40 



National Resources Committee 



is concerned with processes of milling the wheat so 

 developed and with determining the properties of 

 the resulting flour; and the Bureau of Home Eco- 

 nomics is concerned with the nutritional value of the 

 baked goods made from the flour. Broadly consid- 

 ered, the whole process is one experiment, but the re- 

 sponsibility of each Bureau is determined in advance 

 by informal discussion so that it may go on as sev- 

 eral different experiments without overlapping or 

 omitting any step. 



As between departments, the Army and Navy are 

 both concerned with such items as gun forgings and 

 smokeless powder, and secure uniformity by the use 

 of joint specification boards. Examples of standing 

 committees for interdepartmental or interbureau co- 

 operation are the Advisory Committee of the Public 

 Health Service, on which War and Navy medical serv- 

 ices, the Bureau of Animal Industry, and the profes- 

 sion at large are represented; the Interdepartmental 

 Committee on Health and Welfare; and the Federal 

 Board of Surveys and Maps. 



More informal arrangements exist between the Cen- 

 sus Bureau and various other agencies interested in 

 tabulation of statistical data, such as the Bureau of 

 Mines and the Forest Service. 



Contractual Arrangements 



Where some phase of a more extended research 

 project requires the use of equipment or the applica- 

 tion of specialized knowledge not readily available to 

 the agency undertaking the project, a contractual 

 arrangement is frequently entered into with some other 

 better equipped agency. A substantial part of the 

 work of the Bureau of Standards, for example, is done 

 under contract for other agencies of the Government, 

 including the National Advisory Committee for Aero- 

 nautics, the Bureau of Air Commerce, the air services 

 of War and Navy Departments, and the Geological 

 Survey. The Food and Drug Administration receives 

 funds from the Post Office Department and from the 

 Federal Trade Commission for making various scien- 

 tific tests ; and the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils has 

 from time to time received funds under contract from 

 the State Department for investigating damage to 

 agricultural lands in Washington from smelter fumes 

 originating in British Columbia. 



Contracts of this type may cover only a single item, 

 or may applj^ to a fairly broad field. A specific sum 

 may be allocated for the purpose, or the agreement 

 may simply call for reimbursement for actual expenses 

 incurred. 



The allotment of funds under contract has been 

 much extended in recent years through disbursement 

 of emergency fimds in this way by the Works Progress 

 Administration. 



Loan of Personnel 



A third method of cooperation between agencies of 

 the Federal Government is the loan or temporary 

 transfer of research personnel betA\een bureaus, or the 

 more or less permanent assignment of employees of one 

 bureau to work in the laboratories of another. The 

 basis of the arrangement in the case of actual transfer 

 may be purely informal, or it may, as is more often 

 the case, involve reimbursement of salary.' The pur- 

 pose may be to make expert knowledge available to 

 the borrowing agency for the duration of a specific 

 investigation, or it may be to make certain specialized 

 equipment or facilities available to an agency which 

 is already possessed of the requisite skill. 



An example of the means frequently employed in 

 making a joint attack on problems of common interest 

 between two bureaus is given by the Forest Service: 



Constant and widespread cooperation is maintained between 

 the Forest Service and the Bureau of Plant Industry, the 

 Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, and the Bureau 

 of Biological Survey. The Bureau of Plant Industry main- 

 tains offices of forest pathology at four of the regional exiieri- 

 ment stations and also has a group of pathologists working at 

 the Forest Products Laboratory on problems of decay of forest 

 products. Forest entomologists are working in direct coopera- 

 tion with seven of the experiment stations, and the Biological 

 Survey has wildlife specialists at four stations. The problems 

 on which representatives of these agencies are engaged are 

 decided upon in consultation with the experiment station 

 director, and priority is given to study of pathological, entomo- 

 logical, or biological phases of projects occupying the attention 

 of the forestry staff. 



In most instances representatives of these bureaus share 

 headquarters space and are supplied with a limited amount of 

 clerical help by the Forest Service. They are encouraged to 

 make as much use of the experimental forests and ranges as 

 is consistent with the character of their work. They are, 

 however, administratively independent of the experiment sta- 

 tion, reporting direct to their respective divisions in Wash- 

 ington. In the northeastern region the number and variety 

 of pathological and entomological problems have led to the 

 establishment of independent offices by the two bureaus con- 

 cerned, each occupying a separate building through cooperation 

 with Tale University. The Office of Forest Pathology has a 

 staff of six people, and the Forest Insect Laboratory has eight 

 men on the technical staff and one clerk. 



Coordination Requires Understanding 



Coordination at those points where the activities of 

 the various agencies converge depends as much on a 

 mutual understanding by bureau officials and person- 

 nel of each other's functions, however, as it does upon 

 formal administrative machinery. The instruments of 

 coordination exist in adequate variety, and failure to 

 make use of them is largely inadvertent. The Forest 

 Service, for example, recently made an extensive col- 

 lection of range grasses, catalogued them, and threw 



' See James Fesler, The Loan of Expert Personnel Among Federal 

 Agencies, National Resources Committee, 1935. 



