49^  President  Toft's  Action .  {"^"ocSe.*  mi™* 
Sodium  Ethylate,"  by  H.  Finnemore ;  "  An  Experiment  in  Pepper- 
mint Culture,"  by  H.  John  Henderson ;  The  Composition  of  Dia- 
betic Foods,"  by  F.  W.  F.  Arnaud ;  Note  on  the  Constitution  of 
Commercial  Bismuth  Subchloride,"  by  J.  Bristowe  P.  Harrison ; 
"  White  Precipitate  and  the  Analysis  of  White  Precipitate  Oint- 
ment," by  G.  D.  Elsdon. 
•  PRESIDENT  TAFT'S  ACTION  UPON  THE  RECOMMEN- 
DATIONS OF  THE  COMMITTEE  ON  PERSONNEL  OF 
THE  U.  S.  DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE. 
President  Taft's  opinion  of  Doctor  Harvey  W.  Wiley  and  his 
conduct  of  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry  (see  this  Journal,  pp.  381 
and  388)  has  been  in  the  hands  of  the  public  since  September  16, 
191 1.  The  President's  opinion,  as  embodied  in  his  letter  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  carries  no  word 
of  criticism,  but  many  a  word  of  praise. 
Speaking  of  the  Congressional  investigation  into  the  Department 
of  Agriculture,  Mr.  Taft  says : 
"  The  broader  issues  raised  by  the  investigation  which  have  a 
much  weightier  relation  than  this  one  to  the  general  efficiency  of 
the  department  may  require  much  more  radical  action  than  the 
question  I  have  considered  and  decided. 
"  The  nub  of  the  charge  by  the  personnel  board  was  that  Doctor 
Wiley,  Doctor  Kebler,  Doctor  Bigelow  and  Doctor  Rusby  in  effect 
conspired  to  put  on  the  record  a  contract  for  a  general  employment 
of  Doctor  Rusby 's  services  for  $1,600  a  year,  but  actually  and 
secretly  made  a  contract  with  him  by  which  he  was  only  to  do 
enough  work  during  the  year  for  the  $1600  to  secure  him  a  com- 
pensation of  $20  a  day  and  that  this  was  done  in  deliberate  and 
defiant  violation  of  the  law  was  interpreted  by  the  Attorney-Gen- 
eral in  the  opinion  already  referred  to,  in  which  he  held  that 
Congress  had  limited  the  compensation  of  experts  to  $9  a  day. 
"  After  you  submitted  to  me  the  report  of  the  personnel  board 
I  asked  the  Attorney  General  to  examine  it  and  give  me  his  opinion 
in  respect  to  the  matter.  He  did  so  and  advised  me  that  the  recom- 
mendations  of  the  personnel  board  ought  to  be  carried  out.  In  con- 
nection with  his  recommendations,  he  invited  attention  to  a  clause 
in  the  appropriation  bill  of  March,  1907,  still  in  force,  that  enjoins 
upon  the  head  of  each  department  the  duty  of  exacting  from  the 
