31. The free distribution of all statistical publications, other than advance bulletins, should be restricted to Government offices, members of Congress, depository libraries, and educational institutions.

32. The entire edition of all final volumes of statistical publications, with the exception of the copies necessary to supply the free circulation provided for under recommendation 31, should be turned over to the Superintendent of Documents for sale by that officer.

Restricting the free distribution of statistical publications to of ficials of the Government, to libraries and to educational institutions would curtail the Government's printing bill many thousands of dollars annually. Statistical publications are an expensive product from first to last-from the collection of the data to the printing of the results. Persons seeking information with respect to a particular subject will not object to paying a nominal price for the volumes in which they are interested. The general results of nearly all statistical inquiries are given wide publicity through the press-daily, weekly, and trade-and through advance bulletins. Such summary publications of the results of statistical inquiries furnish the reading public with the general facts in which it is interested. The circulation of detailed and exhaustive studies should be limited to those persons whose interest is more specialized.

In this connection it may be noted that the free distribution of publications issued by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, including those relating to our foreign trade, is restricted to Government agencies, libraries, and educational institutions.

33. The Director of Federal Statistics should be given the power and authority, under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce, to rearrange the statistical work confided to his Bureau, and to collate, arrange, and publish the statistical information issued by his Bureau in such manner as my seem to him wise and in the interest of economy and efficiency.

The Director of Federal Statistics should, with the approval of the Secretary of Commerce, be permitted to reorganize any or all of the statistical work under his jurisdiction, in order that he may be at all times in a position to meet changing conditions, and that he may not be handicapped in the coordination and unification of the work. Similar authority was granted to the Secretary of Commerce by section 4, of the Act of February 14, 1903, creating the Department of Commerce. This section authorized the Secretary "to rearrange the statistical work of the bureaus and offices confided to said Department, and to consolidate any of the statistical bureaus. and offices transferred to said Department."

STATISTICAL ACTIVITIES OF THE GOVERNMENT

BY ORGANIZATION UNITS.

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NOTES.

The survey of the statistical work of the Federal Government made by the Bureau of Efficiency covered a period of about one and one-half years. Naturally certain descriptive statements in this part of the report may now be inaccurate in some matters of detail. They are, however, correct in main outline.

The sections in this report pertaining to the statistical work of the bureaus of Crop Estimates and Markets of the Department of Agriculture were written prior to the consolidation of these two bureaus under the name of Bureau of Markets and Crop Estimates on July 1, 1921, by the Agricultural Appropriation Act for the fiscal year 1922, approved March 3, 1921. The section relating to the Office of Farm Management was written prior to the consolidation of this office with the Bureau of Markets and Crop Estimates under the name of Bureau of Agricultural Economics on July 1, 1922, by the Agricultural Appropriation Act for the fiscal year 1923, approved May 11, 1922. The consolidation of these three bureaus has caused no important change in their statistical product as reported in this volume.

A copy of the recommendations to be submitted by the Bureau of Efficiency pertaining to the statistical work of the Department of Commerce was furnished to the Secretary of Commerce in March, 1921. The publication of the "Quarterly Statement of Imported Merchandise entered for Consumption" and the annual "Bulletin on Wholesale Prices" have since been discontinued.

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STATISTICAL ACTIVITIES OF THE GOVERNMENT

BY ORGANIZATION UNITS.

The statistical work of each branch of the Government service that is regularly engaged in the collection and dissemination of statistical information is fully described in this part of the report. However, not every bureau of the Government is included. No report is made of the statistics published by certain bureaus in annually reporting upon their activities for the reason that these statistics are a byproduct of departmental accounting and cover such general matters as personnel, expenditures, and volume of work performed-facts that pertain to the internal workings or management of these offices and that are primarily intended for the information of Congress and administrative officers.

The departments have not been arranged in the order of their establishment but according to the magnitude and importance of their statistical inquiries from an economic and sociological point of view, while the independent Government establishments have been assembled as nearly as possible according to similarity of functions. A brief sketch of the legislative history of each departmental bureau and independent establishment precedes the description of its statistical work.

The detailed reports deal only with the current and regular statistical activities of the various bureaus or establishments concerned. Special, or nonrecurring statistical activities are not described, except in the case of certain special inquiries of unusual importance which were necessitated by war conditions.

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