conducted entirely through the post office and that the cost of the Census should be limited to $5,000,000.

For about a month the Chairman of the Central Statistical Board acted as Technical Consultant for the Census, at the Administrator's request. On October 8, the Board, by resolution, formally offered its cooperation to the Administrator of the Census and established a technical advisory committee to the Administrator and his staff, this action being based upon the report of a special Board committee created to examine the relations of the Board to the Census. The membership of the advisory committee is as follows: Stuart A. Rice, chairman, E. Dana Durand, William L. Austin, Isador Lubin, Corrington Gill, Oscar E. Kiessling, Frederick F. Stephan, and Miss Aryness Joy, secretary. Up to date the committee has held 20 meetings, each from 3 to 9 hours duration, and has made many recommendations, both with regard to details and to policy. In addition, the Board, under a reimbursement agreement, detailed its Assistant Executive Officer to the office of the Administrator upon a full-time basis to assist in the organizatiton of the Census and to supervise all administrative work.

14. Recommendations on reorganization of the Divisions of Manufactures and Special Tabulations of the Bureau of the Census.-The Director of the Census, in 1934, requested the Central Statistical Board to investigate and make recommendations on the organization and work of several Divisions in the Bureau of the Census. By arrangement with the Director, reports on the various Divisions have been distributed over a period of years. In October 1936, special reports on the Divisions of Manufactures and of Special Tabulations were requested. Members of the Board's staff, with the assistance of two personnel experts loaned by the Civil Service Commission, had previously made an extensive study of the organization and work of the Division of Manufactures. In 1937, a member of the staff of the Central Statistical Board with the further assistance of one of the Commission's experts, brought this study up to date and extended it to cover the Division of Special Tabulations. This study formed the basis for recommendations by the Board's Committee on Census Inquiries. The consolidation of the two Divisions into an Industrial Division, and the consolidation of sections within the proposed Industries Division were recommended in the belief that material economy and more effective work would result. The recommendations also called for: (a) The classification in the professional and scientific rather than in the clerical and administrative service of a number of major positions in the proposed Industrial Division: (b) the strengthening of the Division's professional staff through the filling of these major positions by the appointment of persons who have demonstrated their professional competence as economists, rather than by the promotion or new appointment of persons experienced in clerical, administrative, and fiscal work; (c) making the new Division responsible for census statistics pertaining to other industrial enterprises in addition to manufacturing, notably mines and quarries and the electrical industries, on which statutory inquiries have been conducted in the past by several Divisions of the Bureau; (d) expanding cooperative arrangements to avoid duplicate collection of data by a number of specialized Government agencies (arrangements of this kind now exist between the Bureau of the Census and the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, and between the Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Mines: (c) technical improvements in details of the work to be carried on by the new Division.

These recommendations were transmitted to the Director of the Census on July 19, 1937, and have already been put largely into effect. The two divisions have been consolidated; reclassification of major positions within the scientific and professional service has been accomplished; professionally trained personnel has been placed in responsibility; and many improvements in the organ. ization of the work have been instituted.

15. Recommendations on statistical controls for Food and Drug Administration-During the fiscal year 1937 a member of the Central Statistical Board's staff surveyed the work of the Food and Drug Administration and made recomdations for statistical controls to be used in the enforcement procedures involved mendations for statistical controls to be used in the enforcement procedures involved in the several acts under which this administration operates. This survey involved the full-time service for more than 1 month of the staff representative assigned to it.

16. Advice to the Children's Bureau.-Advice was given intermittently over an extended period by officers and staff representatives of the Board to the chief of the Children's Bureau on plans for the reorganization of the statistical work under her direction.

17. Cooperation with Civil Service Commission.-The Board's cooperation with the Commission in its efforts to procure better-trained personnel for the statistical and economic services of the Federal Government has been reported in past years to the Independent Offices Subcommittee. This cooperation has continued during the past 12 months in a number of specific ways. In March 1937 the Civil Service Commission, after considering favorably a report submitted by the Board's interagency Committee on Civil Service Examinations, and following formal requests from a number of agencies for special examinations, announced a general consolidated examination for social science analyst, in professional grades 1 to 6. Members of the Board's staff actively assisted the Commission in bringing these new examinations to the attention of persons whose professional training would make them especially desirable candidates. They also advised the Commission on fields of experience and training in which the candidates should be classified, and suggested a plan for the written examinations which are to be given for the lower grades. The examination for social science analyst appears to have attracted exceptionally able candidates, and should mark a step forward in methods of examination.

