain in his parent institution. At the discretion of the
board of trustees the membership of the technical board may be increased or
decreased in number.
A member of the technical board should not ordinarily be considered
eligible for reappointment, but a retired member may be appointed to the
board of trustees. A member appointed to ll an unexpired term is eligible for
reappointment for a full term. No two members serving simultaneously shall be
chosen from the same institution. The successor to a retiring member shall not be
chosen from the same institution except in unusual instances.
The chairman of the technical board is to be designated by the board
of trustees. He is to represent the technical board before the trustees, is to
call meetings of the technical board as frequently as necessary, and is to be
responsible for the supervision of the activities of the board and the prepara-
tion of reports required by the board of trustees.
The original members of the technical board are to be appointed in groups of
4 to serve 2, 3, and 4 years, respectively, in order to assure continuity and rotation.
| 72
Remuneration.—Each member of the technical board is to serve on a part-
time basis for 3 years, and is to receive a salary to be determined by the
Board of Trustees, but not to exceed ve thousand dollars ($5,000) a year
for that portion of his time which he devotes to the services of the Foundation.
In accordance with Government regulations, a member is to receive travel
expenses and suitable per diem to cover other costs when traveling.
Aides.—Each member of the technical board may, with the approval of the
technical board, appoint one or more aides without regard to the Civil Service
Laws. These aides are to be selected on the basis of qualication in a special
research eld and are to serve on a part-time basis for periods up to 3 years.
As determined by the board of trustees, aides are to be compensated for
time spent in the work of the Foundation, and when traveling are to receive
travel expenses in accordance with Government regulations and a suitable per
diem to cover other costs.
As aides are scientists in a potentially productive period, provision is to be
made to insure that they remain professionally active, and that service with the
technical board does not jeopardize their academic careers.
Committees.—The technical board is to appoint ad hoc committees to advise
with a particular member on medical problems. Members of such committees
are to be appointed consultants with per diem compensation up to twenty-ve
dollars ($25), and in accordance with Government regulations are to receive
travel expenses and suitable per diem to cover other costs when traveling.
Aides and committees appointed for a technical board member are to be
discharged on the expiration of the member’s term, but continued service may
be invited by the member’s successor.
Authority of the technical board.—The technical board is to receive, review
and recommend to the board of trustees on all requests for general research
funds, fellowships, and grants-in-aid.
It is to take such steps as are necessary to put approved programs into effect.
It is to maintain reasonable supervision of work under general research
funds and grants-in-aid and of the activities of Fellows, and keep the trustees
informed on the progress of this work.
It is to arrange for the preparation of reports or appraisals as requested by
the board of trustees.
Its members are to keep themselves informed on the status of pertinent medical
problems, to which end they are authorized to convene round-table discussions,
to invite competent persons to prepare summaries of specic problems, and to
seek authoritative information in any other appropriate manner.
It is to receive and consider recommendations from individual investigators
with regard to the further development of problems of possible scientic interest.
Ofce of the Executive Secretary
A full-time executive secretary is to be appointed by the board of trustees
after consultation with appropriate Government scal and accounting agencies.
73 |
The executive secretary is to organize administrative, scal, and accounting
ofces for the conduct of the business of the Foundation. Fiscal actions
approved by the board of trustees are to be put into effect by the executive
secretary and his afliated ofcers.
Except for the executive secretary, all members of the staff of the executive
secretary are to be drawn from qualied civil-service lists.
2. Functions of the Foundation
The functions of the Foundation are to be (a) to further medical research
by providing nancial aid through general research funds, fellowships and
grants-in-aid; (b) to coordinate research in progress and to initiate new
work considered essential; (c) to establish necessary liaison to secure a free
exchange of medical information.
Financial Aid
a. General research funds.—On application, a block grant may be made
to a medical school for general use over a period of 1 to 10 years for the
promotion of research provided the institution can present evidence that it
can efciently utilize for scientic research the funds requested, and that it is
prepared to give a reasonable accounting of the expenditure of funds
received. The institution is to have a research committee, drawn preferably
from the executive faculty and active investigators, which is to be informed on
all local research expenditures, and is to be responsible for the administration
of the grant and for reports and accounting required by the Foundation.
The institutions are to be allowed wide latitude in the expenditure of general
research funds, but these expenditures are to be subject to review periodically
by the Foundation, which is to have the power of cancellation.
It is recommended that general research funds be used in part for junior
fellowships to be awarded, without reference to the Foundation, to students
working for an M.D. degree, in order to permit the recipients to devote 1
or 2 years on a full-time basis to acquiring more specialized knowledge of
the techniques of medical research than is possible during the regular course.
Junior fellowships are not to be used as scholarships to defray medical school
tuition. The policy of each institution in regard to number of Junior Fellows, the
value of the stipend, and other features of general importance is to be subject
to review by the Foundation.
Formal discussions concerning renewal of general research funds should be
completed 1 to 3 years in advance of termination.
If an application for general research funds is refused, the applicant institu-
tion may appeal directly to the board of trustees for a review.
In allocating general research funds, the Foundation is to consider both the
immediate needs and promise of development of the applicant institutions, and
is to take cognizance of the effects of such funds upon the support of medical
| 74
schools by their parent institutions.
Equipment purchased under general research funds is to become the prop-
erty of the institution to which the block grant is made.
b. Fellowships.—Fellowships are to be awarded by the Foundation, for a
period of 1 to 3 years, to approved applicants having the M.D., Ph.D., or
D.D.S. degree or equivalent attainment, to enable the recipients to acquire
research training, to undertake research, to learn special techniques, or to
pursue studies in related sciences.
In the initial selection of Fellows, potentialities for development of leadership
in medicine should be weighed as heavily as past performance in research
work. Fellows are to be encouraged to take further work in the fundamental
sciences to remedy any deciencies in a contemplated research career, but
fellowships are not to be used to provide residencies, or primarily for obtaining
postgraduate degrees or for qualifying for Certication by the Specialty
Boards. Fellowships are primarily intended to enable men to receive research
training and to engage in active research, but they should include experience
in teaching or the clinical care of patients, as these exercises are essential to
balanced research training and are imperative if a Fellow is to t himself for
maximal usefulness in medicine or the medical sciences.
Fellowship stipends are to be determined by the Foundation with due
consideration of university salaries paid persons with equivalent training and
experience, and to the desirability of encouraging relatively senior men to
devote themselves to research.
Research expenses of a Fellow may be met by the Foundation. If an institution
matches insurance or annuity payments by its faculty, a similar payment is to be
added by the Foundation to the Fellow’s stipend.
A fellowship is to lapse automatically if a Fellow transfers to another
institution without approval by the Foundation.
c. Grants-in-aid.—On application, grants-in-aid extending for 1 to 10
years may be made to universities, medical schools, or other nonprot scientic
institutions for the support of specic projects or of specied investigators.
Applications for grants-in-aid are to carry the endorsement of the applicant
institution. Formal discussions concerning renewal should be completed prior to
the beginning of the last third of the period of the grant.
Reasonable overhead expenses may be included in the nancial statement
accompanying a request for a grant, but overhead payments are not to be
automatic.
Reports are to be submitted under each grant as required by the Foundation.
Equipment purchased under a grant is to become the property of the institution
to which the grant is made.
If a request for a grant or for the extension of a grant is refused, the appli-
cant institution may appeal directly to the board of trustees for a review.
75 |
Coordination and Initiation of Research
The Foundation is to consider methods designed to stimulate research, to
improve research conditions in institutions where it is now not well developed,
to effect coordination among investigators working in a common eld, and to
facilitate publication, dissemination, and experimental application of scientic
information.
The Foundation is to initiate and support such new research work as may be
indicated, but it is not itself to engage in research. Its integrative and catalytic
efforts are to be carried out by recommendation and invitation rather than by
direction.
3. Reports
The Foundation is to report annually to the President, in the form he requests,
on the progress of work carried out under its authority. With the President’s
approval, all or part of the annual report is to be published.
4. Authority To Modify Procedure
The organization and responsibility of the Foundation are to be dened as
broadly as possible. The authority to make and alter specic regulations and to
experiment in procedures for fostering medical research is to be incorporated
in the charter of the Foundation.
| 76
APPENDIX 3
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE
AND THE PUBLIC WELFARE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Letter of transmittal ............................................ 79
Members of the Committee ......................................79
Preface...................................................... 80
Summary..................................................... 81
A National Research Foundation................................ 82
Research carried on by the Federal Government................... 82
Environmental aids to industrial research ......................... 83
Chapter
I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
II. Present status and trends in American science ..................89
A. The nature of scientic research.......................... 89
B. Development of scientic research in the United States ....... 91
C. The national research budget. ........................... 94
III. Scientic research in American universities and colleges ..........99
A. The university as a research environment................... 99
B. Form of aid to universities .............................103
IV. Scientic research in the Government service .................109
A. Suggested reforms ...................................110
V. Aids to industrial research and technology ...................111
A. Assistance to technical clinics for small business enterprise ....111
B. Grants to nonprot industrial institutes for fundamental
Research ...........................................120
77 |
Page
C. Encouragement for new scientic enterprises ...............121
D. Strengthening the patent system ........................122
VI. Taxation and research ...................................123
A. Present tax treatment of research and development
expenditures ........................................123
B. Recommendations for legislative action ...................125
C. Broad tax consideration ...............................126
VII. International scientic cooperation ..........................127
A. Support and sponsorship of international cooperative
scientic enterprises ..................................127
VIII. A National Research Foundation ...........................129
A. Organization .......................................129
B. Powers and responsibilities.............................130
C. Patent policies of the Foundation ........................130
Appendix A. Library aids.......................................133
Appendix B. Analysis of university research expenditures .............137
| 78
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
APRIL 16, 1945.
DEAR DR. BUSH: It is with satisfaction that I hand you herewith a copy of the
report of the Committee on Science and the Public Welfare.
We have had a number of meetings with good attendance and excellent discussion.
We have unanimously agreed on practically all essential points. If the report aids in
any degree in completing the task assigned you by the late President Roosevelt all
members of the committee, I feel sure, will be gratied.
Sincerely yours,
ISAIAH BOWMAN, Chairman,
Committee on Science and the Public Welfare.
DR. VANNEVAR BUSH, Director,
Oce of Scientic Research and Development,
16th and P Streets NW.
Washington, D. C.
MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE
Isaiah Bowman, Chairman, President, Johns Hopkins University.
John T. Tate, Vice Chairman, Research Professor of Physics, University of
Minnesota.
W. Rupert Maclaurin, Secretary, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology.
Oliver E. Buckley, President, Bell Telephone Laboratories.
Walter C. Coffey, President, University of Minnesota.
Oscar S. Cox, Deputy Administrator, Foreign Economic Administration.
Bradley Dewey, President, Dewey & Almy Chemical Company.
Clarence A. Dykstra, Provost, University of California at Los Angeles.
Caryl P. Haskins, Director, Haskins Laboratories.
Edwin H. Land, President and Director of Research, Polaroid Corporation.
Charles E. MacQuigg, Dean of Engineering, Ohio State University.
Harold G. Moulton, President, Brookings Institution.
J. Hugh O’Donnell, President, Notre Dame University.
I. I. Rabi, Professor of Physics, Columbia University (recipient of Nobel Award).
Warren Weaver, Director for Natural Sciences, Rockefeller Foundation.
Robert E. Wilson, Chairman of the Board, Standard Oil Company of Indiana.
William E. Wrather, Director, U.S, Geological Survey, Department of Interior.
79 |
PREFACE
Dr. Isaiah Bowman was named by Dr. Vannevar Bush, Director of the
Ofce of Scientic Research and Development, as chairman of a committee to
consider this question raised by President Roosevelt in his letter of November
17, 1944, to Dr. Bush: “What can the Government do now and in the future to
aid research activities by public and private organizations? The proper roles of
public and of private research and their interrelationship should be carefully
considered.”
The Bowman Committee has conned its attention to research activities in
the natural sciences, engineering, and agriculture. Clinical medicine has been
considered by another committee. The support of the social sciences, it is
believed, represents an important problem in itself which should be handled
as a separate issue.
In analyzing the task assigned to the Bowman Committee, the project was
divided into the following major questions:
1. What should the Government do to assist research in universities and
nonprot research institutes?
2. What should the Government do to assist scientic research conducted
by the Government itself?
3. What should the Government do to assist research in industry?
4. What changes, if any, should be made in our present tax structure to
stimulate industrial research?
5. What policy should the Government follow to encourage greater inter-
national interchange of scientic knowledge and engineering art after
the war?
6. What are the proper roles of public and private research?
The Committee was divided into working groups to consider each of these
questions except the last. The whole report is concerned with the basic problem
of the proper roles of public and private agencies in scientic research. The
analyses undertaken by the working groups have been combined into a nal
report which is submitted herewith.
In addition to numerous meetings of the subcommittees the main Committee
has held three full meetings, the rst of which was devoted to resolving the
problem into its major parts, the second to discussing the concept of the Federal
Government in relation to research, and the last to considering the recommen-
dations of the subcommittees.
| 80
SUMMARY
Interest in the question of Federal aid to research reects widespread
recognition by the American people that the security of a modern nation
depends in a vital way upon scientic research and technological progress. It
is equally clear that public health, higher standards of living, conservation of
national resources, new manufacturing which creates new jobs and investment
opportunities—in short, the prosperity, well-being and progress of the Amer-
ican Nation—all require the continued ow of new scientic knowledge. Even
if a nation’s manpower declines in relative numbers, even if its geographical
frontiers become xed, there always remains one inexhaustible national re-
source—creative scientic research.
In view of the importance of science to the Nation, the Federal Government,
by virtue of its charge to provide for the common defense and general wel-
fare, has the responsibility of encouraging and aiding scientic progress. It
has recognized this responsibility by providing research laboratories within the
structure of government, by providing a climate of law within which industry
could progress on its own initiative, and by making limited appropriations to
certain types of educational institutions. Study of the present status of research
has shown convincingly that certain basic parts of our research structure require
increased nancial support. Since the evidence is clear that private sources
cannot assume the entire burden, the committee has been forced to the conclu-
sion that an increased measure of direct Federal aid is necessary. We believe
that it is possible to devise methods whereby great benets to research may
be achieved by such aid without sacricing the freedom essential for scientic
advance or the academic independence of our traditional institutions.
We therefore urge that the Federal Government take a more active interest
in promoting scientic research, and in assuring that the Nation gain therefrom
the benets of increased security and increased welfare. We are convinced
that the most effective way for the Federal Government to serve these purposes
is to provide to our educational institutions and research institutes support for
basic research and training for research. By so doing, the Government will
increase the ow of new knowledge and the supply of young scientists trained
in research. It is on this new knowledge that applied science must build, and it is
from the ranks of those trained in research that the leaders in applied science
must come.
If this new knowledge and an adequate supply of trained men are provided,
it is our opinion that the ordinary course of industrial activity can be relied
upon to convert to practical application in industry most of the advances made
in research. However, we believe that in certain instances measures can and
should be devised to expedite the transition from scientic discovery to techno-
logical application. To this end we recommend that procedures be devised for
supplying research information to small companies and stimulating them in the
application of the latest technology.
In the international sphere the lack of any ofcial Federal support for
81 |
scientic meetings or experimental programs organized on an international
scale has been a frequent source of embarrassment and difculty. By providing
ofcial recognition and nancial support to such undertakings the Government
could do much to facilitate scientic interchange and promote international
good will.
A National Research Foundation
We believe that our national and international needs and responsibilities in
the eld of science require the creation of a new Federal instrumentality. We
therefore recommend that a National Research Foundation be created for the
promotion of scientic research and of the applications of research to enhance
the security and welfare of the Nation.
The control of the Foundation should be in the hands of a board of trustees.
This board should be appointed by the President of the United States from a
panel nominated by the National Academy of Sciences.
The Foundation shall be empowered, among other things, to:
1. Distribute funds in support of scientic research in educational and non-
prot research institutions, such research to be wholly under the control
of such institutions
2. Initiate and nance, in appropriate agencies, research projects for
which existing facilities are unavailable or inadequate.
3. Establish scholarships and fellowships in the natural sciences.
4. Promote dissemination of scientic and technical information.
5. Support international cooperation in science by providing nancial aid
for international congresses, worldwide associations of scientic societies
and scientic research programs organized on an international basis.
6. Devise methods of improving the transition between pure research and
its practical applications in industry.
Research Carried on by the Federal Government
Research carried on directly by the Federal Government represents an im-
portant part of our total research activity and needs to be strengthened and
expanded after the war. Expansion, however, should be limited to elds of
inquiry and service which are of public importance and are not adequately
carried on by private enterprise.
To increase the effectiveness of research done within the various depart-
ments and laboratories of Government a number of important changes in
existing practices are desirable.
1. The most important single factor in scientic and technical work is the
quality of personnel employed. Separate and distinct procedures for
recruiting and classifying scientic personnel are warranted by the
| 82
exacting technical requirements in these services. No one change from
current practice would do more to improve the quality of research
conducted by the Government than to establish a separate branch of
the Civil Service for scientic and technical positions.
2. A general up-grading of positions and salaries in the scientic services
of Government, accompanied by a careful selection of new talent,
would be a major contribution to improvement of the quality of
research conducted by the Government.
3. Research programs of Government should be assured in terms of their
long-run objectives. Appropriations by Congress to the principal Gov-
ernment scientic departments should be made in lump sums for broad
programs of research extending over several years. Appropriations
within the assured sum might then be made available as at present in
the annual budget.
4. A permanent science advisory board should be created to consult
with Government agencies and to advise the executive and legislative
branches of government as to the policies and budgets of Government
agencies engaged in scientic research.
Environmental Aids to Industrial Research
The structure of Federal taxation and the operation of the patent system
have an important impact on the research and development policies of indus-
try. In designing postwar taxes, consideration should be given to increasing
incentives to industrial research. The proper treatment of research costs for tax
purposes should receive clear legislative denition. Specic recommendations
on this point are included in the main body of the report.
83 |
| 84
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
President Roosevelt has asked:
What can the Government do now and in the future to aid research activities by
public and private organizations? * * * e information, the techniques, and the re-
search experience developed by the Oce of Scientic Research and Development
and by the thousands of scientists in the universities and in private industry, should
be used in the days of peace ahead for the improvement of the national health, the
creation of new enterprises bringing new jobs, and the betterment of the national
standard of living. New frontiers of the mind are before us, and if they are pioneered
with the same vision, boldness, and drive with which we have waged this war we can
create a fuller and more fruitful employment and a fuller and more fruitful life.
The President’s request reects widespread recognition by the American
people that the security of a modern nation depends in a vital way upon scien-
tic research and technological progress. It is equally clear that public health,
higher standards of living, conservation of national resources, new jobs and in-
vestment opportunities—in short, the prosperity, well-being and progress of the
American Nation—all require the continued ow of new scientic knowledge.
Even if a nation’s manpower declines in relative numbers, even if its geograph-
ical frontiers become xed, there always remains one inexhaustible national
resource—creative scientic research.
The advanced state of technology in the American economy, of which we are
justly proud, could not have been realized without sound institutional founda-
tions. Our public and private universities and nonprot research institutes, our
industrial research laboratories, the research agencies operated by the State
and Federal Governments, all constitute part of a cooperative pattern within
which tremendous achievements have already been made. We are condent
that within that same framework even greater developments in science will
mark the future.
The continued progress of science is a matter of the highest national im-
portance. The Federal Government, by virtue of its charge to provide for the
common defense and general welfare, has the responsibility of encouraging
and aiding such progress. It has recognized this responsibility in the past by
providing research laboratories within the structure of government, by provid-
ing a climate of law within which industry could advance on its own initiative,
and by making limited appropriations to certain types of educational and
research institutions. As far as the committee can determine, there is no major
dissent from the view that the rst two methods of aiding scientic progress fall
85 |
within the proper function of government.
The time has come, however, for a careful evaluation of the questions raised
by direct Federal aid to private institutions. Our universities clearly stand in
need of increased nancial support if they are to strengthen their basic contri-
butions to the scientic life of the Nation. Financial aid may also be required
to speed up the transition between basic discoveries in university laboratories
and their practical industrial applications. The committee has therefore felt
compelled to examine from the standpoint of public policy the question: “Is a
substantial increase in Federal nancial aid to scientic research in educational
and other nonprot research institutions necessary and desirable?”
If the necessity were not clearly demonstrable, several considerations might
argue for the undesirability of such Federal support. These center upon the
fear that Federal aid might lead to centralized control. It is the rm convic-
tion of the committee that centralized control of research by any small group
of persons would be disastrous whether such persons were in government, in
industry, or in the universities. There might be a danger, too, that increased
Federal aid would discourage existing sources of nancial support. Private in-
dividuals might lose interest in contributing to research institutions and the great
foundations might turn their attention to other elds. The States might reduce
the support given their large universities. These varied sources of support have
contributed materially to the development of vigorous centers of independent
initiative throughout the United States and prevented control by any one group.
The committee has had to weigh these considerations against an analysis
of the adequacy of the over-all support for science in America relative to
the needs of society. Our national pre-eminence in the elds of applied re-
search and technology should not blind us to the truth that, with respect to pure
research—the discovery of fundamental new knowledge and basic scientic
principles—America has occupied a secondary place. Our spectacular devel-
opment of the automobile, the airplane, and radio obscures the fact that they
were all based on fundamental discoveries made in nineteenth-century Europe.
From Europe also came formulation of most of the laws governing the transfor-
mation of energy, the physical and chemical structure of matter, the behavior
of electricity, light, and magnetism. In recent years the United States has made
progress in the eld of pure science, but an examination of the relevant statis-
tics suggests that our efforts in the eld of applied science have increased much
faster so that the proportion of pure to applied research continues to decrease.
Several reasons make it imperative to increase pure research at this stage in
our history. First, the intellectual banks of continental Europe, from which we for-
merly borrowed, have become bankrupt through the ravages of war. No longer
can we count upon those sources for fundamental science. Second, in this modern
age, more than ever before, pure research is the pace-maker of technological
progress. In the nineteenth century, Yankee mechanical ingenuity, building upon
the basic discoveries of European science, could greatly advance the technical
arts. Today the situation is different. Future progress will be most striking in
those highly complex elds—electronics, aerodynamics, chemistry—which are
| 86
based directly upon the foundations of modern science. In the next generation,
technological advance and basic scientic discovery will be inseparable; a
nation which borrows its basic knowledge will be hopelessly handicapped in the
race for innovation. The other world powers, we know, intend to foster scientic
research in the future. Moreover, it is part of our democratic creed to afrm the
intrinsic cultural and aesthetic worth of man’s attempt to advance the frontiers
of knowledge and understanding. By that same creed the prestige of a nation
is enhanced by its contributions—made in a spirit of friendly cooperation and
competition—to the world-wide battle against ignorance, want, and disease.
The increasing need for the cultivation of science in this country is only too
apparent. Are we equipped to meet it? Traditional support from private gifts,
from endowment income, from grants by the large foundations, and from
appropriations by State legislatures cannot meet the need. Research in the
natural sciences and engineering is becoming increasingly costly; and the ina-
tionary impact of the war is likely to heighten the nancial burden of univer-
sity research. The committee has considered whether industry could or should
assume most of the burden of support of fundamental research or whether
other adequate sources of private assistance are in sight. The answer appears
to be in the negative.
The committee has therefore become convinced that an increased measure
of Federal aid to scientic research is necessary. Means must be found for
administering such aid without incurring centralized control or discouraging
private support.
Basically this problem is but one example of a series of similar problems of
government in a democracy. Many of our important political decisions involve
the necessity of balancing irreducible national functions against the free play
of individual initiative. It is the belief of this committee that if certain basic
safeguards are observed in designing a plan for Government support to
science, great benets can be achieved without loss of initiative or freedom.
The experience of the land-grant colleges represents an important prece-
dent. The scale of Federal aid has been modest but has led to very signicant
results especially in agriculture; it has not led to domination by small groups;
it has not been capricious and uncertain. On the contrary, it has progressed on
a slowly expanding scale for over 80 years. No evidence has been brought
before the committee that this sort of Federal aid has discouraged other sources
of support. The land-grant colleges are examples of harmonious coopera-
tion among State and Federal Governments, private individuals, and industry.
American experience with support of higher education by State and local
governments has been extremely satisfactory, our vigorous State universities
standing as impressive testimonials.
The committee foresees that an increased measure of Federal support will
raise new problems. We have, therefore, carefully considered the possibility of
increasing Federal aid for scientic research without, at the same time, intro-
ducing undesirable paternalism. For, in order to be fruitful, scientic research
must be free—free from the inuence of pressure groups, free from the neces-
87 |
sity of producing immediate practical results, free from dictation by any central
board.
Many have been impressed by the way in which certain elds of applied
science have beneted, during the war, from an increased measure of planned
coordination and direction. It has thus been very natural to suppose that peace-
time research would benet equally from the application of similar methods.
There are, of course, types of scientic inquiry that require planning and co-
ordination, and a large degree of control is inevitable and proper in applied
research. However, there are several reasons why pure science in peacetime
cannot wisely or usefully adopt some of the procedures that have worked
so well during the war. War is an enterprise that lends itself almost ideally
to planning and regimentation, because immediate ends are more rigidly
prescribed than is possible in other human activities. Much of the success of
science during the war is an unhealthy success, won by forcing applications of
science to the disruption or complete displacement of that basic activity in pure
science which is essential to continuing applications. Finally, and perhaps most
important of all, scientists willingly suffer during war a degree of direction and
control which they would nd intolerable and stultifying in times of peace.
It is the belief of this committee that increased support of research in Amer-
ican universities and nonprot institutes will provide the most positive aid to
science and technology. But we do not believe that any program is better
than no program—that an ill-devised distribution of Federal funds will aid
the growth of science. Our concrete proposals seek to augment the quality as
well as the quantity of scientic research. We believe that there are historical
precedents of Government aid to research, both in this country and abroad,
which show the possibility of providing, within the framework of sound admin-
istrative practice, sustained nonpolitical grants which would operate in such a
manner as to call forth from existing institutions even greater initiative, effort,
and accomplishment.
The organization or instrument nally set up should not attempt to play the
role of an all-seeing, all-powerful planning board trying to guide in detail the
normal growth-processes of science. The rst and most essential requirement
is that the groups administering a program of research assistance be com-
posed of men of the highest integrity, ability, and experience, with a thorough
understanding of the problems of science. The committee believes that an in-
dependent Government body, created by the Congress, free from hampering
restrictions, staffed with the ablest personnel obtainable, and empowered to
give sustained and far-sighted assistance to science with assurance of continu-
ing support, would constitute the best possible solution.
It is our belief that the desired purposes can best be served and the possible
dangers minimized by centering the responsibility for this program in a new
organization, a National Research Foundation, whose function should be the
promotion of scientic research and of the applications of research to enhance
the security and welfare of the Nation.
| 88
CHAPTER II
PRESENT STATUS AND TRENDS IN AMERICAN
SCIENCE
To aid in formulating policies of assistance to research, it will be helpful rst
to analyze the important types of scientic activity and to sketch the develop-
ment of the principal types of American scientic institutions.
A. THE NATURE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Scientic research may be divided into the following broad categories:
(1) pure research, (2) background research, and (3) applied research and
development. The boundaries between them are by no means clear-cut and
it is frequently difcult to assign a given investigation to any single category.
On the other hand, typical instances are easily recognized, and study of them
reveals that each category requires different institutional arrangements for
maximum development.
1. Pure Research
Pure research is research without specic practical ends. It results in general
knowledge and understanding of nature and its laws. This general knowledge
provides the means of answering a large number of important practical prob-
lems, though it may not give a specic solution to any one of them. The pure
scientist may not be at all interested in the practical applications of his work;
yet the development of important new industries depends primarily on a con-
tinuing vigorous progress of pure science.
One of the peculiarities of pure science is the variety of paths which lead to
productive advance. Many of the most important discoveries have come as a
result of experiments undertaken with quite different purposes in mind. Statis-
tically it is certain that important and highly useful discoveries will result from
some fraction of the work undertaken; but the results of any one particular
investigation cannot be predicted with accuracy.
The unpredictable nature of pure science makes desirable the provision of
rather special circumstances for its pursuit. Pure research demands from its
followers the freedom of mind to look at familiar facts from unfamiliar points
of view. It does not always lend itself to organized efforts and is refractory to
direction from above. In fact, nowhere else is the principle of freedom more
important for signicant achievement. It should be pointed out, however, that
89 |
many branches of pure science increasingly involve the cooperative efforts
of numerous individuals, and expensive capital equipment shared by many
workers.
By general consent the discoveries of pure science have for centuries been
immediately consigned to the public domain and no valid precedent exists for
restricting the advantages of knowledge of this sort to any individual, corpora-
tion, State, or Nation. All the people are the beneciaries. Governments ded-
icated to the public welfare, therefore, have a responsibility for encouraging
and supporting the production of new knowledge on the broadest possible
basis. In the United States this responsibility has long been recognized.
2. Background Research
The preparation of accurate topographic and geologic maps, the collection
of meteorological data, the determination of physical and chemical constants,
the description of species of animals, plants, and minerals, the establishment of
standards for hormones, drugs, and X-ray therapy; these and similar types of
scientic work are here grouped together under the term background research.
Such background knowledge provides essential data for advances in both pure
and applied science. It is also widely used by the engineer, the physician and
the public at large. In contrast to pure science, the objectives of this type of
research and the methods to be used are reasonably clear before an investi-
gation is undertaken. Thus, comprehensive programs may be mapped out and
the work carried on by relatively large numbers of trained personnel as a
coordinated effort.
