SECTION 3. FEDERAL EXPENDITURES FOR RESEARCH, 



1937 AND 1938 



By Edward R. Gray' 



INTRODUCTION 



Purpose of a Report on Expenditures 

 for Research 



Research is an integral part of the activities of any 

 agency that is trying to do efficient work. Conscious- 

 ness that changes occur in the conditions affecting its 

 work should be sufficient incentive to any organization 

 to keep informed of these changes and to devise un- 

 proved prfcedures for dealing with them. Especially 

 in a governmental organization, whether a single bu- 

 reau or the Federal Government as a whole, economy 

 and efficiency are made possible by collection and anal- 

 ysis of m formation needed to plan work more effec- 

 tively, and by the habitual investigation of possible 

 improved techniques or of promising new devices. On 

 the other hand, failure to undertake such investigation 

 may be justly criticized as a dereliction of duty and 

 signs of probable extravagance, inefficiency, and in- 

 creasing obsolescence. Hence, a survej^ of research 

 activities has particular pertinence in giving prima 

 facie evidence of the existence of vitality and progrpss. 



There are three possible devices for surveying Fed- 

 eral agencies to discover the extent and distribution of 

 research activities. One device is an annotated inven- 

 tory of the nature and purposes of research projects in 

 process or recently completed within each agencj'. 

 While such an inventory would yield more informa- 

 tion about research activities than any other kind of 

 summary, the services of specialists in several different 

 fields would be required to comprehend and describe 

 effectively the activities enumerated, and the results 

 could not be conveniently summarized or used for 

 inter-agency comparisons. A second device is a sum- 

 mary of research positions or research personnel 

 among the different agencies or their constituent activ- 

 ities. A limitation to the usefulness of this approach 

 is its implication that "research" is coexistent with 

 the activities of persons having certain types of spe- 

 cialized training or recognized professional ability. 

 A third device, which is the basis of this report, is a 

 tabulation of research expenditures. By this method, 

 comparisons between the agencies surveyed are pos- 



>In addition to aid and advice received from many budget officers 

 and research directors In the different Government agencies, the com- 

 prehensive assistance of Virginia Jlendenhall Gray, the stimulating 

 suggestions of Dr. R. M. Hughes, and the painstaliing office aid of Mrs. 

 Helen Shaw, are gratefully aclcnowledged. 



sible, in fact, too easy, as there is danger of quick con- 

 clusions that are not valid when the diverse concepts 

 and methods used in obtaining only roughly compar- 

 able data aie known. For a quick survey, however, 

 this method is fairly satisfactory, especially if con- 

 siderable latitude is allowed for the inevitable differ- 

 ences in the concept of "research" held by the several 

 budget officers in making their estimates. 



Difficulties in Estimating and Analyzing 

 Federal Expenditures for Research 



Data on research expenditures, especially when inter- 

 agency comparisons are involved, should be used with 

 some undei'standing of the qualifications implicit in 

 such data. The more important factors affecting the 

 comparability of research expenditures reported by 

 the different Federal agencies may be summarized 

 under the following headings: 



Research May Be for Internal or 

 for External Service 



Some Federal agencies are concerned primarily with 

 service to particular economic or social groups such as 

 farmers, exporters, home owners, educators, consumers 

 of power, investors in securities, etc. Such agencies 

 usually have comparatively large research programs in 

 order to keep abreast of changes affecting the respective 

 groups of citizens benefited, and to work out methods 

 of meeting more effectively new demands for service. 

 On the other hand, some Federal agencies are con- 

 cerned largely with administration of a routine func- 

 tion or with service to other parts of the Government. 

 For example, most of the State, War, Navy, Justice, 

 and Post Office Departments, and such organizations as 

 the Public Debt Service in the Treasury Department, 

 need research largely to keep their own internal admin- 

 istrations efficient, without, of course, neglecting fre- 

 quent appraisals of external factors that might change 

 the scope or nature of their work. This latter type of 

 agency would presumably have a smaller percentage 

 of research expenditures than would be found where 

 service to particular groups of citizens is the primary 

 function. Many important bureaus and independent 

 agencies, however, cannot be classified conveniently 

 in either group. As they serve both some particular 



61 



