In addition to both its review services for the permanent statistical agencies and the review services of the Coordinating Committee, the Board has advised against the conduct of several statistical inquiries which had not progressed to the point of being presented as a formal plan. In all of these services, substantial economies have been effected. The Board also has reviewed a considerable volume of press releases, including 449 in the fiscal year 1936 and 156 in the 5 months of the current fiscal year to date. The Board's review procedure serves to prevent uncorroborated or even conflicting conclusions which otherwise might inadvertently occur. The review of releases, furthermore, has promoted clarity and accuracy in the presentation of statistics. It is now proposed that the Central Statistical Committee issue another regulation calling for the submittal of statistical releases for advisory review and clearance with other interested agencies. The form of such a regulation would be similar to that of the regulation calling for the submittal of statistical forms. 2. Surveys of the organization and activities of particular statistical agencies.In general, the Board has deemed it wise to undertake extensive surveys of statistical agencies only upon request of the agency concerned. During the past year, the most important of such surveys have been the completion of a study of five of the divisions of the Bureau of the Census and an extensive investigation into the statistical work of the Department of Agriculture. The Board's recommendations to the Bureau of the Census have included suggested improvements in manufacturing statistics, population, and vital statistics. At the request of the Secretary of Agriculture, the Board established an interdepartmental committee which supervised an extensive study of the agricultural statistical services and presented a number of recommendations regarding agricultural censuses, crop and livestock estimates, research in farm finance, truck movements of agricultural products, farm income and prices, wool imports, and and the Market News Service. 3. Special studies of statistical services in related fields.-The Board has given continuing attention to a number of problems concerned with statistical methodology, with the collection of information of use to more than one agency, and with the planning and supervision of special tabulations of data of one agency in order to serve the requirements of another. In the field of statistical methodology, the Board is working upon such proposals as the desirability of using uniform methods of presenting tabular material and the development of standard statistical techniques. Three tasks undertaken by the Board will illustrate its method of operation in attempting to resolve statistical questions common to two or more agencies whose collections of data are of wide potential use within the Government. The most important work which the Board has undertaken in this field relates to the social security program. The development of the program of the Social Security Board will involve the collection of a very large amount of information for administrative purposes. These administrative reports almost certainly will call for extensive, if not revolutionary, changes in the present methods of taking business censuses as well as in existing current reporting services on employment and related aspects of current economic developments. The problems involved are not those of the Treasury and Social Security Board alone, since the reporting program, even with a maximum of coordination, must cut across existing reporting lines. For example, both the unemployment compensation and old-age pension plans require data on employment, pay rolls, and man-hours. Data upon these subjects also are required by a number of other organizations of the Federal Government, notably the Department of Labor, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Bureau of Mines, and the Bureau of the Census, in addition to the data required by the several States. Because of the magnitude of the task of the Social Security Board, it will be some time before any employment and pay roll reports under the Social Security Act can be systematized and tabulated with the promptness necessary to make them useful as parts of current analyses of changes in business. Consequently, the Board has taken the position that for the present it will be necessary to continue the existing reporting system, but both the Social Security Board and the Central Statistical Board agree that, as a long-run policy, the reporting program under the Social Security Act should be so planned as to yield both current and specialized data on such questions as migration, irregular operation of industry, superannuation, and occupational shifts as well as several other interests of public policy in addition to those involved directly in administering the Social Security Act. As a first step, the Board assisted in the development of a standard industrial classification of employers for use by the several States. This classification can be extended for general Government use. It is now urging the establishment and maintenance by the Social Security Board of a business address list of wide coverage which also can be made available for broad Government use. Such a list would tend to eliminate unnecessary duplication of inquiries and would promote comparability of classification and coverage in inquiries conducted by different agencies. Of interest also in this field are the Board's efforts to bring about the coordination of a broad reporting program of information upon public welfare. Reports for about 120 urban areas, covering private as well as public assistance, have been maintained by the Children's Bureau for several years. Similar information is essential to the Social Security Board, and arrangements were made for the transfer of this service to the Social Security Board as of June 30, 1936. The Central Statistical Board also has advised upon the establishment of a similar reporting service for rural relief by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and a reporting service upon categorical relief by the Social Security Board. In October 1936, following lines