Scientic work of this character is necessarily carried on in all types of re-
search organizations—in universities, in industry, and in Government bureaus.
Much of it evolves as a necessary byproduct either of applied research or
of development. Only very rarely, however, does the knowledge obtained
emerge in patentable form and the public welfare is usually best served by
prompt publication of the results.
There seems to be little disagreement with the view that these surveys and
descriptions of basic facts and the determination of standards are proper
elds for Government action and that centralization of certain aspects of this
work in Federal laboratories carries many advantages. There are few private
organizations equipped to carry out more than a small fraction of the research
needed in these elds. And it is obvious, for example, that topographic maps
are most useful when maps for the entire country observe similar rules in regard
to scale, contour lines, conventional markings for roads, dwellings, etc. Similarly,
standard units for hormones should be based on uniform test procedures and be
stated, so far as is possible, in uniform units. The Federal Government has rec-
ognized these responsibilities in principle and the Bureau of Standards serves
as an excellent example of how such work can be carried out most efciently.
Recent technical advance in such elds as synthetic chemistry and industri-
al biology have resulted in a stream of new compounds and materials too
| 90
rapid for present laboratories to catalogue. Many substances of great po-
tential usefulness are either completely unknown, or their properties inade-
quately described. Complex minerals such as coal, and a wealth of agricultural
products, are composed of chemical compounds, any one of which may be-
come the basis of a new industry. What is needed is enough knowledge about
their potentialities to justify the private investment necessary for their practical
application. If the problem is left entirely in private hands, progress may be
very slow. At present, only the larger industrial laboratories have the capacity
to engage extensively in such research. It seems desirable, therefore, for the
Government to arrange for work of this sort, either in its own laboratories or in
outside institutions, and to make the results of this research generally available
in a systematic manner.
3. Applied Research and Development
Applied research and development differs in several important respects
from pure science. Since the objective can often be denitely mapped out be-
forehand, the work lends itself to organized effort. If successful, the results of
applied research are of a denitely practical or commercial value. The very
heavy expenses of such work are, therefore, undertaken by private organiza-
tions only in the hope of ultimately recovering the funds invested.
In several elds, admittedly, such as agriculture and in various special indus-
tries where the individual producing units are small and widely dispersed, the
presence of a prot motive does not ensure the existence of adequate research
and development. The substantial research work initiated by the Department
of Agriculture has developed in response to these special needs.
The distinction between applied and pure research is not a hard and fast
one, and industrial scientists may tackle specic problems from broad funda-
mental viewpoints. But it is important to emphasize that there is a perverse
law governing research: Under the pressure for immediate results, and unless
deliberate policies are set up to guard against this, applied research invariably
drives out pure.
The moral is clear: It is pure research which deserves and requires special
protection and specially assured support.
B. DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
IN THE UNITED STATES
During the colonial period of American history, scientic work was carried
on in random, sporadic fashion, and for the most part outside the universities.
Franklin and Jefferson are outstanding examples of the type of gifted ama-
teur whose inuence upon American science continued to be felt well into the
nineteenth century. In the rst decades of the Republic, the older American
colleges began to give science increased attention in the curriculum. But despite
91 |
the presence on their faculties of such outstanding individuals as the Sillimans,
Louis Agassiz, and Joseph Henry, it cannot be concluded that the colleges were
active centers of research, or that science received much emphasis in institutions
which, if they were not so exclusively concerned with religious instruction as
heretofore, were still devoted to the ideals of a liberal education along the
lines of strict classical and literary tradition.
With the college environment inimical or at least cool toward the growth of
scientic research, neither Government support nor private endowment was
available in the United States for the promotion of pure research until late
in the nineteenth century. This is in marked contrast to the principal European
countries where, almost without exception, science was directly supported by
the governments. Gradually, in response to a steadily increasing need, the
Federal Government established the scientic bureaus that it needed to fulll
its obligations to the public. During the course of the century it created the Coast
and Geodetic Survey, the Naval Observatory, the Department of Agriculture,
and the Geological Survey. In 1836, to cite an early example of Federal
support of a scientic venture, the Wilkes Exploring Expedition was authorized
“to expand the bounds of science and to promote knowledge.” But the practical
nature of all these activities is evident. Despite several eloquent expressions by
scientic men of the important long-run utility of sponsoring pure science, the
Congress turned a deaf ear to all proposals for creating scientic institutions
having anything but limited and strictly utilitarian purposes. Washington’s plan
for a national university, and the various suggestions for a Government-spon-
sored academy or a national institution had the support of public gures like
Jefferson, Madison, and John Quincy Adams but were unpopular in Congress
and were often strenuously opposed by the older private colleges.
If Government support for science was not forthcoming, neither was support
from private gifts or bequests. It is signicant that the rst considerable sum
for the support of pure science came from a foreigner, the Englishman James
Smithson, with whose bequest Congress—after debating its acceptance and
disposition for nearly 10 years—created the Smithsonian Institution.
As a result of the profound forces which were converting America in the last
decade of the nineteenth century from an essentially backward agricultural
Nation to a world power, changes took place in our attitudes toward science
and learning and toward the encouragement that should properly be accorded
them. The State universities and land-grant colleges grew and prospered
through generous public support. Science also became one of the benecia-
ries of the private fortunes built up in the later nineteenth century. Whereas
earlier it had been evident that only the Government could assume the burden
of erecting and supporting an astronomical observatory, there were now men
like James Lick with fortunes large enough to build and endow such expensive
centers of research. Equally important were the contributions of private philan-
thropy in developing universities and in the direct support of research through
the creation of nonprot science institutions and philanthropic foundations.
Two of our best-known privately endowed institutions devoted to pure
| 92
research, the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the Rockefeller Institute,
were created shortly after the turn of the century. From the same gigantic
fortunes stemmed the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation.
Their tremendous contributions to the progress of scientic research, not only in
America, but throughout the world, cannot be exaggerated.
The latter part of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries witnessed
the development of the American medical schools, which today serve as re-
search centers not only for applied or practical medicine but for fundamental
research in many biological problems which are basic to medicine. The medical
schools appear to have been particularly attractive objects of private philan-
thropy. Various factors, such as the regulation of standards by the profession at
large and the active interest of two or three of the largest foundations, have
given to the medical schools of the country a uniformly advanced status not
enjoyed by other divisions of our universities. In fact, only in the case of medical
schools can the United States be said to excel all other countries in the number
of rst-rate research institutions per unit of population.
Almost equally signicant is the growth of the Federal Government’s own
scientic bureaus. The existing agencies and departments, especially the
Department of Agriculture, underwent an extraordinary development. An
outstanding feature was the expanding program of grants-in-aid to the State
agricultural experiment stations. The rst decades of the twentieth century saw
the creation of a number of new scientic bureaus and laboratories: the Bureau
of Mines, the Bureau of Standards, and the National Institute of Health. The rst
World War led to the creation of the principal service laboratories, the Naval
Research Laboratory, for example, and the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics. By 1932 the total Government expenditure for research had risen
to over 40 million dollars, more than double the gure for 1922.
But no factor in the gradual emergence of American science from its depen-
dent state is more striking than the growth of research laboratories in industry.
Prior to 1880 there were few, if any, commercial laboratories worthy of the
name; but in the last decades of the nineteenth century powerful new industries,
especially in the electrical eld, grew out of basic technological discoveries
and the inventive genius of men like Bell, Edison, and Elihu Thomson. Firms in
these new industries almost from the outset adopted the policy of maintaining
their lead by energetic programs of scientic and technological research
resulting in patents based in large part on the work of their own laboratories.
The rst World War provided a further stimulus to the growth of commercial
laboratories by revealing the inadequacies of our position in industrial research
as compared to Germany, especially in the chemical eld. Much of our pres-
ent chemical industry, together with its vast research potential, grew up in re-
sponse to needs which were demonstrated in the war, aided by the availability
of patents seized from their former German owners.
93 |
C. THE NATIONAL RESEARCH BUDGET
The over-all picture of the development of research in the United States, as re-
ected in the changed structure and magnitude of the national research expen-
ditures of the last 15 years, is shown in table I and in the corresponding gure I.
Since statistical information is necessarily fragmentary and dependent upon
arbitrary denitions, most of the estimates are subject to a very considerable
margin of error. Nevertheless, the following generalizations seem warranted:
(1) Of the three principal groups engaged in research, private industry con-
tributes by far the largest portion of the total national expenditures, with
the Government coming next and the educational institutions last.
(2) Research expenditures of industry, Government, and industrial institutes
have been expanding considerably more rapidly (g. I), than research in
universities and science institutes.
During the war, the Government expanded its research budget from
$69,000,000 in 1940 to $720,000,000 in 1944. Not all of this large increase
took place in Government laboratories. Substantial sums went to industry and
to the universities. This resulted in changing the trend of university research
expenditures. The universities spent $28,000,000 on research in 1938, while in
1943-44 the Ofce of Scientic Research and Development, alone, contracted
for $90,000,000 of research in universities and colleges.
Certain problems which should be considered in planning for a national post-
war research program, and some guidance in meeting these problems, can be
ascertained from a study of the basic prewar trends and relationships. Partic-
ularly important is a study of the relative expenditures for pure and applied
research. According to the best available estimates, industry before the war
devoted about 5 percent of its research budget, or $9,000,000,
1
and Govern-
ment about 15 percent, or $7,500,000, to pure research. Colleges, universities,
and endowed research institutes spent 70 percent of their research budgets, or
a total sum of nearly $23,000,000 in this way.
Total national expenditure for pure science thus amounted to approximately
$40,000,000 while that for applied reached a gure of $227,000,000, a
ratio of nearly 1 to 6. In England, where the development of industrial research
is, admittedly, very retarded, the corresponding ratio of pure to applied
research is estimated at 1 to 1.2.
2
Source: Biennial Surveys of Education (Washington, U. S. Ofce of Education).
1
In the year 1938.
2
Computed from research budgets listed by Bernal, J D., The Social Function of Science (London
Routledge, 1939).
| 94
1
Kuznets, Simon S., National Income and Its Composition, 1919-38 Vol. I (New York, National Bureau
of Economic Research, 1941), p. 137.
2
National Resources Committee, Research-A National Resource, Vol. II, Industrial Research (Washing-
ton, Supt. Docs., 1938), p. 174; Perazich, G. and Field, P., Industrial Research and Changing Technology
(Philadelphia, WPA, National Research Project, Rep. No. M-4, Jan. 1940), p. 65.
3
Includes the industrial research institutes supported primarily by contributions from industry. Estimat-
ed $5,000,000 spent by nonprot industrial research institutes for 1939 and extrapolated for other
years by the Battelle Memorial Institute gures given in their publication Research in Action (Columbus,
1944), p. 51.
4
Report on Federal Government expenditures on scientic research. Excludes Federal grants to ag-
ricultural experiment stations. 3 percent of Federal government expenditures estimated as equivalent to
scientic research expenditures by the States, exclusive of their grants to agricultural experiment stations
and colleges and universities, which are included in the expenditures by the latter. 1940-44 Federal
Government gures do not include grants to “educational institutions and foundations.”
5
The National Resources Committee reported that $50,000,000 were spent on research by all
colleges and universities in 1935-36. Based on the surveys by the Bowman Committee, it was estimated
that $25,000,000 of this were for expenditure on research in the natural sciences. The trend shown in
research expenditures of a large sample of universities and colleges was used to extrapolate for years
other than 1936. Figures include grants from foundations and from the Government for agricultural
experiment stations.
6
Includes the endowed research institutes which are not connected with any industry nor an integral
part of any university, such as the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, the Wistar Institute, the
Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, etc. The estimates
have been made upon published information and questionnaires. The trend shown in the institutions on
which complete information was available was used to extrapolate the research expenditures in other
research institutes. It was estimated that six institutes constituted 75 percent of the total expenditures.
95 |
In the decade from 1930 to 1940 applied research was expanding much
more rapidly in the United States than was pure research. During this period
industrial research expanded by 100 percent and governmental research by
200 percent. Research in colleges and universities increased by 50 percent,
and the endowed research institutes (which were primarily devoted to pure
research) declined by nearly 15 percent. It may be concluded, therefore, that
since governmental and industrial expenditure is growing so rapidly, relative
to that of the universities, generous support to university research is essential if
the proportion of pure to applied research is to be maintained at anything like
the previous relationship.
This support will have to include substantial expenditures for capital facilities.
The great decline in capital outlays of privately supported institutions is very
striking.
ANNUAL EXPENDITURES FOR CAPITAL OUTLAY
All Institutions of Higher Education
Million of Dollars
Fiscal year
Privately
supported
institutions
Publicly
supported
institutions
1929-30 ----------------------------------
1931-32 ----------------------------------
1933-34 ----------------------------------
1935-36 ----------------------------------
1937-38 ----------------------------------
1939-40 ----------------------------------
1941-42 ----------------------------------
$73. 1
56. 8
18. 1
15. 3
29. 6
20. 6
19. 8
$36. 6
35. 0
11. 4
32. 1
40. 9
63. 6
31. 8
| 96
Some portion of the new plant and equipment constructed during the last few
years for the purpose of war research can be converted to peacetime uses.
Nevertheless, a considerable amount of new investment will have to be under-
taken after the war. There can be no doubt that such new construction could
constitute one of the most productive kinds of public and private investment.
97 |
Next to the achievement of an adequate total volume of research activities
and the establishment of a proper proportion between its pure and applied
phases, maintenance of a continuous and steady expansion should be consid-
ered one of the most important objectives of a far-sighted national research
policy. Idle scientic talent and a retarded rate of scientic and technological
progress have been the usual result of economic depression. Steady mainte-
nance of a generally high level of production and employment would naturally
obviate the necessity of special stabilization policies in respect to research and
technological development. In the period of postwar transition and possible
temporary recession, however, increased governmental expenditure may be
necessary in order to offset the probable reduction of research activities in
industry and in privately nanced universities. Even if such a temporary reces-
sion should be much milder than the great depression of the early 1930’s, the
absolute reduction in the national research budget would be substantial since
the general level of research is now much higher than it was 15 years ago. It
is urged, therefore, that any national scientic foundation that is established
should, as far as is consistent with sound and equitable policy, increase its
grants for research in periods of depression.
| 98
CHAPTER III
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN AMERICAN
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES
A. THE UNIVERSITY AS A RESEARCH
ENVIRONMENT
Historical development has given the sanction of tradition to the prominent
role played by the universities in the progress of pure science. The advent of
the agricultural and engineering schools has also increased university interest
and responsibility in the eld of applied research and development.
Several factors combine to emphasize the appropriateness of universities for
research. The university as a whole is charged with the responsibility not only
of maintaining the knowledge of the past and imparting it to students but of
contributing to new knowledge of all kinds. The scientic worker is thus provided
with colleagues who, though they may represent widely differing elds, all
have an understanding and appreciation of the value of new knowledge.
The long struggle for academic freedom has provided our universities with
the means of protecting the scientist from many of the immediate pressures
of convention or prejudice. The university at its best provides its workers with
a strong sense of group solidarity and security, plus a substantial degree of
personal and intellectual freedom. Both are essential in the development of
new knowledge, much of which can arouse opposition because of its tendency
to challenge current beliefs and practices.
1. Present Status or Pure Research in American Universities
The rapid expansion of university education in this country during the present
century is encouraging, but it is wise to remember that a large part of this
increase has been devoted to undergraduate departments and was especially
designed to meet increased teaching responsibilities. More than any other
country in the world, the United States has undertaken to provide higher edu-
cation on a broad base. There has been an even more remarkable percentage
rate of growth in the number of students taking postgraduate courses in Amer-
ican universities. Development of research has not, however, paralleled this
rapid expansion in teaching.
99 |
2.
Backgrounds and Trends of Financial Support to Universities
The support of our large private universities and colleges has come mainly
from endowment gifts and foundation grants. The prodigious growth of our
public institutions has been supported by appropriations from the various
legislatures. Since 1929 fundamental changes in the American tax and income
structure and decline in interest rates have slowed down the rate of new private
gifts and endowment earnings. Students’ fees constitute an increasing propor-
tion of the total support of private institutions, and capital outlays in those
universities are denitely on the downgrade. At the same time research has
become increasingly expensive and many State legislatures are nding it
difcult to provide adequate support for such activities in their universities.
The science departments of universities have found it necessary, in view of the
decrease in gifts by individuals, to rely more upon industrial corporations for
assistance. This may imply the distortion of university research in the direction
of short-range problems at the expense of more fundamental research. Also
the freedom of the university scientist may be decreased by the introduction
of some degree of commercial control. Undoubtedly, if proper safeguards are
maintained, cooperative research performed for industry in universities can be
expected to increase in the future to the advantage of both parties concerned.
But in this report which wishes steadily to emphasize the need for freedom in
science, it is well to speak of the need to guard against control of science by
industry as well as against control of science by government.
If university research is to keep pace with the growth of our economy, if able
people are to be attracted to college research and teaching, it is clear that
new sources of nancial support must be found. Incomes of other professions—
doctors, lawyers, dentists, engineers, etc.—have increased considerably during
the war. The cost of living has risen markedly. For the rst time the personal
income tax bears sharply on the middle-income groups. And in the face of
these factors, professorial earnings have been frozen at a level which was not
considered to be overgenerous 15 years ago. A continuation of this trend will
certainly have an adverse effect upon the recruitment and retention of able
university scientists.
3. Immediate Effects of the War
The above trends were in evidence even before the war. Yet in addition, the
present conict has added a number of very special problems which will dom-
inate the situation for a number of years to come.
First, and most important, has been the virtual cessation of training of new
scientic personnel. As a result, we must simply accept as axiomatic the fact
that there will be an insufciency of fully trained young scientists after the war
and that it will take a considerable period of time to repair the deciency.
The war has also created a serious problem of reconversion and rehabili-
tation for the individual scientist. The mature scholar, as well as the advanced
| 100
student whose curriculum had to be interrupted, needs re-education and
readjustment. The problem is not simply one of returning to the status quo ante
bellum. In many cases the war has increased the research time and opportu-
nities of American college scientists. Necessarily the concentration in relatively
few centers of the bulk of war research will, and should, be reversed in time
of peace. But it would denitely not be in the national interest if the dispersal
of research staffs away from the largest institutions should mean a marked
reduction in the research opportunities and effectiveness of university scientists.
Teaching and research are complementary activities, each aiding and
reinforcing the other. But if too much of the teaching is of a routine, elementary
character, and if the number of teaching hours is so great as to absorb too
much of the time and creative energy of the scientists, then the two activities
become competitive. Before the war, in all but a few of the most prosperous
universities, teaching loads were excessive from the standpoint of optimal
research output.
1
The need to make up for the wartime deferment of training
may necessitate the “acceleration” of educational programs to a three-term
basis for some years after the war, again with harmful effects to research.
To the well-trained university scientist now engaged in war work, the imme-
diate academic outlook may have lost some of its appeal, especially if he is
research minded. For during the war he has had, perhaps for the rst time in his
life, the facilities and assistance to carry on research in a really efcient way. At
the same time, industrial laboratories will be bidding eagerly for his services.
University salaries tend to be low compared with those in industry and there
has been a steady ow of university scientists into industrial laboratories. Since
one of the most important fruits of pure research is the creation of outstanding
applied research men, it is very much in the national interest that this movement
take place in some degree. But in the immediate postwar period there is dan-
ger that an undue number of trained individuals may go into industry, stripping
the universities of those who are most competent to teach a new generation
of research workers. It is of the utmost importance, therefore, to maintain a
favorable competitive position for universities relative to industry.
Paradoxically, increasing the teaching load of university scientists to meet
postwar demands may intensify the teaching shortage through its tendency
to encourage transfers to industry. A number of partial solutions suggest them-
selves, each being possible only if nancial support is available to make
research opportunities more plentiful and teaching more attractive. Numerous
scientists on war work may be encouraged to return to their universities; many
of the newly trained war scientists may be encouraged to remain in the univer-
sities; competent scientists who before the war were in institutions with very little
science teaching may be transferred to the more active centers; nally, univer-
sities may decide to alter teaching methods and size of classes for at least a
few years after the war. These are important short-run makeshifts. In the long
run the solution will be found in the training of more scientists.
1
See appendix B.
101 |
It is also vitally important that sufcient laboratory assistance, materials,
apparatus, clerical and manual aid be provided for those university staff
members who are undertaking research in the natural sciences. It is anomalous,
to say the least, that universities and colleges should hire rst-class scientists,
equip them with ofces and laboratories, and then fail to provide them with
the supplementary funds necessary for productive research. No industrial labo-
ratory would be so imprudent as to use the time of highly paid staff members
for doing shop work.
A survey was made by this committee to make possible a quantitative com-
parison of the support of research in universities, nonprot research institutions
and industrial laboratories during the prewar years. The aim was to discover
just how nearly the universities were approximating the practice, in the use of
research personnel, which research institutes and especially industrial labora-
tories had found to be economical and efcient.
1
The results showed that, just
prior to the war, university science departments were spending on the direct
operating costs of research—apparatus, materials, technical assistance—sums
of the order of 10 to 40 cents for every dollar of salary paid to members of
the research staff. A gure of 15 or 20 cents per salary dollar was typical
of most departments. Figures above 30 cents were uncommon and were con-
sidered to be distinctly liberal by standards of current university practice. By
contrast, in a similar survey of a number of industrial research laboratories, a
gure of 40 cents for direct research expenditures, per dollar of salary paid to
the research staff, was the lowest encountered.
1
In most of the rms reporting,
the research expenditures ranged from $1 to $3 for each dollar of salary.
Industries have found that generous expenditures for assistance to research
workers are economical in the long run. Clearly steps must be taken to help the
universities bring their supplementary research expenditures more into line with
the best practice.
If the prewar support of research in universities was inadequate, the postwar
situation promises to be worse, unless drastic remedies are applied. In view of
the wartime increase of some 27 percent in the price level of all goods,
2
each
of the already inadequate university research dollars will go much less far than
before the war. It is as though every natural science department had already
received a cut in its postwar research budget of from one-quarter to one-third.
This prospect is serious for all universities but perhaps most acute for the
25 universities just below the rst half dozen in size and resources. The large
wartime university research laboratories have drawn upon the intermediate
universities for staffs. Such tried and experienced men can make valuable con-
tributions in their home institutions if adequate funds are made available. Here
lies the immediate opportunity from the Nation’s point of view, although much
also remains to be done at the highest and lowest levels.
1
See appendix B.
2
B. L. S. Cost of Living Index, all items, March 15, 1940, to January 15, 1945.
| 102
B. FORM OF AID TO UNIVERSITIES
Although the Government may render important indirect aid to universities
by keeping its own laboratories, libraries and other research facilities at a
high level of efciency, the principal need is for direct nancial support under
conditions which will not endanger academic freedom and the personal inde-
pendence of the investigator.
This committee does not feel that it is desirable to supply these funds by a se-
ries of annual congressional appropriations for specic projects; the difculties
these have raised within the Government service testify to the evils that would
be introduced into the university environment by this practice. The preservation
of academic freedom requires that funds be allocated in a way that would min-
imize the possibility of external control and would encourage long-term projects.
Experience in other countries and the example of the successful private foun-
dations suggest that a largely autonomous board with a staff of men trained
in science is the most appropriate agency for carrying on this phase of the
Government’s responsibility for scientic progress. Recommendations for the
formation of a National Research Foundation and additional responsibilities
with which it may be charged appear elsewhere in this report. The following
paragraphs are devoted to an outline of the committee’s views respecting its
operation in relation to universities.
To give funds intelligently in support of fundamental research is a difcult
task and there is no generally accepted rule of procedure. The private foun-
dations follow a number of different policies and are constantly revising their
procedures on the basis of accumulating experience. A Government board
would have new and perplexing problems stemming from its status as an arm
of the Government, and from the fact that the resources at its command would
presumably be large in comparison with those of any single university or
private foundation. The committee recommends, therefore, that such a board
be in large measure free to formulate its own rules of procedure for allocating
funds to universities, as long as these do not transgress certain broad general
principles.
The most important of these general principles are as follows:
(1) The funds supplied to the universities should be used for the support of
signicant research with special emphasis on the universities’ position
as the chief contributor to pure science.
(2) In making grants the board should assure itself that the university has
competent and adequately trained personnel to guide the studies.
(3) Grants to universities or to men working in universities must be made in
such a way as to avoid control of the internal policy of the university,
so that the university and not the board will have full responsibility for
the administration of the grant after it is once made.
(4) A constant effort should be made to improve the general research
level in institutions of higher education throughout the country.
103 |
No matter on what conditions money is given to universities, the very
existence of such support will, of course, modify university policy. In fact, the
increased emphasis on research, which will be the object of the Foundation,
itself constitutes a change in policy. And despite the fact that our committee is
concerned only with the natural sciences, action along the lines proposed cannot
fail to have inuence on the humanities and the social sciences. It is our hope
and belief that the provision of funds for the natural sciences would, in some
measure, free university funds for use in the other elds. Aside from such gen-
eral inuences, however, it would be necessary to devise ways and means of
allocating funds in large measure without determining what particular problems
are to be worked on and who is to carry them out. The principle of variety and
decentralization of control is nowhere more important than in scientic work,
where the fostering of novelty must be the rst concern. One of the most useful
ways of preserving these opportunities is to allow the greatest possible latitude
to the accumulated wisdom of university administrative ofcers and faculties.
The committee has given a great deal of thought to the technical form in
which Government grants should be made in order best to reect these princi-
ples. It does not wish to recommend that the proposed board be restricted to
the use of any particular plan, as experience will undoubtedly reveal in each
defects and advantages which cannot be predicted beforehand. The commit-
tee, however, feels that any instrumentality set up to aid research in universities
should be empowered to allocate funds in any or all of the following ways:
1. Matching Grants to Private and State Supported Institutions
It is proposed that research funds be made available to accredited univer-
sities, colleges, and engineering schools on a matching basis, and in a manner
that will be virtually automatic. These grants would be contingent upon satisfy-
ing the administrating board that certain clearly stated requirements, largely
of a technical bookkeeping nature have been met by the particular institution
in question. The grant would be for uid research purposes within the institution,
rather than to any particular department or person. Once a university were
accepted as a participant in this plan, and as long as it continued to meet the
required conditions, it would expect to receive the grant as a regular annual
appropriation, with no other control than some form of government audit to
insure that the money was, in fact, used in support of research. The Government
would match dollar for dollar (or according to any other simple formula) the
sums the university expended for research.
Although certain practical difculties must be recognized and dealt with,
many considerations make such matching grants attractive in principle. First,
and perhaps most important, it leaves to the recipient institution complete free-
dom in the selection of research programs and personnel. Second, it encour-
ages local support and utilizes the important forces of local interest and pride,
both in screening out unworthy projects and in carrying through worth-while
ones. Third, the size of the grant is geared more or less realistically to the
| 104
ability of the institution to utilize it effectively. Fourth, since the grants are largely
automatic in character, the board is freed from the burden of investigating
intensively the large number of potential recipients and arriving at a decision
in regard to the merits and defects of each. The experience of the private
foundations demonstrates that judgments of this sort are extremely difcult
and time-consuming, even when pursued on a small scale. The burden of work
for a Government board with much larger funds at its disposal is bound to be
far greater.
There is, of course, the practical problem of determining research costs as
distinguished from other outlays. University accounting practice is by no means
uniform and there are inherent difculties in deciding what part of the costs of
laboratory space, staff salaries, administrative overhead and so forth is occa-
sioned by research and what part by teaching. Certain funds now received by
universities, notably as a result of contracts with industry, should almost certain-
ly not be matched by the Government, especially if the resulting discoveries
were to become the exclusive property of the industrial donor. Difculties of this
nature, however, are not insuperable and should not weigh heavily against the
many advantages of the scheme.
2. Discretionary Grants
Matching grants, however, may well be attacked as a method of maintaining
the status quo, in which a few universities tend to dominate scientic research. It
is, in fact, essential to the healthy growth of science that the Foundation should
help to spread the research spirit as widely as possible throughout the United
States. If the recruitment of future scientic personnel is to proceed from a
sufciently broad base, it is important that as large a number of students as
possible be made aware of the research point of view. Many of our colleges
and engineering schools are not now able to support a signicant amount of
research.
3
The level of research practice in these institutions can best be raised
through discretionary grants.
The committee recommends, therefore, that the board of trustees be empow-
ered to expend a substantial part of its funds on a discretionary basis, either
as grants-in-aid for promising special projects or in the provision of large and
expensive capital facilities.
a. Grants-in-aid
Much of the funds now granted by private foundations to universities is in
the form of grants-in-aid for special purposes. These range in size from a few
hundred dollars for 1 year to several hundred thousand dollars for a period
of 5 to 10 years.
A Government foundation with larger sums at its command would presum-
3
See appendix B.
105 |
ably be in a position to make appropriations of considerable size and for long
periods of time. Indeed the very magnitude of its responsibilities would require
that it abstain from frittering away its efforts on a large number of small and
transitory projects.
