518 HISTORY OF TH1 COMMITTEI ON SCIENC1 AND TECHNOLOGY 



menr co cut off all funding "directly or indirectly for further develop- 

 ment or implementation of Man: A Course of Study, MACOS." 

 The amendment split the committee squarely down the middle. Chair- 

 man Teague and several Democrats spoke for the Conlan amendment, 

 but the bulk of the support came from the Republican side. With the 

 exception of Mosher, who both spoke and voted against the Conlan 

 amendment, there was solid Republican support for Conlan's position. 

 A test vote to table the Conlan amendment failed by 17 to 12, but after 

 some acrimonious discussion the amendment was defeated by the 

 narrow margin of 16 to 13. 



Teague was upset that Symington had not conducted thorough 

 oversight over the controversial MACOS program. There were plenty 

 of red faces in NSF as they saw their laissez-faire review machinery 

 engendered a hotly emotional backlash. For NSF to have edited out a 

 few of the glaring items which incited the most opposition would 

 have been out of character for educators trained in freedom of expres- 

 sion. After all, couldn't teachers and school boards decide what was 

 best for their own areas in course materials? 



TEAGUE AND MACOS 



Hoping to avoid another bruising battle on the House floor, on 

 March 12 Teague filed the bill for consideration by the House. Teague 

 took several steps to air the issues involved. He pointed out to Dr. 

 Stever that the high Federal investment in MACOS made it unfairly 

 competitive with other courses developed by private enterprise, not 

 to mention the highly objectionable features which Conlan had cited. 

 He also announced his intention to appoint a committee-sponsored 

 independent review group to look at MACOS and make recommenda- 

 tions. When Conlan protested that he wasn't getting much cooperation 

 from the NSF in obtaining a complete set of the films and curriculum 

 materials, Teague let out a roar which shook NSF literally to its foun- 

 dations. Not only were the materials quickly supplied, but Teague 

 set aside Rayburn Building committee rooms for members to view six- 

 hours of films and pamphletary material. Although some committee 

 members grumbled that this put them in the position of becoming 

 censors, n ost members took advantage of the opportunity to see the 

 entire program in context. 



By mid-March, Conlan's publicity efforts were stirring up mail to 

 ( ongressmen both on and not on the committee. As Teague moved 

 around the floor and paid his regular visits to the House gymnasium, 

 he began to get pointed complaints from many Members about the 

 allegations. It became more and more apparent that if the bill went 



