Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.
“Nevers”43 pages
121 superstrength in materials that are larger than the tiny fibers we have produced so far. Needless to say, if we persist in denying the reality of UFO's we will not be looking for such samples, and may indeed reject them as having no importance when they are brought to our attention. That is the conclusion of my prepared statement. I would like to comment on some of the suggestions as asked by Congressman Rums- feld earlier. I conclude in some of my colleagues' recommendations that a mul- tiple-faceted exploration be made of this subject, preferably at sev- eral institutions simultaneously. I have some suggestions as to how we could acquire additional scientific data even at the present time. This is a three-point program which involves first the establish- ment of an early warning network, which the Colorado project be- gan last February. Then to take advantage of one of the character- istics of UFO sightings: that they, in many instances, are seen on one or two successive nights. We could have prearranged instrument packages which are ar- ranged for instant transportation to locations where UFO's have been sighted. If the budget for such a program were low, you might be able to borrow such things and have them ready at various uni- versities where the instruments were otherwise occupied for research. That would be the second point of this investigation. The third point would be the cooperation of the Air Force for logistics and high-speed transport to crucial areas on a 24-hour basis. Now, that three-point program may well bring to us physical data that so far has appeared only in anecdotal, still from essential ama- teurs who happened just accidentally to be at the right place. It was truly a fortunate accident when Mr. Webb was there to make the observation I described earlier. Mr. Rousx. Does that conclude your statement? Dr. HARDER. That concludes my statement. PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. JAMES A. HARDER I am very glad for this opportunity to present to your Committee some of my views on the problem of Unidentified Flying Objects and to indicate some of the areas in which I think a closer investigation of this problem might provide us with scientific clues that would give an important impetus to basic and applied research in the United States. There have been strong feelings aroused about UFO's, particularly about the extra-terrestrial hypothesis for their origin. This is entirely understandable, in view of man's historic record of considering himself the central figure in the natural scene; the extra-terrestrial hypothesis tends inevitably to undermine the collective ego of the human race. These feelings have no place in the scientific assessment of facts, but I confess that they have at times affected me. Over the past twenty years a vast amount of evidence has been accumulating that bears on the existence of UFO's. Most of this is little known to the general public or to most scientists. But on the basis of the data and ordinary rules of evidence, as would be applied in civil or criminal courts, the physical reality of UFO's has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. With some effort, we can accept this on an intellectual level but find a difficulty in accepting it on an emotional level, in such a way that the facts give a feeling of reality. In this respect, we might recall the attitude many of us have towards our own deaths: We accept the facts intellectually, but find it difficult to accept them emotionally. Indeed, there are flying saucer cultists who are as enthusiastic as they are naive about UFO's—who see in them some Messianic symbols—they have a
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.