138 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.84 



able to prevent the enactment of any law having this general effect. 

 Doctor Marlatt has on file many different drafts and reproductions 

 of the plant quarantine act, which was several times wholly rewritten, 

 and notably after its first disastrous failure March 2, 191 1, when it 

 came up for a vote by the House. The legislation was strongly criti- 

 cised at the time of the vote by several influential Congressmen, 

 notably by Messrs. Mann, Rucker, and Lever. 



Doctor Marlatt did not, however, allow himself to be discouraged, 

 and, believing that the opposition of such men must be based on lack 

 of information as to the purpose and necessity for the legislation, 

 immediately sought and obtained interviews with the Congressmen 

 named, and without much dif^culty brought them into alignment 

 back of the bill and secured their support. Through them also he 

 secured the support of Speaker Cannon and others ; and the Plant 

 Quarantine Act of August 20, 191 2, passed. Mr. Mann became par- 

 ticularly interested, aided very materially in redrafting the bill, and 

 was its warm friend and supporter during the remainder of his life. 



By the spring of 1912 I was convinced that no immediate relief 

 was to be expected from Congress, and went to Europe partly for the 

 purpose of trying to secure the establishment in France, England, 

 Germany, and Holland (our principal sources of living plants) of 

 thoroughly competent inspection services to assure the cleanness from 

 insects and disease of plants exported to the United States. It seemed 

 to me then that this was our last hope. I visited the ministries of 

 agriculture in each of these countries, and, in spite of my doubts con- 

 cerning legislation by this country, I predicted to these foreign minis- 

 tries an eventual embargo on all their plant shipments to the United 

 States in case they did not at once bring about a thoroughly compe- 

 tent inspection over there that would stand the test. Although the 

 P'rench laws were already fairly good, and although their inspection 

 service was supposed to be in charge of a perfectly competent man. 

 I made an address before the Academy of Agriculture of France and 

 received the assurance that they would at once memorialize the Min- 

 istry. In fact, I was promised by the authorities of France, Belgium, 

 and Holland that their inspection staffs would be strengthened imme- 

 diately. After all this had been done, I received a cablegram from 

 Secretary Wilson in. August to the effect that the bill had passed. 

 Thus my efforts in the summer of 191 2 were in large part wasted. 



I remember that in one of the committee hearings in 1908, the 

 Chairman of the Legislative Committee of the National Nursery- 

 men's Association remarked that he did not fear a bill that would be 

 liberally interpreted and in which the interests of the importers would 



