Abstract
THE two papers referred to below, written by the Chief Physicist of the Bureau of Standards, whose recent death is widely deplored, though dealing jonly with the question of scientific research as it affects the United States of America, will well repay the careful study, not only of British scientific workers, but also of all British citizens who wish to form a just estimate of the part that scientific research should play in the national economy. In the first of the papers Prof. Rosa set himself to answer the inquiry: “Whether scientific research as carried on by the Federal Government is a luxury or a necessity; whether it is something to be enjoyed when taxes are light, and curtailed when taxes are heavy; or whether it is creative and wealth-producing, and therefore to be increased and developed when expenses are abnormally large and a heavy debt must be liquidated?” In an interesting and informative examination of the nationai Budget he shows that the appropriations for obligations arising from recent and previous wars and for the War and Navy Departments amount to 92.8 per cent. of the total, public works to 3 per cent., primary Governmental functions to 32 per cent., and research, education, and developmental work to 1 per cent.
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WILLIAMSON, J. Scientific Research in the United States1. Nature 108, 29–30 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/108029b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/108029b0