CONCLUSIONS 113 



The value of this type of governmental activity is, by its 

 nature, largely immeasurable. 



With the present facilities for immediate personal contact 

 with farmers through the County Agent system, the de- 

 partment has an ever ready means of direct communication ; 

 but it has in it, also, certain inherent dangers. Already 

 there are evidences that the farmers do not welcome too 

 much direct interference in the conduct of their business. 



The organic relationship of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture to Congress is peculiarly fortunate. Through the Com- 

 mittee on Agriculture in the House of Representatives, to 

 which are referred practically all proposed measures in 

 which the Department of Agriculture is interested, it is pos- 

 sible to have a very close articulation between these two 

 agencies of government. This, of course, presupposes fa- 

 vorable political and personal relationships. This unusually 

 fortunate situation, though the result of fortuitous circum- 

 stances rather than deliberation, has proved very beneficial 

 to the department. A very similar arrangement has been 

 proposed by one eminent authority as the basis of a plan to 

 secure a more workable correlation between the legislative 

 and administrative branches of our government as a whole.* 

 This would, of course, involve almost a complete reorgani- 

 zation of the committee system of Congress. 



Despite this favorable and unique relationship of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture to Congress, which has frequently 

 facilitated the passage of legislation, there is no evidence 

 that Congress exercises any more adequate control or super- 

 vision over the work of this department than over that of 

 any other. This, as we have seen, is not due to the absence 

 of reports and other information, but rather to the failure 

 of Congress to secure a proper coordination of reports, esti- 

 mates, and other data in such a way that they might be used 

 as a basis for control and supervision of the administration. 

 Or, as Professor Willoughby says, it is due to the failure of 



*W. F. Willoughby, The Problem of a National Budget. 1918, 

 p. 104 (T. 

 8 



