Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



27 



volved in military Morks such as higliM-ays, bridges, 

 and fortifications, or naval shore establishments such 

 as drydocks. 



Almost without exception these various lines of re- 

 search must be instigated by government. They often 

 lead, it is true, to the development of new products, but 

 they are products for which there is no market except 

 in wartime and consequently no incentive for private 

 industry to undertake research in connection with them, 

 except to the extent that it is federally subsidized. 

 Preparation for war in time of peace is a governmental 

 function — a function which, under modern conditions, 

 must be largely carried out in the laboratory. 



Standardization 



The constitutional authority of the Government to fix 

 the standard of weights and measures opens another 

 vast field of scientific activity which is the special prov- 

 ince of the National Bureau of Standards. Progress 

 demands new kinds of measurements, new standards, 

 and ever-increasing accuracy ; and the Bureau is there- 

 fore continuously engaged in research and testing in 

 many fields such as electricity, weights and measures, 

 heat and power, optics, chemistry, mechanics and sound, 

 organic and fibrous materials, metallurgy, and clay and 

 silicate products, in an effort to discover and evaluate 

 material standards and to solve basic problems of in- 

 dustry. 



Support of Regulatory Functions 



In numerous other fields besides those of national 

 defense and standardization the Federal Government 

 has a clear-cut obligation to conduct research. Among 

 these fields may be mentioned those in which the Gov- 

 ernment performs necessary regulatory functions such 

 as control of traffic in foods and drugs, and supervision 

 of power production. Wherever Government regula- 

 tion has become necessary, research in the same field is 

 also a governmental obligation. The findings of pos- 

 sibly interested agencies cannot be relied upon, either 

 in determining a need for regulation or in prosecuting 

 violations. 



The Federal Power Commission cannot protect the 

 public interest in issuing licenses for hydroelectric 

 power developments without making a thorough study 

 in each case, through its own disinterested experts, of all 

 the factors involved. More broadly, if the Commission 

 is to regulate the generation, transmission, and sale of 

 electric energy, it must have accurate and current infor- 

 mation covering the whole field of power development, 

 and it cannot rely upon any outside soiurce to analyze 

 and evaluate the information it secures. Regulation 

 implies unbiased knowledge of the field to be regu- 

 lated — knowledge which can be accumulated only by 



research, and which will be accepted as reasonably free 

 from bias only if the research is done by Government. 



Administrative and Construction Functions 



Similarly, where the Federal Government by virtue 

 of its national authority lias undertaken extensive ad- 

 ministrative or construction functions, as it has in the 

 fields of reclamation, flood control, and highway 

 transportation, it is obligated to do whatever research 

 may be required in fulfilling them. In the construc- 

 tion of Boulder Dam, for example, there was no reli- 

 able experience on which to draw because no structure 

 of such magnitude had ever before been attempted. 

 Only the Federal Government possessed sufficient re- 

 sources to build the dam, and the building process 

 required research of an elaborate and highly special- 

 ized order. In like manner, the Bureau of Public 

 Roads must supplement its construction function by 

 an extensive research program designed to develop 

 better methods and materials for building highways, 

 and to determine factoi-s influencing highway location. 

 Failure to do so would mean failure to get value re- 

 ceived for an investment which runs into the hundreds 

 of millions annually. 



National Problems 



In addition to the fields already noted in which the 

 Federal Government is obligated to carry on research 

 because of some administrative responsibility, there are 

 various problems of a definitely interstate or national 

 character which must be solved nationally. Perhaps 

 the outstanding example in this field is agricultural 

 research. The numerous activities of the Department 

 of Agriculture have grown up almost invariably in 

 response to demands from farmers for assistance in 

 solving practical problems which could not be handled 

 by individual effort. Agriculture itself is one of the 

 country's major industries and is Nation-wide in scope. 

 The problems of the farmer are essentially the prob- 

 lems of all farmers. The insect enemies of crops, the 

 diseases of plants and livestock, and the ravages of 

 drought and flood waters are no respecters of property 

 rights or political boundaries. The agricultural prob- 

 lem is national and calls for a continuous and wide- 

 spread application of science which only the Federal 

 Government is in position to make. 



The Bureau of Animal Industry, for example, func- 

 tions as the central research agency for the livestock 

 and poultry industries of America. The original 

 activity of the Bureau, while it was still only a divi- 

 sion of an adolescent department without cabinet rank, 

 was investigation of livestock diseases at the insistence 

 of cattlemen whose products had been consistently con- 

 demned as unsanitary in foreign markets. It was also 



