Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

152 ELECTRiCITY, RAILROADS, AND RADIO (1911-16)
imports at the ports of entry, and chemical analysis of supplies furnished
to Agriculture and other departments, in particular of paper and paper
materials bought for the Government. Although Dr. Stratton pointed out
that the Bureau's physical and chemical tests were to determine specifications
of quality and design, improve the standards used in polariscopic work on
sugar, and develop paper testing instruments and methods, while Chemistry's
investigations were confined to -the agricultural side of these problems, the
Bureau of Chemistry continued to insist that "no part of the organic act
establishing the National, Bureau of Standards * * * warrants transfer of
this kind of work * * * to the Bureau of Standards." 107
As Bureau investigations expanded, so did the murmurs of Agri-
culture, that work "conducted by or projected by the Bureau" was duplicating
that being done not only in its Bureau of Chemistry but in. its Forestry
Service, Bureau of Plant Industry, and Bureau of Animal Industry.108 And
when, at the request of the American Mining Congress, the Bureau made a
study of standards for electrical machines and electrical practice in mines,
Interior's Bureau of Mines saw it as an invasion of its domain, as it had
the investigation of building stones and mans earlier. The Bureau ac-
knowledged that "in spite of [its efforts] to avoid infringing upon the func-
tions of other Bureaus * * * there has been a feeling in some quarters that
the Bureau has enlarged its activities unduly." 109
This problem of function was very much on Stratton's mind when
late in 1912 the President's Commission on Economy and Efficiency sent
out a questionnaire to all departments in the executive branch asking whether
any changes in law pertaining to the organization and form of appropria-
tions for their agencies were necessary for more efficient operation. Dr.
Stratton expressed his entire satisfaction with the method of appropriations
for the Bureau; his principal concern was over the continuing criticism:
In view of the fact that the organic act establishing the Bureau
has been somewhat misunderstood (generally by those bureaus
claiming authority for the same class of work), I have sometimes
107
Letter, SWS to Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Feb. 15, 1908, and attached correspondence
(NBS Box 4, AGA)
108 Letter, Secretary of Agriculture to Secretary of Commerce, Apr. 28, 1913 (NARG
16, Records of Office of Secretary of Agriculture, sub: Duplication of work, 1913).
109
Letter, Rosa to Secretary of Commerce, Oct. 2, 1913 (ibid.)'. The feeling possibly
had some warrant, as is indicated later in a memo from P. H. Bates to stratton, May 1,
1918 (NBS Box 2, AG): "With such active competitioa as we are now getting in the
ceramic work from the Bureau of Mines, it is very essential: that we' be able to take up
and actively push to completion all problems given to us."