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Appendix B
Prior Surveying
and Mapping Studies
The most detailed study of federal surveying and mapping functions and op-
erations prior to the 1973 Report of the Federal Mapping Task Force on
Mapping, Charting, Geodesy and Surveying of the Office of Management
and Budget was conducted by the Science Advisory Board of the National
Research Council at the request of the Bureau of the Budget. The Board
transmitted, on November 13, 1934, a "Report of the Committee on Map-
ping Services of the Federal Government together with Exhibits." Included
in this report were summary statements of studies completed prior to 1934
(pages 170-179) and a summary of the report (pages 141-142~. All of these
reports are out of print and, as the conclusions reached in these reports are
germane to the current proliferation in surveying and mapping, the summaries
are reproduced on the following pages.
64
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Appendix B
EXHIBIT A
PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS OF FEDERAL SURVEYING AND
MAPPING ACTIVITIES
CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE, 1842
65
The question as to whether the hydrographic work of the Coast Survey
should be under control of the Navy or of a civil department of the Govern-
ment was early agitated. In 1842 this agitation led to a Congressional
investigation which severely scrutinized the operations of the Coast Survey.
The result was a strong endorsement, by the investigating committee, of the
principles on which the Survey was being conducted under civil control.
PRESIDENT S BOARD OF 1843
In 1843 Congress passed an act providing that a board of officers, to be
organized by the President, should formulate a permanent plan for con-
ducting coastal surveys. The Board, consisting of two naval officers, four
Army officers, and three officers of the Coast Survey, unanimously recom-
mended that the coastal surveys should remain, as they then were, under
civil control. This recommendation has since governed surveys of the
coastal waters of the United States, although not extended to surveys of
foreign waters and of the high seas, nor always to coastal waters of terri-
-torial possessions of the United States.
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, 1858
In 1858, following further efforts of the Navy Department to gain control
of coastal surveys, the American Association for the Advancement of Science
appointed a committee of twenty leading scientists to investigate the work
of the Coast Survey. The report of this committee paid high tribute to the
accomplishments of the Survey under civil control and recommended that the
general plan of organization then in force be continued.
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 1878
Congress in 1X78 directed the National Academy of Sciences to investi-
gate the scientific surveys being conducted under jurisdiction of the War
Department and the Interior Department and the surveys of the General
Land Office; and to report to Congress a plan for surveying and mapping the
170
i.;;
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Appendix B 67
l 7 ~ SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
efficiency or economy for making the change." With respect to the Hydro-
graphic Office, all six members of the Commission praised its administration,
recommended that no change in the organization be made and that " this Alice
be maintained by appropriations from year to year in its present state of
efficiency." Two members of the Commission submitted a minority report
all Hydrographic worl; of the Coast and Geodetic
ic Office of the Navy. This bill failed of passage,
both houses of Congress concurring in the views of the majority report
maintaining the status quo.
recommending transfer of
Survey to the Hydrograph
. . ~ _
. .
DOCKERY JOINT COMMISSION, 1 893-95
From 1893 to 1895 another joint commission of Congress known as the
Dockery Commission investigated the executive departments of the Govern-
me~nt with a view to securing greater efficiency and economy in their ad-
ministration. This Commission employed two expert accountants to make a
report on " Public Surveys." The report of the experts, which was approved
by the Commission and submitted to Congress, recommended that all land
surveys, including geologic and scientific investigations, be consolidated
in one bureau; and all water surveys in another. The bureau to direct the
land surveys, to be known as the " United States Survey" and located in the
Interior Department,.should combine the geodetic work of the Coast and
Geodetic Survey, the topographic and other work of the Geological Survey
and the land-parceling work of the General Land Office. Transfer of the
hvdrocraphic work of the Coast and Geodetic Survey to the Navy Depart-
, ~ ~ ,
meet, and consolidation with the Hydrographic Once under the name
' Hydrographic Bureau " were held to be the most effective means of unifying
water surveys. The report necessarily suffers from the fact that it was prepared
by experts in the field of public accountancy who possessed no special
knowledge of the scientific fields they were directed to investigate. While well
conceived in part, it included recommendations of very doubtful expediency
based on incomplete knowledge of facts. A bill embodying their recom-
mendations failed to receive the sanction of Congress.
