12 



National Resources Committee 



Table 9. — Recent trends in research expenditures of certain se- 

 lected organizations,' fiscal years 193S, 1937, 1933, 1928, and 

 1923. Emergency funds of 193S and 1937 excluded 



Amounts in thousands of dollars] 



Orand total agencies reporting data for 

 each year (excluding agencies marked 

 with (")) - - 



Total 13 agencies other than Department 

 of Agriculture, reporting data each year 

 (excluding agencies marked with (')).— 



Treasury Department: 



Coast Guard 



Public Health Service ■ 



Division of Research and Statistics '. 

 Department of the Interior: 



Geological Survey. 



Office of Indian Affairs 



Bureau of Mines 



Virgin Islands * 



Department of Agriculture 



Department of Commerce: 



Bureau of the Census. 



Coast and Geodetic Survey 



Bureau of Fisheries 



Bureau of Foreign and Domestic 

 Commerce 



National Bureau of Standards ' 



Department of Labor: 



Bureau of Labor Statistics 



Independent agencies: 



Interstate Commerce Commission 



Library of Congress 



National Advisory Committee for 

 Aeronautics 



Panama Canal ' 



U. S. TaritI Commission 



1938 1937 1933 1928 1923 



43,905 



17. 678 



112 



2,863 



285 



4, (XX) 



250 



1,745 



35 



'26,287 



2,271 



2,792 



391 



1.459 

 1,076 



1,004 



254 

 995 



1,442 



no 



903 



40.314 



16,689 



115 



2.119 



238 



3,739 



250 



1,602 



34 



•23. 625 



2.219 



2,721 

 302 



1,377 

 862 



254 

 947 



1,241 

 112 

 956 



35. 121 

 15.850 



16 



1,128 



61 



3.203 



127 



1,171 



20 



19, 271 



• 3, 725 

 2,148 



1,995 

 (?) 



•405 



231 

 747 



920 



98 



880 



28.454 

 12. 946 



C) 



2,485 



102 



1.164 



(') 



15, 508 



> 2, 402 



2,367 



175 



1,S61 

 907 



245 



605 



19.805 

 9,365 



(>) 

 (') 



1.729 

 85 

 765 



(=) 

 10, 440 



' 2. 135 



2.038 



113 



(•) 

 • 264 



231 

 400 



(') 



> Organisations listed include all of those reporting the amount of research expendi- 

 tures tor any of the years 1933. 1928, or 1923. 



' Agencies with incomplete data are not Included in totals. 



• Data not available. 



< Amount given (nearly $2,000,000 less than departmental total shown elsewhere 

 In this report) is comparable with amounts given for prior years in this table. 



> Budget of the United States, 1935, 1930, and 1925; total obligations plus depart- 

 mental allocations. , , „ ,,„, 



• Budget of the United States 1936 (p. 396); 1930 (pp. 815-816); 1925 (pp. 652-553). 



the fiscal years from 1920 through 1922, and again from 

 1930 through 1932, total Federal research expenditures 

 due to the census decennial peak were much larger than 

 for the periods immediately preceding or following. 

 For the work of the fifteenth decennial census, $40,- 

 000,000 was provided and it is probable that an even 

 larger amount will be required for the expenses of the 

 sixteenth census. In the first fiscal year of a decennial 

 census, when more than one-half of the total expenses 

 of tliat census may be obligated, the Bureau of the 

 Census spends nearly as much as, or more than, the 

 entire annual cost of the research program of the 

 Department of Agriculture, or perhaps one-quarter of 

 the research expenditures of the whole Federal Gov- 

 ernment. 



The amounts shown in table 10 for the Bureau of 

 the Census indicate that biennial and quinquennial as 

 well as decennial censuses affect periodically the 

 amount of research expenditures by that Bureau, al- 

 though those minor periodic fluctuations of from 1 to 

 2 million dollars a year do not affect appreciably the 

 totals for the whole Government. Similar periodic 

 fluctuations would appear in the research expenditures 



of a few other agencies. Any year-to-year compari- 

 sons of research expenditures, especially when agencies 

 having large scale, infrequent, periodic canvasses are 

 included, should take into account the influence of 

 these recurrent investigations. Table 10 assembles 

 annual data for expenditures of four well known 

 research agencies. 



Table 10. — Recent trends in selected research and other scien- 

 tific expenditures from regular funds 



[Amounts in millions of dollars] 



' From annual reports of the Director of Finance, Department of Agriculture, and 

 Eisenhower and Chew, United States Department of AgricuUnre (1934 edition), p. 32. 

 Some types of work are excluded from these data, thai are classified as "research" in 

 this report, and included in computing data for other tables. 



' Expenditures as reported in Statement No. 2 of the Budget for successive years. 

 Amounts in some cases differ from "obligations" used in other tables in this reporl. 



Some Misleading Factors in 

 Historical Tables 



Conclusions based on historical tables of identical 

 agencies understate the growth of research due to the 

 large number of new Federal agencies established dur- 

 ing the last 15 years. This bias is somewhat offset by 

 the elimination of some agencies formerly in existence 

 and by the additional functions acquired by the older 

 establishments. The increases shown by tables 9 and 

 10 are, in any case, evidence of the effect on research 

 expenditures by Federal agencies when broader con- 

 cepts of the functions of a Government and its duty to 

 promote the welfare of citizens larevail more widely. 



Historical tables in units of dollars may be mislead- 

 ing unless the influence of price changes is known and 

 allowed for. Changes in purchasing power of Federal 

 expenditures are neither synchronous nor closeh' cor- 

 related with wholesale prices or other price series. A 

 price index prepared for analysis of Federal expendi- 

 tures from 1915 to 1926 " was to have been extended for 

 this study, but the extension is not ready for publica- 

 tion, nor for use in correcting data given in the his- 

 torical tables above. 



Data for widely separated years should also be cor- 

 rected for changes in the population served, or for 

 increases in wealth and income. 



• See Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 1936. pp. 32-33. 



