Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-08
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The Hlskin Letter s. . : assss
GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES ANALYZED.

Washington, d. c., Nov. 5.-The re-
cent publication by the Institute for
Public Research entitled s1The National
Park Service has brought to the at
t~ention Of congressman and depart
! mental executives in Washington an
important activity now going on in
their midst. The executive branch of
the governm ent for the first time Is
being analysed, inventoried and put
down on paper. In a few months or
years, at most, this great organization
which we call the government. which
employs directly the services Of 5OO,cOO
persons, and which is SO vast and in
tricate that even those best acquainted
with it are continually being surprised
By its activities, will be an open book
to those who take the trouble TO read
this admirable series of bulletins.
The Institute for Government Re
search is Nan outgrowth and further
development of President Taft's COM
mission on efficiency and economy. 1T
is, however. no longer an official or
%ganization, but is supported wholly by
private contributions. The institute
ical scientists who, as volunteer agents
for the public, @are studying the gov
eminent with the view eventually of
making it more efficient. The director
of this work is w. F. Willoughby, who
was a member of the Taft commission.
The chairman of the institute is DR..
Robert s. Brookings, who during the
war welded enormous power as chair
man of the price fixing committee of
the war industries board.
The object of the institute is. as
stated, to bring about greater efficiency
in the operation of the government de-
partments; but before r~eorganizing an
executive mechanism it is necessary to
know what that mechanism is doing.
Away back in President Taft's admin
istration the commission on efficiency
and economy discovered that no one
knew what the government was doing.
The work was too great and too rami-
fled to be comprised by any one mind.
Work was being duplicated and trip
heated in numerous instances because
one branch of the government was I'm
aware that some other branch was en-
gagged in the same line of research.
Because of the size of the government
and because of the way in which the
various departments had been built UP
it was impossible for any one directing
head to know the details of what was
going on.
Consequently. it was decided that the
first step in reform must be an inven-
tory of all government activities. This
job the Institute for Government Re-
search tackled soon after it was organ
lied in 1916. 1t adopted the simple
plan Of going into the various bureaus
m BY one and showing the work each
was doing. When all have been anal
wed in this way, the Implications of
effort will show up automatically. Two
b~ureaus-the Reclamation Service and
the Geological Survey-were i~nvesti-
gated in 1916 and 1917. Then the wal
came along and stopped the work for
W years or so.
Great Work Already Done
When the institute once more organ
lied its staff. it took up the task again
with yigor. Twenty-three monographs,
each one dealing with the work of a
separate executive department Of the
government, now either have been pub
lished or are nearing publication. About
40 other Investigations are planned at
present. and some of them are being