And they got a billion dollars instead of 800 million.
The next year, they got another billion in the same way.
The third year they got 600 millions in the same way.

And the third year, after we had recommended the 600 million, and it had passed, a friend of mine from Tennessee was up here. And he asked me if I was going to be a candidate for election the next year. I told him I did not know. I said I supposed I would be. He said, "Well, you won't have any trouble about being elected." I said, "Thank you." And that passed off. That night I must have eaten ham for dinner, because ham sort of works the wrong way on keeping me awake sometimes, and I got to thinking about everything in the world, lying there awake. And then I suddenly thought that the German war was over, and we had never heard from the $2,600,000,000. I said to myself, "The people in my State will be certain to remember, and there is no use to be a candidate unless something happens."

And I said to myself, "I will see Secretary Stimson the first thing in the morning.'

I called Secretary Stimson. He was most cordial and pleasant, and I told him I wanted to come up to see him. He said, "I would be delighted."

I said, "Mr. Secretary, I won't have to have one of those saucers that you require all the visitors to your building to wear? Those great big white placards?"

He said, "Senator, I know what I am going to do. I won't give notice to the doorman, but I will come down and be at the door and escort you upstairs to my office myself.".

When I got up there, in a few moments, Secretary Stimson was there and took me up the stairway. My recollection is that he was on the second floor. He took me up. And I told him what my trouble was. He said, "Well, Senator, by the strangest coincidence, I told two gentlemen yesterday."

I wanted to know about the bomb, and when I told him, that is what he said: "I told two gentlemen yesterday. I gave them my promise that I would hold what is being done with that bomb secret." He said, "I will tell you what I will do. I will see these two gentlemen this afternoon and let you know before 12 o'clock tomorrow." I thanked him very cordially, and felt better about it, and left. I waited in my office all the morning, did not go outside, from 9 o'clock to 5 minutes to 12. At that time, I happened to be the Presiding Officer of the Senate, and at 5 minutes to 12, I walked over to the Senate and opened the Senate. I had not heard a word.

Sixteen minutes I remember looking at the clock-17 minutes after the Senate opened, a page came and said, "There is a military gentleman in the Vice President's office who would like to see you.' And I called another Senator to the chair, and I went in to see the military man, and when I got there, I found that it was Secretary Stimson's private military adviser. I do not believe that is what they called him.

Mr. STARNES. Aide?

Senator MCKELLAR. Aide, yes, sir. And a very fine gentleman. He said, "Senator, I owe you an apology. Mr. Secretary Stimson was called to New York this morning on the 10 o'clock plane and left, and he left a message for you and told me to bring it up to you by 12

Foundation since 1941; mem. advisory board Watermill Foundation since 1944. Mem. advisory com. to U. S. Weather Bureau since 1935; mem. visiting com., U. S. Bureau of Standards since 1931; mem. War Resources Board, 1939-40. Nat. Defense Research Committee since 1940; chief, Office of Field Service, O. S. R. D., 1943-45; chairman, U. S. Radar mission to United Kingdom, 1943 mem., Secretaries of War and Navy Com., on Postwar Researches, 1944; special representative of Sec. of War in Southwest Pacific Area, 1943-44; chmn. Research bd. for Nat. Security since 1945; chmn. advisory co on scientific research to Nat. Assn. of Mfrs. 1937-41; chmn. Committee on Engring, Schs. of E. C. P. D., 1932-39; mem. advisory bd. Bartol Research Foundation, 1927-36; mem. Rockefeller Foundation and Gen. Edn. Bd. since 1940; chmn. governing bd. Am. Inst. of Physics, 1931-36; mem. Nat. Acad. Sciences; chmn. Science Advisory Bd., 1933-35; mem. exec. com. Bus. Advisory and Planring Council, 1933-36, mem. advisory com. on Research for Railroads, 1935-36; dir. Boston Chamber Commerce, 1932-33; chmn. Nutrition Foundation since 1941; Pilgrim Trust lecturer, Royal Society, London, 1943; fellow American Physical Society (councillor; vice pres., 1925-27; pres. 1927-29), Optical Society America; mem. A. A. A. S. (exec. com. 1931-40 and pres. 1935-36), Am. Philos. Soc., Am. Chem. Soc., Franklin Institute, Am. Inst. E. E., Am. Soc., M. E., Inst. of Aeronautical Sciences, Am. Acad. of Arts and Sciences, Am. Inst. of New York, Soc. for Promotion Engring. Edn. (v. p. 1937, pres. 1938-39), Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Alpha Tau Omega, Tau Beta Pi. Mem. bd. trustees Memorial Foundation for Neuro-Endocrine Research of Boston since 1932, Norwich Univ. since 1935, Brookings Inst. since 1940. Awarded Rumford medal, Am. Acad. Arts and Sciences, 1931, Presbyterian. Clubs: Tavern, Algonquin, Union, University (Boston); University (New York); Cosmos (Washington, D. C.). Home: 111 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, Mass.

