The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1911-09-15
PRESIDENT TAFT uPHoLDS THE
CHEMISTRY BUREAU CHIEF.
WON'T ASK FOR RESIGNATION
RECOMMENDATION MADE BY !
COMMITTEE is ovERRULEo.
A BIG sHAKE.UP is COMING
The President Admits There is Trou-
BILE In the Department OF Agriculture
and Radical Action viii Probably
be Taken-Wiley Is Praised.

and Radical Action viii Probably
be Taken-Wiley Is Praised.
Beverly, Mass, Sept 15-The resig-
nation of DR.. Harvey Wiley, chief of
the United States bureau of chemis-
try, will not be asked for by Presi-
dent Taft, despite the recommendation
of the personnel board of the depart
ment of agriculture and endorsed by
Attorney General Wickersham. This
decision was announced here today by
President Taft.
In the opinion the president admits
what has been well known by many
persons close to the administration,
that there is trouble in the depart
ment of agriculture. Speaking of the
congressional inquiry into that depart
ment, unfinished at the last session,
but to be taken up next winter, Mr..
Taft says:
"The broader issues raised by the
investigation, which have much
weightier relation than this one to the
general efficiency of the department,
may require much more radical action
tudu lllt uutollOu nave
and decided"
Serious Shake-up Coming.
That this statement indicates a SER
ious shake-up in the department next
winter was freely predicted today.
There have never been any intima-
tons that Secretary Wilson was dis
posed to retire and it is not believed
here that the president would request
him to do so. A general cleanup Of
affairs in the department, however,
could readily be required by the presi-
dent and carried through when he re-
turns to Washington in November.
The Wiley case arose over the en-
ployment by the bureau of chemistry
of DR.. II. H. Rusby of New York, phar-
macognosist of the bureau. In effect
DR.. Wiley, DR.. l.. F. Keller, chief of
the drug laboratory, and Dr. w. d.
Bigelow, assistant chief of the bureau,
were charged with having conspired to
pay DR.. Rusby salary Of $1,000 a
year with the tacit understanding that
he was to do only enough work to
secure this amount at the rate of $40
day. This was held to violate the
act of congress of March 10, 1898,
which declared that no classified
scientific investigator should receive
more than SO a day. In addition to
the recommendation that DIR. Wiley be
allowed to resign, the personnel board
held that DR.. Rusby should be dis
and that DR.. Bigelow be allowed to
quit the service. None of these recon-
mendations are upheld in the presi
dents opinion
Or. keber Reprimanded.
DR.. Kebler is reprimanded for dis
ingenious conduct" in his letter writ
ing to DR.. Rusby and the president
says that the letters suggest a Evil
lingness to resort to evasion" that
calls for official reproof. DR.. BigeloN
is held to have been "overzealous" ant
a reprimand by Secretary of Agricul
ture Wilson, to whom the opinion il
his letter is directed, is ordered by
the president.
DR.. Rusby is held to be as guiltlesS
as DR.. Wiley in this particular matter
A charge against him, however of Sc
curing the appointment on the com
mission "laborer role" of a physician
and expert, whom he could not sue
coed but could use to do his work at {
very small stipend when he himsel
was called away" the president hold
to be not especially creditable."
Praise for Wiley.
The case, the president says, ha
made apparent the doubtful legisla
tive propriety of the limitations upol
the bureau chiefs to exact per dien
compensation for experts"
The government, he says, Ought no
to be at disadvantage in this regar
and one cannot withhold ones syn
pathy with an earnest effort by d.
Wiley to pay proper compensation an
secure expert assistance in the Ell
forcement Of so important statute a
the pure food law, certainly in the bt
ginning when the questions arisin
under it are of capital importance t
the public"
The present conclusions, he say
were ready weeks ago, but he did nc
put them on paper because he hope
for a time for the report Of the con
mittee of the house of representative
that was investigating the departmer
of agriculture.