Once proper precautions are taken to avoid obvious pitfalls, several
advantages of relatively stable grants-in-aid argue strongly for their adoption in
certain circumstances. Of rst importance is the fact that they offer what is
probably the best means of supporting promising projects in institutions whose
present status does not enable them to benet sufciently under matching
grants. In this connection particular attention should be given to attaining a
better balance of research activity throughout the country.
b. Grants for Capital Facilities
It has already been pointed out that any plans for expansion of research
in educational institutions will require additional investment in buildings and
equipment. Increases in the total number of students are expected to bring
student enrollment considerably above prewar levels and will bring great pres-
sure on existing facilities which are already overcrowded. Substantial sums will
therefore be required to provide adequate facilities for advanced research.
In addition the trends in many elds of scientic research point toward the
increasing importance of large and highly expensive pieces of equipment
which, at present, can be purchased and maintained only by favored institu-
tions. The astronomers were perhaps the rst to face this problem, but now the
physicist wishes to work with a cyclotron or betatron, and the biochemist with
an ultracentrifuge or mass spectrograph; and workers in many elds have need
for the services of computing centers or for the use of complicated calculating
equipment, such as the differential analyzer. Much of present-day engineering
research requires large installations of a semi-industrial nature.
It is, accordingly, suggested that the Government could greatly aid the
course of both pure and applied research by making available these facilities
to universities, with provisions that they should be used cooperatively by oth-
er institutions in the region. A detailed proposal for the management of such
facilities will probably need close study; and the needs of each center should
be adapted to its peculiar local circumstances.
This proposal appears to have a number of inherent advantages: (1) It
provides necessary facilities that would not otherwise be readily available,
and an economical and democratic way of using them, (2) it recognizes the
cooperative aspects of modern research and provides facilities where workers
could come together for a common effort and interchange of ideas, and (3)
care in the placement of such equipment would immediately stimulate and
strengthen research efforts in hitherto less favored areas.
| 106
3. Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships
Another committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Moe
4
has made a careful
analysis of the problem of recruiting and training future research workers up to
the level of the doctorate. The Moe Committee is recommending a substantial
program of undergraduate and pre-doctoral science fellowships. We should
like to reinforce these recommendations by stating our belief that the need
for additional personnel is one of the most pressing which faces universities,
industry, and government. The very heart of any successful program of research
is the existence of a strong body of highly trained men. Adequate funds can be
of immense value in giving a large number of qualied persons the opportunity
for the necessary training and study. Not only will provisions for undergraduate
and pre-doctoral fellowships help supply future workers, but grants in the
latter category will immediately contribute to the productive research done
in universities. Much of the actual experimental work carried on in these
institutions is done by students pursuing the Ph. D. degree under the direction of
mature investigators. Every additional qualied student assistant thus increases
the effectiveness of the senior staff members.
The Bowman Committee also wishes to recommend a program of post-doc-
toral fellowships as a direct aid to research. The National Research Council,
with funds received from the Rockefeller Foundation, has for many years grant-
ed a number of fellowships to research workers who have recently received
advanced degrees and wish a year or two more to establish themselves rmly
in investigative work before taking up extensive teaching responsibilities. A no-
tably high proportion of the recipients have gone on to distinguished careers in
science or one of the allied arts, notably in medicine. One of the most important
aspects of these fellowships is that their holders have in the majority of instances
used them for work at institutions other than those in which they obtained their
degrees. Thus, they not only broadened their own training but contributed
greatly to the interchange of ideas and methods between laboratories. In
the immediate postwar period, an increase in the number of these fellowships
would be especially important in re-establishing in scientic work many men
who had completed their formal education before joining the armed forces and
would thus be ineligible for aid under the G. I. Bill of Rights. The fellowships
should also be helpful in certain elds of pure and applied science where a
combination of skills is required and where the cost of a thorough training is
prohibitive under present conditions.
4. Senior Research Fellowships
Although scholarships and fellowships such as those described above have
4
The Moe Committee was appointed by Dr. Bush to assist in answering the President’s question “Can
an effective program be proposed for discovering and developing scientic talent in American youth so
that the continuing future of scientic research in this country may be assured on a level comparable to
what has been done during the war?” (See President’s letter.)
107 |
operated successfully on a fairly large scale in the past, fewer opportunities
exist for similar aid to the mature investigator. One of the foundations has for
several years given special attention to this eld, and shortly before the war
the National Research Council instituted the Welch Fellowships in Medicine for
men of relatively advanced though hardly mature academic status. In the opin-
ion of the committee, however, much more needs to be done to enable really
experienced investigators to develop and utilize their talents most effectively.
The problem, in fact, appears to be far beyond the means of private resources.
Research workers who have reached the status of assistant professor or above
tend to remain in their own universities and their time available for research
tends to become increasingly broken up. In theory, the sabbatical year gives
an opportunity for intensive research or travel, but in recent years universities
have been less and less able to grant such freedom from academic routine.
The resulting immobility of the senior staff serves to isolate the intellectual life
of a university from that of its fellows, and the individuals concerned, lacking
outside stimulation, may incline more and more to perfunctory performance
of routine duties. The tendency of American universities to select full profes-
sors and department heads from within their own staffs only aggravates these
undesirable conditions.
Fellowships large enough to meet the salaries of advanced academic per-
sonnel for periods of intensive research work at their own institutions or at other
universities would be an effective means of attacking these problems. Such
grants offer an especially powerful tool for building up research in institutions
that are just beginning to develop the research spirit, either by enabling their
faculties to receive advanced training elsewhere or by bringing distinguished
workers to them from other institutions. An accompanying grant to cover the use
of research facilities should be made to the institution selected by the recipient
of the fellowship.
Efforts should also be made to encourage mature scientists in industry and
government to avail themselves of the opportunity provided in this program to
do fundamental research in universities of their own choice. This should help in
part to speed the transition between pure research and its practical applica-
tions.
| 108
CHAPTER IV
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN THE GOVERNMENT
SERVICE
An analysis of the activities of the various scientic bureaus gives convincing
proof that the recognized responsibilities of the Government in scientic re-
search are wide indeed. The types of research in which it is directly engaged
may be roughly classied under three headings: (1) research that is essential
to the effective operation of Government departments; (2) research of broad
scientic and economic importance that has long-range value to the Nation and
for which the Federal Government has assumed a large share of the respon-
sibility (particularly important has been Government research for industries
made up of many small units); and (3) technological research of public concern,
which is either too expensive or whose success is too problematical or too far
distant to attract the research efforts of commercial enterprise. In this category
would also be placed research programs, requiring elaborate coordination,
which the Government is peculiarly well-tted to direct.
Much of Government research is of wide scope and long-range character.
It is predominantly a team affair, and often involves the correlation and inte-
gration of a Nation-wide effort, with the Government enlisting the cooperation
of investigators from industry and universities throughout the country. The
development of the contract mechanism for sponsoring research has been a
most important factor in this type of cooperation. The planning, organization
and successful administration of such far-reaching research programs often
raise problems much more complex than those encountered in the operation of
laboratories devoted exclusively to specic sciences.
The general problem of improving the conditions under which the Govern-
ment conducts research, and the special problem of coordinating the various
scientic activities of the Government, has been previously considered by a
number of other committees who have reported to the Congress or to the Pres-
ident. In 1884, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences reported
to the Congress on the condition of several of the most important scientic
bureaus. This committee recommended the consolidation of the four agen-
cies under consideration into a single Department of Science, or, if that were
not deemed practical, the creation of an advisory “permanent commission”
charged with coordinating and improving the scientic services of the Govern-
ment. Neither recommendation was acted upon. In 1908, another committee
of the National Academy recommended a permanent board to advise on the
work of the scientic bureaus, the board to consist of the heads of the various
bureaus, four delegates from Congress, and “ve to seven eminent men of
109 |
science not connected with the Government service.” No action was taken as a
result of this report. A temporary Science Advisory Board was appointed by
President Roosevelt in 1933 and asked to consider specic problems of the
organization of various scientic bureaus and to recommend a program for
more active support of research by the Federal Government. In the 2 years
of its activities, the board made many valuable recommendations and brought
about useful improvements in the Government service. The board submitted
its rst report in 1934 and its nal report late in 1935. In this nal report the
board strongly recommended the creation of a permanent science advisory
board for the scientic services of the Federal Government. Several years
later the National Resources Committee published a study of Federal aids to
research and of the place of scientic work in the Government.
1
Findings of
these two committees have been consulted freely in the preparation of the
present chapter. Suggestions from research workers and research directors
long connected with government bureaus afford a basis for recommendations
supplemental to those proposed by the earlier committees.
A. SUGGESTED REFORMS
The special problems of the conduct of research by the Government are made
more difcult than is necessary by the application to research activities and
to research personnel of regulations designed primarily to govern custodial,
regulatory, or other functions of Government. Many of these regulations and
restrictions seriously hamper successful prosecution of research work by Gov-
ernment agencies. If research is to be conducted by Government, its distinctive
character should be recognized, and it should be freed from as many as possi-
ble of these hampering restrictions. Fiscal and budgetary procedures should be
modied to t the particular needs of research work rather than attempting to
adapt research procedures to inexible regulations applicable to other items
of Government expense. Civil Service regulations should be modied to permit
the most advantageous procedures for recruiting and classifying scientic per-
sonnel. Research by Government bureaus should be coordinated with research
in other public and private scientic institutions.
1. Fiscal and Budgetary Procedures
The scientic work of Government bureaus could be assisted greatly by
simplifying procedures in order to permit more effective use of the funds
appropriated for research. The principal modications suggested here are
aimed at granting wider latitude and greater exibility for planning and
executing sustained research programs. The necessary changes in procedure
can probably best be determined by a special committee composed of
governmental and nongovernmental scientists and representatives of the
1
Research—A National Resource. I. Relation of the Federal Government to Research, op. cit.
| 110
budgetary or appropriating authorities.
a. Appropriations for Long-Term Programs
Current budgetary procedure of Government provides funds on an annual
basis, yet only a small percentage of the research conducted by Government
agencies can be planned adequately or appraised satisfactorily on a 1-year
basis. Research programs should somehow be assured in terms of their long-
run objectives. If approved, funds should be guaranteed over the period of
years necessary to permit continuity of effort and attainment of these ultimate
objectives. Appropriations should be in lump sums for broad programs rather
than in specic sums for detailed projects. Requiring detailed justications of
an annual budget tends to stultify research by ignoring its intrinsic uncertainty.
Appropriations within the assured sum might then be made available as at
present in the annual budget. This plan has attained limited acceptance in
certain departments of the Government, but the procedure should be made
uniform throughout scientic bureaus. It gives needed exibility to research
programs and permits modication to meet unexpected developments which
almost inevitably arise.
b. Cooperative Support of Research by Public and Private Agencies
The degree of cooperation by public and private agencies in the nancial
support of research has never been uniform in all departments of the Govern-
ment. It should be made a relatively simple matter for any scientic bureau of
the Government to accept funds from State or local governments, from non-
prot research institutions, or from private industry, for cooperative scientic
investigations that are in the public interest.
It is particularly important that Federal research agencies should be able
to cooperate freely with State and municipal governments. Many problems
of predominantly local concern can be studied most advantageously by State
agencies, such as agricultural experiment stations, health departments, and
mineral resource bureaus. To the extent that the results of these studies are of
more than local interest, they should receive nancial support through the Fed-
eral bureaus that are particularly interested. The Federal Government should,
perhaps, make a special effort to stimulate development of research organi-
zations in backward states.
c. Simplication of Fiscal Regulations
Government regulations regarding the purchase of supplies and equipment,
while intended to assure economy and fair dealing to all, often hamper re-
search programs. The calling for bids and the insistence on purchase of the
lowest-priced material is no doubt fully justied for the great bulk of Gov-
ernment supplies. Nevertheless, the required procedures do not always yield
111 |
scientic equipment of the best quality, and the nominal saving is usually far
outweighed by intangible losses in delay and frustration of the research staff.
Liberalization of the rules for purchase of scientic equipment is, therefore,
recommended.
2. Operation of the Civil Service
The most important single factor in scientic and technical work is the quality
of personnel employed. Scientic and professional personnel in Government
service are now subject to approximately the same system of recruitment, pro-
motion, and supervision as those in the clerical, scal, and custodial positions.
Separate and distinct procedures for recruiting and classifying scientic per-
sonnel are warranted by the exacting technical requirements in these services.
No one change from current practice would do more to improve the quality of
research conducted by the government than the establishment of a separate
branch of the Civil Service for scientic and technical positions.
The Civil Service was instituted to replace the demoralizing “Spoils System”
by an orderly merit system of recruiting efcient personnel for Government
service. It has been largely successful in eliminating the “spoilsmen”; and any
modications designed to improve present methods of recruiting and protecting
personnel must not imperil the defense now afforded against political inuence
and favoritism in making appointments. The keystone of the merit system is
competition open to all qualied applicants for a position; but the Civil Service
has been severely criticized because of the slow and cumbersome machinery
necessary to insure this competition. The general suggestions offered here are
designed to meet the more serious of these criticisms without undermining the
essentials of the merit system. The precise form of changes needed in present
Civil Service procedures deserves study by a special committee of governmen-
tal, university, and industrial scientists and representatives of the Civil Service
Commission.
a. Entrance Requirements for Scientic Service
The standards for entrance into scientic and professional positions in the
Government should be approximately those maintained for comparable posts
in universities and industries. Civil Service positions are subjected to continuous
political pressure to relax entrance requirements; and recently the educational
requirements for a number of scientic classications have been removed. This
opens the way to possible appointments by personal favoritism and political
preference. Action should be taken immediately to re-establish the requirement
of a university or college degree for entrance into all scientic and professional
services. Exceptions in especially meritorious cases should be granted only upon
recommendation of qualied scientists.
In many types of Government employment, standards are not lowered by
granting military preference to candidates who have served in the armed forces,
| 112
although, strictly speaking, such preference is a departure from the merit
system. In scientic and technical services, however; individuals unable to
qualify without special preference are not really beneted by appointment
to positions for which they are unqualied; and when such appointments are
made, the work inevitably suffers. Any lowering of entrance requirements,
whether for civilians or veterans, is distinctly harmful to the scientic services
of Government.
b. Recruitment of Scientic Personnel
The method of recruiting for governmental service presupposes a supply of
able applicants for every position to be lled. However, in the years immedi-
ately preceding the present war there was a shortage of able young scientists.
This shortage is likely to be even more acute after the war, because of the
interruption of training programs.
Government scientic bureaus are under a severe handicap in competing
with industrial laboratories which employ college seniors by the use of the
personal interview followed by prompt appointment. This handicap should be
offset as much as possible without jeopardizing the fundamental objectives
of Civil Service. It should be permissible for representatives of Government
agencies to interview students and to persuade the more able ones to ap-
ply for employment. The months of delay between application, examination,
and notication of appointment should, if possible, be reduced to a few days.
College seniors could be given appointments effective on the day of their
graduation. The necessary safeguards could be maintained by a longer period
of probationary employment and by the requirement of suitable examinations
before promotion to higher grades. Government bureaus could further improve
their chances of successful recruitment from the colleges by making wider use of
temporary student appointments during summer vacations.
c. Salary Scale
The opportunity for full-time scientic work, freedom to publish results, and
the satisfaction of serving the national interest attract many able scientists to
the Government service. But salary scales must be broadly commensurate with
those of private institutions if these scientists are expected to remain in Gov-
ernment service. Entrance salaries in Government scientic positions are usually
slightly above this competitive level. However, promotion is slow in Government
service, and the higher positions carry salaries much lower than those offered
in industry. The present system of efciency ratings and promotion procedures
is designed to assure fair and uniform treatment for all governmental positions.
But this system is so elaborate that it requires handling by many persons of
nontechnical training. Furthermore, in most branches of Government service,
the higher salaries are almost solely for supervisory positions. As a result, the
senior professional position, with a salary range of $4,600 to $5,400 a year,
113 |
is the highest ordinarily attained by Government scientists in nonadministrative
positions. Civil Service regulations should be modied to permit exceptionally
qualied scientists to reach salaries of $9,000 or more a year even though
they may not have important administrative responsibilities.
It is sometimes said that one of the most serious limitations of scientic work by
the Government is the inability to pay salaries large enough to get outstanding
directors for research organizations. Although no legal restrictions, except the
necessity for congressional approval, prevent the employment of a director of
a research bureau at whatever salary is deemed necessary, practical consid-
erations—such as comparison with the salaries of Department Secretaries and
members of Congress—inevitably impose limitations. In actual practice, few
research directors have received more than $9,000 a year.
Under the stress of war needs, when expert talent was urgently required,
the departments of Government, particularly the so-called “war agencies,”
succeeded to some extent in breaking down the tradition of low Government
salaries. Many technical positions and salaries were, in effect, up-graded;
and this contributed signicantly to the ow of talent into Government service
during the war emergency. A more general and permanent up-grading of
positions and salaries in the scientic services of Government, accompanied by
a careful selection of new talent, would be a major contribution to improvement
of the quality of research conducted by the Government.
d. Security of Tenure
The security of tenure in Civil Service is partial compensation for the lower
salaries in many types of governmental employment, especially during periods
of depression. But if scientic and professional personnel are to be classied
separately from other Government employees, and if they are to receive sal-
aries approximating those of their colleagues in universities and in industry,
care must be taken that this security of tenure does not become a shelter for
incompetence and mediocrity.
Many of the more able and energetic scientists in Government service are
offered higher salaries elsewhere. Inevitably, a number of these offers are
accepted, with the result that the less qualied employees tend to constitute a
larger proportion of those who remain. Unless a research bureau can replace
such losses with new employees of equal ability, it is forced to operate with
only the residue of its scientic staff after continuous raids. An additional hand-
icap is the difculty, under Civil Service regulations, of demoting or dismissing
incompetent, mediocre, or poorly adjusted individuals.
Higher standards for entrance into scientic positions, longer and more close-
ly supervised periods of probation, examinations for promotions in the lowest
grades, with the alternative of separation from the service, and higher salaries
for the abler scientists are some of the methods by which the quality of scientic
work of the Government can be improved.
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3. Coordination of Governmental Research
The extensive development of the sciences in recent years, and the increasing
complexity of governmental research, make it more difcult each year to
coordinate the scientic work conducted by the Government and to integrate
governmental research with that of universities, endowed institutions, and
industrial organizations. Parallel investigations of certain important research
problems are to be encouraged rather than avoided, and duplication should not
necessarily be the bugbear in science that it is in other types of governmental
activity. Nevertheless, it becomes increasingly important that the research
personnel of various governmental bureaus keep in close touch with one another
and with current technical developments and public needs.
a. Coordination of Research Within the Government
A specic need is for an inter bureau committee or council of representatives
of the principal scientic bureaus. Such a committee might be set up under the
Bureau of the Budget, or other appropriate auspices, to advise on interrela-
tionships of research programs of the different agencies, and to compare the
effectiveness of different procedures for administering governmental research.
Recommendations from such a committee on policies of budget procedure or of
classication of scientic personnel should carry more weight than the recom-
mendation of a single bureau.
The practice of utilizing scientic employees of one bureau as consultants
for other bureaus is difcult under existing regulations. But if this practice were
generally adopted, it would further coordination of research programs by dis-
seminating more widely a knowledge of the related problems under investiga-
tion by various agencies and of the different methods by which these problems
are being attacked.
b. Coordination of Governmental Research with Outside
Organizations
There is a widespread impression that a research project, once started by a
Government bureau, may continue long after it has served its original purpose.
Research projects need continuous reappraisal in the light of scientic advance
and technological developments. Orderly revision of research programs should
be the normal and expected result of scientic progress. The danger that a re-
search bureau may fail to revise its programs or its methods when they become
obsolete is minimized most surely by encouraging members of the scientic staff
to maintain close contact with their professional colleagues elsewhere. Govern-
ment employees engaged in research should be encouraged to participate in
the activities and publications of national scientic societies. This means, among
other things, more liberal funds for travel to scientic meetings. Furthermore, it
should be legally possible for any Government bureau to keep in close touch
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with modern ideas within its eld of science by assigning employees on full pay
for graduate work at universities or for research projects to be conducted at
endowed or industrial institutions or at ofcial research organizations in this or
other countries. Scientists from universities, research institutions, State agencies
and industrial organizations should be invited to accept appointments for short-
term projects in Government bureaus. Facilities should likewise be extended to
visiting scientists from foreign countries.
c. Clarication of Patent Policy for Government Employees
The present policy of granting patents to the employees of some Govern-
ment bureaus for inventions in the eld of the bureaus’ ofcial duties does not
instill public condence in Government employees nor encourage industry to
share new information with Government agencies. Attention should be given
to the recommendations of the National Patent Planning Commission that all
inventions made within the specically designated duties of Government em-
ployees be assigned to the Government and that doubtful cases be decided by
a central board on Government patents.
1
4. Advisory Committees to the Separate Bureaus and a
Permanent Science Advisory Board
Many of the changes here recommended to assure proper coordination of
governmental research and raise the level of its performance depend in con-
siderable measure upon the existence of advisory committees to the several
scientic bureaus. The excellent service rendered by the several advisory com-
mittees already in existence has demonstrated the value of these bodies. Their
use, however, is not universal, and at present only the more progressive bureaus
actively seek outside advice. It is therefore urged that advisory committees,
composed of scientists from outside the Government service, be established for
each of the bureaus or agencies in which extensive research is being conducted.
There has been ample experience, also, to demonstrate the need for a
permanent Science Advisory Board, similar to the body which served so
successfully on a temporary basis from 1933 to 1935. Such a central board
could correlate the activities of the specialized advisory committees, and would
probably be the proper body to recommend the personnel of the various
committees. It would be in a position to advise Congress and the Bureau of
the Budget on the quality and importance of research being conducted by the
bureaus. By being able to rely upon the disinterested advice of such a body,
Congress might be willing to appropriate sums for long-term programs of basic
research whose importance it is difcult or impossible for nontechnical persons
to evaluate properly. Besides consulting with the bureau chiefs on their individ-
ual or collective problems, the board would nd it helpful to meet at stated
1
See Second Report of the National Patent Planning Commission (Washington, 1944), pp. 10-12.
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intervals with the interbureau committee proposed earlier in this chapter.
We add our recommendation to those of earlier committees and strongly
urge the creation of a permanent Science Advisory Board, empowered to as-
sume over-all responsibility for advising the various branches of the Govern-
ment in scientic matters. We suggest that this board cooperate closely with the
National Research Foundation.
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CHAPTER V
AIDS TO INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH AND
TECHNOLOGY
Industrial research in America has enjoyed a rapid and extensive growth.
There are also widespread indications that industry is planning to undertake
applied research on a greatly expanded scale in the postwar period—an
encouraging and wholesome prospect. At the same time it is evident that
research in American industry is concentrated to a considerable extent in a
relatively small number of industrial units and in a few particularly progressive
industries. Thirteen companies employed nearly one-third of all industrial re-
search personnel in the year 1938. In the rubber industry, one-quarter of the
companies employed 90 percent of the research workers, while in petroleum
and industrial chemicals the respective percentages were 85 and 88. This is not
to suggest that there should be a considerable degree of uniformity among
the units of an industry or between industries as to the percentage of research
effort in each. But the implications of the increasing concentration of industrial
research in this country deserve special study.
One important fact is clear—the process of transition from pure research to
its practical applications does not work equally effectively in all industries. For
example, the petroleum industry has for years supported far more research
than has the coal industry. New technical developments in the petroleum eld
have made it possible to carry on an increasing amount of research while the
relative backwardness of the coal industry, where small units predominate, has
resulted in fewer and fewer new developments and a less and less healthy
over-all situation.
Time did not permit an intensive and well-rounded investigation of this
subject. The Committee feels strongly, however, that the National Research
Foundation should be charged with the responsibility of studying the process of
technological development in industry and of experimenting with methods of
aid to industrial research. The following suggestions are tentative and submitted
with the thought that they might be of assistance to the Board in meeting this
important challenge.
A. ASSISTANCE TO TECHNICAL CLINICS FOR
SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
It is the belief of the Committee that the most effective research wells up
from below. Our objective, therefore, should be to develop as many individual
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centers of research initiative in industry as is possible. The seeds of industrial
research that are planted now in small, vigorous industrial enterprises may
yield tremendous returns in the future. There is considerable difculty, however,
in getting research started in enterprises which have not been research-minded
in the past.
To meet this need a number of special research clinics have been established
in different regions, e.g., the New England Industrial Research Foundation.
These clinics make their services available to the small business concerns of
the region in which they serve. It is difcult to place this type of enterprise
entirely on a self-supporting basis especially where its important promotional
activities are concerned. The Committee believes that this movement should be
encouraged. It therefore recommends that the National Research Foundation
be empowered to make sustaining grants to cover part of the administrative
costs involved in such organizations, provided they are run on a nonprot basis.
The activities of such services should include stimulation of business interest in
research and technical developments, aid to small businesses in interpreting the
trends in technical developments, consultation with individual concerns to aid
them in a diagnosis of their technical problems, and maintenance of a directory
service to put small businessmen in touch with competent individuals and proper
sources of information necessary for further work.
Universities, engineering schools and nonprot industrial research institutes
should be eligible to receive grants from the National Research Foundation
to perform such services. Insofar as possible, organizations with grass-roots
foundations standing high in community prestige and offering a substantial
background in active research work, should be selected. The staff of such a
clinic might include a limited number of full- or part-time individuals for general
promotional and advisory work; but there should also be available a panel of
experts in as many elds as possible for counsel on specic problems.
War experience has demonstrated that such organizations must be able to
bring their information directly to the plant. It is believed that in the proper
hands such services will prove very helpful and can be of signicant value in the
long run in developing vigorous new research organizations and reducing the
existing concentration of research in a relatively small number of companies.
B. GRANTS TO NONPROFIT INDUSTRIAL
INSTITUTES FOR FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH
In recent years an increasing number of industries in which research has
lagged in the past have attempted to meet the problem by establishing special
research institutes to serve the industry. Such institutes are usually supported
by annual grants from individual business concerns. One of the difculties that
these institutes have faced is the pressure for short-range accomplishments. In
consequence, research undertaken has not been sufciently basic to achieve the
most signicant results. It is suggested, therefore, that where nonprot industrial
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institutes are deemed capable of undertaking important long-range research
they should be eligible for grants for fundamental research from the National
Research Foundation.
C. ENCOURAGEMENT FOR NEW SCIENTIFIC
ENTERPRISES
In addition to these recommendations, some members of the Committee feel
that special steps should be taken to encourage the launching of small scientic
enterprises. Other members, while sympathetic to these objectives, do not be-
lieve that any practical method could be devised for handling such problems
through a government agency.
Those members of the Committee who favor taking some positive action to
help launch new scientic enterprises believe that greater opportunities should
be provided to individuals who are primarily interested in new applications of
recent advances in pure science rather than in basic inquiry itself. This thought
has been elaborated by one of the members of the Committee in the following
terms:
The country needs new types of industrial activity. We should not be satised
with the cycle of displacement of one good technical product made of metal
by the same product made of plastic, and so on, in a rather unimaginative
utilization of fundamental developments. What is required is the rapid
invention and evolution of the peacetime analogues of jet-propelled vehicles,
bazookas, and the multiplicity of secret, bold developments of the war.
New types of industrial activity could be aided if students of engineering
and science were strongly encouraged at the undergraduate stage to study
unsolved technical problems and to invent solutions for them. On graduation
those young men who wish to strike out for themselves should have the op-
portunity to complete their inventions, both theoretically and practically, in an
actual enterprise. In large industrial organizations which provide the principal
outlet for such men there is a long path of duty which the young scientist must
pursue before he can become very effective in original contribution. Further-
more, most large industrial concerns are limited by policy to special directions
of expansion within the well-established eld of activity of the company. On
the other hand, most small companies do not have the resources or the facilities
to support “scientic prospecting.” Thus the young man leaving the university
with a proposal for a new kind of industrial activity is frequently not able to
nd a matrix for the development of his ideas in any established industrial
organization.
Neither is it always satisfactory that such a potential scientic entrepreneur
remain in the university for graduate work. The Ph. D. degree in the American
university may not best t a man for such a career; it makes him a good scholar
but may dampen his early leanings in the direction of the commercial devel-
opment of his ideas.
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The Committee was not able to agree on a solution to this problem. The
matter was regarded as of sufcient importance, however, to justify careful
investigation by the National Research Foundation in the hope that it might be
able to devise special methods and techniques of encouraging young scientists
in the development of their inventions and in the launching of new scientic
enterprises.
D. STRENGTHENING THE PATENT SYSTEM
Patents are the life of research. No study of the aids to research or the
incentives to research would be complete without an inquiry into the manner in
which the patent laws and the patent system of this country might be strength-
ened. The Committee has given its attention to this important problem and has
advised Dr. Bush informally of its views on this subject.
No detailed recommendations on the patent aspects of research are herein
contained since Dr. Bush is independently making a study of this problem
looking to a separate report to the President. This Committee wishes to
emphasize, however, the very vital importance of a strong patent system to the
development of new and active small enterprises and the stimulation of healthy
scientic research.
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CHAPTER VI
TAXATION AND RESEARCH
Federal corporate income taxes have an important bearing on the amount of
scientic research and new-product development undertaken by private enter-
prises. An examination of the present treatment of research and development
expenditures for tax purposes is therefore an important aspect of a study de-
signed to determine, as requested by President Roosevelt, what the government
can do to aid research activities conducted by private organizations.