of organization suggested earlier by the Central Statistical Board, the Social Security Board and the Works Progress Administration, together with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, entered into an arrangement which will utilize their joint personnel and facilities for the purpose of securing accurate and adequate current statistics of general public relief. An advisory committee for this arrangement has been created consisting of three non-Government experts, one representative of the Works Progress Administration, and one of the Social Security Board. A representative of the Central Statistical Board sits with the committee. As a second illustration, there may be mentioned the inauguration, upon advice of the Board, of a number of improvements in the current data necessary to the adequate measuring of total employment and national income. Third, the Board is working on a program to provide the more prompt collection and compilation of annual financial information concerning States, cities, and other local units of government. To this end, the Board is cooperating with the Census Bureau in developing plans of the latter for a reorganization of its Division of Financial Statistics. Finally, under the heading of "Special studies", the Board has been active in planning and supervising special tabulations of data which can thereby be made to serve the requirements of more than one agency, thus obviating the necessity of making additional studies which would duplicate the essential parts of material already collected. In particular, the Board has been impressed by the desirability of consolidating the energies of the various Federal agencies engaged in statistical work and economic research in the field of real estate and construction. As an experimental step, the Board, in 1935, operated for a temporary period a small research unit, jointly financed by the agencies most interested in these fields. This unit, although working as a temporary stopgap, made several important contributions. It completed final tables for the Financial Survey of Urban Housing in such a form as to provide new and widely useful sample data, which would serve the purposes of the several agencies desiring to make special tabulations of the original material. It also transcribed and prepared for tabulation extensive data upon real property in the District of Columbia, and it assembled material from 62 local real property inventories in such a form as to be reasonably comparable with Federal information. Finally, the joint unit, after an investigation of the problems of providing satisfactory, current measures of rents, occupancy, and vacancy, and changes in ownership of residential property, conducted an experimental sample survey of urban rents and dwelling vacancies in five cities previously covered by the Federal real property inventory. Subsequent to the disbanding of the joint unit, the various Federal agencies concerned with housing established a central housing committee to provide for the coordination of their efforts. The Board is represented on the subcommittee upon research and statistics. Moreover, through the staff of the coordinating committee and in cooperation with the Federal Housing Administration and the Works Progress Administration, there were developed standard procedure manuals for two types of Works Progress Administration projects, designed to collect material of general interest to all agencies in the housing field: (a) Real property inventories, and (b) analyses and summaries of county records of deeds and assessments. Also, in this field, the Board has cooperated with the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Civil Service Commission in working out arrangements for the consolidation of the statistical reporting services on Federal pay rolls and employment, which hitherto have been carried on in both the Civil Service Commission and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 4. Suggestions for the promotion and development of more adequate business and industrial statistics.-During 1935 the Board, by special allotment of funds from the National Recovery Administration, maintained a Division of Current Business Statistics which was engaged in working out a minimum standard program for the current reporting of business and industrial statistics. This unit was successful in reducing duplications of effort by Federal agencies and trade associations. Its general program was transferred to the Board upon completion of its preliminary studies, one of which was the establishment of a centralized and consolidated mailing list of private construction contractors in the United States. The Board has assisted the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce in the development of its program for the expansion of current reports on retail trade and was responsible for suggesting and outlining procedure for a retail survey now being completed by the Bureau of the Census to determine the feasibility of an annual sample census. The Board has surveyed the statistical information pertaining to copper and lead and made recommendations for its improvement, and has assisted the Bureau of Mines in the development of a comprehensive annual index of mineral production. In the manufacturing field, the Board urged the adoption of uniform definitions for both current inquiries and census surveys and is now recommending the adoption of a uniform industrial classification. It has also concerned itself with detailed comparisons of the groupings and definitions of commodities used by the Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As a result of these comparisons, the questions on inquiries of both the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of the Census on employment and pay rolls have been brought into agreement for a substantial number of industries. In response to a request from the Director of the Census, the Board is about to undertake an investigation of the Divisions of Manufactures and Special Tabulations of that Bureau to supplement the partial investigation of the Division of Manufactures made some 21⁄2 years ago. 5. The development and maintenance of a statistical clearing house and statistical information service. As a supplement to its review services, the Board has been building a substantial file of information which can be used by the Federal Government as a statistical clearing house and information service. The Board hopes ultimately to expand this service to include information which will be helpful not only in answering questions of fact and sources, but also to make possible the giving of critical estimates of any particular series. As a part of this information service, the Board publishes a Directory of the Federal Statistical Agencies. 