100 



tion with war research, the future of medical and rehxted science, 

 Government sponsorship of private and pubHc research, and en- 

 couragement of talented young people to pursue careers in science. 



In response to the President's request. Dr. Bush organized four 

 study panels, each to report on one of the four issues raised by the 

 President; a report specifying an action program was transmitted to 

 President Truman, July 5, 1945. The Bush report, "Science, the End- 

 less Frontier: A Report to the President on a Program for Postwar 

 Scientific Research," concluded that a vigorous level of scientific 

 effort under Federal sponsorship could be beneficial to national health, 

 productivity, and defense. 



The primary need was for a strong and undirected effort in basic 

 scientific research. The United States could no longer rely on Euro- 

 pean basic research for the underpinning of its ap])lied research pro- 

 grams; moreover, the research capital of past basic discoveries had 

 been used up during the war years and needed replenishment which 

 only the United States could undertake to provide. The report called 

 for a national policy on science, with heavy emphasis on the need 

 for Government support of basic research, expanded interchange with 

 other countries of scientific information, and a vigorous program to 

 bring more and better qualified young people into scientific careers. 

 To implement these recommendations the Busli report proposed a 

 national research foundation, responsible to the President, able to 

 disburse funds to sponsor research, and consisting of divisions of med- 

 ical research, natural sciences, national defense, scientific personnel 

 and education, and publications and scientific collaboration, supported 

 by an administrative office.^ 



Dr. Bush later explained that in preparing his recommendations, he 

 had understood the President's request to encompass only the physical, 

 biological, and medical sciences. However, upon recei])t of the Bush 

 report. President Truman enlarged the scope of its terms. In a lengthy 

 message to Congress on reconversion, September 6, 1945, he included 

 a section in which he lU^ged "the earl}^ adoption of legislation for the 

 establishment of a single Federal research agency which would 

 [discharge six functions, of which the second was:] promote and 

 support research in the basic sciences and in the social sciences." 

 [Emphasis supplied.] ® 



Dr. Bush did not altogether oppose this addition to his program. 

 On October 15 he told the Kilgore subcommittee that he believed 

 "that our strength is also dependent upon the extent of our knowledge 

 of social phenomena and our ability to bring such understanding to 

 bear wisely on the urgent problems confronting us." He urged that 

 the question receive proper study and that the views of the social 

 scientists be assembled.'^ 



Because of its longstanding interest in science policy, the Sub- 

 committee on War Mobilization — jointly with two ad hoc subcom- 

 mittees of the Senate Committee on Commerce, proceeded shortly 

 after the President's reconversion message to begin consideration of 



* U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development. "Science, the Endless Frontier," n report to the 

 President on a program for postwar scientific research, by Vinnevar Bush, Director of the Office of Scientific 

 Research and Development. July 1945 (Washington, D.C., National Science Foundation, reprinted July 

 1960), especially pp. 34-40. 



' tr.S. President Harry S. Truman. Special message to the Congress presenting a 21-point program for the 

 reconversion period, Sept. 6, 1945. In Public Papers of the Presidents. Harry S. Truman, 1945. (Washington, 

 U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 293. 



7 Hearings on Science Legislation (S. 1297 and related bills). Pt. 2, Oct. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1945, op cit., p. 800. 



