SUBSISTENCE OF EMPLOYEES.

[H. R. 5938, Sixty-eighth Congress, first session.]

A BILL To increase the subsistance and the per diem allowances of certain officers and employees of the Department of Agriculture.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That on and after July 1, 1924, unless a higher rate is expressly provided for by law, officers and employees of the Department of Agriculture while traveling on official business away from their designated posts of duty may be allowed not to exceed $7 per day for subsistence, but in no case shall they be reimbursed any sum in excess of expenses actually incurred by them.

SEC. 2. That on and after July 1, 1924, unless a higher rate is expressly provided for by law, the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to prescribe per diem rates of allowance not exceeding $6 in lieu of subsistence to officers or employees of the Department of Agriculture traveling on official business away from their designated posts of duty.

Hon. GILBERT N. HAUGEN,

Chairman Committee on Agriculture,

House of Representatives.

JANUARY 19, 1924.

DEAR MR. HAUGEN: I inclose herewith draft of a proposed bill to increase the subsistence and per diem allowances of certain officers and employees of the Department of Agriculture.

This bill provides for increasing the maximum allowance for actual subsistence expenses for employees of the Department of Agriculture traveling on official business from $5 to $7, and for increasing the maximum per diem in lieu of subsistence from $4 to $6.

The present maximum of $5 per day for reimbursement of actual subsistence expenses was established by the act making appropriations to supply urgent deficiencies in the appropriations for the fiscal year 1914 and for prior years, approved April 6, 1914 (38 Stat. 318); and the maximum per diem allowance of $4 in lieu of subsistence was fixed by the act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year 1915, approved August 1, 1914 (38 Stat. 680). These rates were fairly adequate at the time these statutes were enacted, prior to the opening of the World War, when such expenses were on the basis normal to that time and before the war and its effects were anticipated. The subsequent increased cost of all elements of life. however, has seriously altered the situation and makes it imperative that the rates be advanced in order to meet present conditions. This is especially true in reference to subsistence in the larger cities. When the existing rates were established, and for a time thereafter, a room with bath in a first-class hotel could be obtain for from $2 to $2.50 per day. Now approximately twice as much must be paid for the same accommodations in the larger cities. The price of meals also has advanced at least 50 per cent, in many cases 100 per rent. Not infrequently it occurs that the cost of lodging and subsistence in the larger cities ranges from $7.50 to $9 or $10 a day. While some hotels may, and frequently do, advertise rooms with running water or with private bath for $2 or $3, travelers almost invariably find upon arrival that no rooms at these prices are available. The smaller, older, and cheaper hotels which advertise rooms at $2 and $2.50 seldom have any vacant rooms at these rates when an attempt is made to secure them. It is now practically impossible to find such accommodations in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Kansas City, and other large cities at less than $3.50 and frequently $4.

In the circumstances, the officers of the department who are required to travel on official business have had to pay out of their personal funds expenditures in excess of the maximum allowances. This is a distinct injustice to them, and the situation not only is a source of dissatisfaction to the traveling personnel but it also increases the difficulty which the department experiences in securing and retaining the best qualified men in the service.

The Government has recognized and made provision to meet the increased cost of transportation, supplies, labor, and all elements of expense which are incurred by its employees when traveling, except expenses for subsistence of its civilian personnel. It has, however, recognized this inconsistency so far as the commissioned and enlisted personnel of the Army, Navy, Marine

Corps, Coast Guard, Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Public Health Service is concerned, as evidenced by the passage of the act of June 10, 1922 (Public, No. 235, 67th Cong.), which provides that officers of these services when performing repeated travel duty may receive, instead of mileage as usual, reimbursement of actual expenses not to exceed $7 per day or a per diem of $6 in lieu of actual expenses. This action is consistent with existing conditions and requirements, but it is restricted to the services named.

This department, in general, prefers the plan of reimbursement of actual expenses, and accordingly is more interested in the proposal to increase the present maximum of actual expense allowances than in the increase of the maximum per diem allowances, although from our experience during the past few years it is clear that neither the maximum for actual subsistence expenses nor the per diem in lieu thereof is adequate to meet the legitimate expenses incurred by those whose travel on official business necessitates visits to the larger cities of the country.

