An interview with the director of the National Science Foundation

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.

This article is only available in PDF format