OCR Text |
Show Scientists for Unhampered Freedom in Research Work By BAUKHAGE fip.ws Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1610 Eye Strect.N.W., Washington, D. C. The bomb which leveled Hiroshima Hiroshi-ma and has since been echoing in the Pacific did something to con-gross con-gross that could not have been done before the explo-f explo-f Jf."r' ' sion. It induced If the senate to I V - loosen the public ' " purse strings to 1 ,'', . ' the extent of vot- ' ' ing to subsidize a E, K a" f . i national scientific J ; $ ; research founda-.. founda-.. -' ' is i i k " tion. i I , t j : Scientists don't I . ' t have many votes, I so the persuasion' t. couldn't have . ; . : come by way of a ,jB.i.-ittm:giitifrt3 lobby. The public imagination had been stirred. Suddenly Sud-denly the layman realized that science sci-ence was a powerful factor in war. He realized too that perhaps men who could smash the atom and make it smash the enemy, might learn how to use the powers of the sleeping sleep-ing giant atomic energy for the good as well as the ill of mankind. At this writing congress has not completed action of the bill but probably will have done so by the time these lines are read. The idea of a national research program seemed very good to me. Therefore, There-fore, 1 was somewhat surprised to hear a pharmacological authority of my acquaintance say that passage of this legislation "would be as destructive de-structive in the field of science" as the bomb was in the midst of Hiroshima Hiro-shima and Nagasaki. He made the observation in a group, several of whom Were scientists. His hearerg appeared to echo his sentiments sentiments which I later learned he had set forth in the recent Bulletin of tile American Association of University Uni-versity Professors. He (Dr. Theodore Theo-dore Koppanyi) said: "In an analysis anal-ysis of the bill, a basic wrong immediately im-mediately leaps to the eye. This is the assumption that scientific research re-search can be 'initiated' or 'pre-acribed 'pre-acribed for.' If this assumption could be grounded, the natural sequel se-quel to a national research foundation founda-tion would be federal foundations to 'initiate' and 'prescribe for' the composition of music, the painting of pictures, the writing of poems, and the establishment of social controls con-trols and education, for science is probably the most personal and individualistic in-dividualistic of all human endeavors. endeav-ors. No agency, however authorized and directed, can develop a national policy for scientific research." Difficult to Pass On Projects The theories and ways of thinking think-ing of scientists, Dr. Koppanyi explained ex-plained (and his colleagues agreed), are as diverse as the world itself. "How can we set up a court with the power to pass on what is good and what is not good for science?" he asked, and then he turned to me 'with this question: "Would you approve ap-prove of having a member of your profession a commentator or news-writer news-writer appointed by a President of the United States, as head of a similarly sim-ilarly selected group of your colleagues col-leagues who were made privy to private government information, which was barred from other speakers speak-ers or writers?" Naturally I said: "No." (That would be the end of the freedom of the press and radio.) Then Dr. Koppanyi concluded: "You can spend a lot of money and get no return. But if you trust in human ingenuity, motivated by desire de-sire of public service, the love of science, recognition, and maybe selfish aims alike, you will have done more for basic science than you could ever do with billions of dollars dol-lars ox federal money." Social Science Study Lags Spokesmen for the so-called social sciences (the study of people, of individuals and groups) were loud in criticizing the omission from the bill of provisions for research in this field. An engineer spoke for the social scientists in these words: "We've gone miles ahead in our study of in-aminate in-aminate things, in physics, chemistry chem-istry and the other sciences that deal with inorganic matter, compared com-pared to our advancement in the study of human beings why they act the way they do under given conditions, their relations to other individuals and to groups, and the action of the groups in relation to each other." He spoke of the recent pogrom In Kielce, Poland, where the Jews were attacked and killed. It all started from a false rumor, a planted plant-ed rumor. The very same thing, the engineer pointed out, touched off the riots three years ago in Detroit. Those are known facts but there is very little public knowledge of what causes such action, how it can be prevented. Possession Is Law to Russ Russian expropriation of Austrian property and her delaying tactics in setting of the peace conference date seem to be predicated on the theory: Why start any discussions of who gets what if you can operate on the old theory that possession is nine points of the law? Possession is an important factor. Take the recent experience of a Philadelphia horse. Around midnight mid-night one night a horse walked into a residential district and began devouring de-vouring gardens of dahlias, morning-glories, snapdragons and other (lowers. The Infuriated householders household-ers tried to shoo the horse away, but he kicked at them and went right on expropriating the bourgeois blooms. However, in the good old American tradition, a policeman appeared ap-peared with a rope and lassoed the beast. He was removed to the police po-lice stables where he couldn't exercise a veto on this purely procedural pro-cedural process. This subversive tendency in the animal world was revealed in another an-other part of Philadelphia at about the same time. Returning from a week-end, a householder and his family who had started a counter revolutionary campaign against what they thought to be a harmless mouse, found a large-sized rat in the trap they had set. The rat with the trap attached as a minor incumbrance incum-brance went right after the family which climbed tables and chairs. This time when the cop came he felt aggressive warfare justifiable and finished the rat with his reactionary reac-tionary night-stick. Congress' Work Is Never Done Congressmen invariably come to work January 14 brisk of step, bright of eye, confident they'll have all the bills passed, all the necessary business disposed of by July 1 at the latest, so they can go home to their fences. The old timers, of course, know they are just kidding themselves. Business is never completed by July 1, though they work from sun to sun for, like woman's, congress' work is never done. Consequently, fishing trips, motor jaunts, and important im-portant electioneering have to be postponed while house and senate members labor in Washington heat to complete last-minute legislation. This year, it was the OPAgony that fevered congressional brows late Into July. Debate was so furious, furi-ous, night sessions were so frequent that I wasn't surprised when I heard a man in the visitor's gallery of the capitol ask: "Wh did they wait so long to get at the OPA bill? Seems to me they always have a lot of stuff left to do at the end of a session that they could have taken up earlier. Do they always let it go so long that these closing days sound like a rowdy jam session?" I reported this remark to a man who knows Capitol Hill, as you and I know the short-cut home. "There are no jams in congress," he answered as he inhaled another tablespoonful of the famous senate restaurant bean soup. "Not even on OPA?" I modestly needled. "No," he said, "but I'll admit they came to a near-jam when they had to work like the dickens to get the bill to the President before the OPA expired. But they did get it to him (he was talking about the first OPA bill) and it was better than a lot of people had expected. That was no jam." "What is a jam then?" "What we used to have in the days of the lame-duck session," he came back promptly. "Then congress con-gress had to adjourn on March 4. A one-man filibuster could stymie legislation up to midnight of March 4. and it would never be passed. Then congress might act hastily, and perhaps unwisely, to meet its inexorable deadline." A jam, then, is when congress is forced to precipitate action, or to no action. That's a congressional opinion. I'd still like to hear what Harry Truman would define as a congressional congres-sional jam-up. BARBS . . . by Baukhage I Russia apparently wants to win Germany's sympathy so that Germany Ger-many will yield more easily to Com-munization Com-munization later. But that's a big job, and the bear might find it had something by the tail that would wag it. Russia has used the veto much as Senator O'Daniel and some of bis colleagues use the filibuster. According to the American magazine. maga-zine. New York and Chicago have yielded (dis)honors to the far western west-ern states which now top the crime record. Westward the course ot . . . " I understand that there is a new combination gasoline propelled lawn mower and hedge-trimmer. Now if it would only sit up with the baby we'd get a little time off. |