Evening star., 1938-02-11

''"'" OIL ihi- S8$$$:$ss
rairment of the
Controller Cen " "''"'e
erals office and an effort to reduce
the auasi-judicial commissions like
the Federal Trade and the Interstate
Commerce Commissions to the status
Of mere bureaus
But outside of these two ma ior de-
fects. the bill itself is designed to do
something that business itself might
under other circumstances be COM
mending instead of condemnins. The
h'll is calculated to make the Govern
ment more efficient as fact finder
and AS an administrator of the thou
SANDS OF statutes and regulat tions
, which enter into almost every field of
human endeavor.
Business is so Indifferent to the
reorganization bill because 1t sees only
some Machiavellian scheme for ma
tlonal dictatorship that an opportunity
is being missed to lay the foundations
Tor a real n-political reorganization
OF the Government machinery.
As the Government mechanism has
eNolVed over more than $50 years. part
~ IT. Is concerned with enforcement
ann regulation but large part is also
devoted to what might be called the
development of certain major activities
Of the people.
Agriculture Leading Bureau.
Thus. agriculture. industry and
labor each have separate depart-
ment looking out for their interests
and 1t is interesting to note that agri-
culture still has the lead Not onlv
is the Department Of Agriculture big
ger than either the Department of
Commerce or the Depa artment of Labor
hr many times over but by and large
the bureaus. especially that of agri-
cultural economics. perform services
FOR agriculture which have no coun-
ferpart in any of the other Govern
ment departments.
This same Bureau of Agricultural
Economics has been built up over a
period OF time with the most expert
help. 1t is great fact t-flnding and
art-interpretation agency which does
casting and analyzing trends.
Industry ought to have something
~ the same. sort done for it. MANY
businesses are without information
because they cannot afford scientific
research. The large corporations have
this because they recognize the i'm
portance of fact-fnding and constant
IntrOSnprfInn 10 -
tant to know what is happening sta
flstlcally within a given industry but
It is also important to study the impact
of competition between one industry
and another from the viewpoint of
public consumption.
Fact-Finding Not Regulation.
Since fact finding is not regulation.
there is every reason why business
should benefit by efficient means of
DETERMINATION. Much of this kind
OF work is scattered through different
Government departments. Only re-
GENTLY was there organized an agency
known as the Central Statistical Board
to avoid duplication between the MANY
men who are working as economists
Tor particular governmental opera
tlons. Much of the data Is made avail
able As promptly as it can be. but even
this sometimes means lag of two to
three months.
The facilities for gathering data are
limited by appropriations made bv
Congress and when business itself does
not get back of movements TO help
assemble important factual material.
the legislators become Indifferent To
II and the funds are not voted
All the sums used for fact-pather-
Ing today and even such additions AZ
ere necessary would not proba bly, reach
S2n,0oo,000 yet no fact-finding labora-
tory is available for all American
business. whose total volume runs in
the billions Of dollars annually.
Accented Foreign Trade.
1'he purpose OF the Department of
commerce originally was to promote
the domestic as uell az foreign COM
merce Of the United States. Not until
Herbert Hoover took charge as Secre.
tary in 1921 did the department. hco,n
w " :" 'NhI |Ff!fe 70 Lne DtlSinesS
world. 1t was developed to great rse
fulness but the emphasis was to a
large extent on foreign trade which
now is important but not quite AZ i'm
portant as domestic commerce, The
Roosevelt administration in 1892
s'sshed the appropriations and re-
dured the Department of Commerce
to relatively insignificant status.
To promote domestic commerce a
full f1edged Government department
oan we'll afford to develop itself as a
means OF increasing the national In.
come. Most every private company
has new business" Departments
division whose effort is concentrated
on increasing total volume. Ameri-
can business needs such an aid work.
ing for little as we'll as big business
but mostly to enable some clearing
mouse to be established which will
extract painlessly and without expense
from industry as a whole the verv
vital information needed to under
stand economic balance, lags between
production and consumption. and the
approach Of serious malad iustnents
which produce recessions like the one
We sre experiencing in America today,
tcopyrieht 193S)