Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



51 



they secure more complete returns and more valuable 

 suggestions which aid them in understanding the re- 

 turns than they secure when compulsion is applied. 

 Governmental agencies have a certain prestige which 

 makes it possible for them to secure information even 

 when they are not specifically granted authority by law 

 to demand access to records. 



Whatever the possibility of securing data thi'ough 

 cooperation, the fact remains that the Congress has 

 found it desirable to provide in a number of recent 

 enactments creating Federal agencies that the.se agen- 

 cies shall have power to summon witnesses and exam- 

 ine records. Provisions of this kind appear in the 

 legislation creating the Federal Reserve Board, the 

 Tariff Commission, the Securities and Exchange Com- 

 mission, the Communications Commission, and the 

 agencies mentioned in the preceding paragraph. 



It is evident that authoritative information on which 

 conclusions with regard to industrial and commercial 

 operations can be based is of the first importance to the 

 social sciences. The natural scientist can usually secure 

 his basic data by direct personal observation of the 

 materials about which he seeks information. The so- 

 cial scientist cannot depend on personal observation. 

 He uses data which are derived from a broader survey 

 of social conditions than he can himself make. Re- 

 search in the social sciences is therefore always a co- 

 operative enterprise. In many cases the contributions 

 which government alone can make are indispensable. 

 These contributions must be as complete and valid as 

 they can be made, not merely because information is 

 needed by government itself but also because basic data 

 are essential to the development of the social sciences. 



Governmental Contact With 

 Social Sciences 



Govetnment is in close contact with all the major 

 problems with which the social sciences deal. — One state 

 ment which is repeatedly made with regard to research 

 in the Federal Government is that it is directed to the 

 solution of urgent and immediate problems. Nega- 

 tively stated this comment often takes some such form 

 as the following: Governmental research agencies do 

 not undertake on any large scale fundamental, or pure, 

 research. 



It is undoubtedly true that there are many urgent 

 problems of government which occupy the attention 

 of governmental scientists. The anthropologists of the 

 Office of Indian Affairs are constantly called upon to 

 determine who is an Indian. The successive enact- 

 ments of the Congress give discordant definitions of 

 an Indian, and the financial problems which arise in 

 distributing the wealth belonging to certain tribes in- 

 volve expert inquiry and consume much time and 



energy. The appearance of a disease engages the im- 

 mediate attention of the Public Health Service. The 

 Department of Justice is constantly dealing with emer- 

 gencies. The Department of State must render prompt 

 decisions on the interpretation of treaties. The Farm 

 Credit Administration, the Reconstruction Finance 

 Corporation, and the Securities and PLxchauge Com- 

 mission are in close contact with a great many people 

 and with conditions on which heretofore Government 

 has had little or no information. AVhether the in- 

 quiries which are involved in meeting the immediate 

 demands of government are to be classified as research 

 or not is a question on which the curious may exercise 

 their dialectic. It is quite certain that, if the action of 

 the Government is to be wise and just, there must be 

 at hand agencies which will give legislators and ad- 

 ministrative officials reliable information. The process 

 of securing this information calls for a high grade of 

 trained ability to find matei'ials which are buried in 

 the archives or are obscure because human nature is 

 complex and inaccessible to direct observation. For 

 the purposes of the present discussion it is convenient 

 to use the tei-m "research" rather than some longer 

 and clumsier phrase, such as "scientific inquiry" or 

 "intelligent investigation." 



I'VHiile it is true that there are a great many urgent 

 problems which research workers in the Government 

 have to answer and while some agencies are in fact 

 overwhelmed with such problems, it is true that these 

 very problems ultimately compel the prosecution of 

 fundamental, or pure, research. For example, the 

 Department of State, which is not thought of by the 

 ordinary citizen as a research department, is concerned 

 on a very large scale with fact finding and fact record- 

 ing, which are certainly as profound as much of the 

 material which appears in the books commonly ac- 

 cepted as examples of political science at its highest 

 level. This Department has divisions which collect 

 information about every section of the world and are 

 prepared to give information to the executive officers 

 of the Government and to legislative committees on 

 conditions in all countries. 



The Bureau of Agricultural Economics had for years 

 before the depression been collecting and analyzing 

 statistics on the prices of farm products. Wlien legis- 

 lation was pending with regard to these prices and 

 later when it became necessary to admmister laws 

 affecting prices, it was possible to draw on a large body 

 of factual material in the possession of the Bureau. 



The emergency-relief agencies have been obliged in 

 order to direct their own activities to secure data re- 

 garding the people of the United States which have 

 changed the thinking of the people of this country 

 with regard to social conditions and with regard to 



