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

226 THE TIDE OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (1920-30)
later reported to Congress, "In the program of economy adopted, some re-
trenchments were made." 15
Stirred by the debates in Congress and the attacks in the press and
periodical literature on Federal spending, Dr. Rosa, with Dr. Stratton's
approval, cleared his desk and began work on a series of studies in the cost
and efficiency of the Federal Government, in answer to the outcry. For
their view of the question of science in Government, particularly as it
affected the Bureau, some of Rosa's arguments in these papers are worth
summarizing.
Pointing to the wartime exhaustion of raw and manufactured mate-
rials, the rising demand for consumer goods in short supply, inflation of
currency and credit, and postwar profiteering as among the causes for con-
tinued rising prices, Rosa declared that more Government, not iess, was
necessary to protect the public. He warned of "economic and political dis-
turbance or even disaster," asserting that the Government must again, as it
had during the war, induce the Nation "to economize in the use of staple
commodities and luxuries, reduce the waste of raw materials, make use of
cheaper materials, increase the efficiency of men, of machines, and of proc.
esses, on a nationwide scale and at an early date." 16 By "more" Government
Rosa made clear he did not mean reimposition of wartime controls but better
education of the public in the cost of Government, more efficient operation
of Government, and greater assistance to those Government agencies whose
recognized function it was to work directly in the public interest.
Answering the charge of extravagance in Federal spending, Rosa
showed that in the budget for 1920 interest on the national debt as a result
of past wars consumed 67.8 percent of Federal income, the military services
received 25 percent, the cost of running the Government came to 3.2 percent,
public works 3 percent, and research, education, and development 1 percent.17
Hearings * * * 1922 (Dec. 20, 1920). p. 1235; Hearings * * * 1923 (Feb. 1, 1922),
pp. 424, 425, 452.
In a letter in March 1920 to a former Bureau member who had gone into industry, Stratton
discussed the coming economy wave: "Ipersonally know most of the leaders of the
party in control and the chairman of the committees directly interested in our work."
They had initiated the economy program and intended to push it, said Stratton, and
there were no exceptions. Nevertheless, he was "working with the Senate committee
and hoped to persuade it to restore some of the more funds" (Letter, SWS to
F. C. Clarke, Mar. 17, 1920, NBS Box 10, IG).
'°
Rosa, "The economic importance of the scientific work of the Government," J. Wash.
Sci. 10, 342 (1920).
"J. Wash. Acad. Sci., pp. 346—349. The percentages were based on total revenues of
approximately $5.68 billion. (Between 1914 and 1921, the national debt rose from
$1,188 million to $23,976 million.)
In his final study, "Expenditures and revenues of the Federal Government," Ann. Am.
Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci. 95, 1—113 (1921), Rosa included revenue and expenditure data for