CONGRESSIONAL DISCUSSION, 1')00
In 89') and 1')00 the activities of the Coast and Geodetic Survey and
of the Hydrographic Office of the Navy were the subject of an interchange
of letters between the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of the
Navy. The activities of the two bureaus were in the Spring of 1')00 elaborately
discussed before appropriation committees and on the floor of the House.
Hearings were held, memoranda and other documents were submitted, includ-
ing the correspondence cited above and debates extended over a period of
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68 FEDERAL SURVEYING AND MAPPING: ORGANIZATIONAL REVIEW
MAPPING SERVICES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 173
some weeks. It was, in effect, another Congressional investigation, in which
alleged efforts of the Hydrographic Once to extend its field of operations
and take over work of the Coast and Geodetic Survey were severely
scrutinized but without overt action of consequence resulting.
CLEVELAND COMMISSION, 1~)10-1 2
From 1910 to 1912 a Commission appointed by President Taft under
authority granted by Congress conducted an investigation into the executive
departments of the Government for the purpose of recommending legislation
designed to secure greater efficiency and economy. This body was known
as the President's Commission on Economy and Efficiency, or the Cleveland
Commission. An " Interior Department Committee " was appointed by
the Secretary of the Interior to cooperate with the Cleveland Commission;
and this Committee in its turn appointed a " Sub-Committee on Surveying,
Map Making and Graphic Reproduction." The report of the Sub-Committee
recommended, by a vote of 4 to 3, that the land-parceling or subdivisional
surveys of the General Land Office and the topographic surveys of the
public lands should be consolidated under a single administrative officer;
and that the surveys of the Indian Once and of the Reclamation Service
should be placed under the same officer, " so far as practicable and feasible."
These recommendations were approved by the Interior Department and for-
warded to President Taft. A new Interior Department Committee was then
organized by the Secretary of the Interior to formulate a plan of consolidation
along lines suggested in the Sub-Committee's report. This new Committee,
by a vote of 3 to 1 (the representative of the General Land Office dissenting),
recommended that " both subdivisional and topographic surveys be combined
under the Director of the United States Geological Survey." No specific refer-
ence was made to the surveys of the Indian Office and the Reclamation
Service. The Acting Secretary of the Interior, Samuel Adams, by direction
of the President, sought legislation which would permit consolidating the
subdivisional surveys of the General Land Once with topographic surveys
of the Geological Survey; but the proposal apparently died in committee.
FEDERAL BOARD OF SURVEYS AND MAPS, 1920-22
In 1919 President Wilson created by Executive Order a Federal Board
of Surveys and Maps, the purpose of which was " to coordinate the activities
of the various map-making agencies of the executive departments of the
Government, to standardize results, and to avoid unnecessary duplication of
work," the Board being directed, among other things, " to make recom-
mendations to the several departments or to the President for the purpose
of coordinating all map-making and surveying activities of the Govern-
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Appendix B 69
174 SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
meet." The Board's powers appear to have been largely if not wholly
advisory, and its members differed as to whether they were authorized to make
recommendations involving co'~solidatio~z rather than coordination of the
surveying and mapping services. From 1920 to 1922 the Board, aided by a
( ommittee on Coordination, wrestled with the difficult problem of improving
the Federal surveying and mapping situation. A first report, making tentative
suggestions for limited consolidation, was by the Board referred back to the
Committee for further consideration. A second report, rejecting the prin-
ciple of consolidation, was similarly referred back to the Committee for
further study of the problem. Several additional proposals in turn met with
the same action. Finally, on the morning of October 11, 1921, the Chairman
of the Board reported that the Joint Committee on Reorganization of Execu-
tive Departments (see below) would probably recommend some consolida-
tion of mapping and surveying activities, that a report embodying recom-
mendations by the Federal Board of Surveys and Maps would be welcome,
but that it would have to be submitted immediately.
