hands of the State, and its powers to control the terms of patent leases would place a very effective check on nonuse of desirable inventions. The present handicap thrown on the mechanical genius without funds, connections, or self-selling ability would be largely eliminated, with the patent being developed, marketed, and protected from infringement by the Government. Furthermore, time, labor, and expense of inventors, incurred in simultaneous research by several individuals, each in ignorance of the work of others, could be materially reduced through the approval or rejection of research-project applications, as provided for in section 202 (a). The bill seems to be elastic enough to permit any reasonable and necessary monopoly features, and at the same time to eliminate any socially detrimental monopoly in any patent granted under the terms of this bill. The provision for referring the development of certain projects to educational institutions is greatly to be commended, partly as an economy measure, in utilizing the present magnificent equipment and scientific experts of many such institutions, and partly in the development of the inventive urge and in the opportunity it offers to such institutions to carry out, most effectively, their primary function, educational promotion and social betterment. Perhaps the outstanding merit of the bill is the opportunity it offers for a survey of the fields of possibilities for invention. Entirely new fields should be discovered and promoted, based on Nation-wide needs and facilities, not only involving present conditions, but with scientific preparation for the future. There is no reason why such a program should not result, eventually, in a planned economy of invention. No hardship to capital or labor is involved. On the contrary, it should stimulate both, by introducing entirely new industries. The inventor is fully protected, and it is optional with him to make his application under this bill or to proceed under present patent procedure. The cost to the Government would be nominal, as the inventions protected under this bill should, in the aggregate, more than pay to the Government the costs of development, and possibly all costs of administration. On the whole, the bill looks like a long step in the right direction, and is a basic attack upon a problem that must be met, without delay. Mr. RANDOLPH. And also a statement from Maurice Holland, director, division of engineering and industrial research, National Research Council, a letter to me, giving his endorsement. Mr. EICHER. Without objection it is so ordered. (The letter referred to is as follows:) Hon. JENNINGS RANDOLPH, NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, New York, March 29, 1937. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. RANDOLPH: I am delighted to have your letter of March 26 with enclosures, the scientific-research bill (H. R. 1536), together with copy of your address before the Council for Industrial Progress. Just as soon as I have had an opportunity to digest the contents of the House bill, together with the supplementary information included in your address, I will be glad to prepare a statement, or to appear before the committee hearings, whichever in your opinion will be of most help to this important legislation. Sincerely yours, MAURICE HOLLAND, Director, Division of Engineering and Industrial Research. Mr. RANDOLPH. Also a letter from Dr. Howard S. Piquet, professor of economics, American University, Washington, D. C. Mr. EICHER. Without objection, it is so ordered. (The letter referred to is as follows:) Hon. JENNINGS RANDOLPH, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY, Washington, D. C., July 17, 1937. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. RANDOLPH: The pending bill providing for the establishment of governmental assistance to scientific research has been called to my attention by Mr. John H. Payne, one of your constituents and a former student of mine Although I believe it would be incorrect to attribute business depressions to technological displacement of workers, there can be no question but that this factor is a powerful contributing cause to our difficulties. Anything that the Government might do to facilitate the adoption of new techniques to take up the slack caused by such displacements would make less difficult the problem of recovery. Therefore, I am only too glad to go on record as being in favor of the passage of this bill. Yours very truly, HOWARD S. PIQUET, Adjunct Professor of Economics. Mr. RANDOLPH. I would also like to place in the record a letter from D. S. O. Bond, president of Salem College, a letter endorsing the proposition. Mr. EICHER. Without objection it is so ordered. (The letter referred to is as follows:) Hon. JENNINGS RANDOLPH, Member of Congress, Washington, D. C. SALEM COLLEGE, Salem, W. Va., April 27, 1936. DEAR MR. RANDOLPH. I have read with much interest the bill you presented relating to a more democractic use of scientific discoveries. I believe that bill is worthy of the support of your fellow Congressmen. The future good of humanity is dependent in large measure upon the utilization of science discoveries and inventions. Many of the most worthy are marketed only after many years of delay, because the inventor or the discoverer is wholly without funds for their development. At times the new discovery interferes with older discoveries that are making certain corporations wealthy, and the new one tends to be suppressed. I am very happy to express to you my heartiest commendation, and trust that the bill may pass in due season. Sincerely yours, S. O. BOND, President. Mr. RANDOLPH. I should also like to place in the record a letter from Dr. J. W. Studebaker, Commissioner, United States Department of the Interior, Office of Education, endorsing the proposition. Mr. EICHER. Without