L. C. DUNN 



anticipated. One is that research cannot be free under a central 

 direction, but will wither and die. Scientists, it is said, will not submit 

 to regimentation, nor can new ideas, the life blood of science, be cre- 

 ated by subsidy. The other criticism is that the needs are already met 

 by such existing agencies as the National Academy of Sciences and the 

 National Research Council. 



The first criticism is certainly a cogent one when central con- 

 trol is proposed, but it applies with less force to a board which judges 

 applications initiated by working scientists as individuals or groups, 

 especially when many of the judges are themselves working scientists 

 who know how delicate a plant original research is and how necessary 

 is the atmosphere of freedom to its growth. 



Much will depend upon the degree to which members of the 

 board realize that any organization of this sort exists primarily to 

 provide a material body for the mind of science. There are scientists 

 and others who know this and who apply to organizations proposed for 

 science two essential criteria; Does it provide the mind with adequate 

 and proper facilities? Does it leave the mind free to strike out in new 

 directions? Men who ask these questions are the ones whose sense of 

 public duty would bring them into the service of such a board, just as it 

 brought such men into the direction of war research. 



In regard to the second criticism, it must be pointed out that 

 in the war emergency neither the National Research Council nor the 

 National Academy of Sciences proved to have the character needed 

 for an agency to guide and administer the organization and support of 

 science. Neither is an operating agency; and, as constituted at present, 

 neither could provide the initiative and the administrative services 

 which are required. The relative isolation in which they have func- 

 tioned has removed them from that close connection with problems of 

 public policy so essential for an agency to have which is to be responsive 

 to public needs. They have the confidence of scientists and close con- 

 nection with academic research and with the scientific societies and 

 organizations and are thus well prepared to serve an important ad- 

 visory function. The National Academy of Sciences, as a council of 

 elder statesmen, could well be called upon to pass upon the qualifica- 

 tions of scientists proposed for membership in the Board of Scientific 

 Research. The Academy would be less able to maintain sufficiently 

 close relations with consumers, with labor, and with industry, and it 



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