0.6 The science-government compact: 1945-1950  (Page 9/16)

The scope of science, according to bush

Bush tended to define the sciences in terms of the mathematical, physical, engineering, and medical disciplines that had beenan integral part of his wartime system and for which he could lay some justifiable claim to being a spokesman. Nathan Reingold has remarked on Bush’scurious blind spot regarding the non-medically–oriented biological sciences. Reingold, op. cit. Representatives of those disciplines were conspicuously absent from the four committees whosedeliberations and reports provided the basis for Science—the Endless Frontier . Because the non- medical biologists had played virtually no part in Bush’s wartime system, theyfelt little or no obligation to support his version of a National Research Foundation; in particular, they were much less adamant about the question ofpresidential control.

If Bush’s neglect of the biological sciences was an unfortunate oversight, exclusion of the social sciences was deliberate.Bush’s letter transmitting Science—the Endless Frontier to President Truman stated that “in speaking of science he [President Roosevelt]clearly had in mind the natural sciences, including biology and medicine, and I have so interpreted his questions. Progress in otherfields, such as the social sciences and the humanities, is likewise important; but the program for science presented in my report warrants immediateattention.” Bush, op. cit. , 1. The question of whether the social sciences should be explicitly mentioned as qualifying for federal research support inlegislation creating the foundation was debated over the next five years, and they were excluded from the National Science Foundation Act of 1950. The National Science Foundation Act of 1950 authorized the foundation “to initiate and support basicscientific research…in the mathematical, physical, medical, biological, and other sciences.” The social andbehavioral sciences were explicitly included in that formulation by means of a 1968 congressional amendment of the original act as a result of hearings beforea subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology.

Bush and his senior colleagues believed that inclusion of the social sciences would complicate and delay formulation of arelatively straightforward compact between science and government. But their antipathy may also have been rooted in their distrust of governmentbureaucracies and New Deal-style planning and management. The social sciences had been instrumental in the proliferation of new agencies during the early NewDeal and had legitimized the concept of planning and control at the presidential level. Since social scientists were identified with what many conservativesviewed as alarming controls on private activity, Bush and his colleagues might well have regarded their explicit inclusion in the National Research Foundationas inconsistent with the insulation of that new agency from the federal bureaucracy. A number of conservative congressmen also opposed inclusion of thesocial sciences on the grounds that it could lead to centralized planning by government, if not to Soviet-style regimentation.