school, or does not have the oppor- 

 tunity to complete secondary school, 

 he cannot — as things are — go on to 

 collecje and to graduate school. 



3. Recruitment from among gifted 

 students bv business and industry 

 likewise applies with particular force 

 to science. A young man may well 

 find the place in which eventually 

 he will achieve high distinction in 

 industry, following graduation from 

 college, if his place ought to be, for 

 example, in management or applied 

 science. But if his place, consider- 

 ing his abilities, might be at the top 

 in scientific research, he will be seri- 

 ously handicapped if he stops his 

 training without proceeding to the 

 level represented by the doctorate. 

 Industry and business cannot afford, 

 as a long-term proposition, to recruit, 

 prior to completion of training, those 

 potential scientists who appear capa- 

 ble of contributing to fundamental 

 advances or who should be teachers. 



In the light of the studies made, 

 having regard to the facts of the 

 educational pyramid, it clearly is es- 

 sential to provide for the early school- 

 ing of more able students in order 

 that a large enough group will sur- 

 vive to become a larger quota of stu- 

 dents of the highest ability at the 

 apex of the pyramid. To increase this 

 small group of exceptionally able men 

 and women it is necessary to enlarge 

 the number of students of high ability 

 who go to college. This involves bet- 

 ter high schools, provision for help- 

 ing individual, talented students to 

 finish high school (primarily, we con- 

 ceive, responsibilities of every local 

 community), and opportunities for 

 more capable, promising high school 

 students to go to college. Any other 

 practice constitutes an indefensible 

 and wasteful utilization of higher 



education and neglect of our human 

 resources. 



If we were all-knowing and all-wise 

 we might, but we think probably not, 

 write vou a plan v\'hcrebv there might 

 be selected for training, which they 

 otherwise would not get, those who, 

 20 years hence, would be scientific 

 leaders and we might not bother 

 about any lesser manifestations of sci- 

 entific ability. But in the present 

 state of knowledge a plan cannot be 

 made which will select, and assist, 

 only those young men and women 

 who will give the top future leader- 

 ship to science. To get top leader- 

 ship there must be a relatively large 

 base of high ability selected for de- 

 velopment and then successive skim- 

 mings of the cream of ability at suc- 

 cessive times and at higher levels. 

 No one can select from the bottom 

 those who will be the leaders at the 

 top because unmeasured and un- 

 known factors enter into scientific, 

 or any, leadership. There are brains 

 and character, strength and health, 

 happiness and spiritual vitality, in- 

 terest and motivation, and no one 

 knows what else, that must needs 

 enter into this supra-mathematical 

 calculus. 



We think we probably would not, 

 even if we were all-wise and all- 

 knowing, write you a plan whereby 

 you would be assured of scientific 

 leadership at one stroke. We think as 

 we think because we are not inter- 

 ested in setting up an elect. We think 

 it much the best plan, in this consti- 

 tutional Republic, that opportunity 

 be held out to all kinds and condi- 

 tions of men whereby they can better 

 themselves. This is the American 

 way; this is the way the United States 

 has become what it is. We think it 

 very important that circumstances be 

 such that there be no ceilings, other 



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