x FOREWORD 



which will result in the improvement of methods of adminis- 

 tration.. The primary aim of outside agencies should be to 

 emphasize this responsibility and facilitate its fulfillment. 



While the monographs thus make no direct recommenda- 

 tions for improvement, they cannot fail greatly to stimulate 

 efforts in that direction. Prepared as they are according to a 

 uniform plan, and setting forth as they do the activities, plant, 

 organization, personnel and laws governing the several serv- 

 ices of the government, they will automatically, as it were, 

 reveal, for example, the extent to which work in the same field 

 is being performed by different services, and thus furnish the 

 information that is essential to a consideration of the great 

 question of the better distribution and coordination of activ- 

 ities among the several departments, establishments and 

 bureaus, and the elimination of duplications of plant, organ- 

 ization and work. Through them it will also be possible to 

 subject any particular feature of the administrative work of 

 the government to exhaustive study, to determine, for exam- 

 ple, what facilities, in the way of laboratories and other plant 

 and equipment, exist for the prosecution of any line of work 

 and where those facilities are located ; or what work is being 

 done in any field of administration or research, such as the 

 promotion, protection and regulation of the maritime interests 

 of the country, the planning and execution of works of an 

 engineering character, or the collection, compilation and pub- 

 lication of statistical data, or what differences of practice pre- 

 vail in respect to organization, classification, appointment, and 

 promotion of personnel. 



To recapitulate, the monographs will serve the double pur- 

 pose of furnishing an essential tool for efficient legislation, 

 administration and popular control, and of laying the basis 

 for critical and constructive work on the part of those upon 

 whom responsibility for such work primarily rests. 



Whenever possible the language of official statements or 

 reports has been employed, and it has not been practicable in 

 all cases to make specific indication of the language so quoted. 



