nt service. The contrast was really extraordinary between
their live interest in their work and the traditional clerical apathy
which has so often been the distinguishing note of governmental work
in Washington. Most of the public service performed by these volunteer
commissions, carried on without a cent of pay to the men themselves,
and wholly without cost to the Government, was done by men the great
majority of whom were already in the Government service and already
charged with responsibilities amounting each to a full man's job.

The first of these Commissions was the Commission on the Organization
of Government Scientific Work, whose Chairman was Charles D. Walcott.
Appointed March 13, 1903, its duty was to report directly to the
President "upon the organization, present condition, and needs of the
Executive Government work wholly or partly scientific in character, and
upon the steps which should be taken, if any, to prevent the duplication
of such work, to co-ordinate its various branches, to increase its
efficiency and economy, and to promote its usefulness to the Nation
at large." This Commission spent four months in an examination which
covered the work of about thirty of the larger scientific and executive
bureaus of the Government, and prepared a report which furnished the
basis for numerous improvements in the Government service.

Another Commission, appointed June 2, 1905, was that on Department
Methods--Charles H. Keep, Chairman--whose task was to "find out what
changes are needed to place the conduct of the executive business of
the Government in all its branches on the most economical and effective
basis in the light of the best modern business practice." The letter
appointing this Commission laid down nine principles of effective
Governmental work, the most striking of which was: "The existence of any
method, standard, custom, or practice is no reason for its continuance
when a better is offered." This Commission, composed like that just
described, of men already charged with important work, performed its
functions wholly without cost to the Government. It was assisted by a
body of about seventy experts in the Government departments chosen
for their special qualifications to carry forward a study of the best
methods in business, and organized into assistant committees under
the leadership of Overton W. Price, Secretary of the Commission. These
assistant committees, all of whose members were still carry