28 



National Resources Committee 



pressure from the livestock industry that brought 

 bureau status to the division in 1884, and similar re- 

 quests have been behind much of its subsequent expan- 

 sion. Because of the essentially interstate nature of 

 the industry and because its products and byproducts 

 are familiar items in interstate commerce, its problems 

 are of national concern, and form a legitimate and 

 necessary field of research by government. 



Tlie achievements of the Bureau which are directly 

 due to successful research are many and familiar. To 

 cite only the more obvious, tuberculosis in cattle has 

 been reduced for the United States as a whole from 

 more than 4 percent to about 0.4 percent, and similar 

 gains have been made in combatting hog cholera. 

 The resources of the Bureau are now being directed 

 toward discovering means of eliminating Bang's dis- 

 ease. The meat-inspection service is the consumer's 

 guarantee of pure meat products; and on the positive 

 side, nutrition and breeding experiments are resulting 

 in progressively improved animals for meat and other 

 purposes. 



In another field of agricultural research, the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry estimates the annual value of 22 

 specific accomplishments at more than $230,000,000. 

 The largest item on the list is the breeding and intro- 

 duction into use of varieties of spring wheat, resulting 

 in an annual increase in jjroduction worth $40,000,000 

 and improved quality worth not less than $5,000,000. 

 Other items are the introduction of durum wheat, a 

 crop now worth $30,000,000 annually; an increase in 

 soybean acreage from less than 50,000 in 1907 to nearly 

 4,000,000 in 1932, estimated as worth $30,000,000; and 

 an annual saving of $30,000,000 as a result of improved 

 orchard spraying practices. 



Among the achievements of the Bureau of Chemis- 

 try and Soils are also many which have become part 

 of our daily lives, although we have probably forgotten 

 the source. The pure food and drug laws are based 

 on research by the Bureau of Chemistry, predecessor 

 of the present agency, which also played a major part 

 in the develoi^ment of the American dye industry. 

 More recent accomplishments are American substi- 

 tutes for the imported nitrates used in fertilizer, and 

 the development of a process for manufacturing starch 

 from sweetpotatoes. The Bureau estimates that only 

 about 5 percent of its research is productive — an aver- 

 age that will probably hold for most research agencies 

 in and out of Government — but that 5 percent repays 

 more than $100 for every dollar spent on the whole 

 program, productive and unsuccessful alike. 



Illustrations from the Department of Agriculture 

 might be multiplied indefinitely, but for the sake of 

 proportion only one more instance will be mentioned, 

 that of the Weather Bureau. Weather forecasting de- 



pends on an extensive series of observations taken at 

 specified times at numerous places throughout the 

 country, and where possible outside the country as 

 well. Only a national agency with the authority of 

 Government behind it can perform such a task suc- 

 cessfully. 



Another interstate and international field in which 

 research is essential is that of fisheries. As early as 

 1871 it had become obvious that the industry and the 

 States were helpless to protect the fisheries in the face 

 of a diminisliing supply and an expanding market. 

 The solution lay in continuing scientific research by 

 an agency with authority to move freely across State 

 lines and in international waters. It was at the de- 

 mand both of the States and of the industry that the 

 United States Fish Commission, predecessor of the 

 Bureau of Fisheries, was established ; and similar con- 

 siderations led to the establishment of the Biological 

 Surve.v a decade and a half latei-. 



Superiority in Resources 



There are certain fields of natural science and tech- 

 nology in which the Federal Government is better 

 equipped to cam/ on research than is any other 

 agency. — There are many fields of research in which 

 the Federal Government must take the lead for purely 

 practical reasons, and wholly aside from any obliga- 

 tion other than a general responsibility for the public 

 welfare and for national progress. The particular 

 activities falling within this category will necessarily 

 vary as new problems assume imposing magnitude and 

 old problems Hnd acceptable solutions, but there will 

 probably always be some fields in which the Federal 

 Govei-nment seems to be the only agency with sufficient 

 authority and resources to carry out an adequate re- 

 search program. Outstanding among these fields at 

 the present time is that of aeronautical research. 



Aeronautical Research 



The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 

 was created by Congress in 1915, after the first year of 

 conflict in Europe had demonstrated the potential value 

 of aircraft as instruments of war. For a decade the 

 Committee functioned as a research agency for the 

 military services, but extended the scope of its activi- 

 ties to include civil aviation in the 1920's when air 

 traffic assumed commercial importance. Today it per- 

 forms a unique function which the Nation could not 

 well do without but which is beyond the resources of 

 any but a govermnental institution. 



The performance and potentialities of aircraft are rerolution- 

 izing the concept of national clefen.se the world over. Aeronau- 

 tics i.s becoming a factor vital to national existence. Its 

 importance in international commerce is now just beginning to 

 be felt. 



