Document dn93Zo1Zo61Ok22GgQqrvn4rQ

FOUNDATION FACTS, 1947 48 ANDREW FLETCHER President, Si Joseph Lead Company Cheirmen, Boerd of Trustees, Industrial Hygiene Foundation Member?* ami Guests of the Industrial Hygiene Foundation: It give* me grout pleasure to welcome you to this, our 12th Annual Meeting. I ran well reinemlrer the early years of our activities, anil the skepticism with which Industry, Lalmr, and Governmental Departments viewed our proposed program of research directed towartl the improvement of conditions for the American Workman, and for the community in which he lives. The foresight and courage of the original organizers has certainly been amply repaid in dollars, as well us in human happiness. Today the Foundation is sound financially, our membership now includes most of the leading industrial companies, and our name and findings are known through out the United States- in fact, in many far distant lands. There arc no Industrial Hygiene Foundations elsewhere in the world. The foreign visi tors, who come to us, have difficulty in understanding that the Foundation is a wholly voluntary research organization, supported ly industries united for the well-lwing of workers. Mr. McMahon, our Managing Director, will give you a short report on the Foundation's affairs, and it is therefore unnecessary for me to comment on the results accomplished since our last meeting. You will le filled with a sense of satisfaction and pride in his report, and in the list of mir new members. But we must not Irecome complacent, as only a start has Iteen made in the research that is necessary to solve the many hygienic problems that face, and will continue to face lulmr, management, consumers, ami, in general, our entire population. Research Needs and Implications I had the groat privilege of spending two weeks during last Septemlier with the top ranking officers of our Navy, who discussed their problems, as well as the relationship of industry to the Navy. I was greatly impressed hy the attitude of the Navy toward the necessity of research, and I was extremely interested in the comment that the war would have been greatly extended if Kngland had not developed, through research, the relatively crude radar that enabled their small airforce to successfully repel the large German bombing flights. It was also stated that the war might even have been lost, if Hitler had continued expenditures for research in the develop ment of new weapons instead of stopping such expenditures in Februury, 1941 and not resuming the research on guided missiles, fast .submarines, etc., until Novemler, 1042. In the past, Kuropc largely provided the wellsprings of fundamental rr . arch, and the research in the United States has, for the most part, Iteen concerned with the practical application of funda mental scientific facts. For instance, we took the German work in nuelear I