A member of the Board's staff, who has represented it in many of its previous conferences with the Civil Service Commission, is now devoting full time under a temporary transfer to the staff of the Commission, to advising and assisting it in the task of examining the application papers submitted. 18. The Board's study of current reports on Government purchases.-At the present time there are no statistics on the total value of goods of various kinds purchased by the United States Government, notwithstanding the fact that the Government is the largest single purchaser of some commodities in the country. Reports are collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, however, for materials bought for projects of the Public Works Administration and the Works Program, and under the provisions of the Walsh-Healy Act. Knowledge of the volume and time of its buying is important both to industry and to the Government and is desirable for the development of orderly marketing. At the suggestion of the secretary of the central statistical committee, a study of ways and means of obtaining comprehensive information on this subject was begun by the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department, assisted by members of the Board's staff. The necessary arrangements have been completed for a trial reporting service on purchases of a limited number of important items bought by Federal agencies.

19. The Board's services in connection with agricultural data. The demand on the part of both Government and private agencies for reliable agricultural statistics has grown faster than the capacity of existing statistical procedures to supply them. This demand is for more frequent and timely data, more complete information on certain farm activities and facilities, additional information by counties and crop-reporting districts within each State, and more reliable reporting.

The Central Statistical Board has been working, since February 1937, with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the Bureau of the Census on plans for the 1940 census of agriculture and for an annual sample census. The latter might replace the agricultural census heretofore taken in years ending in "5" and provide a more valuable supplement to other data now available. The plans for the sample census call for intercensal sample reporting of some items and for the complete annual or quinquennial enumeration of certain highly localized crops. A careful investigation is under way to discover the methods of sampling most appropriate to agricultural data. For the 1940 census, plans and techniques are being worked out which should provide for better and more economical enumeration and which should make it possible to obtain information not hitherto thought obtainable.

20. The Board's participation in the development of data respecting State and local public finance.—In the opinion of the Board a single Federal agency should have primary responsibility for statistics of State and local public finance. This agency should endeavor to organize data available from various sources and to fill major gaps in existing information. The most important Federal agency now collecting data in this field is the Division of Financial Statistics of States and Cities of the Bureau of the Census. The Board. together with other agencies and organizations, such as the Municipal Finance Officers' Association, is encouraging the Division to assume a broad responsibility for organizing and improving the data in this field.

On the recommendation of the Central Statistical Board a proposed inquiry by the Division of Research and Statistics of the Treasury Department into the debt structure and sinking fund assets of State and local governments as

33819-37-6

of June 30, 1937, was transferred to the Division of Statistics of States and Cities of the Bureau of the Census on a reimbursement basis. In accordance also with a recommendation from the Board, the Bureau of the Census has included, among the local government units covered, a small number of additional places. The resulting improvement in the sample should make possible the preparation of an estimate of local debt by States as of June 30, 1937-the midpoint between the Bureau's regular decennial censuses of financial statistics of State and local governments.

The Board has joined with a number of other organizations, including the Municipal Finance Officers' Association, in urging that the Bureau of the Census include in its regular annual reports on finances of cities, questions on the number of municipal employees, in order to supply much needed information not hitherto available.

During the past year the United States Conference of Mayors and the Central Statistical Board arranged to have established in the Bureau of the Census, in Washington, a collection of documents relating to the municipal affairs of the larger cities in the United States. This material is now being assembled by the Works Progress Administration Federal writers' project. At the end of the fiscal year, documents had been collected from 112 cities. Documents have also been received from the Municipal Finance Officers' Association, the Princeton local Government survey, and the University of Texas Bureau of Municipal Research. The Board is negotiating with several Federal agencies, including the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Public Works Administration, and the Bureau of Public Roads, to have their material in this field transferred to the Bureau of the Census when they cease to have immediate need for it. This collection has greatly improved the facilities available to Federal statisticians and public officials for research in this field. A special advisory committee to the Director of the Census has been appointed by the Secretary of Commerce and the Director of the Census to advise in all phases of the work of the Census Division of Financial Statistics of States and Cities. The Central Statistical Board is informally represented in the meetings and in the work of this committee. The committee met in June and September and expects to continue to meet quarterly. Intensive study is being given to revisions in the schedules used in collecting financial statistics of States and cities and in the methods of presenting these data.

