138 



Natio7i.al Resources Committee 



business by the otHcers and employees of these services 

 and the degree of efficiency of such personnel ; whether 

 any modification in the laws governing the services 

 were desirable in the interest of securing greater 

 economy and efficiency in the dispatch of the public 

 business; and whether a reduction in the number or 

 compensation of the persomiel manning these services 

 at Washington could be made without doing injury to 

 the public services. 



This joint committee (though termed a commission) 

 assisted by a corps of experts employed from private 

 life, made an exceptionally thorough investigation into 

 the organization and business methods of the adminis- 

 trative services and submitted a large number of re- 

 ports which were published as congressional docu- 

 ments. More important still, the recommendations 

 contained in these reports led to the passage of a large 

 number of acts introducing important improvements 

 in administrative organization and methods.'" 



The President's Commission on Economy and Effi- 

 ciency, though set up by the President and conducted 

 under his direction, is here mentioned and described 

 since its creation was due to special action by Congress 

 and its findings reported to it. A clause inserted in 

 the Sundry Civil Appropriation Act for 1911, ap- 

 proved June 25, 1910, provided for an appropriation " 

 ■' to enable the President, by the employment of ac- 

 countants and experts from official and private life, 

 to more effectually inquire into the methods of trans- 

 acting the public business of the Government in the 

 several executive departments and the Government 

 establishments, with the view of inaugurating new or 

 changing old methods of transacting such public busi- 

 ness, so as to attain greater efficiency and economy 

 therein, and to ascertain and recommend to Congress 

 what changes in law may be necessary to carry into 

 effect such results of his uiquiry as cannot be carried 

 into effect by executive action alone." 



In pursuance of this authorization, the President set 

 up a conunission to which was given the name Presi- 

 dent's Commission on Economy and Efficiency, com- 

 posed of five members. This Commission functioned 

 until June 30, 1913, when it went out of existence due 

 to the failure of Congress to continue appropriations 

 for its support. It organized a staff of experts and 

 clerical assistants, and subjected the Government to 

 what is undoubtedly the most thorough survey that 

 has ever been made of its organization, procedure, and 

 administrative problems. Its findings were embodied 

 in a large number of reports which were submitted to 



Congress and published as public documents. Among 

 these, the two most important were those dealing with 

 the problem of improving the system then in force 

 for determining and making provision for the finan- 

 cial needs of the Government through the establish- 

 ment of a scientific budget system. The titles of these 

 reports are: 



1. The need for a jiativnal budget: Message from the Presi- 

 dent of the United States transmitting a report of the Commis- 

 sion on Economy and Efficiency on the subject of the need for 

 a national budget (H. Doc. 854, 62d Cong., 2d sess., 1912). 



2. Message of the President of the United States transmitting 

 for the consideration of the Congress a budget with support- 

 ing memoranda and reports (S. Doc. 1113, 62d Cong., 3d sess., 

 1913). 



Other reports dealt with such matters as : methods of 

 appointment; the system of accounting and reporting; 

 the organization of the administrative branch, with 

 recommendations for the consolidation of certain serv- 

 ices; the centralization of the distribution of public 

 documents; the establishment of a retirement system 

 for civil employees ; the creation of a bureau of central 

 administrative control, etc.^^ 



Although these reports, largely for reasons later 

 pointed out '^ resulted in no immediate important leg- 

 islative action, they had a large educational influence 

 upon both Congress and the general public and ulti- 

 mately led to the putting into effect of many of their 

 most fundamental reconmiendations. There can thus 

 be no question but that the two reports dealing with the 

 desirability of the establishment of a budget system 

 that have been mentioned had an important influence 

 in promoting this reform which was fijially accom- 

 plished through the passage of the Budget and Ac- 

 counting Act, 1921, and the revision of the rules of the 

 two Houses of Congress regarding the handling of 

 appropriation bills, in the same year. 



Second in importance among the recommendations 

 of the President's Commission on Economy and Effi- 

 ciency to that urging the adoption of a budget system, 

 was the recommendation that the administrative 

 branch as a whole be subjected to a thorough reorgan- 

 ization with a view to the elimination of duplication of 

 functions and the bringing together under a common 

 direction of services ojierating in the same general field 

 and which should have close working relations with 

 each other. Impressed with the necessity for action in 

 this way, Congress, by joint resolution of December 

 29, 1920, created a Joint Committee on the Keorganiza- 

 tion of the Administrative Branch of the Government, 

 composed of three Senators, appointed by the Presi- 



•" For a list of these reports and an enumeration of the laws provid- 

 ing for putting tlieir recommendations into effect, see G. A. Weber, 

 Op. cit., pp. 71-73. 



" JIOO.OOO, subsequently supplemented by further ^ants aggregating 

 $160,000. 



" For a complete list of the reports of the commission, including 

 printed circulars and other documents that were not transmitted to 

 Congress and were thus not printed as Congressional documents, see 

 Gustavus A. Weber. Op. at., pp. 99-103. 



" See p. 149, below. 



