Abstract
AN open letter signed by the members of a committee supporting the Bush Report has been addressed to President Truman on pending legislation for Federal aid to science (Science, 102, 545, 1945). The letter indicates that the committee favours the Magnuson Bill and is opposed to the Kilgore Bill. It believes that the main responsibility for the programme should be placed in the hands of a national science or research board composed of laymen and scientific men appointed by the President solely on the basis of interest in, and capacity to promote, scientific research and education. The committee is emphatically opposed to the subordination of the board to a single director appointed by the President, as is done in the Kilgore Bill. The board should be responsible for the appointment of the chief administrative officer of the foundation and no ex officio members of other Government agencies should serve as active members of the board. The committee does not think that the board should undertake to control or co-ordinate all Government scientific activity, but that, given high standards and sound practice in scientific education and research, the proliferation of interests and activities, together with a high degree of institutional and individual freedom and responsibility, is desirable. It is considered that social sciences should be taken care of by a separate body, and the point of view expressed in this letter is endorsed on behalf of the combined executive committees of the Union of American Biological Societies and of the American Biological Society, in a note signed by Prof. Robert Chambers and Prof. J. S. Nicholas, the respective presidents, which indicate that, as biologists, they are keenly interested in realizing the contemplated plans to include the biological sciences in a division of basic science separate from medical research and public welfare.
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Organisation of Research in the United States. Nature 157, 156 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157156a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157156a0