13 



broad support from scientists who were concerned with stemming 

 the criticism directed against science during the Great Depression 

 and who viewed the Board as an attempt to show that science 

 could make social and economic contributions. In many ways, it 

 paralleled President Roosevelt's Brain Trust, which was an attempt 

 to utilize experts in the development of public policy. It thus 

 became part of the New Deal's broad movement toward national 

 planning. 30 



The Board sought to help stem the depression by marshaling the 

 results of research. It did this primarily through the establishment 

 of committees that were charged with addressing a wide variety of 

 science-related issues. Despite its success in assisting various Feder- 

 al agencies with their research programs, the Board received only 

 a six-month extension to its two-year charter before being disband- 

 ed. Chairman Compton's recommendation that a permanent sci- 

 ence advisory agency be established to succeed the Board went un- 

 heeded. According to science historian Daniel Kevles, the Board's 

 "accomplishments, beyond some changes in the programs of a few 

 federal agencies, [were] merely a pile of reports." 31 But the Board 

 did play an important role in the evolution of Federal science 

 advice and science policymaking, as well as provided a lucid experi- 

 ment in central scientific organization. Another historian of sci- 

 ence, A. Hunter Dupree, summarized it this way: "Perhaps its most 

 important contribution was to give a broadening experience to a 

 generation that would have other chances before a decade had 

 elapsed." 32 



NATIONAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE 



The National Resources Board replaced the Science Advisory 

 Board in 1935 as the hub of Federal science planning. The National 

 Resources Committee — as the Board was renamed later that 

 year 33 — actually lacked the status of a central scientific organiza- 

 tion because it had no administrative power. But it did have the 

 authority to conduct studies and make recommendations. Its most 

 notable and ambitious study was undertaken in 1937 and dealt 

 with the legal, social, and economic aspects of the entire Federal 

 research establishment, including the social sciences. It also exam- 

 ined research in universities and industry, and concluded that the 

 support of research might well help lead the country out of the de- 

 pression. Published in three volumes between 1938 and 1941, Re- 

 search — A National Resource was the most comprehensive assess- 

 ment of scientific research in the United States yet conducted. De- 

 spite its thoroughness, the report had little direct impact on the 

 nation's science establishment, in part because of the growing pre- 

 occupation with the war in Europe. 34 



30 See Otis L. Graham, Jr., Toward a Planned Society: From Roosevelt to Nixon (New York: 

 Oxford University Press, 1976). 

 3 ' Kevles, The Physicists, p. 258. 



32 Dupree, Science in the Federal Government, p. 358. See also, Carroll W. Pursell, Jr., "A 

 Preface to Government Support of Research and Development: Research Legislation and the Na- 

 tional Bureau of Standards, 1935-41," Technology and Culture, 9 (1968), 145-164. 



33 By 1940 the name had changed again, this time to the National Resources Planning Board. 



34 National Resources Committee, Research — A National Resource, 3 volumes (Washington: 

 GPO, 1938-1941). See also, Dupree, Science in the Federal Government, pp. 358-361. 



