L. C. DUNN 



ing other interests which tend to interfere with it. Yet, as the war 

 shows, they will voluntarily and gladly place this devotion and their 

 technical ability and intelligence at the service of an objective which is 

 clearly defined and compelling. On the other hand, directing agencies, 

 public or private, do not grudge to the scientist a greater measure 

 of freedom than to other workers, provided they are assured of his 

 adherence to the principles of service and to the general purpose which 

 they consider essential, and that this freedom actually produces the 

 results expected from it. Freedom within a general plan is a practical 

 ideal at which to aim, as the comparative freedom of local political 

 units within the general frame of Federal Union of the United States 

 shows. 



Voluntary cooperation of scientists with public agencies in the 

 planning and execution of research would seem to provide the soundest 

 base. The greater tendency toward teamwork and pooling of ideas 

 by groups of scientists, the distribution of responsibility and credit for 

 scientific work among the whole staff of a laboratory, the greater dif- 

 fusion among younger scientists of the sense of social responsibility, and 

 the resulting tendency for social incentives to supplement more purely 

 personal motives — these facts all indicate that it is reasonable to expect 

 that scientists can and will participate in formulating the plans they 

 will execute. This leads to the kind of self-government to which demo- 

 cratic administration tends, and which industry has found valuable as 

 an incentive. 



A further question that policy must meet is the ultimate dis- 

 position of the new knowledge which accrues from science. In the large 

 segment of scientific research under private control, it is generally 

 agreed that the ownership of valuable processes arising from research 

 is to be vested, not in the individual scientist, but in the laboratory or 

 the industry which has financed the research. Patents therefore gen- 

 erally become the property of the corporation by which the scientist is 

 employed. 



The question of ownership has already arisen concerning values 

 accruing from war research, and it must enter inevitably into all plans 

 for the future support of science. 



The clearest basis for policy in this regard is that research done 

 for a social or public purpose must be brought as quickly as possible 

 to serve this purpose. If it is carried out for the public and at public 



480 