TESTIMONY OF DR. KARL TAYLOR COMPTON, PRESIDENT, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE,

MASS.

The CHAIRMAN. You are president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are you not?

Dr. COMPTON. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And in your capacity in the past and at the present time, you have served with various advisory groups on matters touching national security, national defense, and national policy? Dr. COMPTON. That is right, sir. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. And I believe at present you are on at least one such board, are you not? Or is it the Atomic Energy Advisory Board?

Dr. COMPTON. No, I am not on the Atomic Energy Advisory Board. I happen to be a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Evaluation Board on the Atomic Bomb Tests.

The CHAIRMAN. And I guess we were out sailing around Bikini last summer, were we not?

Dr. COMPTON. That is right, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Doctor, in view of your past connections and associations in this public service, you have had considerable opportunity to form an opinion about the Atomic Energy Commission's activities, and the future program for the domestic program for atomic energy, I am quite sure.

Dr. COMPTON. Yes, sir, I have.

The CHAIRMAN. You have been asked to come here today specifically because of your acquaintance with Carroll Wilson, who has been nominated by the President, or appointed by him, subject to confirmation, to the office of General Manager of the Atomic Energy Commission activities.

That does not mean that you are limited, of course, in any observations you may want to make otherwise, but in that connection I would like you to make a statement, in any way that you see fit, concerning your acquaintance with Carroll Wilson, and in keeping with your opinion as to the activities of the Commission, how you think he would fit into the duties and the responsibilities of General Manager.

And may I add further that the Commission has definitely stated that it intends to be an over-all policy-making board, and that the General Manager will have the affirmative administration details and the carrying out and implementing of those policies, as made by the Commission.

Now, any comment that you care to make we will be pleased to hear.

Dr. COMPTON. Senator Hickenlooper and members of the committee, I will mention first something of the background of Mr. Wilson, as I have known it, in my association with him.

I will deal particularly with the things in which my contact has been closer than that of some of the other members, my other friends that have appeared before you, notably President Conant and Dr. Bush. I don't happen to know what they have told you, and I hope I won't duplicate too much.

My contact with Mr. Wilson began when he was a student at M. I. T. at which time he was chairman of the undergraduate budget committee, which handled the business affairs of the student activties under their self-government organization.

I saw a great deal of him in that capacity, where he did an outstanding job of reorganizing the whole business set-up for the student activities. And I was so impressed with the job that he had done that on graduation I asked him if he would come into my office as my assistant for a period of 4 years.

I made it clear that it was to be only 4 years, because the man that I wanted to have as my assistant I thought should be a man of caliber who would not properly stay in that position too long, but it appeared 4 years would be a good training for him and a great help to me.

The CHAIRMAN. I have been trying to hire a man in my office that I think is much better than the job.

Dr. COMPTON. That was my idea, and Wilson was my choice from the graduates of M. I. T. at that time.

So he served as my assistant for 4 years.

Now, the normal activities that were anticipated in the job consisted of doing everything that I should have done that he could do. And that increased gradually from correspondence at the beginning toward the end, taking the responsibility of getting together the budgetary requirements of the institution as a whole.

I think it is not necessary to deal more with that, because there are two or three other things that happened in that interval that I think are more significant for your purposes.

In 1933, I was appointed by the President as chairman of a science advisory board, that was made up initially of 9 and later, of 12 scientists, selected throughout the country, with the directive to assist the various scientific bureaus of the Government in connection with the serious problems that they were faced with at that time because of the budgetary reductions, there, right in the depths of the depression.

Our board operated on problems that were set for us by the various secretaries, the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior, the Director of the Budget, and so forth.

And in connection with that work, we had an opportunity to learn something, and in fact quite a good deal, of some of the aspects, of the operations of these governmental scientific bureaus.

Mr. Wilson served as secretary of that committee and was associated with all of the studies and all of the activities, and cooperated in the preparation of our reports.

