important facts and considerations to constitute a basis for the general consideration of relevant legislative proposals.

The information given in this report has been drawn from a wide variety of sources-principally from recent publications of various kinds, but also from correspondence and conferences with officials of Government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, and from other origins.

Throughout the course of the study, congressional interest has been the dominant concern. For example, in selecting material from the overwhelming volume of literature bearing on the subject, determining criteria for the selections have been expressed in such questions as: Would this article probably be of interest to Members of Congress? Is it significant in relation to possible Federal legislation?

Also, in the organization of the report, primary consideration has been given to the needs of Members of Congress. The report has been organized for use as a reference work. Members of Congress may be interested in only certain parts of it, but these parts may not be the same for all Members.

On the assumption that some Members will have time for only a minimum of reading, the report begins with a three-way analysis of the problem, including a summary of implications for legislation. Each chapter begins with a summary of its contents, but, for the Member who is interested in fuller information on one or more aspects, additional material is provided.

The critical analysis of the problem (1) describes its general nature, (2) sets forth considerations entering into it, as shown by findings and conclusions from the study, and (3) summarizes the implications for legislative action. While some of the considerations set forth herein are unfavorable toward certain legislative proposals and others are favorable, limitations of time and availability of materials preclude exhaustive pro and con studies of specific proposals.

PART I. CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM

The following discussion analyzes the problem of scientific, engineering, and other professional manpower development from three approaches or viewpoints: (1) The general character of the problem, (2) considerations entering into it, and (3) the implications for legislation discerned in findings from this study. These analyses are closely interrelated.

CHAPTER I

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE PROBLEM

A. SUMMARY

Our development of more and better trained scientific, engineering, and other professional manpower is important to our national survival. It is fundamentally an educational problem, involving the whole organization and system of education in the United States. The problem can be attacked from many approaches. There is no single solution.

B. IMPORTANCE OF THE ISSUE

In an address on the occasion of the centennial celebration of the National Education Association on April 4, 1957, President Eisenhower told the Nation:

Our schools are strong points in our national defense. Our schools are more important than our Nike batteries, more necessary than our radar warning nets, and more powerful even than the energy of the atom.'

Recent shortages of scientists, engineers, teachers, and other technical and professional personnel have drawn nationwide attention to the general problem of trained manpower development in the United States.

President Eisenhower has pointed out that there are a number of fields in which we have trained manpower shortages. In a special message to Congress on January 12, 1956, the President declared:

Shortages now exist in medicine, teaching, nursing, science, engineering, and in other fields of knowledge which require education beyond the high school.

Publicity given in this country to the phenomenal development of scientific and engineering manpower in the Soviet Union has emphasized our shortages in certain fields.

Many of our national leaders and other thinking citizens have expressed alarm over the shortages, and deep concern over the manpower development problem in general.

The solution of the problem is important to our national survival.

1 White House release. Text of the President's address.

Our survival depends upon maintaining the technical superiority of the free world over the Communists, and the maintenance of that superiority largely depends upon our having enough scientific, engineering, and other technical and professional personnel, with enough training of sufficient quality, to outthink and outproduce them.

General Nathan F. Twining, Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, has declared that

The security of our Nation in the years ahead depends as much on the wisdom and skill of our engineers, scientists, and technicians, as it does on the courage of our fighting men in our Army, Navy, and Air Force."

Russia's rulers have repeatedly proclaimed their undeviating determination to establish a Communist world under Russian domination. However, some time ago it became apparent that in this atomic age military attack upon the United States would lead to total destruction of the power of the aggressor. In recognition of that prospect, the Soviet leaders launched, and now have well underway, another and prolonged form of warfare. International communism has openly challenged the West to competition in the field in which the United States has long taken most pride in its eminence-technological achievement.

Chairman Lewis L. Strauss, of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, has said that

If there is to be another (shooting) war among the great nations of the world before the human race discovers a method of abolishing resource to combat, that war may be survived by the country with the greatest stockpile of nuclear weapons and instruments of their delivery. But such a war will almost certainly be lost by the country with the fewest resources in trained manpower.' Lt. Gen. Emmett O'Donnell has declared that

We are losing a war. We are losing it because we are losing the race to produce more and better engineers and scientists than the Communists are doing." Former Senator William Benton, now publisher of the Encyclopedia Britannica, has said that

A recent trip to the U. S. S. R. has convinced me that education has become a main feature of the cold war; that Russia's classrooms and libraries, her laboratories and teaching methods may threaten us more than her hydrogen bombs ** *.

The Communists from the earliest days gave up butter for guns, but they gave up meat for education."

As an expression of what the Soviet "peace offensive" means to the Communists, N. S. Khrushchev, First Secretary of the party, recently said:

We don't have to fight. Let us have peaceful competition and we will show you where the truth lies. *** Victory is ours.

He also recently said:

we say to the gentlemen who are waiting to see whether the Soviet Union will change its political program: Wait a blue moon. And you know when that will be.'

These statements are indicative of the importance of our manpower development problem in relation to the national defense. Other

2 Air Force magazine, September 1956.

Aircraft Industries Association. Planes, January 1955.

