Omaha daily bee., 1909-12-20
CAMPAIGN AGAINST DISEASE
Continued from First Page.)


of the country. In fact, the largest supply
used in all the eastern cities comes from
the great dairy farms of the west and it
is proposed to extend the Investigation
which has Just begun in the District of
Columbia to all the dairy sections Of the
country and through congressional iegisla-
ton 10 prevent transportation of dairy
products through Interstate from
any herd which shows signs of disease.
The Agricultural department has sue
ceeded in stamping out the hoof and mouth
disease which broke out in Pennsylvania
and New York a little more than a year
ago. and the department has just issued
a bulletin raising the quarantine from a
number of southern states formerly ar
flicted with the disease bearing cattle tick,
and the statement is made that since the
beginning of this work of determination in
1906 over $4,000 square miles Of territory
have been freed from ticks and released
from quarantine. 1t is the intention there
fore to attempt the much more difficult
task Of extermlnating tuberculosis in cat
tie and to this end the necessary amend
ment to the Interstate law will
be urged with, vigor during the present
session.
Much MfsinfOrmntiOn.
There was passed around to the various
departments a short time ago an executive
order prohibiting clerks, chiefs of bureaus
and divisions from giving any information
concerning the business of various depart
ments to members of congress or others
without direct authority from the head Of
the department. This executive order was
the outcome of a great mass Of mis-infor-
nation which was sent to congress during
the recent tariff debate. on one occasion
three different senators arose and made
three different statements concerning the
same thing which were in direct variance
with each other, and yet each senator de-
clared he had obtained the information
from the Treasury department.
The order which is now in effect will of
course be modified, otherwise it will be
impossible for any one to obtain any in
formation whatever concerning current
business in the executive departments with
out first consulting the cabinet officer at
the head of the department. But this
whole matter brings to mind an order of
Mr.. Hilles, one Of the assistant secretaries
of the treasury. soon after he assumed
his duties Mr.. Hiies sent a notification
to each of\the bureaus directing that two
caribou. copies of every letter written in
every branch Of the department be sent
to headquarters, one for the assistant sec
retary under whose direct jurisdiction the
bureau Isl and the other to the secretary
himself, Within a week the secretary of
the treasury had piled in his office a mass
of carbon copies of letters which exceeded
three feet in height. He was literally
swamped, and it did not take him long to
countermand the order Of his assistant.
VanderIip's Order.
Some years ago Mr.. Vanderlip was as
sistant secretary of the treasury. He ISSUED
an order to the chiefs of all the bureaus
under his immediate jurisdiction to the
effect that every letter that was sent GU
by those bureaus should be signed by tn;
assistant secretary, Mr.. Vanderllp. Prob.
ably the clerks got busy the morning The
order was received, perhaps they were Z
little more industrious than usual, bu'
that night when the order had been re
turned it was promptly revoked. Mr.. Van
derlip, however, was game. He signed
every one of that bunch of letters and /
took him three days to do it. Since tina
time heads of departments have been care
full how they issue ill-considered order
which may result in piling enormou
amounts of work upon them, but the pres
ent executive order will probably result Il
the withdrawal of a great deal of mis-
information from congress.