PUBLICATIONS OF THE INSTITUTE FOR GOVERNMENT RESEARCH STUDIES IN ADMINISTRATION The System of Financial Administration of Great Britain By René Stourm T. Plazinski, Translator; W. F. McCaleb, Editor The Canadian Budgetary System By H. G. Villard and W. W. Willoughby The Problem of a National Budget By W. F. Willoughby The Movement for Budgetary Reform in the States Teacher's Pension Systems in the United States Organized Efforts for the Improvement of Methods of Ad- By Gustavus A. Weber The Federal Service: A Study of the System of Personal By Lewis Mayers The System of Financial Administration of the United PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION Principles Governing the Retirement of Public Employees Principles of Government Purchasing By Arthur G. Thomas Principles of Government Accounting and Reporting Principles of Personnel Administration By Arthur W. Procter SERVICE MONOGRAPHS OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT The Geological Survey The Reclamation Service The Bureau of Mines The Alaskan Engineering Commission The Tariff Commission The Federal Board for Vocational Education The Federal Trade Commission The Steamboat-Inspection Service The National Park Service The Public Health Service The Weather Bureau The Employee's Compensation Commission wahr 9777 FOREWORD The first essential to efficient administration of any enterprise is full knowledge of its present make-up and operation. Without full and complete information before them, as to existing organization, personnel, plant, and methods of operation and control, neither legislators nor administrators can properly perform their functions. The greater the work, the more varied the activities engaged in, and the more complex the organization employed, and more imperative becomes the necessity that this informaion shall be available-and available in such a form that it an readily be utilized. Of all undertakings, none in the United States, and few, if ny, in the world, approach in magnitude, complexity, and mportance that of the national government of the United tates. As President Taft expressed it in his message to Conress of January 17, 1912, in referring to the inquiry being nade under his direction into the efficiency and economy of the methods of prosecuting public business, the activities of the national government "are almost as varied as those of the entire business world. The operations of the government affect the interest of every person living within the jurisdiction of the United States. Its organization embraces stations and centers of work located in every city and in many local subdivisions of the country. Its gross expenditures amount to billions annually. Including the personnel of the military and naval establishments, more than half a million persons are required to do the work imposed by law upon the executive branch of the government. "This vast organization has never been studied in detail as one piece of administrative mechanism. Never have the foundations been laid for a thorough consideration of the relations of all its parts. No comprehensive effort has been made to list its multifarious activities or to group them in such a way as to present a clear picture of what the government is doing. Never has a complete description been given of the agencies through which these activities are performed. At |