ROBERT S. MORISON 



interest in praetical application away on a high shelf. In a word, 

 research in the social sciences should become basic research. 



At the risk of breaking one of the real rules of the game 

 one might even go so far as to suggest that the foundations 

 develop the boldness to interfere ever so slightly with the work 

 of their own grantees. One thinks here of the possibility of 

 encouraging investigators to relinquish their urge to stress prac- 

 tical applications and to avoid unnecessarily melodramatic 

 methods of procedure. 



It need not be regarded as a shocking interference with 

 academic freedom to suggest that a pure scientist has no real 

 obligation to publish his findings on the frequency of sodomy 

 in every magazine in the country, or that there may be satis- 

 factory ways of studying decision making in small groups short 

 of inserting microphones in jury rooms. 



Support of 11 1 uler graduate Colleges 



Finally are there other vital roles for the private founda- 

 tions in an affluent society? The President's Advisory Com- 

 mittee mentions provision for fellowships and more permanent 

 positions in new specialties and interdisciplinary areas and the 

 maintenance and establishment of first-rate graduate schools. 

 Both of these are traditional activities which have been dis- 

 cussed above. 



In a special paragraph the report points to the importance 

 of undergraduate colleges. On the whole it would appear that 

 foundations and indeed most sources of support except for 

 handfuls of loyal alumni have not given sufficient attention to 

 these institutions. Many of them, as clearly shown in the well- 

 known study by Knapp and Greenbaum have turned a wholly 

 disproportionate number of their graduates toward productive 

 work in the sciences. It seems most unlikely that they can 

 continue this record unless they can provide the sort of research 



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