associations of economists and statisticians. All noted areas needing improvement, but none found reason to question the independence and integrity of the Bureau.

For the first half-century of its existence, the Bureau's appropriations changed only when special funding was provided for particular programs, such as the woman and child study of 1907-09, and development of a cost-of-living index during World War I. The emergency demands of the depression of the 1930's and the accompanying social legislation also led Congress to increase appropriations to expand and improve the Bureau's statistics. And, similarly, World War II needs generated increased resources and programs.

After the war, the climate was vastly different. Government policy concerns required data produced on a frequent and regular basis. The Employment Act of 1946, which established the congressional Joint Economic Committee and the Council of Economic Advisers, epitomized the new conditions. As government social and economic policies developed and expanded, legislation frequently incorporated Bureau statistics as escalators or other administrative devices. There was now a regular demand for new and improved statistics, with support for resources to make them available. While increases in resources have not always been forthcoming, and programs have been cut on occasion to make room for new and expanded series, the postwar trend has been one of provision of funds for such expansion and improvements.

Bureau programs have changed to meet changing conditions. Ongoing statistical series such as the Consumer Price Index have been adjusted periodically to assure that concepts and coverage reflect altered societal patterns. Along with regular planned revisions, the Bureau has made interim revisions, as in the case of the treatment of the homeownership component in the CPI. New series, including the Employment Cost Index and the multifactor productivity indexes, have been developed.

Meeting these vastly increased requirements has been made possible through the development of sophisticated statistical techniques of sampling and the computerization of statistical operations. Bureau personnel now include mathematical statisticians, computer programmers, and computer systems analysts as well as economists and clerical staff.

In addition, close coordination with other Federal agencies and with the States, evolving from Wright's early efforts, has improved the quality of the data and efficiency in collection and processing.

Bureau respondents generally have given their full cooperation because of the assurance of confidentiality for reported information, a guarantee which has been assiduously enforced. In its communication with the public, the Bureau has emphasized frankness regarding limitations of the data and the provision of detailed information on concepts and methods. There has been a constant striving to improve the timeliness, regularity, and accuracy of the data and their public presentation.

While well established, the principles have needed regular reiteration, particularly during unsettled times. There have been many occasions when the messenger has been buffeted by the storms of rapid economic and social change. This has been especially true when the Bureau's data have been used in implementing and monitoring policy, as in the wartime use of its cost-of-living index for wage stabilization. On other occasions, Bureau staff efforts to explain technical limitations have collided with policymakers' unqualified use of the data. In such circumstances, the Bureau has been sustained by the widespread recognition that its nonpartisanship and objectivity must be assured and protected. Congress, successive Secretaries of Labor, the Bureau's labor and business advisory groups, the professional associations, and the press have supported the independence and impartiality of statistical research in government agencies.

The roots of this independence and professionalism are deep and strong. The tradition of impartiality has been underwritten by both Democratic and Republican administrations over the century of the Bureau's existence, during which Commissioners have been selected for their technical competence without regard to partisan considerations.

The Bureau faces great challenges in the years ahead as the phenomena it measures grow in complexity in the dynamic economy of the United States. It will require openness to new methods and techniques and adherence to the standards already set to carry out its mission during the next century.

Appendix:

BLS Publications

F

rom its beginning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has conducted a substantial publications program. Initially, the Bureau published annual reports, issuing 25 volumes for the years 1885-1910. Each presented the comprehensive findings of a specific survey or study, covering such topics as strikes and lockouts, convict labor, industrial education, and technological displacement of workers.

Supplementing these, the Bureau conducted special investigations, frequently at the direction of Congress, producing 12 special reports between 1889 and 1905. These covered such subjects as marriage and divorce, slum condititions, social insurance, and labor legislation.

The Bureau also provided Congress with reports on such topics as labor disputes and pension systems, later published as House or Senate documents. Two notable examples were the 19-volume Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States (1910-13) and the 4-volume Report on Conditions of Employment in the Iron and Steel Industry (1911-12).

From 1895, when Congress authorized publication of a periodi

cal, until 1912, the Bureau issued the bimonthly Bulletin. This presented original work, digests of State reports, summaries and digests of foreign labor and statistical papers, and summaries of current legislation and court decisions.

In 1912, the Bureau discontinued the annual reports and the bimonthly Bulletin, issuing instead a series of bulletins, published irregularly, each covering a specific program area. In 1915, BLS introduced the Monthly Review, changing the name to Monthly Labor Review in 1918.

Over the years, BLS added such periodicals as Labor Information Bulletin and Labor Developments Abroad and published such special volumes as Activities of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in World War II (1947), The Gift of Freedom (1949), and BLS Centennial Album (1984).

At present, BLS publishes bulletins, numbered continuously from 1895; reports, a series started in 1953; and one quarterly and five monthly periodicals. These periodicals, reflecting the importance of the major recurring statistical series, are CPI Detailed Report, Current Wage Developments, Employment and Earnings, Monthly Labor Review, Occupational Outlook Quarterly, and Producer Price Indexes.

In addition, BLS issues some 200 national and 1,300 regional news releases each year and summaries of survey results in advance of fuller publication in bulletins, providing timely distribution of the Bureau's latest data.

There have been several special sections in the Monthly Labor Review giving historical perspective: "50 Years' Progress of American Labor" (July 1950), "Seventy Years of Service-The Story of BLS" (January 1955), and "Fifty Years of the MLR" (July 1965). The Bureau has published subject indexes for the MLR-Bulletins 695 (1941), 696 (1942), 1080 (1953), 1335 (1960), 1746 (1973), and 1922 (1976). In addition, there are indexes to each volume, now presented annually in the December issue.

The Bureau also has produced numerical listings and subject indexes for the bulletins and reports, including BLS Publications, 1886-1971, Bulletin 1749 (1972) and BLS Publications, 1972-77, Bulletin 1990 (1978).

Periodically, BLS has published bulletins explaining its statistical methods and procedures, beginning with Methods of Procuring and Computing Statistical Information of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 326 (1923). In the 1950's, the Bureau issued two editions of

Techniques of Preparing Major BLS Statistical Series, Bulletin 993 in 1950 and Bulletin 1168 in 1954. Under the title BLS Handbook of Methods, the Bureau continued with Bulletins 1458 (1966), 1711 (1971), 1910 (1976), and 2134–1 (1982) and 2134–2 (1984).

BLS published Handbook of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 439, in 1927 as a compendium of historical data, issuing the most recent edition, Bulletin 2217, in 1985.

In sheer volume, the largest number of bulletins have presented wage data, published currently as Industry Wage Surveys and Area Wage Surveys (previously Occupational Wage Surveys). Two major series on contract provisions were the 19-volume set, Collective Bargaining Provisions, Bulletin 908 (1947-50), and the 21-volume series, Major Collective Bargaining Agreements, Bulletin 1425 (1964-82). In 1947, the Bureau issued the first Directory of Labor Unions in the United States, Bulletin 901, publishing the last edition in 1980.

One of the Bureau's most popular bulletins is the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which it revises every 2 years-most recently as Bulletin 2205 (1984).

In recent years, BLS has expanded its analysis and publication of labor force data on women, minorities, and families. For example, in 1978, it introduced the quarterly report Employment in Perspective: Working Women and, in 1980, another quarterly report, Employment in Perspective: Minority Workers, with data on blacks and Hispanics.