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

GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY 489
more up to date language what the exact functions of the Bureau of Standards
are." 168
The reformulation of functions that the Science Advisory Board re-
commended in 1934, to cut the depression suit of the Bureau to its cloth,
had been filed at the time and all but forgotten.169 The burst of scientific ac-
complishment in World War II had since changed the course of Bureau re-
search. Its orientation was to science rather than, as in the original act and in
1934, to industry.
The new statement of Bureau functions, as an amendment to the
organic act, became official with the enactment of Public Law 619 in 1950.
The restatement included a significant change in direction. In the original
act, the basic authority for the functions of the Bureau resided in the Bureau
itself. Relieving it of this sometimes onerous responsibility, the amendment
transferred the authority to the Secretary of The amendment
consolidated the broad range of special Bureau activities that had been
granted piecemeal in appropriation legislation through the years. Finally,
it made specific in the scientific research and testing activities of the Bureau
its responsibilities in the new fields of science opened in the past decade.
As in the organic act, the Bureau still had six basic functions, but
they included nothing quite like Dr. Stratton's wonderful catchall, "the
solution of problems which arise in connection with standards." 171 It was
the Secretary of Commerce, rather than the Bureau, that was responsible for:
The custody, maintenance, and development of the national stand-
ards of measurement, and the provision of means and methods for
making measurements consistent with those standards, including
the comparison of standards used in scientific investigations, engi-
neering, manufacturing, commerce, and educational institutions
with the standards adopted or recognized by the Government.
168
Hearings * * * 1948 (Mar. 12, 1947), p. 352; Hearings * * * 1951 (Feb. 23,
1950), p.2179.
Secretary of Commerce Wallace recommended amendment of the organic act to Congress
in 1945, in order to incorporate authority for such Bureau activities as were
covered only by supplemental legislation, Executive orders, and customary procedures.
The drafting of the amendment was almost entirely the work of Dr. Crittenden. See
Report of the Visiting Committee, Oct. 31, 1945, and attached correspondence ("General
Correspondence Files of the Director, 1945—1955," Box 6); interview with Dr. Condon,
Oct. 28, 1963.
See ch. VI, p. 323n.
170 For the general reorganization of executive departments, in line with the recommendations
of the Hoover Commission, that was the immediate occasion for enactment
of the Bureau amendment, see "New York Times," Mar. 14, 1950, p. 1, and May 24, 1950,
p. 1.
" See ch. I, p. 43.