INTRODUCTORY 2$ 



an extension of state control ";^^ or, as Professor Turner 

 says, it was the voice of the insurgent West " demanding 

 increase of federal authority to curb the special interests, 

 the powerful industrial organizations, and the monopolies, 

 for the sake of the conservation of our natural resources 

 and the preservation of American democracy."*" 



It is not surprising, then, to find that of the very con- 

 siderable number of recent laws, with whose administration 

 the Department of Agriculture has been charged, a very 

 large proportion of them should be of the regulatory type, 

 or at least concerned with general social welfare. While 

 the work of the Department has been and still is, primarily 

 educational and investigational, there can be no doubt that 

 the more recent expansion of its activities has been on the 

 side of the regulation of the conduct of citizens. May we 

 not say, then, that instead of this Department being an 

 anomaly among the so-called political departments, as was 

 feared by many at the time of its establishment, it is itself 

 rapidly becoming one of them? 



As already indicated, the regulatory work of the Depart- 

 ment was inaugurated with the establishment of the Bureau 

 of Animal Industry by special act of Congress in 1884. 

 The primary intent of this act was to prevent the foreign 

 exportation or interstate shipments of live stock aflfected 

 with contagious, infectious, or communicable diseases. For 

 a number of years this law was administered jointly by the 

 Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Agriculture. 

 By act of February 2, 1903,*^ this authority was conferred 

 exclusively on the latter of these officers, and his powers to 

 prevent the spread of contagious diseases of animals were 

 considerably extended. Authority was granted the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture in 1890''- to inspect live stock imported 

 into this country and prohibit the landing of any found to 



8" Ernst Freund, Standards of American Legislation, p. 20. 

 *" F. J. Turner, " Social Forces in American History," in Amer- 

 ican Historical Review, vol. xvi, no. 2, p. 223. 

 *' 32 Stat. L. 791. 

 *- 26 Stat. L, 414. 