Just by example, by illustration, Mr. Wallace, who was then Secretary of Agriculture, asked us to make a study of the Weather Bureau and make recommendations for its reorganization, along the lines of the more modern techniques of weather forecasting.

That was a major operation, which was carried through successfully, and involved, as the final stage, the setting up of an educational and training program, so that the personnel in the Weather Bureau could be trained in these new methods.

Also involved there was the nomination-I don't know to whom that goes-of the new Chief of the Weather Bureau.

Another job was undertaken at the request of the Director of the Budget, who was then Mr. Douglas. That was to make an over-all survey of the mapping services of the various Federal bureaus, and to make recommendations to increase the efficiency and economy in the operation of those mapping services.

A very extensive study there was carried out. The President ordered our results put into effect, but those never were put into effect, I believe, because it was discovered that his authority under Congress for reorganization had lapsed a few days before he issued the order. So that did not work out, but it did give an intimate acquaintance with some of those problems.

The Bureau of Standards had suffered a great reduction in Budget, and the problem was what aspects of the activities of that Bureau could be put on ice, what could be shifted over to others, like the American Standards Association, so that the work could go ahead with a reduced governmental Budget. Then there were problems in connection with the safety of ships at sea, a study of the operations of our patent procedures, to recommend any modifications that might be an increased incentive to inventors, looking toward the quicker development of new business enterprises.

Well, those are examples of the type of work that was done by this board. There are many other examples that I could give.

And Mr. Wilson, as secretary of the board, in that study came in contact with the operations of governmental bureaus, specifically the scientific bureaus, and their organization and some of their problems and their budgetary requirements, and so forth.

Toward the end of that period, there was another activity, in which I had the misfortune also to be chairman of a group, which involved the examination of all of the engineer schools in the United States, to set up a program of accreditation. I don't think many of the engineers wanted that program individually, but the majority of the States had adopted laws for the licensing of engineers, and in those laws it was necessary for them to have a list of accredited engineer schools.

There was quite a confusion, because each State had set up its own list, and the operations didn't go very well across State borders.

And the National Council of the State Boards of Engineering Examiners requested the six national engineering societies to cooperate with them in making this study of the engineering schools.

So a committee of engineering educators and practicing engineers throughout the country was set up and a several years' program of investigation of engineering schools was carried out, going not only into the operation of the engineering school as a whole, but also the the individual elements in it, the chemistry department, the electrical engineering department, the eurriculum, the organization, and so forth. And Mr. Wilson served as secretary of that committee. He actually did the principal work in developing the method of those studies, the questionnaire, the organization of inspection teams, and finally the formulation of the results.

And he took the principal charge in that work.

A third outside activity that came up during this 4-year period was a request by the National Academy of Sciences here in Washington to make study of the methods of handling patents that might develop in connection with grants or fellowships that were administered by the National Academy.

And the problem there was to review their practices and make recommendations for a patent policy which would be appropriate for an eleemosynary institution that was set up to serve the public. And there, there was a committee set up of scientists and industrialists; and approximately the study extended over about a year-part time, of course and resulted in recommendations that were made to the National Academy of Sciences.

And those recommendations have served as a pattern which has been followed by a great many other educational institutions and agencies of public responsibility.

Mr. Wilson served as the secretary of that committee.

So that in those three jobs that he had with me, during those 4 years, and as a very young man, he had the opportunity to get acquainted with Government bureaus, the scientific bureaus, with the engineering schools and their operations and personnel, and with patent policy. The CHAIRMAN. Are you going to touch, Doctor, on his business experience, that may have gone along with that experience? Dr. COMPTON. Yes, sir. I will do that, Senator.

In these studies, of course, these committees had no operating activity. But they did have the opportunity to study the business operations of various organizations. So Mr. Wilson's contact up to that point had been from the standpoint of being a student and an evaluator of these operations, rather than an operator.

May I go back a minute? As far as his activities as an òperator were concerned during that period, those I think were principally confined to the work that he did as my assistant in the operations of MIT, which at that time involved about a four million dollars a year budget, and research and educational activities going on.

Immediately following his 4 years' service as my assistant, he took charge of the Boston office of the Research Corporation of New York and served in that capacity until the beginning of World War II, or until just before the beginning of World War II.

Now, the Research Corporation of New York is an organization chartered under the laws of New York as an eleemosynary institution, whose function is to encourage inventors and handle patents for the benefit of the public. It is a nonprofit outfit. Any income that may