Evening star., 1955-05-31
BY BEN H. BAGDIKIAN


Today there is physicist ir
a Government laboratory wait.
ing to hear whether he is ST.
curity risk" and therefore ir
danger of ending his professional
career.
Six years ago he asked secu-
rity officers whether his forth
coming marriage would affect his
secret clearance. His fiance hao
no security problem, but hel
parents occasionally associated
with persons thought to be pro-
Communists. The physicist
planned never to see his :n-laws
after the wedding. The security
officers assured him the mar
riage. would not jeopardize his
status.
Five years later the physicist
suddenly had his elearaHce re-
voked. The charge: His wlfe's
parents are believed to associ-
ate with alleged pro-Commu-
nists.. The information against
him was precisely that vol IN
teered by Iirlseif and accepted
by the Government. He has ap-
pealed at a cost to himself OF
about $1,000 and approximately
$1,000 to the Government. He
is still waiting for a decision.
Last year an aeronautica]
engineer who had worked ior
the Government for IA years
was suspended from his top
secret project in Seattle, putting
him out of a job and all but
stopping the urgent project. The
charge involved information he
had given the Government in
1910. which had been invest1-
gated and cleared at least twice
since then. After six months he
was restored. The personal cost
of the appeal to him was So
242.83, to the Government, six
months loss of time on an i'm
portant defense project.
These are the kinds of cases
that today are causing America s
best young scientists to fear
Government work. In 1858 a poll
of science PhD.'s graduating
from research universities showed
them equally divided on where
they would like to work, one
third each in Government, in
dustry and universities. In 1854
after the investigation of Fort
Monmouth and the case of Dr
j. Robert Oppenheimer-a poll
of Ph.D.'s showed that the 33
per cent who wanted to work for
the Government had dropped to
8 per cent. The chief reason
given: security.
In fact, about half Of all the
new Ph.D.'s said they would pre-
fer a lower salary to going
through the present uncertainties
of security practices
The Nation cannot afford to
discourage young scientists. AT
q time when it's requirements for
trained men were rising sharply
bachelor degrees in science have
been dropping, 20 per cent in
1950-51, anothr Is per cent the
next year.
In four years all bachelor
degrees in science and egineering
have dropped from 10000 tc
$4,000.
During this same period, Rus
sia has been eXtolling the scholar
and scientist and encouraging its
best brains to go into research
In a few years. Russia will be
graduating 10000 engineers a
year Last year the United States
graduated 10000. And experts
say it would be fatal to under
estimate the growing quality OF
Russian engineers.
1t is figures like these which
led DR.. John r. Dunning, dear
of the Columbia University
School of Engineering to say
I'VE have almost lost the battle
for scientific manpower."
Similarly, the Government a!
a whole cannot afford to encour'
age public contempt of highl!
trained, studious men, or "egg'
heads" The Federal establish
nlent would collapse withou
them. Twenty per cent of al
Federal employees are Of profes'
sional rank. most of them with
graduate degrees. Another g.
per cent are of top industria
skill. Bu+ while more than hal
are of top grade talent, only
per cent of Government worker1
get $4,000 or more. The lega
limit for Civil Service is $14,50(
a year. It is precisely in thest
badly needed skills that the Gov
ernment cannot compete with
private industry in attracting
talent.
Secrecy Hit
Another factor in discouragine
Government research is super
secrecy. 1t hampers not only thu
individual scientist. but at time'
the Government itself.
Recently. the Department O.
Defense completed a secret
project. All that can be said O
it is that it cost somewhere be-
tween $4,000 and 100000 ant
took a number of senior scien'
fists about a year to complete
Unaware of the "secret" prof
ect, some non-G Government scien
lists in a university did eXactl.
the same work and published
Z n & \ q q &