Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



211 



urging siniilnr campaigns. And it is only by main- 

 taining ceaseless vigilance in Washington that all of 

 the State boards of health — even though they, them- 

 selves, may be the most important public consumers of 

 the statistics — can be kept operating at an efficient 

 level in their reporting. 



Advisory Committees to the Director 

 of the Census 



This section will conclude with a brief review of 

 the work of the formal advisory committees to the 

 Director of the Census, other than the special advisory 

 committees concerned with the work of particular divi- 

 sions. The first permanent advisory committee to the 

 Director was establislied by continuing in existence the 

 Committee, comprising representatives of the American 

 Economic Association and the American Statistical 

 Association, which cooperated with the Director at the 

 time of the 1920 census. This was the formal out- 

 growth of a long history of advisory service. 



Historical Background. — For over a century scien- 

 tific and learned societies have exerted an influence 

 on the Census.-" As far back as 1800, the Connecticut 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences, through its president, 

 Timothy Dwight, and the American Philosophical So- 

 ciety, through its president, Thomas Jefferson, memo- 

 rialized Congress to include more data in the Census. 

 One of the earliest acts of the American Statistical 

 Association was to call the attention of Congress to 

 errors in the returns of education and deaths in the 

 1840 census. A committee of the American Statistical 

 Association, headed by Lemuel Shattuck, one of the 

 founders of the society, drafted the plan adopted in 

 1 850 to change the unit of enumeration from the house- 

 hold to the individual. Francis Walker, director of the 

 Census in 1880 and 1890, was for several years presi- 

 dent of the American Statistical Association, and con- 

 sulted freely with his colleagues. Prior to the 1900 

 census, a committee appointed by the American Eco- 

 nomic Association reviewed past qnimierations and 

 made detailed recommendations which were published 

 in a volume of 500 pages.-' The seci'etary of this com- 

 mittee, Dr. Walter F. Willcox, later liad an important 

 part in the 1900 census. 



The director of the 1920 census, like some of his 

 predecessors, was a political appointee, without either 

 scientific training or census experience, and the joint 

 committee of the American Economic Association and 

 tlie American Statistical Association actually took con- 

 siderable responsibility for technical problems, work- 

 ing closely with Dr. J. A. Hill and Dr. Hill's assistant 



■" See Final Rrport of Joint CriisHs Advisory Committee, December 30, 

 1922, tor a detailed review of this record. 



" Walter F. Willcox, editor, The Federal Census: Critical Essays by 

 Members of the American Economic Association, New York, 1899. 



at the time. Dr. Henry Schultz. The committee intro- 

 chiced the idea of publishing separate census mono- 

 graphs and aided in selecting and securing experts 

 from outside the Bureau to prepare some of them. The 

 record sliows that the committee made 118 formal 

 rt connnendations to the Director up to 1922. 



Present Status. — The services of the advisory com- 

 mittee have been called on frequently since. The com- 

 mittee now is selected solely from the membership of 

 the American Statistical Association. There has been 

 some criticism of the committee's later activity, to the 

 effect that for a time it exercised insufficient initiative, 

 merely approving or disapproving proposals by the 

 Bureau. The importance of such "rubber stamp" 

 functions should not, of course, be minimized, since a 

 formal expression by the advisory committee gives the 

 Director of the Census needed support when he goes 

 before the Secretary of Commerce, the Civil Service 

 Commission, the Bureau of the Budget, and Congress. 

 But criticisms of lack of initiative on the part of the 

 committee probably overlook the important effect of 

 informal conversations which never get on the formal 

 record. In fact, the committee's major influence may 

 be of such a character. 



Without doubt, in most situations, the effectiveness 

 of any advisory committee's work depends much on 

 the attitude of an agency's administrative head. He 

 can occupy the committee's time with minor details, 

 some of which may involve technical internal admin- 

 istrative problems with which the committee is hardly 

 competent to pass judgment, and thus prevent dis- 

 cussion of major issues which might elicit suggestions 

 for disturbing changes in policy. On the other hand, 

 he can encourage the committee to take the initiative. 

 The relationships between the present advisory com- 

 mittee and the Director of the Census are cordial, ac- 

 cording to all information which the writer has 

 received. The Committee has not hesitated to take 

 the initiative. For example, the committee on its own 

 responsibility arranged a joint conference with the 

 American Statistical Association's Committee on 

 Labor Statistics, at which problems of the relation- 

 ships of tlie Census to Social Security were reviewed. 



Miscellaneous 



The foregoing account of some of the types of rela- 

 tionships of the Bureau of the Census with its con- 

 sumers is illustrative and impressionistic rather than 

 complete. It omits reference to several important Di- 

 visions of the Bureau — for example, the Division of 

 Financial Statistics of Cities, which compiles basic 

 data on municipal revenues and expenditures — and 

 has not discussed the variety of more or less mechanical 

 service jobs done by the Bureau for other agencies. 



