226 ' DEPAKTMENTAL EEPOKTS. 



administrative building. The entire sum was expended in comi^liance 

 with the provision of the act, and carefully prepared plans on the 

 basis of a 12,500,000 building were submitted by the Secretary of 

 Agriculture at the last session of Congress. House bill .No. 7207 for 

 $2,000,000 was prepared and introduced, but no appropriation was 

 made for a building. 



SILK INVESTIGATIONS. 



The appropriation act for 1903 carries an item of $10,000 for the col- 

 lection and dissemination of information relating to silk culture in 

 the United States. During the period from 1884 to 1801, inclusive, 

 the sum of $128,341.69 was appropriated for investigation of the silk 

 industry. 



CONTINGENT EXPENSES. 



No increase has been made in the appropriation for contingent 

 expenses since 1892, while during this period the total appropriations 

 of the Department have more than doubled, ijroportionatelj^ increas- 

 ing the demands upon the contingent fund. In order to meet, in 

 some measure, this demand, certain changes were made in the lan- 

 guage of the lump sum appropriations of the several Bureaus and 

 large Divisions for the year beginning July 1, 1902, to provide for 

 payment from these funds for furniture and general supijlies that 

 have heretofore been paid for from the contingent fund. Hereafter 

 supplies of this character intended for the use of these various branches 

 will be charged to their respective funds. This will relieve the con- 

 tingent aj)propriation suflBciently to enable the fund to take care of 

 all strictly contingent expenses. 



LAW CLERK. 



The estimates for 1903 provided for one law clerk at a salary of 

 $2,000, but no appropriation was made by Congress for a law clerk in 

 compliance with the estimates. The urgent need for. such an officer 

 in the Department of Agriculture is too apparent to require argu- 

 ment. The services of a law clerk are as necessary in conducting the 

 business affairs of the Department as are those of a disbursing clerk, 

 and it is a generally admitted fact that the latter officer is an essen- 

 tial factor in the general economy of the Department. The legal work 

 of the Department, whicii is now being conducted by a third-class clerk 

 detailed from the Secretary's roll, must be done here in the Depart- 

 ment, and can not be referred or attended to by the Department of 

 Justice. It would be whollj' impracticable for that Department to 

 take up the details of the legal work of this Department. This ques- 

 tion has been fullj' discussed with the officials of the Department of 

 Justice. The legal work of the Department of Agriculture, which 

 includes the careful and technical preparation of hundreds of legal 

 papers, has increased enormously in the last few years, and will con- 

 tinue to grow with the natural expansion of the Department, while 

 the importance of the questions ]3resented, almost daily, are of the 

 utmost gravity to the interests of the Government, and must be dealt 

 with, when presented, by a mind carefully and legally trained. An 

 appropriation for a law clerk at a fair salary can not be too strongly 

 or urgently recommended. 



