Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1919-02-28

the men employed in them are
right. Then he continued: In
this we have been quite success
full in the smaller institutions, and
now control all of them that are
worth controlling But the larger
institutions have refused to accent
our money with the strings we tie to
1t. Mr.. Rockefeller is now going to
add a hundred million dollars to this
foundation for the express purpose
OF forcing his money into these big
institutions He is looking for a mar
VINO can put this across. think YOU
are Just the man for the place. There
is fat salary in it for the man who
can do the trick. Think it over. and
If 1t appeals to you let me know and
| will take it up with Mr. Rockefeller
through friends of mine. | think my
recommendation will have consider
able weight with Mr.. Rock efeler."
| declined to consider the matter
and said very plainly what | thought
OF the proposition. | have never
heard OF the matter again. | have
no idea that Mr.. Rockefeller ever
heard of this proposition to me, but
the incident is important in showing
what people who are in sympathy
with his views believe his purpose to
be. shall refer to this matter
again shortly
1t will be recalled that during the
administration of Secretary James
Wilson those in charge of the county
demonstration work in the south, not
being able to get money from con-
gress as fast as they desired, applied
to- Mr.. Rockefeller's General Educa-
ton Board for funds, and got them.
At the time Mr.. Houston became sec
rotary this board was putting several
hundred thousand dollars a year in
to this work. Secretary Wilson had
not been. wholly pleased with this
situation, and to prevent the Rookie
Teller interests from getting their
grasp on demonstration work over
the entire country, he had secured
federal funds for similar work in the
had put this work under the Office
of Farm Management, of which |
was then chief, This greatly offend
ed the General Education Board and
their friends in the department, and
they began a campaign to discredit
the work of my office. When this
coterie of men had finally gotten
one of their own men in for Secre-
tary of Agriculture they began to
make it very clear that the Office of
Farm Management was under the
ban One of them went so far as to
tell a friend of mine that Mr.. Hous-
ton, before becoming secretary, had
| pledged himself to destroy this Of
: flee AT any rate, very soon after he
was indicted into office he made q
public address in which the news
papers report him as saying that the
Office of Farm Management was a
big mushroom growth, headed by
men who did not know what they
were doing, and who were wasting
vast sums of public money. He pro-
posed to see that this office did not
grow any in the near future. Mr.
Houston has kept his word in this
matter. When he came into office
the Office of Farm Management had
a fund of about $330,000 year for
field Investigations. This fund is
now about $218, 5000. This shows
the kind of support this important
work has had during Mr.. Houston s
administration.
In order to further hamper the
work of the Office of Farm Manage
ment, Mr.. Houston issued orders to
demonstration workers in the de-
partment not to cooperate with any
outside agency except Mr.. Rockefel-
ler's General Education Board. The
purpose of this order was to prevent
the Office of Farm Management from
benefiting by funds from various
sources that were being made avail
able for demonstration work outside
of the Rockefeller territory. These
orders We're not reduced to writing
They were delivered to me verbally
by young man who is now clerk
in the department.
Soon after Mr.. Houston became
secretary the Rockefeller people es-
| tablished a bureau in the department
known as the Rural Organization
! Service. The important work of the
Bureau of Markets was placed under
| this bureau, evidently for the pur-
pose of seeing that its work should
conform to the Rockefeller ideas.
But these people made the mistake