port and export trade, including meats, fats, grain, hides, leather, iron, steel, copper, other metals and metal products, cotton, silk, wool, electrical and other machinery, automobiles, canned goods, rubber manufactures, coal and petroleum, chemicals, typewriters, sewing machines and other specialties, motionpicture films, etc. These special statements are furnished regularly to a list of more than 12,000 of the commercial public who have found the information necessary to the conduct of their business.

Simplification and Standardization.

The work of the department in the various phases of elimination of industrial waste carried on in full cooperation with the various trades has developed in many directions during the fiscal year, and the progress made has been eminently satisfactory.

At the beginning of the present Administration the department had instituted a review of Federal purchasing specifications, in cooperation with committees from the various industries, with a view to a better formulation of standards simplifications and more accurate presentation of specifications in Federal purchases. Upon the establishment of the Bureau of the Budget a Federal Specifications Board was created under the budgetary powers, members of this department acting as chairman and secretary. The Federal Specifications Board has had under review Federal specifications, and in their formulation has not only made the necessary scientific investigations but has called into consultation representatives of the manufacturing industries concerned, in order that Government purchases should be properly adapted to the manufacturing processes and normal stocks and materials of the country. A very considerable amount of economy has thus been effected in the purchase of Federal Government supplies.

With a view to further assisting in the elimination of national waste along this line, a conference of the various State purchasing agents met at the department during the fiscal year under review. The result of this conference was a unanimous expression of desire to cooperate in the unification of specifications being used by State and municipal agencies, and to this end the conference requested all possible assistance from the Federal Government. There followed a more general conference on June 11, 1923, for the purpose of considering the unification of purchase specifications from the point of view of both the producer and the consumer. At this second conference was organized an advisory

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with the Department of Commerce and the of Governmental Purchasing Agents in the onary or handbook of specifications. This working actively in preparation of Federal eral use in local government and institus of official representatives of organizations te and municipal institutions; the producers a commodities as are purchased for governa: and the standardization bodies having

ple of the working out of standards in condustries may be mentioned the conference on ... Thirty-five manufacturers, representing aper cent of production in this field, are actively is work. During the fiscal year 10 meetings ing about 60 per cent of all the items in the of this industry, and the resulting recommendaady being put into effect.

ustration is the Committee on Specifications for Plate Glass, composed of representatives from the stitute of Architects, National Glass Distributors Plate Glass Manufacturers, Sash and Door Asre-glass manufacturers, window-glass manufacture United States Government. The result of the meetOs committee, held on December 19, 1922, was the of specifications for quality and sizes of plate and ass, including definitions.

part of the extended activity of the department in conwith the elimination of national waste there is in in cooperation with the American Petroleum Institute, Society of Automotive Engineers, and the National AutomoChamber of Commerce a series of investigations relating to Conservation of motor fuels. Much of the technical research wy accomplished during the fiscal year, and the program is ogressing in a most satisfactory manner. Its completion held bring great savings to consumers of motor fuels and Constructive conservation of one of our vital natural resources. The erection in the department, as recorded in my last annual report, of a new Division of Simplified Practice, has been amply stitied by the extent to which different industrial groups have availed themselves of its technical and advisory services during the fiscal year. During this period 54 conferences have been held by different trade committees, at their request, with the depart

mental experts engaged in this work. The total number of industrial groups now using this service of the department in developing definite steps toward simplification in their activities is 125, representing 90 different fields of production and distribution. In the study and investigation which precedes recommendations for simplification in any product the manufacturers, distributors, and consumers of the product necessarily play an equal part. Such action is, of course, wholly voluntary, and in each case cooperation and agreement by the various factors precedes the adoption of simplified practice recommendations. It follows that in the large majority of cases the simplification proceedings are still in the process of development. Eight definite recommendations, however, have been consummated during the period under review.

The following examples may be cited as showing the nature of accomplished work in this field:

A conference held at the department on March 6, 1923, between representatives of the International Milk Dealers Association, The Glass Container Association, The Cap Manufacturers Credit Association, and the National Association of Bottle Manufacturers unanimously recommended 3 sizes of milk bottles for quarts, pints, and half pints, with one size opening for the entire group. Before this constructive step milk bottles were manufactured in 12 sizes for quarts, 13 sizes for pints, 14 sizes for half pints, 10 sizes for quarter pints, and approximately 10 sizes of caps. The entire industry has accepted the findings of the conference.

