REORGANIZATION OF FEDERAL AGENCIES 175 



Agriculture is much less satisfactory. In such case all ap- 

 propriations for conservation work would have to clear 

 through the congressional sub-committees on agriculture. 

 Inevitably the members of that committee, being interested 

 chiefly in farming and cattle-raising, would demand that the 

 activities of the bureaus for which they appropriate money 

 be shown of benefit to agriculture. 69 The primary function 

 of the conservation bureaus is to conserve the wild-life re- 

 sources for the benefit of the whole nation, not merely for 

 the farmers alone. The wholesale surrender of this val- 

 uable national resource to a particular interest group would 

 in the long run be most unwise. 



Consolidation brought about by a general reorganization 

 is not the only possible method of bringing about closer 

 relations between the conservation bureaus. Coordination 

 of activities across present bureau and department lines 

 holds out many advantages. Some steps in that direction 

 have already been taken under the auspices of the Senate 

 Committee on Wild Life Resources. 



A bill 70 was introduced in the Senate with its approval 

 providing for the coordination of effort between the federal 

 conservation agencies. The Bureaus of the Biological Sur- 

 vey and Fisheries are authorized under the terms of the 

 act: 71 



... to provide expert assistance to and to cooperate with 

 federal, state, and other agencies in the rearing, stock and in- 

 creasing the supply of game and fur-bearing animals and fish 

 in combatting diseases and in developing a nation wide program 

 of wild life conservation and rehabilitation. 



89 See House Committee on Appropriation ; Hearings on Agricultural 

 Appropriations (1934), pp. 638-88. Note question asked time after time: 

 "Is this of benefit to agriculture?" 



70 Senate Bill No. 263, 73rd Cong., ist Sess.; 48 Stat. L. 401. 



Ibid., Sect. i. 



