St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-13

officer of the law, and he does not allow
his opinion of the unwisdom of the law
to hinder his execution Of it. He will
not go beyond the law. and thus vio-
late 1t as fully as If he went short of it.
He obeys it's letter.
From copy of his statement to
the joint committee we gather that Of
the $4,000 appropriated for seeds for
the fiscal year 1885, he has spent ST. go;
and Of the $500 appropriated for
farmers bulletins, he has spent $3.50. 81.
A table shows that since the govern
ment, in 1865, began this taffying of the
farmers. 81. 5S1, 674,S1 has been expended.
But why has the secretary not followed
the precedents Of his office and spent
all given hing? Where in the law does
he find his warrant for not doing it?
Section sgt of the Revised Statutes pro-
vides that ''the purchase and distribu-
ton of seeds shall be confined
to such SEEDS as are rare and uncom-
mon to the country, or such as can be
made more profitable by frequent
changes from one part Of our country
to another.'z All subsequent appro-
priations have read: For the pur-
chase, propagation and distribution as
required by law, of seeds, ETC." Under
this law commissioners and secretaries
have been buying new and rare" seeds
all over the world When Mr.. Morton
came in he ordered lists made of seeds
heretofore bought, and directed his
agents to buy such as were new and
rare Naturally, with the previous
searches and purchases, the possible
number of such seeds grew less. 'In
fact, as he says, 1.-The more carefully
and zealously the collection and dis
tribution is made, the earlier it must
come to conclusion from exhaustion
of the supply
Thus restricting his purchases, the
secretary shows that during his three
years he has distributed 9.237, 066 more
packages of seeds than his predeces-
sor did in the three preceding years.
But they cost a great deal less. Of
these, tested in the field and garden
and at experiment stations. it was
found thac very few were rare I'M
common or especially valuable. He was
confronted then with the option of
squandering the money on seeds not
new or rare, or restricting his pur-
chases to such. He took the opinion of
the attorney general as to the meaning
OF the law and his powers, and was ad-
vised that it was his right and duty to
call Tor bids for furnishing the seeds
specified in the Statute and to reject all
offers not complying. Acting on this,
he advertised and required bidders to
specify each variety of seed or plants
and the quantity he could furnish.
But three bids compiled with the notice.
and they offered but four kinds of field
or farm seed9 The quantity of these
offered would have given each, senator
and congressman ten pounds for dis
tribution. The other seeds offered were
found by he'e.board to, be neither new
nor rare, and itsrecommende the re-
lection OIL them all, which was done.
Now North Dakota accident and a
Missouri degenerate. would censure the
secretary for not wasting, unlawfully,
the money of the people in mis- care
They find supporters among the more
contemplate politicians who imagine
that the farmers votes may be bought
with few Packages Of valueless seeds.
We apprehend that the censure will
make the flight, Of the boomerang, and
return, to .smite the senders. mon i'74