[H. R. 7893]

An Act To create a division of cooperative marketing in the Department of Agriculture; to provide for the acquisition and dissemination of information pertaining to cooperation; to promote the knowledge of cooperative principles and practices; to provide for calling advisers to counsel with the Secretary of Agriculture on cooperative activities; to authorize cooperative associations to acquire, interpret, and disseminate crop and market ínformation, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That when used in this Act the term "agricultural products" means agricultural, horticultural, viticultural, and dairy products, livestock and the products thereof, the products of poultry and bee raising, the edible products of forestry, and any and all products raised or produced on farms and processed or manufactured products thereof, transported or intended to be transported in interstate and/or foreign

commerce.

SEC. 2. The Secretary of Agriculture is hereby authorized and directed to establish a division of cooperative marketing with suitable personnel in the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of the Department of Agriculture or in such bureau in the Department of Agriculture as may hereafter be concerned with the marketing and distribution of farm products. Such division shall be under the direction and supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture.

SEC. 3. (a) The division shall render service to associations of producers of agricultural products, and federations and subsidiaries thereof, engaged in the cooperative marketing of agricultural products, including processing, warehousing, manufacturing, storage, the cooperative purchasing of farm supplies, credit, financing, insurance, and other cooperative activities.

(b) The division is authorized

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(1) To acquire, analyze, and disseminate economic, statistical, and historical information regarding the progress, organization, and business methods of cooperative associations in the United States and foreign countries.

(2) To conduct studies of the economic, legal, financial, social, and other phases of cooperation, and publish the results thereof. Such studies shall include the analyses of the organization, operation, financial, and merchandising problems of cooperative associations. (3) To make surveys and analyses if deemed advisable of the accounts and business practices of representative cooperative associations upon their request; to report to the association so surveyed the results thereof; and with the consent of the association so surveyed to publish summaries of the results of such surveys, together with similar facts, for the guidance of cooperative associations and for the purpose of assisting cooperative associations in developing methods of business and market analysis.

(4) To confer and advise with committees or groups of producers, if deemed advisable, that may be desirous of forming a cooperative

association and to make an economic survey and analysis of the facts surrounding the production and marketing of the agricultural product or products which the association, if formed, would handle or market.

(5) To acquire from all available sources information concerning crop prospects, supply, demand, current receipts, exports, imports, and prices of the agricultural products handled or marketed by cooperative associations, and to employ qualified commodity marketing specialists to summarize and analyze this information and disseminate the same among cooperative associations and others.

(6) To promote the knowledge of cooperative principles and practices and to cooperate, in promoting such knowledge, with educational and marketing agencies, cooperative associations, and others. (7) To make such special studies, in the United States and foreign countries, and to acquire and disseminate such information and findings as may be useful in the development and practice of cooperation.

SEC. 4. The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized, in his discretion, to call advisers to counsel with him and/or his representatives relative to specific problems of cooperative marketing of farm products or any other cooperative activity. Any person, other than an officer, agent, or employee of the United States, called into conference, as provided for in this section, may be paid actual transportation expenses and not to exceed $10 per diem to cover subsistence and other expenses while in conference and en route from and to his home.

SEC. 5. Persons engaged, as original producers of agricultural products, such as farmers, planters, ranchmen, dairymen, nut or fruit growers, acting together in associations, corporate or otherwise, in collectively processing, preparing for market, handling, and marketing in interstate and/or foreign commerce such products of persons so engaged, may acquire, exchange, interpret, and disseminate past, present, and prospective crop, market, statistical, economic, and other similar information by direct exchange between such persons, and/or such associations or federations thereof, and/or by and through a common agent created or selected by them.

SEC. 6. The Secretary of Agriculture may make such rules and regulations as may be deemed advisable to carry out the provisions of this Act and may cooperate with any department or agency of the Government, any State, Territory, District, or possession, or department, agency, or political subdivision thereof, or any person; and may call upon any other Federal department, board, or commission for assistance in carrying out the purposes of this Act; and shall have the power to appoint, remove, and fix the compensation of such officers and employees not in conflict with existing law and make such expenditure for rent, outside the District of Columbia, printing, telegrams, telephones, books of reference, books of law, periodicals, newspapers, furniture, stationery, office equipment, travel, and other supplies and expenses as shall be necessary to the administration of this Act in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, and there is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $225,000 to be available for expenditure during the fiscal years

1926 and 1927, and the appropriation of such additional sums as may be necessary thereafter for carrying out the purposes of this Act is hereby authorized.

SEC. 7. That if any provision of this Act is declared unconstitutional or the applicability thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of the Act and the applicability of such provision to other persons and circumstances shall not be affected thereby, and nothing contained in this Act is intended, nor shall be construed, to modify or repeal any of the provisions of the Act of February 18, 1922 (chapter 57, Fortysecond Statutes at Large, page 388).

Approved, July 2, 1926.

[PUBLIC-No. 582-69TH CONGRESS]

(H. R. 9268]

An Act To amend the Agricultural Credits Act of 1923.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Agricultural Credits Act of 1923 be, and the same is hereby, amended on page 10, in section 203 (a), at the end of paragraph (C) in subdivision (1) by adding the words "or on agricultural crops being grown for market," so that said paragraph (C) will read as follows: (C) Are secured at the time of discount, purchase, or acceptance by warehouse receipts or other like documents conveying or securing title to nonperishable and readily marketable agricultural products, or by chattel mortgages, or other like instruments conferring a first and paramount lien upon livestock which is being fattened for market, or on agricultural crops being grown for market.

Approved, February 8, 1927.

(86)

[8. 4039]

An Act To exempt joint-stock land banks from the provisions of section 8 of the Act entitled An Act to supplement existing laws against unlawful restraints and monopolies, and for other purposes," approved October 15, 1914, as amended.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the first proviso of the second paragraph of section 8 of the Act entitled "An Act to supplement existing laws against unlawful restraints and monopolies, and for other purposes," approved October 15, 1914, as amended (United States Code, title 15, chapter 1, section 19), is amended to read as follows:

"Provided, That nothing in this section shall apply to mutual savings banks not having a capital stock represented by shares, to joint-stock land banks organized under the provisions of the Federal Farm Loan Act, or to other banking institutions which do no commercial banking business."

Approved, March 2, 1929.

(87)