T - Engineering & Science - California Institute of Technology

Scholarship and the Citizen
IN AN ADDRESS on '"Scholarship and t,he Citi7er1." de-
livered at the Matriculation Day ceremonies of Pomona
College in Claremont. Calif.. last month President Du-
Bridge had some pertinent and pointed remarks to make
on the subjects of the hydrogen bomb and the National
Science Foundation Bill. We quote:
'The atomic bomb. and now the proposed hydrogen
bomb. have served to shock the American people into the
realization that science and national affair- are no longer
two separate and mutually exclusive fields of human
endeavor. Each has it" impact upon the other.
fic Science affect^ national affairs because nuclear
energy ha^ now becorne the business of every Arneriran
citizen. The responsibility of developing atomir energy
for both peaceful and military purposes is the exclusive
responsibility of the United States poverrirnent -that is.
of you and me. . . .
, . . When the President announced that he had issued
orders to continue the development of this weapon (the
hydrogen bomb), he did not provide for the release of
information which would enable the public to understand
something about the nature of the weapon or the reasons
why it was necessary to develop it. 4s a result. the
public press has been filled with the wildest sort of $per-
illations, and it is impossible for the layman to determine
which of the stories he reads has any resemblance to the
truth. Obviously. informed public opinion cannot he
buil~ on the basis of misinformation. fri a misguided
attempt to keep information from potential enemies who
alreacly haw it. ve are keeping it from the American
people who desperately need it in order to think and
art clearly on urgent national and world problems.
rhe second result of our secrecy hysteria has orrurred
more recently. For four \ears Congre*?~ has been m-
sidering various bills to establish a National Science
Foundation to serve as an agency to stimulate the continued
grottth of basic science in this country. It is
rather astoni"-!hiria; that there is TIO Federal agenq authorized
to giw Inroad attention to the problems of haw
science. and except for the irnportani work of the Public
Health Service, the attention of the Federal Government
 ¥ demoted pretty largeh to ihow area"-! of science hating
mih'tarh potential hies.
it taltcch's virus conference--F. C. Bawden of Eng-
land; Conference Leader Wax Delhruck: Wendell M.
Stanley of the Unirersity of Cnlifornia.
"Partly for this reason, and because of the great
attention whirh has been given to the military weapons
which modern science ha-! made possible. there is appar-
ently a feeling that all of the field of ~ripnre must some-
how be kept secret. As a result. when the National
Science Foundation Bill finally passed the House of
Representative-! on March 1 there were attached to It
three amendment-! having no relation to the purpose or
function of the Foundation. and which might easily, in-
deed. kill the whole idea of the F"oundation itself. These
amendment- parade under the euphonious name of "lay-
altj provisions" and purport to insure that all scientists
conrierted with the Foundation are loyal citizens of the
[Jnited States. Now everyone, of course. is in favor of
loyalt\. and consequently these amendments apparently
pa