A Proposal for an Integrated Program for the Reporting of Business Statistics to Government Agencies

Abstract

THE multiplicity of new governmental agencies set up in the past three years has led to much duplication of effort in the compilation of economic statistics. The increase in the number of questionnaires addressed to industry as a result of the Securities Act, the A.A.A., the N.R.A., the various research projects sponsored by the F.E.R.A., etc., has been enormous, so much so in fact that the cost of preparing the required material has placed a tremendous burden on industry. The Central Statistical Board was charged with the responsibility of coordinating these various investigations and the elimination of duplication. The work of the Board in this regard is to be commended. Certainly had it not been for this organization, the burden would be far greater than it is at the present time. But even the members of the Board will admit that their efforts have not been entirely effective and that it will be a long time before a satisfactory degree of co6rdination results in eliminating the duplication which now exists and improving the quality and accuracy of the inquiries. Furthermore, there are many inquiring groups which are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Central Statistical Board so that its possible contribution to simplification remains limited. There are many State organizations not subject to the jurisdiction of that Board, in addition to a number of the Federal organizations, such as the Securities Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, etc., each of which may conduct its own inquiries without any required co6rdination with other Governmental agencies. By the spring of 1935 this situation in the automobile industry had reached the stage of a major annoyance. Finally it was proposed that whenever inquiries other than those required by law were addressed to the members of the industry they should be forwarded to the Automobile Manufacturers Association for review. This procedure revealed a startling amount of duplication. It revealed further that many of the inquiries had obviously been prepared by persons whose knowledge of the industry was quite vague. Questions were couched in unfamiliar terms and it was frequently apparent that the information requested