75 



Mr. MosHER. For the reasons I have just outlined. 



Mr. Downing. Political reasons ? 



Mr. MosHER. Political in the broadest sense, public relations reasons, 

 having this report come fresh to the new Congress rather than come in 

 the waning days of the old Congress when we are all involved in cam- 

 paigns and will have no chance to give it any attention. It will be an 

 old, outdated report, I am afraid, wlien the 91st Congress convenes. 



Moreover, even though the Commission may complete its studies on 

 the original schedule, I think it has very serious practical problems, 

 Mr. Downing, in terms of getting the proper amount of time to put 

 the report together and to get it printed. It seems to me to be a very 

 important matter. 



Mr. Downing. I agree with the gentleman, but I feel it would be 

 better to go ahead and release the report as quickly as we can in order 

 to get reaction to it. 



Mr. MosHER. I think you will get a much more urgent start and a 

 much better start and more effective start by postponing the release of 

 the report. 



Dr. Stratton, I am not really asking j?our opinion on this unless you 

 want to venture it. I think this is a decision the Congress has to make, 

 rather than the Commission itself. If the Commission would feel a little 

 leeway would solve some of its practical problems in getting the report 

 out, that would be one element that we should consider. 



Dr. Stratton. If the chairman will permit me to comment, I shall 

 proceed to do so. 



Mr. Lennon. Yes. Go ahead, Doctor. 



Dr. Stratton. This question of timing has been very much on my 

 mind in recent weeks, was the subject of discussion in the Commission 

 itself at our last meeting, and I propose to raise it again tomorrow. 



I should like particularly to respond to Mr. Downing's question. As 

 you indicated earlier, the Commission was established in January. But 

 the mechanics in these busy days of organizing a Commission which 

 draws heavily from a variety of nongovernmental institutions is much 

 more complex, as you certainly understand, than in the case of the 

 Council where since it calls chiefly upon existing agencies, the group is 

 more or less immediately in being. The purely practical problems of 

 gathering the Commission together, of finding qualified staff, and get- 

 ting started took not longer than I anticipated, but longer than I would 

 have wished. So it was naturally spring before we were really in 

 motion. 



As we begin to project our schedule, the tightness of the timing has 

 become more and more apparent from the standpoint of doing the job 

 we have been asked to do. 



Let me say informally that all of us — I particularly — have been most 

 reluctant even to consider the question of an extension. We had a man- 

 date. We had a job to do with a deadline. We started out, as I stated 

 in my initial remarks, to meet that deadline. We will still do so if that 

 seems most advisable. 



We recognize also that you can, of course, go on indefinitely with 

 a study of this kind. It could be never ending. To a point, there is some 

 justification for extra time allowing for added effort and a resulting 

 increase in return, but there is a point also where the incremental value 

 of additional time and effort begins to diminish. 



