50 Research and National Purpose 



institutions, and have access to the wealth and productivity of 

 an enormously affluent society. It is very important in thinking 

 of the future to recognize that there is enough freedom in our 

 national system because of the diversity of the participating in- 

 stitutions and our great wealth to steer the scientific machine 

 more or less as we please as new challenges and opportunities 

 appear, provided we maintain a strong posture in education 

 for science and engineering, emphasizing both quantity and 

 quality. The freedom available is sufficiently great that by 

 bringing proper judgment and eloquence to bear, the scientists 

 and engineers can sell new ideas to society without sacrificing 

 other gains. 



Our educational system does have its difficulties arising from 

 the inevitable shortages in manpower and money; on the other 

 hand, it is by no means retrogressing. It has coped successfully 

 with the problems of mass education in the past, and one can 

 honestly expect it to do even better in the future if society con- 

 tinues to provide it the support it needs. 



The scientists and engineers of our country do have access 

 at present to about 3 per cent of our Gross National Product 

 for research and development and related testing; moreover, 

 that percentage is growing somewhat faster than the Gross Na- 

 tional Product, We cannot claim that the system is being 

 starved even though we must admit that certain areas of re- 

 search, particularly those related to the upper levels of science 

 and engineering education, could profitably absorb funds at a 

 somewhat greater rate and provide society with benefits that 

 more than compensate for the added costs. 



It is true that our expenditures for research and develop- 

 ment are by no means uniform in all areas. For example, much 

 of the money is devoted to defense, the space program, and the 

 field of atomic energy. Industrial chemistry and electronics 

 are also fairly well treated, either independently or in connec- 

 tion with the other fields. There is evidence that the support 

 of agricultural research seems to be faltering at a time when 

 the world food supply appears to be approaching a critical state. 