The National Committee on Municipal Accounting, of which the Chairman of the Central Statistical Board is a member, has for some time been developing a model classification of receipts and expenditures for municipalities. A member of the Board's staff has participated in a series of recent conferences between representatives of the National Committee and the Bureau of the Census, at which consideration has been given to revision in a draft of the classification which had previously been circulated widely for criticism.

The Board has suggested to the Bureau of the Census that the establishment of a journal of statistics in the field of State and local public finance would be an effective way to promote the coordination of information in this field.

21. Recommendations on corporation income tax returns.-The Board has presented to the Bureau of Internal Revenue recommendations for a series of supplementary income-tax forms to be used at the option of such corporations as are regulated by Federal agencies. The recommendations are now under advisement by the Bureau. The items contained on the proposed new tax forms would be identical with certain items now requested by the regulatory agencies on their regular forms, thus making it possible for corporations to report identical data in both cases.

In the opinion of the Board, further consideration should be given to the coordination of the regulatory and tax-reporting systems. Among other things such coordination might involve: (a) Revision of divergent requirements for the classification of and methods of keeping corporation accounts; (b) revision of definitions of accounting terms in tax laws; (c) modification of some of the restrictions upon the use by one Federal agency of data collected by another. 22. Work on revision of reports of Federal employment and pay rolls.— The Board continued to work in cooperation with the Civil Service Commission and the Bureau of Labor Statistics in revising the reports made monthly to the Commission on employment and pay rolls in each of the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government. After consultation with the reporting agencies, substantial revisions were made in the data to be collected, and detailed instructions were prepared. Reports on the improved basis were received for the first time as of June 30, 1937.

23. Technical assistance to the Bureaus of Mines, Agricultural Economics, Labor Statistics, Foreign and Domestic Commerce, and Census.-During the past 12 months the Board's staff was called upon for detailed assistance of a technical character by a number of Federal agencies. Some of the services of this type which the Board rendered were the following:

It furnished technical direction to the Bureau of Mines in the construction of a comprehensive annual index of the physical volume of the production of minerals in the United States from 1880 to date. It advised with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics on numerous problems connected with the extensive revision which that Bureau is making of its estimates of agricultural income and its index of "prices farmers pay." Among the principal problems are those of obtaining more representative weights for the price indexes and better estimates of the costs of agricultural production. It engaged in further work in giving effect to its earlier suggestion that the Bureau of Labor Statistics establish a permanent procedure for checking the classification of its current employment reports, by industries, with the more complete biennial Census of Manufactures. The purpose of this check is to prevent major discrepancies between the trends of the figures published by the two agencies. Assistance has also been given to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in revising the method of computing its monthly and weekly indexes of wholesale prices, including the conversion of each of them from a "chain" index to an index with a fixed base. The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce has been advised on methods of computation to be used in its revised indexes of chain grocery store sales and on other special problems connected with its retail trade indexes. A number of suggestions were made to and accepted by the Bureau of the Census regarding publication plans for the 1935 Census of Manufactures.

24. Work on a standard industrial classification for Federal statistical agencies.-The necessity for a common industrial classification for use in statistics published by the Federal Government has long been a matter of concern to statisticians. The Central Statistical Board has worked on this problem since it was established. The necessity for a uniform classification has recently become much greater with the introduction under the social-security program of new statistical reports from almost all major American industries. The general adoption of such a classification should provide comparability of business data collected by various agencies, thus increasing the usefulness of all of the data and making it possible to avoid what now appears to be irreconcilable and conflicting results.

