Scientific manpower-Adequate resources! Inadequate development? Inadequate refinement?

It is pretty generally realized that our country faces a serious scientific and engineering manpower shortage. We have at present about half the engineers which we need, and each year we are graduating only about half of our annual needs. The factors effecting this shortage, our abilities to overcome it, and the time required for this, however, are not well understood. First and foremost it must be realized that this is a long-range shortage for which a significant increase cannot be made within the next five to ten-year period. This means that the immediate solution to the problem can come only through a more efficient utilization of existing manpower supply. This shortage is not due to a lack of raw materials. If only the male youths of the country are considered, the supply of competent young students to our technical colleges could be quadrupled, and if more women could be assimilated properly into our engineering system, the supply might be increased ten-fold. The small percentage of competent youth that is attracted to scientific education constitutes the most important problem which we face. This is due in part to a general lack of understanding on the part of the general public of science itself, of its increasing importance to society, and to the general nature of the opportunities which it affords as a career. Our high schools, technical universities, industry, and the government have a grave common responsibility to set up an adequate program of mutual cooperation for solving this problem.