L. C. DUNN 



It is time now to deal briefly and in bare outline with the last 

 question: how can these ideas and hopes about the support of science 

 be brought into practical operation? 



It seems evident that there must be an agency having as its 

 chief concern the preservation, advancement, and diffusion of scientific 

 knowledge. There are, in the United States, dozens of organizations 

 having this aim in limited spheres, but that not one of them fulfilled 

 the required functions in the national interest became evident when, in 

 the war emergency, a wholly new and temporary agency, the Office 

 of Scientific Research and Development, had to be created. The im- 

 portance of the work assigned to this office, and the power and facilities 

 which accompanied the responsibility, pointed not only to the need but 

 to the method of meeting the need for a central agency of government 

 concerned with science. 



It is probable that nothing less than the creation of a cabinet 

 department of science under a Secretary of Science can permanently 

 meet the need. It ought to be connected directly with the central 

 executive body of the government, because only in such a position can 

 it be made aware of the basic problems which face the nation, and 

 only through the political power which attaches to cabinet rank can it 

 gain the means and facilities with which to support the study of both 

 immediate and long-term problems. 



The structure of such a department may well be different from 

 that of other government departments because, in addition to policy 

 making and administrative functions, it would have to serve as a 

 coordinating agency for many existing scientific agencies, both public 

 and private. To name only two groups of interests, it would have to be 

 closely connected with the universities and research institutes, and with 

 industry, since in each of these institutions needs for new knowledge 

 are likely first to become apparent, and from each flows scientific and 

 technical information which can be put to use in national defense and 

 development. 



At the heart of such a department could well be a board or 

 council of scientific research which could act at once as a granting 

 agency, allocating funds for specific researches, and as a board of strat- 

 egy, seeking out neglected areas, mobilizing disparate facts and dis- 

 tant persons, and shifting its forces from time to time to explore new 

 avenues of research. If it fulfilled its best purpose, it could not be 



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