MERLE A. TUVE 



because so many of our principal research men now spend such a 

 large fraction of their time in obtaining and spending large 

 government grants and in supervising large groups of rather 

 poorly qualified workers who have been upgraded into posts as 

 research men but who are not qualified to be independent in- 

 vestigators. It is my impression that the total effort really spent 

 on basic scientific research in the old-fashioned or scholarly 

 sense has not increased by more than a modest fraction and in 

 no way can be compared with the huge figures of five hundred 

 million and eight hundred million dollars per year which are 

 supposed to be spent for basic research in this country. 



How much basic research do we "need"? Why do we think 

 we should have more basic research? I have not been able to 

 recognize any objective basis for making a quantitative state- 

 ment about our need for basic research as I have described it. 

 Even a relative statement regarding quantity, such as the remark 

 that we need much more basic research than we have in prog- 

 ress today, is hardly to be demonstrated objectively. But we 

 each have our convictions on the subject, and I suggest that we 

 should recognize the depth and quality of our convictions, and 

 note that they actually rest on a higher and broader foundation 

 than, for example, can be objectively demonstrated by economic 

 statistics or by the calculable limitations of our present-day 

 technology. I do not agree that the primary reason for under- 

 writing basic research in science is a utilitarian one, to provide 

 new facts and ideas to be utilized by industry. Instead, one of 

 the good reasons for us to have a productive industrial plant is 

 to give us some excess social energy to invest in science and the 

 arts for their own sakes. Our individual convictions regarding 

 academic research are thus rooted in our views of what con- 

 stitutes the good life. We all feel that a prosperous society should 

 not spend its entire energy and resources in enjoyments of the 

 moment, but that it should also add some permanent enrichment 



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