Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



2Q3: 



staff and prestige by developing their own sources of data. 



0. The Bureau of the Census, experienced as it was in mak- 

 ing ponderous surveys with universal coverage, which re- 

 quired mouths of planning, had no experience in making quick 

 sampling surveys and little in the rapid collection of current 

 data. 



7. The Bureau of the Census had au inadequate number of 

 profession.'iUy trained personnel, who would be competent to 

 interpret the technical needs of the specialized agencies even 

 if such agencies had sought to transfer the collection and 

 tabulation rf data to the Bureau. 



Some of these factors may very well have been both 

 of a "cause" and an "effect" character. Thus the in- 

 adequate professional training of Bureau of the Census 

 statisticians possibly may have encouraged the devel- 

 opment of new statistical work in other agencies in- 

 stead of "farming it out"' to the Bureau. Yet, the 

 growth of the other agencies helped place the Bureau 

 in a weak competitive position for funds, with the re- 

 sult that the Bureau became handicapped in improving 

 its personnel. 



Summary 



The foregoing pages have sought to trace historically 

 certain factors which may differentiate to some extent 

 the problems of the Bureau of the Census from those 

 of many other statistical agencies. The discussion has 

 been organized around two main sets of facts : 



1. The permanent organization of the Bureau of the Cen.sus 

 is a "peacetime" nucleus of a "wartime" army of over 125,000 

 people recruited every 10 years. Even between censuses, the 



ratio of temporary to permanent employees is abnormally high. 

 When the permanent Bureau was established in 1902, it in- 

 herited a century of tradition that the decennial census was an 

 occasion for Ihe distribution of political favors. Each change 

 in party control of Government has automatically forced a 

 change in Director. Although the reports of the census are 

 remarkably free from partisan bias, their scientific improve- 

 ment under past administrations has not always been a matter 

 of first concern to the Bureau's leadership. 



2. The Bureau of the Census is isolated from responsibility 

 for the administration of any laws, other than laws to enforce 

 the collection of its data. This isolation has important advan- 

 tages, in protecting respondents and minimizing bias, hut it 

 has placed the Bureau in a weak position for getting suiiport. 

 Statistics, in themselves, cannot conmiand important support 

 from pressure groups. On the other hand, large funds often 

 become available for statistics in connection with special legis- 

 lation involving the extension of Government authority. If the 

 Bureau had been recognized as the central statistical organiza- 

 tion of the Govenuuent, to which such new statistical functions 

 were more or less automatically allocated, the Bureau would 

 have been in a stronger position. Such recognition the Bureau 

 did not receive. Instead, the new statistical work tended to 

 develop in agencies closely attached to the administrative arms 

 of the Government. These agencies grew rapidly, some of them 

 acquiring field staffs and large numbers of professionally 

 trained personnel. Lacking the support of pressure groups or 

 the opportunity to .share in indirect revenues made available by 

 regulatory legislation spon.sored by pressure groups, the Bureau 

 had to rely for funds on congressional appreciation of the im- 

 portance of statistics. 



These factors will be pertinent to an understanding 

 of the problems reviewed in the next three sections of 

 this report. 



II. CONSUMER NEEDS AND CONSUMER SUPPORT 



In a democratic form of government, an agency is 

 supijorted because it satisfies some needs, either of the 

 general public or some special interest groups which 

 command votes. 



It was observed, in preceding pages, that the sta- 

 tistical agencies attached to regulatory arms of the 

 Government are often in a more strategic position for 

 obtaining funds than are agencies whose sole function 

 is fact finding or research. Thus the pressure groups 

 which push farm legislation are a powerful support to 

 the work of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 

 even though they may not be wholly aware of the value 

 of that Bureau's work. Such an agency as the Bureau 

 of Agricultural Economics benefits in two ways, 

 through support of appropriations for the entire De- 

 partment of which it is a part and through allocation 

 of special funds for research as a byproduct of new 

 regulatory legislation. There always exists, of course, 

 the possibility that the research units attached to a 

 regulatory organization will receive an inadequate 



amount and there is a frequent struggle for funds be- 

 tween the research unit and the administrative supe- 

 riors. But the position of such a unit is often intrin- 

 sically stronger than that of general agencies like the 

 Bureau of the Census and the Central Statistical Board 

 which have little or no support from special-interest 

 groups. 



The products of the Bureau of the Census are like 

 the oxygen in the air. They are consumed so widely 

 that they are accepted as a matter of course and are 

 so often used after analysis and interpretation by one 

 or more intermediaries that the user does not readily 

 recognize their source or their fundamental value as a 

 base for most other statistics. No large group of voters 

 is likely to go to special effort to support more or better 

 statistics from the Bureau of the Census, though a 

 group might exert strong pressure in behalf of special 

 legislation which, at least as a byproduct, would restilt 

 in more or better statistics from an agency concerned 



