Chemical Engineering News
WALTER J . M U R P H Y , Editor
A Rather Belated Proposal A NEWS release issued late last month by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States reports a proposal by the board of directors of the chamber that American business, if the need is shown, finance additional scholarships for training youth in scientific and technical skills needed in the nation's long-range mobilization program. If a survey were to disclose the need for scholarships, said the chamber board, funds should be raised and administered by setting u p a foundation, or foundations, to collect and administer them. As little as lr/< of net business profits, the chamber pointed out, would raise manv times a proposed $128 million for federally financed scholarships advocated by labor members of the Labor-Management Manpower Policv Committee and rejected bv its management members. These members are expected soon to put before Defense Mobilization Director Wilson recommendations paralleling those of the chamber. The opposition of the chamber to federally financed scholarships is based on the premise that federal financing leads to federal control and the adoption of the plan advocated by the labor members of Mobilizer Wilson's manpower policy committee is a move toward federal control of the nation's educational system. That we personally would much prefer that private enterprise assume the responsibility of financing additional scholarships for training youth in scientific and technical skills rather than the Federal Government was made plain in an editorial in this publication (C&EN, Aug. 9, 1948, page 2345). Corporations have done a great deal. Today, thousands of scholarships and fellowships are provided through funds made available by corporations, hoth large and small. In this regard the record of the chemical industry and industries allied to it is an outstanding one. But much more must be done before we can say truthfully thai what is being accomplished is a corrective measure and will affect the efforts of those who would make higher education in this country the full responsibility of the Federal Government . . . These words were written almost two years before the Communist attack in Korea. Now we are in a period of industrial mobilization and the critical shortages must be greater todav than thev were in August of 1948. W e do not know what kind of survey the members of the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States need to convince themselves that a shortage of scientific and technical man-
V O L U M E
2 9,
NO.
4 4 *
» OCTOBER
2 9,
power actually exists. It seems to us that they have been somewhat on the negligent side in keeping abreast of developments if they are unaware of the studies and reports on the scientific and technical manpower situation which have been readily available to all in the past year or more. Perhaps t h e chamber board is unaware of the recent convocation conducted by the Engineering Manpower Commission of the Engineers Joint Council in Pittsburgh where it was pointed out the desperate shortages of engineers which will exist at least through 1960. Similar data are available in the September issues of Fortune magazine and Scientific American and the minutes of the annual meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education held at East Lansing, Mich. T h e Chamber of Commerce release commenting on the necessity for utilizing more effectively available skilled manpower states: If a running inventory of manpower needs and a much more adequate guidance program at college levels are needed for the long-range solution of manpower problems, it should be apparent that such studies are even more essential to the solution of any immediate problems of defense manpower placement. Certainly, the best hope of meeting any need for such highly specialized personnel as electronic engineers, physicians, or atomic scientists lies in carefully assessing the supply now trained and the use now being made of them. Immediate consideration should also be given to the deferment of such trained persons wherever they may be and to attracting them out of nondefense production into defense industries. With certain of these points we are in agreement. W e must use our scientific and technical personnel wisely, but there is much more to this problem than the chamber board appears to sense. It is much more than an intelligent administration of Selective Service. Ways and means must be found to attract the youth of America to careers in science and technology. The release of the Chamber of Commerce would have been a much more convincing document if it contained an announcement of a specific program for setting u p the foundation or foundations it discusses rather vaguely. W e cannot help but feel the chamber is somewhat of "a Johnny-come-lately" in its pronouncement. What it proposes in a rather lukewarm and hazy fashion has been proposed by many other individuals and groups for several years. Now appears to b e the moment for action. Indeed we would say that some such action is somewhat overdue.
1951
4577
