CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING
NEWS WALTER J. MURPHY, Editor
Adveniure L wo well-known educators, Vannevar Bush and T. Keith Glennan, have issued solemn warnings to American youth against too great dependence upon security and too little interest in adventure. Dr. Glennan, president of Case Institute of Technology, addressing the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, reported that the evidence of the trend toward overemphasis of security comes from many sources including personnel officers of large corporations who find in their recruiting of college graduates that it is far too frequently the deciding factor in the choice of employment. The trend, he declared, is deplorable but understandable. "The young men and women who are being graduated now have lived their impressionable years in a period of depression, extreme governmental paternalism, devastating war, and now an uncertain peace," according to Dr. Glennan. "Small wonder that it has become more the rule than the exception for the present graduate to seek security." Vannevar Bush, president of the Carnegie Institution, speaking at convocation ceremonies in honor of the ninetieth anniversary of Cooper Union in New York, summarized his views bj r stating that " a passion for personal security is an opiate which tends to destroy the virile characteristics which have made «is great." Dr. Bush continued by stating t h a t in the last analysis Americans, especially American youth, must decide what they want most. "If we want a system in which, by every artifice we can command, we protect the individual citizen against all the ills of nature and of grasping man, we can have it," he declared. "On the other hand, if we want the kind of country that has thus far prospered well, if the youth of our land wish adventure and the conquest of new horizons, great possibilities lie before us. The application of science has much yet to offer and a strong country can maintain our national security and give us opportunity to develop our great potentiality." The opinions of Glennan and Bush and others who share similar views will not go unchallenged. The question is one of special significance to scientists and technologists. I t is true that every human being evinces a high interest in security. I t is the means by which security is sought t h a t appears to be the area of controversy. Security can evolve from personal outstanding competence, or it can be based,
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Security
according to the belief of many, on mass action. It is likewise true that these two statements represent rhe black and white areas of the controversy while in practice any discussion of the problem tends to concern shaded areas. Scientists and technologists are much concerned these clays over the degree of dependence placed by the general public on secrecy in scientific matters as a guarantee of national security. The question of personal security is somewhat analogous. The true scientist and technologist is by temperament, training, and experience a seeker of adventure. If this characteristic is subordinated to an inordinate desire for permanent security we can expect to witness over the next few decades a decline in scientific and technological advancement in this country. Many brilliant minds will continue to function regardless of the degree of security enjoyed, many minds will continue to invent and discover although complete security is supplied, but it is equally true that many minds are stimulated by the possibility of exceptional rewards for exceptional contributions and to this group security in the sense in which the term is generally accepted now will prove to be a great handicap and a source of discouragement. The question raised by Glennan and Bush merits full discussion. On the same day t h a t Bush was speaking at Cooper Union, President Truman was addressing the American Society of Civil Engineers in Washington urging greater implementation of Point Four. " I hope," said the President, "that all the engineers of this great United States of ours and all the other great technical men, everybody who has a special skill for the welfare of humanity, will inform himself on just exactly what I mean by' Point Four." The scientist or technologist who is seeking absolute security may well hesitate to follow the President's plea when the choice of service abroad is weighed against what appears to be the greater security of a job back home with a large and prosperous corporation. If we may be permitted to venture a personal opinion, it has been our experience t h a t those who have stressed adventure and independence of thought and action rather than personal security generally have been more successful in achieving the latter than those who have deliberately given prime consideration to security.
