David Franklin Houston to Woodrow Wilson

Under the provisions of Section two of "An Act to provide further for the national security and defense by stimulating agriculture and facilitating the distribution of agricultural products," approved August 10, 1917, "the Secretary of Agriculture, with the approval of the President, is authorized to investigate and ascertain the demand for, the supply, consumption, costs, and prices of, and the basic facts relating to the ownership, production, transportation, manufacture, storage, and distribution of, foods, food materials, feeds, seeds, fertilizers, agricultural implements and machinery, and any article required in connection with the production, distribution, or utilization of food."I propose immediately to inaugurate and to carry on a continuing investigation for the purpose of obtaining authoritative information regarding the Nation's food supply and certain necessarily incidental phases of the matters mentioned in the section above quoted. For this purpose I intend to utilize the services and facilities of the Bureau of Markets with the assistance of the Bureau of Crop Estimates, the Bureau of Chemistry, the States Relations Service, and such other agencies in the Department of Agriculture as may be found necessary. Accordingly, I request your approval of this undertaking.