SCIENTIFIC MANPOWER 273 



ments. It was not clear how long a man might expect to remain on a par- 

 ticular job, and in such circumstances the proffer of an Army or Navy 

 commission proved too tempting for a number of scientists. Yet OSRD suc- 

 ceeded in retaining the services of practically all of the key men deferred on 

 its recommendation. 



On March 24, 1944, the War Manpower Commission created an Inter- 

 departmental Agency Committee authorized to endorse deferment requests 

 for the employees of the constituent agencies and employees of their con- 

 tractors. Failure to include OSRD on the committee required the endorse- 

 ment of OSRD requests by the War or Navy Departments or, in the case 

 of men on the Reserved List, by the Committee on Scientific Research Per- 

 sonnel. As a result of its protest supported by the Army and the Navy, 

 OSRD was later added to the Interdepartmental Agency Committee with 

 the authority to endorse requests for deferment. 



Even the inclusion of a man's name on the Reserved List and the endorse- 

 ment of a request for his deferment by a claimant agency under the pro- 

 cedure of the Interdepartmental Agency Committee was no assurance of 

 continued deferment of an individual under 26 after the President's memo- 

 randum of February 26, 1944. In fact, for a short period there seemed to 

 be some danger that the Army and Navy might even withdraw their sup- 

 port from the Reserved List. OSRD found itself in the uncomfortable 

 position of being requested to take on more and more research and devel- 

 opment work for the Services and even to enter into the field of crash pro- 

 curement which the Services were poorly equipped to handle, while at the 

 same time the removal of key personnel through the operations of Selec- 

 tive Service was constandy threatened. Effective support of the Reserved 

 List came only after some plain talking in which OSRD pointed out to the 

 Army and Navy the extent to which military research programs would 

 have to be abandoned unless key scientists under 26 were left in positions 

 to carry out those programs. The total number involved was not large, as 

 only approximately 1350 individuals under 26 had been included in the 

 Reserved List. 



The rapidity with which the situation changed can be illustrated by two 

 letters written by Bush to members of the NDRC. As a result of prolonged 

 discussions with Selective Service, the Army and the Navy, he wrote Conant 

 on March 10, 1944: 



... I am convinced, having reviewed the entire affair, that no qualified scientific 

 research man, now working on a piece of research which is vital to the war ef- 

 fort, will be called upon to serve in the United States Army as a result of the 

 functioning of the Selective Service System, so long as a fully qualified and rep- 

 resentative committee considers that he is qualified and his work is important. . . . 



The situation changed so drastically, however, that he wrote Jewett on 

 April 6, 1944, that 



