328 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the Office of Markets and Eiiral Orofanization. For a like purpose 

 the Solicitor prepared an address on the statute, which was delivered 

 before the Alabama State Bar Association, July 10, 1915, and pub- 

 lished in Service and Eegulatory Announcements No. 5 of the Office 

 of Markets and Rural Organization, issued August 11, 1915. 



After extended study of the antitrust laws, ad\dce and suggestions 

 were given the Office of Markets and Rural Organization relative to 

 the work of helping farmers and others in the formation and opera- 

 tion of cooperative associations. 



The legal features of various systems of rural credits vrere in- 

 vestigated, and information furnished the Office of Markets and 

 Rural Organization, with a view to the establishment of those sys- 

 tems best adapted to the needs of the United States. 



Much time was devoted to constitutional questions involved in de- 

 termining how far Congress may act in the establishment of stand- 

 ards for cotton, grain, foods, drugs, and other commodities, and the 

 extent of the power of Congress to enact a statute providing for the 

 establishment of privately owned warehouses operating under 

 licenses from the Federal Government. 



Prior to 1915 each written opinion of this office customarily went 

 only to the bureau or official asking to be advised. Now, unless 

 there be affirmative reason to the contrary, whenever such an opinion 

 is of general application or deals with a subject of general concern, 

 it is furnished to every branch of the department. 



The usefulness of the office has been greatly increased by per- 

 sonal conferences and contact with officials charged with the exercise 

 of the administrative and regulatory functions of the department. 

 In past years advice was more usually sought in formal memoranda 

 or letters. In the nature of things that method did not conduce to 

 thorough understanding of the viewpoint or of the practical diffi- 

 culties and necessities of the officials requesting opinions. Nor did 

 the previous system tend to develop the sympathetic cooperation 

 which ought to exist between attorney and client, which, in essence, 

 is the real relation obtaining between lawyers in this office and the 

 other officials of the department. 



An important and time-consuming item, much in excess of previous 

 years, was the review, from the legal standpoint, of manuscripts for 

 publication prepared in various other subdivisions of the department. 

 To a similar extent and for like purpose many letters prepared in 

 those subdivisions were examined and changes recommended when 

 necessary. 



Eleven hundred and fifty-nine written opinions, including 611 for 

 the Forest Service, were rendered to the Secretary, chiefs of bureaus, 

 United States attorneys, and employees, or persons affected by the 

 work, of the department, on law questions. No account was kept of 

 the number of the many informal opinions rendered. 



More than 100 opinions were prepared and circulated, either as de- 

 cisions of the department or as answers to letters received, construing 

 and explaining, for the information of the public, the provisions of 

 the net- weight amendment of March 3, 1913 (37 Stat., 732), to sec- 

 tion 8 of the food and drugs act. 



Aid was given to the Bureau of Animal Industry in framing regu- 

 lations governing the payment of claims arising out of the eradica- 

 tion of the foot-and-mouth disease, to the Federal Horticultural Board 



