Abstract
A RECENT article in Industrial, and Engineering Chemistry (News Edition, Nov. 10, p. 315) reviews the results of the recent economy cuts in chemical research at Washington. On the whole, the results of the Economy Act have been less devastating than at first threatened. Most bureaux were able to continue on a reduced scale; the danger of dilution of personnel with political nominees has been entirely avoided in the scientific branches; the chief effect has been the dropping of less essential projects, and a retardation of progress, with drastic reductions in only one or two departments. Chemical research is centred mainly in the Department of Agriculture and in the Bureau of Standards, Department of Commerce. The latter was the hardest hit of all scientific organisations affected, the Congress appropriation for 1933-34 of 2,056,000 dollars having been reduced to 1,336,000 dollars, less than one half of the 1931-32 expenditure. Part of the reduction was automatically covered by the President's 15 per cent reduction of all salaries of Government employees, but the personnel displaced amounted to 350, and one of the research projects on which they were engaged remains a total loss. Among the discontinued projects are the investigations on the manufacture of fructose, the sensitivity of photographic emulsions, soil erosion of pipes, and testing methods for paper.
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Effect of Economy Cuts in the United States. Nature 132, 887–888 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132887c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132887c0