It is recognized that many records of the Government, especially those involving private rights or that may concern claims, must be handled with more care and with more expense than is necessary in the case of current correspondence on subjects not of permanent interest.

STUDY OF METHODS IN BRANCHES OF THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE.

Observations in the branches of the service outside of Washington disclose, with few exceptions, that in regard to the methods followed in handling and filing correspondence practically no relation exists between them and the methods pursued at the headquarters of the same service at Washington. It is important, in the opinion of the commission, that where the nature of the business and the operations incident thereto at branch offices are like those at headquarters, the whole system of handling and filing correspondence should be uniform. Under such an arrangement the correspondence files throughout the branches of the service would become one comprehensive system, with each letter on the same subject bearing the same file reference regardless of the point of origin. Uniform classification would also permit file clerks experienced in one part of the service to be useful in another and result in their training along similar lines. There is another advantage to be secured if the filing systems of the branches of a bureau or division are the same as those at headquarters. Most of the correspondence of the Government falls into the class known as "service" correspondence; that is to say, correspondence originating in and destined for an office of the Government. A very large part of it is between the executive departments at Washington and the branch or service offices in the field; and the filing result is that one copy, the original, is kept in the branch office, and the carbon copy in the files at headquarters, or vice versa. Thus there exist in the service duplicate files of correspondence. If the files in the field service were arranged upon the same subject classification as those at headquarters, in the case of a misplacement, loss, or destruction of any part of a file, either in the field or at headquarters, the file could be made intact again (if necessary) by securing copies of all the correspondence upon the missing subject from the office where the files were still preserved.

ANALYSIS OF REPORTS FROM EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS.

Reports from all the departments in answer to the circular of inquiry, herein referred to, were so analyzed that it is possible to determine in a general way the methods used and the cost of the different operations in handling and filing correspondence in each bureau and division.

An idea of the tremendous scale on which correspondence of the executive departments is handled may be had when it is stated that the departments in Washington receive annually 43,000,000 communications and dispatch during a like period 22,000,000, making a total of 65,000,000 communications handled each year.

The summary on pages 524 and 525 shows the salary cost by departments of the various operations which enter into the handling of correspondence as disclosed by the figures furnished by each bureau and

division. Since the correspondence handled by each department and office varies greatly in amount, it was thought a ready means of comparison between departments might be afforded if a statement were also made showing the cost of each operation on the basis of a thousand communications handled. The summary, therefore, also shows that information; the basis used for operations 1 to 4, inclusive, being the total number of incoming communications; that for operations 5 to 9, inclusive, the total number of outgoing communications; and that for the last operation, the total number of communications filed.

659.00

2,550.50

3,221.00

Press copying.

Total cost for these operations..

47, 077.83 389, 399. 38 304, 782.31 640, 982.99 350,490.63

As has been stated, a clear distinction was made in the inquiry between the purely physical and recording processes and those having to do with "preparation" of drafts of letters, etc. In all such processes as "receiving and opening," "recording and indexing," etc., it was assumed that a letter of one page would require approximately the same time as a letter of five pages. The returns, however, showed great differences in cost. The average cost of receiving and opening mail per thousand communications for all offices in each department runs from $1.21 a thousand in the Navy Department to $13.63 in the Department of Justice; the average cost of recording and indexing incoming correspondence for all offices in each department runs from 52 cents a thousand in the Post Office Department and $8.93 in the Navy Department, to $62.98 in the War Department. The total cost per 1,000 of the operations which make up the handling of outgoing correspondence, exclusive of "preparing," runs from $5.94 a thousand in the Department of Agriculture to $69.89 in the Department of Justice.

The foregoing represents merely physical handling and recording. In the operation of preparing outgoing correspondence the differences are very great, as would be expected. The average cost for this process for all offices in each department runs from $63.41 in the Post Office Department to $438.29 a thousand in the Department of Justice. Combining all the operations in respect to outgoing correspondence, it is found that the lowest cost per 1,000 communications is in the Post Office Department, the rate being $70, and the highest cost, $508.18 per 1,000, is in the Department of Justice.

In this inquiry the terms "correspondence" and "communication" were used in their widest sense. It was impracticable to discriminate between classes of communications. Everything was designed to be included, from the mere printed acknowledgment of the receipt of a given sum of money, or a stereotyped circular letter conveying information to hundreds of persons in like form, to the carefully prepared letter of several pages, or long legal opinion requiring long time and much care in preparation. These important factors must be kept in mind in connection with the consideration of the cost figures contained in the tabular analysis. Notwithstanding these variations, it is believed that the figures furnish a reasonable guide to existing conditions from the standpoint of cost in the executive departments of the various operations referred to.

The reports from the departments disclosed not only widely divergent methods of handling and filing correspondence relating to the same kind of business, but great differences in the fundamental nature of the business of bureaus of the same department. The impracticability of devising a uniform method of treatment of the correspondence of all the departments was apparent at once. In each executive department, which under the organization of the Government was created for the purpose of conducting a particular branch of the public business, the nature of the business of one bureau or division, and the methods which are necessarily pursued in carrying it on, as compared with other bureaus and divisions of the same department, frequently are as unlike as the business of different departments.

Not only the activities of the different offices but their needs from the standpoint of frequent or rare consultation of files are very