New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-02-02
AGRLcrLrrRE Isl az CABLNEE

Every now and then some uneasy statesman
rises M TO assert that the Cabinet needs to
be reinforced. and Just now the number OF
Congressman and lobbyists who are sinful
tsneousy afflicted with this notion is unusu-
ally large. The plan for creating Secre-
tary Of Education is pot altogether novel
one. but it has recently been resuscItated, and
/. now strcnuously urged by the Educational
Lobby. The proposal to organize Depart
ment of Mining is fresh one, and IL orig
mates in the Bonanza Regions of the West.
The establishment of Department of Com
merce Us also recent idea, and we may ex-
meet somo Cabinet inflatIOnists at an early
peiiod TO demonstrate the country's need of a
Department OF Manufactures, and perhaps OF
An,nsements. The Senate has gone so TAR as
10 pass formal resolution of inquiry into
the propricty of expanding the Agricultural
Burcau into the dimensions of full-grOwn
Executive Department, and what the deliver
ance of this committee may be Is matter OF
some interest, inasmuch as the arguments for
and against this particular scheme will apply,
without any violent reconstruction, to all the
rest.
Before this new department is constructed
and set i'm motion it should be shown that
either the Government or agriculture, or both,
stand in need of it, and would be conducted
more efficiently with its assistance. 1t is
difficult to discern how the promotion of Mr..
lie Duc would prove much OF Il boon TO the
farmer or his rulers. No one imagines that
tbe President requires any more constitutional
advisers. Indeed, it is the received opinion
that he il already favored with more advice,
constitutional and extra unconstitutional, than he
feels inclined to follow. Nor does it appear
,rhv any raging demand should arise for an
administrative head of department where
tbere is nothing to administer. When the
Government embarks in the mining business
q DEPARTMENT of Mines and a Miner-General
will be necessities; Secretary OF Manufac-
tures will be needed whenever the Govern
ment turns manufacturer; and Secre
torv of Amusements will DO added to
the Cabinet if ever the Government at
tennis TO run great National Circus.
An executive head will be required for the
Government farms whenever the Government
cots ont to till the soil, just as a Postmaster
General is appointed to look after the mails
and a Secretary of War to supervise the mill
torv affairs of the Nation, but all the finc-
tions of the Government under its present
limitations can be performed with ease by the
force of dignitaries already in charge. No
legitimate work of the Government is suffer
ING for lack of officials of high degree who are
willing to assume responsibility for it and
until the Government usurps some very con-
siderable powers not delegated to it by the
Constitution it can hardly employ to advan-
tage so august parsonage as Secretary of
Agriculture.
And if Government can contrive to exist
without this new department, agriculture GER
tainly can. There is no dispute as to the
magnitude and importance of the farming In
terests of the country, but it remains ques-
ton of serious moment to what extent these
interests can be advanced by direct Govern
ment aid, and how far Government should
be called upon to lend its assistance. In q
science so empirical as agriculture Ii may be
that valuable lessons could be taught by ex-
periments conducted on more extensive and
expensive scale than any which private enter
prise would be warranted In undertaking. To
make such experiments fruitful Of any good
results they should be persisted In for years