Thereupon the Committee on Coordination presented at that same meeting
a report (in effect a revision of its first report), recommending consolidation
of primary surveying and mapping activities in a proposed new " Bureau
of Surveys and Maps." To get quick action the rules of procedure requiring
that a report shall be sent to all member organizations at least two weeks
prior to final action were waived without objection. After long discussion
it was voted, it) to 7, " to consider only a reallocation of the five primary
surveying and mapping agencies to existing departments or new departments
which may be created, with a view to letting the Secretaries of those Depart-
ments call upon the Board of Surveys and Maps for suggestions as to methods
~ t- 1 ~ ~~ ~1 . P. ~ Len ~_.]
or conso~oat~on.
reconsidered the morning action, and after variously amending the report
of the Committee on Coordination recommended, by a vote of 10 to 2 with
anal same ar~ernoc~n one noara, by a vote of 10 to 6,
(' members absent and not voting, far-reaching consolidation in the following
terms:
" The Committee, therefore, recommends the creation of a Bureau of Surveys
find Maps in some existing, or new Department. This Bureau should com-
prise six major branches, or divisions, and should perform the primary sur-
~eying and mapping functions of existing Federal agencies, as follows:
1. Geodetic Blanch
a. Geodetic work of Coast and Geodetic Survey.
l,. Geodetic work of Geological Survey.
c. Geodetic work of Lake Survey.
`1. Geodetic work of Hydrographic Office, U. S. Navy.
e. Control work of General Land Office.
f. Magnetic work of Coast and Geodetic Survey.
l
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70 FEDERAL SURVEYING AND MAPPING: ORGANIZATIONAL REVIEW
MAPPING SERVICES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 175
2. Topographic Branch
a. Topographic mapping of Geological Survey.
b. Topographic mapping of War Department not directly connected
with military operations.
c. Base map work of Bureau of Soils insofar as practicable.
d. Topographic work of Forest Service insofar as practicable.
e. Topographic work of Bureau of Indian Affairs insofar as practicable.
f. Topographic work of Reclamation Service insofar as practicable.
g. Topographic work of Coast and Geodetic Survey.
3. Hydrog'aphic Blanch
a. Hydrographic worl; of Coast and Geodetic Survey.
l'. Hydrographic work of Hydrographic Office, U. S. Navy.
c. Hydrographic worl; of Lake Survey.
d. Tidal and current work of Coast and Geodetic Survey.
4. Ca~lastral Branch
a. Surveying work of General Land Office.
b. Cadastral work of Forest Service.
c. Cadastral work of War Department.
5. Cartographic Branch
a. State and.International Map Compilation work of Geological Survey.
h. State and United States Map Compilation worl; of General Land
Office.
c. Work of Map Information Office.
6. Map Rep' odnc~io,~ Branch
a. Reproduction work of Geological Survey.
b. Reproduction work of Coast Survey.
c. Reproduction work of Lake Survey.
d. Reproduction work of War Department, not directly connected with
military operations.
Reproduction work of Hydrographic Office, U. S. Navy."
It was provided that the consolidations recommended should take place
graduaIIy, and with due regard to the importance of not unduly disturbing
existing operations.
Soon after this report was submitted to President Harding very strong
dissatisfaction developed with respect to the hasty manner in which final
action had been secured. Vigorous efforts within the Board to get the report
recalled from the President's hands were ultimately defeated by a vote of
11 to 6, in part apparently because of the view repeatedly expressed, that
to take such action would embarrass the President and place the Board in
an impossible position. The proposals of the Board were not included in the
reorganization scheme later submitted by President Harding and his Cabinet
(~see below), nor in the report made to Congress by the Joint Committee
on Reorganization of the Executive Departments (tree below).
