4 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



new fields with the funds at their disposal, although this does not foreclose 

 the possibility that they might have exercised greater imagination had they 

 had more money. More significant is the fact that when large amounts of 

 money were available, there was no corresponding increase in vision as to 

 how it might be used for the development of new and more effective 

 weapons. 



In any event, it was apparent to a few key scientists in the spring of 1940 

 that the United States was in imminent danger of being forced into a war 

 for which the country was pathetically unprepared from the standpoint of 

 new weapons. While others may have had the same feeling, four in par- 

 ticular discussed the matter among themselves and took steps to enlist the 

 support of President Roosevelt to improve the situation. They were Van- 

 nevar Bush, President of the Carnegie Institution of Washington; Karl T. 

 Compton, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; James B. 

 Conant, President of Harvard University, and Frank B. Jewett, President 

 of the National Academy of Sciences and of the Bell Telephone Labora- 

 tories. Of this group. Bush was the one who carried the major part of the 

 responsibility of impressing the need for action upon President Roosevelt 

 and his advisers and of persuading the heads of the military forces of the 

 need for a more effective mobilization of science for a program of improve- 

 ment of weapons of warfare. 



A great source of the fundamental strength of the United States has been 

 in the very high proportion of its scientific and engineering talent devoted 

 to the ordinary economy of peacetime. The contributions of the scientists 

 and the engineers underlie the tremendous economic development which 

 constitutes the basis for the support of a modern mechanized army and navy. 

 The great need was to bring this scientific and engineering strength quickly 

 and effectively to bear upon the preparation for defense in modern warfare. 

 The situation was not unique, for the same need had been felt in other 

 major conflicts in which the country had engaged. 



Thus, the National Academy of Sciences was created by an act of Con- 

 gress approved on March 3, 1863, in order better to focus scientific talent 

 in the Civil War. The Academy was composed of distinguished American 

 scientists and engineers from the fields of mathematics, astronomy, physics, 

 engineering, chemistry, geology, and paleontology; botany, zoology, anat- 

 omy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, and bacteriology; anthropology 

 and psychology. Election to membership in the Academy was based on 

 established eminence in some field of science; the number of members was 

 originally limited to 50, but the limitation was later removed and in 1940 

 the number of members was approximately 300. 



The act creating the Academy provided that it should "whenever called 

 upon by any department of the Government investigate, examine, experi- 

 ment, and report upon any subject of science or art." The actual expense 



