H.R. 12406

Abstract

IS THERE a change in the intellectual climate in this country? The launching of Sputnik by the Russians in 1957 made us realize the importance of scientific brain power, and the Congress responded with money for scientific research and scientific education. Recently we have begun to realize that our nation cannot thrive on scientific education alone, but that the arts and the humanities, which received such notable encouragement and recognition during the Kennedy Presidency, must be experienced and valued by the American people if they are to achieve intellectual excellence and cultural understanding. The 88th Congress passed a bill establishing a National Arts Council and, over bitter opposition, broadened the National Defense Education Act to include such politically sensitive subjects as geography, history, civics, and English literature. Dare we now hope that the climate is favorable for the passage by Congress of a bill which I introduced on August 17, I964, H.R. 12406, to provide for the creation of a national humanities foundation. My interest in this legislation stemmed from a reading of the Report of the Commission on the Humanities sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Council of Graduate Schools in the United States, and the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa-all of them organizations that are linked to humanistic endeavor. This report, which I understand was more than a year in preparation, came to my attention early last summer. After reading it, I had extensive conversations with Gustave Arlt, president of the Council of Graduate Schools in the United States. He has been extremely helpful to me in the preparation of H.R. 12406 and in mapping a campaign to create a national humanities foundation as an independent agency of the federal government. Some people have expressed surprise at my interest in this legislation, because I am not a member of the House Education and Labor Committee. It is true that in our complex life today the members of Congress, like many other American professional people, are becoming specialists. A vast number of subjects clamor for our attention. Sooner or later, every member of Congress becomes selective. First, he studies those