The stormy history of the report of the I ederal Board of Surveys and
Maps, the fact that its provisions were finally revised and adopted under
pressure and with undue haste, and the further fact that the Board does not
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Appendix B 71
176 SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
appear to have been in possession of all the facts necessary for a critical
judgment on many of the difficult problems involved, inevitably weaken the
force of its specific recommendations concerning individual agencies. The
report has real valise, however, as evidence that within the Federal services
themselves there then existed ~ strong sentiment that some form of con-
soIidation was essential to efficiency and economy in mapping activities.
Some to elve years later tare Scicnc-e Advisory Board addressed to talc
Federal Board of Surveys and Maps an inquiry for information on possible
plans for consolidation, which inquiry was carefully considered by the
Executive Committee of the latter organization and replied to by the Chairman,
in part in the following terms: "Although the Board in October, 1921,
passed a resolution on this matter, a decided difference in opinion existed.
The Board probably Van ould not has ~ talon a definite stand except for
great pressure to take immediate action. Later an attempt to withdraw the
report was made. Defeat of this effort was largely due to a feeling that the
Board having once submitted a report to the President would be in an
embarrassed position if it later withdrew it." After noting that substantial
changes in Boarcl membership had occurred since 1921, and that a proposal
for widespread consolidation would probably be decidedly opposed by the
present membership, the communication stated: " It is the hrm opinion of
the Executive Committee of the Board of Surveys and Maps that no con-
solidation of the mapping services of the United States Government could
be erected that would improve the existing situation, either as to economy or
efficiency."
PRESIDENT HARDING ANr) HIS CABINET, 1920-23
Congress in 1920 created the Joint Committee on Reorganization of the
Executive Departments (tree below), and a few months later requested the
President to participate actively in the steely to be mace. President Harding
after long delay " caused solely by the difficulty which has been encountered
in reconciling the views of the various persons charged faith the responsibility
of administering the executive branch of the government," submitted to the
Committee proposals prepared by the President and.his Cabinet. These
proposals did not relate specifically to surveying and mapping activities, blat
did include transfer of non-military activities of the War Department, includ-
ing the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors and the Mississippi River
Commission, to the Department of the Interior; transfer of marine activities
of the War Department, including the Lake Survey, to the Department of
Commerce; transfer of the Hydrographic Office from the Navy Department
to the Department of Commerce; transfer of the Bureau of Public Roads
from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior;
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
federal surveying
72 FEDERAL SURVEYING AND MAPPING: ORGANIZATIONAL REVIEW
MAPPING SERVICES Ol. THE FEDERAI GOVERNMENT 177
transfer of functions of the I ederal Power Commission, an independent
establishment, to the Department of the Interior. During hearings on the
President's plan the Secretaries of the Interior, of Commerce, and of the
Navy advocated transfer of the geodetic work of the Coast and Geodetic
Survey to the Geological Surveys, but without success.
BROADEN tOINT (TEE, 1')20-24
I rom 1920 to 1')24 a Joint Committec on Reor~,anization of the Execu-
tive Departments, created by Congress and Reacted by Walter F. Brown, a
personal representative of the Presiclent, investigated the administrative
services of the Government to detcr~nine what redistribution of activities should
be made in the interest of efficiency and economy. This Committee gave
careful study to the proposal of President Harding and Isis Cabinet that the
Hydrographic Office be transferred from tile Nary Dcpartment to the De-
partment of Commerce in order to consolidate charting activities in one
department but concluded tl~cre van. no duplication of work by these depart-
ments and that there was real econon~y in letting naval vessels mal;e sounc3-
ings in foreign riveters and on tl~c I~i``rl~ sea.
