vocation be subjected to a peril of life and limb as great as that of
a soldier in time of war.
The creation of an Executive Department to be known as the Department of
Agriculture by the act of February 9 last was a wise and timely response
to a request which had long been respectfully urged by the farmers of
the country; but much remains to be done to perfect the organization of
the Department so that it may fairly realize the expectations which
its creation excited. In this connection attention is called to the
suggestions contained in the report of the Secretary, which is herewith
submitted. The need of a law officer for the Department such as is
provided for the other Executive Departments is manifest. The failure of
the last Congress to make the usual provision for the publication of the
annual report should be promptly remedied. The public interest in the
report and its value to the farming community, I am sure, will not be
diminished under the new organization of the Department.
I recommend that the weather service be separated from the War
Department and established as a bureau in the Department of Agriculture.
This will involve an entire reorganization both of the Weather Bureau
and of the Signal Corps, making of the first a purely civil organization
and of the other a purely military staff corps. The report of the Chief
Signal Officer shows that the work of the corps on its military side has
been deteriorating.
The interests of the people of the District of Columbia should not be
lost sight of in the pressure for consideration of measures affecting
the whole country. Having no legislature of its own, either municipal
or general, its people must look to Congress for the regulation of all
those concerns that in the States are the subject of local control. Our
whole people have an interest that the national capital should be made
attractive and beautiful, and, above all, that its repute for social
order should be well maintained. The laws regulating the sale of
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