A. PRESENT TAX TREATMENT OF RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT EXPENDITURES
The deduction of research and development expenditures as current charges
against net income is generally permitted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
In broad terms the policy of the Bureau appears to be as follows: Firms that
spend approximately the same amount on research and development work
year after year and consistently claim these expenditures as deductions from
current income seldom have substantial amounts of their claims disallowed. On
the other hand, where the amounts spent on research and development uctu-
ate widely from year to year and where the taxpayer does not follow a con-
sistent accounting practice in handling research and development expenditures,
the Bureau tends to question more closely the taxpayer’s treatment of such
expenditures. This policy may sometimes result in a less favorable treatment for
new and small companies than for large, established companies.
1. Uncertainty in Minds of Taxpayers
Many taxpayers believe that in recent years the Bureau of Internal Revenue
has been adopting an increasingly critical attitude toward the deductibility
of research and development costs. This impression, so far as the Committee
can determine, is not the result of any deliberate change in the policy of the
Bureau. Rather, it has probably arisen from the justiable tendency of the
Bureau to review more closely all items affecting taxable income in years of
high tax rates.
The uncertainty on the part of taxpayers is heightened by the fact that the
tax law and Treasury regulations do not clearly specify the proper treatment
of research and development costs. There are relatively few court cases on the
problem; moreover, existing cases seem to support the view that many research
123 |
and development costs are capital expenditures. Consequently, if the Bureau
should abandon its present liberal policy and attempt to enforce the capital-
ization of research and development costs wherever possible, its action might
well be sustained in court.
If research and development costs were required to be capitalized, they
could presumably be amortized over their useful life. The task of determining
the proper basis of amortization would, however, be extremely difcult and
frequently impossible of solution. If the tax law were very narrowly interpreted,
it is conceivable, although not likely, that the difculty of determining a proper
basis for amortizing capitalized research costs might make it impossible for
such costs ever to be deducted for tax purposes. The Treasury regulations now
permit intangible assets to be amortized only when the useful life of the asset
can be determined with reasonable accuracy.
Since a delay of several years ordinarily occurs before a tax return is nally
audited and closed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the uncertain status
of the deductibility of research and development expenditures can involve
very large sums of money. Small rms making heavy research expenditures,
in particular, are restricted by this uncertainty in their commitments for xed
investments.
2. Proper Accounting Treatment of Research and Development
Costs
No simple, universally applicable principles can be laid down as to the
proper accounting treatment of research and development costs. Some
research costs are clearly current expenses: they either turn out to be worth-
less or merely enable the taxpayer to keep abreast of his competitor. Other
research expenditures may improve the long-run position of an enterprise, but
the amount of the expenditures properly allocable to a given product, and
the proper basis of amortization of these expenditures, may be almost
impossible to determine. In a few cases such as, perhaps, the development of a
new model of an airplane, the capital nature of the expenditure may be fairly
obvious, and it may be possible to determine a reasonably satisfactory basis
for amortizing the expenditure. Even in such instances, however, it is frequently
impossible to determine in the year that a given expenditure is made whether
a valuable capital asset will be developed.
3. The Public Interest
This report assumes that the stimulation of research and development work,
especially by small enterprises, is in the national interest. It therefore follows
that the present tax uncertainties of research expenditures should be removed.
The case for taking this action is particularly strong since, for the most part, all
that is needed is a specic legal sanction of the present Treasury practice.
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B. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
Recommendation (1).—Deductibility of expenditures on research and devel-
opment (other than expenditures for the acquisition of tangible capital assets).
The Internal Revenue Code should be amended to give the taxpayer in every
taxable year an option:
(a) To deduct currently all expenditures on scientic research and the devel-
opment of new products and processes, other than expenditures for the acqui-
sition of tangible capital assets; or
(b) To capitalize such expenditures as deferred charges and amortize them
according to a specied plan that in the judgment of the taxpayer is deemed
reasonable; or
(c) To deduct currently such part of these expenditures as in the judgment of
the taxpayer is deemed to be a current cost and to capitalize the remainder
as deferred charges and amortize them according to a specied plan that in
the judgment of the taxpayer is deemed reasonable.
This recommendation appears to be clearly desirable. Its primary effect
would be to give clear legal sanction to present practice and hence to remove
the uncertainty of the present law. A secondary effect would be to give the
taxpayer more exibility in the deduction of research and development costs.
Very little change in current practice, however, would ordinarily result from the
increased degree of exibility. Most taxpayers would continue their present
policy of treating research and development costs as an annual expense. Since
no simple rule, properly applicable to all cases can be devised, it seems wise
to give the taxpayer considerable freedom of action.
Recommendation (2).—Amortization of expenditures for the acquisition of
tangible capital assets used for scientic research and the development of new
products and processes. The Internal Revenue Code should be amended to give
the taxpayer an option:
(a) To amortize the cost of tangible capital assets used for scientic research
and the development of new products and processes in equal amounts over a
period of ve years; or
(b) To depreciate such assets at the same rates as ordinarily allowed on such
assets.
Recommendation (2) provides for an optional accelerated amortization of
tangible capital assets acquired and used for the development of new products
and processes. As such, it is consistent in purpose with recommendations made
by the Roosevelt Administration for the accelerated amortization of all depre-
ciable assets. The present recommendation would not, however, raise many of
the difculties of the general proposal, since it would apply to only a very small
percentage of xed assets and hence would not signicantly affect the revenue
yield of the tax structure.
In general, expenditures for the acquisition of tangible capital assets consti-
125 |
tute a minor fraction of all outlays on research and development. Moreover, in
some instances at least, research equipment is already depreciated at a rapid
rate. Nevertheless, this recommendation has been supported by most of the
businessmen whose opinion on the proposal has been obtained.
C. BROAD TAX CONSIDERATIONS
The preceding sections of this report have been conned to issues related
directly to the treatment of research and development expenditures. Two
broader tax revisions, clearly desirable on other grounds than for the sole
purpose of promoting research and development work, would be very
helpful in stimulating increased research and development expenditures.
Consequently, the Committee concurs in the recommendations that have already
been made by other groups:
(1) That immediate legislative action be taken to make the tax refunds from
the carry-back provisions and from the postwar refund of 10 percent of
excess prots taxes more promptly available to taxpayers during the
transition period; and
(2) That the net operating loss carry-over provided by the present tax law
be increased from 2 years, to, at least, 5 or 6 years.
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CHAPTER VII
INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION
Perhaps more than any other national activity, scientic research and devel-
opment depend upon close relationships with other countries. Scientic knowl-
edge is not limited by geographical or racial boundaries, and it is almost im-
possible to think of any branch of science which has progressed very far without
amalgamating discoveries made in several different nations. In the past, most
of this interchange has gone on informally and directly between the members
of the scientic communities concerned, without regard to political consider-
ations. Certain obvious barriers such as that of language have hampered free
communication, but, on the whole, relations between scientists have probably
been closer than between the representatives of any other segment of society.
The growth of science in the last few decades and its increasingly close re-
lationship to other national interests have demonstrated the need for more
ofcial methods of carrying on international scientic activity.
A. SUPPORT AND SPONSORSHIP OF
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIVE
SCIENTIFIC ENTERPRISES
That this country has never provided any method of participating ofcially
in international scientic enterprises has frequently been an embarrassment to
various scientic groups. If the present tendency, in other countries, of closely
integrating science with Government continues, the need will exist for some
ofcial body to carry on international scientic activities. (A good example of
such an activity was the so-called “International Polar Year” in which several
countries, interested in the compilation of scientic data of the Arctic regions,
pooled information and techniques. This cooperation gave added value to the
results of the study by providing uniform methods of observation and presen-
tation of the data collected.) The Government could not only provide some
modest nancing for such international cooperative projects, but it could also
facilitate them by arranging for means of travel, visas, and so forth.
It is therefore recommended that the National Research Foundation be
charged with the responsibility of participating in such international coopera-
tive scientic enterprises as it deems desirable.
127 |
1. International Scientic Congresses
The Foundation should also participate in arrangements for international
scientic conferences whereby scientic workers in different countries may be
brought together to exchange ideas. These were held more or less regularly
before the war and were found to be stimulating and useful forms of assistance
to the advancement of science. As far as the United States was concerned,
however, its representatives were frequently hampered, especially when
they were acting as hosts for conferences held in this country, by the lack of
Government nancial aid and by difculties in arranging for ofcial courtesies
relating to the travel of outstanding men from abroad and for other marks of
ofcial recognition which are commonly available in Europe. An organization
such as the National Research Foundation could be very helpful in making these
arrangements.
2. International Fellowships
If the Foundation is set up as suggested, it would be empowered to grant
scholarships and fellowships to qualied scientists. It is recommended that
attention be given to awarding some of these fellowships to Americans who
wish foreign travel and study, and to scientists from abroad to undertake
advanced research in this country. Private foundations have found this to be
an excellent way not only of aiding scientic progress but of promoting inter-
national understanding as well. Holders of such fellowships are likely to be
disinterested representatives of their countries and well equipped to observe
the national life of the country they visit. Such a program should be undertaken
with particular care to avoid specialized political or personal interests, and it
would be well to draw freely upon the experience of the National Research
Council or the private foundations which have been successful in this eld in the
past.
3. Scientic Attachés
The Committee would like to suggest, as an experiment, that scientic
attachés be appointed to serve in certain selected United States embassies.
They should be men of high professional scientic attainments whose tenure of
the post would be temporary—perhaps 1 or 2 years—and whose principal
duties would be concerned with facilitating the various aspects of scientic
cooperation discussed above. It is also expected that in less formal ways they
would improve their knowledge of science as it is pursued abroad and would
in turn contribute something from their experience in this country. Such a post
would appear to be most important in countries such as Russia where a great
deal, if not all, of the scientic activity is controlled or directed by the govern-
ment and where other channels of scientic communication have been greatly
restricted for several years.
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CHAPTER VIII
A NATIONAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION
As a means to implement the recommendations of this report, it is proposed
that the Congress should create a National Research Foundation. The function
of this new Federal agency should be to assist and encourage research in the
public interest by disbursement of funds allocated by the Congress for that
purpose. Its board of trustees should be eminent men who are cognizant of
the needs of science, and experienced in administration. The members of this
board should be appointed by the President of the United States from a panel
nominated by the National Academy of Sciences.
It is proposed that the Foundation be given an original nonearning capi-
talization of $500,000,000, to be called and expended, with the approval
of Congress, over not less than 10 years. As has been discussed earlier in this
report, scientists and educators emphasize the cardinal importance of creating
a board which (1) can budget its expenditures over a considerable period of
time; (2) will not be subject to review in detail by the legislature, and (3) will be
able to withstand political pressures. The British University Grants Committee,
which has been operating successfully for many years with funds supplied by
Parliament and whose postwar role is undergoing great expansion, serves as
one of many examples corroborating the desirability of the above features.
It should be clearly understood, however, that the present committee does not
recommend any instrumentality which would not be accountable to the Presi-
dent, the Congress, and the public for its operations.
A. ORGANIZATION
The board of trustees should comprise about 15 members, each serving on a
part-time basis, with remuneration at the rate of $50 per diem when on ofcial
duty, plus necessary travel and subsistence expenses. The term of ofce should
normally be for 5 years and no retiring member should be eligible for reap-
pointment until after a lapse of 2 additional years. In order to insure continuity,
there should be a staggering of the terms of ofce of the various members. It
is suggested, therefore, that at the outset the rst appointments be for varying
periods of time. Because the progress of science depends in great measure on
the vigorous and progressive abilities of younger men, the Committee suggests
that in making appointments to the board and in its policies on retirements
an effort be made to keep the age distribution such as to assure dynamic
leadership.
The board should have the power to appoint an executive director of recog-
129 |
nized ability who would be a full-time ofcer, receiving a salary commensurate
with the dignity and importance of his position and responsibilities. The details
of the internal administrative organization of the Foundation cannot protably
be discussed here. The executive staff of the Foundation and its board of
directors would no doubt wish to modify and change administrative proce-
dures in the light of experience acquired. Presumably, the executive director
would have at his command a staff of experts, each responsible for a major
division of science: the physical sciences, the biological sciences, engineering,
agriculture, etc. These experts would be full-time professional employees of
high salary and status, charged with the task of keeping in touch with research
all over the country. By lightening the burden of administration for the board,
they would permit it to concentrate on important policy decisions. Not the least
of the problems which would have to be faced by the new organization would
be that of maintaining close contact with research in all parts of the country.
B. POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The broad, general object of the Foundation is to promote the general wel-
fare through support to science. However, more concrete powers, responsibili-
ties, and limitations must, in the judgment of this Committee, be placed upon the
scientic Foundation when it is established. Under the guise of “promoting the
general welfare,” the agency should not be able to set itself up in business to
produce in competition with existing industry. Its primary purpose is to provide
encouragement, and, where necessary, nancial aid, without at the same time
introducing centralized control of research. The Foundation should be empow-
ered to receive gifts or bequests for the support of scientic research from
outside sources as well as from the Government.
In carrying out its objectives, the Foundation should take all necessary or
proper steps:
(a) To study and keep itself currently informed on the present state of science
in the United States and to seek ways of applying its resources to the discovery
of useful knowledge.
(b) To initiate, encourage, sponsor and nance scientic research and devel-
opment with emphasis on research aimed at (1) increasing the general fund
of basic scientic knowledge and thus creating new industries and increased
employment, (2) promoting the conservation and better utilization of natural
resources, and (3) improving the health of the Nation. The Foundation should
utilize to the greatest extent feasible the existing facilities in the Federal
Government, State governments, educational institutions, public and private
foundations, laboratories, and research institutes. No contract or grant-in-aid
made in furtherance of this provision should introduce control by the Foundation
over the internal policies or operations of the contractor or grantee.
(c) To establish or provide new or additional scientic and technical research
facilities in geographical areas or specialized elds of study or endeavor
where none exist or where existing facilities are deemed by the Foundation
| 130
to be inadequate: Provided, That the Foundation should not itself undertake
directly to operate such facilities.
(d) To provide for and assure the most comprehensive collection and
dissemination of scientic and technical knowledge and information by aids
to libraries, bibliographic services, translating activities, etc.
(e) To seek out latent scientic talent, and to foster and support scientic
and technical education and training through grants to individuals, educational
institutions, public and private foundations, laboratories and research institutes,
and through scholarships, fellowships and prizes.
(f) To assist scientists, inventors, and research workers by affording them
opportunities to engage in research and developmental activities.
(g) To act in cooperation with the National Academy of Sciences in advising
the President, the Congress, and the various departments, independent estab-
lishments, and agencies of the Government on scientic matters.
(h) To make its facilities, personnel and resources fully available to the United
States of America in the event of war or the declaration of a national emer-
gency by the President or the Congress.
(i) To cooperate with the Army, Navy, and civilian military research organi-
zations for the rapid interchange of information on basic scientic problems of
use in national defense. It should coordinate its activities wherever possible with
these organizations to prevent unnecessary duplication.
(j) To assist industry and business, particularly small enterprises, in estab-
lishing research facilities and in obtaining scientic and technical information
and guidance, in order to expedite the transition from scientic discovery to
technological application.
(k) To help maintain a continuous and steady expansion of scientic research
by increasing its grants for research in periods of depression, as far as is
consistent with sound and equitable policy.
(l) To represent the United States of America in effecting better international
cooperation in scientic activities, to assist in the freer international exchange
of scientic and technical knowledge and information and scientic and techni-
cal personnel, to help sponsor and nance international scientic congresses or
associations and cooperative scientic research programs.
The board should also be empowered to make grants for such historical and
economic studies as it believes necessary to fulll its responsibilities in investi-
gating scientic research and its practical applications in industry.
Finally, it should be stressed that condence must be reposed in the integ-
rity, character, and qualications of the individuals comprising the board of
directors. No curbs, restrictions, or limitations on their powers would provide
adequate safeguards, or take the place of character and ability; and the
introduction of a series of hampering limitations would lead to inexibility and
inefcient operation.
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C. PATENT POLICIES OF THE FOUNDATION
The Foundation should set up its own general rules for the handling of pat-
ent policies. It is felt that in establishing these policies the Foundation should
interfere as little as possible with the practices of the different universities and
research institutions.
It is expected that the obtaining of patents by universities on work nanced
by the National Research Foundation will remain a minor byproduct of the
fundamental research undertaken. The patent policy of the universities and
research institutions should not be permitted to interfere with early publication
of results. Moreover, the patent policy of the recipients of grants should be such
as to foster widespread public use of worth-while developments.
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APPENDIX A
LIBRARY AIDS
Adequate technical libraries are an indispensable tool for research workers.
Every new discovery depends upon a host of former ones, and every year
brings additions to the store of knowledge which must be mastered by the
scientist. The magnitude of the task of keeping all this knowledge available to
the scholar requires that he be provided with every possible aid and conve-
nience. These services may be considered under three headings: (A) interlibrary
cooperation, (B) abstracting and translating services, and (C) bibliographic and
reference services.
At the present time none of these services can be said to be entirely ade-
quate and the rapid expansion of published materials makes it very unlikely
that private resources can continue library services even on their present level.
The problem is so large and requires so much special knowledge and training
that the Committee does not feel in a position to make specic recommendations
as to where Government aid can best be brought to bear. It does, however, feel
strongly that a Government board such as the National Research Foundation
proposed elsewhere in this report should give careful attention to the problems
presented below, and should devote part of its funds to their solution. Several
existing Government agencies, such as the Library of Congress and the Army
Medical Library, could, if they were supplied with sufcient resources, do much
to improve existing services throughout the country. The following paragraphs
contain a short summary of the Committee’s views regarding the most important
issues involved in the improvement of library services.
A. INTERLIBRARY COOPERATION
The three largest libraries in this country, the Library of Congress, the Har-
vard University Library, and the New York Public Library, have long ago given
up any hope of collecting all materials necessary for research. Considerable
evidence exists that over the past 150 years, libraries in this country have
been doubling in size every 16 years. This geometrical progression raises great
problems requiring that attention be given to the various technical proposals
which have been made for reducing the bulk of this material and for simplify-
ing the problem of storage and cataloguing. Pending the widespread adoption
of really revolutionary technical aids, it will be necessary to make comprehen-
sive arrangements for interlibrary cooperation.
There are two important problems here. One, that of securing in this country
133 |
at least one copy of all needed items. Various estimates have suggested that
existing library holdings represent from one-third to one-half of all the books
published. In other words, nowhere in this country are there copies of many
millions of books, pamphlets, magazines, etc. The second part of the problem is
securing enough copies of various titles so that they are strategically available
to students and scholars. For some books, perhaps, one copy would be enough,
for others, however, there should be copies distributed according to some
cooperative plan.
The participating institutions would then be free to reduce the rest of their
collections to what may be called “working libraries.” Adequate data are not
yet at hand for dening the limits of such working libraries in the various sci-
entic elds, and analyses of the sort recently undertaken by the Association
of Research. Libraries are urgently needed. Studies made by this group of the
use of chemical periodicals suggest that a reasonable working library covering
over 90 percent of the ordinary chemical laboratory’s needs could be main-
tained by purchasing less than half of the available periodical literature.
Interlibrary cooperative plans could take the form of agreements among
all libraries whereby each would attempt to be inclusive in limited elds. This
would involve union catalogues on a regional and national basis and smoothly
organized transportation arrangements. The Committee recognizes that pro-
posals such as this have been frequently under study by librarians and that
there are many difculties to be surmounted. Federal aid for the library system
of the country might well have as its central object the strengthening of the
Library of Congress so that it could foster programs of cooperation. Both the
Library of Congress and the Army Medical Library occupy leading positions
in their elds. Yet these two Government institutions still have to look to private
sources for much of their support, especially for projects involving experimen-
tation with new methods. Two foundations alone have contributed over half a
million dollars to the Library of Congress in the past few years.
Before leaving the subject of libraries it may be well to draw attention to an
acute though temporary problem brought on by the war. Few, if any, European
scientic publications for the last 5 years have been reaching this country in
adequate volume. Many important periodicals published are not represented
at all and others are available in only a few libraries and in broken sets. The
end of the war will not bring about a solution to the problem since much of this
material was published in reduced editions because of wartime restrictions on
paper and printing. Furthermore, much existing material has been destroyed
by enemy action. If American libraries are not to show serious gaps in their
collections of important foreign periodical literature, it will be necessary to pro-
vide funds for reproducing much of this material. The funds necessary for such
a project are entirely beyond private resources, and it is proposed, therefore,
that the Government undertake to ll this need.
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B. ABSTRACTING AND TRANSLATING SERVICES.
One of the most useful tools whereby the scientist is enabled to keep
up with the ow of publication is the collection of abstracts published in several
different elds. Their publication is extremely laborious and expensive, involv-
ing, as it does, the reading, summarizing, editing, and printing of all scientic
articles published from month to month. At the present time much of this labor
is donated by scientists who would rather sacrice some of their research time
than be deprived of this useful service. The existence of these publications is
a precarious one and nancial decits are frequently encountered. Since the
start of the war, many continental publications have not been available for
abstracting and a large number of American and British papers have been
withheld for security reasons.
If, as seems likely, it will not be possible to get this accumulated supply of
papers abstracted by persons working without compensation, substantial costs
may be expected.
With the advent of Russia as an important contributor to science, the problem
of translating services becomes acute. Hitherto, most American scientists have
been able to read the languages in which most scientic work was published.
Unfortunately, there is little likelihood that many of the present generation will
learn Russian in the near future. Translation and republication of important
Russian works would, therefore, appear to be necessary and is likely to be
very expensive. A study of the problem insofar as it concerns biology is now
under way by the editors of Biological Abstracts, and within a period of several
months it should be possible to give a reasonably accurate statement of the
cost involved. Since such work would benet not only science generally in the
United States but would very likely promote the use of English in other countries,
it seems proper to recommend that the United States Government consider
methods by which the cost of such work could be met.
C. BIBLIOGRAPHIC AND REFERENCE SERVICES
The rapid accumulation of scientic publication continually increases the
problem of keeping up with advances even within a single eld. Every year
earlier work is obscured by the mass of contemporary publication. Frequently
discoveries have been published in the past which were neglected because
their ultimate signicance was not apparent at the time. The task of bringing
these past discoveries to bear on present problems is a difcult one. Searching
the indices of a hundred different periodicals for the past several decades is
an almost insuperable task. In some elds, notably medicine, consolidated and
cumulative indices are available; in others the abstracting sources are an aid.
For various reasons, however, these mechanisms are not wholly satisfactory.
For example, the index catalogue of the Surgeon General’s Library, which is
the only publication attempting to gather together all medical publication in
135 |
a single cumulative index, is up to date for only one letter of the alphabet in
any 1 year. Few other elds, however, can boast of any cumulative catalogue
of periodical articles.
Another attempt to meet the need is made by the reference services main-
tained as a part of library service. In theory, these organizations supply lists
of publications bearing on particular subjects. In several elds an adequate
job may be done insofar as books or monographs are concerned, but rarely is
sufcient attention given to periodical articles, which are far more important
to the scientist. Furthermore, these services are frequently restricted in practice
to older workers of distinguished reputation. The young man who wishes to be
informed about past work is frequently compelled to divert much energy which
could be better spent in his laboratory.
It seems probable that use of cataloguing and sorting devices now available
in the form of business machines and the use of microlm technique might go
far to improve present methods of searching the literature and making bib-
liographies. Other technical advances may be expected further to simplify
the problem. Adequate utilization of technical advance, however, would mean
reclassifying all scientic literature for at least the past several decades. In the
future this problem could be met by arranging for classication of every article
prior to publication according to some prearranged system.
Again the Committee wishes to emphasize that it is not equipped to make
specic recommendations in regard to technical library practice. It merely
wishes to call attention to the existence of problems which, because of their
magnitude and the large measure of centralization necessary for solution,
appear to be proper subjects of federal concern.
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APPENDIX B
ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSITY RESEARCH
EXPENDITURES
PART I
RESEARCH EXPENDITURES IN A LARGE SAMPLE
OF AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
To obtain factual information concerning research expenditures in 1939-40
and an estimate of postwar needs, questionnaires were sent to the 315 colleges
and universities accredited by the Association of American Universities. Replies
from 188 institutions were received, giving an over-all coverage of 60 percent.
The coverage among the larger institutions was higher (over 80 percent) than
that among the smaller schools. Of the 188 colleges reporting, 125 have orga-
nized research programs; the remaining 63 have not conducted research.
Table I summarizes the returns from the 125 institutions supporting research.
1
This category includes all items of research expense exclusive of buildings and items of major
capital research equipment.
2
These gures are estimates by the universities of their needs for capital facilities, including items of
major capital research equipment and general laboratory facilities, without which the postwar research
projects envisaged could not be carried on adequately.
3
Of the $26,000,000 over and above prewar expenditures that would be required to nance these
projects, the universities estimate that they will be able to raise only $7,000,000 through “normal” channels.
4
It was estimated that, of the 315 colleges and universities accredited by the Association of Ameri-
can Universities, 150 have organized research programs in the natural sciences and engineering. Returns
were received from 125 of these institutions. We have estimated the totals for 150 research universities
by adding 20 percent to each category.
137 |
There are about 150 colleges and universities in the United States that
have organized research programs in the natural sciences and engineering.
We have estimated that research expenditures in these institutions amounted
to $26,000,000 in 1939-40. Estimates of postwar projects call for annual
expenditures of $57,000,000. Although this must be regarded as a very rough
approximation, internal evidence from the returns, and amplifying statements
accompanying many of them, suggest that if adequate funds and personnel
were available the universities would be able to carry out projects of this
magnitude. Many of the universities, for example, have prepared careful lists
of important projects that their staffs wish to undertake after the war.
Postwar estimates for capital facilities were aggregated. They total
$130,000,000, but most of them include facilities used jointly for teaching and
research.
Some of the comments which accompanied replies to the questionnaires are
given below:
e great discrepancy between the nancial gures for 1939 and for our ideal
after the war is easily explainable—and not on the basis that we are hoping to get
some money from the Government. ere is just one way that scientic research can
prosper and grow apace here, and that is for promising young men to have the time
to do it. erefore, we are certain that if funds became available either from outside or
some gift to the college about which we know nothing at the present time, we should
like to use them for a considerable enlargement of our stas, which would mean that
the men promising in research might carry only a half-time teaching load. is we
should hope in its totality would amount to the full time of two or three extra men
in each department.
* * *
e estimates which we have made for the future represent somewhat large
increases over our pre-war expenditures, but they are quite in line with the funds
which we have been expending for research in the war years.
* * *
Our estimate of postwar needs for research are based upon denite information
concerning the research which our departments in the sciences feel they are capable
of undertaking and which they want very much to undertake as soon as funds are
available.
* * *
Although the administration and faculty are giving greater recognition to the needs
of such research, it is apparent that the state will hardly rise to the occasion with
adequate appropriations. e university is, therefore, in need of considerable support
for its research program in the postwar period.
Research in Small Colleges
Quite interesting reports were received from small colleges on their atti-
tudes toward scientic research and their desire to encourage it. One small
but well-endowed college in the East stated that its primary objective is a high
quality of undergraduate teaching, and that it considers continued scholarly
| 138
interest in research essential in order to obtain this objective. It has done so,
in general, by four different means: (1) Grants-in-aid from a special fund.
(2) Leaves of absence to permit faculty members to work at other institutions.
(3) The maintenance of a well-equipped machine shop and carpenter shop
with expert assistance for the sole use of the science departments. (4) A liberal
purchase policy for instruments that can be used for both instruction and re-
search. This resulted in a well-equipped electronics laboratory at the beginning
of the war, which was put to valuable use at once when war broke out.
The type of policy outlined is much more liberal in its encouragement of
research than was found in most of the smaller colleges. It does, however,
represent the aims of a considerable number of them, and the adoption of
similar policies by others certainly deserves encouragement.
Nonresearch Institutions
The returns from the 63 colleges that do not have organized research pro-
grams were mostly in the form of letters; few attempted to ll out the ques-
tionnaires. The replies are of some interest, however, and they suggest that the
small liberal arts colleges fall into two denite groups. Some of these schools
view themselves as purely teaching institutions and have no interest in develop-
ing research programs. Furthermore, a number of them are strongly opposed
to federal subsidy. The following comment is typical:
In general it is my opinion that the Federal Government should not undertake
to establish any far-reaching program for the support of research in either public or
private colleges or universities. I do not believe such relations can be established and
permanently maintained without involving political control, which has proved so
disastrous in Germany and other totalitarian states.
On the other hand, many of the smaller colleges feel that they could make
important contributions to research, if funds were available to them for that
purpose. Of the 63 nonresearch institutions reporting, 25 made statements, of
which the following are typical:
With adequate funds, we could reasonably expect a much greater devotion to
research than obtains at present, for the members of our sta have both the interest
and the training requisite for fruitful work.
* * *
Personally, I believe that if funds were available it would contribute toward the ad-
vancement of science to have one or two members of the sta of a liberal arts college
engaged in minor projects of research, such as could be carried on satisfactorily with
the equipment that such a college has.
In developing a program of postwar federal aid to scientic research, atten-
tion should be given to the potentialities of these schools. To the extent that our
sample is representative, at least 40 percent of the small liberal arts colleges
in this country are desirous of conducting research, and are prevented from
doing so by lack of funds.
139 |
PART II
RESEARCH EXPENDITURES IN A SMALL SAMPLE
OF LEADING UNIVERSITIES, INDUSTRIAL
RESEARCH LABORATORIES AND NONPROFIT
SCIENCE INSTITUTES
To obtain a detailed picture of research expenditures in natural science
departments, a special investigation was made in 13 leading universities and
institutes of technology throughout the country. In each university; the president
was requested to appoint a consultant in the natural sciences to cooperate in
securing the necessary information. Inquiries were made with respect to the
departments of chemistry, physics and biology, and of electrical, mechani-
cal and chemical engineering. In those universities which had medical schools,
similar inquiries were made in the departments of anatomy, physiology,
biochemistry, and bacteriology. The relevant data were then compared with
research expenditures in 10 of our leading industrial laboratories and in
7 nonprot science institutes.
