Evening star., 1955-05-26
Let's Act on 1t!

Atomic Energy Commissioner w. F. Libby
has now been raised to warn the country
that it is facing serious and potentially
grave shortage of adequately trained
scientists and engineers. Within the past
year or two the same warning has been
sounded by numerous other distinguished
Americans, but there has as yet been no
evidence of concerted, systematic effort
by the Government and our educational
system to correct the situation before it
deteriorates to point of crisis.
This is far too weighty matter to be
shrugged off or dealt with alphabetically.
For what it means. as DR.. Libby has de-
clared at North Carolina State College, is
that "Our supremacy in advanced military
technology is threatened. The shortages
are actually greatest, in those specialties
most important to national defense" And
beyond that, of course, with our popula-
ton growing at rate of about "a million
every decade, and with our steadily ex-
panding industries hungering for the serv-
ices of more and more scientists and en-
gineers, the actual and prospective lack
of such manpoWer obviously does not
augur we'll for the future development Of
our civilian economy.
The seriousness of the problem is we'll
illustrated by a few statistics. AS of noW
our country has between Is and 20 per
cent more engineers than the total at work
in the Soviet Union. But we are quickly
losing our advantage in that respect, and
If the present trend continueS-if our edu-
cational system does not sharply increase
its annual output of these Sorely needed
technicians-the Russians will catch up
with us by 1860, and they will thereafter
move far ahead of us in the race to train
young people for scientific work. The COM
parative figures are startling, and indeed
shocking. Thus, as pointed out some
months ago by DR.. M. H. Trytten of the
National Research Council, although the
industries and Government of the United
States are urgently calling for more scien-
lists and engineers, the supply fell from
peak of $4,000 engineering graduates in
1850 to $4,000 in 1854" But during the same
period, by way of contrast, Russia COM
pletely reversed this situation, with $4,000
graduates in 1850 and $4,000 in 1854"
These figures speak for themselves.
While the Soviet Union has been spectacu-
larly increasing the number of its scien-
tifically trained citizens, we have been
is it that has made our country lose so
much ground in such vital field of man
power? According to DR.. Libby, the basic
cause of the trouble can be found in our
high schools, where the "uninspired" teach
ing of poorly paid instructors fails to per-
suade competent college-bo students
to concentrate on subjects like physics,
chemistry, mathematics and engineering.
But this factor, important though 1t un-
doubtedly Is, is only one of several that
must be acted upon, and without delay,
to put an end to the present situation.
Up to now, as in the case of the
weather. people have tended to talk great
deal about this problem, but nobody seems
to be doing much If anything about it.
Yet it is a problem of the utmost i'm
portance, and unless vigorous meas
ures are taken to solve it, the Nation
can hardly fail to be seriously weakened
In way that could be most menacing to
all of us in this age of supertechnology