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

154 ELECTRICITY, RAiLROADS, AND RADIO (1911-16)
Secretary of Commerce William C. Red-
field, a prince of industry and a splendid
presence, who bought his first automobile
in 1916 because the trip to the Bureau
was too far by horse and carriiige.
victions about what his Department should be. he left it in 1919 feeling he
had failed it. His books and articles describing his years as Secretary were
filled with passionate criticisms of Congress and Congressmen as venal, in-
competent, and do-nothing. But of this sense of frustration there was little
evidence at the time. He was a better Secretary than he knew.
He found good men everywhere in the "working" areas of the Gov-
ernment, as he called the executive branch, and nowhere so many as in
tue Bureau of Standards, which he particularly admired for what it was
doing for industry, often against industry's will. As he said:
Long industrial experience taught me what our work at the Bureau
of Standards constantly justified, that on the whole American
*
manufacturers failed to apply science to industry
* *112
Dr. Stratton he came to admire for a talent he felt he lacked, the ability to
get along with Congress, but he took no credit for his own efforts before
Congress on behalf of the Bureau.
One service, the Bureau of Standards, which deservedly had the
confidence of Congress, was not only well housed but well equipped
so far as the requirements of that time were concerned. Its need
was for steady expansion to meet the growing demands of the Gov-
ernment itself and the increasing call for aid from industry.'13
Soon after taking charge of his Department, Redfield visited the Bu-
reau and before long began coming up in his horse and carriage every week,
Redfield, "Glimpses of our government," Saturday Evening Post, May 17, 1924, p. 44.
Redfield, ibid., May 3, 1924, p. 81.