Roosevelt tasked his six-man committee — which included two personal friends — with determining what changes were necessary to “place the conduct of the executive business of the government on the most economical and effective basis in light of the best modern business practices.” His sweeping victory had buoyed the president’s optimism about what could be achieved, and he saw no need to consult the Republican-controlled Congress before establishing the commission. He assumed that they would just go along with whatever he proposed.
The commission distributed a survey to all government departments. It included 107 questions relating to organization, purchasing practices, and accounting. The results shaped the work of a dozen subcommittees, which investigated issues in more depth.
The committee identified graft and corruption, inefficiencies and waste. For example, the committee found that the Department of Agriculture had been using inaccurate crop reporting procedures. And it found that the Government Printing Office was riddled with wasteful practices, such as printing too many copies of unimportant government reports. Two GOP officials had also awarded a contract for typesetting machines to a company in which their wives held stock.
More broadly, the government lacked standard purchasing procedures. That led various departments to buy archaic typewriters, 28 kinds of typewriter ribbons, and 132 kinds of pencils. The government was also overpaying for telephones, building design, construction, and shipping services. Finally, its personnel classification systems were inconsistent and there was no retirement system for aging employees.
The commission issued several reports over the next few years. Roosevelt released them to the press and sent them to Congress with recommendations for action. During a press conference in March 1906, he reported how the investigation revealed “a good deal of duplication of work, a good deal of clumsiness of work” and agencies generating a lot of paperwork without addressing “the real facts at issue.”
But Roosevelt had made three fatal miscalculations. First, he had counted on support, or at least interest, from the media. But most editors were largely indifferent to administrative reform and didn’t see his investigation as particularly newsworthy. Others in the media saw something more sinister: a President trying to consolidate power, which resonated after Democrats had attacked Roosevelt for a tendency toward what they branded “executive usurpation” during the campaign. Only a few outlets, most notably the progressive Nation, followed the script Roosevelt had hoped for and reported positively on the commission’s recommendations.