In the past 4 months important progress has been made. A preliminary classification of employers reporting under the Social Security Act into major industrial groups was developed early in the year by the Division of Placement and Unemployment Insurance of the Department of Labor and Industry of the State of New York, with the assistance of the Central Statistical Board and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Work has continued upon this classifications, which is rapidly being perfected and may now be regarded as standard, with its adoption by the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Social Security Board, the latter in June 1936. Upon the recommendation of the Social Security Board, other States having unemployment compensation laws, in addition to New York, have adopted this classification. Through an interagency committee of the Central Statistical Board, of which the Executive Secretary of the Board is Chairman, established at the request of the Social Security Board, a detailed subclassification will be presented in a standard industrial classification manual. As an aid in the classification of industrial enterprises and establishments, the committee is preparing a list of goods and services produced in the United States, cross-indexed by producing industries. After the completion of the manual the committee will continue to act in an advisory capacity in the decision of doubtful cases.

25. Recommendations to the Department of State.-A report was made by the Board to the Department of State concerning the relative merits of the import and export classifications of the Brussels Convention of 1913 and the Minimum List of Commodity Statistics of the League of Nations, recommending that data be compiled only according to the latter classification. The Board also renorted to the Department of State concerning the classifications proposed by the League of Nations for collecting statistics on tourists and on iron and steel manufactures.

26. Inventory of banking and credit research projects.—Additional inventories have been made of statistical material available in fields in which many agencies are interested, especially in fields in which duplications might result from lack of information by one agency concerning work being done in an

other. Among these was an inventory of banking and credit research projects currently in progress in Federal agencies. This was made in cooperation with the National Bureau of Economic Research, which collected information on similar work in private agencies. The complete inventory of Federal and nonFederal projects has been published by the National Bureau of Economic Research as Volume II of A Program of Financial Research.

27. Survey of textile price series.-A survey has been made of textile price series. Members of the Board's staff cooperated with four other Federal agencies in preparing a summary of the textile specifications for which wholesale price data are currently available. This material will be published in a report by the conference on price research of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

22. Federal statistical chart book.-At the request of the National Resources Committee, members of the staff of the Central Statistical Board have been engaged on a reimbursement basis for the past 3 months in the preparation of a book of statistical charts designed chiefly to aid in analyzing and formulating public policy regarding business fluctuations. The book will contain some 200 charted series reflecting cyclical fluctuations in important phases of industrial activity and finance and related changes in other aspects of our society.

Each page of charts will be accompanied by a page of text material, first, discussing the significance of the charted series; secondly, commenting on the virtues and defects of the series; and thirdly, giving brief specifications for the data. It is intended by careful selection to provide a broad picture with a limited number of series. The chart book should be of service not only to Government agencies but also to students of economic and social conditions outside of the Government, and should fill an important need.

29. Advisory work for the Department of Labor and Industry of the State of Pennsylvania.-At the request of the Secretary of Labor and Industry of the State of Pennsylvania, the Board's Chief Economist was granted leave from the Board in order to make recommendations for the reorganization of the statistical work of the Department of Labor and Industry. Her report was presented in August. A considerable number of her recommendations have since been made effective, including the appointment of an advisory committee on which the Central Statistical Board and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics are represented.

The preceding pages have attested to very substantial progress in the improvement of the Federal statistical services during the last 12 months. The subsections, however, are illustrative and do not represent an exhaustive list of all problems to which the Board has turned its attention. To those who have been closely concerned with the various questions reported upon, it is apparent that the problems of statistical planning and coordination remaining to be attacked are more imposing than those which have been checked off the list. The list itself keeps getting longer. New problems requiring the Board's attention under its legal mandate seem to arise faster than solutions can be worked out for older problems that may be more generally recognized.

It would be rather futile to attempt the preparation of a catalog of statistical issues requiring the future attention of the Central Statistical Board. Most of them cannot be foreseen. A single illustration of broad general character, however, may be suggested: From the standpoint of Federal statisticians, the Social Security Program has been thrust among the established statistical mechanisms of the Nation like an untamed horse in a pony shed. Requiring and producing statistics immediately, in large volume, within fields of work already allotted by Congress to long-established statistical agencies, this program must inevitably result in widespread reallocations of statistical responsibilities within the Federal Government, and perhaps between it and the States as well. As yet, no one can foretell what the nature of these reallocations will be. The Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the various relief agencies, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, to mention only a few, cannot avoid being profoundly affected. Whatever the changes may be, there must of necessity be some agency of statistical coordination, with responsibilities similar to those now held by the Central Statistical Board, if there is to be any assurance that they will be carefully planned, orderly, and nondisruptive of continuity with the past.