262 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



ice Act and the system which it created. A blanket exception of scientists 

 from the operations of the Act, if carefully administered, would probably 

 have materially aided in the scientific research program underlying the 

 war effort, but the exception of an entire group might have entailed such 

 bad results because of the example it set that the over-all war effort would 

 have suffered. The subject is certainly one which should receive careful 

 study over the next few years in order that the whole problem of scientific 

 manpower may be better handled in the future if the occasion for it should 

 arise, for it was badly handled in World War II. 



The most ambitious attempt of OSRD to meet the scientific manpower 

 problem intelligently did not receive a trial, but the importance of the sub- 

 ject warrants mention of it here so that it may be considered if a com- 

 parable emergency confronts the country in the future. 



Proposed Scientific Corps 



The impact of the Pearl Harbor attack upon the availability of scientific 

 manpower promised to be serious. The Army promptly started calling more 

 reserve officers into active service, the Navy stepped up its commissioning of 

 highly selected scientific and technical men, scientists began to volunteer for 

 the Army and Navy although their usefulness to the war effort might be 

 greater if they remained in their laboratories, the calls upon Selective Service 

 became greater, and the demand for scientific manpower in research and in- 

 dustry increased. Bush requested President Robert G. Sproul of the Uni- 

 versity of California to come to Washington to make a study of the scien- 

 tific manpower situation. After discussing the matter with Bush, Conant 

 wrote to Sproul on January i, 1942, suggesting what he described as "the 

 most radical solution of our personnel problem; namely, that there be cre- 

 ated by law a Scientific Research Corps into which men would be forced 

 by fear of the draft, as well as by patriotic motives, and this Research Corps 

 would be distributed around in various laboratories to carry on the neces- 

 sary research work required by the Nation in time of war." 



Sproul came to Washington and, after canvassing the situation, met with 

 the Advisory Council on January 17, 1942, for a discussion of the proposed 

 Scientific Corps. The subject was again discussed by the Council on Jan- 

 uary 23, at which time it began to take rather definite form. The proposed 

 Civilian Scientific Corps was to consist of approximately 25,000 men drawn 

 from civilian life, including civilians in the Army, Navy and Civil Service. 

 Except for administrative officers, members of the Corps would be required 

 to have a bachelor's degree or its equivalent and to have demonstrated spe- 

 cial skill in research in an educational, industrial or governmental institu- 

 tion or in a research laboratory. The Director of the Corps, appointed by 

 the President, would have the power to assign members and to allocate the 



