SCIENCE, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, 1963-69 ] 45 



report which was subsequently incorporated into the new legislative 

 charter for the NSF. 



On December 30, 1965, the Daddario subcommittee issued its 

 landmark report on "The National Science Foundation — Its Present 

 and Future," which formed the basis for the legislation developing 

 a new charter for NSF. 



RESEARCH IN SOCIAL SCIENCES 



One of the difficult issues in revising the NSF charter was how to 

 broaden NSF's authority to support research and education in the 

 social sciences. When the initial bills to establish the NSF were first 

 debated in the House in 1947, Representative Clarence J. Brown 

 (Republican of Ohio) had declared that support of the social sciences 

 would result in "a lot of short-haired women and long-haired men 

 messing into everybody's personal affairs." Much the same type of 

 opposition was voiced on the House floor in the 1960's. Although 

 Representative Fulton voted for the bill, he spoke against broadening 

 the authority to cover social sciences. Representative Durward Hall 

 (Republican of Missouri) cited several titles of grant studies such as 

 "Food Gathering in a Primitive Society." Representative Mosher in 

 the debate countered: 



I very strongly urge that all of us resist the temptation, which so often overcomes 

 reporters, editors — and yes, politicians — to evaluate a piece of scientific research 

 merely on the superficial fact that it might have a curious or silly-sounding title. 



Daddario, in presenting the bill to the House on April 12, 1967, 

 pointed out that his committee's hearings and analysis found that the 

 NSF had followed a role which was too passive, which had not kept 

 pace with the demands of society, and which should be dealing more 

 actively with emerging problems faced by industry and society as well 

 as the academic community. He indicated that "the National 

 Science Foundation is presently required to collect and collate data on 

 national scientific technical resources. The bill would have the Founda- 

 tion analyze and interpret those data as well." Daddario also pointed 

 out that the new charter authorized the NSF to "undertake the support 

 of scientific activities relating to international cooperation on foreign 

 policy." This concept had first been suggested by Dr. Roger Revelle at 

 one of the committee's panel meetings. 



The legislation which furnished a new charter for the National 

 Science Foundation clearly shows the initiative of the Science and 

 Astronautics Committee in the making of public policy. In opening 

 the debate in the House on April 12, 1967, Daddario observed: 



