NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 137 



opportunity to know the value of oceanography to our future survival 

 and good living. Our schools do not provide the proper traming for 

 rewarding futures in oceanographic administration and research. 



We are not jumping off into the unknown. We should all be grate- 

 ful that many foward-looking institutions, such as the Scripps Insti- 

 tute of Oceanographies m my hometown of San Diego, and many 

 private firms, such as the Lockheed Aircraft Corp., which recently 

 set up a new research center in San Diego, have pushed forward in 

 oceanographic research. But they suffer from the lack of a central 

 data source, access to worldwide research information, and financial 

 help that a Federal program could create. 



Oceanography is an opportunity, More than that it is a neces- 

 sity of national endeavor in today's science explosion. We would be 

 ill served to have mastery of space and find ourselves vulnerable to 

 undersea destruction. We would be foolhardy to know the composi- 

 tion of the craters on the moon, and not the food, mineral, and water 

 resurces of the seas which comprise 75 percent of our earth. 



It's tune to break oceanography out of the doldrums. It's a time 

 to set full sail, to set a course and put a sound hand on the tiller. This 

 committee could do no greater service to our people today and to pos- 

 terity than to act favorably on legislation to give oceangraphy its 

 proper place in our country's present and future. 



Mr. Chairman, just one further comment. As you know, when a 

 bill is introduced the committee very graciously asks for reports from 

 the departments. I have in my hand reports, each one negative, from 

 the various agencies mvolved in oceanography. 



Mr. Lennon. I have reports here in this voluminous file on all the 

 bills pending before the committee. 



Mr. Wilson. Yes, I know, but this just points up the problem that 

 we are faced with. Here the Department of the Navy says they don't 

 want it because it is going to interfere with some of the things they 

 are doing. I don't suggest that an oceanography agency should take 

 away a lot of research, from the Navy, as far as the defense implica- 

 tions of underseas warfare, are concerned, but some aspects of their 

 work undoubtedly would be put into a new agency. 



The Atomic Energy Commission is objecting. The Department of 

 Commerce objects. The Department of the Interior objects. The 

 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare objects. The Smith- 

 sonian Institute objects because they lose some of their competence in 

 biological ocenography in their Museum of Natural History. 



This points up the problem and it also points up the problem that we 

 in Congress have. All of us know the importance of oceanography. 

 There is no question about it. It is as important as agriculture and yet 

 agriculture has not only its own Department, but it has its own com- 

 mittee up here in Congress that is concerned solely with the problems 

 of agriculture. 



The Defense Department has its own committee that is concerned 

 solely with the problems of defense. Foreign affairs has the same, 

 and so forth. 



This is one of the problems that oceanography faces. There is no 

 real champion on the Hill. You men on this committee have those 

 aspects of oceanography that fall imder your jurisdiction, but very 

 few of them are referred to you. 



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