284 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



would have been precipitate and conceivably could have been construed as 

 unpatriotic. Yet it is rather ironical that several hundred of the leading 

 scientists in the United States stand in theoretical danger of prosecution 

 under the criminal statutes because of their contributions to the winning 

 of a war. 



Fortunately it does not seem at all likely that any of them will ever be 

 prosecuted for those technical violations, for in practice the OSRD avoided 

 situations involving actual conflicts of interest; but there is no denying that 

 the theoretical possibility is there. 



