(Witness: Galloway.) 1. A committee on business methods is hereby appointed for the Department of Agriculture, to consist of the Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry as chairman, the Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, the Chief of the Forest Service, the Chief of the Bureau of Soils, and the Disbursing Officer. The duty of this committee shall be "to report to the Secretary of Agriculture, as he may direct, plans for new methods of routine business, changes in the system of bookkeeping, correspondence, filing, and office procedure generally, as well as to undertake specific duties within its field assigned to it by the Secretary. It should also be the definite duty of the committee to know thoroughly the business methods prevailing in the various offices of the Department, to investigate them when necessary, and on its own initiative to recommend to the Secretary advisable changes or modifications in these methods." 2. The chief of each bureau, office, and independent division is hereby ordered to appoint a committee in his bureau, office, or division, to be known as the bureau, office, or division committee. Its membership shall include all ofli cers who report directly to the chief of the bureau, office, or division. This committee shall meet once a week. The chief of the bureau, office, or division shall be its chairman. The work of the committee shall be advisory only. It shall make definite recommendations, but the power of final decision shall rest, where it belongs, with the administrative head of the bureau. The purpose of this committee is to promote cooperation by all of the subdivisions in the promotion and advancement of the work of the bureau-in brief, to promote "team work.” To indicate more clearly the scope of the work of such bureau committees the following order of business is suggested: (1) Statement by chiefs of new, current, or proposed work or methods. (2) Reports of subcommittees which may from time to time be appointed to consider or investigate special subjects. (3) Miscellaneous business. Topics for consideration under the last title are: (a) Cooperation; (b) coordination of work; (c) business methods; (d) policy. 3. It is also ordered that committees on business methods be appointed by the chiefs of the Bureau of Animal Industry, the Weather Bureau, the Bureau of Plant Industry, the Forest Service, and the Bureau of Chemistry, in view of their complicated organization and large personnel. In each instance this committee, which shall be composed of three members from the bureau committee. shall be charged with duties similar to those of the Department committee on business methods, except that their work shall be confined to their own bureau and their recommendations be made to the chief thereof. 4. The committees created by the foregoing order will cooperate with the general Department council, or committee, which, headed by the Secretary and made up of his principal subordinates, was established in this Department some time since to promote cooperation, to improve methods, to develop “team work,” and to avoid conflict and duplication. JAMES WILSON, Secretary of Agriculture, The CHAIRMAN. You are the Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. How long have you held that position? Doctor GALLOWAY. Since the Bureau was organized. The Bureau, as a bureau, has been organized for six years. Prior to that time there were several divisions in the Department that were separate and independent. I had been a chief of one of these divisions for twelve or fourteen years prior to being made chief of Bureau, and when the Bureau was organized and these divisions were incorporated in the Bureau I was made chief. The CHAIRMAN. How many independent divisions were incorporated into the Bureau? Doctor GALLOWAY. Six or seven. The CHAIRMAN. What was the purpose of the creation of the Bureau? (Witness: Galloway.) Doctor GALLOWAY. The purpose of the creation of the Bureau was to coordinate and unify the work and to simplify in every practicable way the handling of the problems that were coming up in connection with plant investigations. The CHAIRMAN. Was there any duplication of work among these six divisions prior to the organization of the Bureau? Doctor GALLOWAY. Not at that time; but the tendency was in that direction. The CHAIRMAN. Did the organization of the Bureau increase or decrease the cost to the Government of the carrying on of the work? Doctor GALLOWAY. It decreased it. The CHAIRMAN. In what way? Doctor GALLOWAY. It decreased it by making unnecessary the keeping of separate and distinct accounts for the different branches of the work. It decreased it in making it practicable for us to unify many systems of handling the work, getting supplies, handling supplies, handling labor, securing men, and in other directions. The CHAIRMAN. Did it result in your being able to reduce the personnel? Doctor GALLOWAY. No; the personnel was not reduced at the time, except in certain minor directions. The CHAIRMAN. Was there any appreciable reduction in the personnel? Doctor GALLOWAY. No, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Then, if there was no appreciable reduction in the personnel, in what particular was there any decrease in expense to the Government? Doctor GALLOWAY. The decrease came primarily and mostly, as I have indicated, in the simplification of the handling of accounts, and in the simplification of the handling of our work. While it did not diminish the personnel the number of people-it enabled the people we had to do more work than they theretofore had done. The CHAIRMAN. If the men that you had when the divisions were separate and independent accomplished the results that were desired up to that time, and then when the divisions were consolidated in one Bureau they were able to accomplish more, why did not that result in rendering a certain percentage of the personnel unnecessary? Doctor GALLOWAY. Simply because we have ten times more problems and more questions and more work than we are able to do. The CHAIRMAN. Then at that time, if I understand it, when you had the six divisions, and changed over into the Bureau, there was either an accumulation or else a lot of work pressing that it was important for you to do? Doctor GALLOWAY. There was a lot of work pressing that it was not practicable to do, chiefly on account of lack of men and funds. The funds of the Bureau have been largely increased since its organization. While The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Then that is the solution of that. it rendered your existing force more efficient and capable of accomplishing larger and better results, there was work on hand to be done that could not before that time be accomplished, and could not be (Witness: Galloway.) done with the force you had on hand and the money at your disposal. Am I right? Is that it? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes; that is the fact. The CHAIRMAN. What were these six different divisions called when you organized the Bureau? Doctor GALLOWAY. We had a division of botany, a division of physiology and pathology, a division of pomology, a division of agrostology, a division of gardens and grounds, and a division of seeds. The CHAIRMAN. That is six. Have those divisions lost their identity under the bureau system, or do you maintain in substance that differentiation of work? Doctor GALLOWAY. We maintain in substance only that differentiation of work, for the reason that the problems that we are carrying out can be much better carried out by decentralization processes than by centralization processes, and we no longer speak of them as divisions. The division lines have been entirely eliminated. We have a man, for example, working on fruit, and in connection with his fruit work he may be a good pathologist. He may come in contact with a disease problem, and he may have had the training that would enable him to finish up that problem. Under the old plan of having these divisions it would not have been practicable for that man to carry it out. The CHAIRMAN. Under the old plan he simply confined himself to his special line? Doctor GALLOWAY. He simply confined himself to his special line. The CHAIRMAN. Under this new plan you utilize him in connection with everything he is able to do? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Or, in other words, you make it a broad subject instead of a narrow subject? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir; or, putting it another way, we make the man and the problem go together and stay together until that problem is rounded out and completed. The CHAIRMAN. Even if that should happen to involve what might, under other circumstances, be separate and independent scientific lines of investigation? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir. If the man is capable of handling the problem, we let him stay with it until he has completed it. The CHAIRMAN. Whereas in the other way you would have one man at work on one scientific phase of it and another man at work on another scientific phase of it? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir; and we had the constant insistence of these separate and distinct men not to get over onto their territory because that was their territory. That has now all been done away with. The CHAIRMAN. The total expenditure under your Bureau is about $1,184,890, I gather. Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. You have personal charge of the personnel? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Questions of promotion and employment are, in the last analysis, determined by you? (Witnesses: Galloway, Zappone.) Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Of course I do not suppose that you have, perhaps, personal contact with every employee? Doctor GALLOWAY. Oh, no; but I act as a court of last resort on such matters. The CHAIRMAN. You have the final determination? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Subject, I suppose, to revision by the Secretary, even in your case? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. But, of course, the Secretary relies upon you for the immense bulk of the detail? Doctor GALLOWAY. Mainly; yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Are there any men that are employed in your Bureau that are on the rolls of any other bureau? Doctor GALLOWAY. No, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Are there any men that are employed in your Bureau, either here in Washington or in the field, that are engaged in any other employment, either public or private? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes; there are such men. We have cooperators and collaborators in colleges and in experiment stations who are also working for the Bureau as collaborators and cooperators. We also have one or two-I do not recall just how many persons that are engaged in private business that are also collaborators on some special subject. By a collaborator, I mean a man who does not draw a salary exceeding $300 per annum. The CHAIRMAN. And these you have spoken of are all below that? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir. Mr. ZAPPONE. That salary is fixed by the Civil Service Commission. Doctor GALLOWAY. That is fixed by the law. The CHAIRMAN. Do you have any difficulty in getting clerks employed in your Department so as to keep up your force from the eligible list, as the result of the civil-service examinations? Doctor GALLOWAY. We have no difficulty whatever in getting clerks. We have great difficulty in getting experienced experts in our different scientific branches. The CHAIRMAN. What do you call them in your list here clerks? Doctor GALLOWAY. No; they are put down as experts or assistants, scientific assistants, or special agents; not clerks. They are divided into distinct groups. The CHAIRMAN. Are those the men that are mentioned briefly on pages 104, 105, 106, 107, etc.? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir; they are. The CHAIRMAN. Take, for instance, page 104. You have there 'Physiologist and pathologist, at $3,000. Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Beginning with that list, are these scientific men that you have spoken of mainly included in that list? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Do these men enter the service through the civilservice examinations? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes. (Witness; Galloway.) The CHAIRMAN. You say you have difficulty in getting these men? Doctor GALLOWAY. Very great difficulty. The CHAIRMAN. Which kind of men do you have the greatest difficulty in getting? Doctor GALLOWAY. We have the greatest difficulty in getting men well trained in pathology and physiology, in advanced horticulture, and in other lines of work requiring these sciences to carry on our investigations. Probably the field of pathology is the most difficult one to get men for, because they are not being trained very rapidly by the colleges and universities. The CHAIRMAN. Is that because there is not much of any demand in private employment for men of that character? Doctor GALLOWAY. Partly, and partly because the science is new and there is a lack of proper instructors, proper teachers, in the institutions that turn out the men. The CHAIRMAN. That calls for a class of specialists in that science? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Is there any demand of any consequence for those specialists outside of your Bureau of Plant Industry? Doctor GALLOWAY. Well, yes; there is a demand for such men in the experiment stations and in the colleges. The CHAIRMAN. You refer to the State experiment stations? The CHAIRMAN. But other than the State experiment stations and your Bureau, is there any demand? Doctor GALLOWAY. There is a demand for men who have given a practical trend to their investigations. Where the man is temperamentally qualified and we find that his best work is done in the laboratory, there is not the demand in private work for him that there is for the man who gives his investigations a practical direction. We are losing men frequently The CHAIRMAN. You mean the man that can go out and take the plants themselves and reduce his theoretical information to Doctor GALLOWAY. To dollars and cents. The CHAIRMAN. To practical results in connection with the development of the plant itself? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Where does a man like that get employment by private parties, as distinguished from your experiment stations and your Bureau? Doctor GALLOWAY. We have a man, for example, who is expert in the knowledge of the breeding, selection, and improving of tobacco. He becomes familiar with the practical methods of growing tobacco and the fermenting of tobacco. That man will become very valuable to a private concern to come and act as a director or a promoter of the private work that they wish to do. To-day I was notified by one of my men that he will leave early in the spring to take just such a place. He goes to Florida to go into the employment of a concern there that will handle large quantities of tobacco. The CHAIRMAN. These men engaged in agriculture of that character are now beginning to avail themselves of the scientific knowledge these men of yours have? Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes. |