ANALVTICAL EDITORIAL
J u n e 1970,Vol. 42, No. 7 Editor:
H E R B E R T A. LAITINEN
EDITORIAL HEADQUARTERS Washington D C 20036 1155 Sixteedth St:, N.W. Phone: 202-737-3337 Teletype: WA 23 M a n a g i n g Editor: John K. Crum Aseociate Editor: Virginia E. Stewart E d i t o r i a l Assistant: Sylvia Crawford STAFF PRODUCTION Director of Design: Joseph Jacobs P r o d u c t i o n Manager: Bacil Guiley Associate P r o d u c t i o n Manager: Charlotte C. Sayre A r t Director: Norman W. Favin NEW YORKOFFICE 733 T h u d Avenue New York, N.Y. 10017 212-867-3161 Associate Editor: Josephine M. Petruzzi EDITORIAL PRODUCTION OFFICE,EASTON, PA. Assistant Editor: Elizabeth R. Rufe
ADVISORYBOARD: Norman G. Anderson Klaus Biemann L man Craig James S: Fritz, John FLnkEouser, Marcel Golay, Walter E Harris Joseph Jordan W. Wayne Meiqke, R. A. kteryoung, R. ’L. Pecaok, Edwm P Przyb lowicz A. Smith, Samuel hi. Tuthil?, Jam& D. Wmefordner
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Reverberations from the Mansfield Amendment
L
ate in 1969, the Congress of the United States passed an authorization bill for expenditures of the Department of Defense for the fiscal year 1970. .4n amendment by Sen. Mansfield which passed with virtually no advance public notice has since caused apprehension, confusion, and secondary effects of a magnitude that still eludes estimation. The amendment, called Section 203, states ‘ T o n e of the funds authorized by this Act, may be used to carry out any research project or study unless such project or study has a direct, and apparent relationship to a specific military function .” Ever since The Office of Naval Research pioneered the present system of basic research support through research grants, the Department of Defense has invested a small fraction of its resources to gain the direct and indirect benefits of a strong outside research program. Corporate and private research laboratories as well as universities and even other government laboratories have competed for research support through the proposal-grant mechanism from vnrious civilian as well as military agencies. Now that the issue of “direct and apparent relationship to a specific military function” has been raised, a similar “Mansfield effect” appears to be emerging in mission-oriented civilian agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the Federal Water Pollution Control Agency, to require a closer and more obvious relationship between research and mission. I n University circles, the Mansfield amendment is bound to play into the hands of campus radicals who mill not acknowledge the possibility that basic research relevant, to a military invasion can also be beneficial to the peaceful pursuits of society. If i t were simply a matter of transfer of funds to the one research agency that is not mission-oriented, the r a t i o n a l Science Foundation, no serious harm would be done. Unfortunately, the X S F is not receiving additional support. On the contrary, it has been directed, through the Daddario bill, to expand its function to support applied as well as basic research. Thus, an already serious squeeze on pure research seems destined to intensify. S o w to complete the circle, the emergence on t,he job market of a pool of postdoctorates that can no longer be supported on research grants, plus the new group of graduating Ph.D.’s to compete for a dwindling number of research positions in industry, government, and academic departments is being cited as evidence that \vc have an abundance of Ph.D.’s and that decreased graduate support is therefore justified. Clearly this is short-sighted policy. What, is needed is a strong and continuing commitment to basic research in support of all mission-oriented technology, bobh in relation to research training at, pre- and post’doct,oral levels and in relation to research output. Anything less will waste the talents of a subsbantial group of skilled research workers and will compromise our technological future.
Advertising Management REINHOLD PUBLISHING CORP. (for Branch Offices, m e e page 123 A)
For submission of manuscripts, see page 4 A . ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 42, NO. 7, JUNE 1970
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