It should be remembered, in assessing the results, that the data were pre-
pared under pressure of time. The accounting systems in different institutions
differ widely; in some instances, detailed gures could be obtained with rela-
tive ease, while in others it was necessary to make some rather crude guesses.
University Research Expenditures
Time and funds for research varied substantially between departments
in the same university and between universities. Analysis of these variations
suggests that much remains to be done if the majority of natural scientists
with research interests are to be given the opportunities for research that
are available in the most favored departments. Engineering departments, in
general, appear to have very meager funds for research, although there
are a few notable exceptions. At least two of the engineering schools under
consideration have undertaken far-reaching expansions in research activity
since the year 1940—expansions not due to the war, and, indeed, impeded
by the war. If these are carried through according to present plans, the
postwar research picture in these institutions will be very different from that
for 1939-40.
Extraordinary variations are shown in the extent to which direct research
expenditures are met from outside sources—especially grants from industry or
the foundations. Many departments draw more than half of their support from
these outside sources and some of them get all their funds in this way.
Comparisons were made of research expenditures in various university
| 140
departments, industrial laboratories and science institutes. Expenses were
divided into professional salaries and direct operating expenses of research.
1
This latter category included expenditures for equipment, apparatus, technical
and research assistance, publishing costs associated with research, etc. A cal-
culation was then made of the amount of these direct expenses in relation to
professional salaries. The minimum gure in any of the industrial laboratories
or science institutes studied was about forty cents per dollar of professional
salary; typical gures are near one dollar, and in certain cases the gure was
more than two, or even three, dollars. The highest gures for the university
departments—with one or two striking exceptions, such as the chemistry de-
partment in institution number 8—are approximately the same as the lowest
gures for the industrial laboratories and science institutes. Typical gures for
University departments are about twenty cents per dollar of salary, and often
are considerably lower.
Although it is very difcult to judge, there appeared to be a correlation
between the research contributions of a university department and the amount
of research assistance made available to its professional workers. In the in-
stitutions and departments less adequately provided with such support there
are many men with research ability whose productivity could be signicantly
increased by the provision of more adequate research funds. Such funds might
be used to diminish heavy teaching loads, which leave many men with little
time for research, and to provide essential apparatus and technical assistance.
Time Devoted to Teaching and Research
The universities and engineering schools included in this survey rank among
the leading institutions of the country. In all of them research is fostered and
encouraged, and is considered an important factor in academic promotion.
However, the various institutions differ considerably in the relative emphasis
given to teaching and research. In a general way the 13 institutions may be
said to fall into two groups:
In group A, comprising institutions 1, 5, 8, 10, and 13, the teaching load is
relatively light, but varies considerably among individuals. For some members
of the staff it is moderately high, while for others it is only 2 or 3 hours a week.
These institutions are also likely to have some research professors who do no
teaching at all. Most members of the staff are expected to devote more than
half of their time to research. Of the ve institutions that fall in group A, four
are privately endowed. Nos. 1 and 5 are large universities in which a great
deal of research is being actively carried on in all departments. No. 10 is a
similar medium-size institution. No. 8 is an institution devoted primarily to the
natural sciences and engineering. One very large State university (No. 13) also
appears to belong in this category, at least, as regards some of its science
departments.
1
See table II-VI inclusive, columns 4 and 6; and table VII, columns 2 and 3.
141 |
Group B (Nos. 2, 4, 9, 11, and 12) is made up of important State universi-
ties. The teaching load is considerably heavier in this group, averaging around
12 class-room hours per week. Most members of the staff, however, are able
to devote about one-quarter of their time to research, and sometimes more.
Research professorships involving little or no teaching are extremely rare in
these universities.
Three private institutions (Nos. 3, 6, and 7) appear to lie somewhere between
groups A and B in regard to the relative allocation of time between teaching
and research. No. 3 is a large privately endowed university, associated with a
large State agricultural school. No. 6 is an important engineering school. No. 7
is a medium-size liberal arts university.
In engineering departments, the teaching schedule is generally considerably
heavier than in physics, chemistry and biology; often it runs to 18 class-room
hours per week. In some institutions, however, the teaching schedule for engi-
neers is no heavier than in other departments of the university.
In the medical sciences, teaching (prewar) was frequently concentrated in one
4-month term, during which time the teaching load was fairly heavy; but the
remaining 8 months commonly involved little or no teaching. Some institutions
deviate from this pattern, but, on the whole, faculty members in the medical
sciences tend to have a large fraction of their time available for research.
In several institutions the amount of teaching done by men in the lower
academic ranks was considerably higher than for the full and associate profes-
sors. In other cases, the amount of teaching was practically identical, regardless
of rank. Often there were marked differences between one department and
another in the same university. For instance, the chemistry department in one
institution reported the regular teaching load in hours per week as: full profes-
sors, 3; associate professors, 8; assistant professors, 10; instructors, 12. This is
an unusual amount of variation with rank. The biology department in the same
institution reported a uniform gure for all academic ranks. In this particular
institution the chemistry department appears to have been much more exten-
sively endowed than the other science departments.
| 142
143 |
| 144
145 |
| 146
147 |
| 148
Table VII
ANALYSIS OF RETURNS ON QUESTIONNAIRES
SENT TO INDUSTRIAL LABORATORIES AND
NONPROFIT SCIENCE INSTITUTES
[1939 data]
INDUSTRIAL LABORATORIES
1
Includes expenditures for equipment, apparatus, technical and research assistance, publishing costs
associated with research, eld trips, expeditions, etc.
2
1 and 7 are large electrical companies; 2 is a communications company; 3 and 4 are oil companies;
5 is a large and 9 a small chemical concern; 6 is a meat-packing company; 8 is a glass company, and
10 is a large pharmaceutical rm.
3
1 and 2 are institutions for medical research; 3, 4, and 5 for biological research; 6 and 7 for
research in the physical sciences.
149 |
| 150
APPENDIX 4
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON DISCOVERY
AND DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC TALENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Letter of transmittal ...........................................153
Summary....................................................154
Preface.....................................................159
I. Long-term plans............................................165
1. The desirability of and necessity for the proposed plans ........165
2. The desirable and necessary extent of the proposed long-term
plans .................................................168
3. The recommended long-term plan and means for achieving it ....170
II. Plans for the near future .....................................177
1. Decits of scientic and technological personnel resulting from
war and selective-service policies ..........................177
2. Plans for integrated scientic training for soldiers and sailors ....179
3. The importance of quality of instruction in “Army universities”
abroad ...............................................180
4. The place of the GI Bill of Rights in ameliorating scientic and
technological decits ....................................181
5. Duties of schools, colleges, universities, and technical schools
to returning veterans ....................................183
6. Importance of problem of scientic training of men in armed
forces ................................................185
Appendix A. The educational pyramid: studies concerning able students
lost to higher education ......................................187
151 |
Page
Appendix B. Data concerning training of personnel for science and
technology ................................................ 201
Appendix C. Suggested administrative organization, bases of selection,
schedule and procedures .................................... 205
| 152
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
JUNE 4, 1945.
Dr. VANNEVAR BUSH,
Director, Oce of Scientic Research and Development,
1530 P Street NW., Washington, D. C.
DEAR DR. BUSH: To assist you in making recommendations in response to
President Roosevelt’s letter of November 17, 1944, you assigned consideration of the
fourth question in that letter to the following-named committee:
Dr. Henry A. Barton, director, American Institute of Physics.
Dr. C. Lalor Burdick, special assistant to the president, E. I. du Pont de
Nemours & Co.
Dr. James B. Conant, president, Harvard University.
Dr. Watson Davis, director, Science Service.
Dr. Robert E. Doherty, president, Carnegie Institute of Technology.
Dr. Paul E. Elicker, executive secretary, National Association of Secondary
School Principals.
Mr. Farnham P. Griths, lawyer, San Francisco.
Dr. W. S. Hunter, professor of psychology, Brown University.
Dr. T. R. McConnell, dean, College of Science, Literature, and the Arts,
University of Minnesota.
Mr. Henry Allen Moe, secretary general, John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation.
Mr. Walter S. Rogers, director, Institute of Current World Aairs.
Dr. Harlow Shapley, director, Harvard College Observatory.
Dr. Hugh S. Taylor, dean of the graduate school, Princeton University.
Dr. E. B. Wilson, professor of vital statistics, Harvard University School of
Public Health.
Mr. Henry Chauncey and Mr. Lawrence K. Frank are the committee’s secretaries.
e committee held only two meetings, but there has been constant interchange of
materials by mail and we have conferred frequently among ourselves and with others.
e report herewith presented is a joint eort and it is agreed to, both as to content
and form, by the whole committee. is result has been arrived at, not by compro-
mise, but by study of the relevant facts in the light of the committee members’ varied
experience, and by discussion and agreement upon the conclusions to be drawn from
those facts in the light of our experience.
Respectfully submitted,
HENRY ALLEN MOE,
Chairman, Committee on Discovery and
Development of Scientic Talent.
153 |
SUMMARY
To the question asked of you by President Roosevelt, “Can an effective
program be proposed for discovering and developing scientic talent in Amer-
ican youth so that the continuing future of scientic research in this country may
be assured on a level comparable to what has been done during the war?”,
your committee reports afrmatively, stating their considered judgment that an
effective program of support from the Federal Government to that end can be
organized and, indeed, must be organized in order to assure the continuation
of scientic and technological training and research on a scale adequate to
the needs of the Nation, in peace or war. There is a long history of support
granted by the Federal Government for training and research and it is our
judgment that that type of support needs to be, and can be successfully, ex-
tended to provide for those highly talented youth with scientic interests and
ability who must be assisted else they will not be able to obtain the scientic
and engineering training which they merit and which the good of the Nation
requires that they obtain.
Our proposals to these ends have two phases:
I. Long-term plans, aimed at ensuring through the long future an adequate
supply of scientists and engineers by discovering and developing scientic
talent in American youth; and
II. Plans for the immediate future, aimed at making up, in part, the decits
in the ranks of scientists and engineers resulting from the war and the Nation’s
Selective Service policy.
I. Long-Term Plans
The Evidence for Our Conclusions
The intelligence of the citizenry is a national resource which transcends in
importance all other natural resources. To be effective, that intelligence must be
trained. The evidence shows that many young citizens of high intelligence fail
to get the training of which they are capable. The reasons for that failure are
chiey economic and geographical and can be remedied.
Existing provisions, by scholarships and fellowships, are inadequate to meet
the needs of this group, nor will State, local, and private plans for such assis-
tance, which are now under discussion, be adequate. Our plans, simply, are
plans—as respects science and engineering—to train for the national welfare
the highest ability of the youth of the Nation without regard to where it was
born and raised and without regard to the size of the family income. Much of
our evidence and many of our conclusions on that evidence are applicable to
elds other than science and engineering; but our plans, naturally, do not go
beyond our mandate to make effective plans for the discovery and develop-
ment of scientic talent in American youth.
| 154
The Necessary and Desirable Extent of the Proposed Plans
Throughout our deliberations, we have had it in mind that, by scholarships,
and fellowships and monetary and other rewards in disproportionate amounts,
too large a percentage of the Nation’s high ability might be drawn into science
with a result highly detrimental to the Nation and to science. Plans for the dis-
covery and development of scientic talent must be related to the other needs
of society for high ability. Since there never is enough ability at high levels to
satisfy all the needs of our complex civilization for such ability, we would not
seek to draw into science any more of it than science’s proportionate share. In
that spirit of reasonableness our plans are:
We recommend that each year 6,000 4-year scholarships be awarded, to
enable youth of scientic promise to work for bachelor’s degrees in scientic
and technological elds. We recommend further that 300 3-year fellowships
be awarded each year to enable the recipients to obtain advanced training
leading to doctoral degrees in science and technology. The maximum total of
Scholars, if and when the plan is in full operation, would be 24,000 and the
maximum total number of Fellows would be 900. Maximum annual costs if
the plan is to be realized fully may reach, after the fourth year of operation,
$29,000,000.
Outline of the Plan and of the Means for Achieving It
The Scholars should be chosen by State committees of selection and the
Fellows by a national committee of selection. The Scholars shall be eligible for
the fellowships but the fellowships shall also be open to other qualied students.
We recommend that, for the Scholars, the scale of support should be that
provided by the GI bill of rights for veterans, namely up to $500 annually for
tuition and other fees, plus $50 monthly for personal support if single, and $75
monthly if married. For the Fellows, there should be an allowance up to $500
for tuition and other fees and up to $100 monthly for personal support.
The Scholars and Fellows should be chosen solely on the basis of merit,
without regard to sex, color, race, creed, or need.
All those who receive benets under this plan, both Scholars and Fellows,
should be enrolled in a National Science Reserve and be liable to call into the
service of the Federal Government, in connection with scientic or technical
work in time of war or other national emergency declared by Congress or
proclaimed by the President. Thus, in addition to the general benets to the
Nation by reason of the addition to its trained ranks of such a corps of scien-
tic workers, there would be a denite benet to the Nation in having these
scientic workers on call in national emergencies. Evidence presented to the
committee shows that, if such a science reserve had been in existence in 1940
and had included many of the best scientists, the mobilization of scientic men
before Pearl Harbor would have been much more rapid and effective than it
was possible to make it.
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We believe that the obligation undertaken by the recipients of National
Science Reserve scholarships and fellowships would constitute a real quid pro
quo and that the Federal Government would be well advised to invest the
money involved even if the benets to the Nation were thought of solely—
which they are not—in terms of national preparedness.
As merit should be the sole basis of selecting the Scholars and Fellows, like-
wise merit should be the sole basis of their continuing to hold their scholarships
and fellowships—4 years for the Scholars and a maximum of 3 years for the
Fellows. Unless the Scholars and Fellows maintain good behavior, good health,
and scientic progress in the top quarter of their classes, the assistance they are
receiving should be terminated.
The quotas of scholarships to be awarded by the State (and Territorial) com-
mittees of selection should be determined by the number of their secondary
school graduates of the previous year as related to the national total of such
graduates. That is, the national total of 6,000 scholarships would be prorated
to the States in the same proportion as their high school graduates bear to the
whole national total of such graduates.
We recommend that the establishment of the organization to operate the
plan and its supervision be entrusted to the National Academy of Sciences—
the top scientic organization of the country and the one which, through the
years since its establishment in 1863, has shown itself to have the knowledge,
integrity, ability to withstand pressures, and concern for the national welfare,
which will be required.
II. Plans for the Immediate Future
Because Selective Service policies have not taken account of the Nation’s
vital needs for scientists and engineers, the training of men in the elds of sci-
ence and technology during the war has almost completely stopped. Because
of these stoppages, not until at least 6 years after the war will scientists trained
for research emerge from the graduate schools in any signicant quantities.
Consequently, there is an accumulating decit in the number of trained research
scientists and that decit will continue for a number of years.
The decits of bachelor’s degrees in science and technology are already
probably about 150,000.
The decits of scientic doctoral degrees—that is, of young scholars trained
to the point where they are capable of original work—has been estimated, for
the period 1941 projected to 1955, to be more than 16,000.
All patriotic citizens who are informed about these matters agree that, for
military security, good public health, full employment, and a higher standard
of living after the war, these decits are very serious. Neither our allies, nor our
enemies, permitted any such decits to develop but on the contrary maintained
or increased national programs for the training of scientists and engineers.
The feasible remedies in the situation, as we nd it now, appear to us to be
these:
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1. We recommend that the Research Board for National Security and the
Army and Navy nd men who, before their induction and during their service,
have shown promise of scientic ability and that they be ordered, by name, to
duty in the United States as students for training in science and engineering of a
grade and quality available to civilians in peacetime. This should be adopted
as the considered policy of the armed services and no desire of a commanding
ofcer to retain a potential scientist for his usefulness on the spot should be
allowed to interfere with the operation of the policy.
Merit should be the sole basis for the selection of these students and merit
alone should determine the number selected. We think that probably the total
would be no more than 100,000 and that number, following VE-day, could not
be militarily signicant. For building up the Nation’s scientic strength, however,
that number would be very signicant. If well selected on their merits as stu-
dents of science, these men would constitute the premium crop of future scientists
and we know that the future of our country in peace and war depends on that
premium crop.
Under this proposed plan, be it noted, there would be no disruption of plans
already made for the discharge of soldiers from the Army. While students,
their discharges would occur in accordance with the already established rating
scale. It would not do to propose that such a plan should be done on a volunteer
basis—that is, that personnel of the Army and Navy should request orders to
duty as students. It would not do because many of the best of them probably
would not request such orders, from feelings that they would not wish to be put
in the position of seeming to shirk their full patriotic duty.
2. The Army has made plans for setting up in foreign countries, when and
where the military situation permits, courses of study for soldiers, including
courses in science and technology. These plans are all to the good. The further
important thing to ensure is that the courses shall be the best and most up-to-
date that can be given. Unless it is to do a disservice to the soldiers taking its
training, the Armed Forces Institute must be prepared with instruction that is
wholly up to date in its higher levels; but the, fact of the matter remains that
since the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Tech-
nology, the Ryerson Laboratory of the University of Chicago, and others, cannot
be moved abroad, the plan for Army universities must be supplemented by
what we have suggested in our rst proposal above.
3. Public Law 346, Seventy-eighth Congress, commonly known as the GI
Bill of Rights, provides for the education of veterans of this war under certain
conditions, at the expense of the Federal Government. Among the returning
soldiers and sailors will be many with marked scientic talent which should
be developed, through further education, for the national good. However, the
1 year of education which the law provides for essentially all veterans clearly
will not be enough to train a scientist nor in most instances to complete training
begun prior to entry into the armed forces. The law makes the amount of ed-
ucation beyond 1 year at Government expense depend on length of service
rather than on ability to prot from the education.
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It appears to us that our mandate to set up an effective plan for discovering
and developing scientic talent must take into account the scientic potentiali-
ties among the 10,000,000 young Americans now in the armed forces. To this
end, it is recommended that the Veterans’ Administration set up an adequate
counseling service for those veterans of marked scientic talent and that a
complete scientic education at Government expense be provided for a group
of them selected on the basis of merit and irrespective of the length of their
military service. Here, again, we believe it best to recommend that standards
of scientic ability be the limiting factors rather than to suggest that denite
numbers be selected for training. Amendment of the GI Bill of Rights, to make
that law an instrument for the amelioration of the decits of scientists resulting
from the war and Selective Service policy, seems to us essential for the safety
and continued prosperity of the Nation.
The adequate handling of the education of the scientic and technological
talent now under arms will be a primary test of the effectiveness of the
Government in meeting the whole problem to which we have been asked to
direct our attention. The future scientic and technical leaders in the United
States are now largely in military service. Unless exceptional steps are taken
to recruit and train talent from the armed services at or before the close of
the war, the future will nd this country seriously handicapped for scientic and
technological leadership. In peace or war, the handicap might prove fatal to
our standards of living and to our way of life.
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PREFACE
You asked us to advise you upon the fourth question of President Roosevelt’s
letter to you concerning future scientic development in the United States. The
question is:
Can an eective program be proposed for discovering and developing scientic
talent in American youth so that the continuing future of scientic research in this
country may be assured on a level comparable to what has been done during the war?
In our judgment the answer to the question is in all respects in the afrmative.
We conclude also that the program envisaged by the question is both neces-
sary and desirable. The difcult questions are upon the necessary and desir-
able extent of such a program and upon the best means for its accomplishment.
Our report, accordingly, will be under three heads: the necessity, the extent
and the means for making the envisaged program effective.
There are, however, some general considerations which we deem it well to
place before you prior to proceeding to the body of this report.
President Roosevelt’s letter to you looks toward a science that will be a
decisive element in the national welfare in peace as it has been in war. He said,
“New frontiers of the mind are before us, and if they are pioneered with the
same vision, boldness, and drive with which we have waged this war we can
create a fuller and more fruitful employment and a fuller and a more fruitful
life.” It is clear that the letter refers to science as the word is commonly under-
stood, or, more technically described, to science now within the purview of the
National Academy of Sciences, that is, to mathematics, the physical and biolog-
ical sciences including psychology, geology, geography and anthropology and
their engineering, industrial, agricultural and medical applications. To science in
this sense, therefore, the recommendations in this report will be limited.
The statesmanship of science, however, requires that science be concerned
with more than science. Science can only be an effective element in the national
welfare, as a member of a team, whether the condition be peace or war.
As citizens, as good citizens, we therefore think that we must have in mind
while examining the question before us—the discovery and development
of scientic talent—the needs of the whole national welfare. We could not
suggest to you a program which would syphon into science and technology a
disproportionately large share of the Nation’s highest abilities, without doing
harm to the Nation, nor, indeed, without crippling science. The very fruits of
science become available only through enterprise, industry and wisdom on the
part of others as well as scientists. Science cannot live by and unto itself alone.
This is not an idle fancy. Germany and Japan show us that it is not. They had
ne science; but because they did not have governments “of the people, by
the people and for the people” the world is now at war. This is not to say that
science is responsible: it is to say, however, that, except as a member of a larger
team, science is of limited value to the national welfare.
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The uses to which high ability in youth can be put are various and, to a
large extent, are determined by social pressures and rewards. When aided
by selective devices for picking out scientically talented youth, it is clear that
large sums of money for scholarships and fellowships and monetary and other
rewards in disproportionate amounts might draw into science too large a
percentage of the Nation’s high ability, with a result highly detrimental to the
Nation and to science. Plans for the discovery and development of scientic
talent must be related to the other needs of society for high ability: science, in
the words of the man in the street, must not, and must not try to, hog it all. This
is our deep conviction, and therefore the plans that we shall propose herein
will endeavor to relate the need of the Nation for science to the needs of the
Nation for high-grade trained minds in other elds. There is never enough
ability at high levels to satisfy all the needs of the Nation; we would not seek to
draw into science any more of it than science’s proportionate share.
Through all ages of civilization far-seeing men and women and governments
have been concerned with the necessity of providing for the leadership of the
future, as one essential factor in the survival, or progress, of civilization. Provi-
sion for the leadership of the future is necessary because high ability, adven-
turous talent, is not born only into families that can pay for its development. It is
a fact that a large proportion of the world’s best brains and nest spirits have
attained or accelerated their development through outside support, of the type
that we should call scholarship or fellowship assistance. This is a profound social
fact: a large part of the world’s leaders in science and other elds of scholar-
ship, in the creative arts, and even in public affairs, has required a nancial leg
up, while working toward leadership.
Upon any study of the history of the development of leadership we may be
reasonably sure that a large part of the men and women who in future will
lead us in all walks of life will need extraordinary boosts up the ladder at
some stages of their careers—boosts provided by individuals, institutions, and
governmental agencies, on the basis of a showing of very special ability—in
the form of scholarships, fellowships, and grants-in-aid.
No nation has ever done as well as we have in equalizing educational
opportunity, nor, probably, in giving the most adequate opportunity to the best;
but it can easily be shown, and we shall show it, that we could do better. And
we also shall show how we as a nation can do better.
Why we as a nation should be concerned to do better appears in the fol-
lowing statement by Dr. Robert Gordon Sproul, President of the University of
California—a statement of such cogency and sound common sense that we are
glad to adopt it as our own:
One of the major responsibilities of the university of the future, is to see that the
money it spends * * * goes toward the education of the most worthy candidates in
each generation. e intelligence of the citizenry of a nation is a natural resource
which transcends in importance all other natural resources * * * One may condone
the waste of many natural resources on the ground that science will some day discover
a substitute that is just as good. But intelligence is quite unique, and though science
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search diligently it will never nd a substitute for it, nor will the war lords.
Universities * * * are conservators of the above-average intelligence of the nation
* * * Every conservation program must proceed along two lines: it must safeguard the
known reserves of a given resource, and it must also, through exploration and every
other means, make a determined eort to ascertain accurately the further supplies of
that resource.
We do not know how much intelligence the citizenry of this Nation is capable of
producing. We pay little attention to intelligence unless it forces itself to the surface
and trickles into a college or university by force of gravity. If it happens to come to the
surface in the backwoods area or a rural district, where the process of trickling down
to college is made dicult by distance and by lack of funds, the chances are that the
trickle will sink into the earth again, “unwept, unhonored, and unsung”—unless,
of course, it happens to be one of the fastest running, highest-jumping, or quickest
trickles on the track, court, or gridiron.
Across the continent from Dr. Sproul, Dr. James B. Conant, President of
Harvard University and a member of this Committee, coming at the question
from another direction, has made a statement to like effect which his colleagues
of the committee would adopt as their own:
* * * in every section of the entire area where the word science may properly be
applied, the limiting factor is a human one. We shall have rapid or slow advance in
this direction or in that depending on the number of really rst-class men who are
engaged in the work in question. If I have learned anything from my experience in
Washington as chairman of the National Defense Research Committee, it is that ten
second-rate men are no substitute for one rst-class man. It is no use pouring sec-
ond-class men on a problem, even if you are under the greatest pressure for a solution;
second-class men often do more harm than good. So in the last analysis, the future of
science in this country will be determined by our basic educational policy.
And nally we would quote the Board of Regents of the State of New York
who recently declared:
e need is imperative for enrolling the ablest young people of the State in institu-
tions of higher education. is proposal is defensible not in terms of the desire of the
colleges to obtain students. Fundamentally, the case rests on the need of any state to
bring its best minds up to a high level of understanding and accomplishments.
This statement also we adopt as basic to our thinking.
The data which prove the truth of the quoted statements are well known and
some parts of them are set forth in an Appendix A attached to this report. Here
we simply give samples and it is to be noted that these samples apply not only
to scientic ability in American youth but to ability generally:
An Indiana study published in 1922 showed:
If we compare the records made on our tests by the group of seniors representing
the richest and the poorest homes, we nd that there are proportionally more children
possessing the highest grades of mental ability among the poorest class than among
the wealthiest class, and more individuals with high average grades of intelligence
161 |
among the wealthier than among the poorer group. e wealthiest group ranks high
on central tendency. e poorest salaried group ranks low on central tendency and
also has a larger percentage of individuals possessing the lower grades of mental ability.
But there are individuals in this class who obtain the highest intelligence rating made
by high school seniors. * * *
It is still more signicant that so many of this most superior group of high-school
seniors will not attend college, while those with the most inferior grades of intel-
ligence are planning to attend, in ever increasing numbers. Twenty-ve percent of
the brightest seniors found in the entire State said they were not planning to attend
college at all, while 65 to 70 percent of the dullest seniors had denitely decided to go
to college, most of them having already selected the college they expected to attend.
In Minnesota, it was shown that the probability of college attendance for a
high school graduate of high college ability who is the son or daughter of a
father employed in a professional or managerial group is several times great-
er than that for the son or daughter of farmer or unskilled laborer. This study
also showed that for every high school graduate who ranked in the upper ten
percent of his high school class and enrolled in college, another high school
graduate who also ranked in the upper 10 percent did not enter college.
A Pennsylvania study showed that, in that State, dividing a sampling of the
youth of approximately equal high ability into two socioeconomic groups, 93
percent of children of the upper socio-economic group were graduated from
high school and 57 percent attended college. But in the lower socio-economic
group, only 72 percent of the children were graduated from high school and
only 13 percent attended college.
As emphasized, this report is concerned with discovering and developing
scientic talent, but in its proper setting and relationship to other needs for
talent for the Nation’s welfare. In the report we shall suggest, as bets our man-
date, the appropriation of Federal funds to be applied only to the purpose of
discovering and developing scientic talent; but, as we have pointed out, we
recognize that there is need for the discovery and development of talent in all
lines and we point out that most of the plans and procedures recommended
herein for science are equally applicable to the discovery and development of
talent in other elds.
What shall be done with Federal funds for the discovery and development
of talent, scientic and other, in American youth is for the wisdom of Congress to
determine. As taxpayers and as men concerned with the statesmanship of sci-
ence, we have been deeply concerned with the question how plans for the use
of Federal funds for scientic development may be set up so that Federal funds
do not drive out of the picture funds from local governments, foundations, and
private persons. We think that our proposals will minimize that effect, but, with
proper candor, we do not think that our proposals will be completely effective
to avoid what we do not want to happen. We think, however, that the Nation’s
need for more and better science is such that the risk must be accepted.
In this report, consonant with our mandate to make effective plans for the
discovery and development of scientic talent in American youth, we recom-
| 162
mend plans to assist able young men and women to carry their studies from
the end of high school through the doctorate. Beyond that we do not go in our
recommendations, not only because we do not think the word “youth” ought to
be stretched to include men and women of post-doctoral age, but also because
your committees reporting upon other questions in President Roosevelt’s letter
are making recommendations for assistance to post-doctoral investigators. For
our part, we are of opinion that the basic problem, at least for the next de-
cade, will be to nd more young talent and to give it a chance to develop into
more rst-rate investigators than we now have.
That is the problem at which this report aims. At present the opportunities
for education beyond high school are accidental to too large an extent—de-
termined by the accidents of geography and economic income. We seek, in
this constitutional Republic, as respects science and engineering, to train for the
national welfare the highest ability without regard to where it was born and
reared and without regard to the size of the family income.
