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HISTORY OF THF. COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Chairman Miller remarked it was the first time that a Canadian Senate 

 committee had conferred as a group outside its own country. But an 

 even more colorful and useful dialogue occurred February 9 and 10, 

 1970, in Ottawa, when the Canadian Science Policy Committee held a 

 joint public meeting with four members of the Science and Astronautics 

 Committee in the hearing chambers of the Canadian Senate. Chairman 

 Miller was suffering from a bad cold and had to cancel at the last 

 moment, but Congressmen Daddario, Fulton, Symington, and Mosher 

 ably bore the colors for the Science Committee. Also making the 

 trip with the committee were staff consultant Dr. J. Thomas Ratchford 

 and Herman Pollack of the State Department. 



THE POLITICAL RISKS OF INTERNATIONAL ISSUES 



Daddario, who like a number of other able committee members 

 was to be defeated at the polls in his try for a different office, com- 

 mented optimistically on what he felt was increased public support for 

 scientific issues such as improving the environment. In his informal 

 remarks to the Canadian committee, he observed: 



Up until recently it was very difficult to get people to be concerned over scientific 

 matters. It was difficult to get people to be disturbed about the second order of con- 

 sequences of our technology. There is not a man on the committee who has not from 

 time to time spoken out on those problems, has found them in truth not to be the 

 kind of issues, important as they are, to have the political appeal to develop around 

 them the kind of public opinion necessary to make headway in the legislative arena. 



Suddenly things have begun to fall in place, and I think that is important. 



Daddario went on to deplore the "budget cutting'* which seemed to 

 affect basic research first, and also choke off new opportunities for 

 young scientists on which the future of the Nation depended. He drew 

 a responsive note from Canadian Senator Allister Grosart as he de- 

 scribed the parallels between the Science Committee experience in 

 getting reluctant scientists to talk casually and frankly with politi- 

 cians. Senator Grosart immediately responded: 



This is true. We had some quite adamant refusals from some quite important 

 public bodies to appear, but after awhile it became fashionable to appear before the 

 Science committee and almost a status symbol. 



The interchanges between the science committees of the two 

 countries furnished yet another example of the international character 

 of science itself. In extemporaneous remarks, Fulton waxed lyrical 

 about this concept: 



As I was sitting here, 1 was thinking: this is your land. It is our land too. It is 

 your Canadian land and it is our American land, because we share this continent. 

 We are the peoples that own it and live here. I almost started out by saying: "Fellow 

 polluters of the Great Lakes basin." Unless the Government rises and takes a look 

 at the environmental problems, just as your Senators are doing, the country and the 



