CHAPTER IV 

 ' Administration of Important Regulatory Laws 



Thus far in our consideration of the administration of 

 law, we have been primarily concerned with that type of 

 legislation which, while controlling the actions of adminis- 

 trative officers, leaves the citizen, in whose interest the laws 

 have been enacted, practically free to avail himself of any 

 benefits which may be derived, or to disregard them alto- 

 gether. Such is that very considerable body of legislation 

 upon which the purely educational activities of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture are based. 



There are, however, as has been previously pointed out, 

 other laws, whose administration has been committed to this 

 department, which have as their primary and immediate 

 object the regulation and control of the conduct of the 

 citizens themselves. Of course, the ultimate object is the 

 same in both cases, that is, the advancement of the welfare 

 of those for whom the government acts. The difference is 

 mainly in the means and the methods employed. This dif- 

 ference in procedure gives rise to several important admin- 

 istrative consequences in the latter type of legislation which 

 are not present in the former. It is to the consideration of 

 some of these that the present chapter will be devoted. 



Professor Learned says : 



The fabric and the administrative machinery rest on the written 

 laws. But the laws, as Burke very well understood, reach but a 

 very little way. Administration, to l)e eflfective, must often depend 

 on practices of which the written law takes little or no account. 

 Behind the law there are assumptions which give room for the exer- 

 cise of individual judgment and discretion essential to their proper 

 execution.! 



It is in these federal laws which are intended to govern 

 the conduct of individuals that the truth of this statement 



1 Learned, p. 368. 



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