44 



This long-term aspect is one of the most important fea- 

 tures of governmental research in comparison to work 

 done by many other agencies. Because it has a fiseil 

 research fund amounting to a percentage of its annual 

 construction appropriations, the Bureau of Public 

 Roads was able to carry on highly important investi- 

 gations in soil mechanics which failed to yield posi- 

 tive results until the experiments had been continued 

 for 10 years. On their annual budgets, however, few 

 other agencies of Government can continue research 

 projects for long if significant results are not achieved. 

 The yearly budget also affects adversely the field 

 work of various agencies. As the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey points out, detailed plans — 



cannot be m.ide until the amount of an appropriation is known ; 

 appropriations are not regular from year to year; tbey fre- 

 quently have not been passed by the Congress until a few 

 days before July 1, so that parties in the field are uncertain 

 whether the work they are engaged upon will suddenly cease 

 near the end of June or be expanded. As fewer field parties 

 are employed during the winter it would be more efficient if 

 the amount of the annual appropriation were known on Janu- 

 ary 1. Still further efliciency would result from appropriations 

 being made for periods of 2 or more years. 



At the same time, the necessity under present practices 

 of preparing budget estimates a year or more in ad- 

 vance means in rapidly developing fields that the need 

 for certain projects may have passed by the time funds 

 are available and new problems may have arisen which 

 are more urgently in need of solution. Only a greater 

 degree of administrative latitude than now prevails 

 will ameliorate this situation. 



A further criticism of the procedure is offered by 

 the Forest Service: 



Another aspect of the financial problem is the inordinate and 

 increasing amount of time which must be devoted to appropria- 

 tion matters. The volume of work involved in preparing Bud- 

 get estimates, supporting these with concise and convincing 

 statements, preparing material for hearings and justifying rec- 

 ommendations to a chain of officials and committees can hardly 

 be appreciated by anyone who has not actually had contact 

 with the process. 



While the problem of appropriating for research 

 work in such a way as to provide a balanced over-all 

 program for Government as a whole can not be solved 

 without much more detailed study than has been given 

 to it here, various suggestions have been offered which 

 are worthy of consideration. One scientific agency sug- 

 gests the appointment of an advisory committee for 

 each of the technical bureaus, these committees to be 

 responsible to some general advisory body whose func- 

 tion would be to review the scientific programs of all 

 the bureaus and to make recommendations to the Bu- 

 reau of the Budget. Such a general advisory council 

 would, of course, have to represent both the natural 

 and the social sciences. 



National Resources Committee 



Another proposal would supply the Bureau of the 

 Budget with staff advisors in specialized fields. Under 

 such an arrangement, the research program of any 

 agency would be passed upon by experts in the particu- 

 lar science or sciences with which it dealt but who, by 

 virtue of their responsibility to the Bureau of the 

 Budget rather than to an operating agency, should be 

 in position to consider the broad scientific needs of the 

 Government without regard to departmental lines.* 



It is also essential that when cuts are made by the 

 appropriating authority they should be lump sum 

 rather than itemized cuts. It should be left to the 

 scientific staff to determine where financial reductions 

 can best be made so as to preserve the most necessary 

 features of the program. 



Stimulus to Nongovernmental 

 Research 



Governmental research serves to stimulate and 

 to catalyze scientific activity hy nongovernw^ental 

 agencies. — On numerous occasions and in many fields 

 governmental research has served a pioneering func- 

 tion. New lines of research are often expensive, and 

 returns may be small or long delayed. Industry can- 

 not afford to enter such fields unless there is reason- 

 able prospect of definite financial gain within a pi'e- 

 dictable future; and it is under such circumstances that 

 Government agencies may lead the way. Wien the 

 pioneering work is done, industrial laboratories are 

 established (not infrequently being staffed by men who 

 began the jjarticular line of research under Govern- 

 ment auspices) and further refinements are made. 



For example, no other research was done in the field 

 of nitrate fertilizer until the Bureau of Chemistry 

 and Soils had given 10 years to the work, during which 

 period costs were reduced by two-thirds. When prof- 

 itable methods had been developed, the industry estab- 

 lished nitrate laboratories, hired the Bureau's nitrate 

 specialists at three to five times their Government 

 salaries, and set about commercializing the process. 



Governmental research may thus be regarded as 

 stimulating industry to enter new fields. Generally 

 speaking, the question of competition does not arise 

 because, with the exception of findings of a secret 

 military nature, the results of governmental research 

 ai'e freely available for industrial use. Thus, studies 

 by the Bureau of Mines of scale formation in steam 

 boilers and of the embrittlement of boiler steel have 

 led to new methods of conditioning boiler water in in- 

 dustrial practice, and new industries have grown out 

 of research by the Bureau of Fisheries on fish oils and 

 fish liver oils. 



More spectacular and of still more far-reaching sig- 

 nificance has been the influence of the Navy Depart- 



»See pp. 77-78. 