Appendix B
178
73
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
PRESIr)ENT HOOVER, 1')., 2
On December t9, 1~32, President Hoover, in order to reduce expenditures
and increase efficiency in the government service, transmitted to Congress
the results of a .stucly of execrative department.s in which he had long been
interested. These results were embodied in a seric-s of ten or more Executive
Orders which made wholesale regro~pings or consolidations of 58 executive
agencies. By these Orders many non-mi I itary activities of the Corps of
Engineers, including those of the Mississippi River Commission and the
Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors, were transferred from the War
Department to a new Division of Public \Vorl;s in the Department of the
Interior, which was also to include the Bureau of Reclamation anti the
Geological Survey already in the Department, and the Bureau of Public
Roads which was transferred there from the Department of Agriculture; the
Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service of the Interior De-
partment were grouped with other services in a new Division of Education,
Health and Recreation in that Department; the Forest Service and the Bureaus
of Chemistry and Soils in the Department of Agriculture and the General
Land Office in the Department of the Interior were transferred to a new
Division of Land Utilization in the Department of Agriculture; the Hydro-
graphic Office of the Navy Department and the Lal;e Survey of the War
Department were transferred to the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the consoIi-
dated group forming part of a new Merchant Marine Division in the Depart-
ment of Commerce. As some of the above named agencies are primarily sur-
veying and mapping agencies, while the others engage in important surveying
and mapping activities, it will be seen that the Executive Orders issued by
President Hoover were expected to effect extensive regrouping and some con-
solidation of surveying and mapping agencies. The Orders were accompanied
by a statement prepared by the Bureau of the Budget explaining the rea-
sons on which the proposed transfers here predicated. On January 19, 1'333,
all of the Orders were rendered null and void by resolution of the House of
Representatives.
AMERICAN EN(;INEERING COUN(;~L, 1933
In March, 1'y33, the American Engineering Council, which lead loner been
interested in efforts to improve the surveying and mapping situation, issued
a " Report on Reduction in the Expenditures of the Federal Government."
The report advocated immediate consolidation by Executive Order of Federal
surveying and mapping activities, referred to the plan of consolidation pro-
posed by the Federal Board of Surveys and Maps in 1'')21 (~.rc~e above) anti
said: " Council thoroughly approves the plan ant] recommends that it be
put into eRect at the earliest possible date." The Council's approval of the
l
74 FEDERAL SURVEYING AND MAPPING: ORGANIZATIONAL REVIEW
MAPPIN(, SERVI( ES ()I: ~ HI l4EDERAL GOVERNMENT 17'9
consolidation plan of the Board of Surveys and Maps vat as not based on
detailed studies conducted by the Council itself' belt rather upon the per-
sonal experience and resulting conviction.s of engineers composing the organi-
zation and its affiliated bodies. The endorsement of a particular program of
wholesale consolidations, hastily adopted by an organization the Executive
Committee of which later pronounced against any consolidation, cannot,
therefore, carry weight as respects the specific transfers advocated. Bitt it
does have value as accurately reflecting the widespread conviction in engineer-
ing circles that extensive consolidation of surveying and mapping activities
would promote efficiency and economy within the government service.
COMMITTEE ON U. S. COAST ANI) GEODETIC SURVEY, 1~)33
On July 31, 1~933, the Chairman of the Business Advisory and Planning
Council of the Department of Commerce appointed a Committee on the
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. This Committee in its " Report
on the First Meeting Held August 21, 1')~".(only three weeks after its
appointment and' therefore, without lapse of time for adequate study of sur-
veying and mapping problems) endorsed the October, 1')21 proposals of the
Federal Board of Surveys and Maps favoring wholesale consolidation of
surveying and mapping activities. Its endorsement must be weighed as that
of a committee studying and reporting on a single bureau, without sufficient
opportunity to investigate conditions in the many other bureaus affected by
proposals of the Board of Surveys and Maps. Thus regarded, the report of
the Committee is valuable for its-approval of the work of the Coast and
Geodetic Survey, evidenced by its recommendation that this unit be made the
nucleus of the proposed Bureau of Surveys and Maps; and as further evidence
of the widespread demand for some form of consolidation of mapping activi-
ties. It cannot have weight as regards particular transfers recommended in the
Board's 1',>21 proposals.
