these areas are extending our understanding of language with the expectation 

 that uhimately machines will be able to handle linguistic data. 



The recommendation of Science, the Endless Frontier that the National 

 Research Foundation should include a Division of Publications and Scien- 

 tific Collaboration has been substantively realized by the creation within the 

 National Science Foundation of the OIHce of Science Information Service. 



The National Science Foundation 



In a final chapter labeled "The Means to the End," Science, the Endless 

 Frontier recommends the establishment of a National Research Foundation, 

 conceived as the principal means for carrying out the other major recom- 

 mendations contained in the Report. The five years of legislative debate 

 during which the scientific community urged upon Congress the importance 

 of establishing a new foundation are history too familiar to require repetition 

 here. 



President 1 ruman's veto of the bill that was finally passed by both Houses 

 of Congress in 1947 was a major disappointment. The President's objections 

 were directed toward the administrative structure of the new agency under 

 which the director would be elected by a board, a provision which he felt 

 would render it insufficiently responsive to the will of the people. 



The Bill that was finally passed in May 1950 met the principal objections 

 of the President by specifying that both the Director and the Members of 

 the 24-member board should be appointed by the President. This unusual 

 arrangement left over-all policy determination and program approval largely 

 in the hands of the Board, with the Director reporting to the President, al- 

 though serving ex officio on the Board and acting as its executive officer. 



In 1958 the Board, through an ad hoc committee appointed for the purpose, 

 reviewed the working relationship of the Director and the Board in the light 

 of experience and noted that this relationship has been harmonious and con- 

 structive largely as a result of the excellent cooperation on the part of both. 

 The Board noted further that each year of successful operation, built on a 

 clear understanding on the part of each Board Member of his proper func- 

 tion, and upon wise statesmanship on the part of the Director and his asso- 

 ciates gives assurance of continued success. The Board further observed that 

 as each year passes a body of precedents for sound administrative procedures 

 is being built up that may ultimately become an unwritten constitution which 

 will prevail. 



Some of the organizational anomaly of the Foundation was resolved in 1959 

 when Congress amended the National Science Foundation Act to permit the 

 Board to delegate authority to the Director and its Executive Committee to 

 approve grants and contracts in certain situations. The delegation of author- 

 ity has since been implemented by Board action. 



In other details, the structure of the National Science Foundation, as finally 

 constituted, does not difter substantially from that proposed by Science, the 

 Endless Frontier, except in the omission of a Division of National Defense. 

 The Report proposed the following Divisions: Medical Research, Natural 

 Science, National Defense, Scientific Personnel and Education, Division of 

 Publications and Scientific Collaboration and appropriate staflf offices. 



xix 



