One of the commonly accepted features of American life is that the taxpayer's attitude toward a public official is much like that of a baseball fan toward the umpire. In each case, value received for payment of the required fee is assumed to include a license to make life as tough for the official as the payer wishes. One of the ways in which we citizens achieve this goal with an individual who occupies a high appointive office is that within minutes after his nomination to the position is made known, we expect him to be able (a) to announce a full and complete program, (b) to make profound pronouncements regarding the implications his program may have for all other phases of life—domestic and foreign, and (c) to commit himself to an extensive schedule of writing and speech making. By the time he is confirmed we rather expect that he will have a complete staff lined up like runners at the starting tape ready to spring to action as the final words of the confirmation ceremony die away.
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June 1951
June 01 1951
An interview with the director of the National Science Foundation
Responsibility for creating a national center concerned with the continued health and progress of American Science is vested to a large extent in the person of Alan T. Waterman. Some of the problems he must face are described below.
Physics Today 4 (6), 6–8 (1951);