National Department of Education 109 



mental function as we understand it today ; 

 and this should be a Department of Education. 



Coordination of agricultural matters. 



The coordination of the real agricultural 

 questions of national scope should lie, of 

 course, with the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. With the rapid growth in scope 

 and influence of this Department and the vast 

 agricultural interests of the nation before it, 

 the place that this great executive organiza- 

 tion is to occupy is beyond all conception. 

 All our political and social future is condi- 

 tioned on the resources of the soil. It is 

 easy for the on-looker to see that the De- 

 partment is gradually reshaping itself. Its 

 work is becoming more educational, at the 

 same time that it has acquired tremendous and 

 permanent power in police work and in regu- 

 lation. It is most interesting that the organi- 

 zation of this Department, with its sister, the 

 Department of Commerce and Labor, should 

 have been delayed so long. They represent 

 finally the essential internal development of a 