objection, it is so ordered. (The letter referred to is as follows:) DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF EDUCATION, Washington, February 8, 1937. Hon. JENNINGS RANDOLPH, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. RANDOLPH: Replying to your letter of December 29 in which you ask for comments concerning the proposed new section 3 (b) of H. R. 12261, introduced in the second session of the Seventy-fourth Congress: Research projects which have relatively little immediate prospect of financial return have always been one of the chief concerns of the universities. Such socalled, pure research, however, has made an incalucable economic contribution to public welfare. I am glad to endorse, therefore, the section which you contemplate adding to the original form of your bill. This new provision will encourage the development of research in the universities and will void duplicating these research activities among other agencies. Even though I do not interpret your letter of December 29 to request my comment on the bill as a whole, I am taking the liberty of writing the following paragraphs in the hope that most careful consideration may be given to the problem of coordinating the many research programs in which the universities engage with the aid of Federal funds. To foster research for the development of our material and human resources is, in my opinion, a proper Federal function. With so much research now in progress, supported by Federal, State, local and private funds, it is importnt that new Federal subsidies be given in such a way as to stimulate and encourage the use of increased State, local, and private funds and not to dry up those sources. The Office of Education has been greatly interested in this research development in the universities, and our Dr. Fred J. Kelly, Chief of the Division of Higher Education, will be glad to tell you of the many research agencies now at work if you care to invite him to do so. I hope you will not interpret this suggestion as interference. Your bill is of such basic importance that I am anxious that the Office of Education shall be of service in every legitimate way in strengthening the measure. Sincerely yours, J. W. STUDEBAKER, Commissioner. Mr. RANDOLPH. I should also like to place in the record a letter from Dr. Ludvig Hektoen, Chairman, National Research Council, endorsing the bill. Mr. EICHER. Without objection, it is so ordered. (The letter referred to is as follows:) Hon. JENNINGS RANDOLPH, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. CHICAGO, ILL., June 26, 1937. MY DEAR MR. RANDOLPH: President Compton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has sent me a copy of his letter to you of June 19 about bill H. R. 1536, with which I am familiar in its revised form. I wish to indicate my endorsement of the principles upon which bill 1536 is based, as well as of the comments and suggestions of President Compton in his letter to you. I shall see to it that this matter is followed up with your assistant, Mr. John Howard Payne. Yours sincerely, LUDVIG HEKTOEN, Chairman. Mr. RANDOLPH. I should also like to place in the record a letter from Mr. William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, endorsing the proposition. Mr. EICHER. Without objection, it is so ordered. (The letter referred to is as follows:) Hon. JENNINGS RANDOLPH, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF Labor, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN: I was pleased to hear the address which you delivered at the meeting of the Council for Îndustrial Progress on December 10. In your recent letter you enclosed a copy of a bill which you advised me you intended to introduce in Congress. This proposed bill afforded the basis for the discussion of the statement you made at the meeting of the Council for Industrial Progress. Your purpose and desire to promote the economic and social interests of the masses of the people through the adoption of constructive legislation is deeply appreciated by myself and your host of friends. We all know of your sympathetic attitude toward all proposals drafted and submitted in behalf of labor and of the masses of the people. It does seem to me that the bill to which you have called my attention offers a sound basis for the promotion of the general welfare and national prosperity. While I do not feel justified in expressing a definite opinion as to the practicability of the plan you propose, nevertheless I wish to assure you that I am tremendously interested in it and will give it my careful thought and best consideration. I do not feel justified in commenting further upon this proposed legislation at this time. Extending to you my best wishes for your continued success, I beg to remain, Very truly yours, WM. GREEN, President, American Federation of Labor. Mr. RANDOLPH. Also a letter from Ernest P. Witt, Parkersburg, W. Va., endorsing the proposition. Mr. EICHER. Without objection, it is so ordered. (The letter referred to is as follows:) Hon. JENNINGS RANDOLPH, Washington, D. C. PARKERSBURG, W. Va., DEAR SIR: I am very pleased to learn through the medium of the press that at the next session of Congress you will endeavor to have enacted into law a bill creating a bureau for scientific research. While I know but little of the bill's pro visions I believe it the first real step toward giving due encouragement to the inventor to whom Dr. George W. Edwards recently referred to as the "forgotten man of the New Deal." To be sure, I do not know what plan, for the relief of the inventors, was father to the statement by Dr. Edwards, but I do know that great assistance toward the reduction of unemployment can come from the kind of relief which I believe should be given the inventor. I know there are hundreds of potential Edisons, Bells, and Whitneys throughout this country today