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Show Scientists for Unhampered Freedom in Research Work 4 By BAUKIIAGE I News Analyst and Commentator w 'ffXB Service, 1616 Eye Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. ,e bomb which leveled Hiroshi-r- ma and has since been echoing In ? pacific did something to con-r"' con-r"' 5 that could not have been done P before the explo- ; sion. It induced i the senate to loosen the public : purse strings to i the extent of voting vot-ing to subsidize a national scientific research foundation. founda-tion. Scientists don't have many votes, so the persuasion couldn't have i come by way of a I lobby. The public imagination had been stirred. Sud- eny the layman realized that science sci-ence was a powerful factor in war. Tfe realized too that perhaps men It laibo could smash the atom and make M smash the . enemy, might learn fam to use the powers of the sleep-iM sleep-iM giant atomic energy for the y, , nod as well as the ill of mankind. ,) At this writing congress has not 'ompleted action of the bill but and! robably will have done so by the i irhjme these lines are read. The idea )rov. a national research program eemed very good to me. There-ant There-ant re, I was somewhat surprised to Ear a pharmacological authority of ly acquaintance say that passage fefflfJ this legislation "would be as de-: de-: pjructive in the field of science" as 'lad is )e bomb was in the midst of Hiro-ift Hiro-ift tttiima and Nagasaki. He made the i? Jservation in a group, several of "tu.r.hom were scientists. His hearers ppeared to echo his sentiments raer((!!itiments which I later learned he tej..jid set forth in the recent Bulletin . mo,il the American Association of Uni-S0I7rsity Uni-S0I7rsity Professors. He (Dr. Theo- jre Koppanyi) said: "In an anal- lis of the bill, a basic wrong im- ediately leaps to the eye. This is 'i He assumption that scientific re- 'larch can be 'initiated' or 'pre-Jjribed 'pre-Jjribed for.' If 'this assumption ,i"Ud be grounded, the natural se-C0'iel se-C0'iel to a national research founda-0iiri founda-0iiri would be federal foundations to n '.litiate' and 'prescribe for' the W'piposition of music, the painting mm pictures, the writing of poems, IjAjld the establishment of social con-gfafis con-gfafis and education, for science is obably the most personal and in- vidualistic of all human endeav-No endeav-No agency, however authorized ij id directed, can develop a national I ilicy for scientific research." lUJlfflcuZf to Pass vffin Projects ElJJJfee theories and ways of think- lTf 0f scientists- Dr- Koppanyi ex-?Ai.tioed ex-?Ai.tioed (and his colleagues agreed), as diverse as the world itself, run oc-1,,. cttini -- now can we set up a court with t power to pass on what is good bsck n'd what is not good for science?" ? s32 asked and then he turned to me ;d v'i-.rth this question: "Would you ap-S ap-S toWe Ci having a member of your gjgirtofess'on a commentator or news-Tjffyiter-appointed by a President of IjeJpf United States, as head of a sim-lfly sim-lfly selected group of your col-!?ues col-!?ues who were made privy to """ivate government information, -7i"ich was barred from other speak-fty-,s or writers?" yftaturally I said: "No." (That & :lulti be the end of the freedom of ''iui'5nPreSS and radio) en Dr- Koppanyi concluded: fril'm ca" spend a lot of money and iWp no return. But if you trust in Sffian ingenuity, motivated by de-'e de-'e of public service, the love of llfllta6, recgnition, and maybe ,1 BPsh aims alike, you will have done pre for basic science than you Cfifi!1 CVer do with billions of dol-lls dol-lls 01 federal money." '.Lf'aZ Science :taj pPkesmen for the so-called social "fft'ces (the study of people, of yjjil:fv!duals and groups) were loud , KUtt'wiUcIzing the omission from the 1"J1Jlprovisions for research in this tfild. eng'neer spoke for the social - entts in these words: "We've J 8 l miles ahea(J In our study of in-fll'rate in-fll'rate things, in physics, chem-rfgSfl chem-rfgSfl and the other sciences that with inorganic matter, com-p com-p to our advancement in the i "y of human beings why they , ' e way they do under given 'tlS''li -j' their relatins to other , I "viduals and to groups, and the n of the groups in relation to I other." c:iJe 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. " "ie 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 flowers. 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 lo sun lor, lute wuuiau 5, tuiigicaa 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: "Why 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 couia 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. |