24 



Isaiah Bowman's Committee on Science and the Public Welfare 

 recommended that a National Research Foundation be established, 

 and that it encompass divisions of Natural Sciences, Medical Re- 

 search, and National Defense. Using the OSRD as a model, the 

 committee proposed that the Foundation be allowed to use con- 

 tracts and grants as it saw fit and that the receiving institutions be 

 reimbursed only for their direct costs. Moreover, the Foundation 

 should be free to negotiate its grants and contracts with the best 

 institutions without regard to geographical distribution formulas. 

 Finally, the Foundation was to fund basic research and to coordi- 

 nate the nation's science policy, such as it was. 19 To this latter 

 point, Bush forcefully argued: 



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 for- 

 mulating or executing a national science policy. There are 

 no standing committees of the Congress devoted to this im- 

 portant 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. 20 



On the same day Bush's report was released, Senator Warren G. 

 Magnuson (Democrat of Washington) introduced legislation to 

 create a national research foundation. Drafted in consultation with 

 Bush, Magnuson's legislation followed closely the ideas put forward 

 in Science — The Endless Frontier. Senator Kilgore responded by in- 

 troducing an alternative bill that reflected his own ideas for the 

 Government support of science. Thus began a vigorous Congres- 

 sional debate over the organization of postwar science policy. 



The areas of disagreement between Kilgore and Bush not only di- 

 vided the science policymakers during the immediate post-World 

 War II era, delaying the establishment of the National Science 

 Foundation until 1950, but they also remained fundamental points 

 of contention throughout the next four decades. Although there 

 were several minor points of dispute, four major issues dominated 

 the debates: (1) the governing structure of the proposed national 

 science foundation, (2) patent policy associated with publicly fi- 

 nanced research, (3) Federal support of the social sciences, and (4) 

 geographical distribution of Federal research funds. 



Despite these points of disagreement, it was Vannevar Bush who 

 established the terms of the debate through the publication of his 

 report. In Science — The Endless Frontier, Bush simply made explic- 

 it the implicit arguments that had been presented by the National 

 Resources Committee in its three-volume report, Research — A Na- 

 tional Resource (1938-1941). Better than anything previously pub- 

 lished, the Bush Report articulated and argued convincingly the ra- 

 tionale for the Government support of science. No other single doc- 

 ument became so important to the postwar science policy debate. 

 Although not always closely followed, it has remained the corner- 

 stone for science policy in the United States. 



19 See Bush, Science — The Endless Frontier, pp. 36-39. As proposed, the Foundation would 

 have a broad scope and funding authority. 



20 Ibid., p. 12. 



