274 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



There is no doubt that the manpower situation is in a very bad way, and that it is 

 likely to injure the scientific effort seriously. There is also no doubt that it has 

 already inflicted considerable injury on the effort, for the confused and chaotic 

 situation has badly affected morale. 



One new element was introduced into the situation by the requirement 

 that the Army and the Navy certify which projects that they had sub- 

 mitted or would submit to OSRD in the future were of such a nature as 

 to justify a request for the deferment of personnel. This was the occasion 

 for a great deal of work. It involved a re-examination by the Army and 

 the Navy of all projects which they had submitted to the OSRD. The re- 

 examination resulted in the certification of practically ail projects but due 

 to the length of time required for the examination within the Services, 

 information as to the certification of particular projects came in at dif- 

 ferent times. The certified projects then had to be traced through the vari- 

 ous contracts under which work was being conducted and the connection 

 of each individual for whom deferment might be requested with the par- 

 ticular project which had been certified had to be established. For those 

 projects which were initiated by OSRD itself there was initially no provi- 

 sion for certification. The Army acted as the certifying agency for such 

 projects until OSRD a short time later was authorized to certify its own 

 projects. The principal effect of the requirement of certification of projects 

 was to overload a number of busy people for a substantial period, but the 

 net result was the continued endorsement for deferment of the men who 

 had been so endorsed prior to the requirement of certification. The initial 

 screening which had been established by OSRD was at least as effective 

 as that established as a result of the President's memorandum of Febru- 

 ary 26 and the ensuing regulations. 



The Radiation Laboratory at M.I.T. had been extraordinarily successful 

 in developing radar equipment of which the Services were making very 

 effective use. There was strong pressure from the Services for handmade 

 preproduction models of various radar devices for actual operational use 

 during the interval before equipment would be available from the pro- 

 duction lines. Ultra-high-frequency radar was distincdy a young man's 

 game built upon information acquired by young men and for the most 

 part unknown to older men. The insistence of the Army upon the induc- 

 tion of young men led to the requirement by the State Selective Service 

 Director in Massachusetts that fifty young men be taken from the Radia- 

 tion Laboratory. This would have seriously upset a substantial part of the 

 radar program. 



While this situation was developing, the Undersecretary of War, Robert 

 P. Patterson, wrote a letter to the New Yor\ Times stressing that the policy 

 of the War Department was to insure the utilization of scientific research 

 personnel where they were urgently needed on war jobs. This was too 



