SCIENCE, RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, 1970-79 513 



show that those institutions and geographical areas which were 

 already benefiting continued to do so. It was difficult to argue with 

 quality, experience, and availability of good proposal-writing per- 

 sonnel who knew how to hone the keys to the strongbox. There was a 

 great deal of agonizing, along with lip service given by NSF officials 

 to support the general principle that NSF funds generated greater 

 ability in certain areas to obtain more funds. But in the case of larger 

 contracts, NSF did little better than NASA in effecting a wider distri- 

 bution geographically. It was always easy within the privacy of the 

 executive branch to defend the "national interest" against the 

 "parochial" assaults of "pork barrel politicians." 



SYMINGTON BECOMES SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRMAN 



At the start of 1975, the subcommittee had a new chairman. The 

 defeat of Davis in the 1974 Georgia Democratic primary resulted in 

 his replacement by Symington, who moved up from his prior position 

 as chairman of the Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications. 

 It was Symington's last term in Congress, as he chose to run for the 

 U.S. Senate in 1976. It was unfortunate that a man of Symington's 

 dedication and ability should have thrust on him the responsibility 

 for handling a messy inquiry into a NSF-funded project: MACOS 

 ("Man: A Course of Study"). 



Representative James W. Symington (Democrat of Missouri), right, receives the Na- 

 tional Science Foundation Distinguished Public Service Award from NSl' Director Dr. 

 Richard C. Atkinson on December 15, 1976. Representatne Mosher received a similar award 

 on the same occasion. 



