BASIC RESEARCH: 

 A TECHNOLOGICAL 

 SAVINGS ACCOUNT 



CRAWFORD H. GREENEWALT 



E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company 



1 SHOULD like first to congratulate the 

 sponsoring organizations for their wisdom and foresight in 

 planning this Symposium on Basic Research. I must also 

 pay tribute to Mr. Alfred Sloan whose keen interest has 

 provided the principal stimulus for this meeting. Mr. Sloan has 

 been revered for many years as one of our great industrial 

 statesmen. It is most gratifying to have him devote his talents 

 and energies also to the world of science. 



I can think of no more important question for searching 

 appraisal than the adequacy, diversity, and magnitude of our 

 basic research effort. In applied research, this country is pre- 

 eminent. We need bow to no other nation in our ability to turn 

 scientific discovery into goods and services for the benefit of 

 mankind. Research and development expenditures, public and 

 private, totaled about ten billion dollars in 1957, and even this 

 great sum can be amply justified in terms of steadily improv- 

 ing living standards and an increasingly impregnable national 

 security. 



Applied research and development, however, are con- 



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