Statement by the President on Establishing the National Committee for the Development of Scientists and Engineers.

WE IN AMERICA have a unique technological ability to use science for the strengthening of our country's defense against aggression and for the application of our material resources to the improvement of human living. But our technological superiority is now seriously challenged by those who use science for aggression and conquest.

World technological leadership carries the inherent responsibility before the world of using technology to help all peoples achieve a better life through the development of their resources for the good of all mankind. How we do this will require the most intensive effort in all fields of learning. We must nourish those basic roots of our traditions and culture which lie deep in the humanities and the social sciences, and in our fundamental religious conception of the relation of man to his Maker. The attention we here focus on science and engineering will not distract us from continuing our efforts on behalf of all the other important fields of education.

Sometime ago I established a special inter-departmental committee to make an intensive study of the actions which need to be taken in order to improve our present situation with regard to the education and utilization of highly qualified scientists and engineers. The Director of Defense Mobilization served as Chairman of this committee, and working with him were the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Director of the National Science Foundation, and the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower and Personnel). The special committee recognized that although the Government has a responsibility for increasing the supply and improving the quality of our technological personnel, the basic responsibility for solution of the problem lies in the concerted action of citizens and citizens' groups organized to act effectively.

At the recommendation of this special committee, I am establishing a National Committee for the Development of Scientists and Engineers, comprised of representatives of major citizens' organizations to foster the development of more highly qualified technological manpower.

Second, I am directing all departments and agencies of the Government to cooperate fully with the work of the National Committee and, at the same time, to re-evaluate and strengthen in every appropriate way their own activities which can contribute to the development and effective utilization of scientists and engineers. The National Science Foundation will provide staff services for the Committee and provide leadership to other departments and agencies in carrying forward activities which will contribute to a solution of the problem.

An imaginative and vigorous effort on the part of citizens' organizations and the Government can, I am confident, maintain for us the technological superiority upon which our economy and our national security so critically depend.