Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



55 



mind for researcli agencies as well as for other 

 divisions of the Government. 



Govornniont is a going oonoeni, not a static institution. 

 Eacli activity therefore has its period of initiation and develop- 

 ment, its period of normal operation, and in some cases also its 

 period of decline and liquidation. While this does not change 

 the principles of or;.;aiiization, it does alter profoundly their 

 application in individual cases. 



New activities should be organized rather completely on 

 the basis of purpose so that that purpose may be the central 

 driving force of the organization. They should be freed from 

 intereference by departments organized on the basis of process. 

 They should also be given virtually complete freedom, or ex- 

 tensive autonomy, within existing deiJartments. In the nature 

 of the case, new purposes cannot be carried out without broad 

 freedom to experiment. To tie a totally new activity either 

 to the regular bureau pattern or to the regular controls may 

 defeat its purpose entirely. 



When, however, an activity Is organized, its major policies 

 established, its purposes accepted and understood, and its work 

 in the main jjlaced upon a routine basis, then the time has 

 come to bring the activity into the normal structure of organ- 

 ization and under the normal controls. To do so will not 

 endanger the objectives of the organization as such, nor hinder 

 its worker, but will rather increase its efficiency, improve not 

 only its own work but also the whole work of government 

 through better coordination, and render it more truly subject to 

 democratic control. 



Particular attention needs to be given to the period of decline 

 and liquidation because departments and bureaus like to keep 

 themselves alive and because they and the pressure groups 

 back of iheia are incapable of estimating their value. There 

 is among go^■ernmental agencies great need for a coroner to 

 pronounce them dead, and for an undertaker to dispose of the 

 remains. Both of these processes are advanced when agencies 

 approaching discontinuance are deprived of their independent 

 status by being brought into large departments and are made 

 subject to the regular controls through the Budget, central 

 accounting, and personnel administration. 



In addition to tlie steps recommended in the fore- 

 going quotation it will undoubtedly be necessary to 

 establish communication between the permanent 

 agencies so that they also will be brought into coopera- 

 tion. The organization of the Central Statistical 

 Board was a long step in the direction of promoting 

 cooperation. There still remains much to be done m 

 a jjositive way to initiate cooperative activities rather 

 than merely adjust the vindertakings of the various 

 bureaus and independent agencies to one anotlter. 



Sinithsonian Institution. — A unique device for se- 

 curing coordination of certain lines of research within 

 the Government and also between the Government and 

 outside agencies is to be seen in the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. This Institution has a small endowment and 

 receives funds from Congress. It has a Board of 

 Trustees which manages its affairs and gives it a type 

 of freedom to inaugurate and conduct research in ways 

 that are impossible in most governmental agencies. 

 The latitude in research and in establishment of co- 

 operative relations enjoyed by the Smithsonian In- 



stitution is denied to many of the agencies wholly 

 within the Government. There is another reason why 

 research, if it is to be productive in maximum degree, 

 must frequently have the possibility of readjusting it- 

 self wliile in progress. Scientific research often turns 

 up productive leads which could not be anticipated at 

 the time that the particular research project was first 

 planned. 



The freedom of the Smithsonian Institution to culti- 

 vate all kinds of cooperative relations is indicated by 

 one paragraph from the statement submitted by that 

 Institution. This paragraph is one of several of like 

 kind included in the statement. 



In connection with its work the Department of Anthropology 

 of this Institution has been greatly assisted through extensive 

 cooperation with various organizations and has also aided other 

 organizations as indicated by the following few examples: 



(1) With the National Geographic Society on the excavation 

 and restoration of Pueblo Benito in New Mexico. 



(2) With the Rockefeller Foundation and the Peking Medi- 

 cal College on the study of the origin of American aborigines. 



(3) With the Soil Conservation Service on phases of early 

 Indian agriculture. 



(4) With the National Park Service in the historical excava- 

 tion of Jamestown Island, Va. 



(5) With State organizations and the Federal Civil Works 

 Administration in extensive archeological excavations in Flor- 

 ida, Georgia, Tennessee, California, and the Carolhias. 



(6) With the Bureau of Indian Affairs on old Indian weaving 

 techniques. 



(7) Cooperation with individuals, organizations, and other 

 Government departments on the identification of specimens 

 through their comparison with material now in the national 

 collections. Cooperation of this type is a continuing process 

 reaching to all quarters of the globe. Practically every uni- 

 versity and museum in this country has been extended coopera- 

 tion of this kind. 



(8) Close cooperation with numerous Government agencies 

 such as the War Department, National Park Service, Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture,' the Geological Survey,' Bureau of Stand- 

 ards, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Patent Office, and others. 



Recruitment and Training of Personnel 



The Federal Government has difficidty in securing 

 highly competent research workers with whom to staff 

 its scientific agencies. It seems quite certain in view 

 of the extensive develojnnent of research activities 

 within the Government that attention will have to he 

 given to the special training of research ioo7'kers, espe- 

 cially in the social sciences. — The Federal Government 

 has depended in the past on the universities to provide 

 it with properly prepared personnel. The universi- 

 ties have little difficulty in preparing research workers 

 for Government laboratories in the physical and bio- 



»Thls Department maintains many research workers In entomology 

 and botany who work continually with the collections oC (he National 

 Museum. 



' The Survey has many research workers occupied with the collections 

 of the National Museum. 



