60 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



may eventually go into large scale production should be carefully placed in 

 order to avoid areas already overloaded with war contracts or faced with 

 acute labor shortage; (4) contracts should be spread among as many organ- 

 izations as is reasonable and feasible; (5) all other things being equal, the 

 contract should be placed where the cost is lowest. 



Reorganization of the Divisions 



The first and only major reorganization within NDRC came in Decem- 

 ber 1942. The tremendous increase in the Committee's activities which 

 followed the outbreak of hostilities and the accelerated pressure to produce 

 useful results quickly threw a heavy burden upon the members of the Com- 

 mittee. Undoubtedly the original scheme of making the civilian members 

 Chairmen of divisions had resulted in greater speed than would have been 

 had if this had not been done. With the enormous increase in the Commit- 

 tee's program, however, this divisional organization had thrown a heavy ad- 

 ministrative burden upon the members, which prevented them from giving 

 sufficient attention to the broader policies which were a part of their re- 

 sponsibilities. After a preliminary series of conferences with the Division 

 chairmen in October 1942, Conant and Edward L. Moreland (Dean of 

 Engineering, M.I.T., and Executive Officer of NDRC) submitted to the 

 Committee a proposal for a complete reorganization of NDRC. This pro- 

 posal became the basis of a recommendation to the Director adopted by 

 the Committee at a special meeting on October 15, 1942. The several parts 

 of that recommendation were: (i) that the Director abolish the present 

 divisions and sections of NDRC as of a date to be determined by the 

 Chairman of NDRC; (2) that the Director create approximately fifteen divi- 

 sions of NDRC with a tentative allocation of functions set out in the recom- 

 mendation; (3) that a subcommittee consisting of Conant, Adams, Comp- 

 ton, Jewett and Tolman examine all NDRC projects and contracts and 

 allocate each to one of the new divisions or sections; (4) that the same sub- 

 committee recommend budgets for the new divisions; (5) that the same 

 subcommittee be empowered to recommend to the Director technical per- 

 sonnel of each division and section and the creation of new divisions and 

 sections with appropriate personnel; (6) that after the reorganization, divi- 

 sional proposals be submitted in typewritten form for circulation to the 

 Committee members, the proposals to contain all pertinent information and 

 to show the relation of the proposed contract to the general scheme of opera- 

 tion of the division both from a scientific and a budgetary point of view; 

 (7) that the proposals would not be acted upon at the first meeting at 

 which they are reviewed unless the need for immediate action is clearly 

 demonstrated and unanimous consent obtained. In general where proposals 

 involve an important new departure from policy or large sums of money, 



