22 



program of their own. The Office of Scientific Research and Devel- 

 opment became the principal mechanism for this when, on 17 No- 

 vember 1944, President Roosevelt sent Bush a letter requesting 

 him to prepare a report on how the nation should support scientific 

 research after the war. Noting that the OSRD represented "a 

 unique experiment of team-work and cooperation in coordinating 

 scientific research and in applying existing scientific knowledge to 

 the solution of the technical problems paramount in war," Roose- 

 velt wrote that there was "no reason why the lessons to be found 

 in this experiment cannot be profitably employed in times of 

 peace." 14 



Roosevelt asked Bush to provide him with recommendations on 

 four major points. Bush responded by appointing four committees 

 to investigate the various areas of scientific research and to report 

 their recommendations to him. The committees included the Medi- 

 cal Advisory Committee chaired by W. W. Palmer, the Committee 

 on Science and the Public Welfare chaired by Isaiah Bowman, the 

 Committee on Discovery and Development of Scientific Talent 

 chaired by Henry Allen Moe, and the Committee on Publication of 

 Scientific Information chaired by Irvin Stewart. These reports 

 reached Bush by June 1945, and were appended to his final report, 

 Science — The Endless Frontier, which was submitted to President 

 Truman on 5 July 1945. 



Bush was politically astute; he knew what language and argu- 

 ments would gain support. His report was a plea for Federal Gov- 

 ernment support of science, one that attempted systematically to 

 justify public expenditures for science. He was also skilled at pro- 

 viding a politically-palatable rationale. The rhetoric of American 

 government continually advancing frontiers is but the most obvious 

 example. He wisely tied Federal support of science to such basic 

 national issues as defense, public health, and economic growth and 

 stability, claiming in his introduction: 



Advances in science when put to practical use mean 

 more jobs, higher wages, shorter hours, more abundant 

 crops, more leisure for recreation, for study, for learning 

 how to live without the deadening drudgery which has 

 been the burden of the common man for ages past. Ad- 

 vances in science will also bring higher standards of living, 

 will lead to the prevention or cure of diseases, will pro- 

 mote conservation of our limited national resources, and 

 will assure means of defense against aggression. 1 5 



Bush went on to argue: 



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. Al- 

 though these frontiers have more or less disappeared, the 



14 Franklin D. Roosevelt to Vannevar Bush, 17 November 1944, reprinted in Vannevar Bush, 

 Science— The Endless Frontier: A Report to the President (Washington: GPO, 1945), pp. 3-4. For 

 the preparation of this report, see J. Merton England, "Dr. Bush Writes a Report: 'Science — The 

 Endless Frontier'," Science, 191 (January 9, 1976), 41-47; and Daniel J. Kevles, "The National 

 Science Foundation and the Debate over Postwar Research Policy, 1942-1945: A Political Inter- 

 pretation of Science— The Endless Frontier, " Isis, 68 (March 1977), 5-26. 



15 Bush, Science — The Endless Frontier, p. 10. 



