Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

THE POSTWAR WORLD 223
At the National Bureau of Standards the boom seemed for a time
more like disaster. With the war over, it expected the exodus of the sci-
entists detailed from other Government agencies and those on leave from
colleges and universities. But it found irreplaceable its loss of regular
Bureau members to the siren call from industry for trained investigators.
Attracted by salaries which in many instances were twice those available at
the Bureau, over 78 percent of the total force of appointed staff members left
in the 7 months following the armistice. Some positions had a succession of
occupants; in others replacements simply could not be found.7
Subprofessionals (aids, apprentices, and mechanics) entered the
Bureau at as little as $720 a year and could hope for no more than $2,740.
Most, with length of experience, were caught in the $1,140—$1,240
bracket. with degrees and experience came in at $1,440.
Some the key members were getting as little as $2,240, most were at
$4,000, and/only a few of the division chiefs had attained the maximum
possible, $,800.
was at a time when a bookkeeper in downtown Washipgton could
make $100 a month, "with meals." University salaries were sufficiently
higher thin those paid by the Government for Dr. E. W. Washburn to turn
down the maximum of $4,000 that the Bureau had to offer. (He came 6
years in 1926, at the division chief level.) Industry paid close to
twice tWe Bureau salary at every level of training and experience.8.
1The cost of living in 1920 was relatively high and left little for ameni-
ties. /!A Bureau apprentice making $65 a month before taxes could find
room and breakfast within a mile of the laboratories for $20 a month.
Not far away, a front room rented for $25, and meals were another $30.
For a family, a four. or five-room furnished apartment with steam heat and
eleciricity could be found on the way downtown for $110, or 2 miles north
of the Bureau, in Chevy Chase, for $100.
Men's suits were fairly expensive, running from $25 to $85 for all wool
and $15.50 to $25 for Palm Bcach or mohair, with tropical worsteds in
between. Hats were $4 to $8 and shoes $7 and up. Although probably
15 or 20 on the Bureau staff owned a car by 1920, it was seldom driven
except on weekends and almost everyone still rode a bicycle to work or
7NBS Annual Report 1919, p. 279. For a list of the physicists who left the Bureau for
industry in the 1920's, see letter, LJB to Secretary, American Institute of Physics, Feb.
24, 1936 (NBS Box 395, ID-Misc.).
Interview with Dr. William Blum, Oct. 15, 1963. By the end of the decade, salaries
at the Bureau had gone up by almost one-third. Living costs (a room with two meals
a day was $45 to $55 a month) had risen only slightly. See NBS M94, "Scientific
and technical positions in the NBS" (1929).