28 THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



both of these are primarily desired as health measures and 

 as such relate no more to the agricultural class than to any 

 other. These measures form an important part of that 

 body of restrictive legislation which marks the second ad- 

 ministration of President Roosevelt as a period of moral 

 awakening. They are administered by the Department of 

 Agriculture simply because that department, by reason of its 

 facilities, was better prepared for the task than any other. 

 A summary of these laws will be given in another chapter." 



The cotton futures act, which was enacted in 191 4 and 

 re-enacted with amendments in 1917, is a regulatory meas- 

 ure of a somewhat different character from those which 

 have previously been mentioned. Its object is to regulate 

 and supervise trading in cotton, particularly future trading ; 

 but instead of fixing penalties, it levies a tax which must 

 be paid under certain conditions. Thus it is incidentally a 

 revenue measure, and, as such, finds its constitutional basis 

 in the taxing power of Congress. More will be said later 

 of its content and enforcement. ^^ 



Not all of the laws which have been committed for ad- 

 ministrative purposes to the Department of Agriculture, 

 during the period now under consideration, have been of the 

 regulatory or police type. Several very important educa- 

 tional and constructive measures have been enacted by Con- 

 gress and added to the work of the Department. Some of 

 these, particularly those that have been enacted in very re- 

 cent years, involve varying degrees of cooperation on the 

 part of the respective States. 



The work of the agricultural colleges cstai)lished under 

 the land grant act of 1862 was so favorably received that a 

 further endowment of public funds amounting to $25,000 a 

 year for each college was made in 1890. Roth of these acts 

 are under the administration of the Department of the 

 Interior, but they represent very important agricultural 

 legislation."" 



5* Qiapter iv. 



" Ibid. 



"26 Stat. L. 419. 



