APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1942

HEARINGS

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

U.S. Angline HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SEVENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

ON THE

SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL NATIONAL DEFENSE
APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1942

(INCLUDING DEFENSE AID-LEND-LEASE
APPROPRIATIONS)

63413

PART II-GENERAL APPROPRIATIONS
(EXCLUSIVE OF LEND-LEASE)

Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations

UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1941

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

CLARENCE CANNON, Missouri, Chairman

SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL NATIONAL DEFENSE
APPROPRIATION, 1942

HEARINGS CONDUCTED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN CHARGE OF DEFICIENCY APPROPRIATIONS, MESSRS. CLARENCE CANNON (CHAIRMAN), CLIFTON A. WOODRUM, ĻOUIS LUDLOW, J. BUELL SNYDER, EMMET O'NEAL, GEORGE W. JOHNSON, LOUIS C. RABAUT, JOHN TABER, RICHARD B. WIGGLESWORTH, WILLIAM P. LAMBERTSON, AND J. WILLIAM DITTER; ON THE DAYS FOLLOWING, NAMELY:

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1941.

OFFICE FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

STATEMENT OF DR. VANNEVAR BUSH, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, ACCOMPANIED BY DR. ALFRED N. RICHARDS, CHAIRMAN, MEDICAL RESEARCH COMMITTEE, AND DR. LEWIS H. WEED, VICE CHAIRMAN

The CHAIRMAN. Dr. Bush, we have listed here in House Document No. 384, $16,917,125 for the Office for Emergency Management. Dr. BUSH. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you a formal statement to present to the committee?

Dr. BUSH. I have no formal statement, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. How much of the money appropriated in the 1942 bill, $36,000,000, was allotted to you, Doctor?

Dr. BUSH. $8,400,000 for contracts, plus $500,000 for expenses$8,900,000.

The CHAIRMAN. And this $16,917,125 is in addition?

Dr. BUSH. That is right, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the occasion for it, Doctor?

Dr. BUSH. The occasion for it is the fact that since I came before you people last the job that has been given to me by the President has been much expanded. At that time it was the National Defense Research Committee. Since then the President by Executive order has instituted the Office of Scientific Research and Development, which includes the National Defense Research Committee and also the Medical Research Committee. We have also been asked to extend very considerably our activities for the Army and Navy.

1

ཏྠོ

DUTIES OF NATIONAL DEFENSE RESEARCH COMMITTEE

Mr. SNYDER. What is the nature of the work of the National Defense Research Committee?

Dr. BUSH. The National Defense Research Committee supplements the work of the Army and Navy in connection with instrumentalities and mechanisms of warfare. We work closely with the Army and Navy and do the things that they have not the time nor the personnel to do.

Mr. SNYDER. You look into the inventions and discoveries?

Dr. BUSH. We take inventions and ideas from any source from which we can get them, of course. Some of them come from the National Inventors' Council. Many of them come direct from the Army and the Navy.

Mr. SNYDER. For instance, all of these people who come before us with inventions; all they will have to do in the future will be

Dr. BUSH. All they will have to do will be to send their ideas to the Inventors' Council, and they will be carefully reviewed.

FUNDS ALLOWED UNDER ORIGINAL O. E. M. APPROPRIATION

Mr. TABER. You were allowed $8,400,000 out of the $9,400,000 that you asked for this experimental work?

Dr. BUSH. I think that is correct, sir.

Mr. TABER. All right. My idea was not to cut you; I will say that; and I do not think many of the others felt that way, either.

MEMBERSHIP AND DUTIES OF MEDICAL RESEARCH COMMITTEE

Who is on this Medical Research Committee?

Dr. BUSH. The Medical Research Committee, of which Dr. Richards is chairman, is now a part of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. That committee consists of one representative of the Surgeon General of the Army, one representative similarly from the Navy, one similarly from the Public Health Service, and three eminent civilan scientists who are specialists in medical science. Dr. Richards is chairman. Dr. Richards is at the head of the University of Pennsylvania medical schools.

Mr. TABER. And what is it that they are supposed to do?

Dr. BUSH. Like the National Defense Research Committee, this is a voluntary committee, of course, and the men are not paid. They are supposed to supplement the activities of the Army and the Navy and the Public Health Service on matters of medical research affecting the national defense.

Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. Are they dollar-a-year men?

Dr. BUSH. Yes, sir. No; we do not even get the dollar. Excuse me. Our whole organization is on that basis. All of our committees of scientists are voluntary committees, and we supplement their work with paid assistance.

For instance, Dr. Richards is head of the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. WOODRUM. That is where he is working?

Dr. BUSH. That is where he is working, and that is where he is paid.

Mr. WOODRUM. And you are where?

Dr. Busн. I am still president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and they still pay me.

Mr. WOODRUM. And Dr. Weed?

Dr. BUSH. Dr. Weed is Director of the medical school of Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. WOODRUM. So you gentlemen do not even get the dollar?
Dr. BUSH. We do not even get the dollar.

Mr. LUDLOW. If you do not get anything, you do not need much of an appropriation.

Dr. BUSH. We do not need very much. Our work is done by contract with educational institutions, research institutions, industrial research laboratories, hospitals, and so on.

FIELDS OF RESEARCH IN WHICH COMMITTEE IS WORKING

Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. Can you give us an illustration of what you have done?

Dr. BUSH. I can tell you the broad fields that we are working in. Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. Give us one that you have finished. Dr. BUSH. Oh, none of them will ever be complete, sir.

Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. Well, what contribution have you made?

Dr. BUSH. We have made a great many, and some rather important ones, but none of them was ever complete, because no weapon is ever perfect.

Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. Where have you made improvements?

Dr. BUSH. Let me give you the fields in which we are working; the broad fields first.

First, there is a broad field of medical research, of which I have spoken.

Now, the National Research Defense Committee is broken down into four divisions. The first division, under the chairmanship of Dr. Roger Adams, formerly under Dr. Conant, of Harvard, is the Chemical Division, and under that come all chemical problems, explosives, war gases, fuels, and all that sort of thing.

Then the second division is under Dr. Compton, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is concerned with detection and controls. That covers a great deal of ground, as you can well imagine, today.

The third division, under Dr. Tolman, who is head of the graduate school of the California Institute of Technology, is concerned with armor and ordnance problems; and, finally, under Dr. Jewett, who is president of the National Academy of Sciences, is a section dealing with communication and transportation.

Mr. LUDLOW. Doctor, I always associate you with aviation. Do you take any aviation problems?

Dr. BUSH. I was for some years chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and I have had many a session with you gentlemen in that capacity.