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WALTER 1. MURPHY, FDlW3R
Science Enters National Policy production is the key to prosperity and pe9ce. And the key to greater production is a wider and more vigomus application of modem scientificand technical knowledge. For the Grst time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and W to relieve these (underprivileged) people. We must embark on a bold new program for making the hens fibof our scienti6c advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas.” These words, on a theme familiar for 80 long to our readers, are sounding throughout the world today. For they were p k e n by Harry 6. Truman, president of the United States, in his inaugural address Jannary 20. They are an bistoric addition to the foreign policy of the Administration. The scientist and technical man will be at once gratified pnd sobered to 8ee his work become the basis for a major nstional policy. We whose lives are spent in teehnical pursuits well appreciate the fm-reaching d e c k of our endeavor. With this eame truth now f o d y recognised by our nation’s leaders and made the foundationfor a forward-looking program for human betterment, we can truly eay that science at long last h achieved full public recognition as well. Not too long ago many a scientist would vigorously disown mponsibility for the ultimate application of his work. Public morality and developments in physical knowledge he cona i d e d separate compartments, and on the whole the scientist kept strictly within the technical 6eld. The atomic bomb blasted this viewpoint into oblivion. An anxious searching foliowed in the hope of finding an answer to the ineradicable feeling of responsibility that followed Hiroshima and Nagaeski. The scientist no longer can shut his eyes to the social conequences of scientific discwery. We now see the complementary development of a general public recognition of the social implications of scientific discovery. We would be the last to advocate that the scientist dictate how his diecoveries be utilized. It is a job that properly de8erves the attention of our entire body of citizens, although the scientist is well placed to recognize and point out the pctentislities of new knowledge. When we consider how technology underlies the life of every citizen, it is none too SOOU for the world to become sciencsminded. Implementation of the policy of science will, we hope, also snally clear up several h u e s on which we have publicly voiced OUT opinion in the past-and too frequently expressed distreas at lackof understandingaction. Selective Service regulations should be amplified to show Bome perception for the priceless contrihution of the technical man who is making a bona fide contributionto hia profwion. The National Science Foundation legidation certainly should be enacted at an early date.
The technical schools should be offered help out of the financial quickeands in which they, in common with dl schools, have become trapped thmugh the idation of the past three years. For science and technology are strung only to the extent that scientists and technologists are W e d and welleqnipped-and available for technical work. President Truman’s program of spresdiog our technical know-how to the four corners of the earth could bring a huge increase in the demand for the technical man. This commodity by no m e w is now in oversupply. Immediately after the end of World War I1 many natiom recogniaed the benefits of employing American technical braina to aid their own people in reconstruction. Despite vigorous efforts, however, the total nnmtier of American technologists who accepted such foreign employment apparently did not exceed 500. American industry wmed to value them highly enough to pay them to stay at home. Through one avenue, at least, for years we have been genemus in exportation of our technical 6ndings. This is thmugh the foreigncirculationofAmericantechnicaljournals. Totake our own experience as an example, no lesa than 22.5 per cent of I~WSTRIAL ANII ENQINEEFXNQ CHEMISTBY’S circulation went outaide the United States as of June 1948, the latest record available. These 7500-plus copies are doing yeoman service, in their way, to accomplish the objectives of the Administration’s program. A journal is certainly no eqnident of an experienced professional scientist, but to the extent that our publications can help, we intend to do so. On first thought some may wonder whether our export of technical know-how may turn out to be a squandering of our scieutic birthright.’ We delinitely think not. This point ww discussed briefly in our March 1948 editorial “Fundamental Research and National Security.” Technical proficiency improves with we: it is self-advancing. AE teachers of others we will simultaneously equip ourselves even better. In fad, the low industrial level of many of the nations that potentially stand to benefit mast may make progree discouragingly slow for a g o d many years. Alteration of a whole culture involves human readjustments that cannot be expected to take place overnight. The vistaa of human advancement that open up at the prospect of putting our technical skills to work in a vigorous coordinated program should excite the mast phlegmatic. Conscious application of science for social advance deserves the support of everyone. It is literally imphssible to grssp the breadth of consequences that will result from President Truman’s propoeal if our good will, our ability, and the f o r m of destiny make it eventually successful.
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