SPECIFIC DUTIES
We should not forget that in the legislation of Congress specific duties are often assigned to particular units of administration of a character which does not permit of executive interference. I may cite in this connection the activities of the Comptroller of the Treasury. To the Comptroller of the Treasury is assigned by Congress certain specific duties. Even the President of the United States can not legally interfere with the Comptroller's prerogatives. The story is told of a case in the Grant administration where the decision of the Comptroller was particularly objectionable to certain citizens. They went to the President and asked him to rescind the comptroller's opinion. President Grant, who believed in obeying the law, replied that he could not legally alter a comptroller's decision. He said: "If I thought it was a very bad decision I might change comptrollers and get one who would decide the way I think he should. In this case there does not seem to be any exigency demanding any such action." The Bureau of Chemistry had specific duties assigned to it. Theoretically these duties could not be repealed by executive order. Practically in this case they were, but, of course, illegally. The proper way was to follow the suggestion of Grant, and remove the Chief of the Bureau and put Dunlap in his place. Soon after the episode of the whisky conference, on February 22, 1907, was ended the Secretary of Agriculture walked into my office one morning in company with a young man whom I had never before seen, and introduced him as Professor F. L. Dunlap, your associate. I said: "Mr. Secretary, my what?" He said: "Your associate. I have appointed an associate in the Bureau of Chemistry who will be entirely independent of the Chief and who will report directly to me. During the absence of the Chief he will be acting chief of the Bureau." I was astounded and dumbfounded at this action. He handed me at the same time the letter in which he had established this office and described the duties of the officer. Whatever qualification Dr. Dunlap had for the office to which he was appointed does not appear. In the first place he was to take the office of Acting Chief in my absence, a position which was filled most ably by Dr. W. A Bigelow, my principal assistant in the Bureau. Dr. Bigelow had rare judgment and discrimination. I depended upon him largely for the control of the personnel of the Bureau. He was efficient, firm, just and capable. He had grown up in the Bureau from a humble position to be, for several years, my first assistant. There was no one else so capable as he to discharge the duties of Chief in my absence. This action of the Secretary was a direct insult to one of the most able men with whom I have ever worked. At the same time he put in charge of the Bureau during the absence of the Chief a person who knew nothing of its personnel, nothing of its activities, nothing of its duties either under the food law or otherwise, and wholly unskilled and untrained in the control of a large Bureau of several hundred members, as was the Bureau of Chemistry at that time. This was an astounding action. At the same time I was informed that the Secretary had organized a Board of Food and Drug Inspection. Such a board was not authorized by law nor by any action of Congress, nor by any appropriation made by Congress. Its purpose was to take away from the Bureau all its power and activities under the Food Law. This body was composed of the Chief of the Bureau as Chairman, with Dr. F. L. Dunlap and Mr. George P. McCabe as its other two members. As long as Dr. Dunlap acted with Mr. McCabe--and that was always--all decisions in regard to food adulteration, placed by law in the hands of the Bureau of Chemistry, were approved or disapproved by the other two members of the Board. This was a complete paralysis of the law. This Board was appointed by General Order III, on April 25, 1907. The time that elapsed from February 22d, when the whisky case was erroneously decided by the Solicitor, to April 25th, 1907, was only a little over two months. This order was issued before the final decision on the whisky question by the Attorney-General was published. The order reads as follows: United States Department of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary, Washington, D. C., April 25, 1907. There is hereby created in the Department of Agriculture a Board of Food and Drug Inspection. The members of this board will be Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, Chief, Bureau of Chemistry, chairman; Dr. Frederick L. Dunlap, associate chemist, Bureau of Chemistry; and Mr. George P. McCabe, Solicitor of the Department of Agriculture. The board will consider all questions arising in the enforcement of the food and drugs act of June 30, 1906, upon which the decision of the Secretary of Agriculture is necessary, and will report its findings to the Secretary for his consideration and decision. All correspondence involving interpretations of the law and questions arising under the law not theretofore passed upon by the Secretary of Agriculture shall be considered by the board. The board is directed to hold frequent meetings, at stated times, in order that findings may be reported promptly. "In addition to the above duties, the Board of Food and Drug Inspection shall conduct all hearings based upon alleged violations of the food and drugs act of June 30, 1906, as provided by regulation 5 of the rules and regulations for the enforcement of the food and drugs act approved October 17, 1906. (Signed) JAMES WILSON, Secretary of Agriculture. (Expenditures in Department of Agriculture, Hearings July-August, 1911, page 429.) First you will note that this Board was created in the Department of Agriculture and not in the Bureau of Chemistry. The result of the appointment of a board of Food and Drug Inspection was that the functions of the Bureau as defined by the law were entirely paralyzed. The Solicitor of the Department was made, by General Order No. 140, the supreme arbiter in all cases. In all of the decisions which he rendered, without exception, the Secretary of Agriculture supported him.
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