Evening star., 1921-10-28
VOLUME COMPILED
OF FEDERAL FACTS
Compendium Will Be Ready
Reference Guide of Activi-
ties of Government.

Uncle Sam is about to publish book
OF ready reference about his workshop.
This viii carry into effect Il plan of
the United States bureau of efficiency
Tor compiling and keeping current a
complete compendium of authoritative
information about the government
service. which will answer the million
and one questions that are constantly
being asked, and which will be of
great value to government officials.
members of Congress and all those in
terested in the federal governments
diversified activities
A considerable part of this compen-
dium already has been compiled Incl
dent to thorough survey of Uncle
Sans workshops for the joint con-
SreSSional committee on reorganiza-
tion of the administrative branch of
the government.
Great Saving Seen.
In addition to making readily avail
able for government officials and
members of Congress such informa-
tion as is being sought daily the
President is convinced that the prep
aration of this encyclopedia about the
government workshops will result in
a great saving in the various offices to
which requests for such Information
are sent daily.
There is Il constant demand for in
formation about the government, cont
ing from every Imaginable Sourcc and
on an unbcliuvably id: range of sub
JectS. There is today no central place
where this information is available
and hundreds of letters have to ba
written each day in answering these
questions. Yet u large majority of
these questions have the same or
similar characteristics.
Will Cover All Activities.
This compendium or encyclopedia
will contain monographs on each OF
tho go units of government, giving
its history, digest of laws. functions.
organization, details on personnel and
relationship of the work it does to
work done in other units of the gov
ernment service.
There will also be monographs on
the ten departments and forty indo
pendent establishments giving Ii
summarized form the information
most generally sought about each
particular department and their re-
Iation to each other.
Supplementing this will be set OF
100 conspectuSeS or charts with BRIEF
descriptive paragraphs showing the
entire scope of the government serN-
ice, the general functions and actiN-
tiles of each department and the par
ticular work of each bureau OF di-
vision or commission.
1t will be plainly shown what each
unit does. the amount of appropria-
tion received for the current and pre-
cedinE year, and the number OF per-
sonuel. 1t is believed that this fea-
ture will be especially welcomed by
Congress for use in connection with
appropriation bills.
Always Up to Date.
The bureau of efficiency also has
hri GeSCrjnfinnS a. the
rious departments and independent
establishments which it is proposed
to incorporate in the Congressional
Directory in substitution for descrip-
tions previously carried which lack
uniformity and system because pre-
pared by many men of many minds
rather than through one agency.
The most important feature of this
compilation of authoritative fnforma-
tion Is that President Harding is GO
ing to issue an executive order call
ing upon every department head. bu-
reau chief and commission chairman
to revise these pages every three
months. SO that the encyclopedia will
not only be complete, but current.
LooseIeaf Plan.
The plan is to print on loose-leaf
pages to be put into some standard
binder, then as certain pages are re-
vised they can be substituted for
those out of date with comparatively
little expense. Thus by keeping an
obsolete file as well as the up-to-
date file there will be readily avail.
able In every interested office a COM
plete compendium about the govern
ment not only as is. but as was.
Worked into the proposed encyclo-
pedia will be a digest of the govern.
ment activities.
After the first compendium has been
issued as new questions come in the
answers to which are not found in the
compendium revised sheets will be is
sued, including such new data.
The original cost of getting out this
compendium is not considered, be-
cause practically all of it is incident
to the work of the joint congressional
committee on reorganization. and the
cost of revision every three months
! is considered trivial as compared with
E the saving in correspondence answer
ting myriad questions by each and all
units of the government service.