ROBERT E. WILSON 



operations conducted — more emphasis on petrochemicals and 

 specialty products by some companies versus those who are 

 mainly concerned with production and transportation. Even 

 allowing for those factors, however, there remains a large differ- 

 ence which 1 think must be attributed to the degree of en- 

 lightenment of the management of the various laboratories as to 

 the value, indeed, the necessity, of more basic research in our 

 industry. 



I am sure similar differences exist between large labora- 

 tories in other industries, and that is one of the reasons for sym- 

 posiums like this, to make the laggards realize that they are 

 lagging and should do more work in the basic area. 



Also, the story of industry's support of basic research 

 would not be complete if we did not recognize the fact that 

 industry and its management have really been indirectly re- 

 sponsible for much of the outstanding support given basic 

 research by other organizations. For example, most of the 

 larger foundations, such as Rockefeller, Ford, Sloan, and 

 Carnegie, had their origin in large individual fortunes built up 

 in industry, which were channeled into basic research and other 

 public service by farsighted individuals in corporate manage- 

 ment. They were glad to do with their private funds what they 

 had not felt free to do with corporate funds. Also, taxes on in- 

 dustry support much of government research as well, and if 

 corporate taxes were not so high, industry might well support 

 more basic research. 



What about the common criticism that industry is too 

 prone to hire away, at fancy salaries, the professors who are so 

 vital to the future of both basic and applied research? Possibly 

 I am not the one to answer that, as I succumbed to one of those 

 offers about 37 years ago. However, the net effect of all this has 

 been to increase greatly the academic salaries of good scientists, 

 which has been beneficial to all. Also, I believe that industry is 



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