Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1921-01-03
III. S. SERVICE BRANCH CALLED
DICTIONARY OF ACTIVITIES
Retention of Interdepartmental Board
National Defense Council, Urged as
Part of Reorganization Plan.

generally finds the official waning to
come across
When an investigator is after facts
as to labor conditions. for Instance.
the president of the company involved
turns the investigator over to a Ger
tain subordinate. who gives him the
information desired. Then Nphen an
investigator from another bureau
comes wanting to know facts as to
the daily yieio CT Oil. the president
directs some other subordi safe to
give this information.
Is Gathered PfeeemeaI.
Thus the information is sAthered
piecemeai, as IL We're. withou arous-
ing sentiment. But if three investi-
gators were suddenly to desce I'd upon
the company at once. demanding facts
as to ALI angles of the busint as. il is
probable that somewhat of arl uproar
might enSue- Certain prime eples of
psychology are involved that will be
recognized by those who hstve had
any experience in the fine art of in
vestigating.
Files of the interdepar tmentaI
board show that although th.se may
be many chemical laboratories in the
government departments in Wash
ington. all are concerned with differ
ent phases of chemistry - essv ,ntially
different. 1t is true that alt work
with test tube. beaker and chetmicals.
but the methods of procedure nd the
results sought and obtained sare as
diverse as the great science of: chem
istry itself.
Work of chemists at the buneau of
chemistry, Department of A;gricul-
ture. and at the bureau of standards.
Department of Commerce, fis as
diverse as the names of the bureaus
istrators, even in theory, see mo ne
cessity for bringing such diverse
work as food chemistry and physi-
cal chemistry together in a precious
attempt to overcome 'dpulicatio 3" that
really does not duplicate"
Point shown by Iliustratfoa,.
An absurdity may serve to bring the
above point home. Suppose some imem-
Der of Congress should arise in his
place and solemnl- point QUIT that
there are 100000 typewriting, ma
chimes scattered throughout tha gov
eminent departments"
He might go on to say that a-dype-
writer is machine, and that all type
writers are essentially the sam. and
turn out the same sort of swork.
Wherefore, he might continue, under
this hypothesis, there is a vast
amount of duplication going on IN the
typewriting work of the government
ne IHlSuI lnen urge tndC tentral
bureau of typewriting should be estab-
lished to prevent duplica ton Of, work
and concentrate the tipping OF the
government. But he would be forget
ting the great fact that althou gh all
the girls-and men-involved u te ma
chimes called typewriters, the work
they do is SO essentially inter woven
with the warp and woof of their own
bureaus life that it cannot be- sep
arated either in theory or fact.
This is easy enough to compr ehend
in the above reductio ad absurduI q, but
not SO easy to grasp possibly i.n the
case of chemical laboratories. Yet the
principles involved are essential ly the
same.
The interdepartmental board, it is
believed. constitutes as good a clear
ing house of information, or central
information bureau" as the govern
ment service needs, and it list the
hope of administrators that the con-
gressional committee on reorga MIA
ton will give careful attention to its
work.