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National Resources Committee 



The Bureau's pool of tabulating equipment enables 

 it to perf(jrm a function with respect to mechanical 

 tabulations similar to that of the Government Printin,'^ 

 Office with respect to printing. Just as there is a grow- 

 ing tendency to circumvent the Government Printing 

 Office, with its delays and its alleged heavy charges, 

 by using lithoprinting on an agency's own equipment, 

 so there is also a tendency for agencies to avoid having 

 to go to the Bureau of the Census for its tabulations. 

 Each agency seeks to control its own tabulating equip- 

 ment, when possible. This tendency is also analogous 

 with the tendency to develop special libraries within 

 an agency, independent of the Librai-y of Congress. 



Summary 



The vast increase in the consumption, public and 

 private, of census data in the past half century was 

 described. The new functions of government with re- 

 spect to agriculture; industry and trade and labor; 

 social security; and State and national planning have 

 created undreamed of demands for the products of the 

 Bureau of the Census. Similarly, the consumers in 

 university research and business, among the public 

 have multiplied many fold. While rapidly moving 

 social forces were creating new needs for census prod- 

 ucts, the Bureau of the Census has not had the funds 

 and professionally trained personnel to satisfy these 

 needs to the best advantage. 



The kejr to an understanding of the Bureau's finan- 

 cial difficulties probably will be found in its lack of 

 close identification with a pressure group commanding 

 votes. Its services are almost universal and those sta- 

 tistical agencies serving special groups are more likely 

 to be the beneficiaries of special appropriations. Al- 

 though olhe)- Federal agencies are in one sense com- 

 petitors of the Bureau, there are examples of coopera- 

 tion in cases where the agencies are heavy consumers of 

 Census data. The outstanding example cited was the 

 financial aid and technical assistance given by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture. Assistance of private research 



organizations to the Division of Population also was 

 cited. In the field of industry and trade, there may 

 exist an opportunity for the Bureau of the Census 

 (o perform a function analogous to that performed by 

 (lie Bureau of Agricultural Economics for agriculture 

 or tlie Bui-eau of Labor Statistics for labor. Yet the 

 analogy would be difficult to support, since the Bureau 

 of the Census is primarily a producer of raw data and 

 the "finished goods" are passed on to the business man 

 by other agencies such as the Bureau of Foreign and 

 Domestic Commerce. The Bureau of the Census is 

 further handicapped by the lack of a permanent field 

 staff. 



The sketch of the Division of Vital Statistics pro- 

 vided an example of consumer cooperation in estab- 

 lishing State-Federal relationships in statistical work. 

 It took 33 years to complete registration areas for 

 births and deaths, and an enormous contribution of 

 time on the part of officials in the Bureaus, State health 

 officers, and committees representing such organizations 

 as the American Public Health Association, American 

 Medical Association, and American Statistical Associa- 

 tion, as well as Life Insurance Companies. Forty-eight 

 State legislatures had to be induced to enact uniform 

 statutes and an intensive promotional program was 

 necessary, in order to educate physicians, undertakers, 

 and local health officers to their new responsibilities. 



In describing the work of the formal advisory com- 

 mittee to the Director of the Census it was indicated 

 that informal advice which does not necessarily appear 

 in its annual reports, is perhaps one of its most im- 

 portant functions. The Committee is free to take the 

 hiitiative, and the present body is doing so. In the 

 more or less perfunctory approval of some questions 

 v/hich it does not initiate, the committee also may be 

 l^erforming a function useful to science, in providing 

 support for the Director when he goes to the Secretary 

 of Commerce, the Civil Service Commission, the 

 Bureau of the Budget, and Congress. 



in. SELECTION, TRAINING, AND PROMOTION OF PERSONNEL 



Problems of getting and keeping adequate person- 

 nel in the Government agencies carrying on social 

 science research differ somewhat from agency to 

 agency. While there are some problems common to 

 all agencies, the difficulties are perhaps more acute 

 in old established organizations like the Bmeau of 

 the Census than in new agencies. 



The roster of men who at one time or another have 

 M'orked in the Bureau of the Census includes many of 

 the foremost names in American social science. At 

 the beginning of the century the Bureau's staff in- 



cluded such men as Dr. Wesley C. Mitchell, Dr. Allyn 

 A. Young, Dr. Walter F. Willcox, Dr. Thomas D. 

 Adams, and Dr. Joseph A. Hill. Of these men, only 

 Dr. Hill made a career in the Bureau. At each decen- 

 nial census many able men with professional training 

 in statistics and economics or sociology were brought 

 into the Bureau, but most of them left for other 

 Government agencies or university posts. Bureau of 

 the Census training is an invaluable experience. There 

 is no reason why the Bureau should not serve as a 

 practical training school for statisticians who will 



