Amendment No. 11: The Senate amendment strikes out the proviso of the House bill which restricted the application of the provisions of the act to ex-service men who were in the service prior to November 12, 1918, and which provided for the discontinuance after one year of compensation payments to ex-service men who entered the service after such date. The House recedes.

Amendment No. 13: This amendment eliminates the provision restricting the payment of disability allowance to persons who have a permanent disability of 25 per cent or more. The Senate recedes. Amendment No. 14: This amendment increases the rates in the House bill for payments of disability allowance and also permits payments to be made to veterans who have a 10 per cent degree of permanent disability instead of those having a 25 per cent permanent disability as provided in the House bill. The Senate recedes.

Amendment No. 15: This amendment permits the payment of disability allowance to a veteran suffering from venereal infection incurred during the period of World War service if the veteran entered the service before November 11, 1918, even though the disease was incurred as a result of the veteran's own willful misconduct. The Senate recedes.

Amendments Nos. 16 and 20: These amendments provide that no person shall be paid a disability allowance who is not entitled to an exemption from the payment of a Federal income tax, and that the Secretary of the Treasury, upon request of the director, shall transmit to the director a certificate stating whether the veteran applying for disability allowance is entitled to an exemption from such tax. The Senate recedes.

Amendment No. 21: This amendment in effect extends the payment of extra compensation to persons who suffered the loss of the use of a creative organ or one or more feet or hands to the cases where such loss was the result of injury received in the active service in line of duty between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918. The House recedes.

Amendment No. 22: This amendment substitutes the word "injury" for the word "disability" and was made necessary by amendment No. 21. The House recedes.

Amendment No. 23: This amendment provides that any person once awarded the $50 statutory award for arrested tuberculosis shall continue to receive it irrespective of any error which may have been made and that any person previously removed from the rolls should be restored as of the date of removal irrespective of error. recedes.

The Senate

MEDALS OF HONOR AND AWARDS TO GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES FOR DISTINGUISHED WORK IN SCIENCE OR FOR VOLUNTARY RISK OF LIFE AND HEALTH BEYOND THE ORDINARY RISKS OF DUTY

JULY 3, 1930.-Committeed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. LUCE, from the Committee on the Library, submitted the

following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 12922]

Two years ago bills referred to the Committee on the Library brought to its attention the fact that there is now no way to recognize officially outstanding contributions to the public welfare made by scientific workers in the public service.

These contributions may take the form of aiding the advancement of knowledge or the application of its truths in a practical way to the benefit of the race; or they may result from conspicuous service to humanity at the voluntary risk of life or health over and above the ordinary risks of duty.

The reasons why provision should be made for such recognition were forcefully presented to the committee by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the Director of the Bureau of Standards, the Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and others. They cited inventions that have benefited the public at large to the extent of millions on millions of dollars; other inventions that have made great savings in governmental operations. One may suffice to illus

trate.

About 1895, Rollin A. Harris, chief of the tidal mathematicians of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, began to reflect on the possibility of securing tidal data through mechanics. In the course of years he worked out the formulæ. Then Ernst G. Fischer, mechanical engineer in charge of the instrument section, by work through 15 more years, applied the formulæ in a device that predicts the tides in all the ports of the world. One man operates it, supplanting 70 mathematicians whose salaries aggregated not far from $150,000 a year.

Since the machine was first put in operation, it has saved the Government more than $3,000,000 in salaries. Most of the labor on this machine was overtime work, for which nothing was paid. The salaries of the two men who performed it were small. One died a poor man. The other on retiring received but a meager retirement allowTo neither man came any official recognition of the selfsacrificing performance of more than duty that brought such advantage to the Government.

ance.

It would be possible to cite dozens of other instances of the same sort where scientific workers have given to their country the fruits of their genius, exceptional in quality, with no reward beyond their scanty stipends, no recognition outside the circle of their associates. These men have added conspicuously to the economies and the comfort of life. Of opposite quality have been the results of devotion by public servants who have lessened the woes of human existence. They are the men who have risked health, even life itself, in the warfare against disease. It is needless to rehearse the martyrdoms of science. The public has been told of the sufferings that have too often ended in tragedy. When the heroes of laboratory and hospital have survived, nothing but the sense of duty loyally performed has been their reward. When death crowned the sacrifice, no proof of a country's appreciation has done something in after years to console widow, son, or daughter.

Tokens of appreciation not only console or gratify. Also they inspire emulation. In a fragmentary way we have begun to apply this for the advantage of the public service. Since 1911 the postoffice appropriation bills have carried provisions for grants of money to postal employees for inventions or for suggestions of methods or devices tending to produce more of economy or of efficiency. In the same way since 1918 provision has been made for cash rewards to civilian employees of the Navy Department for suggestions looking to improvement or economy in manufacturing process or in plant or in naval material. This year an award of $1,000 was made to a radio engineer for designing an underwater loudspeaker to be used in the rescue of submarines. There is pending a bill reported from the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, providing for medals of honor to be given to air-mail flyers who have distinguished themselves by heroism or extraordinary achievement. Supporting the general principle, but carrying it so far as to include private citizens, has been the statute in force since 1905 whereunder the President gives medals of honor to persons who with extreme daring have risked their lives in connection with possible or actual railroad accidents and disasters.

Becoming convinced that the principle underlying these various methods of rewarding exceptional service and sacrifice should be applied to all those in the Government employ who can be classed as scientific workers, your committee addressed itself to the form of the measure most desirable. To this end it sought the aid of the National Research Council, the organization of men of science that seemed best qualified to advise as to what form recognition should take. After study and conference the council suggested two forms, one to be used if only scientific achievement were to be taken into account, the other if in addition sacrifice of health or life were to be

recognized. Your committee thought that both aspects of service should be covered, and suggested to Representative Griffin the introduction of a new bill to that end, Mr. Griffin having arranged for the original hearing in the matter. The bill as drafted by the council accompanies this report, and your committee recommends its passage. A word should be said as to the names to be attached to the medals. Common knowledge of the interest Thomas Jefferson took in the advancement of science justifies giving his name to medals for scientific achievement. Jesse W. Lazear was the surgeon in the United States Army of Occupation in Cuba and a member of the yellow fever Army commission, which conducted experiments to determine the origin, development, and cure of yellow fever. In the course of his work he allowed himself to be infected with the yellow fever germ in order by personal experience to observe the progress of the disease. From this act of noblest heroism death resulted. His researches led to segregating the germ of yellow fever, to devising methods of prevention, and to providing proper treatment, thus conquering one of the great scourges of mankind. His name may well be the symbol of sacrifice on the altar of science.