4. Organization

In its liquidating state the organization of the administration is:

(a) Director General's Office.

(1) Chief Clerk.

(2) Treasurer.

(b) Comptroller.

(c) Division of Law.

(1) General Solicitor.

(2) Assistant General Solicitor.

(3) General Attorneys.

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1. Mission

CHAPTER 75

PERSONNEL CLASSIFICATION BOARD

To provide for the classification of civilian positions within the District of Columbia.1

2. History

The Joint Congressional Reclassification Commission was appointed in March, 1919. The commission spent a year or more investigating the subject of reclassification of civilian employees of the United States government in the District of Columbia. The commission made a report showing categorically that the government had no standard to guide it in fixing the pay of its employees and no working plan for relating the salaries appropriated to the character and importance of the work for which such salaries are to be paid, and that inequalities existed resulting in impaired moral, excessive turn over, waste and inefficiency in government services. In May, 1921, a meeting of the two Committees on Civil Service (for the House and Senate) followed the work of the Joint Congressional Reclassification Commission above mentioned. A bill was presented to the Senate March 22, 1920, and to the House about the same time.

But it was not until March 4, 1923, that the Personnel Classification Act was passed.

3. Activities

(a) The allocation of 60,000 positions in the District of Columbia to a classification grade.

(b) Allocating newly created positions, or positions created through changes in assignment or on account of change in duties.

(c) Investigating appeals from assigned classification grades.

(d) Passing upon reductions and dismissals from the service on account of inefficiency.

4. Organization

(a) The Classification Act of 19231 requires that the Personnel Classification Board shall consist of the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, or an alternate from that bureau designated by the Director, a member of the Civil Service Commission, or an alternate from that Commission designated by the Commission, and the Chief of the Bureau of Efficiency, or an alternate from that bureau designated by the Chief of the Bureau. The act also specifies that the Director of the Bureau of the Budget shall be Chairman of the Board.

(b) The Secretary.-Office in Pettus Building 19th and D Sts., N. W., Washington.

1 Act March 4, 1923 (42 Stat. 1488).

2 Report of Congressional Joint Committee on Reclassification of Salaries. (H. R. Doc. No. 686.)

3 Joint Hearings of the Commission on Civil Service, 67th Congress, 1st Sess., May 17 to June 11, 1921; also see Hearing before Subcommittee of the Commission on Appropriations of the United States Senate on H. R. 8728.

CHAPTER 76

UNITED STATES COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE

1. Mission

The act creating the Council of National Defense imposed the duty of "coordination of industries and resources for the national security and welfare and with the creation of relations which render possible in time of need the immediate concentration and utilization of the resources of the nation." 1 It was composed of the Secretaries of War, Navy, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor.

2. Present Status; Inactive

The War Industries Board was created under the Council, and authorized as a separate executive agency by the President on March 20, 1918, by virtue of the Overman Act. The President, in a letter of November 30, 1918, accepted the resignation of the Chairman of the War Industries Board, which board ceased to exist on January 1, 1919, due to the passing of the emergency.

The law providing for the existence of the Council of National Defense has not been repealed, but there has been no appropriation for its activities since the World War. Its activities could be revived by such an appropriation in case of need.

By executive order in 1920, the records of the Council of National Defense and of the War Industries Board were consigned to the War Department for security, and are kept intact under a custodian at Room 2547, Munitions Building, Washington, D. C.

As Chairman of the Council, the Secretary of War makes a brief report annually, which, in the present status, is merely a statement that there have been no activities during the year so reported on.2

1 Act Aug. 29, 1916 (39 Stat. 649), amended by Act Nov. 9, 1921 (42 Stat. 212).

2 Handbook of Economic Agencies of the War of 1917, p. 102.

735

CHAPTER 77

NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR AERONAUTICS

1. Mission

The Committee is required to supervise and direct the scientific study of flight problems, with a practical end in view, to determine the problems which should be submitted to experimentation, to discuss their solution and their application to practical questions, and to direct and conduct research and experiment in aeronautics in such laboratories as may in whole or in part be placed under the Committee's direction.

2. Activities

(a) The Committee has formulated rules and regulations which have been approved by the President, under which technical subcommittees have been established. Their duties are to aid in selecting the problems in their respective branches of the aeronautical field to be scientifically attacked in the light of practical knowledge derived from experimental investigation conducted in all parts of the world, and to aim at co-ordination of the research and experimental work involved in the study of problems agreed upon.

(b) The Committee serves in an advisory capacity for the determination of questions in general policy for the Army and Navy Air Services.

(c) The Committee is at the service of any department or agency of the government interested in aeronautics, to furnish information or assistance in regard to scientific or technical matters relating to aeronautics.

(d) It may also exercise its functions for any individual, firm, association, or corporation within the United States undertaking to defray the cost involved. (e) It institutes research, investigation, and study of problems which, in the judgment of its members or of the members of its various subcommittees, are needful and timely for the advance of the science and art of aeronautics in its various branches.

(f) It keeps posted in the progress of research and experimentation in aeronautics throughout the world, particularly in England, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, and Belgium.

(g) Information thus gathered is brought to the attention of the subcommittees for consideration in connection with the preparation of programs for research and experimental work in this country, and is promptly made available to the military and naval air services and other branches of the government, university laboratories, and aircraft manufacturers interested in the study of specific problems.

(h) The Committee, holding itself at the service of the government, has made special reports and recommendations regarding the Air Mail Service, the development of a system of transcontinental airways and landing fields, the extension

of aerological and weather report service, the federal regulation of air navigation, and the development of aviation generally for military and civil purposes.

(i) The Committee has established an office of aeronautical intelligence, serving as the depository and distribution agency of the scientific and technical data on aeronautics collected by the Committee from governmental and private agencies here and abroad. It maintains an office in Paris to collect and exchange scientific and technical aeronautical data in France, England, Italy, Germany, Holland, and Belgium.

(j) The Committee conducts scientific research and experiment at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, at Langley Field, Va.

3. Organization

The Committee's membership consists of a representative each of the Smithsonian Institute, the United States Weather Bureau, and the Bureau of Standards of the Department of Commerce; two officers each of the Army and the Navy; and five persons acquainted with the needs of aeronautical science or skilled in aeronautical engineering or its allied sciences. The members as such serve without compensation.1

The Committee is organized as follows:

(1) Chairman.

(2) Secretary.

(3) Chairman of Executive Committee.

(4) Members.

(5) Director of Aeronautical Research.

(6) Assistant Secretary and Special Disbursing Agent.

Its executive office is in the Navy Department Building. Communications should be addressed there for the Secretary.