It is earnestly hoped that this bill may receive the favorable consideration of your committee.

Sincerely yours,

HENRY C. WALLACE, Secretary,

PURE FOOD AND DRUGS STANDARDS.

[H. R. 5940, Sixty-eighth Congress, first session.]

A BILL To amend an act entitled "An act for preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes," approved June 30, 1906 (Thirty-fourth Statutes, page 768), so as to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to define and fix standards for articles of food, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 6 of an act entitled "An act for preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes," approved June 30, 1906 (Thirty-fourth Statutes, page 768), be amended by adding thereto the following: "That the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to investigate from time to time the composition, identity, strength, quality, and purity of any article of food subject to the provisions of this act and to define and fix standards of quality and purity for such articles of food, and from time to time to modify or amend such definition or standard when circumstances require. The definition and standard thus fixed and established shall, after due promulgation by said Secretary, govern in determining whether that article of food is adulterated or misbranded within the meaning of this act.

"No definition shall be made and no standard shall be fixed until after opportunity to be heard shall have been afforded to interested persons in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture, and no definition and no standard, or modification or amendment thereof, shall become effective until six months after it has been promulgated by said Secretary. The definitions and standards for articles of food, and amendments and modifications thereof, heretofore promulgated by the Secretary of Agriculture are hereby declared to be definitions and standards for such articles of food within the meaning of this act, unless and until modified by said Secretary in accordance with the provisions of this act." JANUARY 19, 1924.

Hon. G. N. HAUGEN,

Chairman Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives.

DEAR MR. HAUGEN: There is transmitted herewith a copy of a proposed bill to amend the food and drugs act of June 30, 1906 (34 Stat. 768), so as to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to define and fix standards for articles of food.

Such a bill would be extremely advantageous in the enforcement of the food and drugs act. It is now necessary for the Government in each prosecution under that act to produce trade witnesses, who are experts in the various lines of food manufacture, to show just what the article being attacked should have been. In other words, it is necessary for the Government to establish by competent evidence at the trial of each individual case the standard for a

particular article of food. This situation makes it very difficult for the Government, since many manufacturers for business reasons either adhere to a standard at variance with the general practice or are reluctant to testify against a competitor, even though they may be in accord with the Government's contention. Thus there may arise an apparent variation of standards with each trial on the same article of food, due to the variation of the Government's proof or to the attitude of the different courts and juries with respect to that proof. If the Secretary of Agriculture were authorized to define and fix standards for the various food commodities, as is proposed in the inclosed bill, it would be possible to use these standards in the trial of a case as an unvarying basis for determining whether a specific article of food is adulterated or misbranded.

As an economic proposition, aside from the considerable saving to the Government in expert witness fees and incidental expenses, it may also be pointed out that food manufacturers would by such definitions and standards be authoritatively advised in advance as to the strength, quality, and purity required under the food and drugs act and have definite assurance that those standards would apply to all alike, and that if the article of food put out by them complied with those standards and was properly labeled they would be safe from any interference with their business.

At the present time this department formulates and publishes definitions and standards for many articles of food. These definitions and standards are published only after full opportunity to be heard has been accorded interested parties and may be said to represent the consensus of opinion on the subject. They have not the force and effect of law, but are advisory only and are issued so that the trade may know what the department's views are in regard to the article of food described therein. Many of the States by statute have adopted these definitions and standards as definitions and standards having the full force and effect of law. These States have shown their willingness to accept the definitions and standards published by this department, and it would seem to be advisable to have the same force and effect given them by the Federal Government as is given them by these States.

