222 OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 



required overall national program. The proposed National 

 Oceanographic Council cannot accomplish program implementation 

 by directive without violating the autonomy of its member agencies 

 and should not be forced to rely on mere persuasion to provide the 

 necessary impetus for agency action when that action may not from 

 an agency standpoint be entirely productive. 



These facts lead to the conclusion that the most effective mechanism 

 for this purpose can be created only by authorizing and appropriat- 

 ing to the National Oceanographic Council sufficient funds to supple- 

 ment the partial oceanographic program that comes about from the 

 efforts of the various participating agencies in the normal course of 

 events. The amount that would be needed for this purpose can best 

 be determined by oceanographic and budget specialists working to- 

 gether, but on the basis of the program information I have seen, I 

 would venture the opinion that $5 to $10 million might suffice. Since 

 the National Oceanographic Council should not be allowed to become 

 an operating agency, whatever amount is determined to be proper 

 should be made available for transfer by the Council, with the ap- 

 proval of the Bureau of the Budget and possibly your conTinittee and 

 its Senate counterpart, to any appropriation of any department or 

 agency of the Government having the facilities to contribute to 

 oceanographic accomplishment. 



Provision of an appropriation restricted in availability to transfer 

 to other agency accounts is not without precedent in the Federal Gov- 

 ernment. The military assistance appropriations have traditionally 

 been made on this basis, and the emergency fund in the Department of 

 Defense has been employed for a number of years to achieve much the 

 same objectives in the defense research, development, test, and evalua- 

 tion programs. This defense emergency fund exists for the sole pur- 

 pose of enabling the Secretary of Defense to supplement the appropri- 

 ations of the several military departments in order to defray the cost 

 of preliminary exploitation of new developments and other contin- 

 gencies. A similar arrangement would readily enable the proposed 

 National Oceanographic Council to fuse the numerous scattered 

 agency projects now comprising our national program on oceanog- 

 raphy into a fully balanced national program in the most meaningful 

 sense of the term. 



In summary it may be said that no organizational structure, regard- 

 less of architectural perfection, can possibly substitute for the leader- 

 ship, judgment, and understanding of the individuals who give it 

 vitality. Nor can competent men, no matter how well trained they 

 may be, function effectively in organizational chaos. The principal 

 virtue of the proposed Oceanographic Act of 1961 in my opinion is 

 the orderly structure it provides for resolving the multiagency con- 

 fusion that now besets our oceanographic endeavors. The National 

 Oceanographic Council contemplated in this act could not do other- 

 wise than improve our oceanographic program, and would, if strength- 

 ened as herein recommended with respect to membership, staffimg, and 

 financing, contribute immeasurably to the hoped-for mastery of the 

 aquatic forces of our planet. 



Mr. Miller. Professor Lewis, I want to thank you for a very fine, 

 constructive statement, one that I am sure this committee is going 



