CHAPTER II 



The Present Organization of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture^ 



Administration has been called the " function of execu- 

 tion."2 jj^ other words, it is the carrying out or the execu- 

 tion of the expressed will of that organ of government 

 which is authorized to say what the law shall be. For the 

 most part, it consists of applying general rules or laws to 

 individual cases, as need therefor arises. How satisfactor- 

 ily and effectively this shall be done depends, in large 

 measure, upon the character of the organization of ma- 

 chinery that has been developed for the performance of this 

 function. 



The executive branch of the federal government, as is 

 well known, consists of one great hierarchy with the Presi- 

 dent of the United States at its head. While he does not 

 have the power, as we shall see later, of determining the 

 nature of the machinery that shall be instituted for making 

 effective the expressed will of the legislative body, he is held 

 responsible for its proper and efficient operation. To this 

 end he has been given an important voice in the selection 

 of those persons upon whom he must rely, and a practically 

 unqualified power to remove from office any of these persons 

 whom he may deem unfitted for the place.^ 



The Department of Agriculture, like the other federal 



1 For an outline of the organization according to subdivisions and 

 functions, see Appendix I. 



2 Goodnow, Comparative Administrative Law, vol. i, p. 5. 



8 " Within itself the federal administration is a single administra- 

 tion. All of its subdivisions are internal ones as in the case with any 

 centralized administration; while in any decentralized administra- 

 tion, like that of the states, the organization is based upon external 

 division." (Wyman, Administrative Law, j). 1S7. See also Team vs. 

 Davis, 100 U, S. 257; in re Neagle, 135 U. S. 1.) 



3 33 



