Executive Order 937

The following-named gentlemen, representing the several Executive Departments and one independent government establishment, are hereby designated as members of an Interdepartmental Statistical Committee hereby created, under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, for the purpose of promoting uniformity of statistical methods and results, preventing duplications, rendering possible closer cooperation, and keeping the statistical work of the government abreast of the most modern methods:

Mr. John Ball Osborne, Chief of the Bureau of Trades Relations, Department of State;

Hon. Lawrence O. Murray, Comptroller of the Currency, Department of the Treasury;

Major John T. Thompson, Assistant, Ordnance Department, Department of War;

Mr. H. C. Gauss, Private Secretary to the Attorney General, Department of Justice;

Mr. E. T. Bushnell, Chief Clerk to the First Assistant Postmaster General, Post Office Department;

Mr. F. S. Curtis, Chief Clerk, Department of the Navy;

Mr. Clarence J. Blanchard, Statistician, Reclamation Service, Department of the Interior;

Mr. Victor H. Olmsted, Statistician and Chief, Bureau of Statistics, Department of Agriculture;

Mr. Oscar P. Austin, Chief of Bureau of Statistics, Department of Commerce and Labor; and

Prof. Henry C. Adams, In Charge of Statistics and Accounts, Interstate Commerce Commission.

Hon. Lawrence O. Murray, Comptroller of the Currency, Treasury Department, is hereby designated to act as Chairman of this Committee.

The specific duties of the Committee thus created shall be as follows:

(a) To make recommendations with a view to eliminating unnecessary duplication of work and conflicting results.

(b) To make recommendations with a view of utilizing the statistical material in one branch of Government work, with reference to the needs or aims of other branches.

(c) To make recommendations with a view of establishing uniform definitions of statistical terms.

(d) To make recommendations with a view of introducing uniform methods.

(e) To make recommendations in regard to schedules and accompanying instructions relative to any new line of statistical inquiry; to study the needs of the various bureaus and Departments from time to time and above all to test the results achieved, and to investigate whether they are in harmony with each other and modern statistical methods and practice.

(f) To make recommendations regarding the preparation and the place of publication of the Statistical Abstract of the United States.

Theodore Roosevelt.

The White House,

September 10, 1908.