163 |
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I. LONG-TERM PLANS
1. The Desirability of and Necessity for the Proposed Plans
We are convinced that there is no possibility that too much ability of the
highest order can be discovered and developed: the needs of our complex
social organization for brains and character at the highest level can never be
surfeited. Moreover, it is appropriate to point out, when considering the need
for scientic training, that the rst-rate scientist and engineer cannot do his work
effectively unless he has a few good ones in a secondary role at his disposal
as assistants and sometimes a great many as hands and as instruments for the
execution of his ideas.
We have only to look about us, from the point of view of citizens, to know
that the current need for creative brains is not being met: there is too much
wrong with the world and with our country to have doubt about that. As schol-
ars and administrators of scholarly affairs we also know out of our own ex-
periences that there is a deciency in the supply of rst-rate scientic workers.
All of us know of problems in science whose solutions are urgently needed for
individual and the collective welfare. The limiting factors, all along the line, are
brains and character.
In Appendix A attached to this report, some startling gures are given as
to the number of young people who drop out before completing high school.
The country may be proud of the fact that 95 percent of boys and girls of fth
grade age are enrolled in our schools, but we cannot help being concerned
with the fact that with each succeeding grade the percentage falls. For every
1,000 students in the fth grade, 600 are lost to education before the end of
high school has been reached, and all but 72 have ceased formal education
before 4 years of college are completed. While this report is concerned pri-
marily with methods of selecting and educating high school graduates at the
college and higher levels, we cannot be unconcerned with the potential loss of
talent which is inherent in the present situation in our primary and secondary
schools.
The Nation’s students may be diagrammed as a pyramid. At the base of the
diagram are the students beginning the rst grade. As we keep looking at this
body of students, they drop out more and more rapidly and the sides of the
diagram slope in sharply, making a pyramidal gure.
Students drop out of grade and high schools for a variety of reasons. The
reasons which concern us in this report are only those which relate to the highly
talented. Many of these individuals of great promise who are lost in the process
are academic casualties undoubtedly to be charged against the inadequacy
of the local secondary education available to them. Studies of the situation in
different States show that the problem is by no means the same throughout the
country. The gures that have been given above are the over-all gures for the
Nation: in some States the loss is much less, in others much greater. Unless one
165 |
were to believe—which we do not—that there is a corresponding difference
in the distribution of native ability among the States, one cannot help reaching
the conclusion that the differences reect great variation in the quality of our
secondary education.
It is not within our mandate to enter into the controversial subject of the way
in which a larger amount of public funds should be expended on secondary
education in those States where the amount now spent per pupil is very low,
and it is surely no coincidence that it is in these very States that we nd the
losses, from the fth grade on, to be the greatest. We would be remiss in our
duty, however, if we did not point out that much remains to be done to make
our educational system effective in developing the latent talent of the Nation
by improving the quality of the secondary schools in many localities so that no
boy or girl of talent and promise may be deprived of the proper high school
education.
Among those who drop out before completing high school, both in the States
which provide excellent public education and in those which are less advanced
in this respect, there undoubtedly are some at least who have potentialities
for becoming rst-rate scientists and engineers. The early discovery of such
individuals who have dropped out of the educational system obviously presents
peculiar difculties. The committee suggests to employers, and to educational,
scientic, and labor leaders that serious consideration be given to the prob-
lems involved in the discovery of such individuals and in getting them back into
educational institutions where their talents can be developed in spite of their
lack of complete high school training.
Students drop out of high school, college, and graduate school, or do not
get that far, for a variety of reasons. The reasons that concern us are only
those which relate to the talented and they are (1) that they cannot afford to
go, (2) that schools and colleges providing work of interest and up to the level
of their abilities are not available locally, and (3) that business and industry
recruit from among the ablest before they have nished the training of which
they are capable.
These reasons apply generally, but they apply with particular force to
science:
1. The educational road to becoming a high-grade scientist is long and
expensive, and the families of many able students cannot afford to pay their
way. It is of a length at least 6 years beyond high school and it is expensive
because, as is evident, no large percentage of science students can get rst-
rate training in educational institutions while living at home.
2. Students of scientic capability are particularly vulnerable to bad or
inadequate mathematical and scientic teaching in secondary school which
fails to awaken their interest in science or to give them adequate instruction.
Improvement in the teaching of science all along the line is imperative. To
become a rst-rate scientist it is necessary to get a good start early, and a
good start early means good secondary school science teaching. No matter
how gifted and capable a person may be, if he is not interested to nish
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secondary school, or does not have the opportunity to complete secondary
school, he cannot—as things are—go on to college and to graduate school.
3. Recruitment from among gifted students by business and industry likewise
applies with particular force to science. A young man may well nd the place
in which eventually he will achieve high distinction in industry, following grad-
uation from college, if his place ought to be, for example, in management or
applied science. But if his place, considering his abilities, might be at the top
in scientic research, he will be seriously handicapped if he stops his training
without proceeding to the level represented by the doctorate. Industry and
business cannot afford, as a long-term proposition, to recruit, prior to comple-
tion of training, those potential scientists who appear capable of contributing
to fundamental advances or who should be teachers.
In the light of the studies made, having regard to the facts of the educational
pyramid, it clearly is essential to provide for the early schooling of more able
students in order that a large enough group will survive to become a larger
quota of students of the highest ability at the apex of the pyramid. To in-
crease this small group of exceptionally able men and women it is necessary to
enlarge the number of students of high ability who go to college. This involves
better high schools, provision for helping individual, talented students to nish
high school (primarily, we conceive, responsibilities of every local community),
and opportunities for more capable, promising high school students to go to
college. Any other practice constitutes an indefensible and wasteful utilization
of higher education and neglect of our human resources.
If we were all-knowing and all-wise we might, but we think probably not,
write you a plan whereby there might be selected for training, which they
otherwise would not get, those who, 20 years hence, would be scientic leaders
and we might not bother about any lesser manifestations of scientic abili-
ty. But in the present state of knowledge a plan cannot be made which will
select, and assist, only those young men and women who will give the top future
leadership to science. To get top leadership there must be a relatively large
base of high ability selected for development and then successive skimmings of
the cream of ability at successive times and at higher levels. No one can select
from the bottom those who will be the leaders at the top because unmeasured
and unknown factors enter into scientic, or any, leadership. There are brains
and character, strength and health, happiness and spiritual vitality, interest
and motivation, and no one knows what else, that must needs enter into this
supra-mathematical calculus.
We think we probably would not, even if we were all-wise and all-knowing,
write you a plan whereby you would be assured of scientic leadership at
one stroke. We think as we think because we are not interested in setting up
an elect. We think it much the best plan, in this constitutional Republic, that
opportunity be held out to all kinds and conditions of men whereby they can
better themselves. This is the American way; this is the way the United States
has become what it is. We think it very important that circumstances be such that
there be no ceilings, other than ability itself, to intellectual ambition. We think it
167 |
very important that every boy and girl shall know that, if he shows that he “has
what it takes,” the sky is the limit. Even if it be shown subsequently that he has
not what it takes to go to the top, he will go further than he would otherwise go
if there had been a ceiling beyond which he always knew he could not aspire.
By proceeding from point to point and taking stock on the way, by giving
further opportunity to those who show themselves worthy of further opportu-
nity, by giving the most opportunity to those who show themselves continually
developing—this is the way we propose.
This is the American way: a man works for what he gets.
2. The Desirable and Necessary Extent of the Proposed
Long-Term Plans
As said in the general preamble to this report, we think that plans for the
discovery and development of scientic talent should have a limit related to
the needs of the Nation as a whole for trained talent in all activities that are
necessary for the national welfare. We think, also as stated, that while we have
no fears that too much top ability can be found and developed there is some
danger that too many scientists of less than top ability may be trained, thereby
debasing the currency of scientic training to the point where scientic careers
may not look attractive either to the best or to the second best.
How to calculate the Nation’s future needs for scientists, or to document fully
a judgment upon the question, we confess we do not know. But we have some
evidence to support what we, at any rate, regard as informed conclusions. This
evidence is set forth in Appendix B attached hereto. In summary it shows the
following facts germane to this report:
In the year 1941 there were conferred 53,534 undergraduate degrees in
natural science and in technology.
In the last 6 years before the war, the average annual number of Ph.D.
degrees conferred in natural science and technological elds was 1,649.
For some years to come, as pointed out elsewhere in this report, these
numbers must be increased in an attempt to make up for the accumulated
decits in trained scientic and technological personnel caused by wartime
interruptions to basic education and specialized training.
We have carefully studied data and indications concerning the Nation’s
future needs for scientists and technologists as a basis for determining the
necessary and desirable extent of plans for discovering and developing
scientic talent. We have concluded that the best that can be done is to make
a practical, executive judgment after consideration of the material; and such a
judgment leads us to propose that 6,000 science students annually be selected
for assistance in obtaining the bachelor’s degree. This number we judge to be
not too large from any point of view or too small to be effective.
Similarly, making an executive judgment upon numbers of students proposed
to be assisted annually to obtain doctoral degrees in science, we arrive at
the gure 250, plus 50 for medical research doctorates unless your Commit-
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tee upon the second question in President Roosevelt’s letter makes a separate
recommendation on fellowships in that eld, which we understand is not their
present intention. It is not intended that the 50 proposed medical-research
pre-doctoral fellowships shall be administered nor allocated separately but
simply that the recommended total number of pre-doctoral fellowships be
increased to 300.
The number 250 is arrived at by considering, inter alia, that it would be 10
percent of the prewar average of science doctorates conferred, 165, plus a
number endeavoring to make up some of the science doctoral decit incurred
during the war years when science students, practically, have been and are
nonexistent. Our thinking concerning the added 50 medical research doctor-
ates goes along the same lines.
These gures, we wish to emphasize, are not provable but equally we wish to
emphasize they appear reasonable to us. It has been in our thinking throughout
this report that we do not want to inate or debase the currency of scientic
training by articially stimulating its issuance beyond the Nation’s needs for
such training.
Further, we desire to emphasize the point that, until we see the look of the
postwar world, policies cannot be determined with nality. And, until policies
can be determined, alternative plans, and sliding scales within those plans,
are the only plans that make sense. We cannot, as we have said, guarantee
that our gure of 6,000 assisted science students in each entering class and
250-300 assisted candidates for science doctorates a year are the correct
gures for the needed result. We conclude, simply, that they are good gures
with which to begin, always provided that they be not frozen and may be
changed in the light of experience and as future demands for scientists and
need for Federal assistance in training them may be shown.
Elsewhere in this report it is recommended that the administrative agency
which may be charged with making our proposals operative be charged also
with a continuing research function in which studies of opportunities for scientic
and technological employment should have a major place.
When considering the question whether or not the group of undergraduates
selected for training under the plan herein recommended be too large, it ought
to be remembered that the majority will not go on to research careers but rather
to various kinds of engineering practice, plant management activities and to
many other kinds of practical work connected with industry and technological
processes. For industries based on highly advanced scientic techniques which
must be adapted constantly to new scientic discoveries, training in science is
essential throughout the management, and while it cannot be said that a man,
because he is a good scientist, is therefore a good manager for such a business,
still without scientic training, he could hardly function at all. Moreover, for such
a business a scientic training is, qua the business, probably as good a training
as any other.
Furthermore, in reference to scientic training at the undergraduate level, we
quote with approval a statement by a distinguished committee of English schol-
169 |
ars, from social, humanistic and science elds, published by Nufeld College of
the University of Oxford:
* * * We live in a world in which science lies at the very roots of community, and a
mastery of scientic thinking grows more and more indispensable for the successful
practice of the arts of life. e culture of the modern age, if it is to have meaning, must
be deeply imbued with scientic ways of thought. It must absorb science, without
forsaking what is of value in the older ways or conduces to the understanding of those
deeper problems which science by itself is impotent to answer. It is a question, not
of substituting a scientic culture for that which has gone before, but of reaching a
wider appreciation in which the sciences in their modern development fall into their
due place * * *.
3. The Recommended Long-Term Plan and Means for
Achieving It
As stated in the preceding section, we propose that the number of under-
graduate students of science and technology assisted under the plan shall be
6,000 annually and that the number of assisted doctoral students in the same
elds shall be 250 or 300 annually. This would make the 4-year maximum total
of undergraduates 24,000 and the 2- to 3-year maximum total of graduate
students 900. Maximum annual costs, if the plan is to be realized fully, may
reach, after the fourth year of operation, $29,000,000.
It is our idea that these highly selected students, if they proceed to doc-
torates, in many cases will be able to obtain that degree after 6 years of
undergraduate and graduate work; but provision should be made for those
who require 3, instead of 2, years of graduate work.
In this connection, we wish to emphasize the responsibility of educational
institutions in this plan. Under the central purpose of the plan—to provide
scientic training for students of superior ability and equal opportunity to all
American youth to qualify in competition for such training—educational institu-
tions will face the obligation of providing a training commensurate intellectually
with the superior ability of this special group. The Committee believes that a
program which is appropriate for the rank and le of college students will not
be appropriate for these, or other, highly selected individuals.
It appears to us that the scale of support for the undergraduate students
selected under the proposed plan should be that provided by Congress
under the so-called GI Bill of Rights, namely, tuition and other fees up to
$500 annually and, for personal support, $50 a month during the months of
each year when the scholars actually are engaged in full-time study. Benets
under the plan should not be restricted to young and recent secondary school
graduates but should be available also to those who, having worked in
business and industry, desire to obtain scientic training at the college level.
Such Scholars, if married, should receive, as also provided in the GI Bill of
Rights, $75 monthly for support when engaged in full time study.
Persons who receive benets under the plan should be selected solely on the
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basis of merit, without regard to sex, race, color, or creed.
The question whether or not nancial need should be considered as a fac-
tor in awarding benets under the plan has been the subject of much study,
consultation, and thoughtful consideration by the Committee. We conclude that
need should not be a factor in the awards, for many reasons, among which are
that, if need is to be considered, there would be required a means test of the
parents, difcult if not impossible to administer with equity; those who receive
benets under the plan would be labeled as poor; and in cases where parents
were not sympathetic to higher education their children might be cut off from
the benets of the plan.
Moreover, we consider that, apart from and in addition to the general
benets to the Nation owing from the addition to its trained ranks of such a
corps of scientic workers, there should be a denite and stated quid pro quo
from the beneciaries to the Nation. Hence, we propose that the beneciaries
under the plan should constitute a National Science Reserve, with denite and
stated obligations to the Nation for scientic work similar to the obligations of
members of the Army and Navy Reserves for service of the kind for which they
have been prepared.
We suggest that recipients of undergraduate scholarships under the pro-
posed plan be known as National Science Reserve Scholars and that recipients
of pre-doctoral fellowships be called National Science Reserve Fellows.
The awards of Science Reserve Scholarships for college training for the
bachelor’s degree should be based upon tests of ability and aptitude to ensure
that the successful candidates will be oriented to scientic and technological
pursuits. Moreover, acceptance of the Scholarships and Fellowships should be
understood by the recipients as indicating intention to engage professionally in
scientic and technological work but not as constituting an absolute obligation
to do so.
We recommend that the recipient of a National Reserve Scholarship or
Fellowship shall agree that, upon the completion of his undergraduate or grad-
uate training, he shall be enrolled in the National Science Reserve and be
liable to call into the service of the Federal Government, in connection with
scientic or technical work in time of war or of a national emergency declared
by Congress or proclaimed by the President—the conditions of employment
and the salary to be determined at that time by the President.
This call would be at the option of the Federal Government. It is contem-
plated that, in cases where men had not for years been engaged in scientic
or technical activities, the Government probably would not exercise the right
of call.
In addition to the binding obligation to serve the Government (if called) full-
time in case of war or a national emergency, the members of the reserve should
pledge themselves to render assistance to the Government in time of peace,
through service on advisory committees and on a consulting basis insofar as
they are able to do so without gross interference with their professional work
or the rendering of effective service to their employers.
171 |
We believe that the proposed National Science Reserve would be of real
service to the Nation. Evidence presented to the Committee shows that, if such
a science reserve had been in existence in 1940 and had included the best
scientists, the mobilization of scientic and technical men to assist the Army and
the Navy (directly and through OSRD), before Pearl Harbor, would have been
more rapid and effective than it was possible to make it. We believe that the
obligation undertaken by the recipients of National Science Reserve scholar-
ships and fellowships would constitute a real quid pro quo and that the Federal
Government would be well advised to invest the money involved even if the
benets to the Nation were thought of solely—which they are not—in terms of
national preparedness.
The exact extent and duration of the obligation to serve, assumed by mem-
bers of the National Science Reserve, of course, would be for the wisdom of
Congress to determine in relation to the needs of the Nation and to the obli-
gations of graduates of the Military and Naval Academies, of members of the
Army and Naval Reserves and indeed of all citizens in time of war or other
national emergency.
It is agreed by the Committee in respect to the administration of the National
Science Reserve scholarships that while the plan must be national in character,
the principle of local administration must be recognized. The American scene
which looks rather uniform from any one place has innite variety and intense
individuality at close range. This must be recognized.
Our plan for the selection of National Science Reserve Scholars is set forth
tentatively in Appendix C attached hereto. In brief it is this:
The 6,000 proposed scholarships should be assigned to the States
1
on the
basis of the number of their secondary school graduates of the previous year
as related to the national total of such graduates.
On the basis of the 1939-40 gures, State quotas of scholars would be as
stated in the following table:
1
It is intended that the proposed scholarships shall be available also to secondary school graduates
in the Territories and Insular Possessions but we have not statistics relating to them comparable to those
for the States and for the District of Columbia given on this page. Allocation of scholarships to the
Territories and Insular Possessions, of course, would decrease the State quotas.
| 172
2
Public high school graduates 1939-40 plus 1/6 of the private and parochial secondary school
enrollment, Statistics of State School Systems, 1939-40,1941-42, Biennial Survey of Education,
U. S. Ofce of Education.
173 |
It is recommended that, for the National Science Reserve Scholars, the
administrative organization, the bases of selection and the procedures be as
follows in brief:
Proposals for a “National Scientic Research Foundation” are under discus-
sion by your Committees and among the proposed powers of such a founda-
tion is power to contract with other agencies for the performance of functions
within the scope of the foundation. It would be our recommendation that the
foundation, or any similar organization which may be established, should make
arrangements for choosing Scholars and Fellows under the proposed plan
through the National Academy of Sciences, if that organization be willing to
accept the responsibility. The operation of the plan, we recommend, should be
entrusted to the Academy’s operating agency, the National Research Council.
More precise details of the National Academy’s participation and the means by
which it is suggested that operations be carried on are stated in Appendix C.
To ensure the fairest, most effective and most up-to-date methods of selec-
tion, advisory bodies expert in such matters must be set up. No existing national
science organization has shown itself to be as well-equipped for such advisory
functions—working both with nonmembers of the academy and with mem-
bers—as the National Academy has shown itself to be through the years. A
central administrative staff, chosen for ability and integrity, also must be set up.
As outlined in Appendix C, committees of selection would be set up in each
State. These committees, it is suggested, should consist of ve members, to
wit: three scientists, one of whom should serve as chairman; one member of a
college or university faculty, trained and experienced in the eld of selection
and guidance; and one representative of secondary education within the State,
usually a secondary school principal or a high school supervisor in the State
department of education. At least one of the scientists, it is suggested, should
be from agriculture or from industry within the State.
The administrative staff of the national over-all organization, in cooperation
with the advisory bodies, would prepare tests in accordance with the best
thought upon such matters. These tests would be given to all applicants through-
out the country and the test reports would be sent to the national organization
for evaluation. The national staff also would collect other relevant data and
judgments concerning each applicant and upon the basis of the tests and other
material would certify to the State Committees a number of qualied can-
didates equal to twice the State’s quota—it being provided, however, that
no applicants shall be certied who do not attain a certain minimum national
standard. The dossiers of these candidates would be sent to the State commit-
tees and those committees would have the responsibility of making the nal
selections of the Scholars up to the number of the State’s quota.
The machinery and procedures for administering these scholarships are
outlined only in general terms at this time. It is clear that valid methods for
selecting students of high ability are available in the experience of persons
and organizations which have been working on this problem for many years.
Doubtless better methods will be available in future and the methods adopted
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for the National Science Reserve scholarships should be the best available at
the time they are being used.
Concerning machinery for administration of the National Science Reserve
Fellowships, we can be brief:
They should be administered nationally as the National Research Council
Fellowships are administered. Whether or not a “National Scientic Research
Foundation” or similar body be established, we judge that the National
Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences would be the best
agency to administer the proposed National Science Reserve Fellowships; for
the National Research Council has shown that it has the know-how and integrity
to administer well a Fellowship program on a national basis. It should be noted
that we propose that the fellowships (as distinct from the scholarships) should
be awarded on a national, not a State, basis.
For the National Scientic Reserve Fellowships as for the scholarships, the
sole basis of selection should be merit, without regard to sex, race, color, creed,
or need.
It is recommended that fellowship (as distinct from scholarship) stipends
should be xed by the awarding agency on a scale up to $100 monthly, plus
payments for tuition and, other fees up to a maximum of $500 annually.
Throughout the whole plan, for both scholarships and fellowships, there should
run an insistence upon high-grade work by the holder, otherwise the fellowship
or scholarship shall be terminated by the awarding agency.
Scholarships shall be tenable for 4 academic years or the equivalent.
Fellowships shall be tenable for the duration of graduate studies leading to
the doctoral degree, up to a maximum of 3 academic years or the equivalent.
Both shall be held upon the following conditions:
(a) Continuance of good health.
(b) Continuance of good behavior.
(c) Scientic progress at the level of the best 25 percent of former students
in the scientic departments primarily concerned.
If a Scholar or Fellow drops out for failure or other reasons, his scholarship
or fellowship should lapse. Alternates should not be appointed.
The scholarships and fellowships should be valid for any college or university,
within the territory of the United States, of the holder’s choice, subject to the
advice and consent of the awarding agency concerning relevant facilities for
scientic work. With the consent of the awarding agency, a Scholar or Fellow
may change the location of his work to another college, university or technical
school which is judged to be better suited to his scientic development.
National Science Reserve Scholars should be eligible to appointment as
National Science Reserve Fellows, but appointments to the fellowships should
not be restricted to the National Science Reserve Scholars. The fellowships
should be open to competition from all pre-doctoral science students.
It is recommended that the award of the scholarships and of the fellowships
be commenced simultaneously, or approximately so, to the full annual number
in each category.
175 |
The Committee recommends that the National Agency in charge of the schol-
arships and fellowships should carry on continuing research into methods of
selection and continuing study of unfolding opportunities (and the reverse) for
employment in science and technology.
Among effective means for the discovery and development of scientic talent
in American youth are means for developing public interest in science. It will
not be sufcient, if science is to remain healthy in root and branch, merely to
develop a large number of scientists and to provide them with the nancial
support necessary for their investigations. There is also the necessity of creating
a better understanding of the role and place of science in our national life, so
that public approval and support for the future development of science will be
forthcoming.
| 176
II: PLANS FOR THE NEAR FUTURE
The preceding sections of this report propose plans for the discovery and
development of scientic talent in American youth as a long-term proposition.
There is, however, an immediate and pressing problem which is a result of the
war.
1. Decits of Scientic and Technological Personnel
Resulting From War and Selective Service Policies
The training of men in the elds of science and technology during the war
has almost completely stopped. With the exception of some 2,400 men on the
reserved list who have been taken from their studies for civilian war research,
all physically t graduate students have been taken into the armed forces.
College students majoring in the sciences have also been taken into the armed
forces. Those ready for college training in the sciences have not been permitted
to enter. Because of these curtailments, it will require at least 6 years after the
war ends before scientists trained for research will emerge from the graduate
schools in any signicant quantity. Consequently there is an accumulating de-
cit in the number of trained research scientists. That decit will continue for a
number of years.
The decits in science and technology students who, but for the war, would
have been granted bachelor’s degrees in these elds are probably already
about 150,000.
The decits, in science and technology, of doctoral degrees—that is, of young
scholars trained to the point where they are capable of carrying on original
work—have been calculated by the American Institute of Physics, as follows:
All patriotic citizens, who are well-informed on these matters, agree that, for
military security, good public health, full employment and a higher standard of
living after the war, these decits are very serious.
177 |
In a recent radio address Dr. Arthur H. Compton, Professor of Physics in the
University of Chicago and Nobel Prize winner, said:
It takes at least 6 years for a capable 18-year-old to train himself for eective scien-
tic research. Even if we should start now to resume such training, it will thus be at
least 6 years before a normal supply of young professionals will again be available to
our laboratories. Can we aord to wait any longer?
Admiral J. A. Furer, Coordinator of Research and Development, United States
Navy Department, has said:
I want to mention the great personal interest that the Secretary of War, Mr. Stim-
son, and the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Forrestal, are taking in postwar military re-
search. ere is a growing belief that important as it may be to maintain after the war
ground forces, air forces, and sea forces of a size commensurate with our national
responsibilities, it may be even more important to keep the weapons and the material
in general which we supply to these forces in step with the advances of science. Stock-
ing our arsenals with the weapons of this war is no guarantee that we can win the next
war with them. In fact, that may be the quickest way of losing the next war. It would
be wiser to maintain arsenals of only modest size whether we are speaking of ships
or guns or aircraft and to use the money saved thereby to continually replace the old
things with the new creations of the research laboratory and of American inventive
genius. Our industry should be kept alert to begin quickly the production of the vast
quantities of materials needed when war threatens; and this readiness should concern
itself especially with the new things. We hope for your aid in supporting this position
among those who are engaged in research.
Dr. Charles L. Parsons, Secretary of the American Chemical Society, wrote
President Roosevelt:
American technology has given birth to the greatest power of all time. Today, we are
drying up prosperity at its source. Public opinion of the future will view with amaze-
ment the waste of scientists in World War II * * * Our children and our grandchildren
will not forgive the loss of an entire generation of scientists.
Dr. Charles Allen Thomas, director of the Monsanto Chemical Company’s
research laboratories, declared:
Scientic suicide faces America unless immediate and adequate steps are taken to
train replacements for technical men going into the armed services.
Statements of this type are fairly representative of the thinking of informed
men in the armed services and in civilian life.
The situation, in brief, is that since the passage of the Selective Service Act in
the autumn of 1940, there have been practically no students over 18, outside
of students of medicine and engineering in Army and Navy programs, and a
few 4-F’s, who have followed an integrated scientic program in the United
States. Neither our allies nor, so far as is known, our enemies have permitted
any such condition to develop; but on the contrary have maintained or
| 178
increased national programs for the training of scientists and technologists. It
takes at least 6 years for a capable 18-year-old person to train himself for
effective scientic research. Having regard to this long period of training and
on the basis of prewar gures showing both the number of students of physical
science in graduate schools and of doctoral degrees then conferred, the
accumulating decit of scientists has been calculated, with the results already
presented. That these decits are a serious matter for the welfare of the Nation
be the condition peace or war, is agreed. What are the feasible remedies?
Proposals to change the policy of draft boards to the end that students of
science and technology shall not be drafted are too late. The damage has
been done: these students already are in the Army and Navy, cut off from inte-
grated scientic and technological training. Proposals for their early discharge
from the Army and Navy are not feasible. The Army has made its plans for the
discharge of personnel as soon as feasible in accordance with a rating scale
conceded to be fair and reasonable from the standpoint of the individual GI—
however it may disregard the risk to the Nation’s scientic strength. Plans for the
discovery and development of scientic talent in American youth who are in the
Army and Navy must, to be practicable and reasonable, take account of the
existing situation and of plans for demobilization already adopted.
Our proposals, in the situation as we nd it, are these:
2. Plans for Integrated Scientic Training for Soldiers and Sailors
There should be prepared now lists of promising students of science and
technology—students who before and after their entry into the armed services
have shown high ability in these elds. Arrangements should be made now with
the Army and the Navy whereby, now that it is militarily feasible, these talented
students should be ordered to duty in the United States for fully independent,
integrated scientic study of a grade available to civilians in peace times.
This should be adopted as the considered policy of the armed services and no
desire of a commanding ofcer to retain a potential scientist for his usefulness
on the spot should be allowed to interfere with the operation of the policy.
It is recommended that this plan be carried out, not in terms of a stated
number of young scientists, but rather that, now, centers of science and tech-
nology in the United States should be combed for information concerning those
students who, prior to the war, had given evidence of high talent for science
and technology; and that, as soon as militarily possible, these students by name,
should be ordered to duty as students. Probably no more than 100,000 of the
10,000,000 men in the Army and Navy would be involved and now, following
VE-day, that number could not be militarily signicant. Likewise, we recommend
that the armed services comb their records for men who, during the war, have
given evidence of high talent for science and technology, and that they also be
included in this plan.
It is recommended that the plan be not restricted to students at any particular
level of studies, but rather that science students who have shown their abilities
179 |
at all levels of studies, from college freshman to post-doctoral students, be
included. It is also specically recommended that former teachers of science in
the armed forces be included in this plan.
The machinery for the discovery of the students under this plan, we venture to
suggest, could best be set up within the Research Board for National Security.
Under this proposed plan, be it noted, there would be no disruption of plans
already made for the discharge of soldiers from the Army; while students,
their discharges would occur in accordance with the already established rating
scale. It would not do to propose that such a plan should be done on a volunteer
basis—that is, that personnel of the Army and Navy should request orders to
duty as students.
It would not do because many of the best of them probably would elect to
remain in the armed services, inspired by feelings that they would not wish to
be put in the position of seeming to shirk their full patriotic duty.
