enormous mass of data has been collected, and much of it has been 

 incorporated in published reports. These publications have made 

 this information available to the public in such enduring form that 

 they will be standard works of reference for many years, particularly 

 as our efforts have been steadily directed to the production of 

 exhaustive reports rather than pamphlets of a superficial or transitory 

 nature.* 



Owing to our limited financial resources, we were, 



Concentration c .t i • • f i i 11 



of Effort irom the ver>' begmnmg, forced to adopt the plan 



of temporarily spending more money upon one or two 



investigations than upon any others. Thus, for a time, we expended a 



maximum upon agriculture, particularly upon our illustration farms. 



* The Atlantic Monthly for March, 1919, pp. 381-391, contains an article by 

 Mr. Arthur D. Little, intituled ' Developing the Estate.' Mr. Little is the head 

 of the firm of Arthur D. Little Company, and has devoted special attention to the 

 subject of conservation. His firm has been employed by the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway to report on the possibilities of development in the territory traversed by 

 their lines. 



In his article. Mr. Little refers only to the United States. He reviews con- 

 ditions created by the war, the best means of utilizing their natural resources, and 

 the betterment of conditions. He discusses methods of increasing agricultural 

 crops, drainage of swamps, irrigation, prevention of destruction of the forests, 

 better roads, increased use of water-power, more efficient utilization of coal and 

 many similar problems. 



It is highly gratifying to find that Mr. Little, after a survey of these problems, 

 and after a comprehensive study of conditions in Canada, recommends for the United 

 States the establishment of an Economic Commission, Though Mr. Little dubs it 

 an ' Economic ' Commission, its constitution and functions make it almost a replica 

 of our Conserv'ation Commission. 



The testimony of this skilled investigator is so lucid and compelling, that the 

 recommendations are quoted below. Mr. Little says: 



" No Congressional Committee, no academic council, no ephemeral organ- 

 ization can cope wth the stupendous problem. The mutually entangled 

 intricacies of its component elements can be gradually reduced to order and 

 woven into the majestic tapestry of an adequate general plan, only, it would 

 seem, by a permanent commission, as detached from partisan politics as the 

 Supreme Court, comprising in its membership the best executive, economic, 

 and technical brains in the countr>', and planning and operating over long years. 

 This commission should stand in close relationship to the Chief Executive and 

 to the Congress, its members being appointed by the President, subject to 

 confirmation by the Senate. It should be compact, with no more than fifteen 

 members, including the Secretaries of Agriculture, Labour, Commerce, and the 

 Interior, through whom the chiefs of the scientific bureaus of the government 

 would be brought into its deliberations. Above all. its members must be 

 drawn chiefly from the great constructive and productive agencies of the 

 country, and must be truly representative of the aspirations and interests of 

 our citizenship. Whether its individual components are members of House 

 or Senate, Republicans or Democrats, should, in this relationship, be of interest 

 only to their biographers. 



" Such an Economic Commission would evolve from many economic 

 studies and proposals for specific betterments co-ordinated plans which would 

 bind together in a close articulation the attainable benefits of each. In the 

 exercise of an intrinsic function, it would submit to Congress recommendations 

 for the required legislation, and apprise the country of the need and reason 

 for its demands. To it should be assigned ultimate responsibility to Congress, 

 through the President, for the execution of its duly authorized proposals." 



