The Great Gray Plague

"The Great Gray Plague" by Raymond F. Jones is a science fiction story from the early 1960s that looks at science, imagination, and the problems that happen when people in charge don't like new ideas. The story is about Dr. William Baker, who is the head of a science group. We see how proud he is of his work, but we also see that he might have problems with others. The story begins with a birthday party that his staff is throwing him. The tone changes when Baker starts talking with his friend Dr. John Fenwick. Fenwick wants money to study at Clearwater College, but Baker reveals that the agency decides what gets money based on weird rules. Baker doesn't like new ideas, so he does not agree when a strange inventor named Jim Ellerbee wants to show him a device that could change how people communicate.