The Manufacturing ISM Report on Business has its origins in the 1920s, when the ISM’s predecessor association (first called the National Association of Purchasing Agents, then the National Association of Purchasing Management) began polling members periodically—at first, only about commodity availability across the country, but soon about other types of information, as well. In 1930, the association was part of a committee formed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce under President Herbert Hoover in response to the stock market collapse and the Great Depression. The committee was charged with collecting business data from members of the Chamber of Commerce. Although the committee was disbanded in 1931, the association decided to carry on the p....