36 



National Resources Committee 



urgently needed." The Bureau of Engineering has 

 mitigated this difficulty by designating capable officers 

 for engineering duty only. Another side of the ques- 

 tion is exemplified in the Coast and Geodetic Survey, 

 where the liigher rank personnel hold naval commis- 

 sions. The commissioned personnel not only receive 

 higher retirement pay, but there is a tendency to de- 

 velop a social caste system not in the best interests of 

 the agency. 



Quality of Personnel 



It is particularly difficult to judge the quality of Gov- 

 ernment scientific personnel in comparison to that of 

 research w orkers in other agencies because of the differ- 

 ing emphasis with respect to which the work is carried 

 on. The concern of Government with the natural sci- 

 ences is not primarily with the advancement of science 

 as such but lies rather in practical applications — in put- 

 ting science to work for the public welfare. Some com- 

 parison with industrial laboratories, which are simi- 

 larly concerned with applied science, may be possible ; 

 but the icsearch foundations, and to a somewhat lesser 

 extent, the universities, are concerned with science for 

 the sake of science. 



Judged by membership in the National Academy of 

 Sciences and by the starred lists m Men of Science, there 

 are propoitionately fewer outstanding scientists in Gov- 

 ernment work than in university research.^ In part 

 this is undoubtedly a result of the recruitment system, 

 and in part it may be traced to the present classifica- 

 tion procedure, whereby a man who has attained the ex- 

 perience and shown the ability which would lead to such 

 recognition has long since been "promoted" to admin- 

 istrative duties and is no longer active in research. The 

 faDure of the Academy to elect and of Men of Science 

 to star any extensive number of Government scientists 

 may also to some extent reflect an unrealistic scale of 

 values, in terms of which the development of a disease- 

 resistant strain of corn or a cheap and effective gas 

 mask are less significant contributions to science than 

 the discovery of a new planet or the- smashing of an 

 atom. 



Training of Personnel 



Where specialized fields of research are -pursued, it 

 must he made possible to secure special training for the 

 more promising employees. — Research agencies of the 

 Federal Government, with the notable exception of the 

 War and Navy Departments, must depend on the col- 

 leges and universities for training before appointment 

 those who make up their scientific staffs. No such insti- 

 tution, however, is able to give more than a grounding 

 in more or less generalized scientific fields, while the 



•See taWps In appendix to Section 6, PP- 191-193. 



work of most Government agencies, like that of indus- 

 try, is highly specialized and often cuts across the lines 

 dividing one science from another. The more highly 

 specialized the work is, the more difficult it becomes to 

 recruit personnel already adequately trained, and the 

 more essential is it to provide some form of in-service 

 training if high standards are to be maintained. 



Training on the Job 



In most of the scientific agencies an informal train- 

 ing program is carried out by assigning junior staff 

 members to work under the immediate supervision of 

 those more experienced in the problems facing the 

 agency. The Bureau of Mines, for example, gives 

 thorough instruction to new recruits, and the first 

 years in the Bureau are considered "as a libei-al train- 

 ing course in technical and scientific i^rocedure and 

 writing." The Geological Survey, and many other 

 bureaus, follow a similar practice. 



In other cases, formal classes are organized within 

 the agency, with the various specialists on the staff 

 serving as instructors. After-hours courses of gradu- 

 ate status have been given in the Bureau of Standards 

 for 25 years, and similar courses are given by numerous 

 other bureaus. The Coast and Geodetic Survey has 

 found that "young engineers entering the service from 

 college through competitive examinations are not suf- 

 ficiently familiar Mnth the specialized work of the 

 Bureau until they have had considerable training"; 

 and a selected number of employees of the Weather 

 Bureau spend their full time for 2 or 3 months in the 

 "study of teclinical procedures for air mass and frontal 

 analyses of sj'uoptic maps, kinematic and thermody- 

 namic analyses of maps and aerological data, and prac- 

 tical applications to weather forecasting." These 

 classes are supplemented by practice forecasting, daily 

 map conferences, and monthly meetings of the technical 

 staff. 



Present Practice Inadequate 



Extensive as its in-service training program is, how- 

 ever, the Weather Bureau offers an outstanding example 

 of the inadequacy of such methods to cope with the 

 problems of a rapidly changing science. Technologi- 

 cal developments of the last few years in the field of 

 meteorology have rendered obsolete much of the train- 

 ing and experience of a majority of AVeather Bureau 

 scientific pei-sonnel; and it remains legally impossible 

 to send these men for special courses to any of the two 

 or three universities now giving graduate instruction 

 in air mass analysis. Neither is it possible, under pres- 

 ent civil service procedures, to i-ecruit in competition 

 with the air lines younger men already trained in the 

 new methods. The technique of weather forecasting, 



