THE NATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 
It has long been a matter of general belief among persons who have 
had occasion to deal with the Government that the system as a 
whole lacks coordination and general efficiency, and thereby fails 
to render the quality of service which Americans have a right to 
demand of their Government, and at the same time involves a great 
waste of public money. 
Successive Administrations have attempted to remedy this situa- 
tion, so entirely opposed to the genius of our people. But the 
archaic system still confronts us, its inefficiency brought into sharp 
relief by the increase in the number and importance of the duties 
which the government has been called upon to assume during the 
past few years. This intolerable and un-American situation stands 
out today as the greatest single obstacle to a mutually satisfactory 
cooperation and understanding between government and business. 
With our Government operating largely by means of machinery 
installed in the days of our great-grandfathers, supplemented by a 
number of assorted functions developed during recent years for a 
variety of reasons, some sound and some unsound, but involving 
in all cases almost complete lack of coordination with the old 
machinery, it is not surprising that the modern business man and 
the government officials, no matter how able the latter may be, find 
it hard to meet on sympathetic terms. 
It is evident that many public officials are underpaid. But it is 
highly probable that the saving which can be effected through the 
combination of similar services now separately and wastefully han- 
dled, will save money ample to provide not only for needed salary 
increases, but also for entirely new services which modern conditions 
urgently demand, and still leave a handsome unexpended balance. 
The Chamber most earnestly invites the attention of the Gov- 
ernment to the great opportunity for service to our people as a whole 
and particularly to American economic life at a period of eritical 
importance to its stability, which is involved in a thorough depart- 
mental reorganization at this time. It calls upon the Government 
to fulfill without delay its pledge in this regard, and to proceed to a 
reorganization and a coordination of services along lines consistent 
with its declared policy of “More business in Government.” (Reso- 
lution, Ninth Annual Meeting, 1921.) 
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