On March 27, 1923, paving brick, which had been reduced from 77 to 7 types and sizes at previous conferences, was further reduced to a total of 6 sizes.

A general conference of manufacturers, distributors, and users of asphalt at the department on May 28, 1923, reduced the grades of asphalt from 88 to 9 varieties. At another conference on the same day the sizes and varieties of hotel and institutional chinaware were reduced from 700 to 160. At a general meeting of the industries concerned, held in the department on June 21, 1923, the sizes and varieties of common brick and face brick were reduced from a total of 73 to 1 recognized variety of each type.

The annual value to industry and savings to the general public which such simplifications assure, while difficult to accurately estimate, run in the aggregate into many millions of dollars, and their importance in the maintenance of our high standards of living need not be emphasized.

Housing and Construction.

In connection with the disturbed housing conditions resulting from suspended construction during the war, I referred in my last annual report to a new division created in this department to assist and cooperate with voluntary bodies engaged in developing home ownership. The department, through this division, has during the fiscal year given active aid to a movement sponsoring demonstration houses that have been equipped and opened to the public in several hundred cities, usually by women's organizations in cooperation with business and civic groups. The result has been to encourage wiser expenditure for household purposes. Associated in the Better Homes movement, which you have headed, are eight Federal Government officials, including two from the Department of Commerce, and representatives of the principal national organizations of women's clubs, business men, architects, and bodies interested in child welfare and public health.

Valuable educational work has also been carried on by the small house service bureaus, which have been encouraged by this department, in providing at cost small-house plans designed by competent architects.

At the request of many organizations interested in housing, a handbook for prospective home owners was prepared in the department during the year. Its value to the general public is well indicated by the fact that its sales by the Superintendent of Documents immediately ran into the hundreds of thousands.

During the period under review, the construction industry has been confronted with the problem of meeting the extraordinary demand for construction resulting from the suspension during the war and the postwar slump, without hurtful inflation of building costs. In March of this year the situation was such that, in response to an inquiry from the late President, I recommended that all but the most essential Government works and public buildings should be deferred for the time being, so as to give way to much needed private construction. Hundreds of manufacturers, labor organizations, contractors, and the public have concurred in this recommendation.

Increased interest has centered during the year on statistics of activity, production of building materials, and the building cost indexes that the department has been distributing, but the inadequacy of the data available has been evident. The department has been unable, on account of lack of funds, to meet the demands on it for information that have come from many of the most important business groups.

The need for elimination of waste in construction has been. recognized by practically every group concerned, and the members of the department's staff, and its funds, have been pressed to the limit by requests for cooperation in work on building codes, plumbing codes, simplification and elimination of dimensional varieties of building materials, research on the use of building materials, and studies of zoning and city planning problems.

Commercial Statistics.

Coal.

At the request of the various industries the department has during the fiscal year materially improved and extended its service in commercial statistics. The statistics included in the Survey of Current Business now cover all of the basic industries and consist of monthly reports on production and stocks, in addition to the annual and semiannual statistics which are published, giving data in detail for certain industries. The department has been able during the year to make these statistics available to the public in more current form by issuing to the daily and trade press every two weeks in mimeograph form the latest statistics that have been received. They are later coordinated in the monthly issues of the Survey. It is only through the active cooperation of the industries themselves that adequate current statistical information can be recruited, and the development of this service has, therefore, been due primarily to the business man's appreciation of his own need for current information on the business trends of the Nation.

The beginning of the fiscal year under review found the Nation in the midst of its largest and most far-reaching coal strike. The measures taken by the department to secure adequate stocks of coal throughout the country before the beginning of the strike on April 1, 1922, brought about the accumulation of some 75,000,000 to 80,000,000 tons, the largest stock in our history. The result was that the commerce and industry of the country were sustained during the prolonged strike of five

months.

After the strike the accumulated demands and lack of transportation made it necessary to organize distribution in order to secure consumers against local shortages and restrain extortionate. prices. An organization of Lake shippers and State coal administrators in the Northwest States was created with headquarters at Minneapolis and Cleveland to facilitate shipments across the Lakes in provision for the winter.