voted by Congress; (5) and most interesting of all, the capitalization of the national goodwill by the processes of education, most successfully achieved by the Food Administration. The reader whose interest has been aroused in any particular undertaking and who would like to know more about it on the spot must bear with the author for his prompt passing on to the next item in the long list of administrative enterprises, and must be equally forbearing when he misses any discussion of so great an administrative experiment as the operation of the Selective Service Act or the coördination of our varied welfare machinery; for this book is but one of a series, and the author, besides being limited to the confines of a single volume, must needs leave much to his coworkers. If I may in closing offer a suggestion to the reader who has been conscientious enough to begin with the Introduction and to get thus far in it, it is to read the last chapter first, so that he may get some idea of the range and complexity of the whole picture. The author does us too much honor in assuming that we have already in our minds a general preparation for what he has to say. Then, as the reader takes up the chapters in their order, he can better see the place of each in the whole scheme and will be ready to reread the author's conclusions to his own best profit. FREDERICK P. KEPPEL. CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM OF GENERAL ADMINISTRATION Analysis of the problem Its importance and immediate urgency Elements in the mobilization of facilities and resources Need for an organ of general administration - The President as administrator-in-chief- His administrative powers derived from Congress - The Overman Act-Council of National Defense - Its purpose as originally conceived - Its composition and functions as prescribed by the Act of March 26, 1916-Its Advisory Commission Organization of the Council and Advisory Commission-Its defects - In the formulation of programme - In the correlation of activities In administrative personnel-In the interpretation of functions-In_committee organization-The real service of the Council-Its gradual decline in importance Its activities as a reconstruction agency. - Among the problems of organization for the prosecution of the war none was of greater importance, or of more immediate urgency, than that of general administration. This problem consisted in the perfection of means by which a general programme of operation might be formulated, the several features of this programme allotted to the services best fitted for their performance, and measures of control established to insure that the programme as thus formulated and assigned should be in fact efficiently carried out. The need for the adoption of such a work programme and the creation of an agency or agencies through which the organization and activities of the Government might be correlated, conflicts of jurisdiction avoided or adjusted as soon as they arose, duplication of organization, plant, and activities eliminated or reduced to a minimum, and all the several services of the Government integrated into one harmonious piece of administrative machinery is great in |