The department is of the opinion that the proposed bill is valid, various decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, in principle, having sustained the validity of such a provision. In the case of Buttfield v. Stranahan, 192 U. S. 470, it was held that Congress under the authority conferred on it by the Constitution to regulate commerce with foreign nations has power to authorize an administrative officer of the Government to establish uniform standards and itself to prohibit the importations of any commodity which is not equal to the standards. In this case the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of act of March 2, 1897 (29 Stat. 604) prohibiting the importation of teas that were inferior in purity, quality, or fitness for consumption to the standards provided in section 3 of that act, which section authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to fix uniform standards of purity, quality, or fitness for consumption of teas imported into the United States.

It seems to be settled law that, as in the matter of foreign commerce, Congress under its authority to regulate commerce among the States, has power to authorize administrative officers of the Government to investigate and fix standards of foods and itself to prohibit the interstate shipment or transportation of foods not conforming to such standards. The two powers are of the same class and character and equally extensive." Bwman v. C. & N. W. R. Co., 125 U. S. 465, 482. Licensed case, 5 How. 577.

"The power to regulate commerce among the several States was granted to Congress in terms as absolute as is the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations." Pittsburgh & Son Coal Co. r. Bates, 156 U. S. 577, 587; Brown . Houston, 114 U. S. 622, 630.

The case of St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Ry. Co. v. Taylor, Administratrix, 210 U. S. 281, is apparently specific authority for the proposition that Congress has power to authorize an administrative officer to fix standards for articles of food, which enter interstate commerce. In that case the American Railway Association was authorized by the so-called safety appliance act to designate to the Interstate Commerce Commission the standard height of drawbars for freight cars used in interstate traffic. The use of freight cars not equipped with drawbars of standard height was prohibited by the act. The court held that there was not an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the railway association and to the Interstate Commerce Commission and relied on Buttfield v. Stranahan as settling the question. Union Bridge Co.

v. U. S., 204 U. S. 364, where the case was reviewed, was also referred to as being conclusive.

This position is further enforced in the case of U. S. v. Grimaud, 220 U. S. 506. In the statute there reviewed the Secretary of Agriculture was empowered to make such rules and regulations relative to the various forest reservations as would insure the objects of such reservations, namely, to regulate their occupancy and use and preserve the forests thereon from destruction, the act further providing that any violation of its provisions and such rules and regulations should be punished. The court said: "In the nature of things it was impractical for Congress to provide general regulations for these forests and varying details of management. Each reservation had its peculiar and special features; and in authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to meet these local conditions Congress was merely conferring administrative functions upon an agent, and not delegating to him legislative power. * st But in making

*

these regulations the officers did not legislate. They did not go outside of the circle of that which the act itself had affirmatively required to be done, or treat as unlawful if done. But confining themselves within the field covered by the statute they could adopt regulations of the nature they had thus been generally authorized to make, in order to administer the law and carry the statute into effect."

In the foregoing case the court quoted from Field v. Clark, 143 U. S. 649, 694, as follows:

"The legislature can not delegate its power to make a law, but it can make a law to delegate a power to determine some fact or state of things upon which the law makes, or intends to make its own action depend. To deny this would be to stop the wheels of government. There are many things upon which wise and useful legislature must depend, which can not be known to the lawmaking power and must, therefore, be a subject of inquiry and determination outside of the halls of legislature."

In defining, or fixing a standard for an article of food the Secretary of Agriculture would simply reach a conclusion of fact and, the fact being established, the law would apply, Congress determining that there is a violation. It is believed that if the proposed bill were enacted into law substantial savings would inure to the Government and legitimate business would be promoted.

Respectfully,

HENRY C. WALLACE, Secretary.

SERUM INSPECTION.

[H. R. 5945, Sixty-eighth Congress, first session.]

A RIII To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to issue licenses for the preparation for sale and transportation in interstate and foreign commerce of viruses, serums. toxins and analogous products for use in the treatment of domestic animals and to repeal sc much of the act of March 4, 1913, as relates to such products.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this act may be cited as the "Unitd States Virus, Serum, and Toxin Act."

