of a closely typewritten manuscript of 841 pages. Previous reports had been submitted on the Department of Agriculture, March 25, 1913, and on the heating plant, May 21, 1913.

On November 12, 1914, the committee made a brief preliminary report and announced that a fuller report would be submitted later. It does not appear, however, that this was ever done.

The work of this committee and its recommendations as well as those of the expert accountants are excellently summarized by Professor Frank E. Horack in his "Reorganization of State Government in Iowa," which appears as a chapter in Iowa Applied History Series, Vol. II. The more important recommendations were for: the introduction of a scientific budget system; the reorganization of the executive branch of the government; the creation of the office of state purchasing agent; provision for an official known as chief accountant; and the establishment of a civil service commission or bureau to administer a merit system in respect to the appointment of all administrative employees.

PUBLICATIONS

Recommendations of the Committee on retrenchment and reform of the thirty-fifth General assembly to the members of the thirtysixth General assembly and the general public. [Nov. 12, 1914.] Des Moines, R. Henderson, state printer, 1914. 16 p.

This "preliminary report" was published also in the Des Moines
Register and Leader, Nov. 16, 1914.

Contents.

Departments of the state's business.

Department of social progress.

Department of industries.

Department of public safety.

Budget.

Printing and binding.

Legislative.

Automobiles.

Purchasing agent.

Report [and resolution on the Department of agriculture and state fairs]. (In Iowa. Journal of the Senate, April 4, 1913, p. 1646-48.)

The interim report of Quail, Parker and company, chartered accountants and efficiency engineers, on the investigation of the Department of Agriculture is appended to the report. See p. 1649-67.

ARTICLES

Hanford, A. C. The Iowa Committee on retrenchment and reform. (In Illinois. General assembly. Efficiency and economy committee. Report. Chicago, 1915. p. 993-97.)

Horack, Frank E. Reorganization of state government in Iowa. Iowa City, Ia., state historical society of Iowa, 1914. 88 p.

(Iowa applied history series, ed. by B. F. Shambaugh. [Vol. II, No. 2.])

Connecticut: State Commission on the Consolidation of State Commissions and the Reorganization of the Public Health Laws. On February 9, 1915, Connecticut passed an act providing for the appointment by the Governor of a commission of nine members, a majority of whom should be members of the General Assembly or of existing state or county commissions, which was directed on or before April 1, of the same year, to submit to the General Assembly a report with recommendations relative to:

The reorganization and consolidation of the various state and county boards and commissions with a view to greater economy and efficiency; the revision of the public health laws with the purpose of fixing more definitely the responsibility of officials, and of eliminating waste and duplication of authority and of preventive laws, with the purpose of ascertaining whether the constructive work of medicine and science may not be more efficient than is possible under present law.

This commission was duly constituted by the Governor, held numerous hearings at which officials of the several administrative services of the state were heard and submitted a report of something over a hundred pages giving the results of its findings and the recommendations for action. These recommendations called for the consolidation or reorganization of various services. In most all cases drafts of bills were submitted to carry out their recommendations.

As a result of the commission's report an act was passed establishing a State Department of Labor and Factory Inspection, and legislative action on the other recommendations is being considered.

PUBLICATIONS

Report of a commission to investigate the advisability of consolidating certain state boards and commissions and to investigate the

public health laws. . . Hartford, Pub. by the state, 1915. 108 p. fold. tab.

Contents.

Agricultural boards and commissions.
Industrial boards and commissions.
Workmen's compensation commission.
State boards of examiners.

Department of public health and the public health laws.
State tuberculosis commission.

Kansas: Efficiency and Economy Committee. By a joint resolution of March 20, 1915, the Kansas legislature made provision for a committee of three, one to be elected by the Senate, one by the House, and one appointed by the Governor, "to investigate in the most searching way the business management of every institution and department in Kansas.

In a so-called "partial" report, made in December, 1916, this committee recommended a scientific budgetary procedure for the state, and various other changes of the state's administrative system, including the creation of a commission on administration dealing with educational, charitable and correctional institutions; a uniform system of accounting; a central store and purchasing agent; and the consolidation of all agencies pertaining to agriculture into a department of agriculture.

In 1917 it made a special report on the educational institutions of Kansas.

In the same year, Mr. J. O. Joseph, Senate member of the committee, printed a special report giving the results of his personal examination of state institutions and departments and his recommendations for reform. Appended to his report were drafts of bills prepared by him having for their purpose the putting into effect of his recommendations. They related to such matters as a budget system, a central stores system, uniform accounts, appointments for fitness and removal for incompetence and procedure in the offices of the state treasurer and auditor.

PUBLICATIONS

Partial report of the Efficiency and economy committee of Kansas. Dec. 16, 1916. Topeka, Kansas state printing plant, 1916. 12 p. Report of the Efficiency and economy committee on the educational institutions of Kansas. [Topeka? 1917?] 12 p.

Report of the Efficiency and economy committee on the penal, charitable and other institutions of Kansas. [Topeka? 1917?] 10 p. Economy and efficiency report of Senator J. D. Joseph, senate member of Efficiency and economy commission. [Topeka, 1917.] 76 p. fold. map, fold. charts.

Alabama: Legislative Investigating Committee. In 1915 the legislature of Alabama provided by joint resolution for the creation of a "Legislative Investigating Committee," with the duty of investigating and reporting the steps that should be taken to put the administration of governmental affairs upon a more efficient and economical basis. This committee, after examining over twelve hundred witnesses and making special inquiries regarding the conduct of public affairs, submitted its report on July 13, 1915.

Upon the fiscal side the committee found conditions to be exceedingly unsatisfactory. The report reads:

An examiner of accounts, as he goes from department to department, is confronted with different conditions and different systems. A lack of uniformity results in a loss of efficiency. Embezzlement of public funds, unauthorized expenditures of public moneys, gross extravagances, misuse of official trust, and graft, large and petty, to which we shall hereafter call attention, can for the most part be traced to a total lack of system. A business corporation or man, following similar methods, would meet certain bankruptcy. Our first recommendation, therefore, is that there be employed, through a commission provided for in a bill herewith submitted, the most competent certified public accountant that can be obtained; that this accountant be authorized to put the State of Alabama on a systematic basis at once, that the bookkeeping, the payment of funds, the record of receipts and disbursements be modernized, simplified, and made uniform throughout all the departments of the state and throughout such offices of the counties as handle state funds, and as are subject to state supervision.

The report then goes on to recommend the establishment of a state budget system, submitting a draft of a bill for the purpose.

Other recommendations deal with fidelity bonds, codification of the laws, public printing, convict labor, immigration, state purchasing, confederate pensions, and some other matters. Especially unsatisfactory were the conditions found in the Department of Agriculture and Industries. "In this Department," the committee says, "we have found evidence of spoil, graft and corruption. The department of pure food and drugs during the past four years, instead of being used for the purpose of protecting the public from impure foods and drugs, has served as a means for a systematic scheme of robbery and thievery."

In conclusion the committee asks that it be continued in order to complete its investigations.

PUBLICATIONS

Report of the Legislative investigating committee to the Legislature of 1915. July 13, 1915. Montgomery, Brown printing company, state printers, 1915. 58 p. (Legislative document No. 13.) A summary of the report was printed in the Montgomery Ádvertiser, July 14, 1915.

Contents.

Colorado: Survey Committee of State Affairs. In 1915 the legislature of Colorado provided for the establishment of a committee with the function of making a survey of the organization and methods of business of the state government