An Act Providing for The Adoption of Necessary and Efficacious Measures for Increasing The Agricultural Production of Foodstuffs and Appropriating Funds for This Purpose

November 28, 1917

ACT NO. 2723

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE ADOPTION OF NECESSARY AND EFFICACIOUS MEASURES FOR INCREASING THE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION OF FOODSTUFFS AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS FOR THIS PURPOSE

SECTION 1. For the purpose of increasing the agricultural production of foodstuffs, the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources is hereby authorized to adopt all measures which may in his judgment be advisable and efficacious, and to employ the necessary personnel, even if they be not classified, unless they be assigned to clerical duties. The Secretary of Agriculture shall from time to time determine what agricultural food products are the most adaptable to each locality, after hearing the opinion of the municipal council concerned; adopt all measures tending to stimulate, extend, and increase the planting and cultivation of said products, granting, in his discretion, cash prizes to small agriculturists who till the fields themselves and obtain the largest production; select seeds for free distribution or otherwise by the Bureau of Agriculture, or contract persons for the most rapid production and selection of said seeds or the organized production of said foodstuffs, and shall order the same sold at suitable prices whenever he shall deem this to be necessary. Whenever feasible, this work shall be considered to include the breeding of swine and poultry and their systematic improvement and propagation, as well as the growing of vegetables, fruits, and tubers. With the consent of the Governor-General or proper Department head, as the case may be, any Office or branch of the Government or any officer or employee of the same whose services may be required by the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, shall be obliged to coöperate in the campaign for the increase of the agricultural production of foodstuffs, and their services in connection with said campaign shall, for all purposes, be considered as rendered to the Office or branch of the Government to which such officer or employee belongs.

SECTION 2. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources to take the necessary measures for the preservation of the foodstuffs which, owing to their nature and according to the necessities of each case, can or must be preserved.

SECTION 3. The Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources shall immediately have the necessary investigations made for the purpose of securing all data relative to the demand, supply, manufacture, warehousing, and consumption of foodstuffs; the seed available; and any other data that may be deemed useful for ascertaining the actual production of food crops, including swine and poultry, vegetables, fruits, and tubers.

SECTION 4. The sum of five hundred thousand pesos is hereby appropriated, out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for carrying out the purposes of this Act, including expenses for propaganda, lectures, and demonstrations, and the necessary equipment for investigations, experiments, and demonstrations in connection with preserved foods. This appropriation shall continue to be available till January first, nineteen hundred and nineteen, and any balance remaining unexpended on said date shall revert to the Insular Treasury.

SECTION 5. The Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources is hereby authorized to issue such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act and, on the petition of a majority of the provincial boards of the provinces regularly organized under the provisions of the Provincial Government Act, and in case of such petition being approved by the Secretary of the Interior, he may issue an order which shall be as general as possible within each province, fixing the minimum quantity of foodstuffs that each family or individual must produce within a given period. Any person who, without sufficient reason, shall fail to comply with this order or violate any rule or regulation issued hereunder, and any person who, upon being required by the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources or by his delegate especially appointed for the purpose, shall refuse to make the statement or produce the books, writings, papers, or documents in his possession or custody, bearing upon the matter under investigation in accordance with section three of this Act, or who shall intentionally make a false or incorrect reply, shall be punished by a fine not to exceed two hundred pesos or by subsidiary imprisonment in case of the nonpayment thereof.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on its passage and shall continue in force until the sixteenth day of October following the date upon which the President of the United States shall proclaim that peace has been reëstablished between the United States and Germany.

Approved, November 28, 1917.