6. The preparation of special reports for administrative use by officials of the Federal Government.-Under this heading fall a number of miscellaneous activities. Among the more important of them has been the preparation weekly of a confidential review of the economic situation in the Uuited States. This weekly review was undertaken in accordance with the provisions of Executive Order No. 7003 in response to a request from the Secretary of State for a definitive statement of current business conditions which could be transmitted to the foreign offices of the Federal Government by radio. This weekly report has also been used by members of the Cabinet and heads of a number of independent offices of the Government. The Board has prepared a number of informal reports for the Bureau of the Budget upon proposed legislation which would entail statistical work. Chief among these in the past year have been the so-called cottonseed grading bill, and a bill to provide an annual sample census of agriculture. The Board also has advised the Bureau of the Budget with regard to proposed appropriation items for a number of statistical agencies, including the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, the Federal Trade Commission, the Division of Industrial Economics, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the last session of Congress, the Board prepared a report for the subcommittee on Agriculture of the House Committee on Appropriations upon a number of new statistical items in the Agriculture appropriation bill, including an item for poultry statistics and items for research in farm population and rural life and for the extension of statistical reports on tobacco and fats and oils. At present, the Board has before it no important proposed legislation, but it expects shortly to be called upon to give advice with regard to a bill providing the necessary legislation for the Sixteenth Census. It has advised upon various proposals for a census of employment, occupations, and unemployment. As an aid to the determination of policy by the Department of State, the Board conducted an extensive survey into proposed adherence by the United States to an international convention or economic statistics. It has also transmitted to the Secretary of State recommendations upon the subject of calendar reform, for consideration in the event that that subject is included upon the agenda of a proposed meeting of the Commission on Communications and Transit of the League of Nations. The Board has given material assistance to the Civil Service Commission in an investigation of possible ways of improving civil service examinations for economists and statisticians, and it is now advising the Commission in preparing an announcement for a new general examination for economists, statisticians, sociologists and political scientists. E. FINANCIAL SUMMARY 1936 During the fiscal year 1936 the Board had available either for expenditure upon its own order or expended for it by other agencies the total amount of $181,579, broken down as follows: Allotments: Carried over from the fiscal year 1935. Public Works Administration allotment, Oct. 9, 1935. $5, 372 25,000 40, 000 Total Public Works Administration allotments.. 70, 372 Other emergency funds: National Recovery Administration expenditures for administration of Board accounts and personnel office... Working fund, National Recovery Administration, for maintaining 38, 107 2, 500 40, 607 70, 000 600 70, 600 181, 579 Total other emergency funds.......... Appropriations (First Deficiency Act of 1936): For salaries and expenses_ Total appropriations.. Grand total................ The Board wishes to reiterate the statement which it has previously made to the Committee on Appropriations, that it cannot carry on its legitimate functions effectively unless it is given appropriations which approach the upward limit established by its act. Every attempt has been made to present the 1938 estimates accurately and to effect such small economies as may be possible. The Board's general program has increased both in scope and number of tasks undertaken, but it believes that the added experience gathered by its staff members has been sufficient to enable it to carry an increased burden of work without an increased appropriation for the fiscal year 1938. APPENDIX State and local statistical, survey, and research projects acted on by the Coordinating Committee to June 30, 1936, by States State and local statistical, survey, and research projects acted on by the Coordinating Committee to June 30, 1936, by States-Continued ADJUSTMENT OF SALARY CLASSIFICATIONS Mr. WOODRUM. Your set-up of personnel as provided for 1938 is substantially the same as for 1937? Mr. RICE. It is substantially the same as for 1937. Mr. WOODRUM. With reference to your salary roll, do you provide for any increases in salary, or promotions? Mr. RICE. I think not. Is that correct, Mr. Jones? Mr. JONES. The only changes in salary are those which were brought about at the time the Board's staff was classified under the civil service. At that time there were changes because of differences between the old, emergency salary scale and the civil service classified scale. For example, under the emergency scale there was a salary figure of $3,600 which corresponds to a classification of P-4 in the classified service, the entrance salary for which is $3,800. In a case of that kind, the person who hitherto had received $3,600, when placed under the classified service, was advanced to $3,800. Those are not in the nature of promotions, but rather in the nature of transfers from one salary scale to another salary scale. Mr. WOODRUM. Otherwise it is practically the same? |