whose inventions have as great possibilities as did those of their predecessors in their day but whose inventions will be lost to posterity due to their being financially unable to construct working models, secure patent protection, and bring them to the attention of the interested buyers. It might be said that in this robot-machine age, with its resulting unemployment, why should the Government make possible, through subsidy, the manufacture of inventions, some of which would be new and improved machines, when already the ranks of the unemployed are of alarming proportions because of the displacement of hand labor by machinery? I know this to be the belief of many, but surely such belief cannot be born of forethought. I am of the opinion that unemployment is due, in a certain measure, not to too many inventions but to the lack of inventions. To make myself clear-too few people today have original ideas; and by this I mean there are too many better mouse traps being manufactured, and, after all, they can only be used for catching mice. It is true that in our present-day industrial scheme there must be competition, but is not excessive competition the progenitor of the mass production of mouse traps? Why could not the Bureau provided in your bill search out these new ideas and inventions, provide financing to the manufacturing stage of those having merit and the manufacture of which would not compete directly with an article already being offered on the market? I am of the opinion that the Bureau would, through the sale of the inventions to manufacturers on the basis that it would receive a certain percentage of the profit inuring to the inventor, be self-supporting. Also the Bureau in controlling the sale of inventions would control the locating of the factories for their manufacture in communities where they are required for relieving unemployment and also in the subsistence homesteads. Sincerely, ERNEST P. WITT. Mr. RANDOLPH. I may say to the chairman and the members of the committee that I have not attempted to burden this record with endorsements of the legislation, but I ask to have these men approve the legislation by this method so that the committee will not find it necessary to call so many witnesses before it for the purpose of consideration of the measure that I have just presented. I hope that you will find it possible, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, to hear one or two gentlemen who have come here this morning at my request. I want to express deep appreciation of the opportunity of having had this opportunity to give the members of this committee certain ideas for their study and consideration, because I well realize that the research subcommittee, of which Chairman Eicher is chairman, and the other gentlemen, whom I know well, desire to work out some measure which may be helpful along, perhaps, the lines which I have suggested this morning. Mr. EICHER. We thank you for your statement, Mr. Randolph. Before we call the roll of the distinguished educators, who are with us today, we will hear Representative Lanham of Texas, sponsor of H. R. 5531. STATEMENT OF HON. FRITZ G. LANHAM, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS Mr. LANHAM. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I shall be very brief in my remarks. I am here in behalf of H. R. 5531, introduced by me, and which I believe to be representative of the thought and judgment of eminent and qualified men throughout the country who have given study to this matter. From such study as I have been able to devote to it, I have come to the conclusion that some provision for such research is not only expedient but somewhat imperative if we are to have the progressive development in this regard so essential to the welfare of the various sections of our country. I have no technical information on this subject; but I have the honor of informing the committee that many very eminent educators from different sections of our country are here present. I have no desire whatever to trespass upon their time, because they are in a position to give you practical information with reference to the operation of the features of these various bills if enacted into law. In my judgment, the small expenditure that would be required would bring very large and gratifying results. Among those present are Dr. Foster, of the University of Alabama, president of that institution, who is the chairman of the particular group speaking in behalf of the bill; Dr. Woolrich, of my own State university, dean of the department of engineering, University of Texas; Dr. Rodman, dean of the school of engineering, University of Virginia; and various other educators; and I would not trespass upon their time, Mr. Chairman, but in their behalf I trust that you and the other gentlemen of the committee will give them very patient and attentive hearing. Mr. EICHER. Thank you, Mr. Lanham. STATEMENT OF HON. J. W. ROBINSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF UTAH Mr. EICHER. Congressman Robinson from Utah is with us this morning. He is the sponsor of H. R. 7001, relating to business research. Would you care to be heard at this time, Mr. Robinson? Mr. ROBINSON. I do not care to be heard at this time, Mr. Chair man. Mr. BOREN. Mr. Chairman. Mr. EICHER. Mr. Boren. Mr. BOREN. For my information, I would like to ask Mr. Robinson one question. I notice that there is a distinct difference in your bill and Mr. Lanham's bill with reference to the definition of the institutions that shall have these research stations, and we had considerable discussion of that in the hearings on your bill before, Mr. Robinson, and I just wonder if you would have any objection to following the theory provided in Mr. Lanham's bill, that the legislature in each State would designate in which institutions these stations are to be established. |