SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



MATTERS OF SCIENTIFIC INTEREST IN THE SIXTY-SIXTH CONGRESS 



In addition to the large supply bills, which provide for the work of 

 the scientific bureaus of the Government, several measures have been 

 introduced in the first session of the Sixty-sixth Congress which are of 

 special interest to the scientific profession. 



The three bills concerned with the tariff and the removal of the duty- 

 free privilege on scientific supplies were published in the preceding num- 

 ber of this Journal, together with a note on the hearings held on the 

 bills. ^ Mr Bacharach later combined the three bills into one (H. R. 

 7287) under the title: "A bill to provide revenue for the Government, 

 to establish and maintain in the United States the manufacture of scien- 

 tific instruments, laboratory apparatus, laboratory glassware, laboratory 

 porcelain ware — an industry essential to national defense." On July 

 15 a hearing on "surgical instruments" was held before the House Ways 

 and Means Committee, at which Col. C. R. DarnELL, of the Army 

 Field Medical Supply Depot, and representatives of three manufac- 

 turers of surgical instruments testified. On July 24 Mr. Bacharach 

 introduced a substitute bill, H. R. 7785, "To provide revenue for the 

 Government, to establish and maintain in the United States the manu- 

 facture of laboratory glassware, laboratory porcelain ware, optical 

 glass, scientific and surgical instruments," in which a paragraph was 

 added placing a duty of 60 per cent on surgical and dental instruments. 

 This bill was reported to the House without amendment, and recom- 

 mended for passage, on July 26 (Report 157). 



Federal aid to research is provided for in the following bills: 



S. 16 (Mr. Smith of Georgia) : "To estabhsh engineering experiment 

 stations in the States and Territories, in connection with institutions of 

 higher technical education, for the promotion of engineering and in- 

 dustrial research as a measure of industrial, commercial, military, and 

 naval progress and preparedness in times of peace or war." Referred 

 to the Committee on Education and Labor. 



S. 105 (Mr. Gronna): "For the promotion of engineering and in- 

 dustrial research." To the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. 



H. R. 1108 (Mr. Raker) : "To make accessible to all the people the 

 valuable scientific and other research work conducted by the United 

 States through establishment of a national school of correspondence." 

 To the Committee on Education. 



S. 15 and S. 1017 (Mr. Smith of Georgia), H. R. 7 (Mr. Towner), 

 and H. R. 2023 (Mr. Raker) provide for the creation of a federal De- 

 partment of Education. 



* See this Journai^ 9: 389. 191 9. 



' 421 