Appendix B
75
SUMMARY OF REPORT
This report is based on six months' intensive study of 28 Federal agencies
engaged in surveying and mapping, made at the request of the Science
Advisory Board by a committee of seven specialists selected for their qualifica-
tions in the hekls primarily concerned. All .rtatement.r, conclusions and recom-
mendations ale based on ~nanimo'.~.r agreement of the Committee.
Federal surveying and mapping activities are found to be enormous in
volume, of confusing variety and to have developed independently and
often without correlation in many different executive agencies. As an inevit-
able result duplication of effort an`;] waste of funds have sometimes resulted.
Subsidiary surveying services have occasionally grown to `great mapping units
in abnormal situations, causing inefficiency and waste.
Remedies are deemed imperative. But the Committee has only attempted
to suggest what is reasonable and practicable. That many Federal agencies
must have subsidiary surveying services under their control is fully recognized.
Oat of the 28 age,~-ie.r staclie~l, three and parts of one other are selected fo'
immediate co'~.roliclation ~ Coast and Geodetic Suney, Lake Survey, Inter-
nationaI (Canada) Boundary Commission, Topographic Branch and Division
of Engraving and Printing of the Geological Survey). This will form a
nucleus toward which certain other Federal surveying and mapping activities
will naturally gravitate in time, or to which they can be added if and when
deemed expedient.
The consolidation proposed will unite under efficient expert direction
all major Federal land and water s~;eys except cadastral surveys of the
General Land Office. All changes contemplated, except that involving the
International Boundary Commission, have repeatedly been urged following
previous studies of this problem. No change advocated will seriously affect
any existing executive agency. In most cases the need of reform has long been
felt either by administrative heads of the agencies affected; or by the scientific
and technical personnel, or by both.
Immediate savings aggregating several hundred thousand' dollars annually
are anticipated. If a large program of mapping the country is inaugurated,
involving the expenditure of fifteen million dollars each year for a specified
period, direct economies due to consolidation will aggregate between two and
three millio'' dollars o' more annually, while indirect savings to the people
arising out of possession of the map may be measured in terms of many
millions of dollars.
141
76 FEDERAL SURVEYING AND MAPPING: ORGANIZATIONAL REVIEW
142
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
The proposed consolidation will provide the most efficient instrument
possible for utilizing large numbers of men in all parts of the country in a
~ ell-considered program for pushing rapidly to completion the standard
topographic map of the United States. Since the completion of this map will
save the nation many millions of dollars annually thereafter, a large mapping
program is in effect a relief measure in which every dollar spent will soon
pay large dividends, and continue to pay them far into the future. Under
such conditions Relief beco'?~es a I0~?4 i/?Veit,?le/?t i/? ~~o'?eta~y as well as i''
hying;? values.
A suggested form of Executive Order indicates how the Committee's
recommendations can be effected.
Appendix B
77
Subsequent to 1934, a number of reports pertaining to surveying and map-
ping were issued. Although not so extensive as the 1934 and 1973 reports,
these later reports are listed here for completeness.
Task Force Report on Public Works (Appendix Q); prepared for The Commis-
sion on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government (Hoover
Commission) (January 13, 1949~.
A Bill to Provide an Accelerated Program for Surveying and Mapping of the
United States, in Territories anal Possessions, and for OtherPurposes, H.R.
6900, Hearings before the Committee on Public Islands, House of Repre-
sentatives (February 3, June 3, 9, and 14, 1950~.
Surrey of the Federal Domestic Cartographic Activities, Requirements and
Organization, Bureau of the Budget Staff Report (June 30, 1962~.
Review of Geodetic Surveying Activities within the Federal Government, pre-
pared by the Comptroller General of the United States (GAO Report B-
133188) January 25, 1967~.
Memoranda for the President of the United States, Establishment of a Depart-
ment of Natural Resources, Organization for Social and Economic Pro-
grams, submitted by The President's Advisory Council on Executive Orga-
nization (February 5, 1971~.
