and correct mistakes where possible; a card index system has been installed throughout the service, thus affording the central office up-to-date records of the field work of the service; monthly bulletins showing the rulings of the bureau are issued by the central office and sent to all inspectors, customs officers, and most of the steamboat companies and marine-boiler manufacturers in the United States; and the Supervising Inspector-General now has authority to entertain appeals from any decision made by the local or supervising inspectors, and his decision, when approved by the Secretary of Commerce, is final. 6

The Supervising Inspector-General and the Secretary of Commerce have recommended other measures in their recent reports involving direct supervision of the activities of the service by the central office, such as the centralization of approval of hull and boiler construction, and the keeping of complete duplicate records of the work of the field inspection service in the office of the Supervising Inspector-General. The carrying out of such measures, is, of course, dependent upon favorable action by Congress authorizing the change and making appropriations to provide for the necessary additional employees.

6 In commenting upon the effect of some of these changes, the Supervising Inspector-General made the following statement in his annual report for 1911, concerning the card index system recently installed:

"It gives me particular pleasure to speak of the effectiveness of the card-index system of licenses issued and vessels inspected by which system local inspectors are required to forward to the central office immediately day by day card reports of licenses issued and vessels inspected, which cards bear the file number of the local office sending them, so that this office is able, by a simple request for a file, indicating same by a number, to obtain all the papers in the case. There have been instances of improper inspection that have been discovered through this system, and if the system discovers but one instance for improper inspection during a whole year its existence would be justified, for by maintaining a high standard of inspection lives are saved and property is protected."

APPENDIX I

OUTLINE OF ORGANIZATION

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Outlines of Organization have for their purpose to make known in detail the organization and personnel possessed by the several services of the national government to which they relate. They have been prepared in accordance with the plan followed by the President's Commission on Economy and Efficiency in the preparation of its outlines of the organization of the United States Government.1 They differ from those outlines, however, in that whereas the Commission's report showed only organization units, the presentation herein has been carried far enough to show the personnel embraced in each organization unit.

These outlines are of value not merely as an effective means of making known the organization of the several services. If kept revised to date by the services, they constitute exceedingly important tools of administration. They permit the directing personnel to see at a glance the organization and personnel at their disposition. They establish definitely the line of administrative authority and enable each employee to known his place in the system. They furnish the essential basis for making plans for determining costs by organization division and subdivision. They afford the data for a consideration of the problem of classifying and standardizing personnel and compensation. Collectively, they make it possible to determine the number and location of organization divisions of any particular kind, as, for example, laborator

1 House Doc. 458, 62d. Congress, 2nd Session, 1912-2 vols.

100

ies, libraries, blue-print rooms, or any other kind of plant possessed by the national government, to what services they are attached and where they are located, or to determine what services are maintaining stations at any city or point in the United States. The Institute hopes that upon the completion of the present series, it will be able to prepare a complete classified statement of the technical and other facilities at the disposal of the Government. The present monographs will then furnish the details regarding the organization, equipment, and work of the institutions so listed and classified.

1 Net, or without the temporary "bonus" or additional compensation of 60 per cent on classes below $400, of $240 on classes of $400 to $2500, and of an amount necessary to make the total compensation $2740 on classes of $2500 to $2740. This is subject to minor exceptions in special

cases.

2 Except for the assistant inspectors detailed to Coatesville, Pa., for steel plate inspection, the inspectors of boiler plates are assigned to that duty from the office of the board of local inspectors where such inspection is required. The number so assigned varies, from year to year, at the discretion of the Supervising Inspector-General and according to the needs of the service.

"Detailed from the office of the Board of Local Inspectors at New York.

b Detailed from the Office of the Board of Local Inspectors at Balti

more.

Detailed from the Office of the Board of Local Inspectors at New York.

d 'Detailed from the Office of the Board of Local Inspectors at Chicago. Detailed from the Office of the Board of Local Inspectors at Cleve

e

land.

'Detailed from the Office of the Board of Local Inspectors at Buffalo. Detailed from the Office of the Board of Local Inspectors at Philadelphia.

The Traveling Inspectors maintain headquarters at the cities mentioned below, but they are continually traveling among the various inspection districts as directed by the central office of the service.