Our recommendation is emphasized in the cases of men whose scientic train-
ing was well started before their induction, the more so the further that training
had advanced. It is important to remember that the induction of many students
in the critical science and technological elds was delayed and that under actu-
al demobilizing plans they will consequently be among the last to return to civil
life. A way must be found to insure the quick resumption of their training, com-
posing, as they do, the recognized “premium crop” of science and technology.
The future of our country in peace and war depends on that premium crop.
3. The Importance of Quality of Instruction in “Army
Universities” Abroad
The Army has made plans for setting up in foreign countries, when and where
the military situation permits, courses of study for soldiers, including courses in
science and technology. These plans are all to the good. The further important
thing to ensure is that the courses shall be the best and most up-to-date that can
be given, and shall include adequate laboratory work. You stated the issue in
your letter of November 19, 1944, to General Frederick II. Osborn:
ere have been in this country, by reason of war research, advances which will
gradually permeate our entire industrial, scientic, and technical structure. Are the
metallurgists now in the Army to return and nd that they have studied alloys that are
out-of-date? Are mechanical engineers to nd that advanced thinking on gas turbines
has outpaced those who have been at the front, and the new knowledge has not been
extended to them? Are the large number of medical men in the eld to have no direct
contact until they return with those who have made more advance in medical research
in the last few years than usually occurs in a decade?
It must be ensured that these questions can be answered in the negative.
The Armed Forces Institute must be prepared with instruction that is wholly
up-to-date in its higher levels; but the fact of the matter remains that since the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, the
| 180
Ryerson Laboratory of the University of Chicago, and others, cannot be moved
abroad, the plan for Army universities must be supplemented by what we have
suggested in our rst proposal above.
The Committee emphasizes that for men of scientic promise and ability
there is special need that the Armed Forces Institute have its instruction modern,
up-to-date, and of the best effectiveness. It is clear that there is a vast oppor-
tunity in this program for strengthening the technical work of the country by
integrating the training given to soldiers possessing technical prociencies with
problems of modern industry and technology, especially for men who do not
plan to go on to advanced scientic training. So far as possible, the universities
and technical schools of the country doubtless would stand ready to cooperate
with the Armed Forces Institute along these lines, if requested by the Army, by
sending overseas instructors in technical and scientic subjects—instructors, who,
fresh from war research, would be up-to-date. Technical branches of business
and industry might well do the same.
4. The Place of the GI Bill of Rights in Ameliorating Scientic
and Technological Decits
Public Law 346, Seventy-eighth Congress, commonly known as the GI Bill
of Rights, provides for the education of veterans of this war under certain
conditions, at the expense of the Federal Government. Among the returning
soldiers and sailors will be many with marked scientic talent which should
be developed through further education, for the national good. However, the
1 year of education which the law provides for essentially all veterans clearly
will not be enough to train a scientist nor in most instances to complete train-
ing begun prior to entry into the armed forces. The law makes the amount of
education beyond 1 year at Government expense depend on length of service
rather than on ability to prot from the education. It would seem to us that our
mandate to set up an effective plan for discovering and developing scientic
talent must take into account the scientic potentialities among the 10,000,000
young Americans now in the armed forces. Accordingly, it is recommended that:
(a) a special advisory committee of scientists be appointed to assist the ad-
ministrators of the law to discover and direct the counseling of those veterans
who have marked scientic talent;
(b) an adequate advising and counseling service be established in each
State or region; and
(c) a complete scientic education at Government expense be provided
for a group selected on the basis of the educational record of the rst year
(assured to all veterans) and such other tests as may be necessary—the length
of this education to be determined, on the merits of each case, by the special
advisory committee.
Under the suggested plans interested veterans while studying science for the
rst year, during which as veterans they are entitled to support from the Feder-
al Government, would submit their records and take certain tests. Outstanding
181 |
men and women of scientic talent would be selected—and we recommend a
selective process as rigorous as that provided under our main plan—and be
provided with funds at the rate prevailing in the GI Bill of Rights for completion
of college courses in science, and also for graduate training to those possessing
very high abilities.
We are informed that to some extent the proposals herein outlined could be
put into effect under the present law by administrative action, and we venture
to recommend such action to the extent allowable. We believe, however, that it
would be advisable, in addition, to have new legislation authorizing the admin-
istrators of the law to select, as an estimate, possibly 5,000 veterans of each
age group (i. e., those born in a given calendar year) for scientic education at
the expense of the Federal Government (at the rates specied in present laws)
irrespective of the length of their military service and up to a total of 6 years.
Here, we think it sounder to recommend that standards of scientic and tech-
nological ability be the limiting factors, rather than to recommend that denite
numbers of veterans be selected for training. In dealing with the veterans, for
whom we think the best possible training should be offered, the only sound way
for the administrators of the law to proceed is qualitatively, on the basis of
assisting those who can maintain the highest standards, rather than on the basis
of any quantitative estimates or xed quotas.
It is not necessary to stress further that the proper handling of the reservoir
of scientic talent now in the armed forces is of the rst importance from the
point of view of continuity in future supply of scientists. Not all of the scientic
talent in the age groups here considered (those born in the years 1921 to
1928, roughly) is to be found in the armed forces, because some of the trained
scientists among them have been kept at civilian tasks of utmost urgency for
the war effort. However, such assignment to civilian status through Selective
Service mechanism has been far from effective in the past year or two, and
for those born later than 1924 (now 21 years of age or less), practically no
exemptions from military service (except by reason of physical disability) have
been allowed. Each year that the 18-year olds are called up for service in
the armed forces a large portion of the potential scientic talent of that age
group is cut off from adequate training. Among these younger men are those
who will be the most promising candidates for further scientic education when
demobilized; yet, because, under the provisions of the present law, the length
of education depends on length of service, it will be those young men who can
have the least Government assistance. Amendment of the law to rectify this
situation, at least insofar as future scientists are concerned, seems to us essential
for the safety and continued prosperity of the Nation.
The relation of the proposed extensions of the provisions of the GI Bill of
Rights to the long-term plan envisaged earlier in this report for the National
Science Reserve is obvious. Those educated in science under the veterans’ law
for a period prolonged beyond the period to which as veterans they would be
entitled should likewise be members of the National Science Reserve. The rela-
tion of the proposed extensions to our proposals for ordering members of the
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armed forces to duty as students likewise is obvious. That group would remain
in the armed services only as long as, under actual plans for demobilization,
they are required to remain. Thereafter, they would take up the educational
benets to which they will be entitled under the GI Bill of Rights, and under, we
trust, our proposed extensions of benets to the specially talented among them.
5. Duties of Schools, Colleges, Universities and Technical
Schools to Returning Veterans
However, this is a problem not only for the Federal Government to solve, but
also is one requiring that the States and the colleges, universities, and technical
schools take leadership. We say emphatically to the colleges, and universi-
ties and technical schools that it is up to them to be extremely exible and
broad-minded in handling the returning veteran. Unless they are willing and
able to devise ways and means of developing in science those able veterans
who do not meet the usual formal requirements, they will lose some of the best
talent in the country. In particular, they must devise means of building on the
basis of the very partial but highly detailed technical training that many of
these men have received in service. Some of this large group of men, perhaps
millions, who have learned about machines and electrical equipment can be
further developed, for the well-being of the country, through special institutions
or vocational schools. Moreover, from this group can be culled rst-rate scientif-
ic talent, provided that the universities and technical schools do what they ought
to do. The rigidity of academic institutions must not be permitted to drive away
from training talented veterans.
We recognize a dilemma here: the scientic professions, including medicine
and indeed all the learned professions as well, nowadays require, because
of the complexities and vast extent of modern knowledge, both breadth and
intensity in preparation. On the other hand, the generation with which we are
concerned has already lost up to 5 years of educational time, and if the most
ambitious among them are not to be repelled, ways must be found to shorten
the period required for them to complete their formal education. It is a condi-
tion, not a theory, that confronts us and our judgment is that the Nation will lose
much if our educational institutions do not recognize that many veterans will
feel the need for making up lost time, and help them make it up. Otherwise, we
are sure, a signicant quantity of them will be lost to higher education.
Further, there is the problem of veterans needing to complete their second-
ary school training. Many of them, interested in completing their interrupted
high school programs, will be deterred from doing so because, by reason of
their greater age and maturity, they will be reluctant to go back to regular
school classes with adolescents, to submit to the usual high school routines and
requirements, and otherwise to live and associate with such youngsters. This
situation must be met. A similar problem confronts many youths employed in
war industries.
Provision for these “over-age” high school students is very necessary in
183 |
postwar educational programs, especially for those who are not primarily
concerned with vocational training, which apparently will be amply provided
under present and proposed programs. Special provisions, such as those stated
by the Regents of the State of New York, must be put into effect to make it
attractive for able and promising youth to complete high school and thereby
become eligible for college under one or more of the scholarship plans that will
be available for talented high school graduates. Otherwise they will be lost to
science and to higher education, generally.
In considering plans and programs for discovering and developing scientic
talent in American youth, the needs of these particular groups must not be over-
looked since they will include some of the potential leaders of the future, espe-
cially among the veterans who will have had war experience that has helped
them to mature and develop. They must not be penalized for their priceless
advantage, not now recognized in our regular educational arrangements.
The “Regents’ Plan for Postwar Education in the State of New York” makes
the following statement on this subject:
e men and women demobilized from the armed forces, together with workers of
like age released from war industries, will include many thousands of persons whose
educational career was interrupted below high school graduation. e military per-
sonnel will probably be granted scholarships large enough to take care of personal
expenses. If oered a exible program at the secondary level, with appropriate allow-
ances for military experience and for work in the Armed Forces Institute, many of
these veterans would t into classroom, laboratory, and shop instruction. Others will
be older and perhaps averse to receiving regular instruction in company with young
pupils.
School authorities should make an inventory of all building, sta, and curriculum
facilities, for the purpose of developing special opportunities for returning veterans
and workers. In large cities it may be helpful to set aside a school building to house a
special War Service School devoted to high school work for young persons returning
from the military service and the war industries. e courses could be accelerated
and the calendar fully utilized in order to permit a saving of time. ese schools,
like others, would grant credit for work completed in the Armed Forces Institute.
In smaller cities War Service Schools at the secondary level could be established on a
regional basis.
We commend the Regents’ plan to educators throughout the Nation.
We commend also the plan whereby men and women in the armed forces
may complete academic requirements, while in the armed forces, for gradua-
tion from secondary schools. Such educational achievement is possible through
work in the service schools, the off-duty educational program, and the educa-
tional opportunities of the United States Armed Forces Institute. For men and
women who lack a substantial proportion of the requirements for high school
graduation, the Army’s General Educational Development Tests are helpful in
determining the grade level at which service personnel should properly re-
sume their civilian education. The machinery to this end is complete and the
procedure is as follows: A complete educational record established while in the
| 184
service, should be recorded on the ofcial form USAFI No. 47 and returned by
the man or woman in the armed forces to the secondary school for evaluation
and the award of credit toward graduation. This will facilitate a continuance
of education in college of qualied persons. Veterans of World War II who do
not le a USAFI credit application form before leaving the service should use
a certied copy of their separation record as evidence of in-service training.
6. Importance of Problem of Scientic Training of Men in
Armed Forces
The adequate handling of the education of the scientic and technologi-
cal talent now under arms will be a primary test of the effectiveness of the
Government in meeting the whole problem to which we have been asked to
direct our attention.
The future scientic and technical leaders in the United States are now largely
in military service. Unless exceptional steps are taken to recruit and train talent
from the armed service at or before the close of the war, the future will nd
this country seriously handicapped for scientic and technological leadership.
In peace or war, the handicap might prove fatal to our standards of living and
to our way of life.
185 |
| 186
APPENDIX A
THE EDUCATIONAL PYRAMID: STUDIES
CONCERNING ABLE STUDENTS
LOST TO HIGHER EDUCATION
To be effective, a plan for discovering and developing scientic talent in
American youth must be built upon the country’s existing educational structure
and be consonant with its current operations. Such a plan must recognize the
undoubted fact that there is not an unlimited number of individuals of high
ability and must ensure that the relatively few with creative capacity in science
will be found early and be helped and encouraged to go on through the years
of study required to complete professional and research training.
An over-all picture of the child and youth population and of the enrollments
in educational institutions is necessary for an understanding of the dimensions
of the problem presented by the proposed plan to discover and train young
persons of potential scientic ability. Such a picture follows:
The census of 1940 reported the following gures of population under 20
years of age:
It will be noted that there are fewer children in the early ages than in later
childhood or in the adolescent years. These gures become even more signi-
cant in the light of the changes which occurred between 1930 and 1940:
(a) The number of children under 5 years of age decreased, from 1930 to
1940, by some 900,000.
(b) The number of children of ages from 5 to 9 years decreased, from 1930
to 1940, by some 1,900,000.
It is estimated that by 1950 there will be a decrease of some 2 million,
and possibly more, in the age group 10 to 19 years. Since the current larger
number of babies born during the war will not reach adolescence for another
10 years at least, there will be fewer boys and girls reaching high school and
college ages in the next 7 to 10 years.
187 |
The following gures from the 1940 census show the age and school atten-
dance of the Nation’s 46 million boys and girls and youth:
The percentage gures by age groups showing school attendance during
1940 are:
Percent attending school in each age group
It will be observed that the percentage of school attendance rises to age
13 when boys and girls approach the end of the elementary school and junior
high school and likewise when employment in many States becomes legal; but
that thereafter it declines. From age 17 on, the decline in attendance is rapid,
to the 5.1 percent in the years 21 to 24 of college and university attendance.
| 188
The following gures show the educational attainments of the population 25
years old and over in the year 1940:
It will be noted that about half of the population 25 years of age and over
had completed approximately 8½ grades but that some 13.7 percent had
had less than a fth-grade education.
The foregoing gures of school attendance collected in the 1940 census
may be compared with the enrollments by grades in the public schools of the
country as tabulated by the United States Ofce of Education. Again it will be
noted that there is a marked decline after the seventh grade and a progressive
diminution through the 4 years of high school:
—“Statistics of State School Systems, 1939-40 and 1941-42.” Biennial
Surveys of Education, 1938-40, 1940-42. (Table III, p. 9).
1
Not including persons for whom school years completed were not reported.
189 |
In the year 1941-42 there was a decrease in high school enrollments of
about 189,000, distributed as follows:
First year of high school . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84,000
Second year .................................... 61,000
Third year ...................................... 35,000
Fourth year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,000
Recent reports indicate a larger decrease in high school attendance for the
years 1942-43, with indications that some 160,000 boys and some 50,000
girls had left high school. Efforts to reduce the number of students leaving high
school and to persuade others to return, have apparently checked this decline
in high school enrollments in 1944-45.
There is, as these gures indicate, a progressive reduction in the number of
students at each successively higher level of education. Thus, the total student
body may be compared to a pyramid with a broad base of elementary pupils
sloping upwards to the apex of professional and graduate students.
Various detailed studies of how and when students drop out along the
educational sequence have been made which throw light upon the size of and
occasion for withdrawals, and the reasons therefor.
Starting with 1,000 pupils enrolled in the fth grade (gures for earlier
grades are confusing because of pupil retardations), the following gures show
the extent to which they are reduced in each successive year:
Elementary school:
Fifth grade, 1930-31 .......................... 1,000
Sixth grade .................................. 943
Seventh grade ................................ 872
Eighth grade ................................. 824
High School:
First year .................................... 770
Second year.................................. 652
Third year.................................... 529
Fourth year................................... 463
Graduates, 1938.............................. 417
College:
First year .................................... 146
Graduate, 1942 .............................. 72
[Statistical Summary of Education, 1939-40 (p. 39)]
| 190
In prewar years, of these 72 college graduates, only a few went on to
master’s degrees and an even smaller number received doctorates.
The foregoing data reveal the gross declines measured in terms of student
enrollments. More detailed and individualized studies (cited later) of those
who drop out of high school or who fail to go on to college show that there is a
signicantly large proportion of students of ability, of high level of intelligence,
who do not go to college because of lack of funds. In addition it is believed
that there are many able, talented, students, whose numbers are difcult to
estimate accurately because only a few sample studies have been made, who
do not continue their education because schools are inadequate or inaccessible.
Among those who do enter college there is a progressive decrease in each
succeeding college year. A study conducted by the United States Ofce of
Education on “College Student Mortality” (Bulletin 1937, No. 11) found that in
1936-37 the percentage of students leaving each year was as follows:
Percent
In the freshman year.............................. 33.8
In the sophomore year ............................ 16.7
In the junior year................................. 7.7
In the Senior year ................................ 3.9
In short, of every 100 students who entered the university in the rst year,
some 62 withdrew or left before graduation. The gure 62 is, however, a
gross gure since it includes 45 students who left to enter other institutions (e.g.,
students who left after 2 years to enter professional school) or who returned
later to the same or went to other institutions of the same level. The reasons for
withdrawing or leaving were as follows:
Percentages
18.4 were dismissed for failure in work.
12.4 because of nancial difculties.
12.2 miscellaneous reasons.
6.1 lack of interest.
3.4 sickness.
1.1 disciplinary causes.
0.8 needed at home.
0.6 death.
45.0 unknown.
Those with the lowest academic marks had the highest percentage of with-
drawals and those with the highest academic marks had the lowest percent-
age of withdrawals. But it is to be noted that 12.4 percent, or about one in
eight, withdrew because of nancial difculties, indicating that economic need,
personally or of the family, was responsible for their leaving college before
graduation.
As the foregoing material indicates, students drop out of school in large
191 |
numbers between the ages of 13 and 14 and likewise during the high school
years. Among those who thus drop out there is a signicant proportion who
have the capacity for further education but who do not continue their schooling.
It appears that this premature leaving from high school (and failure to go on
to college) arises from—
Failure to provide educational programs suited to different students who
therefore become bored and drop out.
Active recruitment by business and industry of promising youth who
for their own good and the national interest should be encouraged to
continue their education.
Lack of provision for assisting needy students in high school who must take
jobs to help support themselves or their families.
The responsibility for improving these conditions is primarily upon the local
community and business interests and the State governments, although it must
be recognized that, in some sections of the country, resources are lacking to
provide adequate high schools.
A number of recent studies have shown that among high school graduates
there are many who have the intelligence and ability for college but who do
not go to college for a variety of reasons, chiey economic and geographic.
Excerpts from these studies are given at the end of this section as evidence
of the present failure to provide adequately for the continued education of
promising American youth.
In the light of the studies made, having regard to the facts of the educational
pyramid, it clearly is essential to provide for the early schooling of more able
students in order that a large enough group will survive to become a larger
quota of high-ability students at the apex of the pyramid. No matter how
capable and gifted boys and girls may be, if they do not have opportunities to
complete elementary and high school, they cannot go on to college and thence
to graduate school for research training.
To increase this small group of exceptionally able men and women it is nec-
essary to enlarge the number of able students who go to college. This involves
more and better high schools, with provisions for helping capable students in
the high schools (primarily a responsibility of every local community) and op-
portunities for more capable, promising high school students to go to college.
Any other practice constitutes an indefensible and wasteful utilization of higher
education and neglect of our human resources.
Following are summaries of studies pertinent to our inquiry concerning able
students lost to higher education:
The Carnegie Foundation carried out a thorough investigation into the
relationships and mutual responsibilities of the high schools and colleges of
Pennsylvania. One of the purposes of the study was to answer the question:
Who shall go to college?
| 192
The procedure of the study involved extensive testing of high school seniors
and college students, study of records, and study of progress made in college.
Comparisons were then made between college and non-college groups and
between various college groups.
The results of this study showed that the group of high school graduates who
went to work included many fully as able to obtain high test scores as any
pupils who went directly to college. Pennsylvania colleges of arts alone took
nearly 4,000 of the high school group tested in 1928. The colleges accepted
nearly 1,000 with tests scores below the average of the group who did not go
to college and they failed to enroll 3,000 with better average scores than the
4,000 they did admit. Although the college group exhibited a test score aver-
age superior to that of the non-college group, it did not include the many able
and often brilliant high school graduates who could not pay the college bills.
—The Student and His Knowledge, by W. S. Learned and Ben D. Wood.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; Bulletin 29, 1938.
In Minnesota a study was made of students who graduated from high school
in 1938 to see what they were doing a year later. About 22,000 young people
were included in this study which showed the following:
“What were youth doing a year following graduation? Minnesota high school
graduates of June 1938, fall into three broad groups of approximately equal
numbers. One-third found full-time employment within a year following gradu-
ation. Another third continued their training in either collegiate or preparatory
schools. The third group was made up of graduates who secured part-time
employment only, of the unemployed, and of those graduates for whom princi-
pals were unable to supply information.
“Of the 22,306 young people who nished high school in June 1938, 35
percent were employed full time and 7 percent had secured part-time employ-
ment in April 1939; 12 percent were unemployed; 23 percent were enrolled in
colleges or universities, and an additional 12 percent were receiving training in
other kinds of schools—trade schools, commercial colleges, schools of nursing,
high schools as postgraduates. High school principals were unable to report the
whereabouts of 11 percent.
“Was there a relationship between scholastic achievement in high school and
employment or further training for Minnesota high school graduates? When the
relationship of scholastic success in high school to the post-high school status
of the graduates of June 1938 was studied, these three trends were found:
As one goes down the ability scale (1) the percentage of graduates employed
increased, (2) the percentage of unemployed graduates also increased, and
(3) the percentage of graduates who continued their training beyond high
school decreased. When, however, only those graduates who presumably
were in the labor market (not continuing their education) were considered, high
school success bore little relation to employment and unemployment.
193 |
“Many able graduates, however, were not attending college. Considerably
less than half of the high school graduates who ranked in the upper 30 percent
of their high school classes were enrolled in college. More than 15 percent of
these able graduates who did not continue their training were unemployed.
High marks in school are doubtless desirable, but they were not the open
sesame to college halls or employment for those graduates” (p. 35).
For every (high school) graduate who ranked in the upper 10 percent of his
high school class and entered college, another graduate who also ranked in the
upper 10 percent did not enter college.
For every graduate who ranked in the upper 30 percent of his class and
entered college, two graduates who ranked in the upper 30 percent did not
enter college.
“Was there a relationship between socio-economic status as indicated by the
fathers’ occupations and the status of Minnesota young people a year following
their graduation? From the professional end of the occupational scale to the
unskilled labor end, (1) employment increased, (2) unemployment increased,
and (3) the proportions of graduates continuing their training decreased. From
this study of the Minnesota high school graduate of June 1938, it would seem
that the probability of college attendance for a graduate who is the son or
daughter of a father employed in a professional or managerial group is sever-
al times greater than that for the son or daughter of a farmer or of an unskilled
laborer. Among the June 1938 graduates, children of the unemployed were
themselves unemployed in greater proportion than children of fathers at work”
(p. 36).
Many able high school graduates were not enrolled for further education.
“It is no longer safe to assume—if it ever was—that the most intelligent high
school graduates go to college. It is of fundamental importance for all the
people of the State to know how generally young people who would make the
best teachers, lawyers, accountants, doctors, engineers, and statesmen are able
to attend colleges and universities. It has been assumed traditionally that the
most capable high school graduates go to college. It is suggested by this study,
however, that geography and the economic resources of the family are per-
haps as closely related to college attendance as is intellectual tness” (p. 39).
—“What Happens to High School Graduates?” by G. Lester Anderson and
T. J. Berning. Studies in Higher Education. Biennial Report of the Committee on
Educational Research 1938-40. University of Minnesota, 1941.
“It is possible to investigate the availability of educational opportunity * * *
in various parts of the country. For example, a study of youth in Pennsylva-
nia was conducted about a decade ago by the State Department of Public
Instruction and the American Youth Commission. The socio-economic status and
educational history were ascertained for a group of 910 pupils with intelli-
gence quotients of 110 or above. It is generally assumed that pupils with intel-
| 194
ligence quotients above 110 are good college material. This group of superior
pupils was divided into two subgroups on the basis of socio-economic status. Of
the upper socio-economic group, 93 percent graduated from high school and
57 percent attended college. Of the lower socio-economic group, 72 percent
graduated from high school and 13 percent attended college. Further study
of the data in Table II will show even more clearly that the group with
below-average socio-economic status had relatively less educational opportu-
nity than the group with above-average socio-economic status, although both
groups were about equal in intellectual ability” (p. 51).
“A similar conclusion must be drawn from a study made by Helen B. Goetsch
on 1,023 able students who graduated from Milwaukee high schools in 1937
and 1938. These students all had I. Q.’s of 117 or above. The income of their
parents is directly related to college attendance, as is shown in Table III. The
higher the parents’ income, the greater is the proportion who went to college”
(p. 52).
TABLE II:
RELATION OF INTELLIGENCE TO EDUCATIONAL
OPPORTUNITY
[Record of students with intelligence quotients of 110 or above]
195 |
TABLE III
RELATION OF PARENTAL INCOME TO
FULL -TIME COLLEGE ATTENDANCE OF SUPERIOR
MILWAUKEE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES
Parental income Percent in college
full time
$8,000+ .........................................100.0
$5,000–$7,999 ................................... 92.0
$3,000–$4,999 ................................... 72.9
$2,000–$2,999 ................................... 44.4
$1,500–$1,999 ................................... 28.9
$1,000–$1,499 ................................... 25.5
$500–$999 ...................................... 26.8
Under $500 ...................................... 20.4
“We see what actually happens if we consider the 191 students who were
graduates of the Old City High School over a 5-year period. This number
includes all the white high school graduates except those who attended private
schools. Table IV shows what happened to these people after graduation and
what the social make-up of the group was” (p. 59).
TABLE IV:
COLLEGE ATTENDANCE OF HIGH SCHOOL
GRADUATES IN OLD CITY
| 196
“The Hometown school has a ne building and an undifferentiated curriculum
so that the same high school education is available to all the children, whether
they have college ambitions or not. In Hometown, 80 percent of the boys and
girls of high school age attend high school. Why do they go? What do they and
their parents expect from a high school education?
“First of all, no upper-upper class family has children in high school. The
lower-uppers and upper-middles account for about the same proportions of
pupils as one would expect from their proportions in the total population. The
lower-middles contribute less than one would expect and the upper-lower and
lower-lower contribute more, probably because the lower-class people have
larger families and, therefore, more prospective pupils.
“Of all high school students classied as lower-upper or upper-middle, 88
percent will go on to college while only 12 percent of those in the three bottom
classes expect to go to college. Of the total high-school pupils, 20 percent
are preparing to go to college and 80 percent were denitely not going to
college” (p. 66).
“The generalization that different curricula and types of institutions are
adapted to different statuses is illustrated by Goetsch’s study. She found that
the hierarchy of family income was reected in a hierarchy of courses pursued
by students in higher institutions, as shown in Table VI” (p. 72).
TABLE VI:
PARENTAL INCOME AND COLLEGE COURSES
—Who Shall Be Educated: The Challenge of Unequal Opportunities, by
W. Lloyd Warner, Robert J. Havighurst, Martin B. Loeb. Harper & Bros., New
York City, 1944.
“The ndings of this study, in harmony with the ndings of other studies, show
that approximately as many of the ablest high school graduates are out of
college as are in college.
“On the basis of the sample (of 1,754 cases), the upper quarter of the
State’s 16,000 high school graduates would contain a minimum of 4,000 of the
ablest individuals, the type of students who really do well in college. Forty-nine
197 |
percent of 4,000 is 1,960 individuals with high potential college ability, who
for some reason or reasons, did not enroll in college. From the point of view
of the colleges, as well as of the individuals and of society, the loss in human
resources indicated in these data is highly signicant.
“Table 8 shows that for every four able boys in the upper quarter, there were
six able girls. Table 11 shows that the ratio of able boys to able girls in the
upper quarter enrolled in college was 6 to 4.5. Thus, it is clear that the greatest
social and personal loss of human resources comes in the ranks of able girls in
the upper quarter” (pp. 37-38).
—“The Utilization of Potential College Ability Found in June 1940, Graduates
of Kentucky High Schools,” by Horace Leonard Davis. Bulletin of the Bureau of
School Service, College of Education, University of Kentucky. Vol. XV. No. 1.
Sept. 1942.
“Location of brightest seniors. When we determine which economic group
furnished the largest percentage of seniors possessing the higher grades of
intelligence we secure different results. All economic groups except the highest
salaried group are represented in the highest one percentile class. Table XLII
shows the percentage of students belonging to each economic group whose
mental test score gave them a rating of A+ or A, the highest grades made
on the tests, also the percentage making a mental rating of E– or F, the lowest
grades of intelligence possessed by our total or standard group. Groups 2, 3
and 4, where the income varied from $1,000 to $4,500, have the largest per-
centage of seniors rated A+ and groups 1 and 5 the smallest. Groups 3 and 4
are superior to group 2 in the percentage of students rated A+ or A.
“From a study of our distribution tables it appears that neither group 1 nor
group 5 contain students who score above 180 points in the tests. But seniors
possessing this grade of ability were found in each of the other economic
groups. The brightest students belong to group 4, the annual income of whose
parents ranged from $1,000 to $2,000. Eight students belonging to the group,
6 boys and 2 girls, made scores over 185. And 5 students in our lowest eco-
nomic group (annual income $500 to $1,000) made scores ranging from 175
to 180, while, there was but a single student in our highest salaried group who
made a score above 175 points” (Page 213).
| 198
PERCENT OF STUDENTS IN EACH ECONOMIC GROUP
POSSESSING HIGHEST OR LOWEST GRADES OF ABILITY
“If we count all students whose test scores gave them a mental rating of A+,
A or B, these various economic groups arrange themselves: Group 3 (income
$2,000 to $3,000) comes rst; group 2 (annual income of $3,000 to $4,500)
comes second; group 4 (annual income of $1,000 to $2,000) ranks third; while
the highest and lowest salaried groups come last” (Page 214).
