424 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



REORGANIZATION OF DISTRICTS. 



In order to properly meet the demands that would necessarily be 

 made upon the department as a result of this enlarged road building, 

 it was necessary that the personnel and organization of the Bureau 

 of Public Roads be expanded. Ten district offices had been previ- 

 ously established, and a sufficient number of additional engineers were 

 assigned to each district to handle the work expeditiously. In the 

 districts comprising the Western States where the National Forests 

 are largely located, a number of subclistrict offices were also estab- 

 lished to facilitate the handling of the large amount of forest road 

 w^ork in those districts. The necessary increase in the engineering 

 force of the department was greatly facilitated by the return and 

 reinstatement of a number of engineers who had previously left the 

 department to enter the military service. 



FEDERAL AID ADVISORY COMMITTEE. 



Since all post road work under the Federal aid road act is done 

 in cooperation with the several State highway departments, it was 

 deemed advisable to devise some appropriate means for bringing 

 about the most cordial and mutually helpful relations possible between 

 this department and the several State highway departments. To this 

 end there was created a Federal Aid Advisory Committee, composed 

 of six State highway officials designated by the American Associa- 

 tion of State Highway Officials. The State highway officials desig- 

 nated to serve on this committee were selected with a view to hav- 

 ing the conmiittee representative of the several sections of the coun- 

 try. It is the hope of the department that through this committee 

 it may profit by the experiences of the respective State highway de- 

 parments and become more intimately acquainted with the road 

 problems and needs peculiar to particular States or localities. 



CHANGES IN PERSONNEL. 



During the year just past a number of men who had been instru- 

 mental in the upbuilding of the work of the bureau, resigned to 

 accept positions in. State and commercial work. The following are 

 the most important changes which have occurred : Mr. J. E. Penny- 

 backer, a member of the organization almost since its inception, 

 chief of the Division of Economics and later chief of management, 

 resigned in February, 1919; Mr. Prevost Hubbard, chemical en- 

 gineer and chief of the Division of Tests and Eesearch, who had 

 been with the bureau since 1905, resigned in July, 1919; Mr. M. O. 

 Eldridge, for 25 years connected with the bureau as assistant in 

 economics, resigned in July, 1919; Mr. C. S. Reeve, chemist and 

 assistant to Mr. Hubbard, who had been with the bureau since 1909, 

 resigned in June, 1919 ; Mr. H. K. Bishop, district engineer of dis- 

 trict No. 10, stationed at Washington, resigned in May, 1919. 



DEATH OF DIRECTOR LOGAN WALLER PAGE. 



Logan Waller Page, for many years director of the bureau, died 

 suddenly on December 9, 1918, while attending the annual meeting 

 of the American Association of State Highway Officials at Chicago. 



