Am.  Jour.  Phanoa. ) 
October,  1911,  j" 
President  Taffs  Action. 
499 
be  put  upon  what  was  done;  that  the  evidence  does  not  show  that 
Doctor  Wiley  was  a  party  to  the  correspondence  or  the  letters  upon 
which  the  chief  charge  is  sounded,  and  that  his  action  in  the  matter 
was  only  in  accord  with  previous  precedents  in  the  department 
which  justified  him  in  doing  what  he  did. 
"  With  respect  to  the  other  persons  charged,  I  find  an  over  zeal 
in  Doctor  Kebler  and  Doctor  Bigelow,  which  prompted  a  disingenu- 
ous method  of  squaring  Doctor  Rusby's  desire  for  what  he  thought 
was  adequate  compensation  with  the  contract  which  you  and  Doctor 
Wiley  were  willing  to  make  with  him  and  that  for  this  Doctor 
Kebler  and  Doctor  Bigelow  should  be  reprimanded  by  you.  So  far 
as  Doctor  Rusby  is  concerned  with  respect  to  this  particular  contract 
I  do  not  find  him  at  fault.  For  purposes  of  punishment  or  dismissal, 
I  cannot  charge  him  with  knowledge  of  the  legal  difticulties 
involved  in  his  employment.  I  examined  the  record  in  this  case 
a  number  of  weeks  ago  and  I  reached  the  conclusion  which  I  have 
stated  here,  but  meantime,  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives deemed  it.  proper  to  institute  an  investigation  into  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  and  especially  into  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry 
and  its  relation  to  the  department  generally. 
It  seemed  to  me,  under  these  conditions  that  perhaps  it  was 
wiser  for  me  to  delay  until  the  investigation  was  completed  and 
the  report  of  the  committee  made.  The  committee  has  not  made 
a  report,  although  I  believe  the  evidence  has  been  substantially  closed 
and  will  not  do  so  until  the  next  session  of  Congress. 
"  Further  consideration  satisfies  me  that  there  are  much  broader 
questions  involved  in  the  investigation  and  the  evidence  there 
brought  out  than  in  the  present  charge,  which  is  narrow  and  definite 
and  can  now  be  properly  disposed  of.  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  here  considered  and 
decided. 
"  There  is  another  charge  against  Doctor  Rusby  for  securing 
the  appointment,  on  the  common  laborers'  rolls,  of  a  physician  and 
expert  whom  he  could  use  to  do  his  work  at  a  small  stipend,  when 
he  himself  was  called  away  in  other  employment.  I  regret  to  say 
that  the  arrangement  which  Doctor  Rusby  thus  made  is  not  especially 
creditable  to  him  and  shakes  in  some  degree  one's  confidence  in  his 
avowed  wish  to  make  personal  pecuniary  sacrifice  in  the  public  inter- 
