REPORT OF THE SOLICITOR. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



Office of the Solicitor, 

 Washington, D. C, September 15, 1923. 



Sir: I submit herewith report of the work of the office of the 

 solicitor for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1923. 

 Respectfully, 



R. W. Williams, Solicitor. 

 Hon. Henry C. Wallace, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



The outstanding feature of the year was the greatly increased 

 reliance of the United States attorneys upon this office for relief 

 and aid in the preparation and trial of the department's litigated 

 cases. As a consequence, there was a marked increase in the number 

 of complaints, indictments, informations, petitions, motions, briefs, 

 and other pleadings prepared for filing and in the attendance of 

 members of the office at the trial tables in the courts. This was dis- 

 tinctly advantageous to the department, for it enabled its lawyers, 

 who are specially trained in its work, to present the cases to the 

 courts, and thus insured a more thorough presentation than could 

 be expected of United States attorneys, who are usually overburdened 

 with the vast and varied litigation of the Government in their dis- 

 tricts, and who, therefore, very naturally can not devote to the depart- 

 ment's litigation that attention which can be given by our own law- 

 yers. It is a gratification to report that our relations both with the 

 Department of Justice in Washington and with the United States 

 attorneys in their respective districts are most cordially and mutu- 

 ally helpful. 



From time to time, in the reports of this office, lists have been 

 given of the principal regulatory statutes administered by this 

 department. This list is augmented from year to year by additional 

 regulatory statutes enacted by Congress. During the year just 

 closed there were added to the list the grain futures act, the naval 

 stores act, the act regulating the importation of adult honeybees, 

 and the United States cotton standards act. There was also enacted 

 the general statute applicable to all the departments, authorizing 

 the heads thereof to adjust and report to Congress claims not in 

 excess of SI, 000 growing out of damage resulting from negligence 

 of department employees. Inevitably these statutes increase the 

 legal as well as the administrative work of the department. 



The constitutionality of the grain futures act was sustained by 

 the Supreme Court in the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago 

 et al. V. Olsen et al. (262 U. S., 1). The ruling of the department 

 on the labeling under the food and drugs act of vinegar made 

 from evaporated apples was sustained by the District Court for the 



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