117 



In defense of the bill as introduced, Senator Thomas of Utah again 

 referred to the social impact of science, the relevance of social trends 

 for the general welfare, the unity of all science, the military importance 

 of the social sciences, and the need for freedom of scientific inquiry. 

 Whereupon the Senate accepted the Hart amendment (46 to 26, with 

 24 not voting) ,^^ and then adopted the NSF bill (48 to 18, with 30 

 not voting)/^ The effect of the decision was to register the Senate's 

 disapproval of any positive action toward the social sciences in the 

 NSF bill; the proposed National Science Foundation might, at a 

 subsequent time, expand its scope to include "other sciences" but — 

 at least insofar as the social sciences were concerned — would do so 

 at its own risk. 



Congressional adoption oj 'permissive formula in 1947 



It was evidently generally believed that the Senate action in ex- 

 cluding the social sciences altogether from the NSF bill had been too 

 extreme, because in the legislation introduced the following year the 

 terms were uniformly more permissive. In the Senate, a bill was in- 

 troduced (S. 526) by Senator Smith of New Jersey, and discharged by 

 unanimous action (without hearings) from the Senate Committee on 

 Labor and Welfare. It was taken up May 14. With respect to the social 

 sciences, the committee recommended : 



Your committee has rejected the proposal that the social sciences be included as 

 a division of the Foundation at this time. It is cognizant of the impact of funda- 

 mental science on modern society and of the need for social-science studies. 

 It feels, however, that the disciplines of the social sciences are not at this time 

 sufficiently well defined to include them in a foundation designed to treat with the 

 basic sciences. Rather, it is the opinion of the committee that the broad, collective 

 wisdom of the Board must be relied upon to determine the time and to what extent 

 changes shall be made in the divisional status of the Foundation; section 7(2) 

 provides "and such other divisions as the Foundation may from time to time, deem 

 necessary." [And also:] 



Time may change the relative importance of the divisions. The foregoing clause 

 permits the necessary flexibility and leaves to the wisdom of the Board the extent 

 to which the social-sciences disciplines are to be explored. It may thus be said that 

 S. .526, as amended, denies mandatory provision for the social sciences, but estab- 

 lishes the right of the Foundation to explore the needs of the social sciences and to 

 determine the extent, if any, that studies in this field are necessary to support work 

 in the other divisions. 



Smith, himself, confessed that he did not favor having the NSF 

 support research in the social sciences but was yielding to the con- 

 sensus. '^'^ Toward the end of the debate on S. 526 Senator Fulbright 

 once more attempted to persuade the Senate to have the bill give equal 

 status to the social sciences with other fields of science ^^ but his amend- 

 ment was rejected by a vote of 23 to 63, with 9 not voting. From 

 this point on, in both the Senate and House bills on science foundation 

 legislation, the compromise formula as reported from the Senate Labor 

 and Welfare Committee was uniformly followed. 



In the House hearmgs, before the Interstate and Foreign Commerce 

 Committee, March 16-17, 1947, the attitude toward the social sciences 



58 Ibid., p. 8350. 



58 Ibid., p. 8300. 



M Congressional Record (Mav 14, 1947), p. 5258. 



" Ibid. (May 20, 1947), p. 5649. 