“If we compare the records made on our tests by the group of seniors rep-
resenting the richest and the poorest homes, we nd that there are proportion-
ally more children possessing the highest grades of mental ability among the
poorest class than among the wealthiest class, and more individuals with high
average grades of intelligence among the wealthier than among the poorer
group. The wealthiest group ranks high on central tendency. The poorest sala-
ried group ranks low on central tendency and also has a larger percentage of
individuals possessing the lower grades of mental ability. But there are individ-
uals is this class who obtain the highest intelligence rating made by high school
seniors” (Page 216).
“Brightest seniors not going to college. It is still more signicant that so many
of this most superior group of high school seniors will not attend college, while
those with the most inferior grades of intelligence are planning to attend, in
ever increasing numbers. Twenty-ve percent of the brightest seniors found in
the entire State said they were not planning to attend college at all, while 65
to 70 percent of the dullest seniors had denitely decided to go to college,
most of them having already selected the college they expected to attend”
(Page298).
—The Intelligence of High School Seniors, by William F. Book. The Macmillan
Company, New York, 1928.
199 |
| 200
APPENDIX B
DATA CONCERNING TRAINING OF PERSONNEL
FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The relatively small number of able students who graduate from college must
be shared by the various professional schools and by the graduate schools
which train for research in the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the arts
and humanities.
From compilations made by the American Association of Collegiate Regis-
trars, the following gures show the distribution of undergraduate degrees in
1941 among broad academic and professional elds:
Social sciences................................... 17,947
Social science and allied elds of law,
business administration, education, divinity,
library training, journalism, etc. ................... 70,829
Mathematics and physical sciences................... 6,440
Mathematics, physical science and allied elds of
engineering, mining, chemistry, etc. ................ 25,044
Biological sciences................................ 5,812
Biological sciences and allied elds of medicine,
nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, agriculture, forestry,
home economics, etc. ........................... 28,490
In the elds of research these fall into broad groups, as follows:
Social science ................................... 17,947
Natural science .................................. 16,050
Natural science and technology ..................... 53,534
201 |
A compilation of Ph. D. degrees in the 6 years before the war shows the fol-
lowing distribution among the physical, earth, biological and medical sciences,
psychology, public health, and anthropology:
| 202
It will be noted that the physical sciences provided about 800 or almost half
of the total number of doctor’s degrees in science, of which, in turn, about one-
half were, in chemistry. The earth sciences provided an additional 60 degrees.
After the physical sciences the largest number of degrees were in the life
sciences, with about 800 degrees distributed among the several divisions as
follows:
Medical sciences .................................. 300
Biology ......................................... 307
Agriculture....................................... 52
Psychology ...................................... 114
Anthropology .................................... 11
784
The National Roster made an inventory of graduate students in non-profes-
sional and non-vocational schools and departments, as of December 1942,
which showed the number then enrolled in the graduate schools, divided into
disciplines as follows:
Physical sciences .................................. 5,698
Chemistry .............................. 3,045
Geology .............................. 182
Mathematics ........................... 545
Meteorology ........................... 918
Physics (electronic) ....................... 227
Physics (non-electronic) ................... 680
Other physical sciences ................... 101
Biology ......................................... 1,120
Social sciences.................................... 3,857
Economics .............................. 1,034
Geography ............................ 79
History ................................ 812
Psychology ............................. 543
Other social studies ...................... 1,389
Languages, literature, ne arts, and music .............. 2,157
Other major elds................................. 486
13,318
203 |
It will be noted that there were about 5,700 graduate students in physical
science and some 1,100 in biology at the time of this report.
In terms of the educational pyramid, the total number of graduate students
shown above in all branches of non-professional and non-vocational graduate
study form but a small proportion of the total college enrollments of approx-
imately 1,400,000 in 1939-40. Moreover, the 1,649 who received Ph. D.
degrees in the sciences listed above were about one-half of the total number
of all Ph. D. degrees (about 3,300 in 1939-40).
Special studies have been made by the Institute of Physics on the effect of
war upon the training of research personnel in the graduate schools. These
indicate that there is a cumulative decit in the number of students receiving
Ph. D. degrees, in the several physical sciences and engineering, which will
continue and grow until several years after the war:
Proposals for enlarging the number of students entering the graduate
schools to be trained for research must be considered in relation
to the probable demand for trained research workers as expressed
in available jobs. Thus, necessary as it is to enlarge the number of
graduate students in order to produce the relatively few research
students of exceptional ability, the danger of an over supply of trained
research personnel must be kept constantly in mind. The unhappy plight of
scholars in Europe after the last war when there was a surplus should not be
forgotten.
Likewise proposals for recruiting more college students into the physical
and biological sciences and enlisting more graduate students for training in
research in the physical and biological sciences should be viewed in the light
of the over-all needs of the country and of the requirements in other elds of
research and in the several professions. If too many of the limited number of
high quality students are absorbed by elds of scientic research, research
in the social sciences and in the arts and humanities may be jeopardized with
probably unfavorable reactions upon scientic research.
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APPENDIX C
SUGGESTED ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION,
BASES OF SELECTION, SCHEDULE AND
PROCEDURES
I. Administrative Organization
Proposals for a National Scientic Research Foundation are under discussion,
such a foundation to be charged with responsibility for the administration of
the several national scientic programs being recommended by the committees
advising Dr. Bush. Among the suggested powers of such a foundation is power
to make contracts with other agencies for the performance of functions within
the scope of the foundation. It would be our recommendation that the founda-
tion, or any similar agency which may be established, should make arrange-
ments for choosing Scholars and Fellows under the proposed plans through the
National Academy of Sciences, if that organization be willing to accept the
responsibility. The National Academy, as a representative body of the scientists
of the country, would be the logical organization to sponsor this program; and
association with the National Academy would give the program respect and
prestige.
It is further recommended that:
(a) The President of the National Academy of Sciences, with the advice and
consent of the Administrative Committee of the National Research Council, peri-
odically should appoint a National Science Reserve Advisory Committee which
would advise him regarding methods of selection and the arrangements for the
entire program within the provisions of the legislation.
(b) The President of the National Academy of Sciences with the advice of the
advisory committee should appoint a Director of the National Science Reserve
Program, who would devote his full time to the work. Subject to the general
supervision of the administrative committee of the National Research Council,
the Director would establish a national ofce, select the administrative and re-
search staff, develop detailed plans and administer the program. The Director
would appoint a technical advisory committee, or committees, for the develop-
ment of tests of scientic promise, of the inventory of activities and interests and
of the recommendation blank and rating scale.
(c) The President of the National Academy of Sciences with the advice of
the advisory committee would appoint State committees of selection, to consist
of ve members, to wit: three scientists, one of whom should serve as chairman;
205 |
one member of a college or university faculty, trained and experienced in the
eld of selection and guidance; and one representative of secondary educa-
tion, usually a school principal or one of the high school supervisors in the State
department of education. At least one of the scientists, it is suggested, should
be from agriculture, or from industry, within the State. The State committees
of selection, under our plan, would have the responsibility of making the nal
appointments to the limit of the State quotas. These committees would make
their selections on the basis of the dossiers of the candidates which would be
supplied to them by the national ofce, plus such other material as the State
committees may decide to gather and use. The national ofce, on the basis of
the tests of scientic promise and the applicants’ school records, would select
twice the State’s quota and report the names and records of such candidates to
the State committees. The State committees would make the nal selections from
among these candidates. No candidates who do not attain a certain minimum
national standard should be certied to the State committees.
In the selection of the general advisory committee, and also in choosing the
membership of the technical committee or committees, the persons and orga-
nizations that have had the greatest experience in constructing, administering
and interpreting the particular kind of measuring instruments to be used in
this program should be consulted. Such organizations include the committee on
Measurement and Guidance of the American Council on Education, the Coop-
erative Test Service, the College Entrance Examination Board, the Graduate
Record Examination Ofce of the Carnegie Foundation, the Measurement and
Guidance Project in Engineering Education, the Examination Staff of the Armed
Forces Institute, and the University of Iowa Examination project. Directors, and
in some instances, other staff members of these agencies are among those
who have had the greatest amount of experience in preparing measuring in-
struments of the type necessary. To make certain that the selection instruments
are as adequate as they can be made, it will be essential to draw upon the
combined experience and technical knowledge and judgment of these persons
and agencies. The whole job must be done at the highest possible level of
professional competence.
II. Bases of Selection
1
It is proposed that there be four principal sources of information and judg-
ment upon which nal selection of the Scholars should be based; but that only
the rst two of these be used in the preliminary screening:
(1) Score on test of scientic promise.
(2) School record, especially rank-in-class.
(3) Candidate’s application including an inventory of activities and interests.
1
This section applies especially to the discovery of talented youth who are attending high school. The
committee, as indicated in the body of its report, recognizes that there is also the problem of nding, and
giving opportunity to, talented youth who are outside high schools and that, for them, variations from
standard procedures will be required.
| 206
(4) Recommendation of principals and teachers regarding candidate’s abil-
ity and personal qualities.
It is strongly recommended that these tests and examinations be undertaken
on an experimental basis and be continually revised and improved in the light
of actual experience and of the performance of students selected. The rst few
years of the program especially should be considered experimental so that
new and promising methods can be tried out, particularly for the discovery of
the candidates’ interests and personality characteristics, including evidence of
some concern for social understanding and responsibility.
For the present, and subject to change in the light of experience and
research upon the validity of indices of prediction, it is recommended that:
The test score and rank-in-class in school should be combined into one index
of academic promise which should be used as the basis of screening. For each
State a critical score on the index should be set at a point which would yield
twice the State quota, provided that the State critical score were above the
national minimum score.
For the candidates above the state critical score, additional information
should be collected so that in the nal selection it will be possible to take into
account certain important qualities such as originality, creative ability, motiva-
tion, emotional stability, and qualities of leadership.
For the convenience of the State committees of selection, a summary sheet
would be prepared giving the essential data from the four sources of informa-
tion indicated above and this summary sheet would be attached to the front of
each candidate’s dossier when it is sent to the State committee.
The State committees should be provided with directions to assist them in
interpreting the various items of information about each candidate. The State
committees, however, should be entirely free to use and evaluate the informa-
tion in accordance with their best judgments and should be encouraged to col-
lect additional information, such as interview reports, concerning the applicants,
to provide the broadest possible bases for the process of selection.
1. Test of Scientic Promise
(a) Length.—The test should be of sufcient length for efcient selection,
perhaps of 5 or 6 hours duration. It should not be a speed test.
(b) Type of questions.—The test should be of the objective or controlled-
answer type. The unreliability of free answer questions as well as the limitation
in sampling imposed by such questions restricts their usefulness for the present
purpose.
(c) Content.—There should be several sections in the test. The materials
throughout should be such as to involve a complex of aptitude and achieve-
ment as the most satisfactory measure. The subject matter should be related
particularly to scientic ability instead of to general academic promise.
(d) Level of difculty.—It is important that the test be of maximum selectivity
207 |
at and above the critical score. Studies of the results of the best mathematics
and science tests now in use indicate that students who make very high scores on
such tests can be expected to succeed in scientic courses during the rst year
of college with a high degree of certainty.
(e) Preparation of the tests.—(1) The test should be prepared after consid-
eration of the specications recommended by the advisory committee which
would include both scientists and testing specialists. (2) The test material should
be pretested on a suitable population and the nal test made up of the most
successful items.
2. School Record
The school record is important because it is a measure not only of ability but
of the application of that ability in academic work over a period of several
years. It has been found to be as useful in predicting college success as an ap-
titude test and when combined with the test score, the combination provides an
index that is superior to either item used alone. The school record not only adds
the element of industriousness but rank-in-class and test score are what might be
described as automatically compensatory indices. Aptitude test scores are not
entirely independent of the home and school background. Although aptitude
more than achievement is measured, no aptitude tests are “pure” and uninu-
enced by previous training. Consequently individuals attending “good” schools
are likely to be somewhat overrated by their test scores. For such students, their
rank-in-class score is likely to be an underestimate of their achievement. Boys
and girls from inferior schools on the other hand are likely to be underrated by
their test scores and overrated by their rank-in-class. The two indices combined,
therefore, provide a fairer basis for screening than either alone.
The most reliable single measure of school success is rank-in-class. Marking
systems and standards differ from school to school but the signicance of rel-
ative standing in class remains fairly constant. Pragmatically it has been found
to be the best index of school achievement.
For all candidates who are above the State critical score on the screening
index, complete transcripts of high school records should be obtained along
with other information to be used by the State committees in making the nal
selections.
3. Candidate’s Application, Including an Inventory of Activities
and Interests
The application blank which candidates who pass the screening test will be
required to ll out will contain (a) the questions concerning age, family, schools
attended, etc., such, as are usually asked on a college admission blank; (b)
an extensive inventory of activities and interests specically prepared for this
purpose; (c) a statement of the extracurricular scientic activities of the student
during the preceding 2 years.
| 208
Inventories of activities and interests, while not yet in as high a stage of
development as intelligence tests, are valuable in indicating personal and in-
tellectual qualities not measured by tests. Indications of such qualities as the in-
dividual’s ability to get along with others, his scientic interests and motivation,
his emotional stability may be obtained from the inventory. These indications
should be checked against the ratings of the principal and teachers on those
same qualities.
An advisory committee composed of men who have specialized in this eld of
measurement should be appointed to draw up the specications for the inventory
of activities and interests to be developed by the staff of the national ofce.
4. Recommendation of Principal and Teachers Regarding
Candidate’s Ability and Personal Qualities
Although the principal and teachers are not entirely impartial persons from
whom to receive recommendations, they have a better comparative basis for
making judgments and are more likely to make fair and frank estimates than
others whose opinion of the candidates might be requested.
The recommendation blank should be in two parts. The rst part would con-
tain a large number of multiple choice questions and rating scales, the answer
to some of which would relate to specic observations on points of fact, while
others would involve judgment of less tangible qualities. Each teacher who has
had the candidate in class or in extracurricular activities would indicate his
or her answer by initialling the blank. The principal would nally, with an X,
indicate the consensus. The second part of the blank would call for statements
regarding a few particularly important qualities, such as concrete evidence of
originality or creative ability in the eld of science.
Part one would yield indications on the same qualities as would be indicated
by the candidate’s inventory of activities and interests, so that the two sets of
scores could be considered together and serve as a check on each other.
The advisory committee charged with the responsibility of preparing the
specications for the inventory of activities and interests should also prepare
the specications for the recommendation blank.
Ill. Schedule and Procedures (Tentative)
June 1–Oct. 1....... Preliminary publicity through newspapers, magazines,
and radio.
Oct. 1 ............. Announcement by letter to State departments of edu-
cation, superintendents of schools, and principals, giving
the detailed plans of the competitions. School principals
would be sent a return postal card on which to indicate
the number of students in the school who would take the
screening test and the names of the teachers who would
administer it.
209 |
Oct. 20 ............ Return postal cards due at national ofce.
Oct. 20–Nov. 15 .... Screening tests and directions for administration shipped
to schools.
Dec. 1 ............. Screening tests administered. A detachable portion of
the answer sheet containing the same serial number as
the answer sheet would be turned over to the princi-
pal after the candidate has lled in his name and the
name of the school so that the principal can enter the
candidate’s rank-in-class. (Complete directions for the
principal will be printed on the form.)
Dec. 5–Jan. 10 ...... Scoring of tests and calculation of composite index for
screening.
Jan. 10 ............ Notice to candidates of success on screening test. Let-
ter to principals of schools having successful candidates
with application and recommendation blanks enclosed.
Full directions will be given the principal for the admin-
istration of the inventory of activities and interests and
for the lling out of the recommendation blank.
Feb. 10 ............ Application and recommendation blanks due at the
national ofce.
Feb. 10–Mar. 10 .... Candidates’ dossiers put in order and shipped to State
committees of selection.
Mar. 20–Apr. 10 .... State committees go over applications, gather addition-
al information (if they wish), and make selections.
Apr. 10 ............ List of men and women selected for scholarships sent to
national ofce.
Apr. 15 ............ State committees notify candidates of selection for
scholarships.
Apr. 16 ............ Public announcement of selection of scholars.
May 1............. Successful candidates must notify State committee of
acceptance, of the university or college they wish to
attend and of the science course they wish to pursue.
May 15............ State committee noties appointees of approval of
college and course of study and corresponds with those
where approval is withheld.
May 30............ Final revised list of appointees with name of college
they will attend and course of study they will pursue sent
by the State committee to national ofce.
(From this point on, appointees deal directly with
national ofce.)
| 210
Minimum Annual Cost of Selection (Estimated)
Screening: 200,000 candidates at $1 .............. $200,000
Final selection: 12,000 candidates:
National ofce at $5 ......................... 60,000
State committees at $2 ....................... 24,000
Research and experimentation (average) ........... 50,000
334,000
It is of the utmost importance that adequate funds be allocated for research
on the methods of selection. Although present knowledge makes it possible to
do an effective job in selecting youth of scientic promise, work in this eld
is still in the early stage of development. A strong research program would
certainly lead to improvement in the selection of future scientists and in view of
the suggested size of the program would be a long-run economy.
211 |
| 212
APPENDIX 5
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION
OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Letter of transmittal ...........................................215
Members of the Committee .....................................216
Report:
1. Need for lifting restrictions ...............................217
2. Release from military classication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
3. Agreement with our Allies on release of information............219
4. Stimulation of publication ................................219
5. Recommendation........................................220
213 |
| 214
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
JANUARY 9, 1945.
Dr. VANNEVAR BUSH, Director,
Oce of Scientic Research and Development,
1530 P Street NW., Washington, D. C.
MY DEAR DR. BUSH: It is my pleasure to submit herewith the report of
the Committee appointed to assist you in answering the rst question in President
Roosevelt’s letter to you of November 17, 1944, which was expressed as follows:
“First: What can be done, consistent with military security, and with the
prior approval of the military authorities, to make known to the world as soon
as possible the contributions which have been made during our war eort to
scientic knowledge?
“e diusion of such knowledge should help us to stimulate new enter-
prises, provide jobs for our returning servicemen and other workers, and make
possible great strides for the improvement of the national well-being.”
In preparing the report the members of the committee had the benet of discus-
sions with a number of persons concerned with the publication of scientic informa-
tion. ere has been general agreement that one of the primary problems in the eld
of publication is the establishment of an agency which, as a general principle, will
permit the release of scientic information as soon as it can no longer be used against
us in the present war and on terms which will be fair to all concerned. In particular,
speed of release should be accompanied by a mechanism which will lift the restrictions
on publication in a particular eld uniformly for all workers in that eld, regardless
of the particular agency of the Government for which the work might originally have
been done. e committee feels strongly that this mechanism should be established
without any unnecessary delay.
Sincerely yours,
IRVIN STEWART,
Chairman, Committee on Publication
of Scientific Information
215 |
MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE
Dr. Irvin Stewart, chairman; director, committee on scientic aids to learning,
National Research Council; executive secretary, Ofce of Scientic Research
and Development.
Dr. J. P. Baxter III, president, Williams College.
Dr. Karl T. Compton, president, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. James B. Conant, president, Harvard University.
Dr. A. N. Richards, vice president in charge of medical affairs, University of
Pennsylvania.
Dr. M. A. Tuve, physicist, department of terrestrial magnetism, Carnegie Institu-
tion of Washington.
Mr. Carroll L. Wilson, executive assistant to the director, Ofce of Scientic
Research and Development.
Mr. Cleveland Norcross, secretary, executive assistant to the executive secre-
tary, Ofce of Scientic Research and Development
| 216
REPORT
The following report is submitted in answer to your request for advice with
respect to the rst point in President Roosevelt’s letter to you of November 17,
1944.
1. Need for lifting restrictions
The frontiers of science must be thrown open so that all who have the ability
to explore may advance from the farthest position which anyone has attained.
During the war we have been living to a considerable extent on our scientic
capital, as scientists who would normally be extending the frontiers of knowl-
edge have instead devoted their efforts to the application of our scientic
knowledge to the development of new and better equipment, processes, and
materials for war purposes. A large part of such new scientic discoveries as
have been made, together with the great amount of information on the tech-
niques of application, are now classied as condential or secret. The restric-
tions incident to war have prevented the wide spread of the kind of information
upon which American science, education, and industry normally build. Scientists
engaged on war projects have acquired new knowledge in specic elds, but
they have not been given access to similar acquisitions by their colleagues in
other elds. Thus, while there is a fund of new knowledge scattered among a
large number of individual scientists, no one of them has access to all of it; and
the broad base of scientic knowledge available to all scientists has not been
correspondingly extended. This situation should be speedily corrected.
During the rst year of the existence of the Ofce of Scientic Research and
Development a decision was made by the Secretaries of War and Navy that
in the elds of medical research, publication of new knowledge should be with-
held only if that knowledge gave promise of conferring military advantage.
Hence it has been possible to publish most of the newly developed knowledge
in the medical eld. Several hundred articles have already been published
in the professional journals and others are in the process of publication. The
amount of classied medical material has been held to a minimum. It has been
conned largely to limited subjects of immediate battle front importance and
to information which might be related to strategy. Even these limited restrictions
should be lifted as soon as military conditions permit.
Not all of our troops can be returned immediately upon the cessation of hos-
tilities. Many men must remain overseas, some in armies of occupation, others
awaiting the provision of facilities for their return. Educational facilities must be
provided for them during this period. Very recent techniques developed in our
laboratories in connection with the prosecution of war developments can and
should be made available in the Army universities overseas to qualied men in
order that they may thereby be enabled to return to this country with as mod-
ern and advanced approach to some of the subjects of moment as they would
have had if they had remained here during the war, or if they had been select-
217 |
ed for early return and re-entry into universities in this country. To accomplish
this not only must the information be available in printed form, but men familiar
with latest developments should be chosen as instructors in the Army universities.
The returning soldier who wants to pick up his interrupted plans for a career
as a scientist or engineer deserves access to the very latest developments and
techniques. It will be a tragedy for him and for the country if he is trained in
the light of the knowledge of 1940 rather than 1945. Because of the War
we have lost several classes of scientists and engineers, both undergraduate
and graduate. The gap can never be entirely lled, and it can be successfully
narrowed only if the classes graduating in the immediate postwar years can
be trained in advanced developments and techniques. We must overcome, not
aggravate, the effects upon science and upon the country as a whole of the
wartime loss of several classes of scientists.
These considerations merit emphasis in addition to those mentioned in the
President’s letter of November 17.
2. Release From Military Classication
The rst, and most important, step is to obtain the release of scientic material
from its military classication as soon as conditions permit. Basically there is no
reason to believe that scientists of other countries will not in time re-discover
everything we now know. A sounder foundation for our national security rests
in a broad dissemination of scientic knowledge upon which further advances
can be most readily made than in a policy of restriction which would impede
our further advances in the hope that our potential enemies will not catch up
with us. The Committee believes that, with few exceptions, our national interests
require the release of most of our war-acquired scientic information as soon
as it is evident that our enemies will not be able to turn that information against
us in the present war. It further believes that most of this information can be
released without disclosing its embodiments in actual military material and
devices.
Research has gone forward under many auspices, the Army, the Navy, the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the Ofce of Scientic Research
and Development, various other Government departments and many industrial
establishments and academic institutions. In many cases there have doubtless
been independent discoveries of the same truth in different places. To permit
the release of information from one place and restrict it from another would
not only be unfair but would impair the morale and efciency of scientists who
have readily subscribed to the policy of restriction dictated by war needs.
The agency charged with the duty of recommending release of information
from military classication should be a continuing one well grounded in science
and technology, which can couple advice to the military with an ability to ob-
tain prompt decisions. With that in mind you have recently proposed the es-
tablishment within the National Academy of Sciences of a board to control the
release and promote publication of certain scientic information. Its standing at
| 218
the apex of the scientic world together with its contributions to the present war
qualify the Academy in a unique manner to perform this service. The proposed
board with its joint Army, Navy, and civilian membership should be able to act
promptly and intelligently, with full appreciation of both military and civilian
implications of its decisions. It should provide the speed which is essential if de-
lay is not to nullify a large part of the benet sought by the release of newly
discovered scientic information. Obviously the board should be adequately
manned to act promptly.
3. Agreement With Our Allies on Release of Information
Some of the information which should be released is possessed jointly by our
allies and ourselves. Release in this country should be coordinated with release
in other countries where the restriction has been jointly imposed in both. A cen-
tral agency such as the proposed board should be able to handle this normally
time-consuming but important matter with a minimum loss of time and danger
of international friction.
4. Stimulation of publication
It is obvious that the contributions to scientic knowledge “made during the war
effort” fall into many categories. Much of this information is now being made
public through various media as, for example, most of the results of medical
research. This report is directed to those contributions to scientic knowledge
which are prevented from being “made known to the world” because of Gov-
ernment restrictions. Most of this information resulted from work in which some
Government agency was interested and is now under security classication.
The two chief obstacles to prompt publication are: (1) security regulations;
(2) the policy of cognizant agencies in releasing investigators to publish freely.
A courageous policy on the part of administrative ofcers of Government
agencies in assisting and stimulating prompt publication by Government
scientists as well as private contractors and their employees as soon as security
regulations are relaxed will cover point two. The rst point, we believe, can be
covered by the creation of the board to control the release and promote the
publication of certain scientic information.
The object is to get the scientic results of war research written by outstanding
experts, completely available, especially to young scientists, at as low a cost to
them as is consistent with doing the job well.
In connection with scientic war research being performed under contracts of
governmental agencies, which has necessitated bringing together large groups
of scientists, the most advantageous time for preparation of manuscripts may
well be during the nal months of the contract, while the scientic staffs are still
assembled and in possession of all records, but after the pressure for produc-
tion of war results has begun to relax.
Obviously not all reports will merit publication and distribution. Where Gov-
219 |
ernment-nanced research is involved, the contracting agency must make the
decision. In every case, however, this decision should be made upon the basis of
the public interest the dissemination of the information, not upon the presence
or absence of funds to defray the cost of publication and distribution of the
report.
The publication plans of the Ofce of Scientic Research and Development
are being made in accordance with the principles of the preceding para-
graphs. The effectiveness of these plans, as well as the publication of other
scientic information developed in connection with war research, will depend
largely upon the speed with which the proposed Academy board is established
and the effectiveness with which it functions after its establishment. The impetus
which has produced remarkable results in the laboratory and in the eld will
be lost if publication is unduly delayed.
5. Recommendations
In specic answer to the rst point in the President’s letter, therefore, your
Committee recommends the following:
1. The prompt establishment and adequate stafng within the National
Academy of Sciences of the proposed board to control the release and pro-
mote publication of certain scientic information. This is essential.
2. The adoption by that board of a liberal policy generally permitting the
release of scientic information as soon as it is apparent that such information
cannot be turned against us in the present war.
3. The encouragement of scientists to publish the results of their investigation
in “open” elds covered by releases by the board.
4. The stimulation and assistance of investigators to prompt publication by
administrative ofcers of cognizant Government agencies.
5. The provision of adequate nancing for the publication and distribution
of the reports mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
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This letter, dated November 17, 1944, is President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s charge to Vannevar Bush, head of the wartime Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), right near the end of World War II. In it, Roosevelt looks at how centralized, government-backed science—radar, medical advances, weapons development—has helped win the war, and asks a very pointed question: how can the same machinery of organized research be turned toward peacetime goals like public health, economic growth, job creation for returning soldiers, and a higher standard of living? He frames this as a set of four problems: how to safely release wartime scientific knowledge, how to keep the “war on disease” going, what role the federal government should play alongside private research, and how to systematically find and train scientific talent in American youth.
Bush’s response to this letter becomes the famous 1945 report Science, The Endless Frontier, which lays out the intellectual and institutional blueprint for postwar U.S. science policy and eventually inspires the creation of the National Science Foundation and modern models of federal support for basic research.
> "Notwithstanding great progress in prolonging the span of life and in relief of suffering, much illness remains for which adequate means of prevention and cure are not yet known. While additional physicians, hospitals,
and health programs are needed, their full usefulness cannot be attained unless we enlarge our knowledge of the human organism and the nature of disease. Any extension of medical facilities must be accompanied by an expanded program of medical training and research."
Vannevar Bush (1890–1974) was an American engineer, inventor, and policymaker who shaped U.S. science and technology in the mid-20th century. A pioneer of analog computing, he built the differential analyzer and co-founded Raytheon early in his career. During World War II he led the Office of Scientific Research and Development, coordinating large-scale projects such as radar development, mass-production of penicillin, and, indirectly, the Manhattan Project. After the war his report “Science, The Endless Frontier” argued for sustained federal support of basic research, catalyzing the creation of the National Science Foundation. He also served as MIT’s engineering dean and later president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Bush’s 1945 Atlantic essay “As We May Think” imagined the “Memex,” a hyperlinked information system that foreshadowed modern personal computing and the web.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush
> "In the last 40 years life expectancy in the United States has increased from 49 to 65 years largely as a consequence of the reduction in the death rates of infants and children; in the last 20 years the death rate from the diseases of childhood has been reduced 87 percent."