SEC. 2. That wherever used in this act the term "commerce" means commerce between any State, Territory, or insular possession of the United States, or the District of Columbia, and any place outside thereof; or between points within the same State. Territory, or insular possession of the United States, or the District of Columbia, but through any place outside thereof; or within any Territory, or insular possesion of the United States, or the District of Colunibia; the term "proʻluct" means virus, serum, toxin, or analogous product for use in the treatment of domestic animals; the term "person" means individual, partnership, corporation, or association.

SEC. 3. That the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to issue a license to any person for the preparation of any product for sale or transportation in commerce, and no person shall prepare in any Territory, insular possession of the United States, or the District of Columbia any product for such sale or transportation without having at the time of such preparation an unsuspended and unrevoked license so issued; nor shall any person sell, offer to sell, transport, or offer for transportation in commerce any product prepared in the United States or any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof unless the same shall have been prepared by a person holding an unsuspended and unrevoked license and

unless the package or container thereof shall bear evidence of the inspection or test hereinafter required.

SEC. 4. That all products prepared for sale or transportation in commerce by any person licensed under this act shall be inspected or tested, or both, in method or manner prescribed by regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture. If as a result of such inspection or test it shall appear that such product is worthless, contaminated, dangerous, or harmful, the same shall be destroyed by the licensee or by any other person in possession of the same or returned by such person to the licensee for destruction as prescribed by regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer to sell, transport, or offer for transportation, in commerce, any product which has not been inspected or tested as prescribed by regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture, or any product which is worthless, contaminated, dangerous, or harmful.

SEC. 5. That no license shall be issued to any person except upon the conditions that the licensee will conduct the establishment where any product is prepared, will permit inspection of such establishment and inspection and test of such product including its preparation, will furnish the necessary animals, materials, and facilities for making such inspections and tests, will keep records and make reports, and maintain said establishment in sanitary condition, all as prescribed by regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture. It shall be unlawful for any licensee to remove or permit to be removed from the establishment where prepared any product or animals used in the preparation or testing thereof, otherwise than as prescribed by regulations of said Secretary.

SEC. 6. The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to issue permits for the importation into the United States of any product which is not worthless, contaminated, dangerous, or harmful. It shall be unlawful for any person to import any product into the United States or any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof without a permit from the Secretary of Agriculture or to import into the United States or any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof any worthless, contaminated, dangerous, or harmful product. The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to cause to be inspected and tested any product which is being imported or offered for importation into the United States or any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof and if he shall find that any such product is worthless, contaminated, dangerous, or harmful the same shall be denied entry and shall be forthwith destroyed or removed from the United States or any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof, by the owner or importer at his own expense, and if not so destroyed or removed the Secretary of Agriculture may cause it to be destroyed.

SEC. 7. That the Secretary of Agriculture may suspend for a period of not exceeding one year, any license or permit hereunder after opportunity for hearing has been afforded the licensee or permittee, for any violation of this act or the regulations made thereunder; and may revoke any such license or permit after an opportunity for hearing, when he finds that the same has been procured by fraud or misrepresentation, or when he is satisfied that the license or permit is being or has been used to facilitate or effect the preparation for sale, or the sale or transportation in commerce, or the importation of any worthless, contaminated, dangerous, or harmful product, and may also revoke such license or permit when any licensee or permittee hereunder has been convicted in a court of competent jurisdiction of violating any of the provisions of this act: Provided, however, That pending the investigation to determine whether any license or permit should be suspended, the Secretary may, without hearing, suspend such license or permit for a period not exceeding thirty days. The Secretary of Agriculture may refuse to issue a license or permit to any applicant who has violated any of the provisions of this act or the regulations made thereunder, or to any applicant, whose business of importing, preparing for sale or transportation, or transporting in commerce, products subject to the provisions of this act is controlled, directed, managed, supervised, or carried on by any person or persons who have violated any of the aforesaid provisions or regulations. The Secretary of Agriculture may, after the expiration of two years, issue a license, to any person whose license has theretofore been revoked under the provisions of this act.

SEC. 8. That any officer, agent, or employee of the Department of Agriculture authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture for the purpose may, at any time, enter and inspect any establishment in which any product is prepared by a licensee under this act.