O'Donnell, Lt. Gen. Emmett, USAF, writing in Signal, May-June 1956, p. 31.

NEA Journal, May 1956.

School and Society, May 26, 1956, p. 175.

The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, January 11, 1936, p. 3.

aspects of the importance of the problem will be developed later in this report. In pursuit here of the initial purpose of giving a concept of the general nature of the problem, let us consider another of its principal characteristics.

C. ITS BASIC EDUCATIONAL NATURE

The problem is fundamentally an educational one.

The shortages of engineering, scientific, and other professional manpower are not shortages of population in general. The United States has enough potential manpower resources to meet all its needs. This Nation has never had cause to fear annihilation merely because some other countries, such as China and India, have had larger populations. In the present science-dominated world, overshadowed by the aims of international communism, mere increase of the population of the United States offers no hope for our national survival. Recently expressed concern over the national birthrate relates principally to the educational problems resulting, rather than to any fear of a possible shortage of births.

The shortages are not shortages of native ability. Our intelligence as a nation is evident. Our capabilities as a people have been demonstrated beyond question.

What then is the cause for alarm? What is the nature of the shortages about which the public press has been clamoring? Where are the national manpower weaknesses that are troubling many of our thoughtful citizens?

The shortages are shortages of education, and the weaknesses are our lack of adequate provisions for it.

Dr. L. A. DuBridge, president of the California Institute of Technology, has pointed out that—

What we are facing is not a shortage of talent, but of trained talent. Intelligent youngsters are not in short supply, and if we made good use of the resources available to us we would be in no difficulty."

The demands for trained manpower are increasing in all fields. Therefore, we should expect to have trained manpower shortages when we consider that the Nation is spending 234 as much for alcoholic beverages as for its colleges and universities. We should expect to find serious weaknesses in the school system of our society which pays some professional baseball players many times the annual salaries of teachers.

The war which international communism is waging against us has been referred to in recent literature as the "war of the classrooms." It is a war which at present is not being fought with such spectacular weapons as guided missiles, but which is employing a proper instrument of civilization seized upon and converted to use as a weapon; namely, education. With that instrument we may be eventually defeated unless we awake to its more effective use for our own defense. As illustrated in the quoted statements by Khrushchev, Soviet leaders have said they propose to win through peaceful competition.

Address of April 14, 1956. Printed at the California Institute of Technology, p. 7. The total expenditure for alcoholic beverages in the United States for 1955, according to the Office of Business Economics, U. S. Department of Commerce, was $10.09 billion. The total income of higher educational institutions-publicly and privately controlled, and including subcollegiate departments-from all sources including student fees, private benefactions, and the Federal, State, and local governments, was $3.34 billion for 1953-54, according to the Office of Education, U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Upon the solution of our educational problems largely depends the future of our country. "What happens to American education will eventually happen to America." 10

D. DEPTH AND BREADTH OF THE ISSUE

A thorough probing into the trained manpower problem reveals that it indeed runs deep and wide. It is not a problem merely of a temporary shortage of scientists and engineers. This shortage represents the most publicized aspect of the problem. It is an aspect of great importance to the national welfare; but it is only a part of the problem the part presently most obvious, on the surface. However, careful examination reveals that it is inseparable from other shortages of trained manpower-other aspects of the problem.

Let us look more deeply. Underlying the shortages of scientists, engineers, and other technical and professional manpower are all the major problems of education in the United States. Lying among these is the mother of all the rest-the general problem of financing education. It is the cause of inadequate buildings and facilities, insufficient vocational counseling of students, and low salaries for teachers.

The financial problem is not one of total financial resources. This Nation is rich enough to finance all its educational needs. The financial problem grows out of (1) the sense of values in our society which may give a movie actor or a "professional" boxer an annual income that makes the pay of a teacher or scientist look like a mere pittance, and (2) the methods of financing education in this country which are not yielding adequate support of it throughout the Nation.

Even if restricted to the development of adequate scientific and engineering manpower, the problem covers all educational levels. The education of scientists and engineers begins in the kindergarten and extends through graduate work in institutions of higher education. The problem involves a multiplicity of considerations, such as current and prospective enrollments in schools and colleges, their financial difficulties, the shortage of teachers, school construction needs, and many other factors. It involves the whole philosophy and system, and particularly the financing of American education.

E. CONTROVERSIAL ASPECTS

Reading any one of a number of recent articles dealing with the status of the professional manpower problem of the United States might lead to the conclusion that "This is it; this is the situation and the answer to it." Perusing another article might arouse doubts about the conclusiveness of the first one. Examination of several publications would probably give the impression that some aspects of the matter are quite controversial. Extensive study of the literature bearing on the subject would confirm that impression.

There is some disagreement as between relevant statistics from different sources. There is a much greater disagreement over their interpretation, and over the proper answers to the problem. For example, there seems to be some question as to whether we now have or have not, more scientists and engineers than the Russians. Some

10 Council for Financial Aid to Education. Aids to Corporate Support of Higher Education. Back cover.